A Professor of Magic at Hogwarts

Chapter 299: Unexpected Developments

The award ceremony went smoothly, and there were no "worrisome incidents" as Felix perceived. He felt Professor Trellawney had once again misjudged things. Nonetheless, he couldn't enter the Hall of Prophecies at the Department of Mysteries to check if any new prophecies had been made.

Located on the ninth level of the Ministry of Magic, the Department of Mysteries was a division dedicated to researching specific enigmas. Most of its operations were highly classified, even concealed from the employees of other ministry departments.

Wizards working in the Department of Mysteries were known as Unspeakables. They were forbidden from disclosing any details about their work or location. Felix speculated that they must have entered into strict secrecy agreementsable to conduct perilous research while bound by more stringent limitations.

However, rumors circulated that within the Department of Mysteries, there existed a chamber where a prophecy orb appeared for every prophecy in the world. Since the establishment of the Ministry of Magic, thousands upon thousands of prophecies might have been recorded, awaiting verification by future generations.

...

Felix toyed with a gold medal in his hand, adorned with a purple ribbon to commemorate his "outstanding achievements and efforts." Bellby had told him that the first-class medals featured green ribbons, representing Slytherin House.

"Wasn't Merlin from the early Middle Ages? How does he connect to Slytherin?" Felix curiously inquired.

"Heh, some pure-blood families, when tracing their ancestry, claim their forebears followed Merlin..."

"Is that true or just a fabrication?"

"Who knows! Though some families do have ancient lineages."

Returning to his office, Felix had the upcoming two-week Easter break to properly organize his recent work. But first, he had to deal with the half-roomful of Easter eggs; he suddenly felt a pang of discomfort. These chocolate treats could easily last him a decade.

He selected some to give to Sirius, and incidentally handed over the results of his recent analysis of the hotspot map.

It was a rather crude map, only palm-sized and irregularly shaped, like a child's hasty doodle. It simply marked the castle, the Forbidden Forest, the Black Lake, and Hagrid's hut.

Sirius took it with a slightly disdainful expression. It was covered in countless tiny dots, dizzying to look at. However, some names were marked in golden letters, the people Sirius cared aboutHarry Potter, Remus Lupin, Severus Snape, Albus Dumbledore...

"Actually, Wormtail is on here too, just invisible."

Sirius tore open the wrapping of an Easter chocolate egg with his teeth, taking a hearty bite of the chocolate. "Thanks, otherwise I'd have gone mad." He kept staring at the palm-sized paper.

Kreacher whispered, "The spendthrift young master goes to the Muggle community every day to play chess, coming back smelling foul..."

"Shut up, Kreacher." Sirius snapped in embarrassment.

Days went by, and Felix took some time to reorganize the magical objects he had researched this year, compiling the research materials in the Pensieve.

Mundungus had gone on a planned trip to the Far East, bringing back a plethora of magical artifacts. Felix had just one requestancient ones.

As he expanded his horizons, he increasingly felt like a younger Flitwick, having mastered too much magical knowledge, yet only a small fraction of it was applicable.

"This is exactly why I wanted to write the Book of Magic Runes."

Felix thought to himself. With each flicker of his thoughts, magical symbols appeared in the airgold, red, blue, green... like colorful rivers flowing through his office.

"Next upthe Nameless Tome. Ha, I remember Ron Weasley calling it the Phantom Book. It really is somewhat reminiscent."

In front of Felix Harp, a semi-illusory book appeared. The first few pages were tangible, while the rest were ethereal. It was similar to the Nameless Tome Harry held, but the two were incomparable.

Turning to a new page, magical symbols leapt from the colorful rivers, diving into the pages. Various forms of runes materialized on the page

A cascade of falling water, lightning slicing the sky, a bridge connecting two places, ever-expanding green mist...

Felix watched all this contentedly. If he included all these runes, it meant he would fully comprehend the magical symbolism behind them, even if the process might take a considerable time.

Suddenly, a question arose in his mind: How did ancient magic come into being?

Were wizards born with it? That seemed unlikely. He leaned more towards the idea that ancient wizards stumbled upon this inspiration while studying magical creatures and plants.

The distinction lay in the fact that, for magical creatures, their talents were instinctive, not learned, much like how humans naturally ran and jumped. They inherently released lightning, changed shape, but unavoidably, their bodies restricted them.

Yet, ancient wizards managed to liberate these inherent talents through ancient magic. They inadvertently broke free from these confines. Their challenge shifted to controlling these talents so they wouldn't go awry. From another perspective, they made this magic more potent.

Felix had a realization and took out a stack of parchment. These were Slytherin's manuscripts. He had sealed them away due to Salazar Slytherin's brutal methods and the incompatibility with his own path in runic magic. However, now it seemed these paths converged.

Unknowingly, he could now decipher others' paths with his own.

Skipping the gruesome, brutal methods, Felix gazed at the records of magical creatures, especially the three pieces of parchment he had previously chosen as suitable for himself. They documented Slytherin's early research into blood magic: how to extract magical creatures' innate talents and transform them into spells usable by wizards.

This seemed to coincide with Felix's speculationSalazar Slytherin once contemplated retracing the steps of ancient wizards, drawing inspiration from the broader magical world.

Regrettably, he eventually abandoned this path.

Felix couldn't help but wonder, if Salazar Slytherin gave up on this, what was he pursuing? His mind drifted to Helena's revelationSalazar Slytherin delved deeper into forbidden domains, his appearance growing more terrifying. This hinted that Slytherin had experimented on himself, integrating magical creature bloodlines, and likely more than one.

Did Salazar Slytherin ultimately lose his humanity?

Rowena Ravenclaw's words echoed in his mind, "We ourselves can be considered magical creatures."

What truly constituted a magical creature? Or to phrase it differently, what changes would occur when a wizard was called a magical creature? Felix couldn't know for sure, but he believed that if Professor Ravenclaw had solemnly told him, it must be a significant threshold.

And quite possibly, Salazar Slytherin had crossed that threshold by transfusing bloodlines. But what about the other three founders? What had they relied upon?

So far, he only had some understanding of Rowena Ravenclaw. From the manuscripts she left behind, she was indeed a polymathproficient in alchemy, transfiguration, spells, and potions. Yet her deepest research lay in memory magic.

As Felix delved deeper into the realm of memory magic, a question arose within him: Was the Rowena Ravenclaw he saw in the Room of Requirement merely a memory?

Or was it her true self?

What did memory nodes eventually evolve into, and did it relate to the soul?

He had too many questions, but no one to answer them. He could only continue walking his path alone.

On the final day of the Easter break, Felix gathered himself, preparing to face the last segment of the academic year. However, Dumbledore suddenly appeared with a grave expression, bearing bad news.

"Nearly Headless Nick is leaving. He wishes to see you one last time."

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