Because the buttons were done up high, Hermione's small half of the neck was covered by the clean shirt collar.
And on the collar, faintly visible was a golden necklace.
"Time-Turner, you've already gotten it, right?"
Hearing this, Hermione gave an "mm!" sound like a startled little cat, and her hands instinctively covered her chest area, "You, you, how did you know?!"
Seeing Hermione react like this, Link revealed an expression of "just as expected."
Leaving aside the fact that this matter was originally mentioned in the canon, just the fact that Hermione signed up for all 12 courses this year was already obvious enough.
One must know, many of those courses had class times that conflicted with each other.
The Time-Turner looked like an hourglass hanging from a golden necklace. As long as you turn the hourglass clockwise or counter-clockwise, you can go forward or backward in time depending on how many times you turn it.
It and Apparition spell can be said to be, so far, the greatest achievements in wizards' research on the mysterious side, because the former can change time, and the latter can change space.
Although the method to use both was rather primitive, it also meant that wizards had come into contact with the two highest laws of the world.
Chuckling lightly twice, Link then explained, "The existence of the Time-Turner actually doesn't count as some secret, after all, Hogwarts gets one or two students every few years who get all Exceeds Expectations or higher in the 12 N.E.W.T. exams. Don't you find that strange?"
"You're saying," Hermione widened her eyes and said, "those people all used the Time-Turner?"
"To be accurate, it's because Dumbledore and the other professors saw their talent and determination that they temporarily lent them the Time-Turner. You're the same."
"Hehe!"
Hermione giggled in embarrassment. What Link just said, 'talent' and 'determination', made her quite happy.
Only, before she could laugh for long, Link continued, "But I don't recommend that you rely too much on the Time-Turner. It will cause many irreversible consequences."
"For example, because time reversal doesn't affect your own personal time flow rate, you'll age much faster than your peers."
"Another example is, frequent use of time reversal will directly disrupt your biological clock, which will cause many bad effects such as insomnia, anxiety, endocrine disorders, and so on."
Link stopped speaking.
But actually, those were all minor problems. The biggest drawback of the Time-Turner was time travel itself.
According to the guesses of some scholars from Link's past life, as long as someone truly time travels, even if they do nothing after the travel, they still impact history, the only difference is the degree of impact.
The reason wizards nowadays could use Time-Turners to time travel was only because they succeeded after countless tragic experiments. Otherwise, Time-Turners wouldn't have such strict usage rules.
Using the Time-Turner against the rules will cause time paradoxes.
This was also the reason why Link, though knowing of the existence of Time-Turners, hadn't used one.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have gone to trade with Snape, he could've just traveled back to the night his body was injured and carefully observed.
On the other side, upon hearing this, Hermione hurriedly took out a small mirror, and sure enough, she saw that her originally fair and smooth skin had developed many pimples, and deep dark circles were hanging under her eyes, showing exhaustion.
"Ah!"
Hermione covered her face. Right now, the only thing she was grateful for was that the surrounding light was dim, so Link couldn't clearly see her face.
Otherwise, Hermione probably would've been so ashamed that she'd want to dig a hole to crawl into.
Her reaction, of course, was all seen clearly by Link, who had the Super-Sensory Charm. He chuckled softly, then pulled out several potion bottles from the Untraceable Extension Pocket and handed them over.
"In the past, students who could get the Time-Turner for study were often from pure-blood wizarding noble families."
"They had plenty of wealth and connections to get potions that could ease the various side effects of time travel. But since you're from a Muggle family, naturally you don't have these conditions."
"Take these potions for now. The ones shaped like test tubes are nutrient tonics for hunger, the oval ones are stimulants for alertness, and the blood-red one is Dragonheart Potion."
"Dragonheart Potion?!" Hermione cried out in shock.
As a top student chosen by Dumbledore and the professors to receive a Time-Turner, she naturally knew how rare the Dragonheart Potion was.
The nutrient and stimulant potions were already expensive, but at least they could still be bought.
But Dragonheart Potion, that was a rare potion almost as valuable as Felix Felicis.
"No! This is too precious, I can't accept it!" Hermione almost instantly refused.
But Link seemed as if he hadn't heard anything. He placed the pile of potions on the ground, then directly opened the entrance to the Patch Resting Room.
"Alright! I'm going to sleep! You take the potions and hurry up and go. Hogwarts at night this year isn't exactly safe. Besides, you're sneaking out, if you return too late, you'll get caught, right?" Link's figure disappeared.
Hermione originally wanted to chase after him and say something, but upon hearing Link's last words, her expression suddenly changed. In the end, she could only rub her burning cheeks and hurriedly leave.
Link then directly returned to the dormitory. As usual, he cast a "Silencing Charm" on himself and immediately went to sleep.
But as soon as Link fell asleep, he felt his body sinking endlessly, and eventually fell into a vast emptiness.
Then, a small familiar figure approached from the distance.
It seemed to possess the power to shrink space, crossing hundreds of meters in just a few steps and appeared right in front of Link.
'Mike!'
Staring at the black-clothed person in front of him who looked exactly like himself, Link immediately recognized who it was.
At this moment, Link wasn't panicked, just stood quietly in place watching, thinking it was just "what one thinks about in the day appears in dreams at night."
However, Mike's next movement was beyond Link's expectations.
He swayed a few times as if unsteady, then deeply bowed toward Link.
"Hiss hiss hiss!" (I'm sorry!)
"Hiss hiss hiss hiss hiss!" (I scared you, but I really won't do what you think I will. I'm sorry!)
The hissing Parseltongue accompanied Mike's bow and apology, entering Link's ears.
Mike kept repeating the bowing, apologizing, bowing, apologizing sequence, as if he would never stop unless Link forgave him.
'This definitely isn't just a dream based on my thoughts! This is truly Mike speaking to me!'
Realizing this, Link's expression drastically changed, and he began to struggle fiercely.
However, at this moment, he discovered he was completely unable to move, he could only stand in place as Mike continued to bow and apologize.
Link furrowed his brows, but didn't give up. Instead, he began trying to cast spells.
Refilling Charm, Sectumsempra, and all kinds of wandless and wordless spells were cast repeatedly by Link, but none of them had any effect on the current situation.
But when Link cast Occlumency, everything changed.
A wall of the heart made of countless hexagonal light panels suddenly appeared in front of Link, separating Mike on the outside.
This shocked Mike greatly, and he no longer bowed and apologized. Instead, he started yelling and pounding on the wall of the heart.
However, no matter how hard he tried, the heart wall remained firm.
In the end, Mike seemed to give up.
He stared deeply at Link, then quietly disappeared.
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