章 475: Chapter 475 Repairing the Time-Turner

"Don't worry, Hermione, Hedwig will send the letter to your mom and dad on time." Harry said confidently, "she never misses - and Professor McGonagall said that she will arrange for the professor to pick you up at home on the day of the tournament, so there will be no delay."

"That's not what I'm worried about ... I am, ugh." Hermione sighed, "They mentioned a trip to Diagon Alley in their reply, saying that they are going to exchange money-"

"It's normal." Ron said.

"You don't know them," Hermione tossed her hair in annoyance, "exchanging money is just an excuse, I guess they must have gone to Diagon Alley to ask for information about the tournament."

Harry and Ron looked at each other, neither of them worried about that, Ron's whole family consist of wizards, and Harry, didn't think the Dursleys would sneak over to Diagon Alley to inquire about information because they are worried about his safety, well they would probably just pray that he would have an accident and never go back. And the only person Harry considered family is Sirius.

"It can't be avoided," Ron reassured her, "they'll find it out sooner or later-"

"No, you don't understand," Hermione took a deep breath, "Is there any information more visual in the whole of Diagon Alley than the footage of the Tournament on sale from 'Future World'? I can imagine that Dad would buy a magic projector and footage of the second task without hesitation, maybe they've already seen it and just didn't mention it to me!"

They went to the Transfiguration classroom that is loaned to them by Professor McGonagall, to practice their spells, especially the ones that might be used in the maze, which they had been working on for the past month.

But today, Hermione was completely out of shape.

"No, I can't concentrate." She said in frustration.

"Take a break," Harry said, "we've prepared well, there's no need to work so hard for the remaining two days."

Normally, Hermione would have been the first to jump up and object, but today she acquiesced to Harry's statement and sat on the cushion with her knees in her arms, looking very helpless.

Harry and Ron do not know how to comfort her, each stood in silence for a while, Harry pulled out the enchanted book from his bookbag, he had read it from start to end, the professor said the book's impact on him became very weak, the magic inside probably will only last for a few months, so he simply gave it to him as a memento.

"Do you think it could be the influence of this book?" Ron came over and asked in a whisper, "Hermione read it too, didn't she?"

"That was last week," Harry replied in the same whisper, he didn't think it is the influence of the book, "the magic effect won't last that long."

"You have a point," Ron said, rummaging through his bookbag for the journal as he started to read the short stories on it, occasionally glancing up at Hermione in the distance. Then he said with a deliberately raised voice, "No matter how many times I read it, it's still so scary ... I doubt that if Hermione had read these stories when she was in third grade, she would have dared to use the time-turner? I mean, just in case she made a few more turns ..."

Hermione suddenly stood up, she took several big breaths and picked up her book bag.

"You're right, I'd better find something to do." She concluded and walked out of the classroom.

Ron froze for a moment and turned his head to look at Harry, "Did I say something wrong?" Harry shook his head as they followed Hermione behind to the Room of Requirement, "I need an alchemist's lab ... I need an alchemist's lab ... I need an alchemist's lab ..."

An antique door appeared in front of them.

Hermione exhaled slowly and pushed the door open and walked into the room, Harry and Ron looked at each other, and they guessed what she wanted to do. "I was expecting this scene too," Ron muttered, and the two followed closely behind.

The room is very spacious, with several huge workbenches in the center, with all sorts of strange devices on the tabletop - odd shaped glass bottles, randomly placed solid wood toolboxes, golden balance, weight, crucible ... Two bookshelves stood against the wall, filled with common alchemy books.

Hermione put her book bag down and took the time-turner out of it, glancing back at Harry, who wisely handed her the gray hourglass.

"You're going to fix it now?" Ron couldn't help but ask, "I thought it would take another month or two."

"There's no point dragging it out," Hermione said calmly, "And it's not a fix, it's just taking it apart and replacing a part ... With Nicolas Flamel's how-to-do steps, I'm pretty sure. "

"I hope it's as easy as she says it is." Ron said hopefully.

Harry thought he would see a screwdriver or something, at best this screwdriver can screw on their own ... but Hermione just took her wand, recited a long incantation, now and then tapping once or twice on the gold time-turner, or outlining a few runes and alchemical symbols, branding them on the hourglass, Hermione's forehead broke out with a fine sweat, her expression looked solemn; Harry and Ron did not even dare to breathe, afraid that their breathing would affect her.

After almost an hour, Hermione looked exhausted, but her eyes looked radiant.

"Quick, Harry, Ron, do me a favour."

"What do we need to do?" Harry asked hurriedly, as he and Ron approached the time-turner - the thing flew into midair and kept spinning around while emitting a soft white light.

"Grab it, take off the original hourglass, and replace it with the flat one! Hurry up!" Hermione said, her face flushed red, as she struggled to maintain her magic.

Harry and Ron looked at each other and reached out their hands in a jittery fashion. Harry clutched the time-turner that kept spinning around like a dazed golden snitch, and Ron took the opportunity to wriggle the round-headed hourglass within, "I can't get it off!" Ron shouted.

"Then use a little more force!" Harry said with a scrunched face, the thing is frighteningly strong, and it is desperately trying to get out of his grip.

Ron gritted his teeth, put both hands on it, and pressed hard - "click", the hourglass was successfully removed.

Harry immediately picked up the gray hourglass with the other hand, find the right position, and put it into the empty space, "Done!" At that moment, a sudden shock wave spread out with the golden time-turner in the center, throwing all three of them away.

Harry sat up grimacing, his arm bumped into the sharp corner of the workbench, he suspected he might have broken it, and then he heard two audible inhales. Harry looked back over his shoulder, Ron and Hermione both looked in the same direction with their mouths open, and he inclined his head, his mouth dropped open in an equal measure with shock.

The time-turner hovered in midair, emitting a dazzling golden light, and Harry squinted, clearly seeing the grey and dull surface of the hourglass shined as if it had been wiped by an invisible hand and reborn. The sand inside the Hourglass - those dark golden lumps continued to melt, twisted and deformed while glowing with a beautiful metallic lustre.

They don't know how long passed when all the golden light disappeared; The Time-Turner dropped from midair and rolled on the ground twice and became still.

"We succeeded?" Ron found it incredible.

"Yeah, luckily it worked," Hermione flashed a smile, "Once it failed, we'd have to spend the whole night looking for scattered parts."

After a half-hour break, the Trio emerged out of the Room of Requirement, the clock ticked down to midnight, so they cautiously returned to the common room, and before they went back to their respective dormitories, Ron asked them eagerly, "That's incredible ... we restored a perfect time-turner, when can we give it a try?.... Just for once?"

"Not now." Hermione replied.

"I know. I mean, when the tournament is over, Hermione, I never got to experience that yet!" Ron said in a pleading tone.

There is a moment of silence.

"Well," Hermione said hesitantly, "it's not that you can't use it, but there could be risks, and you've seen what happens to wizards who get trapped by 'time', right? We'd better take it to the professor to check it out first."

Ron got convinced, and he made one request.

"Don't tell Professor McGonagall, if she knows we have an uncontrolled time-turner, she definitely would confiscate it!"

"We can get Professor Hap's help." Harry chimed in, thinking Ron's words made perfect sense; in fact, he couldn't think of any other adult who would allow them to possess a time-turner except Professor Hap.

...

On the morning of June 23, Felix invigilated the final exam he needed to and returned to his office with a relaxed look on his face. Valen is sitting lifelessly on his desk, her nose twitching as she sniffs. Her hand squeezed a postcard, and when she saw Felix enter, Valen looked up at him with puzzled black eyes.

"Kiki! (A familiar smell!)"

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