Harry Potter and the Ties that Bind

Chapter 36

It wasn't long before Harry was back at Hogwarts, attending classes, spending time with his friends, and working on his projects in the Chamber of Secrets.

It had taken a lot of work, but the Chamber of Secrets had finally been fully converted into his workspace. No longer was it the dank, dark, and stagnant room that it had been. Vibrant lights sprayed the room with illumination thanks to the alchemy crystals floating in the air. While the floor was still made from stone, it had been transmuted to create a perfectly even surface, and all of the water that had created puddles on the floor was gathered into a pool near the back.

The pool was another of Harry's creations. He'd converted the single remaining Slytherin statue, the largest one, which he could not remove because it was magically bound in place, into a fountain. The water was recycled through a series of pipes and shot from the statue's mouth. Unlike before, when the water had been murky and unclean, now it was pure. Harry had, once again, relied on alchemy to dispose of the waste within the water.

In order to create fire, I need to find some way of separating the H2O molecules found in the air to form hydrogen. I can use the elemental symbol for water to help with that, but that won't fully separate the hydrogen from the oxygen. Also, I'd need the oxygen to feed the flames... this is tricky.

Harry was sitting at his brand new desk. It was made from dark oak wood, polished to a shine, an expensive work desk that could second as a bookshelf. Several books were already sitting inside. Currently, all of them were on alchemy.

Several sheets of parchment sat on his desk, each one containing sketches of various transmutation circles. He was trying to create a circle that could ignite the atmosphere. It was a theoretical exercise, not something he planned on creating for real.

While making fire using alchemy sounded easy, the truth was that it was far harder than most people could have expected. First one had to separate the hydrogen and oxygen molecules found in the atmosphere. Next they had to find a way to directly manipulate oxygen molecules, lest they burn themselves when they create the fire. And finally, one needed to start the fire with a spark.

The biggest issue was manipulating the oxygen molecules and creating the spark. Separating oxygen and hydrogen was easy. Perhaps he could do something to control the wind flow and create a tunnel... but no, that would still mean he'd be right next to the detonation when the spark ignited.

This is a lot tougher than I thought.

Harry wasn't alone that day. While he usually worked on his projects by himself, his friends had taken to hanging out around his workspace. He didn't mind. There was a lot for them to do.

Neville had taken to his exercise equipment, the bench press and pull up bars, he often spent time trying to use them. Harry had shown him how they were used. However, it was still difficult. Even now, if Harry were to look at the pull up bar, he knew that he'd see the red faced Neville trying to do as many pull ups as he could.

Blaize, Terry, Lisa, and Hannah were more interested in his library of books. Many of his books were unavailable in the Hogwarts library, and even more of them were one of a kind. Since Sirius had no interest in books, Harry had gathered all of the magical books from the Black library that couldn't be read anywhere else. This included several books on dark magic. Those ones were stashed away in his luggage, however.

Tracey didn't seem interested in most of Harry's items. Since she had no interest in books or exercise, he'd built a small, constantly changing flying course. It had actually been his birthday present to her. The goal was to fly through the hoops, which were always shifting, changing positions, and growing larger or smaller.