The next morning, Leon arose just as curfew ended and beelined it for Moaning Myrtles bathroom.
He wasn’t about to go down into the Chamber of Secrets himself.
He was just going to send the Mortys down with the Vivarium in tow to capture the Basilisk.
He could have done all this last year; he’d had the time to do it.
But he’d forgotten about it because he had assumed that he would already have the Diary by this time, making the urgency of removing the Basilisk from the Chamber go down to nill.
In the books it had taken until Halloween for the Diary to possess Ginny and open the Chamber for the first time.
Leon couldn’t make the assumption that it would take that long again, or even that it would happen by that time again.
Depending on who had it, Tom may very well struggle to manipulate them, or inversely he could have an even easier time than he’d had with Ginny in the books.
So, Leon was nipping the problem in the bud.
Defanging the problem at hand on the large scale.
Though it would be best if he could find the Diary sooner than later.
Whoever had it was in danger from the Diary’s life draining effects.
If Leon could prevent an unnecessary casualty, he would.
It ended up taking the Mortys half an hour to corral the Basilisk into the Vivarium and return to the bathroom where they sealed up the Chamber once more.
Leon pondered how he was going to keep tabs on the Chamber to monitor when someone finally managed to open it.
Shrugging, he pulled one of the Rats that he had used for tests last year and ordered it to stay in the restroom and report back to him if anyone opened the Chamber.
He even had the Mortys demonstrate what the Rat needed to look out for before leaving.
With that done, Leon spent the next few hours going to the Room of Requirements and having Gasket open it for him.
There he once again set the Vivarium into its time bubble, this time with a seed population of humans, and vast army of Dremora of various types within to maintain order.
Leon even left the Basilisk inside.
Between the Basilisk and the various snake species that he’d introduced, the Acromantula population within would have actual predators, and the Vivarium wouldn’t need to confine them as heavily as it had in the first island.
With all of that set up, Leon glanced back at the vivarium for a moment before he set off to get some breakfast and get his class schedule.
Classes would be starting today, and he’d rather not be late.
The plan with the Vivarium was to leave it in the time bubble until the same time next year.
Giving the population within 500 years to develop before he removed half of the population and introduced them to the Hunting Grounds.
Then just restart, ad infinitum.
By the end of Hogwarts Leon predicted that there would be more humans living in his various realms than there were on the planet if he did everything right.
Which… led to another conclusion.
His plan to Plane Meld the earth seemed… unnecessary.
Though it would guarantee a massively more diverse population in his Planes of Oblivion…
He set that thought aside for now.
He’d deal with that can of worms eventually.
Moving around Hogwarts castle this year was very different from last year.
It was a Gryffindor year.
The halls had shifted, new routes had opened, old ones had closed, secret passages that used to lead to one place now led to different locations.
Everything was generally in the same place, but it was like being in an entirely different version of Hogwarts.
The castle seemed to vibrate with Gym Class energy.
“I wonder what the castle is like on Hufflepuff years?” Leon muttered to himself as he sat down in the Great Hall and tucked in to the breakfast that appeared before him.
Leon’s breakfast was specially made.
Not the normal fair that everyone else was eating.
Leon had followed through with his self-imposed supplement/magical diet.
And he fully intended to start working out this year.
The RoR would work perfectly for a gym space.
And he’d collected a whole plethora of information about how to work out.
His diet would now consist of a planned regimen starting with breakfast.
Surprisingly, there was a small, very small, community of Wizarding Body Builders that had developed an industry of their own.
They produced everything from Meals Ready to Eat and bottled protein tonics to customized meal plans, recovery draughts, and specialized training journals.
Their flagship company, the Wizarding Body Builders Corporation, or WBB, had been founded in the 1950s by a pair of Muggle-born Hogwarts graduates.
Bringing with them a background in Muggle nutritional science, they combined it with magical herbology, potioneering, and alchemy to create a field of study that was almost nonexistent in the wizarding world: magical sports nutrition.
The company never grew particularly large.
Most witches and wizards simply didn’t care enough about physical fitness to justify the expense.
Still, WBB cultivated a loyal following among the handful of bodybuilders, magical strongmen, and eccentric fitness enthusiasts scattered across Britain and the Continent.
They even published a glossy magazine twice a year, Arcane Physique, featuring articles on the international wizarding bodybuilding scene, interviews with champion lifters, training techniques, and reviews of the latest nutritional discoveries and recovery potions.
Leon had subscribed to WBB’s premium Complete Growth Program.
The company apparently maintained a contract with Hogwarts, allowing owl deliveries to be sent directly to the castle kitchens, where the house-elves prepared each customer’s meals according to WBB’s specifications.
It was an expensive service, but one that guaranteed every calorie and every magical ingredient was accounted for.
Each meal came with one of three proprietary potions that Leon was instructed to drink immediately before eating: a metabolic primer in the morning, a nutrient catalyst at lunch, and a restorative elixir with dinner.
The meals themselves were enormous, dense with both protein and ambient magical energy.
WBB’s literature proudly advertised their ingredients: Ashwinder eggs as the primary source of magically active protein; refined dragon blood, one of the elusive twelve uses discovered by Albus Dumbledore, for accelerating tissue recovery; rich Mooncalf milk for its exceptional mineral content; concentrated Dittany extract to support healing after strenuous exercise; and thick loaves of proprietary Titan Wheat bread, a magically cultivated grain renowned among wizarding bodybuilders for its slow-burning carbohydrates and unusually high protein content.
Leon was surprised by just how delicious everything was.
Dry chicken, bland rice, and endless steamed vegetables had become synonymous with “clean eating.”
WBB apparently disagreed.
Every meal was rich, hearty, and genuinely delicious.
The Titan Wheat bread arrived at the table warm with a crisp crust and soft, golden interior.
The Ashwinder eggs were impossibly creamy, the Mooncalf milk had a naturally sweet finish, and even the accompanying potions were surprisingly pleasant to drink.
The only drawback was the sheer amount of food.
The portions were enormous.
By the end of breakfast, Leon felt as though he’d eaten enough to last until dinner.
Then he looked at the lunch menu.
“Dear Merlin…” The workout manual that accompanied the meal plan was somehow even more intimidating.
Leon opened it and skimmed through the first week’s schedule.
“…Four hours?”
The program called for a minimum of four hours of training every single day.
Not a bodybuilding split.
Not alternating muscle groups.
A full-body workout.
Every.
Single.
Day.
Leon frowned and flipped through the rest of the manual.
He really should have paid more attention when he signed up for the meal replacement plan.
Apparently, the combination of Ashwinder proteins, refined dragon blood, concentrated Dittany extract, Mooncalf milk, Titan Wheat, and WBB’s proprietary nutritional potions created what they called an Enhanced Recovery State.
During sleep, the body entered an extended period of magically accelerated repair, replenishing muscle tissue, restoring glycogen stores, and resolving the microscopic damage from training before morning.
Thereby removing any and all need for rest days.
According to the WBB workout regimen, if the meal plan was followed precisely and the trainee got a full night’s sleep, the body would wake up completely recovered, ready to repeat another four-hour full-body session.
And… the four-hour sessions were only the minimum recommendation.
The plan recommended doing calisthenics between classes.
Lifting weights while in History of Magic class.
Wearing proprietary WBB enchanted gear that placed resistance on all movements throughout the day… These people were true fanatics when it came to building muscle.
“WBB?” Leon heard a familiar voice say from his left as he read through the manual, “They are expensive, and the training is really hard.”
Leon turned to see Celina Diggory sitting beside him, “I signed up for the Complete Growth Program… And I may not have paid full attention to the workout details.”
Celina snorted out a laugh, “If you can actually stick it out, you’ll be in the best shape of anyone in the school.
You’ll be very popular in a few years.”
Leon glanced around the Great Hall and snorted, “I don’t think I’ll have to worry about popularity… more like needing to be able to outrun the attention.”
“Surprisingly wise observation.” Celina said with a nod, “Britian is in trouble.
Even in death, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named left his mark and is still causing us trouble.”
Leon shook his head, “I don’t see why everyone has to be so ominous about Voldemort’s name.” he said, causing Celina to flinch, “I mean, there’s a load of names we could call him, Lord Moldybutt, Tommy, Dramatic Mold Lover… Like, I don’t get the fear of the name stopping people from just saying something ridiculous instead.”
Celina cocked her head to the side, “Huh, I never thought of that… Why Tommy though?”
Leon blinked, confused for a moment.
Then it dawned on him.
It was not common knowledge that Tom Marvolo Riddle was Lord Voldemort.
“Well…” He said, not sure if this was information he should reveal.
But then he shrugged in for a penny in for a pound as they say.
“So, the dark lord used to be a student here in Hogwarts.
Everyone knows that right?” Leon asked, and Celina nodded, “Well, his real name is Tom Marvolo Riddle.
He was born to Merope Gaunt, the last daughter of the Gaunt family.
She became obsessed with a Muggle named Tom Riddle Sr.
and enchanted him with a love potion.
When she became pregnant, she stopped dosing him, hoping he’d stay willingly.
He didn’t.
He left her, she gave birth to Tom in a Muggle orphanage and died shortly afterward.
Not sure how.
So, Lord Moldy Butt’s obsession with Purebloods and all that is purely a galvanizing ideology he used to get people on his side.
He’s a half blood, champion of pureblood ideology.”
Celina looked amused, “Great story.
But no one actually knows who he was.”
“No.
Not a story.
It’s actually pretty east to track it all down once you know what to look for.
Dumbledore even knows.
Not sure why he hasn’t released the information to the public.
It would probably help.
I can even point you to the resources to confirm it all yourself if you want.” Leon said seriously.
Pulling out a blank parchment and writing down five sources that would eventually lead to the conclusion that Tom Riddle is Voldemort.
It actually was a very easy puzzle to put together.
The records were easy to find.
The only slight leap was the timeframe where the last time the Chamber of Secrets got opened since no one ever pinned the blame on Tom.
And then his time spent outside of Britian.
Celina took the parchment with a curious look before fixing Leon with a beautiful glare, “If I spend a week looking through this stuff and find out that you are making stuff up… I’ll be very cross with you.”
Leon raised his hands in surrender, “I’ll even let you spank me.” He said.
“Why the hell did I say that?” Leon thought desperately in his mind.
“Cute.” Celina said, “But you’re a little too young for me.”
With that she stood up and swaggered away from the table.
“What the hell was that just now?” Leon muttered to himself.
That had gone in a direction that Leon was certainly not expecting or planning right there at the end.
It was like a filter had been removed from between his brain and mouth that had always functioned perfectly up until that last comment he’d made.
“Whatever, time to get to class.” He said to himself with a sigh.
Classes started off strong with a Double period of Potions and Herbology that day.
But the first week was mainly a review with the barest introduction to what they would really be getting into during the second year.
Leon actually appreciated the design, as it allowed him to shake off the rust from Summer Break and get back into the swing of things.
Potions was easier than ever.
His TES Alchemy knowledge didn’t really overlap, like at all, when it came to ingredients and magical principles.
But it did overlap heavily in cauldron temperature control, stirring patterns, and familiarity with timing and other crucial skills in brewing potions.
Leon moved through the motions of potion brewing with a familiarity that defied his single year’s worth of study at Hogwarts.
Professor Snape seemed to be… distracted.
His usual grumpy demeanor was… not less grumpy… it was hard to define.
He still gave scathing remarks, still snorted imperiously and gave a general sense that he felt that he was a man among monkeys.
But it was like maybe one of those jagged edges had smoothed out a little.
His hair was just a little less greasy looking.
His sallow skin was just a hair more vibrant.
Not enough for anyone to really put a finger on it.
But just enough that everyone noticed something different about him this year.
The practical portion of Herbology, however, remained difficult.
Magical plants responded to Leon’s presence in a variety of ways that made it so that his approach needed to be non-standard.
Some plants seemed to love him, like Devils snare.
Devils snare was an obedient little vine in Leon’s hands.
Venomous Tentacula?
Those buggers, even the seedlings, would thrash about wildly and the normal procedures were impossible to implement with how extreme their reaction was to Leon.
Screechsnaps would shriek incessantly if Leon was anywhere within five feet of them.
Leaping Toadstools just shivered in fear and refused to do anything in his presence.
Herbology wouldn’t be bad if the responses that Magical plants gave him were universally to just go stiff in fear or play dead as some of them did.
But the curious variety of reactions made it difficult to engage with the plants in a practical setting.
Then there was the fact that not every single plant of the same type reacted exactly the same way either.
And the same plant that froze up today may end up thrashing about wildly tomorrow.
The oddest thing about Herbology?
Professor Sprout didn’t even find the plants’ reactions to Leon to be strange.
She said that Magical Plants just don’t like some people and that there’s one in every year group.
The only thing unusual about Leon was that almost all the magical plants had a reaction to him.
Usually, it was just one type that a person couldn’t handle or maybe a specific class of plants.
Sprout actually gave Leon extra credit during last year’s practical finals because he was working around a Venomous Tentacula seedling that was so wildly uncooperative that even she couldn’t calm it down.
Yet Leon still managed to repot the crazed bugger with little more than scratched up gloves.
Regardless of the Greenhouses’ collectively formed opinions of Leon, he still enjoyed the class immensely.
Plants with genuine personalities were fun to interact with, even if they hated him.
Professor Sprouts’ enthusiasm for the topic was genuine and infectious as well.
Everyone looked forward to Herbology days, not just Leon.