Chapter 243: Nicolas Flamel Arrives at Hogwarts
The Prior Incantato charm is a standard spell used by the Ministry of Magic to examine suspects' wands.
It allows the user to see what magic a wand under investigation has been used for. Of course, when the Prior Incantato charm queries a wand, it reviews the spells from most recent to oldest in reverse chronological order. Therefore, the common method for dealing with Prior Incantato is to use enough magic before the investigation to mask previously used spells.
Prior Incantato also has limits. It cannot indefinitely query a wand. As long as enough magic is used before reaching Prior Incantato's limits, one can escape the charm's investigation.
Last night, Snape seemed to have said nothing, yet also seemed to have said everything.
The next day, when Sean handed his thesis to Snape, everything was as usual, as if last night's incident had never happened. Sean knew his Head of House was protecting him, and he kept this in his heart.
Snape checked the second-phase thesis very strictly, making Sean return to the state he was in when writing his first thesis. Anxiously waiting for Snape's inspection results every day.
During the week Sean was struggling with his thesis, three people came to the wasteland where Sean had dealt with Silver Fang. They looked at the blackened wasteland, stepped into it, and sniffed around, searching everywhere for possible clues.
Fenrir walked on the wasteland, sniffing everywhere. Finally, he came near a somewhat sunken crater. He crouched down, extended his palm with black sharp nails, groped around in the crater, and finally found a tooth blackened by flames.
Fenrir lowered his head to smell the tooth in his hand. His already serious face became even more grim. He slowly stood up, then raised his head and let out a roar resembling a wolf's howl, causing his two subordinates to quickly gather around him.
"King, have you found anything?"
Fenrir handed over the tooth in his hand, his eyes burning with rage: "This is Iron Claw's tooth. They are indeed dead, killed by someone, and their bodies were completely incinerated by flames!"
"King, was it those Aurors?"
His eyes flashing with anger and ferocity narrowed slightly as Fenrir slowly shook his head: "Not those Aurors. This method of immediately burning bodies and the scene after killing, only dark wizards are accustomed to doing this."
"So it was those guys from Knockturn Alley?"
"I think this person is very likely hiding in Hogwarts!"
Friday, Hogwarts Quidditch season finals.
Gryffindor versus Slytherin.
The Quidditch match between these two houses was full of tension from the start.
Mutual provocations were already light behaviour. During the official match, both teams even used legally permissible fouls to severely target the opposing house's Quidditch team, making Sean frown. Blaise, on the other hand, was no longer concerned about fouls and watched more enthusiastically than anyone, especially when Slytherin players seriously injured Gryffindor players.
When watching the game, Sean liked to focus on the Seekers. He always felt that compared to Quidditch itself, he preferred watching Seekers show off various flying techniques.
Sean watched Harry and Malfoy as they chased the Golden Snitch one after another. Just as they swept past the Ravenclaw stands, Sean suddenly noticed that on the sparsely populated Ravenclaw stands, a girl wearing a silver-green coat was sitting there. The colour scheme of her coat made other people in the Ravenclaw stands stay far away. With such distinctive behaviour, who else could it be but Luna?
Because she thought I cheered for Ravenclaw before, so she's cheering for Slytherin this time?
Sean looked at Luna, and Luna also noticed Sean. The two made eye contact and nodded at each other without much interaction and continued watching the match.
This match didn't last very long.
Because his broom had been replaced with a Firebolt, Harry was extremely fast this time, full of energy, and easily defeated Malfoy to catch the Golden Snitch, ending the match.
"It's Malfoy again! Malfoy again! If he can't catch the Snitch, at least drag down the Saviour. He can't even manage to drag him down!"
"Alright, matches have wins and losses. Malfoy probably didn't want to lose either...
Though he is indeed somewhat useless."
The group complained as they followed the Slytherin students back to the common room.
At this moment, outside the Quidditch pitch, an expressionless girl with empty eyes pushed a wheelchair past the area. In the wheelchair sat an old man who appeared gaunt and emaciated. He looked up at the Quidditch pitch, his face showing a nostalgic expression.
"I remember playing Quidditch too back then. That was a long time ago. So nostalgic, those times."
The girl heard the old man's words but gave no response. She simply pushed the old man past the Quidditch pitch on her own and entered Hogwarts.
Strangely, along the way, Hogwarts students seemed not to see this old man and girl at all. They even knew to walk around them to avoid collisions, yet they paid no attention to how odd it was for Hogwarts to have an old man in a wheelchair.
With the girl's help, the old man in the wheelchair went directly to the headmaster's office. Looking at the office door, Nicolas Flamel in the wheelchair said directly: "Fizzing Whizzbees."
The door opened, and the girl pushed Nicolas Flamel forward into the headmaster's office.
"Nicolas, I'm delighted that after so many years, you can come to Hogwarts again."
Nicolas Flamel smiled and shook hands with Dumbledore: "Dumbledore, it's been a long time. You've aged so much too. You're almost catching up to me."
"Compared to you, I should still be slightly younger, shouldn't I?"
Looking at Dumbledore, who winked, Nicolas Flamel smiled: "Dumbledore, when can I meet Master Antonius?"
"You'll have to wait a bit for that. Master Antonius only appears between seven and nine o'clock on Saturday and Sunday evenings. Before then, he's not at Hogwarts. However, his apprentice is here. Perhaps you could meet his apprentice first?"
"His apprentice..." Nicolas Flamel nodded: "I know him. A very talented child. Master Antonius mentioned him many times in his letters. It would be nice to meet him first. Though there's no need to be so hasty. Later is fine too. I'd like to talk to you about Master Antonius first."