"Look at this, Mr. Tom!"
Bill hurried in with a newspaper, his face alight with wonder.
He could hardly wait to discuss it with that wise man. It was the moon!
Whether it was Dream Playback in bars everywhere or food sold at unimaginably low prices, plenty of things had astonished him before.
But none of them had quite the same impact.
He was no sheltered wizard. He had grown up watching his father modify things from the Muggle world. Some modifications were legal, others weren't, but his father's ingenious ideas had transformed them all.
Grass Bread was certainly an impressive feat of Witchcraft: stylish, novel, and practical. But for a young man who craved excitement, it still lacked something.
The Dream Orb system was like his father's modified car. Both took something that existed in the Muggle world and enhanced it with magic. The difference was that the Dream Orb system was more successful, more remarkable, and far more widespread.
He knew that alone was an extraordinary achievement. Taylor might even be the greatest wizard of this century—Dumbledore, after all, had been born in the last.
He sincerely admired the great Transfigurationist and had no qualms about praising someone so young. But those achievements still felt a little conventional. Something was missing.
Now he knew what it was: adventure.
Yes, adventure. Discovering something incredible in the most familiar of places. Setting out to explore the world they thought they knew!
Going to the moon, setting foot where no wizard had ever been, venturing into the Starry Sky and every place they could see but had never explored.
What greater romance could a Gryffindor imagine? What grander frontier was there to push, what greater mystery to explore?
"Quiet down, Bill. We may not be conducting a dangerous experiment," Tom said