The map on the hologram changed to a broadcast of a space fleet parade. Gigantic spaceships flew in a neat formation against the backdrop of a blue planet. There were kilometer-long battleships with hyperdrives, kilometer-long cruisers, frigates several hundred meters long. Hundreds, thousands of menacing and graceful spacecraft.
Everything around Richard felt so familiar and high-tech: various gadgets, some of which he could only see in advertisements by popular bloggers, a garage with a collection of sports flyers, the latest Android models, and much more.
And then it seemed that for a moment he saw the philosopher's stone, but no... It just wouldn't come into his hands.
Young Rich had difficulty tearing himself away from the mirror.
"Well?" Potter asked.
Richard shook his head and walked over to Ronald. Harry boldly took his place, staring into the mirror with a determined expression.
"What did you see?" Ron asked innocently.
- Just some nonsense.
"Well, yes," Weasley added with slight envy, "you already have everything."
"Everyone has dreams, Ron," Richard replied calmly. "Everyone. And it has nothing to do with the depth of one's wallet or one's social standing. You have no reason to complain, Ronald. You have a good, loving family. You're making money now. After you graduate from Hogwarts, a house will be waiting for you. You're not a stupid guy. You should understand that if you stick with me, you'll achieve great things. I'm counting on your family, Ron, I'm counting on you. Who knows, maybe one day you'll become someone important."
"Aw," Weasley waved his hand dismissively. "Get over it. We're just friends. And it's... Sorry."
- I'm not offended.
"Yes!!!" Harry shouted joyfully.
Richie and Ron immediately turned sharply to Harry and stared at him with anticipation and excitement.
- I have the stone!
Harry beamed with delight. In his right hand, he clutched a small red stone, so faceted it looked as if it had been broken off from something larger.
"How did you do that?" Ron asked, amazed.
"I second Ron's question," Richie said, his heart pounding with excitement.
"I was thinking about saving the stone so it wouldn't fall into the hands of a villain," Harry shared simply.
"It's that simple," Ron said, his voice slightly sour.
"Can I see it?" Richard said, his gaze fixed on the stone.
- Yes, sure.
Harry handed the Philosopher's Stone to Richard. Rich accepted the world's greatest treasure with suppressed delight. He couldn't tear his eyes away from its beauty.
"Guys," he said, distracting Ron and Harry from examining the stone in his left hand. His right hand tightened its grip on his wand. "Do you have any ideas on the best way to get the mirror out of here?"
Harry Potter and Ron Weasley turned their heads towards the Mirror of Erised.
Richard didn't want to deceive his friends, he really didn't. He was deeply worried about it. But the mature, rational mind of a businessman told him that the Philosopher's Stone would cause a sea of problems in the future if its ownership were discovered. So he had long ago devised a plan to have the stone destroyed by accident or stolen by unknown persons-if, of course, it were stolen during such an operation.
To carry out his plan, Richard trained long and hard in Transfiguration. He learned to transform anything into a Philosopher's Stone as quickly and discreetly as possible, but his main focus was on dry ice-carbon dioxide.
Dry ice is ideal for concealing evidence of a crime. Once the transfiguration time is over, the Philosopher's Stone will turn into carbon dioxide. Its properties are unique: it resembles ice in appearance, but under normal conditions (atmospheric pressure and room temperature), it transforms into a gaseous state, bypassing the liquid phase.
Richard timed the Transfiguration and tried to increase the duration of the effect in his training. He reached the maximum of five hours. That is, after exactly five hours, the fake Philosopher's Stone would turn back into dry ice.
Since a small piece of ice, approximately the same weight as the Philosopher's Stone, was used for the transfiguration-about one hundred and fifty grams-the ice will evaporate very quickly, in a matter of minutes.
The entire plan was based on whoever possessed the Philosopher's Stone hiding it somewhere for a while. Meanwhile, nothing would remain of the stone. This would most likely happen in the Gryffindor first-year dorm, as Richard was planning a rather unsavory move-giving a fake stone to one of the boys. The keeper would likely think the Philosopher's Stone had been stolen. Richie would be in the Hufflepuff dorm at the time, in full view of the other students, so he would have an airtight alibi and would be hard to blame.
Rich had to sweat liters to achieve the instant transformation of dry ice into something like a philosopher's stone, but in the end he still managed to bring the transfiguration spell to a non-verbal level with a casting time of just a few moments.
While his partners were distracted by looking at the mirror, Richie quickly threw the Philosopher's Stone into his bag, took out the prepared dry ice and nonverbally transfigured it into a complete copy of the stone.
"I don't even know how we're going to carry this mirror," Ron said, turning to Richard. "Will you let me take a look?" He nodded toward the stone.
"Yes, no problem," Richard calmly handed the stone to Ronald.
"Maybe we should carry the mirror using the spacesuit?" Harry suggested.
"That would be reasonable if it weren't for the manipulators," Richard shook his head. "It will get crushed in five seconds."
"We could wrap the mirror in pillows," suggested Ron, looking curiously at what he thought was the Philosopher's Stone.
"That's a great idea, Ron!" said Richard. "In a pinch, you could actually Transfigure a bunch of pillows or some other cushioning material like bubble wrap. But I have a better idea."
Richie pointed his wand at the mirror and cast a shrinking spell. To his great disappointment, the spell didn't work. Since he was casting the spell nonverbally, and the spell had no visual effects, to observers it looked as if Richie had pointed his wand at the object and then nothing more.