Understanding Distorted Knowledge!

Time flew by. On the day before Christmas break, Will sat by the fire, leisurely reading material from the Potion Conversion School. Messages kept flashing before his eyes.

[You gained new Charms knowledge. Charms experience +1]

[You gained new Potions knowledge. Potions experience +1]

The gains were decent, but he had not acquired any more [Distorted Knowledge] lately. He had already ruled out several theories.

For instance, he had thought that bloody, inhumane knowledge might count as distorted. But he had recently read plenty of material on the Potion Conversion School's gruesome experiments and gained no Distorted Knowledge at all. Worse, some of the material contained faulty knowledge, so it gave him no experience either. He had wasted a lot of time.

With the holiday approaching, Will relaxed. There was plenty of time; he did not need to grind himself into a Grand Wizard in six months.

To his surprise, he had noticed that Quirrell had started limping too. Fluffy must have bitten him. Will just did not know why Quirrell had tried to get past Fluffy so early. As Will recalled, Quirrell was supposed to learn how to subdue Fluffy when he gave Hagrid that dragon egg.

"Have you packed your luggage?" Sylvia entered the Room of Requirement with Hermione and Neville.

Will pointed to the trunk at the foot of his bed. "It's all in there."

He practically lived in the Room of Requirement now. It was far more comfortable than the Slytherin Common Room, with a cozy bed, several soft sofas, and a large glass coffee table. The fire was warm and bright. Over the past week, Will had even had Anco the House-elf bring him tea and snacks every day, and sometimes he ate all three meals there.

"Give me your address so I can write to you at Christmas." Sylvia settled into her usual sofa and basked in the fire's warmth. Most of Hogwarts Castle was nowhere near this cozy.

She took the teapot from beside Will as if it were second nature and poured hot tea for everyone who had just arrived.

"Yeah, Will. My gran's been wanting to thank you for teaching me Charms." Neville was still timid, but he had improved a great deal since the start of term. He had mastered the Summoning Charm and learned plenty of First Year Charms from Will. In Charms, he was now among the best.

"We've known each other for years, and I still don't know where you live." Hermione's gaze roamed over the stacks of books on Will's desk several times. She found she could not make sense of theories such as the "Potion Conversion School," "Potion Improvement Theory," and "Potion Enhancement Theory." She knew every word, but put together, they baffled her.

And because the material came from the Restricted Section, she could not read it herself. That only made Hermione, the perennial runner-up, more frustrated. If she had not known how the other young Wizards were doing, she might have developed an anxiety disorder.

"I have some things to do over Christmas, so I might not be home to receive your letters. Give me your addresses instead, and I'll get in touch with you." Will put down the material and stretched, then glanced at Sylvia to ask for another cup of hot tea.

They chatted beside the toasty fire over their tea. The three of them wrote down their addresses for Will, and Neville brought out a Wizard's Chess set.

"I've been seeing Harry and Ron play in the Common Room lately, so I thought I'd bring a set and see if you liked it," he explained.

"We haven't got anything else to do. Let's play for a bit," Sylvia urged Will. He had spent the past few days buried in material from the Restricted Section. She knew it held plenty of strange ideas that could lead a person astray, and she could not help worrying.

For once, Will spent a relaxing afternoon. He had never played chess, though, and was dreadful at it. His games were painful to watch. Hermione, on the other hand, won quite a few.

That evening, Will returned the material to the Library, and the group went to the Dining Room for dinner. He happened to spot Harry at the Gryffindor table and suddenly remembered that Harry's Detention should be ending in the next few days.

An idea struck Will. After dinner, he headed straight to Snape's Office.

"Behrens, if you're here to ask about the Potion Conversion School's theories, you can leave." Snape looked up from behind his desk and immediately tried to send Will away.

Clearly, Snape had no love for that school's theories. Will had come to him several times lately, only to be fobbed off with simple chores. And there was only so much experience he could gain from repeating the same work.

Today, though, Snape had more to say.

"I've told you before: Potions is the precise science and exacting craft of brewing potions. They are made in great cauldrons over a low, slow flame. The wondrous liquids that flow through the veins hold a Magic that can enchant the senses and cloud the mind. Potions is not about waving a Wand like a fool and trying to imitate them with Magic. That is idiotic. It shows no respect for Potions. Bamptus's Felix Felicis experiment was foolish, but he was right when he said, 'Potions are a gift of nature.'" Snape rose and paced through his Office, crowded with bottles and jars.

"Potions and Charms are not the same thing, yet these people insist on treating them as one. Potion Transfiguration, potion improvement—utter nonsense. Potions are Potions." Snape was devoted to a potions-first view. Perhaps that was an important reason he had become a Potions Master.

"The essence of Potions is liquid imbued with Magic." Snape's words reminded Will of what his textbook said: the essence of Potions was liquid containing Magic.

"Then, Professor, could I say that Magic is what really matters?" Will thought that had to be it. Whether it was Potions or Charms, the key was Magic itself, not the form it took.

Professor Flitwick had long since taught them that a charm was a specific structure of Magic, while Snape had repeatedly stressed that a potion was a liquid containing Magic.

I've let all the different ways Magic appears in the world of Harry Potter blind me. At heart, they're all transformations of Magic. Potion Transfiguration is nothing more than combining different forms of Magic and converting them!

The Magic in Potions, however, did not come from Wizards. It was extracted from magical materials.

At that moment, another thought flashed through Will's mind.

If I could create those materials with Transfiguration, would the Potions made from them be real Potions?

What if I used Transfiguration and Charms to brew a potion?

Could Transfiguration work on my own Magic? Probably not. But what if I turned water into the materials and liquids, then used Charms to mimic a Cauldron and its fire, and brewed the potion according to a real recipe...

Would that be a real potion?

In theory, it was possible. Putting it into practice would be extremely difficult.

Just as Will reached that conclusion, a notification appeared.

[You understood Distorted Knowledge. Your Charms, Potions, and Transfiguration gained a 5% experience bonus!]