Chapitre 308: Conversation Between Two
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A/N:
The world of online novels (fanfiction and originals) has one "issue" that I have come to notice. Unlike traditionally published works, where you read on one book at a time, and the entire story is already written, online novels are usually "ongoing," and people are reading multiple works at any given time— such is the world of online novels, filled with so much content. But a problem arises that readers (including myself) are sometimes not able to keep all the facts retained in their minds. And from the last chapter's comments, I have noticed that is the case for MY version of time travel— it is a bit different.
So to refresh that part of the story, you can read the [ Ivy-Hermione-Quinn-Time-Travel ] mini-arc. I will link those chapters below. However, I will also try to put those facts in this chapter as part of the conversation.
**Start of last time travel mini-arc**: CHAPTER 104: Summons, Repayment, Negotiation
**But if you want to get to the good stuff**: CHAPTER 106: Dementor Horde, Time Magic, Free Will
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"Let's start from the beginning," said Quinn, tapping his finger on his armrest. "You and Damon have time-traveled past the five hours safety limit. So please, tell me you know what you were doing before you made a time-traveling apparatus that doesn't implement that limit as a restriction."
Time travel was dangerous, and traveling back extended periods could cause catastrophic disasters. The Unspeakable Departement of the British Ministry of Magic had experimented with time travel by sending one of their own back in time by several centuries. The experiment, while a hazardous failure, had taught the Unspeakables a lot about time travel— the woman sent back in time when pulled back to the present, rapidly aged the time she had been sent back (centuries), and died as her lifespan ran out— not only that, but the woman's interactions with the past had caused massive changes in the timeline. The experiment had resulted in people getting killed, others coming to life, and several others being erased from existence, a phenomenon known as unbirths. [canon]
"You have jumped back quite a few decades in the past," said Quinn to future-Quinn, "and from your behavior, you're not worried about the consequences, so I am assuming you have found to time travel without triggering those nasty side effects."
"Temporal magic or chronomancy are vast fields, my young and naive self; I can't claim to have mastered time, so all I can say is that it is a work-in-progress," future-Quinn shrugged. "And don't give me that look; you— well us— have time-traveled without knowing zilch about temporal magic."
"Your Occlumency must've degraded," said Quinn, his mood worsening, "I followed a strict set of rules and restrictions when I traveled— kept my footprint minimal, only traveled within the permitted limit, and more importantly, I made sure NOT to meet myself!
This case, on the other hand, has a person who hasn't been born yet travel to the time before their birth; you both have traveled way beyond the stable limit, and I don't need to say this, but we are meeting face-to-face."
"Way to go stating the obvious," said the future-Quinn, "yes, I know all of those facts—and obviously, if I'm not freaking out, then I have taken care of those factors."
Quinn was about to say something, but future-Quinn raised his hand and continued to speak.
"You don't have to be worried about the closed-loop nature of time travel . . ."
A closed-loop was 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 simple words, when a future event is the cause of a past event, which in turn is the cause of the future event. Time travel achieved through Time-Turners was the closed-loop type of time travel.
". . . You don't have to worry that because I time-traveled back in time, you in the future will go through this very exact situation and travel back in time," finished future-Quinn. "That's not going to happen to you."
The closed-loop time travel couldn't change past as what was going to happen was always going to happen with the time travel a part of those events. Once a Quinn West triggered closed-loop time travel, every Quinn moving on would walk down the same path. During the Dementor horde by the lakeside, Quinn was always going to be saved by a future version of Quinn— that version of events was always set in stone— such was the closed-loop theory of time travel.
"S-So, you're saying that this time travel is NOT in accordance with the closed-loop theory," said Quinn. "You really found a way to do that?"
"Of course, I did; who do you think you're talking to," said future-Quinn.
"How did you do that?"
"It would go over your little head, so there's no use of me explaining the logic behind it all."
Quinn's face twitched, and an angry vein throbbed on his temple. "Doesn't change the fact that you screwed up big time," he jabbed back.
"Yeah, that's getting old; come up with something new," said future-Quinn.
"It is clear that your son isn't capable of casting temporal magic strong enough to travel this back in time, so I'm assuming he used a device that you created."
"That is correct," sighed future-Quinn.
"So do tell me, how did he get his hands on something so dangerous," asked Quinn. He had all the dangerous stuff secured under lock-&-key-&-magic inside his briefcase. It boggled his mind that a future version of himself would be so careless.
"I know what you're thinking," said future-Quinn, eyeing Quinn. He sighed, "He got into my workshop at home and swiped it when I wasn't looking."
"That's plain stupid," said Quinn bluntly, "why didn't you have wards around your workshop."
"Because, unlike you, my workshop isn't in Hogwarts. It is in my house where I don't need to worry about people breaking in, and believe me, my house is a nightmare for people who want to intrude upon my family and my privacy. And it is not like it was completely unguarded; it has more 'top-of-the-line' protection publicly available in my time," which meant that future-Quinn had tech he hadn't released to the world.
"What good did that do when a teenager is able to beat it. Why wasn't it activated?"
Future-Quinn once again sighed, "I disable when I'm working in there because I don't like the magical interference from the wards and spells while I'm working on some very delicate and sophisticated projects. And Damon sneaked in during an emergency when I had no time to enable the protection."
"What emergency?"
"My daughter tripped and fell."
". . . What?"
"My daughter fell in the gardens and scraped her knee. I had a micro-drone with an audio-video setup following her around, so when she started crying, I had to dash to her side. I didn't return to my workshop until later that evening, and because I wasn't working on the 'Time-Turner,' I didn't notice it had gone missing."
"I-I see," said Quinn; he couldn't wrap his mind around the image. "How did Damon even know you were working on something like that?"
"Because of my track record of working on project that . . . technically . . . could be seen as dangerous, I have to tell what I'm currently working on— usually, he's at school, but he was at home when I talked about it."
Quinn didn't know if he should take this as a valid excuse or not, so he decided to move on.
"How did you know that Damon had traveled back?" asked Quinn. "I mean, you got here pretty quickly. . . ."
"When you reach a level at temporal magic as I am, you learn how to feel when there are changes in the time streams around you— I can feel the distortions as long as they're within a few dozen kilometres. And Damon was in only in his room, so the distortions when he jumped sounded like resounding bells."
"I see, so you have multiple of your versions of your Time-Turners?"
"No. I have multiple prototypes, but I only had one working, which is the one Damon picked up. I came here using temporal magic," he sighed, "which I'm still not used or experienced in— thank god, I acted quickly when the time distortions were still fresh, or else I would've not been able to track him down."
"That's a bit too much luck I'm comfortable with."
"I agree."
"So what now?" asked Quinn. "You have been saying that you have to fix things, and as this is not a closed-loop, I'm not even sure what kind of problems needs to be addressed."
"There are some that I need to address that you don't need to know."
Quinn clicked his tongue before he gazed at his future self. He had to say, he liked what he was seeing. He looked sharp and well-built, and even though he hadn't told much about himself, it looked like things had been going well for him.
"So. . . how's life?" asked Quinn.
Future-Quinn gazed at Quinn for a bit before a smile appeared on his face. "It is good," he said. "Life after . . . canon . . . have been much more than what you're living now. The world has much more to offer than what Hogwarts has, and there are so many interesting people out there to meet and learn from."
"People like Mr. Alan?"
"Yes, people like Alan. Ah, now that I remember, you're going to apprentice under him after Hogwarts."
"Yes, that is the plan. So. . . did you break into his mind?" asked Quinn.
The expression on future-Quinn's face told it all. He looked like the topic repulsed him, and talking about it was the last thing he wanted to talk about.
"You weren't able to break in?"
". . . I was able to break into his mind, sure . . . but I was too late," said future-Quinn. "He was already old when I started apprentice under him, and by the time I was able to gain enough skill, he was already on the decline— I wasn't able to compete against him at his best."
"So, Mr. Alan is . . . ."
Future-Quinn nodded, "It has been a while."
A silence descended between the two.
"Come on, let's move on," said future-Quinn, waving his hand. He looked around the AID office. "It has been a while I have been here— the last time I was in the office, it looked nothing like this."
"When were you here?"
"Hmm. . . it has been a decade, give or take. Damon's the current proprietor, and I haven't what he has done with the place," said future-Quinn.
"Really? Did he get it on his own, or did you pull some strings? I hope he didn't get AID because he's your son."
"He got it on his own. The active AID proprietors only know about me and the other older proprietors when they graduate from Hogwarts, so Damon's predecessor didn't know that I was the one who created AID. Until a few months back, even Damon also didn't know that I was the one who created AID."
"What? You didn't tell him?"
"I won't lie by saying that I didn't have expectations from Damon to get AID. So I refrained from telling him about it so it would be completely fair and made sure that neither Luna nor Astoria told him anything. It was going to be revealed to him after he graduated in the annual AID proprietors meet, but Astoria couldn't keep her mouth shut, and well, here we are."
"Luna and Astoria, huh. How are they doing? Is the blood curse still there?"
"Astoria was cured a while back before she hit thirty. As for Luna, she's a magizoologist as we thought; I visit her once a month, wherever she's exploring. Both are successful in their respective field and, as far as I can tell, happy with their lives."
"What about Eddie and Marcus? You're still friends with them, right?"
A big smile bloomed on future-Quinn's face. "They're still my best friends. Thank magic for that. Both are doing tremendously. Eddie plays for a Quidditch team owned by yours truly. Marcus did end up working for the family business, and as we expected, he works closely with Lia."
"Oh, Lia? How's she doing? Has she become the most powerful woman in the world."
"She has!" future-Quinn laughed, thoroughly amused. "I said the same thing to her when she took the chair as the head of the business. She was quite happy with that when I told it to her."
Future-Quinn took out a strange pocket watch from his pocket and flipped it open to look at a glowing and shimmering watch-face.
"Time's up, kid. We have to leave now. I have to fix this problem and don't have much time." Future-Quinn sighed, "Why did Damon have to do this today? My evening was booked with my lovely niece, and now, I don't know if I'll be able to make it."
Future-Quinn got up from his barstool, but before he could even stand up straight, Quinn spoke up.
"Hey, listen. . . ."
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Quinn West - MC(Present) - Heard some interesting things.
Quinn West - MC(Future) - Has experienced many exciting things.
Damon West - Future West - Can't hear anything because of a silencing ward.
FictionOnlyReader - Author - Hold your thoughts about the conversation. It's not over yet. The next chapter is going to be the end of this mini-arc, I think.
Edit: No, the next chapter is not the end of the arc.
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