Hogwarts: Bourne Returns from Warhammer

Chapter 194 The Deluminator and Unexpected Problems
In order to make a Deluminator, Dumbledore obtained a time-turner.

The Time-Turner is an alchemical product closely managed by the Ministry of Magic and an "archaeological invention" of its Department of Mysteries.

Why do we say "archaeology-invention"?
This is because its prototype is actually a golden compass discovered by the "Silent People" from the ancient ruins guarded by the Department of Mysteries. The Silent People dismantled the compass and then reassembled it into a time turner.

However, due to technical reasons, the "Silent Man" cannot completely restore the golden compass. To put it bluntly, the time turner is just a castrated product.

According to the "Silent Man"'s estimation, the golden compass must contain other more amazing functions, but it is no longer possible to figure it out.

It's not like they haven't tried.

For example, using time turners, people from the Department of Mysteries have conducted a series of complete and complex magical experiments.

They asked at least 27 people to travel back in time, and 27 is the minimum amount of data required for a set of data samples to perform quantitative analysis.

However, the results of the experiment were not satisfactory: in the past timeline, apart from obtaining some additional "copies" of the time turner, the "Silent Man" of the Department of Mysteries did not have any other positive significance at all. reward.

There was nothing they could do to prevent the established fact that the Golden Compass was dismantled and then reassembled into a time turner.

On the contrary, some experimenters will not only die due to bizarre accidents after returning to the past, but also may have some extremely dangerous effects on the future due to the changes he/she made to the past history.

An experimenter once tried to go back more than 100 years ago, and when he returned to the agreed meeting place, some important characters who had been recorded in official history were found to only exist in some fairy tale books today.

After that experiment, experiments with the Time-Turner were forcibly terminated, and a magical contract ensured that no one could try again.

However, these experiments ultimately determined that the maximum amount of time that could be traveled back in time using a time-turner without serious harm to the traveler or time itself was approximately five hours.

Until now, Time-Turner No. 1, pieced together from the original components of the Golden Compass, is still stored in the deepest recesses of the Department of Mysteries of the Ministry of Magic.

There are also an unknown number (but definitely no more than 27) of time turners brought back from the past by time travelers, which have also been managed by the Ministry of Magic at a corresponding level. And it is worth mentioning that, perhaps because time travel itself changes the timeline, the appearance of those time turners (copies) brought back from the past is not exactly the same as No. 1.

Some of them are similar to No. 1, and look like an ancient timepiece called a "sundial"; some look like a small water clock, or a small clock placed inside a glass cover; and Some have pocket watch-like shapes.

Among them, the closer the time converter is to the shape of a modern clock, the clearer its function is, the less uncertain it is when used, and its safety level is relatively high.

Therefore, if those pocket watch-type time turners can pass a series of complex application processes (which even include asking professional seers to divine the applicants) and have a supervisor, the Department of Mysteries can authorize magic. department or certain individuals for use.

Although the limitations of "certain individuals" here are not stated clearly, they are only for the sake of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

For example, some young wizards with exceptionally good grades will inevitably encounter the dilemma of time conflicts with elective courses when they are in school. If they can obtain dual approval from the dean and principal, then he/she can temporarily obtain the permission to use a time turner. One spot.

Of course, even at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, there is only one place that can apply for a time turner every year.

This spot is generally reserved for the young wizards with the best talent, the strongest self-control, and the hardest-working students.

As luck would have it, Dumbledore perfectly met these three requirements when he was a student at Hogwarts (he even had time to play gobstone and ten-pin bowling games, and participated in the school club) .

Naturally, Dumbledore used a Time-Turner when he was in school.

It is precisely because of this that when studying the basic principles of the Deluminator, Dumbledore's ideas also extended to the Time Turner.

He found a large amount of information from the Restricted Book Zone of Hogwarts, and specifically visited Knockturn Alley and the magic black market in many countries. Only then did he get two half-damaged time turners - this should be the mysterious secret of that year. In the "Silent Man" experiment of the Department of Affairs, an experimenter who went back in time but failed to return to the agreed location of the experiment due to some accidents (cannot be determined to be dead) left behind.

Regardless of whether ordinary wizards can recognize it, even wizards with this knowledge should know the corresponding magical laws: that is, once such a time turner is discovered, it must be handed over to the "Silent Man" of the Department of Mysteries. Personal collection is strictly prohibited, let alone dismantling for research.

But the young Dumbledore took apart the half-damaged time turner, and he took it apart two at a time!
You know, time magic is the most mysterious and dangerous branch of physical magic. The magic related to it, if used slightly carelessly, may have a great impact on other people and the user, and may even bring disaster to the real world.

Dismantling two half-damaged time turners is more dangerous than dismantling two nuclear bombs that are about to explode.

If an ordinary wizard took over and dismantled those two gadgets, the best result would be to be trapped in a cycle for a period of time, and there is a high probability that he himself would not be able to realize the cycle of time - he would really be barred from reincarnation forever... …

But Dumbledore successfully dismantled them into parts.

Although he could not fully understand all the time magic contained in it, after studying it for a period of time, this talented wizard still used a self-consistent method to reassemble them into important components of another alchemical product. .

He made a deluminator.

The reason why a deluminator can extinguish a street light on a street is not because it can destroy the light bulb inside the street light, but because it can temporarily return the light emitted by the light bulb to the "past".

And this is very scary.

Because the physical properties of those lights can be understood as a kind of energy radiation, since the extinguisher can "extinguish" street lights, it actually has the ability to "extinguish" other energy radiation.

Grindelwald once predicted nuclear weapons and warned wizards: a terrifying Muggle invention that could wipe out the wizarding world.

At present, there is really no wizard who can invent any magic spell that can offset the crisis caused by the explosion of a nuclear bomb.

However, if you use Dumbledore's Deluminator and press it lightly when the nuclear bomb explodes, it is very likely that the explosion will be eliminated invisible.

And if someone raises the issue, saying that the wizard cannot accurately return to the time when the nuclear bomb explodes, or cannot get close to the nuclear bomb that is about to explode.

This is actually easy to solve: as long as it is paired with a time turner and then used to phantom, the above two difficulties will be easily solved.

Theoretically, as long as you have a time turner, a deluminator, and the ability to master apparation, then even if there is only one wizard left in the world, there is a high probability of preventing the explosion of a nuclear bomb.

And this is exactly Dumbledore's original intention of inventing the Deluminator: Facing the increasingly advanced and terrifying war weapons invented by Muggles, he wanted to provide an accident insurance for all wizards and hide a protective umbrella for the wizarding world.

In fact, Dumbledore's Deluminator even has a second hidden function - you know, when Dumbledore assembled it, he dismantled two half-damaged time turners - to a certain extent. , it can even be used as a time converter with a limited scope.

The young Dumbledore had already considered a worse situation. That is to say, after the nuclear bomb explodes, if the Department of Mysteries loses its function due to some accident, or if the Ministry of Magic's approval process is delayed due to some problems, the person holding his Deluminator can "act cheaply."

However, such an action would definitely be very dangerous, and the person holding his Deluminator would probably sacrifice himself to prevent the nuclear bomb from detonating.

Therefore, after the invention of the Deluminator, Dumbledore decided that this legendary alchemical item must be passed down to a warrior worthy of its trust in the future.

Of course, what may happen is that both functions of the deluminator are used at once, and it is quite safe to use it only one function at a time.

For example, now, at the Dursleys' house, Dumbledore used the hidden function of the Deluminator in front of everyone.

In an instant, this house was "plucked" from the timeline of the real world, forming a special "time bubble" shape.

In this "time bubble", except for Dumbledore, the holder of the Deluminator, everyone else entered an extremely short time loop.

Because this period of time is so short that the human brain cannot even realize that time has looped, everyone else seems to be stuck in some strange state of stillness. "Then, I'm going to start asking questions..."

Dumbledore shrugged helplessly, and then pointed his wand at Mrs. Zabini, who was trapped in a time loop.

Because the time to ask and receive questions is very limited, he cannot use words to ask questions, but can only use some magical means.

At this time, the role of the "Legilimency Master" was highlighted. He directly used magic to "stuff" the content of the question he wanted to ask into Mrs. Zabini's mind, and then simultaneously read the latter's thoughts instead of verbal answers, that is, You can get the answers you want.

The questions he asked were very organized, not like a wizard, but like a very experienced manager.

These questions cover [very important and urgent], [unimportant but urgent], [important but not urgent], [not important and not that urgent], a total of four groups of quadrants——

"Why did you come to hold Harry hostage?"

"Where and from whom did you get the address of Uncle and Aunt Harry's house?"

"Why would you use Veritaserum on a child? What do you want to know from Harry?"

"What did you want to do after you took Harry hostage? Who did you collude with?"

In each time loop, Dumbledore would take the time to ask a question and receive an answer. Moreover, he immediately repeated the questions in order to prevent Mrs. Zabini from using magic to seal the brain or change the memory.

The answers Dumbledore got included some that made him feel relieved, some that made him a little stunned, and some that made him puzzled.

What made him relieved was that Mrs. Zabini came to kidnap Harry, but there was no too terrible conspiracy.

She learned the address of Harry's home from the Mundungus, and because of the series of blows she had suffered recently, she wanted to make a desperate move by holding Harry Potter hostage to make Dumbledore take advantage of him, and then gave up. Chasing her and that dominatrix reform committee.

The reason why Mundungus told her where Harry lived was not because Mundungus betrayed the Order of the Phoenix. But it was just because that guy was accidentally fed a love potion that was as effective as "ecstasy soup" by her subordinates, and then he couldn't control his mouth at all and answered all her questions.

What shocked Dumbledore was that he did not expect that Mrs. Zabini, who was famous for her beauty and her husband, was actually the person in power behind the Dominatrix Reform Committee, and the actions of this organization were actually... so crazy!
Not only have these dominatrixes been engaged in many illegal businesses to accumulate wealth, but they have also been actively improving their bloodlines.

What’s even more outrageous is that they actually did pretty well!
At least, by Mrs. Zabini's generation, they have more or less established blood ties with some wizard families.

Just like Mrs. Zabini, she has been slowly using her beauty and wealth to obtain the blood of some old pure-blood families, and has also selected them in order to enhance certain magical talents of her descendants.

In addition, they also actively moved closer to and infiltrated the Ministry of Magic. Mrs. Zabini was an important financial backer during the election of Fudge, the current Minister of Magic.

The reason why she tried to give Harry Veritaserum before was to get some information about Dumbledore from Harry so that she could use it to persuade Fudge to become her ally.

"To build a network based on blood and various relationships, and then use this network to control the magic world, this is really——"

After thinking about the logic of her behavior for a moment, Dumbledore could understand it, but he couldn't fully agree with it.

Because he is a traditional wizard.

No matter whether it was the endless Muggle technology or the infinite charm of magic, this old man had maintained a strong curiosity and a very positive attitude throughout his life.

But in essence, his underlying cognition is similar to that of Bourne's grandfather Horace (and even Voldemort), that is: "Wizards should use their wands to make sounds."

"—A path never imagined."

Dumbledore was shocked that the Dominatrix Committee had done so many things over the years, but he still felt that they took it too much for granted.

They mistakenly applied the "secrets" of Muggle society to the magical world and to wizards.

You know, the magical talent gap between wizards and wizards is sometimes much wider than the intelligence gap between humans and dogs!

However, Dumbledore also maintained basic respect for these ambitious women.

Because of their unremitting persistence and efficient action capabilities over generations, they were indeed able to defeat the British Ministry of Magic, which was becoming increasingly outrageous.

"So, what gave you the ambition to do this? How dare you do this?"

This is Dumbledore's last question, the kind of [not important and not so urgent] question.

And its answer made Dumbledore feel confused and puzzled.

As far as the old wizard knew, the purpose of the original Dominatrix Reform Committee was really just to correct certain customs of the Dominatrix clan that seemed very barbaric to humans, so that they could live in a more civilized way.

In this way, it is possible for the dominatrix to be recognized by wizards and the Ministry of Magic, and then no longer be hostile or even hunted.

The founders of the committee were sworn by the Ministry of Magic! And this oath is also a magical contract, and there is no possibility of lying.

It can be seen that the dominatrix was actually at an absolute disadvantage compared to the wizard at that time.

They are quite afraid of wizards.

If there were no other incentives, it would be almost impossible for the descendants of these yakshas to embark on such a path that, not to mention running counter to their original purpose, could at least be called a ninety-degree turn.

Dumbledore originally guessed that they had either obtained a magical artifact of the "Three Hallows of Death" level, or had made some extraordinary magical discovery...

But he really didn't expect that the trigger hidden in Mrs. Zabini's mind that caused the dominatrix reform committee to adjust its general direction was actually a prophecy!

"how could this be?"

Puzzled, the wise old man couldn't help but frown.

And in this room, who was also frowning, there was a little wizard with a faint golden light in his pupils.

Bourne was also confused.

Because he really didn't expect that the person he had always thought of as an indulgent follower was not actually influenced by the great demon Slaanesh.

At least not entirely.

"It seems... there is a conspiracy within a conspiracy."

While confused, Bourne also had a bad guess.

(End of this chapter)