Chapter 201 - 201 The time-turner tricked us.
Chapter 201: The time-turner tricked us.
So, he turned his thoughts to the little wizard who held the time converter.
...
Dracula thought for a little while, and then determined how to trick ... nay, outsmart the time converter.
He first returned to his office, and while taking out a pack of blood-flavored lollipops from a drawer that he had stopped off at Dumbledore's, and removing one and stuffing it into his mouth, he stood the parchment of the Hogwarts deeds on his desk and stared at the image that unfolded on the deeds.
At that moment, there were still two Hermione figures that appeared on the deed's screen at the same time.
One Hermione was in still studying her homework in the library, while the other had quietly made her way to the lawn outside the castle to practice her magic spells.
"Is this the little wizard who is willing to study seriously? What a lot of effort."
Looking at Hermione's appearance of using her homework on the deed, Dracula couldn't help but sigh, "It's just that the method of using her homework isn't too right, making herself mentally depressed instead will be counterproductive to the learning state."
Dracula first found two Hermione on the deed at around nine o'clock in the morning, when he had just finished the fight and was about to use the deed to look for the trace of that Hooded Man, but thus he discovered the secret of the time converter.
Now that he thought about it, that Hooded Man should be the one who used the Time Changer to go back to the past.
Thinking about this, Dracula's mind jumped to something else.
"If I control myself from going back to the past to fight with my past self, then wouldn't I have run into the Hooded Man from before, and wouldn't I have discovered the secret of the Time Translator?" He thought with interest.
Wouldn't it be considered an alternative way to change the past if you did that?
Dracula pondered whether to go back to the past or not while staring at the image shown on the deed.
In the middle of this Dumbledore also used the daemon to send over a message asking him to go to the principal's office to deliberate, which Dracula decisively refused.
Shortly afterward, the Hermione in the deed's image suddenly did something else.
Hermione, who was studying her homework in the library, looked up at the hanging clock hanging on the wall and froze for a moment, then jumped up from her seat, gathered up the books in her hands in a hurry and returned them to the librarian, Mrs. Pince.
Then Hermione hurriedly ran out of the library and went to the entrance courtyard in front of the auditorium, and found a small isolated corner near the cliff.
At that moment, there was another Hermione standing in the remote corner of the entrance courtyard.
This Hermione had already finished practicing her spells for the day on the unoccupied lawn and had gone to the auditorium to have lunch with Harry and Ron before coming to this remote corner and pulling out a necklace from her arms.
The former Hermione carefully hid behind a stone pillar in the entrance courtyard and watched as the latter Hermione rattled her necklace before disappearing into dappled points of light.
Only then did she breathe a sigh of relief and step out from behind the stone pillar.
"Hermione, what are you doing out of the blue when you were just having a good meal?" A small wizard's voice suddenly rang out from within the entrance courtyard, startling Hermione.
Only to see two people, Harry and Ron, butchered over from the direction of the auditorium, with Ron still holding a chicken leg in his hand, gnawing on a chicken bone as he walked.
Hermione hurriedly stepped out of the corner and looked at her two friends with a slightly unnatural expression.
"Oh, just got tired of eating and wanted to come out and blow off some steam." She said with little gusto.
"Blow off steam?" Harry froze for a moment, "Do you need to come all the way out to the cliff face to blow off steam?"
"Harry, you don't understand!" Hermione, after a short period of sluggishness, also gradually found her form and immediately retorted, "The cliffs on the Hogwarts side are close to the Black Lake, and the wind from the lake will blow close to the cliffs, and it will be a bit cooler than the wind from other places."
"So that's it?" Harry nodded with seeming understanding.
"Since we're already here, we can just about get down here, there shouldn't be much lawn to be found by the Black Lake." Ron had finally finished his chicken leg, and after taking his greasy hands and rubbing them on his shirt, he was ready to lead both Harry and Hermione down the side steps.
These steps were what first years had to go through to get to Hogwarts Castle for the first time, connecting the boathouse on the shores of the Black Lake to the oak gates of the Entrance Courtyard.
Hagrid took the new students up these steps every year and handed them over to Professor McGonagall.
"Wait, Ron, what are we doing looking for the lawn?" Hermione asked a little puzzled as she watched Ron's movements.
"Hmm?" Ron stopped in his tracks and turned his head to Hermione suspiciously, "Didn't you just bring that up? You said just five minutes ago that you were going to take us both to find an open lawn to practice magic spells after dinner."
"It was ... was it?" Hermione laughed awkwardly and immediately changed her tune, "Oh yes, there was such a thing, I almost forgot ..."
...
Dracula watched the exchange between the three young wizards and thoughtfully chewed the blood-flavored lollipop in his mouth, tossing the candy stick aside.
He then phantom-shifted to the stone steps connecting the boathouse to the entrance courtyard and absently walked up the steps.
Within a few moments, Dracula came face to face with the three young wizards.
"Ah, what a coincidence, Professor Dracula." At the sight of the silver-haired figure that was sauntering down the stone steps, Harry thought of the horror of being dominated by the Dueling Club last semester and blanched as he busied himself with greeting Dracula.
"Quite a coincidence indeed," a rakish smile appeared on Dracula's face, "I just happened to make a trip to the boathouse."
"Strange, why would Professor Dracula be out in this weather." Ron glanced up at the sunny sky and cooed in a somewhat puzzled titter.
With Dracula's hearing, it was easy to hear what Ron was dripping about, and his face couldn't help but stiffen.
He don't want to be directly poked and prodded by Ron before he even accomplished his goal ...
"Ahem ..." Dracula changed a topic without a trace, "What are you three doing out of the castle at noon on a weekend when you're not resting in the common room?"
Of course he knew what the three young wizards were going to do, but in order to pretend to be a chance encounter, Dracula still asked this question that he already knew the answer to.
Hearing Dracula's question, Ron no longer wondered about Professor Dracula going out in this kind of weather, only to see him proudly raise his head.
"We're going to find a lawn by the Black Lake to practice our magic spells." Ron exclaimed.
It was so hard for him to have the willingness to follow Hermione's serious studies, so of course he had to try to show off in front of the professors to give them the impression that he was a good student.
"You guys are quite studious." Dracula nodded with a light smile and turned his attention to Hermione, who was looking a little tired, "It just so happens that I have some business for Ms. Granger, and now I don't have to ask anyone else to deliver it for me."
"Potter, Wes come on, you two go ahead and practice your spells. Miss Granger come to my office." He said.
...
Defense Against the Dark Arts professor's office.
Dracula sat behind his desk, his eyes burning at Hermione who stood somewhat flustered in front of it.
"Ms. Granger, there seems to be something wrong with your listening status lately." He gently shook a tall glass of wine and said lightly, "Being distracted in class ... something like this shouldn't have happened to you."
"I'm sorry, Professor Dracula." Hermione guiltily grabbed the corner of her own coat, face aggrieved and admitted her mistake to Dracula, "I will definitely not make such a mistake in the future."
"This kind of mistake is not something you can easily refrain from if you don't want to." Dracula shook his head and laughed softly, "If you don't even sleep properly during the day, how can you be sure that you won't get sleepy in class?"
Hermione lowered her head and stopped talking.
Dracula, on the other hand, had no intention of letting her off the hook and pressed relentlessly.
"I heard that you signed up for all five electives?" He asked, "With the seven normal required classes, you'll be completing a total of twelve courses this semester, correct?"
Hermione nodded and spoke, "Professor, I think I'm capable of completing twelve subjects!"
"In fact, I'd like to believe that you're capable of it." Dracula waved his hand and continued, "But your current mental condition clearly doesn't look like you're capable of completing all the subjects, you're putting too much pressure on yourself."
"But I ..."
"Don't rush to retort yet." Dracula raised his hand to interrupt Hermione's words, then revealed an intriguing smile and said softly, "The time converter has already worn you out, Miss Granger."
Hermione's eyes widened abruptly.
"Professor, how did you know I had a time-turner?" She was shocked and hurriedly asked, "Professor McGonagall told me before that only she and Headmaster Dumbledore would know about it, and that they wouldn't even tell the average professor ..."
"But I'm not some ordinary professor either," Dracula laughed lightly, "I naturally have my unique source channels."
"Of course, the point now isn't how I knew you had a time converter, it's to address the issue of your mental state!"
Dracula's face grew serious as he said to Hermione, "You don't even know how to rest on the weekends, and you have to use the time converter to study your homework and practice magic spells at the same time, under this kind of high pressure, how can your spirit not have problems?"
"But the more I learn, the more I feel like I'm still missing a lot, and I usually can't find any other time to do my homework at all ..." Hermione said sadly, "So besides saving up a few more hours with the time converter, what else can I What can I do?"
"You've learned enough, Ms. Granger." Dracula said soothingly, "What you lack now is a complete and utter relaxing break to build up your spirit sufficiently to be able to learn your new knowledge better."
"If I don't stop you, are you still going to use the time converter to continue your studies this afternoon and tomorrow?"
Hermione deflated and hesitated, but finally nodded.
"For the sake of your mental state, Ms. Granger, you must listen to the professor this time." Dracula said in a persuasive manner, "In order to prevent you from continuing to use the Time Changer, I have decided to confiscate it."
With that, he held out his hand to Hermione, "Hand it over, Granger, and I'll hold it for you for two days. In these two days you go back and rest once, don't strain your spirit too much. You should be able to understand the reasoning that too much is not enough and too much steel is easy to break, right?"
"But ... Professor McGonagall won't let me give the time converter to anyone else." Hermione hesitated.
"What, do I count as someone else?" Dracula dropped his face and said with an unpleasant expression.
"But, but ..." Hermione was still hesitating.
"Don't but, it's all for your mental state." Dracula continued to snub, "Think about it this way, if I didn't hold the Time Changer for you, would you be able to control yourself from using it?"
Hermione lowered her head and thought carefully before finally shaking her head after a long time.
As a young wizard who loved to learn, she certainly wasn't satisfied with the basics taught at school and wanted to learn something new every chance she got.
However, this semester's twelve major classes completely filled up all of Hermione's time, and every time she did the twelve assignments, she was basically able to take up all of her rare weekend time, and she didn't have the slightest chance to read any other books that she liked.
As such, the time converter was a completely huge temptation for Hermione, and there was no way she was going to let the treasure lie around and not use it, even if she was sleepy and weak!
"I see you know your own self-control as well?" Dracula smiled, "In that case, hand over the time converter."
A struggling, hesitant look appeared on Hermione's face for a long time before she finally let out a long breath and nodded towards Dracula.
She then untied the string hanging around her neck and handed the golden necklace to Dracula.
"You must keep it safe, Professor." Hermione bit her lip, apprehensively.
After wearing the time converter for so long it suddenly left her side, it made her feel a little uncomfortable.
"Don't worry, I'll return it to you before your class on Monday." Dracula said.
Immediately afterward, all of his attention was focused on the necklace in front of him.
...
After whisking Hermione off to rest, Dracula began to rummage through the item in his hands.
"Is this the Time Changer?"
He looked at the delicate hourglass, which was light gold in color overall and looked like it was hanging from a golden necklace, with a pleasant expression.
It was not in vain that he had painstakingly enlightened Hermione and tricked ... nay, held the time converter in her hands for her, this little thing did look quite interesting.
A light vaguely flowed in Dracula's eyes, his gaze fixed on the ancient Ruyani script symbols and the state of magical operation engraved on the surface of the time converter.
"Rewind time by up to five hours?" He rubbed the intricate diagrams on the time converter and smiled pleasantly.
Five hours ago was about the same time he had met the Hooded Man on the shores of the Black Lake early this morning!
In that case, it was time to go back in time and fight with himself again!
It was too early in the day for sunrise, and he was far from enjoying himself!