Over the next little while, maybe Dylan got a bit of inspiration from the Weasley twins' U-No-Poo. Honestly, who'd have thought there was even a smidge of the alchemy Fred had picked up in those sweets?
Dylan asked the twins where they'd learned about alchemy. See, alchemy is an elective at Hogwarts, but it's only open to students in their sixth year and above. Plus, it's not even offered every single year – you need enough students to sign up for them to run the class. By rights, the twins shouldn't know anything about alchemy, especially since they're not exactly keen on theoretical subjects.
But those two told him that their dad, Mr. Weasley, the head of the household, had mentioned it to them during the summer holidays. They'd incorporated this bit into their U-No-Poo, and they never expected it to be so successful!
Because of that, George and Fred actually got a bit of genuine interest in studying. They even turned around and asked Dylan to teach them alchemy!
However, Dylan was busy learning himself these days, trying to catch up on all sorts of knowledge he hadn't encountered yet and improving his own alchemy skills. He could only regretfully recommend the books he was reading to the twins. Since this was Hogwarts, they didn't need to pay to buy books anyway; they could just borrow them from the library. There was no need for Dylan to buy them another set of alchemy books.
Still, the fact that they managed to use alchemy in those U-No-Poo sweets showed Dylan that besides being really good at inventing weird and wonderful things, their talent for alchemy seemed pretty decent too.
"Maybe I can let them tag along when I'm researching alchemy," Dylan thought. He didn't mind helping the Weasley family have a better life. In this world, the whole 'Chosen One defeats the Dark Lord' thing is just too cliché. If Harry and his friends want to play that game, let them. Dylan would just focus all his energy on researching magic.
Beyond that, he could help a few more people and change their original life paths. Turning bad situations good, and good situations even better. That was way more interesting than joining Harry to play the 'beat up the Dark Lord' game. After all, he'd already beaten the Dark Lord down plenty of times himself. There was even a younger Voldemort currently chilling in his spatial pocket, getting used every now and then to refresh his spell refinement tasks.
"The four elemental transformations are the basis of alchemy: Earth, Water, Air, Fire – Cold, Hot, Dry, Wet." When it comes to alchemy, it's actually more akin to magic-infused chemistry than Potions. Or maybe it's that chemistry itself encompasses so many elements.
It took Dylan several days to get a systematic grasp of the basics of alchemy. Before, he'd only really dabbled. Now, he had a pretty solid framework in his mind. Because of this, Dylan hadn't even researched the Dementors or other experiments for a few days. He couldn't help it. Every day he was late in fully understanding the ultimate principle of the Time-Turner was another day he had to keep taking classes.
Fortunately, after Dylan systematically delved into alchemy recently, the achievement system lit up quite a few alchemy talents for him. Plus, Dylan discovered that after successfully summoning his Patronus, his Poro seemed to have enhanced his bloodline strength. Dylan clearly felt he had gained more perception and insight in the spiritual dimension. And alchemy, by its nature, is a combination of the material and the spiritual. So Dylan's progress in alchemy was relatively smooth.
Add to that the fact that he had chemistry as a subject in his previous life and was pretty good at it, getting the hang of alchemy wasn't difficult at all.
Honestly, to put it simply, without getting into high-level alchemy, and just distinguishing from the most basic level, the process of alchemy involves magical intervention and influence. But without magical intervention, if it's just the reaction between substances, undergoing a series of changes to ultimately form a new substance – that in itself is the realm of chemistry.
To give an example, the simplest would be the metalwork mastered by the goblins. The Sword of Gryffindor's raw material is the special silver created by goblins. Or the pure gold that Galleons rely on is the same principle. These materials aren't naturally occurring metal forms; they are special substances created through the alchemical technique of transformation. These artificial creations possess magical properties that surpass ordinary metals, and their very existence proves alchemy's ability to reconstruct the essence of matter.
Dylan had initially mastered the basic knowledge of alchemy, and if he wanted to delve deeper into this mysterious field, what he needed to study would be a more advanced and complex system of mysticism, covering symbolism, material properties, and metaphorical imagery.
Take mercury, for instance. This liquid metal carries multiple symbolic dimensions in alchemy. It resonates with feminine qualities and is also given the symbolic meaning of rational thought. At the same time, it represents the fluidity of form and the variability of essence, becoming a key element connecting material transformation and metaphor.
In fact, at this level, Dylan discovered that alchemy doesn't just affect the material plane. This art is actually linked to philosophy, or perhaps some kind of divinity!
So, it really is true... the end of science is indeed theology! No wonder in this world, the power of heart and love is everything.
Even without using material examples, just look at Harry and his two friends. Alchemy has a classic formula for transformation. And the qualities of the Harry trio just happen to correspond to this formula.
Hermione's erudition and rationality symbolise mercury. Ron's fiery courage – which is also recklessness, or impulsiveness... but can also be called bravery – corresponds to sulphur. Combining mercury and sulphur, these two elements will temper each other through long-term cooperation. The former uses rationality to precipitate impurities, while the latter uses enthusiasm to stimulate potential. This ultimately forges Harry, who corresponds to the "prima materia," into a core existence like the Philosopher's Stone.
This correspondence isn't a literal material synthesis; it's an imagery projection of spiritual transformation in alchemy. When rationality and courage achieve balance, the ordinary foundation, which is Harry, will be tempered through cooperation to produce transcendent power, forming a golden trio that achieves each other.
Of course, this is just a simple example. It doesn't mean that mercury and sulphur can literally fuse together and create some kind of substance. But the formula is there. How to apply and use it depends on a person's skill level in alchemy.
Based on his research into ancient runes and his now-mastered alchemy techniques, Dylan had initially deciphered the manufacturing principle of the Time-Turner. Although currently, he could only achieve a shallow fusion of runic power and alchemy – or rather, the very shallowest level – Dylan was already able to create ingenious objects.
One is a Portkey with identity anchoring. Dylan carved dual spells into the core of the object. Users he approved, including himself, would activate a stable spatial teleportation trajectory when touching the Portkey. The Portkey would take the user to the predetermined destination. However, if an unauthorized person triggered it, they would be directly thrown into the bottom of a desolate island lake filled with corpses and cockroaches.
Dylan felt that the spell "Return of the Undead," which created the corpse water that could evolve living beings into Yin entities, seemed to have some other uses. Dylan wasn't sure if wizards could Apparate within it – after all, he hadn't mastered that spell either. So, he could only research this later – but he could write it down in his little notebook for now.
If that were the case, then his desolate island out at sea, full of Dementors, would become a death domain that even wizards would find hard to escape! Anyone who dared touch his Portkey would be immediately sent into it!
However, achieving this also had very strict requirements. Namely, he needed to position his Portkey on his pet space suitcase. When the other party triggered the Portkey, he would need to open his suitcase. Only then, upon being directly teleported into his suitcase, would they fall into the dead water lake he had set up.
It was an alchemical ability that was somewhat useful but also seemed not terribly useful. Dylan needed to research it further and ideally break through this difficulty, striving to achieve the ability to directly return to the inside of the suitcase via the Portkey. That way, not only would other wizards who dared use his Portkey suffer consequences, but it would also be much more convenient for Dylan himself.
Dylan believed this wouldn't be difficult to solve. What was harder to achieve was how he could use this ability while the suitcase was in his inventory.
However, Dylan felt that achieving this through alchemy would likely be extremely difficult. It might be better to try and see if he could pay a few Galleons to get the suitcase itself to enable this function.
—"Frost and snow pressed on me for two or three years, closed my eyes and slept for a long time." If the level of alchemy required to achieve this was too difficult, Dylan didn't want to spend so much effort researching it. Sometimes, when something can be solved with money, don't waste time. Dylan wanted to work hard on things where he had a clear direction and could run towards them, not pointless effort that ended up achieving nothing. If that were the case, he might as well just lie flat.
After all, any day you didn't dance would likely be extremely comfortable.
Dylan believed that as long as he had money, getting the suitcase to open this function shouldn't be difficult. So he temporarily put the Portkey aside and instead researched something else – an Eternal Stillness Pocket Watch. That's what Dylan named it.
The face of this pocket watch was blank like a mirror. Only when magic was infused would flowing luminous hands appear, pointing to the current flowing time, and it would be accurate down to the second. If that were all, of course, it couldn't be called an alchemical creation. Its special feature was that every 10 seconds, it would reverse time, resetting the state of the watch to its initial state.
—Not just the time, but the watch itself could be reset. This time collapse mechanism didn't rely on ordinary Repairing Charms. Like the chessboard Professor McGonagall had set up back then, those chess pieces could restore themselves through repairing runes. But this watch was different.
—Dylan had taken a fragment of the magic rune for local time reversal from the Time-Turner. Even if it was ground into dust, the spells integrated into the metal molecules would reassemble at a subatomic level, allowing the watch to restore itself perfectly from chaos.
Dylan was quite satisfied with this result. Because to destroy the watch he had made, Dylan himself couldn't do it first and foremost. Secondly, he believed that neither Voldemort, old Dumbledore, nor old Dumbledore's old flame could destroy his Eternal Stillness Pocket Watch unless they used a more advanced Vanishing Spell to erase this creation that incorporated the laws of space and time. Otherwise, Dylan didn't think they could destroy his watch.
However, if a Vanishing Spell were used, his watch wouldn't be considered destroyed, merely vanished. As for the Vanishing Spell, that involved a different level of magical knowledge.
"This Time-Turner really is a treasure." He couldn't even understand the spatial-temporal runes on it. But simply by taking a fragment of the rune, even if he could only understand the most superficial knowledge, it was still enough to support him in creating something that couldn't be fundamentally destroyed.
Dylan had also tried moving the rune fragment related to time reversal onto other objects, but he had failed. It wasn't that his strength wasn't good enough – though honestly, it wasn't that great. But he had to admit that creating this kind of alchemical object related to the laws of time was inherently risky. Or rather, statistically speaking, researching this kind of alchemical creation was very likely to fail.
Secondly, the more complex and large an object was, the harder it was to be covered by this small rune. Making this kind of alchemical object wasn't just a matter of copying the rune and sticking it on. It required a deeper level of alchemy, where the entire object had to be integrated with the rune, even filled with this power.
"Time to go see old Dumbledore and record the runes on his Pensieve too."
After a full day of classes, Dylan stretched his neck. Just reading the basic knowledge of alchemy had taken up a lot of his time recently. This was also why he hadn't been able to go to old Dumbledore for more alchemy knowledge and techniques. However, if he didn't solidify his basic knowledge, even if he asked old Dumbledore about advanced alchemy, he would find it difficult to understand, let alone master. So Dylan wasn't in a hurry; instead, he chose to honestly strengthen his foundation during this time.
Walking with Neville towards the Great Hall, Dylan pushed open the carved wooden doors just as the evening bells were rolling down from the top of the spire. Looking around, hundreds of crystal lamps floating above the long tables cast a honey-coloured glow on the cream-coloured tablecloths. The steam rising from the soup bowls mingled with the starry sky projected on the ceiling, creating a hazy scene that looked like the setting sun had been crushed into the foam of Butterbeer – though of course, this was limited to the High Table.
Dylan sat down at the Gryffindor table. His backpack strap still smelled of the bitter wormwood from the Potions classroom. The silver plates gleamed, and the crispy skin of the roasted turkey on them made an inviting crackling sound. The chicken skin was roasted shiny with honey, and oil seeped along the knife cuts into the clearly fibrous white meat. When he forked a piece, it was still attached by translucent sinews, and the aroma of herbs wafted up.
Next to it, mashed potatoes were piled high, with a pat of butter melting into a stream of golden amber on top. As Dylan scooped it out with his spoon, micro-particles of fine salt shimmered in the rising steam. Green peas rolled like emerald pearls on the ceramic plate, each one coated in a creamy sauce. He deliberately used his fork to make the sauce stretch into threads, watching them tremble and fall into the small lake of meat juice.
After finishing his main course, the dessert plate automatically slid in front of him. Dylan used a piece of bread to wipe up the last drop of beef sauce stewed in dragon tequila wine – red wine in cooking wasn't on the list of things forbidden to young wizards. Picking up a berry tart, the flaky pastry edges were baked to a light golden crackle. Redcurrant jam in the cream filling looked like solidified twilight glow. The moment his fork pierced it, almond slivers scattered onto the tablecloth.
"Dessert is really good. I should pack some up for Coal and the others." Dogs can't eat chocolate, but I bet Shadow and the dragon would be fine with it, right? Dylan licked the molten chocolate lava from his fingertips. The warm cocoa scent spread from his tongue to the back of his neck, and even his sleeves were sticky with the sweet scent of icing sugar. Finally, he raised his goblet, and the bubbles of iced Pumpkin Juice burst on his tongue, washing away the astringent taste of raspberry seeds left between his teeth.
The plates automatically drifted away. Dylan looked out the window; dusk had already crept up the stained-glass windows of the Great Hall. He wiped his mouth with a napkin embroidered with a lion crest. A faint clinking sound came from the glass jar in his school robe pocket – he'd conveniently packed some Honeydukes toffees earlier. Buying them was quite expensive; swiping them didn't cost a single Knut.
"Time to go find old Dumbledore."