The Wind and the Wings of Hogwarts

Scott pushed open the door and went inside, the brass bell hanging on the door jingling.

The store's decor is very similar to their own store in Hastings, England, and the merchandise looks almost identical as well.

An old gramophone is playing a vinyl record from decades ago, and Michael, dressed smartly, is sitting behind a worn counter drinking coffee.

He looked quite energetic and didn't seem like someone who had stayed up all night and was sleep-deprived.

"You've arrived."

He looked up at Scott.

"Dad, will there be any business here?"

Scott looked around and had a feeling that Michael was just running the store for fun.

Michael laughed.

“Come here, Scott.”

He waved to Scott.

Chapter 408 The Tower Extending Towards the Earth's Core

Scott made his way through the cramped shelving to the counter.

He looked around and then moved a high stool to sit down.

Michael put down his coffee, took a bunch of keys out of his pocket, and used a brass key to open a drawer hidden behind the counter.

He took a carved wooden box inlaid with several gemstones from the drawer and placed it on the counter.

Scott took a closer look and found that the wooden box was very old, and even the gems inlaid on it were somewhat dusty.

"What is this?" he asked curiously.

"The point is not the box."

Michael then picked out an exceptionally small gold key from the bunch and unlocked the box.

"The important thing is what's inside the box."

He opened the box lid, then turned the box around to show Scott what was inside.

Scott then noticed the few tattered parchment sheets in the box.

“Didn’t you say that the parchment I gave you for Christmas the year before last was very useful?” Michael said. “I’ve found some more since then.”

Scott paused for a moment, then laughed. "Thank you, Dad. I love it."

He suddenly understood why Michael wanted to continue running the antique shop.

Michael neither acknowledged nor denied his gratitude, saying, "Let's see if these things actually work. I know that the last time we found something related to wizards, it was because of luck. We might not be so lucky every time."

Scott nodded and carefully took out the few fragile, old parchment sheets from the box and examined them briefly.

“Perhaps we are really lucky.” He took out a piece of animal skin hidden in the parchment and placed it on top. “I am certain that this parchment came from a wizard.”

The contents of this animal hide are all written in ancient magical script; it couldn't be clearer.

Michael immediately laughed.

“It seems my efforts weren’t in vain,” he said happily. “By the way, this animal skin also came from England. Although it was a bit more troublesome, I didn’t cut off the old channels.”

Scott could certainly imagine that Michael must have gone to great lengths to acquire these special "antiques".

But he didn't say anything more about thanking him.

There's no need for such formality between father and son.

He simply shook the animal hide in his hand and said with a smile, "I'll make good use of it."

Michael, of course, understood what his son meant.

"It's good if it can be used." He didn't show any emotion on his face, but his tone softened a lot. "When I first came to Spain, I couldn't find any connections. Now, with your uncle's help, I've made connections with a lot of people, and I'll be able to find more and more things in the future."

Scott neither refused nor said that there were very few things useful to wizards that could be found in the Muggle world.

“Then I’ll leave it to you, Dad,” he said with a smile.

Michael nodded reservedly. "That's all the help I can give you. Also, if you need any other hard-to-obtain materials as before, just tell me. Of course, your uncle will help too."

"I see."

Scott responded and looked down at the animal hide in his hand.

He decided to take advantage of the few days he had free time to translate the contents of the animal hide.

Ancient runes are magical writing, but they are not limited to one use. Although the content on this animal hide is written in ancient runes, it may simply have been used as plain language.

After saying goodbye to Michael, Scott went straight home. After greeting Amelia, he went to his study, took out two working books, "The Rune Dictionary" and "Advanced Rune Translation," from his shapeshifting lizard skin bag, and began his translation work.

Although the antique animal hides that Michael acquired were written in ancient runes, Scott didn't initially take them too seriously.

In the magical world, such ancient documents written in runes are not uncommon, but not all ancient documents are valuable.

Often, the ancient documents that wizards find may just be a diary written in runes by an ancient wizard. After translation, it turns out that the whole thing is nonsense, without recording any magical secrets or rune circuits. In other words, such "documents" may only have some value in terms of archaeology.

In short, truly valuable ancient documents are actually few and far between.

The parchment containing the alchemical recipe for the "Ring of Fire" that Scott had previously obtained was truly rare; such valuable documents seldom came to light, let alone fell into the hands of Muggles.

Because of this previous attempt, Scott didn't have high hopes this time either.

But as the translation work progressed, his attitude quickly became more serious.

While the contents of this animal hide did not record magical secrets or spell circuits, they did record an adventure of an ancient wizard in ancient ruins, which greatly intrigued Scott.

[A silent place, a tower extending towards the earth's core.]

According to the inscription on the animal hide, this appears to be an extremely dangerous adventure.

[Seven people set off, one returned.]

This is the final outcome of this adventure.

[One died in a raging fire, one in deep water, one from a treetop, one from the base of a tower, one from a falling rock, and one from a sinkhole.]

[Six people died from the curse, and the one who escaped by chance could never escape the shadow of death for the rest of his life.]

Ancient runes are completely different from modern language, and many words have multiple meanings. Scott could only determine the meaning of most of the text at the moment.

He might need some help if he wants to fully understand the truth behind what's recorded on this animal hide.

More importantly, he needed to determine whether this was a true experience of an ancient wizard or a fictional novel.

Scott took a small blank picture frame out of the lizard skin bag and placed it upright on the table.

He took out his wand and tapped the edge of the picture frame three times.

"Dear mentor, your apprentice needs your help."

An elegant and noble figure slowly emerges on the blank canvas within the picture frame.

"Is this your home in the Muggle world?"

Ravenclaw, appearing in the small picture frame, first looked around at his surroundings.

"Is this what Muggle life is like a thousand years from now?"

Her eyes were full of curiosity.

Scott didn't bother her.

After a long while, Ravenclaw finally turned his gaze to Scott.

"What happened, my apprentice? I told you to call your master for help."

“My father, a Muggle antique dealer, found an ancient document from a wizard in the Muggle world, and I discovered some problems with it.”

Scott picked up the animal skin and showed it to the Ravenclaw in the painting.

Ravenclaw glanced at it, his expression changing slightly.

"A tower extending towards the Earth's core?"

Unlike Scott, who needed to use reference books to translate word by word, she understood the general content with just a glance.

“I’ve heard this legend,” she said softly. “Or rather, all the wizards of my time have heard this legend.”

Scott clearly hadn't considered this. "So, this animal hide has been preserved for over a thousand years? Is this a real experience of an ancient wizard, or just a legend?"

“I have no way of knowing right now.” Ravenclaw looked at the hide again. “But the description on this hide is more detailed than any legend I’ve ever heard.”

“Based on the description above, we can even determine the location of the tower extending towards the center of the earth, but…” Scott hesitated.

"If this legend you've also heard is true, then it must be an extremely dangerous place."

Ravenclaw nodded. "An adventure without a definite value is meaningless."

Scott thought the same way; he wouldn't risk describing such a terrifying place without knowing what he might gain.

“I’ve already noted down what’s on this,” Ravenclaw added. “I’ll discuss this with your professors and see if they’re interested in finding more clues in other literature.”

Scott nodded in agreement.

"Well then, enjoy your vacation, my apprentice."

Ravenclaw smiled and said something before disappearing from the frame.

Scott looked at the animal hide in his hand again.

[The island in the far north, the place where the shadow of the standing stone points on the longest day of the year.]

The Arctic Islands likely refer to the Shetland Islands, the northernmost archipelago in Scotland.

The standing stone, which should refer to the Stenes Standing Stone on the Isle of Mainland.

Mainland is quite famous, with many relics of early civilizations, such as the Neolithic village of Scarlabray, the Meshowway burial site, one of Scotland's important archaeological sites, and the Stenes Standing Stone.

But Scott had no desire to find out more at this point.

He carefully put away the animal hide in his hand and left the study.

For the next few days, Scott spent his vacation in a relaxed state of mind.

My way of relaxing is playing video games at home.