Chapter 168 Base Distribution
The two of them spent a few days in St. Catchpole Village (Sherin did go home during this time, but he didn't stay overnight at Luna's house). Luna took Sherin to the creek near the Valley Bridge to catch light-colored croaker. Then Luna showed her cooking skills. After adding airship plums, knotweed pods, etc. as seasonings to the stew pot, she boiled the light-colored croaker into fish soup. Although the taste was very strange and unique, it was actually quite good.
"How does it taste?" Luna asked in a dreamy tone as she watched Sherin drink up the fish soup in the bowl with her bright eyes.
"Well, it's a very strange combination," Xie Lin said honestly: "The freshness of the ball fish is not covered by the taste of the airship plum and the knot vine pods. Instead, they blend together to form a taste that I can't describe, but it tastes really good... I like it very much."
Luna showed a bright smile on her face, and her eyes flashed with strange brilliance. She said softly: "Since my mother passed away, I have basically been cooking at home. This is my most proud masterpiece. I have tried at least 50 times to cook this taste..."
She paused and continued with a smile: "Dad likes the fish soup I cook the most. He said that it has a taste that touches the soul."
Touching the soul by the tip of the tongue? Why did the style of food writing appear?
Xie Lin shook his head, dispelling these strange thoughts from his mind, and then solemnly said to Luna: "Luna, your cooking skills are as unique as you are... Your creativity, your unconventional style, and your wild imagination are the most valuable things about you. As your friend, I want to tell you that I hope you..."
"Never lose your true self."
"Yeah." Luna's eyes became brighter. She looked straight at Xie Lin, making Xie Lin feel a little embarrassed. He quickly found a reason to change the topic.
Xie Lin spent a few days of leisure time like this, and he cherished these few days very much.
Luna's carefree, quiet and natural personality and temperament deeply touched Xie Lin, and even influenced Xie Lin, allowing him to let go of all the defenses, calculations, plans, responsibilities and burdens in his heart, and remove the heavy shackles pressed by his own and others' expectations, and feel a rare mental relaxation.
In his previous life, he was a somewhat undisciplined and rebellious adventurer, living an unrestrained and free adventurous life (of course, he still had to listen to the sponsor, but he was still much freer than a social animal).
In this life, he lived a completely different life. The moment he decided to change the fate of his family, he almost embarked on the road of hegemony. It must be explained here that at that time, he was still somewhat naive and childish in character and thought. Although he had some psychological preparation, he did not think that the road to hegemony would be so difficult, full of thorns and difficulties, and he did not think that there would be enemies other than Voldemort.
In the first two years, the plot did not deviate much from the original, and he still gained a lot, including the Philosopher's Stone, Basilisk Materials, the servant Dobby, the Broom Company, as well as practical experience and heroic reputation.
Who knew that the more the plot went on, the more it deviated from the original. All this has changed greatly after Meredith was kidnapped. Now, whether for Meredith or for his followers who have surrendered to him, there is no turning back on this road to hegemony.
He has already set up a flag and has also established enemies for himself. If he retreats at this moment because of fear of difficulties, perhaps his followers can still protect the family after paying the price, but he himself will definitely not end up well.
So, he really has too much to bear in this life.
Of course, his character has also grown a lot.
In his spare time, Sherin has also been thinking about how to make good use of Ella's hut.
Now he has several bases.
The secret passage of the mirror on the fifth floor is connected to the basement of the Miracle Alchemy Workshop in Hogsmeade Village. This is his main base, where all the activities, magic guidance, and practical exercises of all members of the Sleeping Dragon Society are carried out. However, Xielin knew the principle of "a cunning rabbit has three burrows". Although Xielin had ensured the loyalty of the members by various means, in order to avoid the members' betrayal due to some unexpected external reasons, Xielin did not share all the secret rooms he controlled with the members.
In his mind, he divided all the members of the Sleeping Dragon Society into three categories.
The first category was the people he was closest to or trusted the most, such as Daphne, Murray, and the house elves. These people were "core members" and their loyalty was beyond doubt, so they had the right to enter the Slytherin secret room. Generally, as long as it was a major or confidential plan, they would choose to meet and discuss in the Slytherin secret room.
Although Narelle, a sixth-grade student, had also been to this secret room, she was brought there directly by the elves, and she herself did not know the location of the secret room and how to enter it. At present, in Xielin's view, Zhang Qiu, Susan, and Luna seemed to be trustworthy. Although Xielin was still examining their abilities and loyalty, he was already considering promoting them to a smaller circle in the inner circle.
The second type is the little wizards of Slytherin, who are formal members. This is not because he discriminates against little wizards from other colleges, but because Slytherin, as the initial team, has followed him for the longest time and has a sense of belonging to the organization. In addition, in terms of pure interests, those little snakes from mixed blood or weak families are natural allies of Schelling. As long as they do not encounter uncontrollable factors, the probability of their rebellion is extremely low.
In addition to knowing the secret passage of the mirror on the fifth floor, these little snakes can also use Daphne or Astoria to make contributions to the organization in exchange for entering the organization's library or personal guidance from Schelling.
The third type is the newly joined Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw little wizards, who are peripheral members. In this case, they must contribute to the organization to prove their loyalty and value.
This requires a long period of observation. If a betrayer were to appear and leak the existence of the organization, what Schelling would lose would only be a secret passage on the fifth floor. He still had three backups: the suitcase space, the Slytherin Chamber of Secrets, and the Ravenclaw Chamber of Secrets.
The significance of Ella's Cottage to Schelling lies more in giving Schelling a secret base for doing things outside the school.
According to the development of the plot, Schelling will most likely not stay in Hogwarts until he graduates from the seventh grade. So an off-campus base will also come in handy by then.
The existence of Ella's Cottage is not a secret. Almost all the guests who attended Druella's funeral knew that Schelling inherited this small house. There is only one way to transform it into a secret base -
The Fidelius Charm.
The Fidelius Charm is an extremely complex spell with many restrictions. The requirements of this spell are extremely high.
First of all, if you want to transform a secret into an invisible imprint and imprint it into the soul, it is a step that requires extremely high magic power from the caster. Without Auror-level magic power, you can basically not even pass this threshold.
Second, if the secret is not just a simple place name, but involves the caster himself, or the secret-keeper himself, then there is a high demand for understanding the nature of the spell. In the original book, Bill, the eldest of the Weasley family, was able to cast this spell and engrave the location of Shell Cottage, his married residence, in his own soul, making himself the secret-keeper.
In fact, Bill's approach is the most reasonable, optimal, and safest approach to the Fidelius Charm - the secret-keeper himself is hidden in the secret, impeccable and unbreakable.
However, this is actually due to Bill's many years of experience as a curse-breaker in Egypt, which has given him a high level of attainment in spells.
In contrast, although James Potter, who had just graduated not long ago, was quite talented in transfiguration, his spell level was just so-so. Otherwise, he could have set the secret-keeper to himself, or Lily, and the entire Harry Potter story would not have begun at all.
Sherin was confident that his magic power was definitely enough. If it was really not enough, he could also borrow the Philosopher's Stone to increase his own magic power. So it was absolutely no problem for him to cast the Fidelius Charm, but if he didn't want to repeat James's mistake, he needed to find ways to improve his understanding of the spell.
There weren't many books about the Fidelius Charm, but Schelling had several in his collection, and he had read all of them, and he had mastered all the basic theories. However, in order to be foolproof, he still planned to look for more advanced and profound shielding magic information, and it just so happened that there was such a book in the black magic book inherited from Druella's legacy - "Unlocking the Secret in the Shadows".
This book was written by a senior tomb raider and black wizard, and it was all about how he used black magic, soul sacrifice, and life sacrifice to crack the shielding magic and defense magic in various ancient tombs.
It also mentioned the Fidelius Charm, and believed that although this spell could not be cracked, it was not suitable for guarding secrets such as ancient tombs, because this spell relied too much on the secret keeper. Once the secret keeper passed away, all those who knew the secret would automatically become the secret keeper. If there was no one who could inherit the secret, the magic would fail and the secret would be automatically revealed.
Of course, the value of this book is not the description of the Fidelius Charm, but the cracking and essence of other shielding magics that appear in the book. These are all knowledge that Schelling can refer to and enhance his understanding of the Fidelius Charm.
Speaking of which, Schelling discovered that Lovegood's family also had a lot of precious magic books. Most of them were the spell notes of Luna's mother Pandora. She was an excellent spell master and had created many special spells. Even Miranda Goshawk, the author of "Standard Spells", had publicly expressed her appreciation for her. Her notes on creating spells were also quite inspiring to Schelling.
Seeing Schelling reading Pandora's notes as if they were treasures, Luna gave the whole set of notes to Schelling after obtaining the consent of Xenophilius.
[Pandora's spell notes are obtained! ]
Time passed day by day.
Soon it was January 4th, and Hogwarts started school.
The author explains why James did not choose himself and Lily as the secret keeper. As for why he did not choose Dumbledore, the author believes that: firstly, Dumbledore is old and there is a risk of natural death or death from illness; secondly, Dumbledore is on the front line against the Death Eaters and there is a risk of dying in battle.
Choosing Sirius was actually his best choice at the time.