Self Made [Harry Potter fanfic]

“This should work, why doesn't it?... I am an idiot! Such a basic mistake. So move this value over here, recalculate the equation, subtract the stabilizer…” I continued mumbling as I kept working on the formula that had been my main focus for the last year. We celebrated Draco’s and mine birthdays a week ago. It won’t be long until we receive our Hogwarts invitations. 

 

Going back to my work I have been modifying this formula with some success for the last year. Now, what is this formula about? It is the stabilization index for my glyphs carved in magical flesh. I am proud to say that I am very close to figuring it out. There are still some kinks here and there that I need to work out. Of course I haven’t been testing the formula by actually carving the things. That would be stupid on so many levels. Instead I have been using paper inscribed to replicate the actual thing. 

 

Through these studies I have found something rather interesting. Magic as the wizarding world knows it is very weak against vitality in certain situations. The best way I have to explain it is through an example. Imagine you have a piece of wood you need to carve into, I don’t know, a statue. In this example magic is a carving knife and vitality is a spoon. You could make the statue with either but it would be way easier with the knife than with the spoon. 

 

Continuing with the example, now imagine you need to eat a bowl of soup. Using a knife to do so would be awfully inefficient and slow while a spoon would make the task laughably easy. In the same way magic has a harder time performing certain actions like healing. 

 

Now, I know what you might say, magic can heal and is very effective but you aren’t seeing the whole picture here. Magical healing simply rouses the vitality of the body into performing the healing. It is because of this that someone malnourished and fible could die from magical healing. Potions work in the same way with the added benefit of providing nourishment for the body. 

 

What does this have to do with anything? Well, it just so happens that magic and vitality don’t get along and are corrosive, for a lack of a better word, against each other. To put it in simpler terms imagine magic as an acid and vitality as a base, mix them together and they will cancel each other out as long as there isn’t something stabilizing them. 

 

Wands and magical instruments, ment to conduct magic are enchanted using magic to do exactly that. My magic is tainted with bits of my vitality making it corrosive towards these enchantments. There is a saving grace however, as long as the wand doesn’t actively help me, in turn absorbing more of my magic within themselves, the damage is minimal. Most wands come enchanted with minor self repair charms being able to fix small scratches and so which is enough to fix the damage.

 

With this in mind I very much doubt any conventional wand will ever be safe in my hands. I will still visit Ollivander when the time comes for the ever so tiny chance that he might have something that fits. That and to visit the shop any Harry Potter fan worth their salt would die to visit. 

 

Talking about wands, the piece of bloodwood I have been treating has become a rather interesting study piece. Somehow the wood appropriated the vitality that had been in my blood become a sort of undead wood that hungers for the energy. It has developed small roots and branches with rather interestingly colored leaves, crimson and black for anybody curious. 

 

I have been very much tempted to plant the thing to see what would come from the action. However, I have decided against it as I believe the wood will find better use in a wand for myself. Not only that but something tells me it will die without a source of blood for its nourishment. 

 

Seeing as I already have the wood for my possible future wand and the rather large possibility no normal wand will ever let me wield it I have taken it upon myself the task of making a wand. A few problems arose almost instantly. For starters all books about veritology in our library talk about the basics of the basics. The most advanced thing I have found in them is the method of repairing slightly damaged wands, useful but not much.  

 

It is understandable however to not find any information on wand making. Wizards are known for protecting their crafting secrets fiercely. Seeing as our family is more on the business of potionearing and magical artifacts it is understandable the lack of information on wand making. 

 

I have had to pester mother and father on acquiring books with such knowledge which are not cheap. It took a lot of convincing and whining but in the end they relented after a week of constant pestering. In truth they wanted to test my conviction which was obvious to me. Not like it mattered, if I needed to act like a spoiled brat to acquire what I needed then so be it. Dignity won’t make me stronger and pride won’t protect me. 

 

Unfortunately for me the books despite being sold at a ridiculous price didn’t have any secret crafting method. They contained the minimum necessary to make a working wand and nothing else. Not unexpected though aggravating nonetheless. The books also held information on the necessary woodworking needed, the preparation of the most known cores used and information on the most commonly used woods. 

 

Seeing as I would need funds to work I decided to take drastic measures. Asking my parents for funds could only take me so far and it would alert them to my activities. I of course asked for some for appearances sake. If they find me working with expensive materials without having asked them for funds then succession could arise, something I much rather avoid. 

 

I am as of now still in the process of finding the best core for my wand. So far the most commonly used materials have been a disappointment. Unicorn hair despises me to the point of combusting in my hands. Dragon heartstring feels cold to the touch meaning the thing won’t submit to me without a liberal use of force. The less said about phoenix feather the better.    

 

Testing other materials had better results, disappointing results though better. So far the best result I had was by examining thestral hair and even then it felt incomplete. All of these materials have cost me a small fortune that I have acquired through the black market. Who knew black wizards would like my enchanted tags so much. Then again, by using a different kind of energy they are very resistant to magic. What I have been selling consists mostly of silencing wards for privacy. 

 

“Silver!” With a loud bang my brother dearest came crashing into my room with a wide smile on his face. I could already guess what this was about without even listening to what he had to say. However, before that I needed to discipline the little shit. I have told him more than once to knock on the door before entering. 

 

“Draco…” I will never admit to the sadistic you I felt seeing his smile vanishing as he became pale. He knew what was coming and he knew there was no escaping it. 

 

“I- uh- gotagobye ugk-” Before he could flee from the room I caught him by the neck of his robe. He knew trying to flee would only make things worse and yet he tried nonetheless. I had already given up hope when it came to having him be less of an idiot in contrast to his canonical counterpart. 

 

As he tried to get his robe off so he could flee I made a move. Putting an arm around his neck I locked his head in place. Turning my free hand into a fist I placed the appendage on top of his head. Then with the force of an angry sister I began giving him a noogie. 

 

“How many times do I have to tell you to knock before you come into my room!” 

 

“Then lock the door!” Draco was trying his best to stop me, his best wasn’t enough. 

 

“The last time I locked the door you slammed face first into it and broke your nose!” 

 

“That was years ago! I was eight!” We had this interaction at least once a month, the record I think without it was two months. Though it does bother me I don’t mind all that much. All of my research is encoded and I do lock the door when I am doing something I don’t want anyone to find out. After a few more seconds I decided to move the conversation along. 

 

“What was important enough for you to barrage in?” With his freedom back Draco got busy fixing his hair. I had made sure to mess it up as much as I could, it looked like a bird's nest once I was done. 

 

“Right! Our Hogwarts invitations just came in!” I suspected as much. Seeing as how they were currently at the start of july. This meant that my time was running out. Not really, things wouldn’t go down hill from the get go. What it did mean was that I would need to ramp up my experimenting. Finish whatever project I could this last month.  

 

“Alright, lead the way.” With that said I followed Draco to the living room where father and mother sat doing their own thing. Mother was bussing herself with painting her nails while father read the daily prophet. Both of them gave me and Draco a glance before going back to their respective tasks. 

 

On the coffee table a pair of letters sealed with red wax called to me and Draco. Taking mine I decided to examine the thing before opening it. Interestingly enough the paper used for the envelope is as mundane as could be. The wax seal on the other hand radiated magic. Inspecting the thing didn’t give much of a clue as to what the purpose of the magic could be. Not like it mattered, the signal was too wook to do anything useful. My best guess as to its purpose would be something to prove its authenticity. 

 

Not wasting any more time with the envelope I opened it carefully to keep the wax seal intact. Unfortunately the magic of the wax dispersed as soon as the envelope became unsealed, not like it mattered much. Taking the letter out I began reading. It was the exact same as the one you could find on the internet in my past life. Not bothering with it much I read the required material to see if anything changed there, nothing did. 

 

“Father, when are we going to buy the materials?” After asking the question I felt a bit dumb. Chances were my father had already sent someone to buy them long ago. If not he would do so later, no need to go in person, it was beneath him and us for that matter. 

 

“Tomorrow we will be going to diagon alley for your wands.” That simple answer told me that my speculation was right. Not like it mattered. As for pets I didn’t want one, or at least not one of the ones the school allows, Draco wasn’t fit to care for a pet either so no pets. That did remind me about the rat of the gingers. I wouldn’t go looking for the thing but in the occasion I ever got to see it I would make sure to torture it. If there was something I truly despise above all else was betrayal. 

 

Don’t get me wrong. There is a difference between earning someone’s trust with the purpose of betraying them from the start. That wasn’t betrayal, not in my opinion at least. No, betrayal was when you truly cared for the other only to backstab them for your own benefit. Pettigrew entered in the latter category.   

 

With plans for the next day I retired to my room. Looking back at the formula I had been working on I sighed. This formula wasn’t only for my problem with flesh carved glyphs. This formula was also necessary for anything that involved the usage of vitality and magic in tandem. In other words I would need this formula if I wanted to make a wand for myself. 

 

Looking again through the numbers I still felt a bit of pride from how far I have come in just a year with this. I have managed to reduce the conflict down by seventy two percent. I will consider the formula a success once that number reaches ninety five percent or higher. The main problem for the time being is finding the correct stabilization setup. 

 

Funnily enough magic as a whole is a really weird thing. Every living being has magic, even muggles. The difference is in the amount and control each one has over their magic. Muggles for example have a meager amount of magic, it is so small in fact that a simple lumos would knock them out due to magic exhaustion after ten or so seconds of use. 

 

I found this after experimenting a lot with the formula. Thanks to it I can use vitality to detect magic. Anyway, each being’s magic signature is unique, some are similar to others but none is identical to another. Not only that but magic isn’t static, though the signature remains the same in its most fundamental aspects there is a constant fluctuation in others that has been giving me a mighty headache. 

 

The fluctuations I am talking about are cause by a myriad of reasons from the health state of the subject to their emotional state. This makes it so the formula needs to account for an almost uncountable number of variables that need to be considered for the best outcome. To make matters worse, vitality behaves in the exact same manner. It has a unique signature, it fluctuates etc.  

 

Taking a deep breath to calm myself down I began thinking again. The main problem is the correlation between one and the other. I have not the foggiest as to how the thing in my back is as stable as it is. I have run the numbers and the passive loss of both magic and vitality is no more than a measly decimal of a percent of what it should be. 

 

Seeing the formula with its many variables accounted for made my head hurt. Seeing the constants I have used made the headache even worse. The constants were just replacements for variables really. After the years of studying my vitality and the year I have had for the study of my magic I have managed to find the most about them. With that information I reduced the numbers and formulas to a pair of constants that are only applicable to myself. 

 

“This part is wrong.” Sighing again I got to work fixing the parts I screwed up. I am only human and with the formula being so absurdly long and complex it is normal for me to mess up here and there. It is at times like this that I miss technology the most, having to run these absurdly complicated formulas by hand is a travesty. A simple excel sheet would have made my life so much easier. 

 

“My specialization is in biology but at this rate I am sure I will end up snapping and building the first bloody magicomputer.” With that unhappy grumble I got to work once again.