"No, I don't even need to guess. The words 'Nicolas Flamel is overrated' were practically written across your face just now."
Flamel looked at Dawn and continued calmly:
"Albus told me that you can transform blood into magical creatures. That is indeed impressive. But Dawn... do you believe that counts as creating life?"
Creating life?
Dawn thought about it carefully.
Strictly speaking, perhaps it did not count. After all, he was merely transforming and replicating magical creatures.
But if someone insisted it did count, the argument could still hold up reasonably well.
"And what do you think, Mr. Flamel?" Dawn asked knowingly.
"I think it does not."
Flamel shook his head immediately.
"Creating life is not nearly so simple. Even now, almost nobody has truly accomplished it."
...Almost nobody?
Dawn narrowed his eyes.
"Mr. Flamel, I don't mean to question you, but aren't there many artificially created beings throughout history? Dementors, for example. Basilisks too."
"They do not count as created life either."
Flamel continued speaking with complete confidence.
Dawn genuinely did not know how to respond anymore. After a long silence, he finally squeezed out one sentence:
"And your reasoning?"
"Reasoning, hm..." Flamel smiled before asking another question. "Child, have you heard of Paracelsus?"
Paracelsus?
Dawn frowned and thought for a moment before shaking his head. That name truly meant nothing to him.
"Paracelsus was a sixteenth-century Swiss physician and alchemist."
Flamel began explaining slowly.
"He proposed a rather fascinating theory known as the Salt-Sulfur-Mercury Trinity."
Then he continued:
"He used those three substances to symbolize the body, the soul, and the spirit.
He also claimed that through alchemy, one could cultivate miniature artificial life within a flask, something he called the Homunculus in the Bottle."
Body, soul, spirit...
Dawn narrowed his eyes thoughtfully.
From a certain perspective, that trinity actually aligned perfectly with his own ideas regarding what composed a human being.
After a brief pause, Flamel continued:
"Setting aside whether Paracelsus was correct or merely delusional, his theory did identify four prerequisites for the creation of life."
"Four?"
Dawn froze slightly.
Wasn't it supposed to be a three-part system?
"Yes. Four."
Flamel raised four fingers.
"Body, soul, spirit... and most importantly, the bottle itself."
...The bottle?
Dawn repeated the word silently, his eyes narrowing as thoughts rapidly formed in his mind. Still, he remained quiet and waited for Flamel's explanation.
The alchemy master smacked his lips lightly.
Before continuing, he first requested a pot of tea from the house-elves and stopped them from crying loudly and punishing themselves for insufficient hospitality.
Only then did he continue leisurely:
"Child, before I explain further, you must first understand how alchemists perceive the structure of this world."
Flamel took a sip of tea.
"In the eyes of alchemists, magic does not merely exist within wizards. It permeates the entire world."
Permeates the world...
Natural magic?
Dawn's eyes narrowed briefly before relaxing again. Natural magic was hardly a secret.
The Pharaohs who ruled Egypt for countless years certainly knew of it.
The Four Founders who left behind the Castle Consciousness likely understood it as well.
So Nicolas Flamel knowing about it was hardly surprising... What truly surprised Dawn instead was something else.
"Mr. Flamel, have you never explained this to Headmaster?"
From Dawn's perspective, Dumbledore did not seem particularly knowledgeable about natural magic.
Flamel blinked at the seemingly random question before understanding.
"Oh? So your understanding of the world resembles that of alchemists?"
Interest flickered in his eyes, but he soon shook his head. "Child, that question is rather arrogant."
He spread his hands lightly.
"Why should I tell Albus? No person's understanding is absolutely correct."
Flamel spoke slowly.
"A person's interpretation of magic—or magic power itself—is an intensely personal thing. Everyone understands it differently."
"Albus has his own philosophy. Nobody has the right to force their worldview upon someone else."
The alchemy master even smiled slightly while saying this.
Dawn, however, looked disdainful. "You mean his belief in love?"
"Yes. Love."
Flamel nodded seriously.
"Child, love is an extraordinarily powerful force as well. Never underestimate any wizard who has reached such heights."
Dawn frowned and fell silent.
Truthfully, he actually agreed with Flamel's statement. In fact, he himself had expressed similar ideas countless times before.
That was the fascinating aspect of mental magic. There was no single objectively correct theory.
Sometimes what one perceived did not necessarily represent absolute reality.
Take the magical mist Dawn saw gathering during extreme weather conditions.
Could he truly prove that those phenomena existed independently of his subconscious belief that they should exist?
No one could answer that.
So perhaps Dumbledore's claim that love represented the ultimate secret of magic really did contain some truth.
"All right, back to the main subject."
Flamel's sudden voice interrupted Dawn's thoughts.
"Since you already believe magic exists beyond wizards themselves, the explanation becomes much simpler."
He took another sip of tea.
"One of the prerequisites for creating life through alchemy is that no magic aside from one's own may participate."
"The bottle represents isolation from the world itself."
As he spoke, he began addressing Dawn's earlier examples.
"In the creation of basilisks and dementors, whether intentionally or unintentionally, those dark wizards all utilized external magic."
"So according to alchemical definitions, none of those creations truly qualify as creating life."
Flamel set down his cup.
Dawn slowly furrowed his brows. The involvement of external magic...
Thinking about it carefully, that actually made sense.
Basilisks, for example, were hatched from chicken eggs beneath toads. Ritualistic elements were clearly involved, meaning natural magic had participated in the process.
Dementors likely followed similar principles.
Dawn rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
Flamel had approached the issue from a surprisingly unique angle.
If interpreted through Dawn's understanding of magic, then perhaps Flamel's meaning was this:
Creatures born through natural magic—or rituals, to put it plainly—were not truly "created." Rather, they were lifeforms predetermined by collective consciousness itself.
The wizard merely acted as the catalyst through which the world brought those beings into existence.
That still fell far short of genuine creation.
True creation of life could only occur entirely within the bottle, completely isolated from external influence.
Suddenly, Flamel asked:
"When you transform blood into magical creatures, external magic participates in the process as well, correct?"
Dawn nodded honestly without attempting to deny it.
Then—
He suddenly recalled Flamel's earlier phrasing: Almost nobody has achieved it.
Almost.
Dawn's eyelid twitched. "Has someone actually succeeded before?"
"Of course." Flamel nodded meaningfully. "And you've personally seen the result yourself."
Personally seen it?
Impossible.
Dawn froze, immediately reviewing every strange creature he had ever encountered.
Yet no answer surfaced.
Flamel smiled and offered a hint:
"That being resides within Hogwarts itself. Last year, you even placed it upon your own head."
"...Wait." Dawn's pupils contracted violently. "You can't possibly mean—the Sorting Hat?!"
Flamel's hints had become far too obvious. Yet even after arriving at the answer, Dawn still found it absurd beyond belief.
The Sorting Hat. Homunculus. Artificial life.
The words swirled chaotically through his thoughts, turning his mind into a complete mess.
True, he had always felt the Sorting Hat possessed extraordinary qualities.
But he had never imagined it was extraordinary to this extent.
Flamel burst into hearty laughter, clearly enjoying Dawn's rapidly changing expressions.
"That's right."
"Using alchemy to create life while rejecting the world's interference... throughout all my years, I have only seen one successful example."
"The Sorting Hat."
Dawn still looked dazed.
He shook his head and rubbed his temples.
"Wait a second... You're saying Godric Gryffindor was actually an incredibly skilled alchemist?"
Wasn't Gryffindor supposed to be a sword-wielding warrior archetype?
Even if that image was somewhat stereotypical, it still felt impossibly distant from the image of an alchemy master.
"Broadly speaking, any individual capable of wielding magic could be considered an alchemist."
Flamel poured Dawn another cup of tea.
"Besides, according to historical records, the Sorting Hat was created jointly by all four Founders."
"I once examined one of their surviving notebooks. Although the actual process had been damaged beyond recovery, the result itself undeniably proved they succeeded."
Flamel sounded genuinely emotional while speaking.
History had proven repeatedly that no wizard capable of leaving behind an immortal legacy was ever simple.
Every one of them possessed terrifying abilities in their own fields.
But at that moment, a strange exception suddenly surfaced in Flamel's thoughts, shifting his emotions from admiration to confusion.
Merlin.
Despite being the single most famous wizard in modern Britain—
Oddly enough, across centuries of history, aside from becoming a common exclamation, Merlin seemed to have left behind nothing truly groundbreaking.
The more Flamel thought about it, the stranger it seemed.
A wizard whose name endured for so many centuries should not have vanished so completely without leaving meaningful traces behind.
Flamel frowned slightly.
But soon afterward, he laughed at himself.
He was already supposed to be dead, yet he still worried about these things.
If he truly remained curious, perhaps once he finally reached the world of the dead, he could simply ask Merlin personally.
Sipping his tea, Flamel casually tossed the question aside.
___________
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