Slytherin's Wand
According to Nicolas Flamel, his early life was unremarkable, even somewhat dull and boring.
One night, lightning flashed and thunder roared, and torrential rain poured down, plunging the world into darkness. A black dragon appeared in the west, and a phoenix entered his dreams... Well, none of these strange phenomena had anything to do with Nicolas.
He was just in a daze, having a dream:
A hooded wizard appeared in his dream and told him that there was a legendary magic book in a cave on the northwest shore of the Sea of Arabah.
He only needs to take the magic book, study it diligently and understand it thoroughly, and he can gain extraordinary knowledge, marry a beautiful and wealthy woman, and thus reach the pinnacle of life.
"When I woke up the next day, I started thinking about the dream."
Nicolas spoke cheerfully, as if recalling the scene from that day.
"At the time, I hadn't even finished breakfast when I decided to sell all my belongings and set off at noon to look for that book. The whole thought process took less than five minutes."
William was speechless. Who hasn't dreamt of strange things?
Most people, upon waking, might briefly reminisce about the dream; very few would actually take it seriously.
If William had actually acted according to what he dreamed about, he would have been imprisoned in Azkaban for life long ago.
Seeing William's expression, Nicolas laughed and said, "Yeah, it's ridiculous, isn't it? If it were me now, I wouldn't believe in such a dream either, or I would hesitate. I couldn't possibly abandon everything and follow the dream's guidance."
But back then, I was young and impulsive, and I didn't consider the consequences of my actions.
Most importantly, while I don't have much natural talent in magic, one of my ancestors was Divination, and I inherited that talent, which allows me to make short-term Prophecy about the future.
At the time, I thought... it was my ancestor sending me a message in a dream.
Nicolas paced around the chair, a smile playing on his lips, and slowly said, "I sold the bookstore, borrowed a large sum of money, bought a batch of supplies and maps, and set off alone for the Sea of Arabah."
"The Sea of Arabah?" William asked, puzzled.
"We called it the Sea of Arabah back then, which is now the Dead Sea." Nicolas pondered for a moment and said, "I searched the northwest shore of the Dead Sea for a whole year, following the memories in my dream."
Finally, we found ruins in a cave, where a large number of manuscripts were hidden. Among a pile of parchment scrolls, I found Book of Alchemy.
William's eyes widened in disbelief. "You're not talking about the Dead Sea Scrolls, are you?"
Half a century ago, shepherds discovered a large number of scrolls in caves near the ancient settlement of Qumran.
Archaeologists and treasure hunters flocked to the Qumran Valley, where they discovered approximately 40 more caves, 11 of which contained scriptures. A total of over 600 ancient scriptures were found, including dozens of relatively complete scrolls, as well as tens of thousands of fragments.
These ancient scrolls were discovered in the Dead Sea and are collectively known in academic circles as the "Dead Sea Scrolls." They are a collection of artifacts of inestimable value.
"That's right," Nicolas nodded. "I noticed Muggle call those parchment scrolls: the Dead Sea Scrolls."
But I prefer to call it the Book of Abraham.
"Why didn't you take everything with you?" William asked.
"As I just said, I have a strong belief in those mystical things."
In the dream, the person only allowed me to take the magic book, so I considered everything else to be a test. Therefore, without any greed, I left the rest of the items behind.
Of course, those parchment scrolls contained Muggle stories, so they were useless to me.
William nodded slightly; that was indeed true.
Wizards in the Wizarding World are not religious, so a handwritten Bible is no different from a blank sheet of paper to Nicolas.
Flamel said slowly, "After I left the Dead Sea, I returned to Paris and began to study the Book of Abraham."
That book was a large, ancient book, unlike other books made of paper or parchment, but rather of fine, smooth tree bark.
Elder Wood bark?
"That's right, exactly the same as in the Death stories!"
Flamel looked at William, who was holding his breath and listening intently, and said softly, "The words in the book are not English, Latin, French, or any other language that Muggle can understand, but are written in Ancient Runes."
I then spent another twenty-one years learning Ancient Runes.
"That magic book was very thick; it was divided into three groups of seven pages each."
Including the first page, the seventh page of each group contains no text.
On the seventh page of the first set, there is a drawing of a magic wand being swallowed by a giant python; on the seventh page of the second set, there is a drawing of a goblet.
"The wand devoured by the giant python, the goblet..." William raised an eyebrow. "Isn't this the gift the second and third sons wanted?"
"Yes." Nicolas listened to the music playing in his ears, and after a moment, a mocking expression appeared on his face.
"So the boss still got played by Death."
He wanted the all-encompassing Book of Alchemy, but without the wand and the goblet, he couldn't see the contents of the second and third sets.
"Have you found those two items?"
Nicolas looked disappointed. "No, I've searched for six hundred years without any results, but I have some clues."
Nicolas snapped his fingers, and a thick, golden book floated down from the enormous bookshelf.
The book was titled: "Secrets of the Pure-blood Families".
He flipped through the book quickly, soon finding the position where the search letter was S, and the first page was about Salazar Slytherin.
According to this book, Salazar Slytherin's Wand was Snakewood Wand with a Basilisk horn core, exactly the same as the wand of the second son in the story.
And he himself speaks with a Parseltongue.
"But the python didn't devour it," William said, gazing at the book.
"Indeed, there isn't, but on Slytherin's Wand, there is an outline of a giant python."
"Dumbledore also helped me confirm this from those portraits of the headmasters," Nicolas explained.
"But the Slytherin symbol is also a snake; perhaps it's just a coincidence."
"That's right, son," Nicolas said seriously, "But you must remember one thing: none of the Deathly Hallows have been clearly documented in history."
We can only speculate, searching for clues in the vast ocean of history.
William nodded and said, "What about Slytherin's Wand? I remember it being recorded in the school history that he left the school."
"That's right, Slytherin did leave Hogwarts."
But before that, he passed the wand down to his children. By the early 17th century, it had become a family heirloom of the Gaunt family.
After Nicolas finished speaking, the book was flipped through quickly, soon reaching the Gaunt family.
"But unfortunately, Isolt Thale stole the wand from her aunt Gormlaith Gaunt and sailed to the New World on the Americas Mayflower."
"Isolt Seele?" William pondered. "That name sounds familiar."
Isolt and her husband co-founded Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, which is one of the best magic schools in the United States.
But after her death, the trail went completely cold, and the wand vanished into the annals of history.
Nicolas sighed.
(Thanks to the Dharma Protector "Snz" for the generous donation of 10,000 coins, one chapter is owed.)
P. S. Let me explain: the recent plot has deviated from the main storyline.
But I had to write it, since it was part of the outline that expanded the world view, and I revealed it with Death at its core.
Of the nine Deathly Hallows that have appeared so far, apart from the protagonist's Bronze Ring and Nicolas's spellbook, the rest are all magical items that appear in the original work or are indirectly described.
So they will all appear one after another later.
This part of the story will end soon, and we'll return to the main plot. Thank you.
(No charge for entries under 200 words)