Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any other characters used here. They belong to JK Rowling.
Summary: The night that Harry rescued Sirius, he reflected on the possibilities a time turner can open for him. Starts at end of 3rd year. Time Travel! . Powerful! Harry . Haphne! (but not from the start).
Note: I just formatted this chapter to be more readable as pointed out in the reviews.
A Tale of Time
It was a white night, the ones that make even the darkness bright. The wind blew gently against the cobblestone walls of a castle tower, pure white moonlight beamed through one of its narrow windows.
A boy sat with his back pressed against the muntins of the moonlight opening. He looked contemplatively at an odd piece of wood in his hand, the dark brown stick almost as long as his forearm.
He had seen the magician that performed yearly at his old elementary school use a similar prop for his tricks. The man would hold an empty hat and shout ABRA CADABRA pointing his stick towards the titfer, and behold; a rabbit would jump out for everyone to see. All the children would clap cheerfully at the astonishing display of magic, while he would scoff at the blatant deception.
But that was in the past. He knew better now than to scoff at magic and mojo, not when he himself spend more than nine months of an year in a school that teaches magic, not when the same magic has saved his life so many times in his meagre thirteen years.
The odd looking wooden piece was no longer an ordinary stick, it was called a wand and could be used to perform spectacular shows of magic, both amazing and horrifying.
And it has chosen him as its master to succour him in his journey, or so Ollivander said.
He still remembered the words spoken by the old wandmaker "the wand chooses the wizard, Mr. Potter. It's not always clear why. But I think it is clear that we can expect great things from you"
...
He was disrupted from his musings by the sound of someone shifting in the room.
A round-faced plump boy with blonde hair stood near a four poster bed, spreading the blankets. The other two boys in the room were already asleep and the fifth resident was given a lodge in the infirmary for the night.
The blonde boy turned around and laid on his bed, bending his back to cover himself with the throw over blanket. He looked in the direction of the only window in the dorm and said, "Good night Harry".
The dark haired boy, now identified as Harry muttered G'night in reply. He stood up and turned around to face the window while stretching his back. The full moon shone brightly in the night sky. He didn't forget the little inconvenience it caused tonight.
Flashes of his unforeseen escapade flashed through his mind.
Watching Buckbeak being executed – following Ron and the grim to the Shrieking Shack – finding Sirius Black – Professor Lupin following them into the Shrieking Shack – discovering Black's innocence and Pettigrew's betrayal – blasting Snape off his foot – Professor Lupin transforming to werewolf – Pettigrew escaping in his rat form - following Padfoot and the werewolf – Dementors' attack by the lake – waking up in the infirmary – Hermione's reveal of time turner….to helping Sirius escape with Buckbeak.
It was one hell of a night. He learned many things today – Sirius Black is his godfather (I can call someone family beside The Dursleys) – he can form a corporal Patronus powerful enough to make a hundred dementors flee (I can be powerful. I just have to believe in myself. I knew that I could make a Patronus because I had seen myself do it before. That gave me confidence.) – My Patronus is my dad's Animagus form (his lips turned upwards unknowingly at the thought of Prongs) – Time turners are a life saver...Wait, TIME TURNERS!
There can be endless possibilities if you have one...it can be used to save someone's life...prevent a disaster...overturn a bad incident...catch some sleep...leisurely study for next day's exam instead of an all-nighter...practicing for Quidditch when having back to back matches like in leagues... Harry's frivolous pondering was cut short as Hermione's words came rushing to the forefront of his mind "terrible things happen to wizards who meddle with time".
After three years of friendship, if there was one thing Harry Potter was certain about, it was that Hermione Granger is always right. He agreed with Hermione, time was not something one should meddle with.
But there was one more thing that Harry knew was set in stone.
Voldemort would come for him no matter what. It was inevitable. It was foolish to think otherwise and Professor Dumbledore implied the same without saying such. Powerful he may be to produce a corporal Patronus, but he was no match for Voldemort.
Only Professor Dumbledore could duel him and come out alive. Both were almighty wizards. Gifted at magic far above the understanding of their peers.
Hermione was very smart, the smartest person he knew. She performed complex spells with ease while Harry and his other classmates struggled with them. But even she didn't come anywhere close to Voldemort and Professor Dumbledore. They were in an altogether different class. Born once in a generation.
He couldn't even begin to be like them, not in ten years' time and not without proper help. And he didn't have either of them. Voldemort could come back any moment. Trelawney's prediction crossed his thoughts
"It will happen tonight. The Dark Lord lies alone and friendless, abandoned by his followers. His servant has been chained these twelve years. Tonight, before midnight... the servant will break free and set out to rejoin his master. The Dark Lord will rise again with his servant's aid, greater and more terrible than ever he was. Tonight... before midnight... the servant... will set out... to rejoin... his master..."
A part of the prophecy has already come true. Pettigrew was restrained to live as a rat for twelve years after betraying his friends and he escaped justice once more.
The fact left a bitter taste in Harry's mouth as he was the one that didn't let Professor Lupin and Sirius extract their revenge.
"It wouldn't have been for the best", a part of him said. He reluctantly agreed. Sirius's name couldn't be cleared without a breathing Pettigrew as evidence.
There was only a matter of time before the rest of the prophecy is fulfilled. The Dark Lord will rise once again, more powerful than ever.
"I don't have enough time to be prepared", Harry realized once again. TIME - that is what I need. His thoughts back-pedalled to time turners once again.
If he could just use them to practice again and again until he was ready to take on Voldemort. He could find a secret room where he could sneak off every night to train. So what if he had to lose some sleep, he would rather be sleep-deprived than be dead. He could learn all sorts of spells, curses, jinxes, hexes, charms and more. Another midnight burglary to The Restricted Section of the school library under his invisibility cloak should solve the problem of finding obscure and potentially deadly magic.
He just need to get his hands on one of these time machines which wizards wore on their necks.
Despite being knackered from his adventure a few hours before, Harry couldn't contain his excitement that night.
Soon after the clock in Gryffindor common room struck twelve, the portrait of Sir Cadogan guarding the Gryffindor Tower was opened by an unseen force.
The knight was awakened by the movement of the door hinges. He looked from side to side hoping to catch the troublemaker that seek to potter the Hogwarts' corridors at the witching hour. But for the life of him, whatever it is for a portrait, he couldn't find anyone.
The portrait of Sir Cadogan shrugged it off as some weird magical occurrence and went back to his sleep. He was just glad that all this Sirius Black business was over.
The man had escaped Azkaban. Miscreants from even his time trembled at the mention of the ghastly prison. Black was no man, he was a monster just like the one he served.
He shuddered at the thought of what had befallen his predecessor. The Fat Lady was a fine women, and he would dearly miss her or rather her portrait.
...
As Harry rounded the corner near the portrait of Vindictus Viridian, he opened the Marauder's Map to look out for patrolling prefects and Filch and Mrs. Norris of course.
Seeing that the path was clear, he hurried down the corridor towards the moving staircase. After a good few minutes of descending, Harry finally reached the Hogwarts library located on the castle's first floor.
Gently opening one of the doors, he slipped inside.
The scene before him was faintly familiar, he remembered coming to the athenaeum in his first year to search for Nicholas Flamel and narrowly escaping from Filch and Snape only to come upon Fluffy.
There were stacks and stacks of books lined in various shelves under different sections – Charms, DADA, Transfiguration, Magical Creatures, History, Potions, Herbology and many more.
At the back of the expansive library, near Madam Pince's desk was a board reading The Restricted Section just above a narrow entrance which was obstructed by a railing.
He maneuvered around the rail as quietly as possible and entered the highly sought-after limited access portion of the school library.
The books here seemed different to the earlier ones in no aspect.
Moving along a path between two huge bookshelves, Harry tried to look for books concerning hexes and jinxes. But all he found here was Darkest Secrets of Potion Making and other related stuff taught by the resident dungeon bat. He nearly slipped while getting out of there in a hurry.
...
After a while of futile scrounging, Harry sat on a nearby chair to rest his aching legs. He had been worn out from today's adventure. As he was pondering on whether to leave or continue exploring, a glint of light caught his eye.
A large book which was placed on an odd type of lectern was glowing. Moving a bit closer, he realized that the eerie green glow was coming from an eye incised onto the book cover rather than the book itself.
He may have found it a bit kooky a few years before but after using The Monster Book of Monsters for doing his homework this past year, a book with an eye was hardly surprising.
The title read The Theory of Time Travel. Deciding to give it a go, mostly because he hadn't find anything particularly useful tonight and it wouldn't hurt to learn a little about time travel before playing with it, Harry safely tucked the book under his arm and made his way towards the exit.
...
After leaving the library, he went for the moving staircase, passing noiselessly around an unaware Fat Friar. As he reached the third floor of the castle, he heard some movement round the corner near the Trophy Room. Ducking quickly into a nearby alcove, Harry hastily fished out the Marauder's Map.
Just rounding the corner, was a banner with the name Severus Snape.
"Bugger" cursed Harry under his breath.
He didn't want to get caught by Snape, not when the Potions master was so pissed off after narrowly missing out an Order of Merlin and the chance to convict Sirius Black, both of which he blamed Harry for.
Harry wrapped his father's cloak tightly around him and tried to quieten his breathing as much as possible, hoping to not get busted by the man that hated his father.
As if his father's legacy wanted to protect the son of its owner, the cloak mysteriously glimmered for a fraction of second and then faded leaving nothing but darkness in the castle's third floor corridor.
Severus Snape, despite being a very sharp-eyed man and a spy to boot, didn't noticed a thing out of place and continued with his late night inspection of the school hallways.
Harry thanked his lucky stars for not being intercepted tonight.
As he continued his brisk walk towards the Gryffindor common room, Harry Potter didn't knew that the cloak covering his body was not just some handy magical artefact which once belonged to his father but rather one of the fabled Deathly Hallows gifted to his ancestors by something that all living beings fear.
An hour later, it was a very forlorn Harry that laid on his bed in the third year Gryffindor boys' dormitory.
He had eagerly started reading the peculiar book in order to find some knowledge on time travel only to be demoralized by what he found.
Time travel was not such a viable plan as he had first believed. He learnt that one could only go back in time to a certain extent depending on the particular time turner, the maximum limit of which was not feasible to Harry's ploy.
Also, once the magical quartz dust in the time turner's hourglass finished dripping, leaving one part empty, the time turner was rendered useless. Though this happened only after incessant use.
The last batch of time turners were built back in the 1920s so it was highly unlikely that he would get his hands on a fresh one, if he could even find one that is.
That in itself were enough constraints without taking into account the mental harm the excessive use of time turners can cause.
Wizards were found to go mad if they went back in time far enough. Lack of sleep, exhaustion, soreness, narcolepsy, lethargy, degradation of physical health were some of the common observations from the use of time turners.
Looking back he realized that Hermione showed most of these symptoms in the past year.
And to boot it all, the book also mentioned one or two wizards were known to have been vanished in the space time fabric, never to be seen again.
Further research to make new and better models of time turners was not possible due to unavailability of magic quartz dust, new sources of which have not been found for the past hundred years.
So Harry's proposition to use time travel for training was ruled out for a multitude of reasons.
...
If it were any other person they would have just accepted defeat and tried to look for some other course of action.
Harry Potter was many things but one thing he wasn't was weak willed. He knew that time travel was his only means of survival against Voldemort.
He had to find some way to make it work.
Be it modifying the current time turners or discovering an altogether new way of time travel. He was even willing to travel back to this point in time from future if he had to do so.
What was it that the muggles say? - "When there is a will there's a way"
Harry drifted to sleep from his exhaustion while still chanting his mantra.
So strong was his will that an enigmatic Delphic phenomenon took place, creating a rift in the space time continuum, causing even the unalterable threads of fate to change.
End Of Chapter
I have wanted to write a fic for a long time but never got to do it. I have always been an average writer academically and thought that I can't write anything half decent. But works of other authors encouraged me so I gathered up some courage and decided to do it anyway. Its nothing much at the moment just a little more over 2k words but its a start. Please leave a review if you can. It will help me greatly to improve. Have a good day.