Young Celestial Wizard [Celestial Grimoire, Harry Potter]

"Did you sleep well?" Nicolas asked the moment Harry came downstairs for breakfast. The elderly alchemist was practically bouncing in his armchair, reminding Harry more of an excited child than someone who'd lived for centuries. "Would you like to practice with that fascinating flame of yours?"

Harry nodded, though he felt slightly uncertain. He still wasn't sure what the silver-white fire could actually do. The perfect sphere had been beautiful, but was it useful?

"Have some breakfast first," Perenelle called from the kitchen, giving her husband a fond but exasperated look.

Once Harry finished his small portion of eggs and toast, Nicolas practically dragged him toward what appeared to be a solid wall. As they approached, the stones rearranged themselves to reveal a narrow staircase leading down.

"Always good to have a proper testing chamber," Nicolas said casually as they descended. "Especially when experimenting with new forms of magic."

The stairs went down for quite a while before opening into a large circular room with grey stone walls. Scorch marks and odd-colored stains suggested many experiments had taken place here over time.

"Now then," Nicolas said, pulling out a notebook and quill. "Could you create that perfect sphere again? Just like yesterday?"

Harry closed his eyes, remembering how it felt yesterday when everything clicked into place. The way his chi moved in perfect circles, how his Hun and Po souls worked together, and that special point in his core where everything met but also began.

It was easier now. Like remembering how to ride a toy broom, his mind (Hun) and body (Po) knew what to do.

When he opened his eyes, there it was - a perfect sphere of silver-white flame floating between his hands, neither hot nor cold. It didn't flicker like normal fire, just stayed perfectly still while somehow moving all the time.

Nicolas approached carefully, wand extended. He muttered several detection spells, each one making different colored lights appear around the sphere. His eyebrows rose higher with each spell.

"This is... peculiar," Nicolas said, lowering his wand. "There's no magic here at all. Not a trace." He peered at Harry curiously. "You mentioned chi yesterday. Could you explain what that is? Albus didn't give me many details about your... special abilities."

Harry thought for a moment, trying to put complicated ideas into simple words. "It's like... energy that moves through special paths in my body. When I got my firebending power, these paths appeared. And when my soul split into Hun and Po parts, the paths got better at moving the energy around."

Nicolas nodded his head, scribbling in his notebook. "And this sphere - how does it relate to chi?"

"Well..." Harry looked at the perfect sphere floating between his hands. "Normal fire uses up chi when I make it. Like fuel. But this doesn't use anything up. It just... is."

Nicolas leaned closer, his quill scratching rapidly across the notebook. "And you created this by understanding multiple philosophical frameworks at once?"

"It's hard to explain," Harry said, watching the silver-white sphere hover between his hands. "Yesterday when we were talking about Greek philosophy, I noticed how similar it was to what I learned about chi and souls. Like they're different maps showing the same mountain from different sides."

He paused, gathering his thoughts. "My chi normally moves in spirals, and when I make normal fire it uses up that energy. But when I understood how Love draws things together while Strife pushes them apart, it reminded me of how Yin and Yang work. Then I realized my Hun soul and Po soul follow the same pattern - one wants to be free, one wants to stay grounded."

The sphere pulsed gently as he spoke, its light neither casting shadows nor reflecting off the stone walls.

"And there's this special point in the middle of my chi core," Harry continued. "It's like... imagine a wheel. The rim moves, but the center point stays still. Or like zero in math - it's nothing, but it's also the point where positive and negative numbers meet. When I found that point inside me and understood how all these different ideas were saying the same thing, this happened."

As if responding to his completed explanation, the perfect sphere suddenly collapsed. It didn't explode or fade - it simply broke apart into tiny sparks that vanished before they could fall, leaving no trace behind.

Nicolas was writing furiously in his notebook. "The temporary manifestation of quintessential principles through multi-framework understanding..." He looked up from his note-taking. "Could you make another one?"

Harry nodded, though he felt slightly tired. Not from using chi - the sphere hadn't used any except for the initial 'ignition' - but from the mental effort of keeping the sphere stable.

"Let's try something simple first," Nicolas said, pulling out a feather from his pocket. He tossed it toward the newly formed sphere.

The feather passed right through, completely unaffected. Not burned, not frozen, not even slightly disturbed.

They spent the next few hours testing various materials and spells. Water droplets passed through it. Fire spells ignored it. Even Nicolas's attempts to contain it with advanced magical barriers proved futile - the sphere simply existed, acknowledging neither matter nor magic.

"Maybe if we..." Harry trailed off as the sphere collapsed again, this time dispersing into his usual blue flames before fading away. He created another one, but this sphere imploded almost immediately, vanishing with a soft pop.

Nicolas paced around the testing chamber, muttering to himself. "The philosophical mercury should act as a bridge between states... unless the antimony principle interferes with the transformation sequence..."

"It's not doing anything," Harry said, frustration creeping into his voice. "What's the point of understanding all these different ideas if the flame just sits there?"

"Patience," Nicolas replied, though he looked equally puzzled. "Even negative results tell us something. Notice how it breaks down differently each time? Sometimes inward, sometimes outward, sometimes into sparks..."

He stopped pacing suddenly, staring at the latest sphere as it dissolved. "Wait a moment... what if..." He ran his fingers through his wild hair, eyes widening. "What if we're seeing an incomplete transformation?"

Harry created another sphere, watching it hover perfectly until it too broke apart. "What do you mean?"

"In alchemy, true quintessence only comes after a series of transformations. The first stage is called Nigredo - the Black Phase. It's a breaking down of the material into its primary constituents."

He pointed at the dissolving sparks. "What if these aren't failures? What if the sphere keeps breaking down because it's trying to reach that first crucial stage?"

Harry looked at his hands where the latest sphere had been. "So it's supposed to fall apart?"

"Not fall apart exactly," Nicolas said, excitement building in his voice. "Transform. Everything must be broken down before it can be rebuilt into something greater."

The elderly alchemist grabbed another notebook from his desk. "We might be witnessing the first steps toward true quintessential transformation, but getting stuck at the threshold of Nigredo..."

"Wait," Harry said, interrupting Nicolas's excited rambling. "Maybe that's why I keep getting tired. I've been trying to force the sphere to stay perfect."

Nicolas stopped flipping through his notebook. "Yes? Go on."

Harry created another silver-white sphere between his hands. This time, instead of maintaining its form through careful balance of his understanding, he simply let it be.

Harry let the silver-white sphere hover between his hands, no longer trying to force it into perfection. The moment he released that mental grip, the sphere began to waver. Instead of fighting to maintain its form like before, he watched with curiosity as it started to collapse.

"Should I try to-" Harry began, but Nicolas shook his head.

"Let it happen," the alchemist said softly. "Sometimes we learn more from what goes wrong than what goes right."

The silver-white fire sphere pulsed once, twice, then imploded with more force than any previous attempt. But instead of dispersing into sparks or fading away, it condensed into a single point of absolute darkness - a perfect black dot floating in the air where the silver-white sphere had been.

Harry felt a strange sensation, not quite cold but more like the absence of temperature itself. The black dot seemed to drink in the light around it, creating a small sphere of stillness in the air.

"Extraordinary!" Nicolas breathed, approaching carefully. "Do you feel that? The complete absence?" He waved his hand near the black sphere, watching as it remained perfectly stationary. "It's not moving at all - not even gravity affects it."

Harry reached toward the black sphere, finding it easier to maintain than the silver-white version. It felt natural, like it wanted to exist this way. "It's not using up so much effort to maintain either," he noted.

Nicolas rushed to his workbench, returning with an armful of leather-bound books. "This is exactly what Alchemy is about! The first stage of the Great Work - nigredo, the blackening." He flipped through pages excitedly. "Look here - Egyptian papyri speak of the void before creation, the Greeks wrote of chaos before order..."

While Nicolas rambled about ancient theories, Harry decided to experiment. He created some of his fear mist and sent it toward the black sphere, curious how they might interact. The mist, usually so responsive to his control, began slowly drifting toward the dark point on its own. As it touched the sphere, the mist simply... disappeared.

"Sir," Harry called, interrupting the alchemist's excited monologue. "Watch this."

He created more mist, and they both observed as it was steadily drawn into the black sphere, vanishing without trace or effect.

"Of course!" Nicolas slapped his forehead. "The prima materia in its raw form - it reduces everything back to its fundamental nature. This mist... what exactly is it made of?"

"Magical energy and some power from my soul, I think," Harry said. "Grandpa said it was similar to ghost stuff."

Nicolas nodded vigorously. "Then this sphere might be burning it back to pure potential - the state before energy takes form." He scribbled rapidly in his notebook. "The frustration and failure weren't problems at all. They were necessary steps!"

Harry looked at the black sphere with new understanding. All this time he'd been trying to maintain that perfect silver-white state, when the real breakthrough came from letting it break down naturally. Like how a seed had to crack open before it could grow.

"Mr. Flamel," Harry said, watching the black sphere continue to absorb more mist, "you mentioned this is just the first stage? What comes after?"

Nicolas looked up from his notebook, eyes bright with enthusiasm. "Ah yes! The Great Work has four primary phases. This black stage, Nigredo, represents breaking down - like how a plant must rot before its nutrients can feed new growth."

He pulled another book from the pile, opening it to show Harry a four circular diagrams. Each showed a bird in different colors - black, white, yellow, and red.

"After Nigredo comes Albedo - the white phase. It represents purification, like washing away impurities to reveal what's underneath. Then Citrinitas, the yellow stage, brings illumination and understanding. Finally, Rubedo - the red phase - creates something entirely new and perfect."

Harry studied the diagrams, noticing how each bird seemed to be eating the previous one. "So each stage builds on the last one?"

"Exactly!" Nicolas began pacing, gesturing with his hands. "Think of how a butterfly transforms. First the caterpillar dissolves into black goo - Nigredo. Then it rebuilds into white tissue - Albedo. The yellow chrysalis forms - Citrinitas. Finally, the red and gold butterfly emerges - Rubedo!"

The black sphere pulsed slightly as Harry considered this. "Could we try moving to the next stage?"

"We could certainly try, though-" Nicolas started, but Perenelle's voice interrupted from the stairway.

"Perhaps after a trip to Paris?" she suggested warmly. "You've both been down here for hours, and young Harry should see more of France than just our house."

All three paused when the black sphere flickered, its perfect darkness wavering for a moment before collapsing. Instead of disappearing cleanly like the silver-white sphere had, this one shattered outward in a spray of dark liquid that splashed across the stone floor. The liquid writhed for a few seconds like living ink before evaporating into an acrid smoke that smelled faintly of burnt metal.

"Ah," Nicolas said, not sounding particularly disappointed. "That would be an incomplete transformation. The material wasn't ready to progress beyond the Nigredo stage." He pulled out his notebook again, jotting down observations. "Notice how it tried to maintain cohesion even after breaking down? Fascinating..."

Harry looked at the slightly scorched spots where the liquid had landed. "It felt different at the end. Like it was fighting against itself."

"That's exactly what happens when we try to rush the stages," Nicolas explained, kneeling to examine the scorch marks. "The substance must fully complete its dissolution before it can begin purification. Otherwise..." He gestured at the marks. "Well, you saw what happens."

"Are there any stages beyond the four you mentioned?" Harry asked, looking up from the scorch marks.

Nicolas straightened up from his examination of the floor, brushing off his knees. "Well, the Philosopher's Stone itself is considered a product of the final Rubedo stage. You can see this superficially in its deep red coloring." He paused, stroking his chin. "But something beyond these four stages? In all my centuries, I haven't discovered such a thing."

"But couldn't there be different versions of Rubedo?" Harry asked. "Or maybe something that goes beyond it completely?"

Nicolas settled into a nearby chair, his expression thoughtful. "There are indeed different expressions of the Red Stage. Very few alchemists achieve it even in minor parts through different paths, resulting in varying properties. But something that surpasses Rubedo in all aspects?" He shook his head. "That remains theoretical."

Harry nodded, but he thought back to what his Hero's Journal had mentioned in his own perspective when he first received the firebending offer. It had mentioned other forms - airbending, earthbending, waterbending. The memory sparked a new thought.

"If quintessence is supposed to be perfect," Harry said slowly, "can it really be true quintessence if it's just fire?"

Nicolas leaned forward, interest sharpening his gaze. "Go on."

"Well, in Greek philosophy there were four main elements, right? But I've only been approaching quintessence through fire." Harry gestured at the lingering scorch marks. "Maybe after Rubedo, there are similar phases for the other elements? Water, earth, and air? Or even fire itself?"

Nicolas fell deep in thought, his eyes unfocused as he considered Harry's question. Harry opened his mouth to say more, but stopped when his eyes darkened slightly.

Another offer was coming.

[Natural Talent - Fist Of The North Star] – Costs 100CP, 250CP available to spend.

In both body and mind you are simply better than others. You learn quicker and remember more while your physical training is more effective, showing improvements in less time and making gains faster. It isn't much, perhaps just 1.1 times what you should have, but for someone with drive even that small edge can be an overwhelming advantage in the long run.

Harry accepted without hesitation. Any advantage, no matter how small, could mean advancing his knowledge at a quicker rate. A brief tingling sensation passed through him as both his Hun Soul and Po Soul shifted slightly, though he couldn't pinpoint exactly what had changed.

Harry shook his head, clearing away the lingering feeling. "Should we go to Paris now?" he asked, noticing Perenelle still waiting patiently by the stairs.

"Yes, yes," Nicolas said, though his eyes remained distant. "But we'll certainly revisit this discussion, young man."