Early the morning after the academic symposium ended, Hogwarts was gripped by an unprecedented fervor.
It was pure, newly kindled thirst for knowledge.
In the Great Hall, the students were no longer eating breakfast as languidly as usual, but gathering in groups of two or three to argue heatedly.
"No, you've got it completely wrong! Binary opposition isn't simply good and evil. It's a dynamic balance! Just as the professor demonstrated yesterday, the transformation of light into shadow and back is the key!"
An older Hufflepuff student was gesturing excitedly at his companions.
"Then how do you explain the generative and restraining cycles of the five elements? Why can metal generate water, yet restrain wood? There's no corresponding logic in alchemy at all!"
At the Ravenclaw table, several students sported heavy dark circles under their eyes. The parchment in front of them was covered in complex diagrams; clearly, they had spent the entire night hard at work in the Ravenclaw common room.
There was no fatigue on their faces, only the exhilaration of being on the verge of solving the problem of the century.
Overnight, all of Hogwarts seemed to have transformed from a school of magic into a premier institute for the study of magical philosophy.
Yet at the center of the storm, the director's office in the Academic Affairs Office was peacefully at ease.
Douglas Holmes stood before the enormous diagram depicting the core structure of the Black Lake's long-range defensive magic array, leisurely sipping a cup of black tea from the East.
Inside the Fortune Basin, Wangcai was sleeping with his paws around some Galleons.
Dobby had also been sent out on busy assignments lately, so Wangcai's income had dwindled.
The office door suddenly burst open, and a travel-worn figure staggered in. It was Sirius Black, who