Time Turners: Crash and Burn
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Prologue
"Expelliarmus!"
A jet of scarlet light hurtled forward and struck Harry square in the chest, tossing him bodily into the far wall with a crack, ripping his wand from his grasp. He leaned against the wall for a moment, his world spinning, but he knew that he needed to keep moving.
Gathering his strength, Harry crawled forward on his hands and knees, ducking a curse and quickly throwing himself onto his side as a Death Eater pitched forward into an old grandfather clock above him. He didn't stick around to see what happened to the Death Eater- he needed to, had to, get to his wand. Spell after spell was flashing above him, his chest was heaving with the effort of dodging curses, and God, is this really happening? Harry picked himself up off the floor and settled into a low crouch under a desk with a bell jar atop it. He surveyed the room- the sparkling light of the Time Room really was eerily beautiful- and through the glittering rays of light he could see his holly wand roll to a stop in front of a large cabinet.
Picking his moment carefully Harry dove forward, his fingers wrapping firmly around the wand. A warm tingle spread up his arm, and despite the chaos of the situation the corner of Harry's mouth curved upwards into a small smile.
"Diffindo!" a woman shrieked to his left.
Startled from his reverie, Harry just barely had time to see and dodge the severing charm, and failed to avoid the cabinet that came crashing down on top of him when the spell struck it instead.
Trapped between the cabinet and the floor, Harry felt himself fading in and out of consciousness. Glass littered the tiles around him and a wet sticky substance from the back of his head was slowly pooling around his temple. Distantly, he could hear Hermione screaming, "No, Harry! No!" but couldn't bring himself to care, he just wanted to sleep.
Crash and Burn
"Diffindo!"
"Huh?" Harry looked around, blinking owlishly at the charm jetting towards him. Didn't this already happen? In his confusion, Harry failed to dodge the charm and it struck him dead on, slicing through his torso like a hot knife through butter. Harry was thrown backwards into the cabinet, glass shattering underneath his weight and cutting into his skin. He fell to the floor with the cabinet toppling right after him, crushing him as he bled out. Sand was leaking from the cabinet doors all around, and Harry knew he had to do something but he just couldn't make himself move. Over everything, Hermione was shouting, "No, Harry! No!" and he struggled to look up at her. The last thing he saw was Hermione's terrified face before he fell into blissful oblivion.
Crash and Burn
"Diffindo!"
This time, Harry was ready. He spun around to face his attacker, erecting a shield charm just in time. However, he had underestimated the power behind the charm, and as it hit the shield Harry was blasted backwards again. His right shoulder slammed into the side of the cabinet with a sickening crack and the whole thing toppled to the floor, the cabinet door falling open on top of him. As Harry lay on the floor of the Time Room, stunned, he felt the oddest sensation- sand trickling onto his back from above. Gathering the last of his energy, he forced his gaze upwards and to his horror he recognized the cabinet's contents: time-turners, all shattered, and all leaking sand onto his back.
"No, Harry! No!" Harry turned his horrified gaze to Hermione, and saw his own expression mirrored in hers. He knew, somehow, that things were different this time. Hermione was moving in his direction, and Harry tried to reach his hand out to her but he couldn't make his arm move. In fact, he couldn't even feel his arm. His shoulder had probably shattered on impact with the cabinet.
Suddenly everything started dissolving around him, and as Harry struggled to remain conscious he felt himself flying backward very fast, faster than he'd ever gone before. Shapes and sounds, all unidentifiable, were streaking past his vision and Harry struggled to fill his lungs in the vacuum around him.
And as suddenly as everything started, it stopped. Harry was laying on the floor of the Time Room again, but he knew that it wasn't the same Time Room he had just left. Had he gone back in time a few hours? A few days? There was no way it was any further than that, it probably wasn't even possible. A searing sensation in his shoulder pulled him back to reality and he gritted his teeth, squeezing his eyes shut while trying to block out the pain. Maybe it would be okay if he rested here for a bit...
TBC
A/N: This is the prologue for my new fic. I doubt there will be more than these two fics, I'll probably go back and forth between the two. Right now I have a few ideas for TT:CAB, but updates may be slow from a combination of work and stress (definitely related to each other!). I also haven't forgotten about my other fic, I'm just a slow updater. Hope you all enjoyed it :)
Disclaimer: The Harry Potter verse belongs to those far richer than myself.