"Boom——"
Ancient stone bricks kept turning, quickly forming a spiral staircase descending in the center of the dungeon. As William stood in front of the stairs, a wave of stale, decaying air hit him—
"Squeak——"
At this time, the Niffler had already moved its position to the top of William's head, nervously curling up as it looked into the darkness deep within the staircase.
"Calm down." Comforting the Niffler, which was inexplicably afraid, William raised his magic wand—"Lumos."
A cold light shone from the tip of William's magic wand, and he began to descend. After a section of the spiral staircase, there was a narrow, dilapidated, dusty dark stone corridor, with a broken stone wall blocking William's path.
"Revelio."
The next moment, countless blue and gold light spots appeared out of thin air behind the boy, dancing lightly in the air before finally settling into a pitch-black hole beneath the stone wall.
They were traces of ancient magic, a "safeguard" William had set for this place.
With a flick of the wand, the next moment, the blue-gold "spring water" started to rise in the hole, gathering at the stone wall's edge, quickly forming a blue and gold doorway full of jade-like texture, replacing the broken stone wall.
It seemed that no one had visited here in the past century.
Opening the door, which clashed with the surrounding architectural style, the decaying smell in the air dissipated, replaced by a reassuring scent, as the dim light illuminated the enormous secret chamber before William—
(Map Chamber)
"Nox." The light of the magic wand extinguished.
"Whimper?"
The Niffler, which had hidden in the hat somehow, poked its head out from the edge of the robe, nervously staring at the giant room before it. Even though it was filled with sparkling objects, it uncharacteristically showed no interest in them.
Descending the steps, William passed through the secret chamber's central black mirror surface. Opposite the entrance were four murals with completely different backgrounds. At this moment, only the second mural from the right had an elderly man with white hair, sitting quietly on a chair in the painting, his eyes slightly closed.
Aware of the movement William caused, he instinctively opened his eyes, "You return... wait, you are..." Looking at William's familiar yet strange face, the old man blinked in confusion.
"Good evening, Professor Lachham—"
William bowed slightly in greeting, his features began to change slightly, just enough to make him appear as a completely different person.
"...William? Is it you? William Richard?" The old man asked in puzzlement.
Although the boy before him looked identical to the one from a century ago, Percival Rackham obviously had many things he didn't understand—for instance, why had he disappeared completely over the past hundred years?
"...Is it really you?" The old man's voice seemed somewhat shaky.
"It has indeed been a long time." William nodded seriously, knowing that while only two months had passed for him, a full century had genuinely gone by for everyone else.
"But how could this be..."
The hint of suspicion in Rackham's eyes hadn't vanished; he was clearly awaiting a reasonable explanation.
"It's a long story..." William sighed helplessly, reaching for his collar... Stop, he grabbed the Niffler sneaking into the depths of his hat—and pulled out a platinum necklace from its belly.
The end of the necklace had a broken circular hourglass.
...When did it steal that?
Stuffing the somewhat sad Niffler into his pocket, William caressed the Time Turner in his hand, inquiring, "Professor, how much do you know?" He referred to his "disappearance", knowing that traces remain whenever something exists. He even read about his record in "Hogwarts: A History"—
A Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor who disappeared before taking office, mentioned in passing.
"Professor Jerard mentioned you, saying that Headmaster Blake had accepted your job application—" The old man stood up, pacing back and forth in the painting, "But he didn't receive your reply, which made him quite angry..."
"That's okay, that old man was either angry or on the way to being angry every day, wouldn't wonder he died early."
William commented unreservedly, holding no fondness for the old man from the Blake family—Pure-Blood supremacy, arrogance, sharp-tongued, disdainful of the young... He had all the typical faults of an obstinate Pure-Blood old-timer, even in intensified form.
Who knew why that old man eventually agreed to accept his job application—his original plan was to hide secretly in the Room of Requirement, submitting his resume was just a casual move.
"..."
Rackham remained silent, knowing very little about that Headmaster Blake, only hearing about him a few times through Fitzgerald.
"Seems like you don't know much either, Professor..."
William held up the Time Turner to the portrait, with no intention of hiding things. The old man before him was perhaps the person most similar to him in the world—and as a fellow guardian of ancient magic, their interests and pursuits aligned completely.
Based on his understanding of Professor Rackham, the chance of betrayal from the other party... was absolutely zero, those alive might be changed, but a portrait wouldn't be less stubborn than a Niffler seeing Golden Galleons.
"Is this... a Time Turner?" The old man examined the pendant in William's hand, speaking with a tone of confusion.
"Seized from a group of Black Wizards selling artifacts, I did some research on it—but there was a slight mishap." William suddenly appeared somewhat guilty, as if he just realized something.
Professor Rackham seemed to take notice as well, furrowing his brows, "What exactly did you do?"
"Ahem..."
"You borrowed those ancient... William, you promised us."
"Ahem, it was an accident..."
"Your accident allowed... well, you should be thankful that nothing unexpected happened in the past century." Rackham took a deep breath, now convinced of William's identity, although the story sounded exceedingly absurd—
But that's ancient magic, even dedicating his life researching it hadn't unveiled its true essence.
Thus, after briefly exchanging updates on recent circumstances, the old man sized up William, "So, now you're once again a student at Hogwarts—and in the fifth year?"
"History is surprisingly similar."