The environment around me soon transformed; whirling silvery blue magic covered the entire floor, transforming it into a different chamber. I was no longer in the room with the statues; instead, I was in a room full of mirrors, with a fireplace in the corner, the light of which reflected on each of the mirrors. If I were genuinely inside this chamber, I suppose it would be rather hot.
I could see someone standing there, a middle-aged male. He was looking at himself in the mirror, appearing tired and exhausted. When I realised this, I walked closer to the man and stared him down. I recognise his face; he has the default face of the game's protagonist, which is probably who he is, but he appeared to be much older than the one in the game.
Suddenly, the man sighed profoundly, clutching his wand with both hands and tapping it sporadically on the tip.
"It's strange talking to myself in front of the mirror, but I've invested so much time in this that I can't back out now, it's not that strange anyway..."
Hm, it seems like he intentionally did this with the intention of taking his memory and putting it on the bottle. Like a vlog?
"Hello," the man continued, his face straightening up. "If you're seeing this, it means you are just like me, and you magically stumbled upon my book. I'm not sure where it is or when you got it, but I've made certain that you got it either way. The book you found has been enchanted to find someone who is similar to me; it will appear discreetly, not in your dorm room, but when you are genuinely alone, with no eyes observing you."
The man strolled back and forth, softly tapping his wand on his palm.
"You may have discovered that you have the ability to sense and see things that no one else can. The swirling river of magic that you frequently perceive is simply termed "Ancient Magic". Its name has faded with the passage of time, but its force has not. It is a natural energy that exists in our daily lives and in everyday items. With your ability, you could harness it much more effectively than the rest of wizardkind."
When the man waved his wand in the air, a burst of silvery blue magic spread around the room, covering it with flecks of magic dust.
"You can turn desolate regions lush; summon natural lightning at your leisure with the flick of a finger; disintegrate a troll with a single spell; and transfigure a human into something that other wizardkind cannot do; its power is not to be underestimated. As a result, wizards and witches who knew about it resolved to keep it hidden so that wicked hands could not exploit it."
The man waved his wand once more. The room then enlarged, revealing a majestic-looking room, yet the mirror in front of him remained. I could then see a translucent floor with a detailed map of Hogwarts and its surroundings; the aquamarine and dark blue structure was prevalent in the room's construction.
This location is familiar to me. This is the map chamber.
"I am one of those wizards and witches; in fact, I am the last of them," the man said. "We are called the keepers, and we are tasked with keeping this power hidden from the rest of the wizarding world. To learn this power, I went through trials that my predecessors had set up; they'd told me that spreading this knowledge was not going to end well, and their words had merit, since greedy dark wizards and other creatures would always want power. While I encourage you to keep it hidden, I don't want the next generation to be forced to make the same decision I did. Keeping it hidden means you can't use it while eyes are on you, you can't introduce it, you can't write a book about it; essentially, your greatness has been cut off for the sake of the rest of the world."
After saying that, the man sighed and turned to face what was behind him. I could see four slots of portraits that have signs of burning and charring, implying that someone has destroyed the portrait.
"Ultimately, it is your choice," he continued, staring at the four charred remains of the portraits. "It is your birthright to control what you can; do not let other people dictate what you should do and what you shouldn't do just because you are different from everyone else. Of course, that doesn't mean that I'll be giving it away for free. I too have biases and my own thoughts and morality, and I prefer that someone who wields this knowledge will use it for peace and prosperity, not destruction and annihilation. But again, I will not force anything."
The man then turned again towards the mirror that had not yet disappeared; he stared at his own eyes, his hands on his back.
"There will be ten ancient magic sources scattered all over the Scottish Highlands and four more lockets that you could find inside the school itself. The ancient magic sources will amplify your ability to contain and store the magic, while those lockets are my memories, and those memories will teach you how to harness your ability. It is your choice to chase them, but if you do choose to find them, good luck. In the meantime, I will teach you the basics of your power."
Finally, he spun his wand around, and a dummy-like statue materialised near the mirror. The man prepared his wand as silvery dust emitted from it. Observing this, the man appears to have used his palm to gather the energy that flowed from his wand in front of his chest before releasing it towards the dummy.
The 'energy' he gathered was virtually imperceptible. He pointed his wand and palm towards the dummy, and the dummy's body suddenly flared violet before exploding violently, scattering black paper and magical dust all over the room.
"That is what occurs when you weaponize your ability's raw magic and throw it at an adversary; they will just disintegrate, unable to absorb and contain what you've unleashed." The man spoke out, his expression composed. "Consider your body to be a vessel that can store it; you can charge the vessel merely by having a powerful emotion. The thrill of a duel, determination, and courage would fill the vessel, and you could see that the magic flows within and in your wand, and with that, you could use it in combat or even transfiguration, and you could do things that ordinary wizardkind couldn't."
Merlin… that was… certainly scarier up close…
"Once again, I could only say good luck to you, fellow brethren," he said. "I could only hope that you would use this knowledge for the betterment of wizardkind, whatever path you might take. I had prepared something for you once you came out of this pensieve, because even though there are no trials anymore, my bitter self that had worked so hard to obtain this knowledge cannot let you go free, and I sincerely apologise if you were hurt. Ah, I almost forgot, if you want, you should find the room of requirement in the seventh floor, walk back and forth three times in front of the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy while thinking about 'A room that the last keeper used', my things should still be there, use that however you want, the licence certificate of the vivariums should be in one of the drawers."
I already found it though…
The last thing I saw was that the man chuckled deeply, as if he were amused by the situation that was about to happen, even though he couldn't really see it. Then, a swirling pool of magic quickly expanded from the middle of the room, consuming everything in its path, before the memory that I had watched vanished entirely, sending me back into the real world.
======
As my vision returned to that of the previous room in the real world, I quickly took a deep breath and stepped back from the pensieve, gathering my bearings, as I had been there for quite a while. That was definitely an insightful tutorial on how to harness ancient magic. It's quite an uncommon way to use a pensieve, to say the least, and the chap practically used it like he was recording a video of himself.
Anyway, I should probably—
"Protego!"
As a greatsword rushed from above me, a sphere of azure light soon surrounded me as soon as I cast the Shield Charm. The swing's force was so strong that it drove me away from my former spot as it struck my shield charm, dragging the sole of my shoes. The statues have come to life; there were about seven of them in the room, with one of them suddenly attacking me.
The statue that tried to assault me turned to face me, its greatsword striking the pensieve down and rendering it worthless. The knight raised his hefty sword once more, dragging it across the floor, and approached me.
It swung its greatsword at me again, this time with unusual strength. I jumped out of the way, rolling away from the knight as the greatsword shattered the floor to pieces.
This is definitely not good.
As I aimed my wand at the knocked-down pensieve, a white light appeared on the tip, pulling it towards me. The pensieve sped through the air, as though attempting to hit my body, but before it could, I spun my body and wand around as if I was doing a dance routine, the pensieve following my movement, generating centrifugal force, before redirecting the pensieve's direction towards the knight.
The pensieve blasted through the chamber with incredible velocity; it collided into the knight, shattering the statue into pieces, and its legs dropped on the ground, deactivating.
Another knight approached me before I could gather my breath. It swung its greatsword along the side, trying to strike me with a sweeping stroke. I rolled away from the sword's reach, ready my wand, and waved it.
"Depulso!"
A bluish force of light launched from my wand, travelling through the air, and when it hit the knight, the light scattered erratically, and the knight was forcefully pushed towards the wall, splattering to pieces because of the impact and dropping to the ground in pieces.
With a sprint, another statue swung its greatsword like a bat towards me; with no time to evade, I could only cast a Protego charm once again, and the force of the swing dragged me back a few feet by the soles of my shoes.
As retaliation, I immediately made a slicing motion with my wand.
"Diffindo!"
A flash of light green sent a thin blade through the air, severing the statue's body cleanly in half. I quickly yanked the first half of the statue's body that I had just sliced, spun it around above, and flung it at the other half near me, prompting them to crumble to the ground.
I could finally catch my breath because the remainder of the statues were now a considerable distance away from me. This was very exhausting; I can already tell I'm out of breath.
How many statues did I destroy? Four? That's three remaining. Two of the statues had swords, while the largest one held a greataxe.
In that moment, I became aware of silvery magic whirling around my wand and left hand, virtually begging me to use them. I gathered the surplus energy at the tip of my wand with the help of my palm without hesitation.
It was more powerful than I had anticipated; I could barely hold it in a spherical form. I continued to accumulate energy until I couldn't anymore, and then I thrust it towards one of the statues, namely the statue clutching the great axe, in a single motion.
The statue's body glowed violet, trembled fiercely, before breaking into chunks, knocking down the other two statues. The large statue was demolished instantaneously, as was the smaller one nearby, but the last one, which was rather far away, was only knocked down a few feet.
As I saw this, I swiftly accioed the greataxe off the just-destroyed statue, whirled it around myself to build centrifugal force, and hurled it at the remaining statue.
Because the greataxe was extremely large, it whirled madly in the air, and when it hit the statue, it planted itself on the knight's head, almost shattering it in half.
The statue deactivated instantly, tumbling to the ground under the weight of the axe. As it collapsed, the handle of the greataxe kept it from collapsing fully, forcing the statue to kneel, only supported by the greataxe's handle.
Finally seeing the final statue deactivated, my legs finally gave up, and I stumbled to the ground, resting myself against the wall. I was out of breath, and my sight became a bit blurry.
"Bloody hell…" I cursed in between breaths. "That was… brilliant…"
As I was catching my breath, I suddenly saw a mirror forming in the middle of the room, created from the metal linings of the floor and walls. It was emanating a lot of ancient energy, and I could hear whispers coming out of the mirror.
Eventually, as I recovered, I stood up from the ground and walked towards the mirror. Instead of reflecting my face, the mirror was showing the place where I had disappeared earlier, the potion room of the room of requirements.
Seeing no harm in it, I walked through the mirror, which transported me away from the messy and destroyed chamber.