Chapter 496: rlin
— — — — — —
To be honest, if Dumbledore hadn’t brought up the Tears of Isis, Tom would’ve completely forgotten the thing even existed.
He’d handed it over to Nicolas Flal quite a while ago, and after that Nicolas never ntioned it again. That alone said plenty about how much progress he’d made. So Dumbledore springing this on him today ca as a genuine surprise.
Oddly enough, Dumbledore didn’t explain where the information ca from. Instead, he asked a question. "Tom, how much do you know about rlin?"
rlin?
Tom blinked. He didn’t quite see where this was going, but he answered honestly with what he knew.
"rlin. The most famous wizard of all ti and the greatest wizard in British history. Founder of the Order of rlin. Slytherin’s proudest student. Also the wizard with the highest pull rate on Chocolate Frog cards—"
Dumbledore’s mouth twitched. "You can leave that last part out. I’ve suggested more than once that the manufacturers raise my own card’s distribution rate, but alas, they seem convinced that scarcity helps sales."
"Oh... right. Then there’s the rest." Tom thought for a mont. "The father of modern magic. He simplified countless spells. The Disarming Charm in its practical form was his work. An absurdly talented wizard."
On that point, Tom felt it keenly. His own Magical Sight alone had helped him more tis than he could count, and that was just one of rlin’s many talents. No one really knew how strong rlin had been at his peak.
"Professor," Tom added, curiosity getting the better of him, "did rlin really study at Hogwarts?"
Now that his interest was fully piqued, he pressed on.
"I read ’Hogwarts: A History,’ but it barely ntions him at all. No year of admission, no graduation date. Just that he was in Slytherin, and that he unusually supported and sympathized with Muggles."
"Logically speaking, for soone that famous, even if he didn’t get a full biography, there should at least be a dedicated Chapter, right?"
If rlin had left descendants, with his status he would’ve certainly been recorded among the Twelve Volus of History of the Wizarding World. Unfortunately, when Tom had looked into it before, the sources had been frustratingly thin, and he’d had to drop the matter.
"Well..." Dumbledore paused, choosing his words carefully. "That’s a complicated question. Many people believe rlin was purely a legendary figure, or that he never attended Hogwarts at all, and that the school simply attached his na to itself for prestige."
"But the truth is... rlin really was a Hogwarts student. Just not in the conventional sense." Dumbledore turned toward the portraits lining the wall. "Everard, perhaps you should explain. After all, you were his headmaster for three years."
Everard?
Tom followed Dumbledore’s gaze and quickly picked out the portrait he ant. A thin old man with an enormous hooked nose stared back at him, looking perpetually half-asleep.
Compared to Phineas’s constant chatter, Tom barely rembered this headmaster ever speaking. Still, he knew Everard had an excellent historical reputation, often praised as one of Hogwarts’ most beloved and respected headmasters, alongside Dilys Derwent.
"rlin..." Everard murmured as his eyes slowly opened, his expression drifting into mory. After a long while, he finally spoke. "I’m only a portrait. Centuries have passed, and much has faded. But of him... I rember quite a bit."
"I beca headmaster in 1563—"
"You’re a hundred years off," Phineas interrupted. "Everard, 1563 was Undercliffe’s term."
"Quiet, you flea," Everard snapped back.
Tom casually flicked a Silencing Charm at Phineas and focused on Everard.
"rlin appeared at Hogwarts without warning," Everard continued. "Term had already begun. An eleven- or twelve-year-old child simply walked in."
"None of the professors managed to stop him. He ca straight to ."
"He told
his na was rlin. Said he’d been cursed by Morgan le Fay and turned into a child, and that he needed a safe place to recover. I didn’t believe him at first. But his talent was undeniable, so I allowed him to enroll."
"Only later did I realize that everything he’d said was true."
"It wasn’t just his magical ability. It was his rate of growth. In barely a month, he went from a scrawny eleven-year-old to a boy of fourteen or fifteen. Three months after that, he’d matured into a young man more than capable of graduating."
"But he claid his injuries still weren’t fully healed, and said he wouldn’t be leaving Hogwarts. From then on, he stayed in that form and remained at the school for three full years."
Tom listened intently. He even summoned Andros, Ravenclaw, and several other portraits, pulling them in to share the gossip.
"According to rlin himself," Everard went on, "he didn’t belong to that era at all. He’d made a mistake while fleeing sothing and ended up in Britain by accident. He chose Hogwarts because its magical aura was the strongest, which would help him recover faster."
"That was when the legends of King Arthur began to spread. First among wizards, then among Muggles."
"He even stirred up events in the Muggle kingdoms to make the legend take root more deeply. Everything rlin did was for one purpose: to go ho. To return to the era that truly belonged to him."
"In our casual conversations, rlin ntioned many figures from mythology. He never spoke of Isis, but he did ntion Horus."
Everard snorted softly.
"He said he once stole the Eye of Horus and was hunted across the world for it. In the end, he had no choice but to return the artifact to settle the matter. When he talked about it, the resentnt was practically dripping from his voice."
A faint, nostalgic smile appeared on Everard’s face. Clearly, those years spent with rlin were precious mories to him.
"I see..." Tom nodded quietly. He understood what Everard was getting at.
If Horus and rlin were real, then Isis naturally had to be real as well.
If Horus had been powerful enough to force rlin to cough up the goods and admit defeat, then his mother was hardly going to be any weaker. That alone made the Tears of Isis a priceless artifact.
At the sa ti, Everard also dropped another piece of information. The goblins had apparently known rlin for a long ti. Their relationship was... strange. As for the details, even Everard didn’t know what sort of entanglents lay beneath the surface.
"Thank you for sharing this," Tom said politely.
The old headmaster gave a small nod and closed his eyes again, drifting back to sleep.
"How’s Nicolas’s research coming along?" Dumbledore asked. He knew Tom had handed the stone over to Nicolas Flal.
Tom shook his head. "My teacher hasn’t paid
much attention lately. He’s got plenty on his plate, and the people who attacked him before still haven’t been caught."
"I’m planning to go ask him this weekend."
"There’s a placent exam this weekend," Dumbledore reminded him gently.
Tom froze. "What? The professors are taking our precious weekend away?"
"Well," Dumbledore said mildly, "Minerva went to Japan over the holidays and exchanged ideas with her pen pal there. Coincidentally, that pen pal is also a teacher. She felt that a bit of pressure early on would help students get into the right mindset faster."
Carrying that piece of bad news, Tom left the headmaster’s office with a heavy heart. Before long, the entire school knew. For countless students, it felt like the sky had fallen.
Just yesterday, even monts ago, they’d been congratulating themselves on the idea that the professors might have forgotten about the placent exam. That illusion shattered instantly.
"Professor McGonagall would never forget," Hermione said as she ate with Tom. "She cares too much about grades. Especially with other schools visiting soon, there’s no way she’d make that kind of mistake."
Astoria looked completely drained. "Hermione, what’s there to be happy about with exams, especially on a weekend?"
"Don’t you want two days of proper sleep?"
The girls chattered away. Tom, on the other hand, was distracted. In the study space, he was discussing today’s revelations with the others.
"That makes sense," Rowena Ravenclaw mused, pacing back and forth. "The legends of rlin were set in my active era, yet there’s no trace of him in my records. It’s very possible he triggered sothing similar to a Ti-Turner effect. Either a wizard from the future, or one from the distant past."
"That’s damn amazing," Andros said bluntly. That kind of straightforward admiration could only co from him.
"I was skeptical about the new wizard ranking after your system update, but now I guess there really is a Wizard King stronger than a Legend—and a more powerful God of Magic as the ultimate tier."
"Tom, if my legends in the Muggle world turned into Heracles, does that an there actually was a Heracles... or are they just legends about ?"
"After all, Horus and Isis are gods. And there’s that one Grindelwald found clues about, what was it called again..."
"Quetzalcoatl," Grindelwald supplied.
"Right." Andros clapped his hands, then sighed. "So many powerful wizards across history. Sha we didn’t live in the sa era as them."
"An era..." Tom rolled the word around in his mind. "How long do you think an era actually is?"
"Who knows?" Ravenclaw shrugged. "It’s a vague concept humans ca up with. By geological standards, an era is at least a hundred thousand years. More like millions."
"The ancient ruins I explored never lined up with any clear tiline either. Hard to say."
Tom opened his system panel.
[Achievent Points: 5319]
If this was sothing even the great minds of their age couldn’t answer, then it was ti to ask soone on an entirely different level. The higher the vantage point, the fewer people stood there, but what they saw dwarfed ordinary perspectives a hundredfold.
Maybe this ti, he’d even manage to summon rlin, or Morgan le Fay herself.
And when that happened, all these questions would finally have their answers.
.
.
.
Reviews
All reviews (0)