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Serena Snape: Love of Magic - chapter 5
🕑 Added 2024-09-13 16:49:39 +0000 UTCAuthor's Notes: Chapter edited and corrected by Scott Fellman.
First of all, I want to change my appearance. I was healthier now, and even though my hair was silky and shiny, the length bothered me immensely, so I grabbed a pair of scissors and headed to the bathroom.
I stopped when I saw my appearance. There was nothing different except for the yellow horns sticking out from above my head, the stars on my cheeks, and the fact that now, my pupils were literally stars. My eyes were always black and still were, but before, my pupils would blend in with the iris from certain angles. Now, my star-shaped pupils were yellow or slightly light gold. They stood out and shone with power and magic, if that was possible.
I gently tapped the scissors with my Frusta, which sprang to life. The old, rusty, dull scissors became shiny as they flew around like a bug. I barely had to give it a mental command before the scissors were flying at high speeds, cutting through my hair. I let my slave do the work as I looked at the results in the mirror. I hummed lightly as the scissors continued to cut while deliberating whether or not to reduce my teeth with magic. I shrugged. It wasn't a bad sight, and they didn't bother me so far, so I would leave them. I can always do that later if they cause trouble.
Once the scissor-bugs stopped flying, I rechecked my hair. It went from shoulder length to extremely short, a cute pixie bob haircut. My slave had done a good job, I took the flying scissors in my hand and made a few small snips here and there until I was satisfied. Now, the painful part, my nose. With a grimace, I moved my wand against my face, took a deep breath, and said the spell.
CRACK-CRACK
"SON OF A F-!!" I screamed in pain as I brought both my hands to my nose, small tears welling up in the corners of my eyes. I cursed a couple of times under my breath before blinking away the tears that had formed. Once I calmed down, I checked myself in the mirror thoroughly. My hooked nose was gone, and now I had a small, pointy nose that fit perfectly with my angular face. I let out a sigh of relief. I hadn't been wrong; I absolutely didn't want to have to fix my nose again. I thank God, or Merlin as the wizards say, that my face didn't explode when the spell failed. Looking at my appearance, I see that there is still something missing.
I went back into the room and grabbed more parchment. I needed to get paper, it would be cheaper, and they would still burn easily. After drawing the necessary circles, I placed the corresponding metals and activated them. In no time, I had a set of piercings of different sizes but still minimalistic hoop type. They were all as heavy as I could get, but they were still only a few grams. I grabbed them and headed to the bathroom. I held them in my palm, with an idea floating in my mind. I hit all the jewelry with my star, and all the hoops started to shake before they sprouted wings like insects. They all floated up and showed they had a stinger, and I paled slightly. I had miscalculated. The jewelry launched in my direction at high speed.
"SHIT!!!!" I screamed for a second time in pain. I rubbed my watery eyes as I inspected the new piercings. I had decided on 5 in each ear which I was now regretting, with one in the helix, one in the mid helix, 2 in the upper lobe, and one in the bottom. On the right side was a simple hoop that went around her ear, but on the left was an earring with a four-pointed gold star that matched all the other stars on my costume. I was satisfied but could certainly do without the blood on my new jewelry. With a wave of my wand and an incantation, the blood was gone, and with another, the new piercings healed over the metal, making the throbbing pain in my ears go away quickly.
I let out a sigh of relief, checking myself one last time. I had decided on 10 feruchemical metals divided into a gold ring for health, a zinc one for mental speed, a tin one for the senses, a steel one for physical speed, a bronze one to prevent sleep, a bendalloy one to store hunger, a brass one for heat. However, I wouldn't store any of it and would use it to store when needed. By doing that, my body would cool down, and I could withstand much higher temperatures. The incoming heat would flow to my body and then immediately to the mind-brass, making me almost immune to fire, and since I was now THE fire alchemist, it seemed like an almost mandatory choice. Going back, I use cadmium to store breath and iron for weight, although it would have the same use as brass. Leaving it empty and storing it to decrease my weight when needed, and lastly, a chromium one for luck.
Interestingly, I could allomantically burn my new piercings without swallowing them; they just had to be inside my body and stuck in my ear. That said, I had to be careful when using them, but they were more for emergencies than for daily use. I still wanted one more Atium piercing, but I had to see how to manipulate it without any problem. Perhaps with transfiguration, I would be able to achieve it, at least to change its shape, but that could wait till later.
Lastly, the chain and the star hanging off it were gold. It was small and blunt enough that I could swallow it without hurting myself and easily in an emergency. It was hanging from my gold hoop. I briefly considered a few more on my lip or tongue, but I didn't like them aesthetically, so I left them aside.
Still, with all that, I actually liked the way I looked. The piercings were a bit colorful; most of them looked silver, but others didn't. They were kind of mismatched, but I was satisfied. With a nod, I went to my room once again, and this time, I selected the rest of the jewelry I would wear: Two gold bracelets, a tin bracelet and a zinc one, an iron ring, a steel one, a pewter one, a bronze one, a cadmium one, and a last bendalloy one. In total, I had four bracelets, two on each arm, and six rings. I would have to see how I could wear the bracelets since the gloves prevented direct contact, but it was a good option for when I wasn't transformed.
The rest weren't needed for now, and I needed to test them before keeping any as metalminds. I still had to store the attributes of everything I had on me feruchemically, and it would take a while. There were some I wasn't comfortable storing, like fortune and health, but both were really bad ideas. However, I could certainly see the value in doing so.
On the other hand, I used alchemy to turn some of the rest of the jewelry into small 1-gram beads. I stored the small balls in vials that I had from my potions set, and in no time, I had 16 tubes with metals to burn. I scribbled the names of the metals on the labels of the vials and stored them in the inventory. I was confident I could easily identify them, but it was better not to risk it.
Now, the test. With a thought, I tried to pull a copper pellet out of my inventory while my tongue was hanging out of my mouth. I barely had to strain myself when I felt the bead on my tongue and immediately swallowed it before burning it. The sensation of creating the copper cloud was familiar and told me that I had succeeded in both the extraction and the selection of metal. It was perfect; I could ingest any metal I wanted at any time.
Once I was done and finally detransformed. I felt my stomach growl, and I blinked at how hungry I was. I was ravenous, starving, and I hadn't realized it. I had been way too excited about basically everything; I checked my phone and opened my eyes. It was already time for dinner. The last meal I had was... the night before. Just before Tobias came and beat me up. I woke up around dawn, and there was only so much Body tune-up could do, so it wasn't strange that I was hungry after more than half a day. Thinking that, I grimaced at the feeling of my stomach once again. I began to pack away the rest of my belongings. I put everything inside my trunk, the little I had, along with the jewelry, and I put it away in my inventory. It certainly was an improvement in the quality of life to have some pocket space.
The only thing I left outside was the state alchemist's black coat and my wand. I put the coat on over my white shirt, I inspected myself again, and nodded in satisfaction. I took out the few coins I had from my inventory and grimaced. I was sure it would be enough to get to the Leaky Cauldron on the Knight Bus and a meal, but there wouldn't be much left for more. I sighed in tiredness, took my wand, and left the house. I was of legal age and had my license to Apparate. I had memories and knowledge of how to use it, but I didn't want to try it for the first time at such a long distance without any safeguards. So the bus was my... only option? ... portals! Magia Baiser could use portals!
I still had some copper to burn inside me, so I held up my copper cloud, grabbed my wand and star, and tried to make a portal. It came to me with ease. I could barely stop myself from squealing in joy. I could use them without transforming, when a sort of black miasma generated in front of me in a large circle of black fog bigger than my height. I was glad that I didn't need to transform for this, too. I opened my eyes slightly, looking around. The place was empty, but I quickly got into the portal just in case. I barely felt the trip when I reached an alley in front of the Cauldron. I immediately lowered my copper cloud. I didn't know if it would create problems keeping them around so much magic.
I brushed the non-existent wrinkles off my coat and walked into the Leaky Cauldron. The place was packed, but I ignored it and approached the bar.
"Food!" I demanded hungrily as I dropped into the empty seat. Tom, the owner, had the audacity to laugh, and I narrowed my eyes.
"Leaving!" Tom ignored my gaze as he quickly placed a plate of food in front of me, he had barely finished setting the plate down when I practically inhaled the food. It was deceptively delicious. I hadn't expected much from the pub's appearance, but it tasted terrific; it didn't take long until I finished my plate.
“Another one and a butterbeer!” I demanded again. I grimaced, “Please,” I wasn’t starving anymore, so it couldn’t hurt to be cordial with the person preparing your food. Tom smiled and nodded. First he handed me the butterbeer, which I began to drink, followed soon after by my second course, which was finished just as quickly as the first. I let out a sigh of relief. My hunger had been calmed; now I had to decide. I could go back to my house in Spinner’s End, Cokeworth, but I didn’t want the possibility of running into the sperm donor that was Tobias again. I could put up some defenses while wearing a copper cloud, but it was too much work for a house with more bad memories than good ones. “hey, is there a spare room?” Tom nodded absentmindedly.
"Of course, how many nights?"
"Price?" I asked the dreaded question.
"7 sickles a night," I grimaced.
"How much was the meal?" I asked painfully.
"13 sickles and 19 knuts." I closed my eyes when I heard it. The loss of my 103,000 imaginary grimoires had been less painful.
"o-one night only," I said in pain. Tom looked at me compassionately, and I sighed as I took the coins out of my pocket. I quickly separated 21 sickles and passed them to Tom. He gave me back 10 knuts, which I took and put together with the rest of my savings, which in total now amounted to an impressive sum of 3 sickles and 24 knuts. I sighed tiredly as I put the coins away. I had to find ways to earn money. I could sell some of the jewelry I wasn't using, but only the gold ones would get me a good profit.
"Room 13, first floor," Tom interrupted my thoughts. I ignored the look he was giving me and took the key from his hands.
"Thank you," I said and practically ran out.
"Good night!" he called out as I headed to my temporary room. It took me a little time to find room 13. I entered without hesitation and locked the door as I let out a sigh of relief. Tomorrow was another day; I'd see what I would do after a good night's sleep. With that, I tossed my boots and coat straight into the inventory without taking them off. It worked as they were put away, and I allowed myself a smile, the best benefit of all. I threw myself onto the bed and quickly fell asleep.
Author's Notes: In case anyone has viewing issues due to my writing problems, Serena's appearance is basically an Osaki Nana expy.
