Harry Potter: Beyond Good and Evil in the Wizarding World Chapter 157 156

The mont they entered the room, bright light from a large overhead fixture flooded the space, illuminating every corner evenly.

The room was less than half the size of the Great Hall. Tall bookshelves lined the walls, and a long, curved table stood in the center, surrounded by sofas. The only exposed section of brick wall, situated directly above the fireplace, featured a portrait Severus recognized imdiately. It was Rowena Ravenclaw, one of the founders of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. However, that was not the only remarkable sight. The wall surrounding the portrait was adorned with frad photographs of children wearing school uniforms with blue ties.

While the bookshelves piqued his interest imdiately, sothing else commanded his attention first. To the right of the table stood a wooden altar carved in the shape of an eagle, topped by an open book. The to was nearly five tis the size of a standard book. However, it was not the size that drew him in. Instead, it was the sheer intensity of magic radiating from the book and the constant flow of energy feeding into it from the altar beneath. The altar functioned as a battery of sorts, powering every enchantnt within the room. Severus could see the streams of magic running along the walls like wires, each connecting to the various artifacts scattered throughout the space.

"Interesting little thing..." Severus smiled faintly, pushed back his hood, and walked toward it. Nagini fixed her suspicious gaze on the woman's portrait.

"Severus, I don't like her... I can feel the sa magic coming from that old man's portrait..." Her voice faltered slightly at the ntion of the latter.

"It's a living portrait too." He patted her head gently without pausing.

"ow...?" Lucky stared at the portrait, tilting his head in puzzlent. The woman in the painting blinked, dropping her facade at Severus's words.

"You truly are a worthy student of Slytherin house," an irritated female voice stated. He ignored her completely and stepped up to the altar. "I am speaking to you. What should a student do when standing before a founder of this school?!"

"Show respect," he said without much interest, studying the book. "Hmm... so that's how it works..." He picked it up and ran a finger along the spine.

"Put it back at once! Only students of my house have the right to touch it!"

"Runes," he said calmly. The book ca to life in an instant. Text began to appear across the blank pages, starting with the most elentary concepts of runology. As he slowly turned page after page, the subject matter grew more intricate and the runes more complex. "I need to be more specific..."

Rowena stared in complete silence, entirely at a loss. She had never seen anyone navigate her artifact with such speed and apparent ease.

"Not bad. Quite good, actually." He gave a slight nod as he placed the book back on the altar.

He reached into his bag and pulled out the Grimoire. A look of bewildernt crossed Rowena's face. "What are you..." Before she could finish, he had already tucked it away again, leaving her visibly unsettled.

"Better than 'quite good,' actually. 'Excellent' would be closer. You have amassed so much knowledge in only a couple of centuries that you genuinely deserve the title of the most brilliant witch in history." He frowned. He had consulted Tom, the soul fragnt within the Grimoire, but Tom had found nothing in this enormous collection regarding the final ingredient for Nagini's potion. At least there was so information about the other two. "...there is nothing here about Chronite." He offered a crooked smile and looked back at Rowena, shaking his head. "I shall probably have to go to France after all."

"It's all right. I can wait," Nagini hissed. She recognized the na of the plant and understood imdiately what he had been seeking the mont he picked up that large book. She did not fully understand how it worked, but knowing that she had been his first thought ant a great deal to her.

"What was that artifact?" The impatient voice from the portrait cut through the mont.

Severus looked back at Rowena.

"My own artifact. Sothing like yours, except it requires considerably less magic to operate." He scanned the other books lining the shelves of the small library. "Fairly rare volus. And the rest, I assu, you stored inside this artifact?"

"Hmm! At least you know how to address your elders," Rowena said, looking down at him with open disdain. Her dislike of Slytherin and its students had clearly carried over into the portrait.

"What exactly have I done to deserve that attitude? I haven't insulted you, and I haven't desecrated your grave, though I very much wanted to, after everything I had to go through to get here." His voice cooled and his eyes narrowed.

"Just leave her. After so many centuries alone, perhaps she's simply gone mad. Let her stay down here by herself." Nagini shot the portrait a look of irritation. The audacity of speaking to him like that when he hadn't said a single unkind word to her. Nagini had no patience for people who judge others by a fixed label, as if every Slytherin student were simply a villain who could not be trusted. Even Regulus, for whom she had little warmth given his habit of pushing Severus toward that awful woman, she still considered a decent person, aristocratic habits and all.

"I think you're right. Let her keep herself company down here." Severus gave the now-furious portrait an indifferent glance, and they turned toward the exit. "I hope we don't have to et again. I doubt anyone else will ever find their way down here."

"Stop! What do you an? Do you have any idea why no one has co here in nine hundred years? Answer ! Right now!"

"ow?" Lucky had been watching the portrait and was growing weary of the shrieking. He looked up at Severus with a silent question and flexed his claws.

"Don't. Let's go."

"Mrr." Lucky gave a small nod, tossed one final contemptuous look at the furious portrait, and fell into step behind Severus.

"Wait, I said wait! Answer my question!" He paid her no mind. As Rowena grew angrier, a quiet seed of fear began to take root alongside her fury. The thought of spending another thousand years here alone was not sothing she could easily dismiss.

Living portraits were rely echoes of the people they had once been, but they could feel, and ti passed for them just as it did for the living. Those centuries had been a genuine tornt for Rowena. Even so, it had not been enough to soften the arrogance of the most powerful and brilliant witch of her age, nor to ease her contempt for Salazar's students. But...

"Stop! I am a founder of this school! You are bound to obey !"

"You are a personality imprint of a witch who once lived. Nothing more. I hope we do not et again."

Severus paused in front of the handleless door. He stood there for a mont, then smirked. He pressed the eagle's beak, and the door clicked and slowly began to open.

"I... I... please, stop..." Rowena swallowed, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Did anyone say sothing?" He looked around with a genuinely puzzled expression, then at Nagini, who shook her head. "I didn't either. Must have been my imagination. Co on, I still have to... get so sleep. Classes don't start until noon anyway." Rowena nearly lost her composure entirely, but held herself back.

"P-please..." she said through gritted teeth, knuckles white. Never in all her existence had she been forced to debase herself like this, and in front of soone from that old serpent's house, no less.

"Better. But that's not all. You were rude to without cause, and I want sothing in return for that. Only then will I hear you out." He turned back to face her, clasping his hands behind his back and regarding her with complete indifference. Rowena nearly choked on her outrage, desperately wishing she had a physical body so she could handle him herself.

"What do you want?"

"What do you have to offer?" Her eye twitched, but she kept her thoughts to herself.

A few minutes later, Severus was turning a small black earring over in his fingers. He had just received it from Rowena, who was deeply unhappy.

"Not bad. I accept your apology." He tucked it into his bag, settled onto the sofa across from the fireplace, laced his fingers together in front of his face, and looked at her. "I'm listening. What did you want to ask?"

Rowena took a long, slow breath, fighting to keep her temper in check.

"Why has no one co here in all these centuries?"

"Your trial was unsolvable. I searched nearly everywhere, yet one specific rune remained missing. It was the sort that pointed to this location and explained how to open the entrance. That vital component, the key that translated those symbols into readable text, had vanished entirely."

"That... that's impossible. I left a number of books on the Urukan script and its runes, more than enough for anyone to begin deciphering the text."

"I found nothing. Neither the current Headmaster nor his predecessor did. Given that no one has co here until now, it seems everyone else failed as well." He shrugged indifferently, leaving Rowena to sit with that thought.

"But there were students who found their way here once before..."

"If none of them ever spoke, soone likely went to great lengths to erase every trace of your Urukan script. Or perhaps those students were killed. Difficult to say." He shrugged again, watching her reaction with calm attention. The shock on her face was plain. "Where did you co across it in the first place?"

"I..." She stopped abruptly, forcing herself to et his eyes. "You... you know it? How?!"

"Found a book on a shelf in a small Muggle shop," he replied with a dismissive wave. "Where did you co across it? You seem to be translating it yourself?"

"I... I received it from so very dear friends of mine..."

I'd like to hear that part in detail.

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Chapters on Patreon progress: Currently at;

1. Harry Potter: Satan? Nah, Just My Family Crest = CHAPTER 276

2.Marvel: Cosmic Forger of Infinity = CHAPTER 192

3.Harry Potter: Beyond Good and Evil in the Wizarding World = CHAPTER 277

4.Harry Potter: Reborn as Draco Black = CHAPTER 119

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