Chapter 2: The Timeturner in the Attic

Chapter Summary: The plot shows up (sort of, there's more intro to the characters/filler) James, Freddie, Roxie, and Louis go to explore the attic. Others follow, and they discover that what's in the attic is more interesting than they imagined, and just as cliché as you can imagine.


The large table in the orchard was filled to its maximum capacity, so much so that poor Lily was feeling squashed between Bill and Hugo. The sun sinking slowly in the sky painted it an array of orange shades. The crescent moon was just visible over the treetops, which shook with the slight springtime breeze.

Mrs. Weasley was bringing out the second course by now: fish and chips, a favorite of Roxanne's. At various sections of the table the family was engaged in conversation. "England has put together a relatively decent team this year, hasn't it?" said Lucy at one end of the table. She rested her elbow on the table and put a chip she was holding in her mouth. She swallowed quickly before speaking. "Hel – I mean, I think they've got a shot at the world cup this year even, if they can win the next few matches. The United States has been doing pretty well too though, and England's playing those Yanks in a couple of weeks."

"England and the States can play all they want, but Greenland has this one in the bag, Lucy," said Ginny. "I went to one of their games for the article I'm writing and they completely destroyed France. Koolitch caught the snitch within the first five minutes of the game. I've never seen a more pathetic match in my life."

"Really? Though one would expect France to be the losing team," Lucy said with a smirk. "Has Greenland got any other good players?"

"From the five minutes I had to watch of them, they were brilliant. Haven't seen teamwork like that in a couple years," answered Ginny.

Sitting in the center of the table were Teddy and Victoire. Having for the most part gotten over her humiliating performance on the Quidditch pitch, she was now rambling on about her work. "Twelve sick children admitted to St. Mungo's in one hour. One hour, Teddy! We give parents pamphlets about keeping dangerous potions out of their kids' reach, but they never listen. My first week as a full-time Healer, and I have to remove several extra appendages. Well, at least it was interesting. One of them had an arm protruding from his forehead."

Teddy was only half-listening, as the object in the front pocket of his robes bore an enormous weight. Well, not enormous in the literal sense, as the object in question weighed only a few grams, but heavy in the metaphorical sense. Teddy had purchased a ring from a muggle jeweler the previous week and had been carrying it around in his pocket ever since. It was not that he was uncertain that he wanted to marry her; he had known ever since his eighteenth birthday when the elaborate date Victoire had planned ended in them both being thrown out of the muggle restaurant. In the slowly fading daylight with her by his side and their family surrounding them, however, he couldn't bring himself to propose. Doubts churned inside him, silencing his words. Would Victoire accept his proposal? He was certain she wanted to marry him, too, but did she want to wait a couple years? Did she want him to propose to her in private, or right there in front of her entire family?

He was snapped out of his dilemma by Vic. "Teddy?" she asked, waving a hand in front of his face. "Hello, anybody home?"

"Yes, Vic?" he said, pulling himself away from his thoughts. "Sorry, I didn't hear you. I spaced out for a moment. What did you say?"

She looked at him as though he had grown another appendage and grabbed his right hand under the table. He felt his heart speed up in his chest. "I asked how your work was going. Thought it might be a good idea if we take a break from listening to my silly rants about my work for a while. Just a little while. Are you sure you're okay, Teddy?"

"Oh, I'm perfectly fine. You weren't bothering me at all. I've just got a lot on my mind at the moment."

"Care to share? Pulling a lot of late nights, monsieur Auror?"

He smiled. "Something like that."

A couple seats over, Rose was filling her plate with a few extra helpings of chicken. "Geez, a bit much, Rose?" said Al.

"Plan on leaving a bit for the rest of us? I'm all skin and bones here," said Scorpius.

Rose pretended to be offended. "I am not eating too much. Dad has had two more helpings than I've had. And Scorpius, I very much doubt you are skin and bones, nicking food from the kitchens all the time. And when you are home, your mum feeds you anything you want."

"I'm a growing boy. And what about Al? Poor thing's skinny as a bean pole."

"Am not! Besides, what kind of analogy is that anyways? 'Bean pole.' It's genetic anyways. At least that's what So You Look Like An Exact Copy of Your Parents?: Genetics for Wizards and Witches says."

"I've never read that one! Where did you find it?" asked Rose, who was determined to read more books than everyone in her family combined. Unfortunately, she was behind Molly in that race.

"Hogwarts library. And you don't need it anyways. You don't look like an exact copy of your parent. Thanks to the potions I've been taking, I look more and more like my dad every day." When Albus was born, everyone thought he was a girl. When he was six, he told his father that he wasn't, and Harry had given him a new name. When he began puberty, he started taking potions to help his body become more 'male.' "I was hoping the process would make me look a bit less like Dad. Some loony people call me 'Harry Potter' whenever I go somewhere."

"At least you're looking manlier. I can't really see you as looking much like a girl anymore. As for Rosie, I dunno, Al, she does look like her parents a little bit." Scorpius began listing things off. "Trademark Weasley red hair, bushy like her mother's, freckles, tall, like her father, longish nose-" Rose scowled at that remark "- big blue eyes, full figure-" He stopped there, realizing he had gone too far. Rose and Scorpius both covered their embarrassment by digging into their food. Albus shrugged, and then continued devouring his dinner with gusto.

Bill was describing his adventures to Hugo and Lily, two of his most eager audience members. "So there I was, in Egypt again, trying to find these rare galleons that have been lost for over a hundred years. I came across this huge sphinx in the middle of the Sahara Desert and she tells me the directions to this tomb. I went to the tomb – those are built in pyramids in Egypt – then I translated the hieroglyphics and this massive wall lifted up, completely shaking the ground. Behind it was a massive room where some wealthy Egyptian wizard was buried." Lily and Hugo were absorbing every single word of the story. "The galleons were there of course, in a big clay pot, but what really caught my eye was a gold sarcophagus."

"Was there a mummy in there all rotting and wrapped in bandages?" asked Hugo excitedly.

Bill chuckled. "In matter of fact, there was. If you're ever in Egypt, remember to read the fine print on the hieroglyphics. Apparently, I missed the part where it said 'If thou disturb my tomb, my animated corpse will awaken.' Turns out the mummy was an inferius."

"What's that?" asked Lily.

"As I said before when I was telling you two about that one time in the Amazon, it's an animated corpse. Anyways, inferi aren't that difficult to defeat. I shot a few spells at it and it disintegrated. Then I retrieved the galleons and went back to my tent."

"Cool! I'd love to be a cursebreaker!" exclaimed Hugo once Bill had finished the tale. "Fighting mummies and working with goblins and living in Egypt and all over the world." He punched the air.

"It's not all battling mummies and traveling. I work for Gringotts. There's a great deal of arithmetic involved, as well as dealing in currency," said Bill.

"I can do arithmetic. That's easy. They taught us some in primary school before I went to Hogwarts."

"It's a bit harder than level four arithmetic."

"I hate arithmetic," said Lily, scrunching up her nose in disgust. "That's why I'm going to work in the St. Mungo's veterinary ward, I think."

"Maybe it's a bit too soon for you two to be planning your futures now," said Bill. "You'll probably end up changing your mind many times; that's what happened with me. Third year is all about taking new classes and when you schedule for sixth year is when you start to decide what you want to be."

"But I've already decided," insisted Lily. "Who's to say I can't know now? Care of Magical Creatures is fun."

"It is," agreed Hugo, beginning to consider professions that dealt with animals. "And when we stay afterwards, Hagrid shows us all sorts of new creatures. I already know what a niffler is."

"You may think it's fun now," said Bill ruefully, "but wait 'till you get to flobberworms."

Farther down the table, Dominique and Molly were discussing Dominique's new promotion in the hit-wizards. "I got moved up to second-in-command after handling that break-in at Hogsmeade. You should have seen the look on Whittler's face when he was told I was his superior. Looked like someone had told him that a heard of thestrals ran over his mum."

Thomas Whittler had once teased both Molly and Dominique mercilessly for being the first Weasleys not to end up in Gryffindor, as Dominique had been a Slytherin and Molly had been sorted into Ravenclaw. He bullied Molly more than Dominique, for her looks and shyness. Dominique was fiercely protective of her cousin, however, and his teasing had lessened slightly after Dominique had said, "I'm glad I'm not Gryffindor, I don't have to deal with embarrassments like you in my house," loudly in the Great Hall. It also didn't hurt that for some reason, his fellow male Gryffindors and a few females seemed like they had turned against him for a couple months.

"I wish I could have seen him," said Molly wistfully. "So what did happen in Hogsmeade, exactly? I read about it in the Prophet, but, as per usual, the paper didn't give exact details. The Quibbler's coverage was marginally better, but I began to distrust the story after the word 'heliopaths' was mentioned thrice."

"Nothing too dangerous happened, if you don't count our newest recruit almost twisting his ankle after running after the bloke. We chased him into the tunnels running under the Leaky Cauldron for about a mile until he realized he was trapped. He tried to cast a disillusionment charm, but not before I'd caught up to him. Just another robber who thought he could steal from Hogsmeade. Not when Dominique Weasley's in charge!"

"I'd hardly call you 'in charge' at the moment," Molly reminded her.

"I will be soon, though. Since I joined the force, crime has dropped 5-10%."

"Impressive." Molly took a bite of fish.

"Every little bit counts," said Dominique. She took a sip of pumpkin juice.

"It's true," said Percy, swallowing his last bite and butting into the conversation. "My department has cut down on international magic carpet usage by 10%. Considering the amount of people using illegal magic carpets, that's a large number."

"See!" said Dominique. "How long do you think it will get me to be promoted to head of the hit-wizards? Molly has no faith in my abilities."

"I did not say that," said Molly. "I merely said you're not in charge yet. You have to wait for Reston to retire at least, and he's not exactly young, is he?"

"If the Minister finds Dominique more suited for the job, he'll move her into Reston's position," said Percy. "But I'm sorry to say that with the work Reston has put in, it's unlikely he'll be fired anytime soon. You'd probably have to wait for him to retire and a man who's so dedicated to his job as Reston is probably isn't looking to do so for a while. But congratulations on the position, Dominique."

"Thanks, Uncle Perce," she said, smiling. Her parents had encouraged her to join the squad, but Percy had always encouraged her ambition to lead and improve it.

At the opposite end of the table from his parents, James sat next to Freddie and across from Roxanne and Louis. Louis leaned in to speak to James and Freddie, motioning for Roxanne to follow his lead. "What was that about, earlier?" he asked.

"Whatever do you mean, Lou?" James responded innocently.

"You three, you shared a look and I want to know what it was about." Louis grinned. "If it's a prank, I'm in, even if it's on Victoire or Dominique. I mean, as long as it's nothing too harmful."

"They're not planning a prank, exactly-" began Roxanne. Louis looked at her in disbelief.

"Do you think all we ever do is pull pranks?" said James. "All right, we may pull some later with some of the stuff we got at Uncle George's shop-"

"That's more like it," Louis interrupted. "For a second there I was worried –"

"But the point is, we just want to see what's in the attic," finished Freddie. "What could Grandmum and Granddad be hiding up there? Embarrassing photos, old love letters, Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes products…"

Roxanne rolled her eyes. "For a second, I thought you two had a more interesting reason to explore the attic. Even if there are those old products, you can't be sure that they're still working after all these years. But there's most likely nothing up there but dust bunnies."

"Then we'll see some dust bunnies, won't we, little sis." There was another reason that he personally wanted to explore the attic, but he felt that he didn't want to share that reason with James and Louis. Perhaps he and Roxie could go to the attic alone one day to look for remaining traces of their father's dead twin. He looked at his sister and raised his eyebrows, and then saw a flash of understanding in her eyes.

"Fair enough, big bro."

"As we promised, no harm shall come to you, one-hundred-percent guaranteed or your money back. If there's nothing up there, then we've harmed no one," said James.

"For once," muttered Roxanne under her breath.

"I suppose it wouldn't hurt to look around for a bit," said Louis. "Though this is a pity because now I'll have to find a new way to passive-aggressively get Dominique back for borrowing and wrecking my shirt. She wore it under her robes during a mission and it was completely scorched. I mean, I would've let her borrow it if she asked, but she didn't bother."

"Because I'm sure you have absolutely no shirts left and Dominique ruining one constitutes payback," said Roxanne. "Though if it's payback you're looking for, I'm happy to help. But honestly, Louis, you are the most clothes-obsessed boy I've ever seen. Aren't Hufflepuffs supposed to not fall victim to self-absorbed ideals like vanity?"

"I'm a Hufflepuff, not a monk. Besides, I'm not obsessed with clothes!" cried Louis.

"*Liar,*" coughed Freddie and James in unison.

"So anyways," cut in Freddie before Louis could interrupt, "we were going to sneak away after dinner. Even though we are now mature adults, Grandmum still doesn't want us in the attic without her." James scoffed.

Roxanne laughed when Freddie said mature adults, and then said, "Wow, it's almost as if she doesn't trust you."

"Which is absurd, because we are completely trustworthy! Anyways, we have a completely planned and foolproof distraction so we can slip away without the adults noticing us. Freddie nicked a few things from his dad," James whispered.

"Such as?" asked Louis.

"It's a surprise, Louis. Trust me, you'll recognize the distraction when you see it," said Freddie.

"Yeah, it'll be kind of hard to miss. It's going to happen after dinner, though, so everyone can finish their meals in peace. We're considerate like that," said James. "So, Louis, would you like to join Freddie, Roxie, and me?"

"Do you even have to ask? I always end up doing whatever scheme you all get yourselves into, anyways. Sounds better than watching Uncle Ron and Uncle Harry get drunk again, I suppose." Ron and Harry only drank on occasion, though Ron drank more often, but when they drank any form of alcohol, they really drank, resulting in an angry Ginny and a furious Hermione ("You are being such a terrible influence on the children!").


As the sun sank lower into the sky, the family was finishing the meal. Members of the family had excused themselves from the table, such as Albus, Rose, and Scorpius, as well as James and Freddie, which made Mrs. Weasley feel on edge. Ron, much to Hermione's dismay, had seemingly magicked a bottle of firewhiskey from thin air, pouring one small glass for himself and another for Harry.

Teddy and Victoire remained in their seats as the last rays for sun shone on Victoire's light blond hair, which seemed to catch the orange of fading daylight. Looking over at her as he spoke, the ring was feeling even heavier in Teddy's pocket, to the point where he considered excusing himself and rushing to the loo. Teddy was relaying details to Victoire about his last mission. "I was sent to investigate the disappearance of Dedalus Diggle. He hadn't been seen for over two weeks when the neighbors heard an explosion and a scream. Then there was this flash of green light in the window."

Victoire furrowed her brow. "Who would want to murder Dedalus Diggle? Who would have the heart to do so? I mean, he can be annoying and all, but he's as harmless as a pygmy puff and he's getting up in years."

"I never said he was murdered," said Teddy.

"But the flash of green light-"

"I was getting to that. Harry told me to check out the house, so I busted down the door and when I got inside, the place was a wreck, looked like there had been a fire. Understandable, given the flash of green light. I heard someone call out 'help' and I walked into the parlor to see Dedalus lying underneath a bookshelf. He was near a vial and his wand was a few feet away. He was unconscious, though, and it took a couple spells to wake him up."

"So he tried to blow himself up?" asked Victoire. "He's innocent, really, but always struck me as a bit odd." Every time she had seen Dedalus, he had been obsessing over Harry Potter in a manner she considered a bit unhealthy.

"Not exactly. He wouldn't give me specifics, but he was trying to make a specific potion to drive away birds that had been rapping at his window and he had been preparing it for weeks. All of his answers were so vague that they led to new questions. Debriefing him gave me a headache." She laughed at that, and the sound almost made Teddy propose right then and there. "Vic – Victoire, I-" He was edging himself off of his chair so he could get down on one knee, but for once, Victoire wasn't looking at him.

"Did you hear something?" she asked, though she didn't look back at him as he scrambled to reposition himself on his chair. He listened for a moment and did, indeed, hear something. No less than a couple of seconds later, giant Catherine wheels and other assorted fireworks were trapiezing their way through the orchard.

People were looking up from where they were sitting with various expressions on their faces. George was grinning, happy to see his products being put to good use. Mrs. Weasley's face was slowly turning red from anger as a pink firework caused the tray she was carrying to flip over and be knocked to the ground. Most of the family simply looked confused and shocked, at least at first.

From the side of the house, Freddie and James' faces split into joyful grins. "Don't you just love when family events get festive? That'll keep them busy for a while," Freddie said with delight. James nodded in agreement.

James pulled a cloak out of his pocket, the invisibility cloak that had once been his father's. "C'mon, let's go get Roxie and Louis."

Roxanne and Louis were still sitting in their seats, watching the chaos unfold around them. Ron had got out his wand to try and make the fireworks disappear ("Ron, stop! You're just making them multiply!" "I know, Hermione!" "You are never drinking again, Ronald Weasley!"). George was laughing as Angelina sent him a reproachful look, though she was holding back a smile. Percy was trying to remember back to the days when he had helped out in George's shop so he could recall how to vanish the fireworks while Bill was trying to ask George what to do. Mrs. Weasley and Ginny scanned the yard, presumably looking for the culprits.

"You know, when they said distraction, I was sort of hoping they would come up with something more creative than fireworks," said Louis.

"Would you rather they put those toffees in everyone's pasty and all of our tongues were swollen to an abnormal size?" challenged Roxanne. "You know subtlety isn't exactly their forte."

Louis was very fond of his tongue. "Good point." He felt someone tap his shoulder.

"Louis, was that you?" asked Roxanne. She, too, had felt someone touch her.

"No. I think it was the ghosts of annoyances past."

"We resent that," said James' voice. "Are you two coming or not?"

"Fine, we're coming," said Roxanne. "Grandmum looks like she's about to explode anyways."

"You get negative points for originality," Louis told Freddie and James.

"We'll make up for it later," Freddie promised. "And you get negative points for getting off your arses and moving before Gran notices you're talking to thin air."

"Point taken," conceded Louis. Roxanne and Louis got up and rushed into the house. Roxanne and Louis ran at roughly the same pace, both of them trying to avoid bumping into the invisible James and Freddie.

They were spotted by Rose, who was nearby. She, Albus, and Scorpius had seated themselves on the grass once more, though they stood up in case they needed to make a quick getaway from a rogue firework. She turned to Albus and Scorpius. "What do you suspect they're up to?"

"Getting away from all this noise?" suggested Scorpius. "If they don't stay, that's their loss; it's quite entertaining to watch your fathers make complete arses of themselves."

"Leave my dad out of this; he's not sober. And that's not it, anyways, as you weren't paying attention. It looked as though they were talking to someone else. I saw Roxanne jump and then converse with thin air."

"So you propose we follow them?" guessed Albus. "Not that standing and watching family members getting chased by fireworks isn't fun and all, but James had the invisibility cloak. She could've been talking to him."

"James! Of course! Why wasn't that my first conclusion? He and Freddie probably orchestrated this whole thing as a distraction. If I were them, I wouldn't have done as noticeable of a distraction; everybody knows it was them and are going to be looking for them," said Rose.

"Fireworks," tutted Scorpius to Albus. "Been done before. Your cousin and brother are getting more predictable."

"Like most of their other pranks haven't got a pattern," said Albus. "Unless Roxanne plays a major part in their planning, you can bet that there'll be at least one explosion of some kind."

Rose began heading in the direction that Louis and Roxanne went and motioned for Albus and Scorpius to follow. "C'mon! We have to see what they're up to." Sharing a look, Albus and Scorpius ran after Rose.

"What're they up to?" Hugo turned to Lily, who was watching a green dragon firework dance around the yard, Mr. Weasley chasing after it.

"Huh?" said Lily, looking at Hugo for a moment, then staring at her grandfather and the firework again.

"Louis, Roxanne, Rose, Al, and Scorpion just ran into the house."

Lily shrugged. "Maybe they just wanted to get away from the chaos. I'm quite enjoying it myself. See Dad and Uncle Ron chasing after that Catherine wheel?" The firework had gotten too close to Ron and his hair had caught on fire. Hermione was trying to extinguish it with her wand while Harry continued to chase the firework.

Hugo laughed. "Run Uncle Harry, run!" He shouted before continuing his conversation with Lily. "Anyways, isn't it a bit – and by a bit I mean very – suspicious that they all ran in and James and Freddie are missing?" They were the only Potter-Weasley children left in the yard besides Victoire, who was sitting with Teddy, the both of them also attempting to vanish the fireworks.

"Maybe. But if I know my brother, once he causes a mess, he likes to step back and watch the fireworks as other people clean it up. They could be in the house with Dominique, Molly, and Lucy."

"They're really in for it this time. You know how much Grandmum hates it when they mess with family events," said Hugo. Mrs. Weasley was now shouting at the top of her lungs for James and Freddie and her voice was beginning to sound slightly hoarse.

"On the other hand, as fun as watching fireworks is, we should go inside. It's getting pretty loud here." Hugo nodded in agreement. Ginny and Angelina's shouting had joined Mrs. Weasley's. They stood up and ran into the house after Rose, Albus, and Scorpius.

Molly and Dominique were in the kitchen getting drinks when Lucy walked in. After she and Aunt Ginny exhausted the topic of Quidditch and she had a conversation with her mother, Lucy went into the house to use the loo and decided to get a drink herself. Molly was not a huge fan of commotion, so she and Dominique, despite Dominique's protest, had excused themselves to the kitchen. Molly noticed her younger sister first. "Hi, Lucy."

"Hey, Luce."

"It sounds noisy out there," Lucy said. "What happened?"

"Someone –" began Molly.

" – James and Freddie," Dominique cut in.

"Well, of course it was James and Freddie. They set off fireworks in the yard and all of the adults are scrambling to vanish them."

"So why aren't you two helping? Too noisy, then?"

"Not for me, but Molly said she wanted a drink."

"Would you like something too, Lucy?" Molly held up a flask of pumpkin juice.

"No thanks, Molly. I think I'm going to go outside and watch the fireworks, both metaphorically and literally. I can get front row seats. You know, it doesn't sound like their most creative plan, but hell, listening to the noise outside, it seems effective." She walked past Dominique to get out of the kitchen, but she was stopped almost as soon as she opened the door.

Louis and Roxanne ran into the kitchen through the door Lucy had opened and came to a halt. In front of them, James and Fredddie appeared in thin air, laughing. "Fireworks? That was your grand scheme?" said Roxanne incredulously. "Louis was right. Negative creativity points for the both of you."

"It worked," said Freddie. "They are most certainly distracted."

"Yeah, until they come after you two," said Louis.

"Well, we better move fast, then," said James.

Dominique cleared her throat. "Oi!" At the sound of Dominique's voice, the four realized that they weren't the only ones in the room. "Where are you four headed?"

"The attic," James, Roxanne, Freddie, and Louis answered.

"Why?" asked Lucy. "Is there really a point in going to the attic?"

"Just to take a look around," replied James.

"So why do you need to cause a big fireworks display?"

"It was fun," Freddie said in his defense. "Do you three want to come with us?"

Molly turned to Dominique, who nodded. "Why not?" Dominique said. "I've never been to the attic in all these years that I've visited this house and I don't know why."

"Very well," conceded Molly, speaking only to Dominique.

"I'll come too," said Lucy. "Can't see a reason not to." The seven of them began to make their way to the attic.

Rose, Albus, and Scorpius entered the kitchen, Lily and Hugo following close behind. "Wait for us!" called Lily.

"Rose!" cried Hugo, and his sister turned at the sound of his voice.

"I think they went that way," said Rose, breathing hard and pointing to her left outside of the kitchen.

"Can we come, too?" Lily asked.

"The more the merrier. Let's go," said Albus, and the five of them followed the others to the attic.

Outside, Teddy was both mad and thankful that James and Freddie had ruined his proposal. He had quickly stuffed the ring back in his cloak pocket and proceeded to help with the fireworks. From previous experience, he knew that trying to vanish them was useless and trying to stun them was a horrible idea.

"Wish Uncle George would help more with the fireworks," grumbled Victoire as she ducked out of the way of a golden sparkler. Whenever someone pulled a prank, especially with his products, George backed up the person 100%, much to the dismay of his mother.

"James and Freddie probably read the instructions," said Teddy, watching Lily and Hugo disappear into the house. "They certainly aren't here, so we should probably go into the house and find them. Besides, the house seems to be a popular destination spot these days."

Victoire was inclined to agree, noticing that the yard was absent of all of her cousins and that throwing spells at the fireworks wasn't helping in the least. "Race you," she said with a smile.

"Prepare to lose, Vic," said Teddy. "On your mark, get set…" At that, he began to run into the house.

"Cheater!" yelled Victoire as she bolted after him.


James, followed by Freddie, was the first to make it into the attic.

"Yuck!" exclaimed Roxanne as she batted at a cobweb.

"So this is what you two were so excited to see?" asked Louis. "Looks like nothing's been up here for decades."

"I'm with Louis on this one," said Lucy. "I'd rather go outside and watch Aunt Fleur be attacked by fireworks."

"Tadda!" Freddie made a grand gesture towards the barren attic.

Someone clapped sarcastically. Everyone turned their heads to see Scorpius smirking. "Congratulations. You've managed to find nothing."

"There is something!" Freddie defended himself. "It's just a bit dark. Lumos." The light from his wand ignited the room, revealing its emptiness.

"This is a bit pointless," said Albus.

The cousins and Scorpius ventured further into the seemingly empty attic. "Ow!" exclaimed Dominique.

"What is it?" inquired Molly.

"I bumped into something. Look!" Everyone walked to where Dominique was standing. Louis bumped into the same object.

"Dominique's right, there is something here." He rubbed his knee. "Ow. And it's got a really sharp edge."

"Move over, Louis." James pushed his cousin out of the way and began feeling around. The surface of the object felt like fabric. "It's like there's a covering over it." He found the edge of the covering and stripped it away.

"What did we tell you?" said Freddie in delight. "What's in the box, James?"

James dug deep into the paper wrappings until he found something hard. He pulled it out and held it up for everyone to see. "A time turner," said Rose. "They don't exist anymore." Molly nodded. Everyone looked at the apparent time turner with newfound fascination.

Just then, Teddy and Victoire made their way to the attic. They saw their family gathered around James. Teddy felt as though he had to be a responsible adult for once. All the other responsible adults were in the orchard dealing with the fireworks. The two of them walked closer to the larger group. "James, Freddie," he growled. "Come and help with the fireworks you caused."

Freddie wasn't listening. "Hey James, toss it right here." Teddy saw that James was holding a time turner. Weren't there none of those around anymore?

"No!" cried everyone who wasn't James or Freddie. James disregarded their cry and tossed the time turner to Freddie. At the last millisecond, he realized something was wrong with his throw. The time turner slipped between the edges of his fingers. The throw was too short. Freddie dived for the time turner, but he didn't make it in time. The object crashed to the floor, sand spreading all over the floor and the people. Rose and Roxanne began to shout as they were lifted off the ground. The last bits of glass fell to the floor as fourteen people were whisked away to the past.


AN: I'm planning to have them go back to the middle of the chapter "The Deathly Hallows" during the several weeks that Harry was obsessing over them. They're not all going to be with Harry, Ron, and Hermione, though (some are going to be at Hogwarts, others with other characters).