Bernadette said: "When I first heard about the centaurs' prophecy, I had a similar initial reaction to you. But once I looked at all three types of prophecy together, it isn't hard to arrive at a conclusion..."
"In your world, any prophecy made will come true."
Vincent blinked. She's right, actually.
Every person who had ever tried to thwart a prophecy had ended up being the very force that brought it about.
"That means — whether it's the centaurs, Grindelwald, or Sybill Trelawney — whatever they foresee is the genuine future. Which in turn means that in your world, the future cannot be changed. It is fated."
Vincent frowned. "Based on Trelawney's prophecy, Voldemort is destined to be defeated by the Chosen One. So what if I — or you — decided to kill him first? By Sequence 4, that shouldn't be too difficult."
No sooner had he said it than he caught himself. Voldemort had thought the same thing. The great Dark Lord, brought low by a child? Impossible. And look how that turned out. There was a whiff of fatalism about it that he didn't entirely like.
"Hm."
Something crossed his mind. "Actually — hearing you put it that way, it reminds me of something else in my world. The Time-Turner. Have you come across any mention of it in the books?"
"...No."
She had spent every spare moment on ancient runes and ancient magic. There had been no time for anything else.
"A Time-Turner allows its user to travel back into the past."
"!!!"
This was the most intense reaction the divine half of Bernadette had shown yet. She was genuinely stunned. "Back to the past? Truly — actually back into the past?"
"Yes."
Bernadette was silent for a long moment before she spoke. "As far as I know, among the twenty-two Pathways, the ones that touch on the domain of time are the Monster and the Marauder. The former can reboot time across a certain region, achieving a brief reversal of events. And the Marauder's Stealing of time can only accelerate time within a limited area."
"I would imagine that something called a 'Time-Turner' in your world would be the equivalent of the most elite Grade 0 Sealed Artifact in ours."
"Er."
Vincent's expression turned a little awkward. "You might not believe this, but in our world... any student who has reached their third year, and has obtained the approval of their professor and the headmaster, can simply apply to the Ministry of Magic for one."
"???"
Bernadette was lost for words.
"Oh — I'm sorry. I forgot to mention a few things." Vincent belatedly added: "Under normal circumstances, a Time-Turner can only go back a maximum of five hours. So the most you can return to is five hours ago. Additionally, while using it, you cannot alter established facts."
"For example — if you personally witnessed Professor Snape deducting twenty points from Harry in Potions class, even if you used a Time-Turner to go back to that moment, you cannot change that established fact."
"This actually aligns rather neatly with what you just said about the future being unchangeable — because the 'present' of five hours ago is just as much a future relative to the past as anything else."
Bernadette considered this. "You said under normal circumstances — what about special cases?"
Vincent spread his hands and gave a self-contradicting answer: "In truth, there is no built-in time limit on a Time-Turner. If you wanted, you could theoretically go back dozens or hundreds of years. But the problem is that the longer the span of time you cross, the greater the risk of causing unpredictable catastrophe — to the user, to time itself, and to anyone drawn into the disturbance."
"A fairly well-known case involves a witch named Eloise Mintumble. During a time-travel experiment in 1899, she became stranded in the year 1402 for five days. When she returned to the present, her body rapidly underwent five centuries' worth of ageing, causing damage that could not be repaired. She died immediately."
"And beyond that, her presence had severely disrupted the lives of every person she encountered, causing at least twenty-five of their descendants to vanish from the present — to have never been born at all. From this case, it does seem as though the future can be altered."
"Though of course, one could also argue that the disappearance of those people was itself the future that was always going to happen — and that her journey into the past simply brought about both elements of that 'future' together."
Vincent summed it up: "In short: time travel is extremely dangerous."
"...And yet you allow third-years to freely apply for one?"
Well. That one was really on J.K. Rowling — she was just writing a story, and hadn't thought through all of the implications. Wizarding logic tends not to hold up under scrutiny.
"There's actually another theory in the wizarding world," Vincent continued. "The idea is that there originally was a time-reversal spell — a true one. But every witch and wizard who tried to master it was ultimately destroyed by it. Eventually, the solution was to take that time-reversal magic and bind it within an enchanted hourglass, creating what we now call the Time-Turner."
"I once tried to track down any remaining trace of the original time-reversal spell, but I found nothing."
Bernadette thought aloud: "Could the Reparo charm be related to time-reversal magic? The effect it produces does seem almost like time running backwards, in a small way."
"That I'm genuinely not sure about."
The two of them discussed the Time-Turner for a while longer, until eventually Bernadette fell into a thoughtful silence that gently closed the conversation.
As her presence faded into the golden mist, Vincent felt a sudden pang of unease. His instincts told him: telling her about the Time-Turner was a mistake.
Knowing her curiosity — knowing her drive to experiment with everything — heaven only knew what she was going to get up to when she returned to the Harry Potter world.
Though on reflection, the Time-Turner wasn't exactly a secret in the wizarding world. She would have found out eventually through other means. Some things were simply impossible to stop.
Rain falls when it will; people do what they must.
Vincent returned to reality and relayed the conversation to the Bernadette on this side.
"Your world clearly has something wrong with it."
She had apparently needed a moment to recover herself. "Something that can send you back to the past — made freely available to thirteen-year-old students?"
"Ahem. That's beside the point. The real question is: will she develop an interest in the Time-Turner and then..."
"Inevitably," Bernadette said without hesitation. Her expression turned serious. "But what she'll really want is to bring a Time-Turner back to my world — and use it to travel back over a hundred years, to before Father was assassinated."
"Vincent. I think we've just found another reason to advance to Sequence 4 as quickly as possible."
Vincent immediately understood. Advancing to Sequence 4 — demigod — would transform the very nature of their body, converting blood and hair into spiritual material. That would open the doors to sacrifice and bestowal across worlds.
Which meant a Time-Turner could be passed through to the Lord of the Mysteries world.
"Don't forget — there's a good chance some very powerful eyes are already on us. Are you certain bringing something like that through won't cause problems?"
Bernadette smiled. "Let's get to demigod first. Then we'll think about it."
To be continued…
Advance 100 Chapters are up on my Patreon!
pat reon.com/AlphaSenatus
Also, guys, check out my friend's new fic titled "Anime Crossover: Why Am I In JJK As An Uchiha?!" by Reid Astrea