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Chapter 744: The Owl Ghosts
🕑 Added 2023-05-09 08:02:09 +0000 UTCThe light from the trio’s wands was insignificant in the endless darkness, and they were swallowed up in the night.
When Evan's eyes gradually adapted to the darkness, he could see the huge black fortress in front of him.
In that place, known as the Owl Fortress, tall granite buildings stood quietly on the cliffs above the river valley, looking down majestically at visitors. The original builders of the castle deliberately chose such a precipitous place, using magic to merge the whole fortress with the cliffs.
That was almost miraculous, extremely astonishing. Undoubtedly, such a wonder, while shocking and frightening, was still also majestic and awe inducing!
The huge fortress was fortified by magic, with the central spire protruding high, strangely without windows.
The walls were covered with strange vines. They were tightly intertwined and interlaced with huge stones, forming the main outline of the castle.
A mysterious atmosphere shrouded around it, with an evil and unknown aura, all who gazed at it quickly shifted their eyes.
"This ancient castle has been shielded with many protective spells. Only wizards can find it. It is a very famous magical landscape in Dijon," said Hélène, looking at the distant fortress. "I have seen it before; thousands of translucent owl ghosts watching you silently inside. It is gloomy and eerie, if you ask me."
"Well, let’s check it out!" said Evan, clearly feeling the magic and unknown power behind those walls.
The three of them Apparated and appeared at the gate of the castle.
The gate was closed tightly and blocked by megaliths, but an irregular opening was rudely opened on the wall next to it.
Following that entrance, the three uninvited guests entered the castle.
Inside was a huge square hall. Besides all kinds of garbage piled on the ground, there was nothing. For hundreds of years, this fortress had been visited by countless visitors with various purposes. The valuable things in it had been completely looted.
"This place is more deserted than I thought ..." said Evan as he looked around.
"It's the same from top to bottom. There's barely anything here. No one knows what this place used to look like. Greedy thieves have robbed this old castle over the course of a long period and have spared nothing," Hélène then explained. "They didn't care whether the contents were cursed or not, as long as they were valuable. And whatever was left was also moved by the Ministry of Magic to the museum in Paris."
In Europe, there were many abandoned castles like this, standing quietly in the fields as witnesses to the past history.
If the owners of the castles had money, they might be protected as cultural relics, or reused as private resorts or hotels.
If no one managed them, then they would be abandoned. The Muggle governments would spend a part of their funds to maintain the castles every year to ensure that monuments did not collapse, but the Ministries of Magic did not do the same.
Owning a castle was a huge burden, something that was even more glaring with the decline of pure-blood wizard families.
It was said that on top of their huge manor, the Malfoys also owned such an old castle in a certain area of England, which was managed by dozens of house-elves. This however was an exception; there were only a few pure-blood wizard families like them.
"Although there is nothing here, the place is very large. It is really difficult to find the owl monster hiding here. We don't have enough staff to search the entire fortress at the same time ..." said Hélène.
"I believe she will come out and show up to find us," said Evan. "What about the owl ghosts?"
"Oh, you’ll see them. They don't usually appear near the entrance," Hélène waved her wand, and the light at its tip became more powerful. She lowered her voice and said, "The owl ghosts are definitely not as simple as they seem. How to say it… they are like humans, and they have human-like habits, which is strange, isn't it? Well, if you want to go to the dungeons, I remember we should go this way. There is a doorway in the kitchen leading to the basement. I just looked from a distance."
They went straight through the doorway, not up the stairs, but in a narrow passage on the ground floor, taking seven or eight turns to go to the basement.
This feeling reminded Evan of the maze, and he could not be sure what was waiting for them behind a closed door.
When they came to the kitchen through the dark corridor, Evan finally saw the owls. Their bodies appeared to be translucent and milky white, as Hélène said. Instead of flying in the air or looking for food or something similar like a normal owl, they stood quietly on the ground.
They seemed to pace… like humans do, and there was a touch of sadness on their tiny faces.
After Evan, Sirius, and Hélène entered the kitchen, the owls didn't approach them, just watching the three of them quietly.
This felt really uncomfortable for the trio.
"Look, that's why I don't like this place, I have seen ghosts, but I haven't seen ghosts like this," whispered Hélène, afraid to alarm them. "We’d better be careful. I can feel that they can understand us."
"It's a bit strange, I've never seen anything like this, they emit waves of some sort of soul magic, which reminds me of something I saw in an ancient magic book before ..." said Evan.
He thought for a moment, and walked towards the owl that was closest to him, ready to test his theory.
"What’s the matter with this kid?" Hélène looked at Evan’s back and said, "It's weird. He seems to know a lot of magic. Speaking of which, what are you going to do running around with such a young wizard?"
But Sirius didn’t intend to answer Hélène. He didn't even look at her. In his eyes, this woman was definitely an under qualified Auror, unworthy of his answer.
Although she did not lack magical power, on top of being cute, she was too casual in character and didn’t show enough caution. She didn’t know what caution was. She said too much along the way and told Evan almost everything, all that should be said and what should not be said!
She was just lucky enough that the two of them were not Dark wizards like Death Eaters.
She probably forgot everything Moody had told her, Sirius thought.
Listening to Hélène talking on and on, his past Auror habits made him want to scold her, as if she was an apprentice...
