In the Hogwarts common room, Skyl opened his eyes and let out a soft breath. The lively atmosphere around him remained unchanged. Time spent together by students was always filled with more joy than sorrow. The old bat, meanwhile, was alone in his dark office, licking old scars with not even half a kindred spirit beside him.
Skyl looked around, found no interest in joining his classmates' entertainment topics, and decided to go to the White Tower to inspect the headmaster's work progress.
After coming down from Gryffindor Tower, Skyl ran into Harry halfway down, sitting at the stairwell. The boy was helping Afu remove the bells and ribbons tied to him. The two greeted each other, and Skyl reminded the boy to remember to send the dog back to the headmaster's office.
When he reached the main hall, Lady Helena and the Bloody Baron were arguing endlessly, drawing many ghostly friends to secretly watch. These ghosts were excellent eavesdroppers. Some hid inside suits of armor, while others tucked their bodies into the walls, leaving only a single ear exposed.
Seeing a pearly-white transparent ear growing out of the wall and half a transparent head poking out from a corner, this ghostly environment really could scare the wits out of anyone timid.
Ever since Lady Helena had become young again, she was no longer the cold and arrogant figure she had been in the past. She interacted with others far more often now. Aside from scolding the Bloody Baron, she would even answer some young wizards' questions.
As Ravenclaw's daughter, Helena's level of knowledge was truly beyond question. Even after a thousand years had passed, she could still give guidance to lower-year students.
Skyl silently shook his head. Without getting involved in this daily dispute, he quietly walked out the doors.
Outside the castle, there were still a few couples walking hand in hand through the darkness over the snowy ground, holding glowing wands or dazzling magical lanterns. The graduating students spoke about where they would go after this, and many young men and women destined to part poured out their hearts to each other, treasuring even the ordinary little details of campus life as if they were priceless.
Skyl stepped alone into the gray, snowy night. A ball of fluorescent light shone in his hand as he quickly went around the flowerbeds and followed the quiet path toward the northern cliff.
A large black dog emerged from the flowerbeds and gently shook the accumulated snow from its body. It glanced at the transfer student's retreating figure, then silently ran into the castle doors.
The black dog crossed the main hall and headed toward Gryffindor Tower. As he climbed to the second floor, a gloomy young wizard stopped him at the stairwell.
"If I were you, I wouldn't just barge in like that."
When the black dog saw Harry, his entire body began trembling.
The young wizard sent Afu away, then stepped forward and gently embraced the black dog.
"Hello, Sirius."
On the second floor of the White Tower, the short Professor Flitwick was trembling all over as he curled up in a chair. He held a bone-china teacup in both hands and drank hot cocoa in large gulps. The sweet drink could quickly replenish his drained strength, but that still was not enough. Dumbledore stuffed a deep-blue Energy Potion into Flitwick's hand.
After drinking this potion produced by the Tower of Tomes, the aftereffects of excessive spellcasting receded somewhat. Flitwick rallied his spirits and said hoarsely, "All right. I'm fine now. Let's continue."
"Filius, don't force yourself. You should sleep for a while first," Dumbledore said with concern.
"Yes, we should all rest for a while." Professor McGonagall's lips trembled, and her eyes were blank. She now regretted her curiosity from back then. Some secrets could get people killed, while others could drag people into Silicon Valley–style crunch hell.
Professor Gellert stood beside the cultivation pool with his hands behind his back. He was probably the one in the best condition among this group of wizards. At this moment, he was observing the newly formed Celestial central brain through a large magical viewing instrument.
Under the viewing instrument's magnifying lens, the internal structure of the Celestial brain looked like a multicolored nebula, with hundreds of billions of ganglia giving off a faint glow.
"How beautiful," Professor Gellert sighed softly. "No matter how many times I see it, it still makes me marvel at the subtle relationship between life and the universe."
Hearing this, the professors also nodded one after another. In the face of such a great creation, even all this suffering and exhaustion was worth it.
"When I think of how astonishing the educational resources students will have in the future, I feel sincerely delighted," Dumbledore said, stroking the long beard before his chest with an easy, content expression.
After a day and night of hard labor, the originally whole mass of nerves had already been separated into several large functional regions, like the longitude and latitude lines of a map drawn on a blank sheet of paper. Next, they simply had to reconstruct the neural connections step by step.
Everyone optimistically estimated that before Christmas, they would be able to complete the processing of the hardware. The soul programming that came afterward, however, would be an even more difficult mountain to climb. Research regarding the soul was simply too obscure and too rare. Only in the Tower of Tomes could they find related texts, and they still had to learn everything from scratch.
Skyl came to the second floor along the spiral staircase. He raised his hand in greeting.
"Good evening, professors."
What answered him was a collection of weak, dispirited mutters. This group of old people lifted their eyelids and nodded at the transfer student.
Professor Flitwick jumped down from his chair and trotted over to Skyl.
"Skyl, Merlin's beard, you came at exactly the right time. There's something I'd like to ask of you."
"Stop. Let me guess. You want me to substitute for your classes, right?"
"Exactly!" The tiny professor jumped up and spun around excitedly, then his cheeks flushed red. "I know your rules for helping. Let's be direct. How many points should I add to Gryffindor?"
"Our house already has enough points." Skyl put on a troubled expression. "In order to help Professor McGonagall, I had no choice but to invite a teaching assistant to take over the Potions work. Besides, I came to Hogwarts to study, not to be a professor."
These words made Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall look embarrassed.
Professor Flitwick looked disappointed, but he hurriedly comforted Skyl and said, "It's all right. I can manage it myself. I won't trouble you."
Professor McGonagall quietly sighed. "If only the Time-Turners were still around."
Time-Turners had always been a mysterious object professors kept secret. Their function was powerful, but they were also extremely dangerous. Not many people knew of their existence, and now they had all been destroyed by the Ministry of Magic. There would probably never be any more in the future.
Skyl believed that destroying the Time-Turners had only benefits and no drawbacks. If those things had been left behind, who knew how much trouble they might cause later?
"It seems we can only hire teaching assistants after all," Dumbledore said helplessly. "Hogwarts will need more professors in the future. Skyl, do you have anyone to recommend?"
As for candidates, Skyl of course had one. Wasn't James Potter quite suitable? This brave wizard possessed astonishing talent and ability. Back when he had still been in school, he and several companions had been able to research and create a miraculous magical tool like the Marauder's Map. He could summon a corporeal Patronus as well. All of this showed his knowledge and skill in Charms and alchemy.
However, compared to being a teaching assistant, James Potter was actually more suited to helping in the White Tower and taking over Professor Flitwick's work.
"I think that instead of looking for a teaching assistant, it would be better to find a helper to replace Professor Flitwick. That way, he can return to teaching. I'll find this helper for everyone."
Skyl's suggestion received everyone's approval, except for Flitwick himself, who was somewhat disappointed because he very much wanted to participate in this work.
At dusk the next day, the transfer student brought a young wizard in his twenties into the White Tower.
"Remember our agreement, Mr. Potter. Do not reveal your true identity."
James Potter took a deep breath, gave a bright smile, and readily agreed.
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