Slytherin's Manuscript

Professor Snape stood expressionlessly beside Matthew's Group, watching Matthew work.

Once the cauldron began to emit red steam, Matthew deftly extinguished the flame and filtered out the residue.

Finally, he poured the liquid, now free of residue, into a new container.

After Matthew had finished all the steps, Snape picked up the container of Salamander Horn Liquid and examined it.

"First to finish! Five points to Slytherin."

Snape had found another chance to award points.

He set down the container and turned back to the front of the classroom. "You have ten minutes left. Anyone who hasn't finished must copy the process for extracting Salamander Horn Liquid a hundred times."

The students hurried to work, but they made more and more mistakes, and Snape's expression darkened at a visible speed.

Ten minutes later, Snape announced the end of class. The students who had finished just in time breathed a sigh of relief.

Those who hadn't finished looked utterly despondent. The thought of being given a hundred lines to copy by Professor Snape on the very first day of term left them looking like wilted eggplants.

After Matthew helped Snape tidy up the classroom, he said, "Professor, I've been studying Ancient Runes lately, and I'd like to consult Salazar Slytherin's Manuscript. I need your signature on an Approval Slip."

Snape glanced at Matthew and said slowly, "Don't waste your talent. Spreading yourself too thin early on isn't a good idea."

Matthew explained, "You know my grandfather is Alfat Black. He's a scholar of Ancient Runes, and I've always been rather interested in the subject."

Snape said no more. He picked up his quill and wrote Matthew an Approval Slip.

After leaving the classroom, Matthew headed straight for the Great Hall. Potions Class was his last class of the day, and it was dinnertime now.

When he arrived, he looked around and spotted his roommates. They had saved him a seat.

As Matthew joined them, he heard them still talking about Potions Class.

Jerry said, "Professor Snape seemed to be in a terrible mood today. His expression looked even scarier than usual."

Geralt took a sip of tea and said, "I just heard from Pansy that during first-year Potions Class, Harry Potter lost two points to Snape."

Jerry looked astonished. "You don't lose points just for getting a question wrong in class, do you? Even if you're a Gryffindor?"

Geralt didn't know why either, so he speculated without much basis, "Who knows? Maybe Professor Snape really can't stand Harry Potter."

Matthew glanced toward the Gryffindor table and was surprised to see Harry, Ron, Neville, and Hermione sitting together. They'd already become close in just one day.

Harry looked a little dejected. Gryffindor had lost points because of him in the very first week of term.

The other three were doing their best to comfort him.

"The Iron Triangle's together."

After sitting down, Matthew turned to Jerry. "Let me copy your Charms Class homework today."

He couldn't be bothered to do his homework today. He was so far ahead that doing it was completely pointless.

Jerry rolled his eyes and grumbled, "The top student in the year wants to copy my homework?"

Geralt grinned. "I want to copy it too. By rounding up, that means Matthew and I are tied for first in the year."

Matthew was halfway through his meal when a brown owl flew into the Great Hall and dropped a letter in front of him.

He took the letter and fed the owl a chicken drumstick.

It was a letter from Luna.

She asked Matthew how his first day of school had gone. She told him the mistletoe by her front door had sprouted, then added how many mealworms Little Thunderbird had eaten that day.

Matthew wrote her a reply.

He told Luna about the Newcomer Banquet, where he'd stayed up talking with his roommates all night, and about Professor Snape's odd behavior that day. Finally, he told her how he'd met two new friends on the Hogwarts Express.

"Goodbye, Bobo." He handed the finished letter to the owl, which took it in its beak and flew away.

Geralt said sarcastically, "You and your 'neighbor' are really close. You come to Hogwarts and get a letter from her every week. What a good neighbor, huh? Hey, why are you taking mine? Leave me a chicken wing!"

Matthew glanced at him. "I thought you were full."

After dinner, Matthew went to the library.

Having a professor's signed Approval Slip didn't mean he could browse the Forbidden Section at will. Approval Slips usually specified which materials the student needed, and they could only borrow what was listed.

When he showed Professor Snape's Approval Slip to Madam Pince, she led Matthew to the Forbidden Section.

The bookshelves here were arranged by level of danger, and books of the same danger level were further sorted by subject.

Before long, Madam Pince found the Slytherin Manuscript Matthew needed and handed him a book with a hardcover.

The cover read: Slytherin's Secrets: A Collection of Ancient Runes Manuscripts.

Clearly, it was a later revised edition.

"Thank you." Matthew took the book and found a seat in the Common Study Room to read.

Slytherin's writings said very little about "meditation" and didn't mention the Meditation Method.

After flipping through the book for a while, Matthew found the line "Meditation is the key to Runes" in the chapter titled "Runic Phonetic Etymology."

The book said that while tracing the origins of Runes' sounds, Slytherin had discovered that the earliest records of Runes appeared in texts from the seventh century.

It ended with an exchange between Slytherin and a student—

"I asked Merlin how Runes could be incorporated into magic.

"Merlin answered me, 'Meditation is the key to Runes.'"

Interestingly, Merlin, renowned throughout the Wizarding World, was among Hogwarts' very first students and one of the first students admitted to Slytherin House.

He was active from the tenth to the twelfth centuries. His achievements were remarkable: he founded the Order of Merlin and established the ban on using magic against Muggles.

The common Wizarding World expression "Merlin's beard" referred to this Merlin.

It was generally accepted in the Wizarding World that he was not the same Merlin as the one in the Muggle World legends of King Arthur; they simply happened to share a name.

The earliest literary record of the King Arthur legend appeared around 600, in a Welsh bard song. Historians judged that the period of King Arthur in which the ancient Merlin lived should actually have been around the fifth century.

The two Merlins had been active nearly six or seven centuries apart.

"Did Merlin say this?" Matthew had no idea what to make of it.

According to Hogwarts' School History, Merlin had grown quickly after enrolling at Hogwarts. In his later years, he and Slytherin had been both mentor and friend to each other.

After Merlin graduated, their differences over their attitudes toward Muggles had grown, and they eventually parted ways.

Just then, Madam Pince knocked on the study room door and reminded him, "The library is closing."

Matthew put away the book and prepared to return to the common room. Hogwarts' curfew was rather early.