LazySageDao
patreon
74. Translation
🕑 Added 2025-06-19 01:53:47 +0000 UTC‘So soothing,’ thought Christian. After applying his mother’s ointment, a cool feeling appeared on his shoulder that countered the pain. He realized he did not have to suffer if he had just told his mother the truth. So, he slept comfortably for the first time in weeks.
Christian woke up, feeling refreshed for the first time since that fateful battle. He first checked his letters and received two: the first was from Quirrell, and it was a large parchment discussing Necromancy Magic and the ceremony of replacing his body with dead body parts. Christian had no interest in turning into Frankenstein, so he learned this only for the knowledge.
The parchment dissipated after reading it, and Christian wrote a reply. The second letter was from Professor Babbling, who wanted to see him. Christian put the letter away before waking up Neville for their morning meditation with Hermione. An hour later, they finished and headed to his private bathroom to clean up before heading to the Ancient Rune Classroom.
“Professor, you wished to see?”
“Oh, Christian. You’re early. Give me a few minutes,” said Professor Babbling as she swiftly graded the paper before him. She finally looked at him, “I’ve talked with Professor McGonagall and agreed that next year, you can attend class with the fifth year and take your O.W.L. What do you think?”
“That’s fine by me,” nodded Christian.
“I wanted you to take the N.E.W.T. directly, but she refused,” said Babbling. She had never seen someone with such a knack for languages in all her years of teaching or studying Ancient Runes.
“I don’t mind,” said Christian.
“That’s good. I won’t take too much of your time. I want to warn you to prepare for your final exams, but I doubt you’ll need it.”
Christian said his thanks before leaving. After this conversation, he decided to translate the runes in the artifact once and for all. So, he headed to the library and started. The process took four hours since he had to quintuple-check and ensure he made no mistakes.
Christian then found an empty room to turn invisible before rushing to the Room of Requirement, taking out Odin’s Eye, and moving the disks around.
“No, that’s not it,” he stated after moving the three disks. “What am I missing?” He looked over the translation about the creation of the world. This creation myth contained all the words found in the front of this artifact.
“Wait, Yggdrasil is the core of Norse Mythology. So, the Ancient Rune, Wunjo, is not described as wood but Yggdrasil itself; it should be in the middle.”
He moved the runes for wood and plant to the middle, followed by space and time above, and life and death on the right and left.
“No, light and darkness come before life and death.” He remembered the translation mentioning that the world was in a state of darkness after creation, so he placed light and darkness on the left and right of the tile for wood, and above life and death.
“Thunder is described as the first sign when the world transitions from dark to light, so where do I put it?” Christian places it on the right, next to Darkness and underneath Death.
“The four elements are believed to be the root of the universe in Alchemy, so they should be at the bottom.” Christian moved the four elements below the runes for Yggdrasil.
“Lastly, there is the body, mind, and soul.” He frowned. “The body should belong to life and the soul to death. What about the mind? Wait, I was wrong.”
Christian changed the disks again. He put life and death on the right side of the plant — Light and darkness on the left, and thunder in between light and darkness to show the transition. He then placed Body and Soul between Life and Death on the right.
The last piece to move was the mind; Christian did not immediately move it. Instead, he took out his wand and prepared. Finally, he moved the mind disk next to the body and soul, but nothing happened.
‘Could it be that the mind should be between darkness and light, signifying the transition between ignorance and knowledge, the unknown to the known, nonexistence to existence?’
Christian moved the mind disk to the left, right next to the thunder disk, but nothing happened.
‘What am I missing?’ He remembered the translation and his knowledge of Norse Mythology, and a thought suddenly popped into his mind.
‘The tree is alive, so it must have its own mind.’
He moved the mind disk directly below the plant disk. The final verdict is the plant disk at the center, space and time above, light and darkness to the left with thunder in between, life and death on the right with body and soul in between, and the four elements (wind, fire, water, and earth) at the bottom for the root.
As soon as Christian moved the last disk, the artifact released a bright light, and the disk slowly turned into an image of a beautiful tree with runes written on the exact spot of the former disks; those runes were the same as the previous 15.
‘Is that the Yggdrasil Tree? It’s so beautiful,’ thought Christian, with his wand ready. However, after releasing the light and changing, nothing else occurred.
“That’s it?” He picked it up and turned it around. “Did I miss something?” It did not appear as such, so Christian was confused. “Well, this was disappointing.” His only explanation was that this thing required a specific time, like around a full moon, before it could work. Or, there was a code word to activate it. However, the translations in the back did not give any hint or clue.
Christian placed Odin’s Eye in the safety area that the Room of Requirement gave him and left, feeling a little dejected. Then, he was somewhat distracted for the remaining two weeks of school, thinking about what the missing key was.
A few days later, his injury finally healed, and it was time for final exams. He passed all of them with flying colors, including Potion Class, where Professor Peter Nug—the Magical Theory Professor—took over. Christian even received extra points in some of his classes. Harry's scar began to hurt after the last final, History of Magic.
‘So, it’s finally happened? How will things proceed without Snape?’ thought Christian. While waiting in the common room, Harry rushed to them a few hours later and swore he saw Snape sneak into the school. He convinced the others to see Hagrid as he pieced out the puzzle together. Christian did not follow them and excuse himself; he knew, despite Snape’s absence, events would unfold as they needed to, and he felt it was unnecessary to participate.
Christian had been preparing for this day and knew how he would spend his time: he wanted to find one of Voldemort’s Horcruxes, the diadem. He asked his mother for a box to place an item with an extremely powerful curse. Although she asked why, she was satisfied with the answer that he would tell her once school ended.
So, when it was time for the gang to head to the third floor and encounter Quirrell, he left for the Room of Requirement, asking for a place to store things. He then released his uncle’s gift, the Cursefollower. There were a few cursed items in this cluttered space, but Christian soon found what he wanted.
As soon as he approached the diadem, he heard a tempting voice that seemed to evoke the deepest, darkest emotions in his mind. Luckily, he could be considered a master of Occlumency and resisted by isolating all his thoughts and feelings. Christian wore dragonhide gloves and held the diadem before putting it in the box made from the Iroko Tree in West Africa.
Christian asked the Room of Requirement to send him to his study, and everything around him changed, rapidly turning into his study. Christian immediately began to study the diadem. However, besides the item's curse, he could not detect anything.
“It’s a shame such a legendary item was ruined, especially if it was truly capable of making an individual smarter,” he muttered before deciding what to do. He could not destroy it since he had no Basilic Fang, the Gryffinfor’s sword, or knew how to cast the Fiendfyre Curse.
‘Let’s store it and deal with it later,’ thought Christian before asking the room for the place where he kept Odin’s Eye. He slowly placed the wooden box next to the artifact, and before he could react, a white substance rushed from the diadem to the disk.
Odin’s Eye then floated in the air on its own before what appeared to be a breach in space appeared above. The artifact rushed into the breach, forcefully dragging Christian with it.
Comments
hector lyng
Are the diadem and the ring related?
