Post by Sylvester Salazar Gaunt on Dec 7, 2011 0:37:26 GMT -6
Tony had no idea what he had done by allowing Sylvester access to the Department of Mysteries. He was creating one monster in a desperate attempt to get rid of another. Sy had given his word that he wouldn't harm anyone not working directly under Azrael, but that didn't mean that the Slytherin Head of House couldn't take full advantage of every piece of information he now had at his disposal. He had laid out in front of him a dozen books and rolls of parchment. All of them had writing and charts drawn all over them. Sylvester was cross referencing a thick purple book with a scroll that had a diagram of some seemingly random objects. After finding the piece of information he had been looking for, he quickly grabbed a silver dagger and carefully crushed a piece of garlic with it before using his wand to infuse the juices from the clove with a small bowl marble white powder. A loud hissing sound came from the new mixture and a small pillar of smoke came from it. That could be expected since he had just introduced garlic to a bowl of vampire dust. Sure, part of him felt sick, knowing that his sister was in fact a vampire, but he was too intrigued with everything he was learning to care too much for that right now.
Taking a pestle to the dust, he pounded it more before carefully measuring out and pouring a certain amount of the dust into the cauldron to his left. A plume of smoke rose from the concoction, which brought forth a rather giddy laugh from Sylvester. Going back to the book, he looked up the next step in the potion before continuing. It had taken him four tries to get it right, but he believed this potion was finally brewed correctly. Scooping some into a small phial, he lifted the now bright purple potion to his lips and sipped it. To test the potion, he grabbed another book that he had yet to open and flipped it to the first drawing he could find. After only two seconds of looking at the picture, he slammed the book shut and grabbed a blank piece of parchment and a sliver of coal. He took several minutes and re-drew the image from the book purely from memory. He found that his hand seemed to know where to go, as if he had drawn this image a thousand times before. When he was finished, he grabbed the book back opened it to the same page as before. He took several minutes again to this time compare the book's image to his newly drawn one. The two were exactly the same. The potion had worked. He was now able to remember everything perfectly and permanently. Everything he looked at, read, heard, or said while under the influence of this potion, everything, would be permanently etched into his memory.
Deciding that he needed to make sure he knew how to make this potion, he read the entirety of the instructions again, making sure to also go over the notes made on the parchment. Convinced that he had the recipe successfully memorized, he moved on. He grabbed a spell book and flipped it open to about half way. He scanned the pages, taking in every word as he did so. There were spells unlike any he had ever heard of. Turn a man into a fly. Disintegrate an opponent with one syllable. A smirk leaped to Sylvester's lips as he grabbed another book, this one on ancient animagus forms that had actually been outlawed by various governments. There was one animal it described that couldn't help but catch Sy's interest. It told of a breed of dragon that had been extinct for centuries. It was named the Australian Blood-Scale.
The image that was in the book showed just how this beast got the name. The dragon in the picture had bodies hanging from it's jaws with a headless man clutched tight in its claws. Behind it, an entire town burned with huge towers of smoke and ash rising into the air. The book told of how the dragons of this species had scales so tough and resistant to magic, that even the most powerful curses rebounded off its hide and how it's breath could melt mountains and it's voice at full volume could kill a man from fifty meters and knock him out from a thousand. Every ministry in the world had placed a ten million galleon bounty on each of the dragons. Even though there were only twenty-five of this species left at the time of the bounty, it still took over a century for the Blood-Scale to become extinct. While dragon animagi were outlawed in most nations, a Blood-Scale animagus could be imprisoned for life and even sentenced to death in every nation on the planet.
Reading quickly over the physical description of the dragon as well as taking in every detail of the accompanying pictures, Sylvester tossed the book onto a table before running out into the room where the large archway with the drape hanging over it stood. This room was large and would have all the space Sylvester needed for this next experiment. The former Slytherin had been an expert at Transfigurations and had gotten O's in every exam. He wasn't a registered animagus, but could transfigure into a serpent at will. How much more difficult could this be? Focusing, Sylvester gripped his wand tight before performing the needed incantations. He felt the changes immediately. His nails grew out to be sharp claws, he could feel the burning in his eyes as they yellowed and his eyes turned to slits. He could feel the fire in his stomach and his throat. He breathed out and smoke was expelled through his mouth and nostrils. All of his muscles tightened as the rest of the transformation happened quickly. In a second, he had gone from mostly human to a fully grown dragon. He let loose a stream of fire at the ceiling, scorching it, before letting out a low roar. He wanted to fly, but the room was too small for that. Instead, Sylvester let out another stream of fire before thinking the spells to turn him back. He shrunk quickly, leaving a panting and tired Sylvester Gaunt on all-fours on the floor of the Department of Mysteries. Azrael wasn't the only one that needed to fear him and his new found knowledge and powers. Tony had given him every tool he needed to become everything Joseph Nox was and then some...