Chapter 130: Wooden Door with Straw Hanging on It

Sherlock and Silk stopped walking together.

At their pace, they had walked about two kilometers in nearly half an hour.

Crossing the entire Hogsmeade would not be that far, which means that their current position on the ground is no longer in the area of ​​Hogsmeade.

Sherlock frowned and looked at the glowing wand in his hand. The previous illumination range was about five meters, but now it has been shortened to two meters.

The visible range is getting shorter and shorter, and he can be sure that this is not a problem with his spell.

After the illumination spell is used, as long as the wizard himself does not interrupt it, its lumen is constant.

So there will never be a situation where the illumination spell is inexplicably weakened, it can only be that there is a problem with the surrounding environment.

Silk canceled the illumination spell on his wand, and then placed the wand upright on the ground with the tip of the wand facing up.

"Show me the way."

She said softly, then let go of the hand holding the wand, and the wand fell straight forward.

"We are heading south."

It was still dark ahead, as if there would never be an end.

Sherlock was thinking about the map on the ground in his mind.

In this area, Hogwarts is southeast of Hogsmeade, and the Hog's Head is at the northernmost part of Hogsmeade.

They are now walking south, and this distance must have gone out of the scope of Hogsmeade and entered the territory of Hogwarts.

As for whether the position above their heads is directly below the Quidditch field or the castle, it is unknown.

"We have reached the scope of Hogwarts." Sherlock touched his chin and looked around, "and there is something wrong with this secret passage."

Silk picked up his wand again.

"This proves that we are not wrong. Its destination is in Hogwarts. The more problems there are here, it proves that it has been here, or is here now."

Her words made Sherlock subconsciously touch the cloth bag in his robe pocket. It was very thick, which made him feel a little relieved.

"Okay, now that we've come this far, can you tell me now, will normal spells work on that thing?"

Silk didn't hold back on words at this point, she said carefully.

"Normal spells don't work on it, even the Killing Curse is the same, it can't be killed, never, but it's afraid of the Patronus Charm."

Sherlock raised his eyebrows.

"It sounds a bit like an enhanced version of Dementors."

"You can totally think so."

Sherlock moved his wrists and straightened his robes.

"I'm not afraid if there are weaknesses. You may not believe it, but the Patronus Charm is my strong point." He turned his head and looked at Silk, "But you, who always put on a face, can you use this spell?"

Silk ignored him, but waved the wand, making it light up again, and continued to walk forward.

Sherlock shrugged, sighed in his heart, as expected, German wizards are so boring, then walked quickly to her side and walked forward side by side with her.

They walked forward for about twenty minutes.

Not only was the darkness getting darker, the illumination spells in their hands had been eroded to a visibility of less than one meter, and the temperature around them was getting lower and lower, as if winter had already arrived.

Neither of them was a delicate person, so they could still endure this bit of cold, but the surrounding environment gradually became weird.

All the sounds seemed to have disappeared, except for the sound of their footsteps on the ground and the slight sound of their breathing.

Even if it was underground, it was so quiet that it was scary.

"Let's chat." Sherlock couldn't help but speak first while walking.

Silk didn't remain silent or refuse.

"Yeah."

"I know you may be used to this kind of silence. I feel like you can sit for a whole day when you usually do divination."

"No one gets used to it at the beginning."

"When did you know that you had a talent for divination? I remember that this talent can only be inherited."

Hearing Sherlock's question, Silk paused, but she still answered.

"Seven years old."

"You knew you had a talent for divination before you went to magic school? Were there any prophet masters in your family?"

"I didn't go to magic school."

Sherlock was surprised.

"You didn't go? I thought you graduated from Durmstrang, so where did you learn magic?"

Silk wrapped his black robe tightly: "My mother."

"Family-style magic education? That's really rare. I remember reading a document that said that after the establishment of Beauxbatons, the latest of the three magic schools, family-style magic education in Europe had completely disappeared. After all, it's impossible for a family to know everything."

When Sherlock talked about this topic, he thought of other things.

"In fact, the magic school has remained the same since its establishment a thousand years ago, and there is no progress. The education of wizards is too focused on magic skills, and the guidance of ideas still relies mainly on the family. The ideas of students in school are basically like vines that are not taken care of. They have been growing along the mainstream ideas of the magic world, and there will inevitably be some cases of deviation."

"You talk a lot."

In response to his long speech, Silk gave this response.

Sherlock shrugged.

"In this atmosphere, well, it seems to be a little more than usual."

The temperature seems to have dropped to a fixed point, but after getting used to it, it doesn't feel particularly unbearable.

It's just that the surroundings are getting darker and darker.

The visible light of the illumination spell has been compressed to less than half a meter. If you stretch your arms straight, you can't see your fingers.

The voices of Sherlock and Silk's chat became lower and lower until they both fell silent.

Because they have reached the end and come to a door.

Together, they placed their wands in front of the door and saw that it was a plain wooden door.

The door was empty, with nothing on it. It couldn't be simpler.

But Sherlock didn't reach out and push it. Instead, he used an unlocking spell on it tentatively.

The wooden door didn't respond at all.

Even if it wasn't locked, a normal door would open by itself under the influence of the unlocking spell. This door was obviously not as simple as it looked on the surface.

Sherlock turned his gaze to Silk.

"According to the information you received, was this door made by goblins?"

"No." Silk's lower face was inexplicably pale. "They didn't tell me this."

Sherlock frowned, and he stretched out his wand, wanting to knock on the door with the tip of the wand to check its special place.

However, before he stretched out his hand, Silk's voice suddenly rang out.

"Don't touch it!"

Sherlock stopped and looked at Silk who had stopped him. Her eyes, which were covered by her hood, looked towards the direction above the door.

Her lips were bloodless, as if she had seen something unacceptable.

Sherlock followed her gaze and saw a withered straw hanging on the stone wall above the wooden door at the edge of the light.

It was obviously hung there deliberately.

Tied by a rough hemp rope, it hung from the pitch-black darkness and hung above the door.

The strange feeling was like someone was using hemp rope as a fishing line, straw as a fishhook, and the bait that attracted people to the bait... was the wooden door in front of him!

Sherlock saw that Silk was not in the right state, and he asked solemnly.

"What's wrong?"

"It knows someone will find this place." Silk's voice was still cold, but her tone seemed to be trembling slightly.

"So it deliberately dropped this thing and waited for us to find this place."

Sherlock looked at the straw hanging by the hemp rope. From the outside, it looked just like the two straws they had picked up on the hill and in the backyard of the Pig's Head Bar. There was no difference.

But this straw was definitely not that simple.

"So what?"

"If you want to get in, you have to go through this door." Silk's tone became obviously confused. "It's easy to open it. All spells have no effect, but you just need to push it with your hands. But when pushing the door, the person will experience the thing he fears the most. If he can bear it, the door can be pushed open."

She didn't say what would happen if she couldn't bear it, and Sherlock didn't ask.

Because everyone would understand this answer even if she didn't say it.

"Let's leave first. There must be more than one way to open this door. We can go to others for help."

Sherlock said calmly.

Silk shook his head.

"There is only this one. I have been watching over it for five years and know its methods. It is not strong, but no one can change its authority in its domain."

"Maybe it is not in the door at all. This door is just a bait. We can find other clues and think of a new way."

Sherlock still didn't want to take risks.

Whether it was him or Silk, he felt that there was no need to take risks.

But Silk's idea was obviously different from his.

"You must hold me down later."

When she said this, she calmed down instead.

Sherlock's brows were entangled together.

"I don't think this risk is worth it."

"I didn't keep an eye on it, so I want to catch it back." Silk said softly.

She handed her wand to Sherlock, walked to the door, and took a deep breath.

"If I want to do something self-harming, hold me down. And no matter what happens, don't speak."

Sherlock held two wands in his hand. Seeing her stubbornness, he was silent for a moment, then nodded slowly.

"I understand."

After hearing his affirmative answer, Silk stretched out his pale and slender hand and placed it on the door.