Parting Day

The end-of-term feast was really no different from the start-of-term feast. One welcomed, while the other saw people off.

Yes, because at this time every year, the seventh-year students would leave school and begin a brand-new chapter of their lives. Perhaps they would become Law enforcers, the Wizard World's police, or perhaps they would enter the Ministry of Magic. They had many choices, but this year, an especially large number chose to stay.

Staying meant becoming assistants at Hogwarts. There were not many such positions, but this year, nearly every student—including those with well-connected families—had approached Hogwarts or the various professors in search of an assistant position. Dumbledore had no choice but to agree.

They all knew the reason. Because of meditation, they willingly and proactively chose to remain. In their own words: they were the luckiest generation, having never suffered an attack from Voldemort. But they were also the unluckiest generation, having only just encountered meditation when they graduated.

Josh received the most assistant requests. Even Garen, his original assistant, received quite a few requests. However, this was all within Josh's expectations. The closer one was to Josh, the more benefits one could gain. This had practically become an unspoken consensus among them.

Josh was happy to take it easy and readily approved several requests that looked fairly promising, including one from Crouch. He was still far from graduation, but he had cleverly thought of preparing for himself in advance. Josh found it amusing, but still agreed.

"Hmph. A professor who always wants to slack off isn't a good professor either."

Hermione, who happened to be in Josh's office receiving some extra tutoring from him, saw everything clearly. She grumbled in dissatisfaction. Josh, however, had no complaints. He happily patted her head—even though she rolled her eyes. After withdrawing his hand, Josh said, "Remember to clean the office and room before dinner today," then left.

The place had been turned into a complete mess by his and Akathosh's experiments. As a professor, Josh had no interest in cleaning it himself. No matter how devastated Hermione felt at the time, at least Josh was in a very good mood.

That was a bit off topic. The people being bid farewell to were not just the seventh-year students, but also the other students, including the Young Wizards who had only arrived a year ago. It could be said that this year had also been especially meaningful for them. Here, they had experienced things they had never experienced at home.

Perhaps friendship, brotherhood, and maybe even love in the future. And, of course, honor—Dumbledore did not waste any words and directly announced the final winner of this year's House Cup: Ravenclaw.

That made Josh roll his eyes, but after thinking about it carefully, he felt it made sense. For no other reason than the fact that he himself had taken out Voldemort and Quirrell on the first day, leaving Harry Potter and the others with nothing to do but honestly become good students afterward.

There were no magical adventures, and because Harry still seemed to be old enemies with Malfoy, they constantly caused trouble. Things like duels, or that baby dragon, had caused Gryffindor and Slytherin to lose quite a few points.

His own House already had plenty of top students, and with Hermione, a point-scoring machine, among them, even though Gryffindor had won Quidditch—though Josh had blown it up, it was quickly repaired—they had lost far too many points to ever catch up.

Incidentally, Ravenclaw had also earned plenty of points from Quidditch. Since Josh was the Head of House, he felt the sport resembled the football from his memories, so he directly introduced football tactics into it. The Quidditch players were greatly amazed.

Although they had not won first place, they still achieved an excellent result—second place. Using the tactics Josh had given them, the Ravenclaw Quidditch players defeated Slytherin. They cheered endlessly and had even begun imagining whether they could defeat the seemingly weaker Gryffindor in the finals as well.

The result dealt them a heavy blow. Facing a Harry Potter who seemed to have activated cheats, Ravenclaw ultimately lost the final. Still, this was the Little Eagles' best result in recent years. Though they were somewhat disappointed, they had at least earned quite a few points.

It seems my arrival not only broke up Harry Potter's Golden Trio and ruined his adventures, but even eliminated the House Cup, where he was supposed to shine the most. Am I being too cruel?

Resting his head on his hand, Josh watched the Ravenclaw students celebrating below, along with the students from the other Houses, who were visibly far more dejected—especially the Young Wizards of Gryffindor. He felt a little guilty. Of course, that guilt lasted less than a second before he tossed it aside.

Since I'm already here, what face would I have to call myself a visitor from another world if I changed nothing? Besides, their future growth will surely surpass the original story by who knows how much.

The farewell feast was somewhat melancholy, but it was filled with even more laughter. The night-long celebration left Hogwarts brightly lit almost everywhere. To be honest, Josh enjoyed it as well. He had been away from school for a long time, and looking back at all this felt quite interesting.

The next day, the students gradually left the school. Hogwarts, which had once been somewhat overcrowded, suddenly became much quieter. Josh also planned to leave today and return to the Muya Continent for a look. He had mentioned this decision to Dumbledore before, but early that morning, there was already someone extra in his office.

"To be honest, I'm only leaving this world. Did you really need to come so early?"

Josh looked at Dumbledore somewhat speechlessly. To be honest, he had not fully awakened from meditation yet, and his head was still a little dizzy when Dumbledore woke him up.

"And didn't you say you weren't planning to go?"

"That was because you previously said you might not return. Now that you can establish a fixed connection, why can't I go and take a look? Don't forget, I'm a Gryffindor."

Dumbledore blinked and smiled faintly. It really was an impeccable reason. Just like when Dumbledore had followed them to Hungary before, Josh truly did not know how to refute him. Besides, it had been Josh who invited him.

Rubbing his head, Josh could only climb out of bed and wash up with a gloomy expression. It did not take much time for him to finish. He called Garen over, and for once, the man had not gone off to train himself. Perhaps he had also realized that Battle Qi was not something that improved just because one trained like mad. While it depended on talent, it also required time to accumulate.

It was just like magic. While magic also depended heavily on talent, it likewise required constant accumulation. Even though Josh had reached the enviable fourth tier at only seventeen, had he not also spent a long time improving his control over his magic power?

"It feels like playing games in the past. You need proficiency."

Since everyone had arrived, Josh stopped delaying. There were many things he did not need to take with him, since he planned to return anyway. With a casual lift of his hand, a silver magic sphere appeared in his palm. Josh threw it onto the ground, and it swiftly gave off streams of light before forming a slightly transparent door as tall as a person.

"Is this the door to another world?"

Dumbledore adjusted his glasses. Although he could not understand how Josh's magic worked, that did not stop him from wanting to study this miraculous Magic Gate.

"Of course, but it can only be considered a one-way journey. I still need to add something to stabilize it."

Josh answered simply. He slowly walked over to the door and placed his hand against it. The originally translucent door quickly became somewhat more solid, and as Josh continued pouring magic power into it, the door gradually became tangible.

This was a basic application of spatial magic Josh had learned from Akathosh, completed with the addition of Void Origin, the Baleful Phantasm. Although it looked as if it had been completed very easily, they all knew that Josh had spent nearly five months learning it.

"All right, it's done." Josh withdrew his hand. He looked somewhat tired, though he remained in good spirits. "This door can stabilize the connection with this world. Correspondingly, though, the rate of time flow in this world will gradually approach that of the Muya Continent, although it will be a slow process."

"So what is the current time ratio?" Garen also walked up to the door and examined it from top to bottom. He was considering whether, when he returned to Valoran, he should ask Josh to create such a connection as well. With reinforcements like Josh, future wars would be much easier to face.

"I don't know yet." Josh communicated with the inheritance in his memories, but did not obtain the information he wanted. "The standard for the passage of time cannot be determined yet. We'll only know after we return. And if I become stronger, it might even be possible to return to an earlier point in time."

"Return to an earlier point in time?" Garen frowned, while Dumbledore's eyes widened.

"Yes." Josh shrugged.

"The Void has endless possibilities to begin with. Returning to a point in the past is not impossible. It might disrupt the timeline, but so what? If you're strong enough, it won't be impossible to change things you regret."

"All right, stop talking about such useless things." Akathosh flew impatiently out of Josh's tattoo. "That all depends on you becoming strong enough. Right now, what difference is there between any of you and specks of dust? You're always fantasizing about unrealistic things. The most practical thing is to hurry back and take a look."

All right, this dragon was clearly very impatient. Josh could only comply with his request, taking the lead as he walked into the Void Gate. Silver light flashed, and the three people in the room immediately vanished.

However, none of them could have imagined that after they left, the door to Josh's office was pushed open and a figure walked inside.

Thanks to Guoshu123 for the reward—

I got too carried away playing games today. I almost missed the update.