Draco had no choice but to land as instructed, Hermione immediately jumped off the broom and pounced on the dusty bookshelves.
"The Lost On Medieval Potions Improvement!" Hermione exclaimed excitedly as she quickly flipped through the books bound in ancient parchment and heavy leather, her eyes wide with excitement upon seeing the title and author.
"My God, these are rare, almost lost books! They might even contain Ancient Magic theories that weren't included!"
She stuffed the thick books into her surprisingly large otter-shaped handbag as if she had found a treasure.
Only after sweeping away several bookshelves did he finally sit back down with his broom, completely satisfied.
They flew over a shallow area in an underground cave.
A rock archway appeared ahead, and behind the archway should be a bridge leading to the opposite cliff face.
The archway is right next to a sheer cliff.
This door is not an ordinary door panel, but rather a door frame inlaid with a large number of dark gold metal runes.
These runes spread downwards from the pointed arch at the top of the door, eventually converging in the center of the door to form a symmetrical double-leaf pattern.
In fact, for the two people who can fly, this door is useless; they can easily bypass it or fly directly over it.
But Hermione's curiosity was piqued:
"Wait, Draco, let's trigger the mechanism and see what the designer originally envisioned for the game's completion method. This rune structure is very interesting."
Draco shrugged indifferently and drove her closer.
Hermione once again struck the three gem badges on the rock wall next to the arch with her wand with pinpoint accuracy.
As the badge lit up, the dark gold runes on the arch seemed to come alive, rapidly shrinking inward and disappearing, leaving only the bare stone arch frame.
Then what lay behind was revealed... a broken, impassable stone ruin, where rubble and broken bridge components were piled up haphazardly, blocking the way.
"Hmm?" Hermione was somewhat surprised.
But as the gem emblem on the right rock wall was triggered, a powerful restoration spell was activated.
The scene in the ruins began to change dramatically: rubble of varying sizes and broken stones, stone beams began to tremble slightly, then detached from the ground and floated into the air.
As if manipulated by an invisible, exquisitely magical hand, they began to rotate, move, and find their place in each other, before fitting together perfectly!
The broken bridge components rose from the ground, re-engaged according to their original structure, and the fragments automatically returned to their original positions.
The originally chaotic ruins "grew" out the outline of a bridge at a visible speed, extending from the middle to both ends, with rubble paving the bridge surface and broken beams connecting to form guardrails.
Finally, through the magical power, a complete, flat, and wide stone bridge steadily extended from behind the archway, leading directly to the cliff face on the other side.
On both sides of the bridge, warm yellow flames suddenly ignited on the symmetrically arranged stone lampposts.
"Wow..." Hermione couldn't help but exclaim in surprise.
Even having witnessed the magic of Hogwarts, she was still amazed by the sight of "ruins being rebuilt into a bridge."
"Although riding a broom is faster, I have to admit, this 'ruin reconstruction' magic is pretty cool."
"Let's go, honey, who knows what's ahead." After commenting, he carried Hermione and instead of crossing the bridge, flew directly over it.
Riding on their broomsticks, the two easily flew across the magnificent bridge illuminated by magical torches, officially entering the core area of the land where Jackdaw met his end.
A magnificent and spectacular domed hall.
The scale of the main hall is breathtaking.
Dozens of spiraling giant stone pillars rise from the ground, supporting the towering vaulted ceiling covered with ancient reliefs.
The stone pillars were covered with intricate and mysterious magical patterns that seemed to flow faintly in the dim light.
The floor was smooth, mirror-like dark stone, and a layer of ethereal blue mist shrouded the depths of the main hall.
The only light source was the eternal torches burning in the niches on either side, and the magical braziers scattered across the ground.
They put down their brooms, Draco tucked them back into his extended bag, and the two cautiously made their way to the front of the hall.
There lay a skeleton and an old wand, seemingly having met their demise shortly after entering the hall.
The remains had long since turned into withered white skeletons, the head separated from the body, lying forlornly to one side.
"This is... Jackdaw's body, isn't it?"
Hermione covered her mouth, a flicker of pity and a chilling sense of facing a death scene flashing in her eyes.
Although she was mentally prepared, seeing the final resting place of the ghost who had sought help so directly and cruelly before her eyes still tugged at her heartstrings.
"Hmm, that should be it." Draco's tone was relatively calm. He stepped forward and carefully examined the surroundings, confirming that there were no remaining trap spells.
"It's alright, I'll take him out so he can rest in peace!"
As he spoke, Draco pulled an inconspicuous burlap sack from his pocket, pointed his wand at the pile of bones and the wand beside it,
"Bone, Accio! Wand, Accio!" The bone and wand flew up in response, landing precisely in the bag and sealing it away.
All that remained on the ground was a yellowed fragment of Ancient Magic book.
Hermione crouched down and carefully picked up the page. It was covered with intricate hand-drawn illustrations and dense Ancient Runes annotations, like a page from an Ancient Magic research notebook.
The symbols were so obscure that even the learned woman was baffled, so she had no choice but to hand them to Draco.
She shook her head and said, "I don't quite understand it. It's too ancient, like some kind of conjecture about energy guidance and space folding..."
Draco had already carefully stored the sack containing Jackdaw's remains and taken out the Ancient Magic.
He took the pages Hermione handed him, examined the torn edges carefully, then aligned them with the missing parts of the spellbook and whispered, " Reparo!"
A soft white light flashed by.
The pages fit precisely to the torn edge of the spine, perfectly aligned, as if they had never been torn. He put the book back, patted the cover, and said, "Alright, back to its rightful owner."
After finishing these tasks, the two finally had time to carefully examine the area in front of the main hall, where three exceptionally tall stone statues stood, clad in stone armor and wielding giant swords or battle axes.
They stood in rows, like silent guardians.
In the shadows on either side of the main hall, several smaller but equally armed stone statues stood facing the center of the hall, seemingly ready to attack at any moment.
Upon seeing these statues, Hermione was instantly reminded of their encounter in the underground vault deep within Gringotts, where those statues were enchanted and would actively attack intruders.
"I understand... Mr. Jackdaw, he must have been attacked by these statues guarding the secrets of Ancient Magic while trying to approach the central area or trigger some mechanism. Their power... is probably far greater than Gringotts's."
"That's fate. What doesn't belong to him, he couldn't force; instead, he risked his life," Draco sighed.