Breeze felt along a brick beside the portrait. A faint layer of moss had grown on it, caused by the damp air outside seeping through the cracks. But beyond that, Breeze sensed magic.
Thanks to his special gift—Natural Magic Power—Breeze knew there was something strange about this place.
"Knock, knock..."
The wand on Breeze's wrist sprang into his hand, and he tapped lightly.
At the sound of the knocks, a portrait slowly swung open. Beyond it lay a concealed passage leading upward.
Breeze followed the moss-covered walls and stairs. Before long, he saw light. The first things he noticed were the cool breeze and the silence.
This was a tower on the eastern side, where the setting sun never reached.
"Rustle..."
Breeze looked up at the swaying green branches and said with interest, "Oh, sorry, I didn't see you. Were you saying hello to me?"
Outside the tower was a small platform, and a lush Great Tree stood on it, green and vibrant, nestled right against the tower. Stone benches and chairs sat beneath its branches. The tower was tiny and easy to overlook at Hogwarts, but from here, he could still gaze across the boundless, beautiful scenery of the entire school.
And from outside Hogwarts, no one could see the tree or the tower. Clearly, a powerful Desillusionment Charm had been cast over the place. It could only be seen from nearby.
Breeze had emerged from a small passage beneath the tower. Looking up, he saw a pointed little room atop the tower, seemingly abandoned for a long time.
He followed the stone steps around the platform and reached the door of the pointed room. He knocked on the wooden door, but, naturally, there was no answer.
"Alohomora!"
"Bang!" The wooden door swung open.
"Empty... Cough, cough, cough. All right, it's full of dust."
It was clear no one had been here in a long time—or no one had found the place. But now it was Breeze's secret hideout.
"Scourgify!"
"Freshen the air!"
Only after casting more than a dozen spells could the pointed room be made presentable. The walls seemed to contain some bronze, and the floor was made of a precious stone. Both had some sort of enchantment, though Breeze didn't know much about it and could only guess that it was fireproof.
The room was spacious, like a small classroom, with a large window on each side. Nothing blocked them for now, so the wind could blow right in.
"There's an attic, too."
Breeze glanced at the stone door beside him and spotted a winding stone staircase. He followed it upstairs and cast a cleaning spell. Soon, he came to a small locked door.
"Clunk." Before Breeze could even cast an unlocking spell, the lock gave way under the strain.
Breeze cast several cleaning spells before stepping inside.
The space had been expanded by an Undetectable Extension Charm, so it was no smaller than the room below.
Bronze was set into the walls here, too, and the space was divided in two. The western section looked like a large office, while the room behind it was a normal-sized bedroom. The place wasn't empty, either: the office was crammed with bookshelves and books, and a solid wooden desk and chair sat against the wall. A Bronze Snake Lamp rested on the desk.
"Oh, someone's here. You're the first to find this place in all these years, child."
"Are you alive?" A Bronze Snake Lamp was perfectly ordinary at Hogwarts. Many of its fixtures had minds of their own.
"Not exactly, but you could say that, too. It doesn't matter. Don't worry, Hogwarts won't harm young wizards. Even though I'm not part of Hogwarts, I have to follow that rule."
So it wasn't made by Hogwarts?
"I'm an enchanted object. I mean, that fellow was an alchemy master, and I was a little trinket he made to light his way and clean his room. But I was lucky: he liked things clean, so I lasted this long. He sold off his other creations or destroyed them as defective..."
"Don't ask why. That fellow spent his whole life trying to make the Sorcerer's Stone. He was miserly and conceited, and his vast knowledge of alchemy drove him mad. He died so poor he couldn't even afford a grave, and he'd even sold his soul to Death. He left nothing behind... You might find me long-winded, but you have to hear me out."
"Mm." Breeze agreed casually, while looking around.
"Don't bother looking. Those are all that fellow's books." The Bronze Snake sounded indignant. "He nearly sold me once to buy an alchemy book. Luckily, he made a new one and sold that instead!"
"Come here, child. Sign an equal contract with me, and I'll give you all the books here!"
An equal contract? Breeze didn't understand. He scratched his head and narrowed his eyes, asking innocently, "Why not a master-servant contract?"
"You want to be my servant, good child? Knowledge really is priceless..." The Bronze Snake wept hot oil, and Breeze's smile turned strained.
"You should sort out your own wick first."
Breeze walked past the Bronze Snake Lamp and cautiously leaned forward to look. As expected, even the sleeping quarters were completely empty.
"Don't bother looking. After that fellow died, the contract magic handed everything valuable here over to his creditors. Except for me and these books, the place was cleaned out."
The Bronze Snake slithered down from the bronze lamp and used lamp oil to draw a strange magic circle on the solid wooden desk. It looked familiar to Breeze. He'd seen the same mark in a collection of notes at a secondhand bookstore: the aura of that sort of circle was always the same—fair, without lies.
"I just want to stay alive. The magic crystal that fellow left behind is almost out of power, and I need you to replenish it. He said the first person to come in would help me. He never lied to me, even when he considered selling me!"
Breeze cautiously placed his hand beside the desk. After making sure there was no danger, he said, "I can pour magic into you directly, as long as you can guarantee there's no danger. And you have to let me read these books."
Breeze curiously tapped the Green Snake and smiled. "I don't need a servant."
"My name is Breeze Storm Order. If I can help you..." All these books will be mine.
The Bronze Snake froze. Its bright yellow pupils stared blankly into Breeze's sincere eyes, then it lowered its head and said softly, "I don't have a name, but I gave myself one—Faner. Of course, this is Hogwarts. I swear on my wick that I'll keep you safe in the East Tower, forever, as long as I'm alive."
The contract on the desk took effect. It quickly bound Breeze and Faner together, and Breeze immediately sensed that Faner could no longer harm him. He put a finger on the bronze lamp and asked, "Should I pour magic into you directly?"
"Oh, wait. You need to know that a young wizard's magic is unstable."
It climbed back onto the bronze lamp and said nervously, "A wizard's magic is relatively constant. When you cast spells, you expend mental strength, not magic. That determines the strength of the magic you can cast... So, to put magic into a bronze lamp, you need a spell. You'll have to learn it quickly, because between waking up and making the contract, I don't have much lamp oil left to sustain me."
"Oh, I thought you were going to absorb my magic directly." Breeze had actually wanted to try giving the lamp oil some of the Natural Magic Power inside him and see what happened. He'd always felt that the Natural Magic Power didn't belong to him, but had come from An Qing's memories. It might even take over his body.
"Come on, repeat after me. Undying Flame."
"This spell is simple, but you need a very resolute heart to use it, as well as some talent. Hopefully you have it, or things will get troublesome."
"Undying Flame!" Breeze touched Faner's forehead with his wand. The light around them was drawn in, and the entire room quickly sank into darkness. Then even the darkness was sucked away. Light soon returned, this time from the glowing Bronze Snake Lamp.
The surroundings slowly returned to normal, as if the light and darkness outside were filling the room back in.
"You have a lot of talent. Perhaps you could fulfill that fellow's wish and make a Sorcerer's Stone. No, no, you'd better not... It would make you poor."
The Sorcerer's Stone... It sounded familiar, but it didn't matter. That wasn't the point today.
"Hiss, hiss, hiss..."
"?"
Breeze watched Faner flick its tongue in confusion. Lamp oil spilled from its mouth, turned into sparks, and vanished in the air.
Faner said cheerfully, "Hiss, hiss, hiss. It's been so long since I last flicked my tongue so freely."
Breeze smiled without replying. Instead, he took out his diary and looked at the word written inside: meditation.
That was why Breeze had come here. The Bronze Snake—Faner—and the East Tower were just unexpected bonuses.
"What are you looking at?"
Faner crawled over beside Breeze's hand and looked at the writing in the diary. "Oh, Ancient Magic. It had already vanished by that fellow's time. There might still be a little of it around, but wizards definitely don't have it. My wick was made from a Green Snake that knew a little Ancient Magic. I hadn't gained intelligence yet when that hateful fellow caught me. If he hadn't, after all these years, I'd surely have become a power in my own right instead of being trapped in this tower, saving lamp oil just to stay alive."
"I just want to try meditating." Breeze lightly tapped the suddenly dejected Little Snake on the head.
"Oh, don't joke, Little Breeze. These spells are beyond your reach. Hahaha, what a daydreaming little brat." Faner sprang back to life in an instant, rolling around on the desk and spitting out sparks of lamp oil.
Breeze looked at Faner and tried to use the Natural Magic Power he'd kept hidden inside him.
But the moment a thread of familiar, ancient magic appeared at the tip of Breeze's wand, Faner fell silent. It swallowed a mouthful of lamp oil and stared at Breeze. "Are you some ancient pureblood Magical Creature in disguise?"
Even Faner had never controlled such pure Ancient Magic. Other than Magical Creatures so ancient they had vanished, it couldn't think of anything capable of wielding such old magic. But this seemed a little different.
"Something's not right. This doesn't feel like what I experienced back then. Ancient Magic is always free; it never stays in one place forever. But it obediently stays inside you, and it even seems so fond of you." Following the magic, Faner studied Breeze and clicked its tongue. "You're a monster. I've never seen a wizard like you."
"Monster..."
Breeze quickly drew the magic back and looked at Faner. "Can I trust you?"
At Breeze's question, Faner said unhappily, "Of course. We've already sworn an oath. I'll protect you."
Before you continue