The Return to Hogwarts

Realizing that Amosta clearly didn't want to answer these questions, Sirius reluctantly shut his mouth, but after a few seconds, he couldn't help but mutter something again.

"Looking at the situation here, I'm starting to think Voldemort isn't so dangerous after all."

There were indeed some things floating in the lava—the bones of creatures burned clean of their flesh and blood. Most of them were unrecognizable, but Amosta could still spot one that should belong to a fire dragon. This fire dragon's remains were much thicker and more ferocious than any he had ever seen before; it was probably a species like a progenitor of fire dragons.

Helbo must have used this lava lake as a garbage incinerator. Several people found some remains in the boiling lava, most of which were incomplete. But considering that these creatures' remains had been soaking in the lava for over a dozen centuries without being completely burned, one can imagine how amazing they must have been when they were alive.

They descended to a point level with the lava, the surging magma separated from them only by a thin magical shield. As the lava flowed, the unmeltable remains of creatures constantly crashed against the barrier with the waves of fire. Even though they knew there wouldn't be any problems, it still felt incredibly oppressive.

Gryffindor and Ravenclaw stopped talking to each other and quickened their pace. Finally, ten minutes later, they stood before a dark door at the bottom of the lava lake.

This is a huge black stone door, with several giant pythons winding and coiling around it. The pythons look down with lifelike eyes and open their ferocious mouths to reveal venomous fangs that send chills down your spine.

"Basilisk--"

Amostah murmured softly, not wanting to think too much about it; he knew how to open the door.

hiss--

Ravenclaw used Parseltongue again, and Amosta's eyes gleamed as he carefully memorized the strange tone.

Buzz-——

With a heavy rumble, the dark aura that erupted before our eyes quickly swallowed the dazzling brilliance of the lava.

Separated by just one door, it felt like two different worlds. The room they were in was like the foyer in front of the Great Hall of Hogwarts. The tall, dark room was devoid of any heat; in fact, the damp air carried a chill that resided in the memories of Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, and Amostella and Sirius felt it as if they were right there with them.

"There are Dementors here!"

Sirius's more than ten years of imprisonment in Azkaban had taken a heavy toll on him. As soon as he felt that familiar chill, Sirius instinctively shrank back, shivering uncontrollably, and even wanted to transform into his Animagus form.

Clang!

After they all entered the hall, the doors closed automatically. There was no light source in the surroundings, only a faint starlight emanating from the dome. Opposite them was another tall stone door, from which wisps of white, cold smoke continuously billowed from the cracks in the tightly closed doors and the floor.

Staring directly at the gate, everyone felt a sudden realization: they had probably reached the core of this underground ruin.

As they approached, the door opened automatically, revealing a room that rivaled even the grand hall of the temple on Avalon Island.

Gryffindor raised their swords for the third time after arriving on the island, but this time, Ravenclaw stopped them again.

“It makes no sense, Godric—”

A hint of sadness lingered in Ravenclaw's stunning beauty as she wearily spoke.

“We’ve tried, but we can’t destroy this creature.”

"What is this?"

Sirius's eyes were filled with confusion as he stared at the hall, his chaotic thoughts unable to produce any rational judgment.

call--

Amosta sighed deeply, his face grave.

"This is probably the Dementors' 'processing workshop'—"

In the vast hall, from the stone door they entered through to the other side, out of sight, every few steps, a beautiful, shimmering white halo floated a few feet off the ground. Like a dazzling nebula suspended in the cold, desolate universe.

Nebulae give birth to stars, and in the halo before them, the outline of a fragmented human figure is faintly visible.

Gryffindor's hand swept across the halos of light, and the scattered sands of light drifted in the dim air like playful stars.

"Is this... the spiritual power that has been stripped from the creatures of the nearby seas?"

"Wait until Ravenclaw agrees with this conclusion," Gryffindor asked gravely. Then, shaking his head and sighing,

"A beautiful heart has become a breeding ground for evil. Helpo must stop this guy from coming, otherwise, all magical civilizations and the Muggle world will face annihilation."

Ravenclaw seemed to see a deeper connection, and she sighed as well.

"These psychic powers originate from the Dementors we saw up there. They slaughtered lives, and the power they extracted was transmitted here, giving rise to more of their kind."

Sirius Black's face was ashen. Looking around, there were probably several thousand Dementor embryos in the hall. If all of these Dementors were to be conceived, it would be a catastrophe for the magical world, not to mention anything else.

The further they went, the more the broken souls within the aura resembled the Dementors they knew. By the time they reached the innermost part, the black shadows within the aura were already wandering around inside the 'eggshell'. They sensed the approaching Gryffindors and Ravenclaws and were eagerly attacking the cradle that had nurtured them.

Ravenclaw stopped in her tracks before a nearly mature embryo, her icy blue eyes dissecting the origins of the Dementors. But as her observation continued, her expression grew increasingly somber.

"Helpo—he cultivated those colorless souls into indestructible creatures in this way, ultimately creating such an evil and peculiar race of life."

Ravenclaw turned its gaze to Gryffindor.

"For us, we must destroy every single individual in this group; if we leave even one alive, we will fail—"

Chapter 437: Deathly Hallows

2023-08-23

Amostella stood in the hall where the Dementors were being raised, gazing at the halos of light in the room, which resembled dazzling nebulae in an endless dark universe. Ever since meeting Vitia Kriona, events had been flowing through his mind, and these discoveries were like pieces of a puzzle, piecing together a complete story in Amostella's mind.

This magnificent picture is about to be completed, but it is missing the most crucial piece: why is all the secrets surrounding him?

Solving this mystery will essentially allow Amosta to uncover most of the truth behind the whole affair.

"When I was imprisoned in Azkaban, there were more Dementors on the island than we just saw up there, but definitely not as many as down there--"

"One hundred and sixty-two."

Amosta said calmly, with an indifferent expression.

"In March of this year, the Azkaban data released by the Ministry of Magic recorded the current number of Dementors. Ten years ago, the number was 160, and ten years before that, it was 159. To this day, the Ministry of Magic still has not figured out the specific way Dementors reproduce. The academic community believes that these creatures reproduce by self-division. They believe that as long as a Dementor absorbs a sufficient amount of happy memories, then it has the conditions to reproduce."

There's no need to guess how Dementors came to be; the scene before them speaks for itself. Sirius blinked, pondering what Amostella had just said about the increasing number of Dementors.

"More than ten years ago, after Voldemort fell from power, a large number of Death Eaters and their followers were thrown into Azkaban. The surge in prisoners probably meant that the Dementors no longer had to worry about going hungry, so the Dementor population increased at a faster rate."

As if sensing Sirius's doubts, Amosta then spoke.

Within this secret realm, there are many rooms yet to be explored. Ravenclaw and Gryffindor came here specifically for the core, and the room they are in is undoubtedly the core of the secret realm.

However, everyone noticed that there was a small door on the right side of the room, which was open and should lead to another room.

"Let's go, Rowena--"

Having seen all this, Gryffindor's mood and expression were heavy. He called out to Ravenclaw and turned to walk towards the small door.

Amosta and Sirius followed, both sensing that their current memory was coming to an end.

Behind the door was a passageway that wasn't very long, with solid rock walls on both sides. Only at the end of the passageway was there a broken door.

This wooden door was clearly not damaged by natural weathering, but rather showed obvious signs of being dismantled.

For centuries, the two founders of Hogwarts were probably the only two wizards to have entered this secret realm. Apart from them, the only other person who entered this place was probably the white wizard shrouded in mythology.

They filed into the room behind the door, and when Amosta entered, a glimmer of light suddenly appeared in his eyes, a light that had been shining brightly all day. Rowena Ravenclaw showed the same reaction.

This was also a spacious room, with wooden shelves around the walls, half of which were old books, but the vast majority were parchment manuscripts.

"Hairbo's book collection?"

For the first time since arriving on the island, Ravenclaw was in high spirits. She walked over quickly and reached out to pick up a magic book with dark bloodstains on its cover. But as soon as her delicate fingertips touched the book, it suddenly turned to sand, leaving only wisps of smoke lingering on Ravenclaw's fingertips.

"Merlin destroyed the defensive magic inside the library when he entered it. These books have been in an unprotected environment for hundreds of years and are basically damaged."

Seeing his friend get the short end of the stick, Gryffindor revealed a mischievous, gloating smile, while Sirius smiled and patted Amostella's shoulder, whose face darkened again.

Besides the bookshelves on the four walls, the library was filled with many summer books. Ravenclaw did not try to pick up those books again. Her gaze passed through the bookshelves and suddenly fixed on a certain direction. She started walking again, bypassing the bookshelves that blocked her way, and headed in that direction.

In the center of the library stood a desk, its white material clearly not wood, but rather the skeleton of some kind of creature.

Having come this far, they no longer had the mind to be surprised by Helbo's cruelty. Ravenclaw walked toward the stool, his gaze falling onto a stack of manuscripts on the desk.

The text on the first page of the manuscript is in ancient runes. Both Ravenclaw and Amosta were proficient in this script, so reading it was not too difficult.

"What's recorded here?"

Sirius, who barely understood some of the not-so-obscure runic symbols, craned his neck, staring blankly at the strange patterns.

"It looks like magic, or a ritual. I'm not sure, wait, let me see—"

Having learned her lesson, Ravenclaw did not attempt to turn to the second page of the manuscript again, but clearly, she had some way of reading what followed.

"A sacred artifact."

Caught off guard, Ravenclaw, who was engrossed in reading what Amostella couldn't see, suddenly uttered those two words.

"Holy weapon?"

Gryffindor frowned, pondering all the knowledge he possessed regarding magic and alchemy, but after searching his memory, he found nothing.

"Like Horcruxes, is it some kind of evil magic?"

The Holy Relic? The Deathly Hallows?

Amosta frowned slightly; he wasn't unfamiliar with such things.

“You’re right, Godric, it’s the exact opposite of Horcruxes. It is indeed a very evil form of magic, and very dangerous.”

Ravenclaw's voice was solemn.

"It's meaningful for this notebook to remain here; I will definitely need to spend some time studying it when I get back."

"The sacred artifact... My father seemed to have told Regulus and me about it when he was alive—"

Surprisingly, Sirius had also heard of it. He blinked, looking completely bewildered.