Chapitre 14: 14
You know, when I woke up I realised two things. One, there's something wrong with me. And two, I have to find out what it is.
I pretended to still be asleep, got inside my own head and then slipped into my core personality and... ta-da! I'd been through too much. In short, I only have twenty-three student personalities, nine schoolchildren, fifteen ordinary citizens, three mages, one of whom was bloody weird. A god, a dark lord and a bunch of others. Not counting the influence of the main personality of the Dragon God and a little over two hundred additional personalities of the Shards, who have the knowledge of another hundred or so personalities.
Can you imagine the cocktail?
Now try to squeeze all those personalities, their wishes, desires, dreams and attitudes to life, mix it well, then shake it up and... you get the idea. Hopefully, in this somewhat rambling way, I have explained at least a little bit of my problem. But there is a solution, and it has to do with the identity of the terrifyingly strange mage himself. Of his oddities. I-he was a demonologist, a priest, a sorcerer and a magician of almost every kind. That's the thing about this oddity, I-he could use any of these powers. And here's the rub, no one can use these powers in one body, it's trivial to vomit. And because of that, there was a strange weave in his soul structure and essence. To explain it to you, it's like the cylinder of a revolver. But instead of bullets, it's got six different powers, and the bullets are never disposable. Anyway, each of the powers changes your emotional background and even your thoughts. Using one of the bullets would turn him into the kindest and most forgiving creature, or a cold-blooded computer with no morals whatsoever. Or a bloodthirsty devil capable of slaughtering a bunch of innocents to summon demons. And here's the kicker, this madman has learned how to manipulate these powers through, ta-da: Personality Masks. To survive, he had to go mad, become schizophrenic, and then weave the mask out of a shard of a new personality. It was as delusional and ingenious as it was abnormal. In some unknown way, however, he succeeded!
So I decided to do roughly the same thing, only without the risks that guy went through. To make a long story short, I split the personalities and merged students with students, adults with adults, mages with mages, and warriors with warriors, and made some masks out of these cocktails. It turned out, let me tell you, not as bad as it could have been, believe me.
On the plus side, Taki became more appropriate and more of a psycho at the same time.
After this work on myself, I got up, put on a schoolboy mask and hurried to the bathroom, where I lay on the bottom of the tub and got out almost before breakfast. Many of the neighbours looked at me disapprovingly, but who was to stop me getting up a bit earlier and using the bathroom first? Nobody.
Then we went to breakfast and, as always, I had the best breakfast. And a lot of people whispered about the secret, to which I bluntly replied that there was no secret at all, just that I gave the elves money to buy food and made my own menu, which was prepared and served to me by the housekeepers. It turned out that this was not forbidden, but no one had thought to ask them about it before me. Maybe I did, but I kept my mouth shut and ate in secret. Although I have no idea how that is possible. I also watched a lot of people, looking for gossip and oddities they should have noticed. And for some reason did not hear.
When breakfast was over and the food had settled in my stomach, I ran to the nearest secret passage and ducked into it to summon Mikst. The elf immediately appeared before me, in a slight flash of blue flame. He was still red-haired and handsome, and I wondered why the others had not seen anything strange. However, after questioning him, he found out that no one had seen any change in them, for elves carry the illusion of their old appearance. And they, creatures with magic literally in their blood, no one would be able to expose them unless they were too hard up. Who needs them? Everyone thinks they know everything about them and won't even try to expose them. Clever, though.
Nodding to the elf, I asked him to take me to Gringots, to meet a group of goblins and a slightly smaller group of house elves. When I showed up there, standing on a towering podium, I was involuntarily reminded of the minions from a famous cartoon of the ordinary world of Earth. Well, there was a sea of goblins and a sea of dwarves at my feet. And they were all looking at me now. And behind them, on the stone floor of a truly enormous cave, sat the dragons of this world. Though many of the dragons were napping, their long necks tucked under their wings, or simply curled up in a crouch.
I was in the cave and the dragons were moving, staring at me with interest. I was a bit embarrassed... ah, I should change my mask. The rest of the story was pretty much the same as the elf story, except the goblins hadn't changed that much. They just got bigger, more muscular. They were not so much ugly as frightening with their bloodthirsty grins. I was asked how they were going to serve the customers in the bank, and the hobgoblins in the room all turned back into goblins, not unlike the regular ones. To say I was shocked would be an understatement. And the box was easy to open. The restored goblins all wore amulets around their necks that changed their appearance back to goblin. However, their bloodthirsty smiles made me a little nervous for the plight of their customers and especially their business. But they all assured me, as I held the fire pulsar in my right hand, that there would be no trouble at all, as goblins find it much more enjoyable to collect treasure at the expense of others. It's even more fun for them than killing and stuff like that. At my sceptical glance, they assured me that they wouldn't even dismember the poor customers. At my second look and the pulsar explosion on the cave floor, they assured me that they would not harm any sentient creature without orders. Only then did I extinguish the second pulsar I had prepared and return to Hogwarts with the help of the same Mixtus.
My brief absence was attributed to my new method of vanishing into thin air, so not much happened. And it's the weekend, so everyone's doing what they want. The seniors are out drinking in unused classrooms, huddling with girls in quiet cubicles, reading textbooks and doing their homework so they can swap places with those who will be drinking alcohol and making love to girls tomorrow.
I went down to the obelisks beneath the castle, and now I was meticulously crafting a complex alchemy with my own blood and two hundred other ingredients to renew the obelisks, to give them extra touches where the runes had erased them. Repairing the pieces of the obelisks and those that had fallen away, all to the deafening sound of rock, played from a web that took songs from my memory.
It was not until the evening that my work was finished and the source of the magic burst forth under the influence of the restored obelisks, which immediately absorbed its burst of energy and, glowing like bulbs, sent the transformed energy flowing through the similarly restored energy pathways. A wave of magic also swept through the cave, quickly clearing it of debris, dissolving stalactites, stalagmites and the like. Five minutes later, I was standing in a clean cave, trying to recover my vision from the light upheaval that had occurred.
The castle, on the other hand, seemed to have been sighing without pain for many years, magic filling it and gradually beginning to restore it.
When I walked wearily into the living room, I was not immediately aware of the commotion. I only noticed it when I came out of the bathroom. As for the crows, our faculty was buzzing like a beehive, and that's not normal for a Ravenclaw. If this was happening to our faculty, it was frightening to think what was happening to others. I tugged on the sleeve of the closest sober senior and asked him what everyone was so upset about. The answer did not leave me indifferent.
For a moment, the castle seemed to shudder as a golden-blue wave of energy swept through the rooms, classrooms and corridors, removing dirt and repairing damage. Classrooms that hadn't been used before were fully restored, and doors to them disappeared from the walls. And that's only part of the transformation. In the courtyard of Hogwarts, the ground swelled and two stone behemoths crawled out and took up sentry positions. Along the corridors, armour came to life and saluted someone unseen. Salamanders appeared out of nowhere in the fireplaces. They were even in the extinguished ones, though greyish because they were not burning.
Many also saw the headmaster's gargoyle, which flew into the kitchen with the housekeepers and began to fill its belly with food brought by the elves. And behind the gargoyle, the headmaster came running into the kitchen, staring at the whole thing in shock. No, why? The gargoyle obviously hasn't eaten in a long time, and its food-related passwords would drive anyone crazy. The gargoyle is also said to have returned to its place afterwards, but it's as if it's changed colour. Before it had been cast in cement, but now it shone like polished marble. Many of the rooms that were in need of renovation were rebuilt and made to look as if they were new.
But it was not even that that surprised everyone the most, it was that a herd of unicorns had come to the castle, flocks of fairies and elves had flown in. And they were holding their own magical feast on the edge of the forest. According to the headmaster, nothing like this had happened in over five centuries. Even wizards were not allowed at the feast, for the fairies would cast them out on the spot. Only those in whose honour the feast was held had the right to attend. So suddenly I didn't want to go outside to see the miracle.
The clock in the Great Hall, which had been mostly silent until then, also chimed, and the giant poinsettias glowed, and then four tapestries appeared out of the blue, bearing the emblems and crests of the founders of Hogwarts. But those tapestries, well, a fifth appeared. With an image of a dragon. On a black background, a golden dragon. That's what really shocked everyone. After this event, many people attacked the library and the librarian, trying to find out whose mark it was.
And the mysterious thing is that no one knows what it is. After this last bit of information, I felt a sudden urge to leave the living room, so I retired to my room, from where I used my personal Mixtus to travel to Gringotts and start going through the data papers. And in the living room, in my bed, one of the elves who had taken my form was asleep. And on Sunday he would have to continue playing me. That meant disappearing in the morning and reappearing in bed in the evening. And if anything, to play me himself. Fortunately, the housekeepers were excellent actors.
And I had some paperwork to do and a few more profitable investments to make. I had plenty of money, and it would be a crime not to use it to enrich myself even more and to make connections with the powerful. I sighed, took a sheet of paper and began to draw the circuit board for the new mobile devices that would be a decade ahead of all the technology around here. The first smartphone was not far off. Ha.
However, as I looked at the pile of already mapped sheets, they were of little use without a better wireless communication system than the one we had. And so some of the goblins in the next room had already begun to reincarnate into human form and, grabbing their suitcases of papers, set off to set up a new telephone company. Are we going to be run over by the competition? Well, let them try to run us over. They'll be very surprised at our strength and capabilities. Especially financially. Two Hobgoblins are already rubbing their paws together and can't wait until Monday and the opening of trading to start buying up the shares of all the telecoms and internet companies now in operation. Some Hobgoblins are also warming up in the gym to get in shape for the power method of problem solving. Business is business, after all, and you never know what to expect from some businessmen.
Not only will I buy up the leading shares in these companies, but I will also ensure that these companies become leaders in world progress and technology. Heh, with the goblins' finances and connections, that won't be too hard.
Then, with a knock, Flitwick entered the office, dressed in his human uniform and a new bright business suit, a scarf tied gallantly around his neck. He wore beige gloves and had a cane in his hand.
He walked over to my desk and sat down in an empty chair.
- Hello, Professor," he said, not looking up from his papers. - What brings you here?
- Well, not counting the chaos you're causing at Hogwarts, as evidenced by your tapestry in the Great Hall. Which, by the way, is now being sought not just by a bunch of students, but by several clans, including the Malfoys, as well as Dumbledore, who has used all his connections to get this information. But that's OK, because apart from the goblins, nobody knows about the Draco Dove bloodline. And it is only mentioned in the earliest editions of the history of our people's appearance in this world. And many of these books have, in some unknown way, either disappeared or are considered dark and not to be circulated. And too few have survived to this day. However, the fact that your tapestry hangs alongside those of the Founders has particularly frightened the Headmaster, especially when his order to the castle to remove it has been ignored. Oh, and many of the Headmaster's powers have, for whatever reason, disappeared. Apart from the fact that Hogwarts' magical source had, on the contrary, increased the amount of energy it supplied him. Dumbledore weeps and curses, but there's nothing he can do. A lot of things are not available to him now that the castle has gone from manual to automatic control.
- It is interesting, - I took my eyes off the papers and adjusted the cushions under my heel. I had to tuck it in, I'm just a kid. - What's that got to do with me? I'm a Potter, in case you hadn't forgotten. And my lineage has nothing to do with the Draco Dove lineage. At least there's no record of it, is there?
- No record. Be careful, though.
- Of course, Flitwick. I will be careful. How are things with Horcruxes?
- The Black House Elf provided us with a locket, the Malfoy House Elf brought a notebook, a tiara was brought from Hogwarts, and the Goblet was originally in our possession, so no problem there. A squad of curse-breakers and goblins have been sent to capture the snake, with unseen help from the elves. So the snake will soon be captured and taken to the prepared ritual hall. What do you want it for, by the way?
- I want to resurrect the local dark lord, have a look at him, listen to his side of the story and then decide how to deal with him. He's unlikely to cause any trouble immediately after resurrection and without his servants. As long as he's in the ritual circle, his tattoos on the Eaters' arms won't activate. By the way, what idiot came up with the idea of naming his servants that way? It's understandable that Tom was afraid of death, so why not call them, say, the Undead, the Immortals?
- I have no idea, sir," Flitwick shrugged. - I have no idea," he shrugged. "And I must get back to the goblins, for you have a great deal of activity here, so I have a pile of papers to sign.
- But you will be a very wealthy man, Guardian Flitwick.
- As will you, Lord Potter," my 'guardian' grinned and waved his hand out the door. So I could get back to my papers. There's still a lot of work to be done, really...
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone