Chapter 39: A Method to 'Deceive' Time?

Time flows on, every moment, never ceasing. Yet, what time truly is remains a subject of debate. Muggles have their scientific definitions, and wizards have their own perceptions of it. Roger was somewhat familiar with both theories.

Though the principles were not entirely clear, Roger possessed some practical documentation on the subject. Most of the books Professor McGonagall had lent him were theoretical studies and data reports, among which was an internal Ministry of Magic report published long ago. Having attained the ability of absolute memory, Roger used his magic to reproduce a copy of the text based on his recollection. Once mastered, Transfiguration was truly a marvelous tool.

"1899: Summary of Time Travel Experiments."

In the report, the author from the Department of Mysteries described in detail that none of those who had attempted long-term time travel in the past had survived. After numerous tests by researchers, the safe limit for time travel was determined to be within a few hours. Of course, this safety was relative. In reality, it was not that short-term travel lacked risks, but rather that when the journey was brief, the consequences of one's actions would not be amplified by the chaotic butterfly effect of vast space-time. As long as one did not deliberately cause trouble, the likelihood of being consumed by the backlash of temporal forces was reduced.

The Department of Mysteries also verified through experiments that casting time-space spells directly—like the Hour-Reversal Charm—was not the best approach. The casting of a spell is influenced by the wizard's own distracting thoughts. While minor stray thoughts might be negligible for simple charms like the Levitation Charm, causing only minute errors that hardly affect the outcome, time-space spells were different. In this field, a tiny error could lead to a massive catastrophe. Encapsulating time-space magic into a charmed object to create an artifact was the superior method for handling such unstable magic. Indeed, the fruit of their research at the time was the Time-Turner.

At the end of the report, the author mentioned the disaster caused by the Department of Mysteries "this year."

In 1899, Eloise Mintumble was trapped in 1402 for five days. When she returned to the present, her body had aged five centuries, resulting in irreparable damage, and she passed away shortly thereafter at St. Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. Moreover, during those five days in the past, she had severely interfered with everyone she encountered, drastically altering their lives. At least twenty-five of their descendants vanished from the present, becoming people who were "never born." This was only what the Ministry of Magic had observed; who knew how many Muggles might have silently "disappeared" because she moved a wooden stake five centuries ago?

The report ended there. Since 1899, ultra-long-distance time travel had become a taboo in wizarding civilization. At least hundreds of legal prohibitions were established specifically for time travel, and the Department of Mysteries permanently ceased related experiments—a status that remained unchanged nearly a century later in 1991. It had to be stopped; even a top-tier wizard like Dumbledore could not withstand an assault from upstream on the timeline. What if someone suffered a lapse in judgment, rewrote the past, and caused the entire world to collapse?

The chaotic nature of time is too profound. Sometimes, simply moving a chair or breaking a horseshoe could completely alter the world line. No one wants to vanish, and if anyone dared to play games with this, they would face the wrath of the world's most powerful wizards, alongside the "five ruffians" of the blue planet who were well aware of the situation. The Ministry of Magic had always been in contact with the British government, as was the case with other nations. The Statute of Secrecy was for the masses; the true upper echelons of Muggle society had always been aware of the existence of wizards.

Watching the freshly printed report and listening to Roger’s explanation, Harry couldn't help but look back at him: "...By your logic, doesn't that mean reversing time to save my parents is completely impossible?!"

Seeing Harry’s "Are you playing with me?" expression, Roger smiled and shook his head. "No, on the contrary, the path to salvation lies within this report."

"We know that time travel itself accelerates aging. If one can achieve immortality, wouldn't that eliminate the side effect?"

"Changing established facts in the past leads to unpredictable consequences for the future. Therefore, one simply avoids changing them, opting instead to perform one's actions within a 'dead angle of time'."

Roger offered an example: "Suppose your heart stops and your body dies—this is an established fact that has already been observed. If one were to rewrite it, it would cause the 'world line based on your death' to be destroyed, and time would flow in another unknown direction."

"So, I could utilize a 'dead angle of space-time'."

"When, in the future, I possess the ability to reshape a body for a deceased soul, I will return to 'this moment,' deceive the perception of my past self, take your soul, and resurrect you. Simultaneously, I would 'deep-freeze' your body and consciousness in a spatial rift I created using space magic—a rift that no one but me can open."

"I return to the future, wake your resurrected consciousness, and lead you out of the 'space-time seal capsule'—the spatial rift. Throughout the entire process, not a single detail of the past is changed, and nothing is brought from the past to the future, minimizing the backlash of space-time."

"Of course, if you were to actually attempt this, the problems you would face would certainly be more numerous, complex, and difficult than this example."

"But it is indeed a viable way to solve the problem," Roger told Harry.

Harry’s parents had long since turned to dust, and their souls were nowhere to be found. To resurrect them, time travel was indeed the method with the lowest barrier to entry among many alternatives.

Harry’s eyes brightened for a moment before dimming again. He remembered that his parents were killed by Voldemort. If he wanted to carry out what Roger described, he would at least need the ability to evade Voldemort’s perception and act under his very nose. Was that even possible? Not to mention the immortality that seemed impossible to achieve.

"Don't worry about immortality. If I make any breakthroughs, I’ll take care of it for you... though, it won't be free."

"You just need to consider how to twist time and space. It is difficult; you may have a long road ahead, perhaps one measured in centuries."

"But, having a glimmer of hope is better than having none, isn't it?"

Roger patted Harry on the shoulder. "In short, you now have a rough understanding of the difficulties. If you still want to walk this path, come see me tomorrow, and I will give you a reading list."