Hogwarts: Dumbledore reigned over the wizarding world.

Chapter 343 Ron's Good Friday

"Dear Vaughn, I don't know what 'yunqilonging' and 'ruricueng' mean, but I'm sure Li Nanyu's (Master Li's) words are meaningful. He seems to be describing something, seemingly stating his and his faction's ideology. Unfortunately, I don't understand Eastern culture and can't comprehend it."

"Okay, let's put aside these annoying questions for now. I'm not writing to you to ramble on about these trivial things. Of course, the main reason is that I'm not sure if the letters I send out in China will be checked. Just between you and me, they don't care about my privacy at all, which is really bad."

"What I want to describe to you is the magical power of the East—the Loong that the alchemists awaken is certainly not a real Loong, just as it originally represented. Loong is a totem, a belief, and an Eastern philosophy, but it is not a real Loong."

"If I had to give it a definition, I think its existence is more in line with the theory of the influence of legends. In the long history of civilization, Eastern people have revered and worshipped the earth, woven legends for the earth, and endowed the earth with humanity, divinity, and responsibilities—ultimately, the earth became a god, and the earth's veins became Loong!"

"Therefore, the clouds they weave are also false. They depend on Loong for their existence. If Loong is not there, they will naturally dissipate. Yet they are also real and true. I have personally seen those alchemists ride on fiery red clouds and fly up from various mountain peaks, flying into the clouds that engulf the mountains and are dyed red by the morning glow."

"They chanted spells, and the spells wove into golden threads in their hands. They used those golden threads to capture the clouds." This was the most magical part—those peculiar clouds, summoned from the earth by Loong, were bound together like cotton by golden threads. Even though I deliberately Apparated into the valley and personally experienced it, those clouds were "no different from real clouds."

Dumbledore stopped writing at this point in the letter.

He looked up at the dimly lit room, got up and turned on the light. The dim yellow bulb lit up, turning his silver hair yellow and illuminating the room.

This is a guesthouse, simply furnished with a desk, a solid wood coffee table, a leather sofa, and a bed.

After all, the place they were in was just a county town.

Gently pushing open the window, a cacophony of sounds drifted in; it was the bustling street below, seemingly the time when Muggles were getting off work. Dumbledore looked down and saw a vast, surging tide of people and bicycles on the wide but dilapidated road.

A few streetlights flickered in the distance, their dim light less bright than the afterglow of the sunset. Nearby, scattered neon lights lit up, and wisps of smoke rose, swirling in the winter air above the county town before being blown away by the wind carrying snow, leaving only the rich aroma of food.

Dumbledore sniffed, feeling a little hungry.

Unfortunately, the county town of Luncun, located at the foot of Laojun Mountain, had no food that suited his taste.

Dumbledore patted his stomach, preparing to endure it for a while before going to take advantage of Fudge—the esteemed minister would never compromise himself; even when he went to France on business, he would stubbornly bring his own tableware and cook, with ample logistical support.

He sat back down at his desk, picked up his pen, and wrote: "There are so many things here that I don't understand, those clouds," that Loong—according to Li Nanyu, Loongs have different duties, and Laojun Mountain is famous for its clouds, so the clouds here are "most suitable for capturing to build carriages, among which the morning clouds are the best."

"A thousand miles away, there is a place called Unlun, known as the ancestor of dragon veins. Although its cliffs are towering and its peaks are covered in snow all year round, it is famous for its fire."

Dumbledore bent over his desk and wrote down everything he had seen and thought about over the past two days on parchment.

Yes, he was passing on intelligence.

The more Dumbledore learned about the Qi Refiners, their magical heritage, and their philosophies, the heavier his heart became. This worry arose when the True Lords of Lao Jun Mountain tried to capture the clouds and awaken the earth's vein dragon.

If the earth's veins, stretching for hundreds or even thousands of miles, were "awakened," Dumbledore wouldn't be surprised at all if such magic were used by a legendary wizard.

But what he saw with his own eyes that day was that the one who awakened the ley lines was just a wizard who was close to being legendary.

Although such wizards were powerful, they were still within the realm of mortals, lacking the immense magical power and legendary spells of legendary wizards.

This "ordinary" wizard accomplished a feat that could be described as earth-shattering.

Dumbledore felt that not only did he need to rediscover the Eastern magical world, but he also needed to let Vaughn know that the East, which he longed to explore, was far from simple.

But if it's not simple, it often means big trouble!

When night had completely fallen outside, Dumbledore finally finished writing the letter, stuffed the thick parchment into the envelope, and took it out the door.

As soon as he opened the door, Dumbledore heard a man speaking heavily accented English greet him: "Good evening, Mr. Dumbledore."

Turning my head, a middle-aged man wearing a Zhongshan suit with a diplomatic badge on his collar came into view.

This is the person "monitoring" him—well, "monitoring" is a bit too confrontational, it should be called "accompanying."

"Good evening, Xiao Li, have you eaten?"

Dumbledore greeted him skillfully in the local way.

"I ate before my shift ended." Xiao Li smiled, glancing at the envelope in Lao Deng's hand: "Are you going to mail a letter?"

"That's right, should we check it? It's not sealed yet."

Dumbledore very frankly handed over the letter.

The middle-aged man named Xiao Li readily accepted the envelope, but after glancing at the name "Vaughn Weasley" on it, he hesitated for a moment and then returned it: "If it's addressed to Mr. Weasley, you don't need to check it."

"6

'

Wow, that's interesting.

Dumbledore smiled.

When Vaughn received Dumbledore's letter, five days of the two-week Christmas holiday had already passed.

For the past five days, he has done almost nothing productive. Every morning he wakes up in the faithful Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, or Gryffindor tower, has breakfast in the Great Hall, and then takes a walk by the lake with fruit tea.

Black Lake is just as lively in winter as it is in summer.

The frozen, mirror-like lake provides a perfect place for energetic young wizards to unleash their energy. They can skate, have snowball fights, and most importantly, cast harmless spells freely without worrying about accidentally breaking school rules.

On Christmas Day, Vaughn also saw the twins with a group of lion cubs trying to cut open the lake to wake up the giant octopus in the Black Lake and prepare to decorate it with Christmas decorations.

Fred even had the wild idea of ​​turning into a reindeer boat, putting a rein on the giant octopus, and taking everyone speeding across the Black Lake.

-

Of course, they failed.

The ice cut through, and the cold air that rushed into the lake enraged the mermaids in the Black Lake. They, along with their pet Greendylo, brandished their forks and drove the twins and the pack of lion cubs out of the Black Lake.

After his morning walk, Vaughn usually goes to Ravenclaw around noon.

The common lounge there contains a secluded Ravenclaw library.

Like the Ravenclaw Tower, the Secret Library requires answering questions about the Bronze Door (bronze is also one of Ravenclaw's house colors) to open it.

However, this library does not involve any magic; it only contains Rowena Ravenclaw's travel notes from back then.

The diaries, books, and other general knowledge books, as well as similar notes and scrolls later donated by Ravenclaw graduates.

Ravenclaws have always valued knowledge and general knowledge, such as how to understand the world, local customs, geography, and culture.

Even the words themselves, written by the authors of these notes and books, constitute knowledge.

For example, Ravenclaw loved to write poetry. Judging from the timeline, she was probably the earliest Romantic poet in England, with a style that was already reminiscent of the Lake District.

If there is something good on the top, it will be great on the bottom.

Later Ravenclaws donated many books containing poetry collections. Although most of them were imitations, some were indeed of high quality. Especially during the Enlightenment, these Ravenclaw wizards probably absorbed a lot of Muggle elements, and even gave birth to a unique school of thought such as sentimentalism.

Of course, literature is secondary; the important part is the thoughts and experiences of the authors conveyed in their poems.

Back then, Hogwarts still had the tradition of graduation trips, and the environment of Muggle society forced wizards to wander around.

Therefore, for nearly a thousand years, generations of Ravenclaws have traveled almost all over the world.

Besides poetry and notes, some people also write novels.

If we take these genres together, they are almost enough to cover the history that has taken place in various periods and around the world over the past thousand years. However, these histories are all described and understood from the perspective of individual people, so one-sidedness and errors are naturally unavoidable.

It's not suitable to be read as official history, but it's fine for passing the time and adding a different perspective.

Usually, Cho Chang would stay by Vaughn's side during these times, and Luna would occasionally come over, but she and Cho Chang were really incompatible.

Cho Chang comes from a wizarding family and is used to an orderly life, while Luna—to put it nicely, she's more easygoing, but in reality, she's wild and slovenly.

Her hair was always messy, and she liked to make jewelry from butterbeer bottle caps and carrots. She also always said things that were hard to understand.

On several occasions, Qiu Zhang also encountered Luna walking in barefoot, covered in pine needles and a strange smell, ruining the peaceful atmosphere she had carefully created.

Anger and hostility are to be expected.

After staying in Ravenclaw until evening, Vaughn would go to sit with Hagrid. When he was recovering from his injuries last time, he and Hagrid built a gazebo together on the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

The pavilion is far from people and offers unobstructed views of the forest, lake, and mountains, making it ideal for solitary contemplation.

It's just a bit cold in winter.

But don't worry, Hermione is always thoughtful. Every afternoon she goes to Hagrid's hut to make some fire pots to warm Vaughn's hands.

As a member of the trio, the other two naturally wouldn't leave her side, but both Harry and Ron intentionally or unintentionally avoided Vaughn.

Harry didn't know how to face it. He knew that the seemingly peaceful castle was actually full of undercurrents, and many things were surrounding Vaughn and him, but Vaughn didn't tell him the truth.

That feeling of knowing there's a problem, yet knowing you won't get an answer, is incredibly agonizing.

As for Ron, the reason was much simpler: on Christmas Day, he took out all his pocket money and asked Percy to go to Hogsmeade to buy him candy.

As a result, that fool Percy actually left the shopping to Fred and George in order to accompany Penelope Crivat to the library to study!

When Ron heard this, he felt like the sky had fallen.

Sure enough, when the twins returned from Hogsmeade, they didn't bring back a single candy. The two bastards even had the audacity to say that they had used Ron's money to buy a batch of prank toys, which they planned to sell to first and second-year wizards, and that they were sure to make a fortune!

However, they weren't the only ones with a business mind. Many upperclassmen who stayed on campus for Christmas were also eyeing the pocket money of their younger schoolmates—inspired by the twins' huge success with toffee last year.

With supply and demand out of balance, it was only natural that the twins' goods were stuck in their hands.

Ron was completely stunned that day.

He didn't just buy candy for himself; he also intended it as a Christmas present.

This year, Harry gave him a set of signed greeting cards from Charlie's Cannons, and Ginny gave him a bottle of Vaughn's spot-removing cream, hoping he would take better care of himself.

Hermione gave him a new set of wizarding chess, the same set from before, because last year he and Harry played chess every day, and Harry's chess skills were so terrible that the chess pieces couldn't take the torture and committed suicide one night.

Even Simo, Dean, and Neville sent gifts.

As a result, he didn't receive a return gift.

Despite the leisurely holiday, there were almost no secrets among the young wizards in the castle; everyone knew that Ron had been tricked by his twin brothers and wouldn't be able to reciprocate this year.

But Ron still felt ashamed, so lately he hasn't dared to show his face in front of Vaughn, Ginny, Seamus, Dean, Neville, and the others.

As Fawkes flew over Hagrid's hut, clutching the letter, Harry was trying to persuade Ron: "If you really feel bad about it, just sell the card I gave you. I don't mind, but I don't know if you'll find anyone to buy it—or sell the freckle cream Ginny gave you to those girls? You could say that the potion was brewed by Vaughn himself; it'd definitely fetch a high price!"

"You're a true genius!"

Ron rolled his eyes in annoyance.

No matter how anxious he is, he can't possibly sell his good friend's gifts to raise money for a return gift. If he did that, it would be a terrible mistake, and he would never be able to hold his head high again.

As for Ginny's freckle cream.

Although he felt it was useless when he received it, it was the first time Ginny had ever bought him a gift with her own money, and he wanted to keep it as a keepsake. How could he possibly sell it!

"It's all Percy's fault, and Fred and George's too!"

Seeing his friend clench his fists and grit his teeth once again, Harry chuckled and looked up at the sky with boredom: "You have to understand Percy. Even if he beats you up, you'll only curse him behind his back and won't break up with him to his face. Girlfriends are different, and so are Fred and George. Maybe they really can make you rich—uh?"

He suddenly stopped.

Under the azure sky after the snow, he clearly saw a phoenix, clutching a thick envelope in its claws, flying from the direction of the castle, its fiery red wings flapping as it flew toward the edge of the Forbidden Forest.