Hogwarts: This professor is too Muggle.

Chapter 301 Spacetime Rift
As Melvin walked out of the main seat, Hagrid, who was lying on the table, suddenly rolled over. Just as he was about to fall headfirst off the chair, he stopped and sat back down, startling Trelawney and Professor Sprout into screams, followed by laughter from the Weasley brothers.

Judging from the guests' expressions, the banquet seemed to be going to last a long time.

Dumbledore stroked his chin, pondered for a long time, and said, "Severus, is there anything you want to say to me?"

“No.” Snape remained unsmiling.

Judging from his words and expressions, there was no room for compromise on this matter of secrecy.

As Melvin slowly walked out of the auditorium, the noisy laughter and chatter were left behind. Even the lights suddenly dimmed, leaving only the gradually appearing torches. Melvin pondered as he walked into the corridor.

This behavior is clearly related to the change of time. In the afternoon, Harry and Ron were detained, and Harry was disguised as someone riding a broomstick outside. The matter of Sirius Black has come to a conclusion, but he has refused to reveal it to this day. It must be because an unexpected change has occurred.

A few hours before the dinner, there was a period when three Hermiones appeared at the same time. With her keen intellect, Miss Know-It-All must have discovered something and tried to investigate.

Melvin took out the Marauder's Map and unfolded it. Fine lines extended from the central dot, outlining a detailed map of Hogwarts, including the Black Lake and part of the Forbidden Forest, the grounds had greenhouses and ball courts, and the castle was detailed down to the floor level.

He glanced at the map and was surprised to find that the ink dot marked "Hermione Granger" appeared in two places at the same time: one on the terrace of the Astronomy Tower and the other in the tunnel under the Whomping Willow, surrounded by Harry, Ron, and the ailing Professor Lupin.

However, the state of the ink dots is very special, constantly disappearing and reappearing, flashing at a slow and uniform frequency.

In a normal state, an ink dot either stays still, like the principal and professors in the main seats of the auditorium, or it keeps moving, leaving footprints behind it to mark the path, like the Weasley brothers chasing each other back and forth.

Harry and the others did not fall into any of these categories; judging from the same flashing frequency, they must have traveled through time together.

This time travel trip went a little wrong.

They are definitely not in the present time and space. At this moment, the fog of time shrouds the four of them, and there is an inexplicable crisis. It seems that they may not be able to return.

The castle's spiral staircase was quiet at night. Some of the portraits had already fallen asleep, and there were low snores in the corridor. Melvin, however, became more and more awake, but he didn't feel too uneasy.

Snape experienced that point in time, and although he didn't reveal it directly for some reason, judging from his condition, the crisis should have been resolved.

Now, if we can find the four people who traveled through time, history will proceed as planned.

Melvin looked at the Astronomical Tower on the map, quickened his pace to go upstairs, and on the way to the tower, there was a platform with a wide-format oil painting hanging on it. He saw the plump lady and Violet attending a banquet in the painting, and he couldn't help but stop.

"Beautiful ladies, Merry Christmas."

The witches in the picture are all wearing skirts with linings. They are surprised to hear the blessing and are about to get angry, but when they see that it is a handsome young professor, they cover their mouths and smile gently.

"Oh, Merry Christmas, Professor Levent."

"Excuse me for interrupting your banquet. I'd like to ask if you saw any Gryffindor students go to the Astronomy Tower this afternoon?"

"Several children did ask for directions!"

Violet, with one hand concealing the whiskey bottle behind her back and the other lifting the hem of her skirt, answered softly, "The famous Harry Potter, Miss Granger who was first in her class, and that red-haired boy with freckles all over his face... Oh, and the sickly Defense Against the Dark Arts professor."

"Thank you so much."

After bidding farewell to the witch portraits at the party, Melvin quickened his pace to the top of the Astronomy Tower. A small portion of it was a corridor, leading to a spacious terrace with square windows at specific angles in the walls, used to observe the sunrise and celestial phenomena.

Push open the old wooden door, and you'll find the location marked on the map.

Unlike the brightly lit auditorium, the terrace of the Astronomical Tower was covered with snow when the night was quiet. The telescopes made by alchemists were neatly arranged, the north wind howled through the wilderness, and the campfire left a charred mark.

A dull gold necklace lay on the ground.

There was no one else there.

……

The light was dim, but not pitch black.

The entire terrace was shrouded in white mist, and the floor illuminated by the campfire was barely visible. All around was a vast expanse of white, making it impossible to discern directions or determine whether the outside world was a tower hundreds of feet high or a bottomless black lake. It was as if the concept of space and terrain had been lost.

As a Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, Lupin had ample experience in wilderness survival. He stood his wand upright on the ground, attempting to determine direction and time by the angle of his shadow.

After trying for half a minute, he looked up and gave the result: "The time cannot be determined based on the angle of the sun's tilt."

A cold sweat suddenly broke out on her back, soaking the thick sweater that Mrs. Weasley had sewn by hand. Hermione's knuckles turned white as she gripped the necklace, and her voice trembled slightly: "If we don't know the time, we won't be able to go back. We might be trapped here forever."

Peter, suppressing his fear, huddled to the side, trying to minimize his presence. He wanted to wait for them to find a way out before considering the possibility of escaping. He had never been in contact with a time-changer before and was unaware of the related taboos.

If the Time-Turner is a ship, then for Hermione, who owns it, Peter is part of history; his time is stable, with a definite anchor point where he can dock.

But for Peter, the future he was heading to was uncertain. Every choice could lead to a new future. Without an anchor, he could not reach the shore and was eventually overturned by the waves.

“Severus, let’s both scout outside,” Lupin said softly.

Snape gave Peter a cold look, but followed him anyway. The two walked side by side out of the campfire area, lit their wands, and tried to illuminate what was outside the white mist.

"Wait, let's go together."

Sirius kicked Peter a few times, pulled out Peter's wand, petrified him, and pushed him down by the campfire: "We don't even know what kind of place this is, we might not even know if it's Hogwarts. Let's try not to go too far away, lest we get lost in the fog."

Six people, each holding a wand, stepped into the white mist beyond the reach of the campfire. The adults stood back-to-back, protecting each other and shielding the students in the middle. Snape's wand tip gleamed with a sharp, cold light, while Harry muttered a disarming charm...

There was no one outside, and the temperature was even lower in the white mist, like the Forbidden Forest on a winter morning. The boiling water that Hagrid poured out quickly froze.

Harry reached up and touched his goosebumps. This white mist wasn't unfamiliar; that familiar feeling washed over him. He'd seen it before on the Hogwarts Express, and in the Quidditch pitch during a downpour. Could there be Dementors here?
Azkaban? Hogsmeade?
Doubts piled up in Harry's head; he vaguely thought of something, but it was all very unclear.

Lupin and Snape looked around warily. It wasn't pitch black, but rather a vast expanse of white. Apart from the endless white fog and the brick floor, there was nothing else. The telescope was gone, the snow was gone, and there were no signs of any animals or plants.

Hermione flicked away the golden timer; she had seen it many times before, and turning it on again was just an unconscious action, hoping to see some changes.

Unfortunately, no, the fine sand in the exquisite hourglass was still flowing, its color dull, lacking the original brilliant golden luster.

“This might not be reality…” Hermione said thoughtfully, “but rather some kind of spacetime gap, a gap between the future and the past.”

“When Professor McGonagall handed me the converter, she told me about the tragedy of the witch Eloise Mintab. I also looked up some information later. According to Eloise, she kept going back and forth between the past and the future, but her silencing colleagues in reality did not record it, so she never arrived in reality, but wandered in the space-time gap.”

Hermione paused for a moment: "I'm not sure how long we'll be trapped, maybe a few minutes, maybe centuries, just like poor Eloise."

Harry suddenly asked, "Did Professor McGonagall or the information say how Eloise returned to reality? Can we use her method?"

“I’m afraid that won’t work. In the story of the witch Eloise, she kept trying to activate the converter, constantly consuming her lifespan, until she finally reached reality,” Hermione said softly. “Trying comes at a price, and we can’t afford that price.”

Sirius shuddered, his fists clenched, and his teeth clenched.

Having finally uncovered the truth and reunited with Harry, he didn't want to die here; he was unwilling to accept it.

At that moment, a chilling gasp came from above the white mist. The air passed through the narrow throat in a short time, vibrating and emitting a sharp whimper, as if a group of hungry beasts were peeking out and smelling a delicious treat.

That was the sound of the Dementors.

A cold, oppressive fog permeated the entire space. The dense, dark gray cloaks resembled hundreds of bats spreading their wings, yet there was no sound of flapping. Only air passed through their mouthparts, and their withered, emaciated hands stretched out, like vengeful ghosts, making it difficult for them to breathe.

None of the people present had ever faced such a monster before, but none had ever been so close to the lurking presence of hundreds of Dementors.

"Why...why are there Dementors here?" Ron asked, trembling.

No one answered his question. The monsters slowly approached, and the white mist grew colder and thicker. Each breath produced puffs of white mist, and his sweat-soaked sweater felt icy cold, as if it had frozen.

They approached slowly, their eerie magic mingling with the white mist, enveloping the body as if seeping into the brain from between the eyebrows, causing waves of dizziness.

[Expected Guardian]

Sirius roared in a low voice, then suddenly raised his wand, and a silver mist of light burst forth, with a muscular hound running through the air, its light illuminating the enveloping white mist.

Lupin followed closely behind, summoning his silver wolf to charge at the dark gray cloaks.

Just as ice and snow melt under the blazing sun, whether it was white mist or a cloaked monster, the two silver-white beasts immediately fled in terror as soon as they appeared, clearing a clear space around them.

However, there was no joy on their faces. The disappearance of the Dementors did not ease the oppressive atmosphere. Danger still surrounded them and was getting closer. This was Lupin and Sirius's intuition, the intuition given to them by the beast.

As the Dementors retreated, the white mist dissipated, but the vision only cleared for a few seconds before another layer of gray mist enveloped them, exuding an evil and ominous feeling.

Some blurry outlines took shape in the gray fog, similar to the scene when the mirror was turned on, but those formed things were unsettling.

A tattered cloak floated in mid-air, and two withered, pale hands stretched out. A thin wisp of white mist dissipated, slightly chilly, and the breathing was unusually forceful, exuding a dizzying magic.

"Or a Dementor?" Ron asked in surprise.

As the words fell, more silhouettes emerged from the gray fog.

A full, silvery moon leaped out of the mist, casting its cool, clear light. In the moonlight, there was the figure of a male wizard, tall and hunched over, with broad but slightly sunken shoulders and back. His bones and muscles presented an unnatural forward-leaning posture, like a wild beast ready to pounce at any moment.

"Remus, little Remus, do you like the gift I gave you..."

The man revealed a cruel smile, his cheekbones prominent, and his overly long canine teeth protruding from his lips when he laughed, appearing unusually sharp. His beard and hair were messy and greasy, of uneven length, hanging down the sides of his face or plastered to his forehead, like the mane of a wild beast.

“No… it’s Boggarts.” Lupin looked up at the sky, his face grave. “So many Boggarts.”

The Boggart's characteristic is to reveal its deepest fears. If faced alone, it will at most become a full moon. Now that even Fenrir Greyback has manifested, it means that there are so many Boggarts in the fog that the overflowing fear is not enough to share.

Harry could feel the Boggart in Dementor staring at him, the embodiment of his fear.

He held his breath and waved his wand:

[Hilarious]

With a crisp crack of the whip, the spell, specifically designed to counter Boggart, was swirled away by the gray-white mist. The spell seemed to fall into a black lake like a pebble, creating ripples, but they were just ripples. The Dementor in mid-air, transformed from Boggart, remained unchanged.

The comical spell had no effect, a phenomenon that sank people's hearts to the bottom, but they no longer had time to let their hearts slowly sink to the bottom, as more and more manifestations of fear emerged from the gray fog.

A gigantic spider with eight eyes that darted around—at least dozens of them. And squeaking rats with human faces, displaying friendly, ingratiating expressions.

Ron's face turned pale instantly, his throat bobbed a few times, and he tried to vomit but couldn't.

Sirius and Snape stared intently ahead. Suddenly, an old but cozy bedroom appeared, containing two corpses. One of them, a red-haired witch, lay dead with her eyes wide open, staring at a blurry crib not far away.

It was unclear whose fear it was, but seeing this step again made their eyes widen, their eyes practically popping out of their sockets.

Hermione searched everywhere for her fear, but couldn't see any clear outline. As she looked at the increasingly thick gray fog, she suddenly remembered something and her face turned pale.

"Oops……"

(End of this chapter)