The days at Hogwarts

Loren was also addicted to the wildness of the mountains. During the years he spent in the welfare home, he had never been so free and unrestrained, without having to worry about any safety issues.

At dusk, Pete drove the goats down the mountain with a whip, and Bates led his sheep into the sheepfold with salt in his hand.

Pete arrived at the town at the foot of the mountain and used a whistle to gather the children from each family together and take their sheep back. Life in the mountains reveals poverty and primitiveness, but it also exudes comfort and nature.

Loren settled down here and gradually made friends with the townspeople. They always looked at him with a strange compassion, as if Loren was experiencing some tragedy. But when Bates appeared, they became afraid and dared not approach him out of respect.

He also asked Pete, and Pete told him that there were all kinds of rumors in the village, saying that Mr. Bates had killed someone, made a deal with the devil, and would bring bad luck, but there was nothing to believe.

Bates always went into the mountains alone every month when the moon was full, and returned the next morning pale-faced. He would not do any physical work for several days in a row and seemed to be getting weak.

When Loren asked, Bates always said that after checking the fruit trees in the mountains, he would take a few days off to relax his old bones, but he never took Loren into the mountains with him.

Chapter 3 The Strange Old Man and the Two Books

It's winter again, and Loren Morgan is already 10 years old.

Heavy snow covered the hillside, tree branches, and thatched roofs, making it all white.

Pete no longer herded sheep, and everyone had stored up food for the winter and grass for the sheep. The residents living at the foot of the mountain stayed at home, making some handicrafts and taking them to the city to exchange for money and buy some daily necessities.

When the sun came out, Mr. Bates would not let Loren go to the mountains, saying that it would damage his eyes. When Loren had nothing to do, he would catch some animals in the woods and look for some edible plants in winter, but more often he had to go to school.

Mr. Bates had prepared some old textbooks and a dictionary in advance, and Loran read them when he had nothing to do. He helped his teachers and people in the church copy some documents and letters, and soon mastered the contents. Mr. Bates said that he would be a man of great success.

The school was in a small town down the mountain. Every morning, Mr. Bates took Loren down on a sled, and at night he carried him back on his back. The days passed like this.

On Christmas Eve, a touring band arrived in town, and Loren made an appointment with Pete to go see their show together.

The trees on both sides of the road were hung with red ribbons and small colored lights, and there was festive music in the shops. The restaurants and bars were packed with people, and the warm yellow lights made people feel warm.

Pete and Loren wore oversized sweaters and sheepskin coats, and each wore a gray and white striped scarf.

Loren put his hands in his pockets and watched Pete devour the roasted sweet potatoes he bought on the street.

"This band is really weird. It's called The Three Norn Goddesses, but the musicians are all male." Loren thought for a moment and realized that there probably weren't 80 genders in Britain in the 23s.

"Why do you care about these things? Isn't it enough to have fun?" Pete didn't care at all.

"The performance will have to wait for a while. There's a small market over there. Do you want to go shopping?" Loren was very interested. He had saved some pocket money.

"You go and shop. I'd rather sit here inside than stand in the cold wind." Pete shook his head.

Loren went to the market and asked Pete to help him save a seat. The small market was actually a place where some small vendors set up stalls in the alley behind the performance hall, taking advantage of the rare bustling time in the town to sell some small things.

There were wool socks, gloves, Easter eggs, Russian nesting dolls, and other strange things. Loren even saw the Chinese Nine Rings. But he just walked around and looked around. He didn't want to buy anything. He was just curious.

When he reached the street corner, Loren saw a thin, white-haired old man in a neat suit, sitting there and drinking a cup of steaming coffee slowly.

In front of the old man was a blanket made of some unknown animal fur, on which were two large books. Passers-by and vendors seemed to be unable to see this man. Loren was curious, so he walked over.

"Hello, sir. Can I take a look at these two books?" Loren greeted.

Hearing the childish voice, the old man looked up, seeming a little surprised at the question from the child in front of him.

Loren looked into the old man's eyes in his sunken eye sockets. He could not describe the color of the eyes. He just felt that an ancient and mysterious meaning almost seeped out of his eyes.

"Of course, this is what I want to sell." The old man smiled freely.

Loren squatted down and reached out to flip through the two books. One was an English book called "A General Explanation of Pictographic Symbols". It was thicker than a dictionary and looked like it was copied by hand. The handwriting was very neat and the material was a bit like parchment.

The other book had no name. When Loren touched it, his mind suddenly went haywire. He flipped the title page and the moment his eyes touched it, he felt as if he was being sucked into the book. This feeling flashed and disappeared in an instant, as if it was just an illusion.

The title page said that it was written by a man named Abraham, but Loren couldn't understand the words behind it.

There are some illustrations in the back, the material feels like soft bark, very thin, there are not many pages, and they are connected together with copper rings.

The two books seem to contain some kind of mystical content.

"How much is it?" Loren planned to buy it for entertainment.

"Oh, are you really going to buy it?" The old man in front of me looked very happy.

"Of course, if the price is right." Loren was afraid that the other party would take the opportunity to raise the price.

"Excuse me, but I'd like to ask if you are engaged in some kind of copying work." The old man was very interested and seemed to care more about the person in front of him than about selling books.

Loren didn't quite understand what he meant, but he answered truthfully: "Yes, I will help the teacher and the people in the church to copy some documents and letters."

"Hahaha, okay! It's really funny." The old man laughed out loud.

When he first got the book, he was very happy. But when he translated the text on the back of the title page, it said, "Except for the high priest and the book copyists, anyone else who reads this book will be cursed."

Before sending out the Book of Abraham, he asked Loren if he was doing any kind of copying work, and the result was as he expected.

The old man looked at the child in front of him, as if he was seeing himself hundreds of years ago.

Seeing that Loren was a little scared, he added: "Sorry, I remembered something from a long time ago."

The old man didn't say anything else. Instead, he reached out, wrapped the two books in a blanket, and handed them to Loren.

"Then I'll charge you 13 pounds." The old man said casually.

Loren's heart moved. He only had 13 pounds on him.I don't know if it's a coincidence or another reason, this old man is weird.

He handed the money to the old man and took the book.

The old man collected the money, stood up, straightened his clothes, turned and walked away, "That's it, we will see each other again, Loren."

There is already magical fluctuation in this little guy, and the Book of Admission must know his name. They will meet again.

Loren nodded woodenly. On the way to the performance hall, he kept wondering where the old man had put the cup of coffee and the small stool. He really was like a charlatan.

He decided to just read the two books as stories and not look up any information if he didn't understand them.

TV dramas are like this, a mysterious person gives you a mysterious thing, the more you check, the more you fall into the trap designed by them.This kind of person is no better!

Entering the performance hall, the show had already begun. Loren looked around and found Pete in the front row on the right side of the stage.

Pete also saw him, stood up and waved, calling out: "Hey! Loren! Over here! This band is really interesting."

The two greeted each other, and Loren sat next to Pete and watched the show.

Almost all the musicians on the stage were long-haired male musicians. It was not the outrageous rock and hip-hop that Loren thought. There were songs of all styles, and it was a performance by a serious band.

The musicians on the stage led the atmosphere, and the audience clapped, screamed, and laughed along. It was a rare happy moment in the small town.

People around Loren said that most of the songs performed were unfamiliar, but the styles were very special.

“This band is amazing!”

“They will definitely be able to release their own album after the tour!”

"They will definitely be popular!"

A group of young people were shouting like this.

Loren's originally restless heart calmed down with the singing and dancing.

In this winter and Christmas, he began to miss Grandpa Bates' cheese, Sister Joyce's embrace, and the biscuits that Mr. Bumble gave him that day...

What did the cookies taste like? Loren felt that time passed too quickly and he couldn't even remember what Mr. Bumble looked like...

Chapter 4: Books and the Quest for Grandpa Bates' Secret

In the evening, Loren sat by the stove, reading the two books he had received during the day, while Grandpa Bates was packing his bags.

"A General Explanation of Hieroglyphic Symbols" is not a complicated introduction to symbols. Hieroglyphics in the book may refer to runes which are introduced in a large chapter in the middle.

The first half of the book was about some mystical alchemy, which seemed to Loren to be mostly groundless fantasy, such as the use of dragon blood, magical animal materials, and some plant names that Loren had never heard of in his life.

When refining, there is a distinction between a full moon and a crescent moon, and between a rainy day with thunder and a rainy day without thunder.

Is this British feudal superstition? Loren thought it was still interesting to look at it as a strange story.

However, the second half of the book is more interesting. It is the autobiography of a man who calls himself Nicolas Flamel.

He said that he was born in Paris in the 14th century, and in his early years he worked as a scribe, copying books, letters and wills for various nobles. Occasionally, he would get some alchemy content, and Nico took alchemy as a hobby.

His ordinary life takes a huge turn one day. A man in a black cloak comes to his dream and tells him that he will receive a magical book. He must study it hard and understand it thoroughly, then he can gain extraordinary and amazing powers.

This dream came true.

The book reads: I have an old and huge book in my hand that I exchanged for 2 Florin coins. It is not made of paper or sheepskin like other books, but of delicate and smooth young bark. The cover is tightly wrapped with brass, and it is engraved with words or strange symbols... It has 7 groups of 3 pages, including the first page. The seventh page of each group has no words, but on the seventh page of the first group, there is a picture of a magic wand swallowed by a giant snake.

Seeing this, Loren picked up another book and looked at it carefully.

This should be the "Book of Abraham". The content of the book does seem to be pressed into a seal with some kind of metal and then filled with ink. It is not any text that Loren has ever seen and is completely incomprehensible.

The book has 21 pages in total, and every seventh page is filled with strange pictures.

The first seven pages depict an ancient cane with two snakes of unknown species entwined around it, one of which is devouring the other.

This book must be quite old. The pages are yellowed and simple lines outline a colorless picture, which is not clear at all. But when Loren looked at the picture, a colorful and clear image appeared in his mind.

The cane was a pristine black, the two snakes had white spots, and he could even feel the matte texture of their scales.

Loren guessed that life was too boring, and coupled with the large amount of online film and television information from his previous life, he filled in the blanks on his own.

The second seven pages, which is page 14, shows a cross, but the person nailed to the cross is not Jesus, but a snake.

Loren looked at the picture and felt that the snake in this picture was probably not the same as the previous one. The snake on the cross seemed to have two small horns on its head.

The third seven pages, which is page 21, shows a picture of several clear springs gushing out in a desert, with many snakes emerging from the springs.

Loren's impression of this picture is more about the spring water. The scene of the spring water gushing out is in his mind, and he seems to be able to feel the sweetness and coolness of the spring water.

In addition, there were four small pictures on pages 4 and 5, but they were too small and Loren couldn’t imagine anything.

In his De pictographica, Nicolas Flamel commented that the little pictures were unimportant, that they seemed to be part of a narrative or some popular myth, and that they did not mention alchemy.

The rest of the autobiography becomes gibberish, with many spelling errors and ridiculous grammar.

Turning the page further, there are some travel notes. Nicolas Flamel has traveled to almost every place in the world and recorded the customs and habits of many places. Of course, there are also some garbled texts mixed in. Loren picked out and read them with great interest.

Grandpa Bates packed up his bag and looked at the sky through the small window.

Although it was snowing at this time, the clouds were very thin and a moon with a gap could be seen hanging low in the sky.

Grandpa Bates closed the small window and plugged it tightly with a wooden stick. "Loren, listen carefully. I'm going into the mountains tomorrow. You stay at home by yourself, as usual, understand?"

This happens every month, and Loren can't get any results from asking. "Okay, I know!"

Grandpa Bates may not know that he is no longer young, and the winters of the past two years have been particularly difficult. Especially in the few days after returning from the mountains, he was so weak that he seemed to have just recovered from a serious illness.

Loren sometimes felt that Bates was making a deal with the devil up there, as the folks down below said.

But after living together for a few years, there was nothing strange about Bates. Maybe he was a little eccentric, but after getting to know him, he was just a slightly stronger old man, just like an ordinary farmer.

In any case, he decided to secretly follow Grandpa Bates tomorrow to find out the truth.

The next morning, after breakfast.

Grandpa Bates took his packed bag and his stick and went up the mountain.

Loren was not in a hurry. Even though there was no thick snow on the mountain in winter, it was still difficult to walk.

He slowly fed the sheep and put enough hay and water for the sheep to eat for a few days into the sheepfold. He made a simple timer mechanism with a wooden rope and a glass bottle filled with water. The water in the glass bottle would keep dripping out. The temperature in the sheepfold would not freeze the glass bottle. When enough time had passed, the hay would fall from the beams. This was to prevent the sheep from eating up the food for a few days too quickly.

After doing all this, Loren put a few days' worth of dry food in his bag, including wholesome bread, cheese, smoked lamb, a small knife, a windproof lighter and a windproof tarpaulin.

After thinking about it, he put the fur blanket of the weird old bookseller in as well.

It was already after lunch when Loren locked the door. He followed the traces on the snow and the direction of the fallen weeds and flowers to chase Bates.

The trees seemed to be covered with a layer of white coats. Scattered snowflakes would occasionally fall on Loren. The wind from the road would cut Loren's exposed skin like a knife.

He tried his best to protect himself with a hat, gloves and scarf, but the wind still penetrated into his body and bones through the gaps between his clothes.

After walking for a while, Loren took out the tarpaulin and blanket and put them on his body, and then put another layer of tarpaulin on the outside to protect Loren's body like a cloak.

The effect is very good. The wind that is always blowing into the body is blocked, and the blanket feels warm, just like sitting next to the stove.

This must be polar bear fur, Loren thought.

In less than an hour, we followed obvious traces into the forest and came out from another corner. The footprints on the snow extended to a huge rock. One side of the rock was close to a small hill. The footprints were scattered around the rock and then disappeared.

Loren certainly didn't think Mr. Bates had turned into a stone spirit.

There are some wooden stakes and poles next to the stone that form a simple labor-saving lever. It can be seen that Grandpa Bates did not move the stone by brute force. There should be a cave behind the stone, and there should be a similar labor-saving device in the cave.

After circling around a few times, Loren cleared out a spot in another sheltered area and built a shelter with branches and tarpaulin, trying to hear any sound in the cave.

He did not feel the slightest bit of cold, even without a fire, because he was wrapped in a fur blanket, which was warmer than the fur of a polar bear.