The Time Turner
Chapter One
Hermione saw the paintings reaction to Harry walking into what used to be Dumbledore's office. She watched them jump up and down, their excitement obvious. She herself had agreed with Harry on returning the Elder Wand to Dumbledore's tomb where it belonged. Yet as she stood in the office, a somewhat empty feeling settling in her stomach, her eyes wandered around the room, barely registering Harry's words, "And I've had enough trouble for a lifetime."
Silence followed his statement, each of them consumed by their own thoughts. Ron broke the silence, looking down and rubbing the back of his neck. Hermione knew he was trying to hide his tears.
"I'm going to see how mum, George, and the rest of the family are holding up." He looked up at Harry and Hermione. "You can come if you want to." Harry nodded his head silently and walked over to the doorway. Ron followed him before he turned to Hermione. "You can come too, you know." Hermione's eyes stopped moving around the office and she looked straight at him. She nodded her head and opened her mouth to speak.
"I'll be there soon. I'm just going to sit in here for a few minutes if that's okay with you?" she said, feeling her heart break as she saw the tears fighting to spill over his eyes. Ron nodded his head, sending Hermione a half smile before leaving the office for the Great Hall where Fred, Lupin, and Tonks now lay, among countless others who also died. She bit her lip to stop herself from crying at the thought. She needed to be strong. For now, at least.
Silence passed over the room as Hermione was the only occupant. The paintings of the headmasters had all left, gone to join the portraits outside the Great Hall. All except for one of course. Albus Dumbledore stared down at the bushy haired brown girl who sat on the ground in the middle of the office. His half-moon spectacles slid down his long nose a bit.
Turning in her spot on the floor, Hermione looked up at Dumbledore's portrait. "I wish there was a way that not as many people could have died in this." Hermione continued, ignoring the fact her voice was cracking as tears began to roll slowly down her cheeks. "I wish there was a way we knew all about this so we could have prevented so many things; a way in which we could have destroyed all the Horcruxes without Voldemort knowing and killed him a long time ago."
Dumbledore nodded at Hermione's wishful thinking. Repeating his words from five years before, he spoke to Hermione in his famous quiet voice saying, "Help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it." With a wink and a simple glance across the room, Dumbledore stood up from his painted seat and walked out of the portrait.
Hermione watched her old headmaster vanish beyond the canvas. Once he was gone, she looked across the room to see the stand where Fawkes the Phoenix used to sit every time she had walked into the office that Dumbledore had once occupied. Standing up, she walked over to it, running her hands over the cold gold tray where ashes lay from his last burning day. A sigh escaped Hermione's lips. Fawkes had left Hogwarts when Dumbledore died, so how could he help her now.
As she turned to leave, a book case behind the old birds' sitting place caught her eye. Hermione dropped her hand back to her side and walked over to it. She noticed on one shelf a few books leaned on others. This must have been where the Horcrux books were. She ran her fingers against the bindings; some old, some new. She smiled as familiar titles appeared like International Law of Apparition and Quidditch Through The Ages.
Hermione's eyes looked past every title as she looked farther and farther up. On the utmost shelf, in the far right corner, were seven books that caught her attention right away. Each one contained the name that belonged to one of her best friends; Harry Potter. She held out her shaky hands and felt silly as she summoned the books. "Accio… Harry Potter books?" she said in a rather questioning tone. The books gave a jerk then swiftly flew off the shelf and landed in her hands.
She dropped the books on the headmasters' desk quickly as if it burned her much like the artifacts in the Lestrange vault did. After staring at them for several moments, she picked up the book that had the number one on the top of the binding. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Hermione turned the books over one by one, reading each summary.
"Yes, I guess you have found out that I am quite a fan of Mrs. Rowling's works," said a voice that made Hermione jump out of her deep thought. She looked up to find Dumbledore back in his portrait and sitting in the chair as he was before.
"These," she began, picking up a book. "These… books are going to help us? How? It's not like the books have magical powers which can change the past," Hermione said, throwing down the book in anger. For the first time in her life, she believed that a book could be useless.
"Sometimes, Miss Granger, it is not the book that holds the powers, but the people that read them," Dumbledore responded. Hermione opened her mouth to respond when Dumbledore's portrait held up his hand. "I believe that turning the green knob three times shall do the trick." With a smile, Dumbledore turned away from Hermione and opened a book he had in his cloak.
Hermione sighed, shoved the seven books into the purse that she, surprisingly, still had, and walked towards the door. Before she left, she mumbled, "Maybe Ron was right, he is mad." When Hermione heard the old professor chuckle, she sent a glare his way before walking down the marble steps.
Three times shall do the trick. The sentenced repeated itself over and over again in her head. Where had she heard it before? As she came closer to the Great Hall, Hermione remembered suddenly. It was third year when she had a time turner. She turned the golden knob below the hour glass before turning the glass three times to go back earlier in that day so she could take extra lessons. Oh how a mess that was.
Hermione saw Professor McGonagall walking out of the Great Hall in a hurry towards the direction of her office. It took Hermione a few moments to register for herself to run after McGonagall. She ran through the castle, following the trail of her old transfiguration teacher. When she reached her office, a sob echoed throughout the empty corridor. It came from within the office.
Slowly, Hermione opened the door to see Professor McGonagall in her chair, crying into her hands. Hermione stood in the doorway awkwardly not knowing what to do. As the professors' cries began to subside, Hermione spoke up.
"Professor McGonagall?" she said in a quiet yet firm voice. The gray haired witch looked up at her, surprised, and quickly wiped her tears away.
"Ah, um, Miss Granger. How can I help you?" McGonagall asked, wiping a few more stray tears away hastily. Hermione weighed her options quickly within her mind. She couldn't tell McGonagall that she wanted her time turner from third year. What if she had returned it to the ministry right when she got it back and it had gotten destroyed? Even if McGonagall still had her time turner, she probably wouldn't even let her have it since she stressed to Hermione a countless number of times that it was very dangerous for wizards to meddle with time. "Miss Granger?" Professor McGonagall repeated.
"Oh. I was just wondering how…" she paused for a second, thinking of an excuse before looking back at her old teacher. "I was wondering how the Weasley's are holding up?" She bit her lip as she watched new tears form in the older woman's eyes.
"They are… holding up under the circumstances. It is most unfortunate that Mr. Fred Weasley had to…" Professor McGonagall chose her words wisely, careful to not let how upset she was about this show, "to… lose his life in this horrible turn of events." Hermione nodded her head as tears prickled her eyes. Fred and George are like her own brothers that she's never had. Without one, the other is incomplete. Oh George, just imagine how he must be feeling. Every time he has to look into a mirror, he sees himself… and Fred.
Hermione bit her lip before rushing over to hug McGonagall. She clutched the young girl, who stood there surprised at the reaction, as if she were a lifeline. Her sobs mixed with the other witches' cries. Some time paused before the sobs subsided and the girls let go of each other.
"I am terribly sorry, Miss Granger," said Professor McGonagall, repeating the hasty action of wiping her tears like before. "I must go back to the Great Hall. I'm sorry." With that, McGonagall rushed out of her office, hurriedly making her way back to where Harry, the Weasleys, and countless other families stood. Hermione slowly approached the desk and ignored the flow of guilt coming down upon her. She needed to do this, for a better future.
She searched through countless drawers and found nothing expect paper, quills, and things that were probably confiscated from James and Sirius when they were in school. Hermione opened the smallest and last drawer in the desk. Upon its open, the drawer gave a golden spark that disappeared as quickly as it came. That was when Hermione spotted what she was looking for; a time turner. She picked it up, noticing the second one beside it. Since when did McGonagall have two?
Shaking her head, Hermione clutched her purse, put the time turner around her neck, and turned the green knob three times just like Dumbledore had told her then the hourglass three times as well. The sensation of flying backwards consumed her and blurry figures flew by as if in rewind on a muggle VHS. A gasp escaped Hermione's lips as the images suddenly stopped. She had a splitting headache and didn't notice the shocked look on a considerably younger McGonagall as she walked through the doorway.
"Excuse me, can I help you?" McGonagall said, clearly irritated. Hermione's eyes flew open and her mouth sputtered, attempting to think of a response.
"Uh… hello."
A/N::
Well, um, hello there. I think this was a pretty good first chapter so far. I wanted to upload this on Halloween for James and Lilys' 29th deathday but FanFiction disagreed. Anyway here it is.
I've been dying to read the actual British versions of the Harry Potter books but no, I'm stuck with the American versions. Boo. So the first book is going to be from the American version, I just used the British title because, it'd be weird to have the American version instead of the British version in a British school, right? Haha well, that's my thought anyway.
Well, hope you enjoyed the first chapter. I know many, many, people have done "reading the books" and "someone goes back to the past" but sometimes I just want to change who is there or how people react to things. Plus, I feel it's more of reading of the books than interactions between who is there and their reactions.
By the way, I really love my title. It could mean the actual time turner or the person who has the time turner! See? :D Okay, maybe you don't but hey! I thought it was pretty clever. Anyway, until next time, goodbye. :)