Waking up the next morning was effortless, I simply stood up, got dressed and went down for breakfast feeling well rested and fresh, not needing to shower or brush teeth just as the perk "Time Savers" promised.
With breakfast finished I had the entire day to myself and decided to go back to my room and just read through all the books I purchased yesterday.
I rarely interacted with the kids at the orphanage anyway and I already informed the caretakers that I would study in my room for the rest of the summer holidays, so nobody bothered me.
I decided to start with the book about spell creation theory, it was the key to understanding how magic worked, rather than just learning how to use it.
Halfway into the first chapter however I realised that I spent more time looking up unknown concepts in my other books just to understand some of the things the book talked about, so I put it aside for now. Not even my Soul Talent could help me if I didn't even know the concepts the book talked about.
There was no point in forcing the issue so I decided to just go by the proper order.
To make sure I didn't miss anything during my previous years while my Soul Talent was not active, I decided to go back to the first and second year books, start from there and then go back up.
One would think that spending an entire day just reading school books would be boring , but I was actually having fun. I loved magic and everything related to it and despite it being school books I had as much fun reading them as I had reading novels in my past life.
While reading I made many annotations with insights that the previous me missed out on and ideas about how to apply that knowledge to other things.
I was also trying to figure out the inner workings of magic by comparing similarities in spells, but it was a very tedious process.
Magic factored the intention of the caster to some extent and the caster's intentions could twist a spell to almost unrecognizable degrees even if they all used the same chants and wand motions, making me reaffirm my belief that chants and wand motions were just crutches helping one to direct one's desire and intent into a spell.
It took me roughly 6 days to go over all my first year books and during that time I refreshed my missions constantly, but found nothing suitable.
They all either ranged from impossible without universal calibration to morally questionable and sometimes downright apocalyptic for the world one resided in.
An example for the last one would be calling down the classic 3 Endbringers from the Worm world to attack the world I was currently in.
In exchange I would get 500 credits immediately and 100 credits for each one I killed. That mission was firmly refused and I rerolled the missions to make sure I didn't accidentally click on it.
I flopped on the bed and stretched myself out with a satisfied groan. I just finished the first 2nd year book. It was actually transfiguration that benefited from my re-reading the most.
It was a rather complex magic that required a lot of theory.
There was very little one could not do with it, it was all about changing the shape or properties of one thing into another.
To be truly outstanding in transfiguration, one needed to be familiar with many details about material science and animal biology, at least the wizard's version of those fields of study.
The wand motions were also very important and had to be very precise but I suspected it was because of how precise one had to be in shaping magic, with enough skill in direct magic manipulation I suspected one could still forgo the wand motions entirely. With the trace still in place I had no way of confirming my theories unfortunately.
The first two years were all about learning how to turn living and non living things into something else, mainly focused on animals and household objects.
Other years would eventually go into Conjuring and Banishing too but I restrained myself from reading ahead and focused on deepening my foundations.
I didn't think I could actively use transfiguration in combat without extensive practice yet , but it certainly had a lot of potential.
The wizard's understanding of "muggle" science was quite lacking too and I began to wonder if a deeper understanding of nonmagical sciences could help with transfiguration.
Alchemy was also a very interesting field that I unfortunately had no access to for now, I could only speculate about how it worked.
I was actually quite tempted to just get the alchemy skill from "Full Metal Alchemist", but my options were somewhat limited.
There were 3 ways of getting skills from other worlds without reincarnating there.
One costs 20 credits at the beginning, but the price doubled with every use.
The benefit of that option was that it was capable of completely copying the skillset of a single character, it always started at Tier 4 but it came with knowledge on how to develop yourself to reach your full potential with that skillset.
The second option was to completely copy a character at the peak of their power, with all their iconic gear and knowledge.
I could only copy a single character this way at a time and the cost depended on the character's tier, minus my own base tier.
My own base tier however was 1 because the calculation did not factor in any additional powers bought from the Company Store. My current tier 4 status was entirely based on the "Added Potential - Wizard" and my 2 years of education in using that potential.
So If I decided to use this option, I would have to pay the full price, minus one, because a Tier 1 was only worth a single credit.
The price was not the only issue however. I would also lose all of my own skills, which was 2 years of education at Hogwarts. It was slightly unfair because while those skills would not be factored into the price reduction, they would still be lost.
That option was called "Power Swap" for a reason and it replaced old powers and skills with new ones.
Thankfully I would still keep my potential to use magic, because it was not an inherent ability to myself or my origin, but purchased through the company. I would just have to learn how to use it all over again.
With soul talent and all of the necessary books I didn't see much issue with it, but there was one last downside to this and it was the transition period.
If I had used this before reincarnating into this body, I would have gotten the powers from the beginning, but afterwards I'd have a one week delay during which I'd neither have my old nor my new powers and would be entirely powerless.
Thinking about it made me realise that the longer I put off using this option, the more I'd lose from using it, so maybe I should do it next, I had no need for powers at the moment, there were still 24 days of summer vacation left.
Also if I Power Swap with another magic practitioner from the Harry Potter world, I would gain more than I lost, because all characters I could swap to would be at the peak of their power, which meant they graduated from Hogwarts and maybe even were a professor at Hogwarts.
Or maybe…
I bolted upward from my bed and quickly grabbed my phone looking for a specific name.
Nicolas Flamel: Tier 5 , cost 20 credits.
My eyes widened and I checked my credit balance. Nicolas was just Tier 5 and would only cost 20 instead of the 50 for Tier 6. I had 16 credits now, that meant I still had 6 days before I'd be able to use that option but it would be the perfect choice within that price range.
Moreover I won't have the same frailty that Nicolas Flamel displayed in the Grindelwald movies, because I copy the powers, skills and knowledge and not their body.
Not only that, I would also gain a copy of his "gear" which in this case, was the philosopher's stone, his wand, his communication book and his divination crystal ball.
With only 6 days left to prepare I quickly started going through my 2nd year books and added more annotations to make re-learning the first and second year topics easier.
Nicolas Flamel went to Beauxbatons where he met his wife but that was in the early 1310s. Although I was certain that he knew some old generic spells, he might still be a little behind the times.
He did choose to die sometime this or next year after all and that meant he had no big interest in the world during this time, so I couldn't imagine him caring about some of the more modern spells and practices.
In the 6 days that followed my decision to use the Power Swap option on Nicolas Flamel I just barely managed to finish annotating all my 2nd year books despite working every free moment on it.
Even the caretakers started getting worried seeing me barely leaving my room but I assured them that everything was alright and I was just busy studying, which was true after all.
With everything prepared, including the 19 Credits, I confirmed the purchase of " Power Swap: Nicolas Flamel " as soon as the 2 credits were deposited at midnight and was down to a single Credit.
I barely noticed when my knowledge about spellcasting just wasn't there anymore.
I still remembered going to Hogwarts and everything that happened there, but I had no recollection of anything I learned during those 2 years or after reincarnating.
Picking up my first year books once again the next morning I started re-learning all the theoretical things from my first year, feeling like I've wasted my time slightly, but I knew it would be worth it once the Power Swap took effect in 7 days.
The following 6 days were rather bland and I was just glad to have gotten through it. It seemed like even my enthusiasm for magic had its limits and I was feeling like a kid who was counting the days to Christmas while doing chores all day.
On the bright side, 7 days would be up tomorrow and I would finally get what I was waiting for so anxiously.
Before that, I needed to make a purchase with the 4 credits I received in the meantime.
Pocket Space (Cost: 5)
You now possess a timeless extradimensional inventory space. This inventory may be accessed via an app on your smart device, Apportation, or certain Heritage perks. Transferring an item into the inventory via the app requires it to be in contact with you before transport. An item pulled from the inventory via the app will be deposited into your hand or within one meter of your position.
Your Inventory has a volume of 1m by 1m by 3m. Living beings may be stored within, but not any resisting or unwilling ones. Stamped or otherwise bound retinue members always count as willing and unresisting. Time does not pass within your Inventory, for good or ill.
Together with the 1 leftover credit from purchasing the Power Swap I had exactly enough for this purchase.
This would become necessary to hide the Philosopher's Stone that would arrive together with the powers as it would be directly deposited into the pocket space now.
While I did have the larger-on-the-inside suitcase, it was not secure enough for such an important and sought after object, not to mention I had no idea what else might be counted as Nicolas Flamel's "gear". I only remembered the crystal ball and book from the movies while the wand and stone were obvious.
With that purchase done, there was nothing else to do in preparation so I simply went to bed and fell asleep.
The changes were once again subtle but had a huge impact.
I went to bed with only theoretical knowledge about the first year books and woke up with centuries worth of knowledge and experience at alchemy and an old, almost primal form of magic.
Nicolas Flamel was no fighter, but he outlived each and every one of the dark lords throughout the centuries while in possession of one of the most valuable objects in history.
It was thanks to his skill in protective and concealing wards and his ability to see danger coming through divination.
Having lived for multiple centuries with magic he had a deep understanding of the various ways of using it and some conjectures about its inner workings.
Nicolas believed that the entire world, whether living or not, possessed a spiritual layer and witches and wizards were born with the skill to communicate with that spiritual part of reality to change it to their desire, albeit temporarily in most cases.
This belief led to the creation of the Philosopher's stone, the stone was made by condensing those metaphysical concepts of spiritual possibility and change into a physical form, the prima materia, a substance that can be anything, a physical manifestation of possibility.
The creation of the stone had a rather high price too unfortunately. It bound half of the creator's magic reserves into the stone permanently because it was required to link part of oneself to the stone to be able to make deep reaching and permanent alterations to reality through it.
Nicolas speculated that there were other ways to make the stone, but few to none of the theoretical alternatives were morally acceptable to him so in the end he chose to sacrifice half of his magic.
To me it sounded like a watered down version of the reality stone from marvel, although the color reminded me a lot of the Scarlet Witch's chaos magic which was also capable of altering reality.
Thankfully my magic reserves remained whole despite receiving the stone and having it tuned to my own magic power, which allowed me to use it for alchemy at its full potential. The stone was provided by the company as part of the purchase after all and I did not create it myself so I didn't have to pay the price of its creation.
Despite going to sleep early and waking up just shortly after midnight, the night passed in what felt like just a few minutes as I was sitting on my bed and contemplating all the revelations about magic and all the possibilities it opened for me.
Nicolas's spellcasting was rather unstructured, he was most adept in nonverbal spells and didn't require a wand for most of them. He knew how to use his magic to bring about the change in reality he desired, but he did so without using specific spells that had a structure like wand motions or chants.
The easiest way to describe it would be to say he learned to do accidental magic at will with the exact results he desired. Naturally it was more complex than that but that was the essence of it, although the tradeoff for that sort of versatility was the lacking power of each spell cast that way.
Being able to use magic wandlessly was one of the requirements for learning alchemy together with a high level of magic manipulation because you had to imbue your magic into the alchemy circles and direct its flow carefully over the entire circle. Wands focused magic to a point and it made controlling the entire circle impossible.
Wands were useful in casting powerful magic, but other than enchanting and making ward stones Nicolas rarely used his wand so he didn't bother learning most newly invented spells. He got by in his daily life with just general magic manipulation for every-day conveniences and focused completely on alchemy in his studies and research.
Before I could give any of my new skills a try however, I had to get rid of the trace that was still on me. It was rather trivial to do so now but it was still an interesting magic that I spent some time examining in detail.
It consisted of two components and was attached both to myself and my wand. The one on myself was detecting my location and the magic saturation within the area to determine whether I was in a magical place or in a non magical place.
The other sent an alert with my location and identity somewhere, presumably the ministry, if it detected magic being used within my vicinity while in a non magical place. It was slightly unfair because any magical person casting spells nearby would get me into trouble and I would have to explain that it was not me who did the spellcasting. I guessed that was one of the many downsides of being muggleborn.
I started with releasing my magic slowly into the surroundings without imbuing it with any intent or using my wand, creating an aura of passive magic that did nothing but mimicking the environment of magical homes, it strongly resembled a ward just without effects imbued into the magic.
Now the trace would think that I was in a magical area and it was safe for me to use magic, so I used this opportunity to alter the second part of the trace and rewrite the address of where the alert would be sent to if the trace detected magic use.
Now whoever was checking for the trace would find that it still existed and worked perfectly fine, but the alerts would all be rerouted to myself, leaving the ministry in the dark and only informing myself of my own magic use.
With that done, I considered what to try first. My first thought was to place various wards in my room, but there was really no need for that since I would be on my way to Hogwarts in 13 days and a proper ward scheme would take at least a week to set up.
Maybe a ward to alert me when someone was about to enter my room.
Or even better, a ward to make people who want to enter my room, reconsider and go somewhere else instead. The perfect shut-in ward.
Or both… yeah both sounded good and it would be enough for my purposes without consuming too much time.
Having determined a goal, I began casting the first ward. Unlike using spells on people or objects, I was slowly saturating the very space with a magical effect, the previously released magic could be repurposed for the first ward but it still took a while to finish.
Because it was not meant to be a permanent ward, I left out creating any anchors or wardstones and simply applied enough magic to last 2 weeks, after that time ran out the wards would dissipate on their own.
The process was both energy intensive and time consuming, so after the first ward was finished I headed down for a quick breakfast and finished the second ward afterwards once my magic recovered some.
While doing that I noticed that my magic reserves had grown slightly, but not by much unfortunately, because Nicolas didn't have that much to begin with due to his sacrifice during the creation of the stone.
Next on my agenda was figuring out ways to disguise and conceal myself. Many things I planned to do would put unwanted scrutiny on myself, so I couldn't do it openly.
Humming in thought, I went through my new mental library of magic, and it really was a mental library, because Nicolas was an accomplished user of the mind arts on top of it all.
Occlumency was a really useful tool to make sure memories and knowledge were well preserved, well defended and easily accessible, especially when they all piled up for centuries.
There were several ways to avoid people from recognizing me, the most effective would be a polyjuice potion. Making one was laughably easy for Nicolas, but it still took some ingredients to prepare.
The second option was human transfiguration, it was the most flexible option as changes can be made on the fly. It was Nicolas's favorite option when going out for an opera night with his wife, but it required a lot of skill and could be dangerous if you didn't know what you're doing.
Transfiguration was not permanent and wears off after some time, but severe mistakes and even small mistakes on vital body parts could be immediately fatal, so most people never transfigure themselves fully, but keep the changes superficial.
A metamorph magus has an innate ability to safely shapeshift, but without extensive training the possible changes are just cosmetic too.
It was a useful ability that I considered buying from the company soon, it would only cost 5 credits through " Added Potential - Metamorphmagus "
The last option was illusions, similar to the disillusionment charm.
The downside was that experienced people could sense the use of magic, even if they can't see through the illusions, they will know that there was active magic layered over someone.
Thinking about all these options I suddenly had an idea. I am an alchemist now after all, I can make an alchemical item for it.
Alchemical creations can be considered enchanted items, but they are altered at their fundamental level, not simply saturated with a magical effect that would wear off eventually.
I had a design idea already but I'll have to get a lot of ingredients. If this idea works however, I'll have the perfect disguise tool that would be re-usable.
It would also serve as a proof of concept, and if it worked it would open up so many options.
I wasn't sure why Nicolas never thought about this possibility, maybe my Soul Talent was helping out again, but I didn't want to start questioning my every choice and wondering if it was really my own, that way led to insanity.
I felt excited about the prospects, but it would require some experimentation. And resources. Which means I'll have to pay Diagon Alley another visit and I was suddenly thankful for not wasting my money on enchanted robes.
After having lunch at the orphanage I went to my room, cast a quick silencing spell and transfigured myself to look like a plain 40 year old man with a carefully trimmed beard in an old fashioned robe.
Thanks to gaining the knowledge of Nicolas, I was able to confirm that transfiguration didn't necessarily need precise wand movements, instead it needed precise control over magic as I speculated. Because most wizards only know how to control their magic through a wand, they have that sort of misconception.
Using a wand still had its benefits though, because transfigurations done through a wand would be harder to undo for enemies and the duration of the transfiguration would be longer too.
After putting my new skills to a test and finishing transfiguring myself I directly apparated to a side street of Diagon Alley with the silencing spell preventing the orphanage from hearing the popping noise of displaced air.
So far every use of magic had come naturally and I truly felt like I have been doing it for centuries, not feeling even the slightest bit of discomfort or hesitation.
That's why despite enjoying the ride on the knight bus the other day, I used apparition as it was very convenient and Nicolas knew perfectly well how to perform it. The dangers of it only lied in the learning and mastering steps rather than general usage.
As usual I directly walked to my destinations while mostly ignoring the world around me. I noticed a few familiar faces here and there from school as people started getting ready for another year at Hogwarts, but I was in disguise and not interested in conversation.
The first couple of potion shops I visited neither sold Polyjuice potion directly nor had any of the ingredients for sale, citing that polyjuice potion was only sold to Aurors.
After confirming the same thing in a few other shops I decided to continue my shopping somewhere else.
I directly and confidently walked into Knockturn Alley, ignoring the regular shops in Diagon Alley as they were unlikely to sell what I needed either.
The Knockturn Alley barely had any people on the streets, and it was as dark and dirty as the movies showed despite it being the middle of the day.
There were likely some wards set over the streets to allow vampires to shop here without worrying about the sun or maybe just to make it easier to evade notice.
To be honest, for all the talk about vampires in Harry Potter, not a single one ever made any sort of appearance in official media other than a mobile game, so I was a little skeptical about their existence.
Finding a shop selling potions and potion ingredients was harder than imagined. Most shops in Knockturn Alley had dirty and darkened windows and had no wares on display.
Borgin and Burkes was one of the few exceptions, but that was likely because of the connections the shop owner had.
I imagined that if asked about illegal items, every shop would deny having any unless you had someone who could vouch for you too.
There were not that many shops in Knockturn Alley however and soon I found the right one for what I needed.
The door was made of massive dark wood with Ivy carvings that moved in the wind as if real, and I felt the magic in them to be a protective ward that would trigger when someone tried to unlock the door with magic. It would strangle and poison the would-be thief.
The door handle was actually a failsafe of the first ward, it was enchanted to only activate if the ward on the door was removed forcefully and would explode with poisonous thorns as soon as the ward failed.
I nodded in approval, it was quite an impressive and sinister setup.
When I entered I knew for sure that I was at the right place, I could smell the potion fumes from the backrooms and the shop itself was filled with all sorts of ingredients for potions and poisons.
I already spotted a few that I would need for the polyjuice potion and a few others that I'd like to experiment with. But there was nothing obviously illegal on display, not that I needed anything explicitly illegal anyway.
"What do you want?"
A witch with black, shoulder length hair and a cold and suspicious look came out of the backrooms after a brief time of waiting. She was roughly 170cm tall and looked around 30 years old , wearing a dark but expertly made robe that hid most of her figure.
She was actually beautiful despite having eye rings and slightly sunken cheeks. I was expecting an old ugly hag with warts and a hunchback when I entered the shop, not a slender, noble looking lady.
Noticing that I was staring I quickly got to business before I annoyed her and got thrown out of the shop.
"I'd like 3 vials of dragon blood, do you have the blood of specific dragons?"
I asked with a faint french accent. Languages were also considered a skill and I got Nicolas's French and English skills. His english had a french accent that I was able to mimic.
"We have Common Welch Green and Hibridean Black, if you want it from other breeds we can have them imported within a week, or 3 days for a premium."
I didn't need specific blood for alchemy but dragon blood was the most potent and would reduce the difficulty of controlling complex circles.
It was something that Dumbledore came up with actually, before that Nicolas was simply using his own blood. It was something I could fall back to if I ever ran out of dragon blood.
It wasn't strictly necessary either, small alterations in shape could be accomplished without drawing alchemy circles for someone of Nicolas's skill, and combining potionology and alchemy would lower the requirement for the complexity of the alchemical circles too, which was why most alchemists were very skilled at potions too.
Snapping myself out of my reminiscing I ordered some blood and got to the main reason for my visit.
"One vial of Welch Green and two of Hibridean Black then. Also two sets of polyjuice potion ingredients please. Do you sell ready made polyjuice potions?"
"We only sell polyjuice on order and without primer, you have to order 2 months in advance."
The witch replied while packing up the ingredients and removing the anti theft enchantments.
That was much better than the other shops but I couldn't wait that long, I guess I'll have to do it myself. Thankfully alchemy could circumvent many of the time consuming steps and improve the effectiveness of the potion my times over.
"Is it possible to order Ukrainian Ironbelly bones and a complete dragon heart of any dragon?"
I asked again, this time for another project I had in mind.
"The dragon hearts are very hard to come by. They are reserved by wand crafters before the dragons are even born. The bones might be possible, I can ask about it but I can't give a guarantee."
I took out two Sickle coins, one in each hand and linked them with magic to make them reflect the changes made on one another. I remembered this trick from the movies and it would be a simple and easy way for communication even if this enchantment wouldn't last very long.
I handed over one of the coins to the witch who looked at it with an unreadable expression, likely using Occlumency to hide her reaction for some reason.
"I'd like to order some dragon bones in that case, I would prefer Ukrainian Ironbelly but if that is not available I'll take any other type too. It doesn't really matter if it is unprocessed bone or bone powder either." I said before pointing at the coin in the witch's hand.
"You can just change the coin I gave you to be completely flat on one side if you manage to get the bones within 7 days, in which case I'll come and buy them on the 7th day. I'm leaving London at the end of the month however, so only order them for me if you are sure they can be delivered in that time frame."
"Understood, Sir."
The witch said with a respectful tone, but her expressions were still unreadable.
I handed over the money for my purchases and tapped the box with a finger while tapping on the storage app on my phone with the other hand, making it vanish into my pocket space. The witch continued looking at me the entire time with her blank expression, making me wonder if I committed some kind of faux pas with that coin or storage.
"Uh, is everything alright? I'm not familiar with the customs here in London, so if I offended you somehow I apologize." I decided to just ask directly.
She dropped the Occlumency slightly and gave me a tired smile.
"Everything is fine, you did nothing wrong."
The first part didn't sound very convincing but the second part seemed genuine enough, and she didn't give me the impression that she wanted to talk about it so I decided to drop the matter.
"All right then, have a nice day, hope to see you again in 7 days." I told her as I left the shop to which she just nodded, Occlumency back in place.
Putting the odd shopkeeper out of my mind I apparated back into my room as soon as I left the shop and entered a side alley, not worried about the noise as the silencing charm would be active for at least another 2 hours.
I sat down at my desk and took a look at the items inside my pocket space for the first time.
I had only briefly glanced at the list to make sure the philosopher's stone was there but didn't pay much attention to the other items that came along with it when I received them this morning.
There was a crystal ball , a book with a dark moon on its cover, a wand and a red, slightly glowing stone.
The crystal ball was likely Nicolas's favorite divination method and I took it out first. It looked rather ordinary, like every other crystal ball in the divination shops at Diagon Alley but I knew Nicolas had used alchemy to make perfectly clear and round quartz, which worked much better than ordinary crystal glass.
I placed the crystal ball that came with its golden stand on my desk and pushed some of my magic through my hand into it, trying to see the next dangerous moment for me.
The milky white swirling clouds in the crystal ball parted and I saw myself walking through the forbidden forest while looking for something when I saw an absolutely gigantic spider above me patiently waiting for me to walk underneath it. Somehow I managed to react when it dropped down from above but my Protego shattered from its weight alone and I was pierced by one of its legs and subsequently eaten.
"Okay note to self, Creature Defense does NOT work on Aragog or whatever the heck that was." I murmur while the scene repeats itself.
I waved my hand over the crystal ball again, this time asking to see the best moment to make a fortune.
Once again I was in the forbidden forest wearing a dark cloak and a black featureless mask. I was under a disillusionment charm or something similar, maybe an improved version because I could move at normal speed without the spell having any trouble hiding me.
I was passing Harry and Draco as they walked through the forest, walking ahead of them to where they were heading and I found a figure in a dark cloak leaning over a dying unicorn and drinking its blood.
I sent a powerful stunner at the figure, making it slump over the unicorn. Walking up to the hooded person whom I knew to be the possessed Quirrel I pushed my stamp on their hand and fed the unicorn a potion that made the wound on its neck close up, pushing my stamp on the unicorn's flank in the process too.
With that done I walked away before casting a Renervate spell at Quirrelmort, hurrying away as they regained consciousness just as Harry and Draco walked around a tree and saw the figure slumped over the unicorn starting to stir and take notice of their presence. The rest played out exactly as in the movie, with the centaur driving off Quirrelmort. With the exception that the unicorn survived this time and I made a big profit in credits.
"Yeah makes sense, it will likely be the only time I can stamp Quirrel without Snakeface interfering, he is incredibly weak at that moment, even a simple centaur was enough to drive them off." I say quietly to myself.
Having my curiosity for divination satisfied I was about to touch the orb to bring it back into the pocket space but it activated on its own this time, showing me another scene.
I saw the Knockturn Alley on a winter night before the scene moved to a familiar building, the potions and ingredients shop I just visited.
Instead of the main area the scene moved to a window of the upper floor, showing a bedroom.
The witch from earlier was lying on a bed in just her underwear and I was about to cancel the vision before I noticed that she was clutching her stomach with one hand and writhing in pain while drinking some sort of potion. The potion didn't seem to work however.
Black tendrils of magic were creeping slowly across her belly, leaving withered and mummified looking flesh and skin. Most of her lower body was already consumed and the curse was spreading upwards while her struggles grew weaker until she stopped moving completely.
The scene began repeating, but I sent the crystal ball into the pocket space, not wanting to watch that again.
I guessed that was why it sounded so fake when she said everything was alright, it obviously wasn't. Unfortunately even with all of Nicolas Flamel's knowledge I had no idea how to remove such a curse.
I considered whether I could and should buy a new power to heal her, but the ones that could be immediately useful would be outside of my budget or too slow to develop to a level where it could help before winter.
That left me with two possible options that she certainly wouldn't be happy with but I guess I could at least ask. Since I had the ability to help her and the crystal ball showed me that vision I could at least give it a try. The crystal ball rarely activated on its own and usually the events it showed when it did were of critical importance to Nicholas, like the time where Grindelwald nearly destroyed Paris.
For now I would focus on my own issues. I will pay her shop another visit before leaving for Hogwarts on my own if she doesn't contact me with the coin.
A book with a dark moon appeared in my hand as I continued checking out the items I got from the Power Swap.
It was a more personalized version of the Phoenix book that Nicholas used in the Grindelwald movies, with my own symbol on its cover and after flipping through it I noticed that it was completely blank.
I had some knowledge about its use in my mental library, but I would need a picture of someone to be placed in one of the pages for it to work. Or I could cut out one of the pages and give them away. They would work the same way as the coin I made today, but without time restriction.
Moving on to the next item, I put the book away again and took out the wand.
It was a smooth and unadorned wand with parts of the horned serpent's horn that was used as a core sticking out from the handle.
The main body was made of walnut and served Nicolas wonderfully when he needed it. Which he rarely did, but he was a researcher and crafter after all, not a fighter.
Having a second wand will surely come in handy sometime, but It was not better or worse than my own wand. It only offered me the option to hide the use of certain spells since there was a way to check a wand for previously used spells.
The only object I did not take out for inspection was the philosopher's stone and I would keep it that way without heavily reinforcing the wards around my place of residence first.
Taking out the stone while Voldemort was actively looking for it was just asking for trouble, there were many ways to locate a specific item, even if he is not known for being adept at divination it is too risky.
With that out of the way, it was time to get to work on potions and try out some alchemy.