Chapter 105: Jumping Back In Time (1/2)

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The link is also in the synopsis.

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[The chapter is edited by my Editor: Alan_Loo/AlanL]

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”Excellent,” smiled Quinn. The tough and first part of the problem was done. Now he only needed to get the straightforward part over with. ”I have done some research with the Time-Turner, but you are the authority here; tell me, how should we do this?”

Hermione Granger was anything but uncertain. When she decided to do something, she went forward with composure, focus, and without second-guessing her decisions. Now that she had agreed to Quinn's demands, her previous hesitations were put aside.

She put her hand inside her shirt and pulled out a sparkling necklace that had an hourglass with blue sand.

”Oh, that is shiny,” commented Quinn. Now that the difficult part was over, he was much relaxed, so carefree comments flowed out.

Ivy and Hermione looked up from the Time-Turner and saw that Quinn was closely observing the Time-Turner with a smile on his face.

”Time-Turners that are issued by the Ministry of Magic have an Hour-Reversal Charm placed onto them. They had a limit of traveling back a maximum of five hours, which is the determined safety limit to the person and the fabrics of time itself,” explained Hermione before asking Quinn a question. ”So, how long do you need to go in time, because if it is more than five hours, then we are already over before we start.”

Quinn knew that because of his knowledge, and that was why he had hurried to call Hermione. If there wasn't a time limit, Quinn would have waited till he was fully recovered.

”I want to go a little under three hours back in time.”

”I see, then it's fine. This Time-Turner turns back time in hours, meaning that we will go back three hours in time,” nodded Hermione.

”Next, we need a place where we can't be seen. Somewhere we won't be disturbed. We need to find a place that has been empty for the last five hours,” conveyed Hermione, another rule about Time-Turners. ”Professor McGonagall has given me a key to one of the deserted and unused classrooms that I use when jumping back in time. ”

Quinn pointed his hand towards the office as he said, ”I knew that, so I have taken measures to ensure that we won't be disturbed in here. No one will be coming here today. I will lock the door, and just to be extra careful, we will start here.” Quinn pointed at the workshop as he finished.

Ivy and Hermione looked at the workshop door and noticed that the door was different. Especially Ivy, who noticed that the new door looked much sturdier than before.

”Yes, the door is new. I had to make another one after our previous altercation. You won't be able to break it as easily as you did before,” chuckled Quinn as he read their thoughts from their expressions.

The two girls twitched after hearing Quinn's remark. Hermione retrieved her eyes from the red door and nodded. ”This will do. Now, before we go back, where are we going?”

”We will be going to the woods near the Hogsmeade station, near the lakeside. As I told you, my actions are going to be extremely isolated, and the location is the reason for that isolation.”

”What are you going to do?”

Quinn shook his head and spoke, ”I will tell you after we make the jump and reach the woods.”

Ivy narrowed her eyes at Quinn's refusal to tell the details, but because Hermione didn't say anything, she kept quiet.

”... Well, let's get this over with,” sighed Hermione, while guessing that asking Quinn again would be a waste of time and effort. The boy in front of her always had a shroud of mystery around him, and she didn't think that the shroud would come off today.

”Good, follow me so we can get started,” said Quinn as he stood up from his barstool. He took out his fake wand and pointed it at the office door, melding the door and frame together.

The two Gryffindor girls stood up and followed after Quinn as he pushed open the red workshop door. Quinn closed the door after everyone was inside.

Last time, when Ivy was in the workshop, it was dark because she didn't know how to turn on the lights, but this time with Quinn with them, the workshop was brightly lit, and everything was clearly visible for them to see.

Hermione and Ivy watched with wide eyes, taking in the things that they could see. There was so much stuff in the room that the variety stunned Ivy and Hermione.

”Ms. Granger, let's get going. I would like to get started quickly, so we can get this over with quickly,” spoke Quinn to the girls, who were occupied looking around.

”... Yes. Come closer to me,” said Hermione as she pulled on the chain of the necklace with the Time-Turner. Then, the chain expanded. It actually kept on expanding until its length satisfied Hermione. ”Get under the chain such that it is surrounding all three of us.”

Ivy and Quinn walked closer and lifted the chains over their heads to walk inside the circle. The redhead girl and black-haired boy looked at each other with their vivid-green and stone-grey eyes as they stood in close proximity.

Quinn slightly smiled as he looked down towards the shorter girl while Ivy stared up with a stern, non-nonsense face.

”You look like Daphne, right now,” commented Quinn suddenly and smiled when Ivy's face twitched. His objective had been fulfilled.

Hermione looked at the two and cleared her throat, and asked. ”Are you sure? Three hours?”

”Yes, three hours will do. We'll be back here by the end of these three hours.” He looked at Hermione and added, ”We should hurry because three people just entered the office.” Quinn pointed at the glass wall.

Hermione's eyes widened as she immediately understood what Quinn meant by his word. The three people that entered the office were the ones from the future.

She immediately turned the hourglass timepiece thrice, triggering the Time-Turner and slipping through the sands of times.

The bright workshop dissolved. Quinn had the sensation that he was flying very fast, backward. A blur of colors and shapes rushed past him; his ears were pounding; he kept calm and observed the phenomenon through all his senses.

And then he felt solid ground beneath his feet, and everything came into focus again. Quinn stood next to Hermione and Ivy inside the dark workshop. There was no light because there weren't any windows, and the rune lights were not turned on.

Quinn turned his neck slightly to adjust the chain of the hourglass-timepiece cutting into his neck.

”We've gone back in time,” Hermione whispered, lifting the chain off and looking at Ivy and Quinn's figures appeared in the darkness. ”We went three hours back...”

”Excellent. Let's get going. It will take longer than usual for us to get to the woods,” said Quinn as he walked towards the workshop door.

”Huh, what do you -” Ivy asked what Quinn was talking about when she noticed a clearly visible limp in Quinn's stride that was previously missing. ”Why are you limping?”

Quinn opened the workshop door and turned his face back to look at Ivy to state in a voice that made it seem that he was saying something obvious: ”I am injured.”

”The limp wasn't there before we jumped back in time,” chimed Hermione as she looked at Quinn's feet.

”I was being careful, but now that we are here, I can tell you,” said Quinn as he entered the office. The girls followed as his voice became faint. ”I got injured, and we are going to make it so that I don't get injured further.”

Ivy and Hermione looked at each other and followed, who kept walking with the limp in his step.

”You got injured in the woods?” questioned Ivy, trying to get information from Quinn.

”Kind of. Yeah, I got injured near the woods,” said Quinn as the three exited the office and the door locked itself.

Ivy watched as Quinn looked around the corridor with an uncomfortable expression.

”What happened?”

Quinn briefly glanced at Ivy before going back to look at the corridor. ”We have to make sure that we aren't seen. We aren't part of this time till the three hours pass: we don't belong to this time just yet. So, I would like to not be seen until the time after we return to the office after three hours.”

To make sure that this entire operation remained isolated and contained as much as possible, Quinn wanted that three of them to not be seen.

Ivy and Hermione understood Quinn's point of view. Hermione looked at Ivy, who looked at her, and the two best friends talked with their eyes behind Quinn's back. After a few seconds, Ivy sighed and nodded.

”I have the Marauder's Map on me. We can use that,” said Ivy looking at Quinn's back, who turned to face Ivy and locked eyes with her.

”Really? Finally, some luck. Then let's use the map. It will make our job much easier. I guess your tagging along is paying off.”

The map alternated between the Potter siblings every day, and it turned out that today was Ivy's turn. She took out the map from her robes and activated the original inspiration for Recon with the secret phrase.

”I solemnly swear I am up to no good.”

The ink appeared on the old parchment as Ivy unfolded the map and manually looked for their position.

'My Recon has a voice-activated, auto-locator,' thought Quinn proudly.

Ivy found their position, and as she did, Quinn noticed that the map only showed Hermione and Ivy; Quinn was missing from the map.

”It seems I'm still not traceable with the map,” smiled Quinn as he looked at the map. ”That makes me happy.”

”... We tried to fix it, but it didn't work,” spat Ivy as he lightly glared at Quinn.

”That makes me happier,” laughed Quinn at her tone.

”Let's talk about this later,” reminded Hermione, who was the only one experienced with time travel. She had gotten used to managing time, and her two companions were wasting precious time.

”Ah, yes, we should hurry. With my limp, it will take us longer to get there,” nodded Quinn before motioning Ivy to step forward. ”If you would be so kind as to lead the way, pathfinder.”

Ivy ignored Quinn and stepped forward to lead the way, while keeping an eye on the map to see the people in their surroundings.

Quinn, who was following Ivy, sneakily and silently cast a group Disillusionment Charm that worked on Quinn's understanding of physical illusions and light manipulation to turn the trio invisible. It was high-quality magic, and it was much better than his previous work this year as an invisible vigilante.

The fact that he had been noticed prompted Quinn to figure out a better spell that wouldn't become vulnerable while moving. The general Disillusionment charms worked on light manipulation, so Quinn upped the quality of light manipulation and beyond by adding aspects of physical illusions to provide another layer of depth to the stealth.

The three eventually made their way towards the woods, taking the party around three-quarters of an hour to get to the point that Quinn wanted.

”Alright, we are here. We are going to make camp here and wait till the event starts,” informed Quinn.