Organized Chaos: A Harry Potter Adventure

Prologue

"Albus, Albus, you'll never guess what I found!"

The boy turned to see his best friend pelting towards him, waving something high above his head in triumph; his running footsteps echoed loudly down the empty corridor as his sneakers slapped against the marble floor.

"Scorpius, this better be good," the boy moaned. "My dad's almost done, and we're going to leave any minute."

"It is!" Scorpius's pale grey eyes sparkled with excitement as he thrust the object he held into his friend's hands. "Look!"

Albus stared at the object in his palm in disbelief. "Dude, where did you find this?!"

Scorpius held out a halting finger, leaning over as he gasped for breath. He finally looked up, and breathed, "Whew! I was all over the Ministry looking for you, and then I got stuck in the elevator with your grandmother —apparently she'd gone to visit your aunt Hermione too, but I don't think it was for business, I saw her carrying a tote bag and she smelled like freshly-baked cookies—"

Albus threw up his arms in exasperation. "Just get to the point already!"

Scorpius nodded, gulping in another breath. "Right. Anyway, the point is, I got lost and ended up in the basement, where I ran into the garbage bin. And wouldn't you know," He snatched the object from Albus and held it aloft, "this was right there on the top, just waiting there for me!

"And not just one, but hundreds and hundreds of them, just thrown together in a pile! This was the only intact one, though," He glanced at the object in his hand. "The others were all smashed to bits. They must be there from when your dad was a kid, when they were all destroyed during the Battle of the Department of Mysteries."

Albus nodded numbly, hardly able to believe his eyes. "Scorpius…" he began slowly, "Do you know what this means?"

"We don't have to steal the one from your Aunt Hermione's office anymore!" Scorpius punched the air.

"Yes! This just made our plan a whole lot easier!" Suddenly fervent with excitement, Albus took the object from his friend once again. He studied it closely. "Although… it looks a bit beat-up… are you sure it's safe to use?"

Scorpius's radiant face fell. "Dunno." He eyed the object warily. "Maybe we should test it out by going back… oh… just a couple hours? That way if we get stuck, it won't be too bad."

Albus grinned at his friend. "Scorpius, you're a genius."

Scorpius grinned back. "Oh! Well, thanks!"

Fingers trembling with anticipation, the two boys slipped the thin chain over both of their heads. Albus held the dial.

"You think three turns should do it?" He glanced up at his friend questioningly.

"According to my research, each turn takes us back approximately one hour," Scorpius nodded. "But I think two turns is about right, just to be safe."

"Right." Albus held his breath. "Ready?"

Scorpius gave a nervous little hop. "Ready."

Slowly, carefully, Albus flipped the dial over twice.

Nothing happened.

The two boys looked at each other.

"Try it again," Scorpius suggested, biting his lip.

Albus turned the dial over two times again.

Still nothing happened.

Beginning to feel a bit frustrated, Albus began to flip the dial again, but this time in both directions. The device gave a feeble little shudder… and went still.

Thoroughly annoyed now, Albus flicked the dial so that it spun like crazy; tiny spots of light reflected off of it from the glowing lamps above, dancing on the walls and ceiling. The device went into a series of violent convulsions, sputtering a little, before slowing to go completely once more.

A moth flew into the lamp above and electrocuted itself with a dull plink; other than that, nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

"Albus, stop." Scorpius caught his friend's hand before he angrily began having another go. "I'm sorry. We should have realized that it probably wouldn't work."

"Yeah, but I was hoping…" Albus muttered through gritted teeth. He sighed, and took the chain from around his neck. "Back to square one again, I guess."

"Yeah." Disappointed, Scorpius removed it from his neck as well and closed his fist around it. "Well, I guess I'll be taking it back to the garbage heap, then, where it belongs."

"Albus!" A voice called from the stairs, "You down here? Time to go home!"

"My dad," Albus mumbled. "I gotta go now."

"I should probably find mine, too," Scorpius said dejectedly.

"Thanks for trying anyway," Albus tried to put on a cheerful face for his friend, as Scorpius seemed utterly miserable. "It was just too good to be true."

"Should have known that a dingy old time-turner would be in the garbage for a reason." Scorpius said dully. "See you."

"See you."

Albus turned around to run up the stairs after his dad, while Scorpius shoved the time-turner in his pocket ruefully.

"A lot of good you did," he muttered. "Just a piece of useless junk."

He didn't know then the depth of those words, or how wrong they were. The time-turner was truly broken beyond repair, but not ineffective. Yes, there was a reason why it had been in the garbage, but not because of its uselessness.

Scorpius had yet to discover that the broken time-turner had indeed worked, or the enormity of what he and Albus had just done.

Greetings all, I am so excited to welcome you to Organized Chaos! Obviously, I don't own any of these lovely characters or places, but I'm grateful for the opportunity to create my own unique story from them. Most of this story was created by me and my sisters during some boring weekend nights, so be sure to let us know how our imaginations affect you! Expect spoilers for all of the Harry Potter books, including the Cursed Child.

Also, this prologue may be a little confusing if you've never read Harry Potter and the Curse Child (which I actually don't really recommend...To each their own). The good news is- you don't have to! This is just a lousy attempt on my part to add a bit of logic to the craziness in this story. All you really need to know is... time is really messed up. Duh.

-Alaskan Appaloosa :)