The Basilisk Bomb

Since Oz made a visit to Hagrid's and to Aragog a few weeks have passed since. With the knowledge of the wide world out there Oz was more keen than ever to leave this school for a while and explore. There was a few more things he wanted to prepare though before he could start making preparations for his journey across the world.

Currently Oz was inside the Room of Requirement tinkering with his idea he had a while back. In his hand he was grasping a small green bomb that had a small pin on top. As he handled this bomb he was wearing a small mask over his face just to ensure his safety.

'No leakage... No signs of any problems at all... Look's like his time to test it'.

Picking himself up from where he was working Oz looked to the other side of the RoR and held the bomb firmly in his grasp. Pulling the pin he threw the bomb to the opposite side of the RoR and took a decent amount of distance from it to ensure his own safety. As the bomb landed it rolled and hit the wall on the other side, a few seconds of silence later a bang sounded.

*BANG*

As the bomb exploded a tinged green cloud of smoke burst from the bomb covering the area around it. The smoke cloud was dense and lingered for some time before it ebbed away. Seeing this Oz smiled.

'Looks like its a success... I'll call it the 'Basilisk Bomb' or I guess the 'BB' for short'.

Oz's new invention fused the venom he had gathered from the Basilisk that he killed along with modernized muggle weapons. This sort of weapon he had created in the expectance of a fight in which he was heavily out numbered. You could call him overprepared to a point but Oz foresaw that in the future he could have moments where he was surrounded by thousands of enemies and while his magic would be able to take out a vast majority it would still end up burning through his magic reserves leaving him in a dangerous spot. As for the effectiveness of this bomb, Oz didn't truly know yet how dangerous it was. He surmised that it would definitely incapacitated a person when the vapour was inhaled however a trained witch or wizard might be able to cure themselves if they acted quickly after being hit with it.

'I can always test it in the forbidden forest if necessary... If not I'll test it on my travels next year'.

Satisfied with everything thus far he packed away everything he had out. As everything was put into his pouch on his hip he took a moment to sense where he was magic wise.

'Still the peak of step 2...'.

Holding his hand forwards he casted a wandless spell that shot forward towards the other side of the room.

'Seems also my wandless magic has stagnated around a 'year 4' level... I wonder if I'll ever be able to cast a wandless 'dragon' spell'.

Thinking on this point Oz surmised that such a feat wouldn't be possible for a long time. At the very least he'd need to be at the 'Founder's Level' or maybe even above that to be able to cast a wandless 'dragon' spell. There was also still the issue that his dragon blood was very random and temperamental. He still couldn't grasp how to use 'dragon' spells when he wanted and trying to speak in 'dragon-tongue' without a trigger was still impossible for him. If he found himself facing another dragon it seemed to trigger and when he was in the heat of battle it triggered as well. How his blood function was equal parts fascinating as well as frustrating.

Such a situation was akin to having a weapon that he just couldn't control no matter how much he tried to wield it. He even studied in the library with the gang from time to time about dragons and if anyone in the past spoke dragon-tongue however there was hardly any information on the subject much to his chagrin.

'There's only two ways for me to find out information on how dragon-tongue functions... I either find more of Merlin's legacy across the world or I seek out the dragons in Romania for information when I take Norberta there...'.

The latter option was one he could do much sooner as searching for Merlin's legacy was something that was much more difficult. He had at this point no leads where the man had travelled in the distant past.

'I guess I can leave it there for today... Let's head back to the dorms'.

Walking out of the RoR, Oz started to take himself back to the Slytherin dungeons. As he walked he recalled Dumbledore's words to him a while back about his 'gap year' happening next year. Dumbledore informed Oz that he would need to come with him to the ministry in order to do his OWLs early. If he passed then he would be allowed a leave of absence. The board of governors would oversee his tests in the ministry as well, ensuring that his knowledge was indeed beyond his years enough so that a gap year was viable for him.

'What a pain in the neck...'.

Oz wasn't troubled at all by the tests seeing as though his knowledge was already at a NEWT level however having to take time out of his day to go to the ministry was something he wish he didn't have to do. Dumbledore also mentioned cryptically to Oz that after the ministry visit he wanted to take Oz somewhere before going back to Hogwarts for the remainder of the year. A few theories sprouted about where that would be however Oz didn't pay much heed to them, he would just deal with the situation as it arose.

'That reminds me... I wonder if Alfreda's received my letter yet? Hopefully Kuro was able to get to Stonehenge safely...'.

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[Alfreda's POV]

Within Merlin's hideout it was another calm and peaceful day. A silver haired elf was currently cleaning around the main room of the hideout with a light smile on her face. She used a myriad of different magics to speed up the cleaning process and when she was done she brewed herself a cup of tea and sat herself down at the table.

'I wonder how master is doing...'.

It had been a long while since she last heard from her master properly. Her and Norberta awaited some sort of letter or notice about him day after day however it seemed that as each day past the likelihood of any news before he returned for the summer was becoming slim. Thinking about this fact Alfreda pouted slightly looking at her tea in front of her.

'Him and Merlin are one in the same on that front...'.

As Alfreda was reaching the bottom of her tea she heard heavy footsteps from across the room. Looking over she saw Norberta who was approaching her at the table.

"Ah good morning Norberta, Did you sleep well?".

The young dragon seemed to nod her head towards Alfreda as her body took up a lot of the room. Seeing how big she had gotten Alfreda noted that she'd soon need to be released into the wild. As that day approached though and as summer rapidly closed in, it seemed Norberta's attitude was becoming a lot more restless and nervous.

"Papa... Letter?".

Norberta spoke to Alfreda in broken English, something that Alfreda had taught Norberta herself. In the distant past she watched as Merlin brought in different dragons what felt like every few months so she knew how to take care of them. She knew that dragons were incredibly intelligent creatures capable of a lot of things and teaching Norberta English was something that both Alfreda and Norberta wanted to do to surprise Oz. Her pronunciation was still a bit broken however she was now able to get her point across after months of teaching.

Alfreda shook her head at Norberta as she sighed.

"Nothings arrived yet... We may not hear from him until the summer soon when he returns".

Norberta's head seemed to lower a bit in sadness hearing that there was still no news from Oz. As she stared at the floor though Norberta seemingly shot her head right back up looking above herself. Alfreda followed her gaze looking towards where she was looking.

"That's... Kuro!".

Norberta recognised a familiar magical signature as she looked up. Normally such a feat of identifying an owl like Kuro would be impossible however a dragon's eyes were not to be underestimated. She had only ever seen Kuro a couple of times yet she recognised his aura the second he arrived in the vicinity. Alfreda rushed up to the top of the hideout and outside into the fresh air. Looking over to the central stone in Stonehenge, Kuro was perched on top of it with a letter in his mouth.

Alfreda walked over to Kuro and softly took the letter out of his mouth. After stroking Kuro's feathers for a bit she ushered him on her shoulder as she brought him down into the hideout. Entering back into the main room, Norberta looked at Alfreda in anticipation. Kuro found himself a nice perch in the room and started to rest after the long journey.

Opening the letter Alfreda started to relay the information out loud to Norberta. Within it's contents were information about what Oz had gone through in the year. Hearing about the basilisk along with the death of Oz's friend Craig both Norberta and Alfreda's expressions seemed to turn blue. At the end of the message Oz asked how they were faring and included his notes about sourcing him a couple of 'two-way mirrors' in preparation for next year.

"Papa... stupid!".

Norberta seemed a bit upset hearing how Oz underplayed all those events in the letter. The way he wrote about the basilisk was incredibly underplayed and was summed up as simply 'After it killed Craig I killed it'. Alfreda also looked at the letter with a slight frown. As Merlin grew stronger in the past his apathy grew as well, it seemed that her current master was going the same way judging by how he was writing about such serious events like they were by the by. Reading the closing notes about the 'two-way mirrors' she decided in her head that she would personally deliver the items to him and see how he was truly faring face to face. She also noted that she could tell Oz about Norberta's growth in person as well.

'I hope he doesn't get upset by me visiting in person...'.

Putting the letter on the table Norberta seemed to notice what Alfreda was up to. She herself wanted to ask to come to Hogwarts as well however she new deep down that it was an impossibility.

"Papa... tell... I said... Hi".

Alfreda nodded towards Norberta confirming the message she'd have to send to Oz. Looking at the fireplace to her left she decided on her first stop.

'I'll go to Diagon Alley and get those mirrors first... After I'll head to Hogwarts'.

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A/N - 100 Chapters! Thanks all for reading to this point :).