The Wind and the Wings of Hogwarts

The girl in the painting is currently in an oil painting depicting an indoor scene.

She sat in a chair with her back to the camera, her fingers holding a thin silver spoon as she stirred something in a porcelain cup.

Good morning, Scott.

When responding to Scott, her voice was somewhat perfunctory, and she didn't even turn around.

Scott smiled; this was the consequence of being too familiar with something.

Scott did not always stay in the room with the Ravenclaw portrait while he was studying here.

It should be said that, apart from consulting with his tutor, he spent most of his time studying in this study.

Perhaps because they had spent too much time together in the same room, Helena, the girl in the painting, had lost her curiosity about him after becoming completely familiar with him, and thus her original enthusiastic attitude had also disappeared.

“I think… I need you to open the door for me, Helena,” Scott said helplessly.

"Yes, I need to open the door for you."

Helena tossed aside the silver spoon in her hand and slowly stood up.

She turned and walked away, complaining, "I shouldn't have agreed to take on this job in the first place. God knows, I just wanted to make things difficult for Helena when she came here."

She walked past several paintings and finally reached the largest landscape painting.

The picture frame was moved aside, revealing a wooden door.

"Alright, go inside now." Helena in the painting waved her hand.

"Thank you."

Scott pushed open the door and went in, bowing respectfully to the Ravenclaw figure in the painting.

Good morning, mentor.

“You’ve arrived.” Ravenclaw in the painting looks up. “Let’s begin.”

Scott walked to his seat, took out his notebook, and began to ask his tutor questions about the questions he had recorded during the week's studies.

No matter what his questions were related to, Ravenclaw could always answer them without hesitation and help him further expand his knowledge.

All Scott had to do was ask questions and absorb the knowledge attentively; of course, he would need time to digest that knowledge afterwards.

Fortunately, after this period of training with Ravenclaw, Scott has become very quick to absorb and digest knowledge.

As Ravenclaw said, the mind also needs constant exercise; only a mind that is frequently used becomes intelligent.

Around noon, Scott finished asking all the questions he had accumulated and was given an hour's break.

He consciously left the room where the Ravenclaw portrait was located and ate a sandwich in the study outside.

"Remember to keep it clean!" the girl Helena in the painting loudly reminds him.

She strongly disapproved of Scott's practice of eating in the study.

“Hey, I never dirtied this study!” Scott felt wronged.

He suspected that Helena was jealous of his ability to eat.

“Of course, I’m just reminding you,” Helena said irritably.

She was still sitting in the chair depicted in the interior painting, stirring her porcelain cup with a silver spoon.

Scott ignored her and focused on eating his sandwich.

"Hey!" Helena in the painting spoke again, "Why are you eating such simple food? It must taste terrible."

"Hmm." Scott swallowed the food in his mouth and replied perfunctorily, "It's really not very good."

Sure enough, Helena was jealous that he could eat!

"I knew it!"

Helena said smugly after hearing Scott's answer.

Scott nodded again, albeit perfunctorily.

After finishing lunch, Scott casually picked up a book to read in the study.

Because the spells from a thousand years ago are different from the modern spell system, most of the books in this study that record spells are no longer of much value for study.

Scott was more interested in books that described the lives or adventures of wizards from a thousand years ago.

He even saw many anecdotes about the ancestors of pure-blooded families that have been passed down to this day.

For example, the author of one book wrote about a duel he had with a wizard named Black.

The book's description of the Black family ancestor is extremely harsh, even referring to him as "that damned, cunning old dog."

Of course, Scott also found some interesting knowledge, or less reliable ideas, in these books.

For example, the book he is currently reading has an author who believes that wizards are actually magical creatures in human form.

He observed that the magic of magical creatures was all instinctive, but wizards had forgotten this instinct.

He even believed that the existence of spells and wands suppressed the wizard's instincts.

In an attempt to awaken this instinct within himself, he lived alone in the wild, naked and eating raw meat for several years, but of course, he failed.

This book is his "experimental" log.

“Oh, that book was written by a madman,” Helena said to Scott again. “It’s just a joke, it’s worthless!”

“I just read it as a joke book,” Scott said. “It’s my time to relax.”

The author of this book must really be a madman. He even infiltrated various groups of magical creatures, trying to disguise himself as one of them.

Unfortunately, he was usually kicked out quickly.

When the break ended, Scott put the "joke book" back on the shelf, sat down at Helena's desk, and began to process and digest the knowledge he had received that week, including that morning.

He ate dinner hastily as usual and stayed until just before curfew before leaving.

At this time, Hogwarts Castle had become quiet, and no one was wandering outside the dormitories.

The Weasley twins, now busy tinkering with inventions and working hard to make money, have basically stopped doing any nighttime outings.

Scott skillfully used several secret passages to save time going downstairs and returned to the Ravenclaw Tower as quickly as possible.

How can herbal knowledge be used to ward off evil spirits?

Today's eagle-shaped bronze door knocker didn't ask any of those quirky, brain teasers-like questions; instead, it tested our knowledge in a normal way.

“Wear a wreath made of blackberries,” Scott replied quickly.

"Correct answer."

The door opened, and Scott strode in.

The common room was quiet; all the lights were off, and even the fire in the fireplace seemed to be dying down.

Although the common room appeared to be empty, Scott walked purposefully to the sofa in front of the fireplace with his back to the door.

Good evening, Luna.

He woke up the girl who was curled up on the sofa and dozing off.

“Oh, good evening, Scott.” Luna rubbed her eyes. “Eddie said you hadn’t come back, and I’ve been waiting for you.”

"Is something wrong?"

Scott sat down on the sofa next to him, took out his wand, and threw a fire spell into the fireplace.

The flames in the fireplace shot up high with a "bang".

"You didn't watch the Quidditch match today, and Slytherin beat Hufflepuff."

Luna slid from the sofa onto the carpet, squatted by the fireplace, and placed a silver kettle beside the fire to heat it.

"The disappearance of Thestrals."

She was speaking incoherently.

"Hagrid told me in the afternoon that Professor Dumbledore had found some clues in the forest."

Scott asked curiously, "Have they found out where the Thestrals went?"

Luna shook her head. "They found the place where the Thestrals disappeared, in the forest outside the Forbidden Forest. Hagrid said there are still traces of blood and spells there."

"To lure the blood of the Thestrals?" Scott muttered.

Luna said, "Professor Dumbledore concluded that the Thestrals were led there by blood and then controlled by a powerful Confusion Charm and flown away. Of course, Hagrid told me that as well."

“The Ministry of Magic will probably get involved in this,” Scott guessed. “After all, Thestrals are dangerous magical creatures, and the person who stole them is likely a dark wizard who specializes in smuggling magical animals.”

“You’re right.” Luna picked up the blackened silver kettle. “Hagrid said that Professor Dumbledore has already notified the Ministry of Magic.”

She stood up and walked to the table beside her, carefully poured water from the kettle into two glasses, and handed one to Scott.

"Thank you."

Scott took the cup and saw that it contained hot cocoa.

“I really hope the Ministry of Magic can get them back, but I don’t think there’s much hope. My dad says the Ministry of Magic has never accomplished anything remarkable.”

Luna, holding the cup, squatted down on the sofa again, speaking in a wavering voice.

“I wrote to my dad, and he has decided to publish this story in the next issue of ‘Sing the Divergent’ magazine, calling on all readers to help find the whereabouts of the Thestrals.”

“That’s a good thing, it might come in handy,” Scott said with a smile.

Luna said with some concern, "Hagrid is heartbroken. He just lost another good friend and its family last school year, and now he has lost Uo and its pack."

Scott felt a little embarrassed by her words, so he buried his head and took a sip of hot cocoa.

Hagrid's other good friend should be Aragog, the eight-eyed spider that originally lived in the Forbidden Forest.

This old eight-eyed spider, along with its mate Mossag and countless offspring, were all brutally killed by Scott last school year.

Not a single one was left.

This was a secret known only to a select few at Hogwarts.

Fortunately, Luna was focused on the fire in the fireplace and wasn't looking at Scott.

Otherwise, Scott didn't know if he could hide his emotions from her.

After a while, Scott suggested, "Perhaps they could have Professor Trelawney divine the whereabouts of the Thestrals. I cannot use arithmetic divination to calculate it given the limited information available."