The Black Bloodline of Hogwarts

Falling Star Bay, underwater.

Julien stepped through the stone gate once more, and the eerie blue light, like a frozen tide, enveloped the entire sunken city in an atmosphere that was somewhere between a dream and a memory.

"You're here again, little Black. Faster than I expected." The voice came from behind, carrying a thousand years of weariness and a hint of barely perceptible anticipation.

Julien turned around and saw Evanna Rozier's ghost emerge from a half-collapsed domed building, her translucent body shimmering with a mother-of-pearl luster in the eerie blue light.

"Do you have any friends this time? I'm so glad for you. Whether it's the endless journey of magical exploration or the path of being a guardian, it's too lonely to be alone."

Suddenly, Evanna's gaze fell on Elizabeth Rozier, and a look of surprise appeared on her translucent face.

She swiftly approached, her icy gray eyes—exactly like Elizabeth's—carefully scrutinizing the young girl.

"You..." The ghost's voice was as soft as the whisper of the sea, "You have the eyes of the Rozier family, but your magic... is warmer. Unlike in my time, when the blood of the family was cold."

"Who are you?"

"I am Evanna Rozier. What, didn't Julien mention my name?"

"Ancestor Evanna!" Rozier blurted out, his icy gray eyes flashing with disbelief.

She instinctively placed her hand on the family crest on her chest—an ancient gesture Rozier used when addressing her elders, though she had never imagined she would do so in this situation.

Then, Elizabeth Rozier turned to look at Julien. Julien shrugged and smiled, "I didn't expect that either, until just now."

"I am Elizabeth Rozier," Rozier's voice trembled slightly, "I...I've seen your name in the family genealogy, you lived a thousand years ago..."

"Did he die? Or did he disappear? Or was he expelled from the family?" Evanna smiled. "It doesn't matter. Actually, I don't care about the people from the family before. It's just a pity that I haven't seen Pyxis again."

Her voice lowered, and a faint blue light rippled around her, as if it were an externalization of her emotions.

Julien noticed that when Evanna said the name "Pyxis," her tone changed—not a simple remembrance, but a deeper, almost painful tenderness.

"By the way, Black's child, did you hear anything about her while you were searching for the Star Fragment?" Evanna turned to Julien, a hint of expectation flashing in her icy gray eyes.

"Actually, I don't know much either. I only know that she was the first guardian of the Star Gate," Julien said. "She established Hogwarts' defense system, and ultimately she chose to seal rather than open it..."

"Sigh." Evanna sighed softly, "You don't know that when she laughs, her left eye curves before her right. You don't know that she's actually afraid of thunder, yet she insists on observing the stars every stormy day..."

The ghost's voice echoed through the empty underwater city, carrying a strange resonance.

Elizabeth and Liria quietly took Julien's hands; their fingertips were cold, but Julien could feel them trembling slightly—it was a sign of some kind of emotion being touched.

Evanna remained silent for a long time. A deep blue light swirled around her, sometimes bright, sometimes dim, like the rhythm of a heartbeat.

"When she decided to take the Starshards to Hogwarts, I asked her, 'If I insist on staying, will you remember me?'"

She said, "I will seal the memories in the Mirror of Erised, and every time I look in the mirror, I will see you standing behind me, just like now."

Evanna chuckled softly, a laugh tinged with the weight of a thousand years: "But I know that the Mirror of Eris reflects desire, not memory. I may never have appeared in the mirror, because... because what she truly desires is not me."

"What is it?" Julien asked.

"I don't know why she ultimately didn't open the stargate, as you said, but I do know that what she longed for most was the end of the world, or rather, another world. If she didn't succeed, she might have regretted it..."

"And here I am," Evanna's voice suddenly lowered, becoming almost a whisper, "I have waited here for a thousand years... waiting for another possibility."

A kind of moisture, unseen for a thousand years, gathered at the corners of her translucent eyes—the tears of a ghost, a crystallization of magic and memory.

“Ancestor,” Elizabeth stepped forward, “isn’t our presence here together the other possibility you’ve been waiting for?”

Evanna's form gradually stabilized. She looked at Rozier, at the young witch who shared the same eyes as her.

"You're a lot like me when I was young," Evanna said softly, "not in appearance, but in... resolve. The kind of resolve that once you've decided on a direction, there's no turning back."

She then looked at Julien: "And you, you have her curiosity. But it may also be a curiosity that ultimately leads to regret."

"I will not live with regrets," Julien shook his head, looked at Rozier, looked at Liria, and then said firmly, "because I will not be alone. My companions will always be by my side."

Evanna watched this scene, looking at the three young lives in the sunken city. A genuine smile finally appeared on her face, which had remained unchanged for a thousand years—not bitter, not self-deprecating, but a kind of relieved, almost comforting expression.

"I believe in you. Now, reinforce the seal," Evanna's figure began to rise slowly, merging with the city's dome. "But remember, children—the seal is not the end, it is waiting. Waiting for you to be ready, not to open it, but to understand."

"Understand what?"

"Understand why the stargate exists." Evanna's voice faded into the distance, as if disappearing into the depths of the sea. "Understand why we are, why..."

The final words became the whispers of the sea, the pulsation of the deep blue light, and the eternal breath of this city.

Julien took out the star fragment and walked towards the floating black stone slab. The crescent-shaped groove shimmered in the eerie blue light, like eyes that had waited for a thousand years.

The moment the fragment embedded itself, the entire city trembled violently. Light spread from the stone slabs in all directions, repairing the dim runes in the city and awakening the dormant magic.

The light gradually faded. The underwater city returned to its eternal, slow breathing. But on this newly restored black stone slab, a new line of text emerged—not ancient runes, but the handwriting of two young witches:

"To our future selves: If the stargate must open, let's open it together. If the gate must close, let's close it together. —PB&ER"

Julien, Rozier, and Liria stood before the text in silence for a long time. Then, Julien reached out and shook hands with the two girls.

In this city that has been submerged for a thousand years, three young lives made their own promises based on the unfulfilled vows of two ancestors.

If the stargate must be opened, then open it together, no matter where the stargate leads them.