Chapter 388 - 389: Tragic Times, Complex Web

Moving closer, Sagres decided to first gain a complete understanding of his situation.

This time, he was no longer satisfied with merely skimming surface thoughts. Instead, he pushed his Legilimency to its limit and delved deep into the other man's consciousness.

Memories surged towards him like a tide.

The man before him was Elit Samdron, Professor of Charms at Hogwarts, a cautious man living through turbulent times.

His father had died in the last witch hunt, burned alive by Muggles.

His sister had also been hunted by the Church for secretly practising healing magic, and her whereabouts remained unknown.

Tragic indeed.

Sagres continued digging deeper, gathering more information about this era.

At this time, the Ministry of Magic had not yet been established, and the Wizarding Council was locked in endless arguments over how to deal with the current crisis, operating with extremely poor efficiency.

Some advocated negotiating with the goblins and giants, while others believed stronger measures should be taken.

The most radical faction, however, had begun secretly researching forbidden Dark Arts in the hope of turning the situation around.

The witch hunts had also spread to the Scottish border, leaving the entire wizarding world in a state of panic.

Even Hogwarts had been forced to strengthen its protective enchantments, and Headmaster Brian Gagweyn was considering temporarily closing the school.

Professor Samdron's personal concerns also surfaced.

He suspected that spies had infiltrated the castle, possibly bribed wizards, or goblins disguised through Transfiguration.

In recent weeks, he had noticed that several valuable magical items had gone missing, including a Time-Turner said to have been left behind by Ravenclaw.

Sagres withdrew his magic and took a deep breath.

The situation was more complicated than he had imagined.

Put simply, he was not only trapped in a dangerous era, but had also landed in the middle of a chaotic crisis.

He looked down at the hourglass in his hand again.

Its lustre had completely vanished, leaving it looking like nothing more than an ordinary ornament.

"Well, it was a pleasure talking to you," Sagres said to Samdron, who was still lying on the floor.

He pulled the walnut chair away from the desk, sat down, and began to think, his fingertips unconsciously tapping against the armrest.

First, he checked his physical condition.

His magic was functioning normally, and everything he had been carrying was still with him. There was no cliché of his power being reset to zero.

"Fortunately, things aren't too bad."

He murmured softly and began testing various possibilities.

First, he cast a Levitation Charm on the ink bottle sitting on the desk. The bottle rose steadily into the air before suddenly dropping heavily back down, spilling ink across the parchment and leaving a deep blue stain.

Sagres waved his wand again.

The ink immediately vanished from the parchment, gathering into a single drop before flying back into the bottle.

Very good.

The laws of magic in this era were exactly the same as those he was familiar with.

He then attempted Apparition and discovered that he could still teleport within Hogwarts. However, each time he Apparated, he felt an invisible force trying to anchor him in place.

Fortunately, that force was not strong enough to stop him.

Just as he was carrying out these seemingly pointless tests, a thought suddenly occurred to him.

He tentatively tried to connect to Noctis's vision.

It should have been meaningless. After all, his raven was five hundred years in the future.

Yet, to his surprise, the familiar connection was actually established.

At first, he thought Noctis might somehow have travelled through time with him.

But what he saw through Noctis's eyes was Hogwarts five hundred years later.

The Owlery looked just as it always had. A few nocturnal owls were preening their feathers, while Noctis strutted about as though she owned the place, plucking feathers from the other birds.

Sagres tried to make Noctis move, but his will seemed to sink into an endless sea.

He tried to speak through the raven, only to discover that even the simplest caw was impossible.

He was like a prisoner trapped in the past, able to glimpse the future through a tiny window but forever unable to reach it.

Sagres forced himself to calm down and carefully analyse this unexpected discovery.

Noctis clearly had not travelled through time with him. The connection between them spanned more than five hundred years, yet only one-way visual sharing remained.

"This means..."

He pondered for a moment.

"Perhaps time really isn't a straight line, but something more like a complex web?"

Still, such profound theories about time were hardly his priority right now.

What interested him far more was whether his actions in the past could affect the future.

With that thought, he immediately cast a Disillusionment Charm on himself, his figure gradually blending into the surrounding air.

Then he Apparated to the Owlery at the top of the tower.

The Owlery from more than five hundred years ago was vastly different from the one he remembered.

It was far more rudimentary. The wooden structure looked rough and primitive, and the air carried a much stronger smell of bird droppings and grain.

Several owls of ancient breeds turned their heads warily, as though sensing something unusual.

Sagres chose a secluded corner and carved a complex rune into the ground.

It was a mark he had created on the spot, combining the characteristics of Ancient Runes with modern magic. In theory, it should have been unique.

After finishing, he reconnected with Noctis's vision.

More than five hundred years in the future, the raven was still strutting around the Owlery.

Sagres carefully examined the corresponding spot through Noctis's eyes.

There was no carving on the ground.

Only patterns naturally left by the passage of time and a few ordinary scratches added later.

Sagres was not discouraged.

He tried several other methods. He left a magical mark on a stone step, hid a specially made copper coin inside a crack in the floor, and even cast an extremely faint positioning spell at a specific location.

Yet through Noctis's eyes, he saw that none of those traces existed in the Owlery five hundred years later.

It was as though everything he was doing now was merely a stone tossed into the endless river of time, unable to create even the slightest ripple.

"It seems this is different from last time."

Sagres reached a frustrating yet reasonable conclusion.

"No matter what I do here, I cannot alter the predetermined course of history."

The discovery brought him a strange sense of relief. At the very least, he no longer had to worry that some careless action might create disastrous consequences in the future.

But it also raised a new concern.

If history could not be changed, then what was the purpose of sending him back to this era?

Was he simply meant to remain trapped here?

As he pondered, several students entered through the Owlery door. One of them was carrying a letter that appeared particularly important.

Sagres noticed that the wax seal on the envelope looked strangely familiar.

It depicted a coiled serpent, almost identical to the Gaunt family crest he had seen in the future.

Perhaps history was not entirely beyond influence. Perhaps it simply operated in a more subtle manner.

Sagres realised that although he could not directly affect the future, this unexpected connection might still serve as a window through which he could observe how events unfolded.

He needed to know what happened at Hogwarts after his disappearance and whether the mastermind behind the trap would eventually reveal himself.

Besides, even if he could never return, it did not matter that much.

He had never truly belonged to any particular era in the first place.

Just then, Noctis seemed to sense something. She suddenly spread her wings and flew out of the Owlery towards the castle.

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