Chapter 256

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"Messing up Slytherins' potions was a classic one we used to pull. It got so bad that Professor Slughorn refused to let us take our own potion ingredients into the lab anymore."

"And did he give you detentions?" Harry asked

"Detentions?" Sirius exclaimed, "We'd be amateurs if we let him do that. There is something that every great mischief maker needs to have. Do you know what that is?"

"Great imagination?"

"Oh no. That's secondary. The first thing is a sad backstory."

"A…sad backstory?" Harry hesitantly asked, wondering if he was hearing this right.

"That's right," Sirius nodded, "It's something a great purveyor of mischief has to feed as many people as they can. A decently told backstory inspires sympathy and affection. Sometimes even pity. All of which are essential to make sure that people are more likely to feel bad and not turn you in."

Harry raised an eyebrow, "That's actually pretty astute."

"It is. Mine used to be how my parents and family never understood me. Now, when I'm free, I'll be using the wrongfully convicted card as much as I can. Pulling pranks. Meeting girls. Making people give me free stuff. I'll be on top of the world. That story is impossible to top!"

It had been a very strange, and in many ways very exhausting day. But the wide grin on Sirius's face as he spoke of freedom was impossible to stay grim around.

Almost as if on its own, a smile stretched across Harry's face.

...…

Epilogue;

If Novikov's Self Consistency Principle turns out to be correct, then what will this imply about the philosophical notion of free will for humans and other intelligent beings?

It certainly will imply that intelligent beings cannot change the past. Such change is incompatible with the principle of self-consistency. Consequently, anyone that uses Time Travel and tries to change the past would be prevented by Universe itself from making the change; i.e. the "free will" of the being would be limited.

And although this might not be obvious to non-Time-Travelling individuals, this constraint has a more global character. Joffington Douglas of the Department of Mysteries theorizes that if the Universe is always consistent with itself, then it might not be incorrect to say that it is following a 'set course' of sorts.

The implications of that, are immense.

Harry closed the book and leaned back into the cushioned armchair he was sitting on in the Flamel library. A lot of the theory about Time Travel he had been reading in this book made minimal sense to him, and whatever little that did had too many disturbing implications.

Closing his eyes, he let his mind drift back to the conversation he had with Dumbledore on the Halloween night, the night he had learned that Time Travel was possible.

"Novikov's Principle says that if an event exists that would give rise to a paradox or 'change' the past, then the probability of that event is zero. It is impossible to create time paradoxes. Time turners are built to exploit that…self-consistency of the universe, so as to speak."

"But what if I don't want to obey the Principle? What if I go back in time and kill myself?"

"It won't matter if you want to Harry. The universe will take the path of least resistance, and cut you off from existence. The moment you will turn the hourglass of the time turner with the clear and rigid intention to kill yourself, it would be as if you never existed. You would be…unborn."

The library door opened with a creak, snapping Harry out of his thoughts. Opening his eyes, he looked up to see who it was.

"Harry?" Perenelle called as she stepped in, looking curiously at him, "It's almost noon, and you've been in here since the morning. You didn't even come down for breakfast. Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Harry assured her as she walked over to him and picked up one of the books he had been reading from the small table beside his chair, "Just a bit stuck on this book."

"Diagramma Chronos. The Diagram of Time," Perenelle muttered, reading the title of the book he had just been reading as she sat down on his chair's armrest, "I didn't know you were interested in Time magic. This is a bit beyond your curriculum isn't it?"

A mocking half-smile spread across Harry's face, "I don't have a curriculum remember. No more Hogwarts this year. Besides, when have I ever stuck to the curriculum."

"Certainly not when you blackmailed Nicholas into teaching you alchemy," was the flat reply.

Harry stilled.

"…you know about that?"

"What? That you threatened to turn over Nicholas's magazine collection to me if he didn't agree to teach you alchemy?" Perenelle said, idly turning over a page of the book she was looking at.

"Yes…" Harry said tentatively.

"Of course I did. You two boys aren't nearly as stealthy as you think you are."

"So why did you put a stop to it?" Harry asked.

"Because Nicholas has wanted to teach someone ever since Albus left his tutelage," Perenelle said, turning to look at him with a smile, "He wanted to teach you, but he is a bit too proud at times for his own good. If you strong-arming him into it was what he needed to get over his ego, then who am I to interfere."

Harry stared at her for a second, before smiling back, "Thanks."

"You're welcome," she said, before curiously asking, "Where did you hide his magazines? I've been hearing him searching everywhere around the house the last few months."

"You know something funny I learned this summer?" Harry replied with a smile, "Nicholas rarely changes his underpants. He likes to spell them clean."

A look of understanding passed over Perenelle's face before she started chuckling in earnest. "You cheeky little runt. You hid it at the bottom of his underwear drawer didn't you?"

"Yep," Harry replied with a wide grin.

The Flamels' clothing drawers had been warded against summoning and other spells like that, and Harry had thrown in a couple other spells he had learned in the library as well. He could, of course, have kept them in his inventory but where would the fun have been in that.

Half the fun in this was going to be seeing Nicholas's face when he would find out where the magazines had been hidden all along.

Besides, Harry had kept a couple of magazines in his Inventory.

Just as a backup.

It took a while for Perenelle to stop chuckling and start looking at the book again. Once she did, she turned to him and asked, "Which part were you stuck on?"

Harry leaned over and turned the book over to the right page, "That one. You know how Dumbledore was using the time turner to help save the students' lives right? Well when he told me about it, he mentioned the Principle on that page. Novikov's Self Consistency Principle."

"The language on here seems fairly straightforward. What were you stuck on?"

"It's just," Harry said hesitantly, "If this means what I think this means…"

"You reached the same conclusion as I did when I first read this book didn't you," Perenelle asked as she looked at him with concern in her eyes.

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