Chapter 202 - 202 Dracula’s playing with himself
Chapter 202: Dracula's playing with himself
If one abused the energy of time without fully understanding it, the most likely thing that would happen would be a complete collapse of the timeline like what happened to the mute man of the late nineteenth century, Eloise Minturnbull, who herself perished in the river of time.
For this reason, the Ministry of Magic has had to place various restrictions on the use of time converters, thus ensuring that the timeline does not suffer an accident as great as the one that occurred back then.
However, the Department of Mystical Affairs was not willing to abandon the great treasure of time energy just like that, and wanted to continue to advance their research on time energy.
Therefore, they needed more time travel samples to deduce.
It was also because of this need that the mutes of the Division of Mysterious Things thought of a way to increase the research samples through the little wizards.
Those little wizards with good character had been vouched for by the Hogwarts professors and the principal, and determined to be three good students who were willing to follow the rules and obey the school's arrangements, and were able to maximize their ability to ensure that they would use the time-turner within the strict regulations.
Of course, just relying on the young wizards' self-awareness and the professors' guarantees was still not enough.
The Ministry of Magic made a second layer of insurance for this: an hour reversal spell was applied to the time converter to increase the stability when using it. The number of times the hourglass was turned corresponded to the number of hours the young wizard had traveled back in time, and each turn of the hourglass allowed him to go back one hour.
The time converter could be turned a maximum of five times, which meant going back a maximum of five hours.
Five hours was the maximum amount of time that the Mystic Affairs Division's Time Room could go back in time to ensure that the state of the timeline was stable.
It was measured that within a five-hour period, the timeline's self-compensating ability could restore the vast majority of altered events and make those events logically self-consistent.
On top of that, because the young wizards were not yet fully developed, the magic in their bodies usually did not grow naturally to its peak, driving these wizards back in time could save a lot of time energy.
So giving the little wizards permission to use the time converter was simply a good idea!
But muted people completely unexpected that Hogwarts would appear a professor so unreasonable that he actually cheated the time converter from his own students ...
Dracula leaned against the bookshelf in his office and smiled softly as he played with the time converter in his hand before extending his long, slender index finger and casually flicking the hourglass placed in the metal circle of the time converter pendant five times.
The next moment, although he was still leaning silently against the bookshelf without the slightest movement, it physically felt like he was flying backwards extremely fast.
All sorts of mold-lake cloud-like shapes swept before Dracula's eyes; at the same time, it was as if something was pounding fiercely in his ears, even to the point that it was a little too much for him.
So he blocked out some of his senses, and then turned his head to look out the window.
Dracula vaguely saw that the azure sky outside the window was changing like a movie with fast-forward pressed, with countless rippling clouds drifting rapidly.
Gradually, the sun high in the sky receded noiselessly backward, gradually setting at the end of the Black Loch in the distance, obscured by the short hills of the Scottish Highlands, eventually leaving only a ring of golden glitter.
The bright sky gradually darkened, and the stars quietly pushed away the white clouds, occupying the dome of the sky that should have been under the sun.
A long time later, the clouds of the molded lake in front of them disappeared and the pounding in his ears stopped.
Grasping the time-turner in his left hand, Dracula pushed open the office door with his right hand and went out into the corridor to look out over the far reaches of Hogwarts.
It had just dawned, and a sliver of golden light at the end of the Black Lake cut through the curtain of stars and buckets pieced together to quietly illuminate the darkest hour of the day.
It was still dark, and this was the time of day that Dracula appreciated the most.
There was no blinding sunlight, nor was it an eternal darkness, the best balance was struck between light and darkness.
Dracula, who belonged to this time of day, should be standing on the shore of the Black Lake right now, enjoying the games of the big squid in the lake and the little wizards playing all night in the Slytherin common room ...
Dracula gleefully slipped the time converter into his pocket, then jumped straight over the railing of the corridor, ready to fly to the Black Lake and surprise his past self.
However, just in the process of jumping down, Dracula suddenly saw the black and red cloak that was tumbling behind him, and couldn't help but fall into a deep thought ...
Wouldn't he be instantly recognized if he met up with his past self just wearing his representative clothes?
Going against the image of the Hooded Man that he had seen before was a small matter, Dracula didn't care about such a complicated and difficult thing as the laws of time; but if he let his past self realize ahead of time that it was his future self who had shuttled back to fight with him, then the matter would be a big deal.
Dracula understands that with his own sharpness, as long as he lets his past self discover a little bit of clues, then he will immediately understand the truth of the matter "with the heart".
In this way, he would be able to guess all kinds of magic that he would use, and take precautions against it.
Even if he wanted to fight with himself, if his past self knew that the attacker was himself, then the fun of the sneak attack would immediately be reduced.
Not only that, but Dracula had already fought once, and had the advantage of foreknowledge of his past self's movements.
If his past self was allowed to find out what was going on, then he would definitely change his strategy for dealing with the enemy. The whole body would be affected by a single blow, and in this way, the advantage of foresight that would have existed would most likely not exist.
Without the advantage of foresight, coupled with the inability to use those iconic magic spells that exposed himself, as well as the inky wood wand that he had already used smoothly, in such a disadvantageous situation, there was a real possibility that Dracula would lose to his past self.
This was one thing he could not accept at all.
Losing to his past self could be too humiliating!
Dracula looked up at the sky and saw that the golden light at the end of the black lake in the distance was slowly moving upwards, knowing that there was not much time left for dawn, and some sense of urgency could not help but rise in his heart.
He casually summoned a round of dark moon and teleported inside Mrs. Mogin's Clothing Store in Diagon Alley, ready to pick a set of clothes that could hide his identity first.
The chubby Mrs. Mogin was as dedicated as ever, and she had already gotten up early in the morning and came to the store, humming a song as she sorted out the various kinds of wizard costumes in the store, with a very relaxed look on her face.
The next moment, the black and red robed Dracula suddenly appeared in the store, startling her.
"What are you ... you? Fighting ... a robbery?" Mrs. Moggin shivered and raised her wand, pointing it at Dracula.
She then saw Dracula's long silver hair and handsome demonic face.
Her face immediately relaxed and even became a little flushed, "Ah, this gentleman, I guess you must not be a bad person."
She set her wand down and quietly surveyed Dracula out of the corner of her eye.
"Well, hurry up and get me a cloak with a hood that I can wear now." With time running out, Dracula scrambled for time.
"Ah, are you in a hurry?" Mrs. Moggin asked with some surprise, "If you ask me, a handsome, upright clothes rack like you, of course you need to wear customized wizard robes to be the most handsome ... although you certainly look good in anything you wear is all."
"Cut the crap and hurry up and get a set of clothes that fit me, it's urgent now." Dracula annoyingly interrupted Mrs. Mojin's flattery and quickly commanded, "It's best to be the kind that can cover up the whole body, so that others can't recognize me at all."
"Eh ... ah?" Mrs. Mojin's eyes widened.
She was now getting a little scared again.
What kind of person actually wanted to hide their image? Could this be a dark wizard who was getting ready to go out and commit murder? Would he kill himself for secrecy after he got his clothes?
This is not to blame Mrs. Mogin timid, a black man appeared in her store before dawn, as soon as he came in, he aggressively demanded a full body cover, but also let others not recognize the clothes, can not wait for a moment, this is who would not be afraid of it?
Of course, if that person is very handsome, it may make the fear lessen a little bit ...
"What are you still standing here for, hurry up and find it." Dracula impatiently pulled out a large bag of gold galleons from the pocket where he had applied the No Trace Stretching Spell, and threw it into the counter of Mrs. Moggin's Clothing Store, "Is this enough money?"
"Enough is enough!" Mrs. Mojin immediately smiled with a big smile on her face when she saw the weight of the bag of gold galleons, "This money is almost enough to even buy all of our family's clothes!"
"Then hurry up and go, remember my request!" Dracula said in a cold voice.
"Okay!" Mrs. Mojin nodded and went to find clothes for Dracula in a beautiful way.
As for whether this was a black wizard who was about to go on a murderous rampage?
Don't joke about it! Such a handsome man, he is also so rich, what not good, why must go to do bad things?
Driven by the ability of money, Mrs. Mogin acted very quickly.
In less than two minutes, she used her magic to take out a gorgeous red wizard's cloak from the warehouse, which was embroidered with intricate floral patterns, and had a large hood on the back, which was completely able to cover her face.
In addition to this cloak, Mrs. Moggin also thoughtfully prepared matching gloves, shoes, mask and liner for Dracula, able to make Dracula's whole body without exposing a bit of skin on the outside.
Dracula satisfactorily changed into the gorgeous red cloak in the fitting room, put on the mask and gloves, and stood in front of the fitting mirror to take a look.
Sure enough, it was the hooded man he had seen before who had reappeared in front of him.
"Esteemed guest, with your temperament matched with this outfit, you are simply the bearer of the magic world!" The fitting mirror said curtly.
The mirrors in the magic world were all like this, always talking to the person looking in the mirror and pointing out their image problems.
The ones in clothing stores were different, the mirrors preferred to praise people and urge them to pay their bills.
Dracula slanted a glance at the fitting mirror, and wondered what on earth this mirror could tell about his temperament and face value when he was wrapped up so tightly ...
Ignoring the fitting mirror, which was looking for words, and Mrs. Morgan, who was waiting outside and wanted to chat with him some more, Dracula walked straight out of Mrs. Morgan's Clothing Store and left Diagon Alley with a dark moon.
He then picked up a random branch from a pine tree on the high ground where Hogwarts was located and stuffed a piece of his own hair into it to make an abbreviated version of a wand.
Dracula originally did not want to use a wand, and made this abbreviated version of the wand instead of using it smoothly.
But the wizards in the entire magic world are more used to using wands to fight, like Dracula this kind of wandless spell casting level can be higher than the level of fighting with a wand, there may not be many wizards at all.
If he put down his wand and did not use it, and wandless spell casting alone reached the top level of the great wizard level, then Dracula in the past did not need to think about it to realize where the problem was.
Fortunately, because of his previous study of Ron's ash wood wand that fired spells backwards, Dracula had added a lot of wand making experience, so this improvised wand wasn't completely unusable ...
The starlight slowly faded as the golden light at the end of the black lake gradually filled the horizon.
Before the dawn ended, Dracula, dressed in a magnificent red cloak, finally managed to catch up with this duel between his future and past selves.
With a thick gloved hand, he waved the ordinary-to-ordinary wand in his hand-
A crimson blade of light shot towards the silver-haired figure who was watching the scenery by the lake.
He had to admit that a hint of murderous intent had actually appeared in his mind.
Dracula wanted to try to see how his present self would be affected if he really killed his past self ...
However, the figure by the lake rose to alertness the moment the killing intent emerged, and suddenly sidestepped to avoid the attack.
The end of the light blade narrowly skimmed his throat and flew into the water without the slightest pause, surprisingly splitting the lake into two halves in an instant, and the dividing line drawn by the air on the surface of the lake did not disperse for a long time.
On the dividing line, many swimming fish were cut into two, and the cut surface was as smooth as a mirror.
"How many years has it been ..." The figure on the lake turned over his palm and looked at his slender and slender fingertips, his gaze somewhat dazed.
His pale fingertips were stained with a drop of bright red blood, which seemed to emit a strange luster.
"For how many years, I haven't experienced what it's like to be injured." He gently licked the blood off his fingertips, revealing the two side teeth on the side of his mouth.
"I do wonder then, who exactly are you?"
Dracula didn't speak, just stood still.
He feared that if he opened his mouth, even if he changed his voice, his experiences from ancient times had created a unique way of using words and speech habits that could easily be detected by his past self.
And so, Dracula proved his intentions with his actions -
He slowly raised the wand in his hand that was so ordinary that it couldn't be ordinary anymore.