From Hogwarts to Strixhaven.

Chapter 282 Sect Master
On the day he got his new professional abilities, Ivy prayed to the earth element to give him the ability to turn fossils into mud and shape stone at will.

These two spells are crucial in repairing the Valley City. The former can quickly dig pits and fulcrums for fortifications, and the latter can quickly repair collapsed city walls.

With these two civil engineering spells, Riverdale City was completely renovated in just one day. But Ivy was still not satisfied, and he stayed on the mountain to use stone shaping to cut neat rocks one by one, and handed them over to the people of Old Changhu Town and New Riverdale City to transport to the city wall as consumables for defending the city.

He even planned a moat as a new defense measure for the Valley City, and prepared to use the hard rock ground in the river as building materials for the Valley City. When Bard, the temporary mayor of the Valley City, and the white-bearded dwarf Balin found him, he had been happily playing with stones for several hours.

In fact, Ivy didn't expect that digging stones could be so addictive, especially when digging with the power of magic.

"I've never seen such a scene before..." The dwarf Balin muttered as he looked at the neatly-arranged stones all over the mountains, "A wizard alone is better than a thousand skilled dwarf miners..."

"Too many! This is too much! Wizard!" Lord Bard held his head, wondering how this was done. "We don't have that many people to carry the stones!"

"The dwarves will help." The dwarf Balin looked at the pile of rocks again, obviously lacking confidence. "We should be able to help... Anyway, wizard, the ravens from the Lonely Mountain have flown back. I have sent a letter for help to Dain in the Iron Hills as you requested. They are not far from here and will arrive in two days."

Ivy admired the expressions on their faces with satisfaction, then looked at her masterpiece before talking to them: "The stones are just for precaution. We have two places that need to be defended, Dale and the main gate of Lonely Mountain. If the Iron Hills dwarves can arrive before the orcs, let them station outside Lonely Mountain. Anyway, Smaug's corpse is blocking the gate, so it is not realistic to allow a large-scale army to enter Lonely Mountain."

"By the way, have the elves from the Woodland Kingdom arrived?" Ivy asked again.

Balin and Bard looked at each other, both showing embarrassment on their faces. Finally, the dwarf Balin nodded, and Lord Bard spoke: "I was just about to say this. King Thranduil has arrived. He brought many soldiers and supplies, but there is not enough space in the city of Riverdale for these people to stay. We can only let them stay at the foot of the mountain."

"That's not a problem. What River Valley City lacks the least right now is land." Ivy waited for further explanation.

"The problem is... King Thranduil demands that Thorin hand over his treasure, the Starlight White Gem. Otherwise he will refuse to cooperate with the dwarves." Lord Bard sighed.

"And Thorin..." The dwarf Balin took a breath, a little embarrassed to speak, "He doesn't believe that the Arkenstone has been destroyed by the dragon's fire, and he is frantically looking for it in the golden mountain... and... and he humiliated Bilbo and searched his whole body..."

"...He has completely given up on the orcs and elves. He only cares about the gold in the Lonely Mountain and the missing Arkenstone." The joy of witnessing Smaug's death had faded from Balin's face, leaving only fatigue and helplessness. "If our king is troubled by the dragon disease again and finally becomes a complete madman, then what is the point of us regaining the Lonely Mountain? I can only count on you, wizard."

Ivy sighed: "I'll go talk to him tomorrow, I hope it helps."

The elves from the Woodland Kingdom brought a lot of delicious food, and the humans of Valley City and the woodland elves held a banquet together, which greatly relieved people's tense nerves.

Afterwards, Ivy came to Thranduil's tent to discuss possible battle plans.

"We don't know exactly how many orcs there are. But I have ordered my troops to garrison north of Dale. To the west of the camp is the Running River, to the south is Dale, and directly opposite is the plain outside the Lonely Mountain. Smaug is really an exaggeratedly large dragon. Your name will be spread in the elves' poems, wizard." Thranduil finished his polite words and pointed to the plain between the northern mountains and the Mirkwood on the map. "I have sent scouts to investigate, hoping to get accurate information about the orc army."

"No matter how many there are, as long as we are fully prepared, we will always have the advantage." Ivy nodded. "Defense is much easier than attacking. Besides, we have two strongholds, Lonely Mountain and Riverdale. No matter which direction they plan to attack, our allies in the other stronghold can withdraw troops to rescue them. We just need to wear down their supplies and morale, and then it will be time for us to counterattack."

"Our victory is inevitable, but first, I need to see the sincerity of the dwarves." Thranduil said calmly, "Otherwise, I dare not turn my back to these treacherous guys."

"Even with my credibility?" Ivy asked.

"Even with your credibility," Thranduil replied, "these dwarves are greedy. The gold in the Lonely Mountain has confused their minds. Who knows if they will turn the tables?"

Perhaps placing the camp between Lonely Mountain and Dale is enough to prove Thranduil's concerns.

Ivy reminded him, "There are only thirteen dwarves in the Lonely Mountain."

"But the dwarves of the Iron Hills are on their way." Thranduil stood firm. "If the orcs do not show up soon, I am afraid that these dwarves will draw their weapons against us at the command of their mad king."

"I'll stop this from happening," Ivy said firmly.

"I hope so."

----

That night, Ivy had a dream.

He dreamed of Hogwarts, which he had not visited for a long time.

The dream began in the nostalgic Slytherin common room with a sewer decoration style (this is certainly not to say that the Black Lake looks like a sewer).

In fact, Ivy spent most of her time at Hogwarts in the library and the Room of Requirement, rarely going to the dimly lit common room.

Then Ivy saw herself setting off for the Herbology class. The kind Professor Sprout was still the same, without any change, even the little dust on her face.

It was always a pleasure to play with magical herbs, especially those little things with sharp teeth and claws. Ivy was thinking about new directions for herbal cultivation while loosening the soil for the bubble pods.

After the Herbology class, there was the drowsy History of Magic. Professor Binns still couldn't remember everyone's name and pronounced Malfoy as horse manure.

Then, Ivy saw a classroom that he would never enter as a student—the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom.

And the professor standing on the podium was actually Sirius Black!
This is not my dream.

Ivy was so sure.

"Cassandra," Ivy called out, "Can you hear me?"

"Who?!...Lord Doom?" Cassandra's voice soon rang out in this space.

Rather than saying it was this space, it was more like Cassandra's thoughts. This was a one-way communication method derived from the contract between the master and the magician.

The reason why it is one-way is that as a magician, Cassandra cannot choose to reject the call, nor can she actively hang up the phone, but as the leader, Ivy can freely choose whether to answer the call after receiving it.

The connection between the master and the magician was incredibly strong, and they could even communicate across two realms that were unknown how far apart. But why had nothing like this ever happened to Ivy before?
If this kind of connection can only be produced when the master and the sorcerer are in two different realms, then why didn't this connection occur when Ivy just arrived in the world of Arda and his mage spellcasting ability had not been completely banned?
Therefore, the contract between Ivy and Cassandra was based on the profession of [Splendid Warlock]. When he completed the feat of slaying the dragon yesterday and upgraded the level of this profession to level 19, he immediately triggered a one-way communication with the warlock after falling asleep.

This was the only explanation that made sense, and it explained why Cassandra couldn't improve her level as a conjurer at Hogwarts, and she wasn't even a level 1 conjurer. It was because Ivy's spellcasting ability as the master was too low.

Now Ivy can cast the Nine-Ring Arcane and do many things that can be called miracles, so he immediately triggered the contract and contacted his contract master.

"Cassandra, what time is it at Hogwarts now?" Ivy asked excitedly. "Uh... Friday afternoon? We should have dinner after this class." Although Cassandra didn't quite understand the purpose of Ivy's question, she answered quickly, "And today is the last Friday before Christmas vacation, and Christmas vacation will officially start next Wednesday."

"It seems that the time difference is not too big..." Ivy said to herself, "Very good, Cassandra, I will grant you more powerful power soon. I have gradually figured out how to use the contract between us."

"Please wait a moment, Lord Doom." Cassandra's voice sounded again.

In the third-year Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, before Sirius had time to say that class had started, he saw an arm raised high.

"Miss Worley, what can I do for you?" Sirius asked.

"I'm not feeling well and need to go to the school hospital." Cassandra lied expressionlessly.

Sirius looked at her intently for a few seconds, pointed at the door, and said, "Go."

Normally Sirius would not treat Slytherin students like this, but recently Dumbledore somehow managed to get Snape to reach a hostage exchange agreement with him, and now the two no longer enjoy torturing each other's students in their own classes.

Of course it is impossible to add extra points, not in this lifetime.

After seeing the familiar Hogwarts corridor from Cassandra's perspective, Ivy couldn't wait to activate the power of the contract and create a proof of the contract for his own spellcaster.

It was a golden gemstone ring with a compartment. There was a place for storing things hidden under the ring face. Judging from the size, it might be able to hold a pill or something of similar size.

"So I'm regarded as the Giant Spirit Sect Leader." Ivy has completely understood how the Sect Leader plays.

Through the professional ability of [Elemental Summoning], the type of benefit Cassandra receives from Ivy on that day is determined by the element he summons every day.

As a giant master, Ivy can provide Cassandra with a considerable number of spells as expansions, and these expansion spells will also change according to the elements he summons that day. As long as Cassandra has unused spell slots, she can use these spells at will without preparation, because the preparation for casting has been completed by Ivy as the master, and she only needs to pay the components required for casting.

Most of these spells are related to elements, but the most important one is the possibility of the 9th-level wish spell. This spell is not in the general table of the contract magician. In addition to the warlock and wizard, only a few advanced professions can obtain the ability to cast this spell.

The ring that Ivy had given to Cassandra before was something called a giant vessel.

The usual djinn vessel can provide a cylindrical extradimensional space with a radius of 20 feet and a height of 20 feet for the warlock to rest. But in Ivy's case, this effect has become a room that exists in the Destruction Grimoire and is linked to the Room of Requirement.

This room has similar properties to contract communication, Ivy is the owner of the house, and Cassandra can only be regarded as a resident. Therefore, Ivy can visit at any time, but Cassandra cannot enter the House of Requirement through this room.

But Ivy felt that the most regrettable thing was that the sect master could not use the giant spirit vessel to come to the realm where the magician was currently located unless the two were in the same realm.

However, with Cassandra as an anchor in Hogwarts, Ivy now meets one of the conditions to return to the wizarding world. As long as he figures out how the world of Arda interferes with the teleportation to other worlds, he can return to Hogwarts.

"Very good. Now you should be able to feel a different kind of spellcasting ability from that of a wizard. Next, choose two of the spells I listed for you, and you will have completed a level upgrade as a contract magician." After inspecting Cassandra's djinn vessel, Ivy began to introduce the spellcasting rules of the contract magician.

Since the main combat method of almost all warlocks is the 0-level cantrip magic explosion with the addition of [Painful Magic Explosion], warlocks usually pay more attention to other abilities when choosing spells, mainly to make up for their flexibility as spellcasters. After all, warlocks are not like mages who can easily learn new spells by studying scrolls, but rely entirely on the gift of the sect master, so the spells obtained by warlocks when their levels are increased are particularly important.

However, like Ivy, Cassandra also has a wizard as her primary spellcasting profession, so many of the shortcomings of the warlock can be made up.

Finally, Cassandra chose two very practical first-level spells: Protection from Good and Evil and Comprehend Languages.

"What else can I do for you?" Cassandra asked respectfully. She didn't know where the Ivy were yet she could easily give her power while she was still in school. It was really awe-inspiring.

"Actually, I'm adventuring in another world right now and can't interfere with the affairs of Hogwarts." Ivy hesitated for a moment and said, "But don't worry, I will be back before the end of the semester. Before that, I need you to find Dumbledore."

Although Cassandra didn't understand what Ivy meant by "another world", she turned around without hesitation and headed for the highest point of the main tower.

Arriving outside the principal's office, Cassandra stared at the gargoyles outside the door and said, "I don't know the password."

"Try some honey sizzle candy," Ivy suggested.

Cassandra did so, but the door did not open.

"Old bees usually use Honeydukes candies as passwords, and you just try them one by one," Ivy explained.

So when Cassandra was trying the "cream almond candy", the gargoyles, which had been waiting impatiently, jumped to the side, revealing the spiral staircase behind the wall.

Nothing seemed to have changed in the headmaster's office, with its sleepy old headmasters on the walls, its odd silverware belching steam, and Fawkes's golden perch.

"Miss Worley?" The old headmaster, who was sitting behind the desk, raised his eyebrows. "I thought I would only see you in the auditorium today."

"Professor Dumbledore, Ivy asked me to come here." Cassandra repeated perfectly according to Ivy's instructions.

"Ivy?" Dumbledore closed the book in front of him and put his ten slender fingers together. "This is a surprising name. I thought he went abroad to study."

"He is not in this world right now, Professor Dumbledore," said Cassandra. "In fact, we are communicating in real time through magic."

"Another world?" Although it was a question, the old wizard did not show any particular surprise. It seemed that his long age had given him the ability to remain calm in the face of adversity.

"So, what is the afterlife like?" the old wizard asked curiously. "I asked Severus before, but he was always vague. People are bound to die, so it's not bad to know about their future residence in advance."

Having watched the entire process through Cassandra's eyes, Ivy realized this time that the old wizard had completely misunderstood.

"It's not the afterlife, Professor Dumbledore," Cassandra continued to repeat, "It's another world where humans exist, but it's completely different from the Earth, and even the laws of physics are different. But Ivy asked me to find you not for this matter, but for the plan to destroy Voldemort."

Cassandra trembled with excitement. Ever since she participated in the destruction of Voldemort's soul fragment in the Ravenclaw Diadem, she had not heard any news about Voldemort from Ivy. Now that she knew that the plan was going smoothly, she felt a heartfelt joy.

Of course, Ivy also noticed Cassandra's emotion. After all, the contract between the master and the magician was extremely strong.

"I need you to write a letter to Lucius Malfoy..."

(End of this chapter)