Although the Time-Turner in Hermione's hand would undoubtedly be easier to get, Carlyle hadn't considered that before.
Perhaps it was because Hermione was always isolated by most of her classmates in Gryffindor too, making him feel a sense of shared plight;
Perhaps it was out of jealousy and resentment towards Wade, and his initial goal when entering Hogwarts had been Wade. Even after changing his objective, he hadn't wanted to switch targets.
But at this moment, he had no better option, and any slight sympathy or goodwill seemed redundant.
As the Auror watched the unfortunate students with amusement, Carlyle calmly greeted, "Hermione, you didn't go to Hogsmeade today?"
"I wanted to, but I still have two books to finish."
Hermione, with dark circles under her eyes, said dejectedly. She curiously glanced at the tall adult Wizard next to Carlyle, then cast a questioning look at her classmate.
"I heard you invited Wade to your place. Why are you back so early?"
"Something came up," Carlyle said vaguely, looking sad and distressed. He lowered his head and added, "I... I'm leaving Hogwarts. I need to go back to the dorm to pack my things now..."
He spoke as if he had chosen to withdraw from school. The Auror glanced at the young criminal, then at the girl opposite him, who was clearly a good kid, and kindly didn't expose him.
As expected, Hermione asked concernedly, "What happened? Did you run into some trouble?"
Carlyle shook his head, unwilling to say more, and pleaded fragilely, "Can you do me a favor, Hermione? Parvati borrowed a book from me, and she must have left it in her dorm. Could you help me find it? After this... I won't have a chance to come back to school."
"Of course, what book?" Hermione said readily. She slung her backpack behind her, used her Wand to clean an ink stain off her clothes, and turned to walk with Carlyle towards the common room.
"It's a book about time travel, called The End of Eternity. Have you read it?" Carlyle casually mentioned a book.
"Oh, of course, it's Asimov's work. I finished it when I was seven," Hermione said. "But I haven't seen Parvati with that book?"
"Maybe she put it away. You might need to help me look for it..."
"No problem."
Auror: "..."
Wasn't he supposed to take his parents' mementos? Would mementos be lent to others?
On second thought, perhaps he just wanted to spend more time with the girl he liked... And this was his only chance to pack, so it was understandable that he wanted to take all his belongings.
The Auror shut his mouth and silently followed the two.
At the Gryffindor entrance, the Fat Lady, wearing a pink dress, asked, "Password?"
"Lion's Roar," Hermione said.
The portrait swung open.
The entrance to the Gryffindor common room was a hole behind the portrait, not very spacious. Carlyle naturally stepped back, letting Hermione go in first, then climbed in himself.
The Auror, who was last, was just about to squeeze through when the portrait suddenly closed.
"You're not a Gryffindor student." The Fat Lady narrowed her eyes and asked imperiously, "What do you want to go in for?"
"I'm an Auror from the Ministry of Magic, I'm responsible for guarding that kid just now..." The Auror stopped mid-sentence, suddenly realizing he was explaining himself to a painting. He slapped his forehead in frustration and said, "The password is Lion's Roar, right? Please open the door."
"Alright, password correct," the Fat Lady said grudgingly.
She slowly opened the portrait, and the Auror quickly scrambled inside. There were a few younger students in the common room; they hurriedly stood up from the sofa, looking at the unfamiliar adult Wizard with surprise.
The Auror didn't see Carlyle at first glance, and his heart sank, feeling a sense of foreboding. Then, he saw the brown-haired girl sitting in an armchair, slumped over the table as if asleep, and his face instantly turned deathly pale.
...
One minute earlier.
Carlyle, having crawled through the doorway, had a lower vantage point than Hermione. He immediately spotted the Wand Hermione had casually tucked into her pocket.
The side of a Hogwarts school robe, like most Wizard Robes, had a long, narrow pocket that could easily hold a twelve-inch Wand.
Students at school generally didn't have the concept of "Wands need protection."
Carlyle had learned a variety of skills during his training with The Organization. With a swift movement, he snatched Hermione's Wand before she even noticed.
Hermione was still walking forward: "I remember Parvati exchanged her Book of Friends with Harry. I'll ask him to help you find out where Parvati put that book..."
"I'm sorry, Hermione."
From behind, Carlyle pointed the Wand at the girl's back and softly said, "*Stupefy!*"
Hermione collapsed without a sound, and Carlyle quickly helped her onto a nearby armchair. He reached out and took the long-coveted golden chain from the girl's neck.
As he put the Time-Turner around his own neck, Carlyle trembled slightly with excitement. He saw the closed doorway slowly opening, and immediately, without hesitation, he mimicked Hermione's actions and turned the golden hourglass.
He rotated it two full turns.
Time rapidly rewound, and in an instant, Carlyle was back two hours earlier.
At this time, all the students going to Hogsmeade had already left the school, and the younger students hadn't woken up yet. The common room was empty, with no one else around.
Carlyle unhesitatingly hurried up the stairs, slipped into the boys' dormitory, and then thoroughly searched Harry's cabinet and the trunk under his bed.
He quickly got what he needed—the Invisibility Cloak and the Firebolt.
Carlyle had heard about Harry's Invisibility Cloak many times in their adventure stories, but only after putting it on did he realize it wasn't as useful as he'd imagined.
His figure completely disappeared from the air, but his voice and scent were not masked.
If there was only a voice but no visible person, it might arouse suspicion from certain entities within the castle.
...like Dumbledore, for instance. Or House-elves.
Carlyle folded the Invisibility Cloak and tucked it into his bag. Then he found an old bedsheet to wrap around the Firebolt; a broomstick alone would be less conspicuous.
He picked up his things and slipped out of the doorway, praying Dumbledore wouldn't notice him as he strode quickly down the corridor.
Suddenly, he felt a strange, chilling breeze on his back that made his scalp tingle. Carlyle shivered, startled, and instinctively bared his two pointed fangs.
When he turned around, he realized it was Peeves blowing on his neck. The poltergeist, seeing Carlyle's reaction, burst into uncontrollable laughter, clutching his stomach and cackling.
Once his racing heartbeat had somewhat calmed, Carlyle recalled the previous moment, narrowed his eyes slightly, and asked, "Peeves, are you satisfied with just this simple prank?"
Peeves's smile vanished. He looked at Carlyle and asked, annoyed, "What do you mean? Do you want to try my more powerful tricks?"
"No, not at all." Carlyle flashed a sly smile, mirroring Peeves's own. "I have a big plan, one that's guaranteed to turn the school upside down and give Dumbledore a headache. Want to be in on it?"
"Haha! What kind of prank could mess with Dumbledore? Yes, yes! I want in!" Peeves exclaimed happily. "What's your plan?"
Carlyle's heart thumped. He lowered his voice and said, "If I tell you, it won't work. You just need to do me a small favor... In two hours, right here, help me distract Professor McGonagall..."
Peeves loved seeing destruction and people annoyed. Before long, he bounced away, entrusted with Carlyle's mission.
Carlyle watched the peculiar ghost's retreating back, feeling the power of time's flow clearly for the first time.
It was as if everything he was doing at this moment was to bring about the reality two hours later.
If he had gone back to when Byrd came to deceive his parents, or to the time his family went to the airport, trying to change all the tragedies... how much would that impact the future?
Could he truly ensure his parents lived safely, as he so desperately wished?
Carlyle bit his lip hard until he tasted blood. He walked without much awareness, but his feet still instinctively carried him to his destination.
Filch had just returned from outside the castle. He had completed his patrol, chased out a few couples canoodling in hidden corners, and given two students detention for cleaning. Only then was he satisfied and ready to return to his office for a proper rest.
Mrs. Norris, tail erect, strutted proudly behind her master. She was the first to spot Carlyle pacing back and forth by the door. She let out a "Meow!" to alert Filch.
"Carlyle Johnson?" Filch narrowed his eyes, looking at him suspiciously. "What are you doing here?"
He glanced at his office door, worried that this Gryffindor or his accomplices had snuck in to cause trouble.
"It's like this, Mr. Filch," Carlyle said, hurrying over with an anxious expression. "I just saw a few Slytherin boys... they... they forcibly took a younger girl into the bathroom..."
"What?" Filch's eyes widened in shock, his breathing suddenly quickening. He clenched his fists and roared furiously, "Who are those brats? Where are they?"
"Just Crabbe, Goyle, Montague... and Flint, those ones..." Carlyle rattled off a few unpopular student names off the top of his head. "They're over by the dungeons, near the Potions storeroom... but I also heard them say a common room would be safer..."
Filch threw down his cane and sprinted off, muttering angrily, "How many years! How many years has the school not had such a heinous incident! I'm going to string those brats up and give them a good thrashing! Expel them all from school!"
Carlyle hurried after him, raising his voice to suggest, "Mr. Filch... Mr. Filch... shouldn't you... report it to Professor Snape first..."
Filch stopped short, his expression subtly changing. After a moment's thought, he reluctantly nodded. "You're right!"
Filch desperately wanted to catch those students himself, but he also knew that, first, he couldn't enter the Slytherin common room, and second, if the students genuinely got provoked, he, being non-magical, couldn't possibly beat those little snakes.
He changed direction and rushed towards the Potions Master's office.
Carlyle slowed his pace slightly. Once he had put some distance between them, he stopped and hid in a corner, watching Filch bang on Professor Snape's office door.
A moment later, the two of them rushed towards the bathroom Carlyle had mentioned, the Potions Professor's black Wizard Robes billowing out like a cloud of death.
Carlyle let out a long breath, thinking that even if he wasn't caught by the Aurors this time, there was no way he could return to school.
A faint trace of regret, like dust, was casually wiped away. Carlyle quickly dashed into Snape's office and started rummaging through everything.
African tree snake skin, Unicorn tail hair, Dragon's blood, Mandrake root, Basilisk scales, Basilisk Fang, Phoenix feather...
Snape's collection contained many extremely rare Potions ingredients, and there were also many finished Potions. Carlyle rummaged through the shelves and finally saw what he was looking for.
A small bottle of Polyjuice Potion.
He grabbed the crystal vial and sprinted out of the office, moving as if he were in a race.
Luckily, Snape and Filch must have believed his tall tale and gone to search the Slytherin common room; they hadn't doubled back to find him.
There were no students in the corridor either. Carlyle rushed into a nearby empty classroom and, without stopping, twisted a Time-Turner.
Time flowed backward by another hour.
At this moment, Filch was at the school gates, checking students heading to Hogsmeade Village to see if anyone was trying to sneak out. On the lawn outside the castle, many students were walking out in groups.
Carlyle stood at the window and even saw himself and Wade in the distance.
He paused for a moment, then slipped into a Secret Passage near the kitchens.
He had learned about this Secret Passage from the Weasley Twins. It was said that Filch also knew about the entrances and exits, which was why even the daring Weasley Twins wouldn't use it.
This was exactly what Carlyle wanted.
Once inside the Secret Passage, Carlyle finally relaxed slightly. He put on Harry's Invisibility Cloak, mounted his broom, and sped through the narrow passage as quickly as possible to get away from the school grounds. When he emerged from the passage, he found the exit behind the Three Broomsticks.
He twisted the Time-Turner two more times.
Cumulatively, the reversed time had reached five hours, the critical limit for safe use of the Time-Turner.
Hogsmeade was still shrouded in a faint mist in the early morning, quiet everywhere, with only a few windows illuminated by dim, yellowish light.
Carlyle cast a directional spell, then, riding his broom, pushed the Firebolt to its maximum speed in an extremely short time.
The sky was vast and boundless, but the city he wanted to reach was in two places.
Before he left Britain, his home was in Bristol.
After leaving Britain… his father vanished without a trace, and his mother was later sent to a sanatorium in Carlisle.
At the speed of a Firebolt, he could reach either city in a minimum of two hours and a maximum of four and a half.
Carlyle let the broom fly—both cities were in roughly the same direction for him at the moment anyway—while struggling internally, knowing he had to make a choice.
Should he seize that infinitesimally small chance to save both his parents… or choose the more likely option, and at least ensure his mother survived?
The boy's hand, gripping his Wand, trembled uncontrollably. His gaze darted about, sometimes looking at the clouds, sometimes at the distant ground below, as if searching for a non-existent answer.
Lines of cold text from a book flashed through his mind—
Time-Turners cannot be used to alter known history. Attempting to change history will lead to unforeseen consequences.
Prolonged time travel can lead to the user's death… and may even cause the timeline to collapse… Five hours is the maximum allowable time for backward travel…
As the broom neared Carlisle, its speed gradually decreased, and Carlyle knew that his intuition had already made the choice for him.
He brought the broom down, stopped outside the sanatorium, and walked straight in.
With his Invisibility Cloak, neither the sanatorium staff nor the patients noticed the intruder. Carlyle flipped through the patient and death registers. When he saw the gaunt, frail woman in a certain photo, tears streamed down his face.
This was indeed his mother.
He took a deep breath, tapped the Time-Turner with his Wand, and the hourglass began to spin, faster and faster, eventually becoming a blur.
Everything around him turned into blurry, brilliant streaks, and Carlyle himself seemed to be the only real thing within it. He closed his eyes, not looking much, until the hourglass's spinning gradually slowed. He heard voices nearby and then opened his eyes.
A doctor, flipping through a medical record, walked past Carlyle, talking to a nurse in a white uniform.
The boy walked through the long corridor, searching through window after window, and finally saw that thin, emaciated figure.
The woman lay asleep in the hospital bed, eyes tightly closed, but her eyeballs still restlessly moved beneath her lids. Her once full, rounded cheeks were sunken, and her arms were as thin and withered as dry sticks. The marks of fate's cruelty upon her were clearly visible.
Carlyle's hand rested on the doorframe, his lips trembling, a lump in his throat. He couldn't manage to utter "Mom," and tears fell silently.
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