Spell creation, or spellforgeing as I'd taken to calling it because it was fucking better name and wizards should never fucking be allowed to name anything. What uncultured boob named a craft that aims to find new and interesting ways to make reality your whimpering hungry little bitch gave it such an uncreative name!? Where was the flare? Where was the adventure!? He might as well have called it magic assembly. Bah! Bah, I say!
So, Spellforging, not the most common vocation in the wizarding world. Unsurprising, I will have to admit if you have any notion of the general disposition of the wizarding public in general. They are sheep, unflattering a term as that is it happens to be true. But I can't fault them too much in this case, Spellforging was an unpredictable, finicky and sometimes downright lethal area of research to engage in, only presumed by the truly brave, or the truly foolish.
Sometimes both.
The problem was the sheer unpredictability inherent in the practice, in many ways it reminded me of what could happen when an enchantment was improperly broken resulting in a cascade failure of the Wheel. Only more so. Generally, the misfires weren't too dangerous… until they were. The problem was that there was often no middle ground. Ether it was mostly harmless or it was ridiculously lethal.
There was a pop, I couldn't call it an explosion, it was a perfect white sphere about a meter in diameter. It looked like it was solid even if there was no variation in its surface, no shadows, no glare, or any variation in coloring really. It might as well have been a hole, only white, and unconnected to anything. It sorta just existed there for a few moments before suddenly imploding in on itself, taking a bowl-shaped chunk of the floor with it as it went.
It also took with it a wand and the front parts of a pair of tentacles not to mention a block of steel.
"You are entirely insane," Lys stated bluntly. "I can't believe you are actually doing this."
"I don't see what choice I have. There is no charm that does what I need it to. SO I have to make one." I told her for the untempt time.
"Can't you just try to improve upon the duplication charm? It's much safer than playing around with transfiguration magic." Lys suggested.
"I've tried! I told you I tried. It. Does. Not. Work! The degradation issue remains the same no matter what I try. And at the size I need everything just falls apart in moments. I have to find a way to create a similar spell but with a base in transfiguration instead of conjuration or I will not get anywhere!" I told her as I pulled the tentacles back behind the protective barrier I'd positioned between myself and Lys and the testing area. Goddamnit, now I had to find another compatible wand to use.
"Drew! Wake up!" Lys yelled at me before pointing at the indention left in the floor by my recent attempt. "Look at that! What if it had been bigger?! You think this wall would have protected us?"
I waved it away. "Its growth wasn't that fast, we had ample time to get out of here."
"And what if it is faster next time!?"
"Look, none of the misfires have covered a very large area thus far. I don't think they have enough power for a large effect." I reasoned to Ly's obvious displeasure. "This correlates with what I've read about spellforging in general. The area of effect has never exceeded five meters."
"That anyone knows about." Lys amended seriously "What if you are wrong? What if the book is wrong. Hell, you know you're not taking some of the precautions the books recommend you take."
"All of those are in place to remind the caster to get out of the way quickly if it looks like something is about to go sideways," I told her dismissively. "And if I get caught up in "what if's" I'll never get anywhere, Lys."
I pulled one of the tentacles closer and gave it a closer examination. To make it a bit more safe for me I'd pulled some inspiration from my ongoing forays into the field of animation and created several sets of ten-meter long tentacles, I'd also made use of my generous store of Unicorn hair, that I'd acquired entirely ethically, and combined it with my sub-par understanding of how wands worked to create what is essentially a crude magical transference system that allowed me to cast at range, so long as one of the tentacles held a wand.
That last bit might have been a problem if the Room didn't have quite a store of old forgotten wands because I went through the ones I could actually use like Kleenex. It was fucking hard to cast through them too, I didn't think I would have managed it if it wasn't for my training in wandless magic. Al in all, it was a very inefficient system
But it was better than dying in new and interesting ways. Even if it left me with a pounding stress headache most of the time. Magic exhaustion might not be a thing like many liked to believe, but as with anything that requires intense concentration, things take a toll on the body one way or another.
"It's reckless," Lys told me seriously.
I nodded agreeably. "I know, I just don't see any other way to get what I want."
"What you want!" Lys exclaimed incredulously. "You don't even have a clear idea of what you are going to use them for, you told me yourself."
"That's because the utility of something like that is… unbelievable." I told her. "It all depends on how good I can make 'em."
Lys sighed and shook her head in expiration. "There is no talking to you when you get like this."
"Look, I hear what you are saying. I even agree with it to a point. But I can't just sit on my ass and do nothing."
"I'd hardly characterize you as someone that does nothing," Lys muttered. "You do more things in a day than most do in a week."
"Not the point."
Lys rolled her eyes at me. "Do you even know the point?"
"If you're just gonna be snippy I'll just ignore you," I told her flippantly.
"Oh, like you normally do? Wow, what a change of pace." Lys drawled sarcastically.
"There is a difference between ignoring you and not doing what you want," I told her primly.
Lys just rolled her eyes and shook her head sadly. "You are unbelievable."
"Relax. I'm done for the day so you can unclench." I told her before hefting the damaged tentacles and moved towards the exit.
Lys nodded. "Good, I still have work to do."
"Oh, so that was the problem." I teased with a wide smile. "I was interfering in your "beating up metal" time."
"You're not gonna get a rise out of me that easily, Drew," Lys said blandly before grabbing at the parts of the tentacles that were dragging on the floor and hefting them up on her shoulder to help me carry them out.
I chuckled. "That a challenge I'm hearing?"
"Knock yourself out… really, you can borrow my hammer. Maybe it will beat some common sense into your head." Lys muttered irritably.
"Please. I have more common sense in my dick then the whole of the wizarding world has ever had." I boasted. Not that it was really much of a feat all things considered.
"You have a funny way of showing that."
"Oh get off it, Lys. I am taking precautions, better precautions then most wizards bother with."
"So you say." Lys retorted dubiously.
I did the mature thing and blew her a raspberry.
"Oh yeah, a wealth of common sense."
I laughed lightly and decided that I'd antagonized the short girl enough for now. "Our four friends are coming along well by the way. They went through the behavioral notes I gave them and managed to get to their assigned booklists, their reading speed and comprehension is astonishing."
Lys nodded. "Of course. It's part of the design, it would have to be or paintings would not be able to mimic their subjects in the way the can. You must have noticed it with the animals."
I shook my head. "I let them mostly develop on their own with little input from me beyond some basic commands so that they don't try to do something stupid, like trying to see what eating someone's face would be like."
Lys grimaced in disgust. "Do you really have to say things like that?"
"Gets the point across, no?" I told her brightly before dumping my side of the tentacles I was carrying to the floor right outside my potions lab. "Anyway. It was a test. I wanted to see what would happen if I let their personalities form more organically, from observing the people around the castle and let them decide for themselves." Besides, the characters they were based on didn't really exist yet, more the pity. I had to wait another decade before Terry started to write his famous books. I can't say how elated I'd been to find that he did indeed exist in this world. It would have been horrible if I never got a chance to read his books again.
If I remember correctly his first book should come out sometime around now. Not anything I was interested in reading, but still something to take note of.
I'd have to remember to get a signed copy of some of his stuff when it rolled around. Actually, I really had to do some rounds to famous authors and give my burgeoning fiction library some added flair. Maybe get them to sign them in a way that hinted of things to come. That would be fun.
I also had to see if I could keep him from biting the dust too early. Sixty-six is way too early for a guy like him to pass on. Some healing potions would likely do the trick quite nicely. It might even be able to fix his early-onset Alzheimers as well. The condition was unknown in the wizarding world, as were most mental conditions that had a purely biological cause. At least as far as I'd been able to determine on my own. Admittedly the sample size was small as hell, so I might be wrong. It was even likely.
I shook my head lightly, dislodging that mildly depressing thought. It hit a bit close to home since my own father had suffered from a similar malady before his untimely death. I again had to suppress a sudden urge to head back to my home town and check if my family actually existed in this time and place. I took a deep breath and went through all the myriad reasons for not going anywhere near the people I was related to.
I'd probably step on a fly and change the future.
No, it was better if I stayed away from there at least until the turn of the century.
I cleared my throat that suddenly felt a bit tight. "Anyway, things are going good. They should be ready well before the original deadline. I might even consider an early reveal."
Lys snorted. "I still can't believe you are planning to do something like this. It's ridiculous."
"Nah, it's awesome. It will be awesome. I just need to give 'em the right sort of introduction. I'm thinking of the great hall at the opening feast. I'll modify the ceiling and maybe add a soundtrack… definitely a choir, a clear blue sky and lots of light, maybe add some architecture in the background..." I mussed to myself.
"Can't you not be ridiculous?"
"Come on, what is life without some silly stuff. Besides, it won't look silly when I'm done cooking. Everyone in that hall will piss their pants in sheer awe!" I proclaimed grandly.
Lys just gave a silent look before turning and marching back into the Room of Requirement. I gave myself a pat on the back. Couldn't get a rise out of her, eh? I own that rise, that rise is mine and I can raise it anytime I want.
"Muahahaha." I laughed quietly.