(Arcane Tinker) Chapter 21: Connective Disturbance

AN: Like the other AT chapters so far, this isn’t part of the weekly schedule. Tomorrow will be an AWM (EM Vol. 2) chapter, like you guys chose in the last poll.

Chapter 21: Connective Disturbance

16th September 1991, Hogwarts

It made sense, and for the first time, Dean had proper guidance towards learning what it meant to be an Enchanter. When he left the room an hour later, he still had a wide smile on his face that nothing could shake off.

It had been a week since he first set foot in the Room of Requirements, and it had already proved its worth dramatically. He had practically swallowed the books it had provided to him for his Enchanting, and it was already paying its dividends.

He still didn’t manage to actually enchant something from scratch, but he did learn how to use enchanted objects in ways that only enchanters could, essentially using channelling to gain a few controls, and even alter the enchantments on the fly. He’d tried it with his ring, and now, instead of only creating fireballs, he could heat up objects, and even animate the fire to a lesser degree, which actually let a lot of people think that he was an even more powerful pyromancer, and kept the illusion running for a bit more.

The room was a wonderful piece of magic, one that he decided not to share with anyone. As much as he liked his friends, he wanted his own quiet place where no one would bother him every once in a while. He tried to explore the room’s functionality a bit, and it was slightly different from what he expected. It would not open when he tried to use it to get some practice before flying lessons. It also refused to give him any books from the restricted sections or give him a potion lab. However, it gladly gave him a small workshop where he could paint, while also giving him wonderful views to practice on.

It was very strange, to say the least.

If he had to guess, it had something to do with need. The room only gave him something that he really needed, not whatever he wanted. Dean needed to master his enchanting quickly, and he needed to paint when he was sad, but he didn’t need books from the restricted section or really fly, despite not wanting to embarrass himself in front of his classmates. It was more of a whim than a requirement.

He also had no idea how it worked. Was the room an elaborate illusion, or did it use some kind of conjuration? He already knew that he couldn’t take anything out of the room. The door simply refused to open, so if he had to guess, whatever it was doing was only possible inside the room. Then again, that didn’t mean anything; he’d barely been in Hogwarts for a couple of weeks.

Still, the Room of Requirements helped him far more than his desperate trips to the library, doing his best not to get spotted as an Enchanter through his reading list. The stress of people knowing was starting to grate on him, and the room was the only place that he felt he could relax in peace.

It also held the potential of helping him finance his career as an Enchanter, too. The Room of Hidden Things had to have some impressive stuff, even if he didn’t dare try to explore it. He only knew that it was possible, since the room had opened once just as an experiment, but he didn’t get in, just stared at the mountain of lost and forgotten crap that the students had left there over centuries, before closing the door.

After all, there was a chance that people would curse whatever they had thrown, and intelligent as Dean might be, he wasn’t arrogant enough to think that he could surpass former students with years of magical experience after just a couple of weeks, let alone any potential relic some Dark Lord left there.

He put it completely out of his mind. He hadn’t really faced the problem of funding yet. He needed to focus on actually enchanting something, like he had his mother’s painting. He tried replicating it, but none of the other paintings came to life either.

Still, he was making progress and everything settled into a routine. He would study after classes and finish his homework, and spend a few in the weekend early every morning after breakfast in the Room of Requirements, focusing on his Enchanting, and if it’s possible to be discreet, try to work on it whenever he was free later.

Which was why Dean sat in his Transfiguration Class snapping his finger under the table, making a very small flame appear above his index finger. He really had gotten confident in modifying enchantments on the fly. He’d go to the room later that night to see where to go from there.

Of course, that was when Professor McGonagall entered the class, and they were finally allowed to actually try to transfigure something. In this case, it was to change a matchstick into a needle.

It wasn’t exactly that hard, if Dean was honest. He managed to do it after ten minutes, after practising a precise wand movement and speaking the incantation. And just like that, there was a small metallic needle where his matchstick once lay.

He still struggled to understand how this worked, how a piece of complex magic was boiled down to a few waves of a wand and some butchered Latin. Dean set down his wand and opened his textbook, hoping that he’d find something useful in there. What met him was just an application of the base material transfiguration formula, with measurements involving the matchstick and desired needle, which weren’t really explained, and then proclaiming that it somehow resulted in certain required wand movements and syllables, with certain necessary Latin word roots, as per the Merlinean Magical System.

The best he understood from any of this was that the reason why Latin was butchered was because they did it to fit some kind of weird syllable count that matched the wand movements for some reason.

Still, that was always the explanation, things being required by the Merlinean System, and Dean had no idea how the damn things worked. His only lead was that it had something to do with Arithmancy, but he didn’t exactly have the time to study that. With the endless horde of homework and his focus on his Enchanting, his free time was very limited, to say the least.

Still, there was bound to be some kind of pattern in this stuff, a way where everything made sense.

His thoughts were interrupted by Harry elbowing him harshly, “Aren’t you going to try, mate?”

Dean raised an eyebrow and just closed the book down, making the other boy see the perfect needle that it was hiding before. He whispered again, “You… You did it?”

“Yes. It’s not that hard.”

The other boy looked at his pointy-looking matchstick and grumbled, “It’s pretty bloody hard.”

He returned the transfiguration and tried again, with the same result. Dean noticed that he messed up a part of the wand movements, which was supposed to twist clockwise, and Harry was doing the other way around, “Try turning your wand the other way in the fourth movement.”

The boy hesitated slightly before letting out a loud sigh, “Fine. Let’s try it your way.”

Dean watched as his friend focused and followed his advice, making the matchstick metallic and pointy, even if it wasn’t exactly a perfect needle. His eyes widened, “Thanks, mate. How did you know?”

“You just have to follow the instructions exactly as they say them. I’ve been drawing most of my life, so I know how to keep my hand steady, and I did what it said. Now, practice a few times and focus on the timing, and you should be able to get it before class.”

He grinned back, but that smile disappeared as they noticed a shadow looming above them. Dean gulped at the sight of Minerva McGonagall, who stared at what became of their matchsticks with a neutral expression. Without even waving her wand, their eyes widened as they saw their matchsticks go back to normal, and the woman gave them an expectant look.

Dean took a deep breath and turned it back into a perfect needle. Harry followed suit, his attempt slightly better than the previous one, probably because he was nervous, and he looked up at the professor with a weak smile, “Ten points for you, Mr. Potter. An impressive effort, but you need more practice. Oh, and twenty points for you, Mr. Thomas. Well done.”

And just like that, she turned and went to speak with a blonde Hufflepuff, making them slump in relief. Holy hell, that woman was intense. She was perfectly kind and agreeable in their meeting the previous week. Did she have some kind of personality disorder or something?

Of course, that intermission resulted in most of the classroom staring at them, which came with the realisation that none of them were able to perform the transfiguration. Most notably, Neville Longbottom and Ron Weasley were glaring at him heatedly, and Dean knew instinctively that this wouldn’t end well.

Dean was proven correct as the moment the class ended, He and Harry found themselves cornered by the two boys, as well as Seamus, who didn’t seem as angry as they were, but followed them anyway.

“What’s your problem?” Ron asked, arms crossed, clearly doing his best to look intimidating. “You think you’re better than us or something?”

Dean blinked. “What?”

“How did you do that?” Neville asked calmly, which was completely negated by the way he was clenching his hands.

“I just followed the instructions on the board. I don’t know what the confusion here was,” he replied while tilting his head.

“We all did that. How did you and Potter do it before us?”

Dean rolled his eyes, starting to get annoyed, “Look, I waved my wand like it said, while saying the words on the board, and the matchstick turned into a needle. What else can I tell you?”

“Then how did you help Potter? You taught him a secret shortcut, huh?” the redhead exclaimed.

This time, Harry jumped to his defence, “He noticed that I did one of the wand movements wrong and told me. Then it came out better. I don’t know what you think happened, but that was it.”

Ron looked like he wanted to argue more, but Neville huffed, “This isn’t over. I’ll be the best wizard in our year.”

Then he just left, his two friends following after this, “Well, that was weird.”

Harry shook his head, “This is pretty bad. I think Neville is planning on challenging you if you keep that up.”

“He’s planning on doing what exactly?”

“Sometimes I forget that you’re a Muggleborn,” the green-eyed boy replied, “Generally, people pay attention to Hogwarts students. Normally, it’s a good thing. You can get noticed and even offered internships during the summer, which is a bit rare but great in the future. They don’t exactly follow classes but instead watch the duelling matches at the end of each term. We call them the Challenge games. You can challenge anyone in the school to a match, and you fight them out with whatever you want, wand magic, individual magic, anything, really. I think I heard someone forfeiting and crying because he fought against Clairvoyant, who told his secret in front of the whole school and a lot of visitors from outside the castle, too.”

“And you think that Neville will challenge me? Wouldn’t he just challenge Malfoy?” Dean replied after digesting this information. He had no idea that something like that was a thing. There weren’t any announcements or sign-up sheets. Hell, they weren’t even allowed to join any club until the next semester, but somehow, they were allowed to challenge other students in public.

“That’s what everyone thinks, but if people start to think that you’re better at magic than they are, he will challenge you to get back on top. And I don’t think your ring will be able to help you much in a proper fight, not in front of the whole school. He’ll probably also challenge Malfoy because of their feud, but you’ll be on the list too.”

Dean paled at Harry’s concerns. He was right. He didn’t think of that. His ring gave him a lot of flexibility when it came to fire manipulation, but it lacked the raw power of a proper pyromancer. He had gotten past the ring’s flexibility, but raw power was different. He couldn’t exactly risk showing anyone that he was an enchanter, or that his ‘Pyromancy’ wasn’t very strong. He’d end up being attacked in seconds.

He hummed, “And I can’t refuse.”

“You can, but it won’t look good, and people definitely won’t like it. You can expect more people to challenge you, at the very least, and a lot of attention. I don’t think anyone refused a challenge recently, but I can ask my parents.”

Damn, that really pushed him into a corner, “Do you mind if you go back to the common room alone. I need time to think about this.”

Harry nodded and gave him an understanding look. He was a nice friend. Dean would make it up to him, somehow. Maybe give him an enchanted item if he ever figures out how to make them. Still, he was in a conundrum, and he found himself walking towards the seventh floor without even meaning to. Yes, the Room of Requirements could help, or at least give him a good place to relax and think.

Of course, it would have been very simple if that were all there was to it. What he didn’t expect to see was a bunch of upper years seemingly hexing a small girl wearing Slytherin colours. Well, it wasn’t exactly shocking. No, what was really shocking was the familiar face of one of the attackers, specifically that of his friend, Jacob McKinnon.

AN: Like I said above, this isn’t part of the weekly schedule. Tomorrow will be an AWM (EM Vol. 2) chapter, like you guys chose in the last poll.

As for this chapter, the plot is moving on a bit, and I hope you like the direction it is taking. As usual, I don’t mind rewriting this depending on your feedback, so please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.