After loading material into the small world, Loren checked the time—it was already seven—so he mounted his broom and headed straight home. He could push the broom to supersonic flight, but it still felt like a waste of time, which firmed his resolve to master Apparition as soon as possible.
On the way back he didn't gun it with a sonic burst; instead he cruised at a steady pace and focused more of his attention on the small world. Unlike the box he'd given Hagrid earlier—which had simply been expanded by the Extension Charm and used Weather Charms to fake a sky—this had to deserve the name "small world." In Loren's mind, a small world should at least mimic a real world well enough to run its own matter cycles; otherwise it wouldn't have consumed so much of his time and effort.
He now used fine control to trigger the ley formations he had laid in advance, then shifted the islands he'd placed inside and merged them into a single landmass, opening rivers and lakes as he went. He scattered many plant seeds; under accelerated growth, forests and grasslands took shape in patches.
The Ukrainian Ironbelly he had just collected was still unconscious. Loren moved it beside a lakeshore, set out a good amount of food, and left it be.
As for the newly acquired batch of Farm Tools, Loren moved his alchemy workshop straight in and told Peter Pettigrew—who was processing the previous lot of experimental materials—to keep an eye on receiving the equipment and to begin cultivating the test crops.
He also had a plan for Shiraori, who'd been holed up in her room. Once he was back at Hogwarts, he'd have her move her things to the Forbidden Forest to add another brick to the biodiversity of Loren's small world.
Loren pinned big hopes on this small world. He meant to keep expanding it and even to model a wizarding academy inside it—satisfying his own tastes as well. He also wanted to turn the small world into a super-server and have a magic-adapted smart assistant act as the server's steward to support his research. Whether on the science side or the magic side, the deeper you go, the more vital that becomes.
He remembered in Super Academy how the tech-side geniuses mainly competed on the capabilities of their supercomputers. He had only just built his own intelligent assistant, but that didn't hinder the ambition.
At the Nimbus 2000's normal cruising speed, Loren reached his cottage around half past nine. Inside, Hermione Granger sat at the dining table with a magazine; plenty of delicious food sat waiting—clearly a kept-warm dinner. Gentle light came through the window and fell across Loren's face. The sight warmed him from the heart.
He brushed himself with a few Cleaning Charms, then walked to the door and stepped in. He gave Hermione a big hug before sitting to eat, chatting as he ate about the day—leaving out, of course, Knockturn Alley and the part about stealing from Gringotts—and focusing on how he'd hauled islands out at sea and slotted them into the small world.
When Hermione heard the small world was mostly laid out, her eyes lit up and she wanted to go inside and see it. Loren agreed at once. After dinner he took her down to the underground alchemy workshop to temporarily place the small world there.
For now, Loren still couldn't bring people into the small world directly out of his personal storage space. That space was his mental storage—a by-product of his body enhancement—absolutely private, and not something he could just open up.
In the workshop, Loren released the small world, took Hermione by the hand, and together they entered through the open gateway. They appeared in midair inside; under Loren's control, they drifted down to the ground. The weather there was driven by Weather Charms Loren actively maintained; as for sun, moon, and stars overhead, they were projections of the outside, so it was night inside just as it was outside.
They landed before the alchemy workshop, with Shiraori's little house next door. He'd arranged that on purpose—no way was he taking Hermione to see a crowd of laborers and a blind dragon right off the bat. Forewarned by Loren, Shiraori had already opened her door; seeing them descend from the sky, she rushed out in delight.
"Shiraori, take Hermione for a walk nearby. She wants a feel for the small world. I've got a bit to finish; I'll come find you when I'm done," Loren said, already angling for the workshop.
He truly did have work, not an excuse. Access to the small world was still a problem, and he had just acquired a pair of Vanishing Cabinets. He intended to try turning them into a remote entrance to the small world. So he needed to repair—or rather, reactivate—the cabinets. The pair wasn't damaged; they had simply fallen inactive from long neglect. A reactivation should do it.
He also planned to study their operating principles and see whether he could anchor their network to the small world. Before long, he had the two Vanishing Cabinets humming. He even stepped outside the small world to test them; sure enough, they were far more convenient than prying open a hatch and crawling in.
With the cabinets set, he headed off to find Hermione and Shiraori. It was already close to ten, and his body clock was pinging him toward sleep. While sleep mattered less to him than before, he still chose to follow a normal human rhythm—only that way did he feel human.
Since his body modifications, Loren had been growing in a rough-and-ready way. The enhancements had come from Xiling Tech and were safe and side-effect-free, but he'd only undergone the initial procedure. He hadn't been given an Inquisitor's manual, nor divine guidance. The one advantage he had over the Vivian Ancestor (TN: Journal of the Mysterious Creatures) was that his own circumstances weren't as harsh: she had to face the Lord of Howling Winds (TN: Jackie Chan Adventures) head-on, whereas he merely had to beware potential psychic contamination from ley formations.
Indeed, once he formally entered the magical world he noticed something: magic here seemed to carry a built-in psychic taint. The clearest example was how most wizards turned foolish the moment they dealt with Muggles. Even the knowledge-hungry Ravenclaws disdained collecting or studying Muggle knowledge, acting as if it didn't exist—hardly the basic posture of a scholar.
Loren had long been searching for a fix, without much progress yet. It didn't affect him personally, but he still wanted to minimize its impact where he could.
He soon found Hermione and Shiraori back at Shiraori's place. At first Hermione, led by Shiraori, had explored the area with interest; but she quickly realized the small world's scenery wasn't much different from outside, and with night falling she lost the urge to wander. She returned to Shiraori's house to play video games and wait for Loren to finish up. Knowing him, unless something unusual came up he would turn in before ten.
Sure enough, not long after she'd started gaming, Loren arrived. After waving goodbye to Shiraori, Hermione followed him through the Vanishing Cabinet back to the basement, ready to wash up and sleep.
Days passed and Christmas drew near, with Loren's projects advancing in good order. First, under the combined pressure of scientific and arcane methods, he completed the brainwashing of the experimental subject, nudging forward his research into cognitive hardening. Next, with the subject's help, he mastered Apparition and even gleaned a bit of spatial lore—very helpful for studying the Vanishing Cabinets.
At last, on the day before Christmas, Loren hand-built his first magical satellite. Tests showed it could get his magical notebook online; his knowledge-harvest plan ticked forward another notch.
He didn't spend all his time on research. Every day he made time to sit with Hermione and read the latest science magazines, keep up on developments, and try to guide her onto a path that blended science with magic. Family outings were important too; both Diagon Alley in the wizarding world and Oxford Street in the Muggle world kept their traces of Loren and his family.
Beyond shopping with the family and stocking up for Christmas, Loren once again swept through Diagon Alley with Galleons, reminding the shopkeepers what it felt like to be "ruled" by Galleons. He also didn't forget his promises to Fred Weasley and George Weasley. On Oxford Street he bought many rings of different styles—of course, behind Hermione's back. And he didn't forget to write Neville Longbottom early to set a visit for the third day after Christmas.
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