Chapter 17: The Philosopher

For Harry, if he encountered any problems, asking a professor would definitely be more convenient than stupidly looking up information himself. However, Harry hoped to ask a truly knowledgeable professor, and one who wouldn't tell others "Harry Potter asked about Nicolas Flamel" after giving the answer.

There was such a professor; he was very likely to know Nicolas Flamel, and basically wouldn't take the initiative to chat with students or professors. Even Professor Snape, who seemed to know a lot, recommended Harry to seek answers from him.

That's right, that was the master of hypnosis, Professor Binsi.

When Harry knocked open the door of Professor Binsi's office, a cold aura went straight into his marrow. The room seemed to still retain the furnishings from when he was alive: the black tea dried and caked on the desk, spider webs on the chair legs, the record player covered in dust, while the professor himself was completely unaware.

"Harry, what is your question?" Professor Binsi's voice was like a vacuum cleaner.

"I would like to ask, because I read the name 'Nicolas Flamel' in a book," Harry said. "Can you tell me more about Nicolas Flamel?"

"Nicolas Flamel, also called Nicholas Flamel," Binsi said slowly. "Nicolas Flamel was born in 1330. He was well-educated, proficient in Latin and Greek, and skilled in calligraphy and copying. He made a living in Paris by selling books and copying articles..."

Binsi seemed to have memorized the paragraphs of text in the book completely by heart, and he started reciting these explanatory texts as soon as he opened his mouth. Although there were only two people in the office, Harry was still listening until he was drowsy.

In the long life and introduction of the character, Harry only heard the word that was most worth his attention: Philosopher's Stone.

"... The Philosopher's Stone is the highest achievement of alchemy. Superficial people call it the Sorcerer's Stone, because the only thing that can make them full of joy is gold. Some people call it the Magic Stone, because it can be used to make the Elixir of Life. But no matter what they think, the essence of the Philosopher's Stone represents an unbreakable truth, that is, all alchemy, in the final analysis, is equivalent exchange..."

Harry memorized these contents by heart, because when Hagrid let it slip in the hut, he read the first half of the name of the Philosopher's Stone. Now he could almost be completely certain that the magical item Deng Buliduo wanted to hide secretly was exactly this Philosopher's Stone. Or, judging from the role it might play, calling it the Sorcerer's Stone was more appropriate.

After learning this, Harry completely lost interest in that trapdoor. What use did he have for the Sorcerer's Stone? Immortality sounded very tempting, but he was far from the age where he could use the Sorcerer's Stone; as for money, he didn't think money had much use in the Wizarding World, and he wasn't short of money in the Muggle world.

"Finally, in 1417, Nicolas Flamel passed away in his hometown. However, when later generations dug up the graves of him and his wife, they didn't find any bodies. It is rumored that they used the effect of the Philosopher's Stone to become people who lived forever."

When Binsi finally finished his long talk, Harry just nodded politely. He didn't intend to continue asking about the story of Linfred, because his eyelids were already as heavy as if they had been hung with lead balls.

"Thank you, Professor, this knowledge is exactly what I wanted," Harry said goodbye politely, then walked toward the dormitory while yawning.

Returning to the dormitory, he almost blurted out the matter of the Sorcerer's Stone to Neville. But Harry suddenly realized that Neville hadn't asked him about Nicolas Flamel at the beginning; it was Hermione who came to ask him, so he had better tell only Hermione.

I don't know from which day, Harry found that Neville had started doing homework with Hermione in the library again, which made him feel very interesting. Of course, from his perspective, he didn't think these things were strange; people were always sometimes closer to this friend, sometimes closer to that friend.

In the blink of an eye, Christmas was approaching, which meant Harry could use the holiday time to return to Downton once. However, Luo En said he had to stay at school because Mr. and Mrs. Wei Silai were going to Romania to visit their eldest son, Charlie; it was said that he was raising dragons there.

Zhang Qiu said she would also stay at school; Christmas in China was not a holiday, and there was nothing to do if she went back—everyone was either in school or at work.

Under these circumstances, plus Hogwarts was originally a wonderful place that people couldn't bear to leave, Harry wrote a letter to Sir Tang Nade, which seemed to be one of the few times Hedwig had played a role since the start of school.

Soon, Sir Tang Nade replied, saying that he strongly encouraged Harry to make many friends in the Wizarding World, and it was no problem not to go back for Christmas. Even he himself was involved in a workers' movement in East Germany and couldn't get away at all at this time.

Interestingly, Sir Tang Nade's reply was written on a typewriter. Luo En praised Sir Tang Nade's calligraphy in surprise, saying that few people could write the effect of a Quick-Quotes Quill by hand, for which Harry specifically explained it to him.

During Christmas, because Neville went home, Harry and Luo En could finally play Wizard's Chess comfortably in the dormitory. Wizard's Chess was no different from international chess, except that the pieces could talk, which led to some laughable things.

For example, in the set of chess pieces Harry bought, the rooks would clamor to castle with the king whenever they had a chance, the bishops on white squares always mocked the bishops on black squares, and every pawn would boast about how it had promoted to a queen last time—even though Harry had never walked a single promotion.

And Luo En's Wizard's Chess level was very brilliant. He used the old chess pieces handed down from the Wei Silai family. These pieces were very united, everyone was willing to sacrifice, and they had a great sense of the overall situation, always able to tell Luo En the planning for several steps ahead. What Harry envied most was that they also had a sense of humor and could often make the two laugh out loud.

Throughout the holiday, Harry didn't go to the library many times, but every time he went, he would read some interesting extracurricular books with Zhang Qiu, sometimes biographies about the wizard Merlin, sometimes secrets of the four founders of Hogwarts. He also saw a copy of "The Tales of Beedle the Bard," with the words "Deng Buliduo's Sharp Comments" added before the book title on the cover, which made him very curious.

In the book, Deng Buliduo had made detailed annotations on almost every story, many of which Harry couldn't understand at all, which made him feel that Deng Buliduo was very brilliant. Deng Buliduo pointed out that Babbitty Rabbitty was an Animagus, which meant that people turning into animals was indeed a spell, which was a very profound Transfiguration; and he also proposed that although people always claimed the Elder Wand was "invincible," none of the masters of the Elder Wand had died peacefully, which was so ironic.

However, what made Harry feel puzzled was, could the Elder Wand in the fairy tale really exist? From the "The Study of the Elder Wand" he saw at the beginning, to the History of Magic textbook, and even great wizards like Deng Buliduo admitted that Emeric the Evil and Egbert the Egregious in history had both possessed the Elder Wand.

Harry began to re-examine this fairy tale book. If the stories inside were all true, at least Babbitty Rabbitty had been proven by Deng Buliduo to be very likely true, or at least had a clear prototype. Whether the Fountain of Fair Fortune was true or false didn't need to be too concerned; what made him feel imaginative were the Deathly Hallows held by the three brothers, and the magical hopping pot of the old wizard.

Of course, if the Warlock's Hairy Heart was true, it would be a bit scary. Harry tried not to delve into this story, and just as Deng Buliduo annotated, this was a very terrifying story, and many parents would wait until their children were a bit older before reading it to them.

Zhang Qiu advised Harry not to take The Tales of Beedle the Bard too much to heart. To prove her point, she told Harry a Chinese fairy tale.

Legend has it that in the ancient East, there was a powerful wizard named Tongtian, who possessed four wise treasure swords, and almost no one could resist their power. This wizard founded a school named "Jie," which was very prosperous at first, but good times didn't last long. His former enemies used schemes and tricks, almost killing all his students, which made him very sad, and finally he disappeared in depression.

Harry felt as soon as he heard it that the four swords in this story were very similar to the Elder Wand, and the truth expounded by the story was similar, which was to say that having powerful strength alone was useless. He soon felt again that Tongtian in the story might be very similar to Headmaster Deng Buliduo; the Dark Lord couldn't do anything to him, so he went to harm his students with schemes. However, Deng Buliduo seemed to have a stronger mentality, and now he was still happy every day.

After telling this story, Zhang Qiu said: "To this day, there are always self-righteous Chinese wizards who brag that they have found the legendary four swords. But what was the result? They were all schemed to death by greedy people, and the people who killed them thought they had stolen powerful treasures, but when they got them in their hands, they were just a few plain-looking magic swords."

"You mean, the Elder Wand doesn't exist, and people just falsely claim they have obtained it?"

"Or, at least its use is not invincible," Zhang Qiu said. "The owner of the Elder Wand always cannot escape the fate of being defeated, so what is the use of the Elder Wand?"

"Alright," Harry said. The excitement that had just welled up in his heart was suppressed. Reason told him that even if the fairy tale was true, there were so many smart people in the world who would have dug out the treasures inside long ago.

But intuition told him that he was right; Beedle was not a fairy tale writer, and everything he wrote was true.

These two thoughts troubled Harry, making him unable to sleep peacefully for the next few days. ===== CHAPTER 18 =====