I stood in the middle of the small apartment I owned with my brother, staring at what laid in between my fingers as the clock on the wall ticked away the minutes. I had no idea how long I'd been standing there. A minute? Five minutes? I glanced at the clock quickly. 1:30 pm. George would still be at the shop. I glanced back at the object laying calmly in the palm of my hand. What was this? But a better question, where did it come from? I had a million unanswered questions, and no idea where to begin to get the answers. For now, I set the strange object on the table in the kitchen as I resumed tidying up the place.
That was how I found the object in the beginning. Hermione and Ron had just dropped by for a quick visit, however now that they were gone I was by myself. I decided I'd clean up a bit, just in case Mum dropped by for one of her frequent unannounced visits. She was always on out case about how big of a miss our place was. "I don't understand how the two of you can make such a large mess, in such a small space" I shivered slightly at the memory before shaking my head to free my thoughts. As I glanced around the room, I was actually impressed by how tidy it looked. It was rare that our apartment was this tidy, although what would you expect from the Weasley twins living together?
I glanced around one last time, before apparating myself out of the apartment, landing directly beside George in the shop, practically causing him to jump out of his chair in pure terror. I laughed at the look his face. Eyes wide, mouth open, similar to how one might look after an encounter with a basilisk.
After my laughter subsided, George was the first to break the silence.
"What in Merlin's name are you doing here?" He asked, as he fought back another round of laughter.
"You've been gone for a while, and I got bored." I shrugged slightly as I tried to peer over his shoulder to see what he was working on, "figured I might as well come down here and see if you needed any help."
George chuckled, although I had no idea why. I didn't think any of what I had just said was funny. "Typical Fred, showing up when the work is done for the day" he said as he smiled at me, and leaned back against his chair. As he leaned back, he put me in mind of Dumbledore and I felt as if I was back at Hogwarts, in his office with George right beside me, Dumbledore leaning back in his chair for what was probably the fifth time that day as he began to ask us what we had done that time. I was only brought back to reality when George began to speak again, "I think I'm done for the day. Would you mind making sure the doors are locked, and the alarm system is secure while I clean up?" I turned to respond, make a smart comment as usual, before he already has his back turned towards me and was packing away whatever it was he was working on.
After I locked the door, I returned to the back room. "Ready to head home?"
"I think so." George responded as he smiled slightly before we apparated back to our apartment. Once there, we popped a few ready-meals that Mum had prepared for us in the over, considering neither of us were very skilled in the kitchen, and sat down on the couch to eat. Mum always brought extra food when she came over for supper, claimed she just wasn't very good at portion sizing, but George and I both know she does it so we can have the left-overs to eat later.
We ate in silence, as we watched some kind of sport on one of those muggle devices called a tele. After we were finished eating, it was my turn to break the silence. "I forgot to tell you..." I began as I looked at George to make sure he was paying attention, which he wasn't. I hit him lightly in the arm, as he turned to me.
"What was that for?" He asked innocently.
"You weren't listening. I forgot to tell you something. I found something earlier, after Hermione and Ron had dropped by for a visit. I'm not quite sure what it is. It looks like a necklace of some sort. Here, let me get it." I continued trying to explain it as I went to the kitchen table and grabbed the object, bringing it back into the living room and laying it in his hand. "Do you have any idea what it may be?" I asked curiously.
George took the object, holding it up in the air as he squinted his eyes and looked at it from all different angles. I chuckled slightly, as it was quick entertaining to see the look of confusion in his eyes.
"I have no idea, mate..." He finally said quietly as he continued to look at it, before laying it flat in his hand. "But there is writing on it, here listen to this: I mark the hours every one, nor have I yet out run the sun. My use and value unto you, are gauged by what you have to do."
George spoke the words softly, giving each word time to sink into both of our minds. We sat silently for a few moments afterward, trying to figure out exactly what that meant. After quite some time, I was the first to speak. "What in Merlin do you suppose that means?"
"No idea..." George responded in hushed tone. "Wait..." He said after a few more moments, of which I assumed he was replaying the words through his mind again. Suddenly, his eyes lit up, it was if a lightning bulb had gone off inside his head. He sat up straighter, and crossed his legs on the couch as we both repositioned ourselves as to see each other better. Once we were sitting face to face, he looked directly at me. "Do you remember a few years back, when we were using our extendable ears to eavesdrop on conversations?
"Of course I do", I said quickly. "You'll need to be more specific though, mate. We did that a good number of times, so nothing rings a bell simply by the extendable ears."
"You didn't let me finish." He replied, and I could sense the impatience in his tone. "We were listening in on a conversation between Harry and Hermione. They mentioned something about a time turner, and how Hermione had used it to get to her classes in third year, as she was taking more than she was technically able to fit into her time schedule. I bet this is one of those, a time turner."
I sat for a moment, but suddenly felt my eyes light up as the realization finally hit me. I looked at George curiously, knowing he was questioning the exact thing that was on my mind. "Do you suppose it works?" I asked, speaking for both of us.
"There's only one way to find out" he replied as he quickly wrapped the chain around both of our necks and began to spin the dial. Everything around us began to change, I glanced around watching our apartment disappear and another room come into view. We kept going back, farther and farther in time, not knowing where we were going to end up.
Eventually we stopped moving and came to an abrupt stop. I scanned the room we were in, and watched as George did the same before speaking. "This looks a lot like Hogwarts..."
George chuckled as he looked at me, although I had no idea why. "You're quite oblivious... This looks like Hogwarts, because it is Hogwarts." He said, matter-of-factly. I noticed him turn his head, and turned mine as well as I heard the loud footsteps coming from down the corridor. Suddenly, and in a hushed run, a boy with relatively messy hair and glasses came running around the corner. "Harry?" George asked as he started at the boy.
The boy turned around quickly, clearly unaware of any other presence in the room. "Don't know any Harry," he said honestly with a look of confusion, "I'm James. James Potter." He added quickly as he tried to catch his breath, just as they head another set of footsteps coming. "I got to run, that's probably Padfoot. He's chasing me after I called him Paddy. He's always hated that nickname" he said before he took off running down the corridor just before another young boy, attractive with dark hair, a tan, a relatively built up arms raced down the corridor, not so much as glancing in their direction as he chased after James.
George and I looked at each other, I could feel the confusion in my face, and if I looked anything like George, there was a somewhat frightened look included as well. "Where are we?" George whispered, quietly enough so that only I could hear.
"I have no idea" I responded quietly, "but let's get out of here... Where is that bloody time-turner?"
I watched as George quickly pulled it out of his pocket, where he had stuffed it at the presence of James Potter. I watched as his face went from content on going home, to a look that resembled both sadness and terror. "George?" I asked as I watched his facial expressions. "What is it?"
"It doesn't feel right..." He said as he pulled it out, and opened his hand in front of him. The moment he did so, we both understood why.
"Great..." mumbled George, "wherever we are, it appears as though we're stuck here" he said as we exchanged a look of both worry, and horror, before looking back at the smashed time turner that lay in his hand.