Chapter 157: Secret of Blood Lake, Vault Key
Although it was only nine thirty, half an hour before curfew, most students had already returned to their common rooms. Aside from upper-year students sneaking off for secret romantic meetings, hardly anyone was still wandering the castle.
Ethan cast a Disillusionment Charm in an empty, dim corner and flew toward the library corridor.
He carefully observed the area around the library, confirming that no couples were meeting there secretly.
Unlock, take the book, replace it, lock the door. The series of movements was remarkably smooth.
The fake was crafted exquisitely. Not only did the cover imitate Blood as closely as possible, but he'd even had his company adjust details like the thickness.
Moreover, to replicate the original details as closely as possible, he'd also found a similar rope and tied it around the book.
Ethan's curiosity was piqued once he had the book. He flew toward the Room of Requirement. "Finally got it. Let's see what new changes appear after the blood lake expands to its limit."
The Room of Requirement was already empty. Presumably, the twins had also left after lining their pockets.
Ethan pulled open the door on the wall and entered the study version of the Room of Requirement.
A bookshelf behind the desk held several books, filling part of the space.
In the past, Ethan would have browsed through the books first to see if any were valuable, but now he had no time to spare. His eyes were fixed only on the copy of Blood in his hands.
He sat in a comfortable chair, placed the book with its rope on the wide desk, and pulled twenty-something bottles of blood from his bag.
This blood was mostly from dead Forbidden Forest creatures, along with two leftover bottles of salamander blood and several bottles of ordinary animal blood he'd collected as backup, afraid he wouldn't have enough.
Taking a deep breath to calm his excitement, Ethan carefully unscrewed a bottle cap and slowly dripped blood, drop by drop, onto the rippling blood lake.
"Too slow!" After dripping for a while, Ethan had to stop.
The blood was integrating into the cover too slowly. He'd only poured a dozen drops, yet the unabsorbed blood had already formed a small pool on the cover.
Still, this method was indeed faster than dripping onto the blood lake drop by drop. Across the book cover, a sparse rain of blood had already begun to fall.
A steady rain of blood fell. The python in the lake reared up, trying to catch the constant drips. This time, however, Ethan was releasing a significant amount of blood. Some of the raindrops the python missed fell directly into the lake.
"Hmm?"
Ethan noticed a problem that hadn't been apparent during his single-drop test. "Drops falling directly into the blood lake cause it to expand immediately!"
He didn't know whether the blood entering the giant python's mouth underwent some unknown transformation before adding to the lake. His goal was to have the blood lake cover the entire book cover, not to make the python grow.
Ethan quickly dripped a few more drops of blood onto the cover. He wanted the cover to absorb more blood, intensifying the rain of blood so that more drops would fall into the lake.
One bottle, two bottles, three bottles. Even after the final bottle of prepared blood had been fully absorbed, a few blackened spots remained in the corners of the cover that the blood hadn't reached.
Ethan even used his wand to guide the last few drops of blood remaining in the bottles onto the cover, but it still wasn't enough.
It was just a little short. Truly annoying! *If I'd known earlier, I wouldn't have wasted so many Galleons and would have brought that dragon blood.*
He still had a bottle of dragon blood and two bottles of salamander blood in his dormitory, but he hadn't expected twenty or so bottles to fall short.
Seeing it turning red, with only a fingernail-sized black patch remaining on the outer edge of the back cover, Ethan hesitated. *Should he go back to the dormitory to fetch that bottle of dragon blood?*
*The book has been in the school for so many years and gone through so many tests. Surely there wouldn't be a problem?* He pondered for a moment but still felt quite uneasy. He glanced at the wall clock. It was already approaching twelve.
*I'll just go grab everything and hurry right back.* Ethan decided to head back.
He stowed the book away and casually flipped through several others on the bookshelf. "These are all pretty ordinary. No need to take them."
Ethan slipped out of the Room of Requirement, invisible. He raced back to the dormitory at top speed, making as little noise as possible.
His three roommates were already asleep in their beds. Goyle was mumbling in his sleep, dreaming about food. "I still want to eat. Don't take it from me!"
Ethan retrieved the dragon blood and Secrecy Sensor from his trunk, cabinet, and desk. He packed his usual equipment into his bag and slipped out of the dormitory again, keeping quiet.
When he entered the Room of Requirement again, it was still set up as a study, but the decorations were slightly different from before. The books on the shelves looked different, too.
Ethan sat down in the chair, removed the alchemy rope binding the book, and spread it open on the desk.
He took out the dragon blood and dripped it onto the cover bit by bit, watching it soak into the material as he waited patiently.
When the last drop of blood disappeared from the cover, dripping into the giant python's mouth, the entire cover turned completely red.
The book's title, which had been steadily dripping blood, stopped. The red letters were now hidden beneath a pool of blood.
The giant python plunged into the pool of blood and vanished without a trace.
*That's it?* The underwhelming display left Ethan deeply disappointed after all his anticipation.
*Even if this big pool of blood suddenly shrank back to its original size, that would at least count as some kind of reaction, wouldn't it?*
Still expectant, Ethan waited a while longer, but nothing happened. Disappointed, he prepared to put the book away.
*Just like this.*
But just as his hand touched the cover, a vision appeared.
The calm blood lake filled the entire cover without a single ripple. Suddenly, bubbles appeared on the surface, bursting and causing the lake to ripple.
Not knowing what would happen next, Ethan quickly pulled his hand back, pushed his chair away, and retreated a few steps from the desk, watching the bubbles constantly emerge and burst.
The vanished giant python, its body wrapped around a roll of parchment, floated up from beneath the surface.
Ethan had no idea how Nathaniel managed it. The giant python's alternating black and red body wriggled, pushing the parchment out from the cover bit by bit.
Soon, a parchment scroll tied with red cord appeared before Ethan's eyes.
Once it had fully pushed the scroll out, the giant python sank back to the bottom of the lake. The blood lake grew calm once more.
Ethan found it incredible. "Is this the Ravenclaw family's secret method? How could anyone fit an entire scroll inside? And fool everyone who'd read the book?"
Hidden inside the cover of this book was a roll of parchment as wide as the book itself and half as thick. It was truly magical.
And this obviously wasn't the effect of an Undetectable Extension Charm, or it would have been discovered long ago.
The Ravenclaw family line had ended. Who knew into whose hands their family collection had fallen? Could it be a distant relative of the Ravenclaws?
"Who knows if we'll ever see this kind of magic again."
Ethan sighed softly. The magical world had too many forms of magic.
Only Lockhart had the nerve to claim he knew everything. After all, as a man who existed only to show off, his only real job was bragging. Even when exposed, he could still stubbornly save face, relying on nothing but his thick skin.
Ethan sighed and turned his full attention to the parchment.
Following his usual routine, he cast a spell first to check for curses or hidden enchantments.
"Safe for now. Time to use the Secrecy Sensor." Ethan pulled out the Secrecy Sensor, ran two tests, and found no issues.
"Blood? Any other problems?" He looked at the blood-red cover and tested it with the Secrecy Sensor again.
The device remained silent, proving the object was not a Dark artifact and that no curses existed.
Ethan didn't know what was inside the scroll, so he kept his dragon-hide gloves on as a precaution.
He untied the rope and unrolled the parchment.
As he reached the end of the scroll, he heard a clang as something fell onto the table.
Ethan looked at the object that had fallen. It was an incredibly old-looking key. "Is this a Gringotts key?"
It felt remarkably similar to the two keys he already had. He picked it up for a closer look and confirmed that it was indeed a Gringotts key.
*Could it be? Is this the key to the Ravenclaw vault?* At the thought, his heart began to pound against his ribs.
He turned his attention back to the parchment, desperate to find the answers he sought.
The scroll appeared to be a letter. The opening lines read: "Whoever you may be, being able to open this scroll is your good fortune, as it was mine."
*Nathaniel's handwriting. It matched the writing in the book exactly.* Comparing the text with the book, Ethan confirmed that the author of this letter was indeed the last descendant of Ravenclaw. His pulse quickened with anticipation.
He quickly read on. "Since you can see this letter, you must have read my book on Blood.
"As the last of the Ravenclaw family, I could not tolerate my mediocre talent tarnishing our brilliant family bloodline. So I conducted a series of experiments.
"Driven by this idea, I did many wrong things. But the greatest wrong was merging my blood with a distant relative's.
"This drove me mad. I was rarely sane."
Below were some meaningless words, confirming that Nathaniel was indeed becoming increasingly unhinged, just as he'd claimed.
"I wrote those words many times before I was done." Nathaniel seemed somewhat reluctant.
"This bloodline fusion experiment failed. I was too impatient. I didn't test it on anyone else first. I made a terrible mistake."
"However, after merging the bloodline, I had some new ideas that needed verification.
"But I have run out of time. So, to whoever reads this letter, as my heir, I hope you will complete my experiment."
"I'm not going to complete such a mad scheme and send myself to Azkaban." Ethan remained unmoved.
He continued reading and found another paragraph of meaningless words.
Further down, a coherent paragraph emerged. "I've discovered some bloodline secrets. I recorded the original experimental notes and my various theories, and placed them in the vault. I've enclosed the key with this letter inside my book, left for my heir.
"Go, my unknown heir. Take my legacy and uncover the bloodline secrets! Hahahaha!"
After this came another paragraph of delirious, meaningless rambling. The letter ended there, providing no further information.
"Bloodline secrets?" Ethan murmured, recalling the manuscripts left behind by Salazar. "Everything related to bloodlines. Could there be a connection?"
"It's a pity. As much as I want to head straight to Gringotts to open the Ravenclaw vault, school has just started. It wouldn't be right to leave now. Better to wait."
Although Ethan was eager to act on Nathaniel's information and research the bloodline secrets, he suppressed the urge.
Remembering the alchemical guidance Dumbledore had mentioned he would give the twins today, Ethan turned his thoughts to the Animagus transformation he had been preparing for since the previous school year.
"I'll find time to visit the Headmaster's office, collect the Transfiguration notes he promised, and ask about the Animagus transformation while I'm at it."
Early the next morning, Ethan got up with a yawn. He had stayed up late and slept poorly, his dreams constantly returning to the Ravenclaw vault.
He downed some Invigoration Draught before heading to class. However, preoccupied with the Ravenclaw vault, he struggled to concentrate during the lesson.
Before he knew it, evening had arrived. Ethan was in the library attempting to do his homework, but he kept getting distracted.
Ethan felt he couldn't go on like this, but the allure of the Ravenclaw vault was too strong. He couldn't help wondering how many books and magical mysteries lay inside, waiting to be discovered.
The only solution he could think of was going to Gringotts, opening the vault, and putting this obsession to rest.
*What if I go home for the weekend? I can write a letter ahead of time and ask Grandpa to pick me up. That shouldn't be a problem, right?*
Ethan wanted to witness the vault opening himself, so he decided to see if he could manage it. He felt it shouldn't be an issue. After all, he had gone home once during the last school year. Besides, he remembered that many Hogwarts students went home during the term.
So, he quickly wrote a letter at his desk, planning to go to the Owlery to send it later.
With the letter finished and his worries temporarily set aside, Ethan hurried through his homework and headed toward the Owlery.
That night, Ethan took a small sip of the Draught of Living Death he had brewed himself and soon fell into a deep sleep.
Early the next morning, Ethan received Cyril's reply while eating in the Great Hall. The letter contained only a short sentence: "I know. I will write to Dumbledore. I'll pick you up at Hogwarts this weekend and take you to Diagon Alley."
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