5th June 1992
Headmaster's Office
The Headmaster's office was a large circular room. A number of spindle-legged tables contained all kinds of silver instruments, whirring and emitting little puffs of smoke. The walls were covered with portraits of old headmasters and headmistresses snoozing gently in their frames, or at least pretending to. Behind the Headmaster's enormous wooden desk, perched on a shelf was the sorting hat.
"Ah, Benjamin Carter, I thought I might see you here soon," started the hat. "Albus has been pestering me to share that joke of ours. So, how goes the plan?" asked the head, leaning forward.
I showed it the reinforced grimhold. "Step one, complete."
"Splendid," it remarked.
Dumbledore watched the byplay curiously. "Please, sit down," he said, gesturing to me and Harry. "Would you like something to drink?"
"Well, I wouldn't say no to a butterbeer after a hard night's work," I said, taking a look around. Fawkes, the phoenix was sitting on a golden perch near the table. He was looking resplendent in his bright crimson plumage. "Also Professor, could you please make a floo-call to my parents? There are some things I want them to know as well."
He look at me thoughtfully for a moment, before he acquiesced. As he moved to the fireplace, a house elf appeared carrying a tray with two butterbears. I handed one to Harry and took a swig from my own. Butterbeer tastes like butterscotch mostly, but due to the magical ingredients like moondew, it is far less harmful than its muggle counterpart. It has a very slight, almost negligible alcohol content. It was not my first time drinking it and I could see that Harry liked it as well.
The front door opened and professors McGonagall, Flitwick and Snape entered followed by Neville and Hermione. The latter, who were looking at Snape warily, gave a start on seeing us and rushed in to meet us.
"Oh Harry, I am so glad to see you are okay," said Hermione very quickly. "And Ben, where were you? We were so worried."
"Yeah, you just disappeared," said Neville "where did you go?"
"I am sorry about worrying you both. I will tell you everything as soon as my mum and dad are here," I assured them.
Professor Dumbledore soon returned with my parents.
"Ben, is everything okay?" said my mom, coming forward and checking me. "Dumbledore just called us. It's 2 in the morning, we thought something awful had happened."
"I'm fine, mum. Everything's okay." I placated her. "It's just time for you to know about some things."
Everyone gathered around the table and Professor Dumbledore summoned half a dozen comfortable armchairs. As all of them took their seats, Dumbledore sat behind his desk. "Well then, Mr. Carter, I believe it is time for you to shed some light on tonight's events."
"Of course, professor. But first, some context for those of us not in the know-how," I said, looking at my parents. "For the last school year, Hogwarts has played host to the Philosopher's Stone, the one created by the celebrated Alchemist Nicholas Flamel," my parents' eyes widened at this piece of information. "Tonight Professor Quirrel tried to steal the stone, and we four..." I said, pointing at Harry, Hermione, Neville and me, "... stopped him. Harry will explain how we came by doing so."
Harry looked surprised at being put under the spotlight. He took a moment to center himself, and then started telling everyone - about the vault that was emptied by Hagrid on his birthday, the same vault someone tried to break in later that day; how we had stumbled across Fluffy; how Hagrid had unwittingly let it slip that the object was related to Nicholas Flamel; how we had deduced that the object being guarded was probably the Philosopher's Stone.
Harry sheepishly explained how we thought it was Professor Snape that was after the stone (at this, Snape sneered at us as if we were a bunch of dunderheads); that the thief will probably be going after the stone tonight; how we got past the challenges (Professor McGonagall looked a bit miffed when we said we flew over her challenge instead of playing through it); how he entered the final room and saw Quirrel, who explained he had been trying to kill Harry. Here he stopped and looked at me. It was time for me to pick up the narrative.
"Before we proceed any further, there is something I need to say to the three of you," I said, looking at Harry, Neville and Hermione. "I am sorry." They look surprised at my admission. "You are my friends, but I have been keeping you in the dark about a lot of things. You see, I knew it was Quirrel and not Professor Snape who was trying to steal the stone. I knew Quirrel tried to kill Harry during the quidditch match, because I stopped him. I knew it was Quirrel who let the troll in at Halloween. And I knew Quirrel was not trying to steal the stone for himself, but for his master, Voldemort."
There was a collective gasp from the occupants of the room. "What do you mean, Mr. Carter? Voldemort died years ago!" said Professor McGonagall nervously. She turned to the headmaster for confirmation. "Albus?"
Dumbledore didn't say anything. He kept looking at me with a curious gaze, as if asking me to continue, so I did.
"On the night Voldemort visited Godric's Hollow, Lily Potter knew that the chances of her family surviving were slim to none. So while her husband went to stall the dark lord, she used an ancient blood magic ritual to bestow a powerful protection spell on Harry. The price was her own life and magic."
Everyone who knew Lily Potter looked shocked at this revelation. Shocked and sad. Poor Harry looked heart-broken. So did Snape, although as always it was difficult to parse his expression.
"As Voldemort killed her, he unwittingly activated her spell," I continued. "A spell fuelled by the lifeforce and magic of a powerful witch is no joke. When Voldemort cast the killing curse on Harry, it didn't just rebound. The Protection spell amplified the destructive energy of the curse to such a degree that voldemort's body was blasted apart, along with a good portion of the house."
I took a look around and went on. "However, Voldemort had already taken certain steps that made it difficult to completely destroy him. So, while his physical body was obliterated, his soul, whatever was left of it, survived as a wraith. Severely weakened, he fled Britain and went into hiding. As a spiritual parasite, he survived by possessing small animals in the Forests of Albania. And that is where Quirrel found him last year, in the middle of his sabbatical."
"And just how do you know all this?" Dumbledore finally asked.
"Simple," I answered. "I saw it."
Everyone looked understandably confused. "Are you saying you are a seer?" Professor Flitwick said.
"Not exactly. Allow me to elaborate. Is anyone here familiar with the multiverse theory?"
Not receiving an affirmative gesture from anyone, I continued, "The Multiverse Theory suggests that our universe with its hundreds of billions of galaxies and almost countless stars, spanning tens of billions of light years, may not be the only one. Instead there maybe a number of entirely different universes, distantly separated from ours. Indeed, there may be an infinity of universes, all with their own laws of physics, their own collections of stars and galaxies (if stars and galaxies can exist in those universes) and may be their own intelligent civilizations. It could be that our universe is just one member of a much grander, much larger multitude of universes: a multiverse.
I gave them a moment to process this, and went on. "The concept of the multiverse arises from something called Inflation theory. Inflation theory describes a hypothetical event that occurred when our universe was very young....less than a second old. In an incredibly brief amount of time, the universe underwent a period of rapid expansion, 'inflating' to become many orders of magnitude larger than its previous size. Inflation of our universe is thought to have ended about 14 billion years ago. However inflation does not end everywhere at the same time. It is possible that as inflation ends in some region, it continues in others. Thus, while inflation ended in our universe, there may have been other more distant regions where inflation continued....and continues even today. Individual universes can 'pinch off' of larger inflating, expanding universes, creating an infinite sea of eternal inflation, filled with numerous individual universes.
In this eternal inflation scenario, each universe would emerge with its own laws of physics, its own collection of particles, its own arrangement of forces and its own values of fundamental constants. Now, the most mind-bending implication of the multiverse is the existence of doppelgangers. If there really is an infinite number of universes, but a finite number of ways to arrange particles in any individual universe, then the same patterns are bound to be repeated, eventually. That would mean at some incredible, but finite, distance there is a universe where an exact copy of you is performing the same function you are right now. And because there would be an infinite number of universes, there would be an infinite number of these exact scenarios all happening simultaneously. This gives rise to the Alternate Universe and Parallel Universe theory.
Parallel universes are universes that are similar to the prime-universe, but are substantially different. Alternate universes are alternate paths the prime-universe could take.
A parallel universe version of World War 2 would be one where the war was fought with dragons and hippogriffs, or took place three centuries earlier. An alternate universe would be one where Hitler went to Art School instead of being a Dictator, or where Hitler won the war. In a parallel universe, entire species may have evolved differently. In alternate universe, historical events differ from reality."
It was quiet for a while as I finished my lecture. Finally, McGonagall said, "As interesting as this theory is, Mr. Carter, what does it have to do with our current situation?"
"Everything," I answered. "You see, the night I turned seven years old, I went to sleep as usual. But my normal childhood dreams did not come to me that night. Instead, I dreamt of another world. A world where animals lived in societies, animals who talked and walked on their hind legs; animals who dressed in fine clothes and had jobs. Curiously, there were no humans in that world. The entire civilization was made up of different animals.
When I woke up the next day, I was surprised to find that I vividly remembered every detail of that peculiar dream. Usually I wouldn't remember anything about the dreams I had, or if I did, just bits and pieces. It was strange, but I thought nothing of it. Until the same thing happened again that night, and the next night and the next night. Every night in my dreams I would see different people, sometimes human, sometimes not; different events, different worlds.
For months, I believed what I was seeing was rooted in my own imagination. I mean, what else could it be? Until one day, when I saw an old man teaching his apprentice how to cast magic without a wand. He started with showing the boy how to draw magic from his inner core and then shape the energy in specific pathways, needed to form the spell matrix." At this Dumbledore leaned forward and looked at me with narrowed eyes.
I continued. "The next day, when I woke up I thought back to what I had seen. Until then, I had no Idea that it was even possible to do magic without wands. But the dream had seemed so real, that I felt compelled to try. So, I spent the day trying to do what the man in the dream had done. The result...."
I raised my hand, conjuring a fireball in my palm. Everyone took a sharp breath at the implication of my action. I was feeling a bit thirsty from all the talking, so I took a sip of butterbeer while surveying the reactions of my audience. McGonagall, Harry, Neville, and Hermione looked shocked. Snape as always seemed inscrutable, Dumbledore was curious, Flitwick seemed excited, while my parents appeared thoughtful.
"It was that day that I realised, what I was seeing every night, were not just figments of my own imagination. I was somehow, I don't know how, seeing other worlds; real worlds, completely different from my own. Till this day, every night when I close my eyes, I see a new story.
You cannot imagine the things that I have seen. Civilizations spanning across galaxies. Universes where people have overcome the limitations of biological life, and live for tens of thousands of years. Utopias where there are no more wars or diseases, and everyone lives a life of plenty and prosperity.
Of course with the good comes the bad. I saw how the folly and arrogance of people led to the destruction of their homes. People surviving in dystopian worlds facing the hazards of radiation, zombies, diseases and worse. Slavery, discrimination and bigotry are not unique to our world. Suffice to say I have seen great things and I have seen terrible things."
Mom patted my shoulder and looked at me with a consoling gaze. I gave a small smile in return. Of course I saw all those things through the screen of a TV, computer or smartphone, but they don't need to know that. There was no reason to give them an existential crisis by saying I am a reincarnator, or telling them "You're all characters in a novel". No, I just need to give them enough information so they can understand my inexplicable actions.