Chapter 69: The Shafiq Family
After school started, Ethan had something troubling him, making him somewhat irritable.
Hermione had seen this long ago and roughly knew what was bothering him, but she couldn't do anything and could only comfort him constantly:
"Dumbledore will definitely bring the thing back. Don't worry."
Yes, it was Dumbledore who hadn't appeared since school started.
Ethan always remembered Dumbledore said he would borrow the alchemical item that could detect bloodlines after Christmas, but school had started for a week, and he went to look for Dumbledore two or three times but didn't find him.
Although he had a suspicion, he was still doubtful until he could verify it.
Fortunately, on Friday, Dumbledore returned.
After dinner, Ethan came to the Headmaster's office again.
This time Dumbledore saw he looked a bit annoyed and let Fawkes stand on his shoulder to bring him some comfort.
Ethan stroked Fawkes's feathers to relieve the excitement and uneasiness in his heart while staring at Dumbledore without blinking.
"Don't look at me like that. I'm a little scared," Dumbledore joked.
Seeing that Ethan didn't seem to have any change in expression, he put away his smile and became serious.
"Ethan, I have to say this upfront. I borrowed the Bloodline Tablet, but it doesn't guarantee finding the source of your bloodline.
Because its principle is to search for the family most closely related to you based on the existing wizard family bloodlines present in your blood, thereby determining the source of your bloodline.
So, if your parents are not bloodline sources recorded on it, it's very likely your bloodline won't be found."
The urgency in Ethan's heart was temporarily suppressed by reason. He asked, "I understand. I want to ask, is the bloodline of the Shafiq family recorded?"
"Shafiq?" Dumbledore narrowed his eyes. "Why do you suddenly mention this family name? Do you know something?"
"Indeed, I found a copy of The Pure-Blood Directory in the library and found the family name Shafiq in it.
Coincidentally, my middle name is Shafiq.
And when buying a wand in Diagon Alley, Ollivander said there is a mysterious family whose members mostly use wands made of Pandanus wood, and this family is the Shafiq family."
Looking at Dumbledore's expression, Ethan suddenly calmed down.
He knew he was most likely truly a member of this mysterious family, but The Pure-Blood Directory had little information on its members. It simply listed them as one of Britain's Sacred Twenty-Eight.
Apart from that, only a few family members were recorded in family trees.
Dumbledore let out a thoughtful sigh. It seemed he had underestimated this first-year student.
"It seems you know quite a lot, Ethan.
This time I also brought back the slate from the Shafiq family. The person I mentioned as having borrowed it was the current head of the French Shafiq family, Cyril Shafiq."
Ethan thought: French Shafiq family? The book had obscurely mentioned that the Shafiq family had branches not only in Britain, but why would the French Shafiq family borrow the slate?
"I know you have doubts. If it can be confirmed that you are from the Shafiq family, I will tell you these things one by one."
Dumbledore took out a black slate about thirty centimeters square, engraved with various golden runes.
The central part featured a palm-shaped groove about half a centimeter deep. Above this groove was a small circular hole roughly one centimeter in diameter.
"Come, Ethan. First use a silver needle to take a small drop of blood. Fingertip is fine."
"Yes, drip it into this small hole."
Dumbledore used Transfiguration to turn a silver utensil on a shelf into a silver needle more than ten centimeters long and handed it to him.
After he dripped his blood into the small hole, Dumbledore continued, "Put your hand into this palm-shaped groove and inject magic power."
Ethan did as told.
The moment magic power was injected, the golden runes on the slate began to glow, and the blood dripped into the small hole disappeared instantly.
"Don't stop. Continue to input magic power." Dumbledore guided.
His magic power drained continuously. After about five minutes, the golden runes began to dim, and a projection began to appear above the small hole.
As the light of the runes became weaker and weaker, the content of the projection became clearer and clearer. Until the runes completely lost their light, the clarity of the projection no longer changed, freezing on a tree-like image.
Dumbledore glanced at the family tree. "Sure enough, you are indeed a child of the Shafiq family."
Ethan's hand was still on the slate. He was also looking at this chaotic and complex family tree.
From the thickest roots below, a straight trunk extended upward. At the fork of the trunk, the same text was written on both sides—Shafiq.
The branches continued upwards. Most of the names inside were Shafiq, occasionally names like Lestrange and Black. Some branches were still blank.
Seeing Ethan looking at a blank branch, Dumbledore explained: "This is what I said. Bloodlines not recorded on the slate are blank.
Alright, let go. I should tell you the story of your family."
Ethan took one last look at this family tree, removed his hand pressing on the slate, and the image flickered and disappeared.
"Sit down. This will be a long story." Dumbledore snapped his fingers, summoning the house-elves to bring two cups of black tea, then settled across from Ethan and began to speak of the Shafiq family's past.
The old man seemed to know the Shafiq family well. He took a sip of the sweetened black tea and spoke slowly.
"The Shafiq family is the most mysterious among the Sacred Twenty-Eight. They rarely marry within British pure-blood families.
Moreover, even when they do marry outside their bloodline, they only take wives from pure-blood families. There has never been an example of a Shafiq woman marrying out to another name.
So people know very little about them.
The families like Lestrange and Black that you saw on the family tree also had women with those surnames marrying into the Shafiq family."
He looked up at Ethan. "You saw two Shafiq names on the initial trunk, which means your parents were both from the Shafiq family. But as far as I know, one was from Britain and one was from France."
"So, you knew them?"
"Yes, I knew them. Your parents were both good wizards," Dumbledore said regrettably.
========================================