Chapter 63: Rowena’s Poem
Time quietly passed, and November was soon over. One day, upon waking, heavy snow had suddenly descended upon Hogwarts.
The castle, the surrounding mountain peaks, the Black Lake, and the Forbidden Forest were all covered by several feet of pristine white snow.
The courtyard, usually bustling with young wizards, was now deserted.
Even the corridors were much quieter; the weather was so cold that the draft seemed to penetrate to the bone.
The fireplaces in the common rooms of the four houses burned with roaring fires every day.
Everyone basically stayed huddled there, only reluctantly shifting their thickly bundled bodies when it was time for class.
Consequently, Snape’s Potions class was ranked the least popular class, without exception, because the Potions classroom was in the basement, damp and cold, and the esteemed Professor Snape wouldn’t even light a bonfire for the young wizards.
He told them: “Potion ingredients like the dark; you need to learn to endure, to learn to draw nutrition and warmth from your own fatty deposits. I must say, Hogwarts feeds you a bit too well!”
But in reality, his own office was quite warm.
The fireplace there had been continuously lit since the start of winter.
On the afternoon of the day the heavy snow fell, Vaughn was in Snape’s office, organizing materials.
Snape sat by the fireplace, warming himself while reading Vaughn’s submitted thesis.
Actually, it was more like Vaughn’s project notes for a new potion.
“…In the process of separating properties, I discovered a very peculiar phenomenon: the properties of potion ingredients are not limited to what substance they are made of, or what magic they possess when alive. The emergence of properties also involves an ineffable mystical direction, such as the influence and positioning of legends upon them…”
“Take the Fairy flower petal as an example. It has always been the primary ingredient for Love Potions, but in reality, the Fairy flower is not a magical plant; it possesses no magic called love, and its constituent substance can only be used for calming and pain relief. （ Muggles also used it as a medicinal herb. ）”
“It wasn’t until I consulted the Hogwarts collection of books that I discovered something interesting – starting a few hundred years ago, it was suddenly endowed with new meaning by Muggles.”
“This all originated from a wizard’s prank. He told Muggles that Fairy flowers could be used to deceive for love and bewitch the mind. The Muggles believed him, and amidst the anti-wizard sentiment prevalent at the time, they passed this lie down as a cultural means of identifying wizards.”
“The wizard who wrote the book mocked the Muggles’ foolishness. But hundreds of years later, the Fairy flower, which could originally only be used for calming and pain relief, truly gained the effect of bewitching the mind, and thus Love Potions were born…”
Upon reading this, Snape couldn’t help but look up: “Is what this says true?”
“Which part?”
“That Muggle legends can impart properties to ingredients.”
“Oh, you’ve just reached the part about the Fairy flower, haven’t you?” Vaughn paused in selecting ingredients, thought for a moment, and said, “I can’t say it’s absolutely true, but based on the few ingredients I’ve tested so far and their related plants, it’s highly probable.”
This was somewhat beyond their comprehension. Including Snape, potioneers had never examined their seemingly familiar potion ingredients from such an angle!
Previously, they had always believed it was the combined effect of magic and rituals during potion brewing.
Could it be…
That Muggle legends, after centuries of evolution, also became a part of magic?
Snape, who believed in blood purity, felt a bit uneasy.
He gently wiped his forehead, where a fine layer of sweat had appeared at some point, and continued reading.
Unfortunately, Vaughn had not delved further into this issue in his notes.
After all, this was a thesis on Potions, and he was primarily discussing potions.
“…This discovery greatly expanded my horizons. I began to consciously search for things mentioned in Muggle legends and noticed an ingredient: wolfsbane!”
“This highly poisonous plant is common in both the Wizarding World and Muggle society. The Wizarding World has always used it as a poison additive or a balancing agent in certain potions. However, in Muggle legends, it has been endowed with a unique purpose since ancient times: killing werewolves!”
“Therefore, it’s also called wolfsbane aconite, or wolfsbane grass… I have successfully isolated this property, and it may possess peculiar functions, such as inhibiting the Werewolf Virus!”
Snape finally put down the thesis.
He wanted to smash it to the ground, but for some reason, he didn’t. He wanted to vent his anger and question Vaughn, but he didn’t know how to start.
His face was ashen as he struggled to suppress his irritation, asking Vaughn, “You want to develop a medicine to treat werewolves? Why?”
Vaughn appeared innocent, seemingly surprised by the professor’s displeasure: “Uh, Professor, I believe the Wizarding World urgently needs this potion. That madman Fenrir Greyback has been trying to expand the werewolf population, and the number of werewolves in the Wizarding World is increasing every year.”
Snape was speechless.
The subsequent questions died on his lips. He paced back and forth indignantly for a few steps, then left with a flick of his cloak.
Vaughn didn’t mind. While Snape might dislike werewolves because of someone specific, he believed the other person would eventually accept his choice.
That’s right, the new medicine he wanted to develop was the Wolfsbane Potion!
What he had said to Snape was indeed one of the reasons he chose to develop this potion. Fenrir Greyback was ambitious, and over the years, countless families and young wizards had suffered because of him.
He would scratch them, infect them, and turn them into uncontrollable werewolves!
Then, by exploiting the fear and rejection that wizards had towards werewolves, he would forcibly create a marginalized class in the Wizarding World, a group of pitiable, homeless people.
They had no future, and when they were finally driven to desperation, they would have no choice but to become members of Greyback’s werewolf legion!
That’s why Vaughn wanted to develop the Wolfsbane Potion. Once successfully introduced, it could save countless families and eliminate a major concern for the Wizarding World, or rather, the Ministry of Magic!
At that time, his reputation would naturally soar.
“If it weren’t for the research and promotion of the Wolfsbane Potion, why would I be playing along with Old Dumbledore? It’s precisely to borrow his name. Fudge hasn’t gone to the dogs yet and still listens to Old Dumbledore. I hope he doesn’t overstep himself…”
Thinking silently, Vaughn began to select auxiliary ingredients based on the properties extracted from aconite.
More than half an hour later, Snape, who had stormed off, returned in a hurry.
His elongated face was still tense, but Vaughn, who knew him well, knew he was no longer angry.
As expected, after staring at Vaughn in silence for a moment, he asked, “You haven’t tested aconite against the Werewolf Virus yet?”
Vaughn spread his hands: “I can’t find any werewolves, Professor.”
“…” Snape shook his hair violently, gritted his teeth for a long moment, and spat out a few words through clenched teeth:
“Christmas, come out with me!”
“Alright, Professor… By the way, I heard you dislike Potter’s shampoo. I’m developing a new type of shampoo product, would you like to try it?”
“Vaughn—Weasley—shut your mouth!”
Vaughn smiled and said, “Alright, Professor!”
During the second week of December, Professor McGonagall began registering students who would stay at Hogwarts for Christmas. Vaughn, Ron, and Harry, along with the twins, all signed up.
From that day on, the atmosphere at the school became one of casual disregard.
The young wizards were absent-minded all day, everyone looking forward to the arrival of the holidays. Finally, the week before Christmas, as the heavy iron gates of Hogwarts, closed for months, slowly opened, the Hogwarts Express, trailing smoke, emerged from the distant mountains.
The holidays had begun, and Vaughn, Harry, and Ron saw Hermione off together.
Upon their return, the greatly emptied Hogwarts was like a wilderness after a morning snowfall, vast and silent.
The twins, hopping with excitement, prepared to go to Hogsmeade. They already knew their Christmas gift – Vaughn would give them 10 Galleons.
They were going to select materials to develop new products for “Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes.” The earlier canary crème puffs had become very popular thanks to Ron’s “passionate” demonstration on Quidditch match day.
Young wizards were happy to spend a few copper nuts to buy these prank items, then casually hand them to a friend, watching as their friend suddenly transformed into a large, plump canary while talking or reading.
The twins, with their combined efforts, had successfully disintegrated numerous factions at Hogwarts from the Quidditch match until Christmas.
Some youngsters with peculiar ideas, who gave the biscuits to their girlfriends, were even gifted with singlehood.
Compared to the twins’ entrepreneurial spirit, Ron and Harry, these academically challenged students, had a more mundane plan: they intended to spend the entire day playing Wizard’s Chess in the common room.
Harry actually didn’t like it because he was too bad at it, and the chess pieces never listened to him.
“Stupid player, do you want me to stab my sword into your skull? Why aren’t you letting that damn King advance? It doesn’t matter if it dies anyway!”
“Merlin’s beard—who will save me, my lower half is gone—”
That bizarre Knight, who had severed its own lower half to disobey his commands and then crawled with its upper half, became Harry’s nightmare that night.
They had all left, leaving Vaughn alone. However, Vaughn enjoyed the tranquility of having fewer people around.
He wandered around the vast, empty Hogwarts a few times, then borrowed a book from the library and took it with his Guo Guo Cha to the Black Lake.
Due to the increasingly low temperatures in the Scottish Highlands, the Black Lake had frozen several feet thick, solid and firm.
Normally, many young wizards would appear here, clumsily sliding on the ice like fat penguins. Today, none of them were present. Vaughn conjured a lounge chair, wrapped himself in a velvet cloak, and comfortably lay down, basking in the hazy winter sun.
The book he borrowed was not a magic book, but a poetry collection titled 《 A Song to the Soul 》.
From this literary title alone, one could tell it was another work with a strong Ravenclaw Academy flavor. Its author’s name was even more fitting:
Rowena Ravenclaw!
Yes, she was one of the four founders of Hogwarts, the legendary witch of a thousand years ago renowned throughout the world for her wisdom, Ravenclaw.
Her life’s works were countless, but few were related to magic. On the contrary, literary works constituted the majority.
Knowing of the existence of the Chamber of Secrets, Vaughn was very interested in the four founders of Hogwarts.
Since Slytherin could leave behind a Chamber of Secrets, what about the other founders? Vaughn researched their biographies and judged that Helga Hufflepuff was the least likely to have left a Chamber of Secrets.
She was a very low-key and gentle witch whose greatest joy in life was cooking. If one had to say she left behind a Chamber of Secrets, it would most likely be the Hogwarts Kitchen.
It was located next to the Hufflepuff common room, with a disguised door that would only open if you tickled the pear-shaped handle.
As for Gryffindor… it was hard to say. While there was much written about him in the Wizarding World, it was mostly focused on his flamboyant actions and fiery temper, which obscured his true personality.
In Vaughn’s opinion, Rowena Ravenclaw was the most likely to have left behind a Chamber of Secrets or a legacy!
He opened the poetry collection, flipped to the target page using the table of contents, and saw a line of elegant script （ Hogwarts’ collection consists of the founders’ original works ）:
I wander the path of years.
When I raise my eyes to look,
Wherever I gaze,
A shadow accompanies me.
That is my confidant.
We share joys and speak our hearts.
…
The shadow built a tomb for itself
Right beneath the beloved castle.
When one day I am weary and tired,
I will hold the flowers of longing for Helena,
And fall into slumber beside it.
After finishing the poem, Vaughn didn’t turn any further pages. This was a poem he had accidentally come across recently while browsing Ravenclaw’s collected works, which was why he specifically sought out the original manuscript.
The poem had a slight Lake Poets flavor, fitting Ravenclaw’s artistic and romantic personality.
But what truly captured his attention was the content of the poem.
“For many years, many people have interpreted this poem, believing that Lady Ravenclaw wrote it out of sorrow for Helena, and that the shadow and tomb in the poem were her premonition of her daughter’s fate.”
But Vaughn had a different opinion.
He felt those people were misled by Helena’s name, and they were unaware of the existence of Slytherin’s Chamber of Secrets.
This poem was likely written by a gravely ill Lady Ravenclaw, recalling her old friend, Salazar Slytherin, who had already departed.
At that time, due to Helena’s betrayal, she wished to have someone to talk to and confide in, but fearing she would bring shame upon her family, she could only express her grievances in poetry to the shadow of Slytherin, who had long since left.
But regarding her own end, the wise woman had already made arrangements.
The end of the poem revealed that she had likely discovered Slytherin’s Chamber of Secrets long ago and, next to that chamber, had also built a hidden place for herself.
Letting all her secrets rest with her in death!
Vaughn closed the poetry collection, shut his eyes, and sat in silent contemplation under the sun.
He no longer held much hope for Slytherin’s Chamber of Secrets. Recently, while specializing in Memory Magic, he had re-examined his memories from his past life, focusing on various details from the original story.
Coupled with recently reviewed materials, he could conclude that Slytherin’s Chamber of Secrets had likely been opened multiple times.
The evidence was that he found Hogwarts’ renovation records. In the 18th century, Hogwarts underwent a renovation to install a sewage system, and the person in charge was a man named Corvinus Gaunt.
The Gaunt family, direct descendants of Slytherin.
They had been hiding the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets, which also implied that the chamber had likely been rummaged through countless times by them.
Anything of value had likely been completely plundered, leaving only an old Basilisk to trap those who came after!
