A/N: Blah. I'm tired. And tomorrow's Halloween! HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYBODY! You know, I probably won't get this up today so I should've put that in the A/N for Ch. 2 cause I just put that up today. (I'm starting this on October 30, if you couldn't tell... and I'm ending it on December 16, wow. Took me long enough.)

I just found out Oct. 28, 1973 was a Sunday. So now I'll put the days of the week on there too. It's more for my use so I know when they have classes and when they don't, but that's okay, right :D?

Reviews:

xxlightningboltxx - Oh. Yeah, that's a good point. But I still could change it. I haven't even thought this chapter through yet. Ooh... score... you just gave me an idea. Thanks for that and for reviewing. Yay I love reviews! And don't feel bad about criticism, cause I like it as long as you follow the whole constructive criticism idea. It helps, and I love it as long as you're not rude about it. Seriously.

Paw Prints 747 - Yay! Thanks for reviewing.

Disclaimer: If you look on the cover of any of the HP books, you'll see a name there. What does it say? J. K. Rowling.

Chapter Three: A Time-Turner in the Wrong Hands is Dangerous

Sunday, October 28, 1973

The four of us begin walking out of the portrait hole and to the headmaster's office.

"So... do any of you know how to get into the office?" I ask as we walk.

They all look at each other and shrug. "No," James says uselessly. (Their blank looks are obvious enough.)

"Nice," I say sarcastically. "What do you plan to do when we get there then? I've heard there's a password and stuff..."

"We know there's a password, we just don't know the new one! It just changed after we snuck in there and hid the Sorting Hat again," he explains.

I raise an eyebrow. "Again? Never-mind, back to the point. What's your brilliant plan?"

"We can wait and see if he's not in there already. If he doesn't come soon then we can go to the staff room," Sirius suggests. I shrug and nod unenthusiastically.

In a little while we're at the statue of the gargoyle. We sit down against the wall and wait. Sirius and James pull out a piece of parchment and play hangman. Remus reads a book. I just sit and stare into space.

An hour passes.

"Ready to go to the staff room yet?" I ask, my voice going weird after not talking for so long.

Sirius yawns, "Sure. Come on." He and James lead the way down the hall, with me following and Remus following once he wakes up enough to realize we're leaving.

It seems today isn't my lucky day. No one answers when we knock on the staff room door, and when Sirius peeks in there's no one there. So we head back to the Gryffindor common room and try to think of a plan.

After a few minutes of dead silence, I comment, "Lots of ideas, I take it?" No one answers. "I guess I could find out which dorm I'd be in and hang out there till tomorrow."

"That sounds good," Sirius says, sounding very grateful that he doesn't have to think of an idea anymore.

"I never thought I'd see the day when you two ran out of ideas," Remus said to James and Sirius.

James glares. "No one's come from the future before. It's not an everyday occurrence, you know."

I can't help laughing. It sounds so funny coming from someone who's annoyed. He glares at me now, but I can't stop. Finally he stops glaring and starts laughing too. Very loudly.

"Will you guys keep it down over there!" a red-haired girl says in a very annoyed voice.

Sirius rolls his eyes. "That's Lily. She hates us, I don't know why." Even though I've just stopped laughing, that cracks me up again. I've heard about the Marauders and Lily being such enemies.

"What? It's not funny," James complains.

I snort. "Yeah, right." I can't stop laughing though, so I ask around, find my dorm, and go to sleep on a sleeping bag an older student got by magic for me.

- - -

I blink, and a second later sit up straight. What am I doing in a sleeping bag? It takes a minute for me to remember yesterday's events, and then I lay back down and groan. Being stuck in the past is stressful... yeah, just a little. I sleepily reach up to my neck for the Time-Turner.

It's not there. Where'd I put it! Frantic, I search my pockets, the sleeping bag, and the floor. When I can't find it I rush down to the common room and search that too. Finally I assume I dropped it yesterday sometime, and retrace my steps around the corridors.

YES! There it is, just at the corner of this corridor! I run towards it, but before I get there (it's a long corridor, you know) a teacher I recognize from old photographs as Professor Fish enters the corridor. She leans down and reaches for the Time-Turner.

"NO, WAIT! DON'T TOUCH IT! STOP!" I scream, but she's already picked it up.

"What are you shouting about?" Professor Fish asks, surprised. "Is this yours?"

"Yes! It's dangerous! Put it down and don't touch it!" I say as I come to a stop, forgetting politeness because I'm panicking.

She raises an eyebrow. "If it's dangerous, you shouldn't be having it in the castle." She fiddles with it as she talks, and the next instant she's gone. She must have turned it without meaning to.

Oh, no. Now I have to Time-Turner, and it's mostly my fault a teacher is lost in time. I dash back to the Gryffindor common room and scream for Sirius, James, or Lupin. They come down quickly, alarmed.

"What're you screaming for!" Sirius asks.

"PROFESSOR FISH JUST PICKED UP THE TIME-TURNER AND SHE'S GONE!" I screech. "I don't know when she went to, and there aren't any other Time-Turners yet anyway."

"Well which direction did she go, do you know?" James asked, looking notover-worried because Professor Fish was a very self-centered teacher.

"No, I couldn't see which way she turned it," I snap. "And it was defective, remember? So it doesn't matter how much she turned it, she could be in any time!"

Remus sighs. "We should tell a teacher so they can find out what to do. We can't do anything else about it. Come on, there's probably a teacher or two at breakfast already."

I pause, then say, "Okay, but hurry up," and run out the portrait hole. A few sleepy kids are coming down the stairs now, curious what the screams were for, but I don't bother stopping to tell them.

Once in the Great Hall, we see that no teachers are there, and only a few early-rising students looking asleep in their seats. "Where do we look now?" I demand of the Marauders who followed me. James pulls out a scrap of parchment and his wand. "What are you doing!" I shout. "We need to find a teacher!"

James grins. "Exactly." Tapping the parchment with his wand, he tells it, "I solemnly swear I am up to no good." I gape. Ink lines are appearing, quickly spreading over the entire paper. Finally it's clear what it is: a map of Hogwarts, with labeled dots moving around. "The Marauders' Map," James announces proudly. "Dumbledore might not be on here 'cause he could hide himself if he wants to, but other teachers should be." He searches for a minutes. "I don't believe it! There's not a single teacher on it!"

Sirius snatches the paper. "What? There has to be! For once when we need a teacher, there aren't any around. That's not fair."

"Now what? Are they all gone too?" I growl, angry at no one in particular. "Maybe your map isn't working."

Their response is close to an attack. At the same time, they say, "It always works," "Of course it is," and "No way, this map is perfectly reliable."

I blink. "Right, forget that. So they're all gone then?"

Remus nods. "Yep, no teachers are on Hogwarts grounds."

Sirius shrugs. "Maybe they're in Hogsmeade."

"No, they'd always leave a couple teachers here. They know us too well to leave us alone in this school," Remus disagrees.

"Maybe they left Professor Fish," argues Sirius.

James grins. "They'd never expect one teacher to keep us all in control."

I'm slowly realizing... the Time-Turner is defective... and a defective but powerful magical tool is unpredictable... "Hey, guys? I think the Time-Turner took them all along."

A/N: Bwa ha ha... So what do you think of this chapter? Review please! See you next chapter.