The Exclusive Wand Academy is located in the northeast corner of the floating island. In addition to normal teaching facilities and buildings, the most distinctive feature is a group of statues in the school, which are specially used to commemorate the first batch of people who got the exclusive wand and changed their destiny. The most eye-catching one is a Niffler holding a wand, and its name is Valen.
Speaking of Valen, this may be the most famous Niffler in the academy, or even a magical animal. Because at the beginning of the school, Valen cooperated to record a batch of "teaching videos". Thousands of wizards who are not sensitive to magic power learned from a Niffler when they systematically understood the functions and applicability of the exclusive wand.
"I've met Valen several times," Winnie Valentine said in class, "He has used his exclusive wand to do things I never thought of before, thus greatly expanding the usage scenarios and value of the exclusive wand."
"There are no less than ten global research topics centered around or inspired by it. The most influential of these is the 'Magic Reactivation Theory', which studies whether dormant magic can be reactivated through acquired learning and practice and become the same as normal wizards! There are rumors that Valen has gotten rid of the limitations of his exclusive wand. Of course, it has not been confirmed yet..." "What
if it is confirmed?" a student asked.
"It means that it may be the smartest Niffler in history, at least surpassing the twelve thousand low-magic wizards who participated in the research in a broad sense... Well, if you don't mind, let's continue the class. By the way, Valen knows more words than all of you. He wrote an article for the Daily Prophet. Although it was rejected, the article was later published in The Quibbler. You may have heard of it, "Diary of Life on Mars." "
In the bamboo forest behind the college, there lives a nest of Nifflers, brothers and sisters born from the same twin as Valen. Every week, scientists in white coats come and exchange ten to twenty minutes of research time with small golden and shiny objects. Unfortunately, these Nifflers have not shown extraordinary intelligence-except that they are all good at playing crackling exploding cards. Or some other cards.
Today, two uninvited guests came to the school.
"Albus, I have a secret to share with you." Scorpius said, and the two stepped on the wet soil, and the crisp chirping of birds came from the bamboo forest.
"I'm waiting for you to say it." Albus said.
"Dad has been a little uneasy these days--" "Oh," Albus lowered his head and rubbed the ground with his toes. He said softly, "I think it's because of my dad. He searched Malfoy Manor..." "It has nothing to do with that." Scorpius said, "It's a guy named 'Nott'. Dad has been uneasy since he heard that he was arrested by the Ministry of Magic for investigation and his home was searched... I found this in Dad's office."
He took out a small golden timer, and Albus stared blankly at the exquisite hourglass embedded in the center of the timer.
"What is this?"
Scorpius took a deep breath, "Time Turner.
" "Time - what?"
"It allows people to travel through time," Scorpius said excitedly, "but the previous Minister of Magic suspended all research, and the information of a department I can't name was sealed. I saw these in my father's notebook. I guess if we can find and defeat the person who cursed Mom, Mom's illness will be cured."
"But we are only -" Albus counted his fingers, "five years old."
"Yeah," Scorpius said dejectedly, "We can make a promise that when we have the ability - for example, ten years later, we can use this thing to travel to the past, find the person who cursed the Greengrass family, and defeat him."
"It's a deal." Albus said.
They hooked their two fingers together, and both of them smiled contentedly. Then they heard a series of "rustling" sounds and "chirping" voices in the distance. It didn't sound like people, but some kind of magical animals.
Albus and Scorpius exchanged glances and moved towards the direction of the sound carefully. After they parted the bushes that were too tall for them, they saw a hollow in their field of vision. The two opened their mouths in surprise. They seemed to have entered the Niffler's den. A dozen Nifflers were playing on a field full of bamboo leaves. Some were smaller and had pink and gray fur on their bodies. There was a small table in the middle (should it be a table?). Three Nifflers were playing cards. Next to one of the Nifflers was a large pile of metallic sequins.
"It's wizard cards." Albus said, staring at the shadows that appeared on the table.
"The way to play is the popular fight against the Dark Lord in recent years. Look, two against one." Scorpius said.
The two of them lay on the ground and read with relish. They were only five years old and their minds were far less complicated. "The Dark Lord's cards are really good!" "Which one?" "The one with the smoothest fur, like velvet satin." Albus said, and suddenly felt something was wrong. The light above his head seemed to become brighter.
The two looked up, and a newly awakened Niffler pup pushed aside the leaves, yawning in the middle, and stared at them, no, to be more precise, stared at the glowing timer in Scorpius's hand.
"Oh no," Scorpius said.
"What should we do?" Albus asked.
"Run!"
At the same time, the Niffler pups shouted, and the Nifflers stopped fighting and looked to one side in unison, including the few that had dug holes and poked their heads out - did they hear it right? The baby ran over by himself? All the Nifflers - except Valen - had bright eyes. They were very poor, especially every time Valen came to visit.
Valen turned his head unhappily, he was about to win again, this was the 140th... how many times (?) he had won against his two younger brothers, it felt so wonderful to rob them, and after the robbery, he would hold a treasure hunting competition and let them off appropriately, the two younger brothers were stupid, they didn't bear grudges, and they didn't remember the beatings.
In sight, two children who were not even as tall as the bushes stumbled uphill, one of them holding something flashing in his hand.
Is there really a treasure? Valen tilted his head and thought, it looked a little familiar.
Albus and Scorpius ran a distance, panting, but the subtle trembling of branches and the sound of bamboo leaves behind them did not disappear, but got closer. Albus saw a black shadow passing them from the corner of his eye.
"What should we do?"
"Hurry up and climb up the tree!"
The two did not have time to think about whether this method was feasible, but neither of them wanted to run down, so they chose a holly tree that was about a foot thick and covered with scars, and pulled each other up. When Albus climbed to the nearest branch with the help of Scorpius, he was too tired to speak.
Scorpius poked Albus, and the two looked down together.
A dozen Nifflers covered with black fur were staring at them under the tree, and then a particularly conspicuous Niffler separated from the others, swaggered under the tree, and looked up at Albus and Scorpius.
The special Niffler was naturally Valen, who stared at the Time Turner in Scorpius's hand with his flat mouth wide open.
"They want to steal the Time Turner!" Scorpius shouted.
"Don't worry," Albus said, "I have the trace thread on me, and my father will come to find us. In theory, we just need to hide in the tree until night-" "
I'm not as optimistic as you," Scorpius said, "For example, I'm not sure whether the Nifflers can climb trees?"
Albus was confused by this question. He had never thought about this question. He hesitated and said, "Probably not-" The next second he saw a brown-red Niffler cub swaying its round body to climb up the tree. He immediately shut up and his expression became terrified.
Valen slapped the Niffler and stuffed a piece of candy into it. Then it made a thoughtful expression, and after a while it took out a sound transmission mirror from its pocket. Several Nifflers came over curiously, staring at the glowing mirror with shining eyes. Valen squinted his eyes and had a small wooden stick in his hand, as if ready to swing it at any time. The sound transmission mirror
was connected, Valen chattered a lot, and hung up the sound transmission mirror with satisfaction. After doing all this, Valen stared at the two children in the tree in a daze. A bit boring... It took out a can of candy, and Albus and Scorpius in the tree swallowed their saliva.
...
"Here." Scorpius said, nimbly grabbing the air and stuffing a candy into Albus.
"No, it's your turn." Albus said. He looked eagerly at the Niffler under the tree. The Niffler was so abominable, throwing candy into the sky at random. He didn't even notice the man who appeared not far away. It seemed that he appeared out of nowhere. When he spoke, both of them were startled.
"You can come down now. It's better for everyone." Felix said.
Albus almost fell from the tree. Scorpius's throat was choked by the candy in his mouth, and his face turned red with anxiety. Felix pointed his finger and his expression quickly eased. Albus patted Scorpius on the back and asked, "Who are you?"
"Oh, sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. Felix Hep." Felix said, and his finger pointed at the holly tree. "It's a common problem for famous people. I subconsciously think everyone knows me." Albus and Scorpius
had heard of this name, but they didn't react. But they didn't have time to be surprised. The holly tree under their feet bent to one side, and they also tilted with it. The rough bark became smooth, like a slide, and then the two of them slid down uncontrollably. When they were close to the ground, hundreds of branches grew wildly and intertwined with each other to form a bench. Felix sat on one side and lowered his head to talk to Valen.
"Oh... really... okay."
After the big and small exchanged, they looked at Albus and Scorpius who were a little uneasy. Albus bravely asked: "Hello? Are you really Hyp - er, professor? Sir? Headmaster?"
"You can call me Sir or Professor, Albus." Felix said calmly.
"You know me?" Albus asked in surprise.
"Yes," Felix suddenly felt embarrassed: "But you may not have any impression. I got married two years ago, and I was cleaning the trench last year... But anyway, I am not unfamiliar with you." He looked at Scorpius, "I gave a wand to Draco and Astoria when they got married."
Scorpius' eyes widened.
"The wand made of snake wood and basilisk nerve as the core!"
"Yes, I was originally optimistic about unicorn hair, but Mr. Ollivander said no, so I thought of my collection of basilisk materials... I failed several times in the middle, and I know the reason without guessing. But these are irrelevant." Felix said: "So can you show me the small timer in your hand? It seems to be better than the one hidden in the Nott family... It should be the last two lost outside."
Scorpius hid his hands behind his back vigilantly, and tears welled up in his eyes.
"You want to take it away? No, I can't give it to you--"
"Okay, you can keep it for now." Felix said thoughtfully: "Under normal circumstances, I should know in three days, and my wife will tell me... But it's hard to say, maybe I didn't see it. I didn't pay much attention, and my attention was distracted by another thing..." He paused, "Draco once asked me for help, but I was not sure at the time. Now it's time to solve this problem."
Albus and Scorpius looked at him in confusion.
Felix blew into the palm of his hand. Then countless tiny magic runes spread out like petals, and pieced together into a mirror in the air. But there was only the frame, and the mirror part was empty. Then Felix searched in his pocket and took out a thumb-sized glass bottle. He shook it gently, and Albus and Scorpius saw a few wisps of golden mist in the bottle.
"I've consumed a lot recently, and I saved it with great difficulty."
Felix muttered to himself. He unscrewed the cork, picked up a wisp of golden mist with his little finger, and bounced it towards the frame floating in the air. The golden mist quickly filled the gaps in the mirror as if it had life, and then the tiny magic symbols illuminated from the outer edge to the inner side layer by layer. After a few seconds, the golden mirror surface became smooth and flat.
"Let me think... Astoria... No, it should be the Greengrass family." Felix said seriously.
The image in the mirror kept flickering, and the figures and space were changing rapidly, making people dizzy, just like wearing a pair of dirty glasses full of handprints to read a dictionary with small and dense handwriting.
Felix took the time to explain to the two children: "I will not travel through time. The cost is too high. I don't want others to interfere with time. But there are many things that can be done. For example, the problem of the Greengrass family curse does not require going back to the past. All I need to do is present everything that has happened in front of me... I couldn't do this in the first few years. The energy alone was enough to give me a headache. Found it."
Albus, Scorpius, and Valen all looked at the mirror. The image in the mirror was fixed in one place, and the picture became slightly clearer. It looked like a thin, pale, gloomy man with a rat's beard. He was muttering something, and blood was flowing down his nostrils, curving and solidifying in the air, and turning into strange jumping black symbols in the sound of the spell. The picture was a little scary, but Felix watched it with relish, nodding his head as he watched.
"So that's how it is. It's similar to the curse in the Defense Against the Dark Arts class at Hogwarts. It's not aimed at a specific person, but at the Greengrass family. As long as the bloodline of this family is still there, the curse will not die, and the accumulated curse power will be released every few decades. It will be much easier to deal with things if you know the principle."
"Much easier?" Scorpius asked stupidly.
"For example, you can design a magic to make the curse think that the Greengrass family has died naturally... Of course, it's just an example. In fact, I have a better way." The mirror shattered, and Felix carefully collected the obviously faded golden mist into a glass bottle, and then got busy.
Valen looked at it for a while, took out various snacks from his pocket and distributed them to the sniffers and the two children around him. Albus and Scorpius found that they were already hungry, so they ate happily. "What is that?" Scorpius pointed to a jar and asked, he seemed to see the tentacles wriggling.
"Don't touch it, it's a pile of cockroaches." Albus took a look and said very experiencedly. Scorpius looked at him strangely, and Albus said reluctantly: "If you also have a brother who likes to play pranks."
"Not much hope," Scorpius said sadly, then became happy, "but maybe I will have another brother, or sister."
"It's over." Felix said, snatching a piece of lava cake from Valen and stuffing it into his mouth, "You're welcome, Valen has a lifetime discount card for Honeydukes, and even I don't have it." Valen shouted twice in dissatisfaction beside him, didn't you apply for it in my name?
"The curse... disappeared? Mom is okay?" Scorpius asked with his eyes wide open. He tried to move his arms, hoping to feel a feeling similar to "the body is lighter", but nothing happened.
Felix nodded and shook his head.
"The curse is indeed gone, but Astoria's body still needs to be recuperated for a while, and I hope she can catch up with the World Cup. Well, you have been out for too long, it's time to go back." He waved his hand, and Albus and Scorpius disappeared in front of him.
Felix lay on the holly bench, fiddling with the glass bottle containing golden time energy with his fingers, his breathing slowed down, and his body gradually became transparent. As if there was something between them. Valen picked up a small stone from the ground and threw it at him.
Felix rolled his eyes.
"Hermione has completely bribed you. In fact, you can exchange it for candy, and I will feel better..."
Valen immediately took out a brown wig from his pocket, put it on his head, and then leaned forward, looking very imposing. It folded its hands in front of its chest, sneered (if it could), and thought: Humph, despair, big devil, our alliance was formed more than ten years ago. It was a solid friendship established when we strolled around the castle under the moon. Nothing can destroy it, nothing can...
Valen turned his neck and sniffed the air.
"Deep-sea fish, some species may have never been discovered, I wonder what they taste like."
"Gudong." Valen swallowed his saliva, feeling that his unbreakable friendship was challenged, and then there was the sound of swallowing saliva in unison, and a group of sniffers looked over eagerly...