Morrin swept his gaze over the contents of the vault.
Roughly fifty thousand Galleons in liquid assets.
He rapidly estimated its value.
Not bad as start up capital, but in the world of serious business, this would barely buy two buildings in central London.
Harry filled a pouch with money, his face flushed with excitement.
“Right, Vault Seven Hundred and Thirteen next,” Griphook said, setting the cart in motion once more.
This time, the cart plunged deeper into the earth, into tunnels darker than before.
The air grew bitterly cold.
Eventually, they stopped before a small door with no visible keyhole.
“Stand back,” Griphook said gravely.
He extended one long finger and lightly traced it across the surface.
The door melted away before their eyes, revealing an otherwise empty stone chamber.
No gold.
No jewels.
Only a small parcel lying alone on the floor, wrapped in grubby brown paper.
The Philosopher’s Stone.
Hagrid stepped inside, bent down, picked up the parcel and stuffed it into an inner pocket of his coat.
“What is it?” Harry asked curiously.
“Don’t ask, Harry.
Top secret.” Hagrid patted the bulging pocket mysteriously.
Now.
Morrin’s eyes sharpened.
He pretended to lose his footing on the slippery ground and stumbled directly into Hagrid.
“Whoa!” Morrin cried out as his palm “accidentally” landed against Hagrid’s coat, directly over the hard parcel beneath the fabric.
“Careful, Morrin!” Hagrid hurriedly steadied him.
“Dark down here.” But within that fraction of a second of contact, Morrin’s system had already gone into overdrive.
━━━━━ EXTRACT ━━━━━ [Legendary-Grade Alchemical Item detected!] Item Name: Philosopher’s Stone Energy Level: 🟡 Gold (Mythic) ━━━ [Analysing Core Law…] [Evaluation in progress…] ━━━ [💥 Extraction failed] 🟡 Gold | Law of Immortality You must consume the Stone directly or possess it for an extended period.
━━━ [💥 Extraction failed] 🟡 Gold | Gold Transmutation Contact duration insufficient.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Morrin’s heart clenched.
Was he really going to walk away empty-handed?
Then— ━━━━━ EXTRACT ━━━━━ Pity Mechanism / Fate-Node Intervention triggered!
[Extraction successful] 🟡 Gold | Origin of Alchemy (Incomplete) acquired!
You have not gained the power to turn base metals into gold, but you have touched the fundamental truth of alchemy.
You now possess an understanding that reaches directly to the source of Matter Transmutation, Magical Enchantment, and Potion Synthesis.
This is more than mere technique.
It is a ‘Fragment of Authority.’ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ A cool yet indescribably profound sensation swept through Morrin’s mind.
The world before his eyes changed.
When he looked at the damp stone walls around him, he no longer saw merely stone.
Instead— Silicates.
Trace magical crystallisation.
Raw material convertible into low grade earth element matter.
So this is how an alchemist sees the world?
Morrin steadied himself and used the motion of straightening his clothes to conceal the wild delight in his eyes.
“My apologies, Mr Hagrid.
You were right, the footing down here is rather poor.” He looked up with a flawless smile.
“Now that you’ve collected your secret, shall we head back?
I still need to buy a wand.” “Course, course.” Hagrid remained completely oblivious to the fact that the Philosopher’s Stone tucked inside his coat had just been thoroughly exploited by the seemingly harmless little boy beside him.
On the cart ride back, Morrin stared at his palm.
Origin of Alchemy (Incomplete).
Even incomplete, it was Gold.
Gold!
With this alone, he already possessed the means to overwhelm the curriculum even as a first-year at Hogwarts.
Potions…
Professor Snape…
The image of a gloomy, black robed man surfaced in Morrin’s mind.
I suspect we’re going to have quite a lot to talk about.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ “Here we are.
Only place for it.” Hagrid stopped before a tiny, shabby looking shop.
The peeling gold lettering above the door read, OLLIVANDERS: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C.
A single wand rested on a faded purple cushion in the dusty window.
“Er…
Harry.
Morrin.” Hagrid remained outside rather than stepping through the doorway.
His enormous frame blocked half the shopfront, and an awkward, subdued expression appeared on his face.
“I think I’ll stay out here.
Place is a bit cramped, you know.
Wouldn’t want to knock anything over…
I’ll have an ice cream while I wait for you.
How’s that?” Harry nodded, assuming Hagrid was simply worried about fitting inside.
Morrin, however, stopped and gave Hagrid a long look.
His [Logical Mind Palace] immediately retrieved the relevant information from his memory.
Rubeus Hagrid.
Expelled from Hogwarts in his third year.
His wand snapped.
What remained of it had later been concealed inside that pink umbrella.
For a wizard, a wand shop was where the dream began.
For Hagrid, it was also a reminder of where his own had been shattered.
“All right, Mr Hagrid.” Morrin made no attempt to expose the clumsy excuse.
Instead, he said considerately, “I imagine all the dust in there might make you sneeze anyway.
Given your size, that could be catastrophic.” Hagrid gave Morrin a grateful look before turning towards an ice cream shop farther down the street.
“Come on, Harry.” Morrin pushed open the door.
“Let’s choose your weapon.” The shop was tiny.
Apart from a single bench, there was almost nothing in sight.
Thousands upon thousands of narrow boxes were stacked all the way to the ceiling, and a thick layer of dust coated nearly everything.
A mysterious, spine tingling stillness filled the air.
“Good afternoon.” The soft voice came so suddenly that Harry jumped.
An old man emerged from behind the shelves in the shadows.
He had enormous, pale eyes that gleamed like two moons in the dim shop.
Garrick Ollivander.
“H-hello,” Harry stammered.
“Ah, yes.
Yes, yes.
I wondered when I’d be seeing you, Harry Potter.” Ollivander’s pale eyes fixed upon him.
“Your eyes are like your mother’s…
It seems only yesterday she was in here herself, buying her first wand.
Ten and a quarter inches long.
Willow…” For the next several minutes, Morrin stood quietly to one side and watched the destined reunion unfold.
He was observing.
After acquiring [Origin of Alchemy], the shabby old wand shop had undergone a complete transformation in his eyes.
Countless motes of faint light drifted through the air.
The mountains of wand boxes were no longer filled with lifeless objects.
The wands were breathing.
Every single one radiated its own distinctive frequency.
Some burned with a temperament as fierce as fire.
Others were cold and deep as water.
Then, at last, the holly wand with its phoenix-feather core fell into Harry’s hand.
BOOM!
A burst of red gold light illuminated the entire shop.
“Curious…
very curious…” Ollivander murmured, beginning his tale of the strange connection between the two brother wands.
Harry clutched his wand, caught somewhere between excitement and fear.
“And now…
what about this gentleman?” With the Boy Who Lived settled, Ollivander finally turned.
His moon pale eyes came to rest on Morrin, who was leaning against the doorframe in the shadows.
The old wandmaker’s gaze sharpened slightly.
To his senses, the exquisitely dressed young boy contained two profoundly contradictory forces.
On one side was something heavy and violent, like the blood of an ancient beast stirring beneath his skin— [Half Giant Bloodline].
And on the other was a mind of extraordinary precision, rational to the point of coldness— [Logical Mind Palace] and [Origin of Alchemy].
“Mr White, is it?” Ollivander asked softly.
“What a…
rare customer.” His pale eyes lingered on Morrin.
“You have a remarkably…
weighty presence.” “You flatter me.” Morrin stepped forwards and extended his arm.
“I favour my right hand.” The measuring tape sprang into the air of its own accord and began darting frantically around him, measuring everything from the distance between his nostrils to the length of his little finger.
“Try this one.” Ollivander drew a wand box from the shelves.
“Beechwood and dragon heartstring.
Nine inches.
Nice and flexible.” CREATORS’ THOUGHTS Hidden_Quill Thank you so much for reading!