Harry returns from Hogwarts Legacy

Chapter 169 Harry Potter and the Sphinx (Part )
I don't know who gave the professors the idea, but the exam also included Harry's regular scores - since Harry hadn't been to class recently, he only got an A (Acceptable) in Potions.

The professors of other courses were quite considerate of him and gave him good marks in general, so his grades barely maintained an "O".

Even the most conservative Professor McGonagall gave Harry a good score, after all, he was able to skillfully change the desk into any shape.

Taking advantage of the time left in the holiday, Harry dug out the last bit of mallow and planned to take a look at the Merlin ruins he had recently discovered and had never opened before.

This Merlin ruins is located on the coast of Craigmore, and next to it is an abandoned gathering place of the Fire Ash Snake Gang.

Even after years of erosion, the Muggle-Repelling Charm of this gathering place has not failed, and it seems that the surrounding terrain has never been invaded by Muggles.

On the distant hillside, there were a few comfortable moon beasts curled up in balls leisurely on the grass, rolling around on the ground without any worries.

The Merlin ruins are a round stone plate with a pattern that looks a lot like an electric fan, with blade-like stones surrounding the round stone in the center. Harry doubts whether these fan-shaped stones will rotate if electricity is applied to the stone plate.

He walked to the middle of the flagstones and scattered a handful of mallow leaves.

The prototype stone in the center of the slab made a crisp sound, and a green light spread from the center to the surrounding of the disc.

Then, the light turned into green dots like fireflies, covering the top of the stone plate.

Harry stood in the center of the disk, waiting patiently.

As he expected, the light spots gradually gathered above the four circular stone slabs surrounding the disc.

"Revelio!"

A circle of azure blue light spread out in all directions with Harry as the center. In the training ground directly in front of Harry, round stone balls appeared in front of him.

"Are you going to move these stone balls to the corresponding positions on the disc?"

Harry muttered, flicking his wand at a stone ball.

"Accio (come fly)!"

However, contrary to his expectations, the stone ball did not move towards him, but shattered the moment it was hit by the spell.

After the stone ball was destroyed, new vines grew around the pillar where the stone ball was originally placed.

Maybe use a spell to smash the stone ball?

He already had an idea in mind, and waved his wand to smash the stone balls one by one.

Just after he smashed the last stone ball, green spots gathered and shone brightly in all directions.

Where the light spots converged, four stone pillars supporting the disc rose up rumblingly. At the same time, lush green branches blossomed in an instant.

Green spots of light flew out from the branches like a dense swarm of bees, and gathered in the middle of the stone disc to form an old figure holding a staff and wearing a magic robe.

It's Merlin.

Harry stepped forward, and Merlin's shadow raised his staff, and suddenly a bright light appeared on his right hand.

After a while, the light gradually dissipated, and a door that looked like a flowing green water curtain appeared in front of Harry.

Harry was delighted.

Could it be... that this is the secret room where Cassandra is?

He walked forward impatiently, and suddenly an old and leisurely voice came from his mind.

"The door cannot be opened from this side," the voice said.

Harry looked at Merlin's shadow speechlessly, walked around, and walked into the light curtain from the other side.

Unlike Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets, there are no snake-shaped objects in Merlin's Chamber of Secrets, even though he is an outstanding graduate of Slytherin.

Harry raised his wand and illuminated the surroundings with a luminescent glow.

To his disappointment, there was no Cassandra, but an empty room.

"Revelio!"

Following the guidance of the spell, Harry saw a wooden chessboard placed in front of him, with what seemed to be some kind of puzzle on it.

He walked over and took a closer look, and found that the puzzle pieces could not be taken out, but could only be pushed on the board in a certain order and finally combined into the correct pattern.

After going through so many Merlin trials, this was the first time he tried a trial like this.

Harry took out his wand and controlled the patterns to move on the chessboard.

It should be said that Merlin did not really want to make things difficult for the younger generations who came to participate in the trial. At least these steps were not too difficult.

There were only six wooden puzzle pieces on the chessboard, and Harry completed the puzzle after just a little thought.

"Sphinx," he and a voice said in unison.

"?"

Harry was instantly alert. He lowered his body slightly, raised his wand in front of him, and prepared to engage in battle at any time.

A rumbling sound was heard in the secret room, and soon a monster with a human head and a lion's body appeared in front of him.

As a wizard, Harry had of course learned about the legend of the Sphinx in class.

Legend has it that Hera, the Queen of Heaven, sent the Sphinx to sit on a cliff road near the city of Thebes and ask passers-by a riddle.

The riddle is: What animal walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon and three legs in the evening? The answer to the riddle is "human".

Morning, noon and evening respectively refer to a person's childhood, middle age and old age.

Legend has it that the riddle was later solved by the young Greek Oedipus, who then caused the Sphinx to commit suicide by jumping off a cliff.

Harry heard this story from a traveller from Greece, but the traveller told him that the Sphinx was not a legend, but a real magical animal.

However, the Sphinx is described differently in each civilization. In Egyptian records, the Sphinx is described as a winged monster, usually male.

There were three kinds of Sphinx in the legend at that time - Androsphinx with a human face and a lion body, Criosphinx with a goat's head and a lion body, and Hieracosphinx with an eagle's head and a lion body.

The Assyrians and Persians described the Sphinx as a winged bull with a human face, a beard, and a crown.

In Greek mythology, the Sphinx became an evil female creature, representing the punishment of God.

"Sphinx" comes from the Greek word "Sphiggein", which means "to tighten", because the Greeks imagined the Sphinx as a monster that could strangle people to death.

Of course, the Greek guy also told Harry that if he could not answer the Sphinx's questions, he would be strangled to death by the Sphinx.

He finally understood why this Merlin Trial was as easy as letting someone off the hook.

So I'm waiting here.

Thinking of this, he felt a little helpless.

Merlin, what kind of sphinx did you put in your relic chamber?

Do all of you Slytherins have this problem? Your Head of House puts a basilisk in it, and Merlin puts a sphinx in it?
Harry held his wand tightly in his hand, concentrating on guarding against a sudden attack from the Sphinx in front of him.

"Let's guess a riddle, young wizard," said the Sphinx. "If you can answer it correctly, I will let you go out and take the secret treasure left by Merlin."

"What riddle?"

As he spoke, Harry quietly took out his wallet from his arms. "I am the black son of a white father; I am a bird without wings that can fly into the sky; when I was born, everyone who touched me would cry; once I was born, I would soon disappear into the air."

The Sphinx had a playful smile on his face.

"Young wizard, please answer——"

Harry paused.

Then he quickly opened his wallet and yelled, "Alfonso!"

The Sphinx subconsciously looked at the wallet, but was met with a pair of orange eyes.

Its expression froze on its face.

Then the Sphinx shook twice and fell to the ground with a thud.

It's dead.

"Well done, Alfonso." Harry said to the basilisk with satisfaction, "I'll catch you some Acromanthus tonight."

"Really, Master?" hissed Alfonso.

"Just wait." Harry said with satisfaction: "Of course, you don't have to eat this sphinx. I still have some use for it."

Then he opened his wallet and threw the Sphinx into it.

While tidying up the Chamber of Secrets, Harry was still thinking that it was really convenient to have Alfonso. At least he didn't have to use the emerald green spell.

After the Sphinx died, the emerald green light in the Chamber of Secrets appeared again and gathered into the shape of a treasure chest in front of Harry.

After a while, the light disappeared and the treasure chest appeared in front of Harry.

Without saying a word, Harry raised his wand and pointed it at the treasure chest, and a red spell shot out.

"Stupefy!"

The spell hit the treasure chest, making a dull sound.

Seeing that the treasure chest did not react at all, Harry swung his wand at the treasure chest.

The treasure chest clicked open, like a Russian nesting doll, layer by layer, snapping open one by one.

Finally, what appeared before Harry was a letter.

Harry picked up the letter. It had beautiful handwriting on it, which should have been written by Anne.

It says:

Harry:

It seems that you have solved the riddle of the Sphinx. Don't worry, it is the guardian beast of this secret room. In fact, even if you can't solve the riddle, it will not hurt you.

I hope that when you see this letter, it will be your first year back.

Anne's condition was very bad, and Sebastian was almost going crazy. I could only send him a message, using the Gaunt family spell to freeze her in time and temporarily seal her in the cave on the west side of the Forbidden Forest that needed Merlin's Trial to open - don't worry, we have reinforced the cave with magic.

But don't be too happy too soon. Annie can only be entrusted to you. I remember that Miss Grindelwald seemed to have developed the appropriate time magic and was ready to go to see you a hundred years later - she always has her own ideas.

I hope you can find a way to remove the dark magic mark on Anne. We can only rely on you. If there is a way, please come to the old house of the Gaunt family. My portrait will be waiting for you and me to convey the message.

Before you rescue Annie, I think you should ask the current headmaster of Hogwarts to see if he has any way to lift the dark magic curse.

Yours faithfully
Ominis Gunter
27, September, 1892
Harry was suddenly sweating a little.

He opened his wallet and looked inside at the lifeless Sphinx, then raised his head to look at the letter in his hand.

Ah this...

Is there any hope, Sphinx?
He looked at the letter again carefully.

Gaunt's old house?

Would Omenis actually hang the portrait in the old house of Gaunt?
He knew the relationship between Omenis and his family. Would his father allow his portrait to be...

Oh, but it's hard to say. After all, Omnius participated in the defeat of Lanlock, and the Gaunt family also benefited from it. The portrait of such an outstanding family member must be framed at home.

He planned to go to the old house of Gaunt to see what was going on.

After carefully putting the letter away, Harry couldn't wait to return to Hogwarts.

Under the surprised eyes of his classmates, he ran all the way to the eighth floor without stopping and stopped in front of the gargoyle, panting.

"Password!" said the gargoyles.

"Get out of my way!" Harry cursed, and slapped the gargoyle on the head.

Without a word the gargoyle leaped aside, making way for Harry.

"Professor Dumbledore." Harry shouted hurriedly, shaking his hands that were hurt by the shock.

Even wizards have to follow the basic laws of physics occasionally - the action of forces is mutual, and if you hit a stone with hard force, it is usually not the stone that is hurt.

He came to Dumbledore and sat down on the chair.

"I think you should drink some honey water to moisten your throat first." Dumbledore said with concern: "What happened? Why are you so anxious?"

Harry waved his hands, sat in the chair and panted violently for a while. When he felt that he had almost calmed down, he said, "Professor, I want to go to the old Gaunt house. I remember that you have found the location of the old Gaunt house. Could you take me there?"

"Of course, Harry." Professor Dumbledore said with a smile, "But before that, can you satisfy the curiosity of an old man?"

Harry raised his head, his eyes clearly saying "Who are you talking to, little brother?"

Dumbledore was not embarrassed, he just smiled and said, "I always want to know what happened."

Harry picked out the important parts and roughly told Dumbledore what had happened - after all, he still had to rely on Dumbledore to lift the dark curse.

"I can't do anything about the Dark Magic curse, Harry." Professor Dumbledore sighed, "It is an extremely evil curse. If I could do something, I wouldn't have allowed Tom's curse to hang on Hogwarts for so many years."

"Is there no better way?" Harry asked unwillingly.

Dumbledore hesitated for a moment.

"There is a way, but..."

"Don't keep me in suspense, Professor," Harry asked impatiently, "What is the solution? Tell me first."

Professor Dumbledore smiled.

"I don't need to tell you this, Harry. You know that Tom is a master of dark magic curses."

Harry didn't respond and frowned.

"Tom is a master of dark magic curses? That has to do with him being dark...oh!"

(Ask for monthly ticket)

(End of this chapter)