The Death Knell

This handwritten book is more like a diary, containing many miscellaneous things and jumping narratives.

The seven pages in the first part record Flamel's self-narration, saying that he spent two gold galleons to buy a book called "The Jewish Book of Abraham" from a black-robed and masked Arab businessman. Alchemy books.

Then he began to study the knowledge recorded in this book, because on the night he bought the book, he had a dream, in which an angel with snow-white wings handed over a whole hard large salted fish. Got him.

After waking up, he felt that this was some kind of revelation. Maybe the salted fish symbolized the authority of God?

So he paid special attention to the newly bought books and continued to delve into foreign thaumaturgy. Three years later, in the second part of this strange book in Hermione's hands, Flamel said at the beginning that he had found the real alchemy. technique.

Hermione understood that the pages in the "Book of Hieroglyphics" in her hand might have been cut from some notebooks and then bound together, and some unimportant or overly important parts were not here.

But it was enough for her to figure out her homework. Now the professor asked her who Flamel was, and she could proudly tell him the correct answer.

She continued reading, and the book read:

"I always follow the instructions in the book word for word, and today I finally got to the last step. I deduce the red stone based on the same amount of mercury... and then really turned the mercury into gold. It is indeed better than ordinary Gold is better, softer and more malleable.”

Hermione's little mouth opened wide. So is the so-called real alchemy the turning of stone into gold?

She speeded up the pages of the book, rubbing the thick bark in her palms, but basically she could only see a certain experimental idea, such as converting mercury into other things, such as converting mercury into copper, or Turn mercury into silver.

The following parts of the book contain some summarized rules. For example, Flamel believes that alchemy follows a certain principle of equivalent exchange. As for the price ratio, it may be determined by God.

"You cannot use the same weight of mercury to convert the same weight of gold, but the amount of brass or silver converted is always more than the amount of gold converted by consuming the same amount of mercury."

"The transformation is irreversible, and the transformed gold cannot be turned back into mercury using red stone."

"Redstone will be lost during conversion, but the degree of loss is different each time and there is no pattern."

It was basically this summary narrative until Hermione turned the book and reached the final seventh part.

The last seven pages are a bit crazy, recording Flamel's attempts to use red stone to create life.

At first he wanted to turn mercury into a living rabbit, but ended up creating a monstrous mass, the original text is "the placenta of the monster howling in nightmares".

Then he planned to make plants, thinking that plants might be simpler than animals, but what he got were "indescribable terrifying tentacles."

But at the end of these weird records, he obviously succeeded in another experiment, and black ink stains left clear traces on the bark:

"... Use red stone to convert magic into life and prepare the potion of immortality... Yes, I finally reached the realm of gods as a mortal... But here What’s behind the gate? What’s beyond our world...?”

Turning back further, this is the blank bark on the last page, and there is no answer to this question.

Hermione let out a sigh that was inappropriate for her age, and slowly closed the big book on her knees. She felt a little heavy for no reason. She slumped down on the corner of the sofa like a kitten, feeling empty in her heart.

She couldn't say why, maybe she got a warning from a really smart person, realized the insignificance of human beings or something, Hermione couldn't tell, but it felt like her heart was being grabbed.

Somewhat uncomfortable, but mostly wanting to know the answer.

Crookshanks slipped out of her dormitory, jumped on the sofa and meowed, reminding her owner that it was dinner time and asking her to quickly take out the dried fish from the space bag.

How can it be done if it is not allowed to catch mice and is not allowed to eat dried fish on time? Crookshanks' big face looked even more unhappy.

Only then did Hermione come back to her senses. She got up and put the books back on the bookshelf with some confusion, because she had memorized all the contents. Photographic memory was only a basic ability in Ravenclaw.

Then she picked up the cat and prepared to go back to the dormitory to feed it.

She didn't notice that the books placed back on the bookshelf disappeared in the blink of an eye, and the eyes of the portrait of Ms. Ravenclaw in the lounge seemed to follow her back.

.....................................

After arranging dinner for the cat, Hermione also prepared to go to the first floor to eat. By the way, she found the professor and told him her answer, and asked if those crazy ideas really had answers.

But the professor didn't show up, nor did he appear in the teachers' private room next to the auditorium. Not only did he not seem to have eaten lunch, he also didn't plan to eat dinner.

Hermione felt that he must have gone to the Three Broomsticks with Professor Flitwick again. Yesterday he went to Hogsmeade to play, and she was also taken to the small shop to drink butterbeer. Not only did it provide alcohol, but also For some simple meals, British pubs always sell fried fish and sandwiches.

This drunkard, Hermione curled her lips speechlessly, but then she remembered something and smiled slightly.

Thinking of the pleasant trip last night, it is inevitable to think of the expression on the red-haired Gryffindor boy in the cafeteria this morning when he received a letter from home. It was a roaring letter, and the letter may be from the boy's mother.

The letter said that it learned from Professor McGonagall that the boy was going to drag Potter with him to die. The whole family almost died of shame. It called the boy's name loudly and told him to take him home and lock him up if he didn't want to go to school. or send him to Romania.

The piercing roar could be heard by all the students present, but the red-haired boy's expression was as stiff as an Eastern Prajna mask. Not only was his mouth open at a strange angle, but his whole body was also shrinking down little by little.

By the time he finished reading the letter, he was already completely under the long table.

All the students in the college and the teachers who occasionally passed by were looking in his direction. All kinds of looks were beyond the ability of this age, so hiding under the table was another option.

This made Potter sitting next to him very embarrassed, as if this letter was addressed to him. Where is the Malfoy classmate on the Slytherin table? He laughed so much that he fell off his stool and slapped the floor while laughing wildly.

Hermione knew that boys often had immature interactions with each other, so she, who considered herself mature and sensible, despised them.

"Hey Hermione, what are you thinking about being so happy?"

The sudden sound of people called back her attention. It turned out to be Hannah and Susan. They both carried empty dinner plates and moved from the Hufflepuff long table to the Ravenclaw side.

At the beginning, they didn't know whether this was against school rules, but Hermione told them that the professor said that they could do anything as long as it was not prohibited by the school rules. From then on, the two girls gradually got used to going to other hospitals. Dinner was served at the long table.

There are so many people on the Hufflepuff side that they are often so crowded that they can’t even lift a fork. The long table on the Ravenclaw side is the same size as the other side, but there are only a few people dining at the same time, so it is much more spacious.

"It's nothing, it's just that the physical education professor gave me a question and I figured out the answer." Hermione smiled, moved the plate in front of her, and made room for the two of them: "Why are you so late today?" Already?"

Hannah and Susan looked at each other, smiled mysteriously, and replied: "Today is different. After a long experiment, we finally fully mastered Hufflepuff's signature spell. This is not Come and show off to you, hee hee."