Hogwarts, where the stars shine

Christmas is followed by New Year, and during this time Mesa and Gascoigne have become much closer.The two of them were either discussing silent spells or playing backgammon together.

In terms of chess, Gascoigne finally regained the ground he had lost before, killing Mesa without leaving any trace behind, and his methods were extremely cruel.Mesa, who failed to enter Europe, looked helplessly at his chess pieces standing still, wishing he could overturn the chessboard.

Fortunately, Mesa's chess game was not hopelessly bad, and things like flipping the table only happened in his mind.

As the new semester approaches and students begin to return to school, spots in front of the fireplace are becoming more popular again.The common room was full of students talking loudly, and even the dormitories were not peaceful.

One night, Mesa and Gascoigne left the lounge together.Some people feel strange about the combination of the two people, but some people think that it is normal for the two to get together, and it is only a matter of time.

After walking out of the noisy common room, Mesa and Gascoigne walked side by side in the twists and turns of the underground corridor, and finally entered an empty classroom.

This classroom is adjacent to the castle dungeon. There are few students here on weekdays, so it looks a bit eerie.

The two men in Mesa stood in front of a portrait of Mopsus, a prophet who lived in ancient Greece and defeated another prophet named Calchas in a contest.

Mopsus was also a diviner during the reign of Amphilochus, and he correctly predicted a disastrous defeat in the coming war.His opponent, the prophet Calchas, predicted that they would eventually achieve great victory.

This great wizard with powerful magic and accurate predictions later died in a dispute over the succession to the throne.It has to be said that this low-level way of death is somewhat unworthy of this highly skilled master.

"It's true!"

Mesa read the password, and the portrait of Mopsus creaked open, revealing a secret room hidden behind the portrait.There are many more portrait chamber combinations like this in Hogwarts.

Mesa, who was the first to enter the secret room, waved his wand and lit the candles fixed on the wall and hanging from the ceiling one by one.The light cast by more than a dozen candles illuminated the originally dark secret room.

The secret room is about half the size of an ordinary classroom, and the interior furnishings are very simple, with only a few chairs and a table.

"This place is nice," Gascoigne said. "I was also worried that it would be dark here. I was worried for nothing."

There are many secret rooms in the castle, and no one can tell how many there are, so it is normal that Gascoigne has never been here.

Gascoigne turned around in a circle and carefully looked at the enclosed space.The fixed position of the candlestick is very particular, lighting up every corner of the room, and the lit candle will not make people feel depressed.

On the only table was a book called "A Simple Introduction to Ancient Runes". Gascoigne flipped through it and asked, "Do you plan to take Ancient Runes as an elective next school year?"

At Hogwarts, third-year students are required to choose at least two elective courses.Divination, Arithmancy, Muggle Studies, Ancient Runes Studies and Care of Magical Creatures.

There is also an Alchemy course, which is a combination of Transfiguration, Potions and Muggle Chemistry, roughly focusing on learning the transformation of matter.

Unlike other electives, third-year students cannot take Alchemy.This extremely difficult course is only offered to NEWT level students when necessary.

"Well, I'm very interested in ancient runes." Mesa said, "Maybe I can learn some ancient magic."

"Most people have the same idea as you when they take the rune elective," Gascoigne said. "They want to translate the remaining rune manuscripts and find powerful ancient magic."

Mesa nodded. It seemed that he was not the only one with such wishful thinking!

He smiled and asked: "Then what? Did they drop out of the class disappointed because they didn't find the ancient magic?"

The ancient rune course offered at Hogwarts is a theoretical study aimed at studying the magical manuscripts of ancient runes.But this language is obscure and difficult to understand. It is not enough to just study it as a hobby in school.

Just like the "A Simple Introduction to Ancient Runes" placed on Mesa's table, it is basically equivalent to a primary school student's dictionary.Even if Mesa tore through the book, he still couldn't understand the ancient magic text.

If you want to translate ancient rune manuscripts and study the contents recorded above, you need to systematically learn rune knowledge and also need a lot of time to study.

"Absolutely, but you can't drop a class casually." Gascoigne said, "There must be a decent reason. You can't tell Professor Snape that the course is too difficult, right?"

In an instant, a picture appeared in Mesa. Snape would definitely look at the man with indifferent eyes, and most likely would say that he was a relative of the troll.

"And Professor Babling will also be sad." Gascoigne continued, "Her course is quite interesting. There are basically no shortcomings except that she can't understand it."

Several of the professors at Hogwarts are still very young, including Professor Bathshedda Barbling of Ancient Runes, Quirinus Quirrell of Muggle Studies, and of course the Slytherin House. Long Snape.

"Listening to what you said, did you also choose Ancient Runes?" Mesa asked, "That's why you have a deep understanding of this course...how should I say it?"

Gascoigne pulled up a chair and sat down.He said: "It's true. I really have no talent in this area and can only rely on rote memorization. After persisting in the OWLs exam, I gave up."

"The most important thing is that the content studied in the class has nothing to do with ancient magic." Gascoigne continued, "How about, after listening to my introduction, do you plan to continue taking this course?"

Ancient runes are very difficult to learn, and Mesa also knows this. He also struggles with rote memorization.Mesa's current mastery of runes is limited to counting in the language.

"I still want to take ancient runes as an elective." Mesa said firmly, "I am very interested in this language."

Brave Mesa, not afraid of difficulties.The difficulty of the ancient runes inspired Mesa's competitive spirit.And Mesa didn't tell the truth to Gascoigne.

The reason why there is so much interest in ancient runes is that there are many rune manuscripts in spirit skin space.If Mesa wants to study the above content, he must first understand the meaning of each word.

Mesa felt that those manuscripts were the treasures of Slytherin House and Hogwarts.

"By the way, do you want to listen to the opinions of people who have experienced it?" Gascoigne suggested, "I took all the elective courses in my third grade."

"All ears, I happen to be still hesitant about other elective courses." Mesa moved his chair and sat across from Gascoigne.

Gascoigne coughed twice, cleared his throat, and then began to comment on the professors in this secret room.If two people share a pot of green plum wine, it will have a little taste.

"The least recommended course is Divination, bar none." Gascoigne said, "This course requires extremely talented people, and Professor Trelawney seems very unreliable."

Sybill Trelawney, descendant of the famous seer Cassandra Trelawney.His hobbies are drinking and predicting the death of a certain classmate.Professor Trelawney would come to the first class every year and talk about it, but it never worked.

"The second course that is not recommended is Muggle Studies, which is useless at all." Gascoigne continued, "Muggle-borns and mixed-bloods don't need to learn it, and pure-blood wizards don't want to learn it. Everyone just goes to mix it up." Days."

Mesa thought for a while, instead of learning from the Muggles in the wizarding books, it would be better to find a village to live for a while.

Then, Gascoigne introduced Arithmetic Divination and Care of Magical Creatures classes respectively.These two elective courses are highly recommended by Gascoigne, who has been there.

Although Professor Keltburn seems unreliable, the old man's Care of Magical Creatures class is absolutely reliable and very interesting.

What makes Mesa most interesting is that Gascoigne actually used the words "scientific" and "rigorous" when referring to arithmetic divination.I don’t know whether Mesa misunderstood these two words or Gascoigne misunderstood.

As he listened, Mesa suddenly realized a question: How did Gascoigne arrange his schedule with so many courses?

"Wait a minute, can you take so many courses?" Mesa said, "Won't their times collide?"