It was already evening when the three of them left Potter's Cottage.
The monument was still surrounded by wizards, Peter Pettigrew, kneeling in front of it, was covered in sticky substances of various colors, though the dirt on the ground had been cleaned up.
"Let's go."
Back in Hogsmeade, the kids were indeed at the Hog's Head Pub.
Vincent was fiddling with a metal device that was half his height, and Hermione was helping him.
Fred and George seemed to be making things worse, constantly circling around the two of them.
On Rolf and Cedric's table was a snow-white ball of fur rolling around; it must be the long-lost Nine-Tailed Fox Xiao Bai.
Daphne was tutoring her younger sister Astoria in a quiet corner, while Nagini and Surya had just put on their aprons.
"You've arrived." Aberforth was behind the bar, greeted the three of them with a smile.
Sirius Black shrugged at Lupin. "This isn't a school, so don't act like a professor."
Lupin his eyes at him. "I'm very open-minded, okay?"
Snape wasn't talking about any little rascals; they were clearly excellent students who had come to relax after studying hard.
Vincent and Hermione, needless to say, are mischievous twins who actually have excellent grades.
Cedric and the soon-to-graduate Rolf, needless to say, and the Greengrass Family sisters are not typical Slytherin students.
Looking at the group of children in front of them, Sirius Black and Lupin both had the illusion of returning to the time when the four of them were together.
"Mr. Dumbledore, two glasses of Firewhisky, please."
The two walked arm in arm toward the bar.
Harry looked around and came over to Vincent.
Before he could even sit down, Fred and George had already moved on to their target.
"Peter Pettigrew?"
"Are you still kneeling there?"
Harry answered their questions one by one.
The more tragic Peter Pettigrew's fate was, the happier the twins were.
"They've been hiding in our house for so many years, they deserve to be cursed and vandalized now."
"Fred, how about we sneak off to Godric's Hollow sometime?"
"Oh— George! That's a brilliant idea!"
The twins discussed in front of Harry how to sneak out of the school and how to get to Godric's Hollow.
Merlin above, Lupin is the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, is it really okay for him not to be at all discreet about this?
Harry looked toward the bar.
Those two must have drunk a lot; they both looked a bit tipsy.
"Kids, dinner is ready!"
Nagini and Surya brought out plates of Southeast Asia specialties from the kitchen.
Aberforth used magic to piece the tables together into a larger one, and everyone stopped what they were doing and sat down.
Vincent ate the fastest, then went back to tinkering with the metal equipment.
Harry couldn't help but wonder, "What exactly is that thing?"
Hermione, who had almost finished eating, picked up a napkin to wipe her mouth. "A magical communication base station, used for transmitting signals over a wide area."
"Like a mobile phone?"
"No, it's much more advanced than this."
She took out a somewhat rough-looking black bracelet from her makeup box.
"This is Magical Communicator designed by Vincent."
As I gently slid my fingertip across the dark surface of the bracelet, a small, semi-transparent barrier was projected onto it.
As Hermione slid, the barrier even changed size.
"The image function is still being debugged, but the voice function has been implemented."
A semi-transparent barrier slowly formed her blurry face.
Her head tilted to the left, and the face on the screen tilted to the left as well.
Blinking and nodding are the same, only with a slight delay.
Sirius Black and Lupin were so startled that they instantly sobered up.
Compared to this thing, the Marauder's Map is practically a toy.
Moreover, apart from the three of them, no one else reacted.
In other words, Vincent has been manufacturing it for a long time, including the kind that uses Time-Turner.
After a brief moment of astonishment, Sirius Black couldn't help but sigh, "No wonder he didn't need any conditions. If this thing can really be made, what is the Black Family's wealth worth?"
From Muggle's perspective, this is clearly a holographic projection.
Even in the eyes of wizards, it is a device that is far more portable than Two-Way Mirror.
A mere bracelet can actually conduct real-time image communication through Magical Base Station.
A truly ingenious idea!
Not to mention the Black Family, the combined wealth of all the wizarding families in Britain is nothing.
Lupin shook his large head. "Is Wayne Enterprises still hiring?"
Sirius Black looked at him with disdain. "Remus, being a professor at a university is better than working for someone else, isn't it?"
"You wouldn't understand." Lupin raised an eyebrow at him. "Anyway, you don't have anything else to do right now. Would you be interested in becoming Defense Against the Dark Arts professor at the school?"
"Me?" Sirius Black was instantly sober.
They had witnessed the power of Voldemort's curse during their school days; the fates of those seven professors were all tragic.
Don't be fooled by Lupin's current apparent well-being; as long as he remains the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor next semester, he's bound to encounter a series of unfortunate events.
One academic year is fine, but if I continue to hold that position...
"Remus, I'm not drunk yet."
Lupin looked regretful. "But Snape has become a professor, are you really not even a little bit interested?"
Sirius Black twitched his eye. "We'll see."
This is a provocation tactic; don't fall for it.
Lupin smiled but remained silent.
With just over two months until the final exams, this relaxing and enjoyable evening will soon be over, and we'll return to the hectic and busy routine of campus life.
Vincent attends his grade level classes during the day and continues to refine the Magical Communicator in the Forbidden Forest at night.
The Time-Turner was a huge help; without this magical item, the Magical Base Station would probably still only exist on blueprints.
In early April, the Ministry of Magic once again postponed the execution date of Peter Pettigrew.
From the initial period in May to June, this time it has been dragged out to the end of July, a week before Harry's birthday.
Fred and George no longer had a reason to sneak out of school, but that didn't mean their plan was off the table.
The Room of Requirement, a secret base.
The two sought Vincent's help, only to be ruthlessly rejected.
He recently even turned down McGonagall's Animagus coaching.
Besides feeling disgusted by the previous incident involving Peter Pettigrew, he also wanted to perfect this groundbreaking invention as soon as possible while he still had the Time-Turner.
"Dude, isn't your Magical Communicator making a sound?"
"You need to relax a bit, otherwise you'll easily develop 'Yu Yu syndrome'."
Hermione's lips twitched. "It's depression."
She gave Vincent a disapproving look as he fiddled with a bunch of small parts across from her, as if she wanted him to figure out how to deal with the clingy twins.
"I just thought of a way to completely solve the problem of interference with electronic signals, but I don't have the energy to do anything else."
Fred and George pouted and grumbled as they circled around Rolf.
Slipping out of school isn't difficult; the key is how to get out of the Scottish Highlands.
The means of transportation were not only conspicuous but also very slow, and riding a flying broom would make it easy for the Ministry of Magic to spot you.
The Apparition is convenient and quick; as long as you don't move to crowded places, there's basically no risk of being detected.
Rolf looked troubled. "I do have the Apparition certificate, but I haven't learned how to Side-Along Apparition yet."
"Give it a try, maybe you'll succeed on your first try?"
Just as the twins were pestering him until he was about to agree, Hermione came over with her wand.
"I'll take you there."
"You?"
Not only did her friends not believe it, but even her best friend Daphne didn't believe it.
It's one thing if they Apparition, but an underage wizard can Side-Along Apparition? It's not Vincent is some kind of freak.