That thought immediately made Avada excited again.
If nothing else, just the possibility of immediately obtaining a method to separate the soul fragment inside Harry made this trip into the timeline more than worthwhile!
"But there's no need to rush yet. I should first see what this timeline actually contains. It would be best if I could also find the reason why it suddenly converged..."
Avada followed the only remaining timeline in front of him with his gaze.
"What's going on... why are the future fragments here so blurry?"
With a single glance, he immediately noticed what was wrong with this timeline.
Based on experience, the scenes contained within normal fragments of possibility should all be clear and easy to understand. With even the slightest touch of spiritual power, he should be able to immediately grasp the information inside that fragment.
But the scenes on this timeline seemed to be separated from Avada by a layer of dense fog, making every fragment hazy and indistinct...
In this situation, never mind learning some precise soul technique—whether he could even figure out what was happening in this timeline at all was already uncertain!
"I'll try interpreting it first."
With some difficulty, he focused and observed as best he could.
"Here... this scene looks like the Great Hall at Hogwarts, and Dumbledore is sitting in the center too. And the figure beside him is... Mad-Eye Moody? Is this the scene at the start of next term?"
"We're already at next term? From the moment I obtained the real locket all the way to the start of my fifth year—where did all that time go?"
Confused, he looked further back, trying to determine whether this converged timeline was an extension of history that had already happened.
And in the next instant, he discovered something horrifying—
There was nothing behind him.
Or rather, the position where his spiritual body had been when the convergence occurred was the "starting point" of this timeline. Beyond that, there was only the same void as everywhere else around him...
This was the first time he had ever seen a timeline with something like a "starting point."
"What is going on?"
For an instant, Avada felt a fear of the unknown invade his mind, but he quickly forced himself to calm down again.
After all, this was only the second time he had ever come into contact with timelines. Encountering phenomena he could not understand was perfectly normal.
"But... I'm not going to fail to run into that giant sphere of light and end up trapped in here forever, right?!"
That thought made the fear he had just suppressed rise again.
So after a fierce internal struggle between emotion and reason, Avada ultimately calmed down once more and decided to stick to his original plan. He would first try to analyze what was happening in this timeline, then see whether he could learn from the future how to separate soul fragments.
Even if he could only catch a vague motion and gain the tiniest bit of inspiration, it would still be worth it...
And after that, he would grit his teeth and face that giant sphere of light head-on.
After all, he had nothing else he could do now.
"The scenes here are very blurry, and I can't see magic directly through them, so I can't tell whether this Moody is real or fake... I'll keep looking."
"And then... mm, a large cup wreathed in blue flames... so it really is the Triwizard Tournament."
"That long-bearded figure with glasses has to be Dumbledore. He's standing in front of the Goblet of Fire with two other people... The absurdly tall woman beside him should be Madame Maxime of Beauxbatons. And the man on the other side should be Karkaroff of Durmstrang..."
"But there seem to be rather few students behind them? It doesn't even look as crowded as the Great Hall did at the start-of-term feast. Normally, Maxime and Karkaroff would both bring quite a few champion candidates with them, so the Hall ought to feel much more packed... Could there have been another large-scale attack, like the fainting incidents?"
"Damn it, why does it have to be impossible to see the full cause and effect at a moment like this..."
Avada complained inwardly in frustration, then continued concentrating on deciphering the blurry timeline.
"A cramped room. Three people are handing their wands over to an old man... the three champions?"
"So this time, the Goblet of Fire didn't produce any strange nonsense. That probably means the Moody from earlier was the real one?"
"But in that case, next year's tournament has nothing to do with Harry... though to be fair, it wasn't supposed to have anything to do with him in the first place. This time, Hogwarts only has one champion left—Cedric. Maybe I could help a little?"
"And then there's a whole bunch of adult wizards packed into a small room, all discussing something together. Dumbledore is there, along with the other two headmasters, but Professor McGonagall, Professor Flitwick, and Professor Snape all seem to be absent... Maybe it's a meeting of the Triwizard Tournament staff? Ludo Bagman, Barty Crouch Sr., and the like?"
But the perceived scene was simply too blurry, and he did not dare jump to conclusions. He could only keep it in mind for now and observe gradually in reality later—
If he still had the chance to return to reality at all.
"This scene... oh, I recognize it. That figure should be Cedric. He's talking to a burly man about something. Krum, probably? This scene is either the champions chatting with each other, or maybe they're just talking about Quidditch. So far, everything looks normal..."
"But... where is Leach University?"
Only then did he suddenly realize what was wrong.
"According to Grindelwald, Leach University's public unveiling should happen next year. Could it really have absolutely nothing to do with the Triwizard Tournament?"
When he had first heard Grindelwald say that, he had assumed the university might do something similar to what Barty Crouch Jr. had done in the original story—secretly tampering with the Goblet of Fire so that Leach University would be added to the tournament roster and could select its own champion to compete.
And considering that the university could not possibly airdrop a completely unfamiliar adult into Hogwarts, that candidate would most likely be Baron.
Of course, there was also a small possibility that it would be himself.
So he had actually come prepared to see himself standing in the champion's position and being forced into the tournament—
Yet unexpectedly, this Triwizard Tournament seemed to have gone off without incident?
"Then whatever affects the university's public debut must be something else... I'd better keep looking."
What followed were more blurry scenes.
There were groups of people arguing over something, a dragon crouching on a vast grassland, a huge lake...
They all more or less corresponded to scenes from the original story.
"Just about what I expected... but why is Leach University completely quiet?"
Avada was still puzzled.
"While the Triwizard Tournament is going on, the university's side is almost completely calm. They're just teaching classes and doing intelligence work as usual... There isn't even the slightest atmosphere of preparing for a public reveal!"
"Did Grindelwald get it wrong? Or is it that in this timeline, Leach University simply doesn't appear that early?"
(End of Chapter)