"Knowing Tom, he definitely made more than one Horcrux. Do you have any leads on the others, Isaac?"
After showing Isaac what came of making a Horcrux, Dumbledore stopped dwelling on the matter.
If Isaac had been another brilliant student whose talent rivaled Tom Riddle's, Dumbledore might have worried.
Making a Horcrux had plenty of drawbacks, but its promise of immortality could not be ignored.
Yet with Isaac, Dumbledore felt reassured for reasons he could not quite explain.
Though perhaps the reason was obvious: Isaac was the second white-haired, odd-eyed Seer Dumbledore had known.
The previous Seer had swept across Europe with his followers. If Isaac could uncover knowledge about Horcruxes, could Grindelwald, a master of Dark Magic, really have been unaware of them?
Yet Grindelwald had never touched one. He had even found the things distasteful.
Now Isaac showed the same heartfelt revulsion toward Horcruxes. That was the main reason Dumbledore felt at ease.
In the end, Isaac was benefiting from Grindelwald's example yet again.
No longer worried about Isaac, Dumbledore was eager to find the rest of Tom's Horcruxes and send the Dark Lord, who had once shaken the Wizarding World, into the afterlife for good.
He would make Tom Riddle embark on his next great adventure.
Old Dumbledore also sensed that defeating the Dark Lord might be the last "great achievement" of his life.
Hogwarts' towers had confined the ambitious "White Lord," but they had also worn down the spirit of the greatest Wizard of the age.
Surely no one believed a radical who had coined "For the Greater Good" enjoyed a dutiful life spent teaching?
In this world of magic, where the mind could shape reality, the power of conviction was boundless. It could drive an ambitious man to sweep across the entire Wizarding World, or sustain someone's beliefs for decades.
Isaac knew the locations of some of Voldemort's Horcruxes without needing a Prophecy.
But he was still curious: could his gift as a Seer reveal where the Horcruxes were?
He wasted no time. His eyes unfocused as he entered a prophetic trance, and scenes flashed before him.
When it came to Voldemort's Horcruxes, Isaac found he could see only some of them.
Isaac had read Harry Potter in his previous life. He could not remember every word, but important details like Voldemort's Horcruxes had stayed with him.
His expression darkened. His vision had given him an incomplete picture of Voldemort's Horcruxes.
Only then did Isaac truly understand what Grindelwald meant by the warning he so often repeated.
"Those who toy with time will one day be toyed with by time."
Isaac had long known that prophecy was not all-powerful. For instance, he could not see Grindelwald's future.
He could not see a thing.
Since Isaac was not opposed to Grindelwald, and Grindelwald was himself a veteran Seer,
Isaac had never felt the true weight of those words.
But when he discovered the gaps in his vision of Voldemort's Horcruxes, a chill ran down his spine.
If Isaac had not come from another world—if he had been an ordinary Wizard born here—even his gift for prophecy might have led him into a disastrous mistake over the Horcruxes.
His vision had not shown him every Horcrux. By the time Isaac thought Voldemort was finished, Tom might already have completed a resurrection ritual somewhere in secret.
He could catch Isaac completely off guard. Tom was not the sort to hold back a Killing Curse.
"Isaac, are you all right?" Dumbledore placed a hand on Isaac's shoulder.
Isaac's expression had turned grim as soon as he entered his prophetic trance. Dumbledore thought he had seen something terrible and had nearly interrupted him by force.
"No, Professor, I'm fine... I just—I just couldn't find the other Horcruxes." Isaac spoke while the awe and fear of time still gripped him.
Dumbledore had no reason to doubt him. Instead, he comforted Isaac.
"No, Isaac, you've already done remarkably well.
"At your age, I couldn't have done what you've done."
"Prophecy is a rare gift, but it isn't all-powerful. In fact, there are many ways to evade its sight."
Dumbledore considered it. "Tom may not have meant to guard against prophecy, but he certainly would have hidden his Horcruxes carefully.
"Whatever blocks your sight may simply be there by chance."
Grindelwald was not the world's first Seer. Seer bloodlines had long existed among Wizards.
And centaurs' astrology could reveal the future to a degree, too. There was just one problem.
The centaurs really did see the future in the stars, but when they spoke of it, they never said anything a person could understand.
It was like drawing a fortune you could not interpret. At least then, you could ask a nearby master to explain it.
A centaur's prophecy was like a fortune with no master to explain it. Either you understood it or you did not.
Most of the time, people only realized what a reading meant when the predicted event struck them square in the face.
Since prophecy, Divination, and astrology existed in this world, methods to evade or even counter them had naturally arisen as well.
Otherwise, whenever a Wizard family with Seer blood produced a gifted prophet, they might as well crown that person king of magic on the spot.
Isaac nodded. He was not really a child, so this would not frighten him away.
Nor would he abandon prophecy over one setback. He would simply use it more carefully from now on.
Its flaws were no reason to give up such a useful gift altogether.
Seeing that Isaac had recovered, Dumbledore did not press him further about the Horcruxes. He handed Isaac a Lemon Sherbet and said gently:
"Off you go, Isaac. You should get some rest. Oh, and Krik will take you to the Great Hall tomorrow morning. There'll be a surprise waiting for you.
"Also, you could spend some time refining that spell you 'invented' and write a couple of papers about it.
"I'm sure both Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick would be happy to advise you.
"You can ask them for guidance and help after tomorrow."
"Go on, Isaac. Don't dwell on it. Get a good night's sleep."
Isaac nodded, said goodbye to Dumbledore, and left the Headmaster's Office.
Back in his room, Isaac lay down on his bed.
A few minutes later, he tumbled out of bed, pulled out some parchment, and began writing and sketching on it.