11th February 1985

Wendel Ramshead was a mysterious man. Well naturally the head of the department of mysteries inside the British Ministry Of Magic would have to be mysterious to some degree. Only a few people knew the real Wendel, the one who cracked jokes about brain tentacles and old father time. His fellow unspeakables were the only people he spent any real time with. He had no family left to speak of; "He who shall not be named" took them away years ago. So now his job was his life, his colleagues his family.

He left his house on that Monday morning at his usual 7 am. Being the mysterious man he was, he did not floo, nor did he apparate to the Ministry. Instead he took the Muggle Underground, and took the "toilet entrance"; he bought a Muggle newspaper at the station and scanned it for anything unusual. The only strange things he could see were a Muggle film about a society that met at breakfast, and a couple of ladies who were famous for singing about chess. He made a mental note to check for stray confundus charms.

When he finally got to the Ministry he saw his protégé Francesca Flutterbie waiting in the atrium.

"Morning Frank, how did your experiment go?"

"Well Chief, I think if I can just stabilise the sand particles, I should get the turners to go backwards and forwards, and more than just a few hours too. We could be looking at the first time turners to go back days if not years! I just need to wait for the new sand samples to get here from Egypt and Greece. Muggle transport is so slow, but I just don't want to risk any magical interference. "

"How long d'ya think it'll be for them to get here?"

"Shouldn't be more than a week."

"Good, that means you can help me in the veil room, I want to run a few diagnostics on the arch. Bode and Crocker said they heard a rumbling noise in there the other day, and I want to make sure it's alright structurally."

"I'm amazed those two could hear anything over their own chatter, but yeah, I'll help you check it out Sir."

After sorting through his morning tasks and replying to some department head memos, Wendel and Francesca headed to the veil room.

Set in what looked like a dark, damp courtroom sat a huge archway with a tattered black veil set into it. As long as Wendel had worked in the DOM he had been fascinated by the fluttering of the veil. But the first thing any new recruit was taught was to not get too close. And so he had always treated it with the utmost respect. No one had really figured out what the arch was for, or what lay on the other side, but Wendel was determined that he would be the one to find out, and so had made it his life's work to study the archway.

They both went to work quickly with their wands, running diagnostics. As their wands waved, a quill and parchment suspended in mid-air were scribbling results furiously.

"Something's not right here Chief"

"What've you found Frank?"

"Look over here, every time I wave my wand just here... well it's like I can see a silver crack in the arch, but then it disappears. I need a closer look"

As if in slow motion Francesca stepped forward and waved her wand at the same time. Suddenly the crack showed up, this time bigger and definitely more pronounced.

"NO FRANK! GET BACK!"

Wendel made a grab for her robes. His hands clasped into the black material and found grip too late as they were both sucked towards the crack and through the veil.

18th June 1996

Sirius Black groggily opened his eyes. He didn't know where he was, or in fact how he got there. The last thing he remembered was facing off against his cousin Bella in the department of mysteries. His whole back seemed to be throbbing,

"Shit!" He thought, "I hope Snivellus left some pain reliever potion at Grimmauld Place"

In the split second it took him to have that thought he heard an almighty crash followed by running footsteps. Looking upwards he saw an old pair of fierce eyes staring back down at him.

"Dammit!" "Francesca get through here quick, looks like we've finally got some company!"

A.N – Please tell me what you think, this is my 1st fanfiction so would like to know whether to continue with this idea.