Hogwarts Card System Chapter 196

Chapter 196: Secret Base

Slytherin himself, or rather, the mindset of that era, was quite ruthless.

Many of the experiments, Ted felt were a bit too cruel just by looking at their designs.

If contemporary wizards were to know about these, they would surely beat him to death.

“These things are too dangerous. I’ll screen them first and pick out some that are useful for us to learn. A comprehensive study is impossible; many things are no longer suitable.”

His companions naturally supported Ted’s decision, as many things on the bookshelves were already so terrifying that people dared not look at them after just two pages. Some content made people want to vomit just from the textual descriptions.

Just one more glance at this stuff felt evil!

Hermione glanced around and asked quietly, “Are we going to leave these things here?”

“I’m worried that the professors will seal off the entrance soon, won’t they?”

Her concern was not unfounded, but Ted thought sealing it off was unlikely. However, being able to enter so freely again would be impossible.

Perhaps Dumbledore would use this place as a temporary refuge or a fallback.

Over the past thousand years, countless secret rooms leading out of the school had been built. One more was one more!

“I think we can make use of the Room of Requirement!”

“The Room of Requirement?” Harry was very surprised.

“Uh~” Ted glanced at Hermione; this secret couldn’t be kept anymore.

After mentioning the Room of Requirement, Ted was complained about by his companions for quite a while.

Why didn’t you tell us about such an interesting place earlier? We could have lived there from morning till night!

Ted: I was afraid that once you knew, you’d cause trouble there every day! There’s also a diadem in there; if you really touched it, you’d be in big trouble!

Ted used a contractual magic, and the six of them signed a hastily drafted magical contract together. They swore to the door of Ravenclaw’s secret chamber to keep the secret and to use Hogwarts’ magical power to create a secret base for the six of them!

This time, it was a truly secret base, not an abandoned classroom.

From now on, even the Headmaster wouldn’t be able to snoop in here.

Ted had, after all, obtained a lot of information from Ravenclaw’s secret chamber, especially the many records in her diary about when she built the school. So, borrowing the school’s magic wasn’t difficult.

In fact, even now, professors had ways to borrow the school’s power, for example, by running clubs, which was equivalent to having a small part of the authority.

Ted merely bypassed their authority and applied for a small permission from the back door.

From then on, just like Ravenclaw’s secret chamber, this secret base, with the Room of Requirement as its entrance, could only be entered by the six of them.

“Alright, I think that’s enough!” Ron complained weakly.

Ever since they “applied” for the base, the two girls began decorating it. After more than an hour, they still weren’t satisfied, leaving Ron and the others exhausted!

Weren’t a few bookshelves, a few tables and chairs, and a sofa enough? Why were there sculptures, flowers, paintings, porcelain vases… they were so slow!

Ted, meanwhile, had already selected a portion of suitable knowledge for current learning and understanding and placed it on the bookshelves.

There were not only Slytherin’s but also Ravenclaw’s.

Just the ancient runes materials filled two large bookshelves!

A normal person would probably take a year or more just to read through them all.

Next year, elective courses would start, so getting a head start on ancient runes now was perfect timing.

There were also materials on the evolution of spells and some not-too-extreme ancient spells, which could be learned when they had time.

Because they were completely different from the current magical system, they might have unexpected effects. Of course, the difficulty was also extremely high.

…

Everyone was excited for half a day because of the secret base. It wasn’t until dinner that Hermione suddenly said, “Did we forget about Gryffindor’s treasure?”

The Gryffindor quartet then remembered: Oh right! How could we forget our own founder?

There were only a few days left until the holidays, so it was probably out of the question this year.

Ron suggested, “Do you think we could apply to stay at school?”

Harry dispelled his delusion: “Don’t dream. Students aren’t allowed to stay at school during the summer holidays.”

“But going home for the holidays is so boring!” Ron suddenly felt that staying at school was better. He could eat big chicken legs until he was full every day. There was nothing fun to do at home, and he wouldn’t have his companions.

“I still hope we can stay at school, learn and have fun together. I’ve barely learned anything this year…” he said.

Jerry patted Ron’s shoulder: “My mom says people get smarter after experiencing setbacks… but they don’t get richer.”

Ron was happy at first, then rolled his eyes: Thanks for reminding me! I’m going to buy a new wand as soon as the holidays start.

“At the very least, we should try to find out about Sir Cadogan these next few days, shouldn’t we?” Hermione suggested.

Ted pulled out a book, “I’ve already looked him up… Sir Cadogan is said to be a knight from Merlin’s time, rumored to be one of the Knights of the Round Table.”

Everyone quickly scrambled to grab the book and started flipping through it.

After reading for a long time, they all felt a bit confused.

Harry threw the book down, complaining, “How are we supposed to find someone older than the school itself? We might as well try to find Merlin!”

It was probably something like a portrait or a statue. Gryffindor wouldn’t have scattered clues far and wide; most likely, they were still within the school.

The next day, at breakfast, students at the school received the Daily Prophet delivered by owls.

The front-page headline was “Shocking! Hogwarts Turmoil!”

Ted: This headline sounds familiar?

Flipping through it, good heavens, it claimed to be the full story of the Chamber of Secrets incident at Hogwarts.

However, many things were hearsay, and the text was extremely exaggerated in its depiction of a terrifying and tense atmosphere. One might think it was a suspenseful horror novel.

And although it didn’t explicitly mention Dumbledore, the words subtly implied that Dumbledore had played an unsavory role in it.

It also stated that nearly ten students were attacked and petrified! Five could indeed be considered “nearly ten”…

The final summary also made sarcastic criticisms.

This writing style was very similar to the Southern School of journalism.

Ted looked at the end, “By Rita Skeeter, Special Correspondent for the Daily Prophet.”

This woman was quite a troublemaker!

After reading the newspaper, many young wizards felt that this year had been truly tough and perilous.

Some more intelligent young wizards felt a bit off; something about the report seemed wrong, but they couldn’t pinpoint it.

Ted, meanwhile, was thinking, what exactly did this woman, who in the original story was adept at chasing trends, fabricating stories, and saying anything for popularity and sales, want to do?

This was Dumbledore!

He was not only the pinnacle of the British wizarding world but also universally recognized as the greatest white wizard in the entire magical world.

Although he had been very low-key for the past decade or so, his reputation remained. Why would someone suddenly attack him?

Lucius, representing the pure-blood faction?

No, Lucius should be very well-behaved recently because of the diary incident and definitely wouldn’t provoke Dumbledore. He even accepted being kicked off the school board without objection.

So who could it be? Without someone driving her for profit, this woman shouldn’t actively provoke Dumbledore.

Judging by the young wizards still at school, the article did have an effect.

Although it wasn’t a direct attack, it might just be the beginning.

However, Ted didn’t plan to interfere. Giving Dumbledore something to do was also a good thing for him.

Although they had already talked and stated their positions, having a pair of eyes constantly watching him was uncomfortable, wasn’t it?

The holidays were approaching, and Ted gave Hagrid a small gift—a moving Basilisk figurine.

He hoped Hagrid would forget the bitterness of spending several days in Azkaban.

Hagrid: Oh, my goodness, look at it, how cute!

Ted: My friend, you shouldn’t keep that!

(End of Chapter)