Days at Hogwarts

Chapter 23 Treasure Hunt at the House of Requirement

Loren was feeling drowsy from reading the thick book and had lost interest in reading. He planned to go up to the eighth floor to see the mysterious Room of Requirement.

Eighth floor corridor.

Loren looked through the paintings one by one, and one in particular caught his attention: a portrait of a wizard teaching six trolls to dance.

At first, the troll brandished the club in a rather serious manner, but soon became impatient and began to beat the wizard with all his might. Loren watched this amusing scene and almost burst out laughing.

Loren paced back and forth in front of the wall opposite the portrait, thinking to himself that he needed a clean and tidy internet cafe room with a sofa and a 4090 graphics card.

A white door appeared on the wall, and Loren exclaimed, "We've come to the right place!"

Upon entering, the computer, sofa, and bright lighting perfectly matched Loren's expectations.

Loren was momentarily dazed. He pressed the power button on the computer, but there was no response. He pressed it a few more times, but the result was the same.

As expected, it didn't work. This room was just a magical construct of the Room of Requirement according to Loren's vision; it didn't actually conjure up a computer.

The magical principles involved here are beyond Loren's imagination: mind reading, using magic to create objects, and even refining details that he himself is not very clear about.

Loren suspects the builder is one of the four leaders, not Slytherin, and his secret chamber isn't here. Gryffindor doesn't seem like the type to build a secret chamber; it's more likely Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff.

Now was not the time to investigate the builder. He left the room and began to think about what he needed to hide things in, repeating this several times before finally pushing the door open and entering.

What came into view were mountains of books, layers upon layers of old furniture, broken metal utensils, armor, and all sorts of magical items.

The magical objects around him emitted scattered lights of various colors in Loren's eyes, but at this moment Loren's vision was occupied by a bright blue light. Even through several mountains of debris, he could see the blue light shining from behind that thing.

Walking towards the source of the blue light, past several mountains of miscellaneous items and mountains of books, Loren saw a suit of armor with a crown on its head.

The crown is shaped like an eagle with outstretched wings, its feathers adorned with scattered blue gemstones, and below it is engraved the words: "Extraordinary wisdom is the greatest wealth of mankind."

This is the Ravenclaw crown that Loren was looking for.

It was turned into a Horcrux by Voldemort more than a decade ago. After Voldemort applied for the Defense Against the Dark Arts professorship for the second time and was rejected by Dumbledore, he hid it here.

The movie only mentions that it was set on fire, without explaining its purpose.

However, compared to the seductive diary, the deadly Gaunt ring, the Inferi and the locket guarded by poison, Loren found it hard to believe that the crown Voldemort had hidden himself would have been done without any tricks.

Loren was just a first-year wizard at the moment, and his life was at stake; he had no desire to touch the crown. He silently memorized the location, planning to notify Dumbledore to reclaim it when the time was right.

After making his decision, Loren began to examine the other items in the room.

These are things that Hogwarts students and teachers have hidden away over the past thousand years: miscellaneous items, weapons, books, and Loren even saw love letters.

Looking through the mirror, the flying brooms were a mess, some even broken in two, revealing weathered fractures.

Loren carefully avoided these magical items, taking a cautious approach as his life was at stake, not even touching them, for who knew what their uses were.

Loren picked out a tattered book, which looked very old. He pulled it out from under a stool leg, and the cover fell off.

This is a mass-produced publication, quite old, with some of the text illegible, but Loren still managed to decipher some of the content.

The printed text contains some basic spells, some of which are correct and the same as what Loren is currently learning. However, others are outdated and erroneous content that has been refuted and removed from all books long ago.

These errors were circled with a quill pen, and some guesses and doubts were written below them. Loren speculated that this was a Hogwarts textbook from long ago, and that a talented student had been revising the textbook since then.

A passage on the last page also proves Loren's conjecture:

Family is like a swamp, Hogwarts is my ray of light.

I don't hate my numb mother and ignorant sister, I only hope that they...

The ink at the end was blurred, but the signature at the end was familiar to Loren—Miranda Goshak, author of the Standard Spells series.

She overturned hundreds of erroneous theories about magic, her books have been translated into 72 languages, she is the author of almost all magic school textbooks, and she has appeared on Chocolate Frog posters.

This is the handwriting of a legendary witch who displayed astonishing magical talent from a young age, decades ago.

Loren flipped through the books scattered around. Some were old publications, and a large portion were handwritten copies. Loren had seen many of the authors of these manuscripts in textbooks.

They left these manuscripts while attending or teaching at Hogwarts; some were published, and some were not.

But what they have in common is that Loren basically can't understand the content.

He was certain that there was a treasure hidden inside: spells invented by many talented wizards over the past thousand years, unverified magical conjectures, and derivations of magical theories.

But Loren was just a junior wizard who had only been enrolled for a week. He couldn't understand anything, and the feeling of returning empty-handed from a treasure trove was truly frustrating.

Oh well, I guess I should focus on building a solid foundation first.

In the afternoon, Loren practiced his Transfiguration spell by the lake, repeatedly trying to transform a fist-sized stone into a wooden deckchair. He kept trying until he felt he couldn't cast any more spells, only managing to turn the stone into a slab of stone.

Loren lay down on it and sunbathed until sunset, feeling lazy all over.

Ron went back to school before dinner; his family had never indulged him like this before. Even when he argued with Ginny, his mother scolded Ginny instead of him. The pleasant weekend helped his heart, which had been tormented by Scabbers, recover.

Harry slept until now, and he swore he only intended to take a nap and then get up to do his homework. Before he knew it, it was evening, but even if he had to choose again, Harry would still choose to sleep rather than do the Transfiguration homework he had just written the title for—it was just too comfortable.

Both were in high spirits and engaged in lively conversation, from the dining table to the lounge, playing several rounds of wizarding chess, although Ron consistently crushed Harry in each game.

But both of them enjoyed it. Until they went to bed that night, Harry was still asking whether he should play the Knight before being checkmated in the final round.

Loren casually asked, "Harry, have you finished your Transfiguration homework?"

Harry and Ron's eyes immediately turned to terror.

"Help!!!"

(End of this chapter)