Chapter 147: Practical Lesson 3
Laughter filled the air as all the students of Ravenclaw gathered together.
Without hesitation, one of the girls spoke, "The wisdom that surpasses others is humanity's greatest treasure."
Swiftly, they arranged themselves in the correct sequence. Amidst a radiant glow, the magical inscription on the wall vanished, replaced by a dazzling and elegant line of English words that shimred, "Wit beyond asure is man's greatest treasure."
"Yes! That's it! This wall clearly represents Ravenclaw. And the other three walls..." Percy exclaid with excitent.
"Represent the other three houses!"
Everyone had already reached this conclusion.
Guided by this line of thought, they proceeded to decipher the magical inscriptions on the other three walls one by one:
"Courage and daring are my best friends." These were the words of Godric Gryffindor.
"Hard work, honesty, fairness, loyalty." This was how people described Hufflepuff.
"Surrounded by honor, and companions of strength." These were the words of a famous Slytherin wizard from history.
On all four walls, the four lines of text glead brightly, causing everyone to unconsciously hold their breath. And as expected, the writing on the walls disappeared.
In the darkness, the light emitted by their wands served as their only source of illumination. These subdued lights illuminated their excited faces.
An ordinary-looking door appeared as if it had always been there, and the students entered.
Inside, there was only a table with a manuscript on it, titled: "An Important Manuscript."
Jeffery opened the first page, where it read, "Collect four keys to exit this place." Other than that, the page was blank.
He scoffed, "Do we really need keys? Can't we just open the door and leave..." He abruptly stopped, seemingly choked by his own words. A layer of cold sweat quickly ford on his face. "C-can we still find the door to the classroom?"
In a state of mutual bewildernt, Percy addressed the air, "Professor Harp... are you there, Professor Harp?"
No response ca.
"It seems we must indeed collect the keys," Wood scratched his head, "but where are they?"
"Of course, they are in the four cardinal directions: east, south, west, and north. Do you rember the magical inscriptions we saw in the graveyard?" Percy explained to Penelope.
"You an... that story!"
"Exactly." Percy said loudly, a hint of excitent making his nose slightly red. "The inscriptions on the gravestones held information about this place, but there was also sothing else, naly one of the keys."
So, the students of Gryffindor and Ravenclaw took out the parchnt they had previously recorded and rearranged them as needed.
"I have 3-1 here, who has 3-2?"
"I'm right ahead of you. I have 1-7."
They stuck the parchnts to the wall in order and examined them carefully. "It's clear that there are ten in each set, and there are four sets in total."
"The first set introduces the background of the operation in 1842, much like what Professor Harp ntioned..."
"That's not important," Jeffery interjected.
Rolling his eyes, Percy continued, "The second set describes the topography of this place—basic directions, north, south, east, west—plus the central safehouse."
"The third and fourth sets talk about the troubles the Ministry employees faced at the ti. Oh, even though the Concealnt Charms failed, other protective asures were still active. Look here, one of the defenses involved a horde of dark creatures, the sa little skeletons we encountered..."
"That's truly wicked! Why didn't the Ministry capture him?"
"Well, I suppose it might be because they hadn't yet established the Ministry at that point..."
...
"What are the other defensive asures?"
"Boggarts, magical stone statues, and Devil's Snare," Percy pointed at the text above.
"Very well~ It seems we'll be dealing with similar creatures," Wood said, "The boggarts correspond to the little skeletons. It appears that there are substitutes elsewhere as well. But my question is, what's a Boggart?"
"A rather rare magical creature. It resembles a black cloak, gliding close to the ground, hunting during the night. So say they're distant relatives of Dentors. Besides their visual similarities, both are susceptible to Patronus spells," Percy explained.
"Is there anyone here who can cast a Patronus?"
No one raised their hand.
Percy revealed a partial truth, "That's not part of the exam, Wood. Nobody would go to such lengths, spending a lot of ti learning a powerful spell that's not often used."
Penelope recalled, "Headmaster Flitwick ntioned that spell in class. I tried a few tis, only got a bit of mist. With so guidance..."
"But Boggarts are quite dangerous creatures. The professors wouldn't have us deal with them. I guess we'll end up at the nest of crows?" Percy speculated, fairly certain.
"Enough chatter, where do we start?" Jeffery said.
"The graveyard. We're most familiar with that place, which will save us ti."
"Sounds good."
They exited the safehouse, Percy held his wand level in his palm and softly whispered to it, "Show
the way."
The wand spun around, indicating his right side, which was north.
"So, we need to go in the opposite direction, which will take us back to the graveyard," Percy inford everyone.
They returned to the graveyard once again, Slytherin and Hufflepuff students pointing and discussing the dark stone gravestones, marveling at them.
"Look, the skeletal bones have turned into stones," Wood reminded.
Gryffindor and Ravenclaw students discovered that the scattered little skeletons had all transford into piles of broken stones.
"Quite clever Transfiguration. We never realized it then," a wizard picked up a stone, examining it closely.
A Ravenclaw girl said wistfully, "I used to hold this, thinking it was cute."
Percy gave her a strange look, whispering to Penelope, "Is she always like this?"
"She's a fanatic for magical artifacts," Penelope explained.
"Alright, let's split up and search. It shouldn't be too difficult..."
After seven or eight minutes, a Hufflepuff student found a golden key inside a piece of stone.
"Where did you find it?"
Groves pointed to a shattered piece of stone nearby. Wood's eyes widened, "That's the little skeleton that attacked . I kept it intentionally! Who would've thought the key was hidden in its skull."
"Excellent, we've completed a quarter of the task. Let's keep up the montum..." Percy was about to encourage them when Slytherin Prefect Jeffery approached holding a box.
"What's this?"
"A treasure map," Jeffery said.
"How did this co about?" Percy's mind was a bit scrambled. The students gathered around, examining the map inside the box.
The markings on it were simple. In the southeast direction from the safehouse was a drawing of a bottle, with magical inscriptions symbolizing wealth nearby.
Just then, a thunderous voice echoed from the sky —
"It seems you're having a jolly ti... but I regret to inform you that this unexpected journey is temporarily concluding. Gather your belongings and follow the guide to leave this place."
An arrow appeared at their feet.
After a dozen minutes, they found themselves back in the Ancient Runes classroom, wearing expressions of confusion and daze.
"Is it ending like this? We haven't collected all the keys yet."
At the front of the classroom, Felix Harp smiled at them, "Class will be over in a few minutes. To ensure you're not late, I must interrupt this adventure. But don't worry—"
"For the rest of this school year, you'll be engaged there. In addition to the task of collecting the four keys, you'll encounter plenty of quirky and delightfully simple tasks..."
"Like that treasure map?"
"Exactly, Jeffery," Felix said, "The assignnt for this class is to decipher the runes you've encountered and complete a paper no less than a foot in length."
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