The room felt unusually cold. Wade exhaled slowly, and a white mist formed in front of his face.
Mabel found it amusing and mimicked him, blowing out a long breath before breaking into a smile.
A white eagle perched on Wade's shoulder, radiating a soft, faint glow. Thanks to it, they only felt a mild chill rather than the despair and sorrow typically associated with such an environment.
The rest of the room's occupants weren't so lucky. A figure emitting a dreadful, icy aura glided forward, and a shriveled, decaying hand reaching out...
It was Michael's turn to face the "Dementor." Standing in the center of the living room, he raised his wand and said with trembling teeth, "Ex–Expecto… Expecto… Expecto Patronum…"
From the tip of his wand, occasional puffs of silvery mist emerged, but they never took shape—nowhere near enough to fend off the Dementor.
Just as the Dementor's hand was about to touch Michael, Theo yanked him behind the sofa. Ryan jumped in front and shouted, "Expecto Patronum!"
A faint silver shadow burst from the end of his wand and barely held the Dementor back a couple of steps.
A few seconds later, the shadow faded. Then Theo stepped forward and attempted a Patronus of his own, though it too failed to take full form.
He held out for a moment, and he was trembling and almost collapsed, Michael rushed back in front once again.
Casting the Patronus Charm to repel a Dementor isn't an easy feat—even if this Dementor was just a Boggart version. The pressure and despair it emitted were no less real.
At the same time, using such an advanced spell is a major challenge for young wizards whose magical ability and grasp of the incantation are still developing—it taxed both their magic and physical strength.
Everyone was drenched in sweat, and their limbs were shaking uncontrollably. Just as they were about to give in, Lupin strode over and said, "That's enough. You all need to rest a bit… Riddikulus!"
With a loud crack, the Dementor turned into a chew toy and was tossed back into the trunk by Lupin. The Patronus on Wade's shoulder faded at the same time.
Michael collapsed on the spot, gasping for air, and said in frustration, "What happened? I know I can cast a Patronus under normal conditions."
"That spell is extremely advanced—it's normal to struggle at first," Harry said as he helped him up and reassured them. "Remember on the train that time? I couldn't do it either. I even passed out."
"But now you can handle that thing no problem…" Michael muttered. "So I just need more practice!"
Everyone burst out laughing at that—especially because it came from Michael, who was usually the most eager to slack off.
"Don't rush it—you're all doing very well," Lupin said, handing out chocolate. "Focus on happy memories. Don't let yourselves get trapped in the scary ones."
He gently guided them on how to maintain a calmer mindset. Meanwhile, Harry had walked over to Wade and Mabel, just in time to hear Mabel ask, "What were you all laughing about just now?"
"The guy who usually loves slacking off suddenly got all motivated," Wade replied lazily. "Felt like the sun just rose from the west."
Mabel let out a slightly confused "Oh," not quite understanding what was so funny. Then she asked with concern, "How is Mr. Cube and the others? I kind of miss them."
"Mr. Cube?" Harry repeated the strange name, and looked curiously at the girl who was supposedly a distant relative of Lupin.
Mabel had taken Polyjuice Potion, so in the eyes of Harry and the others in Hogsmeade, she appeared as an ordinary girl with two braided pigtails and freckles, hailing from America.
She was currently on a break from school due to health reasons and was staying with Lupin.
As for what those health reasons were, Harry and the others hadn't asked out of politeness. Judging by their expressions, they seemed to assume Mabel, like Lupin, was also a werewolf.
"Mr. Cube is one of Wade's magic dolls," Mabel said with a smile. "There are several others—they're all quite interesting."
She didn't go into detail about how those magic dolls had crossed thousands of miles on their own to rescue their master. So in Harry's mind, the image he formed was just of several fist-sized magical pet dolls.
Having a few puppets around Wade didn't seem strange at all, so Harry didn't dwell on it and instead asked, "What about Caryll? Didn't he come with you?"
"No, he had other things to do." Wade didn't want to revisit that troublesome ordeal and instead asked, "Have you all been practicing spells this intensely lately?"
"We can't let ourselves be that useless again the next time we run into enemies, can we?" Harry said with a heavy tone. "I really don't want to pass out again."
Wade thought of all the crises Harry would face in the original timeline a year later and nodded. "It's good to practice more. The world's only getting more dangerous."
"Yeah," Harry sighed.
"Dementors, Obscurus, the Alliance, and Death Eaters like Malfoy's father who got away without punishment… Percy said that during their time at school a few years ago, the wizarding world was peaceful. The biggest news was just another Defense Against the Dark Arts professor getting into trouble…"
—And Voldemort preparing to return.
That thought flashed through Wade's mind, and then he heard Harry's last comment and said wryly, "Ever since we started at Hogwarts, trouble's just kept piling up. If this were a novel, it'd be called 'main character treatment.'"
Harry laughed out loud.
Mabel glanced at the two of them, then looked directly at Harry and asked, "The Obscurus haven't caused you any trouble, have they? Why did you lump them in too?"
"Huh?" Harry had spoken without thinking. Now, caught off guard by the question, he scratched his head. "Maybe because I've seen that word so often in the papers? I just lumped it in subconsciously…"
Mabel looked at Harry deeply, and when she saw he genuinely didn't seem to know anything, she finally turned her gaze away.
Wade was just about to say something when he caught a flash of silver out of the corner of his eye.
A phoenix Patronus flew in through the window and landed beside Wade, and it opened its beak to speak in Dumbledore's voice: "Please come to the Shrieking Shack at once, Wade."
...
The Shrieking Shack wasn't far from Lupin's house. When Wade arrived, he saw Dumbledore standing beside the dilapidated shack, wearing a purple robe embroidered with golden stars.
"Professor Dumbledore," Wade walked over and asked, "What's happened?"
"Caryll has escaped from Hogwarts." Dumbledore extended his arm, signaling Wade to take hold. "Come with me. I might know where he's hiding."
With a sudden "pop," the two vanished from their spot and reappeared in an unfamiliar city. Wade saw ahead an iron-fenced courtyard surrounded by bushes, inside which stood a six-story white building.
A sign by the gate indicated it was a sanatorium.
Dumbledore led Wade toward the sanatorium, saying, "Not long ago, Professor McGonagall informed me that Caryll attacked Hermione in the Gryffindor common room, stole her Time-Turner, and fled."
Wade frowned. "He must have turned back to an earlier time and left Hogwarts through a secret passage… A few hours is enough time for him to escape anywhere in Britain."
"That would have been the case," Dumbledore said gravely, "but I'm afraid Caryll rewound time far beyond the allowable limit."
He continued solemnly, "Because just an hour ago, after finishing a meeting with Madam Maxim, I received a letter… one that was written over a year ago and was scheduled to be delivered at this exact time."
Wade's brow twitched. "From Caryll?"
"Yes."
As they spoke, Dumbledore led Wade inside the sanatorium. A female doctor in her forties, who had been bending over to speak with a patient in a wheelchair, immediately approached upon seeing them.
"Hello again, Mr. Dumbledore. You're back quickly."
Ignoring their unusual attire, the doctor looked at Wade with surprise. "Oh, you must be Wade Grey! You look exactly like your photo!"
Wade was puzzled. "Photo?"
"Yes." The doctor glanced around, then took them into her office and pulled a photo from a drawer. In the center was Harry, flanked by Wade, Hermione, and others.
Wade instantly recognized it — likely taken by Colin Creevey from Gryffindor, a super fan of Harry Potter who loved taking pictures of Harry and sometimes included Wade and others.
Wade put the photo away and asked, "What's going on?"
The doctor sighed deeply, her expression was a mixture of fear, disbelief, and relief as she whispered mysteriously:
"Actually, last year… no, the Christmas before last, I encountered a ghost."
Wade blinked. "...A ghost?"
He glanced at Dumbledore, who motioned for him to listen.
"Yes," the doctor shivered. "One night, when I was alone in my office, it suddenly appeared… no, not appeared exactly — it suddenly spoke…"
"What did it say?" Wade asked.
"It told me to take a patient home, hide and care for them. Only when a boy named Wade Grey arrived on January 30, 1994, could the patient be taken away."
Fear flickered in her eyes. "It also said it cursed me — if I didn't obey, I and my family would die unnatural deaths. But when Wade Grey comes, he can help lift the curse."
"I originally thought it was just a prank by the patient and told it I'd call the police if it kept messing around.
But… but suddenly everything in my room started shaking, the light bulbs flickered and then shattered, and I even felt myself lift off the floor! I could even feel a pair of hands choking my neck!"
The doctor nervously touched her neck, as if reliving that terrifying night.
"I… I had no choice but to take the person home… But the next day, the next morning… an identical corpse appeared on the hospital bed… and her cause of death was very strange — she was…"
The doctor lowered her voice, trembling as she said, "She was strangled by her own necklace!"
"I saw the body and immediately ran home to check, but the person I took home was still there… yet the corpse was also in the hospital room… I don't know what's going on, I don't even know which one is the ghost…"
The doctor looked at Wade with longing eyes, then glanced at Dumbledore and asked, "You will take that thing… I mean that person away, right? My task will be done, and the curse can be lifted?"
Wade had already figured things out. After a long silence, he asked, "Where is the extra corpse?"
"Oh, because no one has claimed it, and the matter is… strange, it's still in the morgue."
The doctor led them to the morgue. Dumbledore signed some documents, then the doctor opened the cabinet that had been sealed for over a year.
Dumbledore did not remove the cloth covering it. Either Transfiguration or potion could completely change all physical traits — there was one thing that could not be altered.
The old man extended his slender fingers and pulled up the pant leg of the patient's gown slightly.
On the corpse's shriveled ankle was a pair of iron rings about the thickness of fingers — a method Aurors used to prevent prisoners from escaping.
After a long silence, the old man covered the body back up and asked, "Where is the person he entrusted you to care for?"
"He?" The doctor was momentarily startled by the word, then replied:
"That lady's recovery is going well. Although she hasn't regained her memories, she has regained the ability to care for herself. Her condition isn't suitable for staying cooped up in the house, so I arranged for her to stay at my father's farm."
The doctor took a leave from the sanatorium and drove Wade and Dumbledore to the farm.
Soon, Wade saw Caryll's real mother — Mrs. Annie Johnson.
She was wearing a loose, simple blue dress and sat on a haystack, brushing the fur of a fat cat in her arms.
Unlike before, when she was always tense and hard to approach, Annie Johnson now looked very relaxed and peaceful with a gentle gaze and a faint smile on her face.
Wade thought of the corpse in the morgue and felt a heavy weight in his heart. He pressed his lips tightly and turned his gaze aside.
The doctor did not dare approach Mrs. Johnson, and stopped at a distance. Looking at the two, she said, "I've taken good care of her, haven't I? Can this matter be over now?"
"Of course."
Dumbledore sighed and reached out to gently stroke her forehead. The doctor immediately felt a wave of warmth throughout her body and looked at Dumbledore with delight.
The headmaster nodded and said, "The curse has been lifted. Both the person and the corpse will be taken away. Thank you for all your efforts during this time."
In truth, there was no real curse, but the headmaster knew that saying this would bring the doctor more peace of mind.
"I will send you some money as payment for your care," Wade added. After recalling the typical fees of most sanatoriums, he increased the amount by fifty percent and asked, "£30,000, is that acceptable?"
The doctor had originally not wanted to accept any money related to the "ghost" matter, but upon hearing that amount, she couldn't help but be tempted.
She was just a resident physician, and her annual income was only about 10 to 20 thousand pounds.
After hesitating for a moment, the doctor nodded and said, "Of course… that's enough… Actually, it also left you a box… Oh, I wasn't trying to hide it, I just hadn't gotten around to mentioning it."
A few minutes later, the doctor rummaged through the farm's storage and found a long rectangular box labeled "For Wade."
The box was secured with a complex lock, but of course that was no challenge for two wizards. Seeing they made no move for a while, the doctor opened the sturdy lock with a "click" and her heart was filled with awe and curiosity.
She realized she was probably touching a corner of the world ordinary people could never glimpse.
Wade lifted the lid and saw inside Harry's firebolt and invisibility cloak, Hermione's time-turner, and a letter.
He unfolded the paper and immediately saw Caryll's somewhat messy handwriting—
[Wade, by the time you read this letter, I will have been dead for a long time, won't I? I hope you won't feel sad for me, because this is what I deserve.]
[I'm very sorry but have no regrets. My mother did nothing wrong; it's all because of me, her son, that she suffered these things.
So if anyone should die, it should just be me… Since the time travel was so far back, I'm doomed anyway. I would rather use myself to bring her back.]
[I know the consequences of doing this are serious, but I tried not to change any known history. If there really are any time distortions or other effects… then there's nothing I can do. I can only wish you all good luck.]
[Maybe you hate me very much right now? But for the sake of the little cookies my mother baked for you, please help her. Let her live peacefully away from the wizarding world… she doesn't need to regain those bad memories.]
[If one day you meet my father, please tell him for me: I'm sorry, and I love him.
— C.J.]
--------------------------------
🙏🙏Please consider supporting this translation project by becoming a P@treon member!!!
Your support is greatly appreciated!
Available on my P@treon page for just $4!!
Early access to the following translations:-
⭐Harry Potter: Becoming a Study God (HP:BSG)- +235 Chapters
⭐MCU: Druid's Adventures (MCUDA)(⭐COMPLETE⭐) - Total Chapter 460
⭐Famous Police Detective in Detective World (FPDDW)- +165 advance chapters
⭐Marvel: Little Genius (MLG) (⭐COMPLETE⭐) - Total Chapter 450
[email protected]/Lightreaper457
--------------------------------