It started with a whisper inside the ticking of the grandfather clock in the Hogwarts Entrance Hall.
At first, it merely ticked wrong—too fast, too slow, too soft.
Then, time inside the castle began to bend:
Students relived the same conversation twice.
Professors forgot entire lectures.
And one first-year aged three years overnight.
Aarav, already sensing subtle ripples from the Codex of All Paths, knew something was wrong.
This wasn't coincidence.
This was calculation.
And somewhere—a clockmaker was free.
The Time Division of the Department of Mysteries arrived at Hogwarts in full force.
Even they were puzzled.
"It's not a time-turner malfunction," said Chief Unspeakable Myra Vane.
"This is deep-branch temporal warping. Someone's turning decision points into loops."
Only one spellcaster was known to have ever attempted such a thing.
Chronohex Prime: The forbidden art of trapping reality within a moment that never settles.
And its only known practitioner had vanished 400 years ago.
Name: Phineas Mire — The Clockmaker
The Wand of All reacted to the pull in time.
It whispered a location to him:
The Tower that Isn't.
Hidden between the folds of Hogwarts' original blueprints, this tower shouldn't exist—
and yet, Aarav found its door beside the Divination staircase, where a wall used to be.
Inside:
Gears floating in mid-air.
Bookshelves made of ticking parchment.
And a pendulum made of petrified time.
Bound in its center, inside a cage of crystal, was Phineas Mire—smiling.
"Ah, finally. The boy who anchors.
Come to arrest me? Or… replace me?"
SYSTEM WARNING:
Entity Identified: Phineas Mire – Class: Temporal Rogue
Timeline Status: Fragmented – Hogwarts' present under stress
Threat Level: S-Tier – Capable of rewriting local timeflow
Unique Trait: Prisoner of His Own Spell (Can only be released by someone who has seen all possible futures)
Suggested Action: Intervene with Temporal Discretion
Phineas extended his hand through the crystal bars.
"Time has rules.
I broke them because they were wrong.
I don't want out. I want you to see.
There's a prison within the prison. And the warden wears a phoenix."
He meant Dumbledore.
Or... some echo of him.
Aarav paused.
"Why now?"
Phineas tilted his head.
"Because one of your students dies tomorrow.
And you won't be able to stop it.
Not unless you understand my math."
Phineas snapped his fingers. The tower folded inside out.
Aarav was suddenly in three times at once:
Teaching in his classroom.
Speaking with Dumbledore's portrait.
Watching a duel break out between two of his students.
Each event occurred simultaneously.
Each with one piece of a greater riddle.
If he failed to act in all three, the timeline would reset again—worse each time.
NEW ABILITY UNLOCKED:
Temporal Triplex (Temporary)
Effect: Act in three linked moments simultaneously
Cooldown: 12 hours
Bonus: Retain 100% memory across replays
Risk: Identity destabilization above 4 uses
Aarav dove in.
He taught the lesson precisely—to anchor the class's magical signature.
He told the Dumbledore portrait to reveal the Time Clause in Hogwarts' Wards—a secret override Phineas built into the castle's heart.
And he stopped the duel—not with power, but by speaking the winning student's future regret aloud before it happened.
"You'll hate yourself for it, Clara. Five years from now. I've seen it."
She dropped her wand, trembling.
The loop snapped.
The timeline stabilized.
And Aarav collapsed in all three locations, breathless—but alive.
The crystal cage cracked.
Phineas smiled—not free, but satisfied.
"Well done, Professor.
You are not the Warden.
But you are the key."
He handed Aarav a watch—its face blank.
"Set this only when you must stop something forever.
It will freeze that moment, preserve it.
But you will never change it again."
ITEM GAINED: The Final Second
Effect: Lock any one moment in time permanently
Limit: One use
Warning: Cannot be undone—even by origin spells or wand memory
Passive Gained: Chrono-Intuition – Perceive minor fluctuations in local timelines
In the ruins of a forgotten realm, someone else felt the timeline shift.
A girl with silver eyes and broken hourglasses for pupils looked up.
"The Anchor has touched the Clockmaker.
Then time is no longer safe."
She reached into a pocket dimension and removed an hourglass that counted backwards.
"Prepare the Dread Calendar.
We move at the end of his heartbeat.