The Director of the Department of Mysteries at the German Ministry of Magic, Ulrich Kruger, was also a Witch.
When it came to certain hidden, incomprehensible magical matters, Witches seemed to have a natural advantage over Wizards, allowing them to study such things more deeply.
When Hilke arrived at the Director's office, Kruger was holding a long piece of parchment that trailed all the way to the floor, frowning as she examined its contents.
"What's the result?"
Even in front of her immediate superior, Hilke remained as concise as ever.
Kruger handed the parchment directly to Hilke.
"The locket your friend obtained is a Time-Turner, but it is not the kind preserved by the Ministry of Magic, which has significant limitations and can only go back a maximum of five hours."
Kruger folded her hands on the desk, her brows furrowed tightly.
"The old Goblin you communicated with earlier likely concealed some things, because this supreme alchemical creation crafted by the Goblins remains effective even today."
"They truly possess an understanding of alchemy that surpasses the vast majority of Wizards. By improving upon the method of making Time-Turners from that era, they broke through the limitation of only being able to turn back time by a maximum of five hours."
"Why didn't they use it back then?" Hilke asked softly.
"Because breaking the five-hour limitation came with a price. For however long you wish to turn back time, the Time-Turner itself must experience that same amount of time."
"After it was crafted, this object was hidden in the underground Goblin headquarters in Hogsmeade, and the Goblins set a time node for that Time-Turner."
"In the future, no matter who obtained it, as soon as it was taken out from underground, the Time-Turner would repair itself. Then, at midnight on the day the repairs were completed, it would activate, sending itself, along with the Wizard who held it, back to this time node."
"This Time-Turner was created at the end of the Second Goblin Rebellion in 1723, and the time node they set was thirty years later, in 1753. The time the Time-Turner would return to was this specific moment, and it would appear directly in the hands of one of the important leaders of the former Goblin Rebellion, Sloppy Lala."
"Because Lala was one of the core members of the Goblin high command, but did not belong to its leadership. Even if the war was ultimately lost, the Wizards would only imprison him, not execute him."
"Lala would not only receive this Time-Turner, but would also obtain a Wizard from the future, from an unknown point in time. The Goblins' plan was to torture the future history out of this Wizard, and the Time-Turner would also allow Lala to travel back freely to any point within those thirty years, from 1723 to 1753, to try to find a way to change the outcome of the Goblin defeat."
"Knowing both the future and the history of the previous thirty years, Lala could avoid the mistakes the Goblins had made during the war and learn of the Wizards' decisions. He could attempt to reverse the outcome of the war and ultimately salvage the losing situation."
"Even if, on that day in 1753, the Time-Turner did not return with a future Wizard as expected, Lala could still take out the Time-Turner, which had accumulated enough time, after he was released from prison, and use the known thirty years of history to change the past."
"These Goblins had arranged everything, but an accident that was not part of the plan occurred."
At that moment, Hilke happened to reach the same section of the report.
"Fedetick ate Lala's soul."
"Yes, and not just Lala's. Before they even reached the time node they had set in 1753, the prison holding the high-ranking Goblin war criminals was ravaged by Fedetick. It devoured the souls of all the Goblins in the prison and obtained their memories."
"The records in A History of Magic state that an unknown plague spread through the prison during that time, leading to the deaths of the Goblin war criminals. However, the Goblins always suspected the Wizards of foul play, which almost caused a third rebellion."
"Two hundred years have passed, and Fedetick's memories are very hazy, but it remembers this matter very clearly. The first thing it thought of after escaping was to get its hands on that Time-Turner."
"It wanted to use the Time-Turner to go back two hundred years; that era was the best time for it to survive."
Kruger finished recounting the sequence of events, shaking her head with a sigh.
"No matter how much preparation is made in advance, one still cannot escape fate's betrayal in the end, so it is better to do more divination. Fortunately, we have you, Hilke, in our department."
Hilke did not speak. Her fingers gripped the long piece of parchment tightly, as though she were trying to tear it apart. Then she stood up abruptly from her chair.
"Help me connect to the Floo Network in Britain. I need to go to Hogwarts!"
...
Sherlock watched as the hands on the pocket watch spun backwards, and at the same time, the surrounding scene changed rapidly!
It was as though golden light were retreating. The entire world contained only two entities: him and Snape.
The hands on the pocket watch continued spinning backwards, moving so fast that Sherlock could only see their afterimages.
A thick sense of unease rose from the bottom of his heart.
He could feel that if he let the pocket watch continue to spin, there would surely be serious consequences he could not bear. He had to find a way to make it stop as soon as possible!
Sherlock tried to stick his wand into the pocket watch to block the continuously spinning hands, but the hands had seemingly become phantoms, completely unaffected by physical objects.
The unease in his heart grew stronger and stronger, but he did not give up. Instead, he began casting spells at the pocket watch.
Sherlock took all the wands on his person, excluding the one he had lent to Sirius, and scattered all two hundred of them around him.
The wands floated densely in mid-air, all their tips pointed at the pocket watch in his hand.
"Finite Incantatem!"
An orange-red substance, like fire, instantly surged up around Sherlock!
Within a few short seconds, those flames flooded the golden space, enveloping both Sherlock and Snape!
After two hundred Advanced General Counter-Charms were cast, it became evident that the golden light rushing past them had slowed down.
The hands on the pocket watch did the same. Sherlock could at least make out their rotation now, which greatly boosted his morale.
Being effective meant there was still hope of stopping it!
Without hesitation, he continued using the Advanced General Counter-Charm.
The spell Finite Incantatem could be stacked continuously, meaning that a quantitative change could trigger a qualitative one.
After Sherlock manipulated the wands for the third time and cast the counter-charm again, the surroundings had turned into a world of gold and red!
The power gathered from six hundred counter-charms continuously wore down the golden energy, and the speed at which the hands on the pocket watch rotated slowed to that of a normal second hand!
Sherlock panted heavily. The continuous casting had left his body exhausted, but he persisted and cast the counter-charm one final time.
The last two hundred Finite Incantatems joined the struggle between gold and red, completely turning the situation into a one-sided battle.
The golden light surrounding Sherlock and Snape shattered with a loud crack!
The hands on the pocket watch finally came to a standstill, as though something had jammed them in place. They kept trying to move forwards but were unable to advance even half a tick.
Sherlock's feet touched the soft wheat field, and the wands filling the sky scattered everywhere. Snape, who had been under the Petrificus Totalus without the spell being lifted, fell directly into the golden wheat.
Physical exhaustion continued to assault Sherlock's body, but he still forced himself to stand and examine his surroundings.
The scorching sun hung high in the sky. It was definitely not night.
They had appeared in a wheat field, surrounded by endless golden wheat. About five or six metres away, an old man and a young man holding sickles stared at them in stunned silence.
Sherlock ignored Snape, who had fallen into the wheat, and looked at the two clearly white Muggles.
"Where is this place?"
The young man answered with a stammer.
"Sc... Scotland."
"Where in Scotland?"
"Renfrewshire... Sc... Scotland."
Sherlock panted, his voice tense.
"Then what time is it now? What year, month, and date?"
At that moment, the old man recovered from his shock. He looked at Sherlock warily and raised his sickle.
"Who are you?"
Sherlock said nothing. He simply flicked the wand in his hand.
The sickles flew high into the air of their own accord, and ropes that appeared from nowhere immediately bound the two Muggles, preventing them from moving.
"If you answer my questions honestly, I will let you go." Sherlock frowned deeply. "What time is it now?"
The two Muggles looked at him in horror. The old man shouted in panic, "Witchcraft! Witchcraft!", but the young man remained relatively calmer and continued answering with a stutter.
"111... June 29th, 1977... or the 28th. I've forgotten the exact date..."
Sherlock's face immediately darkened.
He and Snape had travelled seventeen years into the past!
Originally, it certainly would not have stopped there. It would have carried them much farther back, but fortunately, he had interrupted the pocket watch's time-reversal process in time. Otherwise, heaven knew what era they would have ended up in.
After obtaining the information he needed, Sherlock cast the Memory Charm on the two Muggles, erasing their memories of the previous three hours. He then levitated Snape and left the wheat field.
After finding a secluded spot nearby, Sherlock first took Snape's wand away before finally lifting the Petrificus Totalus.
Snape's expression was very strange.
He did not seem angry or sorrowful. On the contrary, he looked almost overwhelmed, his eyes filled with a mixture of disbelief, excitement, and exhilaration.
"I heard it." He swallowed hard and stared at Sherlock, his eyes almost glowing. "It's 1977... 1977!"
(TN: This reminds me of a tv show I watched on Netflix called Dark. It is a top top German series of 3 seasons and one which I definitely recommend watching. Also watch using subtitles cause English dub of it is really bad.)