Chapter 469
: Khalil's Timeline
Chapter 469: Khalil's Time Travel
Although the Time-Turner in Hermione's hands was undoubtedly easier to use, Khalil had not considered this before.
Perhaps it was because Hermione was always isolated by most of her classmates in Gryffindor, which made him feel that they had a similar problem;
Perhaps it was out of jealousy and resentment towards Vader, and the fact that his original goal when he entered Hogwarts was Vader, and even though his purpose changed later, he did not want to change his target.
But at this moment, he had no better choice, and a little sympathy and kindness seemed redundant.
When the Auror looked at the students in amusement, Khalil greeted them calmly, "Hermione, you didn't go to Hogsmeade today?"
"I wanted to go, but I still have two books to finish."
Hermione said dejectedly with dark circles under her eyes. She looked curiously at the tall adult wizard next to Khalil, and cast a puzzled look at her classmates.
"I heard that you invited Wade to your home. Why are you back so early?"
"Something happened." Caryl said vaguely, revealing a sad and painful look, and lowered his head and said: "I... I'm leaving Hogwarts, and now I have to go to the dormitory to pack my things..."
He made it sound like he had chosen to drop out of school. The Auror glanced at the young criminal, then at the girl opposite who was obviously a good kid, and was kind enough not to expose him.
Hermione asked with concern, "What's going on? Are you having any trouble?"
Khalil shook his head and refused to say more. He pleaded in a fragile manner, "Can you do me a favor, Hermione? Parvati borrowed a book from me. She must have left it in the dormitory. Can you help me find it? From now on... I won't have a chance to go back to school again."
"Of course, what book?" Hermione said simply. She threw her bag behind her back, cleaned the ink spot on her clothes with her wand, turned around and walked towards the common room with Caryl.
"It's a book about time travel called "The End of Eternity". Have you read it?" Caryl mentioned a book casually.
"Oh, of course, it's Asimov's. I read it when I was seven," said Hermione. "But I don't see that Parvati has the book?"
"Maybe she put it away. You might need to help me find it..."
"no problem."
Auror: "..."
Aren't we supposed to take the souvenirs left by our parents? Will we lend them to others?
On second thought, maybe he just wanted to spend more time with the girl he liked... and he only had this one chance to pack his luggage, so it was understandable that he wanted to take all his things with him.
The Auror kept his mouth shut and followed the two in silence.
When we reached the Gryffindor entrance, the fat lady in a pink dress asked, "Password?"
"The Lion's Roar," said Hermione.
The portrait opens.
The entrance to the Gryffindor Common Room was a hole behind the portrait, and it wasn't very spacious. Caryl naturally stepped back and let Hermione in first, then climbed in himself.
The last Auror was about to get in when the portrait suddenly closed.
"You are not a Gryffindor student." The Fat Lady narrowed her eyes and asked condescendingly, "What do you want to do in there?"
"I'm an Auror from the Ministry of Magic. I'm responsible for guarding the kid just now..." The Auror was halfway through his speech when he suddenly realized that he was actually explaining to a painting. He patted his forehead helplessly and said, "The password is Lion's Roar, right? Please open the door."
"Okay, the password is correct." The fat lady said angrily.
She opened the portrait slowly and the Auror hurriedly climbed in. There were several junior students in the common room. They hurriedly stood up from the sofa and looked at this strange adult wizard in surprise.
When the Auror didn't see Khalil at first glance, his heart skipped a beat and he felt something was wrong. Then, he saw the brown-haired girl sitting in the armchair, leaning on the table as if she was asleep, and his face turned pale instantly.
……
a minute ago.
Carlile, who crawled through the doorway, had a lower sight line than Hermione, and he saw the wand that Hermione casually put into her pocket at a glance.
Like most wizard robes, the side of the Hogwarts robe has a long and narrow pocket that can easily fit a wand more than ten inches long.
Students studying in school generally do not have the concept that "magic wands need to be protected."
Khalil, who had learned all sorts of tricks during his training, reached out quickly and stole Hermione's wand without her noticing.
Hermione was still walking forward: "I remember Parvati exchanged the Book of Friends with Harry. I asked him to help you find out where Parvati put the book..."
"Sorry, Hermione."
In the back, Khalil pointed his wand at the girl's back and whispered, "Stupe!"
Hermione fell to the ground without a word, and was promptly helped to the armchair by Caryl. He reached out and took off the long-coveted golden chain from the girl's neck.
When Khalil put the time-changer around his neck, he was so excited that his whole body was shaking slightly. He saw the closed door opening little by little, and immediately followed Hermione's example without hesitation and turned the golden hourglass.
He spun twice.
Time went back rapidly, and in an instant, Khalil returned to two hours ago.
At this time, all the students who were going to Hogsmeade had already left the school. The lower grade students had not yet gotten up, and the lounge was empty.
Without hesitation, Khalil hurried up the stairs, entered the boys' dormitory, and searched Harry's locker and the box under his bed.
He quickly got what he needed - the Invisibility Cloak and the Firebolt.
Caryl had heard about Harry's invisibility cloak many times from their adventure stories, but after actually putting it on, he found that it was not as useful as he had imagined.
His figure did disappear completely from the air, but his voice and his smell were not blocked.
If there were only sounds but no human figures, it might be easier for some people in the castle to become suspicious.
Like Dumbledore...like the house-elves.
Khalil folded the invisibility cloak and stuffed it into his schoolbag, then found an old bed sheet to wrap the Firebolt. If it was just a broom, it would not be so conspicuous.
He picked up his things and went out through the door, praying that Dumbledore would not notice him as he strode quickly along the corridor.
Suddenly, he felt a strange cool breeze behind him, which made his scalp numb. Khalil shuddered all over and jumped up in fright, unconsciously showing his two fangs.
When he turned around, he found that it was Peeves who was blowing air on the back of his neck. The mischievous guy was so happy when he saw Khalil's reaction that he held his belly and laughed.
After his violent heartbeat calmed down a little, Khalil thought of the previous scene, narrowed his eyes slightly, and asked: "Peeves, are you satisfied with such a simple prank?"
Peeves' smile disappeared. He looked at Khalil and asked unhappily, "What do you mean? You want to try a more powerful method of mine?"
"No, that's not it." Caryl showed a cunning smile like Peeves and said, "I have a big plan that will definitely make the school a mess and even give Dumbledore a headache. Do you want to participate?"
"Haha, what kind of prank can fool Dumbledore? Okay, okay, I want to participate!" Peeves said happily: "What do you plan?"
Khalil's heart was pounding. He lowered his voice and said, "It won't work if I tell you. You just need to do me a small favor... In two hours, at this place, help me lead Professor McGonagall away..."
Peeves liked to see destruction and people's annoyance. After a while, he skipped away with the mission entrusted by Caril. Caril looked at the back of this strange ghost and felt the power of time clearly for the first time.
It was as if everything he was doing at this moment was to facilitate the reality two hours later.
If he went back to the time when Baird came to deceive his parents, or went back to the time when the family went to the airport, and tried to change all the tragedies...how much impact would that have on the future?
Can he really let his parents live in peace as he wishes?
Khalil bit his lips hard until he could taste blood. He walked unconsciously, but his feet still took him to his destination.
Filch had just returned from outside the castle. After patrolling around and driving out several couples who were intimate in secluded corners, he also gave two students a punishment of cleaning the place. Only then did he feel satisfied and prepared to return to his office to have a good rest.
Mrs. Norris followed her master with her tail erect. She first spotted Caryl, who was pacing back and forth by the door, and meowed to alert Filch.
"Caryl Johnson?" Filch asked, narrowing his eyes and looking at him maliciously. "What are you doing here?"
He glanced at his door, worried that the Gryffindor or one of his friends had gotten in and done something bad.
"It's like this, Mr. Filch." Carlyle walked over quickly with an anxious look and said, "I just saw a few Slytherin boys...they...they forced a junior girl into the toilet..."
"What?" Filch's eyes widened in shock. His breathing suddenly became rapid. He clenched his fists and shouted angrily, "Who are those brats? Where are they?"
"Crabbe, Goyle, Montague... and Flint..." Caryl made up a few unpopular student names and said, "It's in the dungeon, near the potion room... but I also heard them say it would be safer to change it to the common room..."
Filch threw away his cane and ran away, muttering angrily, "How many years! Such a terrible incident hasn't happened in this school for how many years! I must hang these brats up and beat them severely! Expel them all from school!"
Caryl hurried after him, raising his voice and suggesting, "Mr. Filch... Mr. Filch... do you think it would be better to report to Professor Snape first..."
Filch paused, his face changed slightly, and after thinking for a moment he nodded reluctantly: "You're right!"
Filch really wanted to catch those students himself, but he knew very well that, firstly, he could not enter the Slytherin common room, and secondly, if the students were really pissed off, he, who had no magic, would not be able to defeat those little vipers.
He turned around and rushed towards the Potions professor's office.
Caryl slowed down his pace a little. After he had put some distance between himself and the student, he stopped and hid in the corner, watching Filch bang open the door of Professor Snape's office.
Soon, the two rushed to the toilet that Khalil mentioned. The Potions Professor's black wizard robe spread out, looking like a cloud of death.
Khalil let out a long breath, thinking that even if he was not caught by the Aurors this time, he would not be able to go back to school.
The slight regret in his heart was wiped away like dust, and Caryl rushed into Snape's office quickly, rummaging through the drawers and cabinets to search for it.
Boomslang skin, unicorn tail hair, dragon blood, mandrake root, basilisk scales, basilisk fangs, phoenix feathers...
Snape's collection contained many very precious potion materials and many finished potions. Caryl searched through the shelves and finally saw what he was looking for.
A small bottle of Polyjuice Potion.
He grabbed the crystal bottle and rushed out of the office, his steps so fast that it seemed as if he was racing with someone.
Fortunately, Snape and Filch believed his lies and went to search the Slytherin common room, and did not return to look for him.
There were few students in the corridor, so Khalil rushed into an empty classroom nearby and twisted the hourglass without stopping.
Time went backwards for another hour.
At this time, Filch was checking the students going to Hogsmeade at the school gate to see if anyone wanted to take the opportunity to slip out. On the grass outside the castle, many students were walking out in groups.
Khalil stood at the window and even saw himself and Wade from a distance.
He was silent for a moment, then went into a secret passage near the kitchen.
He learned about this secret passage from the Weasley twins. It was said that Filch also knew the entrance and exit, so even the Weasley twins, who were brave enough, would not use it.
This is exactly what Khalil wanted.
After entering the secret passage, Caryl was slightly relieved. He put on Harry's invisibility cloak, rode on the broom, and left the school as quickly as possible along the narrow passage. After getting out of the passage, he found that the exit was behind the Three Broomsticks.
He turned the hourglass twice again.
Added together, the reversal time has reached five hours, which is the critical value for the safe use of the time converter.
Hogsmeade was still shrouded in a light mist in the early morning. It was quiet everywhere except for a few windows with dim lights on.
Khalil cast a directional spell, rode on the broom, and increased the speed of the Firebolt to its maximum in a very short time.
The sky was vast, but the city he wanted to go to was in two places.
Before leaving England, his home was in Bristol.
After leaving England…my father disappeared, but my mother was later sent to a nursing home in Carlisle.
At the speed of the Firebolt, it could take him to any of the cities in two hours at the shortest and four and a half hours at the longest.
Khalil let the broom fly - the two cities were in almost the same direction for him at the moment - while he struggled in his heart, knowing that he had to make a choice.
Should I seize that extremely slim chance and save both my parents... or choose the one with a greater possibility and at least let my mother survive?
The boy's hand holding the magic wand kept shaking, and his eyes were wandering, sometimes looking at the clouds, sometimes looking at the distant ground below, as if trying to find an answer that did not exist.
Lines of cold words from the book flashed through his mind.
[Time-Turners cannot be used to change known history. Attempting to change history will lead to unforeseen consequences.]
[A long period of rewinding can cause the user to die... and even cause the timeline to collapse... Five hours is the longest time allowed for rewinding...]
As the broom approached Carlisle, its speed gradually slowed down, and Carlisle knew that his intuition had helped him make the choice.
He lowered his broom, parked it outside the sanatorium, and walked straight in.
With the invisibility cloak, the staff and patients of the nursing home did not notice the intruder. Khalil flipped through the patient and death registers, and when he saw the haggard and weak woman in a photo, tears fell.
This was indeed his mother.
He took a deep breath and tapped the time converter with his wand. The hourglass began to spin in circles, faster and faster, until it almost became an afterimage.
Everything around him turned into a blurry and brilliant stripe, and Khalil himself seemed to be the only reality among them. He closed his eyes and did not look at it for long until the rotation of the hourglass gradually slowed down and he heard the sound of someone talking nearby, then he opened his eyes.
A doctor walked past Khalil, flipping through medical records and talking to a nurse in a white uniform.
The young man walked through the long corridor, looking through the windows one by one, and finally saw the thin and haggard figure.
The woman was lying on the hospital bed, sleeping, her eyes closed but her eyeballs still moving restlessly. Her once plump and round cheeks had shriveled up, her arms were as thin as dry firewood, the traces of destruction inflicted by fate were clearly visible.
Khalil held onto the door frame, his lips trembling, his throat choked with sobs, he was unable to utter the word "Mom", tears falling silently.
(End of this chapter)