Awful things happen to wizards who meddle with time.
He never gave it much thought before, but now that he did – it was strange. Many terrible things had occurred that night in his third year
(Sirius, Pettigrew, Lupin, dementors)
but it was only the warning of Hermione's that truly struck a chord in him. The memory of his friend saying it, her face stern...it came back sometimes. Those words – he would remember them, when on the verge of falling asleep. They would bright about an unexplainable sense of unease into his dreams, filling them with confusion of images, not-yet memories.
(Something unknown is doing we don't know what.) *
Harry wondered. Could it have been what muggles used to call precognition?
. . .
"Mr. Potter, I understand you must find it upsetting, but -"
"And bloody damn right you are that I find it upsetting!" Harry yelled, his temper finally getting better of him. He wanted very badly to reach out, grab the Unspeakable by his shoulders and shake him – anything, really, to make the man see thing things his way, for once.
Except that... No, not like that. You're not fifteen-year-old any more.
Harry exhaled slowly, feeling the anger seep out of him.
"Why can't you see it?" he pleaded in a small voice, after a moment of silence. He rubbed his scar, tiredly. "It's 1944 now, isn't it? Voldemort is still but a schoolboy and...that future doesn't exist yet, so we only need to make some...-"
The Unspeakable sighed. "I know muggle scientist are coming up with a rather curious equations lately, Mr. Potter, but that's all they are – curious equations."
"- And if you think what you've just said made any sense to me, then guess what? Wrong you are, Unspeakable Selwyn," Harry retorted, not missing a beat and glared at the man to emphasise his point.
Selwyn's lips thinned. "Very well, then," he replied in a clipped voice. He cleared his throat and began his elaborate. "Mr. Potter, what you were suggesting – altering the course of events, that is, would result in creating an alternative timeline. Sort of, like," his brow furrowed, as he looked for a right words to describe it, "splinching the very universe we live in," he made a parting motion with his palms, to emphasise his point, "into two separate worlds. In the original one, Voldemort – that was his name, right? So, in the original one, Voldemort will become a dark lord; in the other, due to your interference, he will find another occupation," he stated and threw Harry an expectant look.
"Well," Harry frowned, running Selwyn's explanation over in his thoughts. He didn't really have a head for theoretics, but it sounded about right. "Yes, I suppose."
"Right," the Unspeakable nodded. "It could work like that – in muggle science fiction novel."
"Wha -?"
"And the theory of that muggle, Einstein, might be interpreted that way as well, I guess. That's what I meant by 'curious equations'."
"But just -! What a second, please," he requested, because it was a bit too much confusing information in too little time for him to wrap his mind about it.
Besides, while coming across a wizard familiar with muggle world, excluding muggleborns of course, was an unlikely occurrence, happening upon one well versed with muggle science felt like going down the rabbit hole.
"Why wouldn't it work for us?" Harry asked after a short pause.
"Because," Selwyn wasted no time to reply "in the real word, and yes, even in the magical one," he added quickly, seeing as Harry was about to interrupt him, "there are no alternative universes or splinching timelines. None. There is only this one world, in which time is passing linearly from past to future."
"Then how is it possible I travelled back in time?" Harry asked, doubtfully, once the Unspeakable's words sunk in.
"It's impossible!" Selwyn hissed, throwing his hands up in exasperation. "Or it should be impossible," he clarified, schooling his facial expression back into its blank state, somehow embarrassed by his display of emotion, so unbecoming, if a little cough he gave out was anything to go by. "But from what you've told us, we gathered that," he flipped through his notes, "what your wish made happen isn't a time travel per se, but a time loop. In other words, your wish worked like one of those time turners we're supposed to create at some point in the future. By the way," he said, as in an afterthought, "the research team from Time Room sends their regards. If it wasn't for the information you provided, they wouldn't get the grant."
"Oh, they're welcome," Harry couldn't help his sarcasm. "And so what if it's a time loop? In my third year my friend and I used time turner to help my godfather escape – to change the course of events! And everything worked just fine."
"But it was completely different situation. You see, Mr. Potter, for time loop to work, time traveller has to come back to the same exact moment when he had used time turner. As in, to connect loose ends and close the loop. In your third year, you used time turner while you were in hospital wing, just after unpleasant chat with the minister. So, in order to close the loop, after freeing your godfather, you had to come back to hospital wing and take your place there, the moment you saw yourself disappear. Are you following me so far, Mr. Potter?"
Harry curtly nodded, impatient. Of course he followed, he had been there, for crying out loud!
"Splendid. Now, altering the events was possible only because freeing your godfather had no direct influence on your talk with the minister in the hospital wing. Even though your godfather wasn't there any more, it was the minister's firm believe that he was there, that counted – and so, even though you altered the events, the moment you used the time turner was still the same, thus you were able to safely return to it. Essentially, in your third year you didn't splinch the timeline. You...rewrote three hours' worth of wizardkind history.
"But in our case it's not three hours, it's fifty four years, and your meddling right now might over the years lead to completely different circumstances."
The dawning realisation of what exactly Selwyn was imputing wasn't to his liking. "Are you saying that," he frowned, "I have to stand aside and do nothing...just watch those terrible things happen, without interfering, so that I can jump into headmaster's office, right after the battle?"
Selwyn nodded, his face carefully expressionless.
"And what if I refuse?" Harry challenged, crossing his hands over his chest.
"And here it comes," Selwyn mumbled, picking up his energy potion. "Altering events will cause paradox," he said, once he took a swing. "Which is – Merlin, how should I explain it..." Selwyn pondered on it for a moment. "Mr. Potter, you attended muggle primary school, so you were taught some rudimentary mathematics, weren't you?"
Rather than the subject itself, Harry remembered blue hair of the teacher who taught it. "The gist of it," he replied.
"Fair enough," Selwyn nodded. "Think of it as of an equation. There's left side of equation and right side. When on both sides there is an equal value – and only then – the equation is correct.
"Now, let's apply that to the timeline. There is past which is like left side of an equation and future – right side of it. In the past we have reasons and in future there are results. Every reason leads eventually to its result; on both sides there's an equal value, so to speak.
"Then, there's the time loop. We know what's on the right side of equation, that is – we know what will happen in the future. Thanks to you, Mr. Potter, because the way you are right now, your very existence, is the result of everything that will happen up till May the second, 1998. And because we know the future, as in, right side of equation, in order for our timeline to remain intact, we must ensure that on the left side there's an equal value – meaning, ensure the events that shaped you will take place."
"Why is it so important the timeline remains intact?"
"Because the moment a paradox occurs, our universe becomes like an incorrect equation. And should our world become an incorrect equation..." Selwyn emitted small, rather hysterical laugh, "dear Merlin and Morgana, I'm afraid to even think of what would happen then.
"That takes us back to my primary point – we are screwed. The time loop must be closed, or else conflicting forces would tear the universe apart. So, we have to send you back to your time, the sooner the better, but as of now, we have no idea whatsoever how to do that. In the meantime so many things can go wrong... And we need to get you somewhere safe, when Grindewald won't be able to reach you; even if you say you barely passed History of Magic, still the knowledge you possess, should the Dark Lord get hold of it -"
"So there's really nothing I can do?" Harry asked, looking down at his hands.
"As much as I wish there was..." the Unspeakable's voice trailed off. "Nevertheless, from the point of view of the observer in 1998, this conversation we are having right now is long since past and your time travel here had already happened. Voldemort's rise to power cannot be stopped, because you, time traveller from the future, know it couldn't have been stopped. In this case, I'm afraid," Selwyn's voice shook ever so slightly, "our future is set in stone."
"Our?"
"You said so yourself, Mr. Potter. There are no Selwyns left around in your time."
Long time ago, Lord Voldemort had a dream.
He was in Department of Mysteries, talking with a man long since dead. Killed by Voldemort's own spell.
The man was saying something, he couldn't remember what, and was looking straight into his eyes, calmly, without flinching – like no one else had in so many years. Then, something akin to regret clouded the man's eyes.
"...future is set in stone."
. . .
When Voldemort awoke, he laid still for some time, listening to the silence of his hideout. What a strange dream he had, he wondered, that didn't seem like a dream at all. It rather felt like a...recollection of a half-forgotten memory
(a dream within a dream?)
though, oddly enough, one that wasn't his own.
Future is set in stone, were the only words from that dream conversation Lord Voldemort was able to recall. And they bothered him more than he wanted to admit. Because – surely, it couldn't be a case! Voldemort alone was the master of his own destiny. Only he would shape it, the way he saw it fit.
If future was set in stone indeed, then it was carved there by the Dark Lord himself.
...Few years later a prophecy foretelling his vanquisher was made.
A/N: This chapter wasn't so exciting, but I needed to explain the theory behind my idea of time travel.
And before you say I suck, go back to read the ending of the previous chapter ;).
* "Something unknown is doing we don't know what" / Sir Arthur Eddington