The Wind and the Wings of Hogwarts

The playful Ramiro had suggested inviting some friends and pretty girls to Scott's party, but Scott declined his suggestion.

He felt that spending a warm birthday with his family was more to his liking.

The final result wasn't bad, of course; everyone was happy.

In addition, Roger and Milton, who were aware of the situation, both chose to send their best wishes to Scott by phone, and even Eddie, who was in the United States, called.

Late at night, Scott returned to his bedroom.

He found his Ravenclaw tutor inside a small picture frame on the desk, clearly waiting for him.

Meanwhile, his owl Shay was perched next to the picture frame, tilting his head to look at the beautiful and elegant witch in the painting.

Good evening, mentor.

Scott walked to the desk and sat down.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know you were here."

“It’s alright.” Ravenclaw in the painting smiled and nodded gently. “Happy birthday, my apprentice.”

"Thank you," Scott said with a smile.

"That's settled then. I'll leave you a gift."

The Ravenclaw in the painting disappeared after speaking, but a very clear diagram of rune circuits and additional explanations were left in the blank frame.

This is a set of rune circuits deciphered from Nicolas Flamel's book, "The Core of the Knowledge Bank (Alchemy Section) Construction Records".

Its function is to build long-distance connections between the parent and child entities, such as the [Knowledge Bank] and the [Book of Prometheus].

Scott's eyes lit up.

Just as he was about to take a closer look, Shay on the table leaned closer, its neck turning flexibly, its big eyes staring at the magic rune circuit in the picture frame, looking left and right.

"Alright, Shay."

Scott looked helplessly at the enormous owl.

You're blocking my way.

Shay hasn't delivered mail in a long time; he's been staying home eating and sleeping, and his body is almost spherical.

“You’re too fat,” Scott couldn’t help but say. “I think you need some flight training.”

He stood up, reached out and lifted Shay's somewhat heavy body, and walked to the windowsill.

"Or I could suggest to Mom that you go hunt for yourself."

Shay seemed quite angry upon hearing this; it pecked at Scott's hand several times while making unhappy noises.

"Fine, whatever you want."

Scott placed it on the windowsill.

"But I have to say, if this continues, you'll soon be unable to fly."

Shay's feathers all bristled.

It flapped its wings and took flight with some difficulty, then called out twice to Scott.

"Okay, I understand. You can still fly."

Scott gave a perfunctory reply.

Shay immediately flew out of the window, his obese figure disappearing into the night.

Scott smiled and sat back down at his desk.

He took out his notebook and pen, and with great excitement began to copy the set of rune circuits left behind by his Ravenclaw mentor.

He was already constantly thinking about how to utilize this extremely precious set of magic runes.

It's not just Eddie's idea of ​​establishing a new type of wizard media company that can be realized.

More importantly, Scott can rely on this set of magical rune circuits, along with the previously implemented listening and monitoring systems, to achieve long-distance real-time monitoring, and even create an omnipresent monitoring network.

In this way, he can take the initiative in many things.

Thinking about this, Scott became even more motivated, eager to immediately digest and master this set of magic runes and put them into practice.

Unfortunately, Emilia knocked on his bedroom door.

"Please come in."

"You should go to sleep, darling."

Emilia pushed open the door and gently reminded her.

"Okay, Mom."

Scott readily agreed and immediately tidied up the things on his desk.

Because he knew that although Emilia was being gentle in her reminders, his mother would change her attitude if he didn't listen.

"Good night, Mom."

"Good night."

Emilia kept watching until Scott was lying in bed before turning off the light for him, then closing the door and leaving.

But Scott, lying in bed, was not sleepy.

This is probably because he was too excited.

Once Emilia's footsteps had faded into the distance, he got out of bed again.

Scott didn't turn on the light. He quietly took the sailor's astrolabe he had bought from the thrift store from the drawer and lay back down on the bed.

Although it was inconvenient for him to learn that set of runes, he could use his magical perception to continue analyzing this magical item that he had always cared about.

To this day, he has successfully analyzed a significant portion of the blurry little mirror and the brass scales that smell of medicine, but he has made no progress on the Sailor's astrolabe.

The magical fluctuations contained in the horoscope were far too weak, and the nature of the magic that Scott could sense was also very vague.

Although it's possible the astrological chart was completely damaged and uninterpretable, Scott remained concerned about it, his intuition reminding him not to give up.

So he persisted, even spending more time on the Sailor's horoscope.

Lying on the bed, Scott closed his eyes, holding the Sailor's Astrolabe to his chest with his right hand. His consciousness sank with his magical perception, carefully discerning the minute fluctuations of magical energy.

He felt a breeze blowing into the bedroom from outside the window, brushing against his cheek.

He didn't know how much time had passed, but before he knew it, his consciousness continued to sink, as if he was about to fall asleep.

Scott did not resist, thinking, "I'll continue tomorrow," and then obediently went to sleep.

"Crash..."

In his dazed state, he felt the wind blowing on his face seemed to have become stronger, and he could even smell the sea in the wind.

Immediately afterwards, he seemed to hear the sound of waves.

For some reason, despite it being a hot summer day, he felt his body getting colder and colder.

How is this going……

Scott was a bit slow on the uptake and couldn't quite grasp it at first.

He knew he was sleeping, but at the same time he had to think about his situation and react accordingly.

However, he was unable to think normally, his body could not react, and even his eyelids became extremely heavy, making it impossible for him to lift them.

This nightmare experience was so terrible that, as the cold intensified, Scott felt like his whole body was turning into a block of ice.

Scott's consciousness began to struggle, but to no avail.

He seemed to have become a vegetable, his soul trapped in his body, and was placed in a frozen wasteland.

Just then, he heard the sound of birds flapping their wings.

Has Shay come back?

Scott felt a surge of joy.

This emotion remains very dull.

But he hoped that Shay would be smart enough to notice his strange behavior and wake him up.

"Coo coo...coo..."

Shay didn't seem to disappoint him; Scott heard it calling.

"Cuckoo..."

He felt a light peck on his right hand, which was holding the Sailor's Astronomical Spectrum.

But unfortunately, that didn't seem to be enough, not enough to wake Scott up.

"Gu..."

Shay's voice became anxious.

Scott felt a burning pain in his right hand fingers, and then he suddenly opened his eyes.

What he saw was a vast and distant starry sky.

Scott's sluggish thoughts slowly began to stir, and he blinked as some sensation returned to his body.

So he slowly sat up.

Before me stretched an endless black sea.

Under the night sky, layers of glaciers stretch into the distance.

The cold wind howled, and he sat alone on a dilapidated wooden sailboat, shivering.

Scott slowly stood up and looked down.

He was still wearing his summer short-sleeved pajamas.

Looking around, he staggered toward the dark cabin.

The small cabin was empty and filled with the smell of rotting wood.

Scott wandered aimlessly, seemingly unaware of what he was doing.

Suddenly, he felt another sharp pain in his finger.