Standing on the Shoulders of Those Who Came Before

It seemed wizards always came to this: turning their sinister experiments on themselves.

Will wondered why Ethan had not simply experimented on other people, but he soon found the answer in Abdullah's manuscript.

[I can clearly sense the magical structure forming inside my body during the initial "stitching" stage after I drink the potion, but it soon vanishes. I must drink large quantities of the potion, then use a spell to complete that structure.]

[Damn it. I've heard that ancient wizards had a vile spell that let their souls possess other people. Unfortunately, Durmstrang's library has no such spell.]

At first, Ethan used his own flesh. But he could never supply enough for so many experiments. Even drinking healing potions constantly was not enough to keep them going.

He began cutting flesh from other people.

After countless flesh-stitching experiments, Ethan started developing all sorts of strange illnesses.

Will understood. This was when the Black Death was raging across Europe. There was no telling how many pathogens the Muggles Ethan had found carried. Even the plague known as the Black Death took several forms: bubonic, pneumonic, and septicemic, along with rarer varieties affecting the intestines, meninges, eyes, and skin.

The plague was not the only disease spreading during the Black Death. Other epidemics had broken out too. By the later stages of his work, Ethan had drawn on a wide range of subjects—Muggles of every age and gender. Combining their flesh in one person might well produce some unknown change.

After all, flesh-stitching was not a simple physical transplant. It involved magic.

Ethan Abdullah was careful. Each time he drank a potion or cast a spell on himself, he cut away the attached flesh afterward. But after so many experiments, he had begun to lose his mind.

His experiments kept advancing, though. Through sheer repetition, he successfully modified the Flesh-Stitching Curse. Perhaps it ought now to be called the Flesh-Consumption Charm. The original curse had to be cast on both the living host and the flesh being stitched to it. The potion, on the other hand, could only be drunk by the host.

Will suspected that was the main reason Ethan Abdullah had struggled for so long to reproduce the potion's structure.

[October 18, 1666]

[I did it! I did it!]

[I successfully modified the Flesh-Stitching Curse! No, it should be called the "Flesh-Consumption Charm" now! Its effects are identical to those of the Flesh-Consuming Potion!]

Will frowned. That meant Ethan had not turned the Flesh-Stitching Curse into a flesh-stitching potion after all. By that measure, Ethan Abdullah had failed. No—he had proved that spells and potions could be converted into each other. He had only half failed: he had not managed to convert that particular curse into a potion.

What did that even count as? Taking inspiration from an old spell to make a new potion, then converting the new potion into a new spell?

[You have gained a great deal of distorted Charms knowledge. Your Charms experience +13]

[You have gained a great deal of distorted Potions knowledge. Your Potions experience +19]

The system did not lie. Abdullah's research was sound.

[December 19, 1666]

[To prove this, I must convert an existing potion into a spell. To avoid harming my body, I have chosen the Euphoria Draught...]

The Euphoria Draught? Will remembered that the Cheering Charm had a similar effect. Had Ethan Abdullah created the charm by converting the draught?

Will turned the page, only to find he had reached the end of the book. Just two pages remained. One contained Ethan's notes on converting the Euphoria Draught, but they were only notes, with no result.

The other was a note from the person who had compiled the manuscript.

[Ethan Abdullah's manuscript ends here. In 1667, several members of the Wizards' Council went to arrest him and found him dead in his home. Abdullah was reportedly afflicted with numerous diseases. His manuscript was compiled in 1690 and subsequently began circulating among certain groups of wizards...]

Will closed the book and stared into the fire, deep in thought. This knowledge had earned him a remarkable amount of experience. From what he knew of the system, a deeper understanding would bring an even greater reward...

Mastering it, though, would be anything but easy—

So Will decided to ask Snape and Professor Flitwick directly. They were masters of Potions and Charms in their own day. Why research it himself?

Why bother?

What was wrong with standing on the shoulders of those who came before?

Just look how long Ethan Abdullah had spent working it out alone.

Will had no desire to waste that kind of time. And with Dumbledore around, why would he risk conducting sinister experiments himself?

He could get the knowledge and experience from the professors instead.

Will stood and stretched. The hand on the enchanted clock beside him pointed to dawn. Only then did he realize he had been up all night. He took out the Pepperup Potion he carried and swallowed a mouthful.

Will had a habit of reading late into the night, so he often got too little sleep. Fortunately, Snape had long since taught him to brew a high-quality Invigoration Draught, and he could take a little during class.

Sylvia kept telling him that too little sleep would stunt his growth and affect his height. Professor McGonagall had overheard her once and said the same thing, urging Will to get proper rest. He had been trying to keep a healthier schedule lately, but today he had become too absorbed in the book.

Still, today's haul was substantial: over a hundred experience points in total. Normally, that could take weeks of grinding.

"Was the Cheering Charm converted from a potion? Have you come across the Spell-Potion Transmutation School?"

Professor Flitwick, dressed in pajamas, poured Will a cup of hot tea as he spoke.

It was Saturday, and Professor Flitwick had no classes. Snape, on the other hand, was probably in a foul mood after what had happened yesterday. Will figured he should wait a couple of days before approaching him.

"The Spell-Potion Transmutation School?" Will had never heard of it. He was certain it had never appeared in the original Harry Potter books.

Professor Flitwick sat down on the lounge sofa and explained, "The school emerged in the late sixteenth century. Its central theory was that spells and potions could be converted into each other. To an extent, they weren't wrong. But for a time, their experiments involved extensive testing on humans. It was inhumane and tended toward Dark Magic, so the school was heavily suppressed.

"Later, some more upstanding wizards experimented on themselves and converted ordinary, beneficial potions into spells. The Euphoria Draught and the Cheering Charm are one example. Around the end of the seventeenth century, a Potions Professor at Hogwarts successfully converted the draught into the charm. That greatly increased the school's influence and made many people less opposed to it."

[You have gained new Charms knowledge. Your Charms experience +2]

[You have gained new Potions knowledge. Your Potions experience +2]

The knowledge and experience Will gained from hearing that history were ordinary. He had learned how spell-potion transmutation developed, not any distorted knowledge.

"I see." Will nodded. So an earlier Hogwarts professor had converted the Euphoria Draught. And the school had emerged decades before Ethan Abdullah's research. Ethan had started out investigating something others had already studied—and even proved.

Learning from an unaffiliated wizard was riskier than he had thought.

"Then what about this book?" Will handed Professor Flitwick The Strange Nature of Potions. "I thought he founded the whole field."

"You've read this book?" Professor Flitwick frowned.

"I have Professor Snape's permission," Will explained.

"I believe you, Will." Professor Flitwick looked over The Strange Nature of Potions.

"He could be considered the founder of another, much more obscure theory."

"What theory?" Will had not expected another discovery.

"Potion Improvement Theory."