Chapter 157
Chapter 157
During the holidays, Hogwarts went quiet, and the plants in the yard grew lushly, like a rich and colourful canvas.
But without the chattering, book-clutching students, there is always a feeling that the picture lacks some vitality.
This makes, originally a very low sense of existence ghosts suddenly become conspicuous, Felix often in the way to the library, caught a glimpse of the silver-white transparent shadow fleeting.
In addition to these ghosts of Hogwarts, there are also some professors who have stayed behind. For example, Professors McGonagall and Flitwick, and Sybill Trelawney.
The empty school made professors interact with each other more frequently, and during one small gathering, a drunken Trelawney made a prophecy to Felix –
” Unknown, I saw the unknown …”
Felix looked at her quietly as Trelawney stared drunkenly with wide eyes and a deadly gaze at a bottle of sherry, examining it carefully.
“Sybill, you’re drunk.” Professor McGonagall’s face flushed as she, too, drank some wine.
“No, I’m not! I saw … a big black dog! With an army of darkness that covered the sky and totally engulfed you.” Trelawney’s arm rested on McGonagall and used her other hand to nudge Felix’s chest, hiccuping, “This is a turning point in your life, fore, foreseeing the details, sincerely give me 3 Galleons.”
Professor McGonagall made a gesture: ‘Before joining this job, she’s reading people’s fortunes.’ She waved her wand and dropped Trelawney on the couch, and a small blanket flew over to cover her.
A big black dog? Felix thought for a moment, is it Fang, or is it Fluffy the three-headed dog?
He did have the idea of going to see the three-headed dog with Hagrid, just did not mention it to anyone.
On the side, Professor Flitwick used magic to turn the cups into various small animals, and soon Professor McGonagall and Felix joined in. They had a game of tabletop Quidditch with their wands.
On the way out, a summer breeze laced with the strong scent of seasonal laurel whisked by, refreshing Felix’s mind.
It had been a week since the holiday, and he had returned to his own house in London a few days ago, and after visiting a few of his common friends, then returned to Hogwarts.
At that moment, he came to the top of the Grand Staircase on the west side of the castle and stood at the entrance to the Ravenclaw common room.
A bronze eagle door with a ring blocked his way; there is no doorknob or keyhole other than that.
This is a feature of Ravenclaw House – the entrance to the common room is not passworded, instead, the eagle door with ring will give riddles, and if you answer them correctly, it will give you a way and welcome you in.
Felix tapped on the door ring and the eagle’s beak immediately opened, but instead of an eagle’s cry, it said in a soft, musical voice: “Which comes first, tomorrow or the unexpected?”
Felix said thoughtfully, “It depends on how much preparation you have done today.”
“Makes sense.” The voice said, and the door opened.
The Ravenclaw common room is empty, and Felix surveyed the circular room, the interior decorated in a fairy-tale style – in shades of blue and bronze, with stars painted on the dome, and dark blue carpets, with elegant arched windows draped in brightly coloured silks.
Felix went to the window, which had an excellent observation spot, with his eyes poised high above the school’s black lake and forbidding forest, and a distant view of the surrounding hills.
The room had tables and bookshelves, and a tall white marble statue stood in the niche opposite the door.
It is a statue of Rowena Ravenclaw, and he looks at it for a moment, and then his eyes settle on a bookshelf.
In a divider within the bookshelf stood a foot-high statue of a slender woman with her head slightly raised, looking leisurely and serenely ahead.
The statue appeared slightly rough, even the figure’s face quite blurred, good thing she had a plated nameplate in front of her with a line of descriptive text, ‘In memory of Ravenclaw House Ghost – Ms. Gray, March 7, 1993, Student Memento.’
Felix could not help but smile.
Half a second later, he looked back and thought of the purpose of his trip. He began to examine the magic traces on top of the bookshelf. In the Room of Requirement, Ms. Ravenclaw’s memory mentioned that she had left some hidden magic legacy in the Ravenclaw common room, leaving it for later discovery.
Felix is in the mindset of giving it a try to see if he could find something interesting.
His interaction with the Lady Ravenclaw had been too brief, which, it had to be said, was a pity.
Felix caressed the designs on the bookshelf, simply found nothing. He went back to the other bookshelves to examine them more closely, and finally, on the third one, he sensed a very hidden magical fluctuation.
He tentatively used his magic to touch this enchantment ban, there is no danger. But it seemed to be hidden within the space, and Felix took a lot of effort to drag it out.
Milky white light bloomed from the air, and the next second, his eyes blinked, and then everything returned to normal.
He remained standing in the Ravenclaw common room, as if the glow he had just experienced was just an illusion.
But the books on the shelves suddenly became very attractive to him, and the voice in his head told him: I want to read all the books on the shelves, and I can do that.
This emotion came inexplicably, as if it had suddenly been planted in his head.
“This is?”
As a new master of memory magic, Felix quickly blocked out the strong longing in his mind as he carefully analysed and speculated about this magic.
“Very similar to my thinking room, able to pull people into a world of thinking, only, Lady Ravenclaw’s approach is much more brilliant than mine, with a longer timescale and fewer side effects …”
He casually flipped through the books on the shelf, ordinary, nothing profound, so he turned to study the illusory Ravenclaw common room he’s in.
He couldn’t see a single flaw in it at all.
“Funny, I never thought I’d ever be pulled into a thinking room of someone else.” Felix chuckled softly as his fingers moved quickly, and runes appeared out of thin air.
“Well, Ms. Ravenclaw also has a very in-depth study of ancient runes, which is normal, she lives in a time when the old and the new are in harmony.”
Ten, a hundred … soon, the number reached five hundred, and is still increasing … this is Felix’s harvest in the Hogwarts library for this year.
Then, Felix explored with his hand, with his thoughts, a dozen runes instantly flew to his hand, linked into a mysterious pattern, blazing flames bloomed from between his fingers.
The whole world suddenly shook violently.
Felix put away this ancient magic and waved his hand to make all the ancient runes disappear. “That was close, almost ruined this place.”
Then Felix carefully kept trying, testing the magic trove left by Ravenclaw.
Time passed little by little.
After an unknown amount of time, he got kicked out by the magic prohibition.
Felix looked up outside the window, the time is already evening, “I may have been in there for days, surprisingly not too tired …”
“Good, It indicates the way forward for my thinking room.”
“And this sudden pull was so brilliant that I didn’t even notice it, memory magic, memory magic …”
“There’s a lot of Potential.”