A certain Hogwarts professor of runes.

After resting for half an hour, Harry and his friends came out of the Room of Requirement. It was already midnight. They carefully returned to the common room. Before heading back to their respective dormitories, Ron was still full of amazement. "Incredible...we fixed a complete Time-Turner. When can we try it out?"

“Not now,” Hermione said.

“I know. I mean, Hermione, I’ve never felt this way before, even after the competition is over!” Ron said pleadingly.

There was a moment of silence.

“Alright,” Hermione said hesitantly, “it’s not that I don’t want you to use it, but there might be risks. You’ve seen what happened to those wizards who were trapped in ‘time,’ right? We’d better have the professor check it first.”

Ron was persuaded; he had only one request.

"Don't tell Professor McGonagall! If she knew we had an uncontrollable time-twister, she would definitely confiscate it!"

“We can ask Professor Hyp for help,” Harry chimed in. He thought Ron’s words made perfect sense. In fact, apart from Professor Hyp, he couldn’t think of any other adult who would allow them to possess a Time-Turner.

……

On the morning of June 23rd, Felix finished proctoring the last grade's exams and returned to his office with a relaxed expression. Valen was sitting unceremoniously at his desk, sniffing the air. He was clutching a postcard in his hand. Seeing Felix enter, Valen looked up, his bright black eyes filled with suspicion.

"Chirp! (A familiar smell!)"

Chapter 476 Unable to Get What He Wanted

As everyone knows, Nifflers have a strong affinity for anything shiny, making them particularly well-suited for finding treasure. This stems from their exceptionally keen sense of smell. At this moment, Felix looked at Valen, a new idea forming in his mind.

"Splash—"

Felix raised his hand towards the empty space in the office, and the ring on his hand emitted a bright light. Then, all sorts of clutter erupted out like a volcano: parchment, notes, scrolls, potions, letters, and Christmas gifts from the past few years... a whole bunch of things, filling most of the room.

Felix sat in a chair behind him, looking at the stunned Varen, and explained, “Everyone I know—almost all their things are here, the scent of those letters or gifts is well preserved…Thank you for your hard work, Varen, in finding this person.”

Valen shuddered as he looked at the pile of clutter that was taller than himself standing on the table. Under Felix's expectant gaze, he tiptoed and flipped over a pair of blue wool socks, embroidered with crudely drawn black lightning bolts and silver orbs of light—a gift from Dobby to Felix. He quite liked them, but the problem was the socks were two sizes too small; he couldn't fit into them.

Valen leaned over at the edge of the desk and pulled the drawer halfway open. From Felix's direction, a stack of parchment covered in writing could be seen. Valen turned back and glared angrily at Felix, pointing sharply downwards with her little hand.

"Chirp! (This is it!)"

Felix froze. Had he acted too quickly? He awkwardly raised his arm, and the stack of parchment flew into his hand. He already knew what it was, but he still stared at the parchment carefully for a long time before looking up to confirm, "Are you sure? Valen, this isn't a joke..."

Warren put his hands on his hips with an air of authority and nodded emphatically.

Felix's gaze fell on the parchment again. It was a paper with a disassembly plan for the Time-Turner—he had just seen it two days ago, from Hermione Granger.

Hermione... Granger, it really is her.

Felix let out a soft breath. Now that he had identified his target, he no longer needed to fumble around for clues like a headless fly. But then he frowned. He had emphasized the dangers of long-distance time travel to Hermione more than once; she was fully aware of it, yet she had still done it…

Was it a last resort, or a mistake?

That's when it occurred to him, because the core component of the Time-Turner in Hermione's possession came from an evil dark wizard from over two thousand years ago. Although Felix had already confirmed with his magical vision in the underground space of the Egyptian pyramids that the Horcrux statue and altar bearing "the despicable Helbo" showed no trace of magic, he knew nothing about "time."

So when Hermione told him she was going to replace the hourglass with the one from the altar, he was happy to see it happen. As long as you do it seriously, whether you succeed or fail, it will be a huge gain with many benefits.

He added only one layer of protection—warning Granger not to use it even if the replacement was successful. Felix thought that was enough, but it was clear that something unexpected happened that neither he nor Hermione had anticipated.

For example, he "died".

To be more precise, Granger believed he was dead, and given the urgency of the situation, she couldn't confirm the truth, or perhaps—she didn't want to. In any case, she hastily used the time-tamper, and something went wrong…

Felix pondered silently, managing to piece together a plausible timeline.

However, there are still many questions that cannot be explained.

Valen was already used to the Great Demon King's occasional inactivity. It sniffed the scent on the postcard. Yes, it was the witch with messy hair who liked to hug it. Her scent was everywhere in the office, which it hadn't noticed before.

Valen's eyes lit up as he looked at the pile of junk on the ground—it was a treasure trove! He glanced at Felix, knowing that this situation would continue for a while as long as he didn't disturb it. Valen took two quick steps, leaped high off the table, and like a diver, landed on a pile of colorful socks. With a few quick swipes of his little hands, he disappeared into the junk.

The joy of treasure hunting!

Valen wandered happily among the dazzling array of items, finding an astonishingly high chance of stumbling upon a treasure. He quickly found several Galleons, grinning from ear to ear, overjoyed... He stuffed the coins into his pocket, glanced to the side, and spotted a temperature-controlled locket. Valen hesitated for a few seconds, then "resolutely" decided to give it up—he already had three lockets in his pocket.

It's not rare.

Valen gently sniffed and smelled the familiar scent again, coming from a stack of rolled-up parchment. From one of the loose corners, he saw the words "house-elves" and "exploration." After thinking for a moment, he crawled out from the pile of clutter and placed the roll of parchment next to the postcard.

"Chirp! (And this too!)"

It loudly reminded him. Valen felt a surge of satisfaction; he was helping the Great Demon King, earning fair compensation for his labor.

Felix snapped out of his daze and watched as Valen rummaged through things, occasionally peeking out to place items on the table. He glanced at them briefly and saw that they all belonged to Hermione: papers, gifts, and rune items she had made herself. At the same time, he also noticed that Valen's belly had become rounder, and if he wasn't mistaken, half a necklace was sticking out of its pocket.

Felix wondered if he should find some time to explain to Warren the relationship between his job duties and compensation—if the company's employees knew Warren's salary, they would definitely cry.

Once again, Valen emerged from the clutter. It shook off its black fur, holding a card in one hand and a speculum that looked like a glass marble in the other—trying to stuff it into its pocket, but the pocket seemed to be full, and it couldn't manage to do so after several attempts.

Felix glared at the greedy little creature, then beckoned, and Valen flew over uncontrollably. Meeting the Great Demon King's disapproving gaze, Valen realized it had gotten too excited. It shrank back and obsequiously handed him the viewing mirror.

Felix continued to stare at it.

Valen blinked, a look of sudden realization crossing his face. He handed the card from his other hand to him, saying boastfully:

"Chirp! (Finally found it!)"

Felix glared at Valen. "You think I don't know what you're up to? You've forgotten all about moral education, haven't you?" He was about to say something when his eyes caught sight of the birthday card out of the corner of his eye. Suddenly, his eyes widened, and a storm raged in his heart.

The greeting card was from "Ms. Jane," and it arrived more than two months ago along with a huge birthday cake.

Felix's hand trembled involuntarily. More than a decade ago, to be precise, at his fourth-grade opening party, he received her letter for the first time. Of the hundreds of letters that insulted him, only this one was encouraging. The woman continued to send him letters until he graduated.

Felix recalled Nicolas Flamel's notes, his heart sinking. There was no one who had survived long-distance time travel... If Granger had been taken back ten years by the Time-Turner, how severe would the backlash from time have been for her?

We can't jump to conclusions; he knows nothing about the realm of time. Nick has never experienced time travel either; he's just collected the information.

"What's the most important thing right now?" Felix asked himself softly. "That's it."

He stretched out his hand expressionlessly, and the debris on the ground flowed into his ring like water. Valen quickly climbed onto his shoulder and looked down at the spectacular scene. Two minutes later, only three items remained on the ground.

His homemade Marauder's Map, the half-finished spyglass that Warren had been holding, and—a small glass bottle containing a tuft of gray hair.

Felix unfolded the map, and the ink lines on it expanded outward from the center point, quickly revealing the entirety of Hogwarts Castle. The ink trails continued, extending all the way to the Forbidden Forest, the Black Lake, and the surrounding mountains, including the strongholds of the other four schools, all of which were clearly visible.

Hogwarts Castle occupies only one-tenth of the entire map. The densely packed dots and the names on them are crammed together, like a flattened, wriggling ball of yarn, which is quite unsettling.

Felix took out his wand and tapped it on the map, whispering, "Hermione Granger."

The map suddenly changed; the writhing lines melted away like spring snow, disappearing completely. Only a single golden name remained on the map: Hermione Granger, taking her final exams in Potions class.

“There’s only one name.” Felix said, somewhat disappointed.

……

The door to the Potions classroom opened, and the students filed out.

Hermione hurriedly packed her bag, saying, "The questions weren't too difficult, but I'm not sure if I wrote down the steps clearly. I should have waved my wand before stirring the potion..." Harry and Ron looked quite helpless. As they turned the corner, Hermione was still reviewing the Potions exam questions. Harry couldn't help but say, "Hermione, you're the only one of the three of us who actually took the exam. We don't even know which question you're referring to."

“Yeah,” Ron said with an unusually good mood, grinning. “I was reading comic books during the exam. You should have seen the look on Snape’s face—oh, sorry, Professor.” As he turned to speak, he bumped into Felix.

“I was the one who stopped you,” Felix said with a smile. “I figured it was about time, and I need to speak with Professor Snape… Oh, and Miss Granger, I’m still a little worried. If you’re planning to repair that little timer, you’d better let me know beforehand—”

“We’ve fixed it,” Harry said.

"Uh, what?"

“We fixed it last night,” Harry said.

“Wait a minute,” Felix stared at Harry, then turned to Hermione, “I remember you said you wouldn’t try to fix it until after the third project was finished?”

“Oh, um…” Hermione said, somewhat flustered, smoothing her hair. “Something unexpected happened… I was in a good mood at the time, so… uh, I finished ahead of schedule.” She stammered.

She really didn't want the professor to know that she had impulsively moved up her plans because she was worried about meeting her parents.

“Professor, would you like me to show you the Time-Turner? I left it in my dorm.” Hermione changed the subject, and Harry and Ron’s hearts jumped. Although they had decided to let Professor Hyp examine it, they were still worried about hearing words like “danger” or “confiscation” from the professor.

“Not for now. You can focus on preparing for the third project. I still really hope you can lift the trophy.” Felix calmly declined her suggestion.

Hermione stared at Felix's figure disappearing around the corner, and asked with some doubt, "Don't you guys think the professor is acting a little strange?"

"Really?" Ron asked, and Harry looked at her, equally puzzled.

“Well—” Hermione opened her mouth, but found she couldn’t describe where that awkward feeling came from. “Oh well. Tomorrow is the History of Magic exam, are you guys planning to read other books in class?” Her tone was clearly dissatisfied.

“I specifically asked Professor McGonagall, and the parents will be here tomorrow morning. Hermione, you're not planning to leave them outside alone to take the exam, are you?” Ron

“Can’t I?” Hermione raised an eyebrow. “Actually, I—” She suddenly stopped and looked around.

"What's wrong? Is someone there, Hermione?" Harry asked, sensing something was off but finding nothing.

Hermione drew her wand and tapped around a few times, but found nothing.

"Maybe I'm seeing things," she said hesitantly.

"Could it be a ghost? Let's get out of here, or we'll be in big trouble if Mrs. Lorris finds out you're casting spells in the hallway. It's strange, this cat is getting more and more agile. Fred and George are too scared to go out at night anymore, and they're trying to find out why..."

Their voices faded into the distance. Felix circled the Potions classroom once, then returned to his office, now holding several strands of long brown hair. He took out a half-finished spyglass and used the Hermione hair he had just acquired to create a missing person spyglass.

Felix stood in the fireplace, looking at Warren. "I'm going out for a bit. I might not be back tonight. Don't worry."

"Chirp? (Can I go?)"

“Oh, no,” Felix said softly, “I don’t think so.” A bright green flame rose, and he disappeared from the office.

……

For the next few hours, Felix wandered through Hogsmeade, Diagon Alley, and the wizarding quarters of England, using his peephole but finding nothing.

“How clever, Miss Granger, you hid it very well.”

It was nearing dusk. Felix sat by the window in a café, his view of the massive clock tower—Big Ben, one of London's iconic landmarks. After finishing his coffee, Felix asked the somewhat balding clerk as he paid, "Is there a newsstand nearby?"

"Oh, of course, right on the street corner..."

Two minutes later—

Felix stood in front of a newsstand and handed a postcard with a proverb to the young lady Neville, politely asking, "Excuse me, do you have any similar postcards here?"

The young woman took the card and looked at it carefully for a while. "I vaguely remember it. A few months ago, a salesperson recommended a whole set of famous quote postcards, but I had already stocked two hundred sets of London attraction souvenir cards at the time, so I didn't order any... Would you like a set?"

The woman pointed to the souvenir cards for tourist attractions on the stall and asked.

"Give me one set." Felix smiled, the woman's words confirming his final guess.

Felix handed her a banknote, then turned into an alley with a complete set of London attraction cards. The next second, he was two blocks away. When he emerged from another alley, his hands were empty. He looked up; across the alley was a dentist's office.

He had bought a wisdom tooth here almost three years ago. Felix smiled. Mr. Granger must have been very impressed with him. Customers like him are probably quite rare.

Felix tapped his forehead with the second knuckle of his index finger. There was no magical glow in the clinic, which didn't surprise him. He simply looked around and gazed into the distance, and the black-and-white perspective immediately transformed into a colorful spectacle.