A/N: Hi! This is my first story on I hope you like it, and please remember to review!
Ron tossed the bed covers to the ground, and checked under his four-poster Hogwarts bed. "Where is it?" he moaned, looking under his pillow. "I can't go home without it!"
"Tell us what it is, Ron, and maybe I can help you find it," Harry replied. "Or maybe we should get Hermione in here…"
"No!" Ron replied. "Besides," he said happily, "I found it!"
"Is that a-" Harry said angrily, before being cut off.
"Yep," Ron said proudly, "A time-turner! I rescued it from the ministry all those years back, and hid it, so now we can go-"
"What do you have there!" Hermione gasped as she entered the boys' dormitory. "We've got to go now, or we'll miss the train-"
"No need. I've got a time-turner," Ron replied.
"Don't be ridiculous, Ron, those things were all destroyed when we were at the ministry," Hermione said, more trying to convince herself than Ron.
"Ron, put that thing down," Harry pleaded. "It's probably dangerous, and it'll malfunction…"
"No, look," Ron said excitedly, "Let's see how far forward it goes-"
"Ron, No!" Harry and Hermione said at once. They both reached for Ron as Luna wandered in dreamily and put a hand on Hermione's shoulder.
"What's going on?" she asked, but at that second Harry and Hermione grabbed Ron, who twisted the time-turner, and all four were thrown forwards in time in the confusion and all landed in a future Hogwarts.
Harry staggered-and almost fell through the decaying floor-and landed on his back, looking up. Ron, Hermione and Luna got tangled up and feel on top of Harry, ending up as a writhing mass of arms and legs and muffled shouts.
When Hermione finally got her head free, what she saw made her face pale.
It had taken weeks to get the Teknoguilders permission to come, but that had finally paid off. For some reason, Elspeth was having premonitions about a castle that had appeared mysteriously, and felt urgent to get to the castle ruins.
"Are you sure?" Rushton had asked dubiously. "From the last report, there was nothing there…"
"Completely," Elspeth had reassured him. "Please, let the Teknoguilders and I investigate. Castles don't just appear."
"I'll think about it," Rushton had promised, "but did you stop to think that maybe appearing castles might disappear as well at any time?"
Elspeth had nodded, already planning the trip.
Now they were finally there, at the border of the Blacklands in front of the castle. The group searched the first floor quickly, finding nothing, and something made Elspeth shiver. She climbed up rotting stairs, eventually reaching a curious dark hole in the wall. She stepped through, but whatever the room had been, she couldn't say what now. More stairs spiralled up; she took the left staircase.
She could see, once at the top, that this room was one of the towers. The roof was gone, and the place was clearly crumbling down, and she picked her way across the floor, hugging herself for warmth.
Then, what happened next nearly made Elspeth fall through one of the countless holes in the floor.
There was a flash, and Elspeth saw what the room used to be like. She saw a scene play out in the blink of an eye - four kids her age, doing something-and landed back in the present. In front of her was a struggling mass of legs and arms, and a girl with bushy hair sat up.
"What on earth?" she whispered, then saw Elspeth. "Who are you?" she asked fearfully. "What happened to Hogwarts?"