Sure enough—
As a pink bubble rose from the statue's palm, Dawn saw the stone book and the words carved upon it.
The language of Britain from a thousand years ago was very different from the present, but fortunately, Dawn had studied some of it in order to read rare ancient texts.
Only three paras were carved into the stone:
[Magic is a power of the mind. It manifests differently depending on the intensity of our emotions.
Throughout Hogwarts' existence, the rich emotions of young wizards leave imprints upon the castle, gradually gathering into what is known as the castle's consciousness.
The shared understanding of the students currently within the school guides this consciousness, allowing it to draw upon accumulated emotions and wield the castle's magic to produce extraordinary effects.]
Dawn frowned slightly as he read.
The meaning was simple:
A wizard's emotions influenced the power of magic, but an individual's emotions had limits.
The castle, however, collected the emotions of all students who had lived and studied within it.
If one condition was met—
The agreement of all current students—
Then the accumulated emotional power could be mobilized, producing magic far beyond the capability of any single wizard.
There was no doubt.
Although expressed differently, Dawn could clearly see one concept hidden between the lines—
Collective consciousness.
In his own understanding, these words meant that over a thousand years, the thoughts and emotions of every student who had ever attended Hogwarts had accumulated within the castle, forming what was called the castle's consciousness.
And as long as all current students believed in something—
Their collective consciousness would be amplified by the accumulated consciousness of generations past, drawing upon even greater magical power to achieve the impossible.
Dawn slowly narrowed his eyes.
Far ahead.
Without question, compared to his own understanding, the castle's use of collective consciousness was far ahead.
These three lines resolved one of his long-standing questions.
He had never been certain— Did the thoughts of the dead still count as part of collective consciousness?
The fact that the castle could gather the will of students from across a thousand years suggested that the consciousness of the dead still remained part of it.
But this was not good news for Dawn.
Because it meant that making radical changes through collective consciousness would be far more difficult.
For example:
The concept that "time cannot be changed."
If collective consciousness consisted only of the living, then theoretically, Dawn could alter reality by changing everyone's belief—convincing the entire world that time could be changed.
But if the dead were included—
Then even if he changed the beliefs of everyone alive, that would still only form a portion of the total collective consciousness.
It might not be enough to override the opposing belief accumulated over countless generations.
Even so, Dawn also saw a path forward within these three lines.
The collective consciousness of the past was not fixed.
It could be changed.
Which meant, whatever the current students believed, the accumulated consciousness of all past students would align with that belief.
The consciousness of the dead could still be reshaped— And determined by the living.
To Dawn, this was almost unbelievable.
No wonder Dumbledore had said what he did yesterday.
The collective consciousness of fewer than five hundred current students might not accomplish much—
But the accumulated consciousness of thousands of students over a thousand years might.
Dawn's thoughts burned with excitement.
If Dumbledore could use it— So could he.
But, what he cared about more was how this was done.
If he could master this method— He could use the consciousness of a small group of living people to reshape the consciousness of the vast majority of the dead.
The possibilities were unimaginable.
Had Ravenclaw left behind this method?
Dawn stared at the elegant stone statue, his red eyes gradually heating with intensity.
For the first time, he found himself sharing the same obsession as countless students:
The hidden legacies of the four founders.
What was Hogwarts' most enduring topic?
There was no single answer, but undoubtedly, the founders' hidden inheritances were among them.
Students entered the school with tales of the four founders, full of imagination and adventure.
Almost every student had once dreamed of discovering a founder's legacy and rising to greatness.
Of these, Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets was the most famous—and the most real.
After all, it was recorded in Hogwarts: A History.
But after the basilisk was killed and shown to the students, a new rumor spread:
That the Chamber had been nothing more than the basilisk's lair, now destroyed by the professors.
This devastated many Slytherin students.
As for the other three founders: Most Hufflepuffs firmly believed that their founder's chamber was hidden in the kitchen.
After all, Helga Hufflepuff was renowned for food magic, and even her legendary cup was said to produce endless drink.
So placing her legacy in the kitchen made perfect sense.
Gryffindors, on the other hand, believed their founder's chamber lay within the Forbidden Forest.
After all, the bravest of the four would surely hide his treasure in the most dangerous place.
As for Ravenclaw— Her legend was the most unified.
There was already a statue of her in the Ravenclaw common room, unique among the founders.
Thus, every Ravenclaw student believed her legacy lay hidden within the common room's internal library.
It was said that a chosen student could read every book in a single night, gaining unparalleled wisdom.
Dawn considered all this.
He silently decided to visit the Ravenclaw common room later that night.
He was far too curious about the method Ravenclaw had used to create the castle's consciousness.
In truth, he had already examined the Ravenclaw common room last year using his abilities.
He knew it was filled with dense magical circuits.
But the entire castle was like that—even Gryffindor Tower.
At the time, he hadn't tried to determine whether anything was hidden within.
At that moment, while thinking about the castle's consciousness, Dawn suddenly thought of another figure.
Peeves.
Although rumors claimed Peeves had existed even before the founders established the school—Dawn preferred another explanation.
That Peeves was the result of students' playful and mischievous emotions accumulating over time.
Could he study Peeves to understand how collective consciousness formed?
Unfortunately, he had no reliable way to capture Peeves. So he set the idea aside for now.
Time passed.
Dawn took a deep breath and finally pulled himself out of his thoughts.
The pink bubble had long since vanished.
Having resolved one question, he left the Room of Requirement and transformed into a small insect.
He decided to visit Ravenclaw Tower later that night.
For now, since it was still early, he flew back toward Gryffindor Tower.
Following a Gryffindor student inside, he found Avery—still doing his best to play the role of Lee Jordan—and flew to his side.
"So, do you think it's true? That the Dark Lord has returned?" a Gryffindor student asked.
"Why are you still talking about that?" Ron said loudly. "Dumbledore already denied it!"
"That's exactly what's strange!"
The student puffed up, clearly proud of his reasoning. "Think about it—has Dumbledore ever denied rumors before? Why this one?"
Dawn glanced at him, slightly surprised.
If a Ravenclaw had noticed something like this, it wouldn't be unusual.
But a Gryffindor...
Well. Perhaps it was just his bias.
He always felt that, aside from Hermione, there weren't many particularly sharp minds in Gryffindor.
___________
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