The Sands of Time

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter

"Score!"

"Hugo, you're not guarding the goal!"

"Ow! That was my elbow, Fred!"

The shouts and cries of the teenagers echoed in the makeshift Quidditch field behind a large white house. If the neighbors who lived around the Potters had happened to see the source of the noise, they would have been inexpressibly shocked to see eight teenagers, most with red hair, zooming around on broomsticks and tossing a ball at each other. Fortunately, there were shields around the house to prevent an outsider from seeing, or hearing, anyone who was in the immediate vicinity of the house. It was meant to deter the reporters who were constantly descending on the house, but the children often took advantage of it to play Quidditch in secret. Suddenly, one of the redheads saw a speck of gold glimmering next to the ground and took a sudden dive, with another redhead hot on her heels. The teams immediately stopped bickering among themselves and turned on their brooms to watch as Lily Potter and Rose Weasley pelted toward the ground.

"Go Lily!"

"No, go Rose!"

"Lily, just grab it!"

"Shut up! You're distracting Rose!"

One of the teams erupted in cheers when Lily was the first to pull out of her dive, the Snitch clamped in her hand with Rose grumpily rising behind her.

"Alright, alright, that's enough!" Roxanne said, annoyed, as the other team began a victory celebration in midair. "I'm going inside to get some butterbeer, want to come?" she added to the rest of her scowling teammates. They nodded, and followed her, each tossing their broomstick on the grass as they headed inside to the cool house. Ginny and Harry were out for the day with Ron and Hermione, trusting the large group of cousins to stay safe in the house.

"Bloody hell, its hot," grumbled Rose as she threw herself down on a sofa and pushed her damp red curls away from her face.

"Are you sure that's not because-" James Potter began, raising his eyebrows teasingly as he came into the house, along with Al and Fred.

"Do you really want to finish that sentence?" Rose said, pointing her wand at him. Fred laughed as James cowered and backed away, having been on the receiving end of Rose's hexes far too many times.

"Where's Lily?" Dominique asked suddenly, as she finished her bottle of butterbeer. She was the oldest of the group at the moment, and felt that it was her responsibility to watch the younger ones. "Still outside?"

"Nah, she said she wants to check out something she found," Al answered her as the rest of the group grabbed bottles of butterbeer and lounged around the living room, chatting. Dominique nodded, and the next second forgot about Lily as she began heatedly arguing with Hugo about whether the Cannons were going to win their next game.

"Hey guys!" Lily called from another room. "Can you look at this?" No one heard her through the chatter except for Al, who put his butterbeer down and slipped out of the room. He found Lily in their father's study.

"Lily! You know you're not supposed to go in there-" he began, shocked.

"I know, but I found this,"-she held up a tiny gold object-"in the Snitch, and well, I thought it might have come from Dad's study. I mean, this Snitch was Dad's once, after all."

"You-you found it in the Snitch? You mean you opened it?" Al was amazed. He had never heard of a Snitch opening before...

"No, I was holding the Snitch, and then I felt it open in my hand. I didn't tell anyone else, but when I looked to see what happened, I saw this inside it." She gave the object to Al, who took it apprehensively. Who had ever heard of something being hidden in a Snitch? He held the object up to the light, and examined it. It was a tiny gold hourglass, filled with white sand. There were also strange markings on it, rather like runes.

"Runes, " he said aloud. "We should get Rose to look at this, she's the only one who's taken Ancient Runes."

"What?" Lily moved to stand beside him. "I didn't notice the runes, I was looking at the sand..." her voice trailed away as they both gazed at the sand, mesmerized. The sand seemed to shimmer, and become whiter even as they looked at it. Both no longer noticed the distant sounds of their cousins as the blindingly white sand entranced them, sparkling enticingly, swallowing them-

Al covered the hourglass with his hand, as he jolted to his senses. Beside him, Lily shook her head, trying to clear it.

"I don't know Lily, there's something weird about this," Al said, still keeping the hourglass covered. He took a deep breath, the vision of the entrancingly sinister sand dancing in his mind. "Something wrong. I don't know if we should deal with this, maybe we should wait until Mum and Dad get home."

"Well, first we can ask Rose to see if she can figure out the runes," Lily suggested, unwilling to set aside the hourglass. Al hesitated, but before he could say another word, Lily pried his fingers open and snatched the hourglass away.

"Lily wait!" he yelled, following her as she darted into the living room. He rushed into the room, looking around for his sister in the chaotic tumult. He knocked over Roxanne who was laughing at something Hugo said, and ran into Dominique, spilling her butterbeer all over the floor. Apologizing hastily, he picked himself up and scanned the room, fear bubbling up in him...he could almost feel it, something was wrong about that hourglass, something sinister...

He finally caught a glimpse of Lily's long red hair as she and Rose bent over a table in the center of the room. Rose held up the hourglass suddenly, and it caught the light streaming in the windows, causing it to sparkle, and drawing the attention of James, who had been standing nearby with Fred.

"Hey, what's that?" he asked curiously, looking at it.

"None of your business, James, bugger off," Lily answered, still talking quietly to Rose.

"Ouch, Lils, so rude. I really have no idea where you learned your manners," he grinned. "But if you won't tell-"

"-then we'll have to find out for ourselves," finished Fred, also grinning. James made a grab for it, but Rose held it above her head as Lily tried to push James away. But then Fred stuck out his foot and tripped Rose, and Al watched in horror as he saw, as though in slow motion, the hourglass flying through the air. James dove to catch it but missed, and the tiny glass hit the floor, and the room dissolved.

Al distantly heard the shattering of the glass, sounding like a million tiny bells, and the next thing he saw was blackness. He felt himself being pulled though the impenetrable darkness, and heard a babble of voices, snatches of conversations...and then colors were flying around him, mixing into a confusing jumble of images....

His feet hit the ground with a solid thud and his knees buckled from the impact. He could hear several more thuds and groans all around him, as he doubled over gasping.

"Where are we?" Dominique's voice said from behind him.

"I think we're in a forest, look," Rose answered her. Al looked above his head, and saw that they were, indeed, in a forest. And it wasn't just any forest. The trees were massive, towering so far into the sky that he couldn't see the tops. The full moon illuminated the scene before them, casting a surreal light on the leaf-littered ground and the group of teenagers. It was eerily quiet, the silence only broken by the occasional hooting of an owl.

"Guys, let's get out of here," Roxanne said suddenly, shivering. Hugo nodded in agreement.

"And how do we get back home?" Lily said furiously. "We don't even know where we are! And it's all the fault of these two!" She pointed at James and Fred, who looked surprised.

"Now come on Lils, we-"

"Quiet!" Rose hissed suddenly, fear etched on her face. "Listen!" There was drawn out howl nearby, from amongst the dark trees.

"Isn't that a-a wolf-?" Roxanne whispered, her eyes wide. Suddenly, leaves crunched on the ground a few feet away, and the form of an animal stepped out from the shadows. The moonlight fell on the animal, and the teenagers froze in terror.

It was a werewolf.

It seemed just as surprised by them as they were by it. But it was quickly getting over it; it bared its teeth and a fierce growl escaped its throat.

"Run!" Lily screamed, and all eight of them turned and began to run, tripping over roots and stumbling over rocks, getting scratched by branches, as they desperately tried to get away from the heavy pounding of the werewolf's paws as it pursued them though the forest. Al turned and looked behind him, and saw the werewolf barely a dozen feet behind, it amber eyes fixed on him. He tripped on a root, and sprawled on the ground. He tried to get up, but couldn't; his ankle was twisted and shook when he tried to stand. He fell back on the ground, panting, but then he saw two other figures behind that of the rapidly approaching werewolf, they almost looked like a stag and a massive dog, but he couldn't be sure....

The last thing he heard was the screams of his cousins as the werewolf lunged at him, and then the world dissolved into blackness as he fainted.