Hogwarts: The Greatest Wizard - Chapter 320
c320 318 Council of Elders Headquarters
The Consular Meeting of the Presbyterian Church can be said to be one of the most important meetings of the Presbyterian Church.
So the place where it was held was also very special. It was held in the Vatican.
The Vatican is not only a holy place for many religions in the Muggle world, but also has some special meanings in the magical world. According to legend, wizards were born here.
There are wizards living here, but there are no magic fairs like the UK, France and Italy, and there is no Ministry of Magic to manage the wizards here.
This place is directly managed by the Presbyterian Council and no family is allowed to interfere. Even wizards living here are only allowed with the consent of the Presbyterian Council.
It can be said that in addition to making significant contributions to the Presbyterian Church, the wizards living here are legendary wizards who are expected to join the Presbyterian Council. Therefore, the Vatican is also the most powerful place for wizards in the world.
Therefore, the wizards here are also under the strictest supervision. If they are not required to attend the consular meeting, neither Sirius, Finny, nor Cobos would be willing to come to this place. The magic that can be used here has its own special characteristics. Detailed regulations, and at the same time, this place is covered with a very strict magic surveillance system.
Different from the Ministry of Magic’s surveillance system that can only monitor whether there are magic fluctuations within a certain range, the surveillance system here can not only be accurate to everyone who uses magic, but can also determine what magic is being used. Once something is not allowed here, Magic, the law enforcement team of the Presbyterian Church will be dispatched to find you and come to check the water meter.
The convening of the Consular Meeting of the Presbyterian Council is a grand event in the entire magic world. Although the rules of the Presbyterian Council do not allow other wizards to easily set foot on this land, it still attracts the attention of many people.
This is the second time that Feeney has come to the Vatican to attend a consular meeting. Last time, he was the only one in the Black family. He was accompanied by Lisa, Kreacher and Puff, two house elves. It can be said that he was one of the people who came to attend the consular meeting. The family with the smallest number of people,
It was Sirius’ first time to attend this meeting, and also his first time to the Vatican. He was very curious about everything here. Although he didn’t look around so obviously along the way, he was always paying attention to the surrounding environment and scenery. culture.
As the largest papal state in the Muggle world, the architecture and humanistic culture of the Vatican are all related to religion. The cultural charm of religion can be felt everywhere here.
Wizards who come here to attend the consular meeting will be assigned a place of residence by the Elders Council.
It’s not a Muggle hotel, nor is there a pub like the Leaky Cauldron.
They were all arranged to the Presbyterian Church headquarters where the consular meeting was about to be held.
It is under St. Peter’s Cathedral. This location was moved during the witch eradication campaign. No matter how much the Muggle priests thought about it at that time, they would never have thought that the wizards they had been looking for were actually there. Just below them,
No one would have thought that under this most outstanding Renaissance building and the largest church in the world, which is regarded as the most sacred site of the Catholic Church and where many popes are buried, there is such a huge church. A complex of buildings.
The entrance to the Presbyterian Church headquarters is not in the church, and is even far away from the church.
Feeney and Sirius followed the Presbyterian waiter who was waiting for them from the airport and went straight to the Vatican Library, one of the most famous libraries in the Western world, where they entered the entrance of the Presbyterian headquarters.
This library was only completed in 1940. Therefore, when the Presbyterian Church first moved here, the entrance was not the current library, although at that time, it was a library. Yes,
Feeney doesn’t know what the original library looked like and has never seen it, but he has seen the current library, and this is the second time he has seen it.
The Vatican Library is a typical dome-shaped library building with a very rich collection of books in art, architecture, language, literature, history, philosophy, mathematics and science, not to mention the largest collection of theological books in the Vatican.
The entire library is divided into several floors, connected by spiral staircases, and has dedicated reading areas.
And there are not just books here, ancient paintings, various antique ornaments, and literary and artistic items are also filled in this building, giving the originally rigid book atmosphere a touch of literature and art.
After the completion of the library, the entrance to the Presbyterian Church headquarters was moved to a hidden library on the basement floor of the library.
The existence of wizards has been confirmed by religions after the witch eradication campaign thousands of years ago. In recent years, the wizarding world and the Muggle world have become more closely connected with each other, and there is no need to hide it from religion.
However, for ordinary people, the existence of witches still needs to be hidden, especially the specific records of the witch eradication campaign. Although those are not considered black history for religion, they are enough to have some impact on them. After all, , the number of ordinary, innocent people they killed back then was no less than that of real wizards.
Therefore, this secret library actually collects and displays specific books that record the witch-killing campaign that swept across Europe thousands of years ago.
The entrance to the Presbyterian Church headquarters is among these bookshelves.
The waiter who led Finny and Sirius gently shook the statue on one of the bookshelves. It was a cross statue. If it were found elsewhere, this kind of relief would definitely not be safe, but this is the Vatican.
It is a holy place for religious people. Almost no one touches the cross on the building here, so it is very safe.
As the cross was broken, the two bookshelves in front of Feeney began to move to both sides. Behind him, he entered the entrance of the library. The wooden door was also blocked by the two bookshelves, revealing a staircase leading down.
The passage is very dark, and there are no torches or lighting tools on the left and right walls.
The waiter took out his wand,
“Fluorescence.”
After chanting the spell, the tip of the wand glowed, and he walked in first, leading the way.
This passage is very narrow and can only pass one person, and it is impossible to move side by side. This means that if there is someone behind you, you cannot retreat.
The steps continued downward. After Feeney and the others walked nearly ten thousand steps, which were about as high as two floors, the steps finally reached the end.
A glimmer of light also came from the end of the steps.
Feeney and the others finally came to the end of the passage. There was a very empty hall with nothing in it. There were some statues of arms holding torches on the surrounding walls. The torches on them were not simple torches but oil lamps.
Of course, the lamp oil inside cannot be the simplest lamp oil.
Feeney, who had seen similar things before, smelled this very familiar smell when he saw these oil lamps.
“The smell of these oil lamps is similar to those at Hogwarts.”
Sirius said with emotion,
Feeney nodded,
“It’s not very similar, it’s just the same thing, and the corpse oil of house elves is burning inside.”
Sirius was stunned. He really didn’t know that this was the oil in the oil lamps at Hogwarts.
The waiter on the side smiled and said,
“Mr. Phineas Black is right. The oil lamps here are burning the corpse oil of house elves, but there are differences. There is some blood of Riem cow mixed in it.”
This time even Feeney had to lament that the Presbyterian Church was rich and powerful. You know, this is the blood of the powerful bull. It can not only improve the wizard’s physique but also the level of magic power. If there are enough materials, it can even refine the elixir of immortality. However, It was used as lamp oil by the Presbyterian Church,
This hall is actually not big. It is more like a transit station than a hall. There is a stone door on the wall directly opposite the passage.
The waiter stood in front of the stone door and warned Finny and Sirius again,
“Two young masters Black, please follow me closely after entering. There is a huge magic maze inside. Under the use of the elders’ magic, not only is there great danger, but it will also keep changing. Only those of us who have grown up here will Only a great waiter will know how to pass safely,”
Feeney nodded. It wasn’t his first time here. He turned to look at Sirius. This was his first time here.
Sirius also knew that this was not a joke, so he nodded solemnly,
The waiter breathed a sigh of relief, opened the door and walked in with the two of them.
It’s no wonder that the waiter was so cautious. You know, one day ago, another waiter who came to pick up the Lestrange family did not warn a young master of the Lestrange family in advance, causing the young master to In the maze, he completely disobeyed the waiter’s orders. He ran around at will, triggered the mechanism, and died inside. At the same time, he also implicated other people who were traveling with him.
In the end, it was the waiter who fought tooth and nail to bring the other members of the Lestrange family out, but was still punished by the Presbyterian Council. Now he doesn’t know whether he will live or die.
Fortunately, neither of the Feeney brothers were such ungrateful people. They followed the waiter closely along the way and successfully passed the magic maze and officially entered the Presbyterian Church headquarters.
The destination is a market.
You know, the people living here are not the elders of the Presbyterian Church, but the wizards who work directly for the Presbyterian Church.
After wizards from many families become legends, they have two paths to take. One is to enter the Council of Elders and assume some responsibilities. After a certain number of years, they will be included in the Council of Elders. The other is to continue to retreat within the family. Finally, after reaching a certain height, he was included in the elders’ group.
Wizards who are not legendary also have the opportunity to work directly for the Presbyterian Church.
After graduating from Skull, some powerful wizards will be selected into the Presbyterian Council’s guard team, as well as the law enforcement team, and even some great wizards will serve in special roles such as sealers, curse breakers, recorders, etc. responsibilities,
After these adult wizards or great wizards enter this place, they generally will not leave easily. Over time, a special market has formed here.
Not only is it a place where the staff rest and live after work, there are also many wizards who come here to start some industries. However, it is a bit difficult to come and go. Wizard merchants need to apply for and purchase tickets to come and go, and the value of these is naturally Not cheap.
The purpose of Feeney and the others is naturally not to go to the market. If the Presbyterian Church held a meeting of sworn families, most families would be arranged into the tavern in the market.
But the residence of the consul’s family is indeed somewhere else.
They have their own fixed residence in the headquarters of the Presbyterian Church.
Black’s is an underground villa not far south of the market. Although it is underground, under the effect of magic, the land above their heads is still like the real sky, and even has the same weather changes as the outside sky, with sunrise and sunset, wind and rain, which is much more delicate and magical than the one in the Hogwarts Hall.
Not far from Black’s villa is Selwyn Villa, where Finny first met Silna.
There is a huge relief of the Black family emblem on the door of Black’s villa, indicating the ownership of this building, which also makes many wizards afraid.
The waiter left after sending Finny and others here.
Finny has experience living here, and does not need the waiter to remind him one by one, although they would not have reminded him originally.
After a few words with Sirius, Finney said goodbye to him and went to the library near the Presbyterian meeting hall, where there are many books and documents treasured by the Presbyterian Church.
This library is also divided into several floors, and the books on different floors are naturally different. Ordinary wizards can only read books on the first floor, staff can read the second floor, those who have made certain contributions can read the third floor, members of the consul family can read the fourth floor, and the patriarch of the consul family like Finney can step onto the fourth floor. Finney is not qualified to go up, and he is not even sure how many floors there are above. However, it can be roughly determined that there are at least two floors above.
There are some reasons why Finney came here. The records here are the most comprehensive in the entire magic world, and the things inside are also the most complete. Finney has a lot of knowledge that he saw when he came here ten years ago.
And it was the experience ten years ago that allowed him to successfully reach the current level. If he wants to go further, he must need more knowledge.
For wizards, the saying that knowledge equals power is not a rumor but a fact.
It is said that when a wizard has studied a spell to its limit, he can even destroy the opponent’s magic directly from the root.
For example, when two people are fighting, you use the magic of the shadowless on me, and I have mastered this magic from the most fundamental level. I can wave my wand at will to make this spell lose its original effect and disappear, or even bounce it back and let your magic attack yourself.
Not to mention the curse. Ritual magic itself requires a lot of knowledge reserves to be used.