The days at Hogwarts

A man in a gorgeous coat appeared outside the door. He was tall and slender, elegant and confident, with a delicate and well-defined face, eyebrows like black feathers, and deep eyes.

He was raising his hand to knock on the door again.

The girl smiled gently, "Gentleman, please excuse me for knocking on my door and interrupting my 18th birthday party?"

The man was surprised at first, then he smiled and said, "Happy birthday, beautiful lady. I knocked on your door to show you the scenery of your 18-year-old world. If possible, can you also give me a glass of water while I'm hunting."

There was laughter from the crowd at the party.

Countess Lee Kester also covered her mouth and laughed, and it took her a while before she stopped and invited the man to her birthday party.

The man was handsome and elegant, and the woman was beautiful and charming. They danced one song after another under the envious gaze of everyone. Their skirts fluttered and twirled with their dance moves, and the pearl ornaments on them sparkled.

Loren and Hermione sat in the corner holding hands. No one could see them and no one could touch them. They witnessed the ball, but not in this time and space.

After the ball, the girl persuaded the man to stay in the castle for a while.

During the day they went out riding and hunting, chasing the wind and the sun, playing in the fields, and at night they danced by candlelight.

Four days passed like this, and the two fell in love completely and couldn't extricate themselves. But the man said he couldn't stay no matter what, he had to leave, and the woman cried all night, but still couldn't keep him.

Five days later, in the morning, the man and woman said goodbye at the door.

Loren and Hermione still sat in the corner, watching the scene mechanically.

The man looked at the girl's red and swollen eyes, feeling heartbroken. He reached out and touched the girl's cheek, which was no longer as plump as when they first met. "Maybe one day I will come to find you. I hope you will still be beautiful by then."

Tears rolled down the girl's eyes. After they kissed passionately, the man left without looking back.

The gate closed and the castle fell into darkness again.

The man left, and the girl was in pain of missing him. The housekeeper who grew up with her couldn't bear to see the girl suffer, so she took her out for a trip. It was unknown how long the trip took, but it was still fruitless, as they could not find any news about the man.

Countess Lee Kester gradually became depressed in her thoughts. Her young body gradually became thinner and older in depression, and her face gradually turned pale.

The housekeeper sought medical advice and medicine everywhere, but to no avail.

On a stormy night, there was a deafening sound of thunder outside the window, and heavy rain was beating on the castle. The Countess tossed and turned all night, unable to sleep.

She had emaciated to the point of being just a skeleton, with wrinkled skin clinging to her skeleton. Everyone could see that she was about to die.

The housekeeper lit a candle in a room on the second floor. The candlelight cast her figure on the glass window, slender and furtive.

She called the youngest maid in the castle, asked her to clean the candlesticks, hid behind the maid, and killed her with a dagger, piercing her body.

The moment the blood splashed, the crystal blue light in Loren's eyes enveloped his entire eyeball, and all the scenes in front of him quickly shrank, shrank, and shrank into a dot.

He finally saw clearly that in front of him was a small and exquisite mirror that shone with blood-red magic light. It had an oval mirror surface on top and a handle at the bottom, with a ruby ​​inlaid on the tip of the handle.

The dance party, the girl, and the murder scene on a rainy night that I just saw were all reflections of this mirror.

No harm was done to either of them, so there should be no malicious intent.

But Loren was not happy about being brought into the illusion silently. He pointed his magic wand at the mirror and cast "【God of War】"

The invisible blade passed by but failed to cut the mirror, but countless cracks extended from a point in the center of the mirror, and the mirror was about to break.

Loren was about to try to break the illusion a few more times when the mirror image enveloped him again. When he opened his eyes again, he sat back in the corner of the castle.

He clenched his wand and muttered, "To deal with this kind of thing, you should use Fiendfyre to burn it."

The story in the castle continues. The housekeeper put the maid's blood into a goblet, let the Countess drink it, and wiped the Countess's body with the blood. The storm covered all traces.

In this way, Countess Lee Kester recovered from her illness and became young, beautiful and radiant again. But she also became addicted to the taste of blood, and every month after that, the housekeeper would kill a young girl for her, drink her blood and bathe in her blood.

The castle became bright again, with brilliant lights, and balls even grander than before were staged repeatedly. Countess Lee Kester hoped to recreate the scene of that night's ball and find the handsome gentleman again.

Bang bang bang!

The moment the knock on the castle door sounded again, the sound of a mirror shattering was heard, and all the scenes in front of the eyes shattered into countless lenses and disappeared.

Loren and Hermione reappeared in the forest, their feet stepping on a small dirt ridge covered with fallen leaves.

"Is it over?" Loren looked around. This time it was just an ordinary forest.

Hermione looked confused: "Weren't we just collecting firewood? Why do we seem to have stopped here?"

This was a bit strange, so Loren looked into Hermione's eyes and asked, "Don't you remember what happened just now?"

"What happened just now? What happened?" Hermione asked.

Loren froze in place.

Does Hermione have no memory of what happened just now, or is the Hermione just now part of the illusion?

He was more inclined to believe that he was the only one who entered the illusion, and Hermione just lost consciousness for a moment.

Hermione saw that Loren's expression was not right. She thought about it for a while, but couldn't find the reason. Then she asked, "What happened just now?"

Loren didn't intend to explain the illusion to Hermione so as not to worry her.

He smiled and said, "Didn't you just say that we had enough firewood? Why can't we stop?"

"I clearly told you to prepare more, but this is not enough!" Hermione slapped his hand away, thinking that he was just trying to be lazy, so she ignored him and continued to collect firewood.

Loren followed Hermione and began to sort out what had just happened in his mind.

From the moment they passed this small mound, they, or perhaps only he, stepped into an illusion.

But the illusion does not turn into a castle directly. Instead, it maps the hotel. The image of the hotel manager in a suit leads him into the room inside, and then into the castle through the room. Finally, he watches the mirror image in its entirety in the corner of the castle.

First of all, this style of mirroring, one thing within another, is the same as when he interpreted the Book of Abraham on the bright night of Mars, and both are deeply connected to the mirror.

Is there any connection between the two? Is this a systematic magic or alchemy? Loren plans to go back and look up the information about this mirror illusion.

Secondly, the content mirrors the story of a Countess named Lee Kester who uses blood to maintain her youth. She and her housekeeper must be wizards. This behavior may be the black magic of a pure-blood family, or it may be a vampire.

Chapter 132 Bonfire Night Talk

Loren followed Hermione, thinking about what had just happened, and as he walked he felt something moving in his coat pocket.

This outfit was outdoor wear provided by the hotel, and he clearly remembered that the pockets were empty.

Loren didn't think much about it and took out the things in his pocket.

Then he fell silent, looking at the broken mirror in front of him.

The cold and chilling touch came from my fingers. The palm-sized oval mirror was covered with white cracks, and it could no longer reflect things clearly. Below was a thin stick handle, and the tip of the handle was inlaid with a delicate red gem.

This feels like some kind of metal material, the entire mirror is carved into the shape of flowers, the handle is the flower branch, and the mirror surface is the petal. It is completely black, I don't know if it was originally this color, or it has faded over time.

After a little hesitation, Loren put the mirror back into his pocket and kept it.

It is more or less a magic item, and it also contains magic related to illusions. Whether you use the mirror itself or discover new magic through the mirror, it is very profitable.

Hermione picked up another branch and put it into her linen bag. She turned her head to look at Loren who was dazed and slacking off behind her and said unhappily, "It will be dark if you go any slower. Come and help!"

"Coming!" Loren came back to his senses and answered, quickening his pace to catch up.

The two men collected some firewood and when they thought the Grangers had almost finished setting up the tent, they returned along the marks they had made along the way.

As night fell, the forest fell into a blue-black darkness.

Loren, Hermione and the Grangers, the four of them were sitting around a bonfire, the fiery red light shining brightly in their eyes.

Because it was their first day in the forest, time was tight, so they heated up some canned food for dinner. After eating, facing the bright and warm fire, they all felt a little lazy.

Wendell leaned back with his hands behind his back and sighed comfortably, "I always think that canned beef in the camping is better than eating at home."

Monica squatted on a rock, too lazy to move, and gave him a knife-like look: "So you picked out all the canned beef and ate it on the first day, what will you do in the following days?"

Wendell didn't answer, but just laughed.

"Did you count how many cans are left?" Monica asked.

Wendell was still laughing. "That's enough. We also have canned fruit, canned luncheon meat, and several other kinds of canned food."

He moved closer to Monica, smiling even more happily, "How about we call the hotel tomorrow and ask them to send some fresh meat for barbecue? We can also replenish canned beef."

“Does this still count as camping?”

"We are camping, no need to be so strict."

The couple chatted about the plans for the next few days and discussed the activities to play, completely ignoring the two children.

Loren held a thin branch and kept stirring the burning fire. Five or six sparks flew up as the branch flipped and then went out in the air.

The small mirror was considered compensation for their mental damage. Although they didn't know how to use it or even if it could be used at all, Loren felt at ease accepting it.

Just leave it there for now, and let Flamel or Dumbledore take a look when we get back. If anything seems wrong, burn it.

Loren picked up another pile of incompletely burned firewood, and the flame swayed its tail, moving diagonally and burning even more fiercely.

Hermione squatted next to Loren, looking at the flames, then at Loren, with confusion on her face. She didn't understand what was so fun about making a fire, as Loren had already been playing with it for more than half an hour.

Hermione didn't stand up either. She just moved closer to Loren with her legs and whispered, "Is it fun? You seem to like playing with fire. You also liked to play with blue flames to keep warm when you were in school."

Loren nodded, "It's really fun."

He handed Hermione a small stick and taught her how to make the fire burn brighter and add more wood when necessary.

Hermione imitated him and poked the fire, turning up more sparks, but she didn't find it amusing.

She swung the stick in circles on the bright flames, causing the flames to sway along with the stick. "What's wrong with you? You haven't said much since you came back from collecting firewood. You seem to be worried about something?"

Loren glanced at the Grangers who were whispering, and seeing that they didn't notice him, he whispered, "There are some things I haven't figured out yet. I'll tell you later."

He had encountered the mirror illusion twice and really had no clue what to do.

Hermione hit Loren's stick with her stick in annoyance, "You can't tell me now, tell me later, how many times have you said this?"

She pouted in grievance, "So mysterious, it's always like this."

"At least I didn't lie to you or fool you. Isn't it better to think so?" Loren smiled and hit back with a wooden stick.

The two sticks collided in the fire, sending out some sparks.

Hermione rolled her eyes, used her enhanced strength to suppress Loren's stick, and said viciously: "Should I thank you?"

The girl looks like a little squirrel pretending to be fierce, so cute.

"You're welcome. It's my duty." Loren smiled. He couldn't pull out the small wooden stick in his hand, so he gently touched the girl's knee with his knee.

The two of us started to do more and more little actions. You touched me with your knee, and I bumped you with my shoulder. It was more fun than playing with fire.

In front of the parents, the two of them were relatively restrained at first, gently bumping and hitting each other back and forth.

But the fight escalated as time went on. Hermione lost her strength and bumped into Loren with her shoulder, causing him to stagger.

Both of them were squatting with their legs together, unable to keep their balance, and Loren fell to the side.

Hermione couldn't bear the force and fell on Loren due to inertia.

"Ouch!"

This sound was made when Loren fell down.

"Ouch!"

This sound was also made by Loren. Hermione fell on him and pressed him down. She also used some subconscious fighting instinct to hold down Loren's hand, preventing him from getting up.

Two screams woke up the Grangers who were immersed in their sweet world of two. What they saw was their usually well-behaved and lovely daughter pinning Loren to the ground and beating him until he screamed.

Both of them were stunned and stood there for a moment.

When Hermione came to her senses, she struggled to sit up with her little red face.

During this time, he pressed on Loren's ribs a few times while looking for a support point, and Loren uttered "ouch" twice again.

After Hermione stood up, Loren slowly sat up.

In fact, it didn't hurt at all. He only cried out twice because he was considering that the Grangers were nearby.

He thought of a way to fight tyranny faster than Apparition - to use Hermione's parents to control Hermione.

"You two actually fought?!"

Wendel asked in surprise. He only knew that Hermione had changed a little in the past year, but the quiet and well-behaved Hermione turned into a bad girl who fought. This change was too big and too fast. He needed to digest and understand it.

Monica remembered the book Hermione had borrowed from their study and responded, "Do you really want to learn Krav Maga Analysis?"

Faced with her parents' questions, Hermione's face turned red with embarrassment and felt very hot. She didn't know if it was caused by the fire.

Loren coughed in a serious manner, "It's like this, Hermione received a magical item as a gift, which enhanced her physical fitness and fighting ability."

Wendell and Monica turned to look at Hermione, who met their gazes and nodded shyly.