"I hope there's no lock that can't be opened here." Ian also went to the Hogwarts kitchen for a midnight snack and happily had some real honey steak from the house-elves.
The taste was actually pretty good.
He left the kitchen with two sour lemons, evolving from drinking lemon juice to biting into them like apples, the tangy flavor refreshing him in a special way.
"Feeling energized!"
As the night grew quieter.
Carefully avoiding the magical paintings used as surveillance and the knight armors that might have some "monitoring" features, Ian borrowed a broom from the flying broom storage.
"I'm grateful to Madam Hooch for teaching me how to fly. She only said that we aren't allowed to take off without permission during her classes, which clearly implies we have the freedom to fly however we want after class."
Fortunately, not all locks have special anti-theft magic; at least the lock on the broom storage was easily defeated by Ian's Unlocking Spell.
Perhaps those old flying brooms aren't as valuable as the books? Ian wasn't sure of the reason. He waited until he observed the light in Snape's room go out, and then took off into the sky.
The earlier flying class finally got a chance to be put into practice. Ian found that he really knew how to fly and could intuitively sense which areas were likely to be noticed by people in the castle.
Weaving and winding.
Flying and stopping.
Although Hogwarts Castle is indeed vast, the rooftops with towers are relatively limited, and Ian hadn't even explored all the tower tops of Hogwarts.
"It's here!"
Through the dust-covered window.
Ian saw what he was looking for in an unremarkable room. In the empty room, there was a desk with an ancient book covered in black dragon hide on it.
It lay quietly on the desk, untouched by dust, and next to the book was a bottle of silver ink, with a faded feather pen sticking out of it.
The Book of Admission.
The Pen of Admission.
This is Hogwarts' unmanned admissions office, selecting students over the years without any need for intervention.
"Such profound alchemy creations, I have to figure them out eventually." Climbing in through the window with the Unlocking Spell, Ian placed the flying broom aside, then used magic to clean the dust in the room, and only after the room was spotless did he approach the Pen of Admission and the Book of Admission.
After all, he might visit this room often in the future, and he couldn't always be in an unclean environment. Many people from orphanages have a habit of keeping things clean.
Some groups can't afford to get sick.
"By the looks of it, no one has been here for decades. Clearly, magic could accomplish the cleaning." Ian eagerly began studying the Pen of Admission and the Book of Admission.
As expected.
The magic rune circuits and inscription structures on them are extremely complex, seemingly linked to some power within Hogwarts. Ian's current knowledge of alchemy could only decode this much information.
"This doesn't affect my train of thought!" Ian, more easily than expected, managed to make several sheets of parchment gain the desired effect from the Book of Admission.
The originally blank parchment, once linked, began to slowly reveal the map of the entire Hogwarts, including various hidden passages and the Room of Requirement.
This likely has to do with the deep connection between the Pen of Admission, the Book of Admission, and Hogwarts.
"Though I hope to have a class in the Room of Requirement, it's clearly not the time now." Ian thought for a moment and hid the Room of Requirement for the time being, along with the secret passages leading out of the school.
"After all, I don't want my map to lead students to their deaths in the Forbidden Forest or elsewhere at night." As the creator of the alchemy creations, Ian naturally could decide what the maps showed or didn't show; in fact, he could remotely adjust or modify anything on the maps.
Ian certainly wouldn't do anything that would expose his own tracks to others. In fact, he saw the Living Map he created as a kind of error-checking version.
Besides being able to set a basic "start-up password."
The map buyers could also choose a name only they knew instead of their own name, only sharing this name with their fellow night walkers and close friends.
Moreover.
These maps could even set specific color markers for friends and couples. If Ian didn't have such a grudge against Tencent in his past life, he might've even considered offering a paid subscription service for avatar changes and border customization. Of course, the reason for not doing this might also be related to Ian's current limited alchemy skills.
Who knows.
"Character names need the influence of the Pen of Admission."
Ian, seeing those little dots representing people on the map, repeated the trick and connected the map with the Pen of Admission.
Thus.
The little dots on the map displayed names, even showing all the Hogwarts ghosts, and Ian was very pleased to see his name, "Ian Prince," staying in the Ravenclaw Common Room on the map.