"Turn off voice chat? Turn off what voice chat! If I turn it off, how would you know I'm cursing you? If I'm going to insult someone secretly and they can't even hear it, I might as well not bother... Grrrrr!!!"
Tom grumbled through the Whispering Charm, ranting out all his dissatisfaction and jealousy.
Some people were just born in Rome, and yet they didn't know how to treasure it!
Tom felt like he and Wade were both competing in the same race, and Wade's starting line was already way closer to the finish line than his.
But that guy deliberately ran back to his side, pretending that starting together with everyone else was the only fair way...
Tom had actually believed it. He thought Wade was just a bit faster than him, nothing more.
Since they were starting from the same line, he figured he still had a chance to catch up and win...
But then—when the race actually began, Tom realized... while everyone else was running on foot, Wade was riding a damn horse!
Fair?
What does fair even mean?
Why don't you tell me—what the hell does fair mean!? Grrr!!
Fair is you riding a horse, looking down on me for running slow, and then telling me, "If you're bad, just train harder!"
"Tom... you've been getting bold lately. You don't even bother hiding your insults anymore?" Wade looked at Tom in mock surprise.
Tom used to grumble behind his back, but now… he wasn't even pretending anymore—he was just outright cursing him to his face!
"So what, you gonna kill me?" Tom replied with a blank expression.
Wade had no idea that his one offhand comment earlier had stirred up more resentment in Tom than a ghost wrongfully killed decades ago.
"I wouldn't go that far—just a few beatings should do."
"Then go ahead and beat me to death!" Tom snapped back, glaring angrily with his neck stiffened.
"Alright then… Tom, since you're so determined, how could I possibly refuse? Any last words?"
"Yeah—The fuck?—wait, wait! You're actually serious? I… I admit I might've raised my voice just a bit…"
The moment his life was on the line, Tom instantly sobered up.
No matter how jealous he was of someone else's power, it was still their power. But his own life… that was truly his.
Just then, Anne finally came to a stop.
"It should be just up ahead," she said, glancing at the map in her hand.
About fifty meters ahead of the trio, there was a ruin.
"I didn't know anyone had ever lived in the Forbidden Forest," Tom said, frowning as he examined the crumbling remains in the distance.
"Hogwarts has over a thousand years of history. It's normal for there to be some abandoned structures nearby. With time, towns turn into wilderness and forests..." Wade said casually.
Anne suddenly spoke up, "But... this is just the ruin of a single building. It's not a town or anything like that. If—just if—all the locations you've identified are ruins like this... do you think there might be some kind of connection?"
Wade pondered aloud, "Hmm, that's a good question. There's definitely something odd about it. If all that magical power was hidden in these broken-down ruins… it might mean the structures themselves are tied to the magic."
"And who knows... whether these buildings were once homes, or if they served some other purpose..."
As he said this, Wade appeared to fall into thought.
Outwardly, he was speaking of Morganach's magical power, but in his mind, he was thinking about ancient magic.
He hadn't given it much thought before.
But now, looking back, he realized that all the hotspots of ancient magic he'd found had been located within old ruins just like this.
Anne looked at the ruin, then stepped forward, pretending to begin an exploration.
She had actually examined this place many times before—there was absolutely nothing here. But she couldn't just do nothing.
After all, this was supposed to be her "first time" coming here.
Wade walked closer to the ruined structure, carefully examining the remains. He seemed to be trying to identify some distinctive architectural markers.
That way, he could later research who built these structures… and why ancient magic hotspots had formed here.
If he could figure that out, perhaps he would finally understand the true source of ancient magic—and maybe discover other places, beyond the area around Hogwarts, where similar ancient magic hotspots existed.
Anne also frowned. "These ruins must be at least a few hundred years old, which means that even in Professor Morganach's time, this place was already abandoned. So why would she hide magical power in ruins like these? It's far too conspicuous! Why not hide it somewhere less obvious..."
"Maybe it has something to do with how that magical power is formed or stored..." Tom guessed. "Otherwise, I really can't think of any reason someone would leave something so valuable in a place this exposed and unprotected."
Wade didn't speak, focusing intently on the ruins—remains he had previously overlooked.
After a while, he finally noticed something.
These buildings had traces of ancient magic lingering on them… just like his lighter.
Now, Wade had a bold hypothesis.
That is, these buildings had originally been constructed using ancient magic!
So, after the buildings decayed over time, the ancient magic that once held them together began to leak out, then slowly recondensed—thus forming ancient magic hotspots…
Damn!
Even though the structures themselves had weathered away, the ancient magic embedded within them had not dispersed!
This alone spoke to the immense power of ancient magic…
And it also explained why Wade was able to absorb those ancient magical energies so smoothly without any resistance!
The ancient magic used by his predecessors to build these structures had essentially become a kind of battery—charging Wade up now.
Of course, confirming this theory would be simple. It would just take a basic control experiment.
Building with ancient magic… Could it be that ancient magic was once something common?
But Wade quickly shook his head and dismissed that assumption.
The fact that someone had used ancient magic to construct buildings didn't prove that the power was widespread in the past.
If it had truly been common, there would be at least some mention of it in the history of magic—yet there wasn't a single trace.
Back when Senior Sister first awakened her ancient magic, it was only through the portraits of former professors that she learned any concrete information about it.
"There's nothing here," Anne said after a brief scan of the area.
This place was no different from how it had been during her previous investigations.
So she didn't need to search carefully—she already knew there was nothing to find.
"Let's search a bit more thoroughly," Wade said.
As he spoke, he looked toward Tom.
Tom nodded, then pulled out his wand and began casting Revelio to inspect every inch of the ruin.
Anne watched from the side, shaking her head inwardly.
She had already examined these ruins many times before and found nothing.
And not only that—after she submitted the notebook, Grindelwald had also sent other Party members to check this place multiple times.
Among those Alliance members were several so-called "professionals" who frequently conducted "ruins expeditions."
And on top of that, each of them had one of those instruments distributed by the goblins.
Logically speaking, if that kind of magical power really existed here, it should've been impossible to miss.
That magic, which was supposed to be here...
Either it never existed in the first place, or it had been taken away long ago.
So no matter how professional or thorough Wade and Tom's detection methods were, they were ultimately doomed to come up empty-handed!
As Anne pretended to help with the search while thinking about how to persuade Wade and Tom to move on to another location—
"There's something here," Tom suddenly said.
"Really? Let me take a look," Wade said, sounding excited as he walked over.
!!! Anne's eyes widened. No way.
This place had already been searched so many times without finding anything, and now they'd just arrived and already found something?
With that thought, Anne quickly rushed over too.
She saw Wade and Tom crouched around a stone slab, closely examining something.
Anne examined the stone slab and immediately let out a breath of relief.
"This just looks like an ordinary floor tile. What's so special about it?" she asked, looking at the two boys as if they'd lost their minds.
Sure, both of them were incredibly talented—so much so that even Grindelwald had people keeping an eye on them.
But when it came to field exploration, compared to someone like her who had gone on more than ten expeditions into the Forbidden Forest since the start of the school year, they were still far more inexperienced!
However, her words had no effect on Wade and Tom.
Instead of dismissing the "floor tile," Wade and Tom began working together to move it onto a nearby patch of open ground.
"What are you even doing with that thing…" Anne asked with a sigh.
"Come over here and help, would you? Don't just stand there," Tom said irritably.
He was feeling a bit frustrated—if she didn't get closer, how were they supposed to go through with the next part of their setup?
"Alright, alright…" Anne sighed, drawing her wand to cast a Levitation Charm.
But Wade stopped her. "It's no use. I just tried. Magic doesn't have any effect on this tile—it doesn't respond at all."
"Hmm?" Anne stopped her Levitation Charm and looked at the floor tile with suspicion.
A floor tile that could resist magic?
Sss... could they really have found something?
Uneasy, Anne helped Wade and Tom move the stone slab to a patch of open ground nearby.
"What exactly is so special about this tile?" Anne asked insistently.
"Because the age of this slab doesn't match the rest of the ruins," Tom replied. "That means it was placed here later. And it's immune to magic! Honestly, that already makes it the most unusual thing in this entire ruin."
Anne had to admit, Tom's reasoning sounded plausible... but still—how could that be?
Maybe the slab was special in some way, but it couldn't possibly contain that kind of magical power. Otherwise, how could the goblins' instruments have failed to detect it?
Just as Anne was thinking that, Wade casually transfigured a stick on the ground into a hammer and smashed it down hard on the tile!
Thump!
Crack!
Clang!
A silver sphere fell from the broken slab, landing with a crisp metallic ring.
_________
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