[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-hogwarts-learning-panel":3,"chapter-hogwarts-learning-panel-hogwarts-learning-panel-chapter-364":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Hogwarts Learning Panel",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2250602,4210,"Chapter 364: Bastet","hogwarts-learning-panel-chapter-364",364,"\u003Cp>“Are you the one speaking?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Newt’s cheeks were flushed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“It’s me, not some ghost.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The black cat replied.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You’re a Catling?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Newt lost all his shyness toward people, becoming instead calm and focused.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“...Yes.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The black cat hesitated—it was indeed a Catling, at least in part of its existence.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“That’s truly marvelous.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Newt exclaimed with quiet excitement,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“If you’re willing to answer... where is this place?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The world beyond the Veil, my threshold.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The black cat said.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“So, dear Bastet, you’ve come to Making Guide me to death, to reunite with my family?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Newt grew momentarily distant.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As a learned wizard, he naturally knew of the Threshold—the world after death, the beginning of great adventure.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And Bastet was the Egyptian cat-god symbolizing war and family, dual-natured: gentle and virtuous, yet brave and warlike.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The black cat shook its head like a human.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Then I’m merely a visitor...”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Newt turned his head, gazing far off at the strange, swirling mists floating about—each one ready to slip into a wizard’s mind if not watched.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The black cat handled these mist-balls effortlessly, sweeping them away with its tail.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Are the wandering souls real?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Newt asked carefully.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Perhaps. If a soul neither wishes to leave nor resists death, you may encounter them here.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The black cat’s ears twitched, as if thinking.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Leta Lestrange—have you seen her?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Newt’s face bore an expression the black cat could not understand.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No. Wandering souls appear just before dawn, by which time I have already departed.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The black cat gazed into the distance; it was daytime now, not yet night.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Then, will I ever have a chance to meet her again?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Newt asked.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“It will take time... Stay too long here, and you will become lost.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The black cat’s whiskers twitched slightly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Yes, dear Bastet—if I wish to do this, what must I give?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Newt’s eyes narrowed into crescent arcs, as if filled with light.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He always found answers by observing magical creatures.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The black cat possessed some power he could not imagine, capable of achieving this.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Do you miss her deeply?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The black cat did not understand. It did not know who this person was.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“We did.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Newt grew distant again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Long after the fact, he was willing to admit he was the first to capture Gellert Grindelwald.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Before that, like all the sorrowful, he endured the wounds of war.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Leta Lestrange, his best friend since childhood. Even now, in the workshop of his magical suitcase, a frame with her photograph remained permanently displayed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He would never forget: Paris, France, 1927, the Père Lachaise Cemetery.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That year, Leta Lestrange had become Theseus’s fiancée. On the same year, at Gellert Grindelwald’s gathering in Paris, she sacrificed herself, using a powerful spell to destroy Grindelwald’s skull-shaped water pipe, diverting his attention so he and Theseus could escape. Leta herself was consumed by Grindelwald’s flames.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was her death that finally drove them to vow to fight the terrorists who took her life to the end.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“She was my friend, and Theseus’s fiancée. She died saving others, in war... and war brings only despair, tearing apart every family that should have been happy.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Bastet, symbol of war and family—will you understand?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Newt did not speak the final words, only explained softly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He knew this was a dream, so within it, he did not fully bury his emotions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He was lost, wounded. The polite curve of his lips froze, then, unable to bear the weight, slowly, irrevocably, sank downward.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Suddenly, he felt his shoulder grow heavy—it was the black cat, leaping onto it, fixing him with emerald eyes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I will try... yes, stay a little longer.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The black cat said.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And Newt would think—even gods might have feelings.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What must I give?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Newt asked softly, hands behind his back.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Some knowledge.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The black cat gripped its own tail, keeping it from swaying wildly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I am happy to oblige.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Newt’s lips slowly lifted.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Sometimes Newt thought gods could be amusing, though he had never believed in them—certainly not now. He merely regarded today’s dream as a powerful magic, one clearly grand and rare; thus, the being wielding it being called a god was not surprising.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Moreover, he had read The Tales of Dreaming, and knew only the legendary Merlin could accomplish such a thing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now, such a miracle had come to him, leaving him in a daze.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Especially since this was a cat striving to learn spatial magic—this... was far too interesting.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Various mist-balls drifted about, the clean, bright space utterly white and hazy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wizard magic failed utterly here; only wisdom could manifest, emerging from mist-balls separated from the mind.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The black cat understood this as—knowledge and desire, clearly symbolizing a wizard’s rationality and emotion, both previously manifested in magic and faith.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thus, the Threshold’s rule was to reveal the components of a wizard’s magic. And according to Godelot’s exposition in The Most Toxic Magic, wizard magic was explained as residing within the wizard’s soul.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hence wizards became ghosts, and could enter the world beyond the Veil—because their souls contained magic.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only when magic was entirely stripped away—when the soul forgot both emotion and wisdom—would one become lost, and thus pass on.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was the rule of the Threshold.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The black cat seemed to grasp it, and its careful contemplation, seen by Newt, made his lips begin to rise uncontrollably.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Finally, the mist rose.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The black cat now understood how to use the Separation Spell; all that remained was practice.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He had also learned the Stormwind Spell—a weather charm—and now planned to carve out a snowy field, or perhaps a mountain, within the Book of Wizards.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If he could lift an entire mountain...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Goodbye, Mr. Scamander.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The black cat flicked its tail, a farewell.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I am always willing to come here—though I hope it will be your invitation.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Newt smiled.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The black cat’s whiskers trembled—it clearly understood the joke.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Wizards live a long time.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The black cat said.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mr. Scamander was still alive at least until 2017, for he had written the preface to the new edition of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ilvermorny Origins Cabin.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The quill rose earlier than Xiang Xien, swiftly writing:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>【Five minutes, remarkable progress】\u003C\u002Fp>",1029,"2026-06-19T10:00:41.888Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","7915a131b71b39ef3a50bb114225332106aca937a636ccbb1aabe44bc941a863","hogwarts-learning-panel-chapter-365","hogwarts-learning-panel-chapter-363",526,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fhogwarts-learning-panel-cover.jpg"]