Hogwarts: From Squibs to Greatness

Chapter 66 Research and Letters from Ron

After obtaining the refining method of the Philosopher's Stone, John spent the rest of the time except accompanying his mother every day to enter the space left by his teacher for study and research through the 'Ring of Nicole Flamel'.

Compared with the laboratory he built, the laboratory in the house left by the teacher is quite advanced and complete.

From the oldest brass lab flask to the newest self-stirring crucible, this lab has it all.

He even saw a lot of experimental equipment that only appeared in Muggle laboratories, such as differential centrifuges.

Science and antiquity blend in this room, achieving a strange harmony.

At the same time, except for the room where the magical mirror was placed, the other rooms on the second floor of the house were all filled with alchemy-related books.

Among them are not only new books such as "Modern Alchemy", but also ancient books on alchemy such as "Jade Record".

John even found several bundles of bamboo slips that were preserved under the influence of magic in these houses.

Opening these bamboo slips, John recognized at a glance that the words written on them were the small seal script used uniformly by the Qin Dynasty.

Through the books specially used for comparison and translation, as well as the part of the soul from China, John smoothly and easily figured out what was recorded on these bamboo slips.

These bamboo slips were all written by Qi practitioners in the pre-Qin period, and they recorded in detail the essence of alchemy in the pre-Qin period, as well as the analysis of related cipher texts.

There are even a few prescriptions in it, but based on the teacher's notes on these bamboo slips that were discovered later, I learned that many of the magical animal materials needed to be used have disappeared with the extinction of those magical animals.

However, these precious books greatly increased the depth of John's knowledge, and at the same time, he gave John a deeper understanding of the development of alchemy.

With the help of these books and the assistance of the finished product of the Philosopher's Stone, John's research progress on the Philosopher's Stone can be described as advancing by leaps and bounds.

Of course, in the process of learning alchemy and researching the Sorcerer's Stone, John also intentionally explored the space left for him by this teacher.

According to a month's investigation and exploration, John summed up six pieces of information about this space:
[-]. The space is a cube with a length, width, and height of ten kilometers, and there is a closed-loop structure of space. Passing through from the east boundary will exit from the west boundary.

1. The speed of time flow in this space is different from that of the outside world. The specific ratio is about 2:1. Simply speaking, the time outside is 2 day past, and the time inside is the past [-] days. The difference in time flow speed may be related to the time converter.

[-]. John has the highest control over all the alchemy equipment and props in this space, but the maintenance of these equipment and props needs to be done by John.

[-]. There are normal four seasons weather and day and night changes in this space. Of course, John can give instructions through the ring to change the weather and day and night changes in this space.

[-]. This space is not created by stretching the incantation without trace. The specific method of creation needs to be further studied in alchemy to know.

[-]. There are a large number of magical plants and magical animal communities in this space, and there are corresponding alchemy dolls, and relevant materials will be collected regularly and stored in the cellar behind the house.

For the time being, John has summed up these. If he wants to get further new information, John's alchemy level needs to go further.

On July 1992, 7, after John finished the breakfast made by his mother as usual, he was about to enter the space for alchemy research.

At this moment, John suddenly heard what seemed to be a heavy impact on the window, making a muffled sound.

At the first moment, John took out his wand and walked slowly towards the direction of the sound. When he got closer, he realized that the sound just now was made by an old owl hitting the window.

It seems that the impact just now was too violent, causing the owl to lie unconscious on the ground, while the letter fell beside him.

Seeing this, Miranda exclaimed, trotted outside the house, picked up the poor old owl and brought it into the house, while John picked up the letters left behind and followed his mother.

Mother Miranda and Momo took care of the owl together, while John began to check the letters in his hand.

He found that the letter was from the Weasleys, opened the envelope and took out the letter.

This letter was sent by Ron. In the letter, Ron asked John if he had any news about Harry, because no matter whether it was Hermione, him or Hagrid, the letters sent to Harry had been silent since the holiday.

Only then did John think of the disaster that Harry suffered during this holiday, and the source of all this came from a kind but too stubborn house elf Dobby.

Although John expressed understanding for Dobby's desire to protect Harry, it didn't mean that John could understand that the other party made him suffer all kinds of suffering in order to prevent Harry from continuing to go to school.

After thinking about it, John wrote a letter, stating that he was traveling in France and didn't know anything about Harry for the time being.

But in his letter, he introduced in detail the attitude of the Dursleys towards Harry, and said that if there was no reply, he might have been hidden by them, and Harry might have been imprisoned by them.

Then let Ramses deliver the letter to Ron Weasley.

He remembered that it was Ron and the Weasley twins who rescued Harry from the Dursleys' house in a flying car.

As John described in the letter, Harry is in the room at the moment, looking at the distant sky through the window, like a bird with broken wings being locked in a cage.

He'd been missing Hogwarts ever since he'd returned to the Dursleys', and his guts ached from thinking about it.

On the first day of vacation, Uncle Vernon locked his spellbook, wand, robes, cauldron, and state-of-the-art broomstick, the Nimbus 2000, into the small, dark storage room under the stairs.

It didn't matter to the Dursleys whether Harry would be kicked out of the house Quidditch team for not practicing all summer.

What did it matter to them that Harry didn't do any of his homework and couldn't turn in errands when he went back to school?
Uncle Vernon even locked Harry's owl, Hedwig, in her cage, preventing her from delivering messages to anyone in the wizarding world.

So Harry missed the castle he regarded as his real home, the secret passages hidden in the castle and the ghosts wandering around.

Miss the letters from the owls, the banquet in the Great Hall, the four-poster bed in his dormitory building, the cabin on the edge of the Forbidden Forest and Hagrid the gamekeeper, and even more Quidditch.

Even Peeves, who was constantly teasing him, and Snape, who was always targeting him, were less annoying in his mind at this moment.

And what makes Harry even more desperate and sad is that it seems that since he returned to the Dursleys, his friends have forgotten him.

Ron, Hermione, Hagrid... None of them sent letters. It was obvious that Hermione had agreed with him to discuss homework together, and it was obvious that Ron had said that he would invite him to his house as a guest.

Even today, July 7st, there is no greeting card, no presents, even though Hagrid brought him a cake last year, why is there nothing today this year.

And tonight, Uncle Fernon has something important to do, so he has to pretend that he doesn't exist, otherwise he can't even imagine what his future life will be like.

Harry's heart was full of sadness, and he looked at the distant hedge. He had never felt so alone.

Time and time again, Harry came close to stealing his wand, magically opening Hedwig's cage, and letting her deliver a letter to Ron, Hermione, or Hagrid.

But that's too risky, and underage wizards aren't allowed to use magic outside of school.

Harry didn't tell the Dursleys about this rule, otherwise he would still be locked in that small storage room like in the past, and it would be impossible for him to have his own room and bed like now.

He even started praying that he would give anything to get any news from Hogwarts, no matter which wizard it came from.

He was even willing to compliment his enemy, Draco Malfoy, as long as he could prove that the past year was not a dream, he was really admitted to Hogwarts and came into contact with the colorful magical world.

Unfortunately, Harry is one more misery away from getting out of this prison-like life, because some paranoid house-elf will bring disaster to Harry.

But these have nothing to do with John for the time being. John is walking in the forest in the space. According to the alchemy map hanging on the wall in the house, John found a group of wild thestrals in it.

John is still very interested in this kind of magical animal that is said to be involved in death in the wizarding world.

Out of the idea of ​​temporarily relaxing, John temporarily put aside his research on the Sorcerer's Stone and wanted to take a closer look at the Thestrals.

According to the book "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" by Newt Artemis Fido Scamander, the famous master of Fantastic Beasts.

Thestral is a kind of Pegasus. It has a tall and rugged body, a black body, a dragon-headed horse body, and a pair of broad wings on its back. It can fly at high speed in the air. Only those who have experienced death can see it.

There is no flesh on their bodies, the black fur is tightly attached to the skeleton, and every bone is clearly visible.

Their heads were like those of a dragon, and their pupilless eyes were white and staring intently.Wings grew from the bump between the shoulder bones, a pair of big, black, sturdy wings that looked like they should have belonged to a giant bat.

It is precisely because of such a strange appearance and the conditions for seeing him that this magical creature has a relationship with death.

Superstitious people believe that such creatures are very unlucky, and they will bring all kinds of terrible disasters to those who see them, which are bad omens.

But in reality, thestrals are intelligent magical creatures that, once tamed, never leave their masters.

Thestrals have an amazing sense of direction, as long as they tell them where they want to go, they will take passengers to their destination.

Thestrals can fly at incredible speeds in the air. The work of these Thestrals raised at Hogwarts is mainly to pull the carriage for the school. If Dumbledore needs to travel long distances and doesn't want to use Apparition, he will also use them. kind of creature.

In the first school year, John actually wanted to look for thestrals consciously, but he didn't know why not only the thestrals in the school were not in the stables, but even the thestrals in the Forbidden Forest were missing.

Although he has been exposed to the Thestral material, the living Thestral is more attractive to John than the material that is fully revealed without the Thestral's main body.

As John walked through the woods, he walked through the territories of various magical animals and the growth areas of magical plants, and from time to time he could see the queen of the alchemy doll walking through it.

John finally saw the target of his trip - the Thestrals.

　What Dobby did when he first appeared on the stage really made people feel unfavorable, it was indeed a little too much

　　
　
(End of this chapter)