#61 - Section 61

After separating, Perenelle introduced Ethan to the old lady.

Then, the two ladies, arm in arm, led Ethan inside the castle.

The interior was decorated exquisitely and with a strong artistic flair, befitting the romantic French. As was traditional for wizarding families, the walls were lined with portraits of wizards.

At that moment, footsteps echoed from the staircase on the left. Ethan looked towards the sound and saw a beautiful witch with delicate features, a tall figure, and long silver hair cascading down to her waist descend the stairs, and she was also very busty.

When those eyes glanced over, they were truly captivating. Was this a Veela hybrid?

Silver hair, blue eyes, impossible to resist!

Ethan's mind involuntarily conjured Cao Cao's line: 'Madam, would you be willing to share my bed tonight?'

Beside her were a young woman and a little girl, who looked like miniature versions of the silver-haired woman.

It was truly a combination of a mature woman, a young woman, and a loli all in one place.

No wonder Fleur was disliked by Molly and Ginny in the original story. Ginny even nicknamed her 'Phlegm'. With such looks, how could any girl not be jealous?

And the mother and daughters, upon seeing Ethan, felt a sense of kinship arise spontaneously.

"Apolline, Fleur, little Gabrielle, long time no see!"

Perenelle greeted the women on the stairs.

"Long time no see, Grandma Perenelle!"

Fleur, holding Gabrielle's hand, came down to greet her, while Apolline happily embraced Perenelle.

Gabrielle, however, kept stealing glances at Ethan, then quickly lowered her head.

Irena Delacour, who had been quietly observing everything, said to everyone with a smile:

"This is Ethan Adrean, a guest from Great Britain."

"Fleur, take Ethan and Gabrielle out to play; don't disturb our gathering."

She didn't mind Ethan interacting with her granddaughter. Being able to study alchemy with Nicolas Flamel and being personally sent there by Dumbledore, what kind of value did that hold?

To put it bluntly, the Delacour family was reaching beyond their station.

This was all her son's fault. If he hadn't married a Veela hybrid, the family wouldn't be in this situation. They would still be the pure-blood aristocrats at the top of French society.

Although she had accepted her daughter-in-law over the years and loved her two granddaughters very much, the family's situation was indeed not good.

In the wizarding world, regardless of the country, there was discrimination against hybrids. This wasn't the kind of hybrid between wizards and Muggles; that kind of hybrid didn't matter.

Hybrids between magical creatures and wizards were truly at the bottom of the contempt chain. Giants, trolls, merpeople, centaurs, Veelas—even if they possessed human form and were not reproductively isolated from humans, they were still classified as magical creatures. The word 'animal' in the name revealed their status. (Madam Maxime didn't dare reveal her giant heritage until after she and Hagrid went to find the giant tribe.)

Anyway, her son lost his position in the Ministry of Magic, and some of the family's business partners severed ties with the Delacour family. These were obvious losses, and who knew how they were being mocked in secret.

Fleur turned her head to look at Ethan, her face slightly flushed.

"Ethan, come with me!"

She had never felt this way about a boy before, wanting to talk to him and even be close to him, and she was a little unsure how to handle it.

Ethan followed behind Fleur, sighing inwardly, 'Animal affinity is awesome!'

"Brother, hug!"

The silver-haired, doll-like little girl tugged on Ethan's waist, looking at him with an adorable expression.

Ethan had told himself more than once that this child was still young, and he preferred older women.

But he couldn't control himself!

"Giggle!"

Gabrielle, burying her head in Ethan's shoulder, laughed happily.

"Gabrielle, what are you doing? Get down! You're seven years old; why do you still need someone to carry you?"

Fleur was about to explode when she saw this scene. How could her sister be so insensible? It was one thing to be carried, but to make such a frivolous gesture!

"No, I want Brother to carry me!"

Saying that, Gabrielle wrapped her arms around Ethan's neck, giving Fleur a provocative look.

"You!"

Fleur's chest rose and fell with anger, giving Ethan a good view. The children these days, only teenagers, were already so well-developed!

"Shall we go sit over there?"

Fleur ignored Gabrielle, turned to look at Ethan, and decided to deal with the problem at its source rather than arguing with a seven-year-old.

"Okay!"

Soon, the three of them arrived at a stone pavilion in the garden. According to Fleur, this was where her family had afternoon tea.

"Ethan, can you tell me about Hogwarts?"

"I haven't seen any other magic schools."

This was Fleur's strategy, to shift Ethan's attention to herself.

She will take care of the tiger herself, let go of the child, and come at me.

There were indeed many interesting things at Hogwarts: the cursed Defense Against the Dark Arts class, the Potions professor who seemed to think everyone owed him money, the Transfiguration professor who liked to turn into a cat, the Divination professor who liked to drink and spout nonsense, Madam Hooch, the flying class professor who was actually the Quidditch referee, the Forbidden Forest teeming with various XXXXX-rated magical creatures, the Room of Requirement, and so on.

Fleur giggled from beginning to end as she listened, feeling that Hogwarts was much more interesting than Beauxbatons, although it might be a bit difficult for the students there.

"How is Beauxbatons?"

"I've heard that Beauxbatons is the most beautiful magic school in Europe."

"Our Beauxbatons is indeed very good. It is located in a large estate in the Pyrenees Mountains, surrounded by vast meadows and mountains outlined by magic. Madam Maxime raises many winged horses on the meadows. They like to drink pure malt whiskey. These horses run a circle over Beauxbatons every morning. There is also a huge magic fountain in the school, which is Nicolas Flamel..."

Watching Fleur and Ethan chatting more and more excitedly, Gabrielle's mouth pouted directly.

I was here first.

How could elder sister be like this!

[Thank you boss exia for the urging ticket, thank you boss!]

Chapter 87: The Jewish Book of Abraham

August 20th, only eleven days away from the start of Hogwarts.

Today was the day Ethan was supposed to leave. Nicolas had told him about this more than a week ago.

The tireless study during this period had greatly improved Ethan's alchemy skills. If he were to make constructs again, they would definitely be made even better.

Alchemy levels four to seven, seemingly only three levels of improvement, but these are two different concepts. The rest still needs time to learn and understand. This kind of knowledge is too vast to be easily filled like spells.

Inside the study, Nicolas was explaining some things to Ethan.

"Ethan, your learning speed far exceeds my expectations. Originally, I thought this knowledge would be enough for you to study for a long time. It seems that it's time to give you something from the bottom of the box."

Originally, Nicolas didn't think Ethan would be able to finish learning this knowledge. He planned to use the duplication spell when Ethan left to copy some of the knowledge that Ethan hadn't had time to learn and take it away.

But Ethan really learned too fast. He already knew a lot, but it was too disorganized. After my explanation and integration, his speed was like flying in the sky, and he was a real grinder.

As a result, he learned almost everything, and only needed to take a few books with him.

"It's all thanks to the teacher's good teaching. Without your guidance, I couldn't have learned so quickly."

This was the truth. Nico answered all the questions he didn't understand. Otherwise, those difficult points would have required a long time to think about. But with Nico's guidance, as long as Ethan had strong comprehension, he could digest and absorb that knowledge.

And Ethan happened to have stacked so many buffs, so he didn't lack learning and thinking abilities.

"There's no need to be modest. If it were someone else, even with my guidance, they wouldn't reach your current level."

"《The Book of Abraham the Jew》 and 《The Emerald Tablet》, I'll give these two books to you. They gave me a lot of inspiration in my alchemical career."

Nico pushed a strange book and a rather large parchment roll to Ethan.

Looking at 《The Book of Abraham the Jew》, Nico's eyes were full of reluctance. It could be said that this book made him who he was.

When he had just graduated from Beauxbatons, although he had good alchemical talent and skills, he was just an ordinary member of the crowd.

It wasn't until he found a job as a scribe and came into contact with 《The Book of Abraham the Jew》 that his destiny changed, and he became the most famous alchemist of that time.

But even today, Nico has not fully understood this book. What the seven pages represent and what they mean has never been clear.

He was already this old, and even if he could continue to live, his thinking was not as good as when he was young. In the past two hundred years, there has been no progress in 《The Book of Abraham the Jew》.

Now that he gives it to Ethan, a wizard with infinite talent and quite young, perhaps one day he will be able to interpret all the contents of 《The Book of Abraham the Jew》.

"Teacher, is this appropriate?"

Ethan felt it was a bit hot to handle, the gift was too precious.

Who doesn't know the names of 《The Book of Abraham the Jew》 and 《The Emerald Tablet》!

The former made Nicolas Flamel the greatest alchemist of today, and the latter was cast by Hermes in Egyptian legend, condensing the knowledge of alchemy into thirteen sentences and engraving them on an emerald tablet.

This parchment roll should be a rubbing of the Emerald Tablet.

"Do you think I still have the energy to study them?"

He can't let go of alchemy now just because of his hobbies and habits, and do some research and innovation, but he doesn't have the brainpower to burn for things that require too much brainpower.

Seeing this, Ethan didn't refuse and accepted 《The Book of Abraham the Jew》 and 《The Emerald Tablet》.

Then he couldn't wait to flip through it, wanting to see what was recorded inside.

As soon as Ethan got started, he knew that the material of this book was neither animal skin nor paper, but something similar to bark. The text and illustrations inside were branded with metal.

The book is not thick, only three seven-page sections, which is a total of twenty-one pages of content.

The most striking are the seven illustrations, and these illustrations have no text records.

The first seven pages depict a staff with two snakes entwined around it, one of which is devouring the other.

The second seven pages, or the fourteenth page, depict a cross, but instead of Jesus being nailed to the cross, it is a snake.

The third seven pages, or the twenty-first page, depict several clear springs emerging from a desert, and many snakes emerging from the springs.

In addition, the fourth and fifth pages each have two pictures.

The first picture on the fourth page depicts two people, one wearing a hat, holding a caduceus in his hand, and fighting against an old man with wings. The old man is flying in the air, with an hourglass on his head and a sickle in his hand, about to chop off his feet.

The second picture on the fourth page is colored, showing the top of a high mountain with a beautiful flower growing on it. The stem is blue, the flower is white and red, and the leaves are gold. Below the picture, a griffin and a dragon are building nests on the hillside.

The first picture on the fifth page is a garden, with a strange oak tree planted in the center of the garden. The reason it is said to be strange is because it is hollow, and a rose tree full of roses grows in the hollow part. There is also a fountain under the tree, and the spring water sprayed out is white liquid. The white spring water flows into the distance, and a group of blind people squat on the ground groping everywhere, but they can't see and can't touch anything.

The second picture on the fifth page depicts a king who is ordering soldiers to kill many babies with a sword. The babies' mothers are kneeling in front of them begging bitterly. There are some containers similar to buckets and crucibles next to them, and the babies' blood is collected in them. The sun and the moon are bathing in blood.

In addition, there are some illustrations of alchemical instruments such as flasks and crucibles in other parts, as well as a lot of text.

Ethan looked confused, and didn't know what it was expressing for a while.

Nico just watched from the side, without intending to explain. This depends on Ethan's understanding. Purely teaching Ethan 《The Book of Abraham the Jew》 by himself, the initial progress will be very fast, but maybe following his own ideas, Ethan will also get stuck in what he doesn't understand.

Putting 《The Book of Abraham the Jew》 aside, Ethan opened the rubbing of 《The Emerald Tablet》 and found that it was full of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, which were mainly used in religious aspects, and he couldn't understand it at all, and he had to look up information.

After having lunch with Nico and Perenelle, Ethan reluctantly said goodbye to them.

The two old men really regarded Ethan as their junior.

Fortunately, according to Nico, although the Philosopher's Stone is difficult to make, they still have one in their hands. The news that the Philosopher's Stone used as bait for Voldemort was destroyed was actually deliberately released by Dumbledore in order to prevent people from disturbing the Flamel couple.

……

"What, you're leaving today?"

Fleur looked at Ethan in surprise, and the joy she had just felt at Ethan's arrival suddenly disappeared.

"Well, Hogwarts starts on September 1st."

After going back, he dared to rush to Cassandra's mother's appointment. As for the Malfoy family, he would see how it goes!

During this period, Ethan would come to the Delacour Manor every few days. In Perenelle's words, it was a combination of work and rest, and going out for a walk could improve efficiency...

"Beauxbatons also starts on September 1st, but can't you stay at my house for two days?"

"Yes, brother, there's still so much time, just stay with me at my house for two days, okay!"

Saying that, Gabrielle hugged Ethan's leg and refused to let go.

"Then I'll leave tomorrow. I've been here for nearly two months, and there are still some things to deal with over there."