Chapter 1116 - 203: A Thread of Hope

Chapter 1116: Chapter 203: A Thread of Hope

The healer of the Witch Pure Party is an elderly wizard, whose short silver-gray hair is meticulously combed, with fine lines etched around his eyes.

He didn’t use a magic wand, but instead extended his finger, gently touching the baby’s forehead, cheeks, heart, and tiny wrist, closing his eyes as if sensing something.

The baby, full and satisfied, had stopped crying and was now giggling under the gentle touch, waving its arms and legs adorably.

Hosone sat nearby, hands crossed under his chin, watching silently. Despite being exhausted, he refused to leave the baby Hughes and rest.

Antoine stood leaning against the wall by the door, next to Vilan who was writing and drawing on parchment, sending messages to Vid—he was the one providing Grindelwald with the surveillance flow mirror, as well as both Hosone’s and the Magic Congress’s movements.

Naturally, all of these actions were permitted by Vid.

After a while, the healer withdrew his hand, frowned, and said softly:

"The situation is complex and dangerous, forcibly reversing or peeling away time magic could have unpredictable consequences—and I’m not just talking about death."

He looked directly into Hosone’s eyes, speaking without embellishment: "If you want him to be more comfortable and live a few more years, it’s best to do nothing and let him grow naturally."

"So," Hosone asked, "Ezra would essentially live once again completely? Except for not having his past memories..."

The healer looked at him silently, with a gaze filled with silent pity and regret.

This gaze was like a cold, dull blade, slowly and heavily cutting away at Hosone’s remaining hope.

He felt his heart sink heavily but stubbornly asked once more:

"Could Ezra grow into adulthood again without too much impact?"

"I’m very sorry." The healer finally spoke: "Although his appearance has rejuvenated, this is merely the most deceptive manifestation of time magic."

"His internal organs and bones have undergone opposite changes. So... as I said earlier... [a few more years]."

"Years... years..."

Hosone murmured, his lips trembling uncontrollably, stammering:

"But Vid Gray, and that Harry Potter, they were also affected by similar magic, and didn’t they recover completely and quickly?"

Vilan raised an eyebrow, looked up to say: "The time they turned back wasn’t as long as Ezra Hughes’s."

The healer nodded to this "friend of Antoine" and said:

"Just as the gentleman said, the length of the time span is crucial. And this baby..."

He looked sympathetically at the child playing carelessly on the bed and said:

"His time has been forcibly pulled back to the earliest, most fragile stage of life, nearly equivalent to ’remolding’, and the accumulated subtle impacts are terrifying."

After a pause, he added:

"Of course, the most critical part is that the time reversal for those two youths was achieved with an extremely ancient and unique magic tool, which bears the unknown efforts of many Unspeakables, its mastery over time magic has reached a level beyond our reach."

"It allows two people to experience a controllable time reversal simultaneously and restores them almost unscathed."

"I haven’t seen this teapot myself, but I speculate... if such a thing exists, perhaps it could ’correct’ the chaos and smooth out the disorderly time within this baby’s body."

"In that case, even if he can’t fully revert to the person you once knew, at least his lifespan wouldn’t be significantly affected."

"But unfortunately, we all know... who ultimately got hold of that thing."

Hosone fell silent.

In the silence, he felt a cold despair wrapping densely around his heart, as if it would drag him into a suffocating swamp.

Dumbledore...

He was Grindelwald’s mortal enemy, a lifelong rival, two irreconcilable poles!

If he hadn’t joined the Witch Pure Party, there might still be some hope for healing, but now...

The light in Hosone’s eyes dimmed, as if losing focus, his cheek muscles trembled uncontrollably.

Leaning by the door, Antoine had been listening quietly, and only now did he seem to find something amusing, letting out a low chuckle.

Hosone looked over coldly.

Antoine didn’t care about the cold stare, tilting his head, he smiled lightly and asked:

"If we... I mean hypothetically... if we could find a way to restore this crying little fellow to his original state..."

He paused slightly, looking at Hosone, and asked:

"Then what price would you be willing to pay for it?"

Vilan immediately glared at Antoine in disagreement, appearing as though he wanted to smash his head with his iron fist.

—Who could retrieve that golden teapot from Hogwarts, from Dumbledore’s office?

In Vilan’s view, aside from his own master, no one else in the Witch Pure Party could do it!

But he also knew well that Vid was the type who disliked pleading for favors—even if the counterpart was Dumbledore.

Hosone looked at the two, seemingly weighing the truth in Antoine’s words.

But then he thought of his past "balance" which seemed to always fail, including later when facing Perez...

If at that time he had been like Hughes and put everything on the line, would the current results be different?

So, following his inner intuition, his voice became exceptionally heavy with sincerity:

"Any price." He said.

"—Any?"

The taunting and playful expression on Antoine’s face settled down, but he then posed another question:

"Mr. Hosone, since coming here, you haven’t asked one question... Aren’t you worried that everything tonight is also secretly orchestrated by our Witch Pure Party?"

The air in the room seemed to still for a moment, Vilan looked at Antoine, then at Hosone, lips tightly shut, saying nothing.

Hosone met Antoine’s probing gaze, then looked at the baby’s round innocent face, seemingly drawing strength from that purity and loyalty, as if examining his crumbling world.

Finally, he slowly raised his head, his eyes devoid of anger, only filled with a near-exhausted clarity.

"I know."

His voice was very calm: "The root of all this lies in certain individuals’ swelling ambition, in the already rotten foundation within the Magic Congress, and also... in my foolishness and indulgence."

"It was my inability to see the people around me that allowed a group of greed-filled individuals to rise to power; it was my indulgence of their corruption and collusion that gave them the opportunity to control the Magic Congress."

Thinking of the painful consequences, he showed a pained expression:

"Whether or not external forces prompted it, this was bound to happen eventually... these are things that the Witch Pure Party couldn’t create out of thin air. You may have exploited it, but you’re not the sole cause."

Upon hearing this answer, Antoine finally smiled, his tone gaining a few degrees of honesty:

"Well, I might as well tell you a fact—until tonight, or rather, until you walked into our view with that child, regarding the spectacular rot within the American Magic Congress..."

He shrugged, spreading his hands:

"Our Witch Pure Party really did nothing—neither pushing for it nor bothering to stop it."

"We only needed to watch."

"Because your Magic Congress, its decay and debasement is far worse than even your worst imaginings, it only pretends exceptionally well."

"But before walking down the dead end, you completely failed to see it, nor were you dragged into becoming an accomplice, which indeed was quite foolish."

These words were particularly biting, making Hosone feel his face burning with shame, but he found that he couldn’t refute it.

"You’re right..."

His head hung low, his voice dull as he said:

"As someone who once sat in that position, I have an undeniable responsibility for all of this. But..."

Hosone said softly, "What is there worth Mr. Grindelwald’s personal intervention to save for such an incompetent politician like me?"

He looked at Antoine, asking calmly: "What exactly do you want me to do?"