Hogwarts: Even Voldemort Can't Stop Me From Studying

Chapter 580: Chapter 190: Carrel’s Story

Carrel sat on the chair with his head down, silent, seemingly completely immersed in remorse and dejection.

He could hear Professor McGonagall arguing with the Aurors:

”How can you... How can you just break his Magic Wand? The Ministry of Magic can’t just expel our students!”

”Please calm down, Professor, the situation is actually like this...”

”Impossible! Carrel Johnson is an excellent student! Although maybe... maybe the race is somewhat different, I absolutely do not believe he would commit such terrible crimes as you say!”

”Believe me, Professor McGonagall. If possible, I would not want to treat a child this way either. But do you know what he planned to do? He deliberately led Vid Gray into a room where dozens of Vampires were lying in ambush!”

”Could there be some misunderstanding?” Professor McGonagall said in disbelief: ”Maybe... maybe it’s the Imperio... he doesn’t know what he’s doing...”

”No, he knew. We can be sure, from the start, Carrel entered Hogwarts with a purpose, Professor McGonagall. The Carrel Johnson you knew was just an illusion he fabricated.”

Their voices came through the door, and listening to Professor McGonagall’s tone shift from anger to shock, and gradually transform into disappointment, Carrel had little thought.

The Professor was kind, but he never got close to the Professor.

He lowered his head, staring at the Gold Chain in his hand for a long time, finally deciding to wear it around his neck, gently twisting it.

The golden Hourglass spun, glimmering slightly, crafted with exquisite workmanship, the sand inside silently slipping away.

But nothing happened, and the voices outside the door continued relentlessly.

Carrel exhaled a long sigh, leaned back in the chair, his eyes staring vacantly at the ceiling, as if he had lost all strength.

He had known for some time that this would not be easy.

Especially when Vid left without asking for the Timer back; Carrel suspected that what he had was merely a counterfeit. Yet, until this moment, he was struck by immense disappointment.

...

Actually, Carrel had always been puzzled as to why his classmates were so obtuse, that no one noticed the great secrets hidden within Vid and Hermione.

Especially Harry, Ron, and Neville, who spent more time with Hermione, knowing that many of her classes had been repeated, and knowing she never missed a class, but those brains seemed as if they had been nibbled by Flöbo Caterpillars, unwilling to think any further.

Carrel was different; he kept an eye on Vid and discovered the problem early on.

Initially, he thought it was a form of ”duplication” magic, searched through Magic Books but didn’t find a similar Spell; later, he thought it was Poppet, finally guessing from Hermione’s increasingly fatigued state that the truth was the most inconceivable one—time.

Vid was elusive, hard to monitor. Hermione was less cautious; after tracking her for a few days, Carrel discovered that whenever she turned that golden Hourglass, she would suddenly disappear from where she stood.

After which came the long process of validation and studying materials; not easy, but eventually Carrel confirmed the function, usage, and various taboos of the Time Turner.

In all the descriptions about the Time Turner, they repeatedly stressed that it could only be used for minor matters, not to change history.

Yet there is a famous experiment concerning Time Turners meant to warn future generations—

A Witch who traveled to hundreds of years ago and stayed for several days did indeed alter the life trajectory of those she met, causing some individuals who should have been born to disappear completely, and the later timeline to become chaotic, she herself aged swiftly and died because of it.

This proves that using a Time Turner to alter the past is not impossible, only the cost is too heavy, which the Magic World is unwilling to bear.

But Carrel didn’t care; once he learned of this item, he had been contemplating how to obtain the Time Turner.

He had seen Dumbledore’s strength and dread firsthand, dare not mess around in school; Vid didn’t accept the holiday invite either, the only convenient occasion for planning was Hogsmeade weekend.

As it happens, his nominal parents were always planning to deal with Vid Gray.

This was their another mistake—originally, Carrel had his memory forcibly erased through Forgetfulness Spell, fabricated a memory of growing up in the organization, aiming to develop him into a Wizard solely loyal to the organization.

Yet later, when Vid’s reputation soared, the organization recognized the enormous value latent within the young Alchemist. After investigating, they discovered Carrel happened to be childhood friends with Vid, delighted at the chance to exploit this relationship.

But those too greedy often gain nothing.

The organization, before performing ”Memory Erasure Technique,” would extract and preserve a copy of the previous memories; wanting Carrel to gain Vid’s trust more easily, they opted to return his memories of spending time with Vid.

But these memories, contradictory and incompatible with the monotonous organizational training memories.

So the organization’s Wizards had to manipulate Carrel’s memories, altering the resemblance of his parents in his memories, and converted his identity to naturally be a Vampire.

The organization seemed to believe that racial divisions would make him incapable of ever assimilating into the Magic World, and his childhood experiences of murder were an easy handle to destroy trust.

Even placing Carrel within Hogwarts, his final abode remained the organization, his ”Vampire Clan.”

Yet regrettably, memories are not film negatives, not genuinely eradicable once something existed when clipping them away.

Carrel forgot the true appearance of his parents, but he remembered the gentle voice of his mother, father’s cheerful smile, their scent, the irreplaceable happiness they felt when together.

While Vampires, carried a bloody scent that could never be washed away; a careful sniff revealed a peculiar scent of corpses in decay.

Not to mention, an unusual tasting seafood chowder, entirely divergent from memory.

That Hogsmeade weekend, when his fake parents appeared before him, Carrel seemed to hear the crisp sound of glass shattering.

The masked deception upon his memory instantly revealed immense cracks, exposing the brutal, painful aura uniquely belonging to the truth hidden beneath.

Amidst countless hard nights, Carrel gradually uncovered the truth. One early morning, browsing through newspapers in the library, he suddenly spotted a corner news story.

A Muggle woman, referred to as ”Mrs. Johnson,” strangled to death by the necklace around her neck on a hospital bed in a nursing home.

The newspaper spared no lengthy description of this unfortunate woman’s death, merely condemning that certain Wizards sold Magic Items to oblivious Muggles, emphasizing that the Magic Accident and Disaster Department had thoroughly processed the incident, and the Auror Office would continue to pursue the Wizard selling the necklace.

For some reason, though the newspaper contained no full name nor photo, seeing that news, Carrel felt as though his heart was being torn apart, pain suffocated his breath, his body trembled, his tears ran silently down his face.

At that moment, he was utterly certain, the nameless Muggle woman killed without cause was his biological mother.

...

A tear trickled down from Carrel’s eye corner, disappearing within the crevice of his hair disappearing at his temple.

”Mr. Johnson.”

Suddenly, a voice came from the doorway.

Professor McGonagall and an Auror stood in the doorway, the Gryffindor College dean’s gaze was filled with heartache, the Auror’s expression mixed with sympathy and disdain, he said:

”Your request has been granted from above, you may now go to the dormitory to retrieve your belongings.”

Carrel slowly stood up, following beside the Auror, heading to the Gryffindor Common Room.

To preserve his dignity, Carrel’s hands and feet were not bound. However, the Auror used a confinement type of Magic on him; right now, a set of dark iron rings encircled his ankles, should Carrel attempt to escape, the rings would instantly clamp shut, restricting his mobility.

They walked down the corridor, not yet reaching the fifth floor, suddenly a chaotic explosion sounded in the corridor, students screaming in anger, followed by Peeves proudly singing:

”Peeves, Peeves... No one surpasses his pranks... Peeves, Peeves... Ink scattered everywhere, clueless students helpless... Peeves, Peeves... No one escapes his grasp...”

He sang while chasing students, throwing ink bottles, a crowd of students fled with their heads covered, the entire corridor flooded with ink from the ceiling to the floor.

”Peeves!” Professor McGonagall walked over angrily: ”Now, immediately stop your pranks!”

Seeing Professor McGonagall, Peeves let out a weird cry, quickly darting away in the opposite direction.

Carrel suddenly started and slightly raised his head.

Just now, as Peeves fled, he seemingly winked deliberately at him.

Immediately following, Carrel saw a girl with messy hair carrying a backpack, walking over while wiping ink from her face, looking annoyed, a faint golden glow shimmering at her collar.

It was Hermione.

Carrel narrowed his eyes slightly.