Harry Potter and the Secret Treasures

The next second, the magic around Evan completely spiraled out of control.

A flash of white light burst before his eyes, and he felt the Time-Turner around his neck pulling him upwards.

He was rising — unceasingly — his body seeming to grow lighter and lighter.

Carried by the Time-Turner, Evan ascended into the clouds as the scene before him shifted at terrifying speed.

“Damn it — the Time-Turner’s been activated.”

Time within Ravenclaw Castle was already chaotic. Evan had been suppressing his magic the entire time, afraid of triggering the Time-Turner hidden against his chest and being dragged into some unfamiliar point in time. That would have been disastrous.

He still needed to go to the Veil of Death to deal with the Dark Witch and the two phantom evil gods, and rescue Harry; he didn’t have time for time travel.

Evan’s previous experiences with time travel had already taught him one hard truth: going back to the past and changing the timeline was never a good idea.

He might resolve one problem before it happened, only to return to the present and find a whole host of new problems waiting for him.

Of all the legendary magical items he possessed, the one Evan least wanted to use was Ravenclaw’s Time-Turner.

He would rather resort to The Book of Abraham or the Twin Serpent Staff — anything would be better than meddling with time itself.

At the very least, using simple, direct magic to deal with an enemy was usually far easier than tampering with time itself. But at the very moment Dalian’s finger pointed at him, the Time-Turner’s power was instantly activated. No matter how hard Evan tried to suppress it, it was futile — the magic around him was far too chaotic for him to control.

Within the chaotic magic, he also sensed some unknown and strange power, one that Evan had never encountered before.

This power seemed to belong to Dalian!

This ancient ghost was definitely suspicious, even though he appeared to possess no magic whatsoever.

It reminded Evan of something Dumbledore had once said: that within a chamber of the Department of Mysteries there existed a powerful and unknown force, a force that belonged solely to Harry — one neither Dumbledore nor Voldemort had ever possessed or understood.

At this moment, this statement applied equally to Evan and Dalian.

That wretched ghost possessed a power that Evan was unfamiliar with.

It was definitely not magic, but it was stronger than magic.

“Please don’t let it be too troublesome a point in time,” Evan muttered. “And please don’t let me run into Lady Ravenclaw — or any of the other Founders.”

He already had more than enough problems. The last thing he needed was to add new ones.

He painstakingly drew out the time artifact he’d acquired in Egypt, altering his existence sequence on the timeline he was about to travel to.

Evan had to do this, even though the legendary magical item in his possession had few uses left; he had no other choice.

Otherwise, this sudden, unplanned journey through time might erase his very existence.

To put it in more scientific terms, it was the butterfly effect!

In the blink of an eye, sensation returned to his body, Evan’s feet touched the ground, and he was back in reality.

The Time-Turner at his neck also quieted down, slowly settling back into place.

“Here…” Evan opened his eyes; there seemed to be no change before him.

In front of him, Dalian was smiling at him, still holding the same finger-pointing gesture.

“This guy… time hasn’t changed. No — wait, it has changed!” Evan immediately noticed the anomaly.

Dalian hadn’t touched him just now, nor had he touched the Time-Turner. There was no way Evan could have carried Dalian along on a time journey. The Dalian standing before him now was no longer the one he had seen earlier, but a new Dalian belonging to this point in time.

Okay, that sounds complicated, but time travel is inherently complicated.

Let’s put it in simple terms.

The Dalian before Evan was no longer a milky-white, ghostly apparition. He now possessed a real, physical body.

He was a handsome young man, looking slightly frail, his skin pale from long years without sunlight. He wore wizard’s robes embroidered with the Ravenclaw family crest, and his face was lit with delight as he looked at Evan.

Everything was so realistic, far more real than the phantom Evan had seen moments ago.

Behind Dalian, the scenery had changed as well. The ruined walls were gone.

At the center of the rotunda, the enormous spherical stone sculpture stood intact — pale blue in color, threaded throughout with countless flickering lines of gold.

These were the glows of magical runes, and Evan could clearly sense the powerful magical aura emanating from the sphere.

The pale blue radiance was the light produced by the convergence of countless magical energies — it was incredibly strong. Evan had only sensed a similar powerful magical aura when Dumbledore wielded the Twin Serpent Staff, but the sensation was completely different.

It was difficult to describe. Evan stared blankly at the massive pale-blue sphere, utterly transfixed.

Within it, he seemed to see an infinite universe, a completely new world.

“This sculpture…” he murmured, then stopped abruptly.

Evan looked up. Above him floated many orbs of light of various colors — white, blue, green, red, gold, and more — slowly drifting in the high air around him, between the five massive stone pillars, each emitting a faint glow.

What were these orbs?

Strange, so very strange. He seemed to have returned to a time before this place was destroyed.

At this moment, Evan didn’t even feel the oppressive power of any evil god.

Aside from the immense magic surrounding his body, he felt no other force.

“Ah, hello, time traveler from the future! My aunt told me about you. She said you would come,” Dalian said excitedly to Evan. “She told me that whenever I truly need your help, I should make the corresponding summoning gesture, and you will appear before me. I thought about it for a long time before coming up with this rather cool pose…”

He continued pointing at Evan, his body tense, appearing extremely excited and agitated. He looked almost over-energized.

This pose and demeanor looked both strange and somewhat rude.

Evan didn’t quite understand what this Dalian meant.

What did he mean by summoning him and him appearing?

What exactly did this guy think he was?

A summoned beast?

Damn it — it was the earlier, ghostly version of Dalian. That guy had used his own power to drag Evan to this point in time, to the very moment when his past self struck the same pose. That had to be it. What a thoroughly malicious sense of humor!

“I thought about it for a long time and decided this pose looked the coolest!” Dalian, now possessing a real body, continued excitedly in front of Evan. “I just pretended to cast a spell, waving my wand forcefully, and you appeared! It’s amazing! Unfortunately, I don’t have a wand. They never let me touch one. My sister says a wand is a symbol of a wizard, and only its rightful owner is allowed to touch it. I can’t feel magic, so no one ever made a wand for me, and Father wouldn’t allow it either…”