"There's still time. I need to find the key to solving this problem first... I'll just start searching from the farther future!"
Avada once again sensed the location of Grindelwald's strand of spiritual power. After fully confirming that he could still find it, he drifted straight toward the deeper reaches of the timeline.
"Merlin's beard... the probability of the pure-blood families winning in the end actually isn't low?"
Looking at the futures displayed in the dense mass of possibility fragments around him, Avada suddenly had the feeling that he had really been walking a tightrope along the edge of a cliff all this time.
"There are futures where they secretly resurrect Voldemort and launch the Second Wizarding War just like in the original story; futures where they outlive Dumbledore and unify Britain; futures where Barty Crouch Jr. successfully assassinates Dumbledore; and even futures where they secretly seize control of Leach University..."
"They really can make a mess of things."
He looked around at the countless chaotic possibilities surrounding him.
"But fortunately, all of those future timelines share one thing in common: I never altered Peter's memory. Instead, I simply dragged him straight to the Wizengamot to help clear Sirius's name... So what happens to the timeline after I alter Peter's memory?"
Sure enough, the moment he turned his attention to the possibilities after Peter's memory had been altered, the situation changed dramatically.
Because Peter Pettigrew, the ultimate spy and ultimate infiltrator, had thrown himself wholeheartedly over to Dumbledore's side, the pure-blood families' arrangements were practically transparent in Dumbledore's eyes. And with Peter's help, they were able to seize the crucial point every single time and turn the tables from the brink of defeat...
Then, as the pure-blood families' conspiracies were exposed again and again, their standing in society became increasingly unstable. In the end, they were either crushed by justice and the law, or forced into a futile last struggle before exiting the stage completely...
And among those futures where Dumbledore still lost badly even after Peter's memory had been altered, almost all of them had one thing in common—
Peter's cover was blown!
It could be said that as long as Peter Pettigrew remained undiscovered, their side was guaranteed to win!
The only difference was the price they would have to pay to get there!
"Is Peter really that important?"
Though inwardly astonished, Avada could not help checking Peter Pettigrew's personal fate as well.
Not unexpectedly, most of them were not good.
For Peter, the best possible outcome was already being imprisoned in Azkaban for life after fulfilling the oath and helping clear Sirius's name. Even then, the Aurors would show him a small degree of leniency because of his contributions, and Sirius and Lupin would often go to visit him.
In other, far more outrageous endings, there were futures where his identity was exposed during a mission and he was killed, futures where he tried to violate the oath and died from the backlash, and futures where Avada restored his original memories and drove him insane...
And even more interestingly, in some future possibilities, after Dumbledore completely crushed the pure-blood family alliance, he also obtained definitive proof through large-scale investigations that Peter Pettigrew had betrayed the Order and caused the deaths of James and Lily Potter.
And after that, more than half of those versions of Dumbledore chose not to tell Sirius or Lupin.
"So in a certain sense, Dumbledore and I really are pretty similar?"
Avada reflected with some self-mockery, then continued rummaging through the heap of future possibilities.
He needed to find the versions that produced the best results at the lowest cost—preferably ones where he himself could come out of it a little more comfortably too—and then do his best to realize them.
And looking into Peter Pettigrew's future had only taken him a little over ten seconds. He still had time to keep looking.
Grindelwald had told him that actively using prophecy consumed an enormous amount of energy, and that long periods of recovery were needed between uses.
And right now was the most precious period of time imaginable. He had to seize every chance he had to safely travel back and forth through the timeline and gather as much information as possible.
"This version is good. This one's decent too... wait, if it goes this way, I might get ganged up on and beaten half to death, with a small chance of dying outright? Pass, pass, pass!"
"This one... I'd personally be safe, but the cost is that Leach University's public debut would be delayed by two months... I suppose that's not completely unacceptable."
"Mm, this version is good. It's almost bloodless, and there are barely even any battles at all... but the uncontrollable factors are a little too high. It depends entirely on what choices the pure-blood families make at several key turning points. If things tilt even slightly the wrong way, it could spiral into an extremely troublesome future timeline..."
Avada felt like a film director right now, reviewing scripts submitted by screenwriters and deciding which version would bring in the biggest box office return.
"...That's about enough. Fifteen seconds left."
After roughly reviewing several of the most probable futures and getting a fairly clear look at the methods the pure-blood families were secretly preparing, he decided to stop here for now.
Maintaining the prophetic state clearly placed a heavy burden on Grindelwald as well, and letting the man rest earlier was not a bad thing. After all, Grindelwald could be considered one of his own top superiors...
He turned around and looked back toward the location where Grindelwald's spiritual power had been.
It was still there.
"Good. Nothing unexpected happened."
Avada finally let out a sigh of relief. After giving one last glance at the best future version he had selected so far, he controlled his spiritual body and began moving toward Grindelwald's direction...
And then the timeline converged again.
"..."
"???"
"What the hell is going on?!"
Avada was dumbfounded as he stared at the timeline, which had suddenly compressed from boundless fragments of possibility into a single thin thread.
He had not even gone to observe the original plotline?!
And the possibility Grindelwald had foreseen had, unsurprisingly, also ended up outside this newly converged timeline. Now there was not even a trace of it left to be found...
Which probably meant that, once again, he would have to face that giant sphere of light head-on if he wanted to crawl back half-crippled.
"...Why? On what grounds?!"
"The timeline just converges whenever it feels like it?"
As he sensed this brand-new timeline, Avada could not help growing a little frantic with frustration.
"And this time, what it converged into isn't even the original story! It's one of the futures I just observed! I only glanced at it casually, and it immediately converged?! Then why don't the other possibility fragments trigger this effect?!"
"Forget it. Think on the bright side, think on the bright side... Last time, after facing that giant sphere head-on, I gained the ability to observe souls. Maybe this time I'll get some new gain out of it too?"
Even though he thought that to himself, his spiritual body still remained rooted in place, unwilling to move forward.
That sphere of light had left a psychological scar on him.
If he was going to see that thing again, then every extra second of delay was a second gained. In any case, when he fainted, it was always for at least a week. Compared to that, this little bit of wasted time hardly mattered...
"How about... I take this chance to observe this timeline a little more?"
"Oh, right!"
He suddenly thought of something.
"In the future, wasn't I planning to study the Elder Wand and find a way to solve the soul fragment inside Harry? Could I use this chance to have my present self learn directly from the future?!"
(End of Chapter)