Alphard's countryside villa, in the dining room.
As summer break was coming to an end, Uncle Alphard finally returned from Sweden.
He came back with quite the haul—not only did he place in the Broom Race Championship and earn a medal shaped like a Swedish Short-Snout dragon, but he had also teamed up with a few daredevil wizards to venture into a dragon preserve and collect some Short-Snout hide.
"Those dragons can shoot dazzling blue flames from their nostrils, absolutely beautiful," Alphard was telling his two nephews about his adventure. "I need to find a way to collect that flame and see what makes it special..."
Uncle Alphard, you're amazing! Regulus was filled with admiration.
Though he couldn't help but feel a little worried for Alphard's safety—brave people either enjoy life early... or end it early.
They also briefly told Alphard about what had happened recently.
"So, this so-called Dark Lord speaks Parseltongue? Keeps a pet viper over a dozen inches long... Hm, no wonder he claims to be Slytherin's heir... I've never heard of anyone like that from the Gaunt family before," Alphard frowned as he set down his teacup. "If that's the case, he does have the kind of presence that could drive Bellatrix mad with devotion."
"And you can tell he must've been really handsome before," Regulus calmly added.
"Bellatrix, she... never mind. That's your generation's problem, you'll have to sort it out yourselves," Alphard shook his head. "Let's not talk about the family. You two wanted to see the alchemy lab, right?"
Both of the handsome nephews nodded in perfect unison without blinking.
Alphard truly liked Sirius—who, in every way, was so much like himself, if not even more rebellious. He'd practically poured all his familial affection into this nephew.
Now, he was beginning to like Regulus just as much. He'd always thought this nephew resembled his sister more. But to his surprise, Regulus was starting to resemble him as well.
...
Uncle Alphard's alchemy lab was located in the basement of the villa.
After descending a long spiral staircase, Alphard waved his wand, and the entire lab was lit up with gentle silver magical flames!
A spacious basement with several support columns and many tightly shut doors appeared before Regulus' eyes.
"Go ahead and look around," Alphard said with a smile. "But don't open any of the doors in the walls. Those separate labs could be dangerous for you."
The lab, built from tough granite, gave off a cold, stony scent. Along the walls were countless storage cabinets and scrolls and portraits marked with mysterious symbols.
Regulus could only recognize the symbol of the planet Mars, and a portrait of Areneus Ferrellus (note: a 17th-century British alchemist)... and he could've sworn he saw—a portrait of Isaac Newton.
Yes, that Newton. Sir Isaac himself.
In the center of the room were several large tables covered with all kinds of apparatus—crystal and glass containers of various sizes, shapes, and colors; cauldrons more complete in range than those in Diagon Alley.
One table had several yellowed hardcover books spread open, along with a pile of parchment and quills. Scattered tools on the floor gleamed under the silver firelight.
In the corner, flames danced in a hearth, and there were two smaller furnaces on the tables as well.
Regulus focused intently on everything before him, determined to memorize even the structure of the ventilation shafts.
He'd only ever seen alchemy labs in World of Warcraft, The Witcher 3, and similar games, but Uncle Alphard's lab looked much more modern.
"What's that..." Regulus pointed under one table at a large yellow mechanical box, his expression a little puzzled.
"That's a Muggle diesel generator," Alphard explained. "I've only got two right now. I use them to research what Muggles call—let me think—electrical appliances."
Impressive.
So people who love invention and research are always this open-minded?
And it wouldn't be complete without the classic storyline of being suppressed by the conservative elements of the wizarding world.
This whole script felt oddly familiar—Regulus couldn't help but smile.
Uncle Alphard would probably have a lot to talk about with Mr. Arthur Weasley.
Wait a second—come to think of it, Arthur Weasley should be in his twenties by now, probably already working at the Ministry. Maybe even Bill's already born?
Maybe he should find a way to get in touch with him too.
…
Alphard watched with great interest—the personalities of his two nephews were fully revealed through their behavior.
Sirius had already drawn his wand and was poking at one of the nearby furnaces, while Regulus had quickly found the beginner textbooks Alphard had prepared for them, furrowing his brow as he read through them, his little face tense with focus.
"So, what do you think?" After a while, Alphard walked over to them.
"Awesome!" Sirius replied simply, his excitement and anticipation written all over his sparkling eyes. He had always loved Alphard's magical gadgets since he was little, but Alphard had always said it wasn't the right time to teach him yet.
Regulus nodded too, though not quite as enthusiastically as he had expected… because… he'd already noticed that Alphard had prepared at least five books for them, laid out on the table—
On Transfiguration spells, Alchemical Symbolism, Ancient Runes, Geometry, and even an Oxford University Press copy of An Introduction to Latin...
Seriously… well, at least he wouldn't need to relearn geometry… probably… that might save a little time?
Come to think of it—did Sirius, who once created the Marauder's Map and modified a Muggle motorcycle, also study all this?
His older brother really was gifted, and open-minded too.
"Uncle Alphard… when do we start?" Regulus turned to him with a bitter look.
"Hahaha." Alphard burst into hearty laughter—this nephew of his was just too amusing.
"So, tell me—what are you each most interested in?" Uncle Alphard asked.
Sirius liked all sorts of strange and curious magical items and modified Muggle gadgets. He had heard Regulus's so-called "business plan" for creating magical devices and was very interested in it.
"I'm most interested in communication and positioning technology," said Regulus. "Muggles already use satellites and telegraphs to achieve long-distance transoceanic communication. Although this technology hasn't yet become widespread in every household, we wizards have already fallen behind in this area."
Hearing this, Alphard was genuinely surprised.
Regulus continued, "I hope to first establish a framework for sharing information and communication within Hogwarts. I think one of the problems with the school is that the different houses don't communicate enough."
"This idea was inspired by your two-way mirror," he added, pulling out two pieces of parchment and handing one to Alphard.
Sirius also pulled out an identically-sized piece of parchment from his pocket—something the two of them had experimented with over the summer.
Regulus picked up a quill from the table and wrote a line on his parchment: "Hello World!"
Too bad no one could appreciate the reference—The C Programming Language wouldn't be published for another five years.
(´▽｀)
The same line of text began to appear on the parchments held by Alphard and Sirius, then faded away within ten seconds.
"This uses a basic Copying Charm and Revelio Charm, plus a few tricks we discovered from elementary Transfiguration. It only works within a limited range, and the message disappears very quickly…"
"When we're at home and don't want to talk out loud, we use this instead," Sirius added. "Kreacher has sharp ears—he hears everything."
"Yes, and we added a little charm so that the parchment warms up slightly when a message comes through."
"Regulus calls this the 'prototype,'" Sirius said.
What Sirius didn't say was that Regulus had told him: once the prototype was handed over to a 'tech genius,' he could step back and just be the laid-back "product manager," without doing all the hard work of "writing code."
They used "writing code" as a term for making magical items.
Naturally, this was Regulus's idea.
"I want to study how to make the messages last longer. And not just one-on-one communication—group sharing and other functions too…"
Regulus explained his various ideas, and Sirius chimed in now and then with additions.
"You two have really blown me away," Alphard said, his gaze full of admiration.
"You two students—I'm definitely taking you on!"