Young Celestial Wizard [Celestial Grimoire, Harry Potter]

Harry followed Perenelle down a winding stone staircase to Nicolas's workshop. The room was cluttered but organized in its own way - shelves lined with bottles of every color, bundles of dried herbs hanging from the ceiling, and what looked like at least five different cauldrons bubbling quietly in various corners.

Nicolas Flamel stood beside a clean workbench, his white hair wild and his robes covered in colorful stains. His eyes sparkled with enthusiasm as he gestured Harry over. "Ah, there you are! Ready for your first proper potions lesson?"

"Yes, sir," Harry said, eyeing the neat rows of ingredients laid out on the bench.

"Wonderful! But first-" Nicolas pulled out a chair. "Pop quiz! What's the difference between crushing and grinding when preparing ingredients?"

Harry barely had to think, the words from the book appearing clearly in his mind. "Crushing releases internal juices while keeping fibers intact. Grinding turns everything into powder. You crush sopophorous beans but grind unicorn horn."

"Excellent! And why must we never store armadillo bile in copper containers?"

"Because it reacts with copper to make toxic fumes," Harry answered promptly. "Also, it eats through the metal."

Nicolas clapped his hands together. "Now, what happens if you stir a Shrinking Solution counterclockwise instead of clockwise?"

"The book didn't say anything about that," Harry said with a small frown.

"Ah-ha!" Nicolas grinned. "Good! Always question what isn't explained. The answer, by the way, is that it explodes rather spectacularly. Found that out the hard way back in... oh, must have been 1345?"

He gestured toward the workbench. "Now then, we'll start with something simple but useful - a basic Cure for Boils. Can you tell me the key ingredients?"

As Harry listed them off - dried nettles, snake fangs, horned slugs, and porcupine quills - Nicolas set up a small copper cauldron. "Very good. Now, first step?"

Harry reached for the snake fangs and the mortar and pestle. He began crushing them, and immediately something felt... different. Like he knew exactly how much pressure to use, how to angle the pestle to get the most even consistency. The crushed fangs came out perfect - not too fine, not too coarse.

"Hmmm," Nicolas murmured, peering at the crushed fangs. "That's precisely the right consistency. Most students take weeks to develop that touch."

Harry glanced at Nicolas, who was still examining the crushed snake fangs with fascination. "Grandpa Dumbledore probably told you I'm not normal?"

Nicolas looked up with a bright grin, his stained robes rustling as he straightened. "Oh yes! Though I must say, even after Albus's explanations, I never imagined..." He waved his hands excitedly at the perfectly crushed ingredients. "This level of intuitive understanding is extraordinary!"

"Well..." Harry bit his lip, then decided to explain. "I once got to pick from different enchantments, and one was better skill at Alchemy. I chose it because..." He looked down at his feet. "I wanted to be like Grandpa. But it turned out to be about potions instead of alchemy. Then later it got stuck in my soul because of another thing that happened."

"Stuck in your soul?" Nicolas's eyebrows shot up. "That would explain the instinctive knowledge." He picked up the mortar, turning it this way and that. "You can feel exactly how to prepare the ingredients, can't you?"

Harry nodded. "It's like... I just know. Like how birds know which way is south." He reached for the dried nettles. "Can I try these next?"

"Of course, of course!" Nicolas pulled up a stool and sat down, his eyes sparkling with interest. "You know, there's more overlap between potions and alchemy than most realize. Both require perfect balance between opposing forces."

Harry's head snapped up. "Like Yin and Yang?"

"Precisely!" Nicolas clapped his hands together. "Take the Philosopher's Stone - it represents the perfect unity of opposing elements. Just as your crushed snake fangs need to be neither too fine nor too coarse, the Stone requires exact balance between-" He stopped himself. "But perhaps that's too advanced for now."

Nicolas cleared his throat and gestured toward the cauldron. "Well then, shall we continue? Everything you need is right here."

Harry turned to the ingredients. Without thinking too much about it, he began preparing them in a sequence that felt natural. Rather than following the recipe's order exactly, he crushed the dried nettles while heating the base, knowing it would give the active components more time to properly dissolve.

The snake fangs went in next, but Harry found himself stirring in a slight figure-eight pattern instead of the simple clockwise motion the recipe called for. From the books he had read in the Hogwarts library, this would give just the extra motion needed for the snake fangs and dried nettles to properly mix.

Nicolas watched silently from his stool, occasionally leaning forward with interest but never interrupting. His fingers sometimes twitched as if wanting to point something out, but he kept quiet.

When it came time to add the porcupine quills, Harry removed the cauldron from the fire first - something explicitly stated in the recipe. But he also waited exactly twelve seconds longer than specified, until the surface stopped bubbling completely. The quills sank in with a satisfying hiss.

The final step called for five clockwise stirs. Harry did exactly that, but added a gentle quarter-turn counterclockwise at the end of each rotation. The potion turned a perfect pink, with a slight pearly sheen that wasn't mentioned in the recipe's description.

"Magnificent," Nicolas said, finally breaking his silence. He pulled the cauldron closer, examining the potion from different angles. "You made at least seven improvements to the standard recipe, did you realize that?"

Harry shook his head. "I just did what felt right."

"That's exactly what I meant to test!" Nicolas smirked slightly from his seat. "You see, this recipe is deliberately inefficient. We use this technique across magical schools worldwide to identify students with natural talent." He dipped a ladle into the potion, lifting it to watch the liquid flow back down. "The pearly sheen, for instance - that only happens when the ingredients are added in the optimal order, not the one listed in the book."

"So it was like a test?" Harry asked, watching the potion shimmer.

"More like... a puzzle missing pieces." Nicolas set down the ladle and pulled out a small notebook. "Most students follow the recipe exactly. Some might make one or two improvements if they're particularly gifted. But you..." He gestured at the cauldron with his quill. "You filled in all the gaps without even realizing there were gaps to fill."

Harry glanced at the cauldron again. "That's because of the enchantment in my soul now. It gives me a talent for potions."

"Not entirely," Nicolas said, tapping his fingers on the workbench. "The talent helps greatly, yes, but you still need to understand why things work the way they do." He reached for a clean vial and carefully poured some of the potion into it. "Tell me, why did you stir in that figure-eight pattern?"

Harry perked up at the question. "Oh, I saw that in the library! There was this really old book that talked about how stirring in different patterns affects potions." He traced the figure-eight shape in the air with his finger. "The figure-eight makes ingredients mix better because it creates tiny whirlpools that pull everything together."

Nicolas smiled at that answer. "Exactly! Most wizards and witches just stir in circles because that's what the recipes say. But you found something better in an old book and remembered it." He set down the filled vial and picked up another. "That's what makes a true potioneer - curiosity about why things work, not just following instructions."

"The library at Hogwarts has lots of interesting books," Harry said, watching Nicolas carefully decant more of the potion. "Sometimes I find things that aren't in the normal school books."

"Ah yes, the Hogwarts library." Nicolas chuckled, setting aside the second vial. "I donated quite a few books there myself over the centuries, as I imagine many old wizards do."

He pulled out his wand and cleaned the remaining potion from the cauldron with a quick spell. "Now then, would you like to know why your potion turned out better than the standard recipe?"

Harry nodded eagerly.

"Well, you see-" Nicolas grabbed a piece of chalk and started drawing on the workbench. "When you make a potion, it's like building with blocks. Some ingredients want to stick together, others try to push each other apart. The recipe in the book..." He drew a wobbly tower. "Makes a tower that works, but isn't very stable."

Nicolas drew another tower next to the wobbly one, this one with more balanced blocks. His chalk squeaked against the workbench as he worked, white dust falling onto his already-stained robes. "But if you understand how ingredients want to behave, you can build something stronger."

"Like how the snake fangs want to sink but the dried nettles want to float?" Harry asked, watching the chalk move.

"Exactly!" Nicolas's eyes lit up. "But it goes deeper than that. You see, in alchemy we believe everything has a nature - hot or cold, wet or dry. Snake fangs are cold and dry, while nettles are hot and wet. When you mix them just right..." He drew arrows between the blocks. "They balance each other."

Harry thought about what he'd just learned about Yin and Yang. The nettles were like fire - hot and always trying to rise up. The snake fangs were like earth - heavy and wanting to stay down. "So the figure-eight stirring makes them..." He moved his hands together like pieces fitting. "Complete each other?"

"Yes, yes! That's exactly it. In alchemy, we call this the unity of opposites. Everything seeks its counter-nature." He drew more symbols on the workbench. "Fire seeks water, earth seeks air. When we make potions, we're helping these opposites find each other."

"And that's why my potion came out better?" Harry looked at the vials of pink liquid. "Because I helped the ingredients find their... their opposite parts?"

"Precisely! Though we typically say 'complementary elements' rather than opposite parts." Nicolas waved his wand, clearing the chalk drawings. "You see, a truly masterful potion isn't about forcing ingredients together - it's about understanding their natures and helping them achieve perfect unity."

Harry nodded slowly. It was like what the books said about Yin needing Yang, but Flamel talked about it differently. Same idea, different words. "Is that what the Philosopher's Stone does? Makes things... complete?"

Nicolas's eyebrows shot up, and his usual excited movement stilled for a moment. "That's... a remarkably astute question for someone your age." He twirled his wand between his fingers, thinking. "Yes, in a way. But perhaps we should save that discussion for when you're a bit older."

Nicolas leaned forward, his stained robes rustling. "Though... you know what? Let me tell you a story about an old Greek named Empedocles. He believed everything in the world was made of four elements - fire, water, earth, and air."

Harry perked up. This sounded a lot more interesting than going back to basic potions.

"Now, Empedocles said these elements were moved by two forces - Love and Strife." Nicolas's hands waved through the air as he spoke. "Love brings different things together, while Strife pulls them apart. Like how water and oil separate, but sugar and water mix."

"Like how the snake fangs and nettles wanted to mix?" Harry asked.

"Yes! Exactly!" Nicolas jumped up from his stool and started pacing. "But it goes deeper. The ancient Greeks believed everything sought perfection - its most complete form. That's what Love does - it helps things become whole."

He spun around, nearly knocking over an empty cauldron. "Take lead, for example. The Greeks thought it was just... incomplete gold. Like a painting missing its colors. So if you could perfect it..."

"It would turn into gold?" Harry's eyes widened.

"Now you're thinking like an alchemist!" Nicolas beamed, then caught himself. "Oh dear, I've gotten rather off track, haven't I? We were supposed to be working on basic potions..."

But Harry didn't want to go back to potions just yet. "So the Philosopher's Stone helps things become perfect? Like how Love makes things complete?"

Nicolas ran a hand through his wild white hair. "Well... yes. Though Perenelle always says I shouldn't discuss such things with..." He trailed off, looking at Harry's eager face. "Oh, what's the harm? Yes, that's exactly what the Stone does. It helps things achieve their perfect form."

The old alchemist's eyes had taken on a distant, dreamy quality. "You see, we believed - still believe, really - that everything wants to be gold. It's the perfect metal, you understand? Can't be corrupted, won't rust or tarnish. Pure. Complete." He blinked, coming back to himself. "But we should really get back to your potions lesson..."

"Please tell me more about the Greeks?" Harry asked. This was way more interesting than crushing more snake fangs.

Nicolas glanced at the door, then grinned conspiratorially. "Well... I suppose a bit more philosophy won't hurt. Did you know Aristotle thought everything had a natural place it wanted to return to? That's why smoke rises and stones fall..."