At the beginning of the third week, I managed to fulfill all the requirements of the teachers and began to install a large aquarium. The parts were custom made for me, so it took me a few hours, with the help of curious Luna, magic, and a good sealing glue, to assemble the structure, fill it with water, and drop in the algae core. Professor Sprout arrived just in time for the landing.
This algae is a predator and spreads by dropping seeds the size of cherry pits. The seed survives if it gets into something living. There it takes root and eats the organism alive, gaining primary mass and volume.
Later, the algae uses its tentacles to capture various animals. On the islands, I took a three or four year old seaweed, but for my needs, I cut off almost all of its branches.
Now I have to feed it until it grows again. By the way, algae are transplanted in the same way: specialists use magic to destroy most of the body, capture the nucleus, and move it to wherever it needs to go in a closed container. Sprout grimaced, for the nucleus is covered in a red pattern and pulsates with light, like a heartbeat, only slower.
I also warned the woman that I had installed special protection against theft, but if all goes well, by the end of the school year there should be a seedling, or even two, and I will give one to her — as a connoisseur. With conditions, of course, or some kind of restrictive "trait" to breed more could not. We'll see.
Next thing. I sorted out the letters marked "can wait". I didn't find anything special, and I found out that the court appointed a guardian a few days ago, but I don't care. All my employees had contracts with me, the most important people with access to anything important are bound by magic, so they couldn't betray me if they wanted to, let alone listen to a left-handed person. It doesn't matter to the Muggle world, especially without papers.
The orders from "Cups" were marked, saved, and a letter was sent to those who wanted to accept the request. Now I decided to get down to business, because I still have the whole evening ahead of me, just in time to make blanks out of bronze, later — to embed crystals and structures, to cover them with gold. Gold is both a powerful conductor and a stabilizer of structures. As I finished the tenth cup, there was a knock at the door.
Not the one on the living room side, but the outside one. Since I was in my living room, the office where I had set up the "sphere" where the crystals for the cups were now growing, I simply waved my free hand. In the other, I held my yellow and red wand and carefully watched the completion of the formation of the blank.
It was rather ugly, by the way; when it was finished, it would be beautiful. McGonagall came through the door — I recognized her from her strange emotional background and her soft, animal-like gait.
— Unless you have something important to do, please wait a few minutes until I'm finished...'' — I didn't take my eyes off her, because I had to keep all the proportions in order not to have to adjust them later; it's better to do it well at once than to do it again later.
Characteristically, the woman nodded silently, watching me intently. The thing is, transfiguration is a complex and very multifaceted science. You can talk about it for a long time, but in this case only one thing is important.
There are two ways of forming metal. The first method offers a bunch of ready-made formulas, that is, you choose the right one for the metal, shape, mass, and so on, pronounce the words with a certain waving of the wand, and everything is ready.
And you can use a universal formula, but then you have to keep a finished image in your head and gradually "mold" it out of the material, like a potter molding a jug. Frankly, my head is already aching from the effort, but I don't want to give up. Here I bring the groove of the central sphere to perfection, stabilize the result, and release the spell. The last piece is finished. I lean back in my chair, close my eyes, and relax.
— Mr. Hoshino, please explain. What are you doing here?
— Professor, you know I have a business, right? — Without changing my posture or opening my eyes, I continue. — There's a special artifact in the assortment, the most expensive one, called the Cup of Memories. That's what they'll be, the chalices.
— So you make artifacts just like that, without a workshop, without adult supervision? — I didn't listen to the complex intonations in the woman's voice, I didn't try to figure them out, I just noted their presence. — And you use Transfiguration, which is more complicated than the school program. Who taught you that?
— A girl I knew showed me some tricks, and then I invented it myself. — My headache started to go away, so I didn't move.
— How many have you done, if I may ask?
— I've had my wand in my hand for about six months, right? That's about when I started studying. — Oh, it's almost gone.
— It's amazing. — said the woman quietly. — Do you feel sick?
— Concentration gives me a headache. I was stupid, I should have done something else...
— Shall I see a wizard-doctor?
— No need, thank you, it's almost gone. — I get up from the chair, there's a small box on the table with a red cross on a white background. A small envelope with a potion in my mouth, some juice from the decanter, and I'm back in shape. I should have taken the powder right away instead of showing off. — I'm fine.
— Hmm, — the woman took a closer look at the contents of my medicine cabinet, then looked at me. — The director wants to see you. I'll show you out. Let's go.
Shrugging my shoulders, I followed, pulling on a sports jacket over my home sweater. At school, you're supposed to wear robes to class, but they're not required at other times. It's early evening, so I don't see a problem with it, and the robes themselves are a bit of an acquired taste, you have to get used to them.