A Certain Magical Hogwarts

According to Nicolas Flamel, the first half of his life was mundane. If anything, it was dull and uneventful.

One stormy night, with thunder roaring and rain pouring heavily, as the skies darkened, a black dragon was sighted in the west, and a phoenix entered his dreams… Well, none of those fantastical phenomena had anything to do with Nicolas.

Instead, he simply had a vague and peculiar dream:

A hooded wizard appeared in his dream, telling him that in a cave on the northwest shore of the Alabah Sea, there lay a legendary book of magic.

All he had to do was retrieve the book, study it diligently, and fully comprehend its contents, and he would gain extraordinary knowledge, marry a wealthy and beautiful spouse, and ascend to the pinnacle of life.

"When I woke up the next morning, I began to contemplate the dream," Nicolas said in a cheerful tone, as though reminiscing about that very day.

"Before I even finished my breakfast, I decided to sell all my possessions and set out to find that book. The entire decision-making process didn't take more than five minutes."

William was dumbfounded. Who hasn't dreamed of strange and fantastical things?

Most people, upon waking, might muse on such dreams for a moment, but few would ever take them seriously.

If William were to act on every bizarre dream he had, he'd likely have been locked in Azkaban for life by now.

Seeing William's expression, Nicolas laughed. "Yes, it's ridiculous, isn't it? If it were me now, I wouldn't believe such a dream either. Or at the very least, I'd hesitate—I wouldn't recklessly abandon everything to follow its guidance.

"But back then, I was young and impulsive, and I rarely considered the consequences of my actions.

"The most critical factor, though, was that I lacked exceptional talent in magic, but one of my ancestors was a Seer. I had inherited some of their abilities, allowing me brief glimpses into the future.

"I thought... perhaps this dream was a message from my ancestor."

Nicolas paced around the chair, a faint smile appearing on his face as he continued. "I sold my bookstore, borrowed a significant sum of money, purchased supplies and maps, and set off alone toward the Alabah Sea."

"Alabah Sea?" William asked curiously.

"That's what we called it back then. It's known today as the Dead Sea," Nicolas explained, pausing in thought. "I spent an entire year searching the northwest shore of the Dead Sea based on the memory of my dream.

"Finally, I found ruins within a cave. The place was filled with manuscripts, and among a pile of parchment scrolls, I discovered the Book of Alchemy."

William's eyes widened in disbelief. "You're not talking about the Dead Sea Scrolls, are you?"

Roughly half a century ago, a shepherd near the ancient settlement of Qumran discovered a trove of scrolls in a cave.

Archaeologists and treasure hunters flocked to Qumran, uncovering about 40 more caves in the surrounding valley, 11 of which contained texts. A total of over 600 manuscripts were found, including dozens of complete scrolls and tens of thousands of fragments.

These ancient texts, found near the Dead Sea, were collectively referred to as the "Dead Sea Scrolls" by academia—a collection of cultural relics of immeasurable value.

"That's right," Nicolas nodded. "I've noticed Muggles refer to those parchments as the Dead Sea Scrolls.

"But I prefer to call them the Book of Abraham."

"Why didn't you take everything with you?" William asked.

"As I mentioned, I deeply believed in the mystical.

"The figure in my dream instructed me to take only the magical book, so I saw the rest as a test of my restraint and left the remaining items untouched.

"Besides, the parchments contained stories meant for Muggles—they were of no use to me."

William nodded slightly. That much was true.

Wizards didn't adhere to religious doctrines, so a handwritten Bible would be no different from blank paper to Nicolas.

Flamel continued, his tone slow. "After leaving the Dead Sea, I returned to Paris and began studying the Book of Abraham.

"It was a large, ancient book—not made of paper or parchment like other books, but crafted from finely polished tree bark."

"Elder tree bark?"

"Indeed, identical to the one in the story of Death."

Nicolas regarded William, who was listening intently, and spoke softly, "The text wasn't written in English, Latin, French, or any language familiar to Muggles. It was inscribed in ancient magical runes.

"It took me 21 years to learn the language of the ancients."

"That magical book was divided into three parts, each consisting of seven pages.

"Each part's seventh page had no text.

"On the seventh page of the first part, there was a drawing of a wand being devoured by a giant serpent. On the seventh page of the second part, there was an image of a goblet."

"A wand consumed by a serpent, a goblet…" William raised an eyebrow. "Aren't those the gifts given to the second and third brothers in the story?"

"Exactly." Nicolas listened to the faint strains of music in the background, his face briefly showing a trace of sneer.

"So, the eldest brother was ultimately tricked by Death.

"He asked for a book containing all knowledge of alchemy, but without the wand and goblet, he could not access the second and third parts of its contents."

"Did you ever find those two items?"

Nicolas shook his head, a look of regret on his face. "I've spent six centuries searching and found nothing, but there are some clues."

With a snap of his fingers, a thick, gilded book floated down from the enormous bookshelf.

The title read: Secrets of the Pure-Blood Families.

The book flipped rapidly to the section under the letter S, its first entry being Salazar Slytherin.

"According to this book, Salazar Slytherin's wand was made of snakewood with a Basilisk horn core—the same wand described in the second brother's story.

"And, of course, Slytherin himself was a Parselmouth."

"But there's no record of a serpent devouring it," William said, glancing at the book.

"True," Nicolas admitted. "But Slytherin's wand was engraved with the image of a serpent.

"Dumbledore confirmed this for me using information gathered from the portraits of former headmasters."

"But the serpent is also Slytherin's emblem. That might just be a coincidence."

"Yes, child," Nicolas said seriously. "But you must remember: no Deathly Hallow has ever been explicitly documented in history.

"We can only speculate, piecing together fragments from the vast river of time."

William nodded. "What happened to Slytherin's wand? I remember reading in Hogwarts' history that he left the school."

"That's correct. Slytherin left Hogwarts.

"But before he did, he passed the wand down to his descendants. By the early 17th century, it had become a family heirloom of the Gaunt family."

Nicolas paused as the book flipped rapidly again, this time to the section on the Gaunt family.

"Unfortunately, Isolt Sayre stole the wand from her aunt, Gormlaith Gaunt, and sailed to the Americas aboard the Mayflower."

"Isolt Sayre?" William murmured, the name sounding vaguely familiar.

"She and her husband founded Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry—the most renowned magical school in America.

"But after her death, the trail went cold. The wand disappeared into history."

Nicolas sighed heavily.

[A/n: Let me explain—recent plot developments have diverged from the main storyline.

But I had to write them, as they are part of the outline for expanding the world-building. The focus is on the concept of Death, which is being revealed through this section.

As for the nine Deathly Hallows that have appeared so far, aside from the protagonist's bronze ring and Nicolas Flamel's magic book, the rest are all magical items that either appear in the original work or are indirectly mentioned.

All of them will gradually make their appearances later on.

This part of the storyline will wrap up soon, and then the main plot will resume. Thank you!]

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