Carrel let out a long breath, thinking that even if he hadn’t been caught by the Aurors, he wouldn’t be able to return to school.
His subtle regret was brushed away like dust as Carrel swiftly rushed into Snape’s office, rummaging through drawers and cabinets.
African Tree Snake Skin, Unicorn Tail Hair, Dragon Blood, Mandrake Root, Basilisk Scale, Basilisk Fang, Phoenix Feather...
Snape’s collection had many precious Magic Potion Materials, along with several finished potions. Carrel searched through the shelves and finally found what he was looking for.
A small bottle of Polyjuice Potion.
He grabbed the Crystal Bottle and dashed out of the office, his steps as quick as if he were racing soone.
Luckily, Snape and Filch probably believed his bluff and went off to search the Slytherin Common Room, not returning to look for him.
There weren’t many students in the corridors either. Carrel rushed into a nearby empty classroom and imdiately turned the Hourglass one full rotation.
Ti flowed backward another hour.
At this ti, Filch was at the school gate, checking the students heading to Hogsade Village to see if anyone was trying to sneak out. On the grassy fields outside the castle, many students were walking out in groups.
Carrel stood by the window and even spotted the silhouettes of himself and Vid from afar.
He paused in silence, then slipped into a passageway near the kitchen.
This passage was sothing he learned about from the Weasley Twins. It was rumored that Filch knew about the entrance and exit as well, so even the daring Weasley Twins wouldn’t use it.
This was precisely what Carrel wanted.
After entering the passageway, Carrel could finally breathe a little easier. He donned Harry’s Invisibility Cloak, mounted his Broom, and sped through the narrow passage to exit the school grounds as quickly as he could. Upon erging from the passage, he found the exit was behind the Three Broomsticks Inn.
He turned the Hourglass twice more.
Altogether, the reversed ti had now accumulated to five hours, which was the safety limit for using the Ti Turner.
Hogsade in the early morning was still shrouded in a faint mist, quiet everywhere, with only a few windows lit by dim, yellow lights.
Carrel cast a direction spell, riding the Broom, and accelerated the Firebolt to its highest speed in an incredibly short ti.
The sky was vast and boundless, but the city he wanted to go to was in two places.
Before leaving the United Kingdom, his ho was in Bristol.
After leaving the United Kingdom... his father went missing, and his mother was later sent to a sanatorium in Carlisle.
At the speed of the Firebolt, it would take between two to four and a half hours for it to take him to either city.
Carrel allowed the Broom to fly itself—since both cities were roughly in the sa direction for him at the mont—while wrestling internally, knowing he must make a choice.
Should he seize that extrely slim chance to save both parents... or choose the more likely option of at least saving his mother?
The boy’s hand holding the Magic Wand trembled continuously, his gaze shifting erratically, sotis looking towards the clouds, sotis towards the distant ground below, as if searching for a nonexistent answer.
Cold lines from books flashed through his mind—
[The Ti Turner cannot be used to change known history; attempting to alter history may lead to unforeseen consequences.]
[Extended ti reversal can cause the user to die unexpectedly... and might even lead to the collapse of the tiline... five hours is the maximum allowable reversal ti...]
As the Broom approached Carlisle, its speed gradually slowed down, and Carrel knew that his intuition had already made the decision for him.
He descended from the Broom, stopped outside the sanatorium, and walked straight in.
With the Invisibility Cloak, the staff and patients in the sanatorium didn’t notice this intruder. Carrel flipped through the patient and death registry, and when he saw that photo of the haggard and weak woman, tears stread down.
This was indeed his mother.
He took a deep breath, pointed his Magic Wand at the Ti Turner, and the Hourglass spun round and round, faster and faster, gradually becoming a blur.
Everything around turned into blurred, brilliant stripes, where Carrel seed to be the only reality among them. He closed his eyes, refraining from looking until the Hourglass’s rotation slowly eased, and he heard voices nearby, prompting him to open his eyes.
A doctor was flipping through dical records, talking to a nurse in white uniform as they walked past Carrel.
The boy traversed the long corridors, searching through the windows one by one until he finally saw that thin and haggard figure.
The woman lay in bed asleep, her eyes tightly shut, eyeballs still moving restlessly. Her once full and round cheeks were now sunken, her arms withered like dry wood, the marks of fate’s tornt clearly visible.
Carrel held onto the doorfra, lips trembling, throat choking, unable to call out "Mom," as silent tears fell.
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