The Time-Turner Chronicles

Chapter 2

Timeturning Turbulences

Hermione returned a few minutes later and ushered them out of Gryffindor Tower into an empty classroom on the ground floor. She slowly closed the door behind them, then turned around and glared at Harry.

"What do you need it for?"

"I need to go back in time."

"That's obvious. The Time-Turner has no other powers."

Harry took a deep breath.

"Well, actually, it's a lot of time..."

"If you could be a bite more precise?" Hermione snapped.

Harry shifted uncomfortably. "Well... uhm... 23 years?"

"What?"

"Mate, you know the Time-Turner only goes back a couple of hours," Ron said, shaking his head.

"Harry, have you fallen on your head or something?" Hermione asked despairingly.

"I noticed that he was all funny at dinner - hardly spoke a word and left early to finish a Potions essay..."

"Maybe we should tell Dumbledore... perhaps it's Vol- Voldemort... no, I don't want to think about it if that indeed is true... perhaps we should take him to the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey is bound to-"

"I'm serious about this!" Harry exclaimed angrily.

Hermione and Ron fell silent. The looks on their faces however, told Harry that they didn't really believe him; that they thought he had clearly lost his mind. Harry resisted the urge to explode, took a deep, supposedly calming breath and spoke through gritted teeth.

"I need to go back 23 years. I need to see my parents at Hogwarts, I must warn them. I don't want them to die, you see? I have to save them, I have to save Sirius and Cedric. Hermione, I can't do it without you. Firstly, you have the Time-Turner. And secondly, I don't know if I can work this charm on my own."

"Harry, you can't undo the past with the Time-Turner, that's not what it's made for, it's not its purpose. You can't - what charm?" Hermione asked distractedly.

"I think all we have to do, is boost the power a little. So, all we need is a powerful Reinforcement Charm. It will reinforce the strength of the timewarp. Easy actually, but I've never tried on anything this complex before."

"Yes, yes... it's bound to be complicated..." Hermione said, sinking into thought.

Harry sighed with relief, congratulating himself silently. She was going to do it. He was sure about it. But suddenly Hermione spoke again.

"No way! Harry, you can't do this! I can't let you have it, you might up end up killing your-"

"-future or past self-"

"-yes, it's very, very-"

"-risky and dangerous-"

"-there is no way to be sure that you will be able to come back and-"

"Please give me the Time-Turner, Hermione."

"Harry... this is mad... mad... I can't do... the trouble you'll be in... expelled now... just before your NEWTs... already bad enough that I have... as Head Girl... the responsibility I bear towards-"

Harry snorted. "As Head Girl, you shouldn't have that Time-Turner."

Hermione shook her head sadly. "No. I won't help."

"You don't understand!" Harry shouted. "I can't let three people die because of me. No, four people! It's my fault my parents died, it's my fault Cedric died, it's my fault above all others that Sirius died! I can't live with this inside me any longer, I feel guilty, I feel wrong, I feel as if I betrayed all their trust, they all left their lives while I was saved! You have no idea... nobody's ever been killed because of you! You have your families and everything is fine! Your only worries, Hermione, are your NEWTs! Who cares about NEWTs? If you die, they are useless! Do you think it will be written on your grave how many you had? And you're always on about how poor you are, Ron, well let me tell you this: I'd give away everything, all the useless money in Gringotts, everything I own to have a family. If you don't want to help me, fine, leave! Just give me the Time-Turner, Hermione. I'll give it back tomorrow. You can just leave me here with it. Nobody will ever know."

Harry reached inside his robes and pulled out his Charms book. He had gotten the idea for the Reinforcement Charm when he had heard Dean recite its definition in the common room earlier on, so he had seized his book before leaving Gryffindor Tower. He only hoped he would be able to work out how to reinforce one hour backwards to one year. He held out his hand for Hermione to give him the Time-Turner.

"Give it to him, Hermione," Ron said into the silence.

"Ron! How can you be on his side? This is not right! He can't go around trying to change everything that happened, it's okay when the future is at risk, but-"

"Just give it to him, Hermione. Don't you see what Harry is going through? Don't you see what the problem is? What do you think you'd feel like without a proper family?"

"Harry's got us!"

"It's not the same, Hermione, and you know it as well as I do. Give him the Time-Turner."

Ron surveyed her, as if he was trying to hypnotize her to take the Time-Turner out. And, amazingly, Hermione slowly put her hand into her robes.

"There. Just give it to him, Hermione."

"But... but..."

"Hermione, please. This is really, really important to me," Harry said pleadingly, his green eyes full of sorrow.

She closed her eyes, as if she didn't want to witness it happening and pulled out a very long, thin golden chain. Hanging from it, reflecting the light of the low burning candles, was the Time-Turner. Her hand trembled as she handed it to Harry reluctantly.

"There. There you go. But I am not going to help you more. This is wrong, I don't want to be a part of it," Hermione said, turning her back on Harry.

"I suppose you couldn't manage it anyway," Harry mumbled and let out a fake sigh. He layed the Time-Turner on the table carefully and started flicking through his book to find the right chapter. Maybe he could manage it without Hermione. It would probably just take a lot longer.

"What do you mean, I couldn't manage it?" Hermione asked.

"You just couldn't," Harry said, running a finger down the index list of his Charms book.

"Oh yeah?" Hermione asked, glaring at him and crosssing her arms over her chest indignantly; however, Harry was not paying attention to her at all, flicking through the pages of his book again.

"Yeah."

"I got 112% in one of my Charms exams!" Hermione said shrilly.

"Yeah, ages ago. This is too hard," Harry said, still ignoring her - something Hermione could not stand. Not in classes and not between friends.

"You don't think I could manage?" she repeated forcefully.

"No. You couldn't," Harry mumbled, not taking his eyes off the Time-Turner. He finally found the chapter about Reinforcement Charms and started scanning the page. Well, it wasn't that complicated... just a lot of calculation work involved, of course....

Suddenly, Hermione pushed Harry aside roughly and took out her wand. "I'll show you. You just wait."

Harry was taken aback in the first few seconds but then and backed away with Ron, leaving Hermione to figure out how to do it. He knew that presenting it to Hermione as a challenge would make her do it. And it had worked. Hermione was bent over the table, scribbling on a piece of paper and mumbling to herself. Every now and then, she would cross out things she had written down angrily or tap the Time-Turner with her wand. After nearly half an hour, she finally spoke to them again.

"I'm finished."

"Really? Thanks, Hermione. You don't know how much I appreciate this," Harry said and hugged her.

"It's okay," she said as he let go of her. "Honestly. It's okay. And yes, it was really complicated, but I think everything will work. I've gone through every single step again. It can't go wrong. Just one thing, the power inside it is now so great that it will affect the whole room, not only the person with the chain around the neck."

Harry nodded and took the Time-Turner.

"Thanks. I'll... see you later then," he said weakly.

"Later?"

"Well, yeah. You better close the door properly behind you. It wouldn't be very good to have the whole of Hogwarts castle going back to the past."

Hermione laughed and was about to say something as they suddenly heard the sound of breaking china or pottry. Harry's heart nearly stopped to then start pumping frantically. He could see the colour draining from Ron's face to leave him white as a sheet except for the freckles. Hermione had clapped her hands over her mouth in horror, but gained her composture back first.

"Hide it! Hide it, quickly!" Hermione whispered urgently and ran over to the door to have a look. She opened it and peered outside into the dimly lit hallway.

"Who's there?" she called down the corridor. After a long silence, she entered the room again and closed the door noiselessly. "There was somebody in the corridor, I'm sure of it."

"I'll check on the Marauder's Map," Harry said, layed the Time-Turner on the table and started looking for the piece of parchment in his robes.

"Oh, nevermind. We'll be gone in a few seconds, whoever is there will not find out," she interrupted him.

"Yeah, let's go," Ron said.

"What, you're coming?" Harry asked, surprised.

Ron laughed.

"You don't learn, do you? We go through this every time. Of course we're coming."

"Honestly, Harry," Hermione said, shaking her head, but smiling all the same.

Harry grinned. Hermione picked up the Time-Turner and took a deep breath.

"23 turns, here it goes." She turned the hourglass. Once. Twice. 3 times. 4 times... 13 times... 21 times... 22 times....

"Well, well, well. If it's not my favorite gang."

23 times. Draco Malfoy slammed the door shut behind him, sneering.

"No!" Ron yelled.

"Stop it!" Harry shouted.

But it was too late. The whole room started to spin, as he travelled back in time with Ron, Hermione... and Malfoy.

~

Suddenly Harry felt the solid stone floor under his feet again after a very fast, unfocused ride backwards through time. He already had his wand out to immobilize Malfoy as soon as he could. But there was no need to act quickly, as Malfoy was lying on the floor, just as Hermione was - the sudden stop had knocked both of them off their feet.

"What did you do?" he coughed and tried to get up.

On Harry's side, Ron whipped out his wand.

"Petrificus Totalus!" he yelled.

The beam from Ron's wand hit Mafloy immediately - as he already was lying on the floor however, the only thing that changed was that Malfoy had shut up for once. His face showed no more emotion as he lied on the floor unable to move, stiff as a log. However, his eyes were darting around the room, and even though he could not speak at the very moment, Harry was sure he had about the idea what he was thinking. He turned away from Malfoy and helped Hermione up.

"Well... your charm did work, Hermione," he said weakly.

"Yeah, but couldn't you have integrated a slime-blocker to avoid him coming with us?" Ron asked pointedly and stared at the immobile Malfoy.

"What are we going to do with him? What are we going to do? He knows about everything! When we come back, he'll be heading right to Snape!" she burst out.

"Look..." Harry said, "he's under the Full Bodybind right now. So let's sort everything out, decide what to do with him and decide what to do here anyway."

He went over to Malfoy and searched his pockets until he found his wand. Harry took it from him and straightend back up.

"I'd better keep this," he said.

"Yes, yes... of course..." Hermione muttered distractedly.

"We could leave him here!" Ron suggested hopefully.

"I think that's a bad idea... if it ever comes out, we might be accused of kid-napping or something," Harry said, although he was quite pleased at the thought of never having to see Malfoy again.

"What we'd need is a Memory Charm or something... but that's riddiculous... we're not taught those at school, you actually are only allowed to learn them if you become an Oblivator, I think..."

"And I don't think he'll buy the 'it was a dream'-story," Harry added bitterly.

"How long will he stay like this?" Ron asked. "Because we could leave him here until we want to go back. That is, if he doesn't suddenly jump back to life."

"I don't know," Hermione said. "It always depends on the force you used on him. He could stay like this for a few hours or a week. But it could also be five minutes," she finished lamely.

"We can't take him with us! Even though he will only be born in 5 or 6 years..." Harry said.

"Especially in that state we can't."

"Well, I do know the countercurse, but I think it's even worse to take him with us in the normal state. He'll go yelling to every person he sees about what has happened," Hermione concluded.

"We could lock him up somewhere?" Ron suggested.

"Like where?" Hermione snorted.

"We could find a place..."

"Or maybe we should tell them about it. They're bound to know a solution," Harry said slowly.

"And you expect them to believe you? Honestly."

"Hermione, I came here for them to believe me. And you know exactly that I look like James. They will believe me."

"Well, they'll think you're totally mad for a while, but eventually, yes, they will believe you," Ron said.

"Okay, let's just imagine they believe you, Harry. So what? We still can't go around with a person - a student - that we have immobilized."

"No, we can't. But we can silence him," Harry said.

"Yes, of course!" Ron said enthusiastically. "And we'll just march him down the corridors. Nobody will notice. He won't be able to speak, but nobody's going to talk to him, because they don't know us. Yes, of course! Brilliant idea, Harry-"

"How old are his parents?" Hermione interrupted. "Because they could be here at Hogwarts."

"They're not," Harry said.

"How do you know?" she retorted.

"Because I'm sure James and Sirius would have hated Lucius Malfoy's guts as well. However, they only knew Snape. And, Sirius would have told us if Malfoy's mother was at school at the same time as he was. After all, they're related."

"We can't be sure about it Harry! What if we walk right into their arms? He looks like his father, too!"

"Harry's got the Marauder's Map. We don't want too many people seeing us anyway, so we can keep an eye on it."

"There's still a risk."

"Hermione, this whole operation is a risk," Harry said calmly.

Hermione bit her lip uncertainly and looked at Malfoy. Harry took her silence for some sort of accordance and went on.

"We take Malfoy with us, who has been put under a Silencing-Charm. We use the Marauder's Map and as many secret pathways as possible to get to the my parents."

"I'm fine with that," Ron said.

"I'm not. What if he breaks loose?" Hermione asked.

"He won't..." Harry said, striding over to Malfoy and bending down to him to make sure he caught every word. "If he tries to, firstly, he'll get a curse fired at him by Hermione who will be walking behind Malfoy. And secondly, he won't come back with us."

Cold fury glittered in Malfoy's grey eyes as he looked back at Harry, the only thing he could really do in his current state.

"Sorry, Malfoy. You shouldn't have burst into that room to frame us," Harry said carelessly and got back up.

"Let's get him ready to leave then," Hermione said.

"I'll perform the countercurse, Ron you stand at the door in case he manages to escape..."

"I'll lock it, in case..."

"Yes, good thinking... and Harry, you use the Silencing Charm."

Harry nodded as Ron moved to the door and waved his wand at it.

"Colloporto!"

Harry looked at Hermione.

"On the count of three," she said.

He nodded again. Hermione pointed her wand at Malfoy and started counting.

"One... two... three! Petrificus Finite!" she yelled.

"Silencio!" Harry said.

He and Hermione stood over Malfoy as he started moving and got up slowly. His knuckles stood out in a ghostly white; Malfoy's fingers were obviously digging into his flesh, but he did not loosen the tension of his fist. It looked as if Malfoy was going to pounce on Harry, but he didn't. He simply stood there, facing him, trembling with hatred, his fists clentched, glaring at him. Harry knew what that look meant. He heard it clearly, although Malfoy could not speak.

I'll get you back for this.

"Malfoy, did you get everything? You will walk through Hogwarts with us if you don't want some hex on you. Remember that slug we turned you in at the end of the fifth year? Or do you remember the ferret Moody turned you into better? We can master those curses, do you understand? And Hermione can master some other interesting ones, too," Harry said.

Hermione twiddled her wand in her fingers idly. Malfoy cast a short look at her, but turned back to staring at Harry, who reached into his pocket and pulled out the Marauder's Map. He ignored Malfoy's stare and tapped it with his wand.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

At once, little lines started spreading over the parchment, crossing all over and soon revealing a perfect copy of Hogwarts castle. Little dots were moving up and down the corridors, symbolizing people and labelled with their names. Harry looked at the map shortly. The corridors were quite empty. One glance at the Great Hall told him that the students and staff were nearly all sitting there. It had to be mealtime.

"Okay, Ron. Open the door."

Harry gave the map to Hermione as he grasped Malfoy's elbow with his free hand and forced him to walk to the door with him. Hermione took the piece of parchment and poked Malfoy into the back with her wand, to make sure he didn't forget about her standing right behind him.

"Alohomora!" Ron said.

The lock on the door clicked and Ron pulled it open. He waited for Harry to arrive with Malfoy and took a hold of Malfoy's other elbow, dragging him out of the room. It looked as if they were walking down the corridor very closely to each other.

"Wait a second," Hermione said and walked around them. She waved her wand at Malfoy's school robes and, a second later, the Slytherin serpent house symbol on them vanished and was replaced by a towering Gryffindor lion.

"Eugh," Ron said. "Did you have to do that? The colour doesn't suit him at all. I feel as if I betrayed Gryffindor."

"Hermione?" Harry said. "You should take your Head Girl badge off."

"Oh, yes. I forgot about that."

She fiddled with it for a few seconds and put the badge safely into her pocket. Then she grinned at Malfoy and walked back to standing behind them. She poked him in the back again and they set off.

"Let's go on. There's nobody down these corridors right now. Where do you want to go to Harry? We can't just walk into the Great Hall," she said as she examined the map, walking behind them slowly.

"No, we have to hide somewhere and catch them before they enter Gryffindor tower," Harry replied.

"Okay... let me think. We usually take this way up here to the common room..." she mumbled, obviously following the paths.

"There must be a secret passageway somewhere there," Ron said.

"Yes, yes, I've found one. It's placed quite well, it's near a staircase. So when they..." Hermione broke off. "Wait! Someone named Jerry Thompson is in the Entrance Hall... when he has gone, we'll cross it and start going up the big marble staircase."

Harry stood still, waiting for Hermione to give them a coast clear. Malfoy tried to pull away, but a violent shake from Ron put him back into his place.

"Oh no... He's heading in our direction!" she whispered.

Harry moved closer to Malfoy and turned to Ron.

"When he comes just talk to me, make it look as if we're having a conversation and walk down the corridor slowly!" he muttered, not taking his eyes off the door.

"Oh, it's okay," Hermione sighed relieved. "He's gone down to the dungeons. It's clear, let's get up the staircase quickly."

Harry tugged Malfoy and started walking again. He pushed the door open with his free hand, clutching his wand, and marched Malfoy through the deserted entrance hall with Ron. They made their way up the staircase quickly.

"Now what?" Harry asked.

"Just go on," Hermione said from behind. "Go on, as if we were heading to Gryffindor tower."

They took the staircase on their left and headed up, Malfoy still resisting half-heartedly. But a little cough from Hermione seemed to quicken his paces a little. Arriving at the top of the staircase, they turned to the left and were about to climb the next one when Hermione stopped them.

"Wait! It's here somewhere. We have to walk past the staircase on the left... yes... here's a hidden room somewhere. It must be just here. Stop."

Hermione walked around them again. They had stopped infront of a space between two paintings. One showed a portrait of a young, darkhaired woman in a ruby red dress. The golden writing on the picture frame read 'Morgaine of Avalon'. The other painting showed a wooden bridge crossing over a small brook. It was labelled 'The Bridge Of Emryss'. In the meantime, as Harry was looking at the paintings. Hermione was studying the map and then started counting the stones on the wall.

"This looks like the fourth brick in the fourth row from the top of this picture frame..." she mumbled. "Well, let me try... Entrada!" she said and tapped a brick.

The wall seemed to tremble and suddenly a mirror appeared between the two picture frames. Hermione looked at the map again, her brow furrowing.

"A mirror?" Ron wondered.

"I don't understand..." Hermione muttered.

"What?" Harry asked.

"The dot is just going through the mirror."

"Well, try!" Ron said.

Hermione looked up from the piece of parchment and surveyed the mirror. Slowly she stuck her hand out and touched it. Nothing happened. Hoping for help from the woman on the portrait, Harry watched Morgaine looking at them sternly, then walking into the other painting where she stood on the bridge for a while, sighed heavily and disappeared before he could ask her anything.

"I doesn't work. It's solid."

"Great," Ron said. "I hope there's nobody coming at least?"

"No, it's okay," Hermione said.

Harry suddenly had an idea. "Hermione? You know the Room of Requirement?"

"Yeah, but that's up another two staircases. I don't think we should go up there, it's too complicated to get in and some people know..."

"No, no, you're getting me wrong. You know that you have to think about what you want to find in the Room of Requirement, right?"

"Yeah..." Hermione said slowly.

"Well, try and think about getting through the mirror. Try and concentrate on really wanting to get in."

"Yes, maybe it's something like that..." Ron said.

Hermione closed her eyes and streched out her fingers for the mirror again. They touched the glass and rested on it for a while. Suddenly she let out a small cry. "The surface... it's not hard anymore..."

She glanced at Harry and put some pressure onto her hand. It went right through the mirror. Hesitantly, she rose her foot as if she wanted to kick the mirror but it disappeared into it as well. Hermione took a deep breath, pinched her nose and a second later, she had vanished.

"Great, Harry!" Ron said.

Harry let go of Malfoy's arm and stood behind him. "In you go."

"Yeah, get in," Ron snarled.

Malfoy tore his arm from Ron's grip and went through the mirror fast. Ron sighed and followed. Harry touched the surface of the mirror that actually looked perfectly normal. His fingers sunk into it. It felt like glue and was surprisingly cool. Curious stuff. Suddenly, he heard footsteps. Harry took a deep breath and crawled into the mirror behind the others.