boyutpedia Chapter 77 The Gap in Time
Chapter 77 The Gap in Time
Thor Crocker disappeared and then reappeared. Before Harry and Moran could say anything to him, the new old man pulled out his wand as if he had seen an enemy.
"How did you get in? How can anyone be allowed in at this time?"
"Stupefy!" (Faints and collapses)
“Protego…” (armor protecting the body)
The faint red light emanating from the tip of the wand resembled a punch thrown by a delicate girl, giving Harry the feeling that he could stand still and take the blow without being knocked unconscious. Fortunately, years of continuous training and real-world experience in high-stakes battles had honed his solid combat instincts; otherwise, Harry would have suffered a much greater loss this time.
"Would you like to talk to me first...?"
Before the words "let's chat" were even uttered, the originally weak and somewhat laughable spell of fainting and collapsing visibly became heavy and dazzling.
"What the hell...... Protego Horribilis!" (Super Armor Protection)
boom!
Harry's excellent athletic ability and muscle memory from facing formidable enemies helped him twist his left shoulder, which was about to be hit, at a crucial moment. Furthermore, after using momentum to perform a right roll, he also reinforced the Protective Charm he had previously used somewhat carelessly.
"You know any time magic other than the Time Reversal Charm?"
Saul Crock didn't answer. He was equally astonished that Harry had managed to block one of his attacks. But rather than exchanging words, he seemed more interested in capturing the intruder in the Time Chamber.
"Immobulus!" (Everyone freezes)
"Expelliarmus!" (Expelliarmus)
boom!
“Diffindo!” (Torn to pieces)
"Impedimenta!" (Obstacles abound!)
Click!
"Confringo!" (Thunderous explosion)
"Protego Horribilis!" (Super Armor Protection)
"Langlock!" (A tongue lock to the throat)
"Well?"
After three consecutive exchanges, Harry, having figured out Saul Crock's attack rhythm, finally seized an opportunity and accurately struck his opponent's cheek with a tongue lock. Immediately afterward, before Saul Crock could react and cast a counterspell, the next spell was already upon him.
"Petrificus totalus!" (All petrified!)
With a look of surprise on his face, Saul Crook fell straight down like Neville being cursed by Hermione in the movie "The Sorcerer's Stone." However, to his surprise, instead of crashing directly onto the solid ground, he was caught by an invisible force, like an air cushion.
"Aren't you afraid of smashing everything in the Time Hall? Using such a powerful spell?"
Harry, looking annoyed, pointed his wand at Thor Crocker, who had started fighting with him without any explanation, and asked. At this moment, although he didn't know exactly how Thor Crocker had "enhanced" the power of the spell, he could roughly guess the reason given that the two of them were in the Time Hall.
He continued:
"And if I'm not mistaken, when you were chanting the spell just now, you didn't use any method to enhance its power. It felt more like something delayed the spell's effect, keeping all the magic weak and powerless before it hit. Impressive, it seems you've discovered something else besides the Time Converter in this Time Hall!"
Upon hearing this, Thor Crocker, who was lying on the ground, was taken aback. Although his little trick was not something to be proud of, it was certainly not something that an ordinary wizard could see through at a glance.
"Who exactly is this guy? Why aren't the other future versions of me back to help? Am I going to die here today?"
A barrage of questions bombarded Thor Crocker's mind, leaving Harry, who was using Legilimency, completely bewildered. He asked Moran:
"Huh? Did I hear that right? What do you mean by 'another version of myself from the future'? Aren't people who use time-changers supposed to be unable to meet their own past selves?"
“I don’t know, but we can’t linger here for too long. You might as well use some special methods to ask him directly.”
"it is good!"
After a brief exchange with Mo Ran, Harry no longer concealed the fact that he had used magic to invade the other's mind and asked directly:
"Your Occlumency technique isn't very well practiced, Mr. Saul Krock, and I'm too lazy to waste my breath on many other issues. The most important question now is, I want to know why you were able to break the laws of time travel—allowing two versions of yourself to meet—after using the Time-Turner?"
Thor Crocker's eyes widened slightly, as if trying to recognize the wizard's true identity.
"Stop guessing. This is our first meeting. Besides, I have no intention of killing you. So the reason why your future selves didn't come back to help is probably because we might continue to cooperate in the future. Okay, I've answered your question. Now, let's get back to the main point—why are you able to break the laws of time travel?"
As a silencing member of the Department of Mysteries, Thor Crook was not allowed to explain his work or research findings to outsiders. However, his curiosity about Harry's identity stemmed primarily from the fact that he saw within Harry a time fog that even he himself could not comprehend.
"I haven't truly broken this law, at least not as far as I know. Simply put, I've just found a way to maximize the use of time traveler power... Oh, by the way, I wanted to ask you, are you from this timeline?"
The voice in Saul Crocker's mind became more organized than before; clearly, he had calmed down.
"I've used time converters, if that's what you mean."
"No, no, no, you don't understand. You possess an inexplicable power that seems to have surpassed the limits of modern wizards' understanding of time magic. If possible, I would like to take it a step further..."
"What about this time?"
Mo Ran, who had taken control of the body from Harry, interrupted him.
His voice sounded exactly the same as before, but to Saul Crook, it was as if the explorer had seen a new continent.
"How could such a thing happen! Two souls can actually be squeezed into one body! That's incredible! If that's the case, then changing the outcome of a predetermined prophecy or walking through the cracks of time is not impossible!"
Thor Croc, still under the control of the petrification curse, trembled slightly, his eyes bloodshot from excessive excitement.
Seeing that the mad scientist's mind was about to start wandering again, an impatient Mo Ran quickly waved his wand, using transmutation magic to create a chair and a bundle of rope to restrain Thor Crocker. Then he whispered a spell:
"Imperio." (Astral projection)
......
What are you doing?!
After a moment of stunned silence, Harry suddenly shouted a question at Moran in his mind. Clearly, using the Unforgivable Curse on Thor Crocker was something he neither expected nor could accept.
"We don't have much time, and we can't let someone who works in the Time Hall know too much about us. We don't have any truth serum right now, and talking to him in circles might just get us more questions than answers. Don't worry, after this is all over, I'll use Oblivion to..."
Mo Ran, who was using his persuasive skills as usual, suddenly stopped. He looked up and anxiously began searching through the countless clocks. The next second, a tremor even more intense than when he first used Apparition washed over him like a tidal wave. In just an instant, he was back where he had just entered through the circular room, when he should have been at the end of the Time Hall of the Department of Mysteries.
Swish!
Mo Ran promptly pulled out the Malfoy family's time converter, and seeing that the hour, minute, and second hands on the dial were all in a chaotic mess, Mo Ran couldn't help but feel a sense of foreboding.
"Where has Thor Croc gone? Did I trigger some kind of teleportation magic? No! This feeling... this feeling is more like the situation when I first came to this world?"
Snap, snap, snap...
The gentle applause that interrupted Mo Ran's thoughts came from Thor Crocker, who should have been controlled by the Imperius Curse and lost consciousness. The old man, somehow managing to break free from the multiple control spells in just a few seconds, not only appeared as a completely different person but also began to chat with her in an incredibly amiable tone.
"I thought I had misremembered. I never imagined there was such an amazing person as you in this world."
"You'd better make your point clearer. I don't have the time or inclination to play riddles right now."
"No, no, no, you have plenty of time, trust me."
Thor Crocker's words made Mo Ran's heart skip a beat, but what he was more concerned about right now was that Harry, who should have been talking to him in his mind, had inexplicably lost all contact.
"What do you mean by 'plenty of time'? Keep spouting riddles and I might get angry!"
With a furrowed brow, Mo Ran raised his wand, putting pressure on Saul Crock while repeatedly calling out in his mind, "Harry! Harry? Are you there?"
"Don't be so nervous. Simply put, you're in the same boat as me, trapped in a time rift that doesn't belong to any particular timeline. Fortunately, your soul is quite special, so you don't have to stay in this room like me."
"I've fallen into a crack in time? When?"
"Just as you entered the Time Hall."
Sol Krock explained helplessly:
"You've already used the Time Converter, haven't you? As a time traveler, do you really think the Time Hall is just a room for storing clocks and hourglasses? Have you never considered why, even without explicit prohibition, those who possess the Time Converter cannot travel back in time a second time?"
Mo Ran's mind was racing. Without a shred of doubt about Dumbledore, he immediately guessed that the so-called "special nature of the soul" actually stemmed from his identity as a transmigrator from another world.
Is it because I don't belong to this world? No wonder I could feel subtle magical fluctuations after using the Time-Turner. But if Dumbledore intentionally brought me to the Time Hall and into the Time Rift, does that mean I have a mission more important than completing history? What exactly does he want me to do?
As he pondered, an aged voice rang in Mo Ran's ears once again.
"What I encountered was a scene where three faces were locked in eye contact. Clearly, you've come at the wrong time, and the location is poorly chosen..."
The riddles left behind by the previous Dark Lord suddenly became guiding lights. Whether it was the line—"I can't help you, Savior. Your destiny is already clearly written; how you choose is up to you"—or Professor Snape's hint—that the Ministry of Magic had come to Hogwarts at the end of May after the school holidays to inquire about some things, all pointed to Moran and Grindelwald's second meeting.
What is the current date?
"How would I know..."
After answering a barrage of questions, Saul Crocker became visibly impatient. He rolled up his sleeves, examined the numerous watch faces on his arm, moved to a corner piled with grandfather clocks, pulled out a pocket watch, adjusted it, and then tossed it directly at Mo Ran, saying:
"This pocket watch is like your compass. After you leave the Time Hall, it will be the only thing that can guide you through the time gaps."
"What do you mean? Don't tell me..."
"What am I telling you? You've already entered the time rift, and you still expect time to be linear? You really don't know how lucky you are. Do you know how long I had to wander around this room just to remember when you came to the Time Hall?"
Mo Ran looked down at the pocket watch he had just received, and found the small markings on the dial that displayed the year, month, and day, in addition to the hands that normally showed the time. Then he said:
"But no matter what, you've worked in the Time Hall for so long, you must have made some research progress, right?"
Sol Krock was amused and scratched his messy hair. Then, as if suddenly remembering something, he pointed at Mo Ran and cursed:
"Progress? Nonsense! You think I've been doing nothing all these years... Wait a minute... I remember now, you used a soul-stealing curse on me, you little brat! Do you know how long it took me to recover?"
Faced with the sudden reprimand, Mo Ran, knowing he was in the wrong, lost all interest in continuing the conversation with Saul Krock. He slightly raised his arm, making a gesture of surrender, and was about to leave through the door behind him, unaware that this action only made Saul Krock even angrier.
"You're truly hopeless!"
He walked up to Mo Ran, shouting, and pointed to the door hidden behind the crystal dome, which resembled a grandfather clock, saying:
“Go that way, straight to the Hall of Prophecy! Whether you can hear the voices or not, just take a prophecy ball from the shelf based on your intuition.”
"and then?"
"Then figure out how to leave on your own! How many years has it been since I stepped out of this room? Besides, if you really need me to give you hints, I should be able to see what you told me in the future in the Pensieve, instead of just remembering something as trivial as the Department of Mysteries losing a prophecy orb."
Perhaps due to his prolonged time spent in the cracks of time, Saul Crook's mental state became extremely unstable. No matter how astonishing the intelligence, when it came out of his mouth, it was as if it had been leaked unintentionally. It was as if these secrets were nothing important, just some trivial matters mentioned in casual conversation.
Mo Ran knew that now was not the time to dwell on these trivial details, so he stopped wasting words with Saul Crook. But as he passed through the door leading to the Hall of Prophecy, he was immediately struck by an unusual sense of tranquility.
The whole world seemed to freeze at that moment, with only his own breathing clearly audible.
"This is far too quiet..."
Mo Ran habitually spoke to Harry in his mind. But this time, the only response was the same silent stillness as the Hall of Prophecy. Feeling his body slowly enveloped by a cold aura, a belated yet complex sadness suddenly welled up in his heart.
Having Harry Potter's body and taking his place as the protagonist to live in this world is a common plot in most time-travel novels.
Mo Ran couldn't deny that during the initial period after arriving in the magical world, he had considered whether or not to try to possess Harry.
However, whether based on Harry's inherent kindness or the resonance they developed after experiencing a life of abuse together, Mo Ran has now given up on the path of becoming a villainous big bad.
"Perhaps, by replacing Harry and leveraging my familiarity with the movie plot, I could live an incredibly exciting and carefree life. But then..."
"And haven't I also chosen a simpler path, only to find myself going in the opposite direction from what is right?"
With that in mind, Mo Ran no longer hesitated. Looking at the Prophecy Hall, which had the highest ceiling of all the rooms in the Department of Mysteries, he casually picked up a prophecy orb from the tall shelf and released a silent black mist.
With a "snap," the figure in the black robe reappeared atop the tower of Neumungade Prison in Austria.
......
"I thought I'd never see you again in my life..."
“I think we all know that I didn’t come here for you.”
Grindelwald and Dumbledore's voices seemed to echo from a deep valley, but as Dumbledore had said, he had not come to Newmontgard today to see Grindelwald.
Good evening...
Hearing Dumbledore's greeting, Mo Ran also said softly:
Good evening, Principal.