20 Dragon man

Blood, nervous system, skin, muscle structure and bones.

I possessed around three hundred doses for each of those draconic traits, more than enough for me to fully gain each trait. None of them presented any issues when I tested them on the animals and seemingly had no unintended side effects.

The blood essence increased their healing dramatically, the nervous system essence let them survive having their brains run through, the skin bone essence's made them more resilient and the muscle structure essence gave them enhanced strength. All working as intended.

The only issue being that, if I didn't want to suddenly have completely different coloured eyes or hair, I'd have to consume them over long period of two, maybe three, years…

… or at least it would have been an issue, if I hadn't had a sudden epiphany. Cosmetic spells.

It was actually embarrassing that it took me so long to realise I could use those. Not that it was my fault, seeing as I did only spend this year with proper magic, but it did show that I needed to be more… 'casual', I suppose, with magic in general.

But anyways, cosmetic spells. There were actually quite a few of them, multiple different ones for each body, but all I really needed were the one's that affected my hair and eyes. After I found those specific ones, a task that was easy, I simply learnt them, which was equally easy.

Now, after learning the colour changing charm for hair and eyes, it was time to start chugging the essences. Well, actually, I'd have to test them all for side effects again but after that it would be time to chug them all.

---- Some Time Later ----

The double and triple checks were done and they all showed that there was no side effects on the animals. Yet, even with that knowledge, I couldn't help but feel a little nervous as I looked at the bottles of, almost luminescent, red fluid.

"Well, no point turning back now," I muter to myself as I take the first bottle, this one the leftover troll liver essence, "bottom up."

The feeling of the fluid sliding down my throat was a familiar one, as was the slight heat in my stomach, and soon I had drank the whole bottle. But, instead of immediately going for the next bottle, I instead put the empty bottle onto the floor and just waited.

One minute.

Two minutes.

Five minutes.

Eventually when it hit the thirty minute mark on the wall clock I finally picked up the next bottle, having confirmed that there was no immediate effects, and began guzzling that as well. This time I only spent five minutes waiting before picking up the next bottle, which I did for all the rest of the bottles as well.

Soon there was only one bottle left and after one last chugging session I was finished. At which point I just lay there as the of changes continued to happen all across my body, accompanied by a very pleasant warmth.

But as the sound of the clock ticking began to feel louder and louder and the heat only built up I couldn't help but feel that something was wrong…

…actually, why was the room spinning?

---- A time that is time which passes when some is time ----

What is life? Am I alive? Am I dead?

"You know what's crazy? I'm talking to somebody, in my mind, I'm talking to nobody, but I'm feeling like I'm talking to people that can understand. And the pain is still the same," said the person who was me.

"It's just time for you to die," I tell him.

"Why can't I just die?"

"Who's to say you have to die?"

"Life is miserable."

"Life is not miserable. I'm miserable!"

"Oh no. You're alive. You're alive in every single sense."

"I'm just…hated. Just hating life. You can hate the situation too, if you want, but why not hate life?"

"People come here for a sense of life and for a sense of death. You're looking at the same, you're looking at the same thing."

"You're right."

"You're actually right. Just look at this. You know, what makes life worthwhile? What makes life worthwhile? The very thing you hate, it's the very thing that makes it worthwhile."

The roof of the room slowly opened, and a white light was given to me. It was very painful.

"So when someone comes here and leaves with a sense of life? That means life is worth living?"

"Yes."

"I guess…that's one way."

"Do you have a choice?"

"Yes, I do. There's a way to be miserable and miserable. It's hard, but…just hate life. Hate everything. Hate everyone."

"You can't change anyone, can you?"

"Yes. They have to want it."

"Do, I want to change?"

"I do."

"Will you?"

"Will you?"

"Yes, I will."

"You know what? Maybe we can help each other?"

"Yeah. We can help each other."

I fell through the floor and saw my previous self, standing there. He stood there for a while with his arms crossed, staring at me. Then he smiled.

Okay, you have no idea why, but that's okay. You think it's sad that you can't not be? But that's okay. Maybe it's okay...

I pulled him up into the ceiling. It was so dark. So I made the lights turn on.

There were no ceiling, it just seemed that way. The floor was concrete. A deep, deep black. It felt like I was digging my way into it. When I would raise my head from it, I'd black out. I was breathing hard. I was so tired. I remember my face hurting, and the pain went away after a while. But it never really went away. I just thought it was gone.

I remember thinking that I wanted to kill myself, but when I did it, nothing happened. It seemed to be a passive thing, not a depressing thing. I didn't want to be dead, it wasn't that kind of thing. But I was happy I wasn't afraid anymore. I didn't know what I was afraid of. But I wasn't afraid anymore.

Eventually, I stumbled into the light, lying on the concrete floor. I put my hands over my face.

Then I fell back asleep.

----- Some Time Later ----

So… yeah. I got high.

In fact that was an understatement. No, I got roasted, perhaps even zooted, and in that process remembered that I get 'insightful' when I'm high or drunk. Personally, I believe that it happened due to the nervous system essence, which coincidentally was the last one I drank, but that really didn't matter right now.

What mattered was the fact that, once I'd woken up, the changes in my body had more or less finished. Which meant that I needed to test my body to determine what's changed, which I began doing immediately after I cast the colour changing charms to fix my now pitch-black hair and unnaturally red eyes.

---- Some More Time Later ----

The first thing that I had tested was my skin. It had been a simple test, I had placed a razor-sharp knife, provided by the room, onto the table blade side up before slowly placing my hand on it. Then, when it failed to so much as scratch me with the full weight of my hand, I had started placing increasing weights, also provided by the room, on the back of my hands.

It was only when I placed a surprisingly light feeling forty kilogram (around eighty eight pounds) weight that I had felt a sharp sting. The moment I felt that I had immediately pulled my hand back, sending the weight tumbling off, and, after a moment of casting cleaning charms at it, I examined the very shallow cut on my hand in satisfaction.

A shallow cut that had been rapidly scabbing over before my very eyes.

But then I had chosen to ignore it, though I had noted the current time, in favour of testing my new muscle structure. Testing that had been even easier than testing my sin, as I literally just began to do curls with the weights summoned by the room. Once I managed to do a curl with a weight, I waited for a couple minute to fully recover, before doing a curl with a heavier weight.

By the time I had reached the point where I couldn't easily do a curl I was at twenty kilograms (about forty four pounds) and by the time I just wasn't able to even do one curl I was at thirty five kilograms (about seventy seven pounds). Nothing too insane for an adult, but frankly ludicrous for a 'child' my physical age.

What's more is that in the time it had taken me to do those curls, around thirty minutes, the cut on my hand had all but disappeared.

Which is where the easily testable good stuff ends and the two… well not bad, but also not good, discoveries come in.

First, my skin. I had discovered that it had changed to possess a texture that was a strange mix between gritty and smooth. Not that it didn't feel like human skin, far from it, just that it was significantly different from my previous skin texture. Though admittedly it'd require someone who had experience with touching my skin to feel the difference… so realistically only the sisters at the orphanage would be able to feel it and I could convince them that it was due to the weather in Scotland or something.

But the second thing was a lot more blatant, yet also subtle enough that I only discovered it due to looking for something. My skeletal structure had been very slightly altered in several places. Slight changes in my ankles making me instinctively put more weight on the balls of my feet, my spine was altered so it was most comfortable for me to have my head slightly tilted to one side and my facial structure was very slightly longer and sharper. These changes, when combined, resulted in me having what could only be called a 'predatory' aura.

One that was subtle and near impossible to explain, but still present.

But other than those things there was nothing, either bad or good, that I was able to immediately confirm. Though I was sure that the essences had taken effect and there were more side effects, one's I was sure I'd figure out in time with tests and experience. But since I'd just gotten news that Dumbledore was leaving for ministry business, I didn't really have time to test those changes.

After all, I couldn't let old Voldy return to life. Especially since I was part of the group that he wanted to racially cleanse and because I was fairly sure he'd win if he resurrected at this point in the timeline and had in his possession the philosopher's stone.