Luminous

"So you aren't going home?" Catherine asked for the hundredth time.

Levina's glasses were sliding down her nose; she nudged them back into place with her shoulder and adjusted her two-handed grip on the hourglass. "Too busy," she said, squinting at the stream of sand trickling between the two glass bulbs.

"So you're just going to stay here?"

Levina nodded. Carefully, she flipped the hourglass. The sand continued to flow upwards, ignoring the force of gravity.

"All night?"

"Yes, Catherine."

Catherine conjured a small flame to the tip of her wand and moved between the corners of the room to light the lamps. "So you're going to miss the staff New Year's Eve party?"

"New Year's Eve is nothing special." Levina's hourglass had frozen; she gave it a quick tap with her finger, and the sand dropped to the lower bulb. She sighed and set the whole thing aside. "1772 will be exactly the same as 1771 has been, and then next year we'll all feel silly for celebrating something so trivial."

"Don't say that." Catherine picked up her colleague's abandoned project and peered through the glass.

"Put it down, Catherine."

"I could make it work, if you'd let me."

Levina tugged the hourglass from Catherine's hands. "It's not your department," she said as she wiped away Catherine's fingerprints with the edge of her robes. "You don't see me coming into the Room of Love and trying to drink your Amortentia, do you?"

"You could have some, if you wanted it," Catherine offered. "I have a bottle - hang on." She began to fumble through her pockets.

Levina smirked. "Does your supervisor know you swipe bottles of love potion?"

"That's one of the perks of being an Unspeakable who works in the Love Room," Catherine said, pulling out a small vial filled with clear liquid. "My supervisor is so drunk on this stuff, he wouldn't notice if I stole the whole fountain out from under him." She held out the bottle. "Take it. Come on, Levina, take it and slip a drop of two into Richard's champagne - don't look at me that way, I see the way you light up when he walks by - and then you can have a midnight kiss at the staff New Year's Eve Party!"

"I can't," Levina said. "You know I can't."

"Your Time Turner will still be here when you get back," Catherine said, tapping the hourglass with a long fingernail.

"It's not a Time Turner," Levina said. "Not yet. That's the problem." She leaned forward until her forehead rested against the table. "I've spent nearly twelve years on this project, and it still won't turn back time. I'm beginning to think it's not possible."

"Oh, hush." Catherine tucked a chunk of her frizzy blonde hair behind her ear. "Of course it's possible. Everything is. And look on the bright side - when you do get it working, you can just flip it over a few times and get all your years back!"

"It's not that simple," Levina said, but she was smiling.

"Maybe if you bothered to leave your office once in awhile you'd find some burst of inspiration." Catherine flicked her wand and sent silver sparks flying toward her friend.

"Careful!" Levina cried, diving to protect her hourglass.

"Maybe Richard has some valuable input - maybe Richard knows exactly how to alter time, and he hasn't shared with you because you haven't talked to him."

"Richard is an auror," Levina said. "He's trained to fight, not to do research."

"Just because he isn't an Unspeakable doesn't mean he's stupid. You might learn something valuable if you get to know him. I could introduce you." Even in the dim light, Catherine's green eyes were glowing at the prospect of matchmaking. "It's nearly eleven," she said. "Just come to the staff party for an hour - just until midnight - and then you can come right back down here to slave over your Time Turner. I'll get you all cleaned up and everything."

"Cleaned up?" Levina said with a touch of sarcasm. "What do you mean? I look fantastic!"

Catherine grinned and played along. "Yes, Unspeakable Monkstanley, you look simply ravishing in your stained robes."

Levina looked down at herself. "I had a bit of a spill at lunch," she admitted with a grin. "But it doesn't matter, because I'm not leaving this room."

"Yes, you are." Catherine flicked her wand. "Scourgify." The stain evaporated from Levina's lapel. "See? Better already."

Levina groaned. "There are going to be people from the Department of Magical Transportation there," she said, taking off her glasses and setting them next to the hourglass. "The Transportation Department heads are so boring."

Catherine nodded seriously. "And probably people from the Wizengamot, as well."

"They're even more boring."

"But Richard is going to be there, and so it will be worth it." Catherine picked up her Levina's glasses and slid them back onto her friend's face.

Levina looked longingly at her hourglass. "I will stay for one hour," she said finally. "And not one second longer."

Catherine squealed and clapped her hands. "Then we haven't a moment to waste!" She grabbed Levina's hand and tugged her toward the door, not bothering to snatch the vial of love potion from the table.

The time was 10:59.

"There he is," Catherine whispered, pointing through the crowd of glamorously dressed witches and wizards. "Richard Longbottom. The auror."

Levina tugged at her robes and wished she were a little more dressed up. Catherine had somehow found time to swipe red paint across her mouth, and the effect made her teeth sparkle. Levina ran her tongue across her lips and hoped against hope that moisture would change their color. An enormous hourglass was set up in the dimly-lit atrium, with sand trickling away the seconds until the new year - she thought fleetingly of her poor abandoned Time Turner -

"Levina!"

Levina turned. "What?"

"Richard Longbottom is coming over here!"

"He is?"

"Right there!" Catherine grinned as she pointed. "Tell him about your Time Turner. Go on!"

"I can't," Levina hissed. "Unspeakable, remember?"

"Excuse me," Richard said, nudging past Levina to reach for a glass of champagne.

"Sorry," Levina said automatically, and she dropped her gaze. Catherine made a noise in the back of her throat and shoved Levina hard - she lost her balance, went flying into the man beside her - wine spilled everywhere -

"Oh," Richard said, looking down at his soaked robes bemusedly.

"Sorry!" Levina felt herself turning red. "I'm so sorry."

"It's fine - all fine," Richard assured her. "I'll just go find someone to clean this up, then." He wandered away.

As soon as he was out of earshot, Catherine began to giggle madly. "You talked to him!" she said. "You did it!"

Levina rolled her eyes. "I'm going back downstairs."

"Oh, you can't - it hasn't been an hour!"

"Well, I would rather spend the last hour of the year doing something useful, rather than spilling champagne all over myself," Levina snapped, and she turned on her heel.

"Levina, come on," Catherine said, following her colleague down the stairs into the Department of Mysteries. "You aren't going to get anything done in an hour."

"Watch me." They reached the Room of Time, and Levina flung herself back into her seat. She reached for the hourglass just as Catherine spotted of her vial of love potion; two hands knocked into each other, and to the tune of a horrified, "No!" from Levina, both items fell from the table and landed on the stone floor with a colossal smash.

Catherine's mouth hung open. "Levina," she whispered. "I'm so sorry. I'm so, so - "

"My Time Turner," Levina whispered, eyes wide. "Twelve years."

"Maybe we can sweep up the sand," Catherine said desperately, dropping to her knees. "Maybe we can - "

But the moment she scooped up a handful of sand, it melted into a silvery substance, which quickly turned to smoke and evaporated into the air.

"It can't be touched by human hands," Levina said miserably. "It has to stay within the glass."

"I'm so sorry," Catherine said. "I didn't mean to ruin it."

Levina closed her eyes. "That's all right," she said. "I can complete some other task in an hour."

Catherine laughed nervously. "That's ambitious. Like what?"

Levina opened her eyes and pulled out her wand. "A spell. I've been working on a spell."

"Which spell?"

"A new one. One I invented."

"I didn't know you were inventing a spell." Catherine looked quite impressed. "Show me."

"I can't. It doesn't work yet. Just like everything else I put my mind to." Levina set her wand on the table and looked pointedly at the shards of hourglass on the floor.

"Is it a time spell?" Catherine asked.

"No, nothing like that. It's supposed to - well, it seems a bit trivial compared to time, but it's supposed to create light."

"Create light," Catherine repeated. "Like, what, a flame?"

"No, something brighter than a flame. Something different." Levina shrugged. "I came up with the idea last year. It was midnight, and it was too dark to see, even using the torches in the corners. I was trying to work on the Time Turner but I could barely see my hands." She rubbed the hands in question together. "So I asked my supervisor if there was some charm for creating a light, but he couldn't think of one, and when I went home I owled an old professor, but she didn't know one, either." Levina picked up her wand and held it in front of her like a torch. "So I thought, what if I made my own?"

Catherine leaned against the table. "But you couldn't make it work?"

Levina shrugged. "Never tried all that hard. It was a distraction, really. Something to do when my mind needed a break from the Time Turner."

"What's the incantation?" Catherine asked.

"Haven't gotten that far. Lux, maybe? It's Latin for 'light.'"

"Lux," Catherine agreed. "Or luce, that's the Italian."

"Or just the English word - luminous." Levina shrugged again. "There's more to spell work than just the incantation. There's wand movement, and mindset."

"Do you have those?" Catherine asked.

"I suppose." Levina demonstrated a quick little wave with her wand. "And when I try to cast it, I focus on warmth, like the sun. Warmth and brightness."

"Try it with the incantation!" Catherine said. "Lux, or Luminous, or any of them."

"Lux," Levina said. Her wand remained unlit.

"Let me try." Catherine pulled out her own wand. "Luce!"

"Say it more softly," Levina suggested. "Use less force."

"Luce."

Nothing.

"Luminous," Levina said, and then: "Oh! I felt it!"

"You did?" Catherine exclaimed. "What did it feel like?"

"Heat - here." She pressed her wand into Catherine's hand. "Feel that? It's hot!"

"Luminous," Catherine said, and then she squealed. "Mine's hot, too!"

A loud noise from overhead made them both glance up briefly. "Think something's happened?" Levina asked.

Catherine shook her head. "It's the giant hourglass in the atrium. It's fires off little shooting stars at five minutes 'til midnight." She met Levina's eye. "Why? Do you want to go up for a few minutes and ring in the new year with Richard?"

Levina rolled her eyes. "Richard will still be there when it's 1772. Luminous. Luminous!"

"Luminous," Catherine said, and then she dropped her wand. "It's hot," she said with a giggle. "Like there's magic inside that wants to come out, but it can't figure out how."

"Hm." Levina bent to retrieve her friend's wand for her. "Maybe the word needs to be rearranged? Louminus? Limonous?"

Her wand remained unlit.

"What about leaving out a syllable?" Catherine said. "Minous! Lumin!"

Levina licked her lips. "Lumos."

A rush of warmth through her wand, and then the room was thrown into a bright yellow light.

"You did it," Catherine cried, throwing her arm up to shield her eyes.

The time was 11:59.

Quidditch League, Round 11

Position: Keeper

Word Count: 1,982

Prompt: Write about the last day of the year in 1771

[Disney Character Competition: Terence - write about the origin of magic]