"Madam Pomfrey has instructed me to take it easy on you. But it sounded to me like a suggestion more than anything," Flitwick said with a vicious grin as he sat at his table in his office. "Will you listen to our mediwitch or to me?"
This was a test, I knew it, and I didn't feel like backing down in our first meeting.
"I want to get stronger."
"Good mindset, but don't let strength be your goal. Let it be a means to reach your actual goal," Flitwick instructed as he hopped down his chair. "You'll lose motivation and drive in no time otherwise."
After some intricate wand movement, the Charms professor grabbed a potion bottle from a small knee-high cabinet next to his desk that seemed made just for the small half-goblin.
"I checked with a friend from St Mungo's. You're free to build muscle during your recovery. In fact, building stamina and moving about should help your body to recover faster if you fight through the pain, he said."
Flitwick handed me the bottle, and I merely lifted an eyebrow. I didn't drink it. Because who in their right mind would drink any random potion? And that, too, seemed to be a test when the professor's smile grew and grew.
"Good. Never drink anything handed to you by someone without explanation. There is such a thing as being too trusting, and drinking random potions definitely falls under that umbrella. It's why we have potion master seals in the first place," Flitwick explained as he pointed to a wax seal on the cork of the bottle that I only noticed then. Interestingly enough, the potion bottle appeared slightly golden in my blindfolded eye.
"This right there is akin to a magical oath. A potion master guarantees that his potion is what he says it is and does what he said it would do. I'll teach you to distinguish real from fake ones in our next session. Now drink up, this potion will help you build muscle. Poppy mentioned you inquiring about it."
"Nice," I eagerly whispered as I broke the seal and drank the potion down. Getting a shortcut to mastering my body was what I really hoped was possible once I attended a magical school.
My enthusiasm, however, was cut short when the potion tasted what I imagined toenail stew to taste like with its mad texture, worse smell, and even worse taste.
"Yeah. You'll have to drink this every day for two weeks as you do physical exercise, and I do not envy you," Flitwick quipped with a grin full of schadenfreude. "But this is what will enable you to drink the strengthening elixir after your full recovery. Since rituals are all but banned, that elixir will be your best bet to ensure you have a peak body for as long as you take care of yourself."
"Is this common knowledge? Why don't all magicals drink that? I saw some truly fat wizards in Diagon Alley..."
"It is, but even with the potion to prime your body, you would still need to do rigorous exercise. And then there's the cost to consider," Flitwick explained with a shifty grin.
"Cost? What will I owe you?" I asked as I gulped down another round of saliva to get the taste of the potion out of my mouth.
"That's two questions with very different answers, Talion. The cost is much higher than you might think, but less when you take into consideration this particular recipe has goblin origin. And you, Talion, will owe me absolute excellence."
Absolute excellence. I was determined to give it to him because of all I would gain. But the very first tasks were every possible home exercise you could do without weights or training equipment, and that didn't involve running.
After tens of pushups, my arms felt like falling off. With the hundredth bicycle crunch I didn't know I had in me, my body felt like splitting in half. Then there was squatting, which felt ridiculous to do in robes much like all the other exercises, but at least my legs that were shaking even at the very beginning were hidden from view.
Keeping my robes on would help me figure out my limitations and range of motion when dressed as such, Flitwick had reminded when I asked why I couldn't change into something more practical or simply take off the stuffy robe. It only fueled my determination to never wear these clunky school robes in battle.
Once we were done minutes before curfew, Flitwick cast an overpowered cleaning charm on me so that I wouldn't smell up his office or the common room he was bringing me to.
After that, I didn't know how I even walked to my room, but I fell asleep on my bed in my robes and inwardly thanked the professor for cleaning me up just before sending me away.
The next morning, my body didn't hurt. It was a welcome surprise as I ruminated the contents of my last dream: A conversation between Heimdall, Odin, and Tyr. Just like the last time, I didn't hear it. But this time, I saw Heimdall and Tyr training their bodies when Odin left. Their physical attributes were leagues above my own, like comparing the absolute strength of a freshly hatched ant to a fully grown elephant on steroids - the whole dream felt like it was trying to humble me.
"You're up. I thought you might sleep through the day with how you went to bed and all."
I looked toward Harry, who was quietly working on his notes and browsing a book at his desk despite the sun not being up yet.
"Yeah, same here. Must be the potion he had me drink... remember what I said before we went to Madam Pomfrey for the first time? About potions helping us with our bodies? Apparently, Flitwick knew one such potion and is providing me with it. You should ask him about it."
Harry, as usual, didn't reply but hummed in response.
With a shake of my head, I peeled myself out of my robe and went to the bathroom to wash up. A cleaning charm was nice, but a shower or bath felt much, much better.
"Excited about Transfiguration? We're going to do the match-to-needle spell today according to Hermione," I asked as I started dressing myself.
The sun was just about to get up, and I promised myself I would do some actual stamina training. I needed to get Patrick to buy or steal me better gear because all I had were ratty old sneakers or nice leather shoes, but those sneakers would have to do with a cushioning charm before I got new clothes. Only buying fancy dress shirts and leather shoes at Madam Malkin's was a mistake.
"I guess," was all Harry answered as he continued to ignore me over his studies.
And like that, I went on a run in school uniform trousers and a regular t-shirt, hoping nobody would see me since it was so early. Not just because of my ill-suited workout outfit but also because my movements were still far from smooth.
Heimdall and Tyr were running on... well, treadmills? They looked unlike anything I had ever seen, but the two stayed in place while sprinting in my dream during their workout. They also did something akin to 'parkour' like that French acrobat David Belle did in that news show the matron had on early that summer - just much more three-dimensional. But I couldn't replicate that form of free-running. Not here in Hogwarts. Not with nerve damage.
'Maybe I should make or get Flitwick to make a magical treadmill? There has to be charms that either propel something at a steady pace to move a belt like a muggle treadmill or a combination of something holding me in place while on a surface with little to no friction like the Norse Gods had in my dream.'
"Are you okay to do exercise?" A voice asked as I turned back to the knocker after half an hour of running up and down some stairs... which I was not going to do again.
Whoever invented vanishing steps and thought it prudent to break the students' legs for no reason deserved to be flogged.
"You do exercise, too?"
"I asked first," the girl answered as she answered the riddle and opened the door for us.
'What's green and sticky, brown and wet, colorful and poisonous? - Frogs.' Another stupid riddle that made me wonder if there were even any good ones the knocker knew.
I watched her enter before me in short brown pants highlighting her absolutely gorgeous legs and a lose-fitting sky blue blouse with what looked like old-timey hiking boots and wool socks up to her knees. Her beautiful brown hair, like always, was done in a simple, single braid, while strands of hair stuck to her slightly sweaty face framing it. Her breathing was a little labored, and her fair face slightly flushed... but to me, she had never looked prettier than right now.
"Uh, yeah. Flitwick got me working out so that I might recover faster," I answered while turning away. Stupid teenage hormones were trying to tempt me into saying or doing something foolish again.
"I see. Good luck with that," Lara said and walked towards the girls' dormitory. "And a speedy recovery."
I grinned like a fool when I heard her last sentence and held that grin until I after I took a second bath this morning. Magic was really something else in providing such a luxury.
"Your bandages need changing before breakfast. Want me to accompany you? I had something to ask Madam Pomfrey anyway," Harry asked as I once more got dressed for the day.
"Sure," I easily agreed and hobbled down the stairs toward the hospital wing with the-boy-who-lived.
I noticed a huge improvement in my motor functions when we were walking down together. A huge improvement I didn't really notice when I attempted running and stair climbing earlier.
'I should ask Madam Pomfrey about that,' I idly thought with a smile on my lips.
-----
Two hours later, with new bandages and breakfast behind us, I once more sat in Transfiguration class at 9AM. I noticed Ron Weasley and Michael Corner giving me peculiar looks, but both of them were just pale orange in my special vision compared to a sea of pale green and white from the other students. I was beginning to think that pale orange color meant that people didn't like me much and wouldn't give me the time of day instead of being actual enemies.
Because most people at the Slytherin table in the great hall had that color and I doubted my actions or rather the actions against me somehow made me Slytherin's Public Enemy Number One. Me being generally disliked by the house, however, made sense. If the correct words were spoken by the right people.
"Welcome back, Mister Macnair. I take it you have used these last two days to familiarize yourself with the content of the last lesson you have missed?" Professor McGonagall inquired as she began the class.
"I did, professor. I've prepared the assignment as well. For last class, too," I confirmed with a nod and floated over a roll of parchment to the professor who gave me an impressed look at my silent casting of Wingardium Leviosa - a spell that wasn't even taught in Charms yet this year. For some reason, that earned me a disdainful scoff from Corner.
"Splendid, take one house point for Ravenclaw for your diligence and impressive charm work. I'd give you more, but this is Transfiguration, after all," the cat animagus quipped with a rare smirk and began her lesson in earnest.
Ten minutes after that, she opened a little box and gave every student two matches for the next part of the class.
"Now, the transfiguration required of you works with the general inanimate to metal spell as mentioned before, but for precise work and for beginners such as yourself, there is the 'Metallus Punctor' spell to make any inanimate material into a pointy, metallic version as dictated by your magic. You should have read the full chapter for the spell in preparation for this class, so nothing is stopping you from successfully creating a silver needle from this little match."
We all watched her for a moment before she said, "Go on then. That was your cue to start."
I looked down at the matches in front of me and since this was genuinely my first attempt at transfiguration, I reminded myself of the full content on intent and visualisation the talking hat had given me during our first and so far only occlumency training session.
With a clear picture of a clean, pointy silver needle with an intricate head for an eye that looked like it had completely impractical cat ears and the shape of a cat's face, together with the knowledge on silver's atomic composition and how the metal structured itself on a molecular level, I cast a whispered 'Metallus Punctor' on the match in front of me.
Nothing fancy happened. No light left my wand, but I could feel a slight amount of magic slowly leaving me through the tip of the magical focus in my hand. And I watched in awe as a ripple of magic went through the match and slowly changed the wood into proper, shining, silvery metal.
The resulting needle was exactly as I had envisioned it, and I could scarcely believe it had it not happened right in front of me. This felt more like magic than anything else I did so far with a wand. Even the physics defying light-rope charm.
I heard a gasp next to me and saw Hermione looking at my needle with a wide open mouth before she turned to me with glittering eyes. Yet, before she could ask me how I did it or get competitive with me over the result, the professor stepped near the table because a gasp like that usually meant something went wrong.
"Was this your first attempt at transfiguration, Mister Macnair?" the transfiguration professor asked as she inspected the needle she had picked up from my table. She even prodded the tip of it and saw it piercing parchment easily, which made her lift an eyebrow.
"Yeah, it was," I admitted while scratching the back of my head with the bandaged hand awkwardly.
"Tell us how you did it, step by step."
I organized my thoughts for a moment before I started with, "I pictured the needle exactly as you're holding it, making the image stay in my mind for a while to get more definitive. I envisioned how it is pointy and how the metal is different from wood. It's cold and unyielding... and if I may be honest, I used my knowledge on physics and material sciences to envision the atomic and molecular structure of silver. That might be something most students won't be able to use, though, I'm afraid - unless, of course, it is taught at the P.S.Y. schools."
"Twenty points to Ravenclaw," the professor awarded and turned back to her podium to address the class while using the 'Engorgio' charm to enlarge the needle as it was for everyone to see.
"As opposed to the thinking of many, muggles have made tremendous progress into understanding the world around them without the need or use for magic. The usage of these so-called 'guiding principles on atomic structure and molecular composition' is a very recent addition to this particular branch of magic and highly advanced," McGonagall emphasized.
"What Mister Macnair has done here is nothing short of astounding and requires not only talent in the field of transfiguration but also knowledge and understanding in the two muggle subjects he has named thus. I require none of you to repeat his feat because transfiguration has worked for millenia without this knowledge. You can change a match into a needle without knowing what an atom even is, but you may still learn its principles starting your O.W.L. years. Of course, you may also find corresponding articles in the newest issues of Transfiguration Weekly."
With that, McGonagall placed the now-shrunken needle back on my table after walking over once more and encouraged the other students to continue their attempts at the spell. Hermione to my left and Mandy to my right didn't bother trying to do the spell and instead watched my wand hover over the second match.
This time around, I envisioned gold and made the needle much, much thicker to allow carvings along its length that I made to look like a tree with very visible bark and a few knotholes with miniature birds peeking out. The eye of the needle this time around was an even more impractical tree top, just not as massive as it should be in relation to the body of the needly.
"Did you imagine the atoms arranging themselves in hexagonal close packed units or a multi-element structure to accomode for natural deviation?" Hermione asked as she studied my gold needle after leaning in a little.
"Uh, I imagined a somewhat chaotic multi-element structure based on hexagonal units because I thought that would be easier to replicate as opposed to perfect order like you'd need for graphene," I answered with an uneasy smile because Mandy looked like the two of us grew a second head.
"What's graphene?" Hermione curiously asked.
"Uh, right... it's a special carbon variation, haha," I answered while scratching my head. Shit, I forgot the patent for it was only filed this year. "But don't let that discourage you. Try it on your own. I'll answer any questions I can."
'Man, Patrick stealing stuff will be the thing that will expose me as a dark wizard eventually. Not only he did he steal that Settlers of Catan prototype from that German muggle, he even stole classified research with a pending patent. All because I told him about selling games and how I wanted to combine muggle knowledge with transfiguration and told him carbon was one of the most abundant elements on the planet. Maybe telling him where the patent office is was a mistake. Hehe, who am I kidding...'
The two girls tried to turn their matches and had very reasonable results for their first try, just like most of the students. The needles almost all turned into a pointy metallic silver, but few included an eye like a regular needle had or gave their needles any fancy features.
As I answered a few questions for those who asked and spending a minute more at Lavender's table than any other's, I turned back to my table and tried my hand at more experiments because I knew now how to return my transfiguration work back to its original form.
I turned a long pencil into a crochet needle nobody would use but instead maybe display, which earned me a proud nod from McGonagall but no further points. I had to guess that she wanted her house to have a fighting chance at winning the house cup despite me being such an advanced student.