Chapter 468: Caryle's Story
Chapter 468: Caryle's Story
Caryle sat in the chair, head bowed, silent, lost in regret and despair.
He could hear Professor Mcgonagall arguing with the Aurors:
"How can you... how can you just break his wand? The Ministry of Magic can't just expel our students!"
"Please calm down, Professor. The situation is actually..."
"That's impossible! Caryle Johnson is an excellent student! Although... although his background may be different, I cannot believe he would commit such terrible crimes!"
"Believe me, Professor Mcgonagall. If it were up to me, I wouldn't want to do this to a child. But do you know what he intended to do? He deliberately led Wade Gray into a room ambushed by dozens of vampires!"
"Could there be a misunderstanding?" Professor Mcgonagall said, incredulous. "Maybe... maybe it was the Imperius Curse... he didn't know what he was doing..."
"No, he did. We are certain that from the moment he entered Hogwarts, Caryle Johnson had a purpose, Professor Mcgonagall. The Caryle Johnson you knew was just a facade."
Through the door, Caryle could hear Professor Mcgonagall's voice shift from anger to shock, and then to disappointment. He didn't have much to think about. The Professor was kind, but Caryle couldn't get close to her.
He lowered his head and stared at the gold chain in his hand for a long time, then finally put it around his neck, twisting it once.
The golden hourglass spun, glinting slightly, its craftsmanship exquisite. The sand inside trickled silently.
But nothing happened. The voices outside continued without a pause.
Caryle let out a long sigh, leaned his head back against the chair, and gazed at the ceiling with lifeless eyes, as if he had lost all his strength.
He had known this wouldn't be easy.
Especially when Wade left without taking back the timer, Caryle had guessed that what he had was just a fake. But even so, the crushing disappointment hit him hard.
...
Caryle had always been puzzled by how his classmates could be so oblivious, not noticing the significant secrets hidden by Wade and Hermione.
Especially Harry, Ron, and Neville, who spent more time with Hermione and knew that she repeated many classes and never missed a single one. Yet, their minds, as if gnawed by Flobberworms, refused to think any further.
Caryle was different. He had been watching Wade closely and discovered the problem early on.
At first, he thought it might be a "doppelganger" spell, but he found no such spell in the magic books. Later, he suspected it might be a homunculus, but eventually, he deduced from Hermione's increasingly fatigued state that the truth was the most unbelievable of all—time.
Wade was elusive and hard to monitor. Hermione, on the other hand, was much more careless. After a few days of tracking, Caryle discovered that whenever she turned the golden hourglass, she would suddenly vanish from the spot.
What followed was a long process of verification and research. It was difficult, but Caryle eventually confirmed the Time-Turner's function, usage, and various taboos.
All descriptions of the Time-Turner emphasized that it could only be used for minor tasks and could not alter history.
However, there was a famous experiment used to warn future generations—
A witch who traveled back several hundred years and stayed for a few days indeed altered the lives of those she encountered, causing some who should have been born to disappear and creating chaos in the timeline. She herself aged rapidly and died.
This proved that using the Time-Turner to change the past was possible, but the cost was too great for the magical world to bear.
But Caryle didn't care. Ever since he learned about this device, he had been thinking of ways to get his hands on a Time-Turner.
He had witnessed Dumbledore's power and feared causing trouble at school; Wade had also declined his invitation during the holidays. The only convenient time was Hogsmeade weekends.
Coincidentally, his nominal parents were planning to target Wade Gray.
This was their second mistake—originally, Caryle's memory had been forcibly erased and replaced with a fabricated one of him growing up in the Organization, to mold him into a wizard loyal only to them.
But later, as Wade's reputation grew, the Organization realized the immense value in the young alchemist. Upon discovering that Caryle and Wade had grown up together, they were delighted and wanted to use this connection.
But those who are too greedy often end up with nothing.
Before the Organization performed the "memory clearance" on people, they would extract and store their previous memories. To make it easier for Caryle to gain Wade’s trust, they decided to return the memories of his time with Wade to him.
However, these memories were starkly different from the monotonous memories of his life with the Organization, filled with inconsistencies.
Thus, the Organization’s wizards had to edit and modify Caryle’s memories. They replaced the images of his parents and changed his identity to that of a born vampire.
The Organization believed that the racial divide would prevent him from ever fully integrating into the magical world, and his history of killing from a young age would be a handle that could easily destroy any trust.
Even if Caryle were placed in Hogwarts, his ultimate destination would still be the Organization, his so-called "vampire family."
But unfortunately, memories are not like film; cutting out a part of them doesn’t erase all traces of what once existed.
Caryle forgot the true faces of his parents, but he still remembered his mother’s gentle voice, his father’s hearty laugh, the scent they carried, and the irreplaceable sense of happiness when they were close together.
And on the vampires, there was only a smell of blood that no amount of washing could remove. If you sniffed closely, there was even a peculiar scent of decay from a corpse.
Not to mention, there was that bowl of seafood chowder with a strange taste, completely different from what he remembered.
When that Hogsmeade weekend came, and his fake parents appeared before him, Caryle felt as if he heard the sharp sound of glass shattering.
The mask over his memories instantly developed a huge crack, revealing the cruel and painful truth hidden beneath.
Through countless sleepless nights, Caryle gradually uncovered the truth. One early morning, he was sitting in the library reading a newspaper when he suddenly noticed a news item in the corner.
A Muggle woman named "Mrs. Johnson" had been strangled to death in her bed at a nursing home by a necklace around her neck.
The newspaper didn’t provide much detail about the unfortunate woman, only condemning certain wizards for selling magical items to unsuspecting Muggles and emphasizing that the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes had handled the incident, with the Auror Office continuing to investigate the wizard who sold the necklace.
For some reason, despite the lack of a full name or a photo, when Caryle saw that news, his heart felt as if it had been torn apart, the pain making it hard to breathe, his whole body trembling, and tears streaming down his face silently.
In that moment, he was absolutely certain that the unnamed Muggle woman who had been murdered was his biological mother.
...
A tear slid down the corner of Caryle’s eye, disappearing into his hairline.
"Mr. Johnson."
A voice suddenly came from the door.
Professor Mcgonagall and an Auror stood there. The head of Gryffindor House’s eyes were filled with pain, while the Auror’s expression was a mix of sympathy and disdain. He said:
"Your request has been granted. You can now go to your dormitory to collect your belongings."
Caryle slowly stood up and followed the Auror toward the Gryffindor common room.
To preserve his dignity, Caryle’s hands and feet were not bound. However, the Auror had cast a containment spell on him, and dark iron shackles now encircled his ankles. If Caryle tried to escape, the shackles would instantly snap together, restricting his movements.
As they walked down the corridor, they hadn’t even reached the fifth floor when a chaotic explosion suddenly echoed through the hallway. Students screamed in anger, followed by Peeves’ triumphant singing:
"Peeves, Peeves... no one can match his mischief... Peeves, Peeves... ink spills everywhere, students are helpless... Peeves, Peeves... no one can escape his grasp..."
He sang while chasing students and throwing ink bottles, causing them to scatter in panic, with ink splattering from the ceiling to the floor.
"Peeves!" Professor Mcgonagall strode over, her face livid. "Stop your mischief immediately!"
Peeves let out a shrill cry at the sight of Professor Mcgonagall and quickly fled in the opposite direction.
Caryle suddenly paused, his head lifting slightly.
As Peeves fled, he seemed to deliberately wink at Caryle.
Then, Caryle saw a girl with messy hair, carrying a bookbag, wiping ink from her face and walking over with a scowl, a faint golden glow visible at her collar.
It was Hermione.
Caryle’s eyes narrowed slightly.
(End of Chapter)
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