Chapter 432
Mysterious Magic
Chapter 432 Mysterious Magic
Wovilet was holding the crystal bottle with a magnifying glass in his hand, looking at the gold powder in the bottle very intently, his brows tightly furrowed, and he was muttering something.
Vader didn't know what Wowelet could see from this.
Because he once put the same thing under an optical microscope, but no matter how many times it was magnified, all he saw was fine gold powder.
Wade even suspected that if he rented an electron microscope from a university laboratory, he would see the same picture.
Using scientific methods to study magic will only lead to the conclusion that "this is not scientific at all".
"Vade."
Grindelwald stood up, looked at him, pointed at the bottle of gold powder, and asked, "Have you ever seen anything like this?"
After not seeing him for a few days, Grindelwald seemed more majestic. Perhaps it was because he had killed a lot of people during this period, or perhaps it was because his body, which had been exhausted in prison, was slowly recovering and he no longer looked so thin.
On the way here, the effect of the Polyjuice Potion had worn off, and Wade had returned to his original appearance.
Grindelwald didn't ask about his oversized clothes, but got straight to the point.
Seeing that he didn't mention the previous argument and offense, Weed breathed a sigh of relief, nodded, and added: "I have indeed seen something similar, but I'm not sure if it's the same thing."
Wowelet's eyes lit up and he looked at him.
Grindelwald was not surprised. He waved his hand and said, "Come and see too."
Wade drew his wand and stepped forward, casting a few routine detection spells on the crystal bottle, then took a coin from his pocket and, with a flick of his wand, turned it into a little white mouse.
Grindelwald looked at his smooth and natural Transfiguration magic, his eyes were dazed for a moment, and then returned to normal.
The little white mouse blinked its bright black eyes and lay obediently on the wooden table.
Wade opened the stopper of the crystal bottle and waved his wand. A fine stream of air carried a few grains of gold powder and gently landed on the body of the little white mouse. Then he poked its back with his finger.
The little white mouse didn't move. It slowly rolled its eyes, let its tail drop, and suddenly fell down.
The little guy was not dead, but was breathing slowly and leisurely, as if he had fallen into a deep sleep.
Wade let the air flow throw the gold powder back into the bottle and put the stopper on it.
After a moment, the little white mouse woke up, looked around, and ran nimbly to the edge of the table. Then the magic wore off and it suddenly turned into a coin again.
Wowelet looked at Wade's unsurprised expression and asked curiously, "What on earth is this?"
Wade thought for a moment before saying, "I'm not sure what it is exactly, but when it comes into contact with the skin, it will slow down a person's physiological functions, make the consciousness dull, and then cause the person to fall into a deep sleep. The more it's exposed to, the more obvious the effect will be."
"But this thing is harmless to the human body. Even if you sleep for a long time without eating or drinking under its effect, you won't die of thirst or hunger, and your muscles won't atrophy. It's like..."
He remembered that he had put gold powder on a little white mouse and took it away after two months. After the little white mouse woke up, it quickly resumed its previous activities - holding dry corn and starting to eat it.
It was as if the two months of sleep had been deleted from its life and consciousness with one click.
"It's as if... the time of living things has stopped." Wade said, observing the expressions of several people around him.
Grindelwald raised his eyebrows slightly, without any further expression.
Wowelet's shock quickly turned into excitement, and he wanted to get into the bottle and experience it for himself.
Delain suddenly opened his eyes wide, then stared at the bottle in deep thought.
And Moreau...
"If someone puts this on their body, wouldn't that mean they can live forever?" he asked excitedly.
Vader asked back: "Stones can also live forever, are you willing to let Medusa turn you into stone?"
Moreau immediately shook his head honestly.
"This thing can neither make people live forever nor prevent aging. At most, it can only hibernate people."
"After spending decades or hundreds of years in deep sleep, when you wake up, your quality life span will still be the same, and aging and death will still be inevitable," said Wade.
As he spoke, he suddenly remembered the beautiful princess in the fairy tale who had been cursed by a witch and had been sleeping for a full hundred years.
The entire palace, including the animals, fell asleep. A hundred years later, everything woke up again and became full of life again, without any idea that they had slept for a hundred years.
After a pause, Wade continued, "Its greatest function should be to allow seriously injured or terminally ill patients to wait for a chance to be treated...it can also extend the shelf life of the potion."
For example, there are many magic potions in Wade's closet, some of which will become ineffective in a month or two. But if you throw two grains of gold powder in, they will still be fresh after a year or two.
Thinking of his closet space, Wade couldn't help but sigh, missing those convenient days.
"But..." Delain frowned and asked slowly, "How can Muggles master the power of time? Even wizards can't do it to this extent."
"That's too absolute." Moreau retorted: "The legendary Merlin might be able to do it."
Delane looked at his colleague who was refuting for the sake of refuting with displeasure and said, "Use your brain to think about it! If that organization had a figure like Merlin, would it still need to do those crappy transformation experiments?"
Moro shook his fingers, making a "tsk tsk tsk" sound, and mocked: "Günter, your thinking is too rigid!"
"Of course they don't have 'Merlin', but it's not impossible for them to accidentally get one or two alchemical items of ancient wizards!"
"It's just like the legendary holy weapon given to the three brothers by the god of death. It looks ordinary, but it has great power. It is not picky about the owner at all. Anyone can use it."
Delane thought about it and it seemed to make sense. He turned to Wade and asked, "Wade, are these gold powders alchemical creations?"
Vader said cautiously: "Its power is indeed somewhat similar to the time converter, but... apart from the gods in the legend, I don't know what kind of alchemy technology can create such a magical thing."
"That's because it's not a pure alchemical product," Grindelwald said suddenly.
Everyone looked at him, and then Delain leaned forward and asked, "Sir, have you seen through the origin of this gold powder?"
Grindelwald sat down in an armchair and motioned for the others to sit down as well. He waved his hand and the crystal bottle flew into his hand.
Wowelet's eyes seemed to be glued, following him all the way. Grindelwald gently shook the crystal bottle, watching the gold powder inside sway like water, and after a moment he said:
“Seemingly absurd fairy tales always have some real origins. Whether it’s the story of the three death brothers or the story of Sleeping Beauty, they actually correspond to some forces that we cannot understand but do exist.”
"Those powers are some kind of innate magic that is difficult to explain and control. The Ministry of Magic has been studying these mysterious powers and has achieved some results. However, the more they study, the more unknowns they discover, and even make people feel indescribable fear."
"You mean—" Delane said, "the things that the Unspeakables in the Department of Mysteries are working on?"
"Yes," Grindelwald said. "Thoughts, life, death, emotions, time, the universe, the future, the elements... these are the mysterious magics they are studying."
He looked at Vader and said, "I heard that you were the best student at Hogwarts and took all the courses. So you must have got a Time-Turner as well?"
"Yes," Wade said. When Wowelet looked at him with shining eyes, he added, "It was just taken back by the school before the holiday."
Wowelet lowered his eyebrows in disappointment, thought for a while, and suddenly said hesitantly: "Um... Gellert, speaking of which... Vader will start school in a few days..."
——I can go back to school when the semester starts, and I can get the Time Converter back when I get it, and then I can lend it to him for research...
There was clear desire in Wowelet's eyes.
The three witches looked at him speechlessly, and even Wade didn't know what to say.
After a moment, several people ignored Wowelet's speech, and Grindelwald continued: "The Ministry of Magic once claimed that the reason why the time-turner was created was because a time-reversal spell was cast on the hourglass. This is actually a complete lie."
"They just used the power of time magic and the golden timer to achieve a rough control. This magical power exists naturally, so the time converter does not require the user to provide magic power or any spells."
"I suppose you have all heard the story of Eloise Mitroven?" Grindelwald asked.
Everyone nodded.
The British Ministry of Magic once conducted a very bold time experiment.
In 1899, a witch named Eloise Mitrombe traveled back in time to the year 1402 and stayed there for five days.
When she returned, her body had aged five centuries, and she died at St. Mungo's shortly afterwards.
This witch's brief time travel disrupted the life trajectories of countless people, and some people were never born. Then it caused serious interference with real time, which lasted for two and a half days on Tuesday and only four hours on Thursday.
Fortunately, time has some strange self-healing properties. After a few days, this interference became negligible, and the speed of time passing gradually returned to normal.
Since then, the Ministry of Magic of various countries has formulated various strict laws and penalties regarding time travel.
"This story is the most obvious manifestation of time magic. If the British Ministry of Magic continues to experiment, perhaps they will be able to discover the true nature of time. But it is more likely that the entire world will be destroyed because of the disorder of time."
Grindelwald said: "Humanity cannot afford that kind of price. The Ministry of Magic can only choose to ban those radical experiments. The focus is on observation and control, not exploitation."
"So Wowelet, Vader's Time-Turner can only be used to solve some trivial time management problems - for example, he can have more time to write his thesis - but it cannot be used to solve truly crucial things. It cannot be reversed endlessly, it cannot change the past or the future, and it cannot truly transcend the limitations of time."
"Is that so..." Wowelet was a little disappointed when he heard that.
When Wade heard that even Grindelwald said this, he suddenly felt guilty.
Then he thought that the last time he used the time turner, he did not change the past - he failed to prevent Mabel from becoming an Obscurus, and Hayley's ability to be saved was a fact that had already been determined before he went back in time.
So he did not change history - his actions were themselves part of history.
"That's a bit off topic... What I want to say is that mystical magic is not a power that wizards can create at will."
Grindelwald continued:
"A long, long time ago, they suddenly appeared somewhere in the world, bringing great chaos and disaster to the local area. The original intention of establishing the Ministry of Magic was for ancient wizards to study, monitor, and restrict these forces."
"Now, deep underground in the Ministry of Magic of each country, each country has several kinds of mysterious magic. What aspects these magics focus on are all absolutely confidential and outsiders have no way of knowing."
Grindelwald placed the crystal bottle on the table and flicked his fingers. The crystal bottle made a crisp sound, and the gold powder inside also shook slightly, then slowly fell down.
"But...if these things can really stop time, then it must be a form of time magic, just like time reversal."
Everyone's eyes were fluctuating, and they were all thinking about something.
Delain said slowly: "So... either those people discovered a new source of time magic and found a way to extract the gold powder from it; or they controlled a certain Ministry of Magic."
"-control the Ministry of Magic?" Moreau asked incredulously. "Is this possible?"
"It's certainly not possible for the Ministries of Magic in countries like Britain, France and Germany, but some small countries have less than ten wizards in total."
Delain explained: "The so-called Ministry of Magic is just a mentor with a few apprentices. Their magic skills are usually not very good, and some of them have to set up stalls on the street to make a living."
Moreau murmured, "...So whether they are tempted by money or forced by force, they are likely to sell out the secrets of magic and become running dogs driven by the Muggle dignitaries."
Delain nodded heavily.
"Don't worry." Grindelwald said, "Even if they control some wizards, their number will not be too large. I will peel off their shells layer by layer until the deepest heart is exposed."
"Be patient, children. I would be disappointed if we could easily uproot an institution that has existed for hundreds of years."
"This time, we suffered a great loss because we were not prepared for this kind of thing. Vader——"
He looked into the young wizard's clear grey eyes and asked, "Since you have studied this before, do you have any methods to deal with it?"
Wade said: "The easiest way is to wear protective clothing. Muggle hospitals have ready-made equipment. If it doesn't come into contact with the skin, the gold powder will not work."
However, it is very inconvenient for wizards to wear protective clothing when using wands. Even if they just wear an extra pair of gloves, some people's magic will be affected.
Wade thought for a moment, then continued, "Most spells have no effect on gold dust, but it is restricted by the container and is also objectively affected by forces. I've seen people use something like a vacuum cleaner to suck away this gold dust."
Thinking of the scene at that time, an idea suddenly occurred to him, and he said, "I can make a portable self-priming dust collector that should be able to avoid the impact of this kind of thing."
"Very good." Grindelwald finally smiled and asked, "If Wowelet helps you, how long will it take you to complete it?"
"Uh..." Vader thought for a moment and said modestly, "We can see the finished product tonight."
(End of this chapter)