Harry Potter: The Golden Viper

0601 The Door

If the Dementors could still be considered something familiar to Harry and his friends after their traumatic encounters, then the ancient and weathered stone archway that now appeared before them left Harry feeling completely baffled.

He and Ron, their faces pale and eyes wide with a mixture of fear and wonder, both leaned in close to Hermione and asked in an urgent whisper, "Do you have any idea what this could be, Hermione? Was it ever mentioned in any of the books you've read?"

Hermione bit her lip, and slowly shook her head with an uncharacteristic hint of shame and self-doubt. The vast magical knowledge she had accumulated over the years and always took such pride in now seemed completely ineffective.

Despite trying to catch every word, she was unable to fully understand the cryptic discussion unfolding between Helga Hufflepuff and Rowena Ravenclaw. Nor could her mind discern the true nature and purpose of the seemingly simple stone door standing before them.

However, even if they couldn't grasp the door's secrets, there was one thing that Harry, Ron, Hermione and the others clearly understood on an almost instinctive level.

The stone archway before them, with its cracked and crumbling surface that surely was very old, was not something to be approached lightly or trifled with.

The ominous space beneath its curved beam was filled with a swirling, impenetrable blackness that seemed to suck in the dim light of the room, radiating an indescribable sense of dormant danger and dread that seeped into their bones and set hairs on end.

This ominous aura was potent enough to reach across the vast gulf of a thousand years and strike deep terror in their hearts making the three shiver involuntarily, sharing uneasy glances as they struggled not to take a step back.

Hermione, her irrepressible thirst for knowledge momentarily overcoming her unease, glanced again at Professor Watson. From Professor Watson's calm expression, she could tell that he understood some secrets. However, although she was also sure Professor Watson sensed her gaze and unspoken question, he made no response.

After a long moment, Hermione muttered a few indistinct words under her breath, their tone was unmistakably resentful. With great reluctance, she finally withdrew her stare from Bryan's annoyingly expressionless face.

Her eyebrows were furrowed with determination as she silently vowed to remember every detail of this strange scene so she could thoroughly investigate the matter on her own later.

'Lady Hufflepuff said she had entered the world behind the door?'

While Rowena Ravenclaw seemed unsurprised by Helga Hufflepuff's words regarding that she had apparently entered the ominous world lying beyond the archway, Bryan's eyes narrowed slightly in thought at this claim.

This doorway that exuded an aura of death was incomplete; it still lacked key coordinates. In the absence of coordinates, rashly entering the world behind the door would most likely result in being exiled to a void filled with chaotic spatial forces, or possibly appearing in the cold outer space.

While Helga Hufflepuff was undeniably a very powerful witch, one of the most powerful of her time, Bryan had to wonder if even she could emerge truly unscathed from either of those two lethally hostile environments he envisioned.

"What did you see, Helga?" Ravenclaw inquired.

Unexpectedly, Hufflepuff did not immediately reply. Instead, her gaze flicked meaningfully to the cluster of crystal orbs resting on pedestals along the left-hand wall. A subtle gesture, but one Rowena seemed to grasp at once as she turned to study the faintly glowing spheres with new realization.

"Most of the time, I died in dangerous spatial storms. Occasionally, I also perished in a completely unfamiliar, lifeless starry sky devoid of magic—"

Lady Hufflepuff's answer surprised the people of later generations, including Bryan.

What does this mean? Does Lady Hufflepuff have the ability to resurrect from the dead?! There was no such record in history at all, and even in the Wizarding world, this kind of ability was too unscientific, right?

But despite his astonishment, Bryan soon restrained his expression, replacing the open shock with focused skepticism as he turned a newly evaluating gaze on the ominous archway.

"In the starry sky lies your way home!"

Bryan once again recalled the revelation Merlin had left in the secret room of the centaur's sanctuary. This revelation had been troubling him recently. So much so that when Lady Hufflepuff just clearly stated that she could use this door to go to the starry sky, he immediately linked the two together.

Bryan's mind raced as he considered the facts and implications. This archway had almost certainly been here in the chamber during Merlin's time. After all, Merlin himself had moved the temple of Avalon from its original location on Azkaban to serve as a magic-warded prison for the Twin Serpent Staff. The stone sealing pillar which guarded the entrance to Herpo's hidden lair deep beneath Azkaban had likewise been Merlin's work. 

It therefore seemed most likely that Merlin had at some point explored Herpo's underground lair himself, including the secret chambers concealed below the magma. Perhaps it was precisely because of that exploration which prompted Merlin to create and conceal certain backup plans for the future, of which his message to Bryan was probably only a part.

Although obviously aware of the archway's existence and strange properties, Merlin had not removed or altered the partial coordinates already present on the door itself. That choice now struck Bryan as highly significant.

"Godric has been struggling to isolate and capture the sealing magic we discovered imbued in the pillar on that remote island in the North Sea," Ravenclaw went on, drawing Bryan back to the scene unfolding before them. "He is trying to trace it back to its source— hoping to find the legendary island of Avalon which you saw the young man from Salazar's House would one day reach. Meanwhile, Salazar himself is currently searching for the remaining coordinates..."

'Avalon!' At the mention of that legendary name, the bodies of all three young wizards went rigid with shock, trembling in unison. The tales of the 'Once and Future King' were renowned in both magical and Muggle society, though most regarded them as just myth and fanciful legend in these modern times.

As for Bryan, his face darkened – 'the young man from Salazar's House, this was probably referring to me, right?'

"As for the one he found—" Rowena continued, raising one hand. A small, rough black stone with a crack in the middle appeared above her open palm. "I have studied this coordinate since he found it. Based on its singular properties, I now believe it to be none other than one of the Deathly Hallows of legend."n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

'The Deathly Hallows?!' Bryan's brows suddenly furrowed. 'Could such mythical objects truly exist outside of the storybooks?'

Every child in the Wizarding World with Wizard Parents grew up hearing the tales of the three legendary Hallows, gifted to the Peverell brothers by Death himself according to the legends. The unbeatable Elder Wand, the Cloak of Invisibility which could hide its wearer even from Death's sight, and the Resurrection Stone said to hold the power to recall the dead.

For generations, those stories in Beedle the Bard's book had been regarded as little more than entertaining myths and warning morality plays. Few modern wizards seriously believed the Hallows existed. However, the legend of the Deathly Hallows was very popular in Northern Europe, and many secret witches and dark wizards were trying to find these three magical items, hoping to become the master of death.

And yet according to Rowena Ravenclaw, these three things turned out to be the coordinates to open this door of death?

'If the Hallows were real, then did that mean the being known as Death also existed?'

These dizzying thoughts swirled through the minds of Harry, Ron and Hermione as they watched the scene unfold.

"An alchemical catalyst stone, one that can trace and summon the shades of parted souls back to our world, if perhaps only for a time," Lady Hufflepuff stared at the black stone in Rowena's palm and sighed, "It's hard to imagine how such a thing could even be created—"

"On that point, I have developed a rather outlandish theory..." Rowena replied as she approached the archway with the stone held floating.

The veils on the door seemed to sense the appearance of an item of the same origin, and their frequency of fluttering in the air suddenly increased, as if eagerly welcoming back their complete self.

"Based on this stone's properties and its undeniable affinity for the archway, I've begun to suspect that neither originally belonged to our world at all," Ravenclaw continued, her face calm and eyes glittering.

"You believe the Hallows and archway were brought here from that world, Rowena?" Hufflepuff asked startled.

"This is the most likely guess. I believe that in some forgotten age long before our own, the boundary between our worlds was not as distant as it is today. That some incredibly powerful traveler possessed the means to pass between the two worlds at will. This being brought objects from that side back into our own, and forged them into a permanent bridge - this very archway." 

Ravenclaw spun to face Hufflepuff and continued in a cold voice.

"Don't you see Helga? This door would have allowed its creator to draw upon the strange magics of that place even after the worlds diverged and direct passage became impossible! And if they ever grew tired of our world's slow decline and stagnation, it offered an escape route. A way to reach new lands among the stars, untouched by magic's decline."

As she spoke, Ravenclaw began walking towards the archway. She grasped the black stone that had attracted everyone's attention, brushed aside the veils, and revealed three irregularly shaped indentations on the door of the archway.

As she continued to approach, the shape of the stone in Ravenclaw's hand became unstable. The hard-stone surface surged like flowing water, and in the end, it completely turned into a drop of black stone liquid!

Pop!

Under the tense gaze of the people a thousand years later, the attracted black stone liquid fell with a plop into an indentation, filling it, and then quickly solidified into a solid state!

Buzz—

The dark space under the stone archway visibly shook, and the turbulent magic power stirred up a strong wind in the entire room. At this time, those obscure magic runes on the ground were stimulated and lit up one after another, firmly confining the magic storm within range.

At this moment, Helga Hufflepuff and Rowena Ravenclaw finally demonstrated their legendary strength. The two were enveloped in cold blue light and gentle yellow light respectively. In the violent storm, they stood as firm as rocks in a raging sea, silently exuding a pressure that even distorted the surrounding space!

From where the black stone was embedded, dense and intricate fine lines gradually spread outward. They seemed like magic runes, but also more like natural patterns representing rules.

Harry, Ron, Hermione, and the two house-elves were startled by this commotion. They even forgot that this was just an illusion and instinctively retreated to the corner of the wall, watching the stone door in fear.

Suddenly, the shaking black curtain under the stone archway stabilized, but the commotion did not stop because of this. Instead, it became even more intense.

The black curtain, which exuded a desolate chill, burst out with a strong attraction. The surrounding magic power was devoured at an astonishing speed. Those shining magic runes on the ground became dim one after another as their magic power was drained. As the anomaly continued, a 'path' emitting light vaguely appeared behind the black curtain!

Bryan gazed at the luminous path behind the black curtain, his eyes unconsciously revealing longing.

"Control it, Rowena. I'll go in and take another look—" Lady Hufflepuff said in a deep voice.

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