The Bard of Hogwarts

Chapter 291 Farewell Half a Month Later, Time Flies Like a Song

At dusk.

The setting sun, like an aging painter, uses its most brilliant brushstrokes to outline a breathtaking painting on the horizon.

At this moment, Ino stood quietly by the window, admiring the scenery outside.

Today is the day he bids farewell to Nico.

……

Time seems to always flow by unnoticed.

Before she knew it, Ino had been in France for more than half a month, and there was less than a week left before Hogwarts started.

During their time together, he not only exchanged knowledge about alchemy with Nico, but also learned many interesting anecdotes hidden in history.

Overall, life is very comfortable.

The only regret is that there are too few people to chat with, since the place where Nicolas Flamel lived in seclusion was probably protected by the Charm of Loyalty.

With such powerful protective magic, let alone an owl delivering a message, even a phoenix probably wouldn't be able to accurately locate it.

Fortunately, the regret was only temporary. On the third day after arriving here, Ino remembered another item that he had almost forgotten—a real two-way mirror.

After Hermione gave them the mirror, they used it very few times.

To be precise, the most recent time was during the Quidditch World Cup, when Hermione contacted him using the two-way mirror to invite him to watch the game.

However, due to his upcoming opening performance, he had to politely decline. The last time he used the two-way mirror seemed so long ago that he couldn't even remember.

However, none of that mattered anymore. After remembering the two-way mirror, Ino did everything she could.

In his spare time, he would also take the initiative to chat with Hermione.

After all, apart from Nicolas Flamel, all that's left here are the original little dolls.

But for some reason, as time went by, these little puppets seemed to have lost their original liveliness.

Similarly, they all became listless and lacked their previous liveliness.

Ino had some guesses about this.

After all, once he learned about the Philosopher's Stone, he already knew why Nicolas Flamel had said it was broken.

As one of the top alchemical artifacts, the Philosopher's Stone is essentially used to break rules, or rather, to replace rules.

Just like Gump's basic law of transmutation, magic cannot conjure food out of thin air, but once a wizard possesses a complete Philosopher's Stone, he can use the magic contained within the Philosopher's Stone to conjure food out of thin air.

Seeing a glimpse of the whole leopard reveals the whole picture; after learning these things, Ino was also deeply shocked.

Although it's just a simple act of conjuring food, it contains underlying rules.

It's a rule that magic can't conjure food out of thin air, it's a rule that magic can't bring the dead back to life, and it's also a rule that magic can't create life...

The so-called creation of the elixir of immortality is merely one of the most insignificant effects of the Philosopher's Stone.

Unfortunately, Nicolas Flamel's Philosopher's Stone was damaged, so damaged that only the most insignificant effects remained.

It seems that all top-tier things come with inherent imperfections.

……

window.

As the sky gradually darkened, Ino's thoughts drifted away.

Until a crisp sound came from beside me:

"It's time to eat! Come with me!"

Upon hearing the familiar voice, Ino looked down and saw a small doll about three inches tall standing at her ankle.

At that moment, she was pulling at her trouser leg while raising her head and shouting loudly, her delicate little face filled with anxiety.

Without any hesitation, Ino immediately squatted down and gently picked up the palm-sized doll with her hands.

This is one of the few active dolls, and it's also the doll that got scalded by hot tea.

"Let's go eat!"

Holding the doll in one hand, he walked towards the dining room.

To be honest, even though Nico lives in a room that's almost like an apartment, the place is as vast as a maze.

Because each door, opened at different times, always leads to a different room.

He once entered dozens of different rooms because he didn't know this, and finally had to rely on the doll's help to find his own room.

From then on, that little doll became his personal guide, which is the doll he is holding in his hands now.

……

Led by the doll, Ino once again arrived at the familiar dining room.

However, he was not surprised to see Nicole this time.

After all, an elderly person who is extremely frail is probably no longer able to digest any food.

Anyway, every time they ate, he would eat while Nico drank the potion.

Occasionally drinking potions in a different place seems reasonable, but today, on the eve of parting, Nico chose to disappear...

Although I was surprised, I didn't think too much about it and focused on the present moment.

Dinner was another sumptuous French meal.

A delicious bouillabaisse, a beef stew in Burgundy red wine, a little Niçoise salad, and a whole pan-fried foie gras.

……

Enjoying delicious food always brings joy.

However, when we were halfway through eating...

Nicolas Flamel walked slowly into the restaurant, followed by a doll that was about three feet tall and looked like a little boy.

The doll is carrying another, more antique-style briefcase.

"Good evening, Mr. Lemaître!" Ino put down his cutlery and wiped his mouth with a napkin.

"Just now, for a fleeting moment, I thought you wouldn't come to see me off."

"How could that be! I'm just packing some farewell gifts for you." Nico chuckled, pointing to the box in the doll's hand.

"These are all books for you! I thought they would just sit on a shelf in Beauxbatons anyway, so I decided to give them all to you."

"Haha, thank you! But after I finish reading it, I'll find an opportunity to copy it down and send it to Beauxbatons."

In response to Nico's generosity, Ino also indicated that he would not take it for himself.

"Whatever you say! I've done enough for my alma mater anyway!" Nicole nodded with a smile.

"The reason I'm late is because of this child! He's always shy, but I wanted to introduce him to you!"

"His name is Rick, and he's been my child for over five hundred years! I hope that after I die, someone will still remember him."

……

Hogsmeade.

With a flash of orange-red light, Ino returned to the long-lost cottage.

"Is this my home from now on?"

A crisp sound rang out, and then Ino saw a small head peek out from the pocket of the robe.

"Yes, this will be your future home!"

Ino took the little doll out of her pocket and gently placed it on the soft bed.

But whenever he saw the doll in front of him, he would always think of the little boy named Rick who was next to Nico.

I thought Nico would entrust the other person to me, but who would have thought that it would just be an introduction between us.

"I only want another person with a long life to remember him, my and Perenaar's former child..."

By giving back to the doll with his own life, Nico seems to have truly performed some forbidden alchemy.

But no matter what, what's gone is gone, and the incomplete Philosopher's Stone had already brought Nicolas Flamel to his wits' end.

Thinking of this, Ino couldn't help but chuckle; it really wasn't his place to judge whether other people's choices were right or wrong.

He quietly turned his head, his gaze inadvertently falling on the calendar on the table, time seemingly frozen at the moment he left.

With a light snap of his fingers, the calendar on the table began to turn its pages automatically.

After a while, it finally stopped at the number 27.

1994 8 Month 27 Day.

It's the beginning of the month! Xiao Di is begging for votes! Begging for votes! Begging for votes!

Today's share: Philosopher's Stone

The Philosopher's Stone is a man-made, magically imbued red stone. It can be used to create elixirs of immortality that extend the life of the drinker, and it can also transform any metal into pure gold. The famous alchemist Nicolas Flamel created the only known Philosopher's Stone up to 1991. Flamel used it to create elixirs of immortality, extending his and his wife Perenaert's lives by more than six centuries.

(End of this chapter)