"Alright, you're right," Hermione was persuaded by Rhys.
She hurried out of the library at a brisk pace. Perhaps it was just an illusion, but Rhys felt that her steps were much lighter as she left.
"You know, don't you? That she has that thing."
"I know." A figure emerged from the bookshelf opposite Rhys. It was none other than Rowena Ravenclaw, using the alias Spite.
"Aren't you afraid she'll repeat the same mistake?" A mocking smile tugged at the corner of Rhys's mouth.
"Not afraid." Rowena looked completely at ease, as though she had everything under control.
"If she manages to figure out the proper uses of the Time-Turner, I'll remind her where the limits lie," Rowena said, still perfectly calm.
"Then I definitely won't come out to clean up the mess. You can go ahead and try," Rhys let out a cold laugh.
Don't tell me you think Hermione is my student. There's no such thing as unlimited backup.
"Using the Time-Turner properly is extremely beneficial. You can gain several extra hours out of thin air every day. If your courage is great enough, you could have forty-eight, seventy-two, even ninety-six hours in a single day…"
"And then cause a huge disaster and waste several days fixing it, right?" Rhys interrupted Rowena bluntly.
"No one ever guaranteed that a Time-Turner wouldn't break, especially if you keep using it to return to the same point in time," Rhys pointed out the Time-Turner's fatal flaw.
Rowena had suffered a heavy loss because of this before, and the Time-Turners preserved in the Ministry of Magic now were all antiques. Who knew when one might suddenly go crack and break down—especially when the user was a wizard like Rhys.
It was like an overweight man riding in a poorly maintained helicopter. It might be convenient, but once an accident happened…
"It's not too late to catch up now. Go out and borrow the Time-Turner from Granger. You need it, Salazar," Rowena said quietly from the side.
"Don't use my name outside," Rhys said. As for the matter of borrowing the Time-Turner from Hermione, he deliberately avoided the topic.
It was like a Pandora's box. Once opened, it could never be closed again.
As far as the Time-Turner was concerned, Rhys felt it was best for him not to use it at all. Because even he did not dare wager on whether he would become addicted to the feeling of using it.
Wizards like them found it genuinely hard to resist the temptation of having double, or even several times more, hours in a single day.
The reason Hermione felt so exhausted was that she had not discovered the Time-Turner's true method of use. Each time, she merely turned it back by one or two hours, and at the same time point she would only reverse time two or three times at most. The real method, however, was to rewind twelve to twenty-four hours in one go, then repeatedly loop time, allocating the extra hours reasonably—one portion for rest, another for research and study.
This was the Time-Turner's true use.
It could allow the user to master a new spell in an extremely short time, or become proficient in brewing a new potion, or even finish reading an entire book.
"There's actually still one kept in my private classroom. Do you need it?" Rowena whispered beside Rhys.
Rhys did not answer. He decided that if Rowena really brought that thing in front of him, he would destroy it with a spell at the first possible moment.
The corner of the library returned to silence.
After a while, Hermione returned with light steps. Her neck was bare, clearly indicating that she had returned the Time-Turner.
"Professor Flitwick agreed to help me drop those two courses!" Hermione's voice was brimming with barely contained relief and happiness.
The moment the Time-Turner was removed from her neck, it felt as though a crushing burden had been lifted from her shoulders.
"Congratulations." Rhys wore a smile on his face. As for the conversation he had just had with Rowena, he did not mention a single word of it.
"Let's read." Rhys took out a copy of the Encyclopaedia Britannica from his backpack and began leafing through it with interest. Hermione sat down across from him and also took out the book she had just borrowed from the library.
Rhys flipped through the encyclopedia quickly. Most of the content he merely skimmed, only pausing to read carefully and repeatedly the few sections that truly interested him.
While browsing the encyclopedia, he was also considering the possibility of establishing an internal Internet network within Hogwarts.
"That's impossible." After Rhys tentatively discussed the feasibility of setting up an Internet with Hermione, she flatly rejected his idea.
"No electronic devices can be used within Hogwarts." Hermione cited what she had read in Hogwarts: A History.
"Oh? Why?" Rhys asked with some curiosity. Back when they had laid down all kinds of defensive magic around the school, they had never considered electronic devices at all. Such things had not even existed at the time.
Hermione: …
She was completely stumped by Rhys's question.
In the end, all she could do was stammer out that electronic devices would malfunction within the school.
"Then is this the work of some Headmaster? Judging by when electronic devices appeared, it would have to be within the last two or three generations."
Hermione could not answer at all, but Rhys felt his reasoning made perfect sense.
When it came to investigating this question, they had a clear advantage, because Dumbledore had lived for an exceptionally long time. He had graduated from Hogwarts at the end of the nineteenth century and became Headmaster in the mid-twentieth century, which happened to coincide with the major development of electronic devices.
If any Headmaster had set up magic around the school to interfere with electronic devices, then even if it was not Dumbledore who cast it, he would very likely know about it.
Rhys decided to send Helga to inquire about it.
Acting on that thought immediately, he left the library and headed for Helga's office.
"Electronic device interference?" A look of confusion appeared on Helga's face. "First of all, what exactly is an electronic device?"
Helga's question made Rhys's breathing hitch.
After that, he had no choice but to patiently explain to Helga what electronic devices were, inevitably involving explanations of concepts like electricity. Helga listened and nodded repeatedly.
"Muggles have really come up with quite a few novel things over the years." Even Helga had to admit that the world beyond Hogwarts had become truly unfamiliar.
"So hurry and go ask Dumbledore about it. I'm very curious—and this is crucial to establishing an internal Internet at Hogwarts."
"What is the Internet?"
Rhys: "…"
He even had the urge to drink Polyjuice Potion and turn into Helga himself just to go ask Dumbledore.
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12 Chaps ahead at Patreon.com/HornyFBI