The Essence of Magic

In order to prevent Helena from sensing that something was wrong, Ivan suppressed his excitement and continued to try to get more information out of her.

It was not until the wee hours of the morning that Ivan said goodbye to the ghost lady as usual.

"Hales, I have a favor to ask of you," Helena said suddenly.

"Of course. We're friends, aren't we?" Ivan nodded. Helena had told him the location of the magical storage room, and he wasn't about to refuse a request.

"I wish you would bring my mother's diadem…" Helena said hesitantly.

"Okay, I'll get it to you as soon as I can… but I can't find Dumbledore these days, and I think he still has the diadem. Besides, it's broken…"

Ivan looked at Helena with some hesitation. If he was not mistaken, as a ghost, Helena could not pick up or touch objects.

"I just want to see it one last time…" Helena said quietly.

After thinking about what Helena had been through, Ivan understood and gave her a sympathetic look. He then transformed back into an owl and flew out of the window.

Dawn was breaking, and the first rays of the morning sun pierced the darkness.

Ivan stayed up all night, but he was still in high spirits. He had no intention of returning to the dormitory to catch up on his sleep. Instead, he rushed to the eighth floor and paced back and forth across the huge tapestry three times, chanting in his heart.

[I need access to the Hogwarts Mana Storage Room.]

When Ivan opened his eyes again, there was a door in the wall.

"I'm glad there's a response…" Ivan said, relieved, as this proved that direct access to the Room of Requirement was possible.

Nine times out of ten, an important place like this would have some sort of obstacle in its way, like a statue guardian, in case someone stumbled into the power system that destroyed the castle.

Thus, before opening the door, Ivan whipped out his wand in case of an attack.

Beyond the door was a dark, squarish, and forbidding-looking space.

Undaunted, Ivan went inside, waving his wand to light the way with a Strong Light Charm.

Specks of fluorescence chased the darkness away, but to Ivan's surprise, there was only one set of antique bronze doors, similar to the one in Ravenclaw's common room, with an eagle-shaped knocker on each handle.

Another door on the other side?

What kind of protection was that?

Ivan was a little taken aback, as the bronze knocker on top of it felt familiar.

'Surely he's not asking me to answer questions?'

Ivan nervously approached the door, and as he expected, the bronze eagle spoke slowly.

[May I ask… what is the essence of magic?]

Ivan was silent for a long moment, his face so dark it was frightening. The only sound in the square space was the echoing mechanical voice of the bronze eagle.

A moment later, Ivan suddenly raised his wand and gestured at the door, but eventually put it down, deciding to be magnanimous and give the knocker a chance!

"Another question!" Ivan said calmly.

However, the rigid bronze eagle spoke again.

[May I ask… what is the essence of magic?]

"Well, if you want to know so badly, I'll tell you. The essence of magic is—" Ivan held up his wand expressionlessly, and a hot flame appeared.

"Confringo! (exploding thunder)"

The flame expanded into a fireball that was several meters tall and slammed into the bronze door. The next moment, there was a loud bang and a sea of flames engulfed the entire space.

After more than a minute, the flames began to fade, and the bronze door continued to repeat the same question.

"It's that hard?" Yvonne was impressed, and when she took a few steps closer to examine it, she noticed something odd.

The door was heavily encrusted with protective enchantments, or it would never have stopped his Thunderbolt.

It was not impossible to breach the castle by force. Ivan estimated that he would be able to do so after four or five hours of frenzied attacking. However, if he did so, the room would be completely emptied of all the magic that had been stored in the castle over the millennia.

Ivan stared at the bronze door with a headache and sighed helplessly. "Lorna Ravenclaw, you really put me in a difficult position…"

He had managed to master the complicated Alchemy Arrays, and had spent a lot of time and effort trying to impress Helena. He had thought it would be foolproof, and that he would be able to work on the Philosopher's Stone soon, but he was stopped by a door.

… .

Ivan, who had been causing a scene all morning, returned empty-handed and had to go to the Great Hall to enjoy his breakfast.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione were sitting at the Gryffindor table, and when they saw Yvonne coming in from the entrance hall, she called out to her.

"Ivan, over here!"

Ron, on the other hand, asked Ivan where he had been all morning.

"Looking for a place to practise my magic…" Ivan replied casually as he quickly sat down in the empty seat.

Practicing magic?

Harry and Ron looked at each other. Those who are more talented than you work harder than you do, and the pie in their hands suddenly tasted bad.

Hermione looked at Ivan with admiration and decided that she would have to work harder in the future.

While they were lost in their thoughts, a messenger owl swooped in from outside and swooped down to drop a newspaper in front of Ivan.

"It's the new Daily Prophet!" Hermione exclaimed as she picked it up and scanned the pages, her expression growing grave.

"Have a look, all of you, we're about to have trouble!" Hermione exclaimed angrily, holding the newspaper open and placing it in the middle.

On the front cover was a bust of Dolores Umbridge, beaming and winking at them, with a headline that made Harry and Ron gasp.

[The Ministry seeks educational reform and Dolores Umbridge is appointed as the first High Inquisitor!]

Ivan had been expecting this, so he wasn't too surprised. He quickly scanned the information and came up with a summary.

The Ministry of Magic recently passed a decree called Educational Decree Number Twenty-two, which allowed Minister Fudge to interfere directly with the appointment of Hogwarts staff.

At the same time, the position of High Inquisitor was created out of thin air at Hogwarts, with Umbridge as the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor.

This meant that the Ministry of Magic was about to attack Hogwarts!