Hepzibah's Golden Cup

That night, after dinner, Skylar returned to his dormitory alone.

He lay exhausted on the bed, his mind still replaying the passionate kiss he had shared with Cho Chang not long ago. He felt a slight pain in his lips; he hadn't expected Cho Chang, who usually seemed so gentle and even a little shy, to be so wild when she erupted.

He sighed softly. The passion of that moment was indeed intoxicating, but now that he had calmed down, his heart was filled with unprecedented complexity, even tinged with a hint of regret.

He carefully counted his current girlfriends— Daphne, Astoria, Morrie, Luna, Eleanor, Phoebe, and Cho Chang —and sighed inwardly, "Seven already..."

This doesn't even include his secret lover Sarf, or Meredith, who is still not rescued.

He must be insane.

In his previous life, he had read many Harry Potter harem fanfictions, but he had never seen one as exaggerated as this one.

He kept telling himself not to get into any more romantic entanglements, but reality kept contradicting his wishes. Faced with the strong offensive of beautiful girls, he succumbed time and time again.

Of course, while his long-term practice of Dark Arts didn't drive him mad, it amplified certain desires and made him more obedient to his heart, rather than simply suppressing them with reason.

Ultimately, he did have feelings for Cho Chang. If he didn't already have a girlfriend, it would be a happy thing for Cho Chang to become his girlfriend.

However, the reality is that if things continue like this, he'll get into trouble sooner or later.

Putting aside whether he has the time and energy to meet his girlfriends' needs, how to manage the relationships between them has become a problem he must seriously consider.

This is not just a simple emotional issue, but a responsibility he must face and handle seriously. Different girls, different personalities, different emotional needs—how can he make them all happy, instead of letting this relationship ultimately degenerate into an unmanageable mess?

However, that's for the future; he has more important things to do now.

He suppressed his chaotic thoughts, first entering Ravenclaw's Chamber, summoning Aquila and Aslan, then taking out Hufflepuff's Cup from his pocket and carefully placing it on the table.

I've had the golden cup in my hands for a while now, but I haven't had the time to deal with it. Tonight, I'll finally settle things with it.

Skylar was already adept at dealing with Horcrux. He cast the "Soul-Torture Curse" on the Hufflepuff's Cup. A silvery-white magical energy shot into the cup, accompanied by a shrill but short shriek. The evil aura that had been faintly floating on the surface of the cup quickly receded, and it regained its warm golden luster, as if it had just been carefully wiped clean.

Aquila landed on the table, its eyes gleaming. It stared at the golden cup for a moment, then suddenly exclaimed softly, "I recognize this cup. It's Lord Hufflepuff's golden cup."

"You're right," Skylar nodded, "It is indeed the Hufflepuff's Cup."

"Of course." Aquila flapped her wings slightly, her eyes filled with a mixture of nostalgia and surprise. "Lady Hufflepuff often used this golden cup to drink wine or to take Potions she herself concocted."

Skylar tapped the rim of the cup thoughtfully. "Do you know what's so special about this cup?"

Aquila slowly shook her head. "I don't know its true purpose either. I only know that Lady Hufflepuff cherished it greatly; it was one of her most treasured possessions. It's worth mentioning that among the four Founders, she was the longest-lived. Perhaps... this cup is somehow related to her longevity."

"Then, let's start our experiments with drinking alcohol. You all come and help me." With the help of Aquila and Aslan, Skylar filled the table with bottles and jars containing all sorts of liquids.

"Let's start with the most ordinary water!" Skylar took out a bottle of water and slowly poured it into a glass. However, the moment the water droplet entered the glass, it disappeared silently, as if it had never existed.

He frowned. Through his Magic Eye, he could clearly see that the instant the water was poured into the glass, a momentary spatial magical fluctuation appeared on the glass, causing the water to be transferred elsewhere.

This means that Hufflepuff cannot use this cup to drink plain water; it can probably only be used to hold specific liquids, most likely magical alcoholic beverages.

Next, he tried pouring Butterbeer, Elder Wood liqueur, redcurrant rum, eggnog, Gigglewater, wizard pear liqueur, canyon water, and mead into the glass one by one, but without exception, all the liquids disappeared completely the moment they touched the bottom of the glass, as if they had been swallowed up by the glass.

He gritted his teeth and reluctantly took out his precious Firewhisky and Ice Flower Vodka, pouring four pints of each into the glass. But he was still disappointed; not a single drop of liquor remained.

"Aquila, are you sure Hufflepuff could actually drink from this cup back then?" Skylar had already tried almost every alcoholic beverage he had.

"Yes, I'm quite certain that I'll see this cup whenever the Four Founders of Hogwarts get together for drinks," Aquila said with certainty.

Aslan chimed in, "Dead Bird is right, I've also seen Lord Hufflepuff drink from this cup."

"Do you know exactly what kind of alcohol she drank?" Skylar asked, unwilling to give up.

The two magical pets exchanged a glance, then slowly shook their heads. Aquila said, "Lady Hufflepuff has extremely high standards for food and wine. Based on what I know of her, what she drinks is most likely her own homemade herbal wine."

Skylar:...

"It's alright," Skylar said, perking up. "You just mentioned that Hufflepuff also uses this cup to hold her Potions. So this time, let's try it with Potions."

He took out a bottle of colorless and odorless potent nutritional potion and poured it into the golden cup. The result was the same as before: the potion vanished instantly upon touching the bottom of the cup, as if it had never existed.

Skylar frowned and tried various common Potions one after another—healing potions, power potions, Pepperup Potion, Confusing Concoction, Wit-Sharpening Potion... without exception, they were all completely "swallowed" by the cup.

The more he tried, the more alarmed he became. In the end, he simply abandoned ordinary Potions and switched to rarer and more expensive high-grade potions. He took out a bottle of "Magic Replenishment," an extremely precious Potions that could quickly restore a wizard's magic power, but unfortunately, it still couldn't escape the "devouring" of the golden cup.

Then, he gritted his teeth, took out a bottle of "Draught of Living Death," and carefully poured it into the golden cup, but—it vanished, it vanished again!

Skylar's expression turned somewhat grim.

"What's wrong with this cup..." he muttered to himself, a hint of resentment in his eyes. He didn't give up easily, but continued to take out even rarer Potions and pour them into the golden cup, one after another.

After the Felix Felicis also failed, Skylar's expression changed from surprise to anger. Potions like Felix Felicis and Draught of Living Death were extremely difficult to make and required a great deal of time and effort. This experiment was a significant loss.

He stared at his dwindling Potions reserves, his eyes darkening. Finally, he gritted his teeth and pulled out a bottle of Potions that would break the hearts of any Potions — the Phoenix Immortality Potion.

Since he gave the last bottle of Phoenix Immortality Potion to Eleanor, he went to great lengths to make another one. He managed to get Ali Bashir to buy him a small bottle of Phoenix Tears from a distant Eastern country. It was a difficult process to refine, and he only had this one bottle. It was a safety precaution he had prepared in case anything happened to those around him.

"What if this fails again..." he muttered through gritted teeth, carefully uncorking the bottle.

The Phoenix tears, clear as water, slowly flowed into the golden cup. But just as they were about to touch the bottom, a layer of pale golden magical energy appeared on the cup, as if it had awakened. But just when Skylar thought something had changed, the liquid vanished without a trace.

Skylar froze, his fist clenched slightly, his temple throbbed, and he couldn't help but mutter a curse under his breath, "Damn cup..."

Seeing this, Aquila said with some surprise, "Even Phoenix Tears can't withstand it... It seems the limitations of this cup are even stricter than we imagined."

No wonder Hepzibah Smith and Voldemort in the original story, despite knowing that the Golden Cup possessed magical power, didn't bother to study it properly; it seems it really wasn't easy.

Skylar took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down.

"Could it be... that it only accepts potions personally prepared by Hufflepuff?" Aslan tentatively guessed.

"Impossible. If that were the case, the golden cup would have no value as a family heirloom. Hufflepuff wouldn't make such a mistake," Aslan retorted. "I think you've all fallen into the trap of preconceived notions—"

Skylar raised an eyebrow, signaling Aslan to continue.

"What you've tried are all ordinary liquids or Potions," Aslan said slowly, "but Lady Hufflepuff is a wizard extremely skilled in Magizoology. Her golden cup might not accept ordinary Potions, but rather—"

"--The blood of Fantastic Beasts." Skylar immediately understood his meaning, and his eyes regained their brilliance.

Aslan nodded slightly. "Dragon blood, Phoenix blood, even Unicorn Blood... these may be the true medium of this cup."

After pondering for a moment, Skylar decided to put the golden cup away for the time being. He planned to have Winky deliver a message to Ali Bashir after returning to his room, asking him to collect the blood of various Fantastic Beasts for him.

After doing all this, he gently patted the golden cup and muttered to himself, "I hope you're really worth all this effort."