"Interesting…" Rhys murmured softly.
"Haah.. haah.. What is it?" Hermione took a couple of deep breaths, recovering slightly from the heavy exertion, then turned to look at Rhys.
Rhys didn't answer. He simply pointed at the sun in the sky.
Hermione looked up. At first, she didn't notice anything unusual. The sun looked the same as always. Why was he having her look at it?
Then, all of a sudden, she realized what was wrong.
The position of the sun in the sky had barely changed, yet she and Rhys had spent a very long time inside the library domain.
If everything had been normal, the sun should have shifted noticeably westward by now.
"To the Great Hall," Rhys said without further explanation, leading Hermione straight back toward the castle.
Not far away, Helga stood by the window of her office, narrowing her eyes.
Three seconds. A full three seconds.
Salazar and Granger had vanished right under her nose.
What kind of domain did that Granger girl awaken? Helga's expression grew serious.
It doesn't look like an elemental domain, but judging by her condition, she doesn't seem to have merely brushed the threshold either.
Could it be that Hermione actually awakened a complete domain?
A flurry of thoughts, questions, and a faint sense of unease passed through Helga's mind. She decided that once Salazar came up, she would speak with him privately.
But one thing was beyond doubt—Rowena had truly picked an excellent student.
When Rhys and Hermione returned to the Great Hall, they found that the time there was almost exactly the same as when they had left.
Now Hermione was certain—her domain existed independently of the outside world's flow of time. Several hours had passed inside the domain, yet barely any time had moved outside.
If that was the case… didn't that mean she could have more time to read books?
That was actually the very first thought that surfaced in Hermione's mind.
After deliberately checking the notice board and confirming that the date had not changed, Rhys finally concluded that Hermione's domain could "freeze" time.
Amazing.
Rhys had only that single thought.
Anything related to time was invariably powerful and absurdly uncanny. Time magic was like that, and time-related domains were no different.
Hermione's domain, though not a pure time domain, could still create a space whose flow of time was independent of the outside world—like inserting a node into the normal timeline. Once that node expanded, it became a stretch of time belonging solely to Hermione.
A true time domain, in Rhys's view, was probably the most terrifying kind of domain imaginable. No one could withstand the erosion of time—not even the four of them.
Unfortunately, Hermione's domain could not be considered a pure time domain. Otherwise, she would have been the undisputed number one domain holder at Hogwarts.
Even so, merely being related to time already made it an extraordinary domain.
In Rhys's eyes, although Hermione's domain was not elemental in nature, it was in no way inferior to Daphne's or Cedric's completed domains—let alone their current state, where neither of them had even crossed the threshold.
"Develop it properly," Rhys said to Hermione. "Take your time and study it whenever you can."
The strength of a domain is not fixed. Setting aside the secondary awakening that comes with deep development, even differences in proficiency alone can lead to vastly different levels of power when a domain is used.
"Alright," Hermione agreed earnestly.
Even if Rhys had not said so, she would have opened her domain several times a day anyway. Each activation granted her an extra three hours of study time—her domain was practically comparable to a Time-Turner.
Although it could not reverse time, it also carried none of the risks associated with using a Time-Turner.
"You get some proper rest first. I'm going to see Professor White," Rhys said. After reminding Hermione once more to further develop her domain, he turned and headed upstairs.
Hermione, feeling a wave of fatigue, chose to return to her common room for a short rest. Once she recovered her energy, she planned to open her domain again.
When Rhys arrived at the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor's office, Helga was already waiting for him.
"What kind of domain did that child Granger awaken? Did she awaken it directly, or did she only reach the threshold like Diggory and the others?" Helga asked impatiently as soon as Rhys closed the door.
"She awakened it directly. She's different from Daphne and the others—her domain is non-elemental, so she has an almost complete domain from the very start." Rhys did not waste words and shared everything he knew with Helga.
"I see…" Helga frowned slightly, a trace of "as expected" pity flashing in her eyes.
Just as she had observed—it was a non-elemental domain. Miss Granger really was rather unfortunate.
As a witch who had lived through the mythic age, Helga understood the difference between elemental and non-elemental domains all too well.
So when Salazar himself told her that Rowena's disciple had awakened a non-elemental domain, her first reaction had been sympathy.
She really felt sympathy for Rowena—and for Hermione Granger as well.
Setting aside her status as Rowena's disciple, Helga still held a strong impression of Hermione, because she was a diligent, highly engaged girl in class.
From every perspective, Helga had hoped that Hermione would inherit her teacher's wind domain. Unfortunately, things did not turn out that way. If wishes alone could decide such matters, how could Salazar ever have allowed his own student to awaken a magma domain?
Still, in the modern magical world, perhaps non-elemental domains might actually be more valued? Helga reconsidered and felt that functional domains might not be as useless as they had once believed.
A thousand years ago, survival had been the highest priority. If a domain could not greatly enhance combat strength, then in the eyes of old-school witches and wizards like Salazar and Helga, it was meaningless.
Even Helga herself had only begun to seriously research food magic after her personal strength was already formidable.
And in its earliest stages, her food magic had possessed considerable practical combat value: the food she created could rapidly restore stamina to allies, accelerate wound healing, enhance immunity, detoxify, and provide a whole range of other effects.
When that dark and turbulent era came to an end and peace descended upon the land, what wizards sought seemed to change. The proportion of magic used for combat grew smaller and smaller, while life-oriented magic became more prominent. Some combat magic even evolved into forms of life magic—this was the trend of the times.
In other words, the modern magical world should offer ample space for non-elemental domains to play their abilities.
"Hey, hey, what's with that look? You don't seriously think her domain is trash, do you? Miss Granger's domain is related to time!" Rhys knew Helga far too well—one look at her expression and he could guess exactly what she was thinking.
Save your sympathy for your own student, Helga. Hermione's domain would have been considered extremely powerful even a thousand years ago.
After all, for wizards, knowledge truly is power—and Hermione can accelerate the speed at which a wizard acquires knowledge, and can even share the knowledge in her own mind.
Some old magical families hoard spellbooks as heirlooms, yet Hermione only needs to read them once to replicate them within her domain. That ability is nothing short of absurdly powerful.
Related to time?
Helga froze for a moment, and the faint traces of sympathy that had just risen in her heart instantly vanished into thin air.
____
12 Chaps ahead at Patreon.com/HornyFBI