Which meant finding hidden passages and secret rooms would be much harder than he'd originally anticipated. Without a magical detection method, he'd be relying on luck and chance, the same way the Marauders and the Weasley twins had likely found most of their discoveries.
Unless the passages had been created after Hogwarts was built. Maybe by subsequent headmasters, professors, or enterprising students who wanted secret routes to Hogsmeade. Those newer additions might show up when using detection spells. He would have to find them and have a look.
But anything created by the Founders themselves? Impossible to detect with his current methods.
James sighed, looking at the blank wall with frustration and respect in equal measure. There were so many passages leading to Hogsmeade that the Marauders had found seven of them. Which meant there had to be passages leading to other places too. Maybe to the Forbidden Forest, or to other parts of the grounds, or even to completely different locations.
But without the help of magic to detect them, if he tried to manually search every nook and cranny of the castle, he'd never find everything. Forget seven years, even if he had seventy more years here, he'd never uncover all the secrets hidden in these ancient walls. He could walk past any and all special places without knowing they were there, blind without magical assistance.
He needed a better detection method. A spell or technique that could perceive enchantments woven so deeply into stone and space that they'd become part of the castle's fundamental nature.
"I must first find a strong enough way to detect the magic," James muttered to himself, "or whatever kind of magic this is."
He stared at the blank wall, tempted once more to make the Room of Requirement appear. Just a quick look. Just to see if he could do it. But he thought of Voldemort's shade attached to Quirrell's head, possibly monitoring areas of interest throughout the castle. He thought of the butterfly effect, of how one small change could cascade into disaster.
"No," James said firmly. "I'm not risking it with Voldemort in the castle."
He looked at the wall where the door should appear and spoke quietly to the stone. "I'll be back one day. When it's safe. When I have time to explore properly without risking the future."
The wall, of course, didn't respond.
James turned and began making his way back toward Ravenclaw Tower, two floors down. It was well past two in the morning now, and exhaustion was beginning to set in. He'd spent hours exploring. His first proper nighttime expedition had been educational, if not entirely successful.
He'd confirmed several important things: the castle's structural magic was invisible to modern detection spells, the suits of armor and certain statues were aware of people even through powerful concealment charms, and finding the castle's secrets would require either extraordinary luck or a completely different approach to magical detection.
As he walked through the quiet corridors back to his tower, James's mind was already working on the problem. There had to be a way to detect the Founders' magic. Ancient texts might describe it. Different magical traditions might have developed alternative detection methods. The Old language sections of the library might hold answers.
But it's going to be very time consuming, James mused.
At the time of Hogwarts' founding, the British Isles were far from linguistically unified. A multitude of tongues were in common use, many of which have since vanished or survived only in fragmented scholarly records. Latin, though known to some, was largely confined to ecclesiastical, scholarly, and administrative contexts, rather than everyday magical or muggle practice. The current prevalence of Latin based spells is a centuries later development.
Politically, the Isles were similarly fractured. Scotland and England existed as emerging realms rather than consolidated kingdoms at the time of Hogwarts founding.
In England, various forms of Old English were spoken, while Scotland was linguistically diverse, with Old Gaelic prevalent across much of the land, alongside remnants of Pictish, Cumbric in the south, Norse tongues in the northern regions and islands, and Old English dialects near the southeastern borders.
Wales was divided into numerous petty kingdoms, where Old Welsh dominated daily life and magical discourse. Ireland, likewise fragmented, primarily used Middle Irish during this period.
As a result, any serious attempt to understand the magic practiced by the Hogwarts founders presents considerable difficulty.
Surviving magical texts from the era are scattered, inconsistent, and often written in archaic or hybridised forms of these languages.
Many must be painstakingly deciphered, translated, and contextualised before their contents can be reliably understood.
The study of early British magic is not merely a matter of spellwork, but one of linguistic archaeology, demanding extensive research, time, and patience.
But this was a puzzle worthy of his attention. A mystery that could occupy him for months or even years.
And James loved a good mystery.
He reached Ravenclaw Tower, answered the eagle knocker's riddle with barely a thought, and slipped through the common room. A few students were still awake, but they showed no awareness of his passage through their midst.
In his room, James finally removed his concealment spells, feeling each layer lift away. Visible again, plottable again, audible again.
He changed into proper pajamas, too tired to do much else. Tomorrow he'd begin researching older detection methods.
But tonight, he simply climbed into bed and let exhaustion claim him.
His mind continued working even as sleep approached, puzzling over the mystery of Hogwarts.
The castle held its secrets close. But James was patient, clever, and more determined than most. He would uncover Hogwarts' mysteries eventually.
It would just take time, study, and the kind of obsessive dedication to solving puzzles that had defined his life.
As he drifted off to sleep, his last conscious thought was a promise to himself: he would figure out how to detect the Founders' magic. No matter how long it took.
The castle could keep its secrets for now.
But not forever.