Ravenclaw's Sapphire

"Max, don't you think it's too quiet here?" Barbara followed behind Max uneasily. Although at Hogwarts, she was used to seeing ghosts passing through the other side of the wall at any time. The representative of Slytherin is the bloody ghost Baron (silent, blood-stained and dignified), and Hogwarts has a prank-loving ghost like "Peeves", wishing to scare your heart to stop at any time , and then frightened to resume beating - but the feeling of uneasiness in the heart when walking in the dark and winding aisles will still quietly grow.

"That's because the only living creatures here should be you and me. My father and I are not interested in decorating and renovating the castle. If it weren't for the house elves walking around from time to time, it would indeed look like a haunted house... ...do you need a light?"

"ah!"

Although Barbara nodded, when the oil lamps on both sides of the wall suddenly burned, the shadows cast by the lights covered half of Max's face, and also cast large chunks of dense darkness under the ground. The very nervous mood suddenly got a little out of control, and I couldn't help crying out.

"How embarrassing..." Barbara fell into a state of self-loathing for the next few minutes, and Max laughed mercilessly at that time, which made him feel extremely embarrassed.

"I think it's cute, Barbara." Max walked ahead happily, and she seemed to want to take Barbara somewhere to see from the beginning, "Besides, it's not because you're scared that you're scared." Xiao, walking here, probably many people will feel uncomfortable, how can people have good associations in a dead silent and cold room?"

"But this is your house. I'm your lover. I'm your lover, but I was scared when I came to my girlfriend's house. No matter how you look at it, it's too embarrassing..." Barbara covered her face.

"Don't get me wrong, this is not my home, it's just my impression of my home...Even now I will not change my opinion, but you may like Palulu, it is a very qualified housekeeper."

"Is it the housekeeper hired by your family? You seldom praise people, you must like him very much." Barbara asked curiously, hoping to learn more about Max's past and family.

"No, it's a house-elf. But it's been taking care of us since I was born, and without it and the other elves, my father and I would probably starve to death in the castle, because I can't cook, But I don't know if my father will, and he hasn't cooked for me." Max's face couldn't see her emotion, "Sometimes it even makes me feel that it is more like me than my father. family."

"Max's father... I remember that you occasionally wrote letters home, isn't it a very strict person?" Barbara asked worriedly, because Max's first blatant display of boredom, although slight, It's rare to see her, and usually she's pretty casual about everything else.

"Strictness...well, I think he didn't take me seriously, but that's normal. After all, I don't have a reason to be valued by him. What my father pursues is more unknown, not The finished product."

At last they came to a brighter corridor with a red carpet all the way to the room at the end.Barbara looked at the picture frames on the two walls: "The pictures are all blank."

"Because I don't have any impression of those noisy ancestors." When the two walked to the end, Max pushed open the heavy oak door, and a gust of cold air hit Barbara's face, and she couldn't help but shudder. I shivered.

The two went in, surrounded by many bookshelves filled with all kinds of books and parchments, "This is my father's study room, and it is also the entrance to the basement." Max walked in a certain direction and turned the corner The candlestick in the center rotated halfway to the right, and the two large bookshelves in the middle slid silently to the sides, revealing a large opening, with no light to illuminate it, only deep darkness shrouded there, like the mouth of a wild beast generally.

"Well... I seem to like you more than I expected, Barbara." Max walked to the entrance of the cave first, but she didn't move on. Instead, she blocked Barbara who was about to follow, ignoring the other person's face Yan Hong on her face said, "Look, my hands tremble a little. This is something I've never experienced before. It's amazing..." She raised her palm, and her fingertips trembled slightly.

"If you follow up, you will definitely regret it. There is no warmth below. I will give you a chance. If you want to leave, you can take advantage of it now."

"But those are all related to Max." Barbara didn't even hesitate, and held Max's hand. "So I must know. If I choose to back down here, will you break up with me?"

"Well, I'll break up with you." Max said directly, without mercy, "but that might be better for you."

"Then I won't!" cried Barbara, and Max looked at her and smiled.

"Then let's go."

*****

Going down the gloomy and narrow stairs, Max didn't turn on the lights, but strangely there was always a faint light around the walls, "These are probably things that my father has processed. In order to provide a light source, I rarely come here Here, because it would make me uncomfortable, and I haven't investigated it." Max said, not knowing whether he guessed or caught a glimpse of Barbara's attention direction.

Her tone was colder than ever, and her pace was fast.This narrow path is reminiscent of the way back to the Slytherin lounge, because the Slytherin lounge is in the basement, and every Slytherin student has to walk this way countless times.

Maybe it was because her footsteps were fast, or maybe it was because the stone steps were not long, and they quickly stepped on the solid ground. At this time, the two sides of the wall were no longer the green light before, but replaced with more reassuring lights. Torches, not many, but enough to light the way forward.

"My everything is behind that door," Max said. "It's too late to back down now, Barbara. I won't let you escape."

Barbara shuddered, perhaps because Max's words were so serious and cold, she seemed to have taken off all the masks, and there was no trace of warmth in those brown eyes that Barbara had always loved. Like a predator sizing up its prey.

"Max...?" She frowned, because Max's hands suddenly became stronger, and she locked Barbara's arms like shackles, half-dragging her towards the door, and then she put her hands on the knocker Come on, take a deep breath.

"I'm finally coming back."

Pushing open the door, there is a square stone room, which is unexpectedly spacious, probably because there is only a stone platform in the center of the whole stone room; but it looks very strange in Barbara's eyes, the surrounding stone walls All of them are densely covered with runes of different colors, which seems to be due to the different pigment materials used in drawing.Some of these mysterious and profound lines are even very difficult for Barbara to read. You must know that she has devoted herself to the ancient runes, but judging from the content she can read, Barbara His face suddenly turned pale.

"What is this……"

"It really hasn't changed here, and I didn't expect that when I saw these things again, I could talk to you calmly. Barbara, is it because you are here? It's incredible. I thought I would never Let people know about this place, you really surprise people.”

Barbara's face was pale. Although she resisted looking at these things, her eyes scanned line by line unconsciously, and she muttered words. She read very hard. After all, this was a gifted wizard who spent decades carefully doing it. good preparation.Then she felt her hand being taken.

Max led her into the stone room, she had completely given up laughing, and walked towards the central stone platform with a sullen face, "I sat up from this stone platform, and the first thing I saw when I sat up was My father..." She looked at Barbara, slowly rubbing her palms on the clean stone platform, "If you count the growth time of ordinary human beings as babies, then I am actually younger than you, Barbara Barra."

"... Sure enough, is everything I saw true?" When I was shocked to the extreme, my mind went blank, but I calmed down because of it. Barbara's composure made Max stroke her cheek appreciatively .

"Yeah, you're right. Thanks to your understanding of some runes, I don't have to explain everything again, which is great..." Max said, "As you can see, this stone platform, this stone room, and these That mess of runes on the wall is what Max Siegel is all about—welcome, Barbara, to the womb that conceived me."