Hogwarts: My Grandmother is the Queen

Chapter 388 Trial Ends

Henry quickened his pace, weaving through the gravel.

After walking about thirty steps, the density of the rubble underfoot gradually decreased, and the ground ahead was gradually covered by a layer of finer sand, as if the bottom of the valley had been washed by water, leaving a smooth sedimentary layer.

Just as he reached the middle of the valley, a circular area about six feet wide appeared on the sandy ground directly in front of him. The sandy surface there had no cracks or undulations, but its color was darker than the surrounding sand, presenting a uniform dark brown.

Henry stopped at the edge of the dark area, crouched down, and gently touched the surface of that area with the tip of his wand.

The moment the tip of the wand touched the surface, the dark area sank slightly, and the sound that came back from the touch had a hollow echo, as if it were striking a hollow drumhead.

Henry stood up, took two steps back, and walked around the edge of the dark area.

After walking about ten steps, a dull cracking sound came from the ground behind me.

He turned around and saw a crack appear on the surface of the dark sand, which quickly spread to both sides.

A grayish-white hand emerged from the crack, its fingers spread, and the skin on its palm appeared almost transparent in the grayish-white light.

A second hand followed, then the entire body.

A smaller in size than the previous two undead crawled out of the dark area. It was about four feet tall and resembled a compressed humanoid figure with disproportionately long limbs, its arms longer than its legs.

Its face has no facial features, only a horizontal crack running across the center of its face.

Henry finished casting the spell before it fully emerged from the ground. A fire spell struck the center of the inferno's body, and the flames ignited the moment they touched the grayish-white skin. The inferno paused for a moment in the flames, then tilted backward and fell back into the crack.

He went over and glanced inside the crevice, confirming that the corpse showed no signs of crawling out again, before continuing forward along the valley.

The slope on the opposite bank of the valley begins to become more pronounced, the ground changes from gentle to rising, and the gaps between the piles of rubble gradually widen.

He reached the bottom of the slope on the opposite bank of the valley and began to walk uphill, the gravel making a continuous clattering sound under his feet.

At the top of the slope was a low stone wall, similar to the one at the entrance to the valley, about three feet high, covered with dry moss.

He climbed over the stone wall and stood on a wide-open flat area.

The flat ground was covered with a layer of dry wild grass, which was a uniform light brown color, as if it had been exposed to the sun for a long time.

At the end of the flat ground was a low, round stone building, smaller than the meeting hall he had seen in the center of the village. It was about twenty feet in diameter and ten feet high, with a stone dome roof covered with fine cracks.

He walked toward the building and stopped about ten feet from the doorway.

The building's door was half-open, and the light shining through the crack made it seem as if some kind of light source was burning inside.

He walked to the door, pushed it open, and the door slid silently inward.

The interior space appears larger than the exterior, with rough stone walls and dark gray stone slabs on the floor, and a low stone platform in the center.

There was something placed in the center of the stone platform.

It was a dark leather glove, a left-hand style, made of dark brown leather with a surface covered with fine dark textures, as if it had been used and maintained for a long time.

The glove has a metal buckle around the wrist, with fine runes engraved on it.

The runes were similar to, but not exactly the same as, the symbols he had seen on ancient magic nodes. Some characters were spiral-shaped, while others were linear, like some kind of hybrid writing system.

Henry stood in front of the stone platform for a while, then reached out his left hand and picked up the glove.

The leather feels soft yet resilient, with a slightly cool surface, as if it had just been taken out of a cool place.

He turned the gloves inside out and looked inside. The lining was a dark gray suede material that felt soft and warm to the touch.

A flat, dark stone, about the size of a coin, with a smooth surface and a deep color, was embedded in the palm of the glove.

He pressed the stone with his thumb and felt a slight warmth coming from his fingertip.

He tried to put on the gloves; the leather clung to the shape of his hands and the contours of his fingers, like a layer of skin against his skin.

The metal buckle on my wrist tightened automatically, making a slight clicking sound.

He moved his fingers around; the gloves did not restrict his movements, his flexibility was hardly affected, and he felt no resistance when bending or stretching his fingers.

He walked to the edge of the room and touched the wall surface with his gloved left hand. The golden pattern lit up where he touched it, as if it had been activated.

He withdrew his hand, and the light dimmed again.

He focused his attention on the dark stone in the palm of his left hand and felt a faint warm current continuously transmitting heat from inside the stone into his palm, which seemed to be some kind of low-power energy source.

He raised his left hand, palm facing forward, imagining the shape of a fire spell. A flame shot out from his palm, wider, brighter, and hotter than the flame he cast with his wand.

When the flames touched the floor in the center of the room, they left a light-colored burn mark about two feet in diameter, and fine cracks appeared on the stone surface, which continued to spread after the flames were extinguished.

He lowered his hand and looked down at the glove. The dark stone in his palm was still radiating a faint warmth. The warmth had not diminished during the casting of the fire spell; on the contrary, it had become more stable after the spell was completed.

Henry didn't stay in the room for long. He turned and walked to the door, pushed it open, and went out. He retraced his steps, climbed over the low stone wall, walked down the slope of the valley, and re-entered the bottom of the valley.

The piles of pebbles in the valley appeared in a deeper hue under the dim light, and the outlines of the pebbles were more distinct than before.

When he reached the middle of the valley, a new change appeared among the piles of rubble ahead.

Beside the dark mud area he had passed through earlier, a new crack appeared in the ground, wider and longer than the previous one, extending about ten feet from the edge of the dark mud area toward the center of the valley.

The edges of the cracks were piled with freshly turned soil, which was darker in color and more moist than the surrounding sand.

Henry slowed his pace, sidestepped around the end of the crack, stopped at the edge of the crack, and looked down into the crack.

The crack was about four feet deep, with a layer of rubble and soil piled at the bottom.

Among the rubble, he saw some dark, slender objects, like fragments of some kind of plant root.

He left the edge of the crevice and continued walking towards the other side of the valley.

After walking about fifty steps, a new obstacle appeared ahead.

The valley floor is cut off here by a deep, horizontal trench.

The ditch was about six feet wide and eight feet deep. He walked to the edge of the ditch and looked down. There were some raised outlines on the surface of the sand at the bottom of the ditch, like half-buried stones.

The raised contours are unevenly distributed, with some areas appearing more regular in shape than the surrounding areas.

He walked along the edge of the ditch for a while, looking for a place to pass through.

The deep ravine extends to the base of the rock walls on both sides of the valley, with no path bypassing it.

It seems he must cross this ditch at some point.

Henry chose the narrowest section of the trench, which was about five feet wide and had a firmer edge than the surrounding soil.

He took a few steps back to run up, and when he reached the edge of the ditch, he leaped up, his body straddling the gap in the air, his feet landing on the soil on the opposite bank.

Henry leaned forward slightly upon landing, but he took a step forward to regain his balance.

After a while, Henry walked to the bottom of the slope on the opposite bank of the valley, walked up the slope, climbed over the low stone wall, and stood on the flat ground again.

He walked along the flat ground into the distance, and after walking for a while, a new area appeared at the end of the flat ground.

It was a ground paved with black stones, arranged neatly, like a specially paved square.

The square was not large, about thirty feet square, and its edge was surrounded by a row of low stone pillars, each about three feet high, with the same spiral symbol carved on its body.

There was a pattern etched on the ground in the center of the square, more intricate than any he had ever seen before.

The outer ring of the pattern is a spiral pattern, and the inner ring consists of seven intersecting curves, with a small symbol connected to the end of each curve.

The symbols were similar in style to the runes he had seen on the wrist buckles of his gloves, but in a different order.

As Henry stepped into the square, a subtle vibration emanated from the black stone slab beneath his feet, similar to the sensation he felt when touching the walls inside the building, as if some buried energy was flowing beneath the slab.

He walked to the center of the square and stopped at the very center of the design. The center was an area about a foot square, smoother and darker than the rest, almost pure black. He crouched down and reached out his left hand to touch the dark area. The moment his fingertips touched the surface, a strong vibration came from his palm, traveled up his arm, and simultaneously illuminated the entire black stone slab of the square, as if activated by an underground current.

Henry withdrew his hand, and the light slowly faded after he did. He stood up and looked around. The tops of the stone pillars at the edge of the square began to glow faintly, and the grooves of the spiral symbols were being filled with a deep green light.

He noticed that one of the stone pillars at the edge of the square was brighter than the others, so he walked over to it, squatted down, and examined it closely.

Besides the spiral symbol, the surface of that stone pillar also has a line of small characters carved in Old English letters.

He leaned closer to look at the words: "Once you've made your choice, there's no going back."

After reading the words, Henry stood up again, walked back to the center of the square, squatted down, and reached out his left hand to touch the dark area again.

The vibration was continuously emanating from his palm, and the frequency of the vibration gradually increased over a few seconds. New patterns began to appear on the surface of the stone slab beneath his feet, radiating outwards from the point of contact between his palm and the stone.

The veins are lighter in color than the surrounding stone slabs, presenting a silver-gray hue that stands out exceptionally against the dark stone slabs.

Henry withdrew his hand and stood up. The silver-gray patterns left a lasting mark on the stone slab, like a layer of fine lines embedded in the surface.

Henry walked along the lines and found that they converged at the edge of the square into an arrow-shaped pattern, pointing to a location in the southeast direction. He walked to that location, where the ground was not significantly different from the rest of the square, still covered with the same black stone slabs.

He crouched down and felt around with his fingertips in the direction the arrow was pointing, until he touched a loose floor tile.

He pressed down on the tile, and it sank about half an inch, making a low click.

A small groove appeared beneath the floor tile, and something was placed inside the groove.

A slender silver chain with a flat, oval pendant hanging at the end. The pendant has a smooth surface and is without any engravings or patterns.

He picked up the pendant, held it up to the light, and observed it for a while; his own reflection was visible on its surface.

It is very clear, without any blurring or distortion.

However, he doesn't know what the pendant is for yet, and he plans to ask the professors about it when he gets back.

So he put the pendant in his pocket, put on his gloves, and moved his fingers around to make sure they were not restricted.

Henry crossed the valley and walked up the slope to the other side, until he reached the iron gate.

He pushed the door open, and it slid inward. Henry squeezed through the crack and re-entered the village.

Henry walked along the main street and stopped at the square.

The broken stone pillar in the center of the square still stands in its original place, but the spiral patterns on its surface are now emitting a faint green light, as if activated by some kind of force.

He walked up to the stone pillar and touched it with his gloved left hand. A warm sensation flowed from the point of contact into his palm.

Then, he felt a warm current rise from the soles of his feet, spreading upwards along his body, merging with the warmth of the palm of his glove, forming a temperature that covered his entire body.

A moment later, the edges of his vision began to blur, and the green light inside the pillar of light was shrinking from the edge to the center, like a carpet being rolled up.

His body became light in the light, and then the entire field of vision lit up, all colors merging into a uniform white.

Soon, Henry felt his feet touching solid ground.

He was still standing in the principal's office.

The dark blue book lay closed on the desk, a subtle gold pattern now visible on the cover, extending down the spine.

He was still wearing the dark leather glove on his left hand, and the silver pendant was still in his pocket.