This was a question no one could answer.
If such an observer truly existed, it would be terrifying. It would mean that everyone was being manipulated by an invisible hand. If they could not break free from that hand, they would never see the truth.
Naturally, Vaughn could not provide an answer either. He merely corrected him. "Not once. It may exist in the past, it may exist in the present, and it is even more likely to exist in the future. For an entity capable of manipulating time, the distinction between past, present, and future is meaningless. It may exist in any time and space."
"Like the ether?"
"Mm, like the ether!"
"That really is frightening..." Though Dumbledore said it was frightening, there was laughter in his voice. "This concept is rather like the higher-dimensional beings you mentioned before. Back then, you said that a wizard's ultimate path might very well be ascension into a higher dimension. Could this observer possibly be a wizard from the future?"
That was certainly possible.
Vaughn nodded. "Perhaps it's the future me, or you, or Harry and Hermione? Who knows?"
Before they could break free of the real world, discussing the observer's identity was meaningless, because it would not change anything.
Compared to that illusory observer, Vaughn was more concerned with the experiment currently underway. He took out his notebook and, using the smokescreen's effects, carefully observed the movements of the vortex of fate and the various possibilities that might arise if this "world's" past could be changed.
Dumbledore stayed with him, quietly observing and recording alongside him.
Only after a while did he suddenly say, "Tom is attempting to invade this world."
"Hm? He knows alchemy too?"
"Of course. Though he has no particularly notable achievements, Tom is indeed an alchemist. Horcruxes