"Herbo?!"

Ron screamed briefly, and the people in the lounge immediately looked in their direction. He lowered his head quickly, his nose almost touching the table, and waved to Harry and Hermione.

The two of them came closer, and Ron's eyes kept turning, and he asked in a low voice: "Is it... that Herbo? The creator of the Horcrux?"

"Yes." Hermione said.

Ron hurriedly looked at the gray hourglass. Harry had wiped the dust off its surface before, but it still looked full of age. He said in a trembling voice: "Do you think... there is a part of Herbo hidden in it?"

"You mean the Horcrux?" Harry asked nervously. He looked at the hourglass, which was in Hermione's hand.

"No!"

Hermione said simply, "Professor Heppe checked it before..."

She raised her head, sat up straight, and recounted the things in the Egyptian pyramids, focusing on describing the statues and altars of Herbo, and how the statues decayed.

"That's hard to understand... Wait a minute!"

She ran back to the girls' dormitory and brought back a shallow chestnut wooden tray. Harry and Ron understood her idea of ​​using the memory tray to recreate the scene.

So they sat together, watching the silver sand in the memory tray like rain. The dark and gloomy pyramid darkroom in the summer vacation appeared again, the long and narrow corridor full of curses, the isolated basilisk corpse that seemed to be forgotten by time, and the statue that faded quickly after a quick glance.

What they saw was Hermione's perspective. She arrived one step later than Felix at the time. He blew a breath, and the statue completely collapsed, then turned into fine dust and disappeared.

Harry and Ron looked at this scene in shock. No matter how exquisite the language was, it could not fully describe this scene.

"Wait a moment," Hermione said, staring at the memory disk, "The reliefs on the side walls of the altar are inlaid with some gems and small objects. They are antiques from today's perspective... Look!"

Harry and Ron moved closer. With the help of Hermione's memory, they saw the altar rotating, showing the images of wizards of various shapes carved on the side walls.

"Where are they? I only see gems!" Ron almost put his nose on it.

"Don't stare at the gems, these wizard reliefs are the key. The things in their hands are inlaid." Hermione stretched out her finger and pointed at them one by one, saying, "The gems are all on the side. Judging from their positions, they are purely decorative. Oh, of course, with Herpo's cunning, it is not impossible that they contain curses, but they must have disappeared now."

Harry looked carefully and found that these wizard reliefs were holding various small objects in their hands, small bottles, feathers, small wooden sticks (maybe wands?) and... a gray hourglass.

"There really is an hourglass, exactly the same!" Ron said in amazement, "You have a really good memory, Hermione."

Hermione hummed twice in triumph: "At first I thought it was the hourglass on the time-turner. You know I once held one for a year... But I soon realized that they were different. Although they were about the same size, the time-turner was a golden timer with round ends on the hourglass, while Harry's was flat and could stand on the table."

"How would we know... We haven't seen it before." Ron muttered in a low voice.

He picked up the hourglass with great interest and stood it on the table to examine it carefully. Through the gray, glass-like translucent container, he could vaguely see some dark golden lumps inside. They piled together and completely lost their fluidity.

"Are you really sure there is no magic residue on it?"

Hermione hesitated: "What is certain is that it is at least not a Horcrux or a curse. Professor Happ's magical perspective can see traces of magic."

"How convenient." Ron said, but it was obvious that he was more concerned about the conclusion given by an authority. After achieving his goal, he was not interested in learning more. He picked up the hourglass and shook it vigorously. The dark golden substance inside seemed to be stuck to the inner container and did not move.

"Oh, it seems that no matter what it was, it is now just an ordinary thing. I know some shops in Diagon Alley will collect such items. You know, antiques... Are you going to sell it, Harry?"

Harry shook his head. "It looks quite memorable, doesn't it? At least it reminds me that Horcruxes will also decay." He grinned and said in a mocking tone: "If I have the opportunity to meet Voldemort, I will tell him that the immortality he wants is just a daydream."

...

The next day, November 25th, there is still a whole month before Christmas, but the little wizards found that the temperature dropped sharply, and a thick layer of light blue frost formed on the windows of the castle. The sky was gloomy and it seemed that a storm was brewing.

"It's really a torture to take the Care of Magical Creatures class at this time!"

On the way to the Ancient Magic Classroom, Harry and his friends heard a fifth-year girl complaining to her companions. Ron said jokingly, "Hagrid's blasting-tailed skrewts will keep them warm."

Harry couldn't help but grin.

In the Ancient Magic classroom, Professor Happ was flipping through a copy of the Daily Prophet. Students kept coming over to greet him, and he nodded in response. When everyone was there, he stood up from the chair beside the podium, the hem of his tweed coat brushing against the armrest of the chair.

"It's nice to see that there are still a few people missing from our class, especially at the end of the first task of the competition." Felix dusted off the newspaper in his hand. "It mentions that Hogwarts took both the first and second place. The Minister of Magic praised the educational achievements of Hogwarts under the leadership of Headmaster Dumbledore in an interview. Of course... in my opinion, Professor Griselda Marchbank of the Wizarding Examination Board has a more sharp and inspiring point of view. You can take a look if you are interested."

"Okay, let's start today's class."

Felix asked in class: "Has anyone heard of 'Andros the Invincible'?"

Hermione was the first to raise her hand, which was not surprising. What was surprising was that Ron also raised his hand. Harry stared at him with wide eyes and looked at him in disbelief. It seemed that Ron himself was a little dazed. He shrank his neck and wanted to put his hand down.

"Mr. Weasley?" Felix asked.

"Uh, the Invincible Andros..." Ron stood up and said unconfidently, "I saw it from the introduction of the Chocolate Frog cards. I collected them, and now I only need two cards to complete the collection. He is an ancient Greek wizard, famous for his powerful spells. He can release patronuses as big as giants... His dueling ability is also very strong. Many people can't withstand one of his spells..."

He saw the professor looking at him with a smile, so he couldn't help but rack his brains and said superfluously, "Andros should be in the same era as the despicable Herpo. Maybe they have met? Maybe they even fought..."

Many students looked at Ron with admiration.

"Please take a seat, Mr. Weasley. Most of it is correct, except for the last sentence. Because the time is too long ago and there were no professional historians at that time, we can only find the truth of history from some fragments. And there is no evidence that they have ever met..."