Hogwarts 1991

Chapter 483 Time Shuttle
McGuffin looked at the golden golden timer in his hand, knowing that there was no time to waste, so he immediately turned it gently five times.

The shining [Hall of Time] began to tremble in front of his eyes...

The minute and hour hands of the surrounding clocks are going backwards crazily, and everything in front of me is beginning to become blurred.
McGuffin felt that he was moving backwards quickly, as if someone had pressed the fast-forward button for him. Various clouds and blurred light spots flashed in front of his eyes, and his ears were buzzing, as if a villain was knocking hard on it.

Then suddenly he felt himself on solid ground again, and everything came into focus.

Time went back five hours.

It was a little past six o'clock.

He stood in front of the Prohibition of Misuse of Magic Office, and the old witch of Hopkirk was reprimanding him from inside.

"McGuffin Albert! You must be honest about this serious matter... otherwise you will not leave here, and no matter who intercedes for you, it will not work."

McGuffin quickly lowered his head and walked along the corridor, he did not forget his purpose of going back to the past:
——Find a way to the outside world in the Ministry of Magic, so that you can escape when you return to the 'now'... And if you don't succeed, be prepared to inform the Ministry of Magic at the right time, so that those idiot bureaucrats know what happened here.

And in the process, McGuffin should try to minimize himself being discovered.

Fortunately, most of the Ministry of Magic staff rushed to watch the Quidditch World Cup today,... In the corridors, there were far fewer wizards in the Ministry of Magic elevators than McGuffin had seen the last time he came here.

However, perhaps it was true that Voldemort had chosen this moment to attack the Ministry of Magic.

He waited anxiously, and the golden grille door of the magic elevator in front of him slammed open.

McGuffin walked in carefully with his head down, trying to avoid a few wizards who got off work early and were going to watch the game on the Quidditch pitch.

One of the bearded wizards looked at the McGuffin a little strangely.

Like wondering how the MacGuffin got here.

"Where are you going? Little wizard?" He asked casually.

"hall……"

McGuffin lowered his head and said vaguely that he was trying to avoid communication with other people.

The bearded man then pressed the round brass buttons, the barricade door slammed shut, and the elevator began to descend.

At the same time, a hollow female voice said, "The second floor, the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, contains the Department of Misuse of Magic, Auror Command, and the Wizengamot Governing Body."

In the entire enclosed elevator space, there is only one little wizard, McGuffin, which is very attractive, and he is not a little wizard like Ron who often hangs around with his father in the Ministry of Magic. Many wizards in the Ministry of Magic know him.

Fortunately, at this time, everyone's attention is on the Quidditch match that has already started.

A red-haired witch standing next to a beard took out a magic radio that looked like a walkman from her pocket.

There is a slit on the top of the radio horn that opens and closes, like a mouth, and the sound comes out of it.

— Ludo Bagman's loud voice was explaining the progress of the Quidditch match.

'...Ireland are 10 points clear of Bulgaria and Troy just scored! '

The bearded man looked frustrated, and seemed to support the Bulgarian team, while the red-haired witch and the remaining wizard clenched their fists tightly, their faces full of excitement, and they should support the Irish team.

After a few seconds, the elevator came to a trembling stop, the grille door opened, and several purple paper airplanes came in from the corridor. They hovered continuously at the top of the elevator, under the dim ceiling lights.

The hollow female voice said, "Fourth floor, Department of Magical Creatures Management, Goblin Liaison Office, and Pest Advisory Office."

After that, McGuffin came to the hall of the Ministry of Magic smoothly.

Those three adult wizards didn't pay much attention to the rather strange little wizards, and rushed out of here in a hurry. It seemed that they wanted to rush to the Quidditch World Cup Stadium to watch the unfinished game, or... go to the [Leaky Cauldron Bar], have a nice drink, listen to the content on the radio with other wizards, and chat loudly about who will win the game.

At this time, wizard Erik was still very normal. He blocked the position beside the door, shaking a newspaper angrily, and he was in a bad mood just by looking at it.

The entire magic hall has not changed, it has not been eroded by the disgusting magic black mist, and there are no crackling gray-skinned monsters.

It was time to get off work, and adult wizards in twos and threes came out of the magic elevator, greeted Erik, walked into the atrium, and left the Ministry of Magic with Floo powder.

McGuffin tousled his hair, then pretended to be very interested in the game status on the radio in the hands of a certain wizard, and followed the wizarding crowd like that, pretending to be a child of a certain wizard.

He trotted all the way to the atrium of the Ministry of Magic, which was much deserted than usual.

The goblins with their little carts selling newspapers and floo powder had all but disappeared.

Depending on the situation, he probably went to the Quidditch venue to do business.

Now there is only one goblin in a green suit setting up a booth, selling some newspapers and Floo powder in bits and pieces, but its main business is still reselling 'scalper tickets' which have increased five or six times the price, that is, the tickets for this Quidditch World Cup match.

Not to mention, there are still some people who have been taken advantage of are making purchases.

And McGuffin is one of them.

He reluctantly bought a small packet of floo powder at a price 10 times higher than the market price, and came to a fireplace.

He planned to go to [Diagon Alley] first, to the [Owl Post Office] there... Rented an owl to inform Dumbledore, let him persuade Cornelius Fudge, of course he was not alone, Mr. Weasley, and Snape also planned to notify him, so as to avoid any accidents.

Then come back to the Ministry of Magic to find a way to escape in five hours.

"The Leaky Cauldron!"

The green flames flickered and swallowed McGuffin, and with a whirl of shuttles, he came to the dark and dilapidated old bar.

…………

"Well, this is the last letter!"

McGuffin handed over the letter to the staff of the [Owl Post Office] in Diagon Alley.

He had already asked how long it would take to mail the Quidditch World Cup venue from here,
He counted the time, arranged everything, left Diagon Alley, and returned to [The Leaky Cauldron].

It's a little brighter and busier here than usual.

The pub owner, Tom, the bald wizard with a blunted walnut, is finally willing to spruce up the tavern.

He placed some of the tables and chairs in the bar with green wizard beer, a specialty of Ireland, and the green clover, the lucky symbol of Irish wizards, while in another part of the tables and chairs, there were Bulgarian flags and napkins with large photos of Seeker Krum.

The guests in the bar are gathering in two groups according to this, each sitting on one side listening to their respective radios.

The wizards listened to Bagman's loud voice explaining the current situation of the game, and cheered for the teams they supported in each other's hearts. Almost all the topics between them revolved around the outcome of the two games, or they scolded each other's team.

Of course, it is impossible for McGuffin to ask these wizards how to sneak in and out of the Ministry of Magic.

McGuffin drank a glass of iced Sydney beer in one gulp, calmed down his uneasiness, and could only bite the bullet and prepare to return to the Ministry of Magic to find out if there was any other way out. Anyway, when the time came, he would be taken back to the [Hall of Time] by the [Time Shifter].

It would be suicide on the spot to waste this hard-earned time.

However, when he stood up, his legs became weak and he fell on the stool immediately.

It even caught the attention of a little man next to him holding a long cigarette pouch, knocking on the table, knocking out the ash.

The wizard was wearing an unusually gorgeous green top hat, looked at McGuffin's distraught appearance, and then followed McGuffin's gaze to look outside the door, where a very handsome young man with pale complexion just walked in.

The little man wizard was a little strange. He squinted his eyes, picked up the long tobacco rod and took a deep puff, exhaling a puff of smoke.

He felt as if he had seen the appearance of this person somewhere...very familiar...and he seemed to have a chilling feeling.

what happened?

But then he gave up thinking on his own.

Because in the middle of the table, the red radio, the sudden broadcast of the game... made the atmosphere here very tense.

"...The Golden Snitch appeared... Lynch from the Irish team and Krum, the Seeker from the Bulgarian team, spotted the small golden ball almost at the same time, and they chased after it... At this speed... the Golden Snitch made two sharp turns in a row and swooped down from the ground... Two Seekers caught up...Merlin, none of them slowed down, the two of them were about to hit the ground."

"Wow, this technique...the two are safe and sound, they used the drifting technique developed by Harry Potter...turned safely...the two almost hit the ground just now."

Ludo Bagman's commentary... is being played simultaneously on the radio.

"Ah, they still haven't given up on the Snitch...the two chased after them again...At this time, the players from both sides finally caught up, and they used all kinds of tricks to stop the opponent's Seeker..."

"Continuous drifting... This is really the most exciting game I have ever seen..."

As the game was explained, McGuffin was trying to keep his head down, so close to thrusting his head and face right into the crowd of Irish Wizards fans in their green wizarding robes.

Now he kept cursing secretly in his heart, and he had to pretend to be fanatical, immersed in the enthusiastic atmosphere of the game.

so as not to be discovered by that person.

Oh, I forgot to mention that McGuffin recognized the young man who just came in, he was——

Tom Riddle! !

It's Voldemort's young, student days.

In the second year of Hogwarts, the avatar phantom condensed from the [Horcrux (Notebook)] is exactly the same as the young wizard walking around the Leaky Cauldron now.

It is impossible for him to forget it!

Shri, shri!
McGuffin cursed again and again in his heart, and his body became weak. Now he dare not let this guy find himself here.

Meeting on the spot... and tearing your face apart, this guy Voldemort can easily slaughter the Leaky Cauldron directly.

Fortunately, after Tom Riddle looked at the [Leaky Cauldron] with great interest, he took the bat with two red eyes and the mouse with silver gloves to the fireplace, sprinkled a handful of Floo powder, and flew to the Ministry of Magic.

Again McGuffin was dumbfounded.

He wondered if he was going to the Ministry of Magic.

If you go after Voldemort, you may be able to run directly into the back of someone's ass.

Thinking about the situation where I might say to Tom Riddle later, 'Jean, you're blocking my way...', and the ecstatic expression on Voldemort's face when he realized that he was about to deliver it to his lips.

His heart trembled.

However, as I said before, if you don't go, or go late, and wait for Voldemort to completely block the Ministry of Magic, you will be waiting for death slowly.

The Ministry of Magic will act after receiving the news. According to those bureaucratic guys, I don't know how long it will take...

And he can't, or can't change what has happened.

At the very least, McGuffin felt that he had to go back and find an absolutely safe place, at least to avoid Voldemort during the time period when the Ministry of Magic counterattacked.

After making a decision, McGuffin ordered another glass of sherry and drank it down.

Then Jiuyi came to the fireplace, used the Floo network channel, and returned to the Ministry of Magic.

—the situation was much better than the worst that McGuffin had expected.

Voldemort was not in front of his eyes, and those monsters like black mist and gray skin corpses did not appear, and even the wizard who guarded the gate, Erik, was still standing there with a dissatisfied expression.

However, this guy shook his head, held the upside-down newspaper, and made a weird laugh, and Voldemort cast the [Imperius Curse] at a glance.

After McGuffin walked through the atrium with fewer people, he realized that the Dark Lord hadn't activated yet and was waiting for most of the wizards to leave the Ministry of Magic before taking action, so as to reduce resistance and prevent the Ministry of Magic from discovering something was wrong in advance and taking action.

He also used [Confusion Curse] to confuse Erik's handle, and immediately got on the golden magic elevator.

In the sound of gacha chacha, McGuffin was at a loss.

He didn't know where to find a safe passage out of the Ministry of Magic, or how to find a safe place where he could hide.

This time, he was the only one in the elevator, and without stopping, he was pulled to the top floor of the Ministry of Magic office building in one breath.

The golden grille door slowly opened.

"The first floor, the office of the Minister of Magic and the logistics department."

Got it!

McGuffin remembered that Dumbledore's office had a Floo powder passage leading directly to the Ministry of Magic.

This was during the World War of Wizards set off by Grindelwald. In order to establish a fast and safe way of movement between Hogwarts and the Ministry of Magic, wizards built a clear, fast, uninterrupted, mutual support channel.

Last year, the year before... Cornelius Fudge and Dumbledore reopened this independent Floo network channel.

Dumbledore had explained this to him.

And that should be independent of those Floo network passages in the atrium, and not prohibited by Voldemort's dark magic interference.

Maybe he can pass...

But would there be magical defenses in Cornelius Fudge's office, or any other garrisoned wizarding personnel.

Is it safe for him to go there now?
After getting out of the elevator, McGuffin walked back and forth in the empty corridor, and it took him a long time to make up his mind, and directly broke into the office of the Minister of Magic with his wand.

He is so lucky!
There was no one there, and there was indeed a fireplace leading directly to Hogwarts, which could also be used.

It couldn't have been better.

During the long wait, McGuffin watched the black mist engulf the office building of the Ministry of Magic little by little... Erik on the first floor was attacked by those wrinkled corpse monsters... Voldemort walked in the atrium, waving his wand... as if he was destroying some magical defense device... He and Hopkirk were stuck in the magic elevator in the middle of the air... He broke free, escaped and rushed into the hall of the Ministry of Magic again...

Finally... Following the blurry rotation and rapid retreat again, the McGuffin once again appeared in the shining golden [Hall of Time].

only……

Before McGuffin woke up from the dizziness, a voice rang from his ear.

"Surprise, what a surprise!"

"Look who this is?"

"McGuffin Albert!"

An evil, cold, slightly hoarse voice pierced into his brain.

McGuffin felt like falling into an abyss.

(End of this chapter)