"A magical mishap?"
After wiping his face, Albus Dumbledore turned to look at Ian with an intriguing expression, yet he did not delve too deeply into the matter.
"I will consult your door knocker to understand the situation. It's right; this is indeed a profound magic, a domain we wizards should never touch."
Albus Dumbledore's tone carried a hint of wistfulness.
"I suppose you're talking about more than just the time loop?" Ian watched Dumbledore, who was starting to tidy his hair; it was the first time Dumbledore cared so much about his appearance.
"Exactly, Mr. Prince, very perceptive." Albus Dumbledore returned to the hall, sat down at his desk, and put his glasses back on.
"As I just said, our meeting at this moment isn't something that was supposed to happen. It's merely one possibility of fate."
Albus Dumbledore spoke calmly yet powerfully.
The voice wasn't loud.
Yet it stirred a stormy wave in Ian's heart.
"You mean..."
Ian guessed what Albus Dumbledore wanted to express, but he found it hard to believe what he was thinking; this was even more unbelievable than a time loop.
"Yes, child, it's exactly what you think. Professor Ronnie Ehrich's situation is precisely what's happening to all of us right now, except you."
Albus Dumbledore's voice remained steady, "Not only is he a segment of fate extracted, but everything you're experiencing now is just a part of fate that's been extracted."
"Of course, we are slightly better off than Professor Ronnie Ehrich. We are those possibilities that never happened, while Professor Ronnie Ehrich represents the culmination of all possibilities he has exhausted."
"He serves as the fundamental existence maintaining this... secret realm. We cannot know the operating principle of this magic, but he is undoubtedly the key for you to extricate yourself and return to the already determined future." Albus Dumbledore calmly revealed an unbelievable fact.
"This is rather outrageous!"
Ian found it hard to imagine such a magic that defied understanding. He raised his hand to look at the curse seal on the back, "So I'm not actually experiencing a time loop?"
The little wizard's confusion made Albus Dumbledore shake his head.
"It's both fate and time."
"You indeed experience a time loop, but what you experience is not truly your past, just various possibilities that weren't anchored at the correct time."
"It has a limit; from the Christmas you've been talking about, it's exactly forty-nine days from today. Our founders collected destinies that never happened within forty-nine days."
"So, to break the cycle, you need to let the proper time flow once more, and our Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts believes we must find a way to truly kill Professor Ronnie Ehrich, destroying the core of this secret realm, causing it to collapse naturally."
Every time Albus Dumbledore spoke, he deeply shocked Ian's slightly trembling heart, yet he remained as calm as ever, despite the initially more intense emotions he should have had.
Grindelwald was the same.
It's hard to imagine how the two discussed how to kill everyone, including themselves, in the underground palace—because if Ian broke the cycle, all here would vanish, as if the time loops never happened.
In the mortal world.
They would still be who they are.
But here, they would return to being the unanchored part of destiny, the possibilities abandoned by history.
"This is scarier than merely manipulating time... Headmaster Dumbledore, I'm not questioning your judgment, but are you sure you weren't fooled by Slytherin?"
Ian swallowed; he had never experienced such a thing in this life or the last, nor faced such strong characters as Grindelwald and Dumbledore.
"There's no mistake, child. What confirms this was precisely what our Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts told me he saw in the corridor." Albus Dumbledore poured tea into three cups; the hot tea emitted wisps of white steam.
"I borrowed the principle of the Resurrection Stone and also used the Patronus Charm's help." At this point, Ian couldn't care less about keeping the secret Grindelwald told him.
After all.
This secret was no longer necessary once he mastered the Patronus Charm.
"Ian, I believe you carry talents and powers beyond our imagination, though I may not know your secrets, I do know the world I've lived in for over a hundred years."
"The distance between life and death is too vast, even if you've used the Patronus Charm's help, taking a soul from the other side to frolic in the corridor for so long is too much."
"Your magic power is too weak to sustain it for that long." Albus Dumbledore patiently explained Ian's doubts; he was probably one of the few who could critique Ian's insufficient magic power.
"Is this the evidence you mentioned?"
Ian seemed to realize something.