As night fell, the 24-hour restaurant was extremely quiet. The waiter dozed off on the chair behind the bar. The hands of the clock on the gray wall had already pointed to ten o'clock.

Hermione sat at the head of the bed, looking out the window at the bright and clear night sky. She estimated the time in her mind. Will the owl deliver the letter around noon tomorrow? This unexpected time travel will also come to an end tomorrow.

She lowered her head and looked at the time converter tied around her neck. The dark golden sand had turned pale, and only occasionally a faint light appeared. Hermione remembered clearly that this phenomenon had been going on for some time.

After being in a daze for a while, she pulled out a black notebook from under the pillow and completed today's record:

"Day 72 of time travel, day 7 from the current time point: the closer to normal time, the closer the senses are to reality, which is much better than wandering aimlessly like a ghost in the beginning... It feels terrible to be abandoned by the whole world. The time converter keeps flashing and I can't touch any real objects. If it weren't for some food prepared in the beaded bag, I would not be able to survive the initial period... There are two more cracks on the time converter today, the reason is unknown..."

Hermione stopped, stared at the words for a while, and put the notebook on the bedside table. She quietly slipped out of the room. The moment the door closed, the black book flipped and an illusory image murmured, "The third project, the trophy, the door key, and the root of everything... It turned out to be you, Crouch Jr."

On the other side, Hermione cast an illusion spell on herself. She stood at the stairs on the second floor and stared at the couple in the living room. They were sitting on the sofa, watching TV and chatting.

"I must ask Hermione when I see her tomorrow. What do you call her help? She even helped on the field?" Mr. Granger said angrily.

"She has been very opinionated since she was a child, and you still praise her for being smart," Mrs. Granger said as she looked at him.

"You're using your smartness to deceive your own parents?" Mr. Granger was furious. "You don't know what a wizard said when I plucked up the courage to ask him about the tournament! Because the death rate was too high, it has been suspended for hundreds of years. Listen to what he said!"

"Hermione said in the letter that this year's safety measures are in place... and it's the last project. I saw that there was a safety officer in the video, right?" Mrs. Granger advised, "Why don't we ask what the third project is tomorrow? If it's too dangerous, we can discuss it with the school..." She pursed her lips, but couldn't stop her anger. "This little girl is too much. When the game is over, we will teach her a lesson together!"

They talked for a long time, turned off the TV, and got up to go upstairs. Hermione passed them at the corner. She stretched out her hand, but only caught a piece of air. In the silent silence, her arm slowly fell down.

24-hour restaurant.

The silver light in Felix's eyes gradually converged. After a moment of silence, he took out two glass bottles, one large and one small. The big one contained a viscous liquid that looked like mud, and bubbles were slowly coming out of it. The small one contained a small tuft of gray hair.

This was the Polyjuice Potion and the hair of Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic. Felix smiled slightly. The origin of the hair was very dramatic. Two years ago, Fudge was accidentally poisoned when he visited the corpse of the basilisk and was taken to the school hospital for treatment.

He took the opportunity to pull out a tuft of it.

This deliberate move at the time saved him a lot of trouble.

Felix unscrewed the cork and put the gray hair into the large glass bottle. The decoction inside immediately boiled, and the next second it turned into an ugly blue-gray color, like a bottle of boiling cement.

"Waiter, please settle the bill." Felix shouted, and put the Polyjuice Potion into his sleeve.

When he walked out of the restaurant, it was half past ten.

The night in London was frighteningly quiet, but there was also noise. Felix walked alone on the street, and the sound of his footsteps echoed under the dark curtain. His figure flashed several times and appeared in front of a shabby red telephone booth.

He opened the door of the phone booth and walked in. He dialed the number 62442 skillfully. A cold female voice rang out in the phone booth.

"Welcome to the Ministry of Magic. Please state your name and the purpose of your visit."

"Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge, let the duty officer confirm my identity." Felix said calmly. His body had been transformed into a short man with messy gray hair, a stout figure and a big belly under the effect of the Polyjuice Potion.

He waited for a few seconds, and a more lively wizard's voice appeared. His tone was full of surprise: "Minister Fudge? Is it really you? What's the matter with you coming here so late?"

"This is not something you can know." Felix said in a deep voice.

"Oh, of course... But why don't you use the private fireplace?"

"I'm visiting a friend's house nearby, and suddenly I remembered that there is an urgent matter that needs to be dealt with. Do you need me to complete the procedures tomorrow?" His voice became stern.

"No, I'll let you in right away..." the voice said in panic.

The phone booth began to slowly descend, and the sidewalk outside gradually rose above the window. After a period of darkness, Felix regained his vision. He calmly observed his surroundings. The light in the main hall was much darker than the previous times he came here. There was no fire in the fireplace on the wall. The statue in the distance was dark and stood silently in the pool. There was no sound except the water in the fountain.

At this time, a burst of hurried footsteps approached from a distance. Felix looked past the statue and looked at the wizard running over from the security checkpoint.

Coincidentally, he happened to know this person.

"Eric Munch." Felix said.

"It's me, Mr. Minister." Eric Munch said with a smile and was very honored.

"I'm glad you didn't sleep in the chair." Felix looked at him with a scrutinizing look.

"Why, of course I won't do my job faithfully," Eric blushed and stammered.

"Go back to your position, Mr. Munch! I will leave the fireplace after I'm done." Felix said.

"I understand, Mr. Minister." Eric didn't dare to breathe.

Felix nodded at him, took a few steps, and stopped again. "By the way, is there anyone else in the Ministry who hasn't left yet?"

"I, I'm not sure... Mr. Minister," Eric looked at him cautiously, "I guess Ms. Bones, Ms. Marchbank and Mr. Ogden should all be here... and those weirdos in the Department of Mysteries, uh, I mean, those Unspeakables, I never could figure out their whereabouts."

"It's so late," Felix said halfway, frowning and looking across, he knew Eric would give the answer.

As expected, Eric's words became more respectful and humble. "Ms. Marchbank and Mr. Ogden are working overtime to process the papers for the wizard level exams. They are very busy at this time of year. As for Ms. Bones," he raised his

eyelids and glanced at Felix, "you transferred a group of Aurors to guard the third project. There are not enough people there." Felix was silent for a moment and snorted, "I see."

He turned and walked into the elevator, pressed the button for the ninth floor, and the fence slammed shut. The elevator made a harsh click, and Felix exhaled slowly inside. The first step went smoothly. When the elevator stopped, a cold woman's voice said, "Department of Mysteries." Then the fence opened and Felix walked out steadily.

After passing a dimly lit corridor, he stopped in front of a black door. The flickering firelight shone on his face, making his expression light and dark. From the perspective of magic, he saw a large area of ​​magical brilliance, which almost blinded his eyes.

Just when he was hesitating whether to break the door violently, the door suddenly opened from the inside. A middle-aged wizard looked at him in surprise, and after a few seconds, he said stiffly: "Mr. Minister? How come you..." As he spoke, he quietly reached into his pocket, and the next second, a Confusion Spell hit him.

"Your name?"

"Saul Crocker." The wizard said in a daze.

"Can you please be my guide today?" Felix asked politely.

"Mr. Minister, this is a violation." The wizard suddenly covered his head with his hands, a painful expression on his face.

"Okay, let's change the question. Is there anyone else in there?" Felix did not force the wizard to continue answering, for fear of triggering the confidentiality contract on the Silent Man.

"Bode is still in there, in the Prophecy Hall." The wizard's face regained calm and he replied.

"Thank you."

Then a red light hit the wizard, and the Silent Sol Crocker slowly fell to the ground. Felix flashed in from outside the door, and the black door closed behind him. Felix took out an echo bird, and the bird shook its fiery red feathers and jumped in his hand.

"Stay here, and notify me in time if an outsider appears or this gentleman wakes up unexpectedly." Felix whispered.

The palm-sized bird nodded at him, jumped onto the wizard on the ground, and got into his pocket.

At this time, Felix had time to look around. He found himself standing in a huge circular room. Everything from the floor to the wall was black. Some candles with blue flames were dotted on the wall, providing weak lighting.

There were no windows here, only black doors neatly inlaid on the wall, exactly the same as the one behind him, a total of twelve.

"Where is the Hall of Prophecy?" Felix said to himself. He wanted to deal with the "Bode" mentioned by the wizard first, but he really couldn't see any difference. After hesitating for a few seconds, he pushed open a black door.

Inside the door was a deep pit that sunken downwards. On the stone platform in the center of the pit stood an ancient archway. A tattered black curtain hung on the archway, moving without wind.

There seemed to be someone behind the curtain... or someone familiar to him, as if he would see them if he lifted the curtain. Felix walked around the archway, and there was nothing behind it. Then he heard a whisper, and the sound was very unique.

It seemed to be the voice of a young child. Felix's expression was dazed, thinking of his memories in the orphanage. But he might have heard it wrong, because the owner of the voice at this time became a woman, who whispered softly. Felix took a step closer to hear more clearly.

The voice was closer, and the whispering became clear and audible. It must be a very gentle woman. Felix thought.

"It's a pity that it's fake."

The brain block technique worked spontaneously. He stared at the black curtain for a while, slowly exited the room, and when he closed the door, a deafening rumble sounded immediately, and the wall began to rotate rapidly. He quickly pulled out his wand and left an arch sign on the door. When the wall stopped, he glanced at the mark he left and walked towards the door next to it.

The second room was empty, except for a table placed on the wall. There was only a huge glass tank filled with dark green liquid in the middle of the room. Some translucent brains were floating in it. Felix took a look and left quickly.

The third room was a black room full of planets. Felix stood at the door and looked at it for a while, then ran to other rooms.

Then he came to an extremely tall room with a ceiling almost as high as a church. The room had rows of towering shelves that went straight into the ceiling. These shelves were filled with gray prophecy balls, large and small, shining with a faint silver light. Felix thought for a moment. The Hall of Prophecy... So, Bode is here.

"Thor? Is that you?" A voice asked in the distance.

Felix remained silent and approached quietly. "Thor?" The voice was obviously louder. The light of a wand suddenly lit up in the dim room. A man with a pale face and a sad face walked out from behind the shelf. When he saw Felix, he was stunned.

"Mr. Minister?"

"Sorry." A red light flashed, and Bode leaned against the shelf weakly. Felix took some time to transport the unconscious wizard in the hallway here to keep his colleagues company, and the echo bird hid in the shadow of the chandelier above the hallway.

When he walked out of the prophecy hall, his vision blurred for a moment, and a strange sense of familiarity came to his heart, as if something closely related to him was hidden here... Felix closed his eyes and walked to a shelf by feeling.

He opened his eyes and placed a silver shiny glass ball at eye level. It was brighter than the prophecy balls around it, and obviously, there was much less dust. When he approached, the rhythm of the glass ball flashing obviously accelerated, as if welcoming his arrival.

Felix saw a date from two years ago on the label, followed by a string of characters: SPT to HJP (to be verified). After taking protective measures, he reached out and took the prophecy ball from the shelf, but was surprised to find that there was no obstruction.

Felix stared at it. The touch of the prophecy ball was out of tune with the cold room. It was warm and bright. Holding it was like standing in the sun for several hours. At the same time, a hoarse voice appeared in his mind,

"A thousand years of unprecedented changes... The legendary drama is staged... The clown returns to the stage with drums, the warriors are ready to go, the lions are aging, the firebirds are reborn... Time! Time!"

Felix couldn't help but hold the prophecy ball tightly and listen to it again.

"The clown, the warrior, the lion, the firebird... What do they all mean?" He didn't spend too much time thinking. Time was running out. It had been almost twenty minutes since he appeared in the Ministry of Magic. He strode out of here and outlined a circle on the black door.

Felix ran straight to the next room. The moment he pushed open the door, he realized that he had finally found the right place. In the noisy ticking sound of hundreds of voices mixed together, in the beautiful, jumping light that was as dazzling as diamonds in the sun, he saw all kinds of clocks, alarm clocks, clocks, travel clocks, grandfather clocks, and ancient things like sundials... They were either hanging on the wall, or placed on the floor, or placed on the long table and bookshelf.

In a closet with a glass front door, the wall where the closet was located was covered with all kinds of hourglasses.

Felix, who had always been calm, showed an excited expression on his face. These were all hourglasses used in time converters. His eyes swept across the folders on the bookshelf and the drawers under the long table, and fell on a towering bell-shaped crystal glass cover at the end of the room.

Unlike other rooms, the crystal glass cover was the only light source in this room. The diamond-like jumping light Felix saw before came from it. The glass cover was filled with a surging, sparkling air flow.

That was time energy.

"Time... Time..." Felix whispered. He understood why the prophecy ball had a special attraction for him. "Because I am also part of the prophecy." He closed his eyes. "Then who am I? The lion and the firebird can't be. The rest are clowns? Or warriors? Or do they all exist because of me?" He suddenly opened his eyes, and his light blue pupils turned into deep silver flames, burning and filling the entire eye socket.

The dark floor was covered with silver light. Everything was like the scene earlier. Felix pulled the mind hut out of his mind, but this time he tried his best. One after another, phantoms walked out of Felix's body. They were part of Felix's thoughts and the pinnacle of memory magic. These "people" scattered and took out documents from the bookshelf and drawers, sitting or standing, and carefully studied them.

Felix himself stared at the bell-shaped crystal glass cover. Soon, the first phantom put the folder back on the bookshelf, walked over and merged with him. Felix's body suddenly froze. After two minutes, he finally digested all the knowledge.

But then, the second and third phantoms returned. This time, Felix froze for five minutes. During this time, he was like a stone statue. Felix sighed, resignedly took out the Ravenclaw crown from the ring, which had not been used for a long time, and said self-deprecatingly: "Should I say, it's a good thing that Valen left this for me?" He put on the crown, and a sense of coolness spread throughout his body.

More phantoms came over...

In the early morning, Felix held a floating hourglass in his hand, and the crystal glass cover in front of him was also opened, and strands of air flow were injected into the hourglass. This was the result of his all-out efforts all night. He only dabbled in the field of time, but this insignificant step was enough for him to crack the secret of how to replenish the energy of the hourglass.

He also looked through the Ministry of Magic's experimental records on time travel, which were more detailed than the information collected by Nick Flamel, and many of them were even described by the time traveler himself. For example, the experience of Eloise Mintab five centuries ago is very meaningful for reference. Her autobiography occupies twelve pieces of parchment, and the analysis and speculation around these twelve pieces of parchment fill thirty drawers.

...

When Felix stopped, the hourglass floating in the air fell on his hand, and the white sand in the hourglass was coated with a layer of golden substance.

"The energy of one hourglass may not be enough, and two hourglasses are also a problem. I should make more preparations." He turned his head and stared at the hourglasses of various shapes hanging in the closet, muttering softly, "Just borrowing them temporarily."

He waved his hand, and the glass front door of the closet opened, and hourglasses flew towards Felix one by one... After an unknown amount of time, hundreds of hourglasses were floating crookedly around Felix, at the cost of an empty closet and a dim crystal glass cover.

His magic power was also running out.

At this time, Felix suddenly raised his head, his eyes fixed on one direction, and the echo bird he left behind was triggered!

He put away all the hourglasses and touched his face. The effect of the Polyjuice Potion had long disappeared. He put on a cloak and a hood and walked out of the Time Hall.

In the circular room, a Silent Man was leaning over to look at the wreckage on the ground. Everything happened so suddenly. As soon as he pushed the door open, a fireball fell from the sky. He was startled and thought he was attacked. When he came to his senses, he found a delicate structure in the flames.

Is it an alchemical item? Who brought it? He was wondering, and suddenly he felt dizzy. The last picture in his mind was the sudden disappearance of the burning wreckage and a pair of feet passing by without stopping.

Felix used human body transformation to make himself look much shorter and his face turned ginger. He took the elevator to the lobby of the Ministry of Magic and breathed a sigh of relief. He

can Apparate!

But his condition at the moment is extremely bad. If he splits, it will be a big joke. He walked towards the fireplace area step by step, glancing at the time halfway. It was not too late.

"Sir! Sir!"

The voice of the guard appeared behind him, trying to stop Felix. His strange dress had aroused suspicion, but there was no way, he had to wear a hood, who made him wear the crown of Ravenclaw on his head, if he took it off, he would definitely faint immediately.

Felix silently quickened his pace.

"Sir! Sir!" The guard shouted twice again, watching Felix getting closer and closer to the fireplace. In order to meet the needs of the Ministry of Magic staff to go to work, a fire had been lit in the fireplace.

The guard blew the whistle urgently.

The footsteps kept getting closer, and more than a dozen guards quickly ran towards Felix, pulling out their wands and pointing at him.

"This guest who hides his head, no matter who you are, surrender immediately!" Someone shouted, and Felix's response was a dazzling red light, and the person shouting flew far away.

"Attack!" The other guards did not hold back, and all kinds of dazzling lights attacked him.

Felix cast a human armor charm on himself, and gathered his energy to deflect the spells one by one. He panted slightly, suppressed the physical and mental discomfort, and swung his wand, leaving an afterimage. Three guards fell instantly. Two seconds later, two more guards fell.

Almost in the blink of an eye, the road in front of Felix was empty. He left quickly without stopping.

Another round of footsteps

"Mr. Scrimgeour! Great, we found a thug who broke into the Ministry of Magic!" The guards were overjoyed. Behind Scrimgeour followed seven or eight Aurors. His face was gloomy, like an angry lion.

"Combat level, the highest! Two people in a group, free attack!" Scrimgeour shook his head and shouted loudly. He threw his crutches aside and fired spells swiftly.

Felix deflected the difficult spell and took a step back to avoid two Stunning Spells. The magic power in his body was almost exhausted, so he had to be careful. At this time, a blazing fireball flew towards him at an extremely fast speed. Felix widened his eyes and instantly released the Ironclad Charm. The fireball exploded on the Ironclad Charm with a loud bang.

Felix staggered to the side a few steps and almost fell. He could not help but feel a surge of anger in his heart. Using the magic I taught me to attack me?

"He's injured!" Scrimgeour pointed at the broken Ironclad Charm. The magic barrier was stained with a large area of ​​blood red. "Use rune magic! Listen to my command and release it all at once!"

The Aurors were distributed around in twos and threes. After hearing the order, they drew the flame rune with one hand and released the Fiery Charm with the other. Seven or eight orange-red fireballs the size of a human head were quickly forming.

"Ready!"

Felix was extremely angry.

"Get out!"

He waved his wand violently, and his body underwent a strange change at this moment. Magic patterns climbed up his face and disappeared in the blink of an eye. The fireballs in the hands of the Aurors exploded uncontrollably, forming a huge shock wave that threw them far away.

At the same time, the hundreds of feet high and magnificent magic hall made a "buzzing" sound, as if it were some kind of resonance. In the shocked eyes of everyone, large pieces of glass curtain walls shattered all over the floor.

The Aurors, guards, and the Ministry of Magic staff who were on duty were silent.

The Aurors looked at each other, and they looked at Scrimgeour, waiting for him to make a decision. The skin on Scrimgeour's face trembled violently. He raised one hand, but he couldn't make up his mind. This person had not killed him, but if he pushed him to the edge...

Finally,

Felix stood in the fireplace, the green flames licking his body. He looked at Scrimgeour with a strange ginger face, bowed slightly to express his apology, and disappeared the next second.