Chapter 318 - 318: A Sudden Change!!

What methods were there to shield oneself from the World Correction?

At present, Dawn knew of, or could at least think of, three possibilities.

The first was one of the Three Deathly Hallows, the Invisibility Cloak.

The second was using the Collective Consciousness to counterbalance it and gain protection.

And the third, which he had only just learned about, was the concept of existing "within the bottle" associated with the Sorting Hat.

But the first method was merely a guess.

The second contained too many uncertainties.

Only the third had been verified by Ravenclaw.

Dawn understood all too well how terrifying and impossible to guard against the World Correction could be.

Therefore, even though he now possessed the Invisibility Cloak, he still wanted to investigate other methods.

Thus, after confirming that it wouldn't delay his own work too much, he told Dumbledore that he intended to remain at Hogwarts.

However...

The old Headmaster didn't respond.

Perhaps he knew Dawn wouldn't care about his answer. Or perhaps he was still immersed in his own turbulent thoughts.

History could be changed.

That was the conclusion Ravenclaw herself had given!

Dumbledore thought of his sister's accidental death, and a trace of pain flashed through his azure eyes.

He sighed inwardly.

"Changing history..."

In truth, Dumbledore and Snape were rather similar.

Both of them carried people they regretted losing in their hearts, unable to forget them.

The difference was that most of the time, the old Headmaster remained rational.

Although in the original timeline, when faced with the Resurrection Stone within arm's reach, Dumbledore had rarely allowed himself to act impulsively and taken it for himself...

At this moment, "changing the past" was an endeavor he considered unlikely to succeed. It was nowhere near enough to make him risk everything.

After all, even if Merlin had changed history, there was no record of him ever returning after traveling into the past.

And Voldemort and Dawn were like two mountains pressing down on Dumbledore, leaving the old Headmaster exhausted and unwilling to take the slightest unnecessary risk.

Thinking of this...

The old Headmaster slowly raised his head.

He stopped focusing on the strange secrets surrounding Merlin and the Four Founders and instead asked a much more practical question.

"Dawn, did you suddenly become so high-profile because of the matter involving the Castle Consciousness?

Have you decided to gain enough prestige to unify the perceptions of every wizard?"

Dumbledore was testing him.

The sudden change in topic caught Dawn somewhat off guard, but he still raised an eyebrow with interest.

"If I say yes, would you stop me?"

"I think I should."

Dumbledore's tone was extremely serious.

Those red eyes were reflected in his azure gaze, allowing the old Headmaster to easily compare Dawn to the boy he had known in first year.

His thoughts had undergone a complete transformation.

For example...

His desire for power.

Dumbledore remembered Dawn's opening speech at the previous day's conference.

He was deeply worried that Dawn would become another Grindelwald and ignite a war between wizards and Muggles.

Destroying peace.

Leaving countless dead in his wake.

And even more frightening...

Dawn was probably doing all of this entirely for his own selfish reasons!

The old Headmaster was deeply troubled.

But before Dawn could answer—

Clang!

Several crisp sounds suddenly rang out.

Something seemed to have fallen out of the Sorting Hat and slammed heavily onto the table, making it tremble.

Dawn immediately realized what had happened.

He lifted the old hat and looked underneath... Sure enough, the four alchemical artifacts were piled beneath it!

The corners of Dawn's eyes curved upward.

Now he could finally relax.

Otherwise, exchanging three treasures for a statue that shattered after saying only a few sentences would make him look like an absolute sucker.

However...

Speaking of the statue...

Dawn suddenly realized that he'd forgotten to ask Ravenclaw whether Merlin Ambrosius was actually a surviving Obscurial.

He rubbed his chin.

Recalling the statue's tone, he felt that was probably not the case.

Otherwise, such an important matter couldn't possibly have gone completely unmentioned.

Then...

Had Nicolas Flamel simply made the wrong deduction?

Or had Merlin, after returning to the past, somehow become an Obscurial within a wizard's body?

Dawn's mind was filled with all sorts of chaotic thoughts.

But he soon snapped out of them and narrowed his eyes at the Sorting Hat beside him.

He planned to record all of its Trait Patterns and find some time to copy one for research.

If he couldn't obtain the genuine article, using a replica to satisfy his curiosity would be perfectly acceptable.

Dawn thought this to himself as he reached toward the table, preparing to retrieve his three treasures.

Hufflepuff's Cup...

Slytherin's Locket...

But just as Dawn's fingers closed around the Diadem—

Dumbledore suddenly frowned and reached out, firmly grabbing Dawn's wrist.

Dawn looked up in surprise.

"Headmaster, what are you doing?"

He pulled backward with force, but Dumbledore's grip was so firm that he couldn't free his wrist.

Dawn's expression immediately turned hostile.

"You're being too greedy, child!" The old Headmaster's expression was equally solemn. "This doesn't belong to you. Put down the Diadem!"

"It doesn't belong to me?!"

Dawn was so angry that he laughed.

He assumed Dumbledore had remembered that the Diadem was something Dawn had stolen during Christmas and was trying to take advantage of the situation to reclaim it.

"In your dreams!"

Dawn's voice turned cold.

"Headmaster, don't forget. I was the one who gave this to you during my first year!"

"What does that have to do with you?"

Dumbledore's response nearly made Dawn explode.

Listen to that!

The shameless old honeybee had actually turned around and refused to acknowledge him!

He hadn't even tried to steal Gryffindor's Sword yet!

Dawn felt genuinely aggrieved.

But the next second, the old Headmaster's answer left him completely stunned.

"Harry found it and gave it to me. Dawn, you stole it during Christmas and have kept it for this long. It's time to return it to its rightful owner."

"Harry?!"

Dawn was utterly bewildered.

What did Harry have to do with this?

He wanted to accuse Dumbledore of having completely lost his mind.

But looking at the old Headmaster's calm expression, he couldn't believe such a ridiculous excuse was something Dumbledore would actually say.

What was going on?!

At that instant...

An ominous premonition suddenly surged through Dawn's heart.

It was as though he were standing beside an erupting volcano... The sense of danger made his entire body tremble.

For some inexplicable reason... Dawn seemed to realize something.

He narrowed his eyes.

He didn't look at the Sorting Hat.

He didn't look at Dumbledore.

Instead, he looked around the Headmaster's office, toward every direction.

In an instant!

A pure white world descended into his pupils.

Endless natural magic gathered and became visible.

It transformed from thin mist into dense clouds, then accumulated into surging waves.

Finally, it condensed into something resembling solid matter, filling the entire world.

Dawn was completely stunned.

This was something he'd never witnessed before!

Even the fluctuations of natural magic during extreme weather, or the massive concentration of natural magic when transforming into a magical creature, were nowhere near this level.

Something terrible had happened!

Dawn's eyes widened.

Such a vast and overwhelming concentration of natural magic...

Or rather, the World Correction... Combined with Dumbledore's unusual behavior earlier...

He instantly reached a conclusion.

Something had gone wrong with time. Or something had gone wrong with the past!

But wasn't this far too coincidental?

He had only just discussed this exact topic with Ravenclaw's statue. And shortly afterward, something like this had happened.

Dawn absolutely couldn't convince himself that this was a coincidence.

But why?

Was there some forbidden subject hidden within their conversation?

"Child, put down the Diadem. This truly isn't something that belongs to you."

Dawn was already irritated beyond belief. Yet Dumbledore was still nagging him.

He had no patience to waste time arguing here.

Dawn glared fiercely at the old Headmaster and recorded his Trait Patterns.

Then flames erupted around his wrist.

The Fiendfyre forced Dumbledore back.

Dawn shoved the Diadem into his robes and vanished with a loud bang.

Whoosh!

A wave of air surged through the room.

Dumbledore narrowed his eyes and captured the traces of residual magic.

His first instinct was to pursue him.

But after remembering that he had no way to deal with Dawn, and that chasing after him would probably accomplish nothing, he hesitated before ultimately giving up.

"We can't continue like this!"

The old Headmaster took a deep breath and told himself the same thing once again.

He walked around the desk and took a bottle of Felix Felicis from the cabinet.

He pulled out the stopper and stared at the golden potion inside.

But then he thought about Dawn's intention to return to Hogwarts, as well as the fact that there was currently no suitable replacement Headmaster.

With a sigh, he put the bottle back down.

Not yet.

It wasn't time.

Dumbledore felt that he had to find a foolproof way of restricting Dawn. For example, an Unbreakable Vow.

Only then could he sleep peacefully.

The old Headmaster stroked his beard. But how could he make Dawn willingly sign such a contract?

As Dumbledore thought, his gaze drifted toward the Sorting Hat.

He remembered what the boy had wanted from Ravenclaw's statue. Could he make use of that?

Perhaps he could find the information Dawn wanted in advance.

Or even fabricate it?

A plan began taking shape in the old Headmaster's mind.

But suddenly!

Dumbledore's brow furrowed strangely again.

He pressed his fingers against his temple.

For some reason, the image of Ravenclaw's Diadem suddenly appeared in his mind, accompanied by an inexplicable sense of discord.

"What is this?"

The old Headmaster narrowed his eyes and murmured.

Meanwhile, Dawn had already reached Egypt.

He grabbed a Muggle and began modifying its Trait Patterns according to Dumbledore's pattern.

Soon, the old Headmaster appeared on the ground.

Dawn didn't give him any opportunity to speak.

The moment their eyes met, he activated Legilimency and refined the memory in an instant.

Scene after scene appeared before him.

Dawn deliberately searched through the memories related to the Diadem.

Very quickly, his attention locked onto a particular scene from his first year.

The Ravenclaw Diadem really hadn't been found by Dawn!

According to Dumbledore's memories, Harry had entered the Room of Requirement and seen the Diadem.

His scar had suddenly begun hurting badly, so he had summoned Dumbledore.

After the Horcrux was destroyed, the old Headmaster had asked the still-living Nicolas Flamel to restore the Diadem to its original state and return it to Harry.

And afterward, it had ended up in Dawn's hands because, during last year's Christmas, when he had gone to steal the Invisibility Cloak, he had taken the Diadem along with it.

Wonderful.

So he'd actually become the villain for real?!

Dawn felt utterly miserable.

The past, or rather, his memories, had been altered in an utterly inexplicable way.

But why?

That question echoed endlessly through his mind.

If this inexplicable World Correction was related to the statue, then what exactly had it done?

And if it wasn't related to the statue...

Dawn frowned.

He couldn't help recalling the ominous sensation he'd experienced when destroying the Horcruxes.

Yet the first name that appeared in his mind was Merlin.

It wasn't a random association.

Merlin's presence had simply become far too prominent lately.

It felt as though everything somehow involved him.

But...

After thinking carefully, Dawn felt that this probably wasn't the case.

Ravenclaw had indeed said that Merlin had returned to the past and changed history.

But the current situation was completely different.

In the version of the past that had produced the present reality, Merlin had already appeared.

How could he change reality again?

Dawn simply couldn't understand it.

Surely Merlin hadn't traveled back into the past again and changed everything a second time?

Dawn rubbed his temples.

He felt as though his head had become a tangled mess.

Every time time itself became involved, everything seemed to descend into chaos.

He took a deep breath.

Dawn forced himself to calm down and temporarily shifted his attention away from Merlin.

He considered the other possibilities.

If someone had truly traveled through time and interfered with the past, thereby triggering the World Correction, Merlin wasn't the only person capable of doing so.

After all...

Although Dawn had swept up every Time-Turner in the Department of Mysteries, these objects weren't unique to Britain.

And even among the Time-Turners from the Department of Mysteries, not all of them were in his possession.

For example, when he had performed the Fountain of Good Fortune ritual, one had fallen into Avery's hands.

He had never managed to recover it.

Dawn thought about Avery, who had taken advantage of the convenience of resurrection last year and temporarily revived himself by possessing Lee Jordan's body.

Could it have something to do with that man?

Avery hated him to the bone.

After resurrecting, it wasn't impossible that he'd made arrangements for someone to travel back in time and target Dawn.

Dawn's lips tightened.

At this point, everyone looked like a potential culprit.

His expression shifted several times.

Then he abruptly shook his head and pulled himself out of those thoughts.

No.

He couldn't think like that.

Perhaps...

This World Correction wasn't targeting him at all.

Perhaps someone else had traveled into the past, and the ripples caused by their actions had simply created deviations in matters connected to him.

With that thought, Dawn took a deep breath and continued examining Dumbledore's memories.

He discovered that aside from the events surrounding the Diadem, very little else had changed.

Even the reason Dawn had originally left the castle had been altered.

Instead of Voldemort sensing the Diadem and coming after him, it had become Voldemort taking an interest in Dawn's talent, approaching him to recruit him, and becoming enraged after being rejected.

Dawn narrowed his eyes.

He increasingly felt that this probably wasn't directed at him.

Otherwise, why had only this insignificant matter involving the Diadem been changed?

However...

Even though he thought that way, an ominous shadow continued to linger in his heart.

Moreover, following this line of reasoning led him to an even more frightening possibility.

Perhaps the World Corrections Dawn had experienced were far more numerous than he had imagined.

Every time someone returned to the past, natural magic would make a subtle adjustment to ensure that the principle of "history cannot be changed" remained intact.

And this time, it was only because he was wearing the Invisibility Cloak that he'd finally noticed the alteration instead of being affected by it without realizing.

Dawn couldn't help looking up at the sky.

The sky was crystal clear, without a single cloud. Yet he seemed to see an emotionless face resembling that of a god.

Wizards used magic to change the world.

The world used natural magic to toy with wizards.

In a certain sense, they really were the perfect example of equality and harmonious coexistence.

Dawn smiled.

But!

He didn't want to become a puppet controlled by natural magic!

One day, he would sever every chain binding himself and magic.

Then he would obtain absolute freedom!

Having engraved another goal into his heart, Dawn withdrew his thoughts and returned his attention to the matter at hand.

He felt that he should properly investigate what had just happened.

But after thinking it over, he had no idea where to begin.

Under the World Correction, the memories of practically everyone had already deviated, just like Dumbledore's.

Asking them wouldn't produce any useful results.

Surely he couldn't use a Time-Turner himself, travel into the past, and inspect every single point in time just to figure out what had happened?

That was completely unrealistic.

So...

After thinking it through, Dawn changed his approach.

Instead of investigating the truth behind the incident, he would focus on ensuring that his consciousness and memories could never again be affected by natural magic.

His hand instinctively grabbed the Invisibility Cloak.

It should have been a transparent garment, yet flowing radiance could be seen across its surface, as though it reflected the Milky Way.

Dawn was actually delighted.

Because after the World Correction just now, he had confirmed that the cloak really could shield him from natural magic and protect him.

But that didn't mean he intended to give up on the other methods.

When it came to something as important as his own safety, the more safeguards, the better.

Therefore...

Without hesitation, Dawn once again focused his gaze on Dumbledore's body lying on the ground.

He modified its Trait Patterns again, changing them toward the structure of the Sorting Hat.

The figure on the ground twisted and contracted.

The flesh dried up.

The skin condensed into fabric.

In an instant, it transformed into a familiar but much cleaner wizard's hat.

"Oh! You evil wizard! Where is this place? Good heavens! You actually threw the great me into the sand!"

The Sorting Hat looked around in confusion and immediately began complaining loudly.

It lifted its brim as though a human were pulling up their trouser legs, leaving only two thin points supporting its body.

Dawn didn't want to waste time talking with it.

The Sorting Hat possessed a soul and thoughts, meaning its memories could be read.

So Dawn directly used Legilimency.

"Oh, what are you..."

The Sorting Hat sensed scenes flashing through its mind, and its body displayed an expression of humanlike surprise.

Dawn guessed that the damn hat itself might possess some method of protecting its memories.

Unfortunately, the material he had transformed into it was a Muggle.

Without magic, any such method would lose its effectiveness.

Dawn grinned.

But soon, the smug curve of his lips abruptly froze.

He discovered that in the old hat's memories, Ravenclaw's Diadem was also connected to Harry!

What was going on?

Dawn was utterly confused.

Had Ravenclaw lied?

Could the Sorting Hat actually not shield itself from the World Correction?

Or had some unknown change occurred during the thousand years that had passed?

Surely...

It couldn't be that only his own memories had been altered?

Was he the only person whose memories had been changed?!

Dawn recalled every interaction he'd had with the Diadem, and uncertainty began creeping into his mind.

But soon, as he stared at the natural magic flowing within the hat, he smacked his forehead.

He really had been foolish!

Natural magic had already entered the hat's body.

How could it possibly remain unaffected while retaining the correct memories?

Dawn helplessly shook his head.

The fundamental condition for him to copy another wizard's patterns was using natural magic to maintain the transformation of those patterns.

Under the World Correction, however, this was obviously nothing but a pure disadvantage.

But...

This had given him a useful reminder.

"Blocking natural magic's... colorless lines?"

Standing on the sandy ground, Dawn murmured to himself.

___________

Upto 20 chapters ahead on patreon :-

patreon.com/BloodAncestor