Professor of Gemology at Hogwarts

Wednesday, August 1966, 7

I have been looking forward to this day for a long time, so I packed my bags early.Tomorrow, I'm going to Merthyr Tydfil, Wales to visit Julie, my best friend since childhood. When I was ten years old, Julie's family moved to Wales, and we could only communicate with each other by letters and phone calls. .Ever since I went to Hogwarts, we've had less and less contact - it wouldn't make sense to send her a letter with an owl, after all.

But we were still good friends and I called her and told her I was back from boarding school and it was the holidays and I could go there to hang out with her and she was happy for me to come.

Julie said that the village where she lived was called Aberfont, where the pace of life was moderate and the life was very comfortable. She would pick me up at the station.

I can't wait to leave now.

Thursday, February 7

I arrived in Merthyr Tydfil, which is a big city. Julie first took me to her home in Aberfonte, a small village nearby.The villagers all knew each other, and everyone greeted Julie along the way, and Julie introduced me to everyone enthusiastically.

Her house is a small wooden house, but it is very clean and tidy inside, and there is a yard outside, full of flowers and plants.

I found that there was some black sand on the road in the village. When I asked about it, Julie said that this small village is responsible for coal mining. There are many trucks pulling coal from here to sell, so there may be coal leaking on the road. Scum.

However, this does not affect the beautiful and harmonious atmosphere of Aberfang. The villagers are very motivated and energetic, even if some people have black faces and hands.Walking in the village, whenever you meet a villager, you can chat with him for a long time.

Julie also has a sister named Susan. She is very cute. When she saw me as a guest, she even brought her rabbit doll to me and happily introduced me to it as my new friend.Susan is now in primary school, but she does not need to transfer to a new school because the kindergarten and primary school in this village are combined and are right on the edge of the village. The children only need to walk a few hundred meters to reach the school gate. Very convenient.

In the evening, Julie's parents came home. Julie's mother is a teacher at a primary school in the village, and Julie's father is a miner in charge of coal mining in the area. Their family warmly entertained me.

At night, Julie and I were lying on the soft bed. Neither of us could sleep. We kept talking until very late, just like we did when we were kids. We talked about everything. I told her how interesting the professors at my school were and that the school was okay. Keeping pets, we have football games at school... I have never chatted for so long. Facing my close friends, I am not willing to sleep even if I am very sleepy. I want to continue chatting like this. I don’t want this beautiful night to end like this. Finish.

Saturday, August 7

Today Julie, Susan and I went to the hill outside the village. The hill was full of flowers and the breeze was blowing. From the top, we could see the village not far away.The three of us sat on the hillside without saying a word, but we were very happy.

Monday, March 7

Found something strange today.

Susan wanted me to visit her school, and I agreed. Julie and Susan took me to the school gate. There was a tree at the school gate. The tree was surrounded by stones. Villagers sometimes sat under it to rest, or Wait for the kids to get out of school.

The three of us were tired from walking around and sat on the big rock.But at this moment, I found something that seemed to be carved on a stone. They were some strange symbols. I originally thought they were scrawled by children, but one or two symbols looked familiar. I recognized them. They were ancient symbols. runes, and even a few alchemical symbols.

I asked Julie, is there an alchemist in this village?Julie was very strange. She thought I was joking. Alchemists only existed in some magic story books.She jokingly answered me: There are no alchemists, only coal diggers.

Tuesday, October 7

I thought about it all night and thought it would be better to draw these symbols.

So I picked up a piece of paper, sat under the tree, and drew the symbols. The content on the stone looked incomplete, and some places were corroded by rain and became blurry. I always felt that they were inextricably linked. It became a string of text, but I couldn’t understand it.

Wednesday, July 7

I'm leaving today. The week-long trip is over. Time flies so fast. I really can't let go of this place, and I can't let go of Julie and Susan.

Last night, Julie and I talked until late at night again. Neither of us wanted to face the bus that would appear at the station tomorrow morning. We wished we could keep talking like this. Before I left, I already started missing Julie and Susan. I miss this village.

Julie started to cry. She said that we hadn't seen each other for a long time and now we had to part ways. Susan saw her sister crying and started to cry too. She hugged the bunny doll and comforted it while crying.

I even cry.

But I can’t just fall into missing you. I smiled and said to them, I will come back again in the future, wait until the Christmas vacation, wait until the summer vacation, I will come back to see you, we will play together, have snowball fights together, and tell you that I am in school. Interesting thing.

Wednesday, July 9

I have always cared about those characters. Why do alchemy characters appear in Muggle villages?

In fact, I have read a lot of alchemy books in the library these days, but I still can't understand the meaning of those symbols, but this thing has become a knot in my mind.

I decided to ask Professor Dumbledore tomorrow.

Thursday, February 9

I took the piece of paper to Professor Dumbledore. He looked at it twice and returned it to me. He said that maybe the alchemy professor at the school knew this.

I told Professor Dumbledore that I had wanted to ask that professor, but the alchemy classes had stopped long ago.

Dumbledore told me to go to the cabin in the clock tower to find Mr. Ballard Mason, the alchemy professor at Hogwarts. In fact, the elective course on alchemy stopped two years ago. I thought our alchemy course The art professor has left the school.

Friday, September 9

If Professor Dumbledore hadn't told me the address, I might not have known until graduation that there was a small room here and it was actually the office of the Alchemy Professor.

Although Mr. Ballard Mason looked to be in his 40s, he looked very decadent and had a bad temper. He tried to drive me away, but he calmed down a lot after learning that it was Professor Dumbledore who asked me to come.

But what made his temperament change drastically was not this, but when he saw the piece of paper I gave him with a string of alchemical symbols drawn on it...

Thursday, February 9

Mr. Mason translated the symbols, but many things were incomplete.He wanted me to go back to Merthyr Tydfil next time and look for any missing symbols, and I said I would.

Tuesday, October 12

I looked at the tall cross on the hillside cemetery.

Everything is too late.

Julie and Susan have left me forever.

Villagers told me that of the family of four who originally lived in this house, only one man survived.Later, he moved away and left here without knowing his whereabouts.

I pushed open the door of the wooden house and found that Julie's house was empty. There was only a tattered, cinder-black rabbit doll placed squarely on the table.

There is no longer any black color on the village road, and the snow has fallen on the ground and covered it with a white carpet.The villagers walked through the white snow and greeted each other when they saw acquaintances.

But I will never see them again.

-

October 1996, 10 - Aberfont Tragedy

A tragedy occurred in the small Welsh coal mining village of Aberfonte, near Merthyr Tydfil, England, when an abandoned slag hill collapsed, burying the village primary school.The disaster killed 147 people and effectively wiped out an entire generation of the village's primary school children.