Chapter 58 - 58: 58: The idea of founding Hogwarts

o(*≧▽≦)ツ????Support & read up to 12+ chapters ahead on P@treon/DarkDevil1???? Join to get early access and exclusive content!✨ __________ "Wait, traveler..." One of them raised his head with difficulty, his voice hoarse. "Begging for mercy?" Sagres sneered, his long fingers toying with the wand he had seized. "Don't you think it's a bit late for that now?" With a crisp snap, the wand was broken into two pieces in his hand. "You forced me to use these spells..." He took a deep breath, a hint of emotion in his voice. "I once thought these curses would forever rot in my heart." A burning meteor struck the flesh-and-blood monster, and the fiery meteorite merged into its massive body like a drop of water. The monster's skin began to glow with an eerie red light, as if it had gained new power. "Choose your death," Sagres's voice was frighteningly calm. "Quick... or prolonged?" The flesh-and-blood monster let out a deafening roar, its colossal body beginning to writhe. "Kill us, and you will be lost forever in the river of time!" the woman suddenly shouted, her voice unusually clear in the gale. Sagres's brows furrowed instantly. He slightly raised his left hand, and the dense meteors froze in the air. The flesh-and-blood monster also stopped moving. "Interesting..." He lightly tapped his wand, and the broken wand reassembled itself in a flash of blue light. "Tell me..." His gaze was sharp, his tone leaving no room for refusal. "Rowena Ravenclaw, what else do you know?" The woman met his gaze without surprise, as if she had already anticipated he would recognize her. "You need my help. Otherwise, when the hourglass of time runs out, you will be trapped forever in the Gap of Time." Sagres narrowed his eyes. "Go on." "I came following the guidance of the stars, to show you the way back," Ravenclaw said, her eyes sparkling. "In exchange, you need to resolve some... troubles for us." "Show me the way back, huh? By attacking me?" "I-I just wanted to see your thoughts—" "Yeah, she's curious like that.." "No, no no~" Sagres curled his lips into a cold smile. "Let's change the terms. For example, you help me solve my troubles, and in exchange..." His gaze swept over the two of them. "I'll let you leave alive." "Deal!" The other party's decisiveness caught Sagres off guard; he even suspected they had intended to concede from the beginning. "So, how will you help me solve the problem?" he asked. "You'll need to give me the time hourglass first..." Sagres looked at her in silence but eventually pulled out the hourglass and, incidentally, tossed the repaired wand back to them as well. Rowena Ravenclaw examined the hourglass for a moment before slowly speaking. "You got it from someone else?" Sagres was noncommittal. "Is there a problem?" "The hourglass has been tampered with..." Sagres narrowed his eyes, first thinking of the Snowy Owl—but then he remembered she had already given him a warning. Ravenclaw continued to speak. "Although the other party's technique is very precise, their skill is quite crude..." Her fingertips gently brushed over the faint golden threads, and she said with certainty, "This wasn't an accident—it was a carefully designed trap. Someone extracted a key node from the threads of fate, which caused you to appear at the wrong point in time." Sagres's Adam's apple bobbed, and his expression grew grim. Ravenclaw thought Sagres had figured out who the culprit was, but in reality, he was mentally slapping himself. Of course he knew who the culprit was—it was the foolish and arrogant Sagres Greengrass. "How can it be fixed?" He avoided Ravenclaw's probing gaze, seizing the chance to change the subject. The witch sighed, and silver-blue sparks burst from the tip of her wand. "Once a complete thread of fate is disrupted, it's difficult to restore. However..." She pulled a Ptolemaic planetary model, about the size of a pigeon egg, from her robes—it looked like another time-turner. She tossed it to Sagres and said calmly, "Use it to go back. I've already set the time for you..." Sagres glanced at the planetary model, then slipped it into his pocket. "Haah.. Tell me, what trouble do you want me to help you solve?" A faint smile appeared on Ravenclaw's face, but it vanished in an instant. "The witch hunts are escalating. More and more Wizards and Witches are being hunted, tried, and executed. The Church's pyres, the nobles' bounties, the Muggles' panic—these things are driving Wizards to desperation." Salazar Slytherin raised his arm, and a series of magical images immediately appeared: a young witch being dragged onto a torture rack, a failed cat's tail transformation visible beneath her tattered skirt. The crowd cheered wildly, some bolder ones striking her with wooden sticks, and even some using charcoal tongs to lift her skirt. There were also children who had been captured by Muggles after accidental magic outbursts; they had almost no ability to resist, and what awaited them was cruel interrogation and water torture—if they sank, they were innocent (but drowned); if they floated, they were deemed witches (and then executed). In a dark dungeon, an old man in shackles had his fingernails brutally pulled out with iron tongs, simply because a neighbor accused him of "stopping a cow from producing milk with his gaze" … Charred skin peeling in flames, children struggling in waterlogged sacks, the screams of torture victims as their fingernails were ripped out. The vivid scenes were far more brutal than the witch hunts described in the historical records Sagres remembered. Although most of the victims in these frenzied hunts were accused Muggles, Wizards were also nearly wiped out. The master-apprentice inheritance model meant that magic was still in a very primitive state at this time, and most Wizards were powerless against the Church's armies and noble knights. Sagres was silent for a long moment. "What do you want me to do?" he asked, his voice dry. "Start a war? Or…" "We need to make a change," Ravenclaw said, with firm and utter seriousness. "We need to protect young Wizards and pass on magical knowledge." "So you want to open a school?" "A school? A school specifically for training Wizards?" Ravenclaw raised an eyebrow slightly. "Isn't it?" Sagres retorted. "No... a school is indeed a good idea..." Ravenclaw mused. "It's just..." "It's just not that simple!" Slytherin suddenly interjected. "Then what exactly do you need me to do?" "You know in your heart," Ravenclaw looked at him meaningfully. "You know what to do..." Sagres understood immediately. As a time traveler, he knew the future. They didn't need him to reveal everything—just to point the way. "Then build a school. Right here." He commanded the flesh-and-blood monster to stomp its foot. "Hogwarts, to take in all children who awaken their magical talent." "Hogwarts?" The two standing not far away looked a bit confused. "The school's name? Why call it Hog...warts..." "If you don't like it, Azkaban works too!" "Let's stick with Hogwarts..." Ravenclaw vaguely sensed that the second name might not carry a good meaning. "But why? What's special about Hog...warts?" Slytherin frowned, unable to resist asking. "Don't ask!" Sagres said bluntly—he wasn't entirely sure himself. … This wasn't just about saving Wizards—it was about saving Muggles too. After all, those Muggle girls and children falsely accused of being Witches and Wizards were the most innocent, yet no one reached out a hand to help them. Wizards wouldn't, and Muggles certainly wouldn't. But Sagres was willing—perhaps because he had similar experiences as a child, its just that the torturer was his own mother.. "This matter will have to wait until Godric and Helga return so we can discuss it together," Ravenclaw said at last. "They are our companions..." Sagres didn't reply. He simply waved his hand, and the meteors suspended in the sky suddenly shifted direction and accelerated downward. They struck a massive crater in the distance, and the intense heat melted the rock at the bottom into charred obsidian.