Shh, the World Will Hear

Inside the Crystal Landscape Ball, delicate and dreamlike magical snowflakes drifted down one after another, piling up higher and higher. Though the scene was fragile and fleeting, it seemed to whisper the weight of time.

Sean raised his head almost tremblingly to look at the old man in front of him.

His hair and beard were all white, and he always wore that unrestrained and joyful smile, always exuding an aura of looking down on everything.

Grindelwald naturally noticed Sean's strange behavior as well. He frowned slightly and looked at the Landscape Orb where snowflakes were still falling.

He looked down for a while, then looked up.

A variety of emotions flashed across Grindelwald's eyes: confusion, heaviness, bewilderment... none of which could be expressed in words.

He reached out and grabbed the thing, his tone seemingly casual. "Tsk, Age-Measuring Ball... what a coincidence..."

The Crystal Ball was held very tightly.

Sean's throat bobbed, and he stared at the other man in disbelief.

Why, why does Grindelwald look so lost...?

A long silence fell between them, and Sean didn't even know how to ask the other person a question.

While Grindelwald was looking at Sean, his attention was clearly elsewhere.

This was the first time Sean had seen Grindelwald in such a dazed state.

He hesitated for a moment before finally asking, "Teacher..."

Grindelwald's eye turned into a heterochromatic pupil, and his voice remained flat. "Tell me what you've discovered recently..."

Before he could finish speaking, Sean suddenly looked up and gazed outside.

A tremendous sense of threat welled up inside me. It wasn't the threat of an enemy attack, but a threat that came from my very instincts.

It's like...

The world felt like the entire sky was about to collapse!

At the very moment Grindelwald asked that question, all the wizards, all the animals with magical abilities, and even some Muggle who were naturally more sensitive...

They all looked up at the sky.

An indescribable sense of panic and palpitations surged in like a tide.

The once clear night sky seemed to have been stained with ink, with dark clouds blocking out the sunlight, and deep within the clouds, something even more terrifying and incomprehensible seemed to be brewing.

Inside Hogwarts Castle, the students also felt a sense of dread, as if the end of the world was approaching. They walked out of the Common Room and looked at the strange phenomenon in the sky with their companions, feeling confused and worried.

All the stars have disappeared, and the moon is becoming rounder and brighter.

Some even cried out in alarm, "The moon, the moon has gotten bigger?!"

In the office belonging to the Divination Professor, Professor Trelawney rolled her eyes back and stared blankly at the night sky through the skylight, her mutterings carrying an eerie atmosphere.

"The world... the world... the world is collapsing—collapsing!"

Room of Requirement, Sean suddenly turned to look at Grindelwald. He was about to speak when he was interrupted by a voice behind him.

The stone wall rippled, a wooden door appeared, and Stephanie pushed it open and walked in.

Sean has gained partial access; when he is in the Room of Requirement, the Room of Requirement will not open to anyone outside the room, even if they share his needs.

Only Stephanie, who also has the same permissions, can do this.

However, Stephanie was clearly not going to disturb Sean; her usually cool face was also filled with anxiety and confusion.

Behind her, Dumbledore's figure came into view.

"Professor..." Sean called out instinctively.

Grindelwald raised his head slightly, his voice low. "Albus..."

Dumbledore's face was solemn, tense, and even showed a hint of... fear that made one's heart pound...

He strode over, grabbed Sean's arm, and almost roughly pulled the latter behind him.

"The Invisibility Cloak, child," Dumbledore said to Sean.

Sean hesitated before taking out the Invisibility Cloak, Dumbledore snatched it away and tossed it directly to Grindelwald.

He stared at the other person with an almost cold gaze, then pointed to the Vanishing Cabinet: "Let's go."

Grindelwald's gaze turned cold, and he said in a deep voice, "Don't you think you should explain everything to me?"

"Can you?" Dumbledore's answer was heavy with meaning.

Grindelwald was taken aback.

"Boom!" Suddenly, a thunderous roar erupted, sounding as if it were right above our heads, sending chills down our spines.

How could the sound of thunder from outside possibly reach the Room of Requirement?

Sean looked up in disbelief, then realized that the palpitation in his heart was getting worse.

Dumbledore shouted sharply, "Go!"

After a brief silence, Grindelwald seemed to suddenly remember something. He looked up at Dumbledore abruptly, then without saying a word, picked up the Invisibility Cloak and strode back into the Vanishing Cabinet.

After Grindelwald left, Dumbledore looked up and then at Sean: "Son, come with me."

Sean glanced at Stephanie, who had brought Dumbledore over, and she shook her head, indicating that she knew nothing about it either.

Dumbledore had already started walking towards the exit.

Sean glanced back at the Vanishing Cabinet, which was now empty, but quickly followed after it.

As Sean stepped out of the Room of Requirement and into the stone corridor, his pupils suddenly contracted.

Through the huge floor-to-ceiling windows, he saw the completely dark sky outside.

Sean hurried to the window and was shocked to find that the sky seemed to be slowly descending.

You can't see it moving, but you can feel it, the pitch-black night sky getting closer and closer to you.

Just like those old-fashioned doomsday stories, you can really feel that the world seems to be collapsing.

"Why...why is this happening?" Sean looked at Dumbledore in disbelief.

Dumbledore merely glanced up at the sky that seemed to press down on him; he appeared indifferent, yet also as if he had anticipated it.

"It's a bit early..." he said, then strode towards the Headmaster's Office.

Sean gazed at the terrifying night sky as he quickly followed.

The Headmaster's Office was on the Seventh Floor, a short walk away, but Sean was surprised to find that the corridor he had walked countless times seemed to have suddenly lengthened.

He followed closely behind Dumbledore, and then he noticed that the entire corridor had suddenly become crooked and twisted.

Sean clearly felt that he was on the normal road, but from his perspective, the road ahead became uneven, with the stone slabs arranged haphazardly.

He followed Dumbledore forward, and the road, which clearly appeared to be tilted at a ninety-degree angle, remained unchanged the moment he stepped on it; he walked as if on flat ground.

"You should know a little about the history of Hogwarts, right? This place originated from a magical location in the magical world, and it was formed naturally. The Four Founders connected the castle to this place, so what you see here is what you see now," Dumbledore said softly as he walked.

"Professor, I don't understand?" Sean asked, puzzled.

"Hogwarts Castle and the magic here have long been intertwined, and the magic in this place is naturally generated. When the world begins to go wrong, this naturally generated magic will have a chain reaction faster than in other places—just like what you are seeing, the castle has already begun to go wrong," Dumbledore explained.

Sean astutely grasped the key point in the other person's words. "Professor, you're saying the world is starting to become abnormal?"

Then, after walking through the winding corridors, they finally arrived in front of the Headmaster's Office.

At this moment, the Gargoyle at the entrance had become a haphazardly assembled piece, like a jigsaw puzzle that had been broken up and rearranged.

Its half-leg and half-face were pressed together, and it made a sound, "Headmaster, something feels strange... Oh, right, the password?"

"Whisper..." Dumbledore uttered a command that didn't fit the style of the previous commands, adding after the Gargoyle hopped aside, "Please bear with it a little longer, it will be over soon."

"Oh, oh, okay, Headmaster," the Gargoyle muttered.

Sean glanced at the other man, then followed Dumbledore down the completely twisted spiral staircase to the office.

But here, it's not the same as before at all. The tables with long, thin legs and the strange, comical silverware are all gone, and the whole room has a bizarre, distorted appearance.

The stools, cushions, desks, and a few decorative items all seemed to have been perfectly cut apart by a sharp blade. They were either randomly combined with other things, stuck to the walls or ceilings, or simply floating awkwardly in mid-air.

In the main part of the room, numerous smooth-edged stone fragments are also twisted and irregularly arranged.

At the very center, a silky silver wisp floated in mid-air, its center abruptly cut off, revealing a portrait three-quarters of the way through— the Portraits of Phineas Nigellus Black, the most unpopular headmaster in Hogwarts history.

"Hey kid, you stepped on my eye!" Phineas yelled angrily.

Sean lifted his foot and realized that a quarter of the portrait was on his feet, and he had stepped right on the eyes.

Phineas was clearly split in two, but that quarter of the image was still vividly alive, and the mouth on the other side was clamoring. "Albus, this feeling is awful! I told you, you were bound to get into trouble sooner or later with that thing!"

On the other side, the portrait, now fragmented into countless pieces, began to tremble. Sean barely recognized it as Delilah Derwent.

In the latter split portrait, the mouth part moves together, but it makes a normal sound.

"Shut up, Phineas! This day was bound to come! Albus is trying to find a solution!"

Sean looked at Dumbledore, who had come to the office but hadn't done anything; he just stood there quietly, as if waiting for something.

"Professor? What exactly happened? That day? What did Ms. Derwent mean by that day?"

Dumbledore didn't answer him; he just stood there.

Just as Sean was anxiously preparing to press for more answers, suddenly, as if a magical wave swept across the entire world and into everyone's hearts.

The distorted objects and the pressing down sky seemed to be Rewind, combining, and rearranging themselves as if under Repairing Charm.

The world seemed to return to peace, and everything returned to normal, including the Headmaster's Office.

The portraits of the past principals were neatly hung back on the wall. Phineas stretched his neck and said, "Oh, it feels so good to be back to normal."

Other principals immediately retorted, "Aside from the strange perspective, you haven't been harmed at all, so don't try to make a name for yourself here."

Sean ignored the principals' bickering and finally saw the things that had returned to normal.

A dozen or so Pensieve were placed together, and the silver silk that Sean had just seen was nothing else at all!

That was a memory far larger than normal!

Ten-meter-long strands of silver fluff floated above the Pensieve, exuding an aura of vicissitude and antiquity. Most strangely, one end of the silver fluff was as red as blood.

"This is..." Sean looked at Dumbledore in disbelief.

The old man finally breathed a sigh of relief, and a look of relief appeared in his eyes.

"Sean, you know about the Deathly Hallows, right?" he suddenly asked.

"Of course I know that the legend says that if you collect Deathly Hallows, you can become the Master of Death and have the Death God's Authority —but I always thought that was a legend that was mystified and artisticized by later generations. Logically speaking, it was probably just a powerful Magical Items created by the Peverell brothers ..." Sean replied quickly, frowning.

He is now eager to know what exactly happened.

"Don't you think that one of the Deathly Hallows doesn't quite fit the magical legend?" Dumbledore continued.

"Doesn't fit... the Invisibility Cloak?" Sean immediately thought of the Invisibility Cloak.

Of the Deathly Hallows, the Elder Wand possesses terrifying power, the Resurrection Stone can summon the souls of the dead to exist in a state of neither life nor death, and only the Invisibility Cloak, apart from its ability to Anti-Summoning Charm, the Anti-Transfiguration spell, and permanent Invisibility Cloak, does not exhibit any particularly magical properties.

All of its special features can be replaced by alternatives.

Wait a minute... recalling Dumbledore's earlier instruction to give the Invisibility Cloak to Grindelwald, Sean was suddenly startled.

"Professor, are you saying that the Invisibility Cloak has some special feature that hasn't been discovered yet?" he asked hesitantly.

Dumbledore nodded.

"But that doesn't explain what's happening now. Why is the world like this? Besides, isn't the teacher the one who went back to the past? This..."

Before Sean could finish speaking, that feeling of palpitation returned!

Dumbledore looked at him and put a finger to his lips in a shushing gesture.

"This..."

Under his shocked gaze, Dumbledore pointed upwards and whispered in the softest, most cautious voice.

Shh, the world will hear you.