Chapter 136: The Origin of Puffskeins

For Harry, "reversing the polarity" was a concept that was almost completely incomprehensible from a scientific point of view. He could only think that perhaps this was some kind of spell that could guide things to the completely opposite situation. As for what tricks Neville used, absolute now and the river of time, Harry felt that since they didn't have much impact on his life, he could figure it out later.

"Alright, Doctor," Harry said. "Let's continue traveling."

"Of course, of course," the Doctor returned to the console slowly.

"Neville's Hyper-Ascension looks very exhausting, he needs to rest for a while," the Doctor fiddled with the lever. "His next spellcasting is on... December 27th."

"Why do you think he is very exhausted?" Harry asked. "I think he looks okay..."

"Oh, child," the Doctor smiled slyly. "If you learned a spell that can travel to the past, do you only plan to cast it once a month?"

"To say so, it is indeed the case," Harry scratched his head. "This spell is probably only cast once a month."

"Let me see, this time it went back to August 31st, the day before school started, and the location is also the Forbidden Forest," the Doctor said. "What does he want to do?"

After Neville appeared in the Forbidden Forest, he first looked around vigilantly to confirm that he hadn't been discovered, and then walked toward the castle quietly.

After walking out of the Forbidden Forest, Neville came to Hagrid's hut. The Hippogriff Buckbeak was snorting in the vegetable patch at the door.

"Whoa," Neville looked at it unkindly. Then he walked up and knocked on Hagrid's door.

"Neville, why did you come to school early?" Hagrid was a bit incoherent with surprise. "I just, I mean these two days, I was so happy."

"Early?" Neville was stunned alertly. "What date is it today?"

"August 31st, school starts tomorrow," Hagrid said. "I have to tell you, not long ago, Deng Buliduo came to my hut..."

"Oh no, how can I leave you at the door." Hagrid opened the door enthusiastically. Harry lay on the windowsill wearing the Invisibility Cloak. Hagrid rarely closed the windows, which created an opportunity for him to listen quietly.

"Did you remember the date wrong, so you came so early?" Hagrid chatted while pouring tea.

"Uh, indeed, I thought school had already started, and was wondering why there was no train," Neville made up a lie.

"Ahahaha, that's not bad either, you can come and experience our first class," Hagrid laughed heartily. "Oh, I forgot to tell you, I will serve as the professor of Care of Magical Creatures in the new term, Deng Buliduo came to my hut..."

Hagrid told everyone tirelessly about how Deng Buliduo notified him to take over as the professor of Magical Creatures, and how happy he was. But in fact, the children knew about Deng Buliduo's decision last year, and Neville just politely echoed Hagrid, completely unlike himself who was flattered and happy.

"By the way, Neville, why did you think of visiting me? Is it because you are curious about the course?"

"In fact, I just want to be as ahead as possible, and then ask someone for the date..." Neville muttered, but Hagrid didn't listen to his explanation at all.

"Come on, I knew it," he pulled Neville out of the door. "There is no child who wouldn't like Buckbeak, come, you two can meet first."

Buckbeak looked at the sky arrogantly.

"You said what's her name? Mikbak?" Neville couldn't hear Hagrid's pronunciation clearly.

"Now try to look at her, remember not to blink, if you blink too much, you will lose her trust," Hagrid didn't listen to Neville's feedback at all, and introduced the Hippogriff—this huge, fierce magical animal—on his own.

"Hmm... Makabaka?" Neville tried to talk to it. "Maka, Baka, Aka, Waka, Mika, Maka, Hmm!"

"Next is to bow to her, right, don't be afraid, it's now, Neville," Hagrid said loudly.

Neville's tentative gibberish, plus Hagrid's mixed-pronunciation loud voice, and the chain on the neck might be a bit tight, Harry felt Buckbeak looked a bit irritable.

"I don't really want to show my neck to it," Neville hesitated. He obviously remembered the experience of being attacked by Buckbeak before. "Maybe I'll try again? Can it understand what we say?"

"Maybe not, but the syllables you just said are quite interesting, I think they are very like what Buckbeak would say," Hagrid suggested. "I think you can chat with her for two more sentences."

"Ika Aka... Oh oh oh!" Neville had just said half of it when Buckbeak raised its front hooves very dissatisfiedly.

"Maybe forget it, I think it might not be willing to accept me," Neville took two steps back. He didn't want to have a conflict with this big horse in front of Hagrid.

"It's not hard, just bow to her, then gently pat her mouth..." Hagrid said and was about to walk up to show Neville his unique communication skills.

Neville shrugged and retreated to the side without question, but Buckbeak kept staring at him, looking very dissatisfied.

Hagrid patted Buckbeak's mouth and started stroking its feathers again, but Hagrid's hand strength was inevitably a bit heavy, and this big horse was already a bit unhappy.

It flapped its wings, screamed sharply at Neville, and then began to wave its claws. Hagrid had to dodge backward.

Just like this, Buckbeak rushed toward Neville. In fact, Hagrid had plenty of time to stop it, but Neville was obviously faster.

"Ascension!" He flashed away at once. Before Buckbeak reacted, Neville disappeared from the spot. It hit the fence head-on, and then was subdued by Hagrid.

"Whoa, that's really dangerous," Neville suggested objectively. "I think everyone should not be ready to tame such a huge animal yet, maybe start with safer

"Indeed, perhaps Buckbeak isn't ready to meet everyone yet either." Hagrid led the bedraggled Buckbeak back into the forest; the horse kept looking back from time to time, appearing to have quite a few opinions about Neville.

"Then I won't disturb you any further; the time is almost up." Neville bid Hagrid farewell and then slowly walked toward the castle.

After turning a corner, Neville's figure began to slowly fade away; it seemed he was preparing to return to December 27th.

"I think I understand a little bit now," Harry said, looking at the still-restless Buckbeak. "December's Neville went back to September, remembered that he was attacked by Buckbeak in November, and thus his cold attitude annoyed Buckbeak; and September's Buckbeak remembered this, so he attacked the Neville who came back from November in October."

"That is time, how magical it is," the Doctor exclaimed. "To state the cliché, they could have actually been fine, but perhaps it was fated that Buckbeak had to attack someone."

"I feel like Neville didn't really do anything this time; you can't say he specifically came here just to provoke Buckbeak, right?" Harry asked.

"You could say that is exactly the case," the Doctor gestured. "In fact, did you hear what Neville said? He just wanted to try to go back as far as possible, and wasn't sure where he was going."

"Since he wasn't sure himself, this was a random spell. The effect is determined by time itself; time will send him to fulfill fate..."

"Randomness is the domain of the gods." Harry forgot where he had heard this sentence, but at this moment, he felt it was very appropriate.

"Indeed, to a certain extent, time itself has consciousness, like a living god."

Harry felt this topic was a bit creepy; even the TARDIS, touted as the most advanced time machine, could not protect him while discussing the forbidden Death.

"Let's hurry and see Neville's next move," Harry said hurriedly. "Perhaps he'll have some fun ideas?"

"Of course, we noticed his next jump was on January 14th, choosing a Friday night. That's smart, because this way he can use the weekend to get a good rest." The Doctor pushed and pulled the control lever. "And he chose to return to... October 31st, is it still Wan Shengjie?"

Harry put on his Invisibility Cloak and quietly walked out of the TARDIS. This time, Neville appeared outside the castle with him; the surroundings were quiet, as students and teachers were gathered in the Great Hall enjoying the feast.

Neville walked toward the castle towers; he still seemed to want to catch Sirius. Harry and the Doctor followed him quietly, passing through the ajar gate, and only then did he notice that the feast seemed to have already ended.

If the feast had already ended, then Sirius might have already disappeared. But just as Harry looked toward the Great Hall, a doubt surfaced in his mind.

Harry remembered that on that night, everyone was supposed to spend the night in the Great Hall in sleeping bags, but why was the Great Hall empty now?

A burst of voices disrupted his thoughts; it sounded like Luo En's voice, and then a girl began to wail loudly.

Neville's brow furrowed slightly, and then he strode forward; Harry hurriedly followed him. Luo En had indeed encountered difficult girl problems this year: Lavender, a girl who was always enthusiastically clinging to him, and Hermione, a bookworm who was a good friend but didn't talk much. If, according to Luo En, she wasn't a bookworm, then at the very least she was a stress-monster...

"My grandmother once said that there are two things a man cannot do: waste food and make a girl cry," Neville said to the empty girls' bathroom. "Harry, I know you're in here."

"Alright, but don't let her splash me." Another, slightly more youthful Harry pulled off the Invisibility Cloak.