บท 293: Do You Still Want It?
บรรณาธิการ: Atlas Studios
In the early hours of the morning two days later, Ivan was having breakfast in the Great Hall. He was a little confused that the time-changer he had been longing for had not been delivered to him when his first elective class was about to begin.
It was not until after breakfast that the Gryffindor Prefect, Percy, came to Ivan with a strange look on his face and told him that Dumbledore wanted him to go to the Headmaster's office.
Ivan frowned. What did Dumbledore want with him at a time like this? Ivan suddenly had a feeling that getting his hands on the Time-Turner might not be as easy as he thought.
With this thought in mind, Ivan got up and headed for the Headmaster's office. After speaking the password that Percy had given him, he went up the spiral staircase into the Headmaster's office.
The Headmaster's office looked much the same as it always did, with a large, round room and a long table in the centre of which letters were strewn about. Dumbledore was sitting in a chair, reading one of the letters.
The portraits hanging on the walls all turned to look at Ivan as he entered, looking at him curiously. Fox, who had been dozing on a branch, opened his eyes.
"Good morning, Professor Dumbledore!" Ivan said politely, then asked tentatively, "What can I do for you?"
Dumbledore's attention seemed to be fixed on the letter, and he did not notice Ivan's entrance until Ivan spoke.
Dumbledore flipped the letter over and placed it on the table, then took a copy of the class schedule and flipped it over, placing it in front of Ivan's eyes.
"Minerva gave me your class selection form last night, and I was surprised. You seem to be planning on taking all of them? Can you tell me why you're doing this?"
"It can't hurt to take another course, can it? And I think there must be a good reason why Hogwarts chooses to teach them!" Yvonne said brightly.
Dumbledore's expression was one of exasperation. "I am pleased to see you so keen on your studies, but I would like to remind you that everyone has a limited amount of time, and that many of these lessons run into each other… I hope you will learn how to choose!"
"It's not impossible, is it? Professor McGonagall didn't tell me I couldn't take all of them when she told us to," Ivan said, interrupting Dumbledore.
"You cannot stop a student from wanting knowledge!"
Dumbledore fell silent, his long fingers slowly interlocking, his blue eyes beneath his half-moon spectacles examining Ivan.
The latter did not back down. The Time-Turner was something Ivan was determined to have for the rest of the school year. It was at the heart of his plan, and he would not give it up no matter what.
Ivan also saw that Dumbledore did not seem to want him to have it…
The two sides faced off for a while, Ivan struggling to maintain Occlumency.
However, Ivan did not sense any signs of brain intrusion, either because Dumbledore's Dementor skills were too advanced for him to detect, or because Dumbledore did not use Dementor…
Dumbledore was silent for a moment, then said, "Of course, no previous Headmaster would ever restrain a student from pursuing knowledge."
Ivan breathed a slow sigh of relief. He was worried that Dumbledore would rebuff him so forcefully that he would not have another chance at the Time-Turner.
Ivan then watched as Dumbledore opened the drawer and took out a long, thin gold chain, beneath which hung a glittering timer.
Ivan's eyes were immediately drawn to it, knowing that it was what he had been longing for.
"What's that, Professor?" Yvonne asked calmly, suppressing her excitement.
"A time-changer that allows one to go back!" Dumbledore said meaningfully.
"A powerful ability, is it not?" Dumbledore asked suddenly.
Ivan nodded. Reversing time was an incredibly powerful ability, no matter where you were.
He was even able to think of a hundred ways to profit from the use of the Time-Turner, and was very successful in battle.
If calculated correctly, one could put countless oneself at the same point in time and create an army of Ivan Hals!
Of course, the most important thing for Ivan is that the Time-Turner allows him to return to a time when nothing had happened and reverse the outcome of the attack on Alicia!
Perhaps reading Ivan's mind, Dumbledore warned, "But if you use it in the hope of changing the past, you will gain nothing!"
Ivan's hopes were dashed,
Dumbledore folded his hands, his blue eyes fixed on Ivan, and continued.
"I hope you understand that the Time-Turner's powers are limited and unusually dangerous, or the Ministry would not have shelved it!"
"Some of the most impressive stories I've ever heard involved people trying to change the past…"
"He went to great lengths to obtain a powerful Time-Turner, and returned a year ago to try to put a stop to something that pained him immensely — his wife had died in a conflict!"
Dumbledore paused for a moment.
"And?" Ivan asked, frowning.
"Then the man successfully travels back in time to a year ago, where his wife died, where he waits for a drunk who tries to follow his wife. The two get into a fight, and in a fit of rage, the drunk performs a wide-ranging explosive spell…"
"His wife was killed, wasn't she?" Yvonne asked, anticipating the aftermath.
Dumbledore nodded, and told Ivan that the man had returned to his original time and told some people about it.
He deeply regretted his actions and told everyone that he would be prepared to use the Time-Turner to go back a second time and kill the drunk in advance!
"He failed the second time, too?" Yvonne wondered. Given the first experience, there shouldn't be any more problems.
"He's missing!" Dumbledore exclaimed, to Ivan's surprise.
"Half a year later, however, his body was found in a place along with a damaged Time-Turner. It was determined by some that the man had been dead for almost two years when he was found, and no one knows what he went through when he went back in time."
"Some speculate that he was killed by someone while trying to find the drunkard. Others suspect that after his second failure, he kept trying to use the Time-Turner, only to fail time and time again. Eventually, he broke down and destroyed the Time-Turner, then killed himself!"
When he finished, Dumbledore looked at Ivan expressionlessly, his blue eyes seeming to say:
Do you still want it now?
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