[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-wizard-war-at-hogwarts":3,"chapter-wizard-war-at-hogwarts-wizard-war-at-hogwarts-chapter-37":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Wizard War at Hogwarts",{"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},2358010,4612,"Chapter 37","wizard-war-at-hogwarts-chapter-37",37,"\u003Cp>“Is this a Jumping Cauldron?” Harry examined the long-legged cauldron curiously; it was perfectly still, no different from an ordinary cauldron.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I’m not sure. Would you like to look at this book?” Zhang Qiu handed him a small notebook.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Harry glanced at it—it wasn’t English, but it felt familiar.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I can’t understand a word of it,” Zhang Qiu stuck out her tongue.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“That’s normal—it’s Ancient English,” Harry said. “To be honest, I’m not good at it either; I can barely make out the gist.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“My God, I have no idea what he’s saying,” Harry groaned, struggling to read the journal: “On the twelfth day after entering the afterlife, I… some… from the… perspective, at least the principle of… can be understood as ¥%@…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“My God, I have no idea what he’s saying,” Harry said in despair.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Look again—does it say what the Jumping Cauldron is for?” Zhang Qiu was now tapping the cauldron’s tiny foot, clad in a slipper.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Oh, here it is.” Harry flipped through the pages rapidly until he found the character for “cauldron.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Under Ignotus’s… I carried the Jumping Cauldron into the…; judging from its… and…, its… nature may be usable for…, to be tested at….” Harry had no clue, only piecing together the few words he recognized: “After… the Jumping Cauldron, it temporarily…; before Alchemical Activation,… will remain unusable.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Alchemical Activation?” Zhang Qiu leaned in to examine the notebook. “This might be the only key word—I can guess the rest.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What does that mean?” Harry asked.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Once the Jumping Cauldron activates, it will take us to witness the suffering of Muggles,” she said. “But there are no Muggles in the Dream Realm.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Let me check the notes,” Harry grew excited, flipping to the end of the entry—it mentioned a spell effective on a certain term, and the next entry began with something else. Harry flipped several more pages before finding another mention of the Jumping Cauldron.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Testing on the Jumping Cauldron was forgotten until… I noticed. But since a… spell can reliably locate…, the Jumping Cauldron’s… is irrelevant.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“If I’m right, the Jumping Cauldron has the ability to find exits,” Zhang Qiu said. “But according to the journal, perhaps Antioch later invented another spell and found a better replacement, so he stopped testing the Jumping Cauldron.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“That makes sense—the Jumping Cauldron was never popular anyway,” Harry said. “Maybe one of the Potters’ ancestors deliberately asked Antioch to bring it in—after all, you said once you enter, it’s hard to leave.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Then let’s try it—activate it,” Zhang Qiu said. “See if it’s as magical as the story says.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Activate?” Harry rummaged through the notebook, searching for instructions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Didn’t you just hear ‘Alchemical Activation’? Just throw the Philosopher’s Stone inside and see,” Zhang Qiu said dismissively.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Harry pulled out the stone, faintly glowing with warm red light. He thought a moment—better to test it than keep guessing words in Ancient English.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The moment the Philosopher’s Stone touched the Jumping Cauldron, the small cauldron sprang to life. It leapt off the table, bounced twice in place, then chose a direction and began hopping toward it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Follow it, Harry,” Zhang Qiu called.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Coming,” Harry carefully tucked Antioch’s notebook into his chest and followed the bouncing cauldron.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After walking an unknown distance—Harry guessed less than a mile—they saw a change ahead: a stone arch emerged from the mist, carved from fine marble, its frame smooth and clean, devoid of elaborate reliefs, only simple geometric patterns. A black tapestry hung before it, embroidered in white thread with the symbol of the Deathly Hallows.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Jumping Cauldron stopped. It bounced in place like a puppy. Harry picked it up, removed the Philosopher’s Stone from its interior, and its tiny feet instantly froze.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Harry hesitated, then finally unfolded his Invisibility Cloak. He suspected that passing through the veil would return him to the real world—but he couldn’t be sure where he’d appear. Rushing out might bring danger.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The instant he stepped through the veil, the bright mist darkened rapidly, churning and solidifying into a concrete scene: a vast room.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The center of the room was sunken, a pit roughly twenty feet deep. Stone benches descended steeply along the room’s shape, like a lecture hall or stadium, and they stood at its center, on a stone dais.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Harry turned to look back at the arch he’d just passed through—it was an ancient, crumbling stone arch, barely holding together. No walls supported it; only a tattered curtain hung from it. It bore no resemblance to its other side in the Mist Realm.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A middle-aged wizard sat in the front row, reading a thick book.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Harry studied him: a man with messy hair and a wide-brimmed hat, wearing an orange-yellow trench coat with a wildly patterned lining and gray trousers. Most striking was his long Bohemian-style scarf, trailing several feet on the floor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Harry thought a moment, then said, “I’ll go out first. If he’s not dangerous, you come out after.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No, I’ll go first,” Zhang Qiu pressed his hand. “If he’s a Death Eater, at least I have diplomatic immunity.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The man had been watching them with wary eyes for some time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Qiu slipped out from under the Invisibility Cloak, using the veil as cover, confident she’d hidden Harry’s presence.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Crossing the veil backward? Who are you?” The man leapt to his feet, startled, swiftly drawing his wand and pointing it at Zhang Qiu from afar.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I’m just a regular student from Hogwarts,” Zhang Qiu said. “I accidentally entered a world of white mist after learning an elder’s spell improperly.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I wandered by instinct and saw an arch—I went through it, and ended up here,” she offered a half-truth.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Good news: you’re safe. This is the Department of Mysteries,” the man lowered his wand and walked toward her. “Bad news: you’ll lose at least fifty points when you return.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Wait—I have a friend. He should be right behind me,” Zhang Qiu hinted for Harry to emerge.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Oh, hello, sir,” Harry stepped out from under the Invisibility Cloak. “Is this the Department of Mysteries?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The man stared for several seconds, then asked: “Harry Potter?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Uh… you know me?” Harry asked with the innocent tone of a child.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Well, Harry Potter showing up anywhere isn’t surprising,” he said. “I’ll plead your case to Dumbledore later—he’s swamped right now. A group of Death Eaters stormed the Wizengamot hearing. Total chaos.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“It’s a plot—they deliberately lured Dumbledore away from school to…,” Harry paused, realizing he shouldn’t mention the Philosopher’s Stone, “…to seize the chance to kidnap me. Luckily, Zhang Qiu’s spell let me escape through the white mist.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You’re only in first year? The Death Eaters are impatient,” the man frowned. “Forget the points. Have some hot chocolate—I’ll notify the school.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The overly friendly man led Harry to a large office. A small sign on the door read “Department of Mysteries,” but the main title only bore the initials D.P.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>While waiting for the chocolate, Harry surveyed the office: over twenty desks, many empty. The wall clock read 3:17.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Harry remembered leaving his dorm at 2:28. The trials and confrontations had taken at least half an hour. That meant they’d experienced killing Quirrell, resting, exploring, solving puzzles, and finally escaping—events that felt like hours—yet only minutes had passed in reality.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The time discrepancy amazed Harry—but then he thought: if the afterlife measured distance by thought, perhaps it measured time by labor. He and Zhang Qiu had spent most of their time sightseeing and chatting; the only real impact on that world might have been those few minutes in Antioch’s cottage.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"There you go, children,\" the man said, dragging his scarf as he approached and handed Harry and Cho Chang each a cup of chocolate, \"Dumbledore will be bringing the Death Eaters back soon, and then I'll hand you straight over to the headmaster.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Thank you, sir,” Harry said politely. “Could you tell me what department this is?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Project D,” he answered without hesitation. “A secret department established by the Department of Mysteries to combat Death Eaters. More details aren’t appropriate to share with you.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With that, he picked up his book again and resumed reading intently.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Harry realized he wasn’t eager to discuss work, so he turned his head to see what book it was—perhaps he’d read it too, and they could talk about it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The title: *The Relative Dimensions of Time and Space*.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For a moment, the only sound in the office was the quiet sipping of hot chocolate.\u003C\u002Fp>",1411,"2026-06-21T04:54:27.874Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","65aadda8cd5831afda23cadd9603ed2d7ba1ba0d303f06f915692414c0d69e16","wizard-war-at-hogwarts-chapter-38","wizard-war-at-hogwarts-chapter-36",528,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fwizard-war-at-hogwarts-cover.jpg"]