CHAPTER 817: CHAPTER 817: TIME REPULSION

Albus Dumbledore... did he really go back a hundred years?

Kyle’s heart gave a jolt.

He had assumed Professor Viktor wanted to continue their conversation about alchemy. He hadn’t expected this to come up.

But how did he know?

Kyle was certain that on the day Dumbledore left Godric’s Hollow, it was just the two of them present. Even Bathilda had been upstairs and unaware of what happened below.

And Viktor had been all the way in France—how could he possibly know?

Kyle tightened his grip on his wand, but outwardly he remained calm and composed, his expression perfectly neutral.

"You might want to ask Professor McGonagall about that," he said smoothly. "How would I know Professor Dumbledore’s whereabouts?"

"You don’t know?" Viktor frowned.

"Of course not. I only just graduated," Kyle replied. "Besides, going back a hundred years—that sounds a bit far-fetched, doesn’t it? No existing Time-Turner is capable of that."

"Not any of the current ones," Viktor said, rubbing his forehead. "I’m talking about a Time-Turner from a thousand years ago. Strange... Nicolas clearly told me he gave it to you. Did I remember that wrong?"

"Uh... wait a second..."

Kyle blinked. "Professor Viktor, you know about that Time-Turner?"

"Of course I do. Albus approached me a long time ago to help repair something... it was that Time-Turner," Viktor said. "The magic rune formulas needed to make it work again—Nicolas and I worked those out together."

As soon as he said it, a memory surfaced. Kyle vaguely recalled Dumbledore mentioning that he would enlist the help of the most prominent alchemists to repair the Time-Turner.

It now seemed clear that alongside Nicolas Flamel, Professor Viktor had been one of them.

At that thought, Kyle felt a faint sense of relief.

If Dumbledore had personally invited him and trusted him enough to share the truth, then this professor should be reliable. Still, Kyle didn’t completely let down his guard.

"I don’t know anything about what you just said," he replied flatly.

"He didn’t come to you for the Time-Turner?" Viktor looked surprised.

"No," Kyle said with a shake of his head, opting to keep the truth hidden.

The more people who knew Dumbledore was no longer around, the greater the risk of exposure. In the current situation, Kyle couldn’t afford to take that chance—not even with someone as seemingly trustworthy as Viktor.

He hadn’t even told Professor McGonagall or Mrs. Weasley, and both of them were certainly more trustworthy than this man.

Besides, Viktor gave off the impression that—aside from alchemy—he wasn’t exactly the sharpest wand in the drawer. The chance of him letting something slip was far too high.

"Oh." Professor Viktor nodded. "Well, I didn’t expect him to hold out this long. I had a bet going with Nicolas over when he’d go looking for Ariana."

"What’s that?" Kyle’s eyes lit up with curiosity. "What kind of bet?"

"I said within half a year. Nicolas thought it would take longer—at least a year."

Viktor rubbed his forehead. "I have to admit, he understands Dumbledore better than I do."

"What was the wager?" Kyle asked, intrigued.

"Entry to Paris Fashion Week."

"Wait—what?" Kyle rubbed his ears, thinking he must’ve misheard.

"It’s a Muggle event," Viktor explained, thinking Kyle didn’t know. "The French Ministry of Magic has a decent relationship with the Muggle government. And quite a few Ministry officials were my students, so I get all sorts of strange things sent to me every now and then."

As he spoke, Viktor moved his fingers slightly. A nearby drawer popped open on its own, revealing an eclectic collection of trinkets, flyers, and souvenirs—most notably, an overwhelming number of tickets.

Kyle glanced inside: football matches, fashion week passes, lingerie shows, music festivals, car races... there were tickets for every kind of event imaginable.

"I’m not interested in any of that," Viktor said. "Never been to a single one. But Nicolas loves it—he’s fascinated by everything Muggle. He’s always finding excuses to borrow tickets from me."

"Of course, even if he didn’t have those excuses, I’d still give them to him if he asked."

Viktor picked out a few tickets for himself, then offered the rest to Kyle. "Take some if you like."

"Ah, no thanks," Kyle said quickly, waving his hands.

If Kanna ever saw some of those tickets, he’d probably be shipped back to England by owl post.

"Professor Viktor," Kyle said, steering the conversation back on track, "why did you think Professor Dumbledore had gone back in time?"

"Because he hasn’t been seen in a long while—and there hasn’t been a single word about him," Viktor replied. "Other than traveling a hundred years into the past, I can’t think of any explanation for his disappearance lasting this long."

"But now it seems I was wrong," Viktor continued. "I’ve probably just been too busy lately working on new teaching materials and didn’t pay much attention to what was happening on his end. Don’t worry about it—just pretend I never said anything."

"But in a way, I’m relieved."

"Relieved?" Kyle asked, puzzled. "What do you mean by that?"

"Oh, it’s nothing serious," Viktor said slowly. "Just a week ago, Nicolas noticed that the runic formula we used to power the Time-Turner wasn’t perfect. It might cause some instability in the user’s timeline."

"In other words, he came back—but didn’t really come back."

"Could you explain that more clearly?" Kyle asked, his expression growing serious.

"It’s time repulsion," Viktor said. "Normally, if someone uses a Time-Turner correctly, they return to the right point in time—the time they originally left."

"One version of them disappears, and the version from the past returns, creating a seamless transition. That way, the person continues to exist in the present timeline."

"Then what exactly does ’time repulsion’ mean?"

"It means he can’t return," Viktor replied, though it was clear he wasn’t great at explaining things like this. He paused to think, then went on, "Say someone uses a Time-Turner at 8 a.m. to go back to 5 a.m. Then, after three hours, he’ll return to 8 a.m. and hand things off to himself."

"But if time repels him, then 8 a.m. will cease to exist for him. The furthest he could go might be 7:59—or even earlier."

"If that happens... what would become of that person?" Kyle asked, tension creeping into his voice.

"No one knows," Viktor said, shaking his head. "He might get stuck at 7:59, or he might be thrown back to 5 a.m. again..."

"But in any case, it’s not something you need to worry about," he added with a wave of his hand. "Fortunately, Nicolas discovered the flaw early, and Albus hadn’t taken action yet. If you go to him and tweak the runes on the Time-Turner a bit—plus add some help from the Philosopher’s Stone—there won’t be any problems."

"He’s already gone," Kyle said with a sigh.

"That’s good... Wait—what did you say? Who’s already gone?"

"Professor Dumbledore," Kyle replied with a bitter smile. "He’s already used the Time-Turner."

"But you just said he hadn’t..."

"Sorry," Kyle said. "The only reason things are still calm is because the Death Eaters are afraid of Professor Dumbledore. The fewer people who know the truth, the less chance it has of getting out."

An oppressive silence filled the classroom.

"...Alright, I understand your reasoning," Viktor said, his voice a little dry. "It’s just... what a pity. I was just thinking how lucky it was that Albus hadn’t used the Time-Turner too soon. I didn’t expect..."

"I’m sorry," Kyle said again.

"No, it’s fine. In fact, you did the right thing," Viktor said, shaking his head. "Keeping Albus’s whereabouts hidden really is the best choice for you."

"So... Professor Dumbledore really can’t come back now?" Kyle asked.

"When did he leave?"

"Over a month ago," Kyle said. "Have you heard about what happened in Godric’s Hollow? That’s when he used the Time-Turner."

"I haven’t," Viktor replied with a shake of his head. "But if it’s been that long... then he’s probably been repelled by time."

"Will Dumbledore be in danger?"

"It’s just a time loop. He might go through some hardship, but he won’t be in any real danger," Viktor said. "With Albus’s strength, there’s no one in that era who could harm him."

"That’s good." Kyle felt a small measure of relief—but only a little.

Dumbledore might be safe. But they weren’t.

Kyle couldn’t keep using Polyjuice Potion to impersonate Dumbledore forever, and Voldemort didn’t have infinite patience. One day, when he thought the time was right, he’d strike at Hogwarts.

And when that day came... what then?

The Polyjuice Potion could make Kyle look like Dumbledore, but it couldn’t give him Dumbledore’s power.

A wave of frustration welled up in Kyle’s chest.

"Is there any way to bring him back?" he asked tentatively.

"Yes. And it’s very simple."

Kyle’s head shot up. Viktor’s answer had caught him completely off guard.

"What way?"

"Send someone back in time to bring him back," Viktor said. "It’s like someone who’s been running and unknowingly veers off their path—just send someone after them to give a shout or guide them back. Simple, right?"

Kyle didn’t respond.

Was Viktor right?

In a sense, yes—he was. Getting Dumbledore to return wasn’t that hard in theory. The hard part was sending someone to do it.

"We don’t have another Time-Turner that can go back a hundred years," Kyle muttered, slumping in his seat.

The one Dumbledore used had taken ages just to repair. Making a new one would take even longer. By the time that happened, Voldemort would probably have already stormed Hogwarts with his Death Eaters.

The classroom once again fell into silence.

"...Wait. Hold on a second." Suddenly, Viktor seemed to have remembered something. He shot to his feet, quickly rummaged through a pile on the desk, then walked over to a mirror and spoke:

"Jaffar, you have three minutes. Get to my office immediately."

A few lines of glowing text appeared in the mirror, then disappeared with a ripple.

...

Three minutes later, hurried footsteps echoed outside the door.

"Professor Viktor." The boy who had mocked Kyle earlier pushed the door open nervously. He glanced at Professor Viktor, then at Kyle, and immediately looked stricken.

"I’m sorry, Professor, I... I haven’t finished copying yet. Please, just give me a little more time..."

"Leave that aside for now," Viktor said sternly, fixing him with a sharp gaze. "I want to ask you—did you take the discarded materials from the classroom this morning?"

"Y-yes, I did." The boy looked even more terrified. "Professor, I just... I just wanted to look at where people made mistakes... Everyone else does it too..."

"Was there an envelope among those items?" Viktor asked again.

"An envelope?" Jaffar stammered. "I-I don’t know. I’ve been busy copying the textbook... I haven’t had time to check yet."

"Then go and find it," Viktor said coldly.

Jaffar bolted from the room as if fleeing for his life.

"Professor... what’s in the envelope?" Kyle asked.

"We’ll talk about that later. Stay quiet for now." Viktor sat down and began scribbling rapidly on a piece of parchment.

Kyle was curious, but this didn’t seem like the right moment to interrupt.

About five minutes later, Jaffar returned, gasping for breath, a standard owl-post envelope clutched in his hand.

"Professor... is this the one you meant?" he panted, clearly exhausted from running back and forth. He placed the envelope on the desk.

"Yes, that’s it." Viktor glanced up. "Taking a professor’s belongings without permission—copy the book an extra hundred times."

Jaffar went pale.

"Professor... I didn’t mean to..."

"If you had done it on purpose, it wouldn’t be as simple as copying a book."

Jaffar scurried away, his footsteps heavy with regret. If he had another chance, he definitely wouldn’t have picked a fight with that British guy earlier... No, he wouldn’t have stepped foot in the alchemy classroom at all.

Once he was out of earshot, Viktor re-sealed the room.

He opened the envelope as he spoke aloud, "I’ve been focused on writing new curriculum materials lately, so I haven’t paid much attention to the outside world."

"But do you know why I suddenly realized that Albus had been missing for quite some time?"

"Because you’re close friends?" Kyle offered hesitantly.

"No. Our relationship is purely academic—hardly what you’d call close," Viktor said with a shake of his head. "The reason I started paying attention was because I received this."

He opened the envelope and pulled out... a golden pocket watch.

Clatter—

Kyle shot to his feet, knocking over his chair.

"A Time-Turner!"

Of course he recognized it. It had been in his possession for quite a while, up until a month ago when he handed it to Dumbledore.

This was the very Time-Turner that Nicolas Flamel had repaired.

But now it was broken again—cracks covered its surface, and the once-radiant golden finish had dulled to a lifeless sheen.

"But... how did it end up here?" Kyle asked.

"That’s what I don’t understand either," Viktor replied. "When I received it, I thought Nicolas had sent it to me, so I contacted him immediately."

"But he told me he’d already given the Time-Turner to you. And as far as I knew, it had been fully repaired."

"So I assumed it was one of Nicolas’s jokes..."

"Don’t look at me like that," Viktor added quickly. "He does this kind of thing often. Takes something he’s already finished, disassembles it, and sends it back to me—just to see if I can reassemble it using an entirely different set of runic formulas. It’s a little game between us."

"A game?" Kyle tugged at the corner of his mouth in disbelief.

Sure, runic formulas were highly variable—but creating the same magical effect using two entirely different sets of runes? That was nearly impossible.

"Don’t interrupt. Let me finish," Viktor said curtly.

Kyle shut his mouth immediately.

"But I’ve been too busy with lesson plans lately and didn’t have time to bother with it, so I just set it aside."

"I didn’t think much of it at the time. Looking back, I must have tossed it into the pile of failed student projects."

"And that student picked it up?"

"Exactly. Alchemical materials are expensive, so the students have a habit of studying failed attempts to avoid waste," Viktor explained.

"I had completely forgotten about it—until I saw you. That jogged my memory, and during dinner, I asked Olympe a few questions about Albus."

"I had a feeling something wasn’t right... which is why I called you in."

Kyle shifted uncomfortably under his gaze.

"Good thing I asked," Viktor said. "This should be the original Time-Turner."

"It is," Kyle nodded.

Good thing he had asked that extra question too. If Viktor had kept assuming Dumbledore hadn’t used the Time-Turner, who knows where it might have ended up.

And if they’d had to go looking for it later, it would have been a nightmare to find.