Watching all these changes unfold, Tom once again felt overwhelmed with amazement.
Sometimes he truly wanted to pry open Wade's skull and study his brain to see how it was built. And then use the skull as a bowl afterward.
Comparison brings pain.
Next to Wade, the other second-year students felt like a bunch of undergrown trolls.
All the commotion outside didn't affect Wade much.
Even the newly established Moral Education class didn't prompt him to intervene right away.
It was better to wait a little longer.
Only when Professor Slughorn became thoroughly exhausted by the job would Wade step in to help. That was the best way to achieve the desired effect.
By then, Slughorn would surely be more than happy to hand all the troublesome work over to Wade.
During this period, Wade wasn't idle either. He focused mainly on studying alchemy and the two blueprints the Senior had given him.
After having Toby purchase all the materials and place them in the wizard tower, Wade began attempting alchemy there.
The alchemical collar that could control magical creatures wasn't particularly difficult. After spending some effort, Wade successfully produced a prototype.
The other device, the converter, was much more complicated.
Wade spent several days just to roughly understand its operating principles.
There was no doubt that alchemy was the most complex and the most difficult discipline he had ever encountered.
Not only because the books on alchemy in the library were somewhat outdated, but also because this technical discipline couldn't be mastered with strong memory alone.
Because of this, Wade often had to consult Professor Dumbledore.
This couldn't be helped. Ever since he had outsourced most of the research workload to the Senior, she had less and less free time to communicate with him. Recently, she had been communicating solely through written messages.
So for now, getting more direct guidance from her was impossible.
And in addition to being a master of Transfiguration, Dumbledore was also quite a skilled alchemist.
His skill wasn't on the same level as Nicolas Flamel's, but he was more than capable of guiding Wade.
With his senior unavailable, consulting Dumbledore was a very good option.
Naturally, Dumbledore never refused Wade's questions.
In fact, although he trusted Wade, he still preferred that the boy not devote too much energy to Dark Magic. So seeing Wade turn his attention to alchemy made him very pleased.
Because of that, he even took out a manuscript given to him by a certain friend and let Wade study it.
This manuscript, likely from Nicolas Flamel, was far better than the outdated alchemy books in the library and helped Wade immensely.
As time passed, Wade's grasp of alchemy grew deeper and deeper.
Finally, on the eve of Christmas, Wade followed the blueprint step by step and completed the converter.
"Haah.. finally..."
He looked at the palm-sized sphere in his hand.
To test whether it worked, he urgently needed a source of strong emotion.
Whether it was positive or negative emotion didn't matter, as long as there was enough of it.
Thinking this, Wade slipped out of the Somnolen wizard tower and back into Hogwarts Castle.
The entire castle was filled with the joyful atmosphere of Christmas Eve.
But Wade couldn't harvest any of those emotions. He couldn't just grab these cheerful students and extract their emotional residue directly from their bodies.
Should he… maybe beat Tom up, then catch him while he was full of resentment and refine him on the spot?
Wade abandoned the idea as soon as it appeared.
Tom had been behaving well lately, and hitting him now felt a bit too heartless. After all, Wade was a good person!
Umm.. well.. it was just that he didn't have a valid excuse to hit him.
Besides, Tom often went to Dumbledore these days to discuss his insights about the magic of love. Wade worried that if he hit him now, the boy might run straight to Dumbledore to complain…
Maybe… he could find a Dementor. Those things fed on positive emotions and were pure negative emotion from head to toe. Perfect experimental material.
In the end, still under a Disillusionment Charm, Wade knocked on Grindelwald's office door.
Grindelwald opened the door and paused for a moment when he saw no one there.
"It's me," Wade said.
Hearing Wade's voice, Grindelwald's eyes brightened slightly.
He opened the door fully and let Wade inside.
After closing it, Grindelwald smiled. "I haven't seen you in a while. Your magic has improved nicely. This Disillusionment Charm didn't give you away even to me."
Wade dispelled the charm. "You flatter me. It's nothing special, I just practice blindly."
Grindelwald naturally didn't believe that. "Alright then, what brings you here? Don't tell me your plan is about to begin?"
"No rush on that. I need to wait until Professor Slughorn can't handle things anymore before I step in," Wade replied.
"Tsk, you really are sharp. Fine, then you didn't come here just to wish me an early Merry Christmas, did you?"
"Well, that too… but mainly, I need a favor," Wade said.
"Oh? And what kind of favor requires coming to me instead of Dumbledore?" Grindelwald asked with interest.
"It's about one of my experiments," Wade said vaguely.
"Interesting… what do you need?" Grindelwald immediately perked up.
Since Wade had come to him, it meant the experiment was likely not very "legal."
And when it came to conducting Dark Magic experiments in a school, who could possibly be more qualified than Grindelwald?
After all, he had been expelled from Durmstrang precisely for performing Dark Magic experiments that went terribly wrong.
"I need a Dementor. A living Dementor."
"What? A Dementor? Absolutely not!" Grindelwald rejected him on the spot.
"Why not?" Wade asked.
Grindelwald said sternly, "Wade, have a bit of self-awareness. You cannot practice the Patronus Charm. If a Dark wizard tries to force it, something terrifying will happen. I'm not letting you die yet."
Wade: ???
"Wait… am I really that evil?" Wade protested.
"What do you think?" Grindelwald looked at him with an amused half-smile. "If Tom came to me asking for a Dementor, I'd give him one immediately. That child is kindhearted."
"..."
"Are you kidding me…" Wade felt personally insulted.
"Actually, I'm the kind one… forget it, there's no explaining this to you!" Wade said helplessly. "I want a Dementor not to learn the Patronus Charm. I already told you, it's for an experiment."
"Well… if it's for an experiment, that's fine. But don't do anything stupid. You cannot learn the Patronus Charm."
"You really don't need to repeat that," Wade said through a dark expression.
"Ha! I'm just reminding you!" Grindelwald said, then grew serious again. "If it's not for practicing the Patronus Charm, I can get you a Dementor. Azkaban has plenty. But… you have to prove you can control it. Without a Patronus, how do you plan to handle one? Give me a convincing reason."
"Bring one first. I'll demonstrate. If you think I can't control it, you can take it back," Wade said.
"Well… taking it back might not be possible," Grindelwald said while rubbing his chin. "If you can't control it, I'll just have to destroy it."
"Hm? Why?"
"Because I can't cast the Patronus Charm either," Grindelwald said with a shrug.
"Pfft. You really do have good self-awareness," Wade snorted.
"That's why I hope you also have some self-awareness and don't go trying the Patronus Charm."
"Can you stop already… I told you it's for an experiment!"
"Ha, young man, don't be angry. You want a Dementor, then… as you wish. Just remember not to go back on what you ...promised me."
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