Chapter 37: Return

"Is this the hopping pot?" Harry curiously examined the cauldron with long legs. It was motionless at this time, and seemed to be no different from an ordinary cauldron.

"I'm not sure. Do you want to see this book?" Zhang Qiu handed over a small notebook.

Harry glanced at it. It wasn't English, but he felt it looked familiar.

"I can't understand it at all," Zhang Qiu stuck out her tongue.

"Normal, because this is Old English," Harry said. "To be honest, I didn't learn it very well, so I can only barely see a general idea."

"I have to?? because?? and this can?? happen??, so?? of?? also?? became??." Harry read the diary on it with difficulty. "In the twelfth day of entering the Otherworld, I?? some??, from??'s??, at least?? the principle of?? can be understood as ￥%@..."

"My God, I basically don't know what he is saying at all," Harry said in despair.

"You look again, did he mention what the hopping pot is used for?" Zhang Qiu was pointing at the little foot of the hopping pot wearing slippers at this time.

"Oh, here." Harry flipped through the pages quickly until he found the word "pot."

"This time, under the?? of Ignotus, I carried the hopping pot into??. From its?? and??, its?? or can be used for??, will be?? when??." Harry had no clue at all at this time and could only continue to piece together the few words he recognized. "After?? the hopping pot, it temporarily??, before alchemy activation,?? will remain unavailable."

"Alchemy activation?" Zhang Qiu leaned over to look at this notebook suspiciously. "This might be the only keyword. I guess the other content can also be guessed."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked.

"As long as the hopping pot starts working, it will take us to witness the suffering of Muggles," she said. "And there are no Muggles in the Illusion Realm."

"Let me look at the notebook," Harry became excited, flipping through the end of this record. It was written that a certain spell was effective for a certain noun, and the beginning of the next article was also about other things. Harry flipped through several more pages until he saw the sentence mentioning the hopping pot.

"The test of the hopping pot?? has been forgotten, noticed only through??. But since there is a?? spell that can?? find??, then the hopping pot?? is also irrelevant."

"If my guess is correct, the hopping pot has the function of finding an exit," Zhang Qiu said. "But judging from the diary, perhaps Anti'e Ke later invented some other spell, so he had a better substitute and didn't intend to continue testing the hopping pot."

"Makes sense, and the hopping pot wasn't a popular thing in the first place," Harry said. "Perhaps Potter's ancestor deliberately asked Anti'e Ke to bring it in. After all, you said it's very difficult to get out once you enter."

"Then let's try it, activate it," Zhang Qiu said. "See if it's as magical as described in the story."

"Activate?" Harry searched through the notebook, wanting to see methods or something on it.

"It didn't say alchemy activation, right? You throw the Sorcerer's Stone in and try it first," Zhang Qiu said dismissively.

Harry took out the red stone that was faintly emitting warm light. He thought for a while and felt that rather than continuing to guess words in Old English, it was better to try it out in practice.

Just as the Sorcerer's Stone touched the hopping pot, Harry found that this little cauldron came alive. It jumped off the table impatiently, bounced twice on the spot, and then chose a direction and started jumping toward it.

"Follow it, Harry," Zhang Qiu greeted.

"Coming." Harry carefully put Anti'e Ke's notebook into his arms and then followed the hopping cauldron.

They walked for I don't know how far, Harry felt it was perhaps less than a mile. They found that some changes appeared ahead: an archway emerged in the mist, made of exquisite marble. The door frame was smooth and clean, without complex reliefs, only some simple geometric patterns. A black tapestry hung in front of the door, with the pattern of the Deathly Hallows drawn on it with white thread.

The hopping pot stopped. It was bouncing on the spot, looking just like a little dog. Harry picked it up and took the Sorcerer's Stone out of the pot, and its little feet immediately stopped moving.

Harry hesitated for a while, but finally spread the Invisibility Cloak. He knew roughly that he could return to the real world by passing through the veil. But he couldn't guarantee where in the real world he would appear. If he passed through rash

The moment he stepped across the veil, the bright mist rapidly darkened, churning and solidifying into a concrete scene; it was a very spacious room.

The center of the room was sunken, with a pit about 20 feet deep. Stone benches descended steeply in rows along the shape of the room, like a lecture hall or a stadium, and they stood in the center of this sunken pit, on a stone dais.

Harry turned back to look at the archway he had just passed through; it was a broken stone arch that looked very ancient and rickety. There was no wall support around it, and a tattered curtain hung from it. This was a far cry from its other side in the mystical realm.

A middle-aged wizard was sitting on a front-row chair, flipping through a thick book.

Harry examined him closely; he was a man with messy hair and a wide-brimmed hat. He wore an orange trench coat with a colorful lining, and gray trousers on his lower body. Of course, the most impressive thing was his bohemian-style long scarf, a very long section of which trailed on the ground.

Harry pondered for a moment, then said, "I'll go out first. If he's not a bad person, you come out."

"No, I'll go out first." Zhang Qiu pressed his hand, "In case he's a Death Eater, at least I have diplomatic immunity."

By this time, the man had already been staring at this spot with a vigilant gaze for quite a while.

Zhang Qiu emerged from under the Invisibility Cloak, using the veil as cover; she was confident she hadn't exposed Harry's presence.

"Traversing the veil in reverse? Who are you?" The man stood up abruptly. He looked somewhat surprised and quickly drew his wand, pointing it at Zhang Qiu from afar.

"I am an ordinary student at Hogwarts," Zhang Qiu said. "Because I secretly learned a spell from my elders, I accidentally stumbled into a world full of white mist."

"I wandered around following my intuition, saw an archway, and walked through it, and then I appeared here," Zhang Qiu gave a half-truthful explanation.

"The good news is that you are safe; this is the Department of Mysteries of the Ministry of Magic." The man put away his wand and walked toward Zhang Qiu, "The bad news is that you will definitely have points deducted when you go back, at least fifty points!"

"Wait, I have a friend, he should be right behind." Zhang Qiu signaled that Harry could come out.

"Oh, hello, sir." Harry emerged from the Invisibility Cloak, "Is this the Department of Mysteries?"

The man was stunned for a few seconds, then asked, "Harry Potter?"

"Uh, you know me too?" Harry said with the innocent tone a child should have.

"Well, it's not surprising to see Harry Potter appear anywhere," he said. "I will plead for you with Deng Buliduo when the time comes, but he is currently tied up; a group of Death Eaters attacked the Wizengamot meeting site, it's simply a mess."

"This is a conspiracy; they deliberately lured Deng Buliduo away from the school in order to," Harry paused, realizing he shouldn't let out the matter of the Sorcerer's Stone, "in order to find an opportunity to kidnap me. Thanks to Zhang Qiu's spell, I was able to escape with the help of that white mist world."

"You're only in your first year, right? The Death Eaters really can't wait," the man frowned. "Let's not mention the point deduction. Come, have a cup of hot chocolate; I will notify the school."

This man, who was clearly a bit too familiar, brought Harry into a large office. The office sign did indeed have "Department of Mysteries" written in small letters, but the main title only displayed the abbreviation D. P.

While waiting for the chocolate, Harry examined the furnishings in the office. There were over twenty desks here, though many of them were empty. The wall clock showed it was 3:17.

Harry remembered that when he left the dormitory, the time was 2:28, and the challenges and confrontation combined had taken at least half an hour. This meant that they had experienced killing Quirrell, resting and recovering, exploring everywhere, solving puzzles, and finally leaving in the afterlife—so many things—and it felt like at least three or four hours had passed, yet in reality, only a short while had gone by.

This flow of time made Harry feel very amazed, but on second thought, if the afterlife used thoughts as a measure of distance, perhaps it also used labor as a measure of time. He and Zhang Qiu had spent most of their time sightseeing and chatting; the only things that might have truly impacted that world were those few short minutes in the Antioch cottage.

"Alright, children." The man dragged his scarf as he walked toward them, giving Harry and Zhang Qiu each a cup of chocolate, "Deng Buliduo should be back with the Death Eaters soon; when that happens, I will hand you two directly to the Headmaster."

"Thank you, sir," Harry said politely, "Could you tell me what department this is?"

"The Doctor Project," he explained without reservation, "A department secretly established by the Department of Mysteries to combat Death Eaters; it's not convenient to tell you more details."

After saying this, he took out the book again and began to read it meticulously.

Harry realized that he might not be very willing to talk about work matters, so he tilted his head to see what book it was, thinking that perhaps he had read it too, and then they could chat about its contents.

The title of the book was *The Relative Dimensions of Time and Space*.

For a time, the only sound left in the office was the sipping of hot chocolate.