Hogwarts Emerald

Just do what you say, Ada has never been a procrastinator. After returning from Hogsmeade, Ada plunged into the library to find everything related to Hogsmeade village.

This village of pure wizards has a long history. The first people to live here were Hangis.

At that time, the Muggle society was afraid of magic and regarded wizards as devils, so they carried out a hunting campaign for hundreds of years, ruthlessly persecuting wizards and people close to them.

Some wizards are not afraid of the punishment of Muggles and even take pleasure in it, but there are still many wizards who lose their lives under the persecution of Muggles.

Hangis came to live in Hogsmeade to live in seclusion and avoid the persecution of Muggles. After that, more and more wizards came to settle here, gradually forming a scale, and eventually became the Hogsmeade village we see today.

In the long history of Hogsmeade, the most famous event was the goblin rebellion in 1612. A tavern in this village was used as the headquarters.

The Goblin Rebellion was a series of rebellious movements launched by goblins to oppose the discrimination and prejudice against them by wizards. This kind of thing was quite common in the 17th and 18th centuries. To this day, there are still many radical goblins who oppose the Ministry of Magic's notice and demand to be treated equally.

Ada searched a lot of information in the library. Whether it was "Historical Sites of the History of Magic" or "Hogwarts: A History of the School" or other books, Ada could not find any records about the Shrieking Shack. , the legend of the shack is more like a legend passed down orally among villagers.

If she couldn't find it in the book, she naturally had to ask people. Ada asked many seniors and sisters she met in the library, and even asked Professor Cecil, but she still couldn't find the answer.

When Ada found the dead, she went to find the ghost of Gryffindor, Sir Porpington. When Ada found him, Sir Porpington was looking at the portrait of Anne Boleyn stored in the castle.

Sir Porpington, who has been a ghost for hundreds of years, gave Ada a vague answer: the rumors of the Shrieking Shack have not been popular for long, maybe in the past few decades, or maybe a hundred years.

As a "living" ghost, Ada didn't expect him to be able to tell her the exact date. Apart from the anniversary of his own death, there weren't many things he could remember accurately.

Moreover, this kind of story passed down by word of mouth will always gradually deviate from the truth of the matter in the process of spreading. But this time frame is still very useful. At least Ada doesn't have to look for a needle in a haystack in the library like a headless fly.

During the time when Ada was soaking in the library, Hogwarts had entered December. The humid and cold air tortured the bodies and souls of the students every morning, and getting up became an extremely difficult task. Difficult things.

One afternoon with nice weather, Ada decided to leave the library temporarily and go for a walk.

The thick snow made a "creeping, creaking" sound when stepping on it. Bathed in the sunshine, Ada strolled to the Black Lake. The towering distant mountains and the wide Black Lake always made Ada nostalgic.

The weather is cold, and there are no couples at the Black Lake anymore. This is a perfect place for Ada to relax. The snow-covered mountains in the distance looked like white-haired old men staring at her, but what Ada didn't know was that there was really a white-haired old man not far away watching Ada.

"Drizzt, didn't you bring a book today?" Grover Cecil walked over with his hands behind his back. His face was pale and he looked like he was sick.

Grover Cecil has always been very kind to Ada, but he has never called Ada by her nickname, not even the name "Esmeralda". He has always called Ada by her last name.

"Wearing gloves makes it inconvenient to flip through the book." Ada shook her gloved hands. The gloves were very thick and were sent with earmuffs.

"I haven't liked the weather in school since I was in school, and I hate it even more as I get older." Professor Cecil stood next to Ada, with a strong sense of disgust in his tone.

"Professor, your face doesn't look good. Are you feeling uncomfortable somewhere?" Ada looked at Cecil and said, his face was as white as a piece of paper, and he looked a little scary.

Cecil touched his face and asked with a smile: "Is it scary? When people get older, all kinds of problems will appear. No matter how powerful your magic is, you can't withstand time. erosion."

Time can make people grow, and time can also make people age. Time is both a good teacher and an enemy.

The topic was a bit heavy, and neither of them spoke for a while. Cecil took out a small flask from his robe. He opened the lid and took a sip. His whole face was wrinkled together. The contents of the pot were It probably doesn't taste very good.

"By the way, have you found out about the Screaming Shack?" Cecil's face turned a lot rosier, his spirits improved, and he even had the strength to speak.

Ada didn't know what Cecil was drinking, but she smelled something familiar. The weather was cold and it was outdoors, so Ada thought she might have smelled it wrong.

"I've heard many versions of ghost stories, whatever they say. No one knows the rumors about the Screaming Shack better than me now." Ada replied, "It's just that these are just rumors and there is nothing real about them." There’s nothing sexual about it.”

"Our world is full of all kinds of weird rumors, some of which are false and some of which are half-truths." Cecil said, "and we need to eliminate the false ones from these half-truths and those that are half-truths." Between the half-truth and half-falsehood, we peel off the cocoons and restore the truth of the matter."

It sounded like she was investigating a case, and Ada suddenly had the illusion that she was not at the Black Lake in Hogwarts, but at Baker Street in London.

"This is a very interesting process, even more interesting than finding the truth."

Ada disagrees with Cecil's statement. She prefers the results rather than the process. If possible, she would rather sit back and enjoy it than go out to find it herself.

The twins were quite reliable in other matters, but this fact was too difficult for the two brothers, and Ada could only rely on herself.

"I still prefer the results for the time being. The process of searching is always hard." Ada expressed her thoughts, "Just like this time, I found nothing except those vague rumors. If you want to know the truth, Still want to go there and see.”

Cecil did not speak. He took out his wand and pointed it at the black lake. A thick black light emitted from the tip of the wand and went straight to the lake. The frozen lake surface and snow were exploded by this spell, and the water stirred up could be as high as two or three stories high, but not a drop of the water splashed onto the two people on the shore.

Ada didn't see Cecil's face turn pale rapidly. She was frightened by the power of this spell. At the same time, she also envied the other party's control over the magic power and didn't know when she would be able to do this.

"When you can do this kind of thing, the results will come to you on their own." Cecil took out the flask and took another sip, and continued, "Then you will know the joy of the process, because you The process has been lost.”

After speaking, Cecil slowly left the Black Lake. His pace was slow, and he seemed to spend a lot of effort on every step he took. Cecil's stooped figure made him look more like an old man than an unforgivable dark wizard.

Ada looked at his retreating back, and the mystery in her heart increased. The contents of the flask exuded a familiar smell to Ada, which reminded her of Snape's dim cabin.