The Return to Hogwarts

"So I quickly grabbed his hand. Ron rushed up and grabbed my robe, but it was no use. A strong force pulled all three of us inside. Dom and Dobby tried to save us, but they were also controlled. Before I entered the wall, I sent Reja to find you."

Amosta nodded thoughtfully. It felt the same as when he touched the wall; an extremely strong force had bound him and dragged him inside.

In other words—

Amosta squinted at Harry.

"Apart from Harry, none of you actually touched the wall?"

After a few seconds of silence, Harry, under Professor Blaine's gaze, nodded uneasily.

Amosta's gaze swept over the gold watch on Harry's wrist, a gift from him, and with some suspicions in his mind, he slowly nodded.

Let's go--

After letting out a slight sigh of relief, Amosta addressed Harry and the other two who had been implicated.

"The adventure is over, everyone. There's no reason for us to stay here and endure the cold. Let's go out first, and then I have some things to tell you—"

It must be said that the sense of security that came with Professor Blaine's company was indescribable. As Harry and his two companions followed behind Professor Blaine, whenever they saw that thin but upright figure and passed by the stone walls on both sides of the corridor, where the heads of house-elves with terrifying expressions were displayed, they felt almost no longer fear, but rather incomprehension of such behavior and pity for the house-elves.

When Amosta led the group out of the cold stove, the kitchen, which had been much quieter late at night, suddenly became noisy again.

These house-elves seemed to have special abilities. Leaving aside the elves left to tend the stove, the elves sleeping on the floor and by the stove seemed to immediately sense the presence of a wizard nearby. They were all startled awake and rushed to Amosta in a panic, bowing humbly to ask if they needed any service.

In this situation, Amosta couldn't explain anything to them. After waving away the little elves, Amosta led them out of the kitchen.

Back in the warm corridor outside the kitchen, adorned with oil paintings of delicious food, Harry and his friends felt as if they had returned to another world. Perhaps they had only been in the kitchen for two hours, but the bizarre experience they had just had exhausted them.

Amostah noticed their fatigue. After looking around and confirming there were no other students, he simply said,

"Let me be frank, folks, I think you all realize that what you just witnessed in Ms. Hufflepuff's office is extremely important."

Ron opened his mouth, then shrank back a little guiltily.

To be honest, what they just experienced was truly extraordinary, ranking among the most incredible events they'd encountered in their three and a half years at Hogwarts. They witnessed a remarkable period of history, but its importance... well, it happened a thousand years ago, after all. In Ron's view, whatever crises the four leaders faced should have been resolved by now. Whether it was the Dementors, that terrifying door, the Coordinates, or the Hallows, nothing was as sensational as Rowena Ravenclaw and Godric Gryffindor having a child!

“Whether it’s the three of you or you—” Amosta glanced at Harry and his two companions, then looked seriously at the three house-elves, “I don’t want you to tell anyone about everything you saw during this experience.”

"Oh--"

Ron said with a hint of disappointment,

"Can't anyone tell?"

Well.

Harry, Harry, and his friends thought Professor Blaine would reiterate his demands, though they didn't quite understand the significance of his request for secrecy. At least in Harry's view, if people knew that the Dementors, these evil creatures, obeyed the Ministry of Magic because of Rowena Ravenclaw, Hogwarts would become famous!

But to everyone's surprise, Professor Blaine pondered for a moment before...

"If Headmaster Dumbledore were to ask me about it someday, it wouldn't be impossible to tell."

Professor Dumbledore asked him about it, but he didn't know, did he? Professor Blaine had clearly forbidden them from talking about this with others unless he himself told Professor Dumbledore first.

Hermione's eyes blinked, a multitude of thoughts swirling in her mind.

"Furthermore, I think you haven't forgotten what I told you in Ms. Hufflepuff's office, have you?"

Professor Blaine asked earnestly.

Harry was momentarily confused, then he immediately remembered the name.

Seeing the three little ones agree one after another, Amosta nodded in satisfaction. He looked at the three little elves, hesitated for a moment, and decided to give up his plan to do something to them.

These house-elves belonging to Hogwarts must obey his orders, and Dumbledore's advice on the way back from Elder Horn of the Centaurs still holds some truth.

"Then let's go back quickly."

Amostah rubbed his temples, looking slightly tired. Tonight's gains had been immense, and he needed to rest and reflect.

Well--

Hermione blinked in surprise, looking like she wanted to say something but couldn't, while Harry and Ron, who knew her well, kept winking at her.

"what happened?"

Amos asked curiously.

“Punishment.” Hermione took a deep breath, her face flushed, and stammered, “I—we broke the school rules, Professor—”

"Oh, this thing--"

Amosta slapped his forehead, glanced at the dejected Harry and Ron with a wry smile, and after thinking for a moment,

"Then go clean the classroom. Before the Christmas break, you three will be responsible for cleaning the PE classroom after each class. And no magic allowed--"

"Does it have to be this way?"

Watching Professor Blaine fly away, Harry looked at Hermione and said with a mournful expression.

Chapter 666 Clues and the Ball

2023-12-28

Ever since exploring the secrets beneath Azkaban under the guidance of Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, Amostella had foreseen that one day she would join the wizarding community searching for the Deathly Hallows. The information left behind by the Four Great Wizards across a millennium was undoubtedly of paramount importance; they would not do anything meaningless.

The Resurrection Stone, the Elder Wand, and the Invisibility Cloak—whoever possesses these three sacred artifacts will become the master of death, possessing power beyond the mortal realm.

Historical events that actually happened, when packaged with exaggerated embellishments by later generations, become myths that have been passed down to this day.

Amosta believes that the Three Sacred Relics are powerful magical artifacts with extraordinary power, but the claim that possessing them can conquer Death is certainly not something Helbo himself fabricated.

It is highly likely that Merlin, who was the first to set foot on Azkaban and discover the stone archway, left behind the story so that the 'coordinates' of leaving the door would be passed down through the ages. As for why Merlin took these coordinates and closed the door, his purpose is actually quite obvious.

Amos Tower had just received Merlin's revelation, "Your path leads to the stars," in the Centaur Sanctuary, and then unexpectedly discovered a way to reach the stars at Hogwarts. Whether this was merely a coincidence or preordained is pointless to ponder.

For Amosta, the most important thing is to find them!

But this is clearly not easy, neither the Three Sacred Relics nor the 'Gate of Death'. The only clues Amosta currently has are the Resurrection Stone from the Three Sacred Relics and the mysterious Gate of Death, which was once controlled by the four founders a thousand years ago. Since they are guiding him, he shouldn't create too many difficulties for himself.

Where will they be?

It's hard to say about the Gate of Death. It's unlikely that the four founders would keep such a dangerous thing in Hogwarts forever, nor that they would take it underground, unless the four founders of Hogwarts wanted their graves to be found and dug up a thousand years later.

The first snowfall of the year cast a golden glow on the ancient Hogwarts Castle, while the grounds outside were filled with the joyful laughter of young wizards. There was no reason to stop these children from having a hearty snowball fight in the snow-covered world on the weekend.

Laughter echoed through the castle corridors, but the library remained quiet. The bright, yet not scorching, sunlight streamed through the windows, illuminating the ordinary reading areas. However, the forbidden reading area, filled with strange and eerie whispers, remained incredibly dark.

Gazing at the almost tangible golden light that enveloped the reading area, Amosta leaned against a bookshelf in the restricted section, his vacant eyes indicating that he was lost in thought.

Where might that door be?

Amosta pondered deeply, feeling that he was only a thin veil away from the truth, needing only a spark of inspiration to discover it. However, trapped in a jumble of thoughts, that crucial inspiration never materialized.

The Resurrection Stone is very likely in the hands of a descendant of Slytherin, a clue revealed by Ravenclaw himself. The descendants of Slytherin...

Amostella's brow furrowed slightly involuntarily. Could it be like that locket that belonged to Slytherin?

In any case, the whereabouts of these two items have finally become clearer, but the whereabouts of the other two of the Trinity, the Elder Wand and the Invisibility Cloak, remain even more elusive. Scholars only know that they first appeared in the possession of the Peverell brothers, and the symbols of the Trinity are still visible on Ignotus's tombstone. Because of this, the tombs of the three brothers in Godric's Hollow have been visited many times over the centuries.

Amosta lowered his head and looked at the crudely bound manuscript tucked in his arm. On the first parchment, soaked with stains and fingerprints, there was a strange symbol among the barely legible writing—a triangle enclosing a circle, with a vertical line running through the triangle and the circle.

This is a stack of papers that records the origin of the Deathly Hallows story and the bloody history of the devotees of the Hallows in their pursuit of these three treasures.

Three centuries ago, a student in the Advanced History of Magic submitted a very high-quality graduation thesis to Professor Binns… or so Amosta thought.

Logically, this paper should have been kept in Professor Binns' office. For some reason, it ended up in the restricted section of the library and was accidentally discovered by Amosta while he was looking up information.

The floor of a corridor in the forbidden book section was cluttered with various magic books, all caused by Amostella. After waving her wand to put the forbidden books back in their places, Amostella took the stack of manuscripts and prepared to go to Professor Binns to ask if he remembered them.

To be honest, he didn't have high hopes.

After all, Professor Binns couldn't even pronounce the names of the young wizards he was teaching fluently, so expecting him to remember things from two or three hundred years ago was just wishful thinking on Amosta's part.

After brushing the dust off his clothes, Amosta walked out of the restricted book section, crossed the dividing and warning cordon, passed through the regular book section, registered with Mrs. Pins, and then strode out of the library.

"Oh, it's you, Professor Blaine."

The unexpected greeting made Amosta, who was still deep in thought, stumble. When he looked over and saw two students talking by the corridor closest to the library entrance, Amosta's brow twitched slightly.

It was Viktor Krum, a student of Karkaroff and a warrior of Durmstrang, while the girl standing opposite him with a somewhat bewildered expression was Hermione.

Upon seeing Professor Blaine emerge from the library and walk towards him, Krum involuntarily straightened his back, his eyes revealing both restraint and reverence.

Good afternoon, Professor Blaine—

Amosta smiled and nodded; he felt much better about the boy than his headmaster. But what were he and Hermione doing here? Discussing the second item of the Triwizard Tournament?

"Good afternoon, Mr. Krum—"

Amosta maintained his smile.

Did I interrupt your conversation?

Strangely, when he got closer, Hermione looked startled. She quickly glanced at the stack of somewhat aged manuscripts tucked under the professor's arm. The writing on them was rather blurry, and she couldn't make it out, but she did remember the conspicuous 'T' on the first page and the strange-looking pattern.

When Hermione noticed the meaningful look Professor Blaine gave her after seeing the "Complete Book of Medieval Dark Magic Tools" in her arms, her cheeks suddenly flushed, and she shrank back in fear.

“Oh, no, Professor Blaine--”

Krum's answer carried a hint of insincerity. He had also noticed the manuscript in Professor Blaine's arms. After a moment of distraction, Krum hesitated, but ultimately told the truth.

"Hmm, I'll invite Granger to join me at the Christmas ball too—"

Christmas ball?