Chapter 215: The Half-Blood Prince! Norbert's Circuit Optimisation
Leonardo looked at the small line of text on the inside back cover of Advanced Potion-Making and read it aloud, softly.
"This Book is the Property of the Half-Blood Prince. Prince… a royal title? Or a surname?"
Hearing Leonardo's quiet murmur, Snape's hand twitched inside his sleeve.
He suddenly regretted pulling that book out. Who could have predicted Leonardo would reach for it first, and that those sharp eyes would land on the back cover immediately?
And why had he caught the double meaning of "Prince" so quickly? Then Snape remembered. Ravenclaws had to answer a riddle every time they entered their common room. Their minds were quicker than most, and Leonardo was the sharpest of them all.
Leonardo glanced up at Snape. The man was staring at nothing in particular, eyes on nose, nose on heart, the very picture of serene detachment.
A flicker of mischief rose in Leonardo's chest. He let out an admiring sigh.
"Even a quick skim shows how remarkable and original these Potions insights are. This is the sixth-year Potions textbook, so the original owner, this 'Half-Blood Prince', must have been a brilliant young prodigy, already possessing this depth of knowledge while still a student."
"Hmm. Half-blood. Prince. It seems the owner was quite proud of the wizarding side of their bloodline. Could the surname actually be Prince? I wonder whether it came from the mother's side or the father's." Leonardo paused, turning an innocent gaze on Snape. "Professor, you must remember such an outstanding student. They would have left quite an impression."
As Leonardo's "deduction" rolled on, a vein pulsed visibly at Snape's temple. Something close to panic flashed through his dark eyes. If this kept going, there would be nothing left to hide.
Snape turned his face away and cleared his throat, hard.
"A student from many years ago. Long forgotten. I have potions to brew. You may go."
Leonardo kept his smile firmly within the bounds of propriety.
He had always found that particular scene memorable, the moment Snape admitted to Harry that he was the Half-Blood Prince.
The reason was simple. A grown man, solemnly announcing the edgy alias he had chosen as a teenager.
"Yes, I'm the Half-Blood Prince."
Leonardo gathered up the recipes and books quickly and said goodbye.
He had just reached the door when Snape's low voice came from behind him.
"That book contains some minor spells. A few of them should not be used lightly on other people."
"Understood. Thank you for the warning, Professor."
Trunk World.
Leonardo began reading through Advanced Potion-Making carefully.
In the original timeline, Harry would have received this book in his sixth year. There was a fair chance Snape had planted it in the supply cupboard on purpose, waiting for Harry to find it.
Armed with the Half-Blood Prince's notes, Harry's Potions work had improved dramatically that year. Part of it was that Snape was no longer teaching the class, so Harry could finally study without the resentment that had always held him back. His natural talent had room to breathe. But the other part was that Snape's annotations were genuinely exceptional, surpassing the textbook's own methods.
They were only the observations of a student, but a Potions master's gift had been evident even then.
Beyond the Potions knowledge, Leonardo was also interested in the spells recorded in the margins. The classics were there, Sectumsempra, Levicorpus, and others. There were also non-combat charms that were no less useful, like Muffliato, which created a faint buzzing in nearby ears to prevent eavesdropping.
Leonardo headed to the training room.
He raised his wand and drew it lightly across the air, aimed at a lifelike magical training dummy.
"Sectumsempra."
The dummy was hurled backwards as though an invisible blade had struck it with tremendous force.
Leonardo summoned it back and examined the damage. Even though he had pulled his strength, the slash had nearly cut the dummy in half. Around the enormous gash, the simulated flesh continued to split open, and blood seeped slowly from the wound.
There was a lingering effect, too.
The greatest advantage of Sectumsempra was its invisibility, combined with speed. Extremely difficult to dodge.
Genuinely useful.
"Vulnera Sanentur."
Leonardo moved his wand slowly, chanting the counter-curse like a song.
What followed was remarkable, even by magical standards. As though time were reversing, the blood on the dummy's surface flowed back into the wound, and the gash closed rapidly, knitting itself shut.
That was Sectumsempra's other defining trait. It could be reversed by its dedicated counter-curse.
Conventional healing magic, however, could not mend injuries caused by Sectumsempra.
After testing the remaining spells, Leonardo felt thoroughly satisfied.
He left the training room and made his way to the level of the Trunk World, where Norbert lived.
An enormous ritual array hummed with power, letting out a deep, resonant drone at intervals.
At its centre, Norbert slept.
His frame was longer and leaner than a typical Norwegian Ridgeback. His black scales reflected light like polished metal, and the golden patterns etched across them brightened and dimmed with every breath.
Leonardo stood at the edge of the array, expression focused. Floating before him was the key material: the basilisk's heart, still faintly beating.
Beside it, the other components lay prepared: phoenix tail feathers tempered in dragon blood, mithril solution, and energy-stabilising crystal gems.
Some rare, some common, all laid out in order, ready for use.
Leonardo raised his wand.
A deep blue flame kindled at the tip. The greater portion of the basilisk's heart melted slowly in the fire, yielding a dark green stream of energy.
At the same time, mithril solution, phoenix tail feather, and powdered crystal were blended in precise sequence, shaped into countless fine filaments like glassy threads, coiling through the air in shimmering currents.
Leonardo ran through the circuit model he had already constructed in his mind, over and over, confirming every detail.
The filaments flew towards Norbert with surgical precision, sinking into his body.
Leonardo connected them to the dragon's existing magical circuitry with painstaking care.
When the final thread vanished beneath a scale, every golden pattern on Norbert's body blazed with blinding light.
At the same instant, the dark green energy refined from the basilisk's heart surged upward and engulfed the dragon completely.
It looked like a massive cocoon. Golden light occasionally pierced the wrapping, pulsing softly.
Leonardo conjured a chair and sat down. This was only an optimisation of Norbert's magical circuitry, not a fundamental overhaul. There was no real danger.
The difficulty lay in the dragon's innate constitution and circuitry being so powerful that the materials needed for adjustment were extraordinarily demanding.
And according to the system's explanation, the optimisation had to stay within certain limits. It absolutely could not push Norbert beyond the definition of a Norwegian Ridgeback as a species.
Otherwise, the repayment conditions for the Magical Pathway Weavecraft (annual loan) would not be met. The task was explicitly to raise a "Norwegian Ridgeback" into the king of its kind.
Leonardo pulled out one of the books he had traded from Snape and began to read.
Time passed.
He was a little more than halfway through when it happened.
"ROARRR!"
A thunderous dragon cry split the air. The dark green cocoon cracked apart as blazing flame and golden light erupted skyward.
A powerful wave of magic swept outward, whipping Leonardo's robes into a frenzy.
Moments later, a massive dark-gold fireball slammed into the ground.
The flames dispersed, revealing Norbert.
The overall change was subtle. The golden patterns across his scales had grown more intricate, looking like finely carved reliefs when dormant.
"Dad, you weren't lying. It really didn't hurt."
Norbert let out a low rumble, then stretched out his tongue, trying to lick Leonardo's windswept hair into place.
There was no helping it. Once a dragon grew past a certain size, "cute" simply stopped applying. The voice alone could not be softened, no matter how hard the creature tried. Aether the thunderbird could at least manage a squeaky note now and then, to say nothing of naturally endearing creatures like nifflers and Puffskeins.
Still, Norbert had been raised by Leonardo's own hand, and he had learned to adjust. He no longer squealed "Mama" the way he had as a hatchling.
Leonardo Grafton, twelve years and four months old, was already a dragon's father.
He blocked Norbert's complimentary hair-styling service with one hand and began exploring the changes the circuit optimisation had brought.
First, Norbert's dragon fire had shifted from its former orange-red to a dark gold. The temperature was extreme, but more importantly, the flames were adhesive and nearly impossible to extinguish, burning continuously until the target was consumed entirely.
That reminded Leonardo of Aurelius's purification fire. The persistent-burn characteristic was strikingly similar.
Second, Norbert could now coat his entire body in dragon fire, boosting his defence while dramatically enhancing his close-combat ability.
Strictly speaking, Leonardo felt the optimisation had only truly given Norbert one new capability, the full-body flame armour, which was essentially a further development of his dragon-fire magic.
The change to the fire itself seemed more like a latent potential that the optimisation had happened to unlock. After all, Norbert's egg had been hatched with qilin purification fire. Some corresponding evolution was only natural.
Leonardo scrubbed both hands vigorously against Norbert's cheeks, drawing out a deep, contented rumbling purr.
After a bit of play, Leonardo sent Norbert off to rest.
Watching Norbert spread his wings and soar away, Leonardo reached into his pocket and produced two enormous eyeballs. Their bright yellow, slit pupils seemed to stare into death itself.
Leonardo let out a slow breath.
"My turn."