"Hurry, hurry, it's too late!"
The four landed near Black Lake. Sirius bid farewell to the three and headed back to the Shrieking Shack. The battle had been intense, and he hadn't had a chance to take his Magic Mobile Phone with him. Now he needed to report to Lorne, who was so clever that he must have left a backup plan with Peter.
Harry, Meghan, and Snape rushed toward the castle. They crossed a small patch of the Forbidden Forest, passed Hagrid's Hut, and without stopping for a moment, rushed to the Hospital Wing, where they ran into an enraged Snape.
" Sirius has disappeared?" Snape was furious. "Wait, what's that noise in the house? It must be them again. They let Sirius escape."
Ignoring Dumbledore and Lorne who were guarding the entrance to the Hospital Wing, Snape pushed the door open himself.
"It's over," Hermione, her face ashen as she looked at the hourglass in her hand. "Time's up."
"I don't think anything happened?" Ron patted his cheeks and pinched his ears. "I'm fine, just a little hungry."
Harry didn't notice anything unusual either. He looked at Hermione with some confusion, and was about to peek through the wall to see what was happening in the Hospital Wing when he found that his hand went straight in through the wall without any resistance.
He turned into a ghost?
It's probably even more terrifying than that, because at least ghosts can be seen by people.
Suddenly, a series of colored blocks flashed across the scene before him. Harry felt as if he were playing a game full of bugs, with code and data floating in the air. He watched as a vase beside him flickered and rearranged, transforming into a classic skull lamp from the last century.
"What happened, Hermione?"
Hermione stared at the bizarre scene before her, utterly bewildered. She let out a desperate wail, tears of terror streaming down her face. "I told you, we can't be late—Elois Metubow was trapped in the past five days during the experiment, and when he was rescued, his body had aged five hundred years. He ultimately died in St. Mungo's's. We might be transported back to ancient times and then instantly back to the present, our bodies aging and dying rapidly."
"That's not the worst part. Dwelling on the past could lead to us being erased from history, or even tearing time itself apart."
The three of them, staring at the strange sights around them, huddled together back to back. Once everything calmed down, Hogwarts was still Hogwarts, but Snape's exasperated voice rang in their ears again. " Sirius has disappeared? Wait, what's that noise in the room...?"
"I think we're trapped in a time loop," Harry blurted out. "I heard him say when I worked at Director Lorne's shop that if a game has a bug, the program will keep running at the bug's location and never stop."
"What should we do?" Ron's voice trembled with tears. "Why doesn't Professor Trelawney explain things more clearly?"
Hermione was still unwilling to give up, and even had the energy to retort to Ron, "You're just trying to fit your own situation into what she said. If I may be so bold, even if she were to predict correctly, she wouldn't tell you how to avoid it; instead, she would just say it's your fate."
Even amidst the chaos and bewilderment before her, Hermione continued forward, "We have to rely on ourselves."
Harry was about to stop Hermione, but after thinking about it, he realized that things couldn't get any worse, so he simply went out as well.
Snape was still reenacting the actions from before, completely unaware that Harry and Hermione were standing right in front of him. Harry pushed open the door—he didn't even need to push it open, he could just slip inside—and found the three people in the room standing frozen in place, with only the hourglass around Hermione's neck spinning continuously.
"Is there anything else we can do?" Harry asked in despair.
Hermione began her analysis. "Right now, what can't we touch besides our own possessions, like wands, or... does anyone have Magic Mobile Phone with them?"
Harry and Ron both shook their heads. They knew they were in the middle of a major battle, so how could they possibly carry their Magic Mobile Phone with them? They would be heartbroken if it got damaged.
"Wait a minute," Harry suddenly pulled a business card from his inner pocket, "We can ask him for help."
Hermione and Ron looked at Harry's hand with surprise, then couldn't help rolling their eyes. " Mr. M, the mining tycoon? Don't joke around at a time like this, Harry. Do you expect a Muggle to save us?"
"We're really going to be stuck here forever," Ron shook his head, seemingly resigned. "It's good that you two are with me. If I were alone, I would be so lonely and scared that I would die..."
Harry remained silent. He knew this approach was unlikely to work, but at this point, he had no choice but to try it out.
Holding up his business card, he approached Director Lorne, who had just stepped aside from the doorway. " Director Lorne, you said that with this card, you could help me unconditionally once."
Ron, puzzled, advised, "He can't see you, Harry."
The three of them saw that Director Lorne was staring straight ahead, as if he had seen Harry's presence. He reached out and slowly touched Harry's arm—then continued backward and took a strangely shaped candy from Dumbledore's hand.
"New product, Cat Rock Candy. Eating it will quickly calm your mind," Dumbledore a smile.
Lorne scoffed, "I think it's just cooling down."
Despite saying that, Lorne still swallowed the candy in one gulp. A chill ran from his mouth straight to his internal organs, and even his brain became sluggish.
A cough came from the Magic Mobile Phone. Lorne opened it and saw a briefing from Sirius: " Peter escaped, Harry is back."
He's already back? How come I didn't see him?
Logically, Harry should have to slip right past them to get back to the Hospital Wing. Lorne had been hoping to put on a good show with his acting skills, but he hadn't seen the three of them yet.
Lorne's pupils contracted. He glanced at the time, then at the empty corridor, and couldn't help but twitch his lips. "No way... is fate really that magical?"
It seems that what's coming will come. Perhaps some people are already trapped in the time maze, and now only he can cross time and space to save them, but the prerequisite is that he must be mercilessly mocked and ridiculed by fate.
"Okay, I lost."
Lorne accepted reality in a second, and took out the Decayed Time-Turner that he had carefully preserved.
[Having trapped three people in time, and also rescued one person from time, one can exchange their past time for dimensional travel. Remaining exchangeable time: 1 year; exchange ratio: 1 year to 10 minutes]
[Friendly reminder: The Time-Turner will still function as intended, but it is likely to malfunction. Use with caution.]
Even though he had seen the introduction before, seeing this exchange rate again now, Lorne couldn't help but curse, "Profiteering merchants."
The hourglass in my hand turns upside down, and the dusty grains of sand fall in a flurry. The decay of fate—no one can say for sure whether it's turning for the better or for the worse.
Having lost his last resort, Harry realized the enormity of their predicament. He glanced helplessly at the two men still watching him behind him, forcing a smile, "Useless as expected. I'm so sorry, it's all my fault that you ended up in this godforsaken place—"
Before he could finish speaking, he felt a large hand suddenly grip his wrist, and the business card in his hand was snatched away by an external force.
"The people you should apologize to aren't them, nor me," Lorne gestured with his eyes to Hermione and Ron, who were sitting on the ground behind Harry. "You wasted Mr. M's chance to fight against fate. Repent to him, Harry."