Regulus of Hogwarts: Lord of the Stars

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At 8 p.m., at the end of the fourth-floor corridor, the door to the abandoned classroom was ajar, and Regulus arrived first.

He walked to the window. It was pitch black outside, and he couldn't see anything. His own face was reflected in the glass, but it was blurry.

After waiting a while, Lily pushed open the door, bringing in a gust of cold wind.

She was wearing a Gryffindor school robe, with a scarf wrapped several times around her head, burying her mouth inside, leaving only half of her face showing.

His face was red from the cold, and the tip of his nose was also red, but his eyes were bright and his expression was excited.

A few strands of her hair were messy and stuck to her forehead, but she didn't care.

"You've been here for a while," she said as she untied her scarf, her breath condensing into white mist that quickly dissipated.

"Just arrived." Regulus turned around.

Lily took the scarf off her neck and looked up at him.

My gaze lingered on the dark gray scarf around his neck.

Then she laughed, without saying anything, just laughing quite happily.

Her eyes curved into crescents, the corners of her mouth turned up, and her whole demeanor transformed from one of shivering cold to one of a completely different persona.

That scarf was a Christmas gift from her last year. It was dark gray, made of wool, not some expensive material, but very densely woven.

Regulus was wearing it.

"Are you cold?" Regulus asked.

Lily smiled and replied, "It's alright, it's just that the corridor is windy."

Regulus raised his hand and waved it casually.

A gust of warm air emanated from the palm of her hand, just the right amount to envelop Lily. The temperature was well controlled—not too hot, not too dry—just a refreshing warmth.

Lily squinted comfortably, feeling as if someone had built an invisible heater around her.

Once she warmed up, she took off her scarf completely, then looked around the classroom, her gaze landing on an abandoned desk against the wall.

The table was missing a leg, and its surface was covered with scratches and ink stains; it leaned crookedly against the corner of the wall.

She took out her wand, tapped it, and her lips moved slightly.

The desk began to change; the legs folded upwards, and the tabletop folded up to form a neat, flat surface without a single crack.

The entire table was transformed from a pile of rotten wood into a standing wooden frame, neither too high nor too low, just reaching her chest.

A row of five small copper hooks, evenly spaced, extend from the top of the shelf.

Lily walked over, draped the scarf over one of the hooks, and then looked back at Regulus with a smug look in her eyes.

Regulus raised an eyebrow, walked over, and draped his scarf over Lily's.

Lily looked at the two scarves hanging together and nodded in satisfaction.

Regulus glanced at her.

She laughed even harder, her eyes curving into two crescent moons.

It's been two weeks since I last taught Lily how to manipulate magic.

During this period, the two never came to the abandoned classroom again, but they met quite a few times in the library. Every time Lily saw him, she would always take the time to show off her practice results.

One afternoon, Regulus was sitting in his usual spot by the window in the library, flipping through a book, when Lily came around from behind the bookshelves and sat down opposite him.

She didn't take out her wand; she simply pointed with her finger.

Parchment floated out of her bag, along with a quill pen and an ink bottle.

The ink bottle cap unscrewed itself, the quill floated in, dipped itself, and then hovered above the parchment to begin writing.

The letters popped out one by one, with varying spacing, and some words ended up crammed together at the end.

The entire text was crooked and twisted, like earthworms fighting on the paper. Some letters were even connected together, making it impossible to distinguish which one was which.

Regulus just watched and then praised her, and Lily herself thought it was impressive.

Later, Lily submitted the paper, and Professor Slughorn reportedly gave it a very interesting response.

"Guardian," Regulus looked down at her, his tone gentle, "Do you know what it is?"

Lily nodded, her chin slightly raised, the corners of her mouth turned up, and without saying a word, she pulled her wand directly from her robe pocket.

She first closed her eyes, her breathing slowed down, and her facial expression first became quiet, then changed from quiet to a state of near-immersion.

Her eyelashes trembled slightly, her eyelids closed tighter, and then she opened her eyes.

"Protect the Gods."

A silvery-white light shone from the tip of the wand. It wasn't large or bright, but it had boundaries and a core.

The brightness is roughly equivalent to the fifth level of the Fluorescent Spell; you can see it, but that's about it.

Lily stared at the ball of light, a smile playing on her lips. The light reflected in her eyes as two tiny silver specks.

A few seconds later, she waved her wand, and the silver light disappeared.

Then she looked up at Regulus, her eyes expectant: "How was it?"

Regulus wasn't disappointed: "It's rare to be able to release it so quickly after just one training session."

That's true. There are very few third-year wizards in the entire Hogwarts who can emit the Patronus Aura.

Lily was a little embarrassed by the compliment; the tips of her ears turned slightly red, and she said modestly, "That's all."

She knew in her heart that Regulus always praised her, as if she was amazing at everything she did.

But she also knew that there was nothing to be proud of in emitting such a small amount of silver light.

But I was still happy to be praised by him.

"That's really rare," Regulus said again.

Lily laughed happily and stopped being modest.

Regulus asked, "Did you ask Professor McGonagall?"

Lily nodded and began to speak.

"When I went to see Professor McGonagall, she was grading papers. I asked her how to practice the Patronus Charm, and she stared at me for a long time."

Lily mimicked McGonagall's expression perfectly, with her eyebrows slightly raised, lips pursed, and head tilted slightly to one side.

"She said it was a very profound spell that many adult wizards couldn't do."

Lily's tone became smug as she recounted this: "Then I said, 'I know, but I still want to try,' and she looked at me for a moment and said, 'Okay.'"

"She told me that the Guardian Charm requires a very happy memory, the more intense the better, and then you recite the incantation to let that memory fill your whole body."

"The professor even praised me," Lily said cheerfully. "She said that the fact that you took the initiative to ask this shows that you are ambitious and should maintain this attitude."

Regulus listened, nodding occasionally, and then asked cooperatively, "And then?"

"Then I went back to practice," Lily said. "I did what the professor said: think of the happiest thing and then chant the spell."

As she spoke, she added her own interpretation: "I tried several times. At first, there was nothing, but then there was light, just like the one I just saw."

As she said this, she glanced at Regulus.

"I tried several different happy memories," she continued, "the day I received my acceptance letter, the day I found out I was a witch—"

As she spoke, she glanced at Regulus again, leaned forward, and lowered her voice, as if sharing a secret:

"You may not know that feeling. It's like being suddenly told that you are not an ordinary person, that you have something that others don't, and your whole world suddenly becomes bigger."

Then she tilted her head, a hint of curiosity mixed with uncertainty in her voice: "You're pureblood, do you have that feeling?"

Regulus didn't say anything, he just looked at her with gentle eyes and nodded.

He certainly knew that feeling—a person who grew up in a materialistic world suddenly arriving in a magical world, and finding that they belonged to that world.

The excitement was far beyond what the word "happy" could describe; it was the shock of the whole world turning from black and white to color.

Then he asked, "Anything else? Happy memories?"

Lily glanced at him again, but only snorted and didn't say anything.

Regulus was baffled by the humming.

He thought about it for a moment, but couldn't figure out what he had asked wrong. However, judging from Lily's expression, she didn't seem angry, so he didn't press her further.

Lily continued, recounting how she tried again and again, how many times she tried, how many times she failed, and how once she almost succeeded, when the light even appeared, but then she got excited and her memory wandered, and the light went out again.

Regulus listened, nodding occasionally in response, but his mind was elsewhere.

He remembered the day he summoned his guardian deity.

On the west coast of Ireland, on a cliff, the setting sun sinks into the sea, turning the water a golden-red that stretches from your feet all the way to the horizon.

He was captivated by the scene; it was a feeling that welled up from the depths of his soul.

It's good to be alive, and the world is beautiful.

I want to see more, experience more, and become more.

A yearning for freedom, a longing for the vast world, a desire to shake off all constraints and see what lies beyond the sea.

The conventional Guardian Charm is fueled by a specific happy memory; this is how most people practice and use it.

But Regulus was not; he was not recalling a specific happy memory, much less using it to ignite the spell.

He was moved by the scene before him, and a sense of life experience and longing for the future naturally welled up in his heart.

That kind of longing is the purest and most powerful positive emotion; it doesn't need memories as a medium to ignite the Guardian Charm directly.

Therefore, the core of his summoning of the guardian deity is desire, not memories.

Regulus continued thinking along these lines.

Memories are backward-looking; they are anchored in the past. When we reminisce, we are looking back.

The power driven by memories is about protecting what has existed and what is disappearing.

So it is essentially defensive, protecting something that is about to be lost and preventing it from disappearing.

Desire is forward-looking; it points to the future. When one has desires, one is looking ahead.

Driven by desire, we create something that has not yet appeared.

Therefore, it is inherently aggressive and shaping; it is not about protecting the old world, but about creating a new one.

One tells you to hold on, the other tells you to move forward.

Those are two directions, and two forces.

"—Regulus?"

Lily's voice brought him back to reality.

She was looking at him, her brows slightly furrowed, unsure if he was daydreaming.

Are you listening?

"I'm listening." Regulus snapped out of his reverie, his expression unchanged, and nodded.

Lily stared at him for a few moments, her expression suspicious and disbelieving.

Regulus coughed lightly, looking at her with gentle and sincere eyes: "Do you know how I summoned him?"

Lily paused for a moment, then rolled her eyes inwardly.

It's always like this.

Regulus would sometimes drift off into thought while listening to her talk, and if caught, he would just change the subject.

This happened last time, and it happened the time before that.

But she never exposed it.

"Isn't a guardian spirit just someone who tries hard to recall happy memories and then chants incantations?" she asked, following up. "What else could it be?"

“Professor McGonagall is right. In fact, most wizards practice like that,” Regulus said. “But I don’t do it that way.”

Lily asked curiously, "So how did you do it?"

Regulus didn't answer immediately. He glanced at Lily and then looked out the window.

Nothing could be seen on the glass; it was pitch black. Only the dim light in the classroom illuminated the silhouettes of two people.

"Most wizards summon their patron saints using memories." He spoke in his usual unhurried tone.

"A happy memory, the stronger the better. Ask other wizards, and they'll tell you the same thing."

Lily nodded. This was consistent with her practice methods, consistent with what was written in the book, and consistent with what everyone she had asked had said.

Regulus continued, "This is the right path; most wizards who can summon guardian spirits do it this way."

He paused, then turned to look at her: "But have you ever thought about why it's a memory?"

Lily blinked.

She hadn't really thought about that. The professor told her to use happy memories, so she used happy memories, tried many different ones, picked the most intense one, and then practiced it.

Regulus looked at her: "Because for most people, the strongest emotions only occurred in the past."

They reminisce, they cherish the memories, they protect what they once had, and then they grow old.

As Lily listened, her brows slowly furrowed.

She understood what she was hearing, but she still felt a strange heaviness in her heart.

Author Zhuang Shui Zhi Zhu personally recommends: I hope you enjoy the story of "Hogwarts: Lord of the Stars" on Cola Novels.