Chapter 4: Chapter 3
A/N - Another almost 3K words! Wohoo. Tried playing around with flashbacks and different POVs. Please leave feedback, this is my first time doing creative writing.
--TiiiiimeSkiiiiip-
'Dear Ms Knight, We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed…'
"Muuuum! My letter is here!"
Honestly, it's kind of underwhelming. I expected the letter to feel more magical, the only excitement I feel is from the fact that I can properly start my research at Hogwarts. I've been reading as much magical theory as I can get my hand on for the last couple of years, with the money coming in from my investments. I finally submitted a proof and claimed the million dollars when I was 9. Unfortunately there weren't any meaningful tech companies yet that were on the public stock market. So I did the next best thing - invested in restaurant chains, enough to get a dividend off the profits, which were reinvested over the years into tech companies that become available, or other businesses. I still get a good chunk of those alone, and with Money came books.
I've mainly focused on magical theory, and not much on actual practical magic. I've done control exercises and telekinetic practice with magic, but not any advanced spells or anything, select first year spells at the max. It's not that I can't cast them, I have enough power and knowledge to do so, but the magical core is unstable and chaotic before around 11, that's why magical education starts then and why accidental magic happens to young children. However, considering I need to fuse my magical core and my soul somehow, it's extremely dangerous so I don't want to take any risk of damaging either by possibly straining or affecting it whilst it isn't stable. Especially since mine is stronger than average naturally and there is more to go wrong.
"Morning, honey!" My mum comes out of her bedroom, giving me a hug and a kiss on the cheek. "Let me see that" and plucks the letter out of my hand.
"Hmmm, let's see, nothings changed much from when I was at Hogwarts. We can go to Diagon Alley this Friday to buy your supplies" My mum is pretty young, all things considered. She had me straight out of seventh year, so now wonder Hogwarts curriculum hasn't changed much. She actually doesn't work anymore with the new income, even if she wants to. I convinced her she can go to work when I'm at Hogwarts, and to relax and spend time with me as much as possible because she won't be seeing me when I start there apart from the holidays. And I don't go to school either anymore, since she's known I'm a young genius ever since a bit before I turned 9.
*Flashback ~ 2 years ago~*
"Mommmy! Hurry up, you promised we'd go to the bookstore today!" I say to my mum, it's important to act childish and bratty sometimes. Makes the kid act more authentic.
"Yes, yes honey, I'm almost ready. Go wait at the front door, and I'll be there in 5 minutes" pfft lies I tell you.
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10 minutes later mum comes out, gotten herself ready in a blue sundress and sandals, today being a rare day in the UK with warm sunny weather.
She grabs my hand, and then she side-along apparates us to any alleyway near the bookstore, under a notice-me-not.
Soon we're browsing books, and she's given me a limit of 1 book. Money is still tight right now so I know how hard it is for her to spend money on luxuries and recreation. And the book I plan on convincing me to buy is a university level maths or physics book, which might as well cost an arm and leg, but I need her to discover my genius so I can get started on my investment plan. And then I can give mum a comfortable life.
Hmm, 'Applied Partial Differential Equations' yeah that'll do. I pick it up and go find Mum
"Mommy! I found the book I want" I say showing her the book. The look on her face is a mix of amusement from me seemingly picking a university book and confusion from not understanding what the book is about
"Alex honey, this might be a bit too hard for you, I'm not sure if I even understand it. When you grow older and learn more about it, if you want it then I'll buy it for you"
"nah ah, it's not hard" I say tilting and shaking my head cutely "look, it's simple. This book is about pure maths formulas and how taking a partial differential of it relates it to events in the real world. Look, this formula models population growth, and it can be used for a model of any species. You just need to have the fertility rate, the previous year's population and the rate of death. And it accurately predicts the growth. With just those 3 variables, it can model a complex ecosystem with multiple factors accurately. There is another one that measures who a chemical in a fluid spreads throughout it, according to temperature, the viscosity of the fluid… " I continue to rattle off facts about the things in the book, and probably things that are too advanced for this book still. But it's not like she knows that and will go looking for it.
"Alex are you sure you understand this?"
"Yeah! It's easy and fun!"
"sigh, fun she says. OK honey I'll buy you this book, but take care of it. It's expensive. And I'll have to see about going to the local High school or college to meet some professors and look into the library"
And meet she did, but she still underestimated me. I don't blame her for not knowing how exactly amazing it is for a 9 year old to understand uni texts. Eventually the college professor put me in touch with a university lecturer, and a critically acclaimed mathematician. And from there showed them my genius and it was only a matter of time before I solved a millennium problem, got the bounty and started investing.
Eventually convinced my mum to stop sending me to school and stop working. Luna also stopped going to school then, because she only really went to spend time with me. I can confidently state that I am her best friend.
*Flashback end*
"I'll go contact Pandora and Molly, and find out when they plan on going to the Alley, so you girls can go together"
Yeah I also met the weasleys, with how much I hang out with Luna it was bound to happen. I mainly know Ginny and Molly. But eventually I would some other siblings as well, Ron being the most common out of them. I actually tried steering Ginny from her stalker-ish behaviour towards the great Harry Potter, and making her act like a better friend than in canon to Luna. She's not a good friend, but she definitely is better than before. I tried the same for Ron to make him less jealous, lazy and bigoted but with how little I see him I have no idea if it worked out or not. Oh well they're just children right now and hopefully will grow up.
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*Diagon Alley*
"Luna, Ginny Here!" I say to the two girls, walking towards them. I can see the weasley brothers and father, along with Harry Potter going towards the quidditch store, with Molly and Ginny keeping put. I can see the longing in Ginny's eyes, wanting to go into the Quidditch store with the rest of her family, but obviously Molly Weasley doesn't think girls should be into quidditch. Maybe I'll get the poor girl a quidditch broom. I am moderately rich, and getting richer, now after all.
Next to the two, Luna and Pandora are standing. Luna is the picture of gentleness and aloof, but I can see the excitement bubbling under her mask of aloofness. She gives me a warm smile and wave. Pandora on the other hand gives a motherly smile, and a hug when I get to them. She's come to see me as a second daughter with how close me and Luna are, especially after what happened 2 years ago.
*Flashback ~ Around 2 years ago again*
"Aunt Pandora!"
"Hey Alex, how are you? What are you doing here? Don't you want to play with Luna?"
"She's in her room, with Ginny and Uncle Xeno. I wanted to talk to you" I say giving her an innocent look.
"Yeah? What about?"
"Well I got some maths books from the mundane world, and I really like it so far. And I remembered you told me you're a spellcrafter and use Arithmancy. I was wondering if you could show me some of that"
"Oh look at you, already interested in magical theory. I'm sure you'll be a raven just like me. Sure, I'm actually working on a spell right now. I'll show you the basics. Remember you can't choose Arithmancy as an elective until third year"
Hah basics, she'll end up explaining at least NEWT level concepts, if not mastery level. "I know!"
-POV change-
Pandora didn't know what to think. She'd known that Alexandra had always been smarter than her peers, but this was ridiculous. She'd thought that when Alex had come to her to learn about Magical Theory, that was where her talents lie. Sure it was a bit advanced, but mainly it was just her asking questions. Just a curiosity of an active and inquisitive mind.
When one day Alex asked her to show her about spellcrafting and Arithmancy. She was happy, hopefully she'd awaken an interest into the notoriously difficult art. But what she did was much more. She'd started off with the basics, but Alex just absorbed it like a sponge, like she was born with a numbers chart in her hand. Not to mention she would throw in tidbits about magical theory that she'd asked her about before, and seamlessly integrated the two. The little devil had been learning and innovating when she was asking her questions.
"So the 3 different spell matrices each control a different aspect of the spell - the amount of power needed to prep the s, the effect of it and the delayed activation reaction. Whether it activates as soon as it hits something or only when hitting something living. Then you multiply the 3 together and apply another matrix to control the velocity, shape and colour and encode an activation phrase and wand movement"
"Yeah, didn't you find this confusing at all dear? This is past newt level stuff here. Have you always been able to do this?"
"Yeah, i get it. Ever since i can remember I've really loved big numbers and playing with them in my head"
'Oh Merlin, she's a monster' Pandora couldn't help but think. If Alex had guidance she could easily become the most renowned witch in recent years. Maybe more than the Dark Lord.
"Alex, you're a natural at this. Most people would do anything to have what you have. I'll see if I can get my old Hogwarts books and teach you more. But I want you to be careful with it though. Spellcrafting is dangerous, and you need to make sure you never attempt it unsupervised at your age"
"I know it's dangerous, Aunty. Just look at this spell you showed me. It's clearly going to fail"
'Merlin, she's discovering mistakes now after 1 afternoon lesson. And what does she mean by clearly?'
"What do you mean dear? You haven't seen what the spell's supposed to do, and you haven't seen the prototype in action to see what is going fail"
"Nuh uh, it won't even activate. This is a simple maths problem. You're using Complex numbers in some of the matrices, so you need to be very careful when using them with formulas. In this matrix there is an error in how the numbers are multiplied between 1 and 3, and it diverges to infinity"
"Dear, what do you mean by diverges to infinity and complex numbers?"
"Complex numbers are numbers that we think exist in a different dimension, but we can't prove it and know if they are used in nature or the universe. We can do special maths with it, so it is possible, just need proof. And here Wizards are just using them to make magic happen without realising what amazing things they are doing. If Wizards were part of the Mundane world, they'd be so well renowned in the scholar world"
"And the infinity?"
"Well, try adding all the numbers together-1, 2, 3 etc. They always get bigger and never end, that's infinity. In Maths there are some infinities that have a limit to it, we don't know what it is exactly, but we know it ends and can do maths. In this matrix your formula keeps making the number bigger and there is no limit to it. So the final spell just keeps pulling more magic for infinity, and eventually explodes in a massive explosion before even activating and leaving the wand"
Pandora listened to Alex, and couldn't help but be terrified. 'If Alex is right, then I could've potentially killed myself, and or worse Luna if she was anywhere near me. She saved my life, and further still she could potentially make the whole field of Spellcrafting safer by just knowing if something is going to explode or just not activate'
"Alex dear, I'll be sure to teach you more about spellcrafting. But could you do me a favour and look over my work and make sure I don't get anything wrong. I might have made a bad and careless decision"
"Sure!" Pandora sighed at that, 'Alex might have only been a bit older than Luna but I'd rather err on the side of caution, she's already shown her pure genius'
"MOMMMYY!" Both Pandora and Alex, who is sitting on her lap, crouched over the work desk, look up to see Luna running into the room, crying.
"Honey, what's wrong, why are you crying?" Pandora asks, taking Alex off her lap, and going to Luna and picking her up.
*Sniff* "I had a vision" *sniff* "You were working on your spell, and were practising and then there was fire everywhere and you weren't responding"
Pandora's face lost all colour at that, now she knows Alex had definitely saved her life. "Don't worry honey, it's alright. Alex helped me with my work, and made sure nothing bad would happen. Come, I'll take you to bed. I'm sure Ginny and Alex won't mind you and me going to bed early"
"What happened with Luna?" Xenophillius asks walking into the room, along with Ginny
"I'll tell you later, Luna's upset right now. Do you mind taking the girls home?"
"Okay sure, come along girls"
""Okay, see you later Luna""
"Oh and Alex! Thank you so much again"
"No problem Aunty"
*Flashback end*
-POV Alex-
Ever since then I've gotten much closer to the Lovegoods. And I still think about the fact that Wizards use parts of complex maths unknowingly. At least it gave me a link to the fact that deconstructing and creating a new magic system that affects reality on a more fundamental level is not just a pipe dream.
"Hey Luna, are you excited to get your Hogwarts supplies?" I tease, knowing full well how she feels.
"Stop teasing me!" tch she's catching on, give me back my innocent Luna.
"Come on, let's go! Adventure awaits" I say exaggeratedly, grabbing her hand. Time to throw canon out the window!
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