Hogwarts Castle was a vast complex of buildings, with many towers and turrets, as well as deep dungeons. Children who loved exploring had visited nearly every corner of the castle, but there was one tower that no student had ever entered.
Everyone knew that although Augureys had brightly colored feathers, they repelled all ink. They could also predict the weather, and some people had once kept them as household weather forecasters. However, winters in the British Isles were forever damp and rainy, causing Augureys to wail incessantly throughout the season.
It was quite irritating. In the Middle Ages, there had been a wizard named Uric who kept fifty Augureys and slept in the same room as them. During one particularly wet winter, Uric believed he had died and become a ghost. After getting up, he tried to pass through the wall of his house, resulting in a concussion that lasted ten days.
He had also tried to prove that Augurey cries were not only harmless to people, but beneficial to their health. After listening to them for three consecutive months, he presented the results of his investigation to the Wizards' Council. The council was unmoved. Later, people discovered that what he wore on his head was not a wig, but a dead badger.
Thus, keeping Augureys became an ominous symbol. Even after people learned that they no longer foretold death, they were still remembered alongside the laughable Uric.
No one wanted to go mad, yet most madmen did not know they had already gone mad. They immersed themselves alone in their own worlds.
When Pomona climbed the stairs behind the locked door and reached the top of the tower, she had expected to find only Albus there. To her surprise, Minerva was there as well.
Minerva stood closer to the