Chapter 102 100. Breaking the Curse
Of course, contacting Dumbledore does not mean that you can get in touch just by contacting him.
The Ministry of Magic has strict control over all the current means of communication in the magic world. Even if you want to adopt an owl, you need to go to the Department of Magical Communications for the record. Any owl that has not been registered has the right to be shot down by the Auror Command.
It will take time for Aberforth to contact Dumbledore, and Jon is not in a hurry. After all, they haven't got the set mission goal yet, and they still have to find a way to solve the three paintings in the tower.
"The methods used to make magic portraits are not superb, but the process is very complicated, especially it needs to add some emotions of the portrait itself, but if you want to destroy a portrait, you can actually cast a universal cracking spell."
"Curse stop?"
Aberforth nodded.
"Yes, although the universal cracking spell cannot completely erase the magic on the portrait, it can turn the portrait into an ordinary portrait for a period of time, and the length of time depends on your mastery of cracking the spell. But the problem is , the ordinary breaking spell can only have an effect on one target at a time, that is to say, after you rush into that room, you can only disable one painting."
Jon frowned, and he continued to ask.
"So what do I do?"
Aberforth shook his head.
"If there is only one painting, then this is actually a very easy thing to do, but now there are three paintings, so I don't know what to do next."
Jon thought for a while, then suddenly raised his head and asked
"Can we go teach other people how to learn this spell?"
Although he didn't say the whole thing, Aberforth understood the meaning.
"You want me to find a way to get two magic wands for you to bring into that castle, and you will teach the little girl who has discovered your identity and another person to unravel the spell, and the three of them will look at different portraits at the same time. Using a spell?"
Jon nodded and said.
"Universal resolving curses is not a difficult spell to learn. As long as you can find a way to get two magic wands, you teach me, and I will teach them. It shouldn't take two or three months."
This seems to be a perfect solution, but Aberforth poured cold water on him.
"This idea is indeed feasible, but you still can't avoid the admission contract on those Muggle students." Aberforth explained to him, "That contract not only restricts their activity space, but also allows them to During the execution of the contract, there will never be a way to hold the wand, and the Dark Lord has thought of it from the very beginning, and he must prepare to eliminate the possibility of these children touching the wand to cast spells from the source."
Jon still asked a little unwillingly.
Aberforth answered him gravely.
"Three years ago, an adult mudblood wizard couldn't bear the oppression, and tried to steal the wand of a half-blood wizard and escaped from England. He had received normal magical education before the Dark Lord took control of Hogwarts, so he knew How to use a wand to cast spells. But after the Dark Lord completely controlled the magic, he was forced to sign a slave clause similar to the current enrollment contract, giving up the right to use the wand for life, and just when he got the wand In an instant, the hand holding his wand was scorched."
Vicious, but also effective.
As long as this makes the Mudbloods unable to hold the wand for the rest of their lives, no matter how much they want to resist, they will not be able to cause any disturbances. They are even worse than the goblins who have also been confiscated of the right to use the wand. After all, they still have the exclusive right to use the wand. A method of casting spells belonging to one's own race.
Jon's idea was rejected, and they couldn't think of any other more effective plan after that. They could only learn the general staff swing gesture and spell pronunciation from Aberforth, and mastered the spell by themselves. Let's talk about other things.
It was already midnight, and Jon didn't stay in Aberforth any longer, and returned to the castle at three or four o'clock in the morning.
Christmas is over, but there is still some time left for the Christmas holiday.
None of the pure-blood and mixed-race students returned to school, and the campus was still empty, but after the Christmas dinner, most of the professors returned to the school, including Snape and Barty Jr. He is a single teacher and has no family. If he has nothing to do outside, he basically stays in the castle.
In the day or two after Christmas, Jon was always on the lookout for Snape's reaction. The Marauder's Map was always open. Whenever he had time, he would pay attention to whether anyone was passing by near the principal's office. , or have plans to go in.
Voldemort's prohibition of anyone entering his principal's office is only his guess after all. Whether Snape and Barty Jr., his two confidantes, have permission to enter and leave it still needs to be observed by Jon.
And also after Christmas, he began the punishment given to him by Dolokhov, cleaning the public toilets in the castle alone until the end of the holiday.
Having time alone is not a punishment for Jon at all, and he hopes that Dolohov can assign him more such opportunities in the future.
As long as he keeps looking at the Marauder's Map and pays attention to whether there are people passing by around the bathroom, Jon can use this time to practice the spell. As for the cleaning work, it is undoubtedly much faster and more convenient to use the cleaning spell with a wand than with gestures, so After being punished, his life was more comfortable and compact than before.
The only thing that makes people uncomfortable is that the smell in the bathroom is really not very pleasant.
After finishing today's work, I returned to the basement. There wasn't much work to do during the holidays, so most of the other Mudblood students were able to relax for a while, but their freedom of movement was still restricted. The ground cannot go to the ground.
It was already time for dinner when Jon came back. Their food has been slightly better these days than before. At least the bread is not so hard, and they can occasionally drink some pumpkin juice with flavor.
Even if she made it clear that Jon's true identity was discovered, Hermione didn't show how close she was to him in normal times. This little girl is indeed very smart, knowing what to do and what to restrain.
"This holiday is much better than last semester." Hanton was sitting next to Jon during the meal, and he chatted softly while biting a piece of bread, "Mr. Dolokhov is very happy these days, and those few The professors who usually hate us have also gone home. Last Christmas, Kruckie accidentally bumped into Professor Carlo when he was going to water the flowers in the garden, and was almost tortured to death by that professor. .”
Jon just listened absent-mindedly at first, he was still thinking about how to solve the three portraits, but after a while, he suddenly seemed to think of something, and turned his head to stare at Hanton.
"You mean that Professor Carlo is not in the castle this holiday?"
(end of this chapter)