Dumbledore's Attention

Gerald told Fred and George his idea, and both were blown away.

"A brilliant idea! But the difficulty is top-tier too."

"Every alchemical item relies on magical runes. Runes with different functions are combined and influence one another, ultimately producing magical items with all sorts of uses."

Gerald discovered that these normally restless brothers became particularly serious whenever alchemy was involved.

"If you really want that thing you described to understand context and give accurate answers, it would have to be at least an intermediate-to-advanced alchemical item."

Fred frowned and continued, "Never mind anything else. Just nesting and layering information-storage runes and conditional-trigger runes would require you to draw at least four basic runes precisely. Not one of them can be even slightly off. I don't think we can manage that yet."

"It's not that we don't think we can. We definitely can't," George added.

For the next week or so, Gerald immersed himself in alchemy with the Weasley twins whenever he had a spare moment.

From basic material purification to tracing simple runes in single lines, from evenly channeling magic to connecting energy circuits between runes, Fred and George took turns teaching him. They treated him like a sponge, pouring knowledge into him for all they were worth.

And Gerald really was a sponge. No matter how much they poured in, he absorbed it all.

Alchemy was actually a rather demanding discipline.

Hogwarts offered an elective in alchemy, but its entry requirements were absurdly high.

Students needed Outstanding grades in ancient runes, Herbology, and Potions in their fifth-year O.W.L.s, plus at least an Exceeds Expectations in Charms, to qualify for the elective in their sixth year.

That meant the vast majority of wizards would never receive any formal education in alchemy throughout their lives.

Calling Fred and George, who had begun teaching themselves at eight, one in ten thousand would hardly have been an exaggeration.

They were only first-years, but in terms of theoretical knowledge of alchemy alone, they were already on par with the sixth- and seventh-years taking the subject.

After all, in the original story, they had already been able to make prototypes of many prank items that would later become bestsellers at Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes by their third and fourth years.

After a week of learning from the twins, Gerald's thirst for knowledge had not faded. Instead, it burned even more fiercely.

He pestered Fred and George with questions from morning till night, asking while they ate, while they walked, and even after lights-out.

By the second week, Fred finally cracked.

"Gerald, do you know what I was doing just now?"

"Taking a shit."

"Right, taking a shit. Do you know what it feels like to hear someone in the next stall asking about the recipe for Dungbombs while you're taking a shit?"

"Academic discussion knows no boundaries."

"Piss off!"

"..."

"If you really want to make that alchemical item, I can give you a reading list. You'll have to read these books at least two or three times before you have even the slightest chance."

George had already pushed a piece of parchment toward Gerald. Five books were listed on it in somewhat messy handwriting.

Gerald lowered his head and glanced over the list.

"Magic Sigils," "Runes Interpretation: Beginner's Guide," "A Brief Analysis of Ancient Runes," "Introduction to Alchemy," and "Advanced Alchemy."

Five books did not seem like many, but from what he knew of textbooks in the Wizarding World, any one of them could serve as a brick to clobber someone with.

He folded the parchment and put it in his pocket.

With peerless manuals right in front of me, how could I possibly not study them?

"All right. Which one should I start with?"

"Anything except Advanced Alchemy."

Fred and George watched him stride toward the library, then both let out long sighs of relief.

"Finally, we have time to work on our own stuff," Fred said, leaning against the stone wall of the corridor with the air of someone who had narrowly escaped disaster.

"That guy is way too eager to learn."

George shook his head as he added this, his tone half admiration and half fear.

Over the next month, Gerald practically lived in the library.

He did not even attend the Halloween Feast during that time.

His daily routine was extremely regular.

He was the first to reach the Great Hall each morning, ate his fill, and went to class.

Whenever he had no afternoon classes, he stayed in the library, pulling those five bricks off the shelves and working through them one by one.

After dinner, he returned to the library and stayed until closing.

Madam Pince went from being wary of him to getting used to him. Eventually, she simply reserved his usual seat by the window for him as a matter of course.

"A student this eager to learn really is a rarity."

Gerald's cultivation also steadily consolidated and improved.

Perhaps in a few more weeks, he could try refining the Seven-Star Dew and breaking through to refining essence into qi.

His reasons for working so hard were actually quite simple. First, he wanted to explore the connection between alchemy and artifact refining, making some money along the way. Second, he wanted to prepare to study ancient magic.

After all, most ancient magic was recorded in runes.

Knowing how powerful ancient magic was, Gerald naturally had no intention of passing up this path to greater strength.

Eventually, Gerald even read "Runes Interpretation: Beginner's Guide" during History of Magic.

After all, the ghost teacher Binns's lessons really were boring.

History itself was actually very interesting. It had been his favorite subject in high school in his previous life, too.

Professor Binns simply was not very suited to teaching. He displayed none of the wisdom one might expect from someone so well versed in history.

During that time, Gerald visited Hagrid twice more and gathered some spirit herbs.

He no longer needed the excuse of searching for a pet to enter the Forbidden Forest, and Hagrid tacitly went along with it.

After all, being eager to learn was hardly a bad thing. Why fuss over a little lie from an eleven-year-old?

But Gerald's luck on those two visits was nowhere near as good as on his first. Most of what he found was first-tier Ironwire Vine. He gathered only one second-tier spirit herb, a Heaven-Subduing Flower, and did not see a single third-tier spiritual herb.

Fortunately, he had prepared himself for this. Spirit herbs were crystallizations of the spiritual qi of heaven and earth. Even somewhere as rich in spiritual qi as the Forbidden Forest could not have high-tier materials growing everywhere.

Perhaps there are some deep in the Forbidden Forest, but my relationship with Hagrid clearly isn't close enough yet for him to take me that far in.

I'll worry about that later.

The Ironwire Vine he had transplanted into the greenhouse, however, gave him a wonderful surprise.

He propagated it by planting sections of its vine in the soil, achieving a survival rate of over ninety percent.

The greenhouse's magical soil was better suited to growing spirit herbs than the wild conditions in the Forbidden Forest. Combined with his regular watering according to the medicinal-garden management methods used in alchemy, the Ironwire Vines grew

remarkably well. Their stems were nearly twice as thick as those of the wild plants, and their color was more vibrant.

This gave him confidence that he could obtain spirit herbs sustainably. If it worked for first-tier herbs, it might well work for second- and third-tier ones too.

With Professor Sprout's help, the Heaven-Subduing Flower also successfully took root in the greenhouse. Its bud opened within a week of being transplanted, and its pale golden petals gave off a faint, sweet fragrance.

Professor Sprout thought it was merely a magical plant with an unusual appearance, and even wanted to use it as a classroom exhibit.

Gerald did not mind that.

After all, he doubted anyone besides him knew exactly how to use it.

And all of this finally crossed some invisible threshold.

One evening in early November, Gerald left the library and was stopped by Professor McGonagall in the Entrance Hall.

Her square glasses reflected the torchlight from the corridor, and her expression was as stern as ever.

"Mr. Green, Headmaster Dumbledore would like you to come to his office."

"!!!"