Noah was in his room at the Gray Mansion.
Taking a deep breath to focus, he gave a simple command. He didn't speak it — he just willed it.
Imposing his will upon the world.
"Up."
A faint pain pulsed in his head, and a moment later, gravity around him seemed to shift direction — his body was pulled upward.
The room turned upside down as he stood on the ceiling. It felt strange doing this here, in the real world.
There was a certain disturbance. Not easier, not harder than it had been in the realm of the platform — just different, as if the natural forces here obeyed another rhythm entirely.
He walked along the ceiling until he reached a wall, then shifted the pull of gravity again. That let him stroll freely across the entire room.
"The worst part is getting used to how objects react around me. And anything I use..."
If he had something in his pocket, it wouldn't share the same enchantment. It wouldn't fall toward him — it'd fall downward.
"I need to extend my will to nearby objects... maybe like an aura around me? No… not quite."
It was strange — there was still so much to figure out.
Throwing himself onto the bed, he let out a long breath.
"No point getting all worked up. Better to keep a healthy pace and let understanding come naturally..."
Of course, it was hard for him not to get obsessed with anything he liked.
So, to free his mind from this current spell, he decided to focus on something else he loved.
Runes.
And with that came a project he'd been toying with throughout his last year at Hogwarts.
To mix the useful with the enjoyable, he decided his next move would use runes as its foundation. He wanted to create something the wizarding world desperately lacked — something he knew from experience within the castle.
"A game."
The first thing he did was send a letter to his friend and teacher, Nicolas Flamel.
"Dear Professor, how about creating something truly unique with me?"
He attached a detailed outline of his idea. The letter focused on the game's creation — though it hid a second plan, something much more personal to Noah.
The next morning, a reply arrived. His grin widened as he read it.
"Damn it, Lord of Sparks, aren't you being a bit too ambitious? Well, come visit me. I've already started testing a few models and—"
"This old man…" Noah muttered, amused.
That same day, he used his private portkey to visit the Flamels. After chatting with Penny in the sitting room for nearly two hours, he finally managed to sneak away with Nick to the lab.
"So, you really think this is possible?" Nick asked, intrigued.
Noah nodded. "Yeah. The hardest part is the runes, especially for the magic core."
A folder appeared in his hand, filled with papers. He handed it to Nick.
"Take a look."
Then, grabbing a quill and some special ink, he began sketching something on a sheet of parchment while Nick read.
As Nick's eyes scanned the pages, his surprise — and even unease — grew. That didn't happen often. The man had lived over six centuries, after all. But some of the concepts here… were things he'd never even considered. And coming from a twelve-year-old? Impossible.
But he knew Noah wasn't ordinary.
The word genius didn't even come close.
When he finally finished reading, Nick exhaled a long sigh.
"This is quite the idea. Not just the game itself — the golems too… if those were truly possible…"
Noah had finished his drawing and looked up with a small smile.
"They're both possible. The golems might take a while before they develop 'life,' but the game should be ready soon. Of course, I can't do everything alone — that's why I want your help. You've got way more experience with conduits and transmutation than I do."
Nick tapped his fingers on the table, thinking it over. After a while, he nodded.
"All right. But I want one of those golems as a gift when it's done. And I want my own card in your game."
Noah laughed. "Deal."
Nick raised an eyebrow. "And what were you drawing just now?"
Noah handed him the parchment. A complex, unfamiliar pattern was sketched across it.
It took Nick a few seconds to even recognize what he was looking at.
"A rune? But… this complexity… how did you—?"
"Runes alone can be weak. But what if we combine them? A fire rune with a wind rune — that would make a storm." He chuckled, leaning back against the table. "That's the logic I used. I broke runes into hundreds of fragments — stripped the heat from fire, the gentleness from water — took pieces of each, and recombined them into new runes, new concepts."
Nick nodded slowly, listening. He wasn't a rune master, but his alchemical background gave him enough to grasp the brilliance.
"You'd become famous across the entire wizarding world if you ever published that study." He burst out laughing. "Of course, you'd also be the dumbest person alive if you did."
Noah laughed too — he wasn't about to hand away his golden goose that easily.
Nick shook his head, imagining what the world would think once the game was released.
"You're giving them a small taste of that kind of magic. They'll get to admire it, even dream about it. But they'll never copy or truly understand it."
"So," Noah said, smiling, "shall we begin?"
When two mad scientists teamed up to build something, the rest of the world simply ceased to exist.
Noah and Nick forgot everything else and devoted themselves entirely to their project. Like the old days, Noah didn't even go home — he ended up sleeping there in the lab.
If not for Penny constantly checking on them, they probably wouldn't have eaten at all. Even then, they'd bring notes and scraps of parchment to the dining table.
"Third type of paper: failure.
Squid ink: failure.
Pinewood: positive."
Finding the perfect combinations was hard, tedious work — but somehow, Nick still found it fun.
"Let's see if this one fails too... Damn it."
"Fifteenth type of parchment: positive.
Dragon blood: positive.
Acacia wood: positive."
"Hey, kid," he called with a grin. "I've finished cataloging all the materials and their variants."
"Kid?" Nick called again, glancing around the room — then froze.
Noah was gone. In his place was a mountain of wooden cubes, each engraved with rune symbols and etched circuits.
With a wave of his hand, Noah made the cubes float aside into a separate pile, revealing himself seated cross-legged, carefully carving another cube with a silver dagger.
Nick waited patiently for a few minutes until Noah finally looked up, smiling.
"You did it?" Nick asked, stepping closer. The grin on Noah's face already gave away the answer.
"See for yourself." Noah handed him the cube, then stretched his sore muscles.
The moment Nick held the cube, his expression changed. Shocked, he rushed to his desk and began running a dozen tests at once.
Noah didn't seem to care — he simply left the lab.
"How's the project going?" Penny asked as soon as he walked out, handing him a pumpkin tart.
"It's going well. The next part is the creative one." He took a bite.
Penny thought for a moment. "I probably can't help with that part — and I bet Nick can't either."
Noah nodded. "I've got some ideas, but hearing another opinion wouldn't hurt."
He knew how dangerous it was to get trapped in his own thoughts. Creation always needed multiple perspectives — friction bred brilliance.
Just then, a tapping came from the window.
"A letter?" Penny opened it just in time to see an owl fly straight to Noah.
"Hedwig?" he recognized her instantly as Harry's owl.
He took the letter, not minding that the owl stole the rest of his tart and perched by the window to eat it.
Penny laughed and fetched a few more treats for their feathered guest.