Alexander's cane clicked frequently on the cobbles as he walked along the street, he was trying hard to look inconspicuous, and it showed. He was walking hurriedly, his shoulders hunched, his eyes flitting this way and that as they searched out the face of a man who was burned into his nightmares, sweat rolled down his face in the weak autumnal sunlight and he was breathing faster than his accelerated pace would account for. He was also trying very hard not to look up onto the rooftops of the low terraced houses he passed as that was where Nyctalope was following him from and he did not want give him away.

The Institute, as always was a large, squat building made of the finest limestone, it had been gifted to magiscientists back in the seventeenth century by a wizard merchant who had made his money in the triangle trade and had wanted to leave a legacy to magiscience rather than slavery. Whilst made of fine limestone it had been designed by a man without imagination, so it was totally and utterly bland, the closest thing it had to architectural merits was the occasional half column carved into the corners of the horseshoe shaped building. Everything else just looked like a cliff with windows carved into its face, there were not even any gargoyles, instead just ugly copper pipes protruding a foot from the wall. All in all it was not a pretty building, but it did not need to be, it just needed to hold magiscientists in peace and quiet, except for the occasional explosion.

Mr Miggins, the secretary was sitting at his desk, he was a middle age ex-Auror who had retired after losing a leg to a troll under London Bridge, he was a grey haired man with sharp grey eyes that always made Alexander nervous, he had a yard brush sized moustache that bristled as he talked. "Mister Worth, a strange fellow called Jack came calling for you," Alexander froze and felt the colour drain from his face, "dirty fellow, looked like he could do with a shower, he said he had a confidential message for you. I sent him on his way, there was no way any sane man would trust someone like him to deliver a message, are you okay? You look like you've seen a ghost," Alexander ran from the room and did not stop running until he was in his workroom, he slammed the door behind him, locked it and sank down against it breathing heavily.

After several minutes of composing himself, Alexander rose to his feet and walked over to his workbench, he read over his work from Friday and threw himself into his work. He carefully continued carving tiny runes into his gyroscopes, until satisfied, he wrote some notes to anyone who should find his room abandoned and left his room with one of the little inventions.

He walked to the large stone and metal room known only as the Bunker, checking it was empty he shut the door and bolted the lock, "if this works, this will be the greatest moment of my life. I will have invented something that has been hypothesised for centuries, time travel, always humanity's fantasy, to drink tea with Queen Elizabeth, or study under Archimedes, to learn strategy from Caesar, it would be-"

"The weapon to end all weapons, the ability to change the course of history," Michael said as he appeared next to Alexander, "go on, give it a go," Alexander hesitantly licked his lips as he looked at the clock on the wall, one o'clock, he pressed the button on the side, the gyroscope spun one rotation and the world blurred, the clock went backwards, now it was twelve o'clock. "Great success, I think this calls for some lunch," Michael smirked as Alexander's stomach rumbled, "your time spinny thing works."

"I shall call it the time turner," Alexander said smiling as he road the wave of euphoria for finally defeating the project that had taken up most of his adult life.

"Real creative," Michael said rolling his eyes.

After getting lunch from the canteen, Alexander returned to his workroom, to begin sorting out his time turners, he planned to restrict them to only being able to go back a few hours at a time to prevent exactly what Michael was talking about. Time, he had decided, was too dangerous for humans to play with in the long term, however, short term would be fine, he hoped. Of course, he would keep his own one unregulated, he had decided that he was responsible enough to not screw up the events of the past. Alexander hunched over his workbench as he set to work with his magically guided chisel to carve more runes into the gyroscopes.

Time ticked by as he worked, the silence broken only by the tiny tinny clicking of the chisel on the metal of the gyroscope, the hours bled into each other and as he came close to finishing the thirteenth gyroscope, footsteps started approaching him from behind, the footsteps were of a measured pace, he had not heard them enter the room, the door had not opened and the window had been painted shut by an incompetent painter the previous summer. The footsteps were getting closer, they were not slowing, or speeding up, Alexander swallowed as he realised his mouth was very dry, he licked his lips and spoke in a nervous, quiet voice, not looking up from his work, "who, who's there?"

A loud ticking started behind him from the same place as the footsteps, Alexander turned to face the sound, unfinished project in hand, there was nothing there, but the ticking sound was still there, still coming from directly in front of him, Alexander reached out to touch the empty space, but there was nothing for it was just that, an empty space in his lonely workroom. "What are you doing?" The sudden voice behind him made spring from his chair, dropping his chisel and metal contraption in the process. Michael was sitting on his workbench, he pointed at the invisible ticking sound, "oh that thing, that is a hole. It is where something should be, but isn't, something will happen there and it will break reality, dunno what though, kind of exciting though."

"How do you know that? You are just a figment of my imagination," Alexander growled, angry at the figment for startling him.

Michael frowned and folded his arms, "what gave you the idea I was a figment of your imagination? I'm a ghost, a special kind, I am stuck to you, only you can see me, only you can hear me."

Alexander scoffed, "how ridiculous, anyone can see a ghost, even muggles can, heck they can even sense a Dementor, there are no special requirements to see a ghost."

"I am a little bit more complicated than that, I cannot say much more at the moment," Michael said chewing his bottom lip nervously.

"Why not? If you are dead what restrictions are there?" Michael looked nervously up at Alexander.

"More than you could ever know," he faded from existence.

"Damn whatever he is," Alexander mumbled angrily, as he absently slipped the unfinished time turner into the breast pocket of his shirt, "either he is a ghost, or my sanity is slipping further," before Alexander could think any further the window exploded inwards, leaving the terrifying figure of Jack himself standing in the middle of the floor.

"Surprise, you're dead," he raised a gun and shot Alexander through the heart, darkness consumed his vision before he hit the floor, he died five seconds later.