Hello again everyone. As you have no doubt noticed, this story has been on hiatus for quite some time now and has seen quite the number of people coming in to read it before they message me to ask for more. I'm now pleased to inform you that I will once again be working on this story and developing the characters that have been created for this plot, striving to work further into the complicated world that I had hoped to see created throughout these chapters. I will state now that I clearly do not own Harry Potter or any of the original characters, settings, spells or places that are mentioned in these chapters, as they were all the work of JK Rowling. However, I will lay claim to most of the newer characters that are introduced throughout, with the exception of a few that will be highlighted at the beginning of each installment.

I'd like to thank two of my best friends (you know who you are) for always encouraging these shenanigans, and thus encouraging me to pick up this story again. Without them, I don't know that I actually could have done it, because I bounce almost everything off of them. So, without further ado, please enjoy this new first chapter to Twisted Time, and feel free to leave me a review when you have finished reading it. I'd love to know how many of you are still interested in this fic.

Chapter 1
The Departure

Clothes...her broomstick...the map...

The list she had created in her head felt almost endless as she scurried around her bedroom, collecting things from various places before putting everything into the knapsack at the foot of the bed. Part of her worried that she might perhaps forget something of importance, but she didn't dare write anything down. The last thing she needed was for someone to find that list and question her reasons for writing it, something that could expose her entire plan before she had a chance to put it into action. Her parents would not approve of her pending journey, nor would her brothers or anyone else. They would all claim that it was far too dangerous for an underaged witch, that she couldn't possibly know where to begin in terms of setting things to rights. But she was determined that something needed to be done before anything else changed on them unexpectedly or more people vanished without a trace.

The unexplained disappearances of several people in the past year had lead her to believe that there was something far more sinister at work than pure chance and coincidence. Her family was beginning to take notice of what was happening; her cousin in a panic as she struggled to keep her mother's spirits up after her father had vanished, struggling to keep her uncle sane in the process. Nobody could make sense of these events or even begin to think of where they might look for those who had gone, but she was determined to solve the mystery on her own. She had done her research, read all of the books she could get her hands on...and that's where the changes were the most noticeable. Passages and dates had been altered. The very history that she had been brought up on was somehow different this time from when her eyes had first fallen on the pages back at school. And it couldn't be ignored any longer.

Crossing the room yet again, her fingers reached forward to grab the little red book that she had left lying on her desk, the edges of the pages shimmering in a gold accent that proudly showed her roots to anyone who cared to look. This would do, she decided, if she had an opportunity to plan things out over the course of her trip. And what a perfect idea - using the gift that her father had given her for such a task. He wouldn't necessarily be proud of her right now for what she was about to do, but perhaps in time, she thought, he might come to understand why she had done it. If she made it back alive...

She paused for a moment by the edge of the desk before she looked down at the drawer that sat just to the right, wondering if perhaps she should check it again. There was no way that it had moved since she had last looked, and yet a voice in the back of her mind said that it was vital for her to continue checking to ensure that she wasn't going to forget where she had stored that crucial bit of parchment. If her first plan didn't work then she would need to rely on this as her way of getting back there, knowing even that was not a guarantee. Despite her best efforts at research there was not much information about what she hoped to accomplish, and what little she did know had come from other means. But those didn't exist anymore she'd been told. The Ministry of Magic had made sure that they were all destroyed years ago in order to prevent this exact thing from happening in case someone on the wrong side should get their hands on one and try to turn the tides of the war in favour of the darkness. Granted, that was not at all her intention, but she knew that she was incredibly fortunate to have found this one at all. Still, she felt the urge to open the desk drawer and check to make sure the parchment was where she had left it, prompting the girl to touch the handle of the drawer before she heard a noise that immediately caused her to pull her fingers away again.

Her head snapped around as she heard her bedroom door hit the wall behind it, the entrance now taken up by two bodies that looked at her with serious expressions rather unlike them. "I told you she was planning something," the younger boy said accusingly as he stormed inside, his dark eyes travelling over the room as he took note of the things that had been removed from their usual places, such as the knapsack that now sat at the foot of her bed. "See, I told you!"

His blonde companion merely shook her head in disbelief, running her fingers through her straight locks before she walked inside the room as well. "Are you insane?" she demanded of her friend as she placed both hands on her hips. "We don't know the first thing of what's going on and you're already packing like you've got somewhere important to be."

The only response they immediately got was the roll of her eyes as she moved about the room and continued to gather a few things, each one being placed carefully into the knapsack before she dared to look them both in the eye. They weren't supposed to figure out what she was up to despite the closeness of their relationship. She knew that if anyone found out what she was planning they might try to talk her out of it, but they might also try their hardest to accompany her, and that was out of the question entirely.

"I can't just let this go," she told them, retreating to the dresser to grab another pair of socks in an effort to keep herself moving. "Things are happening that shouldn't be happening. People are disappearing, history is being changed, memories are fading...if this keeps up then I don't know what that's going to mean for us."

The younger boy frowned heavily as he watched her movements, knowing immediately that she was hiding something. "Leave it to Dad and the others," he insisted quickly. "They're already looking into the disappearances, and you know that he doesn't really care about what the history books say."

But the girl stopped and shook her head at once, looking back at him with a darker look than was normal for her. "You don't understand. It's being changed completely, as if parts of it never happened at all. I have to figure out what's going on. I'm going."

She could tell that an argument was just looming in the air around them when they looked at her, neither of them looking overly impressed by her stubborn declaration. And yet they both knew that it would take a rather sophisticated way of getting where she wanted to go, if it was even possible. People didn't just hop through time and space as if it were no big deal, moving from one generation and back to another in order to figure out what had happened to deal with their twisted time.

"And no, neither of you can come."

This answer did nothing to satisfy the already angered boy who looked at her with such a heavy glare, trying his hardest to win the staring contest between the two of them. "You're underage," he reminded her with a small smirk of amusement, believing he might win their battle after all. "You don't know enough to deal with the real world yet, no matter how smart you think you are."

Her jaw tightened a little when he spoke, her eyes burning with anger before she finally pulled herself away, lest she risk losing her temper and reaching out to strike him. "You're not coming with me, and that's the end of this conversation."

The smirk was instantly erased from his face and replaced with a stunned expression, realizing that his plan had not worked out the way he had wanted. Insults were not going to stop her from doing anything dangerous, and now she was denying him any kind of involvement in the adventure. Hurt and angry at being treated in such a manner, the boy turned on his heel and immediately dashed out the door, thundering down the stairs before either girl could call out to stop him.

"Now you've done it," muttered the blonde, turning back to her friend with a disapproving look. "And don't think I haven't noticed the changes you've made, either."

The other girl simply shrugged, closing up her knapsack and letting it fall against the sheets of the bed with a soft thunk. "It's too dangerous for him," she said abruptly, her dark curls falling around her face as she reached around to remove the elastic from her hair and shake it out slightly. "I don't even know what to expect. I can't be worrying about him while I'm trying to get around and stay alive myself."

Despite the excuses that she was making for wanting to make this journey alone, the blonde could hear something else in her friend's tone of voice. There was normally a lightness to her manner of speaking, a bit of laughter that they would often share in happier moments together as they moved about the castle corridors or lounged in the common room before the fire. But in a single moment she had come to realize those moments were long behind them that it was time to move onto another point in their lives - a point she knew couldn't be traveled alone no matter how much she insisted on it.

"I'm coming with you."

The brunette laughed to herself as she looked over at her friends, crossing her arms over her chest with a hip cocked to one side. "Did you not just hear me? I can't let anyone else come with me. It's way too dangerous."

"Exactly," hurried the blonde, forcing her mind into overdrive so that she could create enough reasons for herself to go along. "But we're the same age, we know the same things. I would be of far greater help than anyone else, and I know that you trust me enough to let me go. Please..."

She thought her best friend was absolutely crazy for wanting anything to do with her after discovering her plan, and the brunette was more than happy to tell her so. She opened her mouth to speak, but stopped when she heard noises coming from the floor below them, noises that were steadily growing louder. Footsteps could be heard on the bottom of the steps as someone called her name, the deep rumbling voice that she knew all too well leading the way. Damn him, she thought.

He'd told them.

"I have to go now, before they stop me." Her hands reached out to grab her bag and throw it around her shoulder before she plunged a hand into the depths of her shirt collar, removing the chain from its hiding place and beginning to fumble with the tiny decoration that hung from the bottom.

"I've got my things already," grinned the blonde, patting the side pocket of her jeans confidently before she stepped forward and slipped beneath the chain herself. "Are you sure this thing is going to work?"

The brunette shook her head impatiently as she started turning it, her eyes focused on the task at hand while the other girl looked toward the door and the approaching sounds of others. If they were caught now, there was no possible way that they would ever be able to journey back and figure out what was happening. They'd be forced to remain where they were, watching as things continued to change around them, helpless to prevent anything further from occurring. That couldn't be allowed to happen. And all she had to rely on right now was an old device that she had managed to find by pure accident. A device she had been working to fix for the past year. Now was the time for the ultimate test, where both girls were praying all of the work that went into repairing it would pay off in time to spare them from being reprimanded harshly for their actions.

The room began to spin about them, things moving and adjusting rather slowly before all at once there was a whirlwind of colours and sounds. Frightened of what was actually occurring, the blonde jumped just as they were both swept off of their feet and brought into the spiral that time had created for their transportation. Before they could be ripped apart, they latched their hands together and held on for dear life, hoping they would end up where they meant to. But considering the way in which they had suddenly chosen to leave, they really couldn't be sure of anything. All they could do was ride out the time travel and hope that nothing bad happened when they arrived, for neither of them knew what to expect on the other side.