days at Hogwarts

Chapter 531 Locket

Loren copied the magic rune according to the instructions, and with the last stroke, he connected the entire character from beginning to end, like a coiled ouroboros.

There are several similar magic runes on the parchment. The strokes are complex, twisted and folded, and the whole paper looks messy, but the main body of each character is dark black, and the edges of the paper are stained blue, exuding a light plant fragrance and a mysterious beauty.

He copied seventeen runes from the locket and was able to identify thirteen of them. For the other four, he could only copy them by comparison. He tried to outline them several times with unicorn hair, but the results were unclear and he could not judge the magical reaction.

Salazar Slytherin might be the last user of these ancient runes. Even Flamel could hardly recognize them. He only said that he had seen them in a notebook introducing ancient magical relics. Now he was shrinking in a fantasy book, searching for information.

Loren rubbed his brows. It was easy to destroy a Horcrux. He could chop it with the sword of Gryffindor, burn it with Fiendfyre, or pierce it with the fangs of a basilisk. But as an alchemist, he still wanted to find out what kind of magic was hidden in this locket.

Moreover, Daisy Doddridge, the owner of the Leaky Cauldron, once mentioned Salazar Slytherin during the time gap. He knew the dusty history and prophecies about war, and might leave some clues or revelations in the locket.

Damn Voldemort, damn the sense of ritual, why did he insist on making this thing into a Horcrux...

Next to the desk, Hermione leaned in to observe the locket, thinking: "Slytherin's locket doesn't look special. It's strange. Gryffindor's sword can absorb magic, and Ravenclaw's crown can enhance wisdom. According to Slytherin's character, his locket can't be so ordinary... There must be something hidden in it. Loren, how do we open it?"

"In Parseltongue."

Loren answered casually, and turned his head to see her white and tender fingers poking at the locket. His eyebrows couldn't help but twitch. If this thing hadn't been in Kreacher's hands for more than ten years without any problems, she would definitely not dare to touch it casually.

"Parseltongue, it really fits the Slytherin style. The Chamber of Secrets was opened with Parseltongue, and the Basilisk was also controlled with Parseltongue..." Hermione picked up the chain of the locket and shook it. The collision of the rings made a slight metallic sound, as faint and dense as a snake spitting out its tongue. "Have you deciphered the runes? Did they reveal what is hidden inside? Is it important?"

"Decipher..." Loren was silent for a moment, then lowered his head to glance at the spell on the paper. There were thirteen known numbers and four unknown meanings. The deduction was intermittent, like a linear algebra problem that was a headache.

"Just think of it as me deciphering it..." Loren responded vaguely, "I don't know what's hidden in it, it's probably not a good thing, and the locket will secretly affect people's emotions, making them irritable and easily angered..."

"No wonder Kreacher is always cursing..." Hermione withdrew her hand from the locket and shrank her neck. Her expression was no longer as calm as before. "I hope Dumbledore will come back soon."

Loren felt that the condition of the house-elf had nothing to do with the locket. It was normal for the little elf to have a distorted mentality after being brainwashed by wrong ideas for a long time and being accompanied by crazy portraits and paintings for more than ten years.

"George, Fred! Don't think I don't know that you are hiding in Harry and Ron's bed. I knocked on your door! Go back to your room and sleep immediately! I have told you many times not to meddle in the affairs of adults. I really don't know what you are thinking. There are still a lot of things to do tomorrow, and you are always gone during the spring cleaning. You are hiding in the room and fiddling with those prank toys... And you two, why are you not sleeping so late to accompany them to play tricks?"

Molly's voice rang out like thunder in the corridor, and a wave of teleportation magic surged in the next room. It was obvious that it was the twins who had just learned to Apparate. As the footsteps faded away, the old house gradually became quiet.

"It's time for me to go back."

"Well, in case Ginny wakes up and finds you gone, I'll copy out the four runes separately and go to sleep—"

Loren's words were stuck in his mouth, and his eyes widened slightly.

At some point Hermione stood up and moved closer to him, pressing her lips against his. They were so close that he could even see the smile in her eyes.

With a flick of the wand, the girl disappeared from where she was, leaving only the residual sound of Apparition.

……

A bluish-white morning light first appeared in the eastern sky, as if a white-gray canvas gradually replaced the deep blue night sky. The sun, emitting brilliant light, slowly rose in the sky. The heat and brightness of late summer descended upon the world again, awakening the sleeping Grimmauld Place.

Boom, boom, boom.

After the knock on the door, Molly's gentle voice came: "Get up, Loren. If you want to sleep a little longer, breakfast is in the kitchen. After you finish eating, come to the living room and help us clean up."

"Yes, Mrs. Weasley..."

Loren answered subconsciously, opened his dazed eyes, and saw the mottled oxidized ceiling, and a ray of sunlight shining through the window onto the desk by the wall and the parchment on the table. The cold and musty smell of this old room seemed to have faded a lot, or perhaps he had already adapted to it.

It took a few seconds for his eyes to focus as he recalled the hazy and strange dreams he had last night.

Four incredibly long thin snakes twisted themselves into the shape of magic runes. They were the four strange magic runes I found yesterday. Their mouths were tightly biting their tails, and they kept wriggling and circulating...

The scene was very strange for a while, and Loren was sure that it was a nightmare. It was not until the aroma of milk and oatmeal porridge entered his nose and he heard some scattered and dragging footsteps in the corridor that he woke up completely.

After taking a moment to change and wash up, she went downstairs to the kitchen and found Hermione and Ginny already sitting at the dining table, with Arthur, Bill, Lupin and Sirius.

"How did you sleep last night?" Hermione handed him the cutlery and cup.

"Not very well, I had a nightmare..."

Hermione frowned, what did that mean, was he implying that her goodnight kiss had given him a nightmare?
But Loren didn't care about this. He looked around and found that Tonks and Mundungus were not there. He turned his head to look at the stove and asked casually, "Mr. Weasley, are we the only ones living here?"

Arthur looked up from the newspaper. "Currently, it's like this. Actually, at the beginning, only Remus and Sirius lived here. Later, for the convenience of communication, our family moved in... However, other members will occasionally stay here for a night when it's inconvenient."

"It's not just for the convenience of communication, but also because Molly understands that Sirius and I have basically no ability to take care of ourselves and always make a mess here." Lupin smiled gently.

"What about Dumbledore? Will he come here?" "Many people are watching Dumbledore's whereabouts. In order to deal with the Ministry of Magic and the Death Eaters, Dumbledore usually only stays in Hogwarts and Godric's Hollow. But after establishing this place as the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix, he comes here at least once a week to exchange information and issue subsequent orders."

Loren nodded thoughtfully and asked again, "Is this week over? When can we see Dumbledore?"

"Don't worry. Dumbledore specifically told me that he would come over as soon as possible after you arrive."

"I see……"

"time to eat."

Molly came out from the stove and brought a pot of hot milk to the table. The rich aroma of milk filled the room.

……

The waiting days were longer than Loren had expected. In the next few days, Molly took them to clean the house. Harry claimed that this was not a big cleaning, but a trivial and complicated war. Those strange magic items and magical pests were putting up a stubborn but overwhelming resistance.

It took them almost the entire morning just to eliminate the vixen living in the curtains of the living room.

The fox is a beetle-like creature. Its shiny wings make an annoying buzzing sound when they flutter, its small needle-like teeth are exposed, and its small and exquisite body is covered with thick black hair. When disturbed, it will clench its four little fists, as if it will punch you angrily in the next second.

Shaking the curtains would alert the vixen hiding inside. Molly said that when they fly out to attack people, you should spray them with spray for at least three seconds. This would paralyze the pests for a short while. While they are unable to move, you can throw them into the trash can.

Loren suspected that Foxy fainted due to suffocation, and it had nothing to do with the insecticide added to the spray.

It was not until after noon that Molly took off her protective scarf and sank into an armchair with a sunken center.

The curtains were no longer humming, they were hanging wet from the overspray, and beneath them lay the unconscious crickets in a pail, with their black eggs in a bowl beside them, and Crookshanks sniffed at them while Fred and George looked at them with envy.

They need Fox Charm's venom to develop quick-acting skipping candy. I heard they already have coma candy and nasal blood sugar. They are non-toxic and harmless, the symptoms are real, the duration is controllable, and they can be kept so that Madam Pomfrey can't see any flaws...

In the afternoon they cleared out the old objects in the display cabinets. Many of the objects seemed reluctant to leave their dusty shelves and protested in their own way. Sirius was bitten hard by a silver snuffbox.

Ginny opened a music box and when she wound the spring, a faint and ominous tinkling tune came out. Then several people nearby found themselves inexplicably becoming weak and drowsy. Fortunately, Ginny was still clear-headed and quickly closed the lid.

Dress robes in the closet will try to strangle those who are alone, and dusty grandfather clocks will shoot hard screws at passersby...

This eerie and dim pure-blood family mansion was cleaned and renovated bit by bit. The ancient magical items that were removed were like diseased growths, but no one knew whether it would be reborn or completely destroyed in the coming wave.

Lupin, who used to be the professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts, is the main force in the cleanup and siege, but he does not stay in the house all the time. Occasionally, he will disappear for the whole day to do some secret mission for the Order of the Phoenix.

There were few group meetings, but there were always members of the Order of the Phoenix rushing in, leaving in a hurry without saying a few words. Whenever the doorbell rang, it would wake up the portrait of the witch behind the curtain in the hall. After being repeatedly tempered by the shrill screams and wails, George and Fred claimed that they could face the Howling Banshee calmly and would not be affected even without a wand.

Snape came a few more times, but Mrs. Weasley tried every means to stop them, so they never met face to face. Professor McGonagall also showed up a few times, wearing Muggle clothes and coats, which made her look very strange...

Tuesday, sunny.

The Blake mansion is relatively quiet today. The spring cleaning task has been basically completed. As school is about to start, Molly stops recruiting child laborers and lets Loren and others do their homework well.

Ron was sitting on the sofa holding a Transfiguration textbook, concentrating on studying Harry's essay hidden in the pages. From time to time, he picked up the parchment beside him and made some marks under his own homework topic.

Harry and Ginny got together, under the pretext of being seniors to help with homework.

Loren sat nearby, fiddling with some exquisite magic items curiously while making some notes in his notebook. There were many strange things in the old house, and some of the ingenious techniques and ideas inside were always inspiring.

Hermione was reviewing the textbooks for the next school year and encountered a problem. She asked casually, "Loren, is it easier to understand the basic definition of the Existence Spell according to the principles of classical magic, or is it easier to understand it using the principles of modern magic? The book says that both methods are correct?"

"This spell needs to be understood in conjunction with the previous summoning spell. There is no essential difference between the two principles. There is only a difference in the concept of 'existence'..."

Harry and Ron looked up when they heard the question and glanced at each other. Their expressions were slightly different, but they were both blank.

"Are you guys reciting some tongue twister? Why do I know each word separately, but can't understand them together?" Ron couldn't help scratching his head, as if he was hurt by some curse. He couldn't even copy homework with peace of mind.

"Are we really in the same year?" Harry echoed.

"This is the focus of the next school year and an important point in the OWL exam." Hermione said coldly without even looking up.

Harry and Ron's eyes were wide and horrified.

Loren couldn't help but smile. Just when he was about to say something, a ding-dong doorbell rang from downstairs. The little wizards subconsciously covered their ears, ready to face the attack of the "Howling Witch", but found that what entered their ears was not the shrill and piercing scream they remembered, but Molly's enthusiastic greeting:
"Dumbledore! You are finally here. How long will you stay today? Will you stay here for dinner?"

Loren and the others were startled for a moment, then stood up in unison the next second, threw away the books, paper and pens in their hands, and ran towards the hallway in unison.

(End of this chapter)