Chapter 09
• Turn Back the Hand of Time •
He didn't have that much time, he would have to do some things he didn't want to do. Break a rule he didn't want to break.
Lying in bed, he thought long and hard, it wasn't anything he had to really decide, he just had to think about how he would do it. Dumbledore would surely have one, but he couldn't just ask. He would steal it, break in and take it. What did it look like? All he knew is what Sirius had said what it could do, not what it looked like.
He couldn't leave the towers though they wouldn't let him. Birdie was outside watching and he wouldn't be able to research it. He heard the door open and three boys walked into the room. Neville was the last and continued past his bed to Harry's.
"You alright mate?" he asked, the other boys ignoring him.
Harry grabbed him and pulled him closer. "I'm not, but I need you to do something for me. I need to know about time-turners. I have to go back and change everything, make sure he doesn't die."
"But Harry..." Neville tried to discourage him but Harry wasn't about to listen to it.
"No, I don't want to here it. The whole bloody world could screw off for all I care about them. I want Sirius alive." Harry whispered fiercely.
"I can do it, but you have most of the information anyway. Fathers diaries, he had one, had to use it on occasion to keep the Minister or an important official alive. I remember him speaking about it. There are only a dozen or so that are legal in the whole of the wizarding community. You aren't about to get one, they keep them under very tight security at the ministry, all of them but the ones that are being used."
"That are legal?" Harry was curious, that made it sound like there were more than a dozen.
"Yeah, father says they've caught more than a few Death Eaters with them. They don't always work and it's highly illegal magic, if you get caught with something like that, they'll send you to Azkaban for life or worse. It's not right to be playing with time."
Harry wondered how many really were out there. If Mr. Longbottom had found a few he wondered if he kept them, wondered if he might have had a chance or two to keep them and had done so. He flipped open his chest and pulled out the journal. "Do you know where in the journal it is Neville?"
"It's throughout the whole thing, I'm sure. But, knowing my dad, he has a detailed explanation of it when he first got it. I think it was in April of the third year, see if you can find that."
Harry opened the journal for the first time and flipped through the pages, it went on and on forever. Some says had ten pages of information. Harry finally came to April and slowed down, glancing at the pages, looking for any signs of the device. He didn't have to look hard, at the middle of the month he found an entry with a detailed drawing of the Time-Turner, he had never seen one in real life but that had to be it, it matched the description perfectly. Neville looked over his shoulders when he stopped.
"Yeah, that's the page to start on."
Harry slowly flipped through the next pages. There was a great deal of information, multiplication, spells, locking charms, management, detection, prevention, almost anything you could and ever would ever want to know. 15 pages of information on time-turners, and the last page included several referenced further on in the book, mostly misuse of time magic's but an occasional creation and misuse of time objects. One was a grandfather clock another was a muggle stopwatch. The rest were just shoddy time-turner replicas. Slowly Harry scanned down the references to other time objects and one came to his attention. It was dated 10 years prior, at Hogwarts. He flipped forward to the page, hoping that whatever it was, was still here.
I came across a 13th Legal Time Object today while investigating signs of time magic at the HogwartsSchool of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Time magic was reported used at approximately 1700 Hours and Troth was immediately dispatched to the scene. Due to the charms and barriers surrounding the school the amount of time and location of use was unable to be detected.
Agent Troth returned at 1900 hours with no information as to the things which had transpired there. Naturally I was immediately located and given the assignment immediately.
Wow, Neville's dad sure sounded like he was a dead bore. At least he was thorough. Harry scanned down the rest of the page and the next, quick overviews of interviews of staff at the school about anything that might have happened pertaining to the time magic. Finally on the third page following Professor Dumbledore was interviewed. Harry slowed and focused in on the end of the interview when he spotted a reference note.
The headmaster produced a document (Reference #81932 of the archives.) signed by the former Minister of Magic, Kluss Taft. The document gave full rights to a single time object to Albus Dumbledore. Tests were administrated and none proved that the document was in anyway forged or falsified.
Again he went on and on about the rest of the interview, explaining the time object, a pocket watch, in the greatest detail. After the interview he continued on about the object. Somehow he could tell what each part of the watch did, without asking. He pointed out what the two knobs on either side of the watch did and the likely time-to-twist ratio. He even mentioned were it was kept, in the second cabinet on the right, top shelf next to a gray box.
Neville, who was still reading also, from over Harry's shoulder took a quick breath when Harry closed the journal. "You aren't seriously thinking of..."
"It's the only way Neville, I can't wait too much longer, everything would be harder and the change would be too dramatic. Your father stated that anything over a week was utterly impossible, the magic needed to draw that power was unavailable. It's already been a day, and it would take me time to get off the grounds, I can't go find something else."
Neville looked a little scared. "I don't know Harry, it's in Dumbledore's office, it's one of his personal things. The only person that the Dark Lord was afraid of was Dumbledore, of all the wizards in the world. Don't you think that he had good reason to be afraid of him?"
Harry smiled, he knew how to draw Neville into it. "I'm going to do this Neville, I will not allow for anyone to do this and get away with it. The object is legal and they cannot monitor it well because of where we are. We will take it and wait for the charms to be reinforced tomorrow, which will be the best time to use it. I never told you that you had to help, if you choose not to I understand."
Neville looked insulted. "You're saying you don't want my help, well we'll see about that. It was my fathers journal you found this in, you are not about to go have fun and leave me here to worry, you'd have to put a petrifaction spell on me. Besides, you're going to have to have someone to help you get into Dumbledore's office without being detected and I am good at that. And you're going to have to get it and then use it without being caught, I don't even know if I will be enough to get it done."
Harry sat down, thinking. They would need a distraction of some sort, a big one. Who better to pull a prank than the duo that was already infamous for it? He'd need the map too, it would be very helpful in keeping him out of dangers way. What else? He'd have to know everything about how Sirius died to prevent it. That would require talking to one of the Aurors, Remus certainly didn't want to talk to him and so that left Birdie or Peter. Peter probably wouldn't be the best person to talk to especially if they were alone, Harry might do something he would regret. So he was going to have to face Birdie again who seemed angry with him.
•
The twins had agreed, it was easy to get them to agree to the prank. What capable Gryffindor would deny themselves a chance to pull a prank on the whole Slytherin house, especially one that they could get away with. It took almost no convincing whatsoever accept that they did have a lot of questions about why he wanted them to do it. Getting them to release the map, or even show it to him was almost out of the question, they protected it like a mother protected her child. He didn't have much to trade in exchange for it and so he was still trying to figure out what would convince them to let him use it.
Birdie talked to him when he asked about Sirius. She was a little angry with him, Harry supposed that disappearing under her watch wasn't something that happened often and she had probably gotten into trouble for it. He got the whole story, every single detail she knew of.
It was all sketchy of course. Peter and McDaniel's left from Hogwarts to capture him as soon as Harry had given them they information. They sent for backup but didn't wait for any to come. When they got to the shack they found Sirius inside, unaware of their presence. Apparently he fought them tooth and nail and knocked McDaniel's unconscious even after losing his wand. Peter trying to defend McDaniel's had accidentally knocked a lamp off the chair and the place immediately lit up. Peter was able to knock Sirius unconscious and he pulled McDaniel's to safety but by the time he had him out the whole place was burning and he couldn't get back in to Sirius. Peter claimed to have tried to stop the fire, but was unable to attain enough strength in his spell to stop the fire.
When the other Aurors arrived the shack was completely burned down. Peter said he hadn't seen Sirius escape nor heard him scream so they sorted through the rubble and found his body finally, charred beyond recognition. His remains were immediately transported to a burial plot where no one would know so that a Voldemort or another Death Eater would not try to bring him back to life.
Harry knew that that was probably a skewed point of view, that peter had probably started the fire on purpose and let Sirius burn to death while he watched to insure he didn't escape. He hated Peter even more, he thought Peter might have made a mistake at one point in his life, thought that he was just too unsure of himself, unable to do something without guidance but he did things, evil things, for his own purposes.
Harry glanced up from the couch to find the twins entering. Fred spoke first, somehow Harry could tell them apart everyone saw them is exactly the same but Fred had a little more contour to his face and his face was a tad bit narrower. While George had a little bit of a deeper voice and usually spoke out first.
"We were thinking it over, you using the Marauders Map..."
"And we decided, if you need the map to use. Then well..." George picked up as soon as he trailed off, it was there idea of a joke, it made things really confusing.
Fred picked up again. "We'll allow you to borrow it."
"On the condition that you agree to let us meet the Marauders. You said that you knew them, that they were your friends."
"And we've always wanted to meet them so we figured you might be able to help. You can help us right?" Fred gave a wide grin.
Harry thought it over; he could do his best possible. "I suppose I could. One died a long time ago and as long as you guys pull off this prank I think that at least one of the other three will want to meet you for doing that alone. The other two... One is a Death Eater now so I don't know; I've only spoken to him once in my lifetime. The other is already here and I'll let you know who he is and talk to him, see what he thinks, is that ok?"
"One's a Death Eater?" George almost fell backwards.
Harry nodded; he didn't want to think about this right now. "Yes, he betrayed Prongs, that's why he's dead."
How do you know that that...." George started to ask a question but Fred covered his mouth and shook his head.
"We'll do it, we can talk the details over later. Here is the Map." He pulled out a parchment from his trousers and handed it to Harry.
Harry smiled and pulled out his wand. "Padfoot's never up to any good and Prongs is always there to save him." The map slowly filled and a word appeared on the side. 'Prongs?' the twins gasped. "That's not right, the map told us that it only works with one phrase, 'I solemnly swear I'm up to no good.'
Harry smiled, the map made others think that, and there was much more to it than they could know about. It had part of all of the Marauders in it, and was fairly intelligent on it's own. "You never know with a magical object, they have a mind of their own. This phrase gives me a little more control over the map." The phrase did indeed give him more access, it showed Sirius's parents home and his grandfathers along with a great deal of the Hogsmeade (the map had been taken before Hogsmeade was completely mapped) and what areas they knew of the Forbidden Forest. Those were both a secret that even the Weasley's didn't need to know, both could get all of the marauders into a great deal of trouble.
George, knowing Harry wasn't about to let any more information out about the map changed the course of the conversation. "You've got all the supplies for the prank right Harry?"
Harry nodded. "They're all in my trunk, I made sure I had all the potion brewed and even tested the ones for skin on Forni's Clabberts down near the greenhouse. He almost caught me, but the potion does work. All the others are easy to make so they should work and all you have to do is memorize the charms and incantations that you need to use. I'll have everything set aside where I told you it would be before you wake up tomorrow."
George smiled. "We've go them down to a tee."
Harry nodded. "Then, we'll all see how everything works tomorrow." The twins nodded and both left, speaking softly amongst themselves about something. Harry watched them leave and, heaving a sigh laid his head back on the couch to find Hermione and Ron right behind him looking down at him. He jumped and ended up on the floor, he usually could tell when someone was coming but he hadn't heard these two.
"You're not about to pull anther dangerous stunt are you Harry? I don't think that you should, you got hurt last time, I don't want to see that again." Hermione gave him a look he wasn't sure that he wanted to know the meaning of.
Ron on the other hand stood there like an oaf, unsure what he was going to say. Harry didn't know why he was there in the first place; he didn't seem to have any reason to be there. A silence crept up into the room and Harry felt a little uncomfortable.
Neville came barreling out of the boys' dorm and down the stairs, missing the first two steps and stumbling down the rest of the stairs, almost falling flat faced. "I found it Harry! How too..." he suddenly noticed Ron and Hermione looking at him like he was nutters. "I found out how to turn water to wine, want to see if we can do it?"
Well at least he covered it up well. The silence following his statement revealed that neither of the two believed what he had just said. It also gave Harry some time to think. Hermione could be useful, she practically inhaled magic whether written or said. She had read all of the books Harry had brought with him and absorbed most of the general ideas and a great deal of the magic. She had also, at the same time, checked out multiple library books and read those too. Harry had read a few but didn't seem to have as much time as Hermione did. Maybe she had picked up some information about time-turners. Even if she hadn't he decided that she could still know, she was trustworthy and wouldn't say anything.
Ron on the other hand, Ron was brash and ill tempered. His temper was especially an issue. He tended to get into fights whether or not he had any chance of winning. He also had a tendency to say things that he didn't mean to say and do things he didn't mean to do. On the other hand he had also kept the secret of Harry and Virginia, he wasn't such a bad guy but Harry wasn't sure how much he really wanted to or could trust him. The friendship, meager as it was, was still shaky and Harry decided this time it was best to keep him out of it.
"Neville why don't you show Hermione what you think is the spell to do it is, see if she thinks that that is your best bet. You don't want anything to go wrong." Harry smiled and winked barely noticeably.
Neville looked extremely confused for a minute and then it dawned on him what Harry meant. "Ok Hermione, why don't we go down to the library and talk about this. I don't want to get this wrong."
Hermione, still unsure of exactly what was going on, followed Neville out the door thinking to herself. Harry started to follow but was stopped by Ron.
"Expect a person that isn't there." Then he stalked off as if angry about something.
Harry didn't even know what he meant by that or even why he had said it. He just sort of let it drift to the back of mind. He would worry about what Ron said later.
•
Neville had been standing near the door for almost the whole day. He had not found a single person who had gone into Dumbledore's quarters which was necessary; they needed to find the password. Harry traded spots with him and sat up against the wall, allowing Neville to take a few minutes off to go take care of a few things and get something to eat. Harry had been in his room brewing an extra potion he had decided to add.
All in all the day was going ok and even though he was tired Harry was feeling more confident that they would be able to pull off the stunt. He heard a snicker and looked up.
"So, Potter looses his no-good-waste of a godfather and no he sits in the hallways, crying his eyes out. What do you think Goyle, should we give him our best tell him that we feel sorry for him like every other fool in this school. Or should we tell him the truth, that Sirius Black deserved that and more?"
Harry growled and leapt to his feet. "You and I Malfoy, let's duel, two nights from now, at midnight. No seconds, no staff, you and I dueling. You up to it or will you wet your pants and stand behind a teacher like a baby?"
Before he could answer Professor McGonagall appeared from down the hallway. "You boys aren't causing problems are you?"
Harry stared at Malfoy for a long time. "No professor, just having a little friendly chat." Malfoy finally said, grinning. "We were about to leave him to his thoughts anyway. Goodbye Potter."
•
Hermione was standing next to him. She was going in and Neville would be watching the door to make sure he could distract the teacher long enough for Harry and Hermione to get out. He would also be able to alert them if Harry or Hermione didn't see anything on the Marauders Map.
Soon dinner would start and everyone was going to be there. Harry had, after much convincing on his part, been allowed access to the Slytherins food. He had spiced up anything he could get his hands on with his own special potions. That would start it all, the potions would do three things, mute them, cause them to glow a brilliant green and eventually they would start to float. It was possible that all three wouldn't happen to every Slytherin, it would depend on what food they partook of within the first five minutes of the meal.
Following the flying Slytherins the twins would perform a long incantation that would confound everyone in the area for several hours so that no one would understand what each other was saying. Then, for the grand finale they would set fire to the Slytherins (purely illusion of course).
What Chaos would come of it? Sirius had told Harry he always wanted to do it while they were in school, but the Marauders felt that it was too big a prank to pull unless there was a good reason behind it. Of course, they had never found a good reason to so Sirius merely talked about it dreamily. Now all of his planning had not gone to waste. Oh, if he could see it happen and know that his greatest prank was getting him out of trouble, keeping him alive.
The doors to the Great Hall closed, as usual, dinner would soon start. Neville, Hermione and Harry all sprinted down the hallway to Dumbledore's office. If, and it was a big if, the prank did not work they wanted to be out of Dumbledore's office as quick as possible. If it did work then they most likely would have more than enough extra time. When they reached the statue of the Gargoyle that guarded the office doors Harry pulled out the Marauders map, which was already activated. A few people weren't at Dinner, Filch & Peeves, were in Filch's office along with Mrs. Norris. 5 Slytherins were hidden away in their cave, and two unlabeled dots were nearing the Great Hall moving through a secret passage.
The two unlabeled dots were a mystery to Harry, they should have been labeled, everyone was labeled, that was how the map worked. But for now, as there was no danger immediately he knew he could contemplate the blank dots later. He nodded at Neville who gave the password to the Gargoyle and ushered Harry and Hermione in.
"You've got about 7 minutes of safe time, after that I wouldn't spend another second in there." Neville met Harry's gaze, he was trying to make his point simple.
Harry nodded. "We'll only been gone for a moment, you wont even know we've gone."
Then, turning Harry followed Hermione up the stairs to Dumbledore's office. Hermione waited at the door. She wasn't going to open it, she still didn't have the confidence, and Harry knew he would have to work on that. Harry turned the handle and pressed the door inward. The room was dimly lit by to flickering torches. Harry fingered the pocket watch he had transfigured the other day in class. It was the best he could do for a temporary replacement, it didn't work but wound and looked real.
Hermione stopped him. "You're sure we won't be caught?"
"I'm sure we'll be fine Hermione." He gently pushed the door harder and moved in quickly, he didn't want to stay too long like Neville had warned. The prank would begin anytime; soon there would be 200 floating Slytherins with no way to bring them down. In the cabinet, on the top shelf, next to the gray box. He looked about, there were several cabinets, and it had to be in one of them.
"Look through the ones on the left, it's a gold pocket watch, it will most likely be next to a gray box." Hermione nodded and moved over to the cabinet, opening the first one and starting to look through them best as possible. Harry opened the first cabinet on the right and was astounded at what he saw. Inside were things that Harry had only read about in books, the sort of things Sirius would have loved to get his hands on. Expensive and very rare, the collection Dumbledore probably had in this office was likely the biggest single collection in the wizarding world. Harry wasn't sure; there were others who collected objects like these.
He closed the cabinet and moved on to the next, it contained more rare objects, a cauldron of stone that had a mark on the side, Merlin's mark. A set of special gloves, they looked like the only half existed in this world, Harry wondered what they did but moved on to the next cabinet. Hermione had made her way almost all the way around, not knowing what the objects these cabinets hid were. Harry wondered how long Dumbledore had been around, and how he was able to keep a collection like this a secret.
"I think I've found it." Hermione called out.
Harry closed the cabinet and moved over to the one Hermione stood in front of. Harry came over and looked to the top of the cabinet, sure enough, across the top was a gray box and just to the right was a gold chain dangling from the shelf. Harry tried summoning it, and then levitating it, nothing seemed to work. Finally, after trying every way he could think of he asked Hermione to stand on his shoulders. It took a moment of balancing but they finally got high enough to reach the watch. Harry walked forward and carefully balanced her.
"Harry, the watch doesn't want to move. It's stuck. I... Ahh!"
Her balance was thrown off and no matter how much Harry tried to balance her he couldn't. She leaned forward; trying to help herself is best as possible. Harry was knocked to the floor and Hermione landed on top of him. "I got it, but I think I knocked everything else down."
She crawled off of Harry who looked up; sure enough the whole top shelf had come down. Harry stood up and heaved a sigh. "We can levitate them back up there."
Hermione nodded and pulled out her wand. Harry started to move objects up when there was a screech. Harry, scared that someone might have found them dropped the gray box he was moving up there. He turned to find a bird, dimly lit and not moving. With a sigh of relief he turned back to the box, he needed to get this cleaned up. He started to levitate it once again when Hermione called out in surprise, once again the box dropped to the ground.
Harry, turning, both impatient and surprised, turned to Hermione. "What now?"
"It has your name on it." Hermione pointed to the box lying on the ground.
Harry turned and looked down at the box, sure enough, on the top, written in small and loopy letters was the name Harry Potter. Down the halls he could hear the screams of the students, they sounded fairly consistent, the prank wasn't through yet. Maybe the Slytherins had been set afire first.
Harry looked at the box again, it had his name on it, did he dare open it? And if it was for him why did Dumbledore have it? Harry reached down and picked it up, and as he stood he felt a lightweight on his shoulder. Some sort of strength passed through him and he shivered, he turned his head just slightly to see the bird was now mounted on his shoulders. He focused back at the box, pulling the string on the bow slowly tell it gave a little resistance then unraveled completely, dropping away from the box.
He thought it over again, what could there be hidden inside that box? It wasn't heavy, but wasn't light, it didn't rattle and but sat well, like It didn't want to move. He sat it back down on the ground and looked at it, his eyes tracing the curves of his neatly written name. Someone had that there, it was waiting for him, it was his. Why hadn't they given it to him yet, and why did they have it?
Hermione finally took a step forward and, leaning down, made the choice for him. "Let's at least see what's in it, we can't just sit around here thinking about it."
She flipped the lid off and Harry knew immediately what it was. The material shimmered softly in the dim light. "Fathers invisibility cloak." He pulled it up and looked at it. "Sirius said that he never found it. He assumed it had been taken as evidence or destroyed. Father must have given it to Dumbledore, asked him to keep it safe, because it was so rare."
"Then he must have been saving it for you all this time."
"Is there anything else in the box?" Sirius had told Harry once that that his father had always worn a ring, on a chain around his neck. It had been in the family for years, a treasure they had kept for generations.
Hermione looked into the box and pulled out a small item; Harry's heart leapt with hope, if he could have anything from his father it would be the ring. "Only a key, a golden key."
Harry, still holding the invisibility cloak didn't take long to decide that the cloak would be very, very, useful. "Let's get everything back up and go, we'll be taking the key and cloak."
Hermione helped him get the rest of the items back up onto the shelf and Harry nudged the bird of his shoulder. They hurried outside of the room, Harry folding the cloak. Neville was ready to go and they hurried to the Gryffindor towers. To make is seam as though they had been there through dinner he and Neville commenced with a game of GO that they had begun earlier in the day.
Neville had taught Harry over the past few weeks how to play. It had been the most complicated Harry had ever played, and for that reason alone been very interesting. Each move was played several moves ahead, you must be careful and a very deep thinker to play well at all. Harry found it very enjoyable after he learned the basics of the game. Neville was a very difficult opponent; he had been playing since he could understand the concept of the game, at approximately 6 years old. His father wanted him to be a good, strategic thinker so he had hired a professional, a muggle GO player. Neville said it was one of the only things he enjoyed in his whole childhood.
Harry spent several minutes thinking before placing his stone. While Neville studied for his next move Harry pulled out the Marauders Map and saw two dots moving quickly to the Gryffindor towers. Fred and George Weasley. Behind them, in the great hall the dots were no longer well lined up but jumbled horribly, no order at all. Near the front, where the teachers usually sat were empty, they were amongst the students further down in the hall.
Harry nodded towards the entrance and Hermione and Neville looked up, at just the right time. Fred and George stumbled in, followed by the most horrible laughter that Harry had ever heard.
"Assay wada wee?" Fred looked at the three and then back to George.
George smiled, "Larna casa blik mel-nay."
Fred made several gestures with his hands. "Agama cue?"
Both burst into a horrible laughter again. Harry smiled, they couldn't understand each other with words but they were enjoying it nonetheless. It was interesting that they had allowed themselves be included in the confusion spell.
Harry didn't have to wait much longer to see the effects of the spell. A thunderous sound came a few minutes later as the entrance opened and hundreds of Gryffindors, all chattering like chipmunks came tumbling in. Two prefects, who seemed to be the leaders split them up and pointed them towards their dorms. Harry, not wanting to deal with what the prefects might try to ask him nodded for Hermione to join the girls and he and Neville joined the boys. They could return to their game later, it often lasted several days for the past few times.
Of course Percy Weasley stopped him. "Ranas."
Harry snorted, not meaning to. Giving his best I-don't-know-what's-happening look he asked. "What's wrong with everyone?"
It was even funnier when he tried to answer before he thought about it. "Gados nek rasini aky..."
Harry almost snorted again but thought better of it. "Fine, if you want to be like that I'm going to bed, I don't have to listen to you making fun of me." With a swish of his cloak he left Percy standing there speechless. He snickered as soon as he closed the door behind him.
It would be in a few hours, and then it would be right time. Everything was coming together; the knowledge of what would soon be the future would save Sirius's life. He knew where and when people would be, where he would re-appear (Near mid afternoon 6 days prior.) along with everything else he had thought of. Now he had even more, an invisibility cloak and a real feeling that he could do it.
He would take an a passage out of the castle, steal away to Hogsmeade and from there call the Knight Bus. He had glamour chocolates to disguise himself so once he was away from the school he would have no reason to be stopped. In a small leather bag that always kept with him he had a few coins, some floo powder, the key Hermione had found earlier and the Marauders Map.
It seemed like hours had passed when he checked the time, only 23 minutes had passed since the last time he checked. He was going to have to lie, quietly for another 20 minutes or so; he didn't want anyone to see him rustling around before he disappeared. Harry thought about the wonderful things he had come across in Dumbledore's office, he knew he had seen an Ishpi Makwa, an ancient and powerful staff that ancient shaman used to give a person magic, many believed they did not exist at all. Harry believe they did not give people magic, but helped release it. What a wonderful thing, so rare it was believed to not exist.
The bird, Harry recalled the feeling it had given him. If only it would have sung a not or two then he would have known. He believed it a phoenix, another rare item. He had only heard mention and descriptions in books, even symbols but they looked nothing like the real bird. He truly wished to know if it was a phoenix he had seen, that was an experience unto itself. Most were wild, and untamable, they could not be caught, if they were entrapped they would simply disappear.
Harry lay, letting his thoughts roam; it would pass the time quicker. He checked his watch 20 minutes, he thought some more and then there was another 5 minutes. It went quickly and he found himself past time. Quickly he stood and picked up the package he was taking with him, now wrapped by the invisibility cloak. He thought back, he would have liked to have his broom, but as he had not shown up at the tryouts because he was unconscious he still had not been able to get his broom back.
He snuck down into the common room and rechecked what he had packed, pulling the invisibility cloak away and unfolding it, just incase he needed it when he went back. Slowly he wound the top of the pocket watch, counting off the rotations in his head, 33 rotations and 132 hours that was what the book had said one rotation to every four hours. It would give him all the time he needs and more. He pressed the top button down and wondered what it would be like, to travel in time.
His grip tightened and everything around him blurred. His stomach cried out and clenched and his body ached for a brief moment. He had never felt a rush like this in his life; it was like flying a hundred times over but with pain.
• Edited 2004.09.18 •