Hogwarts' Golden Glory

The ink-stained diary suddenly trembled slightly.

The stains on the cover flowed eerily, like a wounded snake struggling.

hiss...

A barely audible sound came from between the pages.

A thin wisp of black mist seeped out from between the pages of the book.

The mist swirled and shaped in the air, vaguely revealing the indistinct face of the boy Riddle—his brows furrowed, his lips moving silently.

"I must...restore my strength..."

The black mist stretched towards Kane, who was fast asleep, like tentacles.

But it suddenly stopped three inches from the tip of his nose.

The diary began to tremble violently.

It was shocked to discover that the boy was surrounded by a pale golden magical barrier.

He had no way of getting in touch with him.

"Damn it..."

The fog reluctantly retreated, then scanned the room in search of other sources of life.

Just then, Ig rolled over on the perch, its golden-red tail feathers drooping down.

The black mist immediately rushed excitedly towards the phoenix.

But it was burned the moment it touched the feather. A few sparks flew into the mist.

It made a sizzling sound like deep-frying. A suppressed cry of pain came from inside the diary.

The injured black mist wandered aimlessly within the room.

Suddenly, it noticed an unusual item in the corner of the bedside table.

That thing looks like a Rubik's Cube.

Each cell of this hexahedron is slowly rotating, and its center emits a faint blue light.

What attracted the black fog even more was the energy within the Rubik's Cube that it craved!

"Life...power..."

The mist rushed thirstily toward the Rubik's Cube, but a terrible change occurred the instant it made contact.

The Rubik's Cube suddenly started spinning faster.

The black mist twisted and deformed as if grasped by an invisible hand.

The phantom of young Riddle opened its mouth wide in pain (though it could not make a sound).

The blue light at the center of the Rubik's Cube turned into a vortex.

They began frantically drawing dark magic energy from the diary.

In an instant, the fragments of the soul in the diary were forcibly dragged into a space.

Tom's soul wants to escape.

However, the Rubik's Cube's suction force is getting stronger and stronger.

Worse still, as energy was lost, the diary began to show terrible signs of degradation.

The edges of the inner pages began to turn yellowish-brown.

The black mist struggled with all its might to break free of the Rubik's Cube.

Like a lizard with its tail severed, it abandoned 30% of its energy before escaping back to its diary.

At this moment, it was so weak that even the ink stains could not be maintained.

After returning to the diary, I closed it tightly!

Just like a startled clam tightly closing its shell.

The Rubik's Cube then blinked a few times, satisfied, and returned to calm.

The next morning, Kane was awakened by Igor's urgent chirping.

The phoenix was frantically digging at the diary with its claws, occasionally spitting out warning sparks.

"What's wrong?" Kane rubbed his eyes and sat up, then froze—

The once exquisite diary now resembles a cheap notebook that has been soaked in water and dried in the sun: the cover is peeling, the gold foil is flaking off, and it even smells musty.

Kane touched the shriveled diary with his fingers.

There wasn't a trace of magic on it.

It looks just like those secondhand laptops in the Muggle world.

At that moment, a commotion arose downstairs.

Dobby the house-elf's shrill voice pierced through the heavy oak door:

"Bad Dobby! Stupid Dobby! You let the red-haired wizard in!"

Immediately afterwards, Narcissa's calm but tense voice rang out: "Arthur, you are four hours ahead of your appointment time."

"Raid searches are the essence of investigations, Narcissa."

Arthur Weasley's voice carried a suppressed excitement.

"The minister has given us special authorization—we can search any suspicious items!"

Arthur Weasley’s gaze was immediately drawn to Igor on Kane’s shoulder.

The phoenix was preening its tail feathers, each feather shimmering with beautiful firelight.

"This phoenix..." Arthur's spyglass was aimed at Igor and spun wildly.

"Ministry of Magic regulations stipulate that Class XXXXX magical creatures are strictly prohibited from being traded. Therefore, I now suspect the origin of your phoenix!"

Kane casually stroked Igor's feathers: "You can write to Dumbledore directly. I'm sure he'll explain Igor's origins to you."

He paused deliberately, "Of course, if the minister doesn't mind troubling that old man."

Upon hearing Dumbledore's name, Arthur fell silent.

This principal still holds a very high place in his heart.

Although I don't quite understand why the other party would give such a precious pet to a young wizard.

"Go ahead and search, but please keep an eye on your crappy equipment. You can't afford to pay for anything you damage here!"

Lucius spoke to Arthur and the others with a displeased expression.

"Don't worry, we have new equipment now!"

Arthur Weasley solemnly took three gleaming detection devices from his dragon-skin briefcase.

Dobby's big ears twitched violently, almost tearing the tea towel to shreds.

"This is the Ministry of Magic's latest revealing sand."

Arthur proudly held up a crystal bottle filled with screaming silver sand.

"Each gram is worth 5 Galleons and can reveal the most subtle traces of black magic!"

Narcissa's lips twitched.

She gracefully raised her wand and cast a disintegration spell on the entire Persian carpet before Arthur could pour out the sand.

Then the silver sand fell onto the translucent magic barrier.

It emitted a shrill cry like a baby's wail, but didn't even touch a single wool.

"Merlin's beard!" Lucius clapped with a fake smile.

"Weasley, your department has finally decided to upgrade that 1890 relic?"

Arthur's face flushed red, and he pulled out a jewel-encrusted alchemical compass: "This is Gringotts' latest model—"

"Fairy craftsmanship, moonstone calibrated, capable of detecting dark magic items within a 300-foot radius."

En leaned lazily against the stair railing.

"Last year, the Daily Prophet's science section reported on it; the price is 200 Galleons. Looks like the Ministry of Magic has finally allocated a budget?"

The young Auror assistant in the search team accidentally slipped his hand.

The compass slammed onto the marble floor with a loud thud.

Arthur let out a heartbroken wail!

He knelt on the ground to examine the tiny crack on the compass.

"The last one!" Seeing that the compass was still working properly, Arthur took out another cage from his inner bag.

"Trained Illusion-Sniffing Grass can detect the most concealed dark magic contracts!"

The purple plant in the cage suddenly twisted violently, its leaves frantically slapping against the fence.

It wasn't sensing dark magic, but rather reacting allergically to the phoenix feathers that Zoth had shaken off.

"Interesting," Narcissa said coldly, watching the plant foam at the mouth.

"It seems the Ministry of Magic has spent its funds on something extraordinary."

The search quickly turned into a disaster:

The visible sand was sprinkled into Lucius's antique clock cabinet!

This caused all twelve goldfinch specimens to go berserk, chasing and pecking at the search team for ten minutes;

The priceless alchemical compass's needle spins wildly when it gets close to a house-elves!

It was later discovered that the interference was caused by a paperclip attached to Dobby's tea towel;

The expensive magic plant even smelled chili powder in the kitchen.

It began spewing corrosive sap, destroying half a set of sterling silver cutlery.

Narcissa's voice was like ice, "Arthur, you'd better pray the Ministry of Magic's compensation is enough."