Chapter 196: Meeting Ollivander Again

"Oh, Deng Buliduo, how are you?" Rita said as if asking for credit. "Have you read the article I wrote about the International Confederation of Wizards?"

"Great, I'm even a bit shy," Deng Buliduo said with a smile. "Especially the part where you describe me as 'the true voice of the magical world,' and call Master Xuanjun 'a rigid old madman'."

"This is of course, we British must be confident and give him a head-on blow. Even if they insist that they are the Heavenly Dynasty, so what? We just have this inner confidence, anything can be said, anything can be discussed," Rita said proudly.

"But I saw in the newspaper that Yanayev also participated in that meeting, but you didn't mention him at all?" Harry recalled that confident report.

"Ah, this is a topic that cannot be touched," Rita explained in a low voice while hurriedly packing up her things.

"It doesn't matter, we can talk about it later. Now the important thing is," Deng Buliduo smiled slightly. "Harry needs to go check his wand."

Harry thought a little, he had said what he wanted to say. Even if there were some missing contents, Rita should be able to make them up as appropriate. He actually didn't mind Rita writing the report more exaggeratedly, because the most important thing was to convey the attitude, and in this point, perhaps an exaggerated report could play a better effect.

He followed Deng Buliduo to the stairs, and under the gentle gaze of the headmaster, walked up the stairs alone.

The one responsible for checking the wands was Ollivander. Compared to the few times he had met Harry before, he looked much more capable. His silver-white hair was cut much shorter, and his beard had also been trimmed. He wasn't wearing a wizard robe, but a leather jacket, and his face full of vicissitudes revealed a firm expression.

"Harry, you're here," Ollivander said softly. "Let me see the Time-Moment again."

Harry obediently took out his wand, and that small device was still installed at the end of the wand.

"It looks like it's running steadily," Ollivander sighed. "But Harry, my child, what about yourself? Are you ready?"

"I think, yes," Harry said.

"No, I can't see this in your eyes," Ollivander's tone was unusually heavy. "How much do you intend to pay to defeat the mysterious person? A little effort? Violate your own morality? No, what we need is far more than that."

"Perhaps, also need to sit and watch Hogwarts being attacked?" Harry remembered another plan of the Death Eaters. Although he didn't know the details of that plan, Harry knew the most critical part was that they intended to attack Hogwarts.

"Harry, I must tell you," Ollivander put the wand close to his ear and listened carefully. "The charge count of the Time-Moment is three days more than scheduled."

Harry's head was buzzing. He immediately thought of himself asking the Doctor to stay for a moment to date Zhang Qiu, but clearly Professor Doudou had said that this didn't matter... He had said, it didn't matter within a week, that is, an hour...

"I told Professor Doudou, you must not let the TARDIS timer run for a full week, that is, an hour," Ollivander took a breath, then grabbed Harry's two shoulders, forcing him to look into the old man's gray eyes. "Now I can't guarantee its reliability. Any link may have problems, or the margin of the theory failed to cover this error. A month's potential energy will erupt in an instant. Do you know what this means? A big explosion, everything within ten kilometers will be involved in the rift of time, permanently frozen in the displaced time and space."

"This is a bit scary," Harry quickly calmed down from the shock. "But I don't care, as long as this is still effective against the Dark Lord, I am willing to perish with him."

"Silly child," Ollivander's eyes dodged. "You are not prepared, it shouldn't be this kind of look. Your eyes tell me that you are still afraid. Yes, have you considered that ten kilometers is enough to blow up the entire Beauxbatons?"

"Can you count?" he said incoherently. "Before the decisive battle begins, count how many innocent children are here?"

"This is not important," Harry's heart was in a mess, but he didn't stop thinking. "We can change to a place where there are few people to arrange the decisive battle."

"But for me, you are also an innocent life, just as important as the four thousand students here," Ollivander tremblingly raised Harry's wand, and the silver-white fine sand was still suspended in the Time-Moment at the end. The two looked at it silently. Harry didn't reach out to take it, and Ollivander didn't intend to pass it.

Deng Buliduo's voice came from outside the door, breaking this suffocating silence: "Are you done? The press conference is about to start."

"Or, this is fate," Harry said softly, taking his wand. "Putting yourself in a must-die situation, but in the end, it is others who die. I have been doing this all my life."

Ollivander's lips moved, but he couldn't say anything more. Because Harry had already opened the door generously and started walking downstairs.

Harry almost completely forgot how he walked back to that sofa. Deng Buliduo seemed to be still saying something, but the voice was unusually distant. He only knew that this had nothing to do with the Time-Moment. He was talking about the Triwizard Tournament, some trivial matters, which didn't count for anything compared to the ten-kilometer explosion...

He also completely forgot how he let Rita manipulate him and took one photo after another. An hour's tolerance error, but he exceeded it by three days. What kind of consequences would this cause? No one knew. If Professor Doudou didn't misunderstand the pun of a week and a circle, if he didn't insist on dating Zhang Qiu, if... there were not so many ifs, the fact was that the error had already been caused...

When Harry recovered from this terrifying fact, he found that he was already sitting on the bed of the train, and Luo En and Zhang Qiu were looking at him with worry.

"What's wrong with you, Harry?" Luo En asked. "You look a bit trance-like."

"If you were hit by the Imperius Curse, then blink," Zhang Qiu added.

"No no no, it's not like that," Harry shook his head vigorously, then hesitated for a moment, and finally decided to say it.

"Ollivander told me that the Time-Moment might not be reliable," Harry said cautiously. "It's a bit unstable. If something goes wrong during the duel, although it can still subdue the Dark Lord, perhaps it will kill me, and might even kill a large number of innocent people."

"Then don't use the Time-Moment," Luo En said immediately. "We can always find other ways to deal with the Dark Lord, there's no need to pay so much price."

"That's right, we also said before that the Dark Lord's plan is not the same as what the Ministry of Magic imagined, their suggestions might not be useful," Zhang Qiu followed closely.

"However, if..."

"Think about what else we have that the Dark Lord doesn't know?" Zhang Qiu interrupted Harry's stammering words. "Except for the strength we hid, Deng Buliduo has other trump cards, Sirius is also preparing to backstab him, Ma Erfu has been fooled. We have made so many layouts, do you just feel at a loss because the Ministry of Magic's weapon has a problem?"

Harry took a deep breath, cheered up slightly, nodded firmly, and changed his words: "You're right, even if the plan fails, we can still continue to organize wizards to resist him as stated on the surface. And, we all have one or two hidden hands, these are things the Dark Lord doesn't know..."

"I don't quite understand one thing," Luo En interjected. "When did Ma Erfu get fooled?"

"This is a slang, used to describe his deep trust in Harry," Zhang Qiu explained.

"By the way, Haipa Shengshi!" Harry clapped his hands suddenly. "I have to write a letter to Sirius, perhaps the answer to the question has appeared by our side long ago."

"Alright, you explain to me again about the fooling thing," Luo En saw Harry starting to look for parchment, and naturally walked out with Zhang Qiu, intending to leave some private space for Harry.

"The story is like this, once there was a cunning old man who prepared to sell the crutch he used..." Zhang Qiu's voice came intermittently from outside the door, and Harry listened to it casually. His pen moved as fast as Rita's quick-quotes quill. And his mind had long drifted to the owl carriage. Hedwig should be ready, ready to set off to deliver his letter to Sirius at any time.

In the days waiting for a reply, Harry was uninterested in everything around him. Even if Cedric and Hermione took turns talking about the gossip that Krum seemed to have fallen in love with Renata, or Luo En taking him to practice some swordsmanship quietly, Zhang Qiu teaching him how to step on a sword to fly—these would have been very interesting things, but in Harry's heart at this time, the godfather's reply, and the feasibility of using the Stasis Curse instead of the Time-Moment to issue a fatal blow contained in the letter, were the things he was truly worried about.

Such days of being restless passed quickly, and Harry successfully saw the news he wanted in Sirius's reply.

Dear Godson

I can't speak freely in the letter, it would be terrible if the Clown intercepted my owl. We'd better find an opportunity to talk face to face, I will come to find you on November 22nd.

I know the predicament you are facing better than anyone else, and I must happily tell you that the matter you asked about in the letter has already made huge progress. It might be put into actual combat, only the last problem that needs to be solved remains, which is the problem of magic consumption.

Besides that, I might have some other gains, which I will share with you when the time comes. If there are other unusual things happening, I hope you can write to tell me.

Your dear: Regulus Arcturus Black ===== CHAPTER 197 =====

Yours truly: Regulus Arcturus Black