"Yes," Granger nodded in agreement. "I'm afraid if I rewrite it for forty minutes a day, it will take a long time, and I might get caught."
"Forty minutes in the library and twenty minutes to get there and back?" Richard suggested.
- Exactly.
"Hermione, one book isn't worth such a sacrifice. Take this."
Granger accepted the small box from Richard. Only after turning it over in her hands did she realize what it was. Then she exclaimed in bewilderment:
- Camera?!
- Camera.
- CAMERA?!!!
- Yes, a camera.
- Richie, are you asking me to take a photo of the pages?
"Hermione," Richard replied, "for as long as we've known each other, you've always been a quick thinker..."
"But the camera only has thirty-six frames," Hermione said, shaking the miniature camera. "And the tome is at least three hundred pages long!"
"You don't have to worry about that. If you noticed its small size, you should have guessed this is an unusual camera."
"Is he a spy, an alien, or from the future?" Hermione asked.
"You'd recognize a camera from the future right away," Richard said, his voice laced with a nostalgic quality that was hard to pin down. "It won't have a place for film. Instead, it'll have a small slot for a memory card and a battery. There'll also be a display for viewing photos. After all, a camera of the future will take digital, not analog, photos."
"How do you know?" Granger asked suspiciously, once again leaning toward the idea that Richie was a transmigrator.
"Hermione, I invest in venture projects closely related to the development of mobile communications, computers, and the internet. It's vital for me to stay up-to-date on IT market trends."
"Ah-ah-ah... I see," Granger said with a slight hint of disappointment.
Hermione had hoped for something more than a banal answer, but rather a privy to the secrets of time travel. She'd already imagined herself traveling in the company of someone like Doctor Who. And it all turned out to be so simple.
- But you were right about one thing.
Hermione took a sharp breath at Richard's words and looked at the boy with anticipation. She thought:
"Is he really going to tell me now that he's an alien from Alpha Centauri?"
"The camera is actually a spy camera. You can't imagine how much effort it took me to get MI6 to kindly share this device with me. It uses microfilm that holds two hundred exposures, so if you're photographing two pages at a time, that should be enough."
- MI6?!
Hermione was even more shocked than if Richard had turned out to be an alien from outer space.
"So, tea with the Queen didn't surprise you, but the fact that I asked Colin McCall for a modest gift during a royal reception makes you go blank?"
"McCall?" Hermione, frozen like a statue, drawled in an otherworldly voice. "General McCall, the head of MI6? Do you know him?"
"We didn't drink to brotherhood, but we saw each other a couple of times. He's a funny guy. If you want, I can put in a good word for you after school and get you a lucrative job in the secret service."
"Um... I'll think about it, thanks," Granger said, taking a while to find an answer.
After his memorable conversation with Hermione, the very next day, Richie had a roll of film containing photographs of the pages of the book he needed. He owled the film home so his father could have it developed by the secret service.
In mid-December, Richard woke up one morning to find the castle covered in a thick layer of snow and the lake completely frozen over.
It turned out to be a wonderful day. Richie finally received a copy of the book describing how to create the Sorting Hat. He made another copy and sent it to Mr. Weasley.
Now the puzzle is complete: magical technologies for creating AIs and establishing two-way communication with the user using a form of telepathy are in place. Plus, Richie gave the wizards at the workshop the idea of using Confundus and Obliviate for programming. So, it won't be long before we achieve full-fledged artificial intelligence.
The day continued to bring pleasant surprises. The Weasley twins approached young Rich after dinner. Fred and George looked mysterious.
"Lord Rich," Fred began, "would you be so kind as to spare us a little of your precious time?"
"Yes, Fred, of course," Richard replied.
"Then let's go to our lab," said Fred. "By the way, may I ask how you knew it was me and not George?"
"I have a good memory, gentlemen," Richard replied, rising from the table and following the twins. "There are minimal differences in your appearance and timbre of voice that I've noticed and by them I can tell who's who."
"Amazing!" George said with genuine admiration. "Even our mother can't always do that. If I had my hat, I'd certainly take it off to you, sir."
"Gentlemen, I'm beginning to suspect you've been swapped," Richard raised his right eyebrow and looked the twins over carefully. "You're not joking or fooling around today. Hmm... How can you prove you're Fred and George Weasley?"
Fred turned to his brother and said:
- George, who said we need to be serious with our benefactor?