Harry Potter and the Secret Treasure

Page 631

"Hmph, that's the way they didn't hear him," said Harry decisively. "No one can act like that, not even Snape, who was sent by Voldemort, and he played a scene to confuse Duncan." Bullido."

Well, the topic shifted to doubting Snape again, which can be regarded as a daily topic.

Ivan tried to read a piece of parchment again, and Harry and Ron continued their wizard chess.

After more than half an hour, Hermione and Elaine rubbed their eyes and walked down the stairs.

Because it was a holiday, and because there was no news from Dumbledore, everyone was a little lazy.

Outside the window, snowflakes fluttered and danced.

The topic returned to the conversation between Snape and Malfoy last night, and Hermione refuted Ron's ideas one by one.

Ron was blushing more and more, and if it continued, the fragile friendship between the two of them could end at any moment.

Just then, there was a slight noise, and Dobby the house-elf appeared in front of them out of thin air.

He was bowing to several people, his nose almost touching the floor.

"More than!"

"Why did you come up?"

"Master Irwin, Harry Potter, Miss Granger!" Dobby squealed excitedly, his green eyes widening, "Professor Dumbledore asked Dobby to come up and inform that he was The kitchen is waiting for you."

"Dumbledore is back, he's in the kitchen?"

"Yes, he is waiting for you below."

Ivan didn't expect Dumbledore to move so quickly, and today is the first day of the holiday.

No sooner had the students left Hogwarts than they began to move.

Soon, the group left the Gryffindor common room with excitement and nervousness.

Along the way, Hermione was asking Dobby about the recent treatment of house-elves in the kitchen, and telling him about the house-elves who were working at Fred and George's, which she hoped would serve as a good example.

"Dobby knows about it, and a lot of elves have been talking about it lately, and they think it's a last resort."

"That's not bad, at least it's not an objection, is it? I thought they would think it's a disgrace, they have to?" Hermione said, seeming to be in a good mood, "It means accepting in disguise? Those stubborn guys are already ready to accept Hired and paid?"

"No pay, miss. House-elves don't need pay."

"But Fred and George are paying his two hundred elves."

"They think it's, that's..." Dobby seemed a little anxious, and explained incoherently, "They work there to survive, they have to, they just need to work and You don't need to get paid for the most basic food."

Well, Ivan can probably understand what Dobby means.

At Hermione's request, Fred and George are now trying to improve the meals of the house-elves who work there, but so far have been unsuccessful in giving them money or holidays.This is indeed not a reward, it can only be said to be a "slave" with better treatment.

"Dobby, what do you think about this?" Hermione asked.

"Dobby doesn't think they're free house-elves, and it's wrong for them to be, but, but..."

"Please, you can't see house-elves, just mention vomiting." Ron couldn't help but said, "You'll make them nervous, and besides, we're going to summon a demon soon, a real demon , I didn’t sleep for several nights after I learned the news, but you are here to care about the treatment of house elves?”

"It's not vomiting, it's the House Elf Rights Promotion Association, all five of us are cadres of this organization." Hermione said angrily, "Of course I'm nervous now, I'm about to face a demon, who wouldn't be nervous? But Not that we can ignore the protection of the rights of house-elves."

This is probably Hermione's way of dispersing the pressure, but she has indeed done a lot of things for the house elves over the years. , if there is an award for eliminating unfair discrimination and promoting racial equality, it should be awarded to her.

Whether you can understand it is one aspect, but in this matter, Ivan feels that Hermione is really amazing.

Chapter 1397 Demon Knowledge

"Let's talk about demons." Harry said, in order to prevent Hermione and Ron from arguing again, he tried to change the topic, "By the way, Ivan, haven't you seen demons before? It's you and Sirius , Hagrid and the others went looking for giants. Tell us in detail, what does a demon look like?"

"The forms of demons are different. They have no fixed form and appearance. The last time I saw the demon in Dijon, France, it was a witch hundreds of years ago, but when I saw it, it had no human beings. form."

"Is that a ghost?"

"It's much scarier than ghosts." Ai Wen said, "Well, how do you describe it? You can imagine the appearance of a devil, which is what you think the devil looks like. Its skin is cold gray and white, and sharp thorns protrude from its mouth. Fangs, black horns on the head, deformed claws on the hands, and..."

"Terrible." Elaine said, she hadn't heard Ivan talk about this experience yet.

"Yeah, it's scary!" Aiwen said, his memory went back to that night, recalling the ghost wandering in the owl castle, the weird and cunning skeleton, the mirror with the devil and the sad past and emotional disputes , "In short, it is a disgusting guy. But what is really scary is not the devil, nor the powerful magic or power it possesses, but the human heart."

What impressed Ai Wen in that experience was not the demon, but the love triangle full of hurt and lies.

A wizard who is kind on the surface but twisted to the extreme in his heart, a devil witch who is so vicious that he can kill his own parents without hesitation, and a witch doctor who poisons everyone in the entire castle, Shu Keria, she is the victim, but she is also the murderer.

The human heart is the scariest thing, it is as dazzling as the noon sun, making it impossible to look directly at it.

Devils, devils and all that, are nothing but ugly incarnations of the human heart.

Because it has an entity, it is no longer so scary, because it can be defeated and eliminated.

"People's hearts?" Elaine repeated, and said directly, "I don't understand, it's so complicated."

"It's very complicated, and I can't explain it clearly." Ivan said, seeing Elaine staring at himself intently, remembering the fate of not explaining how to become a real vampire last night, he hurriedly added, "Actually , you can ask Dumbledore later, I think he should be able to explain clearly what is the human heart."

"Forget it, I'm not too interested in these things, it sounds like I can't eat them." Elaine shook her head.

"I'm curious, how are demons born?" Hermione asked.

"Different demons are born in different ways. There are many methods, but they all involve the demon altar, which is the core item for summoning demons." Aiwen said, "Through the demon altar, wizards can transfer people, objects, names, souls, and even It is the product of a thought that transforms into a demon, a supernatural being with infinite life and physicality, and lets them do things for them."

"That sounds good." Ron said, "A powerful demon servant who can help accomplish what you want."

"Many ancient warlocks and wizards did this. They gained power and success by raising demons." Aiwen said, "The most famous one is King Solomon and his 72 demon gods, whether in Muggles or wizards. He's very famous."

"That's right, King Solomon! Then how do you build a demon altar?" Ron immediately asked, "Is it difficult?"

"Then I don't know. Demon magic was once prosperous in ancient times, but it has completely declined now. Even if there is inheritance, it is taboo black magic, very evil." Ivan replied, "As for summoning The difficulty of demons, I think as long as you master the accurate method and various materials, it should not be too difficult, it mainly depends on what kind of demon you want to summon."

If you want to summon a demon like the 72 Pillar Demon God, you may not be able to do it even if you are exhausted.

But the summoning they were about to make later, the demon in house-elf form, wasn't very difficult.

Alvin has researched it many times, and all he needs is a dead house elf and some magic power.

In fact, he does know how to build two demon altars.

They are all black magic recorded in the book "Secrets of Cutting-Edge Black Magic". Ivan has studied it several times, and the difficulty is not too high, but since it is recorded in this kind of magic book, one can imagine the specific casting process and the required How wicked is the material.

It's completely forbidden like making Horcruxes, so it's better not to say it.

Because we have talked about related topics many times before, soon, everyone has nothing to say.

They descended the stairs, their footsteps echoing in the empty castle.

The murals on the walls on both sides are empty, and the portraits don't know where they went.

Everyone was nervous, and the silence around them gave people the illusion that there were only five of them left in the castle, and the downward stairs seemed to have no end.

Ten minutes later, they came to the picture of a huge fruit bowl in the stone corridor in the basement.

Dobby didn't scratch the green pear in the portrait, that was the way into the kitchen.

He just stretched out his finger and tapped on the edge of the portrait, and the pear began to change, revealing a low, dark, and deep hallway.

Except for Elaine, Ivan, Harry, Hermione, and Ron have all been to the kitchen many times.

Ivan accompanied Hermione to preach, and Harry and Ron sneaked out in the middle of the night to find food.

They went in one by one, and soon, they were surrounded by a group of noisy house elves who rushed out of nowhere, asking what food they needed.

Hundreds of house-elves crowded together, no matter how many times you look at it, it is shocking.

But immediately, when they saw that the person who came was Hermione, they all showed terrified expressions on their faces, disappeared in an instant, and hid.

"Am I that scary?" Hermione said angrily, "What are they running for?"

"Miss Granger is not scary at all. Dobby thinks that Miss Granger is the best wizard, second only to Master Irwin and Harry Potter." Dobby said immediately, "Dobby knows, other The elves just haven't gotten used to it yet."

Hermione had been hard at work sewing sweaters for some time to give to the house-elves in the kitchen.

This probably frightened them, and although she has stopped doing it now, the terrible impression left cannot be reversed in a short time.

Hermione was probably the only one in Hogwarts who could make so many house-elfs turn and run in fear.

In the eyes of these house elves, Hermione, who is dedicated to protecting their rights, is probably a demon.

The four of them walked through the corridor and entered the kitchen. The layout here was exactly the same as the auditorium above.

Dumbledore was sitting contentedly at the Gryffindor long table, with a cup of steaming coffee and a dessert "toffee finger cake" in front of him, surrounded by many house elves from a distance , looking at him in awe...

Chapter 1398 Action

"Hello!" said Dumbledore happily.

"Hello, professor!" Several people came to Dumbledore's side.

"Don't stand there, sit down, house-elves are always too enthusiastic and want to do something for us, they are really the best creatures in the world, we had better not refuse their kindness. Dumbledore said with a smile, "What do you want to eat? I suggest trying this biscuit."

They sat on the chair next to Dumbledore, and the house elves around the side immediately served drinks and desserts, filling most of the table. This picture looked like a party, but everyone present except Dumbledore , No one is in the mood for dessert.

"Professor, are we going to summon that demon now?"

"Oh, yes." Dumbledore said, "I don't think the five of you would like to stay in the empty Hogwarts for Christmas. Molly also reminded me to let you go back, so this kind of thing Best to do it quickly."

"Have you found any information?" Ivan asked, "About the devil altar and Hufflepuff..."

"There is no direct evidence that Helga Hufflepuff left a demon altar in the school." Dumbledore said softly, "We can only guess that in the original planning of the castle, this area was It belongs to Hufflepuff's exclusive area, and only Hufflepuff and her students are allowed to enter, just like Slytherin's secret room, and the demon altar that appeared here was handed down from that period, so the two There will be a relationship between them. Not to mention, it is a demon altar related to house-elves, and we all know that Hufflepuffs have a good relationship with house-elves."

"There are also hints left by her, which are also related to house elves." Ai Wen said.

The hint for the key to the secret treasure left by Hufflepuff reads: From the Open Vale, Merciful Hufflepuff!She treats everyone equally, everyone has a chance to get her treasure!The key to unlock the treasure is integrity and loyalty, all you need to do is trust your humblest friend!

The humblest friend here is, not surprisingly, the house-elf.

Because the creatures in the hints left by Gryffindor and Ravenclaw can correspond to some kind of creatures around Hogwarts.

Gryffindor's proud follower's approval refers to the centaur in the Forbidden Forest; Ravenclaw's clever ally refers to the merfolk in the lake in front of the castle.From these creatures who have lived around Hogwarts for generations, Ivan got important information about the treasure key information.

So, the clues left by Hufflepuff should correspond to the house-elf in the kitchen.

Ivan has investigated before that the house elves in the kitchen have not preserved anything for generations like centaur or mermaid.

They don't know anything, and the only suspicious place is the demon altar.

That demon was also an elf, so it probably knew something.

"Everything will be determined after the summoning." Dumbledore said, "It seems that you don't want to eat dessert, so let's go. Take out the wand, although the power of the demon altar below is not very strong, I don't think it will appear What a powerful demon, but we still can't take it lightly. Of course, don't be too nervous."

Harry and Hermione seemed to want to ask something else, after all, they were about to face a demon.

This was territory they didn't understand, and tension and anxiety were inevitable, even with Dumbledore around.

But because I don't understand, there is nothing to ask.

Before, Aiwen had already said everything that should be said, and they came here today mainly to increase their knowledge.

Even for wizards, summoning demons is not a magic that can be seen at random.

A group of people walked through the kitchen to the cold storage in the back. Spots of golden light emerged from the ends of their respective wands, dispelling the darkness.

All kinds of food are piled up on the surrounding shelves, and in the deepest part of the shelves is the blue brick wall.

Across the brick wall, the walls of the back room were covered with the heads of house-elves, thousands of them.They are all crumpled, and they maintain their dead appearance at low temperature. They are lifelike and at the same time appear strange and terrifying. The huge and empty eyes look at the front indifferently, bringing a strong sensory stimulation to people.

Ivan heard Ron next to him gasp, and then quickly became silent again.

It is an ancient custom to hang the head of the house elf after death on the wall. The elves don't think there is anything wrong with it, but are proud of it, thinking that this is the greatest affirmation and reward for the house elf.

Separated by a wall, on one side is the Hogwarts kitchen and the cold storage where the ingredients are stored. Every day the students eat meals are cooked here; on the other side is the hell-like head exhibition hall. Mummy head.

Fortunately, none of the students at Hogwarts knew about it, otherwise no one would be able to eat it.

This is the "sacred place" in the eyes of traditional house elves, but since the discovery of the devil altar, house elves are no longer sure to approach this area.

They walked through the aisle hung with house-elves. Although the environment was not very suitable, Harry couldn't help but tell the conversation he overheard last night.

He endured it for a long time, and it was not easy to let Dumbledore speak out as soon as he saw Dumbledore.

"Professor, I have something to tell you about Snape and Malfoy," he said.

"It's Professor Snape, Harry." Dumbledore corrected him, who had been telling them about the history of Hogwarts house elves.

Since the school was founded, there have been house elves working here. Under Hufflepuff's claim and influence, Hogwarts once became the last refuge of house elves who lost their hometown. The place with the most elves.

"Yes, Professor Snape." Harry said, "We heard their conversation at Professor Slughorn's party last night, Ivan, Hermione."

"We actually tracked them down," Ivan added.