Chapter 25: The Notebook II

*"Specialis Revelio!"*

A wild map of wards materialized as orange shimmering lines floating above the notebook. It looked like something out of Doctor Strange.

"When you told me you would share your past weeks of research with me, I did not expect it would involve me helping you test if an object is cursed," Lord Lian grumbled, eyeing the warded notebook, "Move me more to the left, boy."

Simon obliged and moved the painting of his ancestor more to the left.

"From the looks of this, it is not cursed, just warded. No soul shards or whatever foul things you were expecting," the old man in the painting continued, "Maybe it is Jane's training of you but you are quite cautious for someone your age. Think most youngsters would have just touched this without a second thought."

"Did you just…*praise me*?"

*"I think he did, Simon!"*

"I do not know what you are yapping about!" Lord Lian grunted, "And tell your beast to stop flying around! His incessant flapping is interfering with my examination of this object!"

Raze flew to the dueling room to avoid Lord Lian's scolding while Simon smiled at how flustered his ancestor seemed. He was certain the old man was growing fond of him!

"From what I can tell, this is a blood ward. The book should only open to those related to the previous owner or owners of the book," Lord Lian continued, "Given its complexity, it should be done by someone from some ancient wizarding family. You can try and give it a touch. The Honglong Yang clan is a powerful house that had bonded with many other powerful houses in Asia and the West. Good chance this was done by a descendant of a shared ancestor."

"Wait, we have bonded with powerful houses in the West?"

"Not recently, but definitely many hundreds and maybe thousands of years ago!" Lord Lian remarked, "We are wizards Simon! We can apparate! We can fly! We have connected water networks! Do not be so surprised!"

"Okay, do tell me more about the water networks later," Simon noted, remembering how the Durmstrang ship appeared in the Great Lake in canon, "But what if this was not warded by a shared ancestor? What would happen if I touch this notebook?"

Lord Lian rubbed his goatee thoughtfully.

"It might hurt a bit. It should not be worse than what the British call a *Bombarda Maxima*?"

"And you are asking me to try it?" Simon retorted, "You are telling your descendant to touch something that might blast them across the room?"

"Why not? It might just open for you with a simple touch, or it would blast you aside and then you have to spend maybe a few months breaking the ward – maybe just weeks with my expert guidance," Lord Lian explained, never missing a chance to sprinkle in some self-praise, "For the chance it would open just with your touch, I would say getting blasted across the room is worth it."

"Fine," Simon replied after processing the pro-s and cons. It was the first promising 'lead' he had so far this year on anything he researched on. He might as well get himself stunned in the process. After giving his supply of home-brewed painkilling potions on his bookshelf a thoughtful look, Simon turned to face the notebook in front of him, gingerly moving his hand towards the book cover.

After what felt like over a minute, Simon breathed a sigh of relief when he was not propelled across the room.

"Bless my mother's old school pure-blood lineage I guess," Simon muttered, opening the book. A loud cough could be heard from the painting.

"And you too Lord Lian, you too."