Harry Potter: The Bard of Hogwarts

Hogwarts, serene and picturesque.

Sunlight gently spills, and the breeze lightly brushes. Outside the castle, the Whomping Willow's early spring buds have sprouted, year after year, as if narrating the stories of young wizards.

It's like an exceptionally beautiful dream that one doesn't want to wake up from.

Time floated by, and two months passed in the blink of an eye.

In the Sanctuary Valley.

A 15-foot snow troll was pulling a plow, followed by four or five gnomes made of the same snow.

Whenever the troll tilled the soil, these one-foot-tall gnomes quickly sowed seeds into the ground.

Under an olive tree in the valley, Ino reclined on a transfigured chair, leisurely watching them work.

These trolls and gnomes, ugly as they might be, were excellent at farming.

With spring approaching, planting herbs in the valley was indispensable.

The valley, spanning over a hundred acres, might not seem large in numbers, but converting it, it amounted to nearly 500,000 square meters of land. Such a vast area, even with magical assistance, would be cumbersome for one person to farm.

Hence, these snow creatures were created. By shaping them through Transfiguration, then inscribing them with alchemical runes and ancient runes, a capable farming assistant was born.

After watching the farming for a while, Ino turned his gaze to the notebook spread on his lap.

The notebook, made from the shed skin of a basilisk, was densely filled with various complex patterns. These were alchemical runes hidden within the Mirror of Erised and the Two-Way Mirror, illuminated by the oil lamp.

Unlike the diadem of Ravenclaw, which was constructed of the most primitive runes, the mirrors displayed alchemical runes derived from ancient runes.

This was important because it greatly facilitated research and learning.

While ancient runes had become obsolete, alchemy had been systematically passed down.

The so-called lost method of making Two-Way Mirrors was merely the loss of a particular item. With the help of the Ravenclaw diadem and alchemical books from the library, Ino easily reverse-engineered and understood the imaging technology.

The structure of the runes was similar to a Muggle Kozyrev mirror, a large curved mirror.

This discovery made Ino increasingly aware of the power of alchemy. Kozyrev was a Muggle scientist who was also the first in the world to propose that time does not exist.

"Both matter and time can be twisted" was the most famous hypothesis of this Muggle scientist.

This was a highly valuable research hypothesis.

Moreover, after understanding the imaging runes of the Two-Way Mirror, he grew more respectful of this Muggle scientist.

Although alchemy had involved these concepts long ago, Kozyrev's achievements went far beyond that.

Before 1983, this Muggle scientist even planned to create a device to twist time, but bizarrely, he died the day before completing the experiment.

Sadly, he was gone, but the famous Kozyrev mirror remained. Strangely, this curved mirror's arrangement of alchemical runes was astonishingly similar to those in the Mirror of Erised.

A simple example is that the world doesn't inherently have colors. All the colors we see are the frequencies of light reflected from objects.

Whether it's alchemical runes or the Kozyrev mirror, they are based on the Fibonacci sequence's geometric shapes, presenting a spiral form.

Thus, in this spiral state, one can clearly see the reflected and twisted light. When this light is arranged and combined, it forms a visible image.

It is indeed complex, but with the wisdom of predecessors as a reference, everything becomes relatively simpler.

With the help of the Ravenclaw diadem, Ino successfully understood and preliminarily replicated imaging alchemy technology through the study of both Muggle and wizard knowledge.

Thinking of this, he switched to a second perspective. After the magical upheaval in Thriller Park last time, Bogert seemed to have experienced an evolution.

In his vision, the once foggy Bogert now carried a three-foot round mirror, flying freely in mid-air.

From a high-altitude view, the entire valley appeared peaceful and picturesque.

Trolls plowing, gnomes sowing, and a young boy reading under an olive tree — the whole scene was very harmonious.

It felt like being in an ancient era, blending magic with farming.

...

As his thoughts shifted, Bogert slowly descended.

Ino looked at the mirror in his hand with satisfaction, a product of two months of effort.

The alchemical imaging runes, combined with the inner vision of the Mirror of Erised, could clearly present what the holder of the mirror saw with their eyes for a period.

It was roughly like a camera for the naked eye. As long as one held the mirror and their vision could see it, the mirror would present those scenes.

Although many areas still needed improvement, the emergence of this product was already a groundbreaking achievement.

However, this achievement seemingly took only two months.

But he knew very well that it required many coincidences.

The bronze oil lamp that revealed hidden things, the Ravenclaw diadem, the understanding of both alchemy and Muggle knowledge — none of these conditions could be missing.

Ultimately, alchemical imaging technology had been lost. Without the oil lamp, it would have been very difficult to discover the complete runes within.

Of course, forcibly dismantling it might also work, but that would require countless samples as a cost.

And the one thing missing from lost technology was precisely samples.

...

As March approached.

With the temperature rising, Hogwarts gradually revived.

Outside the castle, the barren lawns of winter rejuvenated, and the green grass was pleasing to the eye.

However, during this time, people were surprised to find a strange phenomenon. Slytherin's star student, Ino Swinburne, was wandering around all day with a mirror in his arms.

Whether in the bustling Great Hall, the Astronomy Tower, the corridor portraits, the library, the Black Lake outside the castle, or Hagrid's hut...

In short, this strange phenomenon had persisted for two whole days.

By dusk.

After completing the panoramic view of the castle at sunset, Ino returned to the common room alone.

Unlike the usual bustling atmosphere, he was greeted with an eerie silence upon entering the common room.

"Are you alright? There are rumors outside saying you've been cursed," Draco asked with some concern.

It wasn't a big deal in itself, but people spreading idle gossip made it so. Perhaps on the first day, people were just curious, but on the second day, with him still wandering with the mirror, various versions of rumors spread wildly within the castle.

"Thank you for your concern! I'm fine," Ino said, looking around.

All he saw were concerned eyes, which made him feel a bit sentimental.

Draco, Pansy, Daphne, even Goyle, and Flint... who said Slytherins were cold-blooded? The little snakes just had a higher threshold for making friends.

"Since everyone is so curious, let's look at what I've been working on for the past two days. This will also stop people from saying I've been cursed."

As he spoke, he waved his wand, and a five-foot-tall ice stand slowly rose.

The mirror leaned against the inclined stand, and after a short delay, images slowly began to appear on the once empty mirror surface, accompanied by a soothing melody.

"It's the Astronomy Tower!"

Someone in the crowd exclaimed, but was quickly shushed by the person next to them.

In this situation, any external noise seemed unnecessary.