Harry Potter and the Secret Treasures

Chapter 739: The Woman in the Mirror

Chapter 739: The Woman in the Mirror

“Whoo … whoo … EVERYONE’S GOING TO DIE. THEY’RE ALL GOING DOWN TO BE BURIED!” When it said the last sentence, the quiet voice suddenly increased and became stern.

With the repressive gasp, the terrible shout with strong hatred echoed in this eerie haunted house…

Evan and Sirius quickly turned around, and saw nothing but dirty, peeling wallpaper.

“Revelio!” Evan waved his wand, and a mirror appeared in the corner.

It was a gorgeous golden mirror, supported by two claw-shaped feet underneath and covered with dust. Through the dust, they saw a woman in the large mirror.

She was watching them grimly, sticking out her long tongue and licking her bright red lips, with a strange smile on her face.

But the smile was fleeting, and the woman had a pitiful look again, which made them doubt that what they had just seen was an illusion.

Evan blinked and had to admit that she was a very beautiful woman, about twenty years old, wearing aristocratic clothes from hundreds of years ago, with pale skin, showing a weird milky white, floating quietly in the mirror like smoke… 

It was as though she was standing inside a window looking out through it.

Evan’s gaze fell from her to a line of words on the mirror frame. It was an ancient rune, which could provide the mirror with magic and let that woman manifest in it, just like the Mirror of Erised. What appeared on it was not the reality, but the most desperate desire of the heart of the person standing in front of the mirror.

That was a magic mirror. What Evan cared about was that the magic text on the frame seemed to have been carved after it was made.

Compared with the craftsmanship of the mirror itself, the hand-carving of that line of magic was too rough, crooked and very untidy.

“Who are you? Or, what is it?” Sirius asked cautiously, pointing his wand at her.

“My name is Ariane, and I used to be the owner of this house, but that was more than 500 years ago!” said the woman in the mirror, and her eyes fell on Evan. “You are from Beauxbatons Academy of Magic where I studied magic.”

“Yes!” Evan didn’t try to correct her; he was looking at her cautiously. 

Since that mirror was just a prop to make her visible, then where was the body of that ghostly thing? 

It was really amazing magic. Originally, Evan was just tracking the Owl-Woman here, but he didn’t expect to see more interesting things.

“Why did you show up in our family’s ancestral home? Did you also see that terrible monster?” Ariane’s body rolled and shook, as though she couldn’t wait to come out of the mirror. Then she quieted down and asked, “Has she attacked you?”

“If you mean the owl monster, we did follow her, but since entering the house, she has disappeared!” said Evan. “If you’ve been here, then you should know where she is!”

“It left and went back to the old castle outside the city, which you call the Owl Fortress,” said Ariane, closing her eyes. “When I was alive, it used to be our family’s castle …”

“Owl Fortress?! What happened there, and what about the curse you just mentioned? “

“This is an unfortunate story. Not long ago, I saw poor old Mary with my own eyes. The last member of our family was torn alive and died in front of me. Her body turned into a pool of rotten meat. She knew I could see her revenge,” said Ariane, with a sad expression on her face. “The power of that terrible curse has brought her back to life, and made her become the Owl-Woman you’ve seen, a monster like a nightmare.  Five hundred years have passed, but she still wants to kill all the descendants of the Duke of Burgundy. It’s revenge. Her purpose has been achieved. Now it’s your turn. Everyone is going to die!”

“Be clear, who the hell are you talking about?” said Sirius impatiently, looking at her in suspicion. A ghost hiding in the mirror, of which they could not see the real body, opening and closing her mouth… it was the ghost of curse and death.

Anyway, it was more suspicious than that Owl-Woman…

At least, Evan could be sure that the Owl-Woman was no opponent of him. But that thing in the mirror, he didn’t know how to deal with it. Breaking the mirror was useless. It was just a prop for its manifestation.

“The root of all misfortunes was in the time when I was still alive, more than 500 years ago… that was the most glorious and prosperous era of our family. We lived in the castle outside the city. We were the magical guardians of Burgundy,“ Ariane continued, recalling the past. “When I was eighteen, I was engaged to a wizard from the Capetian family in Paris, a very old and prestigious family of pure-blood wizards, just as we are a branch of the Duke of Burgundy. Their close relatives in the Muggle world ruled Paris and all of France.”

“Besides his status, he was also a very good wizard. We studied together at Beauxbatons and loved each other deeply!” said Ariane, a flash of pain in her eyes. “We could have lived happily together, but just as I was about to marry him, everything changed. A witch from Africa changed everything… she was an evil witch who could use the power of the devil…”

“A witch from Africa?” Evan repeated in a low voice, “used the power of the devil?!” 

“Yes, that witch was very evil. It is said that an ancient demon in the form of an owl is enshrined in their mysterious tribe, and she can use this demon’s power. She came to our castle, and my father warmly welcomed her and invited her to my wedding, but she seduced my lover with Amortentia.

He told me that he no longer loved me, but I knew it was not from his heart. Later, with the intervention of my family, he finally came to his senses and was willing to come back and marry me, but the witch poisoned all the people who attended the wedding in the castle. Then, using the power of the devil, she turned all the souls into the shapes of owls and imprisoned them in the castle forever. She cursed her own life, so that one day she would come back here as a terrible owl, return to Dijon, kill all the people in Burgundy, and become immortal!”

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