The days of hanging out at Hogwarts

"Now that you have come out intact, let's get down to business!" the fairy lock cylinder shouted in a high-pitched voice.

Professor Babling seemed not to have heard the goblin's yelling. She gently rubbed their hair: "If you want to leave here, I can send you out now."

Loren's heart was moved. Judging from Professor Babling's strange behavior just now, he thought that the professor had some plot against them. But now it seems that this is not the case.

"Babuling!" Lock Cylinder stretched out his finger and pointed at her angrily, "This is different from what we agreed!"

"I'm just escorting them out of the pyramid. It won't take much time. I will try my best to help them explore the ruins later." Professor Babling curled her lips impatiently.

Loren and Hermione were hesitant. They looked into each other's eyes and reached an agreement between them.

"No need, Professor." Loren shook his head, "The previous teleportation was just an accident. Let's leave together after completing this exploration."

Babuling touched their hair again, apologetically in her eyes.

Fairy Lock Cylinder hummed twice, very satisfied with their understanding.

At this moment, Bill's voice suddenly came from the corner of the tomb: "Come here quickly, I have discovered something!"

Everyone heard his voice and gathered around to check.

Countless ancient clay pots of the same style are piled up in the corner of the wall. They are slightly bulging in the middle and gradually reduce in diameter downwards, similar in shape to ordinary vases. Due to the long time, the surface is slightly dull and khaki, and the firing process is simple and rough. The lid of the clay pot is carved into four styles, a baboon head, a jackal head, a human head and a falcon head.

Hermione smelled a fishy smell of old earth from these clay pots. In addition, there was a faint smell of spices and herbs, which was exactly the same as the smell of the Sphinx mummy.

The eagerness in the eyes of the goblin lock cylinder was undisguised: "That's it. The people at the Alchemy Research Center were stopped by these pottery pots. The old wizards read the information found in the ancient books. These pots contained the mummy's lungs, stomach, liver and Intestines, find the four organs and put them back into the sarcophagus to open the passage to the first tomb chamber."

Professor Babling curled her lips: "This is why they are willing to let you Gringotts come in to explore first, oh no, let's explore the way."

Hermione was puzzled: "What's so difficult about this? Can't you just open the lid and take a look?"

"These pots are subject to a strict curse." Bill held up his wand and looked at the pots carefully under the light of the fluorescent spell, explaining, "If you touch the wrong pot, the person's true name will appear in the pot. on, and weathered into dust together with the clay pots.”

As Gringotts' Curse Breaker, he was exposed to this pottery curse more than once.

Loren looked at these pots. There was a layer of golden light mixed with black air on the surface of all the pots. There was no clue from the magic level: "Is there any way to avoid the curse? Break the pots directly, or use floating Curse selection?"

"No, the clay pots are very sensitive. Any spell can directly destroy them. If the clay pot containing the mummy's organs is broken, it may trigger other curses." Bill looked at Professor Babling aside, "Professor, you What is the solution?"

Professor Babuling thought for a moment, then used her wand to outline a detection rune in the air. The rune turned into a luminous streamer, circled around the piled pots, and finally returned to her. It turned into tiny rays of light on her fingertips.

Professor Babuling shook her head: "No, we can't detect it."

"Think of a solution quickly! I didn't invite you here to fail!" The fairy lock cylinder scratched its head and head anxiously. There was a golden mountain behind the door, but the door was blocked by these cursed clay pots.

Hermione looked around and said weakly: "I, I have an idea."

Everyone turned their attention to her, and Loren noticed that Professor Babbling didn't seem surprised.

"What's your idea? Tell me quickly!" the goblin urged excitedly.

Hermione pointed to a clay pot that seemed different to her: "You can tell it by smell. I smell that several of the clay pots have the same scent of spices and medicinal herbs as mummies."

The goblin was stunned for a moment, then happily came forward and sniffed, making a sharp inhaling sound from his nose. The goblin race has much larger noses than humans. As a group of craftsmen, they are much more sensitive to smells than humans.

After sniffing for a while, the lock cylinder stopped and looked at Hermione with questioning eyes: "No, there is only the fishy smell of earth. I don't smell the spices and herbs you mentioned."

Professor Babling was not surprised and simply said: "Let Hermione try."

The goblin lock cylinder seemed unconvinced: "Our goblin sense of smell is dozens of times more sensitive than you humans!"

Professor Barbling ignored him and signaled Hermione to let it go with encouraging eyes.

Loren moved forward quietly, ready to throw the universal breaking spell at Hermione.

Hermione took a few steps forward, gently wrinkled her delicate little nose, and was guided by the smell. She first came to a clay pot with a baboon head lid, which was the one she pointed to before: "This one has a smell on it. "

The fairy lock cylinder didn't believe in evil, so he went up and smelled it again, then turned his head and his face was full of surprise: "I still smell only the fishy smell of earth."

Without doubting his presence, Professor Babbling walked forward and took out the jar pointed by Hermione.

The pot was intact, and no one's name appeared on it.

The fairy lock cylinder touched his nose, and for the first time he had doubts about his racial talent.

Could it be that what the clan elders said was wrong? Is it actually because humans have a stronger sense of smell than goblins?

Bill and Loren stepped forward and sniffed, shaking their heads one after another: "We only smelled the fishy smell of earth."

"Don't worry about them," Professor Babling looked at the little witch, "Hermione, keep looking."

"Good professor."

Next, Hermione ordered three clay pots one after another, and took them all out. Goblin, Loren, and Bill each took one, each with a jackal head lid, a human head lid, and a falcon head lid.

After getting through the clay pot curse without incident, several people present had their own thoughts. The goblins are doubting their own race's sense of smell, Bill wants to get off work early, Hermione is confused about the smell that only she can smell, and Loren is always paying attention to Professor Babbling...

Professor Babuling, on the other hand, looked a little dazed.

"The next step is to put these jars into the coffin. Don't worry, I checked it out as soon as I came in. The sarcophagus is fine." Bill smiled. He held the clay jar in his hand, lifted up the dragon leather boots under his feet, and stepped on the sarcophagus. Kick the lid.

With the rough friction sound of the stone lid being scratched, the sarcophagus was opened.

Fortunately, the mummy in the coffin was not scary. His whole body was carefully wrapped and sewn with gray-yellow shroud strips, leaving nothing exposed. Even his head was wrapped tightly.

According to Bill's arrangement, they pushed open the lid of the sarcophagus and put the four jars into the coffin in the order of lungs, stomach, liver, and intestines.

Just after the last jar was put in, the sarcophagus began to shake, and several people quickly took a few steps back.

Under some mysterious traction, the lid of the sarcophagus returned to its original position and vibrated together with the sarcophagus. During this violent vibration, the two seemed to merge into one, slowly turning into a hollow stone.

Immediately afterwards, the outer stone skin of the stone began to fall off piece by piece, and the size of the stone became smaller and smaller...

Gradually, Loren and others noticed something was wrong. According to the volume estimation, the stone skin should have fallen off by now and touched the hollow in the middle, revealing the mummy and the four pottery pots. However, the stone skin was still falling off at a constant speed. It's like this is a complete, solid stone block, not a hollow sarcophagus.

In the end, the sarcophagus became a small clay pot, not the long clay pot that held the entrails, but a squat type. And instead of saying it was a clay pot, Loren felt that it was more like a crucible.

"What's going on? Where's the door to the first tomb? Where's my golden mountain?" The fairy lock cylinder couldn't accept this result and rushed forward to check the small clay pot, but was afraid of any curse on it and didn't dare to touch.

Professor Babuling looked at the clay pot with deep eyes, an indescribable expression on her face: "Mr. Lock Cylinder, I'm afraid you will be disappointed. This is not the door to the first tomb, this is the door to salvation." Our family’s door.”

The lock cylinder looked at her with disbelief: "Bathcida Barbling, what do you mean?"

Three Hogwarts students also set their sights on the professor.

"Let me tell you a story." Professor Babling said softly, "A long time ago, there lived a group of escaped slaves here. They were always plundered by nearby countries, lacked food and clothing, and were in dire need of life. A wise king led them to establish their own kingdom.

The wizard living nearby took pity on their difficulties and secretly selected a brave young man. With the help of the wizard, the young man quickly united the group of slaves to resist foreign enemies and organize farming...

He became a wise king. When he entered middle age and no longer had a heroic and strong body, and was worrying about resisting foreign enemies, a strong warrior stood up and became the country's general, replacing the king. Fighting abroad.

One day, the king met Bathsheba, the warrior's wife..."

Loren's heart moved when he heard the name.

Bathsheba?

Professor Babling's name is Bathsheda. Is there any connection between the two?

On the other side, Professor Babling continued: "The king was instantly captured by Bathsheba's beauty. He didn't even think about food and drinks, and even climbed up the eaves to spy on this beauty bathing... In the end, the king had an affair with his general's wife, and He had a son. In order to cover up the scandal, he used despicable means to kill the general and made Bathsheba his queen.

The wizard who had been helping the country was deeply disgusted by the king's behavior. He used the cauldron to release disaster and punish the king. And a curse was left in the king's bloodline. The eldest son of his heirs would die in infancy, and the remaining heirs would also die in the war.

In order to fight against the curse in their bloodline, the king's descendants tried to marry other wizards and give birth to children, but no matter how powerful the wizard was, they could not stop the continuation of the curse. Everything is because of this magical crucible. "

"This crucible also appears in many other famous stories. When the wizard Moses led the Egyptian slaves to escape from Egypt, it released blood to pollute the Nile River, releasing various pests, diseases... and even a curse on the eldest son of all people, one night During this time, all the eldest sons died, even the livestock."

Hermione exclaimed: "Moses' ten plagues! I read about them in a book."

Professor Babling looked at the stone crucible in trance, and said in a ethereal voice: "Yes, that was an important event that directly led to the Egyptian wizards curbing their activities. Some people call it the Ten Plagues of Egypt, and also the Ten Plagues of Moses, but I prefer it. Willing to call it the Ten Plagues of the Crucible.”

"So...professor, what is your relationship with Bathsheba?" Loren still couldn't hold back and asked this question.

"Yes, I am a descendant of Bathsheba." Professor Babling shook her head, "But I am not the blood of Bathsheba and the king. In the king's later years, Bathsheba gave birth to offspring with other people. , but these descendants also inherited the curse of the Crucible.

To warn future generations, the women of our bloodline are all named Basilda. Until our generation, my eldest brother died of dragon scabies when he was born, my second brother died of a Death Eater's wand, and I am the only one who has survived to this day. "

"Professor, how did you find this crucible here?" Bill asked at this time.

Professor Babling replied softly: "In order to fight against the curse, I worked hard to learn everything about ancient magic, and became proficient in ancient runes, and eventually became the ancient runes professor at Hogwarts."

"So Professor, you found this place in some ancient book?" Hermione asked.

"No," Professor Babling smiled, "After Professor Trelawney got drunk once in the divination class, I brought her back to the office from the North Tower to rest. After she fell into a deep sleep, she made a prophecy in front of me. The prophecy points to this time, this place, and the students I am destined to meet here."

"I thought this student was Bill Weasley until I saw you at Gringotts."

Hermione pointed at herself with a strange expression: "So the student in the prophecy refers to me?"

Professor Babuling looked at her gratefully: "I'm sorry for getting you involved in this matter. I know you chose the ancient runes course. As compensation, I will definitely teach you seriously next semester."

Inexplicably, Hermione felt an unknown premonition.

The fairy lock cylinder was surprised and uncertain: "Babuling, so what are you going to do next?"

"Remove the curse it brought. Bathsheba's fault has been punished and should not be borne by us from generation to generation." Babuling turned her head to look at the stone crucible. She moved forward with firm steps and crouched down. Opened the lid of the crucible.

A smelly blood-red water mist spurted out, carrying a sticky stench, and instantly filled the tomb.

The fairy lock cylinder shouted: "What's going on! Babuling, you want to kill us!"

Babuling calmly cast the Bubble Curse on several people: "You will not die. In order to cast the curse, Moses put the sand of this land and the water of the Nile River into the crucible, and then added the ten plagues. Now let Just release the crucible again. This is the first plague, the blood flood, which is the blood of a hundred kinds of livestock and people. It has no direct harm to people."

"What about the curse on you, Professor?" Loren asked.

"It's that mummy. Just wait until it turns into ashes and spits out."

As if to confirm Professor Babuling's words, the blood mist quickly dissipated, and swarms of frogs, lice, flies, and locusts sprayed out from the crucible.

"Ah!" Hermione screamed, quickly casting a fire spell and forming an isolation circle around her.

In fact, there is no need for an isolation circle. These things will turn into dust in the air.

Professor Babuling explained: "This is the plague of frogs, lice, flies and locusts among the ten plagues."

Then there were two streams of smelly fog, which Professor Babling said represented animal epidemics and boils.

The most peculiar thing was a black mist, which seemed to penetrate the Bubble Curse and made Loren and Bill cough a few times. It represented the disaster of darkness and the disaster of the firstborn among the ten plagues.

The last thing that came out was a blast of sand. The strange aroma of medicinal herbs and spices contained an unmistakable smell of corpse. Professor Babuling took the initiative to remove the head-soaking spell and opened his arms to welcome the blast of sand.

When the dust settled, a thick layer of ash fell on the floor of the tomb, and the pottery pots piled in the corners also turned into ash.

After the curse was lifted, Professor Babling's brows were filled with relief: "Okay, Hermione, this crucible is yours."

"Ah! Ah?" Hermione's little face was full of surprise.

The goblin lock cylinder couldn't sit still and shouted in a high voice: "What is hers? This belongs to Gringotts and belongs to the goblin!"

"You can try to see if you can take it away." After Professor Babling ridiculed the goblin, she explained to Hermione, "Only you can smell the smell of those clay pots, which means that only you are recognized by the pyramid, and this crucible is also Only you can take it away.”

Hermione was lost in thought. After hesitating for a moment, she shook her head: "I don't want to. From your description, Professor, I only saw the disaster and curse brought by this crucible. I don't think I can use it."

"Of course, you are its owner, it's up to you to decide whether you want it or not." Professor Babling had a weird smile on her face, "When you need it, it will always appear."

Loren's eyes flickered, and she always felt that there was something in Professor Babuling's words.

"Let's go, it's time for us to go back." Professor Babling and Bill took the lead in leaving the tomb and returned to the original route.

Loren and Hermione quickly followed.

"Hey! Gold, where's my gold!" The fairy lock cylinder shouted anxiously.

Bill waved his hand behind him: "Mr. Lock Cylinder, I have to get off work, you can go find it yourself!"

The fairy lock cylinder was unwilling to give up. He looked at the black stone crucible on the ground, gritted his teeth, and tried to move it away. He used a lot of strength, but missed it and stumbled forward a few steps.

The lock cylinder was stunned. He looked up and saw that the stone crucible sprouted a pair of brass legs, bouncing on the spot, even taller than him. In the end, the crucible jumped into the dust pile beside the wall and disappeared.

Lock Cylinder rubbed his eyes and looked again. There was nothing in front of him, and there was no sign of the crucible.

No matter how unwilling he was, he had no choice but to give up and stumble towards Loren and others: "Wait for me, you guys wait for me..."

In the corridor, Hermione suddenly felt something. She turned her head and looked at the stone room where she and Loren were trapped. The unclear words of the Sphinx mummy suddenly became clear in her mind.

"Remember, don't be alienated by power. Even hundreds of medicinal herbs and spices can't cover up the smell of decaying corpses..."

Why did the Sphinx say that?

And it was Loren who told the answer first, why did it choose me?

Many doubts flashed through Hermione's mind, but there were no answers to them. She could only shake her head to get rid of the messy thoughts in her mind, and quickly followed Loren in front.

After going down a section of the corridor, and then up a section of the corridor, we came out of the pyramid, and the setting sun was already shining in the golden sky outside.

Holding Hermione's hand and helping her jump down the last stone step, Loren and Hermione stood on the soft desert and smiled at each other.

On the way back, Professor Babling suddenly asked: "Bill, can you help us keep this secret?"

Hermione looked up at Professor Barbling, wondering why he asked. Loren squeezed Hermione's hand to signal her to be silent.

Bill raised his eyebrows and replied with a smile: "Of course."

Seeing Babling's eyes turned towards him, a trace of panic flashed in Goblin Lock Cylinder's eyes: "I, I can do it too! Babling, don't mess around, I'm the manager of Gringotts!"

"【Everything is forgotten】"

…

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The following content is free of charge-——

The wizard and his jumping pot

Once upon a time, there was a kind old wizard who always used his magic generously and wisely to help his neighbors. Instead of telling others where his powers came from, he lied that his potions, spells, and antidotes all came ready-made from a small cauldron. He called this pot his lucky pot. People from many miles around came to him in trouble, and the old wizard was always happy to stir his cauldron and make things go away.

The beloved wizard lived to a ripe old age and died, leaving all his fortune to his only son. This son is completely different from his gentle father. In his son's opinion, those who don't know magic are useless, and he often complains about his father's habit of using magic to help his neighbors.

After his father died, his son found a small package hidden in the old crucible with his name written on it. He opened the package, expecting to find gold and silver treasures, but he only found a thick, soft shoe that was too small to wear and did not come in a pair. Inside the shoe was a small piece of parchment, which read: "My son, I sincerely hope you will never have to use it."

The son complained that his father was stupid and threw the shoes back into the crucible, deciding to use the crucible as a trash can from now on.

That night, an old peasant woman knocked on his door.

"My granddaughter has a sarcoid, sir," the old peasant woman said to him. "Your father always used to make a special plaster in that old crucible -"

"Go away!" the son yelled, "What does your child's sarcoma have to do with me?"

He slammed the door in front of the old peasant woman.

Immediately there was a loud clanging sound in his kitchen. The wizard lit his wand and was surprised to see his father's old cauldron: the cauldron had sprouted a brass leg and was dancing in the middle of the kitchen, making a terrible sound on the stone floor. The wizard stepped forward in surprise and quickly stepped back when he saw that the surface of the crucible was covered with tumors.

"Disgusting stuff!" he shouted. He first tried to make the cauldron disappear with a spell, then tried to clean it, and finally tried to drive it out of the house. But his magic didn't work at all. The crucible jumped out of the kitchen after him, jumped upstairs with him to sleep, and made noisy sounds on the wooden stairs: clang, clang, clang, and there was nothing he could do about it.

The wizard stayed up all night because the old, warty cauldron kept making noisy noises beside his bed. The next morning, the Crucible followed him relentlessly to the breakfast table. Bang, bang, bang, the brass one foot kept dancing. Before the wizard started to drink porridge, someone knocked on the door again.

An old man stood at the door.

"My old donkey, sir," said the old man. "My old donkey is lost. It must have been stolen. Without the donkey, I can't carry my goods to the market. Our family will go to the market tonight." Gonna starve."

"I'm still hungry!" shouted the wizard, slamming the door in front of the old man. Bang, bang, bang, the single leg of the crucible danced on the floor, but now its noise was mixed with the braying of donkeys and the hungry groans of people, which came from the depths of the crucible.

"Quiet! Quiet!" the wizard screamed, but no matter what magic he used, he could not quiet the warty cauldron. The Crucible followed him around all day long, braying, groaning, and banging, no matter where he went or what he was doing.

That night, there was a knock on the door for the third time. There was a young woman standing outside the threshold, crying very sadly.

"My baby is very sick," he said. "Can you do us a favor? Your father told me to come here if I'm in trouble—"

But the wizard slammed the door in her face.

This time, the torturous cauldron was filled with salt water. It jumped, brayed and groaned, sprouted more tumors, and splashed tears on the ground. For the rest of the week, no more villagers came to the wizard's house seeking help, but the Crucible continued to tell him of their illnesses. In just a few days, it not only brays and groans, jumps and sheds tears, and sprouts sarcoma, but also coughs and retches, cries like a baby, whines like a dog, and spits out spoiled cheese. and sour milk, and countless hungry slugs.

The crucible followed the wizard all day long, making him unable to eat or sleep. But the cauldron refused to leave, and the wizard could not quiet it or force it to remain still.

Finally, the wizard could stand it no longer.

"Give me all your difficulties, all your troubles, all your sorrows!" he shouted, running into the night and down the road into the village, the crucible jumping with him. Behind him, "Come on! Let me treat you, help you, and comfort you! I have my father's crucible, and I will make you all better!"

He ran through the streets, shooting spells in every direction, the sickening cauldron still jumping after him.

In a house, the sarcoma disappeared from the sleeping little girl; the lost donkey was summoned back by magic from the distant heather and quietly entered the stable; the sick baby was sprinkled with Bai Xianshui woke up healthy and rosy. In every household with illnesses and worries, the wizard tried his best to help them. Slowly, the crucible around him no longer groaned and retched, but became quiet, refreshing, and shiny.

"Okay, crucible?" the trembling wizard asked, as the sun had risen.

The cauldron burped, spit out the shoe that the wizard had thrown in, and allowed the wizard to put it on the brass foot. The wizard and the crucible returned home together, and the footsteps of the crucible finally became silent. From then on, the wizard helped the villagers as his father had done before his death, fearing that the crucible would take off its shoes and jump around again.