After entering the world of dreams, Tom found Hermione with her notebook. The two of them worked on the mission that the guild had posted. It was unlikely for Hermione to miss a month's worth of warranty, and if she could complete a mission while visiting Menes, why not do it at the same time?
Tom flipped through the mission list, which had grown considerably over time and had changed a lot. New missions had been added, and the old ones had either been completed or had their scores modified. For example, the [unexplained disappearance of personnel from the Transcontinental Railroad] he had seen before had been downgraded to a grade C mission.
Tom glanced at the mission description and suddenly felt tempted.
[Unexplained Disappearance of Personnel from the Transcontinental Railroad]
[Mission Classification: C. Recommended for 5th-year students or above from magic schools.]
[Description: The Siberian Railway K3, connecting Asia and Europe, has been experiencing a series of disappearances, with over thirty individuals, including two adult Russian wizards, gone missing. The guild's Rank B member (currently an Auror from the Swiss Ministry of Magic) has investigated and eliminated the work of Trackers and unknown magical creatures.]
Mission: Travel on the Siberian Railways' K3 train and confirm the absence of Trackers and magical creatures on board.]
[Reward: 500 points]
Hermione also approached and took a look at the mission in Tom's notebook.
"It seems like an interesting mission, but it's a bit time-consuming." Hermione found the task moderately challenging. After all, the train had been authorized by the Aurors, and theoretically, there was nothing too dangerous on it, so it would be easy but time-consuming.
"Maybe we could take a week off?" Tom suggested. The Great Siberian Railway, connecting the European, Siberian, and Far Eastern parts of Russia, spanned 9,288 kilometers and took seven days and seven nights to travel from Moscow to Vladivostok, so if they wanted to go, they would need a week off.
Hermione winced at the idea of missing a week of classes and said, "Let's see if there's any task related to Pharaoh Menes."
Together, they went through the task list and ended up with a D-rated mission to investigate the Sahara Desert. The objective of the mission was to travel to the Sahara Desert and find the remains of an ancient wizard. This mission was rated D to allow as many wizards as possible to undertake it, and the final rating would depend on the size of the relics they found. Similar to this type of mission were investigations in the Amazon jungle, the northern and southern polar wastelands, and other seldom-visited places.
After the mission, the two of them returned to the real world.
"And how do we get there?" Hermione suddenly realized a major problem: Pharaoh Menes lived quite far away...
Tom looked toward Hogwarts Castle, smiling but saying nothing.
In Dumbledore's office, he was comfortably seated in his chair, observing Fawkes the Phoenix perched on a sycamore branch preening its feathers. Suddenly, the door to the headmaster's office swung open. Tom and Hermione entered.
"Mr. Yodel and Miss Granger," Dumbledore said with a surprised expression, "I don't recall giving you the password to enter the headmaster's office..."
"I tried the desserts and candies I've seen before and got it right." Tom grimaced. Dumbledore was a talented man as well, having set the password to his office entrance as Super Bubblegum. He had been trying to guess the password for a while.
"Well then? What brings the two of you here on a Sunday morning to this old man's office? You're not here to eat my sweets, are you?" Dumbledore put the plate of sweets on the table, hiding it away in his drawer without a trace.
Tom, on his part, simply indicated to Dumbledore that they wanted to borrow his phoenix.
"For the guild mission? Yes."
To Tom's surprise, Dumbledore agreed without causing them any trouble.
Tom had expected Dumbledore to reject their request or charge them a fee, like a thousand points for a loan.
Tom was a little confused. "For free?"
"Of course," Dumbledore nodded kindly. "Go ahead, if Fawkes agrees, you can take him."
Tom showed a hint of joy and happily approached Fawkes, but just as he extended his hand, he was met with a glaring gaze from Fawkes.
Fawkes's head feathers ruffled, and a threatening sound emanated from his throat. It was clear that he didn't want to take the two young wizards with him.
"Headmaster Dumbledore said..." Hermione started to say to Fawkes but stopped mid-sentence, remembering that Dumbledore had said, "if Fawkes agrees," but apparently, Fawkes didn't agree now.
Tom looked at Dumbledore and found him lazily seated in his chair, observing the situation.
"Fawkes..." Hermione pleaded, but Fawkes remained impassive. At that moment, Tom took over.
"We're going to visit an old wizard, one who has been alive for thousands of years, and if you want, I can take you to see him," Tom began to deceive the phoenix. "He has an alchemical magical artifact that helps wizards understand different languages, which means that if he lends it to us, we can communicate without any problems."
This statement caught Fawkes's attention, and his beautiful eyes looked at Tom. Tom seized the opportunity: "If you take me there this time, I promise to grant you a wish."
Fawkes was moved.
He flew down from the sycamore branch and perched on Tom's shoulder, gently rubbing his cheek to show that the deal was sealed.
Dumbledore: ...
The phoenix, Tom, and Dumbledore not far away formed a classic white school composition.
He knew that Fawkes wouldn't say no to Tom, but he didn't expect Fawkes to say yes so easily! But before he could say anything else, Fawkes disappeared with Tom and Hermione.
In the next moment, they appeared in an alley in London. The sudden appearance of the two and the bird startled the stray cats in the alley. Tom looked around to make sure no one had seen them.
"Let's change our clothes, then we'll go buy some gifts for the Pharaoh." Then a whisper was heard. Tom and Hermione shed their somewhat flashy wizard robes, put on their Muggle clothes, and stepped out into the bustling shopping streets of London. They had some gifts for Pharaoh Menes; it would be awkward to go there empty-handed. As for Fawkes, they left him in the alley. He was too conspicuous and would have caused a lot of trouble if he had appeared.
But as soon as they left the alley, they returned, leaving Fawkes bewildered. Naturally, Tom and Hermione had used the Time-Turner to their advantage since Tom didn't feel comfortable leaving a phoenix like Fawkes in a London alley, so he finished his shopping and used the Time-Turner to travel back to the point in time when they had left.
"Come on, Fawkes, let's go to the desert," Tom said, bringing a chocolate ball to Fawkes's mouth, who hesitated and swallowed it without even chewing. After eating the chocolate ball, Fawkes disappeared with Tom and Hermione in tow.
Upon entering the Sahara Desert, Tom wanted to rely on his memories to reach the pyramids of Menes, but the golden fish they carried in their arms suddenly became excited, as if sensing that its homeland was near. With the golden fish as their guide, the two individuals and the bird easily found the ancient and desolate city and entered Menes's pyramid.
The same trick was repeated. After a long immersion in the "water," Tom and Hermione reentered the Great Hall of Menes. When they emerged, Menes was sleeping with his cat in his arms.
When Tom jumped out of the pool, both Menes and the cat in his arms opened their eyes.
"It's you again, traveler from the future." Menes yawned and stretched, "Five thousand years ago, the priests would have mummified you if you had entered the king's chambers without warning."
"But now it doesn't matter, come in." Menes's cat transformed into a maiden and brought two reclining chairs for Tom. Fawkes perched on Tom's shoulder and let out a lively cry, capturing Mines's attention.
"A phoenix? Interesting, I didn't think this species would come near humans, but you truly have the phoenix's approval." He lazily lay on his side on a cushion, looking very relaxed.
His gaze traveled over Tom and then paused for a moment on his face. He let out a "chuckle," appearing slightly surprised.
"What has happened to you? Ancaya, serve our traveler something to drink," he barked at the maiden cat who was busy ogling as she walked away. He turned his face back to Tom and said, "Your soul is very unstable."
Tom thought for a moment that the only recent mishap related to the soul had been the encounter with Dementors on the Hogwarts Express. So he told Menes what had happened, and Menes was perplexed.
"Ah, I see. How interesting." Menes was intrigued to hear about dark creatures that fed on human pleasures. "In my time, there were no such creatures."
Then he sighed, somewhat saddened, "It's a pity that I can't leave this palace and have a look at this type of creature; a Dementor could be a good choice for a pet, if possible."
Tom: ...
Is this the boss?
He faces a Dementor, feels like he has lost half of his life, and now the boss wants to have one of these things as a pet! But if Menes wants to see a Dementor, it's not impossible. On the train, the Dementor had put its hand around Tom's neck, making physical contact, so Tom had managed to replicate the form of the Dementor on his ring, filling the last spot.
"If you want, I can show you." Tom's words startled Menes, who looked up surprised, "Can you really transform into a Dementor?"
Tom nodded and shape-shifted without saying a word. A tall figure in tattered robes appeared in the hallway. The moment it appeared, even though the sun was shining in the palace, Hermione, sitting beside him, felt a cold chill run through her body, as if she had been drenched with a large glass of icy water in her stomach. She shivered, feeling the happy emotions in her heart leaving her.
As Menes beheld Tom's new form, his eyes widened in astonishment, his gaze momentarily resting on the ring on Tom's hand, and he burst into laughter: He had no idea that these juniors had such clear minds. He gave Tom an appreciative look, and then his attention was drawn to the Dementor he had become.
It was the first time Tom had taken the form of a Dementor, and it was a very new experience for him. Unlike other magical creatures, in his Dementor form, Tom couldn't see the outside world, everything was obscured, but in this mist, he could see various clusters of bright colors. The colors were different and gave him a distinct sensation.
As he breathed, wisps of color emanated from the masses, which he inhaled. In his hand was a mass of pink color, the color was sucked in, giving him a vivid and joyful feeling, Tom's instincts told him it was Hermione's mood. Hermione's flavor was so sweet that Tom couldn't resist taking a few more draws, only to find the color quivered violently and seemed to shrink a bit, causing Tom to stop. As it stopped being sucked, Hermione's mass of color stabilized and slowly took on shape, eventually returning to its normal size. But its color was slightly duller than before.
The mass of color in front of Tom looked more like a little sun than a mass of color, and it made Tom feel an incredible warmth. Tom knew it was Menes's emotions. At that moment, he faintly heard Menes speaking, sitting in front of him. His voice was muffled, as if he were listening to someone by the water's edge.
"Breathe towards me." Menes asked Tom to inhale some of his emotions, and Tom did, inhaling a bit of the emotion from Menes's chromosphere, and as the ray of "sunlight" entered his mouth, Tom felt as if his body was burning. The next moment, his Dementor form passively dissipated.
It was the first time Tom had experienced this situation.
"Interesting creature!" Menes seemed happy and satisfied. But after the excitement, he said, "If, as you say, it only held your neck and didn't remove your hood, it shouldn't have caused so much harm to your soul; in other words, if that's all it took to make your soul so unstable, then there's something very wrong with yourself. There's something very wrong with you, your soul and your body don't match."
With that, Menes's eyes went to the ring on Tom's hand.
"If I'm correct, you can still transform into a phoenix, can't you?"
Upon hearing Menes say that, Fawkes looked up in shock.
Fawkes: bird-bird-shocked.jpg
Now, Fawkes knew who the "phoenix" was that had stolen Professor Snape's potion ingredients.