16 Discoveries

Transfiguration was an area of magic that specialize in changing an object's properties. It doesn't limit itself to changing the shape, but even the material's properties. For example, you could make a steel bar more elastic, or make it harder. Making an object transparent, changing its state, from solid to liquid, or even to a gas… It still had limitations, however. For example, you might want to make something harder, stronger, but eventually, it would break if you apply a big enough effort.

Transfiguration was usually temporary, but there were ways to make it permanent, or very long term. One area of transfiguration concerns magical properties, though it is one of the most difficult studies: changing an object's magical properties, for example, a compatibility with a certain runic sequence, was not a piece of cake. People spend years trying to fight the right way to do so, and some time they never succeed, simply because the material was never compatible to begin with. It was an obscure art, and a lot of researchers spend a huge amount of time trying to unravel its secrets. Those who had limited success made it big. One such example would be the Nimbus and Firebolt companies. They did not improve the propulsion runic sequence itself, there was nothing much to improve. Instead, they improved their Rune Stones and energy runes, and whatever materials they used for the brooms.

Rune Stones were a general purpose component used generally for wards, as materials with good compatibility with them were usually very rare. Rune Stones, however, supported a vast array of runic schemes, and could be upgraded to do more, with the correct knowledge. They were also generally more efficient.

Kaiser spent a lot of time reading about the subject (transfiguration), and training on the basic runes. He succeeded in making a broom the first month. Unfortunately, apart from the control system, he didn't have enough mastery over the other runes, and he doubted a lot of people did. For example, it still eluded him, how the 'gyroscope', he called it, could isolate earth's gravity, from all other forces applied to the system. Did it perhaps detect the curvature of space-time? That would make more sense, but he didn't know if that was the case yet.

It was mid summer, when professor Flitwick came to check on him, that Kaiser asked: "Professor, can you explain to me how the Protean Charm works?"

"Of course." Professor Flitwick jovially said. "It is a NEWT level charm, one that's still subject of research to this day. I myself spend quite some time on it. It allows you to synchronize changes through objects that has the same basic properties. Some consider it to be a transfiguration spell, as it transmits properties changed, from one object, to all others. Common examples include color, shape and temperature. Why do you ask?"

"I'm very interested in the transmission mechanism. I heard that it can be used to transmit messages, albeit for limited distances that it wouldn't be worth it." Kaiser said. "Can you perform the charm, but limit it to certain transmissible properties? Color or temperature, for example?"

"Of course!" Flitwick chuckled. "I'm willing to perform the charm for you if you wish." He offered.

"I would be most grateful, professor."

And so, professor Flitwick performed the charm on multiple pairs of metal plates, each with different limitations. The charm would last a week or so, and it should be enough for Kaiser to extract the runes and analyze them. Flitwick even offered to perform them again, should he require it. It's not that no one ever tried. To this day, the Protean Charm cannot be carved with runes, due to its complexity.

Kaiser spent the first two weeks, comparing the runes to each other. He managed to isolate the runes responsible for most transfiguration part, by comparing the pairs that only had the temperature as a transmittable property. That meant he now had a runic sequence capable of gathering energy, sending information to one end, receiving information, encoding and decoding information. He also extracted a part responsible for identifying the pair, he called it "ID" for unique identifier.The energy gathering runic sequence was very easy to get rid of, since it was the basis of Runes studies.

Now, he needed to isolate the Receiver and Transmitter. It took him a month to do so, by applying blocks on different parts of the plates. Now, he could have a one way transmitter, where a change in a plate's color transmitted to the other, but not the other way around. The next week, he was able to isolate the encoding and decoding part, which wasn't that difficult by using the same method.

Now all he had to do was observe how the temperature was transmitted. He theorized that the temperature was encoded then sent over multiple signals, like the traditional transmitters based on electromagnetic waves used. He placed a block that calculated the amount of "impulses" it felt, then displayed it with the modified Lumos spell. The result was… one.

He repeated the experiment in different cases, and got the very same result. And it was then that it hit him...

"HOLY..." Kaiser was flabbergasted at the implications…. He was thinking in the traditional, limited sense, where information was coded with the binary numeral system… This was different… It meant that the signal that was sent held infinite states. He didn't need to encode the temperature, he just sent the temperature. That's why when you transfigured the whole plate into something entirely different, it still sent the whole shape immediately. This opened a lot of new possibilities. It also meant that the way he made his watch wasn't the optimal way. He needed to think about it again. He performed the tests again just to make sure he wasn't hallucinating, and the results confirmed his theory. He performed different results and found an interesting relation between the number of states per signal and the energy consumption. The more states you added, the more the energy required is increased. Once you reached a certain point, the increase becomes exponential, but it also appeared to depend on certain materials. Certain materials seemed to have better compatibility with a certain number of states, requiring less energy to perform the task. Which means that, choosing the maximum amount of states needed isn't always the best solution, and choosing the minimum amount of states isn't always right either. But he did discover that for his watch, he could change it to a ten-based system (decimal), and still operate within optimal conditions. He didn't have much time left till the new school year, so he spent whatever time he had left to optimize his watch.

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The new school year began, and all students gathered in the train station to board the Hogwarts Express. Parents could be seen talking to each other, making new acquaintances, and getting to know their children's friends. It was an interesting experience for all of them, as many made new friends that day.

Kaiser requested to Floo to the train station, to meet his friends and ride the train with them, and maybe make new friends?

He first met a bushy haired missile who gave him a bone crushing hug he could hardly reciprocate, before dragging him to her parents, Mr and Mrs Granger. They seemed like nice people, and rained him with praise because they saw him on the wizarding newspaper, and thanked him for being a good friend to their daughter.

He spotted Karl Greengrass, so he went to greet him, but that didn't go as planned. People started approaching Karl, and therefore, Karl had to introduce him again and again. Though he was surprised that Kaiser already met Madam Bones. The cycle ended when it was about time the train left, fortunately. Before leaving, he told Karl to organize a meeting, as they had something to discuss.

Kaiser joined his Ravenclaw friends, Michael Corner, Tracey Davis, Daphne Greengrass and Luna Lovegood. He didn't send much letters, as he was too busy with his research, so he listened to their summer adventures. The most interesting one was Luna Lovegood with her quest to look for the Crumple-Horned Snorkack. He could hear the others rolling their eyes at her beliefs, but Kaiser gave her the benefit of the doubt.

"So, aren't you guys going to talk about the mass murderer that's apparently on the run?" Michael suggested. "He's after someone in our school. The DMLE thinks he's going to try to infiltrate the school to finish his master's work."

Kaiser froze. He completely forget that. Dementors would be coming to school, and he was defenseless against them. He remembered that they attacked Harry, even though he was not their target. Who could say they wouldn't do the same about him.

"Don't worry about him too much. The ministry seems to know what they are doing." Daphne commented, earning a pensive look from Kaiser. 'She knows.' He guessed. It was pretty clear that Sirius Black was innocent, he just wasn���t worth the trouble if even Dumbledore didn't help him. Or maybe he didn't just because it would interfere with his plans for Harry?

The conversation continued for some time, before they were interrupted by the compartment door opening by a blond haired girl.

"Hello. Can we join you?" Hannah asked, frustration clear in her voice.

"Of course. Is something wrong?" Tracey tactically asked.

"The boys in our compartment wouldn't stop staring at Susan." she answered, while Susan's face was bright red, wanting to crawl into a hole and close it so no one could see her.

"Why?" Kaiser asked, before regretting his question when he looked at Susan. "Oh. Sorry."

Susan was developing a bit better than her peers, and it was plain for all to see. Kaiser didn't doubt she'd be getting a lot of advances this year, especially with her newfound Hogsmeade privileges, but he'd do his best to not make her uncomfortable. Not that he would lust over a thirteen years old girl anyway. Hannah took a seat in front of the boys, while Susan took hers right next to Kaiser. A strategy to discourage them from looking, as it would be glaringly obvious with that setting.

They discussed the different electives offered for their third year for some time. Michael wanted to take Magical Theory and Arithmancy, Tracey and Hannah leaned more towards Divination and Care for magical Creatures. While Daphne and Susan wanted to study Runes and Arithmancy. Their conversation was interrupted by a sudden shift in weather, or so they thought.

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"That was dreadful! What the hell are dementors doing on the Hogwarts Express?!" Tracey said angrily.

"Indeed." Kaiser answered darkly. He heard several cries for help during the attack, and he believed he himself was about to be attacked if a patronus didn't come to their rescue. They seemed to be attracted to anyone with traumatic experiences. "What on earth is the ministry thinking, relying on such unreliable creatures to find a fugitive? It's as if they didn't learn a single thing from the previous war."

"That excuse for a minister only wants to be seen doing something. He doesn't care about anything but the public opinion. This is probably his desperate attempt at appearing he's controlling the situation." Daphne theorized, and they all nodded, agreeing with her.

"So, should we expect any new invention this year, Kai?" Susan said, in an attempt to lighten the mood.

"Hm. Probably. There is this new device I made, but I'm not sure it's such a good idea to commercialize it. I have already angered the pocket watch companies with my last one. This one is a lot more serious than that. I'm waiting to discuss it with Daphne's father." Kaiser explained.

"What does it do?" Hannah asked curiously, but Kaiser shook his head.

"Sorry. Don't take it personally, it's not that I don't trust you." he explained.

"Yeah. He just doesn't trust anyone." Daphne commented.

"You're one to talk." Kaiser snorted.