My further path was not very diverse. Our walk to the Hospital Wing was long and silent. During the journey, not a single word was uttered, as if Poppy was artificially instilling "fear" in me, although who else but her would know that such "tricks" do not work for me.
I... I was immersed in my thoughts, thinking about everything that happened, drawing conclusions, planning further conversation and my near future, taking into account new data and variables.
It is impossible to call what happened to me over the past 24 hours as anything other than "confusion." As if according to Murphy's law, everything that could happen to me happened in just that day. Perhaps I should start from the very beginning in case I missed something.
First and foremost, as expected, the Spirit is purposefully trying to harass me. The reason for the action today is clear - my "unknown gift". Perhaps this is the installation of the room (although I strongly doubt this, because it is from the help of the room itself that no inclinations in my direction are visible) or the actions of a purely "elder".
If he is a spirit, he was once alive. Is it possible that someone with such a gift could seriously ruin the life of a Spirit? It is possible, very possible. Could it be a banal "fear-installation" like the way modern children were told from childhood that Lord Voldemort is bad and should be run from (or rather from someone like him), and Harry Potter is a hero who saved us all? It is very possible.
In general, I am not at all concerned with the reason for the Spirit's actions towards me. Let it be death, murder, betrayal, fear, or even if his wife cheated on him with someone like me, it doesn't matter. His actions do not justify the Spirit in my eyes. Therefore, I will have to pay him back in the same coin. Although, preferably in a more "weighty" one.
Next on the list are my actions when passing the test. Looking at the information available to me around the room at this point, I realized that the best thing I could do was to train even harder in my chosen direction. All this is due to the fact that when passing the test, any artifacts or alternative "abilities" are literally "cut off." In other words, during the test of the school of space, I can only use this school, but metamorphism and cryokinesis cannot, they are sealed. Also, if I brought any artifact with me, it would simply be isolated. The same thing happens with my amulet, received during a test at the healing school.
Have I prepared enough for the Space School challenge? At the moment when I went to see him, it seemed to me that yes. Now I understand that I should have devoted another week or two to my development in this direction. However, what has been done cannot be undone. And besides, I have one very good reason why I should have received information on this section as soon as possible.
It all simply comes down to my problem of oversaturation with prana. And I found a solution to this problem quite interesting. While studying information about metamorphism, I came across one "problem": to overcome the transformation limit (meaning size. The transformation limit is if +, then a maximum of two times, if -, then one fifteenth of your true body volume. Actually, from - because of this, my "bird" forms are already one and a half times larger than their counterparts. I have grown too much), the magician creates a spatial pocket in his soul. It stores the "flesh" of the metamorph, thanks to which he can overcome his limit and, for example, turn into a dragon. There is, of course, another type of metamorph that stores "ready-made" forms in a similar pocket. However, I found this method too flawed.
The ritual for creating this pocket, with all the nuances, was given in the book. That is, I, already at the rank of apprentice, can create this pocket. However, I was in no hurry with this, because the presence of this pocket prompted the solution to my problem.
Quite often during my transformations I use prana as "fuel" for flesh growth. So why not change the ritual and, in fact, the pocket so that it stores prana? Of course, I can already say some of the pros and cons of this solution.
Disadvantages: initially limitation in transformation (a lot of prana is wasted, unlike flesh), dependence on the "source" of prana (the better the quality of prana and the speed of its production, the "stronger" the appearances), "finiteness" of the resource (the body of an "ordinary" magician has a limit on the production of prana. I'm okay with this: the wyvern and the horses will help me. And if I manage to get the genes of the elves, for example, Poppy, then...)
Pros: problem solving (the most important one), increasing the quality of prana (or more precisely, its density, since the pocket volume is finite, which means that it is necessary to "compress" the energy), cyclical development (the soul is connected to the body, as is the body to the soul. One affects the other. So what will happen if you "fill" your body with your own prana, but "heavier"? The rate of development of the body will accelerate, and then the soul), "refusal" of a great demand for food (for ordinary metamorphs with a pocket in which flesh is located, a large amount of nutrients is needed for the banal maintenance of life in the cells. I will store energy, which is already a product of the work of the cells. Of course, I will still eat more than other people, but not like other metamorphs).
Of course, this is only a first look at this method and in the future there may be even more advantages and disadvantages. But the fact that I can solve my problem with this and also improve the quality of training (in the long term) cannot but please.
Actually, this is both the main and the most important reason to gain knowledge for the entire rank of apprentice of the school of space. For in the books available to me there are only scraps of information on this topic, which seems to hint at the presence of a "solution" in more advanced literature.
Actually, I didn't even think about experimenting on myself from the very beginning. I need to create a working ritual scheme before the summer holidays, and I can always find "volunteers" to solve my problems.
If my idea turns out to be useless... Well, I have a "teacher" who needs me alive, and not as a burst balloon. I even considered the option of concluding a student contract, which, of course, would solve many of my problems, but would add at least as much.
Of course, this is the last thing I will do. My freedom will be severely limited after the conclusion of this contract.
Next on the list is my "successful" trip to the common room. As much as I wanted to stay in the Room of Requirement until morning and then just show up in the Great Hall, I couldn't do that. The answer is pretty banal: the school is under martial law and all the director's orders automatically become "category one" laws. And by being outside the common room, I had broken at least two of those laws: being out of nowhere at night, and being outside the common room. After all, even in the tower itself, after lights out, we "now" can't be in the common room, only in our own rooms.
Then the encounter with Harriet. Basically, the entire fight, until its end, showed two things: my ability to beat up promising mages even without the help of prana and mana, and also the fact that I devoted too little time to training this aspect of my ability. Now I will specifically reconsider my training method.
The ending itself... There's nothing to say here. I relaxed unacceptably after I pushed through the protective artifact. And the fact that I didn't know the specifics of Harriet's spells doesn't forgive me at all. After all, if I had accelerated my perception in her mind to the maximum right away, there wouldn't have been any further adventures.
The next point is Harriet and Tom. I don't know what exactly happened to the girl, but she's clearly not all right in the head. She's giving in to madness too much, somewhat reminiscent of Tom, with the only difference being that Tom's madness is somehow wrong. I don't know how to describe it, it's just the taste that remained after using empathy on him. With Harriet, the situation is different, it feels like her madness is a natural reflection of her emotions. Could it be the Blacks' madness? Quite possibly, but then why did it manifest itself so strongly in her? More information is needed if I want to learn more about this and get to the truth. I want to, but I don't want to get into the canonical confrontation between Beaver and Donkey.
Next. During the "fights" I managed to glean quite a lot of interesting information. First, Tom was Albus's Apprentice. That is, not just another student, but a student. What does this mean? It's not clear yet, but it's worth remembering.
Second, Tom needs something from Harriet, and that's besides killing her. Otherwise, he wouldn't have pissed her off, but simply killed her, either himself or with the help of the snake.
Third - the basilisk was forcibly subdued by Tom. According to DDD, he showed us, give Merlin, one third of his power. It amazes, but nothing more.
Fourth, Albus knew that it was the snake that was attacking. For his reaction was too calm at the sight of this monster.
Well, fifthly, the old man did not kill the basilisk. And this is the most important thing. That is, he reduced the battle to the fact that Tom left the snake's body. Moreover, DDD returned the wounded Vasya to the room where the floating mana will help him recover at the greatest speed.
Could it be that Albus needs the basilisk? Of course yes. Could he be connected to Hog's defense system, like the same ghosts? Of course, moreover, I assume that this is exactly how things are.
However, the question arises, if DDD can control ghosts, why can't he distinguish between basilisk commands? Hmm, what if he doesn't have full control of Hog? Well, I don't know, maybe Hog can only be controlled by the blood heir of the founders, or there are some restrictions on positions or something else.
If this is the case, then it becomes clear why DDD can't track everything in the castle. No, he "sees and hears" a lot, but not everything (thanks to enchantments, ghosts, paintings, statues).
Another variable that could have been used, but it wasn't meant to be... The pill sent by Poppy. To be honest, if I hadn't been able to escape during the attack on me, I would have used it back then. There was no need for it in the Chamber of Secrets, even though I was ready. The question is, if this topic comes up during a conversation with the teacher, what should I say? I can try to hide the fact that I have it in my hands. After all, if it can "stun" even a basilisk for a while, what can we say about people?
Well, the last (almost), but one of the most interesting. Right now, on my "chest" there is an ice flask in which the blood of a thousand-year-old basilisk is languishing in anticipation. The prospect of appropriating this blood makes me nervous. What will I get? Will the effect be somewhat strong? Just wow. And you can't put it off for a long time, because the blood can "spoil" and lose its mana and some of its properties. And if we use it now, the critical point of my problem will not be a year and a half, but, say, six months. But to miss such a chance...
The only detail that is bothering me at the moment is DDD's reaction to my actions. It is unlikely that Harriet will tell him anything. She made an extremely serious oath for herself. But Albus saw me in the room, which means he will definitely pay even more attention to me.
- Well, have you had time to think it all over? - As soon as Poppy finished with the patient, she immediately turned her attention to me.
And yes, during the time that I spent thinking about EVERYTHING that happened, we managed to get to the hospital wing, and also bring Ginny into relative order.
"What's wrong with the patient?" I expressed my interest.
"Are you worried?" she grinned slightly, her yellow eyes sparkling.
"No," I shook my head. "I'm interested in the consequences of using a dark artifact, as well as such a long-term possession by the spirit of a not-so-weak magician. I'm actually interested in this, after all, you don't see such a case often."
- Well, there are two points of view, - the Teacher began, thinking for a moment. - If you look at it from the health point of view, both physical and mental, then everything is pretty bad. Exhaustion of physical and mental strength. Partial memory lapses are possible, the condition is weakened for at least six months.
- In general, everything that can be fixed in the same six months of rituals, - I finished for the teacher. Well, Ginny will lag behind her peers in terms of physical development by about a year, a year and a half. Damage to the "source of prana" is also possible, however, as I said, this can be solved with the help of rituals. In the mental, everything is much rosier. All that threatens her is headaches, and memory lapses over the past six months. - And on the other hand?
"That's right," she confirmed my words. "In terms of magic, everything is simply better than ever. The spirit, whoever it was," the smirk on Poppy's lips clearly showed that she knew who exactly the "spirit" was. "It adjusted the magical body to its gender. The development of channels, the source. The throughput and so on. All of this increased by an order of magnitude. Really…"
- What exactly?
- Because of the "dark" nature of the spirit, the girl has a clear bias towards the "darker" gifts, - haha, it's immediately clear that she treats this division somewhat "well". - To summarize, she has incredible prospects in the magic of darkness, necromancy, and also the soul. In contrast, the magic of light, blessings, healing will be given to her oh so difficultly. And knowing her family... - here she looked sadly at the sleeping girl.
I looked at her too. Well, have incredible prospects and the fate of a strong mage, or fall under the yoke of the family. What will happen? Can you do a little experiment?
"Follow me," Poppy brought me out of my thoughts, heading towards the office. Well, let's talk.
The descent into the hall took less than five minutes. Once inside, we immediately headed to the altar.
"Now I won't ask you about what happened." "I'm well aware that you won't tell me everything," she smiled softly, and a herd of goosebumps ran down my spine. — Now I have a small gift.
A slight wave and Gilderoy Lockhart himself hovers over the altar. Slightly disheveled, with a streak of gray in his hair, but it was him. And yes, it was his emotions that I felt in the toilet.
— Allow me to introduce you: Gilderoy Lockhart, writer, ladies' man. Hero, vanquisher of evil spirits and — here her smile turned into a grin — one of the chief scouts of the Guild of Sight.
*****