Chapter 125: Magical Pathway Weavecraft
Hearing Newt's words, Leonardo could not help the weight that settled in his chest.
He knew it too well: magical pathways were fiendishly intricate, and not something every witch or wizard studied.
He had picked up bits and pieces lately. The Weasley family grimoire, for instance, taught familiarity with one's own pathways and how to develop them to strengthen spellcasting—useful for boosting combat, but a far cry from understanding the pathways of magical creatures.
Greengrass's Bloodlines and Talent ranged farther, discussing how, from the start of gestation, a mother might use potions and charms to raise the odds that her child would inherit robust pathways. The gains were only probabilistic, but the methods did help ensure healthy development.
The foal in question, however, had long since formed and was on the brink of birth. There was little to draw on there.
What he had learned from Quirrell was related, but time had been too short. He had not reached the core material.
He had used the Peeking Fiend's Eye to watch the pathways of many witches, wizards, and magical beasts and had amassed plenty of samples.
The snippets refused to cohere. They would not fuse into a working system in the time he had, let alone into a method to repair a foal's damaged pathways.
Frowning as he worked through the potions Newt had asked for, Leonardo raked his mind for a path forward.
Failing that, shake the Headmaster out of bed. The greatest wizard of the age might not be omnipotent, but still—
[ Ding! ]
[ Loan triggered: Magical Pathway Weavecraft (annual) ]
[ Borrow? ]
The voice snapped him taut, but his hands did not slow.
An annual loan?
The highest tier again.
From the name alone, he knew it would help.
With the brews in their finishing simmer, he split his focus, tending the cauldron while opening the loan details in his head.
[ Loan name: Magical Pathway Weavecraft ]
[ Repayment term: 365 days ]
[ Loan contents: An extraordinary craft for reshaping the magical pathways of magical creatures, drawing on Transfiguration, Alchemy, Potions, and the Dark Arts ]
[ Loan task: Raise one fire dragon to become king of its kind ]
Joy surged up.
Reshape the pathways.
If he could reshape, then returning a pathway to its original pattern ought to be within reach.
So terse a line. But it was an annual loan. The effect would astonish. Loki's Faceless and the Qilin—both annual—had already proved how far such gifts could reach.
Extraordinary craft, indeed.
He pulled himself back to ground. An annual loan was powerful, but its tasks were long and difficult.
Raise a fire dragon to be king of its kind?
Raise. King of a kind?
He spoke to the system.
What is a "king" among dragons? And what counts as a "kind"?
There were more breeds of dragon than any other magical beast—ten clearly recorded and more rare hybrids, even land‑wyrms born of dragons and other creatures. Clarity mattered.
[ Dragons bow only to strength. In any one kind, the strongest is king ]
[ One distinct breed counts as a kind ]
Understood. A straightforward beating of all comers.
He would have to raise one dragon to outstrip the rest and knock its peers down.
What would count as "raised by me"?
[ First, the dragon must obey the Host. The Host must provide its habitat, food, and combat training, and accompany it for more than half a year ]
So, room and board, obedience, and lessons in fighting. A sustained bond of six months or more.
A Pokémon trainer by another name.
Ordinarily, daunting. It would mean taming a dragon at the start and making it heed commands, best as a hatchling, since a grown dragon was set in its ways and took no orders.
Except.
Hagrid would soon have a dragon on his hands.
Rather, a dragon egg.
In the original line of events, the hatchling would be sent away before long.
He could keep it in the enchanted flask's inner space, out of sight and mind.
And the one who had been set to report Hagrid's pet dragon was Malfoy.
As for the chance that the boy would report him, heh.
Between his own affinity for beasts and Aurelius's help, taming a dragon from the first breath was far from impossible.
As for making the dragon king, teaching was teaching, whether the pupil had two legs or four.
Who said students had to be human?
Had Aurelius not learned well enough?
[ Loan approved: Magical Pathway Weavecraft (annual) ]
[ Evaluation: A certain enthusiast for this craft once said, "I only wanted to people the world with more interesting creatures. Those brutes slandered me, saying they were my own get. They should all be turned into sheep…" ]
Leonardo had no time to parse the line. A mass of knowledge flooded in.
His skull rang. Veins stood at his temples. Cold sweat ran.
He kept silent through the pain and finished the brew with shaking hands.
It was the most tangled body of knowledge he had ever taken on. It braided too many threads, chiefly Transfiguration and Potions, with Alchemy, Charms, and the Dark Arts in dizzying application.
He forced it into order and sketched the steps.
First, brew a potion to calm a magical beast, ease its soul, and fix its pathways in place for the operation to come. It would require alchemical methods; this would not be potion-making pure and simple.
He winced and gave his head a slight shake. A thought lit.
From his pocket, he drew a stiff card signed by Albus Dumbledore, the special permit.
"Aurelius, fetch someone for me. The place is…"
He beckoned the Qilin close and pressed the permit into his care.
"They will believe you when they see this."
"Go."
When Aurelius was gone, Leonardo lifted the fresh brew from the bench and crouched at Newt's side.
"Mr. Scamander, your potion."
Newt nodded, took it, and looked it over. "Excellent work, and in time. The mare is stable for the moment. We can begin deli—"
"Are you well? You are very pale."
He had finally looked up at Leonardo's washed face and bloodless lips and frowned, not understanding how brewing had led to this.
"I am fine," Leonardo said, waving it away. "What do you need me to do?"
"Save Seleneia and the baby first."