Harvey felt that something was a bit strange.
Logically speaking, the usually punctual Miss Know-It-All shouldn't be late.
He looked up at the wall clock in the classroom.
It was one minute past nine.
The official start time for Potions class had arrived, yet not only was Hermione absent, but why hadn't the old bat, Professor Snape, shown up either?
Abnormal, this was highly abnormal!
He waited for another five minutes.
The young wizards in the classroom kept glancing toward the door, also wondering why the professor hadn't arrived yet.
Harvey finally couldn't sit still; he stood up and walked straight out the door, leaving behind a dashing silhouette.
The other young wizards were terrified of having points deducted by Professor Snape, so absolutely no one dared to follow him out of the classroom.
Harvey arrived at the top floor of the West Tower of Hogwarts, where the Owlery was located.
As soon as he walked in, besides smelling the stench of bird droppings, there were all sorts of colorful owls hooting and chirping at him non-stop.
Harvey found an owl with white feathers tinged with red and pulled some nuts from his pocket, which had been enchanted with an Undetectable Extension Charm.
After feeding the owl, Harvey said to it, "Take me to Hermione Granger of Gryffindor House!"
The fastest way to find someone was to check the Marauder's Map.
Unfortunately, Harvey had already told Hermione and the others about the Marauder's Map while showing off.
Therefore, Hermione and the girls later modified the Marauder's Map to completely erase their own traces from it.
As a result, if Harvey didn't want to sluggishly go around asking the castle ghosts or other students, he had no choice but to use an owl to find her.
After crunching down the nuts, the owl immediately flapped its wings and flew toward the Forbidden Forest.
Harvey once again reached into his pocket—which had been refined into a bag of holding—and pulled out a broad, deep blue longsword.
He then stepped onto the blade, riding the flying sword into the air, and followed steadily behind the owl.
This flying sword was the research result of his "key project," boasting a top speed of 180 kilometers per hour, only slightly slower than a Nimbus 2000 broomstick.
This sword could be considered Harvey's proudest masterpiece.
Mainly because the posture of flying on a sword looked incredibly cool!
However, right now, Harvey wasn't leisurely flying around to show off; he pushed the flying sword to its maximum speed.
He even overtook the owl, looking down at the Forbidden Forest from high above.
He continuously scanned every corner of the Forbidden Forest with his sharp eyes.
Carefully searching for any trace of Hermione.
Usually, Hermione went to the Forbidden Forest to gather plants or magical creature ingredients needed for brewing potions.
Sometimes, Hermione would get lost in the vast Forbidden Forest, which spanned thousands of square kilometers.
But that possibility was very low.
Harvey was more inclined to believe that Hermione had run into trouble.
"Whoosh—Bang!"
At that moment, deep within the Forbidden Forest, a beam of red fireworks representing an emergency signal shot into the sky and exploded.
Harvey noticed the signal and immediately changed direction, flying toward the source of the flare.
Two minutes later.
"Professor, why are you doing this?"
"Miss Granger, hasn't anyone warned you that knowing too much is not a good thing..."
Seeing Hermione—wearing her wizard robes and looking increasingly beautiful—holding her wand in a standoff with Professor Snape, Harvey breathed a sigh of relief.
Fortunately, they hadn't started fighting.
"Professor Snape, what are you two doing here?"
Harvey descended from the sky on his flying sword, confronting Professor Snape with a tough tone right from the start.
Snape, with his greasy, straight black hair, saw Harvey appear and knew that a fight was unlikely to happen today.
"Mr. Ferguson, the school granted you privileges not so you could meddle in others' business. If you have nothing better to do, you should manage your little lover."
Well aware of the deep relationship between the two, Snape gave Harvey a meaningful look, then didn't linger any longer, turning around and leaving directly.
Harvey didn't stop him. He knew Snape carried a special mission, and after watching him leave, he walked up to Hermione.
"Hermione, are you alright? Why were you in a standoff with Professor Snape?"
Hearing Harvey's concern, Hermione furrowed her delicate brows. She had sent the emergency signal mainly to summon her friends from Dumbledore's Army.
She hadn't expected to attract this guy.
Hermione said coldly:
"Professor Snape took Ravenclaw's Diadem; it is one of Voldemort's Horcruxes."
"I have to get it back. If you try to stop me, you will also become an enemy of Dumbledore's Army!"
Harvey let out a long sigh, unable to understand her reasoning:
"Why do you always want to get involved in these boring conflicts of interest? Don't you understand that as long as the contradictions in the wizarding world remain,"
"Even if you defeat Voldemort, there will still be a second, a third, and countless other Voldemorts."
"After all, Voldemort represents the interests of Pure-blood wizards, in an era where Pure-blood wizards are becoming increasingly rare."
"If Pure-blood wizards want to maintain their transcendent status, they must wage war."
"This is not a simple game of playing house where defeating the bad guy brings peace; this is a struggle for interests between Pure-blood and Half-blood wizards."
"I always thought you were an ambitious witch, but now, I find that I was wrong."
"Your vision is so narrow that you can only see the chaos stirred up by Voldemort."
"But you fail to see that as the times progress, the interests of the entire wizarding world are being weakened by Muggles with their increasingly advanced science."
"It is exactly because the survival space of the entire wizarding world is being compressed by Muggles that more and more conflicts arise."
"This is not merely a struggle between Pure-blood and Half-blood wizards; it is also a conflict of interests between wizards and Muggles."
"If you could think this through, you would understand how utterly boring this struggle for power is."
"How fortunate we are to be wizards! In our limited, brief lives, we should be pursuing immortality and ascending to godhood!"
"Rather than wasting time playing hide-and-seek with Voldemort..."
Harvey earnestly delivered a whole speech of grand philosophies.
Hermione, however, stared expressionlessly at Harvey, her clenched fists sweating, emitting an aura that warned everyone to stay away.
"Over all these years, my repeated trust has only been met with repeated deception."
"Now that Voldemort is leading the Death Eaters to incite riots in the wizarding world, seeing living, innocent lives being murdered by those thugs, it is impossible for me to remain indifferent."
"If you think this is a childish game, then please step aside, and I will fight Voldemort alone!"
By the end of her speech, Hermione's eyes seemed to burn with raging fire, and her tone carried absolute resolve.
Harvey shook his head; if the soft approach didn't work, he would have to use force.
"In short, I will not allow you to interfere in this Voldemort business. Leave this to Harry Potter and Ron to handle."
"You need to properly calm down."
After saying that, Harvey opened a cross-world portal.
"No! I don't want to leave..."
Looking at the familiar blue portal in front of her, Hermione fiercely resisted, but was still shoved into the portal.