"So what's next?" I asked eager to continue my learning.
"Next is accumulation. You have already picked up the basics for every field of alchemy I know. All that remains is to continue experimenting and accumulating experience with practice." Flammel said with a chuckle at my dumbfounded expression.
"But Dumbledore discovered the uses of dragon blood when learning under you." I said confused.
"That was because at that time he was still a little obsessed about understanding what separated a magical being from a muggle. Dragons were the furthest removed from muggles with obviously potent magical traits. The discovery of the twelve uses of the blood came from his search to isolate these factors." he said lightly.
"Did he? Isolate the factors I mean?" I asked intrigued.
"He did. Learned a terrible truth as a result that he swore would not be made public no matter the cost. That wizards are not natural." He said solemnly.
"Not natural? What do you mean?" I asked curiously.
"He collected the blood of a great many magical species and no few wizards and started making comparisons. He found that all wizards share magical markers with magical creatures. Somewhere deep in our past beyond recorded history humans hunted magical creatures and somehow mutated their own bloodlines into what we now call wizards." he said and I blinked in shock.
I knew the trait was genetic since the system said as much but not even in my wildest dreams could I have guessed the source of it was a forced mutation.
It explained a LOT though.
The reason the pureblood families were so insistent on their blood purity. Why out of every magical species on the planet only wizardkind had trouble controlling their power without a guide. -
Humanity wasn't supposed to have magic to begin with. We stole it from the magical creatures and just never quite fully adapted to it.
"Wait! Professor Flitwick! Hagrid! They are half goblin and giant each. Are Goblins and giants just an entirely differently evolved branches of humanity stemming from this act by our ancestors?" I asked seriously.
He nodded gravely "This is indeed the case. This forceful mutation in our distant past caused humanity to fracture into several different races. Wizards, giants, trolls, goblins and elves. Ironically wizardkind are the most maladapted to magic out of all of these branches on the same tree." he said solemnly.
"It's because we are still human in every other way right? Like with Chimera's. Their bodies have the parts for the magic they have whereas our bodies are no different from any muggles beyond containing magic and thus being a bit more resilient. All those other races bodies have changed so much they only resemble humans in general shape with the exception of centaurs that I remember were an act of Chimerism using humans." I theorized out loud.
"Albus and I also believe this might have been the case. The mutation for wizardkind is an incomplete transformation. The same was not true for the other races. They truly became magical creatures in all regards, whole new magical races that didn't need to worry about diluting their bloodlines as a result." he said nodding.
"So what would happen if you were to mix all of their bloodlines into a single body?" I asked with a tilt of my head.
He went very still for a moment "I don't know. I hadn't considered it until now but it seems like the next logical step doesn't it? If wizardkind is an incomplete racial mutation and the others are mutations that went too far then somewhere in the middle lies the most perfect result. How would we test it though? Using others in experiments like this is precisely why life alchemy has such a bad reputation." he said with a troubled frown.
"Well the centaurs are already out because those were created through life alchemy according to records. A flat fusion of beast and man to create them. Stable but no longer acceptable for this matter." I said seriously.
"True but that still leaves the trouble of the other races." he said still deeply frowning.
"What if we didn't need to use other people? What if we instead attempted the creation of soulless homunculi through the mixed blood of wizards and other races?" I asked.
He paused "Yes, yes! That would remove most of the ethical and legal troubles and still give us definitive answers! It's terribly difficult however. Growing organic life from a sample is long term messy work." he said seriously.
"And the mixing of bloodlines?" i asked seriously.
"That part is considerably easier. There are already two living examples of the fusion of wizard and these other races bloodlines alive that we can examine samples from to narrow down exactly what those two races mixed with wizardkind creates. This is invigorating stuff! We might just discover a way to solve the reproductive trouble that plagues wizardkind through this research!" he said excitedly.
"You mean the problem with each child after the first having a higher chance of being a Squib?" I asked and he nodded.
"Albus and I theorized that the mutation factors concentrate the stronger a witch or wizard are and are expended into the offspring all at once all but guaranteeing the first child magical potential. The trouble is that once these factors are expended they need a considerable amount of time to concentrate again but the reproductive timeframe a human has to produce offspring ends around forty to fifty on average. Assuming it takes a decade for the concentration to reach the same level as the first offspring's this gives only a few fleeting chances to increase the wizarding population without gambling on possible squib production." he said gravely.