169: Chapter 169 The Second Touch

"If you touch that watch again tonight, I'm going to go get Snape."

Draco stood at the dormitory door, clutching the belt of his bathrobe, his expression looking as awful as if he'd just been forced to swallow an entire bottle of Skele-Gro.

Allen sat on the edge of the bed, his blackthorn wand resting across his knees. "You won't be able to get him."

"Are you threatening me?"

Zabini leaned against the bedpost, his candy box still put away. "He's stating a fact. Before you could even walk to the door, he'd have already sent your shoelaces to the Girls Lavatory."

Nott flipped through his notebook. "After touching the cracked pocket watch last time, you slept for three days, messed up in Transfiguration Class, made Hermione suspicious, and got extra essays from Snape. The gain was confirming that the time-turner can affect the cracked pocket watch. The risk outweighs the reward."

Draco nodded immediately. "Hear that? Even Nott says it's not worth it."

Allen tucked his wand into his sleeve. "Last time was a full-finger touch."

Draco froze. "What does that mean?"

"Tonight, I'll only touch a corner."

"You're crazy."

Nott's pencil stopped. "You want to confirm the movement of the hands on the cracked pocket watch from the prophecy."

Allen looked at him. "And the Third Floor corridor."

Zabini sat up a bit straighter. "You saw it?"

"I couldn't see it clearly."

Draco grabbed the bed curtains. "Then don't look. Not seeing clearly doesn't mean you have to see it clearly. Can't you act like a normal person and leave the danger for daytime?"

Allen stood up. "There are too many people during the day."

"You really know how to pick your excuses."

In the dormitory, Crabbe and Goyle were sleeping soundly. Pansy was not in the boys' dormitory, and Nott had arranged for two lower-year students to chat outside the Common Room to prevent Filch or Snape from approaching. Although Draco had been grumbling the whole way, he still stood by the door to keep watch.

Allen raised his hand, and a Spatial Thin Layer spread out from the inside of the bed curtains. The sounds in the dormitory were dampened, and the candlelight dimmed. The entrance to the Portable Space opened in his palm, only a palm's width wide.

Draco saw the slit and swallowed hard. "Fifteen minutes."

"Ten minutes."

Nott immediately wrote it down. "Ten minutes, Void cutoff."

Zabini added, "If the nosebleed is more than half of last time, stop immediately."

Allen didn't answer and stepped into the Portable Space.

The space was more stable than at the end of the second year. The golden patterns on the north side were held down by twelve anchor points, and the token from the direction of the Chamber of Secrets had sunk into the edge. The ebony box was inside the central thin wall, and the cracked pocket watch lay within the box, with blue light flowing slowly along the cracks in the gold threads.

The Void coiled beside the box, its silver eyes fixed on Allen. The tip of its tail pressed down on the lid of the box, clearly forbidding him from approaching.

Peter Pettigrew in the cage huddled in the corner, his mouth sealed, but his eyes were wide open. He had seen Lord Voldemort's Horcrux and had seen the Basilisk's fangs, yet he was more afraid of this pocket watch.

Allen stood before the ebony box. "Move aside."

The Void didn't move.

Allen looked down at it. "Just touch the corner. Two seconds."

The tip of the Void's tail tapped on the box lid once.

"I have to touch it, even if you don't want me to. The prophecy has already reached Dumbledore, and Hermione still has the original text. The timeline is no longer quiet."

The Void's body tightened. Finally, it lifted its tail, revealing only a corner of the pocket watch.

Allen reached out, his fingernail touching the edge of the crack.

Blue light exploded, but it did not rush out of the space. The torrent of time pressed in; sound vanished first, followed by color. Pages in the Library flipped backward, the water in the Chamber of Secrets flowed in reverse, Harry returned to his broomstick from mid-air, and the tea leaves at the bottom of Trelawney's cup gathered into Black dots.

Allen bit his tongue tip, keeping his fingernail on the corner of the pocket watch.

One second.

He saw the Third Floor corridor, with torches burning on the walls. There were two shadows on the ground; one belonged to him, and the other also belonged to him.

Two Allens stood back-to-back.

The hem of one's robes was stained with muddy water, and the other held a blackthorn wand in his hand. At the end of the corridor, there was a thin blue light, like a clock hand sweeping across a door crack.

The second second.

The vision cut off.

The Void's tail lashed down sharply, and the ebony box closed. Allen stepped back half a pace, blood from his nose dripping onto the back of his hand. The amount was much less than last time, yet it still left his chest feeling stifled.

Time in the outside world was not disrupted. The edge of the Portable Space only shuddered once, and the golden patterns on the north side did not light up.

Peter Pettigrew screamed silently in the cage, clutching his head with both hands.

Allen raised his hand to wipe away the nosebleed. "The Third Floor."

The Void looked up.

"Not the Chamber of Secrets. Not the Girls Lavatory. The restricted corridor on the Third Floor."

He took out a piece of parchment and quickly drew the walls, torches, cracks in the floor tiles, and window shapes he had just seen. There were many corridors on the Third Floor of Hogwarts, but the section that once led to the mechanism for the Philosopher's Stone had the most distinctive floor tile patterns.

Allen took out an old map rubbing to compare, and his pen tip stopped beside the entrance to the old restricted area on the right side of the Third Floor.

"Location confirmed."

Three knocks came from outside. Draco couldn't wait any longer.

Allen put away the parchment and stepped out of the Portable Space. Just as he landed back in the dormitory, Draco rushed up, and seeing the blood under his nose, his entire face tightened.

"You said two seconds."

"It was two seconds."

"You're bleeding!"

"Less than last time."

Draco nearly snapped his bathrobe belt. "And you're proud of that?"

Nott handed over an empty cup. "The content of the vision."

Allen took the cup and cleaned off the blood. "The Third Floor corridor. Me and another me, standing back-to-back."

Zabini's fingers paused on the candy box. "time-turner?"

Nott's pen moved rapidly. "Two Allens appearing in the same place. This indicates a closed time loop or a short-term future regression. The probability of awakening within the third year has increased."

Draco listened, his face turning pale. "Can you speak plain English? What does two Allens mean?"

Allen sat down. "It means I will meet myself."

"Isn't that scary enough?"

"At least it's not meeting you."

Zabini let out a laugh but immediately stifled it. Draco was so angry he threw the towel at Allen. "Wipe yourself clean."

Nott continued to ask, "The Third Floor corridor is related to the time-turner. Could Hermione go there?"

"She will." Allen spread out the terrain he had drawn. "Her time-turner is bound to have problems at the end of the third year. The Black line, the Peter line, the Harry line, the Lupin line—they will all eventually push toward time."

Draco sat on a chair, his fingertips tapping on the armrest. "Don't tell me you're going to let Peter go in the end."

Peter Pettigrew in the cage seemed to hear this, and a sound of something hitting the thin wall came from the Portable Space.

Allen looked at his sleeve. "Not now."

Zabini said in a low voice, "Black hasn't truly approached Ron yet. Lupin is still testing. The Dementors are already out of control. Harry's broomstick is broken. If the Firebolt appears, everyone will be watching the Black dog."

Nott continued, "And then after Christmas, Scabbers, the Black dog, the Werewolf, and Peter will all collide in one place."

Draco grasped the main point. "After Christmas? Can't we make them not collide beforehand?"

Allen leaned back against the headboard. "Only after they collide will there be evidence."

Draco stared at him. "You always talk about evidence. But you already have Peter in your hands."

"The evidence in my hands cannot see the light of day."

"Why?"

Nott answered for him. "You can't explain the source. Stealing a rat from the Gryffindor dormitory on Christmas Eve, imprisoning a living person in the Portable Space, memory overwriting, clearing the Chamber of Secrets. Any one of these could get Allen sent to the Headmasters Office."

Draco fell silent.

Zabini closed the candy box. "So we need Black to make a scene himself, letting Lupin, Harry, Hermione, and Snape all see Peter."

Allen nodded. "To reveal the truth publicly, there needs to be a stage."

Draco cursed under his breath. "You all treat Hogwarts like a theater."

"They treated the students like chess pieces first."

After this sentence, the dormitory was quiet for a few moments.

Footsteps came from outside the door, like a patrolling Professor passing by. Nott immediately put away his notebook, and Zabini blew out the extra candles. Draco stuffed the towel into Allen's hand and lowered his voice.

"Lie down. Now."

Allen lay back on the bed as instructed, his face paler due to blood loss. Draco pulled down the bed curtains and turned to block the door.

The footsteps stopped outside the dormitory.

Snape's voice came from outside the door crack. "Mr. Malfoy, why are you not asleep yet?"

Draco's back stiffened, and the next second he spoke, "Professor, Allen overslept again and didn't hand in the materials for tomorrow's Potion Class, so I was looking for his notes."

Nott pushed a Potion book to the edge of the table.

Snape pushed the door open and entered, his gaze landing first on Draco's face, then on the book on the table. "Looking for notes in the middle of the night."

Draco bit the bullet. "He sleeps during the day and sleeps at night. If I don't find them, I'll be implicated too."

Zabini yawned. "Professor, we've been dragged down by him for a long time."

Nott added calmly, "He tucked the material list into 'a brief history of spatial magic,' which is hard to comment on."

Snape walked to Allen's bed. Inside the bed curtains, Allen was breathing evenly, his face turned toward the wall, the towel pressed under his pillow, the bloodstains already transferred into the Portable Space by the Spatial Thin Layer.

Snape paused for a few seconds. "Mr. Potter has been sleeping very deeply lately."

Draco gritted his teeth. "Yes. Like he's been kissed by a Dementor."

Zabini almost couldn't hold back his laughter.

Snape looked at Draco. "Have him come to my office tomorrow. Bring the supplementary version of the Dementor report."

Draco lowered his head. "Yes, Professor."

After the door closed, Draco turned and pulled open the bed curtains. "Hear that? You have one more report to write."

Allen opened his eyes. "I heard it."

Draco sat back in his chair, angry. "You'd better write in the report that spatial magic makes your roommates go bald early."

Nott lowered his head to add to the record. "Snape's night patrol, no contact with the pocket watch discovered. Draco's cover was effective."

Zabini said slowly, "I'm going to copy that down."

Draco said coldly, "Whoever dares to copy it, I'll make them guard the door tonight."

Allen took out the corridor map he had just drawn and wrote in the corner: Time awakening within the third year, location confirmed. Third Floor old restricted corridor. Vision: two of myself.

He looked at the line of text and said in a low voice, "The hands of the cracked pocket watch have already started moving."