Chapter 299

The next day, Selma approached Sean with several photos.

These are not the kind of black-and-white photographs of Wizarding World that depict movement, but rather static color photographs.

"About a curse?" Sean took the photo with a puzzled look.

Selma explained, "You know, my parents are archaeologists, and many of the ruins are actually related to witches. They sometimes come into contact with these things during their archaeological work."

Sean nodded. Archaeologists are probably the Muggle profession that interacts most with wizards, or more accurately, with wizarding ruins.

Wizards only began to form large communities from the Middle Ages onwards. Before that, the largest groups of wizards were often just a family or a close-knit circle.

This also means that many of the ruins left behind by wizards after their deaths are often first encountered by Muggle.

Under normal circumstances, ordinary wizarding relics and artifacts will not cause disasters or accidents. After all, ordinary wizards would not be idle enough to set up defensive and trap magic in their own homes that would last for hundreds of years. If there is an accident, the Ministry of Magic will send staff to deal with it.

As far as Sean knows, many museums have wizarding artifacts in display cases that are indistinguishable from ordinary cultural relics.

For example, the Egypt pyramids were created by wizards, but the actual excavation and development were started by Muggle. In the early days of archaeology, many archaeologists and staff encountered terrible accidents, which gradually became folk myths and legends. Those were actually magical accidents that no one dealt with.

Later, the Egyptian Ministry of Magic and the highest levels of the Egypt government cooperated to open the harmless pyramids to tourists, while some pyramids that were still dangerous or contained artifacts created by wizards were closed.

Similarly, there are still many undiscovered wizarding sites around the world, regardless of size.

And those who come into contact with them first are often archaeologists.

The photo Selma handed over showed a brownish-yellow weathered rock surface, with a raised, hollowed-out hemisphere at its very center. The hemisphere was shiny, with a dark gray metallic sheen, and faint blue lines could be seen within it.

"This is... Magical Metal Alchemical Creation; the main body must have been forged by Goblin," Sean said after squinting at it for a while.

The characteristics of the Magical Metal are obvious, and judging from the weathering of that wall, it must be several hundred years old. At that time, only Goblin could create such a hollowed-out technique.

Selma nodded. "That's right, it must have been left by a wizard."

"Then the spell... oh... it's already revealed?" Sean paused for a moment before realizing what was happening.

This unidentified magical artifact is clearly in a triggered state.

"Yes, the spell was visible above the hemisphere, too large for a camera to capture; it could only be observed with the naked eye at close range from a specific angle," Selma said.

The ability to avoid being observed and recorded by magic is one of the characteristics of orthodox creations of ancient wizards.

"My parents discovered it during a summer expedition. It was later taken over by the local Ministry of Magic. Because I am a wizard, they were not erased from their memories, but were asked to keep it a secret. However, my parents remembered the shape of the spell. I studied it for a while and found that it was Sweden - Norway Runes turned out to be a spell."

Sean looked at Selma with a puzzled expression. "Well, as you know, I Runes, haven't even stepped into the door yet, and Professor Babbling should be more adept at this kind of question, right?"

Selma said with some excitement, "That's just a spell, not Ancient Spell. It's a spell written in Runes. If you cast it using the Ancient Magic method, the spell won't work."

Now Sean was intrigued. The spell Selma mentioned must be a universal spell, also known as Ancient Magic. Ancient Magic differs from Ancient Magic; these spells haven't changed much from ancient times to the present, and modern wizards can cast them without the aid of Runes symbols.

These types of magic are either extremely versatile or have very strict casting conditions, and very few have survived in the modern Wizarding World.

Sean speculated that the Magic of Love Lily cast in the original story was a type of Ancient Magic.

"Then why come to me?" Sean was confused again. He could get the same answer to this kind of curse by going to Professor Flitwick.

For the first time, Selma wore a thieving expression. She looked around to make sure no one was nearby before leaning close to Sean and whispering.

"I suspect it's a form of Dark Arts."

Dark Arts... Sean nodded knowingly. This was one of the Ravenclaw students' Little Nine. The hawks didn't seem to be as averse to Dark Arts as the lion cubs.

Back in Newmontgard, the young eagles always progressed faster than those from other academies in their courses on Magical Attack and Defense.

Selma moved a little closer, her gaze intense. "Sean, no, President—heh heh, I know, you know a lot of Dark Arts. In the Magic Attack and Defense Class, you're always the one who masters it the fastest, like that Blood Loss Curse, which is clearly a modified version of the Dark Arts Boiling Blood Curse. The beginning and root of the spell have changed, the pause has shifted, but the wand movements are barely altered."

"During the large lecture, Professor Gurey called you up to demonstrate. The starting motion for the Blood Loss Curse involves a downward press. Although your movements were very fast, I still saw it. You habitually started with an upward flick of your right hand, which is actually the starting motion for the Boiling Blood Curse, right? Removing that downward press doesn't affect the spell itself; it only increases the wizard's initial magic output significantly. This is a movement that only someone familiar with the Boiling Blood Curse could make..."

Looking at the excited Selma, Sean tried to blink innocently. She was right. After he became familiar with it, he also found that the Blood Loss Curse was a modified version of the Boiling Blood Curse. Being familiar with the spell, he would naturally subconsciously omit unnecessary actions.

"Wait a minute..." Sean squinted and chuckled, "Miss Murphy, you're quite familiar with her too?"

Selma's face stiffened. "Uh, well..."

"Uh-huh?"

The fifth-grader's expression changed, and finally, somewhat resignedly, she slumped onto the table. "Fine, I secretly practiced Dark Arts —but I couldn't help it. As the daughter of an archaeologist, isn't it natural to be curious about all sorts of mysterious things?"

"And..." Selma's expression was a mix of distress and something else, "I seem to have quite a talent for learning Dark Arts ..."

What a coincidence, I'm also very talented, the kind of exceptionally talented...

The two exchanged a somewhat awkward glance, and finally reached a consensus.

"It's okay to learn about it, but you must pay attention when using it."

Returning to the curse, Selma wrote the incantation on the parchment.

"Purify the heart, cleanse the body, let the holy blood enter the body, and be reborn from the cocoon."

Sean examined the spell with some doubt. Judging from the meaning of the words, it seemed to be some kind of enhancement magic. The root words were redundant, but it was also in line with the extremely long spells of Ancient Magic.

"Judging from the meaning of the words, spells involving blood are generally related to Dark Arts, so I don't dare to test them. You are more experienced and have studied with Mr. Grindelwald for a while. So, do you have any clues?" Selma asked with great interest.

"It doesn't seem to be Dark Arts ..." Sean murmured.

He had just glanced at the system panel, and with his current Dark Arts Talent, he would quickly grasp the effect of the spell, even if it was just the incantation.

However, no new spells appeared on the panel.

"Is there a wand gesture?" he asked.

"No, that's all I translated. There were no gestures."

"Hmm, where did your parents see it?"

"Huaxia. They weren't actually on site. That wall was moved from the ruins. The local Chinese archaeological experts were the first eyewitnesses. Here are a few photos from the scene." Selma handed over the other photos.

Sean took the photo and examined it.

The photos don't show the original appearance of the site; they only show that it is located in the mountains and forests.

"To be honest, this shouldn't be Dark Arts; I think it might be some kind of ritual," Sean said.

Selma leaned over and took a look, then looked up in confusion and asked, "Why do you say that?"

"If it were Ancient Magic, your parents wouldn't have been able to get these photos. Now that you think about it, it might be some kind of ritual or method. These kinds of things exist all over the world, but with the passage of time, all that's left of the ritual is this one sentence. The materials and effects of the ritual are all unknown. This thing is basically useless. As far as I know, the International Confederation of Wizards should have preserved many of these kinds of 'rituals,' but under the current conditions, they are basically impossible to perform. So they are all provided to wizards in various countries for research purposes."

"Ah, it's not Dark Arts..." Selma sighed with regret.

Sean tossed the photo back and laughed, "No need to be so disappointed. It's not Dark Arts, so there's no need to worry about it."

"I'm a little disappointed... I was able to learn about a kind of magic, and this ritual was so incoherent that I couldn't understand it even if I wanted to."

"There are many such rituals. If you need them, I can find some for you, and you can study them." Sean remembered that there was a record of rituals on the bookshelf in Grindelwald's office, but it only recorded some of the effects of the rituals, and much of the ritual material in it has now been lost.

Grindelwald also told him that it wasn't exactly top secret; it was just that there was no publicly available information about it.

Selma perked up. "Really?"

"Of course."

"Okay! Runes have any questions in the future, feel free to contact me!"

"Then it's settled... Hmm?" Sean was answering with a smile when his gaze suddenly drifted to the photo on the table.

He reached out and pieced the two photos together diagonally.

Selma saw his movement and leaned closer, then noticed that the edges of the two photos seemed to fit together perfectly, and a blurry creature shape appeared in the corner of the forest that she hadn't noticed before.

"You have such good eyesight," Selma tilted her head and examined it carefully. "It looks like a deer? But there's a small part missing in the middle, so I can't tell... wait, are those scales? And why is the tail like that?"

The two photos, spliced together at an angle, show the approximate shape of a creature. Its head is mostly hidden in the forest, and only its deer-like body can be seen. Strangely, the creature's body is covered with scales instead of fur, and its tail is like a long-finned snake's tail with its tail hairs spread out.

Tsk, looks familiar... Sean rested his chin on his hand and pondered.

"Is that Magical Creatures from the East?" Selma asked.

Sean nodded. "It should be, but I've never seen it before."

The East also has many unique and Magical Creatures. The ancients even recorded some species in books like the Classic of Mountains and Seas, such as the Zouwu, a famous benevolent beast—which is actually a big cat.

"Then maybe you'll discover a new Magical Creatures," Selma joked, though she wasn't particularly interested in Magical Creatures.

"Maybe," Sean shrugged.

Coincidentally, the first Care of Magical Creatures was scheduled for that afternoon.

After the Paris Incident, there was always something strange between Sean and Newt, or more accurately, Sean's one-sided awkwardness.

Newt acted as if nothing had happened. He kept his promise and gave Sean the powder formula that had hypnotized Dave, and even gave him an extra Stonewall Web.

However, after learning that it was most likely an act by the two old men that night, Newt, who was acting on Dumbledore's orders, appeared innocent.

Sean tried to extract some information about that night from the other party, but Newt said that everything he did that night was done on Dumbledore's orders.

Sean eventually had no choice but to give up, but the two still returned to their former close relationship.

In the afternoon, when they arrived at the edge of the Forbidden Forest, Newt and Hagrid were already waiting there.

"Welcome, new students. I'm so glad you chose this course. I hope you'll experience the wonders of Magical Creatures in your studies. By the way, Hagrid, our gamekeeper, will be my assistant."

Hagrid was a whole head taller than Newt, and he awkwardly patted his chest in greeting, but then pinned Newt under his elbow.

Amid laughter, Sean and the others still gave Hagrid a very warm round of applause.

"Oh, our gamekeeper is already bursting with enthusiasm—" Newt shook his head, then waved for the students to follow. "Come on, kids, see the little guy we're going to learn about in our first lesson."

They walked along the edge of the Forbidden Forest and soon stopped at the edge of a grove of trees that was particularly dark in color.

Some sharp-eyed students have already spotted the little creatures in the tree; they are a group of Bowtruckle.

Newt smiled and raised his right hand, and Pickett climbed into his palm.

"This is the creature we'll be learning about in our first lesson: the Bowtruckle."

Pickett stood in Newt's palm, looked around, and then immediately locked onto Sean in the crowd.

"The Bowtruckle is a hard-to-find, palm-sized insect-eating animal—hey, Pickett, I'm giving a lecture." Pickett interrupted excitedly halfway through his sentence.