Nicolas Flamel's Story

"Cough—cough—cough!"

Adam choked on his saliva and frantically patted his chest, only recovering after taking several gulps of water.

Concerned calls immediately came from his family downstairs, while even the depressed Ares cast him a worried look.

"I'm fine! I just choked while drinking water!"

After calling back downstairs, Adam shut his bedroom door, scooped up Ares, and carried him over to the little sofa in the corner.

"Suppi, are you sure? Don't go slandering someone's innocence without knowing for certain! Ares is only three years old! He's still a baby!"

As he spoke, Adam lowered his head and rubbed against Ares's fluffy little head.

"Adam, wake up! Do you remember that he's a Snowy Owl?"

Suppi shouted helplessly.

Adam froze.

"Oh, right... now that you mention it, that does make some sense. By the way, how old are Snowy Owls when they reach adulthood?"

"I have no idea."

Suppi lay on the bed, swishing his tail.

Looking at Ares, Adam fell into deep thought. If it really was lovesickness, then it was not impossible.

Snowy Owls were quite devoted animals, among the few birds that lived in monogamous pairs. Even when food was abundant, polygamy was rare among them.

So...

"Ares, did you find yourself a girlfriend at the owlery?"

"Hoo..."

Ares buried his face beneath his wings, looking embarrassed.

Adam: ???

It was true!

"Don't just sit there being shy! Whose little lady is she? Did you win her over or not? Hm?"

The flames of gossip burned fiercely in Adam's heart. He kept poking at Ares's feathers with his finger until Ares could no longer stand it and fled back into his cage.

"Don't hide. At least tell me whose owl she is. If I know the owner, I can send a few letters, and you two might get a chance to meet~"

"Hoo?"

Ares had been sitting with his back to Adam in the cage, but at those words, he turned his head around one hundred and eighty degrees to look at him.

"Of course it's true. Tell me who she is... oh, right, you can't talk."

Adam found himself in a difficult spot. They did not have photographs, and all of Hogwarts's owls were in the owlery. How could he possibly know every single one?

"But come to think of it, Snowy Owls should only be attracted to other Snowy Owls, right? There aren't that many people at Hogwarts who have Snowy Owls..."

Because of their striking white appearance, Snowy Owls were among the most expensive owls. Adam remembered seeing fewer than ten Snowy Owls in the owlery.

Of their owners, he only knew three. Hopefully, the owner of the owl Ares liked was one of them.

Ares obviously could not know who her owner was, so Adam planned to write letters to all three people and have Ares deliver them. Unexpectedly, he struck gold with the very first letter.

"It really is Hedwig..."

Adam was somewhat surprised. He had chosen to buy a Snowy Owl because Hedwig had influenced him, yet now the gears of fate had turned in a circle and returned to where they started.

"Hiss—hiss—"

Ares flapped his wings excitedly, making a cry entirely unlike his usual hooting. Adam could roughly guess what he meant.

After all, Harry's living conditions were right there. How much better could Hedwig's be?

"But what am I supposed to do? I can't exactly go to Harry and say, 'Hey, Harry, my owl has fallen for your owl. Since Hedwig is suffering with you anyway, why not let her come live with us?'"

Ares silently returned to his cage.

Adam spread his hands.

"Or you could try finding Hedwig and see whether she's willing to elope with you? I can afford to keep one more owl."

Last night, when Madam Li had asked him how much he had spent during the school year and whether he needed more money, Adam had not even known how to answer.

His biggest expense that year had been his investment in the twins, but a single Christmas dinner had earned it all back with plenty left over...

At those words, Ares moved his head slightly, unwilling to pay Adam any attention.

This time, Adam truly had no solution. He could only let Ares have some quiet time alone and hopefully come to terms with it. Adam still had an appointment with Nicolas Flamel to keep.

The Transfer Card among the Clow Cards could teleport him to any place he had visited before. Using it, Adam arrived alone at Nicolas Flamel's home.

When he knocked on the door, Nicolas Flamel took a long time to come and open it. He seemed surprised to see Adam standing outside alone.

"Has your grandmother already gone back?"

"No... Mr. Flamel, I came alone."

After thinking about it, Adam still could not find a more suitable form of address, so he settled on that for now.

As he spoke, Adam waved the Wand of Darkness in his hand. Nicolas Flamel also noticed the uniquely shaped wand, and a flicker of curiosity passed through his eyes... but that was all.

"It seems our little Adam has quite a few secrets. Come in."

Nicolas Flamel took very small steps, needing nearly five times as long as Adam to reach the sofa and sit down.

"Do you know why I asked you to come?"

Nicolas Flamel asked Adam with a smile.

Adam shook his head. He truly did not know.

"The Sorcerer's Stone has been destroyed."

Even though he already knew this, hearing Nicolas Flamel say something that was practically no different from "I'm going to die" still left Adam stunned.

"Yes, I am about to die, so I wanted to find someone to tell my story to. But everyone I know is old. An old man's story probably holds little appeal for another old man. Fortunately, I met you, little Adam."

Nicolas Flamel smiled.

"Would you like to hear my story?"

"Of course!"

How could Adam possibly not be interested when Nicolas Flamel was personally telling the story of his own life?

Under Adam's gaze, Nicolas Flamel slowly began.

"Six hundred and sixty-five years ago..."

Nicolas Flamel also spoke in great detail about the years before he created the Sorcerer's Stone, but Adam did not grow impatient. Life in France more than six hundred years ago was interesting in its own right.

However, that period occupied too little of Nicolas Flamel's life. Soon, he reached the part about the Sorcerer's Stone.

"When I truly succeeded in creating the Sorcerer's Stone, I could hardly believe it. But when I used it to create the first piece of pure gold, the first dose of the Elixir of Life... I finally realized that I had truly achieved the highest accomplishment in alchemy."

What followed was the story of his life after creating the Sorcerer's Stone. It had the feel of an overpowered wish-fulfillment tale, but Nicolas Flamel's story did not remain triumphant forever.

This was not the world of Fullmetal Alchemist. The Sorcerer's Stone did not grant him immense power, so amid the covetous eyes of others, Nicolas Flamel soon went into hiding with his wife.

Then the story seemed to reach the part Nicolas Flamel truly wanted to tell.

"I was once immensely proud of the magnificent achievement of creating the Sorcerer's Stone. In my six hundred and sixty-five years of life, I spent nearly half my time attempting to reproduce that original success."

"Yet after three hundred years had passed, after suffering through I do not know how many failures, even my final shred of hope was shattered. I had no choice but to admit that every honor the world had bestowed upon me came from nothing more than an accident—I never truly mastered the ability to create the Sorcerer's Stone. That Stone was merely a wonderful coincidence, nothing more."