I, Hogwarts Second Time Around.

Chapter 251 Ancient magic should not have been wasted like this.

Suddenly, an oak door appeared in front of him.

The door bolt was broken and tattered; it opened with a simple push, without the need for any spells.

The moment I stepped inside, a beam of light shone down.

"Ironclad Protection!"

Irving instinctively used the Iron Mantra.

After his eyes adjusted to the light.

A huge stone pillar, as tall as two people, appeared before him.

Flames flickered on the stone pillar.

It looked as if it had been burning for a thousand years.

The base consists of four strange creatures with goat horns on their heads; clearly, these creatures are demons.

For a fleeting moment, Irving really wanted to stand up and run away.

The main problem is—the main problem is that there's too much dust here.

Yes, there's too much dust.

"His true colors are revealed!"

Adjusting his mindset, Irving once again cast the spell.

His spell struck the stone pillar precisely.

The four demons on the base suddenly turned to look at him with ferocious expressions.

"Holy crap!!!"

Like a rabbit, Irving immediately jumped back several steps.

The gargoyles that suddenly "came back to life" did not choose to attack him. Instead, they mechanically worked together to lift the stone pillar, revealing a downward stone staircase.

"Knock! Are you crazy?! Are you crazy?!"

"Why the hell did you have to make a simple stone staircase? Why all this fuss!" Owen cursed.

Hiding behind a tattered suit of armor, she tried to rally herself. She silently prayed for Joan of Arc's blessing several times.

After throwing out several glowing lights, he raised his wand and slowly approached the stone pillar.

As the deadline approached, nothing changed.

The stone demon, supported by the stone pillar, lifted a passageway from the ground as if it were being raised.

He breathed a sigh of relief, walked down the stone steps, and headed deeper into the castle.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

The staircase inside the stone pillar is quite narrow, barely wide enough for two people to walk side by side.

I walked along this path for several minutes, but still couldn't see the end.

"strangeness!"

Although Irving didn't know where the stairs ended, judging from the number of steps he had taken just now, if he continued down for several minutes, he would probably have reached the bottom of the Black Lake by now.

But the surrounding stone walls remained dry, without a trace of moisture.

The ancient magical traces before him were also very strange, sometimes drifting forward and sometimes drifting backward, the magic forming a line from top to bottom, making it impossible for him to judge which way he should go.

"No, it shouldn't be this deep." Owen stopped and began to carefully examine his surroundings.

There wasn't much to see. The surrounding stone walls were all pretty much the same, and even the stone steps under his feet felt almost identical.

Look up and gaze upwards.

They couldn't even tell whether they were going down or up.

It was as if he were heading towards an endless abyss.

Is it a case of being lost in a maze?

"Um?"

Go uphill?

Irving frowned.

Could it be?

With that, he immediately turned around and started walking uphill.

Sure enough—after taking that step, everything around them began to change.

The narrow staircase gradually widens until it becomes indistinguishable from the normal staircase outside.

Meanwhile, braziers gradually appeared on the rock face, embedded in the mountain.

Owen extinguished the glow on his wand.

I glanced back.

Behind him lay only darkness, like an abyss following him.

The stone steps beneath his feet had less than a dozen steps left to descend.

It was obvious that if he hadn't realized what was happening before he finished climbing those dozen or so steps, he might have been trapped in that staircase forever.

"Damn it—are you kidding me? Why are you putting up a test for no reason?!"

What a waste of time!

Luckily, my buddy was quick-witted enough.

Irving is grateful for his high intelligence.

If it were that idiot Justin, he would definitely be swallowed by darkness forever!

"Hooray! It's coming out!"

Then suddenly an archway appeared before them.

Has Kyrie Irving finally reached the end of his journey?

"Huh?" Owen's voice sounded very surprised.

Because in this empty cave, about the size of a classroom, there were other people besides him.

The circular cave was filled with rubble and broken stone steps.

In the very center of the cave, there is an archway similar to that in the Department of Mysterious Things.

Right next to the archway, a young man stood still, toying with a magical artifact in his hand.

It looked like a Rubik's Cube, in the shape of a rhombus. One side had more than a dozen small squares.

Each square is covered with clearly visible ancient runes.

After a dazzling array of arrangements and combinations.

The Rubik's Cube suddenly trembled slightly, and then floated up as if controlled by a levitation spell.

It emits a faint white light.

Like pebbles stirring up lake water, magic gradually connects to something.

In Irving's eyes.

As if the ancient magic around them had been activated, the dilapidated archway gradually tore open the space, and through a thin layer of mist, Owen could see the scenery on the other side of the archway.

"Wardfa?"

When Owen saw Regulus use alchemical magic items to open the ancient wizard's tower in the cave, he had already guessed that there must be someone in this world who could use alchemical items to manipulate ancient magic.

He just didn't expect to see it so soon.

However, the imagined archway did not appear.

In fact, the Rubik's Cube only superficially invokes ancient magic.

The thin, misty mirror momentarily lost its order, like someone who had just dug a hole in a muddy swamp and then abandoned the task.

The Rubik's Cube immediately fell to the ground with a crisp sound.

"This loop is wrong," the man muttered to himself in front of the archway.

Then he bent down, picked up the Rubik's Cube, and started fiddling with it again.

"Now that you're in, don't just stand there." Suddenly, the man who had been fiddling with a Rubik's Cube spoke up. "You two can inscribe the magic patterns on the surrounding walls; studying them will be an important assignment this semester."

"?"

Dude, who are you?! Why are you so arrogant?

Standing at the top of the stairs, Owen curled his lip. "Two people?"

He was slightly startled.

The ancient magic around them surged outwards like waves.

Then he discovered that, not far away, behind a broken stone pillar, there was a very unusual radar wave.

It must have bumped into something.

"No—what are you doing here?"

Irving knew who it was without even thinking.

The invisibility cloak is indeed a treasure.

However, it is not uncommon; invisibility cloaks made from the fur of the Invisible Beast are readily available in Diagon Alley, though they are expensive.

But Harry's Invisibility Cloak is definitely the most legendary magical item, with an extraordinary invisibility effect.

But no matter what, it's just being invisible, not disappearing.

Death's invisibility cloak probably wouldn't even pass through subway security.

I don't know why that blind Grim Reaper didn't notice the third brother who was wearing an invisibility cloak.

As Owen finished speaking, the space behind the marble appeared to have been 'torn open'.

Then a girl with narrowed eyes and a dangerous smile appeared in the spot.

"Why can't I be here!" Miss Granger glared at Owen, and a dangerous aura began to stir.

"I thought you—that your destiny was sealed, that your time was coming, that you would go to a land of plenty, be reborn, and dedicate yourself to the highest authority!"

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked, startled and then puzzled.

"I scared him to death."

"Get lost!" Miss Granger snapped.

Owen, who had already broken the illusion spell, raised an eyebrow, completely unconcerned.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Inside the underground cave, in front of the archway, the unfamiliar man was still adjusting his Rubik's Cube.

"I must say, the resonance you just triggered was quite interesting," he suddenly said. "Is this ancient magic?"

"Who are you?" Owen walked to Hermione's side, looked up at the man, and gripped his wand warily.

"I thought you would remember me." The man looked up at Owen, but only for a moment before returning to his Rubik's Cube.

His fingers were very slender and white, as if they had been coated with dye. Above the knuckles, they were covered with a glove, which Owen thought might be dragon skin.

His left hand remained relatively still, while his right hand continuously touched every pattern on the Rubik's Cube.

He adjusted the lenses on his glasses again, running his fingers across the silver dials. Perhaps it was Owen's imagination, but he noticed that the man's glasses seemed clearer, with light shining through them onto his eyes.

It is very noticeable in the dark.

His face and hands were identical in their skin—both were fair and dry, which reminded Owen of a white wall.

He had dark brown hair, and because he wore glasses, it was impossible for others to see his face clearly, but his purplish-red lips were particularly eye-catching.

He was wearing a gray, faded Muggle suit with a long swallowtail jacket and black trousers covered in dust. There were obvious stitching marks at the ankles, and because one leg of his trousers was shorter than the other, his attire resembled that of a Weasley. However, Molly would have made sure her children's clothes were more comfortable and would never have made such a basic mistake as wearing trousers of different lengths.

As he spoke, the man had already adjusted the Rubik's Cube again.

The same floating motion, the same ancient magical fluctuations.

This time it was even more intense than the last.

It also lasts longer.

The dilapidated archway seemed to conjure up a mirror, its surface as clear as a mirror.

Irving even saw another world inside the archway, a place of dazzling gold and splendor.

But—the man was not satisfied.

Or rather, what he cared about wasn't time behind the arch, but rather the ancient magic being manipulated by the floating, increasingly trembling Rubik's Cube.

"Bang!"

For a full ten seconds.

The archway remained open for about ten seconds.

Ultimately, it shut down abruptly because the Rubik's Cube could no longer withstand the pressure of the ancient magic.

"Amazing!" Irving said in a deep voice in the darkness.

There was more respect in her gaze as she looked at the man.

Manipulating ancient magic—what an amazing idea!

And he was almost successful.

"Impressive?" The man chuckled self-deprecatingly.

"I once vowed to use this power to improve people's lives and help the poor and needy." He squatted down and picked up the Rubik's Cube from the ground again.

"But that's all we can do now."

He put the Rubik's Cube into his pocket, and the arm guard on his right hand automatically extended. Then, as if mercury had spilled onto the ground, a metal cane instantly stood upright.

Then, limping, he walked from the center of the cave to the surrounding walls.

He stopped at a mural.

"This carving is probably over a thousand years old." His voice was deep and hoarse, as if he hadn't rested in a long time.

Before me is a sculpture of a great knight. The erosion of time has made it impossible to see the knight's true face. The only thing that is clear is the long sword at his waist, and the gemstone inlaid on the hilt is still clearly visible.

"More than a thousand years ago, magic could create such great miracles, but a thousand years later, we can't even find the door. It's truly a tragedy."

Ancient magic shouldn't be wasted like this!

"So who exactly are you?" The cave was pitch black, with only the faint light coming from the wand in Owen's hand.

In a daze, Irving felt that the person looked really familiar, as if he had seen him somewhere before.

However, upon closer inspection, the memory is somewhat hazy.

"Professor McGonagall said the most gifted child in the castle is named Owen." He slowly turned around and took off his glasses, revealing a pair of dark eyes.

"Victor, Victor Norton, your alchemy professor, Wendy. (Owen's middle name.)" His voice, though heavily weary, was much clearer than before.

"It's you!"

Suddenly, Irving remembered this person.

Before the Battle of Hogwarts, he appeared alongside the Aurors to fight against the Death Eaters.

At that time, I only glanced at him from afar and did not know his name.

Now—Victor?

"Are you a saint?" Owen noticed the necklace on the young man's chest.

The three sacred artifacts are highly recognizable.

"Open it!" Victor said softly. "You are chosen by ancient magic; you should have the ability to open this door."

He neither admitted nor denied it.

"What's that place over there by the arch? You've been at the castle for a while now?" Owen pulled Hermione along as they walked down the steps.

"The treasures left behind in this castle are a reflection of magic in its youth." Victor, leaning on his cane, slowly turned back to the archway. He stood before it, staring blankly. "Magic should have been much greater, not just turned into stone, standing here."

He reached out and touched the stone door. "I arrived at the castle a month ago at the invitation of Headmaster Dumbledore to investigate the secrets of ancient magic within the castle—after he discovered that the portraits of the headmaster were unwilling to share some hidden secrets with him."

Irving also walked over.

For him, manipulating ancient magic was as simple as eating and drinking.

With a simple wave of his wand, the archway closed again, opening the door to another place.

Moreover, it remained stable without any fluctuations.

Watching all this, Viktor remained calm, his dark eyes showing not a trace of emotion.

He just watched quietly, as if he were reminiscing.

"Professor, you don't have a friend named Jess, do you?" Owen suddenly turned to the side and asked jokingly.

Hearing this, Viktor snapped out of his daze. "No."

"That's good, that's good." Owen winked at the new alchemy professor with a mischievous grin. "If you ever meet someone named Jess, stay away from him!"

He then turned his attention back to the archway in front of him.

The interior was magnificent and resplendent, much like the cave he had encountered there.

After a moment's hesitation, Irving decided to go in.

First, it was his confidence in his own abilities. Second, this was, after all, at the foot of Hogwarts Hill, and the archway standing here was clearly built by a professor or headmaster, or at least a wizard associated with Hogwarts.

It is unlikely that the students in the castle will be endangered.

Passing through the curtain.

It felt like stepping into a new world.

The stone steps still led downwards, but now they were brightly lit.

Magic caused all these stone steps to float in mid-air. Each time someone stepped on them, the steps would naturally drop a little before bouncing back up.

The traces of human carving are very obvious on the stone walls on both sides.

Each piece of metal, like a rose-shaped torch, burns with an inextinguishable flame, illuminating the way forward.

Hermione followed behind Owen.

She certainly wouldn't want to miss out on this wonderful adventure.

Unless Owen casts a forgetting spell on her and sends her back to the library.

So he gave up trying to persuade him.

"So, how did you find out before me, and even get ahead of me?"

Irving's voice was particularly clear on the empty stone steps.

"I'm not stupid." Hermione glared at him. "There aren't many people at Hogwarts who can see through an invisibility cloak and still pull such silly pranks."

She said, "I was just noticing the dust on the ground."

"Someone's footprints are quite clear!"

"As for how I got ahead of you," Hermione frowned, her beautiful face filled with confusion, "I clearly saw you go through that oak door first."

"Wait a minute." Owen immediately got to the crux of the problem, "How long did it take you to discover the secret of that staircase?"

"How long?" Hermione pondered. "About a minute. Many of the steps look exactly the same, even the missing parts are identical. After repeating this several times, I noticed something was wrong."

"."

Irving didn't say anything more, he just walked forward with a dark expression.

That was just a mistake. Granger can't possibly be smarter than me, right! That's it.

Victor followed behind the two, walking the slowest.

He had somehow acquired a pendant box in his hand. Although it was difficult for ordinary people to see, there was indeed a lot of ancient magic flowing into the box like water flowing to the bottom.

Suddenly they came to a platform.

It looks like a platform carved out of the mountains.

The ground beneath my feet was no longer stone, but bluish-gray marble that reflected light.

Upon closer inspection, it appears as if there is a layer of water mist on the marble, and the unique patterns of the marble are moving in a wave-like motion along with the swaying of the water mist.

At the end of the platform is a metal frame with a large marble door in the middle.

"This is--"

He was somewhat surprised, because he had seen the huge emblem carved on the door before.

Longswords and wands overlapped, followed by a majestic castle.

The badge is shaped like a flower.

This is what the Order of Merlin looks like.

"Was this built by Merlin?" Owen murmured in confusion.

Merlin's relationship with Hogwarts is historically ambiguous.

Although Slytherins claim Merlin graduated from their house, anyone with even a basic understanding of history should know that Merlin lived more than six hundred years before Hogwarts.

To say that Merlin graduated from Slytherin is pure self-aggrandizement on their part.

Perhaps Salazar Slytherin even received guidance from Merlin!

This wave—this wave is the reversal of father and son.

(End of this chapter)