"I do alright. I've got a bit of talent in alchemy," Ian replied modestly, not taking the chance to boast, because his attention had already been drawn to something else in the room.
He saw it.
A massive device stood there, towering and still.
The instrument panel, lacking any hands, was marked with various incomprehensible but clearly illuminated scales.
This was, of course, the clock that Ian had once brought back from the Twilight Zone into the real world. It now looked much newer, likely due to Nicolas Flamel having spent the entire summer working on its restoration.
Though Ian wasn't sure just how far that restoration had come.
"Do you know what this is?" Harry had noticed where Ian's gaze had landed. He'd been curious about the large clock occupying so much space for some time now.
"If I'm not mistaken, it's… a clock." Ian's response was basically a non-answer. Anyone with functioning eyes could tell that it was something like that.
Even if Harry Potter were extremely nearsighted, he wasn't blind. His time living with the Dursleys hadn't affected his basic cognitive functions.
"I meant, do you know what it's for?" Harry didn't mock Ian's reply. Instead, he reflected on and corrected his own phrasing.
He clearly assumed that Ian, a senior, had misunderstood the question. That's just how kind Harry was: he'd rather believe he wasn't clear than assume Ian was being deliberately obtuse.
"As you can see, it's a clock, so naturally, it's used for…" Ian was about to go off into some nonsense answer, but curiosity got the better of him, and he couldn't stop his hand.
As he spoke, he raised a hand to touch the large clock. And that impulsive gesture cut his sentence off abruptly.
There was no helping it.
It wasn't that Ian wanted to stop.
He had to.
Though it didn't feel like something was choking him, Ian was caught off guard by something completely unexpected. In front of the ancient and mysterious clock, his magic power surged out of him like a wild stallion. Without warning, it was drawn by an invisible force and began to pour uncontrollably into the massive, ancient mechanism.
"What's going on?"
As Ian's magic was absorbed, the clock's surface suddenly erupted in a brilliant glow of runes, shining like the brightest stars in the night sky. A warm and intense light enveloped him entirely in an instant.
At that moment, Ian's world seemed to disconnect from reality. He felt as though he had stepped into a completely different dimension, and everything around him was undergoing earth-shaking transformations in ways he could not begin to describe.
Even Harry Potter, who had been standing nearby, vanished from view.
Everything around him had become pure chaos. The sensation was somewhat similar to what he experienced during the mysterious "Night of Enigma."
Of course,
There were differences though those differences were subtle.
Ian had no idea how to describe what he was experiencing.
He only furrowed his brow.
"Am I being pulled into the Twilight Zone?" Ian could feel his magic being forcefully drawn from his body and toward the clock, and he began to struggle, trying to regain control and stop the flow.
And somehow, whether it was because his control over his own magic was strong enough or because the clock had already received enough power to reach its threshold, he gradually began to regain control over his magic.
"Phew~"
Ian let out a slight sigh of relief.
In his senses, the magical fluctuations on the great clock were beginning to weaken.
As the brilliant runes slowly dimmed, the strange phenomena around him began to fade as well. The flowing light and energy that had enveloped Ian gradually dispersed.
"That drained a lot of my magical energy. Probably more than casting Avada Kedavra nonstop for an hour." Ian held his head, which was slightly dizzy, as he thought of a nonsense comparison.
He was somewhat relieved that he hadn't overdrawn his magic, but also a little annoyed at himself; he really shouldn't have been so impulsive as to touch an alchemical creation still under repair.
"Harry?"
Seeing that everything had returned to normal, Ian was about to discuss with Harry how they might keep this incident under wraps, but he suddenly realized that Harry Potter was nowhere to be found in his field of vision.
In fact, forget Harry Potter, it was as if the entire office had been completely transformed.
"What the hell?!" Ian was startled to discover that he was no longer in the same place, but instead inside an alchemy classroom brimming with mystery and fantasy.
This alchemy classroom was spacious and bright, with high ceilings from which hung ancient magical chandeliers. They cast a soft and warm glow that fully illuminated the room. The walls were inlaid with all kinds of strange runes and alchemical diagrams, which seemed to shimmer with life under the faint light.
At the center of the classroom was a massive alchemy worktable, covered in rare materials, test tubes, beakers, and a variety of intricate alchemical instruments.
The air carried a faint aroma, a blend of herbs and metal.
"This is still Hogwarts, no doubt about it!" Ian couldn't help but glance out the window. Outside, the storm still raged on, and the swaying shadows of trees and the surroundings confirmed that he hadn't been transported to a completely different world or location.
"Could I have entered an inner world version of Hogwarts?" Ian looked around, filled with wonder and curiosity. He gently pushed open the classroom door and stepped out into the corridor.
What greeted him was a familiar hallway.
The corridor still had the same ancient portraits and magical decorations lining its walls. They watched silently as he passed, just like always. And yet, even though everything looked the same, Ian sensed something subtle and inexplicable had changed, as if the very world had shifted the moment he was engulfed in light.
A hard-to-describe feeling.
Or perhaps… just pure instinct.
"The murals still show the same people... they haven't turned into creepy monsters or anything. Maybe this isn't some inner world?" Ian still felt something was off about this version of Hogwarts.
He drew his wand, now alert.
And at that moment,
"Hey there. What are you doing out here so late at night, hmm? Does Hogwarts even have a student like you?" A warm, yet slightly authoritative voice suddenly rang out by Ian's ear.
From behind him.
Ian turned around immediately.
And he saw... those deep blue eyes.
It was Albus Dumbledore.
The young version.
(End of Chapter)
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