translating_wizard
patreon
Chapter 400: Uncertain Future
🕑 Added 2019-02-22 08:18:41 +0000 UTCEvan stared at the smoke in front of him, slightly distracted.
In the rising smoke, Flamel’s words seemed to come from a very distant place.
In fact, he did not understand the specific operation principle of silverware.
‘Through the smoke, he could see a certain range of scenes...’
This was beyond his knowledge of magic, and required a mix of many spells.
Then he thought of the Marauder’s Map, being the thing closest to the alchemy instrument in front of him.
Evan once asked Sirius carefully, knowing that when they made the Marauder’s Map, they had not only the magic of names and Transfiguration, but also a lot of alchemy principles, which was the key to the success of the map.
As Flamel said, alchemy was really amazing.
"Alchemy can help you do a lot of things, but it is not omnipotent. No matter how powerful the props are, they must follow the basic rules of magic." Looking at the stunned Evan, Flamel cautioned, "Like this thing in front of you for example. As long as the one on the other side is prepared, they can stop you from peeping. There are many other places protected by magic that you can't see."
He tapped the silverware, and a great deal of smoke came out again.
But this time, the smoke was so hazy that nothing could be seen in the vast white.
"This is the girls’ dormitory in Beauxbatons. The protection magic outside the room interferes with its operation." Flamel continued. "So, unfortunately, I can't help you see that quarter-Veela girl in the dormitory now.”
Evan was speechless, but his silence wasn’t out of regret.
He had no intention of peeping at Gabrielle at all, much less of sneaking into the girls' dormitory with Flamel. Such a behavior was way too perverted.
However, Flamel’s remarks were quite impressive.
As long as it was not in a magically protected place like Hogwarts or Beauxbatons, there seemed to be a lot to see with such an alchemy product...
"Well, if you don't have anything else you want to see, we can continue and check out my next work." Flamel led Evan forward.
Next, under the introduction of Flamel, Evan saw a statue of a wizard spewing out colorful bubbles.
These bubbles floated around. Just break one, and there would be a classic opera, echoing throughout the corridor.
Indeed, Nicolas Flamel was the most loyal opera lover.
Driven by this hobby, it was natural for him to make such a magic product.
Besides, there was a piece of crystal called "Star Antimony" by Flamel.
It was said to be able to change the composition of substances touching it, such as making a stone change back and forth between gold, silver, black iron, brass, wood, and so on.
However, in this process, it needed unimaginable amounts of magic!
Evan suspected that even Dumbledore might not be able to use the crystal at will.
Moving along the corridor, Evan saw many magical props.
Among the many alchemy products, the magic prop that he most cared about was supposed to assist in divination and prophecy.
It was a huge stone basin filled with silver liquid, and the stone basin was engraved with complex magic symbols. It looked like the Pensieve.
“This is the latest work that I have been refining. Just like when entering a dream, it can help you see the future clearly, instead of seeing those ambiguous harbingers.” With his unique old voice, Flamel said slowly, "The wonderful combination of alchemy and divination, although the predictions may not be accurate, but divination is inherently illusory, very few people can make real prophecies."
Evan nodded and he thought of Professor Trelawney.
Sometimes she might really see the future, but if she believed in these things too much, the most likely outcome was for her to go mad first.
"Well, do you want to try it?! Flamel motioned Evan to stand in front of the stone basin, "stare at the liquid inside, relax, relax..."
Flamel waved his wand and muttered a spell that Evan couldn't understand.
A flickering dark grey light emerged from the end of his wand, and the silver liquid in the stone basin in front of him began to spin rapidly to form a vortex.
Evan felt that his soul was being sucked in. There was a blur in his eyes, and he blinked vigorously.
In the next second, he saw a huge space in the stone basin, which was covered with huge, rough black stones, with the surrounding area being foggy.
Evan did not understand. What on earth was going on? Was that his future?!
Just as he was about to ask Flamel, the scene in front of him began to change rapidly.
In the stone basin, he was running forward with all his strength, and his vision was moving forward quickly.
Then, as the picture turned around, Evan saw a man's figure appear in the stone basin.
This man was so big and he couldn’t see his face clearly.
With him looking so far away, the details of what happening were elusive to the eye.
The hazy fog grew thicker and thicker. With intuition, Evan could feel that the man was doing something terrible, but he could not see it clearly.
He could only see vaguely that the man's head seemed to be changing.
He seemed to have done something, and then slowly turned around...
At the most critical moment, the image stopped abruptly.
The liquid in the stone basin returned to calm, as if nothing had happened.
"The man who just appeared seems to be preparing to apply some black magic. You should be careful." Flamel looked up and said slowly, "Of course, you don't need to worry too much. As I said just now, this thing is very inaccurate. It can't accomplish real divination. It just shows what’s in your mind."
"But I'm sure I've never seen that man before!"
"Who knows?" Flamel did not stop in front of the stone basin and continued to move forward. It seemed that he did not care very much about Evan’s future. "Maybe it failed. That is normal. Using an alchemy product to speculate on fate, that is a crazy thing in itself; an unrealistic reverie of an old man who has lived for too long."
Nicolas Flamel stopped and turned to look at Evan.
"But you know, when this thing was first refined, it consumed a lot of my painstaking efforts. It was the final crystallization of my knowledge of alchemy." He paused and continued, "Although I am not very proficient in divination, I would say it might work every now and then."
This sentence sounded really unpleasant. Flamel seemed to be telling Evan to accept his bad future in a euphemistic way.
“Who else used the stone basin?” he hurriedly asked, “What did they see?”
"Besides me, you are the second person to use it." Flamel looked at Evan, "and I saw..."
Under the silver moonlight, Evan could not help but squint.
He quietly looked at the old wizard in front of him and the deep wrinkles on his face.
He didn't know what Flamel had seen, but from his serious expression, it was definitely not something to be happy about.
