The Evil Wizard's Manuscript

[May 8, 1660.]

[I finally killed my teacher. The damned old bastard had used me as a test subject for years. Maybe I should have gone to Durmstrang instead of studying under that old wizard.]

[Testing potions has taken a terrible toll on me. That damned old bastard made me drink so much Forgetfulness Potion that both my body and my memory are starting to fail. I have to write everything down.]

[The damned old bastard made me drink too much Forgetfulness Potion. I always feel as though I've forgotten something important.]

[August 11, 1660.]

[I met a wizard in Gwerolog Village. He said we used to be friends, but I truly don't remember him. He was very friendly. When I admitted I was having trouble with my memory, he asked whether someone had used Obliviate on me. I'm curious what Obliviate is.]

[Hog said he graduated from Durmstrang. The name sounds familiar, but I have no idea where I heard it. I need to look through my diary. Ah, I found it.]

[Hog said his professor is a master healer and might be able to restore some of the memories affected by Obliviate. At the very least, perhaps he can make me less forgetful.]

[September 7, 1660.]

[I came to Durmstrang with Hog. His professor is also certain I was affected by Obliviate. Is that true? My diary says it was because I drank too much Forgetfulness Potion.]

[September 19, 1660.]

[My treatment has begun.]

The next section described how a seventeenth-century Durmstrang professor treated Ethan Abdullah's memory loss. Will had never heard of many of the spells or treatments involved.

He could understand the use of powerful Legilimency; that was conventional enough. But the professor also brewed Strange Potions from ingredients Will had never heard of and used the Cruciatus Curse to stimulate Ethan's brain into recalling memories. Will stared in disbelief at what passed for "treatment."

The professor even opened Ethan Abdullah's skull to examine his brain directly for problems.

Seventeenth-century brain surgery left Will badly shaken.

In the end, Will couldn't tell which part of the treatment had worked, but Ethan Abdullah's memory improved. He even recovered some of what he had lost.

[February 11, 1661.]

[My memory is improving, thanks to Hog, my best friend from childhood. Saving his life back then really was the right choice.]

[February 28, 1661.]

[I remember now. The old bastard didn't know Obliviate at all. Apart from the Fire-Making Spell, Lumos, and the Levitation Charm, he didn't know a single other spell. He kept feeding me all kinds of potions, especially Forgetfulness Potion. Fortunately, I had already begun planning to kill him before I drank it. Otherwise, I would probably be an idiot by now.]

[This Durmstrang professor is truly remarkable. I bitterly regret letting that old wizard talk me into becoming his apprentice instead of going to Durmstrang.]

[According to Hog, my potion-making technique is exquisite, but I want to learn spells. I bought a Wand and some magic books and began studying other kinds of magic.]

The next section was almost entirely about his study of Dark Magic at Durmstrang. The seventeenth-century school was even more hard-line than it was now; studying Dark Magic was the norm there.

Ethan learned to brew every potion made by his teacher—the "old bastard" mentioned in the manuscript—and found corresponding spells for a considerable number of them.

There were the Memory Charm and Forgetfulness Potion, the Beauty Charm and Beauty Potion, Sonorus and Loudvoice Potion, the Hair-Regrowth Charm and Hair-Growth Potion, and more...

After several years studying Dark Magic, he returned to England and began his own magical research. The subject that consumed him—and the only one he pursued—was potions are spells.

[Many spells and potions have nearly identical effects. The Memory Charm and Forgetfulness Potion, which have caused me so much trouble, affect wizards in almost the same way. Why is that?]

[I bought two Muggle slaves and began experimenting on them. The Hair-Growth Charm worked as I expected: on the surface, its effect was almost indistinguishable from that of Hair-Growth Potion. Puzzled, I peeled a patch of scalp from one slave. After he drank Hair-Growth Potion, his hair follicles changed, causing his hair to grow.]

[Two days later, the Hair-Growth Potion had worn off completely. I used the Hair-Growth Charm and peeled away his scalp again.]

[Good heavens. The effects were identical. Why would a spell and a potion produce exactly the same result?]

[A spell uses a wizard's magic to affect reality directly, while a potion produces a particular effect through its ingredients. What connects them?]

[I must conduct more experiments...]

What followed was chilling. Ethan tested every potion and spell he could compare on the slaves he had bought. Both died within a month, and Ethan Abdullah recorded every step of his experiments in meticulous detail.

[The connection between particular spells and potions is strange. It involves changes in magic, but I cannot imagine how to observe those changes. So I have no choice but to conduct extensive experiments...]

At this, a thought struck Will. If this research required someone to observe changes in magic, his Wizard's Eye would make that easy. Wasn't I born to study magic?

Will sat distracted for a moment, then continued reading.

[I am increasingly convinced that potions are spells, but I still cannot prove it. To do that, I must turn a potion into a spell or a spell into a potion.]

[I need to buy more test subjects...]

Will saw which spell Ethan intended to "convert": the Flesh-Stitching Curse, a twisted Dark Magic variant of the Healing Charm. Ancient wizards had invented the original Healing Charm to treat injuries, while evil wizards commonly used the Flesh-Stitching Curse to create unnatural creatures.

Wizards had created many such creatures. The best-known example was the Dementor.

Ethan Abdullah had learned the Flesh-Stitching Curse at Durmstrang. Since his teacher had known how to brew Healing Potion, Ethan's goal was to transform it into Flesh-Stitching Potion.

[If I succeed, it will prove that my research is on the right track...]

The experiments that followed were utterly inhumane.

[Healing Potion and Flesh-Stitching Potion are entirely different things. Developing this potion by deduction is extraordinarily difficult. Simply replacing the ingredients according to their properties has left me at my wits' end.]

[Today I stitched that Muggle to a wolf. As I cast the Flesh-Stitching Curse, I seemed to find a spark of inspiration...]