Gerald did not answer. He paused slightly, then pushed open the door and walked into the alley.
"A cautious little fellow."
Watching Gerald's figure disappear before the door, Aberforth muttered quietly.
After leaving the Hog's Head, Gerald bought some basic potion and alchemy materials in Hogsmeade.
Then he turned into the storage room behind Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop, bolted the wooden door from the inside, and returned along the secret passage the way he came.
When Gerald returned to the fourth floor of Hogwarts Castle and moved the mirror back to its original place, the aroma of dinner was already beginning to drift through the castle.
And he was indeed a bit hungry.
The Great Hall at dinner was lively as always.
Gerald sat down by the Gryffindor long table, and the golden plate before him immediately filled with food.
"Where did you go this afternoon? We waited for you for two hours on the eighth floor." Fred leaned over from the side, a small piece of flaky pastry still at the corner of his mouth.
"I had some things to take care of this afternoon. I'll go after dinner, I promise."
Fred nodded and said nothing.
After dinner, Gerald, George, and the third person crossed the eighth-floor corridor.
George walked back and forth three times before the blank stone wall, silently reciting the details of the alchemy workshop in his heart, and that familiar oak door materialized out of thin air on the wall once more.
George pushed the door open, the magic lamps lit automatically, and a soft, warm yellow light spilled over the workbench.
Everything remained just as it had been when he left last time.
Gerald pulled a bulging cloth bag from the inner pocket of his cloak and placed it on the workbench.
The mouth of the cloth bag loosened, and the items inside spilled out with a rattle.
"You actually bought this many alchemy materials?" George picked up a piece of moonstone, examined it against the magic lamp, and turned to look at Gerald with eyes full of pleasant surprise. "These can't be cheap."
"Didn't you ask me what I went to do this afternoon? These are the answer."
"My mistake. These must cost a dozen Galleons, right?"
"Fifteen."
"Merlin's beard, you are my god!" George drew out his syllable and cried out exaggeratedly.
"All right, all right, let's begin. I want to try alchemy today too."
"Fine, then let's get started."
George rolled his sleeves up, dragged over two high stools, shoved one to Fred, and sat down on the other.
He rummaged through his material box for a piece of Marauder's Map, which was densely covered with basic operational steps for alchemy.
The brothers had specially compiled this out for Gerald.
Fred cleared his throat and assumed the air of a teacher. "First, you need a stable heat source-"
"Incendio."
Gerald drew his wand and pointed it at the firebrick surface of the workbench.
A fireball the size of a human head gushed from the tip of his wand, the flames leaping half a person high, and a wave of heat rushed toward them.
The three people gathered around the workbench all leaned back at the same time.
Lee Jordan was pushed back two steps straight by this hot wind, crashed into the stool behind him, and tumbled down onto his seat.
"Merlin's beard, Boss, you call that Incendio?" Lee Jordan spoke up first.
"Sorry, sorry, I didn't control my force well."
Fred straightened his collar, which had been blown crooked by the hot wind, and turned to George with a deadpan expression. "I propose that from now on he be banned from using any offensive spells in the alchemy workshop."
"Agreed."
"But speaking of which, is your magic power far beyond the level of your grade? Our Fire-Making Spell is just a little flame, but you-you went straight and produced a big fireball."
Gerald thought nothing of it.
The destructive power of Incendio depended on two things: the output of magic power and the degree of concentration of one's intent.
He had practiced Incendio for a whole month during the summer vacation, going from initially only being able to produce a tiny flame the size of a thumb to now being able to burn a whole log into ashes instantly.
It was not some innate talent; it was simply the result of continuous, repeated practice.
"Let's start, the flame has stabilized."
Fred put away his joking expression and began explaining the basic steps of alchemy.
His teaching style was completely different from Snape's-long-winded, jumpy, and prone to going off on tangents-but it succeeded through sheer passion.
In Gerald's view, the Weasley twins were undoubtedly the best alchemy teachers at the current stage.
Because they were free, and one could joke around with them freely.
After all, free things were always the best.
George spread the densely written basic operation sheet on the workbench and began to demonstrate the first step: material purification.
He picked up a piece of raw moonstone, placed it in a cauldron, heated it slowly with a low-temperature flame, and stirred it uniformly in a clockwise direction with a glass rod at the same time.
Under the action of the heat, the moonstone began to disintegrate, eventually turning into a fine powder with a faint milky-white luster.
"The first step of alchemy is always purification. If the materials are impure, the subsequent steps will be useless no matter how precise they are. This is similar to Potions, but alchemy has even higher requirements for purity. Potions allows for a certain amount of residual impurities, as long as the ratio doesn't exceed the threshold, but alchemy doesn't. If impurities exceed three percent, it will cause the finished product to become unstable-minor cases mean failure, major cases mean an explosion."
Gerald nodded, took the glass rod handed over by George, and began to operate on his own.
His technique was very steady, and every step was precise and in place.
The Ninth Layer of Chain-Form Essence Refinement also gave him a near-instinctive perception of minute changes in temperature.
George watched from the side for a while and couldn't help exchanging a look with Fred.
Both of them saw shock in each other's eyes.
About an hour later, three portions of moonstone powder had already been refined in the cauldron before Gerald, and the color and fineness of each portion were almost identical.
George dipped a finger into a bit of the powder and rubbed it between his fingertips.
"Passed. You really are a monster."
"I thought George's and my alchemy talents were high enough, but today I've truly seen a marvel."
"Standard operation."
Succeeding on the very first try-Gerald would be lying if he said he wasn't happy.
Yet this was only the first step, and he was still a long way from completely crafting an alchemy item.
Gerald packed the powder into a glass bottle, sealed it, set it aside, and then stood up from the high stool to stretch his wrists.
His gaze swept over the bottles, jars, copper wires, and silver threads on the workbench, and he began to seriously ponder another question.
What he needed to decide now was precisely what kind of object to make with alchemy.
This idea had actually been spinning in his head ever since he left the Room of Requirement last night.
There were far too many types of artifacts alchemy could create: from the most basic Self-Inking Quill to advanced Remembralls, from prank props like Dungbombs to artifacts with self-contained internal spaces like Newt Scamander's suitcase.
With his current abilities, he could not make most advanced alchemy items.
Yet he did not want to make something too simple either; after all, he had spent money on materials and effort on time, so making a useless piece of junk would be too much of a loss.
Finally, he thought of Tom Riddle's Diary.
To be precise, he thought of the diary's functions.
That diary was a Dark Magic Object created by Voldemort during his school days. It was capable of storing a portion of a soul, as well as conversing with readers and answering questions.
Setting aside the Dark Magic nature of its creation method, the core function of the diary itself was actually no different from a highly intelligent magical book.
It could communicate with you through the questions you raised, giving precise answers with contextual comprehension abilities.
Gerald could be certain that as long as he could make it, it would definitely take the entire Wizarding World by storm.
If only I could make something similar.
Before you continue