Chapter 105: Jumping Back In Time
If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patreón @
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The link is also in the synopsis.
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[The chapter is edited by my Editor: Alan_Loo/AlanL]
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"Excellent," smiled Quinn. The tough and first part of the problem was done. Now he only needed to get the straightforward part over with. "I have done some research with the Time-Turner, but you are the authority here; tell me, how should we do this?"
Hermione Granger was anything but uncertain. When she decided to do something, she went forward with composure, focus, and without second-guessing her decisions. Now that she had agreed to Quinn's demands, her previous hesitations were put aside.
She put her hand inside her shirt and pulled out a sparkling necklace that had an hourglass with blue sand.
"Oh, that is shiny," commented Quinn. Now that the difficult part was over, he was much relaxed, so carefree comments flowed out.
Ivy and Hermione looked up from the Time-Turner and saw that Quinn was closely observing the Time-Turner with a smile on his face.
"Time-Turners that are issued by the Ministry of Magic have an Hour-Reversal Charm placed onto them. They had a limit of traveling back a maximum of five hours, which is the determined safety limit to the person and the fabrics of time itself," explained Hermione before asking Quinn a question. "So, how long do you need to go in time, because if it is more than five hours, then we are already over before we start."
Quinn knew that because of his knowledge, and that was why he had hurried to call Hermione. If there wasn't a time limit, Quinn would have waited till he was fully recovered.
"I want to go a little under three hours back in time."
"I see, then it's fine. This Time-Turner turns back time in hours, meaning that we will go back three hours in time," nodded Hermione.
"Next, we need a place where we can't be seen. Somewhere we won't be disturbed. We need to find a place that has been empty for the last five hours," conveyed Hermione, another rule about Time-Turners. "Professor McGonagall has given me a key to one of the deserted and unused classrooms that I use when jumping back in time. "
Quinn pointed his hand towards the office as he said, "I knew that, so I have taken measures to ensure that we won't be disturbed in here. No one will be coming here today. I will lock the door, and just to be extra careful, we will start here." Quinn pointed at the workshop as he finished.
Ivy and Hermione looked at the workshop door and noticed that the door was different. Especially Ivy, who noticed that the new door looked much sturdier than before.
"Yes, the door is new. I had to make another one after our previous altercation. You won't be able to break it as easily as you did before," chuckled Quinn as he read their thoughts from their expressions.
The two girls twitched after hearing Quinn's remark. Hermione retrieved her eyes from the red door and nodded. "This will do. Now, before we go back, where are we going?"
"We will be going to the woods near the Hogsmeade station, near the lakeside. As I told you, my actions are going to be extremely isolated, and the location is the reason for that isolation."
"What are you going to do?"
Quinn shook his head and spoke, "I will tell you after we make the jump and reach the woods."
Ivy narrowed her eyes at Quinn's refusal to tell the details, but because Hermione didn't say anything, she kept quiet.
"... Well, let's get this over with," sighed Hermione, while guessing that asking Quinn again would be a waste of time and effort. The boy in front of her always had a shroud of mystery around him, and she didn't think that the shroud would come off today.
"Good, follow me so we can get started," said Quinn as he stood up from his barstool. He took out his fake wand and pointed it at the office door, melding the door and frame together.
The two Gryffindor girls stood up and followed after Quinn as he pushed open the red workshop door. Quinn closed the door after everyone was inside.
Last time, when Ivy was in the workshop, it was dark because she didn't know how to turn on the lights, but this time with Quinn with them, the workshop was brightly lit, and everything was clearly visible for them to see.
Hermione and Ivy watched with wide eyes, taking in the things that they could see. There was so much stuff in the room that the variety stunned Ivy and Hermione.
"Ms. Granger, let's get going. I would like to get started quickly, so we can get this over with quickly," spoke Quinn to the girls, who were occupied looking around.
"... Yes. Come closer to me," said Hermione as she pulled on the chain of the necklace with the Time-Turner. Then, the chain expanded. It actually kept on expanding until its length satisfied Hermione. "Get under the chain such that it is surrounding all three of us."
Ivy and Quinn walked closer and lifted the chains over their heads to walk inside the circle. The redhead girl and black-haired boy looked at each other with their vivid-green and stone-grey eyes as they stood in close proximity.
Quinn slightly smiled as he looked down towards the shorter girl while Ivy stared up with a stern, non-nonsense face.
"You look like Daphne, right now," commented Quinn suddenly and smiled when Ivy's face twitched. His objective had been fulfilled.
Hermione looked at the two and cleared her throat, and asked. "Are you sure? Three hours?"
"Yes, three hours will do. We'll be back here by the end of these three hours." He looked at Hermione and added, "We should hurry because three people just entered the office." Quinn pointed at the glass wall.
Hermione's eyes widened as she immediately understood what Quinn meant by his word. The three people that entered the office were the ones from the future.
She immediately turned the hourglass timepiece thrice, triggering the Time-Turner and slipping through the sands of times.
The bright workshop dissolved. Quinn had the sensation that he was flying very fast, backward. A blur of colors and shapes rushed past him; his ears were pounding; he kept calm and observed the phenomenon through all his senses.
And then he felt solid ground beneath his feet, and everything came into focus again. Quinn stood next to Hermione and Ivy inside the dark workshop. There was no light because there weren't any windows, and the rune lights were not turned on.
Quinn turned his neck slightly to adjust the chain of the hourglass-timepiece cutting into his neck.
"We've gone back in time," Hermione whispered, lifting the chain off and looking at Ivy and Quinn's figures appeared in the darkness. "We went three hours back..."
"Excellent. Let's get going. It will take longer than usual for us to get to the woods," said Quinn as he walked towards the workshop door.
"Huh, what do you -" Ivy asked what Quinn was talking about when she noticed a clearly visible limp in Quinn's stride that was previously missing. "Why are you limping?"
Quinn opened the workshop door and turned his face back to look at Ivy to state in a voice that made it seem that he was saying something obvious: "I am injured."
"The limp wasn't there before we jumped back in time," chimed Hermione as she looked at Quinn's feet.
"I was being careful, but now that we are here, I can tell you," said Quinn as he entered the office. The girls followed as his voice became faint. "I got injured, and we are going to make it so that I don't get injured further."
Ivy and Hermione looked at each other and followed, who kept walking with the limp in his step.
"You got injured in the woods?" questioned Ivy, trying to get information from Quinn.
"Kind of. Yeah, I got injured near the woods," said Quinn as the three exited the office and the door locked itself.
Ivy watched as Quinn looked around the corridor with an uncomfortable expression.
"What happened?"
Quinn briefly glanced at Ivy before going back to look at the corridor. "We have to make sure that we aren't seen. We aren't part of this time till the three hours pass: we don't belong to this time just yet. So, I would like to not be seen until the time after we return to the office after three hours."
To make sure that this entire operation remained isolated and contained as much as possible, Quinn wanted that three of them to not be seen.
Ivy and Hermione understood Quinn's point of view. Hermione looked at Ivy, who looked at her, and the two best friends talked with their eyes behind Quinn's back. After a few seconds, Ivy sighed and nodded.
"I have the Marauder's Map on me. We can use that," said Ivy looking at Quinn's back, who turned to face Ivy and locked eyes with her.
"Really? Finally, some luck. Then let's use the map. It will make our job much easier. I guess your tagging along is paying off."
The map alternated between the Potter siblings every day, and it turned out that today was Ivy's turn. She took out the map from her robes and activated the original inspiration for Recon with the secret phrase.
"I solemnly swear I am up to no good."
The ink appeared on the old parchment as Ivy unfolded the map and manually looked for their position.
'My Recon has a voice-activated, auto-locator,' thought Quinn proudly.
Ivy found their position, and as she did, Quinn noticed that the map only showed Hermione and Ivy; Quinn was missing from the map.
"It seems I'm still not traceable with the map," smiled Quinn as he looked at the map. "That makes me happy."
"... We tried to fix it, but it didn't work," spat Ivy as he lightly glared at Quinn.
"That makes me happier," laughed Quinn at her tone.
"Let's talk about this later," reminded Hermione, who was the only one experienced with time travel. She had gotten used to managing time, and her two companions were wasting precious time.
"Ah, yes, we should hurry. With my limp, it will take us longer to get there," nodded Quinn before motioning Ivy to step forward. "If you would be so kind as to lead the way, pathfinder."
Ivy ignored Quinn and stepped forward to lead the way, while keeping an eye on the map to see the people in their surroundings.
Quinn, who was following Ivy, sneakily and silently cast a group Disillusionment Charm that worked on Quinn's understanding of physical illusions and light manipulation to turn the trio invisible. It was high-quality magic, and it was much better than his previous work this year as an invisible vigilante.
The fact that he had been noticed prompted Quinn to figure out a better spell that wouldn't become vulnerable while moving. The general Disillusionment charms worked on light manipulation, so Quinn upped the quality of light manipulation and beyond by adding aspects of physical illusions to provide another layer of depth to the stealth.
The three eventually made their way towards the woods, taking the party around three-quarters of an hour to get to the point that Quinn wanted.
"Alright, we are here. We are going to make camp here and wait till the event starts," informed Quinn.
He took out his fake wand for show and transmuted the ground to rise up to form three plateaus before transforming them into stone.
Quinn plopped himself down on one of the flat stones and gestured to the girls to take their seats as well.
Ivy and Hermione looked to their surroundings and saw that they were barely inside the woods, which had the Great lake on one side and the Hogsmeade station on the other.
From the way Quinn was sitting, they could deduce that whatever was about to happen was going to happen at the Great Lake's side.
After the two finally sat down on the transfigured stones, Quinn spoke up, "We have time before I have to start working, so to pass the time, I would like to make some things clear."
Ivy and Hermione glanced at each other while thinking that Quinn was about to tell them what was about to happen, but what followed differed completely from what happened.
"First, Ms. Potter," addressed Quinn. He took a short pause before continuing. "You were at the wrong place at the wrong time. I was going through a bad time when you came across me. And well, you know what followed."
Ivy silently stared at Quinn with a totally expressionless face. It was clear she was using occlumency. She knew that Quinn was talking about the Polyjuice incident.
"If times had been better, even though I wouldn't have condoned your actions— I would've simply ignored you and moved along minding my own business. But the circumstances lead to what happened. And I truly and from the bottom of my heart am sorry that I threatened you and your family."
It was true; Quinn would have ignored Ivy in Daphne's form and would have walked away because of his then reluctance to get involved with the events. The sin curse had decreased those inhibitions, and he vaulted into the incident with a particular savageness.
Emotions could be peeked from behind Ivy's occlumency barrier as surprise appeared on her face. She wasn't expecting this from Quinn when he said that he wanted to pass the time.
"Next, I don't really mind you breaking into professor Snape's ingredient inventory to get the potion ingredients. To me, it just showed that you guys were resourceful. I probably would have just mail-ordered the ingredients, but I'm sure you didn't have that option."
Quinn knew he was saying that he didn't mind identity theft and breaking and entry. But the truth was that he truly didn't mind it.
Quinn was what you called a serial Legilimens, which meant that he regularly used Legilimency. Every mealtime while he was in the Great Hall, Quinn would use Legilimency to peek into the unsuspecting mind of numerous students. Tens of students had no idea that their minds were being read while they chatted and ate their meals.
In his second year, Quinn had drugged Ron Weasley to get information out of him, which was again a tremendous violation of privacy. His first meeting with Ginny Weasley had turned into a walk where he tried to go through the girl's recent life.
He had practically hacked into a computer system to get the private passwords of numerous accounts. Recon was just that as he even had the passwords to the professor's private quarters that were practically like their apartments.
So when Quinn said that he didn't mind the stuff that he had held against them, he was speaking the truth.
"... Nonetheless, I vehemently oppose you breaking into MY office. That wasn't cool at all. The reasoning that you girls based your opinion were —pardon my language— idiotic." Hermoine was about to speak, but Quinn stopped her and continued, "I know what I am saying is highly hypocritical, but the truth of the matter is that I am somewhat of a hypocrite."
Another example of Quinn's hypocrisy was his thoughts about the Lockhart incident. He felt that Lockhart got his punishment but didn't like the fact that it had come from himself: Quinn would have been fine if it came from anyone else than him. And that was classic hypocritical behavior.
When Quinn stopped and Hermione said what she was planning to say, "You know that what you said makes things worse."
"I know, but the thing is, what I said is the honest truth. The only reason I am telling you guys this is because, at that time, I was going through a tough time, and telling you guys just lets me get a load off my chest."
Hermione Granger and Ivy Potter stared at Quinn, who had an honest smile on his face. Both of them knew what Quinn said was in some ways a lot worse, but the tone and delivery of his words made them confused if they should take it positively or negatively.
"If you are sorry, then why did you call us to repay?" asked Ivy. She had dropped her occlumency.
"Hmm? I said that I didn't appreciate you breaking into my office. That thing is still pretty much entirely on the table. And while I never wanted to ask you guys to repay the debt, Ms. Granger's debt was my best option. If I had something that would help me resolve this on my own, then I wouldn't have given her a single second of thought."
Quinn shrugged and referenced. "I praised you guys for being resourceful because I like to think I am resourceful as well. This was just me being resourceful. So no hard feelings, alright."
Quinn was now done with what he wanted to tell them. He had said everything he wanted to say; he had apologized for threatening the Potter family, about staining James Potter's reputation, getting them expelled, among other things.
He didn't mean any of those things, and those kinds of threats would only be true if they had done something that Quinn couldn't reverse or get out of easily. Because even though his grandfather and Lia would support him and he would inadvertently gain the support of the Dark Faction, the whole spiel would be a tremendous pain in the ass for Quinn.
The party of three sat in silence, with Quinn monitoring the lakeshore while Ivy and Hermione contemplated the words that Quinn had spoken to them.
After half an hour, Quinn suddenly stood up from his stone and garnered the attention of his companions.
"It is time," said Quinn as he stared at the lakeshore.
Quinn's abrupt stand surprised Ivy and Hermione, who were sitting silently for the past half hour. They followed his eyesight, and their eyes widened in shock when they saw a heavily injured Quinn West come out of the lake.
They were sitting at a distance, but even from there, both could clearly see the wounds on Quinn's body. The gashes on his body were deep and broad, and only their distance from the 'past' Quinn dissociated them from the gory scene.
"W-What happened to you?!" exclaimed Ivy as she removed her eyes from the 'past' Quinn to their companion, Quinn.
"... I got injured and am currently in the process of healing myself," replied Quinn, who had his eyes fixed on his 'past' self.
"Should we help you out? What should we do? You should've told us about this earlier!" rapid-fired Hermione as she frantically looked back and forth from both Quinns.
Quinn raised his arm to motion them to calm down. "You two don't have to do anything. Please remember that you are only here to keep an eye on me. You two simply need to stay put. I will take care of everything."
Hermione and Ivy had stood up from their seats and were now looking at the 'past' Quinn.
Both waited for Quinn to do something, but he just stood still and kept on staring at his past self.
"Why aren't you doing something?! You are going to die," exclaimed Ivy, anxiously looking at the injured 'past' Quinn. With every second that Quinn didn't respond, she grew more uneasy, and after some time, she couldn't hold it back anymore. "You are mad! I'm going to help him. He is going to die!" And stepped forward, fully intending to help the 'past' Quinn.
Quinn glanced at Ivy and sighed. With a slight twitch of his finger, a white dome force field appeared around Ivy, causing her to halt within the confines of the magic.
There was a sudden and sharp jump in tension between the group. Ivy threw a wary look at the dome around as she took out her wand. Hermione, who was still standing near her stone, also took out her wand in apprehension.
"Ms. Potter, nothing will happen to him. He will not die from his wounds. The fact that I am standing here is proof that he will come out of this alive," spoke Quinn, attempting to pacify Ivy as he threw a glance towards Hermione. "He is currently healing his wounds. I'm proficient in healing wounds. I'd like you to calm down. I assure you that he won't die."
Neither Ivy nor Hermione at this point knew how time worked, so it wasn't unusual that they would be stimulated by the sight of a badly cut-up person.
'People with lawful-good alignments can be a hassle sometimes,' thought Quinn. But he was a little surprised: even after what had happened between them, Ivy would readily try to save him...
The force field around Ivy disappeared, freeing her from the confines.
"And please try to remain quiet. I had to cast a silencing ward around us to stop the voice from reaching him. We need to complete this stealthily," instructed Quinn before going back to observing his past self.
Hermione gingerly walked to Ivy and stood by her friend. "Did you notice him casting a ward? Because I didn't."
Ivy shook her head in response, her eyes locked on Quinn, who didn't look worried at all. "Do you have any idea what is happening? Why isn't he doing anything? Didn't he say that he wanted to reduce his injuries? Why isn't he helping his past self?"
"I don't kno -" started Hermione, but her voice came to an abrupt stop.
Ivy watched as Hermione's face took an expression of horrified shock.
"... What?" spoke Ivy and turned towards where Hermione was looking and saw the thing that had Hermione stuck in frightening shock.
A flying tornado of dark cloaks descended from the dark evening sky. Hundreds of gliding wraiths gathered above the 'past' Quinn, circling in the sky as some of them silently flew down towards the injured boy.
The hundreds of creatures had a grim effect on the surroundings as Ivy and Hermione felt the temperature drop around them.
"It's time." They heard Quinn speak as he calmly looked at the hundreds of hooded-cloaks nearing his past self.
"The Dementors are here."
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Quinn West - MC - I am a hypocrite of a high-order.
Ivy Potter - Pathfinder - Lawful Good
Hermione Granger - Tensed - What is happening?!
FictionOnlyReader - Author - Alright, Dementors, 3..2..1. Go! Go! Go!
AlanL - Editor - This is getting interesting… (^_^)
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Chapter 106: Dementor Horde, Time Magic, Free Will
If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patreón @
[ https://www.patreón.com/fictiononlyreader ]
The link is also in the synopsis.
.
[The chapter is edited by my Editor: Alan_Loo/AlanL]
.
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"The dementors are here."
Quinn, Ivy, and Hermione watched a horde of more than a hundred Dementors descend upon the injured 'past' Quinn.
Ivy's eyes went back and forth between Quinn and the scene near the lakeside. She stood frozen, troubled by the scene; every second, her nervousness and impatience grew stronger.
She turned to Quinn and outright screamed. "What in the world are you waiting for?! Do something! You are going to die!" She knew that Quinn could cast a Patronus, as Hermione had told her about Quinn's Patronus demonstration in McGonagall's office.
"... It isn't time yet. He has to say it for me to move. I need his permission to act. Without it, I'm not going to act," declared Quinn, still staring at his past self with unblinking eyes.
"What? What?! WHAT?!" thundered Ivy as she incredulously gawked at Quinn. She couldn't understand what was going on in Quinn's mind.
It was then that the 'past' Quinn spoke some words that were audible to the group.
"Do it! Ask for it. And hurry! We don't have much time!"
Ivy, who was thundering at Quinn, went silent. "What did he say?" she asked.
"He said, 'Do it. Ask for it. And hurry. We don't much time.'" Hermione repeated the words said by 'past' Quinn and glanced at Quinn, who had finally raised his fake wand.
"Not the most accurate wording. I already asked and am already here. But I will let it slide since you're injured," chuckled Quinn, and immediately after, a silver glow of light burst out his fake wand.
Ivy and Hermione had seen Quinn's Patronus during the train ride to Hogwarts, and at that time, they were only able to identify it as a bird, but this time, they clearly saw the form of Quinn's Patronus.
"A Raven," muttered Hermione, watching the silver bird fly towards the 'past' Quinn.
Previously, they were stunned because of Quinn's lack of action. But now they were astonished as they gawked at the small-sized bird growing into an elephant-sized raptor, who chased away the horde of Dementors that numbered greater than a hundred.
'I'm still injured,' sighed Quinn internally as he looked at the elephant-sized Raven Patronus. 'If I wasn't injured, I could have ramped it up to the size of a giant.'
After the Raven Patronus chased away the Dementors, Quinn made it fly around his past self for protection.
"It's done. Now, we have to wait for him to get up and go to the office," sighed Quinn as he plopped back down on his stone.
The two girls turned their heads from the guardian Patronus to Quinn. Their eyes widened another fraction after they saw a paler than before Quinn.
Quinn took out the dull, dark red, muscle-protein nutrient potion vial from his pocket and gulped it down to replenish his body with another dose.
"Sit down; he will take some time to heal himself and go back to the castle," called out Quinn to the stunned girls.
"... What did you just drink?" questioned Ivy, eying Quinn's hand, which pocketed the empty vial.
Quinn briefly pulled up his left sleeve in response to show the girls a laceration, and inside the wound, they saw the muscle fibers constantly twitching.
The wound was covered quickly, after which Quinn explained. "I'm still not healed. What is happening to him happened to me a few hours ago. I couldn't heal the wounds of this level in the time I had."
'On that note, I need to prepare some dittany to make sure that these don't scar,' thought Quinn. Quinn was still relatively new to Healing magic, and even though he was miles better than the people who had studied with the time he had, Quinn still couldn't heal the wounds of this level without leaving scars.
Hermione walked back to her stone, and after sitting down, asked, "Can you please tell me what is going on? I need to understand what is happening."
Ivy had also sat down and was looking at Quinn with a look that asked the same question.
"Alright, let's start with a question from my side, and this is open to both of you. What is the greatest magic of all?" asked Quinn with a smile on his face.
"Friendship?"
"Love?"
Quinn put on an off-put face as if repelled by their answer. After seeing that expression, the two girls felt embarrassed.
"What the hell is wrong with you two?"
He looked at Hermione and spoke, "Friendship?! Friendships break all the damn time. You won't even talk to most of the people you know from Hogwarts after you graduate."
Then turning to Ivy, Quinn spoke in the same incredulous tone. "If a mother and son are iced in an alleyway by a psychotic murderer, it isn't because they didn't love each other enough! That is ridiculous."
"Love is love! Magic is magic! Even if you are talking about the strongest emotion that can stimulate magic, Ms. Potter, all emotions are the same. Love is just easier to access because of how we humans perceive emotions."
"Then what is the answer?!" asked Ivy, feeling embarrassed of Quinn's expression and tone.
"Chronomancy!" exclaimed Quinn. "The Greatest magic of all is chronomancy, the magic of time itself. If a person can manipulate time, then they are invincible beyond anything. Every change in the world is in reference to time. Life and death are just states that come with time. One moment, you are alive, but the next, you can be dead. But if you control the time, you can control life and death."
"Everything can be at your fingertips with time. If you look into the future, you'll know what is to come. Nothing would ever be able to phase you because you can already see it coming. Even if you can't solve something, you have the ability to rewind time until you are successful. If you can slow, reverse, fast-forward time, then there is nothing you can't accomplish."
Quinn raised his right hand wide while keeping his left hand down to reduce movement. "And right now, we are manipulating time to our advantage." He looked at Hermione and continued, "Something Ms. Granger has been doing for the entire year."
"But with such great power comes danger equal to the advantages. Time is dangerous, complex, chaotic, and not something to be messed with without proper understanding and knowledge. You must know what you are trying to accomplish and how you want to accomplish that," said Quinn with an earnest tone, enunciating his every word so that they would be clear and intelligible.
"So you understand time? You know what you are doing?" questioned Ivy.
Quinn slightly chuckled at the questions. "Oh, no. Not at all. I don't understand time. It's too complex for me to even get into the basics. But I know what I'm doing. I know enough to pull off what I'm trying to do... or maybe not? Yeah, I'm sure I don't know enough."
Hermione and Ivy looked at each other with skepticism. Quinn's words didn't actually inspire confidence in him.
Quinn continued to explain, ignoring their expression. "I can't manipulate time with magic; the Time-Turner takes care of that. I just needed to make sure that I keep my presence as little as possible to reduce my influence on the timeline. This is why I insisted we must be hidden to the limit. No interaction with anyone after making the jump back in time makes sure that we have a minimum effect."
"Now, do any of you know of the 'closed-loop theory' or 'causal loop theory' of time?" asked Quinn.
The two girls shook their heads. They didn't know the answer.
"A causal loop is a temporal proposition in which, by means of time travel, a sequence of events is among the causes of another event, which is, in turn, among the causes of the first-mentioned event. In simpler... no, just in other words, when a future event is the cause of a past event, which in turn is the cause of the future event."
Seeing that the girls were still confused, Quinn rolled out the current situation as an example.
"Let's take this current situation as a reference and an example. I got injured, and while I healed myself, a horde of Dementors swarmed around me to prey upon my soul. In that moment of desperation, I called upon a future version of myself to help me out from this situation by protecting me with a Patronus," explained Quinn and then pointed to Hermione. "All of this was only possible because I had the knowledge and means to procure a Time-Tuner from Ms. Granger. Without her Time-turner, it wouldn't have been possible."
"Moving on, a future version of mine came back in time and helped me out, allowing me to live past this unfortunate situation -."
Quinn was cut off, and Hermione raised a doubt. "So you are saying that time works in this closed-loop theory?" It made sense because what she had been doing was like this, but from what Quinn said, time was supposed to be complex and not something as simple as this.
"Oh, no. Of course not. I wish it was something so simple. Professor McGonagall must have told you about the catastrophic events that unleash with Time-Turners," said Quinn and then gave some examples. "Killing their past or future selves by mistake or altering one's life path in such a drastic fashion that it can result in temporal anomalies such as un-births. And these scenarios are anything but closed-loops."
"Did you know? Once, the Unspeakables down in the ministry, sent back one of their people five hundred years into the past. She stayed there for five days, and when the Unspeakables finally pulled her back, she died because it turned out that if you sent some back and forth in time, they age the time they travel back. The Unspeakable aged rapidly and died because of old age. And a lot more consequences that really caused more problems."
Quinn scoffed before he pointed out the restrictions placed upon the Time-turners. "The five-hour restrictions might be due to safety reasons, but believe me when I say this, we can do substantial damage to the timeline in mere five hours."
Ivy and Hermione didn't know Quinn well enough. But after what they had seen today, both were sure that he wasn't jesting.
"Coming back to the point. What I did was create an artificial closed-loop. I created circumstances that would keep the series of events as close to the actual events. By doing this, I would reach the same place where my future self did when saving me."
This time Ivy had a question, and from the tone, the subject irked her. "Doesn't this mean that there is no free will? Once the cycle starts, you will have to follow the course that was set for you."
Quinn ever so faintly smiled and turned his gaze towards his past self. "You may be correct, Ms. Potter. This type of time travel doesn't allow free will. Once started, every Quinn West will have to follow the path of events that was set for them." He turned back to Ivy and asked. "But I did have free will in this case. The events that you saw are exactly the same as I encountered. Look back to the events and think about when my free will came into play."
Both the girls went into retrospection about the recent events. It took a couple of minutes before Ivy came up with an answer.
"When you refused to move until you heard the words from your past self. Is that the free will you are talking about?" opined Ivy, though not sure if her answer was correct or not.
"Ding dong ding~," nodded Quinn and sang as the answer was correct. "I know myself better than anyone else. So I know that in this situation, every Quinn West would use this method because all of them would think this is the best choice. But even though they know that: it is their choice, their free will to start the loop despite knowing that they would have to continue onto a path that won't give them any more free will."
"... But what if your past didn't make the same choice? What would happen then?" asked Hermione.
Quinn shook his head as he answered. "I don't know. Maybe we would have disappeared, our existence erased forever; maybe we would have stayed here and we would have two sets of Quinn West, Hermione Granger, and Ivy Potter. Most probably, the Unspeakables in the ministry would detect the disturbance in time and then hunt us down to somehow fix things up."
Quinn was sure that if the past 'himself' that was healing himself right now didn't go back in time, around the same time he traveled here, then the Unspeakables would notice some form of agitation in time.
"... And you still did this?" asked Ivy in disbelief at Quinn's decision to go through this.
"Yes, I did. I told you, didn't I, Ms. Potter? You need to know what and how you are doing things, and if you know those things, the results will turn out how you want them to be. Every step I took was to ensure that things went smoothly," declared Quinn with confidence and certainty about his preparation. "And the fact that it worked for my future self, who helped me out, shows that it is possible for me."
"But your past self still hasn't gone back to the past? What if he decides not to go back? What if Ivy and I refuse to go back with you?" questioned Hermione, as from what Quinn said, all three of them need to go back in time.
"Oh, he will go back, Ms. Granger. He knows the fact that I am here and that the Time-Turner only allows one-way travel. My past self owes me for saving him; he will repay me by exiting this time, so I can take his place," laughed Quinn merrily and looked the two girls straight in the eye. "You thought that I only placed others in my debt? Oh, no, even me, Quinn West, owes myself a debt. He will now go to another time and get another Quinn West under his debt, who will pay the debt, and the cycle will continue."
Quinn straightened up and softly smiled with superiority flashing in his eyes. "This might sound corny but, One Mountain Cannot Contain Two Tigers. There can't exist two Quinn West at the same time. There can only be one and, in this timeline, it will be me."
As much as Quinn loved himself, he wasn't on board with another one of him existing alongside him.
"Ms. Granger, tell me, why do you think I brought you both here?" quizzed Quinn.
"... I know you are expecting to give you a different answer than us trying to stop you from doing things we are uncomfortable with," presumed Hermione.
"Smart girl. Yes, I brought you two here for a reason beneficial to me. Give it a thought," smiled Quinn, curious if they would be able to figure it out.
While Hermione and Ivy thought of the answer, Quinn thought something inside his mind. 'Why am I giving them all these questions? I should just tell them the answers. Whatever, this is going well.' Quinn knew he let people ask questions to control the flow of information. But today, he was asking them questions and guiding them to the answers.
"I knew that there was a personal angle," commented Ivy, as her eyes narrowed a fraction. "But I can't figure it out. What is it?"
Quinn smiled before looking at Hermione to see if she had an answer, but the holder of Time-Turner too didn't have an answer.
Quinn thought back to the time he was thinking about stealing the Time-Turner. Even though he thought of doing that, Quinn knew that Hermione would be coming with him. Ivy coming with them was decided the moment she decided to step into the office. He wasn't going to let them stay with the knowledge of what he was doing.
"Alright then, I will tell you. The reason I proposed the idea of you two coming along with me was that I wanted to turn you two into accomplices," revealed Quinn. He wanted them to know what position they were currently in.
"I was determined to get the Time-Turner from you, Ms. Granger. And when you decided to allow the use of a ministry-restricted artifact, given to you for education purposes, for something not even closely related to education made you an accessory to a crime. But when you made the decision to accompany me, your status jumped to an accomplice."
Hermione's eyes widened because she knew that allowing Quinn to use the Time-Turner could get in her trouble. Hearing that her original reasoning of making sure Quinn didn't do damage had turned against her.
Quinn turned to Ivy and told the redhead about her contribution. "Ms. Potter, if you, on a side note, didn't accompany me, you would be, at first, what we can call an 'abettor'; someone who allowed the crime to happen, although didn't help in the crime. Now though, you turned into an accomplice by accompanying me back in time."
While Hermione's jump was from an accessory to an accomplice, Ivy's jump was wider, as she turned from an abettor to an accomplice.
The reason Quinn allowed them to come with him so readily was that he wanted to implicate them with him. So, if a time came where the two girls were feeling loose-lipped, they would remember that the secret they were about to slip could get them in trouble.
"I'm sorry if this hurts, but I had to do it. I can't allow this to get out. This is something very private to me," apologized Quinn.
Hermione's Time-Turner was the resource that had allowed him to maintain anonymity. If it wasn't an option, Quinn could potentially have to reveal the existence of the third vault.
"You were a great help, so I do feel sorry for chaining you down like this. But just as I promised at the office, this doesn't affect anyone other than me. Ms. Potter made sure that no one saw us inside the castle, and our location made sure that no one saw this event."
"... We can forget about this, and it won't matter," muttered Ivy, staring at Quinn, who nodded.
"Yes, I'm not planning to tell this to anyone, and if you don't, it will remain a secret between us three."
The three fell into silence, with none of them wanting to speak. The two girls contemplated the events that had transpired while Quinn observed them.
After some time, Quinn noticed that his past self got up. He silently cast a minor mental illusion on the two girls, so they wouldn't see him getting up from the ground and clothe himself with conjured clothes without a wand.
When his past self was done, Quinn lifted the mental illusion and alerted the girls. "He's done."
Ivy and Hermione turned their heads to see the clothed 'past' Quinn limping towards the castle.
"What's next?" asked Hermione.
"We wait for Luna to enter the office. When she leaves the office, we go to the office," responded Quinn, looking at Ivy as she possessed the Marauder's map. "I want to be in the castle the less the better before our past selves leave. Minimum footprint, minimal interference."
.
- (Scene Break) -
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Quinn, Ivy, and Hermione reached the A.I.D. office while making sure they weren't seen.
"Are they gone?" asked Hermione to Ivy, who had the Marauder's map open in front of her.
Ivy nodded to affirm that their past selves were no longer in the workshop, which prompted Quinn to limp towards the red workshop and open it to check inside, to confirm that the workshop was empty.
"They are gone," smiled Quinn, turning to the girls. "Congratulations! The mission is complete and successful."
He limped to the barstool behind his table. Quinn looked towards the girls and spoke. "If you hurry, you can still get to the feast with enough time to get a quick bite."
Hermione nodded with a sigh. She was definitely feeling both tired and hungry.
"Thank you once again. Both of you helped me out a lot, and I'm grateful for that," smiled Quinn.
Hermione looked at Ivy and was about to gesture to her best friend that they should leave, but then saw that expression on her face, and for some reason, it reminded her of the time when she asked Quinn about the information on the Basilisk after they had been blackmailed by Quinn.
'Oh, no, what is she about to do,' thought Hermione with worry, and then Ivy spoke.
"Were you the one who saved us inside the Chamber of Secrets?"
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-*-*-*-*-*-
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Quinn West - MC - "Yeah, even me owes me a debt."
Ivy Potter - Abettor to Accomplice - Next time on HP: AMJ! What answer will she get?
Hermione Granger - Accessory to Accomplice - Thinks today was more stressful than the night before an examination.
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-*-*-*-*-*-
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