Feather and Steel Golems
Daphne's question about where the Beauxbatons students slept was answered as they walked down the open grounds outside the castle and watched all the students heading toward the large carriage parked not too far away.
However, unlike before, the carriage no longer had wheels and rested directly on the ground. Around it, a glowing fence covered in flowering vines and several decorations, such as silver lanterns on the corners, clearly meant to light the area at night, marked the perimeter. There was even a stone path leading from the entrance, as well as chairs and tables under blue and white parasols, arranged in perfect symmetry. Everything looked carefully prepared to ensure the visiting students were completely comfortable.
Hagrid's hut, not far from there, created a clear contrast between the two places.
"Wow, it looks like they settled in pretty well," Daphne said with a small smile, taking in all the details added to the area.
"When you have money, you can do whatever you want," Harry commented with a slightly sarcastic tone as the four of them headed toward the temporary residence of the Beauxbatons students.
A few students glanced at them for a moment, but once they recognized them, they simply greeted them like old acquaintances, without making a fuss about them entering the carriage. Or rather, the house, as if it were nothing unusual.
The moment they crossed the entrance, they could not help but be surprised. Although the carriage already looked enormous from the outside, the inside seemed at least ten times larger. It was, quite literally, a mansion. The entrance hall reflected an air of refined elegance, and every object looked like it was worth a fortune. Marble floors, clean white walls, portraits of former students and professors, and, right in front of them, a large display case filled with trophies, likely from past school competitions.
Two massive staircases rose on either side of the display case, which covered almost an entire wall. Students were constantly going up and down, moving between different rooms.
"Oh, you arrived just in time," Luciel said, peeking out from the top of one of the staircases. "Come on, Monsieur Flamel asked me to wait for you," she added, gesturing with her head.
The others quickly climbed the stairs, observing the place with clear interest. Upon reaching the second floor, Luciel led them down the corridor at a brisk pace, while they noticed the large number of doors lined up on both sides.
"They are classrooms," Luciel explained. "Originally, the carriage was designed as a sort of mobile school, back in the days when the Triwizard Tournament was held regularly. After that, it was stored away. According to the headmistress, it was created by Monsieur and Madame Flamel," she added.
"But now, since we have few students, they took the opportunity to turn several of those classrooms into private rooms," she continued.
"Mmm," the four of them responded almost at the same time, already lacking much interest. It was nothing out of the ordinary for them. After all, they had used tents during the World Cup that were just as large inside as this place.
Luciel looked at them for a moment and rolled her eyes, remembering exactly who she was dealing with. "We are here," she said, pointing at one of the doors, which had an elegant golden "Do Not Disturb" engraved on it.
"Thanks," Harry said with a smile, while Daphne stepped closer to Luciel and handed her a galleon as a tip.
Luciel looked at the coin, then at Daphne, and quickly walked away.
Knock, knock, knock.
Harry knocked on the door.
"Come in," Nicolas' voice answered from inside almost immediately, as the door opened on its own.
The moment they stepped inside, the four of them could not help but look around and froze slightly at the entrance.
The room looked like a mix between an alchemy workshop and an experimental laboratory. At that moment, however, light chaos reigned. Metal animals moved everywhere. Metal snakes slithered toward them, forcing them to step aside to let them out into the corridor. Mechanical monkeys hung from the ceiling, swinging endlessly, and several metal pigeons flew around in a completely uncontrolled manner.
"Close the door before they escape," Nicolas said calmly. He was wearing special glasses that glowed with engraved runes, before turning back and refocusing on a mechanical owl he seemed to be working on.
"Should we go look for the one that already got away?" Hermione asked softly as she quickly closed the door, preventing more snakes from slipping out.
"It is fine, it will not go very far," Daphne replied, even though it was clear she was not too pleased about it.
Draco and Harry were already standing next to Nicolas, who had been there for who knew how long, watching closely as their teacher worked.
"Yes, we already lost them," Daphne murmured when she saw them like that. She and Hermione also stepped closer and fell silent, watching Flamel as he carefully carved runes into each of the owl's metallic feathers.
It was different from the previous ones. Each feather was made entirely of metal, not simply painted onto it. The level of detail was such that, if not for its bronze color, it could easily pass as a real animal among ordinary ones.
Flamel finished engraving the last rune on the final feather. He set his tools aside and smiled.
"It is ready," he said, gently touching the owl's head. It seemed to activate instantly. Its feathers shifted as if it were shaking itself, and then it began turning its head from side to side, while its ruby eyes glowed faintly.
"Do you want to try it?" Nicolas asked, turning toward them with a smile.
"Me first," Daphne said almost immediately, not even giving the others time to raise their hands.
"Go ahead," Nicolas told her.
Daphne pulled out her wand with a clearly excited smile and pointed it at the golem.
"Praeceptum Golem," she said.
The owl began to move, walking across the table.
"Wooow, it feels so smooth," she said as she controlled it, making the golem spread its wings. They were huge and majestic, each metallic feather showing a faint, sharp gleam along its edges. The owl gave a gentle flap, lifted itself with a small leap, and began flying around the room, weaving past several mechanical monkeys hanging from the ceiling, which tried to grab it as it passed.
"Now close your eyes," Nicolas instructed, smiling faintly.
Even more excited, Daphne obeyed immediately. The moment she closed them, she felt her vision shift completely. She was now seeing from where the owl was, still gliding through the room.
She could not help letting out an amused smile as she flew over Harry's, Draco's, and Hermione's heads, before stopping right at the same spot where she had taken off.
"It is amazing," she said enthusiastically, while the others nodded with similar expressions.
"Really amazing," Hermione added, gently touching the owl with the tip of her finger.
"It was not that hard to recreate. The animals Draco sent before already had a pretty solid base," Nicolas commented as he removed his glasses. "Though their appearances were awful," he added with a smile. Then he looked at them closely. "I thought you would be studying them."
"That was the plan… but we are working on something a bit more exciting," Draco replied with a faint, proud smile. Harry, at his side, wore an equally enigmatic expression.
"And I am very eager to see what you are working on," Nicolas said with interest. "But in the meantime, I need your help with something," he added bluntly. "Do you remember that machine you created at Beauxbatons? I need you to make one for me."
Harry looked at his teacher for a moment.
"Sure, no problem," he replied. "Can we know what you are going to use it for?" he asked, unable to suppress his curiosity.
"That is a secret," Nicolas said with a smile.
It was obvious it had something to do with the competition, but they could not ask much more. Everything was handled with strict confidentiality, and in any case, they would find out when they saw it during the tournament.
"Good, that will help a lot. I still have far too many things to do. Your godfather really knows how to exploit people when he can, and that is saying something considering we practically met yesterday," Nicolas commented with an amused expression, shaking his head. "You can use this workshop. And if you need materials or anything else, you can ask Madame Maxime. I already told her," he added, giving each of them a light pat before leaving.
The four of them stayed in the workshop, which was a complete mess, filled with animal golems moving all over the place. They looked at each other for a moment, fully aware that their teacher had just left them to clean all of that up.
Even so, it did not seem to bother them too much. They took out their wands and began capturing the animals one by one.
"This is perfect. We can finally start with my plan," Hermione said, never taking her eyes off the metallic owl.
That immediately drew the attention of all her friends, who were holding different animals in their hands before deactivating them. When they did, the golems transformed into metallic spheres of different sizes, depending on the original size of the animal.
"What plan?" Daphne asked.
Hermione looked at her at once with a fixed, severe stare.
"What do you mean, what plan? I told you all throughout the holidays. I even repeated it this morning," she replied, clearly annoyed.
"Ahem… well, maybe I was not listening," Daphne said. "But in my defense, you say a lot of things I do not listen to either," she added, which very clearly did not help her case.
Hermione frowned before looking at Draco and Harry.
"You two remember my plan, right?" she asked, using that same firm tone.
"Yes, I remember it," Harry replied calmly, nodding. Draco raised an eyebrow slightly.
"In fact, I think you are right. And this little friend will be very helpful. I would say ninety percent of the plan is already done, which is very good," Harry commented. "But you have to be careful. You know what happened when the portrait linked golems came to light," he added in a more serious tone.
"Mmm, that is true. There are still a lot of people causing trouble, and sales are not doing very well because of it," Hermione said, bringing a hand to her chin thoughtfully. "Even so, I should start creating medals and founding an association," she added, nodding to herself.
"Take care of the rest. I will be busy," she said without waiting for a response, before running off almost immediately.
The three of them watched her go. Then Draco looked at Harry.
"You have no idea what her plan is about, do you?"
"No idea," Harry replied with a small smile. "I have not lost my touch yet," he added amusedly, as he arranged the metallic spheres that were, in truth, the beast golems.
Draco simply shook his head and kept working.
And Daphne… well, she had already taken advantage of the general distraction to disappear without anyone noticing.