All the Time in the World

Chapter Thirty Eight

Tom read through the entry twice and laid the brooch down near the picture in the book before he could believe it. The Transtemporal! That was what it was. The artefact was believed to be pure myth, just like the Chamber of Secrets. But obviously it was as real as the chamber. The book only held a drawing of the device, one which was taken from a record left by its creators, who were the founders of Hogwarts. Tom placed it on its palm. This was created by the founders of Hogwarts! And it belonged to him now!

He frowned as he thought of the device in Potter's possession. That might have been how Potter travelled to this time. But that did not explain why the device looked so new, almost pristine. It also did not explain how it came into Potter's possession. It was not Potter's. Then how did Potter get it?

He knew there was only one way of finding out. He had to go to the future. But without knowing the year from which Potter came, how could he just go? Somehow, he did not think Potter was not going to tell him, not unless he did something drastic, and Tom was no fool. He was not going to jeopardize all his plans just to get information on Potter.

He examined the device. It could be activated by magic. The setting of the time was through a spell. The book had the spell too and Tom was thoughtful as he read it. A few modifications to the basic spell could take him to Potter's time. Instead of a specific year, he could add "the year from which Harry Potter came". Of course, it would make the spell quite long. But for this once, he did not mind it.

He would need to return to Morfin's house again, to do the spell. And he knew it was almost morning. His father would be looking for him. It was Christmas morning after all. He grimaced. He would need to go downstairs and pretend to be excited about the tree and all the trimmings and the trashy muggle stuff his father got him every year.

He pushed the brooch into his pocket and closed the book, yawning. He needed to sleep. His father, fortunately, never allowed anyone to wake him. He could go down whenever he wanted, even on Christmas day. He pulled the covers over him, yawning. He would need to learn that spell by heart before slipping off to see his uncle in the night again. And he could take him another bottle of Firewhiskey. He had a whole case of it.

He fell asleep, dreaming about brooches and travelling through time on a winged horse.