Ancient Warlocks at Hogwarts

Cole arrived at the pub on time at nine o'clock the next morning.

"So, shall we set off now?" After having eaten the breakfast served by the waiter, Andre looked impatient.

"If Mr. Ivanov has nothing else to do, I think we can set off now." Cole bowed and made a gesture of invitation to him.

Gringotts in Paris seems to be no different from the one in London. It is also a tall marble hall with hundreds of goblins sitting on high stools behind a row of long counters.

Some of them were weighing coins with copper scales, while others were checking gemstones with eyepieces, while making notes in a big ledger.

"Hey, Harus, here!" Cole shouted to a young elf with middle-parted hair.

"Cole?" The goblin named Harus walked over quickly.

Cole nodded: "Harus, I told you a few days ago, take us to vault 1056."

Harus glanced sideways at Andre, then nodded and said, "Of course, please follow me."

Following the young goblin, Andre suddenly asked: "Mr. Cole, doesn't my identity need to be verified for inheritance?"

"Oh, this is indeed an oversight on my part. The main reason is that you look so much like Mr. Adrian that I couldn't help but forget this step. Then did you bring the letter we sent you? On your body?" Cole explained with a smile.

"Of course." Andre took out the letter he had kept from his arms and handed it to Cole.

Cole checked the stamp on the envelope and the contents inside, and quickly nodded: "No problem, Mr. Ivanov. In fact, your appearance alone leaves me no doubt."

Andre smiled and said, "Thank you for your trust."

Under the leadership of Harus, they had entered a small door on the left side of the hall.

Unlike Andre's imagination, behind the door was not a mine railway like Gringotts in Diagon Alley, but a luxuriously decorated elevator car.

Seeing Andre's curious gaze, Harus asked: "Why, hasn't this gentleman been to our underground vault in Gringotts?"

As if to take care of him as a foreigner, the young goblin also spoke English, so Andre shook his head: "I thought you would be like Gringotts in London. They use railways and have one underground. Ukrainian Iron Belly.”

"Haha, barbaric Britons, we at Gringotts in Paris are different from them. We always use advanced technology, and we don't need fire dragons to protect the safety of the vault. Believe me, no one can be taken away from Gringotts in Paris. Even a copper nut that doesn’t belong to him.”

Andre didn't know where this goblin's confidence came from, but he didn't intend to refute it. Anyway, he was not interested in the security measures of Gringotts in Paris. There was no Hufflepuff gold cup here.

They stayed in the car for about 10 minutes before the magic elevator stopped descending.

After stepping out of the elevator, there is a corridor-like underground building. On both sides are private vaults protected by bronze doors, and on the other side are magic elevators for wizards and goblins to go up and down.

On the wall on the side of the vault, eternal torches stretched out to both sides like a long snake of fire in the dark underground, as if there was no end in sight.

They stopped in front of a small bronze door marked with the numbers 1056. Cole took out a small golden key from his arms and handed it to Harus, and then Harus stepped forward and opened the door lock. , a thick green smoke came out.

"If you open these vault doors without the goblin's permission, even the most powerful wizard will be severely hit by the evil spell cast above." Cole explained to Andre with a smile.

Andre expressed doubts about this. Voldemort had just led Quirrell to rob the underground vault in Diagon Alley this summer, and nothing happened to him.

When the smoke cleared, Andre could not see any golden light through the opened bronze door. There was only a solitary bronze disc in the empty vault.

This was different from what he imagined. Andre looked back at Cole suspiciously.

Cole also frowned: "This is not what I expected, Harus, do you know why there is not even a little bit of Galleons in it?"

The young goblin twitched the corner of his mouth: "Cole, you know, we will not inquire about the wealth and items stored in the vault without the permission of the owner of the vault. What's more, the goblin in charge of the vault at that time was Old Gary. He Just retired a few weeks ago.”

"It seems that Mr. Adrian may have made other arrangements. Mr. Ivanov, I think you can take a look at the disk. There may be some clues." Cole said with a wry smile.

Andre nodded silently, walked into the vault, and picked up the only item inside.

The entire disk is made of bronze, with intricate patterns etched on it.

There was a gap on the edge of the disc, which seemed to indicate that it could be opened. He tried it, but neither twisting nor breaking it forcefully caused any change in the disc.

"Either, how about going back to the tavern first? Mr. Ivanov." Cole, who waited for a short while at the door of the vault, reminded him as he watched Andre trying to open the disc.

Andre, who was still trying to open the disc, didn't seem to hear the other party's words. It wasn't until the goblin repeated it again that he raised his head and answered: "Well, this is indeed not a place suitable for staying for a long time."

"Sorry, Mr. Ivanov, I didn't expect that your grandfather would withdraw all his wealth. I thought he would put all the gold galleons from the sale of fixed assets in his private vault and leave it to you to inherit. ." After leaving Gringotts, the two returned to the room on the second floor of the Three Musketeers Tavern. Cole hung his coat on the coat rack, turned to Andre and said.

"This is none of your business, Mr. Cole, not to mention that he left this for me. Maybe my grandfather I have never met has specially prepared a test for me, right?" Andre raised himself The bronze disc in his hand, he said with a smile.

The goblin nodded and said: "It's best if you think so. Based on my understanding of Mr. Adrian, this possibility is not impossible."

"So, Mr. Cole, do you know anything about this disk?" Andre seemed to be completely unconcerned and threw the disk directly to the goblin.

Cole hurriedly took the disk and looked at him with a wry smile: "I can help you see. We fairies do know more about ancient magic props than you human wizards. After all, we are different from you. The inheritance of a lot of goblin knowledge is done through blood, not books that can be destroyed at any time."

"This is indeed an enviable ability. That's why we human wizards need to learn everything about magic from magic schools, right?" Andre complimented him cooperatively.

Cole didn't answer. He sat on the armchair with the bronze disk and looked at it carefully.

After a while, he finally said: "If I read it correctly, the pattern on this disk is actually an ancient magic script."

"Ancient magic script? Runes? But I have never seen similar writing styles in runes." Andre frowned. Although he has not taken the rune course, but in When I was at Hogwarts, I also borrowed related books.

At that time, he thought that this kind of writing called magic text had magical power, but in fact it was just a kind of writing that was commonly used by ancient wizards and did not have any magical power. The reason why Hogwarts offered this course The reason is just to let the little wizards understand some ancient classics.

"Actually, this is not a rune. Generally speaking, it is difficult to find its record in books." Cole shook his head.

"So you mean this is an ancient magic script that is not in historical records?" Andre asked, pointing to the complex etching patterns on the bronze disc.

The goblin nodded and replied: "Yes, this should be a variant of runes. I don't know exactly what is written on it, but there is some information about this kind of writing in my memory."

"Oh, can you tell me more about it?"

"Of course, as far as I know, this kind of writing has been found in some Druid sacrificial sites in England in the last century, but most of them are scattered and incomplete. So so far, the magic world has not been able to decipher it. The ability of this ancient magic text." Cole said.

Andre asked in confusion: "Druids? Isn't this a Muggle religious organization?"

Cole looked away from the disk, stood up, and said: "It seems that Mr. Ivanov has not learned the history of magic well. You can take out your wand and take a look. You must know that human wizards can The world occupies a dominant position, and the druids have great contributions - the first wand was made by the Druid priests."

"Is that so?" The goblin's words made Andre a little embarrassed. He had only attended Hogwarts for one fall semester, and most of that time was spent on learning transfiguration and spells, and Professor Binns' The course also did not touch on this ancient Celtic mystical sect.

Cole handed the disc back to him: "Of course, but very few young wizards know this kind of history. Most of them prefer to study things like Quidditch."

Seeing Cole go to the coat rack and pick up his coat, Andre asked: "Are you leaving, Mr. Cole?"

"Yes, you have to know that I am an employee of Gringotts. I have actually asked my boss for half a day's leave, but if I don't go to work in the afternoon, it's hard to say what will happen." The goblin nodded and said: "You can study the disk yourself first, and I will help you ask professionals to see if there are any other clues. But don't hold out too much hope, there are always some weird alchemy props in the magic world. , we can’t open it through normal means, but maybe one day it will open by itself.”

Andre did not stop the other party from leaving. After watching the goblin walk out of the room, he sat on the armchair and playfully played with the bronze disc in his hand.