Hally was completely stunned.
The little brother that had accompanied her for twelve years was gone, and her appearance had undergone drastic changes. For a young boy, this was a devastating blow.
And there was no way to hide it.
Snape might not spread the news around, but Hally's transformation was far too obvious. Barring the unexpected, the moment she returned to the Gryffindor common room, she would be discovered—
Assuming she even wanted to go back right now.
"I… I won't turn back, will I?" Hally asked, her voice trembling with tears.
Perhaps because she had become female, her emotions were a little more delicate now. Hally found herself unable to control them.
Though Hally looked pitiful as she cried, tears falling like pear blossoms in the rain, Louis felt a chill crawl up his spine. He didn't know how others might feel, but all Louis felt was pure discomfort.
"Don't panic. It's not certain you can't turn back," he said soothingly, afraid Hally might spiral. "Think about it—you only changed after being splashed with water. Maybe taking a shower and changing into dry clothes will fix it."
Louis guided her gently, truly worried she might do something rash.
When Harry's life was once in danger, Snape had been able to roar at Dumbledore. If Hally were to die now, Snape might actually try to eat Voldemort alive.
Or find a way to eat him, the culprit, instead.
Just as that thought crossed his mind, Louis saw a system notification.
[ Detected a disturbance in fate. Intensity: Extremely High! (Cannot be repaired by any means)]
[You have obtained Fate Points: 400 points]
[You have obtained more than 300 Fate Points at once. You have unlocked a Miraculous Item: Fate Anchor.]
[Fate Anchor: Can be anchored at a fixed point in the River of Time. When fate turns unfavorable, the anchor may be activated to rewind the current self back to the fixed point.]
[Note: During the rewind process, the user will undergo no changes, including system rewards, acquired abilities, or experiential memories.]
[Fate Anchor exchange cost: 500 Fate Points]
This was the largest single gain of Fate Points Louis had ever received—four hundred points in one go—and it had even unlocked a second Miraculous Item.
This Fate Anchor was far stronger than Fate Grafting. It was essentially a built-in save point. Even though the save was one-time use, it meant Louis could completely ignore the danger of a single failure.
Louis wasn't blindly confident. Although there was almost nothing left in this world that could threaten him, there were still people he cared about.
He couldn't account for everything. Even if he saw all possible futures, the future could still change, and accidents were unavoidable.
With a Fate Anchor, it was like having a chance to take a regret pill.
"One costs five hundred Fate Points… and I don't even know if it's one-time or permanent. If it's permanent, that's a huge win."
Louis muttered to himself, then turned to look at the sobbing Hally.
Mm. No matter what, he couldn't let this walking Fate Point jackpot slip away—there was also Sirius Black next year.
"All right, stop crying," Louis said. "You don't want too many people seeing you like this, do you? Come on—let's go find Professor McGonagall."
"Why are we looking for Professor McGonagall?" Hally asked, her face flushed as she wiped away her tears.
As for why she was blushing—well, the shame of turning from male to female, combined with accidentally breaking down crying, was something Hally, who still retained a male mindset, found extremely hard to accept.
But humans, at their core, are ultimately creatures driven by hormones. Even a magically induced, freely reversible change of sex would only allow those hormonal influences to act more thoroughly.
No matter how unwilling Hally might be, under that influence she would gradually become more like a woman—and when she transformed into a female form, that change would connect seamlessly.
Simply put, feminization was reversible, but the state after feminization was irreversible.
"Go ask her for permission to use the prefects' bathroom," Louis said, giving Hally a strange look. "Do you honestly think it's appropriate for you to use either the boys' bathroom or the girls' bathroom right now?"
"Of course the boys' bathroom!" Hally blurted out anxiously, desperate to prove herself.
"That's not up to you. Professor McGonagall would never allow that."
Believing in finishing what he started, Louis didn't just dump Hally there and leave. Instead, he took her to Professor McGonagall's office.
Clearly, even Professor McGonagall had never seen a situation like this.
"Wilson—and Potter. The two of you have been far too reckless!" Professor McGonagall was much stricter than Snape had been upon seeing Hally.
"Although you weren't injured, this kind of behavior absolutely cannot be tolerated," she said, glaring at them. "Gryffindor and Slytherin will each lose fifty points!"
Only fifty points? That's not too bad.
Hally let out a sigh of relief. Snape had already given her a hundred points—losing fifty wasn't something to panic over.
"And then, Potter…" Professor McGonagall paused, unsure whether she should address Hally as Miss or Mr.
She took a deep breath, steadying her rapidly collapsing worldview. "In any case, Mr. Wilson is correct. You are indeed not suitable for using the regular bathrooms right now. I will grant you permission—you may freely enter that one."
"That will be all. Go take a shower and change your clothes," Professor McGonagall said helplessly. "Perhaps I should even consider changing your dormitory."
Hally's face went pale.
Did that mean even Professor McGonagall had no solution?
In a daze, Hally was led by Professor McGonagall toward the prefects' bathroom. Before long, they would discover that Hally could, in fact, turn back into Harry.
All it took was contact with hot water.
Yes—drink more hot water.
Soon, Louis received good news from Harry—yes, Harry now, not Hally.
They had quickly figured out the conditions for the transformation in the bathroom, and Harry quietly told Louis about it.
His original intention had been to keep this bizarre sex-changing ability a secret from everyone else.
But reality had other plans.
Although Hally's incident seemed to have come to an end, the effects it caused were far from simple.
For example, Snape's expression when he saw Hally turn back into Harry—his face stretched longer than ever.
Poor Harry had originally thought Snape had finally changed, that he wouldn't target him anymore. But in reality, Snape's goodwill had been directed solely at Hally, not Harry.
And when Snape realized that Hally had turned back into Harry, he felt a furious sense of having been deceived. In class, he became even more unhinged, deducting points without restraint.
Very quickly, the points Snape had added to Gryffindor were completely deducted. Combined with the fifty points McGonagall had taken, the hundred-point gain didn't just vanish—it went well into the negative.
This left Harry on the verge of tears, and extremely curious about just what had been wrong with Snape that day.
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