Chapter Eleven

VERDILIUM

To their surprise, the door opened only a few moments later, and Dumbledore stood there, looking at them sternly.

"I heard you," he said. "What is it?" McGonagall hurried down the stairs and appeared at his shoulder.

"You three are supposed to be in the breakfast hall!" she said, annoyed.

"Dumbledore, we know where-"

"-saw her down by the-"

"-need to use the Time Turner!" All three of them blurted explanations at once. McGonagall flapped her arms at them.

"One at a time!" she snapped crossly.

Harry took a deep breath. "We know everything about Lily," he began, and McGonagall's eyes widened. "Dobby told us. But don't punish him, it wasn't his fault... anyway, we know where Lily is, we think she's gone back to Wednesday afternoon because I saw her down by the lake that day, and then she just disappeared, but she left her book behind... anyway, I think if I can use the Time Turner I can..."

"You're not going alone!" Hermione interrupted. "It's too dangerous!"

"Wait a minute," Dumbledore said, frustratingly calm, although his eyes were worried. "I think it best that someone else goes. Perhaps Professor Lupin will be willing..."

"She doesn't know Lupin," Harry said recklessly. "She knows me, I think I can convince her to come home..."

"Let Harry go."

Harry jumped, startled, and spun around. Finchley was standing behind him in the corridoor, casting a long, dark shadow across the floor. His eyes were grave and serious. Dumbledore raised his eyebrows at him.

"I think it would be wisest for one of the teachers to go, Aurian," said Dumbledore resolutely.

"If she sees a teacher she'll think she's in trouble," Finchley rasped. "I think it's better for one of her friends to go." His eyes slid to Harry, and there was some kind of knowledge in them that Harry couldn't read. "She trusts Harry."

Dumbledore looked at him silently for a few moments, and then at Harry, who waited expectantly.

"You will need to use the invisibilty cloak," Dumbledore said finally. "And you must go alone- it will be harder for three students to be avoid detection."

Hermione's face fell, and so did Ron's. Harry looked guiltily at them. They always seemed to be left behind when things got dangerous. Harry thought there was a hint of anger on Ron's face.

"Harry, go and get your cloak, quickly. I want you two to return to the Great Hall and finish your breakfast.

"It's nearly over," Ron said stormily. "Why can't we wait here with the rest of you?"

Dumbledore sighed, and then shrugged. Harry glanced once more at Ron, and then sprinted off down the corridoor towards Gryffindor Tower.

He stood in Dumbledore's office, the Time Turner around his neck, and his father's old cloak draped over one arm. Finchley stood in front of him. Ron was standing nearby and Hermione was sitting in a chair beside him, her hands clutched in her lap, her face drawn and pale.

"Be careful Harry," Finchley said. "And remember, if she's not where you thought she was, come back straight away. Just spin the disc in the other direction. Ok?"

He nodded. Finchley lifted up the cloak and draped it over him. They all continued to stare at the spot, but they couldn't see him anymore. He lifted up the Time Turner beneath the cloak and beginning to count, he spun the disc in the middle.

The world dissolved into vague shades of colour, and became stretched and blurred as if he was viewing it through a window streaked with rain. He felt an airy, wooshing sound fill his head and still he counted...

50, 51, 52, 53, 54...

On the one previous occasion he had used the Time Turner, he had gone back only a few hours. Going back three days was a different thing entirely, and the Time Turner had clearly not been designed for such long-distance time jumps. The loud rushing sound grew louder, filling his head, until it was all he could do to conentrate on each spin, and to keep his place in his head, counting...

67, 68,69,70,71...

Eventually he reached the number they had all agreed on, estimated at about 4:00 on the day they had seen Lily down by the lake. He stopped spinning. The world seemed to settle back around him with a slow roar, and he staggered sideways, crashing into the side of Dumbledore's desk.

He looked around. He was still in Dumbledore's office, but now pinkish afternoon sunlight filtered in through the window, falling in a rosy pattern on the polish wooden floor. It was no longer mid-morning, but mid-afternoon. Harry breathed deeply.

He pulled the cloak tightly around him, and headed for the door.

Harry managed to move through the castle and down across the grounds unseen, although at one point he had stepped on a leaf and a girl sitting on the grass near him had jumped and looked around as if spooked. He walked more carefully. Making his way down across the grassy slope towards the lake, he veered off into the trees, and wandered down to the hidden sandy beach, upon which the rock sat baking in the heat of the sun. He stopped and stared at it. There was no sign of Lily.

Hoping he was early, and not late, he moved to a safe vanatage point at the edge of the trees bordering the sandy clearing and waited.

The minutes passed slowly, and Harry began to worry. Had he been wrong, and had Lily gone somewhere else? Was she hiding somewhere back at the school? He sank back against a tree, and then jumped away from it as if burnt, worrying that his invisibility cloak would snare on the bark and rip.

Harry's spirits were fading rapidly, and he was preparing to make the unpleasant trip back with the Time Turner, when he heard someone approaching. He held his breath.

Lily stepped into view. She didn't glance in his direction, but headed straight for the big shelf of rock, onto which she climbed and sat, looking out over the lake. She lifted her sketchbook from under her arm and opened it.

"Lily!" he said loudly.

She gave a yelp of fright and almost fell off the rock. Her book tumbled of her lap and she grabbed it, just in time, before it fell off into the sand. Her eyes darted around the clearing, searching wildly.

Then Harry remembered he was still invisble. Cursing himself, he shucked off the cloak and folded it over his arm, careful not to get it tangled in the undergrowth.

Lily saw him and she looked terrified. "Harry! What... uh... how did you..."

He ran over to her. "Listen, don't worry, I know you're not supposed to be seen... I've used the Time Turner to follow you." He picked it up and showed it to her.

"Time... what?"

"Time Turner. I'm not me, I mean... I'm the future Harry," he said, sounding very foolish to his own ears. He took a deep breath. "Look, I don't know how to explain... I know all about you, I know what.... what you are," he said carefully. Her eyes widened. "But never mind that. You have to come back with me now, it might not be safe here."

"This is the only place I am safe!" Lily cried suddenly. "I can't go back, he knows where I am! He'll try to find me!"

Harry grabbed her shoulders firmly. "Listen! We don't know what Voldemort's capable of! He might be able to get to you here... you might even be more at risk like this! We don't know, Lily, but you have to come back. Please. Everybody's really worried," he added weakly.

Lily stared at him defiantly. She looked about to argue, when suddenly they heard the sound of faint voices.

"Oh no, " Harry said breathlessly. "It's us. Quick, you have to hide!"

To his surprise, Lily shoved him toward the trees. "Get under cover! I'll take care of myself!"

Harry threw the cloak over himself and backed slowly into the trees.

Lily had backed towards the rock, and she now pulled her wand from her robes, and pointed it at herself.

"Hey, isn't that Lily?" Harry heard himself say from somewhere off to his left. In the the next instant she had vanished.

He looked around as himself, Ron and Hermione entered stage left and felt a weird sense of déjà vu. He saw himself step towards the rock and look around, eyes slipping straight over the spot where his future self now stood, hunching over underneath the cloak as if he could make himself even more invisble.

At the point where the pencil Lily had dropped on the rock rolled off onto the ground, Harry realizes she must have bumped it.

He watched as their conversation was replayed.

"What's that?" -Hermione.

"Wow, those're brilliant! Are there any of me in there?" -Ron.

"This is definitely Lily's book." -Hermione.

Harry willed them to hurry up and leave so he could talk to Lily, and get her back to safety. Finally Hermione pointed at the book and suggested that they go back. The three of them turned and trudged up the beach and out of sight under the cover of the trees.

Harry let his breath out in a rush. He watched the place where they had left, trying to gauge how far away they were, and after a few minutes it seemed safe to come out. He pulled the cloak up over his head and ran over to the rock.

"Lily!" he hissed.

There was a muffled word, which Harry couldn't understand, and then Lily winked back into sight. She was standing beside the rock, apparently afraid to move for fear of them hearing her footsteps. She pocketed her wand and looked back at Harry.

"Are you going to come with me now?" Harry said angrily. "Or do you want someone else to turn up?"

Harry later regretted these words. As if on cue, they both heard a windy, sucking noise from the other side of the lake. They both turned. And Harry felt as if someone had just poured a bucket of freezing water all over him.

Across the water, on the far side of the lake, several tall, dark shapes were emerging from the trees. They didn't stop at the water's edge but began gliding over it, and Harry knew instantly what they were.

Dementors. More of them appeared from the forest, and Harry's shock-stricken brain guessed there were about twelve. Instinctively, and fighting off a paralysis of fear, he fumbled for the Time Turner. Lily glanced at him, terrified, and shouted, "no! There's no time!"

The dementors were gliding across the lake with chilling speed. They were already halfway to Lily and Harry. Harry's limbs felt like jelly... he couldn't breathe properly... fear tightened across his chest like a straight-jacket and he couldn't move. He could see the dark folds of their cloaks rippling as they streamed towards him, and the gaping black hole where their faces should have been... and he thought faintly, we're going to die.

And it was as this thought flashed through his mind and as the first of the dementors sailed up the sandy beach towards him that Lily suddenly ran forward and hurled herself at him, throwing both her arms around his neck.

Harry's half-hysterical mind thought irrationally that she was going to kiss him, but then she screamed against his shoulder, "hold on to me! Quick!"

Unthinking, Harry obeyed. He laced his arms acround her back and stared at the approaching dementor, who was now so close he could smell the rancid air seeping out from under the folds of its robe. He held on to Lily and waited for the end.

A second later a shout rang out, so loud it hurt his head, and it echoed across the lake and bounced off the uncaring trees and seemed to come back at him a thousandfold...

"VERDILIUM!"

There was a thick, rushing, airy sound and the ground seemed to evaporate from under Harry's feet. He felt the air rushing past him and he scrunched his eyes shut, unable to look at the dizzying patterns of colour that flashed in front of them. The sound filled his whole head. It was as if he was standing under a giant waterfall.

ffsssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...

Then solid ground smacked into his face. Hard stones bit into his cheek and his glasses slipped off his face and skidded off. He had the nauseating sensation that the whole world had flipped over... and then he realized he was now lying on the ground, but without remembering how he got there. Dizzily, he pushed himself up on his hands, and then sat up. The world around him was dark. Through his blurred vision he recognized that they are in the same place, still on the little stretch of beach. The lake stretched silently out before him like a dark, flat jewel, the moonlight glinting off ripples in its surface. He could hear it lapping gently. There was a soft breeze blowing on his face. Harry reached his hand out, searching for his glasses. Someone grabbed his hand and pressed them into it.

He put them on and looked up through a star-shaped crack in the lense to see Lily, sitting beside him and looking numb.

"Sorry about that," she said shakily. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," he replied in a cracked voice.

"I used a spell. We should be in the present now. But..." she looked around at the dark trees. "I might have gone a bit too far."

Harry nodded, remembering it was morning when he had left. He got unsteadily to his feet, and his eyes quickly scanned the dark edges of the trees, searching for any sign of the dementors.

"They can't follow us, can they?" he asked uncertainly.

"I don't think so... Harry, I'm really sorry," she said, brushing hair out of her face with a trembling hand. "I didn't think they could get to me there... I went to that place so many times..." her eyes watered. "I put you all in danger."

"Forget it," he said gently. And suddenly she doubled up, leaning over her knees, and coughed violently. He took a concerned step toward her, then, seeing her straighten up, he stopped.

"I'm... alright," she said unconvincingly, and wiped her mouth. "Not supposed to... use spells... so powerful," she sagged back onto the ground. "Just need to rest for a bit."

Harry shifted on his feet awkwardly, and, still feeling mildly sick himself, and then sat on the edge of the rock and watched her silently.

The minutes ticked by. Harry started to wonder what Hermione and Ron were doing. Probably in bed. He looked out over the black water. A dark feeling began to eat at him.

"Lily, how did the dementors find you? How did they get into Hogwarts?"

She wiped her mouth again and glanced at him nervously. "I don't know." Harry looked again at the dark trees, and the thick, tall trunks now seemed to be leering at him. The twisted knots of bark became sinister eyes.

"I think we should go back now."

Lily nodded and got to her feet reluctantly, still shaking. Harry held onto her arm for support. "Ready?" he said. They began to walk up the beach. Over the tops of the trees, lights twinkled from the windows of Hogwarts, a welcome beacon against the black and unforgiving darkness.