[HP]Timepiece Countdown

Three hours ago, the same place.

Harry strode down the remaining stairs and hurried down the corridor.Under normal circumstances, he carries the communicator with him; but across the entire Atlantic Ocean, neither the Ministry of Magic nor the Order of the Phoenix can ask him to deal with any emergency, so he temporarily put it in the treasure bag together with other items .

The Treasure Bag was given to him by Hermione, who thought Aurors absolutely needed potions, bandages, armor, one-time charms, and so on.To be honest, Harry didn't know everything in it, and he thought Hermione was a little overwhelmed.But he couldn't refuse her kindness, and he never forgot to bring it with him every time he went out to work.

Harry had never really used the Treasure Bag before, and now he opened the bag and found the problem—there were too many things in it, and they were not classified at all.He reached into the depths of the bag, and the first thing he pulled out was a multi-purpose knife, the next was a spinning top-shaped black magic looking glass, and the third was a knotted sock...

The inefficiency was evident, and Harry quickly lost his patience.He took out his wand, cast a traceless expansion spell on the round table in front of him, then turned the bag mouth down, and poured out all the contents. "The communicator is coming!"

A small, unremarkable black box immediately rose into the air.Harry grabbed it and was about to open it, but suddenly discovered a new problem——

Is it true what Voldemort said about the hurricane and Tower Bridge?If the Dark Lord had lied just to distract him, how was he going to explain it to his fellow Aurors?

Taking a step back, even if these two things are true, how can he give a reasonable reason to have such a fast news channel about him abroad?

Harry thought for a few seconds, put down the communicator decisively, and found the most reflective thing in the pile of objects like a hill. "Pick up Hermione for me." He said in a low voice.

The small, ordinary-looking mirror lit up.In a few moments, Hermione's face appeared inside.She was wearing a coat, her pajamas were piled up at the collar, her hair was loosely tied, and her brown eyes were tired, but she didn't look like she had just been woken up.

Harry's heart skipped a beat. "You're already up?" He asked hastily, very worried, "Is something wrong?"

"Witnesses said that there was a snake-shaped hurricane around Edinburgh, and the London Tower Bridge was knocked down by a giant freighter in half." Hermione replied to him, speaking quickly, "Kingsley just came to the news, he thinks the former is not a natural disaster , the latter was not an operational accident either. The Aurors are off, and Dumbledore put us on standby. There are injuries, and nothing worse has been reported yet."

No one died, which somehow calmed Harry down a bit. "How is the situation now?"

"According to Kingsley's judgment, the other side just wanted to cause some disturbance. If it was the Death Eaters who did it, they obviously slipped away before they could be discovered."

That is, the damage is within the controllable range.Harry finally breathed a sigh of relief and put his heart back into his belly. "If there is any new development, please let me know in time."

Hermione nodded. "Compared to this, I want to know more—" She stared at Harry through the mirror, her eyes were sharp, with a bit of calculation and guessing in her, "Why did you contact me in the middle of the night and act like you knew something was going to happen?" ?”

Harry never doubted that she couldn't find out. "He's right here." He told the truth, lowering his eyelids in frustration.

With the degree of familiarity between the two, everyone knows the vague personal reference in the words.

"You mean, he's not only in the same place with you at the moment, but also told you about the actions of the Death Eaters?" Hermione asked back in surprise, her voice sharpening uncontrollably, "How did you do that?"

What had just happened underground was more like going backwards than progressing, and Harry was becoming more and more afraid to look directly at his friend. "There's nothing to say," he muttered vaguely, "If you must know, I'll tell you when I get back..."

Hermione's expression was now worried. "What's wrong, Harry?" She stretched out her hand, as if wanting to pat Harry on the shoulder, with a soothing tone, "No matter what happens, you know I'm on your side, right? "

Harry nodded, a little ashamed.Of course he knew, but because of this, he felt that he had failed her expectations.Who would have thought that the Dark Lord would rather be tortured by such a huge side effect than a soul mate?Who would have thought that even though they both had feelings for each other, the Dark Lord still wanted to completely cut off the soul connection?

At such a time, Harry really doubted the future a little bit.He thought he had found a breakthrough, but before he could make use of it, Voldemort had already finished speaking, leaving him no chance at all—

The Dark Lord's individualistic tendencies are almost extreme.In order to live forever, he would rather make Horcruxes than use alchemy is the best example.When it comes to soul mates, it turns out that the Dark Lord would rather rely on potions than him.

As if they were still purely sworn enemies, as if that night in the tower never happened...

If Harry could barely understand the part about potions, he couldn't understand the part about feelings at all.The connection made it difficult for them to hide anything from each other: he didn't believe that Voldemort didn't sense his feelings, and he didn't believe that Voldemort didn't have the same feelings for him.It was hard for the Dark Lord to refuse him, the other party just didn't admit it; it seemed that as long as he denied it again and again, those precious and rare emotions would really disappear until it seemed as if they had never appeared at all...

"...Harry? Harry?"

Hermione's anxious call brought Harry back to his senses. "I'm fine." He smiled at her, quite reluctantly.

"You..." Hermione bit her lower lip, obviously not convinced.But she didn't expose Harry, but gently persuaded: "You are too tired, Harry, go to sleep."

Harry nodded curtly, saying goodbye to his friend.The two-way mirror dimmed, and he sank down in the armchair.

He is trying to win the happiness of all, and he is trying to win the happiness of both of them at the same time... Only he can do it, and he must do it... There may be many other ways, but the way to connect It's right in front of his eyes... At first he also thought it was impossible, but it has been proved to be narrow and arbitrary... He has almost met success, just a little bit of luck...

Harry found himself standing beside a dark and menacing chasm, and there was nothing around him.The stone wall below is steep, and the cold wind howls, sending up faint voices.When he listened carefully, the tiny movement disappeared again.

After hesitating for a while, he decided to go down and investigate.The cliff was difficult to climb, and several times he stepped on the gravel and nearly slipped into the abyss.But he continued to go down, towards the direction where he heard the human voice before.

After an unknown period of time, he finally saw a new scene beyond the fog.There was indeed someone below him, still standing on the trunk of a precarious dead tree.He desperately shouted at the man, telling him to join him so that they could climb up together.

But the man with the blurred face just smiled disdainfully and jumped to a lower place.

Harry was furious and anxious at the same time.He continued down, trying to get closer to the man.But every time they were only a little away, the other party would retreat and hide further away.

This may be a test for him, but the problem is that this is not an endless pursuit.Harry had noticed that there were fewer dead trees the further down they went, and that the bottom was sheer darkness.He had a bad premonition that if he fell into it, he would be doomed.

The two of them are getting closer and closer to that dangerous line...

running out of time...

The man seemed to have noticed this too.He stared at the impenetrable darkness for a long time, as if deeply attracted.Harry couldn't help but growl at him to wake him up.The man was startled back to his senses, and then looked at Harry, hesitating, and seemed a little shaken.

The distance between the two is getting shorter and shorter.Harry finally crawled close to the man, trying to reach out for him.The other party also reached out, as if trying to grab Harry.But in the next second, the fingertips of the two were staggered within a short distance, missing by a tiny bit—the man fell backwards, with a calm expression—

"Goodbye, Harry."

At last Harry could see clearly that the man rapidly swallowed by the darkness had a face that belonged to Tom Riddle.

"--don't want!"

Harry woke up screaming.The blood in his whole body was chilled by the violent fall, and the fabric on his back was soaked with sweat.Two seconds later, he really woke up, and found that he fell to the ground at some point, and everything in the room didn't want to stay in place.

……earthquake?

This conditioned reflex was immediately overruled by Harry, who thought that Voldemort was still underground.In the violent shaking, he tried to turn his head to look at the window - he couldn't see anything, but he just had a feeling, telling him that such a big movement had something to do with Voldemort.

The Dark Lord has most likely found out the snake language counter-curse...

"You know what I do with an unregistered wand?"

The words rushed into Harry's mind.Realizing the true meaning behind it, he fell into an ice cave.Like the hurricane that just happened, the Death Eaters haven't done much in recent years.But from now on, things will be completely different - Voldemort will start to create the same white terror as before, just as the other party will try their best to completely cut off the connection between them...

This can't be done, absolutely not!

Harry wanted to jump up immediately, but it was difficult with the shaking of the floor.He tried to use a charm to keep his balance, but before he could draw out his wand, his hand touched a sock.

The sock was knotted, and a hard thing could be felt inside...

Harry was about to throw it away when he suddenly realized what he was hiding in it.It was the bottle of Felix Felicia, which he had won from Slughorn.There were originally twelve hours, but he only took about three hours.

Has there ever been a greater need for luck than now?

He untied his socks and pulled out the cork without thinking.There was no way to accurately estimate the dosage at this point; in fact, he felt that he was pretty good at pouring most of the potion into his mouth accurately.

After Harry swallowed Felicia, the shaking slowly subsided.He was finally able to stand up straight from the floor, and he felt a familiar exhilaration running through him, like he could do anything.At this moment, it seemed not only possible, but also easy to get Voldemort to change his mind...

He fumbled in his pocket to make sure the holly wand was still inside.Then he turned to the mess, Felicity propelling him, and finding a small silver hourglass in it with no difficulty.Then he slipped out the door and hid in the nearest broom cupboard.

The timing was perfect: Harry had just closed the cupboard door when Harry saw Voldemort appear through the crack in the middle of the corridor.The man clutched a wand he had never seen before, the grain of the wood looked like a snake.It was probably a Slytherin wand, but the Dark Lord didn't look happy at all.

Harry was a little puzzled, but kept his eyes on the situation outside.Nothing was heard, and the man's appearance and clothes changed to that of Tom King.The handsome young man stuffed his wand into his sleeve, then loosened the collar of his shirt, undid the top button, and strode towards the door at the same time - it was so obvious that the Dark Lord wanted to pretend he had just woken up from the bed , Clothes are too late to wear well——

Just then, Harry flipped the hourglass he had been holding onto.

The moment he pushed the door open, Voldemort was still thinking for a while what kind of reaction he should use to qualify as a key keeper.But his thoughts snapped as soon as he saw what was waiting for him inside the house.

The mess in the room didn't look like it had been destroyed by an earthquake, but it seemed to have been devastated by earthquakes, floods, and fires.Harry was standing in the middle of the ruins, holding a crystal bottle in front of him and looking at it.The sound of the door being opened made the boy turn his head, but there was not even a hint of panic on his face.Even, he kept that posture and let go——

The crystal bottle was shattered, and the isolation potion inside was spilled all over the floor.

"I'm still wondering when you'll be back," Harry blinked, his expression and tone were very calm, "My hands are sore."