Chapter 298 "Ruins and Dark Magic"

The next day, Selma approached Sean with some photos. It's not a black-and-white photo of people like in the wizarding world, but a static color photo.

"Is it about a spell?" Sean took the photo suspiciously.

Selma explained, "My parents are archaeologists, and many of the current ruins are related to wizards. They sometimes come into contact with these things during the archaeological process."

Sean nodded. Archaeologists should be the profession that has the most intersections with wizards among Muggles. The group of wizards began to have large-scale settlements after the Middle Ages. Before that, the largest group of wizards was often just a family or a circle of acquaintances.

This has also led to many ruins left by wizards after their deaths, which are often first found by Muggles.

Under normal circumstances, ordinary wizard relics will not cause disasters and accidents. After all, ordinary wizards will not set up defenses and trap magic in their homes for hundreds of years. If there is an accident, the Ministry of Magic will also send staff to solve it.

As far as Sean knows, there are wizarding items in exhibition cabinets in many museums, and they are no different from ordinary cultural relics.

For example, there are wizards in the Egyptian pyramids, but Muggles first started the actual development and excavation. Many archaeologists and staff encountered terrible accidents at the beginning of archaeology and gradually became folk myths and legends.

Later, the Egyptian Ministry of Magic and the highest level of the Egyptian government cooperated to open the pyramids that were not harmful to tourists, while some pyramids that were still dangerous or created by wizards were closed.

Likewise, there are still many undiscovered wizarding sites around the world, large and small. Archaeologists are often the first to be contacted.

The photo that Selma handed over was a brownish-yellow weathered stone surface with a raised hollow hemisphere in the center. That hemisphere is shiny, with a dark gray metallic color on the surface, and its blue lines can be vaguely seen.

"This is a magical metal created by alchemy. Goblins should make it." Sean squinted his eyes to observe and then said.

The characteristics of magic metal are obvious, and judging from the degree of weathering of the material, it should have been hundreds of years ago. Only goblins could create that kind of hollowing-out technology at that time.

Selma nodded, "That's right, a wizard should have left it."

"Then what about the thing that... oh...has it been revealed?" Sean paused for a moment before reacting.

This unknown magical creation is obviously triggered.

"Yes, the spell was revealed on the top of the thing, and the camera couldn't capture it. It can only be observed with the naked eye at a specific angle at close range." Selma said.

It comes with magic that avoids observation and recording, which is one of the characteristics of the orthodox creations of ancient wizards.

"My parents discovered it during a summer expedition, and the local Ministry of Magic took it over. However, my parents remembered the font shape of the spell. I studied it for a while. It is a Swedish-Norwegian rune font, and it is a spell when examined."

Sean looked at Selma suspiciously, "Well, you know, my runes haven't even crossed the threshold, and Professor Babbling should be better at this kind of problem, right?"

Selma looked excited, "It's just a spell, not an ancient spell. But a spell recorded in runes. If you cast it in the way of ancient magic, the spell will not work."

Now Sean became interested. This kind of magic is either extremely versatile, or the conditions for casting it are very harsh, and very few of them have been handed down in the modern wizarding world.

"Then why are you looking for me?" Sean didn't understand again. This kind of spell can be answered by going to Professor Flitwick.

Selma showed a thief-like expression for the first time. She looked around, and after making sure that there was no one around, she leaned over to Sean and whispered.

"I suspect that it is a dark magic."

Sean nodded knowingly. When they were in Nurmengard, in the course of magic attack and defense, the learning progress of the Ravenclaws was faster than in other houses.

Selma got closer again, her eyes burning, "I know that you know a lot of dark magic. In the magic attack and defense class, you are always the one who masters the fastest. Like the moment you use that blood magic, which is obviously an improved version of other previous dark magic."

"In that class, that Professor asked you to go up and demonstrate it. The spell has a downward movement in the hand movement. Although your movement is very fast, I still saw it. You start with the movement from the right. That is the movement of another dark magic spell, right? Removing that pressing action has no effect on the spell itself. It will only increase the wizard's initial magic power output a lot. This can only be done with someone who knows a lot of dark magic."

Looking at Selma, Sean tried to blink innocently. What she said was right. After getting familiar with it, he also realized that the spell was an improved version of the one he learned.

"No, wait a minute..." Sean narrowed his eyes and smiled, "Miss Murphy, are you familiar with it?"

Selma's face froze, "Uh, about that..."

Her face changed, and finally, she slumped on the table in a broken pot, "Well, I have secretly practiced dark magic, but I can't help it. As the daughter of an archaeologist, I have no choice but to remain curious about such mysteries."

"And..." Selma's expression didn't know whether it was distress or something, "I seem to be quite talented in learning dark magic..."

The two looked at each other with some embarrassment and finally reached a consensus.

"It doesn't matter if you're familiar with it. You must pay attention when using it."

Back to that spell, Selma wrote the spell on the parchment. Sean looked at this spell with some doubts. Just looking at the meaning of the word, it seems to be some kind of enhancement magic.

"Looking at the meaning of the word, generally, the spells involving blood are related to dark magic, so I don't dare to try it. You are more experienced, and you have studied with Mr. Grindelwald for a while. Do you have any idea what it could be?" Selma asked excitedly.

"It doesn't seem like dark magic..." Sean murmured.

He glanced at the system panel just now. With his current black magic talent, if it was dark magic, he would quickly understand the effect of this spell. But no new spells appeared on the panel.

"Is there a wand gesture?" He asked.

"No, that's all I can decipher."

"Well, where did your parents see it?"

"Huaxia Kingdom. They were not actually at the scene. The local Huaxia archaeologists were the first witnesses to the scene. Well, here are a few more photos of the scene." Selma put more photos.

"To be honest, this shouldn't be dark magic. I think it might be some kind of ritual," Sean said.

Selma came over and took a look, then raised her head and asked in confusion, "Why do you say that?"

"If it was that, there is no way your parents would have gotten these photos. Now that I think about it, it might be some kind of ritual or method. This kind of thing exists all over the world, but times have changed, and only the ritual remains in the world. The ritual materials and effects are all unclear. As far as I know, the International Confederation of Wizards should have preserved many such 'rituals', but under the current conditions, it is basically impossible to be considered as one as it doesn't provide much more information."

"Ah, so it's not dark magic..." Selam sighed regretfully.

Sean threw the photo back and smiled, "There's no need to be so disappointed. It's not dark magic, so don't worry about it."

"It's just a little disappointing. I wanted to understand that magic, so I can't understand it even if I want to understand it."

"There are many other ways to learn it. If you need them, I can find them for you, and you can also study them." Sean remembered that there was a ritual record on the bookshelf in Grindelwald's office, but it only recorded some of the rituals.

Grindelwald also told him that it is not a top secret at all. It is just that there is no public information on the market.

Selma came alive, "Really?"

"Of course."

"Okay. In the future, if you have any doubts about runes, please come to me anytime."

"Then it's settled...huh?" Sean was replying with a smile, but his eyes suddenly drifted to one of the photos.

He stretched out his hand and put the two photos together sideways. Selma saw his movements over his head and then found that the edges of the two photos seemed to fit together into an area. A blurry biological shape appeared after splicing the corner of the mountain forest that she hadn't noticed.

"Huh." Selam tilted her head and looked carefully, "It looks like an elk. But there is still a little missing in the middle. I can't tell. Are those scales? And why is the tail like this? "

The approximate shape of a creature appears on the two photos stitched diagonally. Most of its head is hidden in the forest, except for its elk-like body. The strange thing is that the body surface of the creature is not covered with fur but scales, and the tail resembles a long-finned snake's tail.

Sean held his chin and pondered.

"Is that a magical animal from the east?" Selma asked.

Sean nodded, "It should be, but I haven't seen it before."

"Then maybe you can discover a new magical animal." Selma said with a smile. She is not that interested in magical animals.

"Maybe." Sean shrugged.

Coincidentally, there is a magical animal class in the afternoon. After the Paris incident, there was always some weirdness between Sean and Newt. To be precise, it was Sean's unilateral awkwardness.

Newt was just like a normal person. He kept his promise, gave Sean the powder formula that hypnotized Dave, and gave him something extra.

However, since knowing that there was a high probability that the two old men were acting that night, Newt seemed innocent.

Sean also tried to dig out some news from him that night, but Newt said that all his actions that night were done in accordance with Dumbledore's instructions. Sean had no choice but to give up in the end, but the relationship between the two is still a mystery.

In the afternoon, when they came to the edge of the Forbidden Forest, Newt and Hagrid were already waiting there.

"Welcome new students. I am very glad that you have chosen this class. I hope that in the next study, you can experience the charm of magical animals. By the way, Hagrid will be my assistant."

Hagrid was one Sean taller than Newt, and he stroked his chest in embarrassment but pinned Newt under his elbow. Amidst the laughter, Sean and the others still gave Hagrid a rather warm applause.

"Oh, he is already full of enthusiasm, is he?" Newt shook his head, then beckoned the students to follow, "Come on, look what we're going to learn in our first class."

They walked along the edge of the Forbidden Forest and soon stopped at the edge of a forest with a particularly dark color. Some sharp-eyed students have already spotted a little guy in the tree, which is a group of Bowtruckles.

Newt smiled and raised his right hand, and Pickett crawled into his palm.

"That's the creature we'll be studying in our first lesson, the Bowtruckle." Pickett stood in Newt's palm, looked around, and then immediately locked on to Sean in the crowd.

"Bowtruckles are hard-to-spot, palm-sized insect-eating animals that—hey, Pickett, I'm giving a lecture here." Halfway through the sentence, Pickett made a sound.