Disclaimer: Everything that is stated in the books and pottermore and mentioned here belongs to JK Rowling. The MC is mine, the flow and outcome of the story is mine. Thank you.

Wishes are powerful. That much she knew. So, every night at eleven o' clock past eleven minutes she would always wish for one thing – a do-over.

Prelude

"Lumos…"

"Lumos…"

"Lumos…"

It was a risky business getting into the restricted section of her school and trying to pry the secrets from the thousands of books present there. But it was a calculated risk that Akira was willing to take. It took clever maneuvering to get into the restricted section of Mahoutokoro. To reach there one had to pass through the eye – which saw almost everything in the palace. And then pass the lighted corridors that could sense the footfalls of the nighttime trespassers and when the destination was really just a door away, a heady perfume would be sprayed into the air making the perpetrator lethargic and sluggish.

It took Akira ten years to master the entire route. At now twenty-one years of age, she would have thought herself to be beyond this level of stupidity but foolhardiness was her middle name and there she was entering the door to the restricted section for the first time.

The entire room was filled with… well, books. But it seemed more of a storage room without any sort of order or semblance to it. Akira sighed with disappointment. She had such fantastical imaginings of the place in her mind since she was eleven and it turned out to be like any other room. It was in fact too normal for her comfort. Better get to the research. She moved further into the room. It took four of her steps to reach the other side and considering she was barely five feet tall, the room was definitely on the small side. Very diminutive, just like her.

She knew right away that any sort of magic wasn't going to work there. She could feel the stifling in the air, the deadness. She walked around the room trying to see patterns, if any, in the way the books were stacked and she realized with certain clarity and dread that the room may be only four steps wide but it was four of her in length. It's going to be a long night.

She closed her eyes and muttered softly, "Re-write the past, better the present, and be alive in the future."

She took out the time-turner from her jeans pocket. The only time-turner left in the entire magical world. She slowly traced the inscription on the dials and turned it. She kept on turning it moving ahead of the fifth hour safe mark. It was a risk – a calculated one. She turned it a total of seventeen times. She felt the change in the air. She felt herself being compressed and then with the jolt she was pushed backward. She was seventeen hours back in the time.

The ten years that she used to observe the restricted section did give her a few perks. In her spying she discovered that during the day the entire restricted section disappears. God knew where? But it also meant that nobody could enter into it during the day which gave her an entire day to search the infernal place. But there was a catch, starting from the midnight there were hourly check-ups of the section by the professors. She chose to enter the section after the first inspection that would leave her an hour to get the hell out of the place.

She began to systemically plow through the books starting from the one in the bottom and steadily making her way to the top with the help of a ladder, which was fortunately placed in one of the crooks of the room. She was trying to find a way back in time. She was positive there would be a spell or something to go back to the time where everything in her life was perfect. Before it became such a catastrophe.

Minutes passed, then hours. Akira could feel each precious second passing by. A sudden pain radiated from her elbow to the shoulder in her right arm. She realized it had dislocated, almost spontaneously. Vague information of paradoxes and Novikov Principle fleeted in her mind. But that was not important at the moment. What was actually important was lying in front of her. It was a parchment with a very complex charm. She could roughly deduce that it was time- travelling charm to go back or forth a month at a time. She glanced at the time-turner it was five minutes to midnight. The charm in her hand would have to do for the time being. She stuffed the parchment in her red colored cloak and took a deep breath. First inspection was about to begin. It took five minutes to cross the route from the eye to reach the door. She had five minutes to reach the safety.

When the midnight came, the walls of the restricted section felt more solid. It was no longer invisible. She quickly opened the door and levitated quickly through the corridors. She took a sharp left instead of right and waited in the concealed alcove. She waited with bated breath as a professor went towards the path. It would take twenty minutes for the inspection to complete give or take. She furtively went to the opposite hallway and crossed the main halls. She reached the windows overlooking the gates. It was a high jump but she braced herself for it. Her landing on the ground caused her right ankle to twist. She bit back a yelp and started limping towards the trees lining the grounds.

Once she reached the trees. She waited for any sign of alarm. None occurred and she knew it was safe to go back home. She spied the gates. She could make out a faint outlining of her future self approaching. The Akira from the future was cradling her right hand and limping. It was the side effects from using the time-turner.

It was the price. But it was worth it, she thought as she stroked the parchment in her pocket.