“Herpo?!”
Ron yelped briefly, and the people in the common room immediately looked in their direction, so he hurriedly lowered his head with his nose almost pressed against the table as he waved at Harry and Hermione.
The two came closer and Ron’s eyes darted around as he asked in a whisper, “Is … that Herpo? The creator of the Horcrux?”
“That’s right.” Hermione said.
Ron looked favourably at the dusty hourglass, Harry had previously wiped the surface dust on it, but it still remained very old in appearance, Ron asked in a trembling voice: “Do you think … this may contain a part of Herpo’s?”
“You mean the Horcrux?” Harry asked nervously, looking at the hourglass, which is being held in Hermione’s hand.
“No!”
Hermione said crisply, “Professor Hap has checked it before …”
She looked up, sat up straight, and retold the story of what happened in the Egypt Pyramid, highlighting the description of the statue of Herpo and the altar, and how the statue had decayed.
“It’s hard to understand when I say it like that … you guys wait a minute!”
She “stomped” back to the girls’ dormitory, not long after bringing back a chestnut wooden shallow disk, Harry and Ron understood her intention – to use the memory disk to recreate the scene at that time.
So they sat around and watched the churning silver sand inside the memory disk, the dark and gloomy pyramid darkroom from the summer holiday reappeared, the narrow aisle covered with curses, the basilisk corpses that were isolated from the world as if forgotten by time, and a brief glimpse of the statue that quickly dissolved into dust.
What they saw was from Hermione’s point of view, she arrived a little later than Felix, only to see him blow a breath, then the statue completely crumbled away, before turning into a fine dust as it disappeared.
Harry and Ron watched the scene with shock, and no exquisite words could fully describe the scene.
“Hold on a second,” Hermione said, staring unblinkingly at the memory disk, “the reliefs on the sidewalls of the altar are inlaid with gems and small artefacts which are considered antique by modern standards … Look here! ”
Harry and Ron came closer, and with the help of Hermione’s memory, they could see the altar rotating, revealing the side walls carved with different shapes of wizard images.
“Where is that? All I see are gems!” Ron practically put his nose in it.
“Don’t just focus on the gems, these wizard reliefs are the highlight, they’re holding artefacts in their hands.” Hermione reached out her finger and pointed one by one, “The gems are all around the edges, and from their placement, they are pure decoration. Oh, of course, with Herpo’s craftiness, it’s not impossible for it to contain curses, but they must have faded away by now.”
Harry looked closely and sure enough found these wizard reliefs holding various small items – like vials, quills, small wooden sticks (possibly wands?), and … a dusty hourglass.
“True, there is indeed an hourglass, it looks exactly the same!” Ron said in amazement, “You’ve quite a good memory, Hermione.”
Hermione grunted twice in smugness: “At first I thought the hourglass is a Time-Turner, you know I once kept it for a year … but I soon realized they were different, although the size is about the same, the Time-Turner is a golden time-piece, with both ends of the hourglass being spherical, while Harry’s one is flat and could be placed upright on a table.”
“How would we know … it’s not like we’ve ever seen one.” Ron grunted in a small voice.
Intrigued, he picked up the hourglass and placed it upright on the table for a closer look, and through the gray, glass-like translucent container, he could vaguely see some dark golden clusters inside, which were piled up and completely out of fluidity.
“Are you really sure there is no trace of magic left on it?”
Hermione hesitated: “What I can be sure of is that it’s at least not a Horcrux, nor a cursed object. Professor Hap’s magical perspective can see traces of magic.”
“How convenient.” Ron said, but apparently, he cared more about the conclusion given by an expert in the field and had no interest in delving deeper when his purpose is accomplished. He picked up the hourglass and shook it vigorously, the dark golden substance inside seemed to be stuck to the inner container and did not move.
“Oh, it looks like whatever it once was, but now it’s just a pretty ordinary thing, I know some places in Diagon Alley that take these kinds of items, you know, antiques … Are you going to sell it, Harry?”
Harry shook his head, “It kinda looks like a memento, doesn’t it? At least it reminds me that the Horcrux can decay too,” he grinned and said in a mocking tone, “If I ever meet Voldemort, I’ll tell him that his desire for immortality is just a pipe dream.”
…
The next day, November 25, a full month ahead of Christmas, the young wizards noticed that the temperature had fallen sharply, a thick layer of light blue frost covered the windows of the castle, and the sky clouded as if a storm is brewing.
“It’s truly a torture to attend a Care of Magical Creatures class at this time of year!”
On their way to the Ancient Rune classroom, Harry and the group heard a fifth-year girl complain to her friends. Ron chuckled playfully and said, “Hagrid’s Firetrail Snail will keep them warm.”
Harry couldn’t suppress his grin.
In the Ancient Rune classroom, Professor Hap was leafing through the Daily Prophet as a steady stream of students walked by and greeted him, to which he nodded in response. He rose from his chair at the side of the podium when everyone had arrived, the hem of his overcoat grazed the arm of the chair.
” Glad to see we’re not missing a person or two in class, especially with the end of the first trail of the tournament.” Felix dusted the newspaper in his hand, “It mentions that Hogwarts took both first and second place, and when the Minister of Magic was interviewed he praised the results of Hogwarts’ training under the administration of Headmaster Dumbledore. Of course … in my opinion, Professor Griselda Marchbanks of the Wizarding Examinations Authority provided a much sharper and more enlightening perspective, for those of you who are interested.”
“Well, let’s start today’s lesson.”
Felix inquired in class, “Has anyone heard of the man ‘Andros the Invincible’?”
Hermione was the first to raise her hand, which wasn’t surprising; what was surprising was that Ron raised his hand as well. Harry stared at him in disbelief, looking a little lost in thought, as Ron shrank back and tried to put his hand down.
“Mr. Weasley?” Felix called.
“Uh, the Andros the Invincible …” Ron stood up and said not so confidently, “I read it from the description of the Chocolate Frog cards – I have collected them, and now I am only short of two of them – he is an Ancient Greek wizard, known for his powerful charms, and he was able to conjure a Patronus as big as a giant … He is also very skilled at dueling, and many people cannot withstand a single spell from him …”
He saw the professor looking at himself with a smile, so he searched his mind and soul, so he could describe him: “Andros should be from the same era as the Herpo the Foul, maybe they have met? Probably even fought …”
Many students looked at Ron with amazement.
“Take your seat, Mr. Weasley. Most of what you said is correct, except for the last sentence. Because it happened during an ancient time when specialized history writers were not common as of later date, so we can only look for historical facts from a very few words. And there is no evidence to suggest that they had ever met …”
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