HP: The Crazy One

The book I had “retrieved” was actually a book on the history of Runes and went over the fundamentals. The book was called “Runes and You,” and was written by a French wizard. It wasn’t important right now, what was important was taking notes.

With Runes, taking notes is a lot more difficult than you would expect, because if you use anything that has slight magical properties, the runes will activate, using the magic stored in whatever material you used, causing big or small effects.

This could be the reason why my experiment simply exploded. The rock had been sitting in Hogwarts’s boundaries for magic knows how long, it would have absorbed some magic from the surrounds of Hogwarts eventually.

While I am going through “Runes and You,” I am constantly thinking how I would rebuild Dororthy. I don’t exactly have the means to acquire something rare, and even if I did, if my inscribing went wrong, I probably couldn’t handle the backlash. However, I have a general game plan.

Firstly, I have found that even non-magical materials can be inscribed, although with far less efficiency. This means I can use normal book covers and paper, which isn’t too hard to get. Secondly, expansion runes aren’t especially difficult to understand.

While they touch upon the rules of space, it’s not a new field at all. I’ve even heard the American Wizard Society or whatever they have called themselves specialize in spatial magic. As such, the knowledge is widespread and can also be found in the Hogwarts Library if you ask the books nicely.

After some time, I drew up a rune chart for Dororthy which included the expansion runes, a floating rune so I didn’t have to hold it all the time, and a duplication rune to save me fusing more pages in every time I run out of space.

However, this would not be easy. My last rune experiment ended up exploding on me and scaring the Professors to kingdom come. This time, I would run my plan by a professor. With determination in my eyes, I stuff all my notes my pockets and ask the books to return to the skies.

 

--- Outside Flitwick’s Office ---

 

I really couldn’t think of a better professor. While I haven’t interacted with him much, I have heard his reputation among the other students. I stand outside the Professors office and knock on the door. It felt like eternity before I heard some shuffling on the other side of the door, then a tired half-goblin opening the door.

“… Young Ravenclaw, are you aware of the time?” he asked.

To be honest, no. Before I could reply however, he continued.

“That’s a detention for you, Mr. Zane. I hope it is something important since you woke me up at 430am for it.”

Huh.

“How can you tell?”

“Simple! Tempus! Tells the time, just twirl in a circle lightly when casting,”

I pull out my wand and mimic the Professors motions.

“Tempus.”

Out shot some fog from the tip of my wand, that slowly morphed into numbers that were somewhat legible.

436

“Not bad for your first try! Keep practicing, if you can figure out how to add AM/PM into the output before my charms class, I’ll forget about your detention,”

“How would I do that?”

“Use your imagination, I hope this wasn’t why you woke me up.”

“Oh! Professor, I want to build my own Grimoire and drew up a rune plan. The last time I tried to do runes by myself, I exploded. This time, I want some advice.”

“I see… Leave it with me and I’ll have a look over it,”

I make a copy of the rune plans and hand it to the Professor.

“See you around, Professor,” I wave while walking off, not wanting to disturb him more than I already have.

 

--- Halls of Hogwarts ---

 

After visiting Professor Flitwick, I have realized a small issue. I am simply not tired.

I wander the hallways of Hogwarts, admiring the random pieces of art hung on the wall, noticing a common theme. All the people in the paintings are pretending to be asleep, some even making fake snoring sounds, yet sometimes you can catch one slightly opening their eyes to check if you are still there. It’s kind of fun to mess with them, and I spent a great deal of time doing this.

“Tempus.”

521

The fog formed into barely legible characters again.

“I guess it would count as breakfast if I go now,” I muttered, making my way towards the kitchen.

The best part about Hogwarts is that she can tell where you want to go. Once I figured this out, navigating became much easier, and I reached the fruit painting in no time. However, there were some unexpected guests trying to get into the kitchens as well. I snuck up behind them and got close to their ears.

“Should I ask what you three are doing?” I asked.

“Blimey!” Ron shouted, while the other two jumped from fright.

Hehe. I can see why other people do that to me now.

They must have seen me grin or something since they were not happy.

“There you are!” Hermione was looking straight at me.

“Not for long,” I replied.

I walked in front of the fruit painting, which swung open on its own accord.

“How are you doing that?” Hermione asked.

I simply shrug and walk in; not like I know either.

“Julis is happy to see Sir Zane! Would Sir Zane like breakfast?” Julis was all too happy to see me.

I nod and sit down, with the trio following me. It was strange, Julis didn’t acknowledge them walking in. They had also become a lot more reserved since the last time I had seen them, which wasn’t more than a few hours ago.

Hermione seemed to be giving me a death stare, though.

 “Sir Zane, here is your breakfast!”

“Thanks, Julis,”

I look at the plate presented to me and salivate slightly.

Fluffy eggs, fresh toast, and sausages.

Let’s be real, I’m not a chef and am easily satisfied. However, I notice that Julis forgot about the trio.

“Julis, where are their plates?”

“Sir Zane… they have offended the other house elves, no one wants to cook for them,”

“Huh?” I turn towards them and await their explanation.

“Actually it was just Hermione, we just got dragged along,” Ron said, sounding annoyed as well.

“Why does the Headmaster not pay them? It’s unfair! They work so hard and are brainwashed to enjoy working! Why does no one care? It’s slavery!” She shouted.

I can faintly hear the other elves in the kitchen get agitated. I can’t blame them either, imagine having your work ethic called into question by a clueless second year. I looked at Harry who seemed to be awkwardly smiling, seemingly wanting to hide under the table.

“And you! Zane! Why do you make more work from them? Why does Julis treat you so well? They locked us out of the kitchen until you came!” She sounded more agitated than before.

Unfortunately, I don’t have an answer for that. I don’t know either, but I don’t particularly care. I shrug in response, starting to eat my breakfast.

“That’s it! I’m going to talk to the Headmaster about this!” She gets up, and walks out of the kitchen, leaving Harry and Ron behind. I couldn’t help but ask a vital question.

“Does she know where the Headmaster’s office even is?”

Judging from their silence, probably not. I sigh and let it be, who asked them to piss of the house-elves anyways. After finishing my breakfast, I leave the kitchen with Harry and Ron following me.

“What did you even do tonight?” Ron asked.

“Nothing,” As I say this, the notes I took in the library fell out of my robes, spilling at their feet.

“Something,” I pick up my notes, and pretend that just didn’t happen.

“Cya later, if fate permits of course,” I smile cryptically and speed walk off. I hear them following me, but after turning a corner into a hallway, they seemed to have stopped.

No longer my problem. I make my way towards Professor Flitwick to see if he has gone over my plan. It’s a relatively simple rune matrix, if a first year designed it, it should be no issue. I reached his door and knocked, seeing that his office was lit up.

“Enter.” I heard a somewhat tired voice reply.

“Good morning, Professor,”

“Ah, Mr. Zane, I was wondering when you’d come back, I had a look over your plan, I didn’t see any obvious flaws. However I must remark that you have an impressive talent in Runes, to be able to design something in your first week of schooling is an impressive feat.”

“Talent? I just like Runes, Professor.”

“What a wonderful thing to enjoy. I am sure your eager to get on with your plan, yes?”

“Very much so, its already getting frustrating managing my notes normally,”

“I see, how about you do it under my supervision this time,”

I consider it heavily, on one hand, if I blow up again, I’ll have someone there to stop it. However, I want to figure this out on my own and strictly speaking, it really shouldn’t blow up again.

 “No thanks, Professor. I will let you know of my success soon,”

I thanked the Professor for his time and left the office before he could insist. The next step is to get the materials I need for the new Dororthy. Regarding this, I have an idea. I walk along the hallways until I am relatively alone - baring a few paintings that are still pretending to be asleep.

“Julis, are you there?” I whispered.

*Pop*

“Sir Zane needs something?” Julis popped right in front of me and did a bow.

“Do you know where I can get a fresh book?”

“Certainly!” Julis then popped away, before immediately coming back.

“Here you go Sir Zane! Do you need anything else?”

“No thanks, Julis,” Hearing this, Julis then popped away. I let out a sigh, thinking how convenient that must be.

The reason why I wanted a fresh book is to test my idea first. I am not going to risk Dororthy immediately and can even fuse the two books if the first try succeeds. Now I just needed somewhere quiet.

 

--- Empty Classroom on the 5^th Floor --- (AN1)

 

After looking around, I found a suitable place for my upgrade to take place. While dusty, I didn’t see a single student on my way here, probably because it’s still like 7am, but still. I lay the fresh book out on the floor and get started.

According to my plan, first we make the duplication rune, then the floating rune. Once the expansion rune goes it, it becomes a lot harder to make changes too. I make the “Master Page” at the back of the book, and inscribe the rune with my wand.

“Time to test it out, I suppose,” I mutter.

I pour my magic into the rune, and see a new page sprout out from the spine. I pull slightly on the page, but it seems to be firmly in place.

“Next step, floating,”

Next up, I inscribe the floating rune on the outside of the book. The idea is that when the book is open, the cover will be pointed either down or angled. Otherwise, the book will lose its hovering features when closed.  I double check the rune plan verses what I have inscribed, and notice some errors in my linework.

“This can’t go wrong,”

Frankly speaking, this shouldn’t cause anything other than a lower mana efficiency. The intent of the rune is still apparent and should function accordingly. I pour my magic into the floating rune, which causes the book to slightly hover out of my hands, before immediately falling once it left my hands.

“Yep, good enough.”

I move onto the next stage, and probably the most difficult. Even following the linework that was refined by Professor Flitwick, it’s a difficult task. I inscribe the base of the Rune all throughout the inside of the book, going as carefully as I could. All this rune is doing is compressing the pages, so the book doesn’t become an unmanageable size. Since the use of the rune is relatively simple, it can fit on the inside of this book.  

I finish the rune, and double check my work, while wiping the sweat from my forehead. Inscribing is hard work, huh? I pour my magic into the spatial rune, and watch the rune slowly light up. The book slowly became thinner and thinner, before all that was visible was just the book cover itself. I didn’t expect it to compress the pages already in it, but this works out in my favour. The thing with spatial runes is once it is set, unless you change the space in any way, it won’t cost magic to upkeep. This means that while it’s not in use, it won’t drain any magic.

I am too scared to put magic absorption runes into the book just yet, considering my explosive mishap last time.

But the book looked stable.

I didn’t expect to get it first try, and don’t have a name for it.

Oh well, first I will run it by Professor Flitwick to make sure it doesn’t explode in my hands in an hour or so.

 

 

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Author Corner:

Last chapter was pointed out that Hermione didn’t get pissed when she saw the Elves, this is a good point. Hermione is now fighting for SPEW earlier than the cannon. I did say this as AU, just didn’t think it would be so soon. Thanks for catching it early!  

 

The new Dororthy is made, and I want a name from my lovely readers. Try to keep the strange naming sense I have going, or funny enough. Do your worst :D.

 

AN1: I literally can’t remember If I made a spot for experiments/hang outs already, It’s not in my notes at all. Let me know if this is the Mandela effect or something.