The Sands of Time

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter

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.

~*~

"Did you see what happened?" Lily panted as she dropped Al's limp arm on the grass. She shuddered, remembering what the events of the last few minutes. She had glanced over her shoulder as she ran, to see where the werewolf was, and was met with a horrific sight: Al lying on the ground and the werewolf about to pounce on him. She had screamed (like a Banshee, James had jokingly told her) and had begun running in the direction of the werewolf and the prone figure of her brother with her cousins following closely. But when they had got there, the werewolf was gone, and Al was lying unconscious on the leaf-littered ground. They didn't stay long enough to find out where the animal had disappeared; they had dragged Al out of the dangerous forest as quickly as they could and were now in a grassy area. Somehow it seemed strangely familiar, but Lily didn't dwell on it.

"What do you mean? Isn't it obvious? We got there, and the werewolf was gone." Hugo said. Lily rolled her eyes.

"No. We got there, but why was the werewolf gone? Don't you think it would have been happy to have seven more people to eat? And Al-"

"Did it bite him?" Rose asked anxiously as Roxanne gasped. They bent over Al's body, checking for a bite or teeth mark. After a few minutes, Rose straightened.

"Well, I don't see any bites or marks, so he's okay, I guess. Maybe he fainted from shock," Rose said thoughtfully. The rest of the cousins sighed as one with relief.

"But that's another thing that doesn't make sense," Lily said persistently. "When have you ever heard of a werewolf that doesn't bite a victim when it has the chance?"

Rose nodded, understanding. "Something stopped it, but what?" At their feet, Al groaned and opened his eyes, distracting them from their discussion.

"You okay?" James asked as he offered a hand to Al. He accepted and pulled himself up, wincing as he put weight on his twisted ankle. Seeing this, Rose tapped his ankle with her wand and muttered "Episkey."

"Hey guys, look at this," Fred said suddenly. He was staring in the opposite direction at a

large building whose turrets and towers stood out starkly against the full moon. Golden squares of light twinkled from its many windows, shining in the darkness. It was-

"Hogwarts," Roxanne breathed. "We came to Hogwarts. And that-" Roxanne squinted at the dark mass of trees they had just left-"is the Forbidden Forest. We're okay! We can go home now!" she cheered. She high-fived Hugo (a muggle habit she had learned from Grandpa Weasley) as Fred slapped James on the back, laughing.

"Well, mate, guess your spectacular miss of that hourglass-thing wasn't that bad. Only took us to Hogwarts!"

James started to protest, but Rose cut him off. "It's night though," she objected. "When we left it was afternoon."

"Rose, stop spoiling the mood. Maybe we just took that long to get here," Fred said, still grinning.

"But it isn't possible to just appear on Hogwarts grounds! There are enchantments to prevent anyone from doing that!"

"Well, maybe we should go in the castle," Dominique said, nervously glancing over her shoulder at the trees. "Then we can go to Headmistress Bones' office and ask to Floo home, and besides, I don't think we should stay here. What if that werewolf is still around?" As she finished her sentence, a howl echoed from the trees, and that was all the encouragement the eight teenagers needed to begin sprinting toward the safety of the castle.

James reached the steps in front of the massive oak doors first, and one by one, the seven others arrived, gasping for air after their frantic run. Dominique tentatively pushed one of the doors, and it opened, creaking slightly.

"That's weird," Fred muttered. "That old caretaker, Harris, always remembers to lock the doors. There was that time we got locked out, remember James? And we had to nick broomsticks and fly-"

"Shh! It's night, what if a teacher hears us and wonders what we're doing here?" Rose hissed, as she carefully shut the door behind them.

"Or a prefect," Lily said slowly, the color draining from her face. They followed her stare to see a girl with long dark red hair approaching from the marble staircase, her wand held in front of her as she looked for any troublemakers, and a Gryffindor Prefect badge gleaming on her robes.

"But prefects shouldn't be in the castle right now!" Hugo whispered. "It's summer!"

They froze, watching her draw nearer. She would see them any second now, and there was no place to hide-

"Come on!" Fred said, struck with an idea. He beckoned and began running toward a tapestry. Realizing what he was going to do, Rose, Dominique, Hugo, Lily, Al and Roxanne followed him. James, however, didn't move. He felt as though he had seen that girl before...

Perhaps alerted by the noise of the others running, the girl turned in time to see James' back as he belatedly rushed to the secret passageway behind the tapestry.

"POTTER!"

"Now you've done it!" Lily cried in exasperation as they groped their way along the dark passageway as quickly as possible. "She saw you!"

"Shut up Lily! She just looked familiar, that's all," James retorted angrily. Why was it always him who messed things up? First the hourglass, and now this. And it was always Lily who was blaming him.

"Yes," Rose said, stopping in the middle of the passageway. "I think I know why." She turned to face them.

"What do you mean?" Roxanne asked breathlessly.

"I noticed when we came in, that there wasn't a war memorial on the grounds. Dumbledore's tomb isn't there either. And it's night and we left in the afternoon. And just now, that girl," she paused, "none of the Gryffindor prefects look like her. There shouldn't be prefects right now anyway. It's summer. And she called you 'Potter', James."

"So, what are you saying?" Fred said, uncharacteristically serious. Rose took a deep breath as though steeling herself.

"I'm saying-I'm saying I think that girl was your grandmother, Lily, James, Al. Lily Potter, or right now, Evans. I-I think that hourglass was a Time-Turner. I think we're in the past."

A long silence stretched between the cousins as they glanced uneasily at each other. Then Dominique spoke.

"Impossible."

Roxanne nodded in agreement. "I'm not saying there isn't something going on here, because there is, but I think it's a little far-fetched to say that girl is Lily Potter, and that we're in the past."

There as another silence as Rose glared at them. "You know, just because you don't want to believe it, it doesn't mean it's impossible," she said angrily.

"Only one way to find out, isn't there?" Fred said, a ghost of a grin on his face. "Head's office."

They arrived at the gargoyles that guarded the Head's office mere minutes later, thanks to the guidance of James and Fred who had been to the Head's office enough times that they knew all the shortcuts.

"You should be in bed, kiddos," one of the gargoyles croaked.

"You should-" James began, but Dominique talked over him.

"Dumbledore's Army," she said confidently. The gargoyles refused to move.

"Oh come on!" Roxanne said, pushing her aside. "DA Galleons."

"Don't you see?" Rose said. "In this time it's Dumbledore's office. Cockroach Clusters!"

"Wrong candy, Rose," Hugo said, smirking. "Fizzing Whizbee!"

"Sugar Quills!" Lily guessed when the gargoyles failed to move aside. There was a grinding sound and then the gargoyles moved aside, revealing a curved and moving staircase. Rose glanced sideways and caught the looks of shocked disbelief on Roxanne and Dominique's faces.

"Merlin, so we really are in the past..." Lily whispered as all eight squeezed in on the rotating stair.

"Now we have to face Dumbledore," Hugo muttered, his face ashen. All too soon, the stair brought them to the top of the landing and they stepped onto it.

"Ready?" Rose murmured.

"As ready as we'll ever be," Al answered, gulping. Rose knocked twice on the heavy door. They waited and then they heard-

"Enter."