Abandoning Convention
Skylar had already given up on finding Nalida Vokanova's Chamber of Secrets. After all, he was unfamiliar with Durmstrang, and a few days of exploration would not be enough for him to fully understand the castle's secrets. Moreover, July was almost over, and he did not have any more time to waste here.
Little did he know that on the evening of July 31st, just after he had dinner, on his way back to his dormitory from the Great Hall, he encountered a Ghost dressed entirely in black armor.
The Ghost was covered in armor from head to toe, so Skylar could not know what the Ghost looked like, what his identity was, or what his gender was. He only knew that the ghost called himself the "Black Knight" in Old English, and his deep, hoarse voice made it impossible for Skylar to tell whether he was male or female.
This was Skylar's first encounter with Ghost since arriving in Durmstrang. After all, the Ghost in Durmstrang all seemed particularly sinister and eerie, and not exactly friendly.
For example, at mealtimes, there is a fat Ghost named Edmund Grubb who tries his best to prevent the young wizards from coming in to eat. It is said that he died from accidentally eating poisonous berries at the table and cannot bear to see the living enjoying food in front of him.
The Black Knight reached out and stopped Skylar. He offered no explanation for Skylar's questions, simply mechanically repeating his gestures for Skylar to follow him.
Skylar knew magic to deal with Ghost; even Peeves didn't dare mess with him at Hogwarts, so he wasn't afraid it was a trap. He followed the Black Knight through a long, deserted corridor and arrived at a long-abandoned classroom.
Pushing open the door, the old wooden door creaked sharply, and the room was filled with dust and cold air. Dilapidated desks and chairs were piled up haphazardly to one side, and there were tattered textbooks on the teacher's desk, with annotations about forbidden spells that could be vaguely made out.
Skylar paid no attention to these things; his gaze was drawn to an ancient statue in the corner of the classroom.
It was a statue of a wizard clad in an elaborate robe, holding a scepter, his gaze cold and sharp. Strangely, the statue's base wasn't completely flush with the ground, as if it had been slightly moved. Skylar tapped the statue with his wand and discovered a string of Ancient Runes engraved on the scepter. After deciphering them, he recognized the runes as forming a warning. "The path to wisdom requires abandoning the conventional."
That's a very interesting sentence.
The gist is that only by abandoning habitual patterns can we make new discoveries.
So what is it in this castle that wizards have been using in the same way for a thousand years without changing?
First, classrooms and the Great Hall can be ruled out, as the location and layout of classrooms could not have remained unchanged over the past thousand years. The same goes for the Great Hall; for example, the power ranking list was not something that existed at the beginning of the school's establishment, since the first principal was not known for his enthusiasm for dueling, which was probably introduced after the second principal.
It was impossible to have a washroom. In the 17th century, because Muggle invented the plumbing system, this place, like Hogwarts, had all the washrooms in the castle renovated in order to introduce a plumbing system so that the wizards living here could comfortably enjoy the pleasure of bathing.
After pondering for a while, Skylar suddenly realized that there was one place he hadn't visited in recent times—
Entrance Hall.
Because Skylar always used the special lifting boulder, he never needed to climb the spiral staircase in the Entrance Hall!
As Skylar turned to leave the classroom, he realized that the Black Knight had vanished sometime during the night.
Dinner had just ended, and the Entrance Hall was probably packed with young wizards. Skylar could only suppress his restless thoughts and wait for midnight to arrive.
So he had a Dwarf in the Great Hall bring him a cup of strong coffee to his room, and then went back to his room to continue studying his Dark Arts book.
A deep silence hung over Durmstrang Castle at night, broken only by the occasional low curses of a passing Dwarf watchman.
Skylar arrived at the empty Entrance Hall.
"Aparecium!" Skylar waved his wand with great fanfare, sweeping the magic across the entire stone staircase, leaving no stone unturned, even the handrails on both sides.
He activated the Magic Eye, a cheat that allowed him to observe the Magic Eye energy attached to all objects. Although everything in Durmstrang Castle possessed some degree of magical energy, the intensity and fluctuations of that energy would certainly differ if there were a hidden space.
Sure enough, on the seventh stone step counting from the bottom, Skylar vaguely noticed something amiss.
Skylar tried tapping various parts of the stone steps with his wand. After many attempts and more than an hour, he finally made a line of small words written in ancient Ancient Runes appear on the stone steps, "The Vanishing Staircase".
Considering the discovery of "the need to abandon conventional methods" in the abandoned classroom, then...
The Entrance Hall is on the ground floor, and the conventional way to use stairs is to climb upwards. Going in the opposite direction means... going down the stairs!
With that thought in mind, Skylar abandoned all distractions, concentrated his mind, imagined it as a downward spiral staircase, and stepped onto the stone steps.
The surrounding scenery suddenly changed.
A slight smile played on Skylar's lips; he knew he had guessed correctly.
Before Skylar lay a dark, bottomless stone Secret Passage leading downwards.
Skylar summoned five orbs of light, instantly illuminating a three-foot radius around him. His Magic Eye automatically activated, capturing the magical fluctuations permeating the space with his pupils, eliminating any worry about traps in the passage.
After walking with Skylar for about 15 minutes, the passage began to meander, the air became cold and thin, and sparse runes and intricate reliefs appeared on the walls.
These reliefs seem to record the life of Nalida Vokanova, the Founders Durmstrang: her conquest of extreme cold, mastery of forbidden magic, defeat of enemies, and ultimate creation of Durmstrang —this is enough to prove that this is the Vulchanova's Chamber that Skylar has been longing to find, and the inscriptions on the walls further indicate that her secret is hidden at the end of this passage.
Skylar finally arrived at an archway inlaid with emeralds, the top of which was inscribed with the Latin phrase "Knowledge is my sword, trials my shield." The emeralds emitted a faint light, and as Skylar approached, the door opened silently, revealing a solemn and majestic Chamber of Secrets.
There seemed to be a thin membrane invisible to the naked eye at the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets, but Skylar's Magic Eye could see a faint layer of silvery-white mist swirling around the entrance. Skylar reached out and gently touched the membrane on the door, encountering a faint resistance that strongly repelled him.
Having done his homework and thoroughly read Nalida's biography, Skylar knew that Nalida was a great white wizard who disliked Dark Arts. Her Chamber of Secrets was definitely to prevent her legacy from falling into the hands of black wizards. He also knew that he had been diligently studying Dark Arts these past few days and must have been tainted by its evil aura.
Having figured this out, Skylar no longer hesitated and immediately cast "Amphimagus," dispelling the Dark Arts aura from his body and simulating the majestic and radiant holy magical aura of Dumbledore.
Sure enough, this time he passed through without any resistance and entered the Chamber of Secrets.
Not a single mistake, not a single poem, not a single post, not a single piece of content, all in one look!
The Chamber of Secrets was deep and dark, with only magic crystals emitting a soft green glow embedded in the walls, making the space seem dreamlike. In the center of the wall was a huge, ancient mirror, with intricate runes and symbols carved on its frame.
An extremely oppressive and mysterious power permeated the Chamber of Secrets. Even with Skylar's current level of magical cultivation, he could vaguely feel that his own magical power was being suppressed.
Skylar slowly approached, gazing at the mirror.
The mirror did not reflect his image, but was shrouded in a slightly rippling mist, as if it were locked by some powerful magic. Deep within the mist, the figure of a woman gradually appeared—a beautiful woman dressed in a classical medieval robe, her semi-transparent figure somewhat pale, her face bearing an eight or nine-tenths resemblance to the statue of Skylar beside the entrance gate.
"Nalida Vokanova?" Skylar asked softly, his voice carrying more certainty than doubt.
"Welcome, visitor." Nalida's faint voice echoed in the Chamber of Secrets. Her gaze held scrutiny mixed with a hint of expectation. "It seems you are not Durmstrang's student—I recognize the crest on your robes; you are from Great Britain?"
The woman's voice in the mirror sounded very weak, as if it came from a very distant time and space. Moreover, the image in the mirror flickered from time to time, so whatever happened to her was probably not a good sign.
Even so, her solemn expression still revealed the dignity and bearing she once possessed. Skylar dared not be negligent and immediately bowed in response, saying, "I come from the House of Malfoy of Great Britain. Greetings, Headmaster."
"Very well," Nalida sighed softly, "Although you're not a student of Temstrong, the fact that you found this place proves you're smart and brave enough. And I, finally, have a chance to confide in."
Skylar frowned as he looked in the mirror, sensing an eerie aura emanating from its surface. He slowly asked, "Are you Ms. Vokannava herself? What happened to you?"
"I am already dead," Nalida said calmly, "But an evil dark wizard captured my soul with soul magic and imprisoned it in this cursed mirror, preventing me from going to the Afterlife."
She gave a bitter smile. "In this mirror, I am tormented by a terrible curse day and night. My soul is already shattered. The one speaking to you here now is merely the last remaining wisp of my soul."
Skylar frowned slightly. Although Skylar wasn't exactly a good person, tormenting the soul of a dead person for nearly a thousand years was still beyond Skylar's imagination.
Incidentally, after subduing the Death Eaters, Skylar had already given Avery, who was possessed by the Poo-Eater, poison, causing him to die painlessly and peacefully.
In fact, it was just a bluff by Skylar to intimidate the Death Eaters. Even if the plan to subdue the Death Eaters ultimately failed, Skylar never really intended to make Avery eternally damned; that would be too cruel and inhumane.
He couldn't help but wonder what kind of hatred could possibly drive someone to torture a wizard's soul to such an extent and imprison it for nearly a thousand years.
He asked in a deep voice, "What exactly caused you, the Founders of Durmstrang, to end up like this?"
Nalida lowered her gaze, her voice tinged with suppressed sorrow. "It was Harfon Monte, my successor, and Durmstrang's second headmaster. He masqueraded as a loyal colleague, yet coveted my wisdom and legacy. He secretly implanted a bizarre and unpredictable curse into my soul, and by the time I realized it, it was too late... My body rapidly deteriorated, and my soul was imprisoned in this castle, forever unable to escape."