" Director Lorne, what happened to you..." Hermione immediately pulled Ron up and moved closer to Lorne.
Lorne put his index finger to his lips, signaling them to Quiet: " Quiet, we only have ten minutes. We need to travel back in time to ten minutes ago. This time, run faster, okay?"
However, even though Harry, and his trio gave it their all on the first try, they couldn't break through their limits in one go; it was impossible for them to run from Hagrid's Hut to the room in the Hospital Wing in ten minutes.
"Alright then," Lorne was their only helper, and the only variable different from last time, "It might hurt a little, bear with it."
Before the three could react, Lorne used his Levitation Charm to leap up from the ground, carrying them through the large glass window of the Hospital Wing.
Bang! Glass shattered all over the floor. Harry finally realized where the sound of breaking glass he heard when he traveled back in time came from.
Lorne didn't know who would lead the charge, but it certainly wasn't him. At most, it would just be a broken head; inside was the Hospital Wing, nothing to be afraid of.
This time it was a few minutes faster than last time. The three people inside the room were gathered under the hourglass necklace, preparing to rewind. Lorne checked the time; everything was just right. He quietly retreated to the door.
When the three looked at him blankly, he had already retreated halfway behind the door, maintaining the same posture he had adopted when he came to warn Harry and the others.
"Oh, by the way," Lorne smiled wickedly, "You're welcome."
Harry and his two companions, still shaken, unconsciously whispered, "Thank you, Director Lorne."
No sooner had Lorne left than Snape's furious voice came from outside the door. " Sirius is gone? Wait, what's that noise inside? It must be them again. They let Sirius escape."
Snape pushed open the door and saw the three of Harry in a sorry state, covered in shards of glass. The cold wind blowing in from the window made Harry was bleeding profusely from his head, instinctively pull his robe tighter around himself.
"Very well, you've succeeded again, Mr. Potter," Snape said, seemingly oblivious to Harry's miserable state. "You should pray that you stay lucky, or you'll end up like your father, dying from your own arrogance."
He snorted angrily, drew a semicircle in the air with his robe, and stormed off.
But Harry heard him call for Madam Pomfrey had just left, to come back in.
"Oh, good heavens, I was only gone for a moment, and now this has happened?" Madam Pomfrey hurriedly raised her wand to stop Harry's bleeding, while asking curiously, "Who broke the Hospital Wing window? If I find out—"
"It's a big bird," Ron picked the shards of glass from his clothes and put them in his pocket, lying without batting an eye as he pointed, "It's right there, do you see it?"
Following Ron's finger, Madam Pomfrey saw a huge black figure slowly disappearing into the night sky.
She muttered a curse under her breath and helped Harry back onto the bed.
Dumbledore and Fudge entered the room again, and were taken aback by the mess on the floor. "What happened?"
Dumbledore didn't seem to be expecting an answer from Harry. He looked at Lorne, who gave him a gentle, harmless smile, "Do you have cat ice, Professor?"
He pointed at Harry: "We can give Harry one; he probably needs some peace and quiet too."
A thousand possibilities flashed in Dumbledore's eyes as he habitually stroked his white beard. "Oh, of course, Harry, I'm here to tell you that Sirius has run away, but you don't need to worry about anyone harming you again."
He then looked at Lorne and said, "The professors will protect you."
Ron didn't actually fly away; in fact, for the first time, he was picked up by his parents.
"How strange," Mrs Molly had already noticed the magic plane. "The sheets I hung out to dry on the magic plane have suddenly disappeared. Guess what I found? This plane has actually run away from home."
Ron, sweating profusely, said, "That was a really bad plane."
"Really?" Mrs Molly chuckled, leaning back and forth as if she'd heard a joke. "Guess what I found in the plane? Someone left a footprint in the cockpit. It wasn't Fred's, it wasn't George's, it wasn't Ginny's. Guess whose it is, Little Ronnie?"
Mrs Molly moved closer with each name she uttered, until finally her nose was almost touching Ron's face.
Ron: "It's Percy's, isn't it...?"
Unfortunately, Ron guessed wrong.
The price was that Ron had to write Harry a letter every day during the holidays, begging him to come to his house so he could end his daily tug-of-war with seven Gnome.
In his letter, he also described in detail the punishment Mrs Molly had given him.
"I had no idea my mother's housework magic could be used on me. She can crumple clothes like they're in a tumbler, fold my waist and arms, and make me spin like a ball; what's worse, she always stares at me when she's peeling potatoes, I feel like I'm about to sprout, Harry, I wish you were here tomorrow..."
Harry was helpless; he was trying to clear Sirius's name, but it seemed someone else was more anxious than him.
Lorne is making holiday plans, Augusta has completed all the paperwork for the land he bought in the Muggle world, and the underground construction of the bank is finished. Although the qualification application has not yet been submitted, it is only one step away from legal operation.
The most pressing issue right now is the lack of manpower.
Whether Lorne wants to build a theme park on the bank's land or guide more wizards to research and mass-produce Magic Mobile Phone, he faces a shortage of manpower. Just finding NPCs for the theme park and teachers to teach Magic Power Matrix is enough to give him a headache.
Thinking about this, Lorne wanted to shout, " Little Banana Star has ruined me!"
They thought capturing Peter and redeeming Sirius was a sure thing. But despite everything being in place, Peter still managed to escape, and Sirius's appointment became indefinitely postponed.
Sirius felt quite guilty about this. He wanted to say goodbye to Lorne and go after Peter, but Lorne firmly refused. "You don't know where he went, and besides, letting you kill Peter with your own hands was the condition I promised you. This is something I should do."
Sirius was deeply moved and praised Lorne for keeping his promise. Under Lorne's fake smile, Sirius once again worked for him as Little Banana Star.
Actually, he wasn't lying to Sirius. According to his memory of the original plot, Peter would soon resurrect Voldemort and make a comeback, and they would meet again sooner or later.
It's worth mentioning that after learning from Snape that Sirius's escape was also related to Lupin, the Ministry of Magic, while not directly arresting Lupin, immediately implemented a stricter anti- Werewolf plan to address the source of the danger. To avoid implicating Dumbledore and to keep his promise to Lorne, Lupin chose to resign Lorne Lorne's side, which was one of the few pieces of good news Lorne had received recently.