Hermione had originally just wanted to find a different place where she could have a proper conversation with Sherlock about the Ti-Turner and her course schedule.
After all, discussing her period in public was simply too embarrassing.
But what she hadn't expected was that when the place changed, so did the people.
After experiencing it firsthand, Hermione admitted that the Room of Requirent was indeed a wonderful place.
But was it really necessary to call Gemma over too?
Even though she was the one who had told Sherlock about this room's secret.
Even though Gemma had earned twelve certificates in her fifth year.
And so the problem had circled back to where it started.
"Sherlock, you clearly know that my situation is different from Head Girl Gemma's.
I need to catch up on all my courses, I need to pass my O.W.L.s, I need to..."
"What you need is to take your exams with a healthy body and a clear mind, not to burn yourself out halfway there."
Sherlock's voice wasn't loud, but it was extrely penetrating, every word was crystal clear.
"Just in the past two weeks, your neural response speed has noticeably slowed.
Due to excessive fatigue, you forgot to attend Arithmancy class.
You mistook Devil's Snare for Mandrake roots in Professor Sprout's assignnt.
You made spelling errors in your Ancient Runes course.
You should be well aware that these aren't accidental mistakes, but the result of ntal exhaustion—not to ntion you're only sleeping a few hours each day!"
Hermione looked at Sherlock in surprise. She never imagined that Sherlock was so thoroughly aware of her every move.
So, despite Sherlock's accusatory tone, Hermione wasn't angry at all—in fact, she felt sowhat touched.
Gemma, standing to the side, watched this scene with interest.
When Sherlock had written asking for her help, she already knew he valued Hermione greatly.
Now it seed Sherlock's regard for Hermione was even deeper than she had imagined.
"Sherlock, I'm not—I didn't..."
Since she was touched, Hermione instinctively wanted to make excuses when faced with Sherlock's interrogation.
But Sherlock interrupted her without any courtesy.
"Hermione, you've put too much pressure on yourself.
This has already exceeded your ntal capacity limits—your declining performance is the most direct and powerful proof.
If this continues, you'll age faster than you should."
Sherlock's tone was utterly flat, yet carried an undeniable sense of dissection.
His gray eyes looked directly at Hermione, making her unable to et his gaze in that mont.
Just as Hermione had guessed, Sherlock hadn't told Gemma about the Ti-Turner in his letter.
He had rely said he needed Gemma's help to persuade Hermione.
However, neither Harry, who had co to ask Sherlock to convince Hermione, nor Hermione herself had truly realized the severity of this matter.
The key issue lay with the Ti-Turner itself.
When Hermione used the Ti-Turner, it seed like she had more ti than others, but what she paid wasn't just doubled effort.
One could only say she was still too young to know that every gift bestowed by fate has its price marked in secret.
Every hour the Ti-Turner created for Hermione had a real effect on her biological age.
According to Sherlock's observations, from when Hermione started using the Ti-Turner until now, her actual age had increased by at least four to six months compared to her calendar age.
Furthermore, although Hermione currently only used the Ti-Turner to go back in ti for classes, Sherlock saw the hidden dangers within.
Sherlock always believed that if ti could be treated as a type of magic, it was absolutely more dangerous than Transfiguration.
Last ti in Hogsade, after learning that Hermione was using the Ti-Turner to achieve the goal of attending three classes simultaneously, Sherlock had questioned this matter right in front of her.
Anything involving ti becos extraordinarily troubleso.
A butterfly flapping its wings in South Arica might trigger a tornado in Texas.
The butterfly effect—this chaotic phenonon becos even more pronounced when combined with a Ti-Turner.
A seemingly insignificant tiny change could very likely affect the developnt of events.
So far, Harry and Ron had noticed Hermione's mysterious appearances and disappearances more than once.
Because these were just small matters in their daily lives, they hadn't caused any serious consequences.
But if you play with fire often enough, you'll eventually get burned.
Even soone like Sherlock, who excelled at using deductive reasoning to analyze problems, couldn't guarantee that one day when Hermione used the Ti-Turner to go back in ti, an unintentional action might trigger massive changes through the butterfly effect.
Just like he'd ntioned earlier—Hermione had forgotten an Arithmancy class due to fatigue.
In the established facts of past ti, and in the mories of others who attended that class, Hermione simply hadn't been there.
So, no matter how much Hermione used the Ti-Turner, she couldn't make up that class. Because Hermione hadn't appeared at that point in the past.
So when past ti flowed to the present, Hermione couldn't appear there anymore.
If she tried to change history, a ti paradox would occur.
This was absolutely forbidden.
But if history actually changed due to so accident, what would happen to the present and future?
Although according to Professor McGonagall, the Ministry of Magic had strict conditions for using Ti-Turners, but...
Sherlock had absolutely no confidence in the managent capabilities of those bureaucrats.
So the question arose.
With sothing like Ti-Turners existing, how could people know whether current history had been rewritten?
And how could they know that current events weren't derived from already-altered history?
The result was: they couldn't know.
Let alone Sherlock himself—even Mycroft couldn't help if he ca.
This was also why Sherlock wasn't fond of the Ti-Turner.
The thing was simply too overpowered.
When Sherlock finished speaking, the room instantly fell silent, with only the crackling of burning wood in the fireplace.
Hermione's face went white as paper, her lips trembling slightly.
Gemma's understanding of this statent was only surface-level, but Hermione knew very clearly that Sherlock had revealed a cold reality she instinctively avoided—she really was aging faster.
Moreover, when Professor McGonagall had given her the Ti-Turner, she had also told her about terrible things that had happened after wizards tampered with ti.
Many people had killed their past or future selves by mistake.
Even worse, so had made only minor changes, yet history had been overwritten multiple tis because of these minor changes, creating an entirely new history.
Most terrifying of all was that everyone on the new tiline wouldn't rember the other history that had already occurred.
According to Ministry calculations, ti travel that caused serious harm to Ti-Turner users or ti itself often occurred when going back more than five hours.
So, the Ti-Turner Professor McGonagall gave Hermione was the standard version.
It could only take her back within five hours.
More advanced Ti-Turners were still stored at the Ministry.
But with Gemma present, it naturally wasn't convenient to tell Sherlock these things.
Thinking of this, Hermione stubbornly raised her head to look at Sherlock.
Her eyes were complex containing awe, grievance, and a stubborn persistence.
At the root of it all, she just wanted to prove she could do it.
Wanted to be worthy of the life he had saved.
Wanted to stand before this powerful, wise person without seeming weak.
Last ti she gave up Divination, on one hand it was certainly because she thought Professor Trelawney was a complete fraud and Divination itself was aningless.
On the other hand, it was because she'd listened to Sherlock's advice and appropriately chosen to give up. But she hadn't expected that even after giving up Divination, she still couldn't bear such an intense academic burden.
While feeling helpless, she also felt intense dissatisfaction with herself.
It was just taking two more courses than others—why couldn't she do it?
Why was she so useless?
No, I can do it. My potential hasn't been fully unleashed yet!
No matter what, this ti I have to grit my teeth and persist.
Thinking this, she took a deep breath and looked at Sherlock.
"Sherlock, I don't care, and I can control it!
I know very clearly what I'm doing. This ti, I won't give up."
Hermione's voice was firm, yet carried a hint of tearfulness that even she hadn't noticed.
Hearing this, Sherlock couldn't help but frown.
Hermione's stubbornness exceeded his logic-based predictions.
His blunt, fact-based assessnt of harm hadn't achieved the desired effect.
This won't do. It seems I need to increase the intensity!
Sherlock was about to speak when Gemma, who had been quietly observing, stepped forward.
"Sherlock, why don't you let talk with Miss Hermione?"
"It's not your turn yet."
Hermione, Gemma: "..."
That's so you!
However, this ti Gemma didn't follow Sherlock's wishes.
She smiled and said, "Sherlock, you're the one who asked to co help."
"So?"
"So this ti you have to listen to ."
Gemma rarely chose to insist when facing Sherlock.
Sherlock thought carefully for three seconds, then nodded.
Gemma was right—he had specifically called her here today, hoping her experience could help Hermione.
Although he felt it wasn't her turn yet, since she was volunteering, let her take action.
Gemma smiled slightly, first gracefully and steadily pouring Sherlock a cup of tea, then taking Hermione's hand and walking to the other side of the room.
It seed she didn't intend to let Sherlock hear their conversation.
Sherlock didn't mind.
He casually pulled a copy of Criminal Psychology from the bookshelf and began reading.
On the other side of the room, Gemma still held Hermione's hand, her blue eyes looking gently at the girl.
That gaze was completely different from Sherlock's—no sharp analysis, no observer's judgnt. It was more like an understanding older sister who knew about academic pressure.
"Hermione, no one is questioning your abilities, and no one thinks you're being reckless.
Being able to handle so many courses simultaneously is already an extraordinary feat. Compared to what you're doing now, my third-year experience can only be described as shaful."
Gemma smiled slightly. "You know what? Last week I went to the library to look up materials and happened to hear so Slytherin wizards discussing you."
"They must have said I was arrogant, conceited, unbearably annoying, right?"
"Quite the opposite, Hermione."
Gemma gently patted Hermione's cool hand, her blue eyes filled with warmth like afternoon sunlight.
"They said, 'That Muggle-born Granger from Gryffindor is like a walking encyclopedia. She's taking all the courses and still manages to stay at the top of her class.
Since first year, no question has ever stumped her. Even compared to that Gryffindor Lion King known for wisdom, she's just as impressive.'"
Her voice was kind and calm, carrying genuine recognition.
Hermione was stunned for quite a while before saying hesitantly.
"Gemma, did they really say that? I an, a group of older Slytherin students actually praised ?"
It wasn't surprising Hermione didn't believe it. Slytherin and Gryffindor had always been at odds.
In her view, it was already generous that these people hadn't called her a Mudblood in private. How could they possibly praise her?
Gemma laughed. "Is this why you've always been wary of , Miss Know-It-All?"
Hermione, being called this, wasn't angry. Because she could tell Gemma ant it as friendly teasing, not full of mockery like Professor Snape.
"Gemma, I know you're different from other Slytherins, but the others are..."
"Hermione, you can consider this self-promotion if you like, but I must say—you really don't need to view Slytherin with prejudice.
Also, it's not that I'm different from other Slytherins. It's that people like Malfoy and Pansy are different from Slytherin.
We can't deny Slytherin's excellence just because there are more people like them."
Gemma said this and sighed deeply.
"I know you've heard unkind words and suffered injustices. These things are real.
But I want to tell you that in Slytherin I've also seen girls bandaging injured animals in the Forbidden Forest, and boys who were willing to be late and punished to help lower-year students from other houses find their lost cauldrons."
Hermione froze.
She clearly hadn't expected Gemma to say such things.
In her impression, Slytherin students were always associated with words like "arrogant," "cold," and "cliquish exclusion."
She had never even imagined the scenes Gemma described, let alone witnessed them.
She heard Gemma continue.
"Professor McGonagall told us when we enrolled that the four houses are just divided by different qualities. The Sorting Hat emphasizes this in its song every year.
Gryffindor's bravery, Hufflepuff's loyalty, Ravenclaw's wisdom, and Slytherin's ambition.
I think you should know very well that ambition isn't a pejorative. There's nothing wrong with it.
Just as too much bravery becos recklessness, wisdom used incorrectly becos calculation.
Houses—they're just labels, and they can't define everyone."
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