The Wind and the Wings of Hogwarts

She always seems to face everything with the most positive and optimistic attitude.

Scott felt he should learn from her in this respect.

The following day, Tuesday, Scott had a peaceful day.

After dinner that day, he arrived at Professor Flitwick's office as promised.

But Professor Flitwick wasn't alone in the office.

Dumbledore and Professor Binns are also here.

They were still studying the seamless brass box that Scott had taken from the troll specimen.

"Scott, you've arrived."

Professor Flitwick only looked up at the wall clock when Scott entered.

"Oh, it's already this late."

Scott stood at the office door, but his eyes were already drawn to the box.

At this moment, the box seemed to have shed a layer of grime, revealing its true form.

Its gleaming gold exterior under the lights told Scott that it wasn't the brass box he had imagined, but a genuine gold treasure chest.

“How could that be?” Scott muttered.

He had specifically researched so many materials to improve his Transfiguration skills, so he wasn't so incapable of not being able to distinguish the difference between brass and gold.

“You were fooled by it too, Scott,” Dumbledore said with a chuckle. “We’ve only just uncovered its disguise, and I must say, its ability to disguise itself is astonishing. It took us quite a while to discover it.”

Professor Flitwick smiled. "That's right. From a magical perspective, the difference in value between gold and brass isn't that great. But on the other hand, gold is definitely more precious than brass, which means that what's hidden in the box is even more valuable than we originally thought."

Scott walked over to the golden chest and carefully examined the inscriptions on it.

"Professor, what kind of script is this?" he asked. "Has the content been translated?"

“This is a script unique to fairies,” Professor Binns, who had been silent all along, suddenly spoke up. “It’s a very ancient version. Even the fairies themselves no longer use it. Of course, those greedy ghosts of today probably wouldn’t recognize this ancient fairy script either.”

Scott asked in surprise, "So... this box was forged by fairies?"

Professor Binns nodded. "That's right, and this box is over a thousand years old."

Scott reached out and touched the box, simultaneously probing inside with his magical senses.

In an instant, his eyes widened. "Huh?"

The inability to perceive the box when he came into contact with it a couple of days ago has disappeared. Although it is still a bit slow, his senses are indeed probing into the interior of the golden treasure chest little by little.

At this moment, all three professors noticed his unusual behavior.

“What’s wrong, Scott?” Professor Flitwick asked.

“Magic perception.” Scott didn’t look up. “My magic perception can already probe inside the box.”

Upon hearing this, the three professors immediately took it seriously.

“I see?” Dumbledore said to Scott. “Although I can sense some things, I’m not as good as you.”

As he spoke, he imitated Scott and placed his hand on the golden treasure chest.

But he gave up quickly.

He told Scott, “So-called perception is actually an illusory ability. But you are different. Your perception ability can be manipulated at will, like magic. You are the only one who can use perception to this extent.”

At this moment, Scott's magical perception was still struggling to break through the layers of "barriers" inside the golden treasure chest.

Although his senses kept penetrating deep into the golden chest, he didn't find any useful clues.

Inside the golden treasure chest were still layers upon layers of golden treasure chests, like an endless nesting doll.

He told three professors what he had sensed.

“This shouldn’t be…” Professor Flitwick muttered to himself, “Could this box contain only gold or some other kind of wealth?”

Dumbledore shook his head at Professor Flitwick, denying his guess, and then said to Scott, "Go deeper, Scott, perhaps because you haven't broken through to the core area inside the box yet."

Scott responded, his magical perception slowly and steadily breaking through the "barriers" layer by layer.

Chapter 363 The Song of the Fairies

Scott closed his eyes and focused all his attention on his magical perception, slowly advancing through the layers of "levels" inside the golden treasure chest.

The office was very quiet, and no one made a sound to disturb him.

He didn't know how much time had passed when he suddenly realized that his magical perception had encountered an exceptionally strong barrier, and he could no longer penetrate it.

Just then, a message silently entered his mind.

He slowly opened his mouth and translated this somewhat ambiguous message into words.

"In the misty morning, mermaid tears; on the full moon night, werewolf blood; at noon under the blazing sun, fairy songs resound in the golden chapter."

He slowly opened his eyes and looked at the three professors waiting beside him.

“Just now, I received a message in my head.” He pointed to his head.

“It seems this is how to open the box.” Professor Binns frowned. “We need to ask the fairies for help.”

Dumbledore and Professor Flitwick both nodded.

They all seemed to understand what Scott had said, but Scott himself didn't fully understand, so he looked puzzled.

Professor Binns glanced at Scott and began to explain in his usual emotionless tone, "Collect the mermaid's tears on a misty morning, obtain the werewolf's blood on a full moon night, and finally, have the fairies chant the words on the box in the midday sun."

“Does this sound like some kind of magical ritual?” Scott asked.

“That’s right,” Professor Flitwick explained to him. “The Fairy Song is a kind of magic unique to fairies, and it is also an ancient magical ritual passed down by fairies.”

Scott then asked, "What's the use of mermaid tears and werewolf blood?"

Professor Flitwick shook his head. "The misty dawn and the full moon night are when the magic of Mermaid's Tears and Werewolf's Blood is most active. They should be necessary to open the box, but we don't know how to use them yet."

Dumbledore smiled and said, "Fairy Song is a legendary, special magic that even I have never witnessed. I think we will naturally find out how to use Mermaid Tears and Werewolf Blood in due time."

At this moment, Professor Binns frowned.

He said, "Mermaid tears and werewolf blood are not too difficult for us to obtain. But the Fairy Song... I'm not sure if we can persuade those fairies, or what price we'll have to pay."

"Oh!" Professor Flitwick pointed to the golden chest. "If the goblins saw this chest, they would surely be greedy!"

Professor Binns nodded. "According to the goblins' tradition, if they discover that this box was made by goblins, they will demand that we return it to them."

Scott understood what Professor Binns meant.

Fairies are the most radical magical creatures in the magical world. They believe that everything they create belongs to them, and a wizard can temporarily hold onto an item for the duration of his/her life by paying a sum of gold.

Wizards believed that once payment was made, the object would belong to them and their descendants or the bequeather of the estate forever.

This is an unsolvable conflict of values.

Despite the fact that Gringotts Bank is now under the control of the goblins, the goblins and wizards coexist peacefully and without conflict.

In fact, most fairies currently harbor prejudice and malice towards wizards.

Throughout the history of the magical world, fairy rebellions have always been described as "bloody and thrilling."

The earliest stories of fairy rebellion can be traced back to the Middle Ages.

At that time, Godric Gryffindor, one of the four great masters of Hogwarts, was commissioning the Goblin King to forge a sword for him.

That sword would later become the "Gryffindor Sword." Because it was hand-forged by fairies, the sword could repel dust and absorb substances that strengthened it.

Perhaps moved by the sword, King Legnak of the fairies fell in love with it.

It went back on its word and tried to take the sword back from Gryffindor.

Then it claimed that Gryffindor had stolen the sword from it and ordered its subjects to retrieve it.

However, those fairies were no match for Gryffindor, the "Master of Duels".

Gryffin defeated the goblins and sent them back to tell King Legnac the goblins—

If Legnac were to do such a thing again, he would kill him and all his subjects with his sword.

Legnac did not try to take the sword again.

But the legend of Gryffindor stealing the sword began to circulate among the goblin community, and it remained so for a thousand years.

This story is deeply ingrained in the minds of all fairies, and even in modern times, fairies still firmly believe in it.

Thinking about all this, Scott realized that getting help from fairies was no easy task.

Although the goblins couldn't possibly take the golden chests from Hogwarts, dealing with them was hardly a pleasant experience.

At this point, Dumbledore spoke up in a relaxed tone, "Then let's find a goblin to help us, and we can pay it a fee."

He was very optimistic and didn't seem to think that asking the fairies for help would be too much trouble.

Professor Binns replied, "Whether you can satisfy the goblins' greed is another matter, but as I've said before, even the modern goblins can't decipher the ancient goblin script on the box."

“It’s alright,” Dumbledore said with a smile. “We still have you, Professor Binns. You can teach the goblins the correct way to read these words.”

Professor Binns looked down at the golden chest and said in his usual calm voice, "You know, Albus, the writing on this isn't a coherent sentence."

He floated lightly around the golden treasure chest once.

"This box is like an extremely complex Rubik's Cube that has been scrambled, and I haven't been able to successfully put all the words back together yet."

Dumbledore smiled slightly. "Of course, we can take our time. There's nothing to rush. Our main objective is to figure out why this box was hidden at Hogwarts."

At that moment, Scott suddenly remembered that he hadn't told Ravenclaw about the golden chest.

He hadn't thought the box was that important before, and only planned to mention it casually when he went to Helena's study over the weekend.

After that, his mind was completely occupied by the prophecy, and he forgot to mention the box.

However, it's highly unlikely that Ravenclaw knew about this.

Although the Room of Requirement is Ravenclaw's alchemical masterpiece, and although the real Ravenclaw left a trace of his consciousness in the portrait before his death, Ravenclaw's consciousness remained dormant until Lady Grey entered the study.

"Let me do it!"

Professor Flitwick suddenly spoke, and because he spoke so loudly, his voice sounded somewhat shrill.

“Felius?” Dumbledore looked at him questioningly.