Hogwarts: Bourne Returns from Warhammer

Chapter 75 Halloween Dinner
In the evening, at the gate of the castle.

The players of the Gryffindor Quidditch team carried their brooms and returned to the castle to prepare for the dinner.

Today is Halloween, and Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is in session again.

But just as they walked through the door, an unexpected figure suddenly appeared in front of these little wizards.

"Peeves, what do you want to do?"

Worried about Peeves causing trouble, Wood took the lead and walked to the front of the team to protect all the team members.

However, Peeves really wasn't looking for trouble this time, he just wanted to find a few people to chat with.

"If, I mean if -"

Peeves called the Bourne and Weasley twins aside and asked them a question in a low voice.

"——If someone slaughtered a pig in Hogwarts Castle, the pig would be about 170 pounds, but because... well, his technique was not skillful enough. Not only did the blood spray all over the wall, but the pig was also sprayed all over the wall. The pig's pork was all scattered into dregs and could not be recovered at all...

What should he do? "

Peeves glanced at the Weasley brothers and found that the twins swallowed their saliva, so he could only hope for Bourne.

"First of all, we need to determine whether 'that person' has the authorization to kill the pig?" Byrne emphasized the pronunciation of the word 'that person'.

"Where can I get that thing?" Peeves anxiously took off his deerstalker hat, his hair standing on end.

"Secondly, did 'that person' use a promethium burner or something similar to annihilate the genetic evidence afterwards?"

Peeves blinked. Although he was certainly not illiterate, he could only understand a few words of what Bourne said.

Noticing Peeves' reaction, Bourne could only say the truth in the end: "Then there is no other way. I advise you to surrender."

The draft blew into this ancient castle, bringing waves of chill, leaving only Peeves as a ghost in the wind.

"Bourne, Peeves will not really trick Professor Quirrell..." As he walked towards the banquet hall, George looked back at Peeves and asked Bourne in a low voice.

"I'm just scaring him."

Bourne took out his wand, pointed it at himself and the twins, and used the magic spell to clean away the sweat stains on the Quidditch robes.

"Headmaster Dumbledore and Grandpa Horace, they all told me that Hogwarts will protect all students and teachers.

This is an extremely powerful magical contract. As long as we are in this castle, we will be protected by this magic. "

He told the truth.

In recent times, because of the great progress in transfiguration, he has been trying to combine transfiguration and alchemy to create a bolt gun with his own hands.

But as a result, he made a model of the weapon but found that chemical energy weapons seemed to be subject to certain restrictions in Hogwarts Castle - not only was the power of the bullet greatly weakened, but the firearm itself became very prone to malfunction.

Puzzled, the studious Bourne consulted several professors and Grandpa Horace on this issue.

The answers given by other professors are basically: Just like Muggle electrical appliances cannot be used in the castle, this is a magical feature of Hogwarts.

Only Horace and Dumbledore, because they had spent more time in Hogwarts Castle and knew more about it, gave a more detailed and reasonable explanation: What did they "science" to Bourne? It's called ancient magic, and it also mentions a kind of "ritual magic" in ancient magic.

"...Why must the little wizard go back to the old path of the Big Four when he enters school? Why must the little wizard attend the sorting ceremony when he enters school?

Obviously, relying on the two magic props of the 'Pen of Acceptance' and the 'Book of Admission' is enough to determine the young wizard's admission qualifications.

The answer is that these seemingly unnecessary processes are actually necessary steps to complete the ritual.

Only after completing this ceremony will the little wizard sign a contract with the magic school, and you will be protected by the castle for the next seven years.

Under the influence of this contract, it is difficult for young wizards to be fatally injured at Hogwarts, and some minor injuries can even be cured overnight.

Think about what happened to Harry in the vampire attack you experienced before. The guy named Compaore, his last punch could have blown the little wizard's head off.

But in the end, he missed the target, and his fist grazed the frame of Harry's glasses and hit the wall - this was the powerful protective magic at work - although there was no brilliant light or spell, it was magical and had remarkable effects... …”

This is Horace's reply to Bourne.

However, there is one thing to say: Bourne's Grandpa Horace is indeed knowledgeable enough, but his specialty is potions after all.

Horace had an understanding of ancient magic and ritual magic, but the depth of the discussion was not as deep as Dumbledore's.

In his reply, Dumbledore not only conducted a 'science popularization' for Bourne like Horace, but even reminded him how to get started with these two magics if he wanted to further study them!
"...If you are interested, Bourne, you can learn about the 'Muggle Expelling Curse'. There are many related books in the library.

The so-called 'Muggle Expelling Curse' is actually just one of the huge spell system of 'Expelling Curse'.

The 'Expelling Curse' is the one with the most traces of ancient ritual magic among all current spell systems.

Generally speaking, wizards mainly rely on their own will to cast spells.

In fact, it is difficult for a wizard with insufficient willpower to successfully cast a spell.

However, modern magic spells have become very efficient because they have been improved from generation to generation. Coupled with the invention of the magic wand, the difficulty of casting spells was further reduced.

Modern spells have become very simple.

However, in ancient times when magic spells had not been improved and the wand had not yet been invented, wizards who were not able to rely on their own will to cast spells had to find another way.

So, they invented ritual magic.

Through rituals, wizards can gather a collective wizarding will and use it to successfully cast spells.

It is worth mentioning that in order to protect themselves, the wizards of that era created the most ritual magic, which were various expulsion spells. Some are used to drive away Muggles, some are used to drive away wild beasts, some are used to drive away dangerous magical creatures, and some banishing spells can even drive away natural disasters such as floods...

The reason why some Muggle items in Hogwarts Castle will inexplicably fail is actually a manifestation of the banishing spell.

Although it is also nested in protective magic, the two do not conflict, right?

In the castle, the power of Muggle firearms will be greatly weakened. This is related to the incident many years ago when Peeves used a flintlock to cause havoc in Hogwarts.

Because, it was because of that incident that the young wizards and professors understood the dangers of Muggle weapons. They developed a collective will, which prompted the castle's protective magic to expand the scope of protection and exert a 'repelling' effect on Muggle firearms.

Likewise, since that time, successive principals have insisted on offering the course 'Muggle Studies' at Hogwarts.

Even Principal Black, who was known for being conservative, surprised many of his supporters at the time and did not stop the course.

There are two main reasons:
On the one hand, this course is indeed the only way for some young wizards to understand Muggles, and it is very meaningful for improving the minds of young wizards.

On the other hand, Muggle society has undergone earth-shaking changes in the past hundred years, and more and more new things are emerging; some of them indeed pose a threat to wizard society. Hogwarts must guide the collective of young wizards Will to prevent possible dangers..."

The replies from Horace and Dumbledore let Bourne know that there was protective magic in the castle for teachers and students.

Therefore, he was not at all worried that Quirrell would be killed by Peeves' prank until they entered the banquet hall.

Dumbledore stood with a serious face behind a podium inlaid with an owl relief. Professor McGonagall and several other deans stood beside him, and on the floor in front of them were a pile of dyes. Bloody robe fragments.

Seeing that the students were almost all here, the old principal said: "Before the Halloween dinner begins, I must announce a sad and bizarre news to everyone.

Professor Quirrell is missing. "

The little wizards started talking one after another, and the banquet hall suddenly became noisy.

The headmaster had to put his wand to his throat and use the loud voice spell to silence the whispering students. "Quiet!" he said.

At this time, several ghosts from different colleges suddenly emerged from the wall. They floated to Dumbledore and reported their findings to the Headmaster.

Fat Friar: "Peeves doesn't want to come over. He said he had a stiff neck last night and wants to go to bed early today and sleep until dawn."

Nearly Headless Nick: "I searched everywhere I could, but I couldn't find Professor Quirrell. Poor guy, I was almost headless, and he was completely gone."

Bloody Barrow: "I have verified that the blood in the remaining blood is indeed from Professor Quirrell."

The ghosts representing the four major colleges, except for Ms. Gray from Ravenclaw, the other three were all present.

In addition, some ghosts who have also lived in Hogwarts for a long time also gathered in the banquet hall at this time.

"Dumbledore, give me the order, my headless hunters are already hungry and thirsty."

The speaker is a ghost on horseback. His name is Patrick Delaney Podmore. The "Headless Hunter" he talks about is a ghost that the almost headless Nick wants to join but has been rejected. organize.

This Patrick is obviously a Gryffindor, and his idea is to send out a group of headless hunters to capture Peeves and confront him.

Another ghost held objections to this.

"Something is wrong, something is really wrong. There is something wrong with the blood at the scene." Dr. Watson, who stayed at Hogwarts Castle with his friend Sherlock, stopped the eager headless hunter and expressed his opinion.

Bloody Barrow stared at Dr. Watson coldly and said, "Are you questioning my judgment? Just because you are a ghost turned into a Muggle?"

Barrow disliked Watson.

On the one hand, because the latter is the ghost of a Muggle transformation; on the other hand, and for a more important reason, Watson seems to have become very close to Ms. Gray recently.

"What I'm talking about is the facts of the case, and it has nothing to do with whether I was a Muggle or not." Dr. Watson said in a neither humble nor condescending way: "Although there was some blood left on the wall at the scene, there were no obvious traces of ejection - that explosion did happen. A little movement, but to be honest, the power of those black powder explosions is actually not enough to tear a person into pieces, let alone evaporate the blood in the human body instantly."

"Then you mean Professor Quirrell is still alive?" Nick, who was almost headless, touched his drooped head, "But I've almost searched all over Hogwarts and still haven't found Quirrell."

"Perhaps, he is not in the castle now." Dr. Watson gave a hypothesis: "Recently, I heard that Peeves always makes trouble for this professor. Maybe the 'Quillot' who appeared today is the substitute made by the professor. He wanted to use the double as cover to do something else."

Those who are close to red are red, and those who are close to ink are dark. After following Sherlock to solve so many bizarre cases, Dr. Watson can actually be regarded as a detective. Although it is just a hypothesis, it does sound quite reasonable.

However, some objections are illogical.

"You said so much, aren't you just assuming it? It's a holiday today, if you don't stay at Hogwarts properly, what is that Quirrell doing out there?" Bloody Barrow snorted disdainfully.

To deal with a 'love rival', to oppose for the sake of opposition, this is just a basic operation.

However, that saying - when you "lick the dog" becomes unlucky - sometimes it really rings true.

As if to slap Bloody Barrow in the face, the door to the Hogwarts banquet hall was suddenly pushed open with a bang from the outside, and a person stumbled in from the outside.

If not Quirrell, who else could it be?
However, the neat wizard robe on his body became tattered, as if he was wearing an overly fashionable hole-in-the-wall outfit.

Quirrell ran to the podium in panic and fell to the ground. Professor McGonagall was kind-hearted, and together with Professor Flitwick helped the young colleague to his seat.

"Hug, hug, sorry!" Quirrell stumbled and apologized, pointing to the outside of the banquet hall with a very pale face.

"Yes, yes, there are trolls - when I first entered the castle, I was startled by Peeves guarding the door. The captured teaching trolls broke free, and they fled directly into the castle corridor and hid. .”

A stone stirred up a thousand waves.

Quirrell's words were like a bombshell, causing the tension in the banquet hall that had calmed down slightly due to his appearance to expand to the limit again.

The troll is a 4X level magical animal. Generally, only specially trained adult wizards can tame this monster. Their skin has very good magic resistance, and the power of magic spells on them will be greatly weakened. Moreover, the troll also possesses unimaginable strange powers, and is definitely a danger that is difficult to contend with for most young wizards.

In addition, Dumbledore was keenly aware that what Quirrell had just said was that the word "trolls" was in the plural form - this guy brought a group of trolls, not one troll, into Hogwarts Castle.

(End of this chapter)