Perhaps a little wiser, Tim begins school at Bardsley Boarding School - Cyril's school - where he forms a strong bond with their newest teacher, Thomas Currie. Currie teaches Tim about more than most teachers, however: he is the creation of one of the alternate Tim's created in Tim's childhood, and teaches about the thousands of alternate worlds and how they were created - and how they are being slowly destroyed by Tim's Other, an alternate version of the boy who wants to kill him and take his place as the true Tim Hunter. Currie hopes that he will have years to teach Tim the magic he will need to defeat his Other, but the Other arrives shortly after him and ruins any chance of a reconciliation with Molly before causing the deaths of Tim's stepmother, his father and finally his new teacher as Thomas Currie manipulates Tim into creating another alternate Tim so that together they can fight and die to convince the Other that he is the true Tim.