Chapter 433: Time Magic
"No one can change the flow of time, but a wizard may use time to change himself. Remember: your actions to alter history are already a part of history."
Sean held the Time-Turner in one hand and the handbook detailing its regulations in the other. Upon the yellowed title page of the book, these words were inscribed in a formal, curling script.
He stared at the parchment, lost in thought, before mentally reviewing the rigid laws governing the device.
Rule number one: You must never be seen. This was the same warning Professor Dumbledore would eventually give Hermione.
Rule number two: The five-hour limit. This point was highlighted in bold, blood-red ink, followed by several historical case studies provided by the Department of Mysteries.
Sean paid particular attention to these cases. He knew that the deeper one understood the theory of magic, the more effectively they could wield it. Knowledge and wisdom were a wizard's most valuable assets, and information from the Department of Mysteries was the rarest currency of all.
Deep within the Ministry of Magic, the Department of Mysteries studied the most profound forces of existence: the mind, death, prophecy, time, and love. Those who worked there were known as Unspeakables; no one knew exactly where they worked or the true nature of their research. The department operated with a staggering level of autonomy, answering to no one—not even the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Even the Minister for Magic found it difficult to interfere with their work; Rodolphus Lestrange had once attempted to shut the department down entirely, only to fail miserably.
[Despite the myriad of human fantasies, time travel is only achievable within very strict limits. The subject is shrouded in the highest levels of secrecy—under ongoing investigation by the Department of Mysteries—but magic, it seems, can only carry a traveler so far.]
So far? Sean mused. Is that the origin of the five-hour rule?
The text continued, citing the research of Saul Croaker, an Unspeakable who had dedicated his life to temporal magic.
[According to our current findings, the maximum duration for which a period can be re-lived is approximately five hours without causing irreparable harm to either the traveler or the fabric of time itself. We have successfully encapsulated individual Hour-Reversal Charms within small, enchanted hourglasses. These charms can be worn around the neck and rotated according to the number of hours the user intends to revisit.]
Hour-Reversal Charms. It was a branch of magic Sean had never heard mentioned at Hogwarts.
The book then detailed the catastrophic consequences of breaching the limit:
*[All attempts to travel back further than a few hours have resulted in horrific injuries to the wizards involved. Since 1899, when Eloise Mintumble became trapped in the year 1402 for five days, all such experiments have been abandoned.
Upon her eventual return to the present, her body had aged five centuries. The damage was terminal; she passed away in St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries shortly after her rescue. Furthermore, her five-day residency in the distant past caused such a massive upheaval in the lives of those she encountered that no fewer than twenty-five of her modern descendants vanished, having 'never been born.'
Finally, in the days following Madam Mintumble's death, time itself showed signs of instability. The Tuesday following her reappearance lasted for a full two and a half days, while the subsequent Thursday flickered by in a mere four hours. The Ministry exerted immense effort to cover up the incident, and since that day, the penalties for unauthorized temporal research have been the most severe in our world.]*
Death of the user, the erasure of entire family lines, and the fracturing of reality itself... The Department of Mysteries spared no detail in illustrating the horror of temporal magic.
Sean committed the cases to memory, finishing with Saul Croaker's final warning:
"Most in the magical community would be surprised to learn that Time-Turners are used only for the most trivial matters of time management, never for purposes of greater import. For as the human mind cannot grasp the nature of time, it cannot grasp the catastrophe we invite when we presume to interfere with its laws."
Sean took a breath and adjusted the hourglass. He turned the small dial exactly three increments.
The bright interior of the Room of Hope blurred and vanished. Sean felt himself hurtling backward at a terrifying velocity. Colors and shapes streaked past him in a kaleidoscope of light; his eardrums throbbed with a pressure so intense he could hear nothing else.
Then, his feet hit solid ground. The world snapped back into focus.
He was standing in the Room of Hope, facing an empty desk. A thin layer of morning mist was drifting in through the open door.
He had returned to five o'clock in the morning. Hogwarts was still wrapped in its nightly slumber.
It worked, Sean thought, his fingers brushing the gold casing of the timer.
He knew the Ministry claimed time magic was beyond human comprehension, but he wondered: if that's true, where did the Hour-Reversal Charm come from in the first place?
With a cautious mindset and the weight of three extra hours on his side, Sean began his day.
For the next four weeks, Sean became increasingly elusive.
During this time, the second Quidditch match of the term arrived: Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff.
The morning of the match was clear and bright, with a pleasant breeze rustling the trees of the forest.
"Ideal Quidditch weather!" Oliver Wood bellowed at the Gryffindor table. He was in a state of high mania, piling mounds of scrambled eggs onto his players' plates to "fuel their victory." He even sprinted over to the Ravenclaw table to hand a plate to Harry. "Eat up, Harry! You need your strength!"
Harry, who had been struggling to balance his intensive spell-training in the Room of Hope with Wood's relentless practice schedule, looked up to find Sean.
But the sight made his pupils contract.
Sean was sitting at the Ravenclaw table, quietly reading a book. Yet, through the high windows of the Hall, Harry saw another Sean—climbing the steps of the North Tower.
Harry rubbed his eyes vigorously and dropped his fork. He scrambled toward the Great Hall doors and looked out, but the figure in the distance had already vanished.
That Afternoon.
Harry headed toward Gryffindor Tower to retrieve his Nimbus 2000. He joined the bustling crowd of students heading toward the pitch, but his mind remained in the castle, chasing the phantom image of his friend.
As he changed into his scarlet robes in the locker room, his only comfort was his absolute confidence in the team's ability to win. He didn't know how, but he knew they were ready.
[End of Chapter 433]
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