Days at Hogwarts

Chapter 154 Traces of a Unicorn Horn

The captain of the Willump Silvia Explorer was a retired naval officer who, in his twenty years of sailing, had never encountered anything so strange.

After docking, he immediately contacted the shipyard and requested an engineer to come and check the situation. But the ship plank that had collapsed the night before had miraculously returned to its original state during the second inspection.

He could see the confusion on the engineers' faces; every glance seemed to say, "Are you kidding me?"

What could he do? Could he say that a wizard had infiltrated the ship and that all of this was wizard magic?

The captain could only chuckle awkwardly and forced the engineers to conduct a series of safety checks. After receiving confirmation that there were no safety hazards on the ship, he let them leave.

Fortunately, the first mate and second mate were present when the incident occurred, and everything was done according to regulations, leaving ample evidence. Apart from the company losing money, no one else was punished.

Perhaps because the passengers on the ship were all wealthy and powerful, the organizers dared not offend them. The next day, they arranged for cars and drivers to take the passengers back to London and promised a full refund.

By any measure, the Willump Silvia Explorer's voyage was a devastating loss. Hermione even felt somewhat guilty about it.

But Loren did the math for her, "Think about it, if we hadn't dealt with the Dementors, everyone on the ship would have been killed. The compensation would have made the losses even greater, and the organizers would have made a profit."

Is that so? Hermione accepted this statement with a skeptical look.

……

"Flamel, tell me, is my memory loss due to a concussion and medication, or because of a magical disturbance?" Loren asked thoughtfully, leaning on the table.

After the cruise ship docked, they quickly returned to London from Sunderland. Upon arriving home, Loren immediately went into the Book of Fantasy and told Flammel about the adventures he had encountered: Dementors, enormous Guardian Deities, and memories awakened by the Soul Stone.

Flamel had already experienced the immense guardian light of Loren's guardian deity, so he wasn't surprised. Instead, he was very interested in the newly discovered Soul-Capturing Stone.

At the alchemy lab workbench, Flamel, wearing a monocle, was fiddling with a smooth black pebble, his fingers occasionally emitting magical light as he traced patterns on its surface.

The Book of Fantasy projected a virtual entity onto the Soulstone, which was performing some alchemical analysis on the Soulstone's properties.

The light shimmered for a long time, until the hard surface of the Dementor Stone was covered with scratches. Flamel then removed his monocle and exclaimed in amazement, "It absorbs positive emotions and memories to grow, and eventually transforms into a Dementor. To transform something formless into something tangible—this is a material that has never been seen before."

"If it could be applied to alchemy, it would be the greatest discovery in three hundred years."

Seeing that he wasn't listening to his question at all, Loren turned his head away in dissatisfaction. "Mass-energy conversion, huh? I can give you a relativity equation."

"Mass-energy conversion? That's a very apt description." Flamel sensed his dissatisfaction and said with a chuckle, "I don't know the reason for your memory loss either, but I think you're more concerned about how to regain your memories than figuring out the cause."

"Is there any way to use this Soul-Capturing Stone?" Loren looked at him expectantly.

Flamel shook his head. "While the Soul Stone awakens memories, it also drains your happiness. When too much happiness is drained from a person, they will lose the ability to be happy and become an empty shell."

"So what's your solution?"

"Do you remember that mirror? Mary's mirror can penetrate deep into your consciousness. As long as the mirror is repaired, you can retrieve your memories from the ocean of consciousness." Flamel said, beckoning a parchment scroll and beginning to list the properties of the Soul Stone on it.

Unexpectedly, this task fell to the mirror. Loren nodded, "I will go to Windsor Castle to find the unicorn horn as soon as possible."

"It has a hard texture, can absorb positive emotions to grow, has biological activity, and can awaken people's memories..." Flamel wrote, then suddenly looked up at Loren, "When refining a new mirror, this stone can be added, and it can make the mirror absorb emotions more powerfully."

……

"Windsor Castle covers 7 hectares and is currently the largest inhabited citadel in the world. All buildings are constructed of stone and contain nearly a thousand rooms, including the King and Queen's dining room, studios, ballroom, audience room, drawing room, Waterloo Room, St. George's Chapel, etc..."

A British-looking girl was introducing Windsor Castle to her classmates, speaking fluently and in great detail about every aspect.

Loren and Bates mingled among the tourists, listening to various information about Windsor Castle.

A thousand years ago, King Henry I held a pilgrimage ceremony here, and Windsor Castle officially became a venue for court activities. Through continuous expansion by successive monarchs, Windsor Castle has now become a vast castle complex with many exquisite buildings.

Royal family members are buried here after their deaths, the country's knights are awarded here, and the famous writer Shakespeare was invited here to gather inspiration and wrote a play based on this place.

"The Order of the Garter is the highest honor in Britain. Each Knight of the Garter has a designated seat in the hall, behind which hangs each knight's armor, sword, and banner..."

The girl continued her introduction, while Loren and Bates had already disappeared into the crowd. Loren wasn't interested in the historical artifacts; he was only there to confirm the whereabouts of the unicorn horn.

To be honest, after dealing with the bank matters, Bates was completely idle. Moreover, living in the city, without having to herd sheep or farm, was more leisurely than when he was on the mountain ranch, but also more boring.

After their last cruise trip, Loren and Hermione didn't plan to travel again during their vacation. Bates also couldn't bear to leave Loren alone at home while he went on his own trip, since boarding students have a fixed number of vacation days per year.

When Loren suggested coming to Windsor Castle to find a unicorn horn, Bates immediately agreed. The next morning, he drove him there to Windsor, a town 32 kilometers west of London.

"I think it's much more effective for you to practice magic outside than staying at home all the time. Tell Hermione I'll drive you around every day."

At this point, Bates suddenly frowned, remembering something. "Did you tell Hermione you wouldn't be home today? What if she comes to the house and can't find you?"

Loren sighed: "I already told you, I mastered the Freezing Charm and the Expanding Charm before her. In order to catch up with me, she hasn't contacted me for the past few days, saying that I'm affecting her studies."

Loren felt a little annoyed at the thought. What kind of nonsense was this? What did she mean by saying I was affecting my studies? Was I some kind of bad student?

Bates was proud of Loren, but still said sternly, "Hermione is a girl, you should be more considerate of her."

"Oh," Loren replied.

Following the signs, the two walked along the long path guarded by giant trees and stepped into the gate of the ancient castle.

This is a building that blends Gothic, English garden and Victorian styles. Its magnificent dome and white stone walls exude the antiquity and weight of time.

Aside from the royal living quarters, this area is primarily a large museum and art gallery. It boasts a vast collection of vehicles, jewelry, sculptures, and paintings. It includes works by Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt, Rubens, and Vermeer.

They wandered from one end to the other, circling back and forth several times, but still couldn't find a unicorn horn. Loren had even carefully examined the ivory and rhinoceros horn sculptures; they were indeed ivory and rhinoceros horns, not unicorn horns.

"The golden scepter is beautiful, and the paintings are beautiful too." Bates fiddled with the fabric flowers on the curtain, looking around. "But I didn't see a unicorn, not even a painting of a unicorn."

"This is something funny," Bates laughed. "Hey, this is something from the royal coat of arms, and there's no painting on it."

Unlike Bates, who was enthusiastically examining the various collections, Loren was already feeling a dull ache in his feet. The castle covered 7 hectares, and excluding the greenery, the floor space was nearly 50 square feet. Searching at this rate would break his legs.

He needed to find a more efficient and direct method… He closed his eyes, his pupils darting around beneath his eyelids. When he opened them again, they were filled with a crystalline blue light.

In an instant, all the magnificent artworks and rare paintings in the room lost their color; these were objects without magic, and were unremarkable in the magical vision.

Just then, a milky white light shone in, and following the light, Loren walked to the side.

A majestic knight statue stands before the entrance, its white marble sculpted to reveal every inch of its armor and muscle texture. Tall and imposing, it seems as if such a knight truly existed.

Loren's attention was drawn to the lance, its slender tip radiating spiral patterns. In his vision, the milky-white magical light emanated from this point, exuding a sense of holiness.

It's unclear whether the royal family knew it was a unicorn horn, but they made it into a statue and hid it perfectly.

Only a select few top wizards possess magical perception, and since almost none of them visit Windsor Castle, the unicorn horn has been preserved in this way.

But no one expected that Dumbledore would be such an anomaly among the top wizards. Compared to leaving a London Underground map on his lap or discovering a unicorn horn during a visit to Windsor Castle, Loren felt that this was very Dumbledore.

"In the end, it'll be my advantage." Loren smiled.

Bates noticed him staring intently at the tip of the gun and followed his gaze. "That's a unicorn horn? It doesn't look anything special."

"For most people in the world, it's really nothing special." Loren turned around and walked towards the exit. "Let's go, we can go back now."

Now that I've scouted the location, all that's left is to practice Apparition and Distortion. I don't know if Alohomora will work on the combination lock, but even if it doesn't, it's okay, Alohomora will definitely work.

Bates' gaze lingered for a moment, then he turned and caught up with Loren. "Aren't we going to look around a little longer? What's the use of a unicorn horn...?"

Nighttime, in the dueling room of the Book of Fantasy.

"Apparition!" Loren first moved his wrist, drawing his wand upwards, then tracing an arc counter-clockwise.

With a loud "bang," Loren's figure vanished from his spot and reappeared on the floor in the distance, as if he had teleported.

Loren felt slightly dizzy from the spatial dislocation, but the solid feeling under his feet quickly dispelled the dizziness, and he regained his senses after a slight pause.

First, I checked my surroundings and found no familiar pain, indicating that I hadn't split into two bodies. Then I glanced at the white circle markings on my feet, which meant that the teleportation landing point was precise.

"We did it!" Loren clenched his fist in excitement.

Sitting lazily on a desk by the wall, Flamel said, "This is only in fantasy books, but in the real world, I still advise you to try it under the professor's supervision."

He paused for a moment: "There is a certain lag between the mind directing the body and this lag. This lag might cause your body to move forward while your hands and feet remain in place."

Loren considered the scene for a moment, then shook his head in reluctance. Although he was eager to obtain the unicorn horn, there was no need to rush it.

"I'll wait until I get back to school and practice under Professor Snape's supervision. He has plenty of white shavings."

Flamel knew he wasn't reckless, so he reassured him, "There's no rush to regain your memories. You've come this far over the years, take it slow."

"Apparition!" Loren flashed to his side, a smile on his face. "So, can you practice the Oblivion Charm with me? I promise, I'll be very careful."

Flamel vanished from his spot with a thud. Clearly, his Apparition skills were extremely proficient; he had achieved silent and staff-less spellcasting.

He appeared elsewhere, his expression serious, and said, "For a magical portrait created from memory, the Oblivion Charm is tantamount to murder."

Loren curled his lip. "You can't even sort out your own memories spanning hundreds of years. How effective could a beginner's forgetting spell be?" However, Flamel's words made sense, so he had to temporarily abandon this tempting idea.

The holiday was drawing to a close, and for the remaining days, Loren practiced Apparition and the Disappearance Charm with his consciousness at night, but Flamel refused to cooperate with him in practicing the Oblivion Charm.

During the day, they studied with Hermione. The basic spells for second-year students were already considered easy for them. Loren could master them after a few practice runs, and under his guidance, Hermione's learning speed was also very fast.

Loren's Legilimency and Hermione's Occlumency have both made great progress. In the back and forth between offense and defense, Loren has also experienced the confrontation of invasion and defense at the edge of the brain and soul, and has his own understanding of brain defense techniques.

However, he couldn't test whether he had actually learned it.

At this point, only the Forgetting Spell remains of the three memory spells. This will likely require a master who is proficient in the Forgetting Spell and a guinea pig to practice on.

But why can't these two be the same person?

(End of this chapter)