About fifteen minutes after Evan left, Harry, Ron, and Hermione successively recovered from the magical illusion of the stars and realized where they were.
They looked around in confusion, their faces full of doubts.
"Sirius, what just happened?” Harry said in amazement, unable to believe the increase of magic in his body. “The stars in the night sky give me a strange feeling, in which I feel like I have become a star, with strange fluctuations; my magic is growing…”
"Me too!” Ron shouted with delight, “Although it's not a lot of growth, it is very noticeable! What in the world is going on?"
Hermione didn't speak. She frowned and felt it for a while, with a slightly doubtful expression.
She also felt a slight increase in her magic, which was too incredible, even contrary to what she had learned before.
Hermione wanted to listen to Evan's opinion, and then she suddenly noticed that he was not here.
She hurried to Sirius standing next to her and asked, “Where’s Evan?”
"Don’t worry; I'll answer your questions one by one.” Looking at the confused and anxious Harry, Ron and Hermione, Sirius smiled and said, “First of all, don’t worry about Evan; he was the first to recover. He has followed Magorian to see the elder, not far ahead. We’ll be there soon. Secondly, about the reasons for your magic growth…” Sirius pointed at the starry sky above his head and explained, “In fact, this is due to the powerful magic of the temple at your feet and the countless stars in the night sky. When I first came here, I was shocked by the scene in front of me and my magic increased slightly as well."
"Magic?" Harry, Ron and Hermione looked at Sirius in surprise, wondering what he meant by magic.
"Yes, it's magic!” Sirius said softly. “This magic is so powerful that it is far beyond your imagination.”
Under the night sky, no one spoke, and everyone was waiting for Sirius to continue explaining.
"The Centaurs once told me that this magic had been arranged by Godric Gryffindor himself. Unlike our usual wand-wielding magic, the magic he had left behind involved knowledge of alchemy and magic array.” Sirius said softly, “Even today, after a thousand years, it still works.”
Hearing what he said, Harry and Ron unconsciously raised their heads and looked at the starry night sky again, as if they were trying their best to feel the powerful magic left by Gryffindor himself. But there was nothing. They couldn't get into that feeling.
Now the sky was full of stars, just like the stars they saw every Wednesday night at the School Astronomical tower. Apart from a wider horizon, there was no difference.
"Only the wizard who comes here for the first time will naturally enter into the state you've just felt to adjust, because the magical rhythm in his body does not match the energy emitted by the stars.” Sirius laughed and said, “After adjustment, you can no longer enter that state.”
“The conjunction of magic rhythm and star energy?!” Hermione remembered that she seemed to have seen hints at this in some book, a very ancient magic book.
She had seen the book on Evan's desk before, picked it up and read it when she was idle. It was so abstruse that she didn’t understand much of it in many places.
"The magic left by Gryffindor helps the wizard who comes here for the first time to adjust his magical rhythm. During the adjustment process, your own magic will also increase slightly.” Sirius continued, “The more talented and magical the wizard is, the shorter the adjustment time is. That's why Evan was the first to wake up.”
"Well, we know why magic grows, but why did Gryffindor leave this magic here?” Hermione asked in confusion.
“Maybe to help us increase our magic.” Ron whispered.
"He obviously wouldn't have so much free time on his hands! A powerful magic was laid out in the Centaurs' colony, deep in the Forbidden Forest only to help three young wizards to enhance their magic power?” Hermione glared at Ron and was dissatisfied with his unfounded answer.
"On this issue, I have done in-depth research with James and Remus. The final conclusion was that this magical effect was to gather the power of the stars into the temple.” Sirius said, “Gryffindor used these powers to support his final test here.”
Hearing Sirius’s reasoning, they were once again deeply shocked. It was hard to imagine what the final test of Gryffindor would be like. It was incredible to use the power of the stars of the entire night sky as a support.
Since entering the Centaurs' colony, they had come into contact with too many things beyond their imagination, discovering that the magical world was not as simple as what they learned in Hogwarts.
“On our first trip to the Centaurs' colony a few months ago, I told you that the final test left by Gryffindor was a powerful illusion magic.” Sirius said, “That magic allows you to penetrate into a totally different world, a surreal World, in which everyone sees different things. Only through surpassing what challenges he laid down inside can we finally get what he left behind."
"You seem to have just entered the endless starry sky, which is actually part of the illusion." Sirius pointed to the lines above the black obsidian platform beneath his feet and continued, "Look at the lines on the ground. This is what Gryffindor had laid out. It can blend the temple of the Centaurs with the stars in the night sky.”
Everyone hurriedly looked down at the lines under their feet. They thought that they were the same as the ones on the walls; all being planets' trajectories. They did not expect them to be a magic left by Gryffindor.
These lines formed a complex pattern that extended to the depth of the platform.
Looking far ahead, they could see Evan and two Centaurs standing at the end of the lines.
Because of the distance, their figures looked very small.
Behind them was the outline of a giant, which seemed to be part of the Temple, and they couldn't see clearly its concrete shape.
Up along the giant, at the top, through the thick clouds, was a red light.
It glowed softly around like a star.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione originally thought so, but now it seemed that this thing was obviously not a star.
They looked up into the distance, and the red glow in the clouds echoed the dark red moon overhead, looking eerie.
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