Hogwarts Raven

Ian felt like he had stumbled upon another incredible secret: things from the Twilight Zone could actually be brought out!

It made sense when he thought about it. If he could bring candy and chocolate into the Twilight Zone, it wasn't too surprising that he could also take things out.

"It really is a fantastical world," He marveled while gazing at the piece of the dress in his hand.

No wonder it was called a world of soul fantasy. There were so many mysteries yet to be uncovered.

If Ian hadn't been fortunate enough to gain such a talent, who knows how many more years it would have taken for the living to discover anything related to the Twilight Zone? 

The living were barred from it; only the deceased could enter. Even if Ian shared his discoveries with other wizards or scholars studying the Twilight Zone, they likely wouldn't have the ability to verify them.

For most wizards, everything in the Twilight Zone was an adventure that could only be experienced after death. Because of this, even the greatest wizards in the world knew very little about it.

As a realm accessible only to ghosts, the fact that Ian could bring back a piece of clothing from a ghost made him reevaluate his understanding of the Twilight Zone.

"It's not just a simple netherworld..."

Logically speaking, ghosts were merely a form of energy. Yet, the piece of the dress in his hand had a very real texture. The boundary between illusion and reality had clearly blurred. Ian could only rely on his memories to speculate. Perhaps such a "gift" to the living world wasn't something that could be done casually.

He had noticed that Professor Mara had deliberately torn off a piece of her dress. Clearly, with her abilities, she could have easily transformed anything around her into a piece of parchment that could deceive the truth.

However, she had chosen to tear off a piece of her beautiful, elegant dress. Did this mean that only through this method could Ian bring it back from the Twilight Zone to the living world?

"That's very likely!" Ian thought, glancing at his other hand. Before he disappeared from the Twilight Zone, he had been holding the wand that Professor Mara had transformed from a metal picture frame.

However, that wand hadn't come back with him. It was just like the experiments Ian had conducted with the flowers and plants in the Twilight Zone when he first gained this talent.

Initially, Ian thought it was normal that things like flowers couldn't be brought back to the living world since it was a realm of the dead. He had always believed that the Twilight Zone might be a world purely composed of "energy."

But now, that belief had been challenged. The piece of the dress in his hand, which even felt slightly warm, forced Ian to reconsider his understanding of the Twilight Zone.

Even if bringing things out of the Twilight Zone might require meeting certain conditions or rules, it still proved that the boundary between life and death wasn't unbreakable. If the clothing of the deceased could cross this boundary, did it also mean... the deceased themselves could return to the living world?

"Hiss~ That's a bold and quite dangerous thought!"

The more Ian pondered, the more excited he became.

This was definitely a topic filled with taboos. However, if there really was a way to bring the dead back to the living world, then, setting aside ethics, morals, and other messy factors, it would undoubtedly be an achievement worthy of being recorded in history!

The famous Chocolate Frog cards might even commemorate his great deeds!

"Fame and fortune are secondary. If I could find Lily Potter's soul and bring her back to this world, wouldn't Harry Potter give me all the galleons in his vault?"

"With Lily Potter cheering him on, who needs to watch the traditional Harry Potter leveling up and fighting monsters? We could skip straight to Snape going berserk and smashing Voldemort's head!"

This might just be Ian's childish imagination running wild.

But then again, who could really say for sure?

This world has a rule that love is the strongest magic... Isn't the love of an obsessive, devoted "simp" also a form of love?

"This has potential! This has a lot of potential!"

The more Ian thought about it, the more he felt this was a direction worth investing time and effort into researching.

Perhaps the next time he entered the Twilight Zone, he could ask Professor Mara, who clearly possessed profound knowledge, about this. This Witch in the Castle might not seem like a good person, but she was genuinely teaching Ian magical knowledge. Whatever her motives, Ian had already become her apprentice.

Whether this teacher-student relationship would be beneficial or detrimental in the future remains to be seen.

At least for now, having a teacher who could answer his questions and pass on knowledge was definitely a good thing for Ian.

"I wonder if the mirror Professor Mara wants is the Mirror of Erised in the school." Ian hadn't forgotten the request Professor Mara had made during their first meeting. Even though she had taken him on as an apprentice without the mirror, it was clear that she still cared a lot about it.

If there's a request, it's only right to give something in return.

This was Ian's principle in life. No one owed him anything or had to give unconditionally. Even the bag of gold coins Snape had left behind and the galleons spent on books and necessities were things Ian felt Snape had lent him. He didn't like, nor would he enjoy, taking advantage of anyone.

"Maybe if I find the Magic Mirror and bring it to Professor Mara, she'll be so happy that she'll teach me the other two Unforgivable Curses as well."

After all, he'd already learned the Killing Curse.

Azkaban was practically booked.

Ian felt it would be a waste not to complete the set.

It was like playing Genshin Impact; you always wanted to collect all the character cards.

The reason Chocolate Frogs sold so well was similar to the collectible card marketing in Ian's memory— it all played on the same obsessive-compulsive psychology.

"This homework assignment probably isn't some dark magic, right?" After sorting through some of his speculations about the Twilight Zone, Ian finally turned his attention back to the piece of the dress.

The moonlight outside was bright, but it couldn't illuminate the faint text on the fabric.

"Lumos!"

Ian pulled out his elder wood wand. As he successfully cast the spell and lit up the surroundings, he also gained three points of proficiency in the [Lumos Charm].

"Is it a new spell?!"

Excited, Ian brought the light closer to the piece of the dress.

The next moment, he was dumbfounded.

On the piece of the dress, the text inscribed with some unknown method was crooked, twisted, and strange, forming a script he couldn't understand at all.

"Is it ancient text?"

Ian felt something was off. He had a nagging feeling he had seen an introduction to this kind of text somewhere before.

"The textbook!"

His mind raced as he sprang up from the bed and rushed to the pile of textbooks and miscellaneous items, pulling out one of his textbooks.

'Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling.'

Flipping through the pages from memory, Ian quickly stopped at the section on the origins of magic. In the introduction to ancient magical script, he found what he was looking for.

The same crooked, twisted, and strange text.

"This is ancient magical script!"

Looking at the textbook, which only briefly introduced the topic since it was a first-year book, Ian finally understood what Professor Mara meant by "homework."

It wasn't just about learning a new spell, but also about learning the ancient magical script that recorded this new spell.

Yes, the spell recorded in the magical script might be secondary. This twisted magical script was the real homework!

(End of Chapter)

You can read ahead up to 30 chapters on my P*treon: https://www.patreon.com/darkshadow6395