"Mr. Grindelwald? Can you hear me?"
The moment he came into contact with that frail strand of spiritual power, Avada immediately sensed the powerful consciousness at the other end of it—naturally, that was Gellert Grindelwald.
"Ken?"
The strand of spiritual power that belonged to Grindelwald trembled slightly, doing its utmost to transmit his consciousness upward.
"You've already entered the timeline?"
"That's right."
"I can still only maintain the state of activating prophecy. From my perspective right now, it's as if, among the future fragments I've foreseen, there's suddenly an extra voice talking to me in real time. To be honest, it's a little unsettling... Do I still need to stay here?"
"I'm afraid you do, Mr. Grindelwald."
Avada continued transmitting his thoughts.
"I can feel now that I can return to the real world at any time by following your spiritual power back. Without your guidance, I might have to use some extremely harmful method to get out."
"An extremely harmful method?"
Grindelwald's consciousness carried obvious confusion.
"...I don't really understand it myself. I just know that the last time I came back that way, I ended up unconscious in the hospital for over a week."
Avada recalled it with lingering fear.
He was inside the timeline right now, after all, which also meant he could run into that mysterious giant sphere of light again at any moment...
What if his memories became the trigger for it?
"Very well, then I'll stay here. But I can't maintain this for long. You must return within five minutes. Hurry. Don't waste time."
"Understood."
After sensing Grindelwald's spiritual power one last time and firmly memorizing the location of that strand of spiritual energy, Avada controlled his own spiritual body to disconnect from it. Then he began drifting through the vast river of time.
"What entered the timeline is all of my spiritual power—which means not only Nathan Clarke, but even my real body is unconscious right now... Fortunately, I already went to bed, but I'd better hurry..."
"I need to confirm the correct timeline first. Let me look for the corresponding landmark events..."
"Grindelwald and I are in Nurmengard Tower. My real body is holding five Horcruxes. Regulus has already been brought back to the Black family home... No, that's still not enough."
He looked around with some difficulty.
There were still more than a hundred fragments of possibility that satisfied just those three conditions alone.
"Then I'll look further into the past."
He turned and looked "backward."
"A day ago, Dumbledore and I went to the Horcrux cave, used Hufflepuff's Cup to transfer the green potion, and obtained the fake locket... Ha, that really narrows the range."
"Wait, there are actually still that many timelines where I never thought of using the Cup to transfer the green potion? Is the probability of that event really so low?"
"And this one too... I handed the Resurrection Stone over to Dumbledore? Why are there so many timelines like that?"
"In well over half the possibilities, I chose to reveal the Resurrection Stone to Dumbledore at the same time I confessed about the Horcruxes! Why?"
"No, wait... In those possibilities, the time when I met Grindelwald seems different from what really happened? Either a day earlier or a day later? There are even quite a few possibilities where I never mentioned the Resurrection Stone at all during my conversation with Grindelwald..."
"And in the aftermath of those possibilities, almost without exception, Dumbledore becomes obsessed with researching the Resurrection Stone, delaying the original experiments in the Horcrux cave. The chances of obtaining the fake locket become so small as to be almost nonexistent... In some cases, Dumbledore even becomes so obsessed that he neglects both Hogwarts and Order of the Phoenix business, all in order to try to use the Resurrection Stone to revive his sister!"
"The impact of handing the Resurrection Stone to Dumbledore is really that disastrous?"
Avada felt a chill run through him.
"So Grindelwald had already foreseen all of this, and that's why he chose to meet me at that exact time and warn me not to let Dumbledore learn about the Resurrection Stone?"
"What a terrifying prophetic ability..."
He could not help glancing once more at that strand of spiritual power that was twisting around like a worm. It had already stretched much farther than before and was now wriggling toward the second-nearest fragment of possibility. Even though it still looked stupid and clumsy, Avada no longer dared to feel even the slightest bit of contempt for it.
"Keep searching."
He continued examining the possibilities one by one.
"Dumbledore lent me the Elder Wand... Sirius got tied up by the werewolf affair and didn't make it back... What the hell, there are even possibilities where Kreacher destroys the locket all by himself?!"
"Why are there so many variables in places outside my own perspective?!"
"But this has its advantages too—the number of fragments I need to check drops sharply. As soon as I see something outrageous, I can toss it aside and move on to the next one..."
In the end, amid the endless fragments of possibility, he finally found the complete timeline that truly belonged to real history.
At this point, only two minutes remained before the time limit Grindelwald had set.
"First, let's see who the mastermind behind Greyback really is... Hah, as expected, it's still those pure-blood families."
"So why are they doing this... holy shit?!"
"This is that explosive?!"
If Avada still had a body right now, he was certain he would have broken out in a cold sweat.
"Good thing I came into the timeline this time and saw the truth. Otherwise, there's a good chance I really would have walked straight into their trap in the future... Even Peter Pettigrew never noticed this!"
"But honestly, realizing the truth only now is already a little late. The werewolf affair has dragged on for too long, and both of their phased objectives have already been achieved. From here on, we can only react to whatever comes next."
"We all underestimated the intelligence and resolve of the pure-blood families... I never thought that, in such a disadvantaged situation, they would still be able to devise a scheme like this and actually carry it through. Their progress has even outpaced Dumbledore's by a step! Merlin's beard—if they really pull this off, Voldemort may become impossible to kill forever!"
"Keep looking ahead... Damn it, even within a single timeline, the branching possibilities spreading into the future are practically infinite. Finding the future most favorable to us may take a very long time. Today definitely won't be enough, so I'll do what I can..."
"Oh right!"
He suddenly remembered something.
Grindelwald had said that his act of altering Peter Pettigrew's memory and sending him into the pure-blood faction as a mole had caused a massive disturbance in the future, directly tipping the overall situation toward their side!
"Peter Pettigrew is the key!"
Avada checked the passage of his own time—there was only one minute left before the agreed deadline.
(End of Chapter)