The Time-Turner Chronicles

Chapter 11

The Power Within

"Into me?" Harry asked with big eyes.

The others did not respond, just gaped at him. Harry's thoughts were a chaotic blur - if he had the power inside himself, were the houses still united? And what could this mean? Why had it been transferred to him, of all people? Why? It didn't make any sense.

Of course it makes sense, a little voice in the back of his head whispered. Of course it makes sense, Harry Potter. You are the Boy Who Lived. The prophecy says that you must fight against Lord Voldemort... but it does not specify when the battle is to take place. What, if it takes place now? What if you must fight him now, now with the power you incorporate? What if you defeat him now, when he is at the beginning of his power? He would never kill your parents, he would never kill Sirius, he would never even exist in the future! Is this the time for the battle? The last... your last encounter with Lord Voldemort?

"At least it would explain... the cut," Narcissa said slowly.

"But why into me?"

"Yes, it would explain the cut," Kat agreed. At her side, Aaron nodded.

"If Harry has the power in himself, could that make it easier to use it?" William asked. "Would he then be able to control it by himself?"

"Theoretically, yes," Fabi said.

"Why me? Why is it always me?" Harry whispered, more to himself than to anybody else. "Why always me? Why?"

"Because you are the Boy Who Lived, Harry," Draco replied silently. "This is your fate. You must learn to accept it."

Lily nodded at Draco's words. He is right, Harry. I don't know why you are here, but I trust there was more behind coming here than you might have believed, Lily thought, and everybody heard clearly. She reached out for Harry's hand and squeezed it. Don't fear.

Harry looked up at them all, his green eyes sparkling, his mind working furiously. If he had the power inside himself... he should be able to control it, right? He should be able to use it the way he wanted to use it. Slowly, Harry got to his feet, looking up at the top of the bubble, looking up at the connections between the different beams of blue light, beams of energy as Harry suspected. They had tried before... but maybe he was supposed to do it differently. Maybe he was to do it by himself. With his own hands.

Hesitantly, Harry started raising his hands in front of him, level with his chest, higher, level with his nose, higher, higher, level with his eyes, over his head, right underneath the only thing that kept the bubble up. We want out of here... this connection must be destroyed!

He heard a stunned gasp and looked up to his fingers that were facing the top of the bubble. Little yellow, red, blue and green arcs of light were darting between his two hands, like electric beams. Harry smiled grimly. This bubble must be destroyed! The connection must be interrupted!

The different coloured arcs between his fingers were getting stronger and stronger, more frequent, higher, until they were only recognizable as a blur of yellow, red, blue and green. Harry felt his hands getting warm, hot, full of energy, of power... the innocent looking beams of light that were holding up the bubble seemed to be laughing at him... the arcs suddenly stopped jumping between his hands to form a hovering, round shape, a mass of energy, a concentration of power so intense Harry didn't notice anything around him anymore, didn't notice how the others around him started to wince and sat together in a close, tight circle, he didn't notice Ron, Hermione and Sirius standing outside, terrified, afraid of what was going to happen, to frightened to pull out their wands to defend themselves if they had to.

"ARSU!" Harry suddenly heard himself yell; pronounce an incantation he had never even known existed before in his life and with a strange magical force, he fired the mass of energy away to the top of the bubble.

The weapon flew up with incredible speed and just charged right through the bubble as if it didn't even exist. The connection of the beams of light was interrupted - the translucent walls of the bubble seemed to start to quiver as Harry still stood in the same position in the middle of their prison. He brought his arms down and took aim briefly at one of the black bludger-type balls that had locked them away in the first place.

"HEDNAN!" Harry yelled and another, smaller mass of energy was fired at the source of their captivity.

It hit the bludger-ball right in the middle and made it explode with such impact that Hermione, Ron and Sirius that had unluckily been standing nearby, were blown off their feet. The walls of the bubble vibrated even more violently.

"HEDNAN! HEDNAN! HEDNAN!" Harry cried and destroyed, one after the other, the rest of the balls. They all exploded with loud bangs, leaving nothing, not even a lingering cloud of dust behind.

"HEDNAN!"

The last ball was destroyed. Harry's arms came back down to his sides weakly as his knees gave in and he let himself sink onto the cold stone floor.

~

Snape took a step backwards. Another. Away from... from this... this thing! His mind was working furiously as he slowly tried to get away, unnoticed. What had happened? Obviously, Potter was playing a trick on him. But how had he conjured a stag? And where had he disappeared to? Or had Potter really transformed into the beast? No, that was ridiculous. Snape cursed himself silently for giving Potter the chance to escape instead of cursing him straight away.

The stag followed Snape slowly. One step after the next that he was taking backwards, the stag copied. Suddenly, the stag lowered its antlers, stopping on the spot.

"Go away, you dumb beast! Go! Shoo! Shoo!" Snape said in a quivering voice and tried to scare it away by waving his hands in the air frantically. "Go! Go away!"

James laughed and as a consequence, the stag belled. Snape was nearly wetting himself with fear. This was a brilliant plan. This was just brilliant. Snape took another step backwards, tripped over the hem of his cloak and nearly fell to the floor. He managed to catch himself though. Too bad. James eyed Snape's wand warily. Snivellus was so scared he couldn't even work up the strength to use it. Fine. It would be a lot easier that way. Before Snape even knew what was happening, James charged. He cantered the few metres separating them, antlers lowered, then scooped Snape up with them and tossed him back on the floor. He whipped around again, finding Snape laying on the floor, unconscious, his wand still clutched in his limp hand. Quickly, James turned back into the human being he normally was and knelt down next to Snape. At last, he was able to take out his wand and placed it at Snape's temple. They had trained this spell for a long time now. And the little bit of erasing - about ten minutes - would do no harm.

"Oblivate," James said and pulled his wand away again.

James got back up, put his wand away and started walking down the corridor at a quick pace without a further backwards glance at Snape. He knew the spell had worked. He had been the first of them to figure it out and had deleted an entire day's worth of memories from Peter's mind. Now, he had to find a teacher. Where had they all disappeared to when you needed them?

~

Deep breaths. Deep. One. Two. Three. Deep, deep breaths. Harry could feel tiny beads of sweat forming on his forehead. He was kneeling on the floor, hands supporting his weight, eyes closed. What had he just done? How had it happened? Although he was weak, Harry tried to focus his mind on the events that had happened just moments ago. The power had been transferred to him. He had used it. But how? It was like when he had been young - like when he was using magic without a wand because he was angry, annoyed or sad. That was how he had done it. Good thing he had been living with the Dursleys for so long. Perfect training, Harry thought grimly. Deep breaths. Deep. He felt stronger. Harry opened his eyes, staring at the stone floor beneath him for a few seconds and then sat up quickly.

"Harry?" a cautious voice asked from behind him.

He was still gasping for air. Harry wiped the pearls of sweat away from his forehead with his sleeve before turning around to face Lily. Her eyes were big and shining as she laughed and pulled him into a close, although still feeble and fragile, hug.

"You managed!" she whispered. "You managed!"

Managed what? Harry thought dimly for a few seconds before realisation began to dawn. Surely, he had not managed to... suddenly he felt another pair of arms throwing themselves around his neck and Kat's excited voice in his ear.

"Harry, you managed! You destroyed it!"

"Thank you so much, Harry," Fabi, somewhere to his right, said earnestly. "Thank you."

Soon enough, all eight of them were hugging on the floor of the Entrance Hall, a big cloud of stars forming above. They ignored it, crying and laughing at the same time; buried under all of them, Harry, confused, but happy. People kept patting him on the back, thanking him, grinning, talking excitedly and wiping away stray tears. After a while, the bundle loosened up and, for the first time, Harry was able to see why they were so relieved. Of course, he had known what it must have been, but it was quite different to be able to see it with your own eyes.

Instead of the pale blue shimmering walls, their prison, the translucent icicle-like bubble, the blue beams of light up in the air, trapping them, cutting them off from the world, Harry saw nothing else but the Entrance Hall, almost boring in its normality, the stone floor, the big oak front door that led to the grounds; on the other side of the hall, the massive wooden doors leading to the Great Hall, the sweeping marble staircase, the flickering torches attached to the walls, gleaming suits of armor, doors to classrooms, passageways to the dungeons, the teachers' wing where Dumbledore's office, the hospital wing, the staff room lay, the wooden ceiling, gargoyles and other stone statues, all in all, Hogwarts, his life, his home, his haven.

Gazing around dreamily, Harry got up, taking in all the details he barely ever noticed on normal days, drinking the atmosphere, the glittering dust in the air due to the light filtering through the few small windows, the tingling sensation of magic all around when suddenly two more bumps hit him, happy and crying at the same time, as were the rest of the group.

"... so worried, Harry, so worried..." he managed to hear through sobs, hiccoughing laughs and a thick stream of tears.

"... mate, I had told you not to listen to Malfoy... you see where your stubbornness leads you to every single time, Harry... and you managed to get out of it as usually; you have some luck, always have, always will..."

"... such a fright, suddenly in that bubble..."

"... then she decided to run against the wall with her head, knocked her out for ages..."

"... wake up and you're still in there, Lily on the floor..."

"... finally got her around, Sirius wasn't much of a help, surprised me, never was like that the way I know him in the future..."

"... funny stars over your heads..."

"... Dumbledore then disappeared, we think it was him anyway; left you alone, that's so unlike himself actually, I'd like to know..."

"... explosion and you lying on the floor..."

"... those beams of light..."

"... thought one of you was going to die any minute..."

"... James was worried, went off to look for a teacher or somebody, but he's not back yet and he's been gone for ages, really..."

"... dead, what would we have done if you had all died..."

"Hey, hey, hey, calm down, both of you!" Harry yelled, laughing as he tried to pull away from them both. Hermione smiled through her tears, took out a tissue and started drying them; Ron ruffled his hair unconsciously, making it stand up on end, grinning a crooked smile. Harry echoed Ron's movement, smiling in a nearly embarrassed way. "I'm fine. But it's good to know you were worried."

"Harry!" Hermione puffed indignantly and threw her arms around his neck again.

"Honestly," Ron said, trying to sound offended but unable to conceal a grin.

~

James hurried down the corridor. He would have to find Madam Pomfrey and explain himself. Explain that it was his fault Lily had left her bed, explain that she needed medication. And quickly. He walked past an open classroom without even bothering to look inside, as someone spoke from it and made him stop in his tracks.

"James?"

Quickly, James turned around and hurried back to the classroom. He hadn't really noticed the door being open. Albus Dumbledore was standing at the window, looking outside onto the grounds.

"Professor Dumbledore, Sir! I've been looking for you for ages, it's urgent-"

"And I've been waiting for you, James. You are a bit late," Dumbledore said, turning away from the window and facing James with one of his unreadable smiles. His eyes were twinkling behind his half-moon glasses, but still, he looked serious, dressed in velvety, dark blue robes. "We'd better go then." He nodded and stepped towards James, who stood rooted on the spot. "Well?" Dumbledore asked. "Don't you want to take me to the Entrance Hall, James? Or has something else happened?"

"Uhm... no, Professor. The... the, uhm, Entrance Hall, yeah. That's right," James stammered and led the way out of the classroom.

~

Harry grinned at his two best friends. He didn't know what to say, but something deep inside told him that it wasn't necessary either. Their friendship was so deep, words would only disturb.

He saw Sirius approaching from behind and suddenly remembered what they were here for in the first place. But by the way Hermione's face seemed to hide away all emotion when she noticed him approaching, Harry figured that he did not know about it yet. Sirius laughed his dog-like barking laugh that made Harry's stomach lurch; it reminded him painfully of the Sirius he had known. He clapped his hand on Harry's shoulder.

"Good thing we weren't relying on James to come back quickly," he said.

Harry nodded nervously, flattening his hair over the thin scar on his forehead. He hoped somebody would change the topic quickly; talking about James was a crucial subject. He felt like he was tearing up inside again anyway. After the happiness that had filled him momentarily, the hollow inside his chest was back, the hollow that losing Sirius had caused... a hollow that perhaps could never heal up again.

'Master has gone out, Harry Potter. Nobody here but Kreacher!'

Perhaps he should try and get into Number 12, Grimmauld Place right then and kill Kreacher to save Sirius from his death. Or should he rather try and find Pettigrew? Yes, that made more sense. If he killed Pettigrew, he could never betray his parents... he could never help Voldemort rise again... and then Voldemort could never make up the plan of luring him into the Department of Mysteries to save Sirius....

'Harry, suffering like this proves you are still a man! This pain is part of being human-'

Harry blinked, as he remembered Dumbledore's words from that one morning, long ago. 'THEN - I - DON'T - WANT - TO - BE - HUMAN!' he had roared back at Dumbledore. And coming to think about it - if he didn't manage to save them, if he didn't find a way to rescue them - he still didn't want to.

"Harry?" Hermione asked cautiously.

"Yeah? What? I'm fine, fine, just fine," he answered, fully aware that he had been sinking into his own thoughts, blocking out the real, outside world again as he did so often. He had just saved everybody from the bubble-thing but felt no pleasure in it at all. Why did he always have to save everybody from everything? Why couldn't people just pay attention to themselves for once?

Harry's anger flared up for an instance and he felt a spark of energy flying between his hands, which shocked him. He had nearly forgotten about that. Just imagine how many people you can save with this power now, Harry thought harshly and hid his hands behind his back. Nobody had seen, and he wanted it to stay that way for some reason.

'You... this isn't criticism, Harry! But you do... sort of... I mean - don't you think you've got a bit of a - a - saving-people thing?'

A saving-people thing, Hermione had called it. He had a saving-people thing. And he had done it yet again. Well, at least this time, it didn't look as if he had caused too much trouble and disaster... other than when he had wanted to save Sirius.... The young Sirius was talking to Lily now, a few feet away from Harry, Hermione and Ron, when Harry noticed that he had been drifting off yet again.

"Are you okay, Harry?" Ron asked.

"Yeah. Sure, I'm okay," Harry mumbled to a totally unconvinced Ron and Hermione. "Okay, I'm okay."

A door opened and a large group of students came crashing into the Entrance Hall, talking to each other animatedly and not taking any notice of the people standing around.

"Hey," Harry heard Kat's voice and turned around to face the Hufflepuff girl. "Listen, classes are going to end in a few minutes; the hall's going to be full of people. Perhaps we should go and find Dumbledore straight away or... I don't know," she shrugged. "What do you think?"

At his sides, Aaron, Fabi, Lily, William, Narcissa and Draco approached. Harry noticed Narcissa and Sirius exchanging evil glares, but tried to ignore that fact. He did some quick thinking - Dumbledore was coming, and Dumbledore always knew. It would probably be best to keep their meeting to strictly Draco, Hermione, Ron and him to discuss the matters.

"I hear that someone - James Potter - has gone to look for Dumbledore," he answered. "I'm sure he'll be leading him back here. But I don't think it's necessary for you to stay right now, especially if you have classes. Uhm... I'll ask Dumbledore to meet us this evening, after dinner, okay? Oh - and I think we should also keep the matter quiet," Harry added. "We don't want to have rumors and stuff spreading like wildfire."

"Sure."

"Yeah, you're right."

"Okay, no problem. See you then."

"Good. Okay, we'll see you guys later then!" Kat said, nodded and left with Aaron. Slowly, the group thinned until only Draco was left standing next to the trio. Lily was talking to Sirius again, shaking her head furiously. Finally, she turned away from him, came over to Harry and pulled him away from his friends.

"I'll wait here with you until Professor Dumbledore returns," she said and glanced at Sirius. "And he's decided to wait for James," she added with a nod in his direction.

"Yes, I have - and you shouldn't be here, Lily," Sirius interrupted, coming over to them both. "Actually, you should be laying in the hospital wing from what I saw and know."

"Well, it's none of your business, Black," Lily replied angrily, glaring at him dangerously. "If I wish to stay here, I will."

"You know," Harry said carefully, looking from one to the other. "I agree. You should go to the see the nurse-"

"Harry!" Lily exclaimed. "I'm fine!"

"Come on, Lily. Be responsible-" Sirius started.

"Okay!" she exclaimed, her eyes flashing. "If you want to get rid of me, I'll go!"

Without a further word, she turned on her heel and made her way out of the Entrance Hall. Sirius shook his head and turned his attention back to Hermione.

"Lily!" Harry cried, catching up with her and grasping her arm. "You know we didn't mean it that way."

"I'm old enough to know whether-" she answered, trying to loosen Harry's grip on her arm.

"That's not the point," Harry interrupted quietly, releasing her. "And you know it. You felt fine not long ago, and we all saw what happened shortly after. I don't want... I don't want anything to happen to you."

Lily looked up at him and considered Harry's words for a few moments before replying. "You know," she said slowly, as if debating on what to say. "It's really nothing dramatic. I can survive."

"It looks rather dramatic to me," Harry answered, searching her eyes.

Suddenly, Lily frowned. "Your eyes..." she started, taking a small step closer to inspect them.

"Err-" Harry said, looking away quickly, glancing in every direction and which.

"They look so similar to mine," Lily finished her sentence.

"Do they?" Harry asked, searching the hall for anything to focus on, except Lily. "Really? Didn't notice at all. Just green, you know."

"Boys," Lily huffed, but let the subject rest. "Listen... I don't know why I'm telling you this, but anyway... yes, I am ill, but I swear, it's nothing that can't be cured. To be honest, I haven't talked to Madam Pomfrey about it yet, but I swore to a friend of mine to do it as soon as it gets bad again."

"Which it most apparently has," Harry commented dryly.

"Yes," Lily answered, staring at him sternly. "It has, but I've got a good idea of what it might be," she continued, suddenly looking uncomfortable.

"And what is it?" Harry inquired at once.

"Nothing over-dramatic, as I already said before. Let's just say that Potions is not my favourite subject and that I messed up one of my potions last month. It was supposed to be a relaxing potion," Lily looked down at her hands grimly. "Well, I drunk it. And since then, I seem to have been a bit off colour."

"Wait a minute," Harry said. "A month ago? And you haven't-"

"It's okay, I don't need you lecturing me! I was hoping it would wear off after a while, whatever it was," Lily exclaimed, warding his questions off with her hands. "Sirius knows of it, and that's why he keeps pestering me."

"And James?"

"What about James?" Lily asked, her expression suddenly hard, her emerald eyes boring into Harry's.

"Nothing," Harry lied quickly. "He just seems to be very worried about you. I wondered if he knew, that's all."

Lily relaxed again. "He doesn't. I asked Sirius to keep his big mouth shut for once and it seems to have worked."

"So I have your word that you're going to see Madam Pomfrey? Now? At once?" Harry asked worriedly.

"Yes, fine, I'm off to the hospital wing," Lily sighed resignedly. "Fine."

"Thanks," Harry said.

Lily gave him a hug. "It's you that I should be thanking. If it weren't for you, we might all have died," slowly, she pulled away and smiled. "See you later, Harry."

"Yeah," Harry said, and nodded. "See you later." He watched her leave the Entrance Hall before turning back to Draco, Hermione, Ron and Sirius.

"Harry," Draco said. "That really was close. Thank you."

Harry nodded and was about to reply when Ron butted in. "Harry? Since when has he been Harry to you, Malfoy?"

"Sometimes, things change, Weasel," Draco said and laughed at Ron's dumbstruck face. "And there's Dumbledore. Finally."

~

"Awfully quiet, James," Dumbledore remarked cheerily, as they walked down the corridor. "What happened? I've never seen you this silent before."

"Nothing, Sir. I mean - it's just - well, how did you know I was coming?" James blurted out.

"That I cannot explain, James. Don't worry about it. But even though I can't answer your question right now, would you be able to fill me in on what exactly happened until you left?"

"Yes - of course, Professor..." James mumbled, still confused. "Kathryn Giles and her brother Aaron were trapped in this bubble, along with Narcissa Black and the two Nelster twins - Fabi and William - and two students I don't know and have never seen before in my life. One was named Harry - we look strangely alike, Professor. I wonder, do you know if I was separated from my twin at birth?" James asked, grinning a bit.

Dumbledore's mouth twitched. "Not that I know of, James."

"Oh. Well. So that Harry-guy and... another one, by the name of Malfoy, I think? I don't know his first name."

"Malfoy?" Dumbledore asked sharply.

"Yeah... why?"

"Nothing, nothing. Well, well, this is quite interesting, I dare say. What happened then? Why were you searching for me?" he asked and stopped in his tracks, looking around. "Isn't there a secret passageway around here, James? I'm sure you know where it is. It would be faster."

"Here, behind the portrait of Susanna of Reigel," James replied, surprised, and pulled the frame away to reveal stone steps leading into a secret corridor.

"Ah, of course," Dumbledore said and stepped in. "Lumos. There - now, where were we?"

"The bubble. Yes, uhm then... Lily passed out, I think. I don't know if you heard that she was in the hospital wing shortly after lunch..."

"Yes?" Dumbledore asked. "Indeed?"

"She blacked out in the library, I don't know why exactly. Madam Pomfrey said she was having visions or something-"

"Yes, Lily is very talented in Divination..." Dumbledore said thoughtfully.

"She woke up in the hospital wing. I wanted to fetch Madam Pomfrey, but she persuaded me to let her go quickly... wanted to find someone. That Harry, I think. Yes, and so we got to the Entrance Hall, she told me to stay where I was, threw herself at that boy - and a few seconds later they were trapped in that bubble. They probably still are, Professor, I'm really worried-"

"There's no need to be, James. They are not in the bubble anymore."

James stopped abruptly, immobile, while Dumbledore continued down the corridor as if he hadn't noticed. "How do you know?"

"I just do. Ah, here we are," Dumbledore said, slid out from behind a tapestry and waited for James to follow him. "I can't believe I've lost my orientation again. Which door is it that leads to the Entrance Hall? The right or the left one?"

"The left one, Sir. But how do you-"

"Come and see for yourself that they are not trapped anymore, James, if you are unable to rely on my words," Dumbledore said, smiling. He pushed the doors open and entered the Entrance Hall, followed by a very confused James.

~

Harry turned around to behold Dumbledore stepping into the Entrance Hall with James next to him, who was wearing a very confused expression - and finally, the swooping sensation of having destroyed the bubble, of having, yet again, escaped Voldemort, came over Harry, like drinking a bottle of warm, foaming butterbeer in one go. The school bell rang, and the last few students hurried through the hall to get to their classes, as the headmaster stepped towards them, beaming. Feeling embarrassed in front of Dumbledore for no particular reason (or perhaps because he was bound to know that they had broken about fifty school rules in coming here?) Harry stood rooted on the spot next to Draco, Ron, who had still lost his tongue in face of Draco's friendliness, Hermione, who looked as if they were most definitely going to be punished and Sirius, who didn't seem to care much, but greeted James at once.

"James! What took you so long? Good thing Harry didn't wait for you to start his rescue action!" he laughed at a completely nonplussed James.

"Where's Lily?" James managed to ask, looking about the deserted hall, as if expecting her to pop out from nowhere.

"Evans? She left a few minutes ago. Harry persuaded her to go to the hospital wing. And we should be going to class, you know," Sirius said and glanced at his watch. "Although I don't really want to go..." he added, smiling at Hermione.

"Sirius! You'll be failing all your-"

"It's okay, Mione. I'm going, I'm going," Sirius laughed. "Coming, James?"

"Professor, I..." James mumbled, looking from Sirius to Harry to Dumbledore and back again uncertainly. He didn't look as if he wanted to go to class at all, but wanted some explanation - something Harry could understand only too well.

"I shall speak to you later, Mr Potter," Dumbledore said and nodded. "I would have asked you to leave now anyway. And Miss Granger is quite right; I wouldn't want you to fail your exams."

Harry - just as Hermione - jumped as Dumbledore said 'Miss Granger'; Ron, a bit slow as always, didn't seem to have noticed and was throwing Sirius as well as Draco disgusted looks.

"See you," Sirius said to Hermione and kissed her on the cheek, which caused her to blush furiously, and then left along with James.

Dumbledore didn't speak until the door had closed behind the two of them. He then gazed at the four students in front of him for a few seconds, before saying, "Miss Granger, Mr Potter, Malfoy and Weasley - please follow me to my office."

Harry's heart started pumping frantically - something in the graveness of Dumbledore's voice made him strongly suspect that they were going to have to explain a lot of things. He and the rest of the group followed the headmaster quietly, heads hung between shoulders miserably. Harry didn't even marvel when Dumbledore stopped in front of the extremely ugly stone gargoyle leading to his office, said the password ('Jelly Slugs'), which made it come to life and jump aside, opening the wall behind it and let them step onto a smoothly spiraling stone escalator. They came off it at the very top, waiting for Dumbledore to open the gleaming oak door.

"In you go," Dumbledore said and Harry pushed the door open hesitantly, letting Hermione step in first. Not much was different from the future office, Harry mused as he looked around the circular room. As always, a large amount of curious silver instruments stood on fragile tables, making odd clicking noises and producing different coloured smoke. They seemed to attract Hermione's attention at once, judging by the fascinated, curious looks she was eyeing them with. The walls were covered with portraits of former headmasters and headmistresses, who had been talking to each other animatedly, but now stared at the group of nervous students who had walked in with Dumbledore questioningly.

Dumbledore waved his wand and four large chintz armchairs appeared out of nowhere in front of the big, claw-footed desk. "Settle down," Dumbledore continued pleasantly and motioned them to sit in the armchairs while he sank into his own seat behind his desk. He placed the tips of his long fingers together and carefully surveyed all four of them through his half-moon spectacles. Harry tried to read his expression, but failed. You could never really know what Dumbledore was thinking; he always seemed to have that familiar calm, peaceful look about him. His gaze seemed to rest upon Harry longer than it did on either Hermione, Ron or Draco, but still Dumbledore said nothing. Harry noticed that Fawkes, Dumbledore's phoenix, was not sitting on his usual perch, nor could he see a pile of ash on the floor indicating that this was a Burning Day and Fawkes had burst into flames to be reborn from his ashes. Perhaps he was out with a delivery. Through the mysterious noises of the funny instruments Dumbledore owned, Harry could also hear the steady ticking of a clock, which made his stomach lurch, leaving behind a sickening feeling. From the corner of his eye, he saw that the headmasters and headmistresses on the paintings were eyeing them with great interest; every now and then they would whisper to each other silently, then hurry out of one portrait into the next to share their thoughts with somebody else.

Just when Harry was getting fed up with the silence between them and wanted to clear his throat to at least say something, a burst of flames over Fawkes's perch made all of them, except Dumbledore, jump. The flames became more and more powerful, turning into a red hot, golden ball of fire, so intense Harry felt the warmth on his cheeks, until unexpectedly, it all stopped, and Fawkes the phoenix, was sitting on his perch, stretching his beautifully coloured red and golden wings and giving a low shriek of recognition.

"Ah, finally," said Dumbledore, rising from his high-backed chair and walking over to Fawkes. He stroked the head of the phoenix with his finger gently. "Thank you, Fawkes."

It was only then that Harry noticed Fawkes had been carrying a letter. Dumbledore took it from the bird, opened it and read through it quickly. Out of the corner of his eye, Harry could see how uncomfortable Hermione, Ron and Draco looked, all cowering in their seats nervously. He looked back at Dumbledore who finished reading the letter and folded it neatly, stowing it away in a pocket of his dark blue robes.

"I must know, Miss Granger, if you still have the Time-Turner," Dumbledore asked abruptly, sitting back down at his desk.

Hermione nodded, all colour draining from her face. "Yes, Sir, I do" she whispered, white as a sheet.

Dumbledore said nothing, but put his fingertips together again, fixing Harry with his penetrating, light-blue stare. Harry's heart sank so quickly it nearly made him feel dizzy. What was he going to say? It was, after all, his fault that Hermione, Ron and Draco had been brought to the past... well, it wasn't really his fault that Hermione had a Time-Turner, but he had made her use it all the same. It took a while for Harry to notice that Dumbledore had started speaking again and he quickly tried to pick up the thread of the conversation.

"... Will be sending you back with the Time-Turner as soon as possible. Also-"

"Professor!" Harry interrupted, aghast. "You can't - I mean to say that-"

"Your parents and Sirius Black, yes. I know," Dumbledore said gravely. "I am sorry, Mr Potter, but they, as well as Miss Giles and her brother, the Nelster twins and Miss Black, will have their memories modified-"

"No, Professor!" Harry exclaimed, jumping up from his seat, agitated. "No, you can't do that, I must-"

"Please sit down, Mr Potter," Dumbledore said calmly. "I understand your worries, but other than you might think, this is not the reason you came here."

Harry blinked, still standing. What was Dumbledore talking about? Even though Harry was surprised that Dumbledore knew all these things, he did not doubt the ability of the headmaster to get this sort of information. But how could Dumbledore say that Harry had come here for a different reason, a reason Harry didn't even know about?

"Please, sit down, Mr Potter," Dumbledore repeated and, as Hermione tugged his arm, Harry slowly sunk back into his armchair. "There. Now, just let me explain everything in peace and quiet."