The Old Ones of Hogwarts

Chapter 110, page 109: The savior didn't even enroll, and now he's going to drop out?

Chapter 110, page 109: The savior didn't even enroll, and now he's going to drop out?

In the empty classroom.

Quirrell carefully cleaned up the traces of his spellcasting, then with a flick of his sleeve, he took all the remnants with him, leaving no visible evidence in the classroom.

A few minutes later.

Having confirmed that Quirrell was far away, the two slowly revealed themselves. The special effects were the same as before; various colors began to appear in the air, seemingly weaving together to form the two figures.

"He is a cautious person."

Aurora watched Quirrell's figure disappear down the corridor.

"But his master clearly doesn't possess such qualities," Ian commented. He truly hadn't expected Voldemort to allow Quirrell to attack the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor.

Even if the person holding this position wasn't Grindelwald, but a completely incompetent wizard, it wouldn't be easy to kill someone silently at Hogwarts—even a junior wizard like Ian knew that the portraits in the castle, and even the castle itself, had the ability to witness and record.

"You seem to know a lot about this person's background. If I remember correctly, he just returned to school today?" Aurora turned to look at the Ravenclaw wizard beside her.

"That's a keen sense of smell, my friend. Only someone with my level of observation skills deserves to be a great detective at Hogwarts," Ian said, patting Aurora on the shoulder.

"????"

The little girl's face was full of confusion.

"Perhaps you should remind your grandfather to prevent him from accidentally capsizing in the gutter?" Ian actually hoped that Grindelwald could eliminate Quirrell, this dangerous factor, as soon as possible.

He cautiously offered a reminder.

Aurora shook her head. "If your grandfather were really so easy to kill, you wouldn't be here to see him. Perhaps only Dumbledore in this world could kill him."

A very confident judgment.

Ian nodded thoughtfully.

"You want to use Veritaserum on your grandfather?" He recalled the several samples of Veritaserum raw materials that Aurora had taken from Snape's office earlier.

"Yes."

Aurora nodded. "I need to know a secret he's unwilling to tell me. This secret is very important to me and has been troubling me for a long time, making it difficult for me to find true peace."

She didn't elaborate on what she wanted to know; perhaps it was something related to her parents, or something else entirely. Ian didn't press her about matters of privacy.

"Since you know your grandfather is hard to fool, how do you get him to drink the truth serum without him even realizing it?" Ian didn't think Grindelwald couldn't tell if food was laced with truth serum.

This problem truly stumped Aurora. It was clear that this Germanic girl hadn't seriously considered the issue beforehand; she was obviously the type to take things one step at a time.

For the little witch with prophetic abilities, this might be considered a developmental flaw brought about by those abilities, since she could often find solutions simply by using her prophetic powers closer to the time.

Naturally, when thinking about and trying to solve problems, many necessary preparations are overlooked in the early stages.

There's nothing wrong with doing this when dealing with other people, but when it comes to dealing with someone whose prophetic abilities are far stronger than hers, Aurora clearly doesn't know how to deal with it.

Do you have any suggestions?

She turned to her only friend for help, recounting her past attempts: "I've always believed that Dumbledore was my grandfather's weakness."

This little girl had actually learned Transfiguration and tried to use Dumbledore's appearance to deceive Grindelwald, but she was exposed halfway through because her skills were not very good.

of course.

Grindelwald discovered her condition before she gave herself away, but he was just teasing her, which made her give up the idea and instead want to use the simpler and more direct Truth Potion.

"How old are you? You're already learning human shapeshifting?" Ian was somewhat stunned by Aurora's extremely unreasonable talent. He had his advantages, but the Germanic girl in front of him didn't!

Mystique from Hogwarts?

Something!

"I can teach you? Although I'm not very proficient myself yet—" Aurora thought Ian was a little tempted by her magic, but to her surprise, Ian shook his head like a rattle-drum.

"I'll have to wait until I'm at least 1.8 meters tall. I've looked into this magic; learning it too early will affect my development."

I don't think you should continue to delve into it too early.

In response to Ian's suggestion.

Aurora didn't refute and simply nodded.

"I've stopped studying."

Her tone carried a hint of regret, not for the magic itself, but for the fact that she had spent a long time studying it but had not been able to obtain the information she wanted.

Ian pondered for a moment, then came up with a solution.

"The safest way is to have Dumbledore ask you what you want to know. Didn't you say you're now Dumbledore's acknowledged apprentice?"

"Based on what I know about Dumbledore, as long as it's not something dangerous, getting his help shouldn't be too difficult."

"Of course, you might need me to help you choose an outfit," Ian suggested in a low voice. He planned to have the fairies make him an outfit that Ariana wore on the day she passed away.

It should work well?

"Will it work?"

Aurora looked very suspicious.

"If the plan succeeds, I think Dumbledore can help you feed our professors Truth Potion." Ian blinked, but this didn't give Aurora much confidence.

"Anyway, you don't have any useful ideas, do you? Your grandfather is not easy to deal with. We can't exactly fill all the faucets at Hogwarts with Veritaserum, can we?" Ian led Aurora toward the Slytherin common room. He swore he was just mentioning it casually to get Aurora to try his suggestion.

However, to everyone's surprise, the German girl's eyes lit up immediately after hearing this.

"That's a good suggestion!"

She stopped in her tracks, her face filled with excitement.

Ian leaned closer to listen and discovered that the seemingly harmless girl was actually whispering and studying mathematics.

They were calculating exactly how much truth serum they would need to brew to fill the pipes at Hogwarts.

"??????"

This really left Ian completely dumbfounded.

"You don't really want to do that, do you? Snape's office doesn't have that many materials." Ian clutched his pocket, afraid that Aurora would "requisition" the things he had bought for free.

"That's definitely not enough."

After doing some calculations, Aurora arrived at a result that left her somewhat disheartened.

"I think we can try a different approach. Even if you don't believe Dumbledore will help you, you can still take action yourself and leverage your prophetic confidence."

"Create a predictable appearance, and then hide your true purpose beneath that appearance."

I think there's a reasonable chance of success for this.

Ian swore he was doing this to save the other young wizards.

Perhaps Grindelwald himself did not anticipate that some of the knowledge about prophecy he had recently imparted to Ian would be used by Ian to give Aurora advice on how to deal with him.

"Trying to mislead my grandfather with prophecy?"

Aurora was successfully drawn to the suggestion, and along the way, Ian began to offer her advice in a vivid and engaging manner, with her nodding and offering her own opinions from time to time.

that's it.

Aurora has a new idea.

Ian gained new insights into the potential weaknesses of the prophets.

All are happy.

"arrive."

When Aurora stopped, Ian, who had been engrossed in his "academic exchange," realized that Aurora had actually escorted him all the way to the Ravenclaw lounge on the top floor. He had been wondering why they had to go up the stairs, assuming Aurora wanted to go somewhere else.

Thank you for your suggestion.

Aurora gave Ian a hug and then turned and left, leaving Ian feeling a little strange. He stood there wondering why a girl had escorted him back to his dorm.

Shouldn't it be the male students escorting the female students back to their dormitories under normal circumstances?

"So you were out at night to go on a date."

The eerie voice from the bronze eagle head made Ian feel as if he were hearing the horns of hell.

He turned his head away.

He looked at the bronze eagle head on the gate with a terrified expression.

as predicted.

"Prove Goldbach's Conjecture to me." The bronze eagle head then asked its question about opening the door, clearly indicating that it did not intend to let Ian go back to his dormitory to sleep.

Having experienced what it means to lift a steel ball only to drop it on your own foot, Ian decisively chose to run to the Room of Requirement. Faced with such a difficult situation, he hesitated for even a second, which showed that he was too confident in his math skills.

Just as Ian plunged into the Room of Requirement, Aurora walked down the quiet, deserted corridor and stopped in front of the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor's office, where the lights were still on.

He hasn't even raised his hand yet.

The door opened automatically.

"Grandfather, did you know I was coming?"

Aurora hesitated for a moment before stepping into the office.

"I think you should seriously consider the advice Ian gave you; it has a much higher success rate than your own wild ideas." Gilderoy Grindelwald was writing furiously in the room.

"You're actually spying on us?"

Aurora's eyes widened in surprise.

"Of course I wouldn't cheat in our little game," Gilderoy Grindelwald chuckled, his Lockhart-like face making Aurora feel a little uncomfortable.

However, he was clearly already completely used to that face. "Dumbledore told me to keep an eye on that little mouse,"

This allowed me to see that you had discovered the little mouse's secret.

talking.

Gilderoy Grindelwald's hand, which was writing, didn't stop, while his other hand patted a small mirror next to him, which seemed to reflect Quirrell's every move in the castle.

"This castle is truly amazing."

He gave a heartfelt evaluation of Hogwarts.

"Grandfather, you already know he's planning to harm you?" Aurora sat down opposite the desk without asking.

He took the small mirror in front of him and began to study the magic on it.

She loves learning just like Ian.

After all, even the greatest talent needs to be realized to be considered excellent.

"Yes, it's all our headmaster's fault, he made me miss out on some interesting surprises." Gilderoy Grindelwald sighed, his tone seemingly genuinely regretful.

"What are your plans?"

Aurora looked up curiously.

"This is a problem that our headmaster needs to consider. I think he probably wants to use this little mouse to lure his good students back to Hogwarts."

Gilderoy Grindelwald finally put down his quill. "You didn't come to me to ask about the fate of our Muggle Studies professor."

The story on the pages in front of him had temporarily stopped at the moment the two people met. It wasn't that he was tired of writing; rather, there were some stories he genuinely wished would never happen again.

"I almost hit Ian with magic today, and although he didn't seem to care, it still makes me uneasy." Aurora's little face was full of frustration.

"You're puzzled that this happened, aren't you?" Gilderoy Grindelwald seemed unsurprised as he gazed at his small blood relative with his deep eyes.

The German girl nodded hesitantly.

"I remember you told me that we can always see things that are closely related to our life development." Her tone carried a lack of confidence in her own talents.

Gilderoy Grindelwald, who had taken in all of Aurora's reactions, simply chuckled. "You have greatly underestimated the strength and achievements your friend already possesses."

"And I've always told you that your prophetic talent has far greater potential than mine, so your talent certainly won't have any flaws or weaknesses; it just won't reveal things that are impossible to you." Gilderoy's response was very clear.

"what?"

This answer clearly surprised Aurora.

Before she could even react,

Gilderoy Grindelwald then took a book out of the drawer.

"I can't help you with the process of unlocking your potential, but I know you're here to see me at this time."

The goal is simply to prevent similar incidents from happening in the future.

"People in my family all seem to have this kind of personality trait."

He handed the book to Aurora. "I hope it helps you sleep well tonight, of course."

The prerequisite is that you can get your friends to be willing to do it with you.

Upon hearing this...

Aurora curiously took the book.

She looked down.

Blood Pact

Under bright lights.

The book cover had writhing, scarlet text on it.

Back at the House of Requirement, Ian immediately set up a cauldron and began brewing potions. Although Quirrell would likely choose the fastest way to reach the human world and risk his own death, he had already obtained a lot of materials, so even if he didn't brew the Infinite Power Potion, he still planned to brew something else.

"Compound decoction is a good thing." Since Ian had previously discussed human transformation with Aurora, this kind of human transformation method with few aftereffects was the first thing that came to his mind.

As the saying goes, it's better to be prepared than not.

Having a variety of potions on hand is one way to increase one's options. Potions masters usually carry hundreds of bottles of various potions with them when they go out.

"I'm not a master, so I only need to carry fifty bottles." Ian was used to brewing multiple potions at the same time, and he chose to start brewing several potions and compound elixirs that had a longer brewing period at the same time.

In an instant.

The entire Room of Requirement was filled with a complex herbal scent, which, after being filtered through Ian's air purifier, had transformed into the smell of brewing the Elixir of Life and Death by the time it reached the outside. Even if Snape, with his nose more sensitive than a dog's, had detected it, he would likely have assumed that Ian was trying to sell sleeping pills.

Uncle Good might be a potions master, but he's clearly not as omnipotent as Ian, and he certainly wouldn't have imagined that Ian would create an air filter specifically to fool him.

"How clever I am!"

Ian pulled out another of his masterpieces. The initial steps of brewing potions required some complicated operations, so while waiting for the intervals between each step, he also made sure to study the Book of Parsleyan.

"Gurgle gurgle gurgle~"

"Hiss hiss hiss hiss~"

The room suddenly became much livelier, filled with the sounds and smells of various dangerous potions being brewed.

There were also hissing sounds like snakes whispering, which, combined with the Book of Bones held in Ian's hands and the Dementors cleaning up, made the scene look even more terrifying than a dark wizard's lair.

Even Voldemort's cave wasn't this eerie.

Time passed little by little.

After completing the complicated initial steps of making the potion, Ian chose to change rooms to rest, since the potion smelled really bad, and life needs quality and a sense of ritual.

The next morning.

All the little wizards are still not awake.

Ian, who had slept on a twenty-meter Simmons mattress in the Room of Requirement and then walked a fifty-meter red carpet to reach the front door, was already up early, ready to start a day full of energy. However, as soon as he stepped out of the Room of Requirement and turned a corner, he bumped into a body as big as a small mountain.

"Pfft~"

Ian collapsed onto the ground with a thud.

"Hagrid?"

He looked up and saw the mountain of flesh he had crashed into—Hagrid, the half-giant from Hogwarts. The giant was carrying a mirror on his shoulder and staring at him with a bewildered expression.

Because Ian had put some mouthwash in his mouth before leaving, he was constantly spitting out bubbles, which is obviously why Hagrid was so frightened.

"Is anyone here to save this little wizard? He's foaming at the mouth!" Hagrid cried out in panic, looking around for help.

Naturally, no one responded to the call from the eighth floor early in the morning.

"It's okay, Hagrid, I'm brushing my teeth." Ian quickly interrupted Hagrid's shouting, and as he opened his mouth to speak, several more bubbles came out of his mouth.

These bubbles floated lightly in the air, as clear and translucent as morning dew, yet as fleeting as dreamlike bubbles—clearly a sign that too much oral cleanser had been accidentally squeezed out.

"Sorry, little Ian, I was daydreaming."

Hagrid's burly body was not shaken in the slightest by Ian's impact. He felt nervous and guilty for knocking Ian down, but he couldn't bend down to help Ian because of the things he was carrying on his shoulders.

"It's okay, I bumped into you."

Ian stood up and dusted himself off. His gaze was drawn to the ancient mirror in Hagrid's hand, the patterns on it giving him a very familiar feeling.

"The Mirror of Erised!"

Ian couldn't help but gasp, his eyes gleaming with excitement. This was something he had always thought he could only find at Hogwarts during the next term.

Do you recognize this mirror?

Hagrid looked at the tiny figure in front of him with some surprise.

"Of course, of course, I've seen it in books." Ian's eyes were completely glued to the Mirror of Erised.

If he wasn't mistaken, this was the mirror that Mr. Morgan wanted.

"You're quite the learned little wizard," Hagrid said, patting Ian's head with his large hand. "I don't know what it is, but Dumbledore told me to find it and bring it to his office. I think Dumbledore must need it to fix his clothes; the headmaster's office has always been lacking a full-length mirror."

Ian was puzzled by his words.

"Haven't you seen this mirror?" Ian thought Hagrid probably hadn't lifted the cloth covering the mirror, otherwise even if he didn't know anything about the Mirror of Erised, he should have understood the mirror's most direct function.

"Dumbledore told me not to look, so of course I'll listen to him. He must have his reasons for saying that." Hagrid's matter-of-fact manner perfectly demonstrated what true loyalty is.

"May I take a look at it?"

Ian knew that the mirror could speak if used correctly, and even without that method, it could still reflect a person's deepest desires.

Who wouldn't be curious about that?

Anyway, Ian really wanted to know what his deepest desire was: whether it was to stand at the pinnacle of magic and become an extraordinary wizard or to have a warm and happy family.

"Then you'll have to go find Dumbledore. I can't make decisions for him." Hagrid hesitated for a moment but still didn't agree. Perhaps he was also worried that there was some dangerous magic attached to the mirror.

"All right.""

Ian was somewhat reluctant to leave, but he knew he would definitely go to Dumbledore anyway, since he had promised Morgan in the Enchanted Realm to find and bring the mirror to her.

"Good boy, I need to put this mirror in Dumbledore's office first. I have a lot to do today."

We also need to go into the Forbidden Forest to find some very rare materials for him.

"Remember to come to my cabin when you have time. I'll help you find some things you need while I'm there." Hagrid patted Ian on the head one last time before heading towards the principal's office.

He was clearly very familiar with the ingredients for the potions that Ian frequently used.

"What is Dumbledore trying to do?" Ian stared at Hagrid's imposing back, his gaze drawn to the small pouch that was faintly visible on Hagrid's waist as he looked away.

When the small cloth bag and a bunch of keys collided.

The sound was very crisp.