"We did it, we actually did it," James mutters seven hours later.

"Yeah and this hourglass is great," Corinne says, holding up the finished product. It's the length of her forearm. The sand is already inside. They're careful not to flip it upside down in fear of starting the time travel on accident.

"It's technically a twelve-hour-glass," Sirius corrects.

Corinne glares at him while Steven speaks up. "So how will we do this?"

"Thirty-two turns should do it. We'll end up at the day of our detention around eight. That way we can take the jar and stop ourselves from ever finding it."

"How will we walk around without being seen?"

"That'll be no problem," James says. "The problem will be where we end up."

"How did you two end up in the same place?"

"I don't know."

"Retrace your steps. What did you two do that we didn't?"

They think back to that day. "Black found that stupid jar and we started fighting. Steve grabbed my arm to stop me but the jar still broke a second later," she remembers.

"Wait, he grabbed your arm?"

"Yes, to stop me-"

"That's it then, we'll hold on to each other."

"What if it doesn't work?"

"Then we'll all meet in the dungeon."

"But remember that you can't be seen."

"Right, let's do this then."

"Did you put an Unbreakable Charm on that?" James asks.

"One step ahead of you," Steven says.

"And you have the other jar?"

Corinne pats her bag. "Check."

"Here goes nothing then. Hold on to each other."

Steven twists the hourglass, being careful to keep the correct count. One, two, three, four . . .

They can't feel the floor anymore. Everything changes around them and then gets dark. They fall on a hard, cold floor.

"Ouch! Get off me!" James hisses.

"You landed on me!" Sirius hisses back.

"The glass broke," Corinne says, some distance from them, "I'm bleeding."

Three voices mutter lumos and go to her. Sirius gets there before them and examines her hand. "Ah. Okay, it's no problem."

The wound is fairly deep, but nothing he can't fix. He and James have mastered quite a few healing spells courtesy of their monthly excursions. He notices a piece of glass stuck in there, it might be painful to get it out.

"It's horrible, isn't it?" she asks, looking away. "It feels like something is still stabbing me. It hurts."

"I know, but I need you to focus on me," Sirius says, turning her face to his with his free hand.

Steven makes a motion to stop him, but thinks better of it. Sirius is only trying to help, he rationalizes. There's no need to be jealous.

Corinne looks at his eyes and finds it difficult to look away. They're a deep gray, but it's more than the color. It's the humor in them, and the . . . she isn't sure what it is exactly.

"Let me tell you about the time James and I hexed Bertram Aubrey."

"Why would I want to hear about you hexing innocent people?" she glares, her previous fascination with his eyes gone.

"He wasn't innocent," Sirius grins. "You see, we were having a row about . . . well, that doesn't matter," he smiles, making sure he has a good grip on the glass before regaining eye contact with her. "The point is that it got ugly, but I had it all under control. There we were standing outside in the courtyard, him yelling and me unable to contain my smirk. It must have gotten him riled up because the prat decided to bring Evans into it." He holds her gaze as he yanks the glass out, hoping she's distracted enough not to notice. "Well naturally, James was rather upset and we had no choice but to enlarge his head to twice its size to match his arrogance. You should have seen him trying to walk around like that."

James, impressed with his friend's ability to keep a straight face, suppresses his laughter.

"Why would you tell me this?" she asks in disgust.

"So your anger would distract you from the pain," Sirius answers, holding up the bloody shard of glass that had been imbedded in her skin.

She stares at it, thinking about how it was sweet of him, in an odd way. However, it's all ruined by his next comment.

"Next time, try not to be so clumsy," he smirks. She keeps in her retort as he mutters the healing spells under his breath. The wound closes itself leaving nothing but a faint scar.

James points his wand at the broken glass and repairs it before handing it back to Corinne. "Let's go. We have work to do. We're on the fourth floor and the corridor outside is empty," he says, pocketing the map and walking out with the others behind him.

Corinne notices blood on the jar from the shard that stabbed her. She mutters scourgify before following the others out. They head down a flight of steps and onto the third floor with James checking the map frequently. When they reach the bottom of the staircase leading to the second floor, they hear someone around the corner.

James looks at the map. "It's Peeves," he whispers.

"Does it really matter if Peeves sees us?" Sirius asks.

"No one can see us," Corinne tells him.

"Fine."

They peek around the corner and see Peeves painting over a portrait of a man with a mustache wearing Wizengamot robes. The man protests loudly but it only makes Peeves cackle more.

"I have an idea. When I say go, you three run around the corner and meet me somewhere on the first floor. You take this." James hands Sirius the map.

"You have the cloak?" Sirius asks.

"Yeah," he answers, turning to the end of the hall where Peeves is. He points his wand at the suit of armor behind Peeves and mutters, "wingardium leviosa".

The action distracts the poltergeist. "Ohh, ickle students wandering about! Come out, come out, wherever you are!"

He glides around the other corner. James uses this opportunity for the others to go. They sprint away but the noise calls Peeves's attention. He turns back around just as the others round the corner. James stops the charm and throws the cloak over himself before he's seen. He dodges Peeves and hurries after the others. That's when he realizes that he has no idea where the others could be. This poses a serious problem.

He continues walking down the corridor he thinks they took and sees a blue and bronze scarf ahead of him. He picks it up. It's a peculiar thing to find a Ravenclaw scarf on the floor. He takes it as a trail to find the others, so he reckons he's on the right track. At the end of the corridor, he finds another bronze and blue scarf indicating to go left. He continues walking along corridors finding and picking up random belongings (a bracelet, a hair band, a watch) until he finds himself at the top of the marble staircase. They must be in the dungeon already.

Sure enough, that's where he finds them. "I thought I told you to meet me on the first floor."

"It was easier this way. Mind you, Filch almost saw this one," Sirius jabs a finger over at Corinne, "but we made it unnoticed. How'd you like the trail?"

James takes everything out of his pockets for them to collect. "Good thinking, we're lucky no one picked any of it up instead though."

"Even if they had it wouldn't have made much of a difference," Steven says. "Now that we're all here, let's get this over with."

"Right," Corinne says, taking the jar out of her bag and walking over to the closet. Sirius follows her and pulls the tapestry open. Corinne grabs the doorknob and pulls it open. She freezes. "It's unlocked."

"So?" Sirius asks, pushing past her.

"So it was locked when we were first here!"

"McGonagall probably locked it before we came for detention," he reasons.

"And if she didn't?"

"Then we have a problem," Steven cuts in.

"That would mean that it was us who locked it, which means that no matter what, we can't stop ourselves from finding it."

"If that's true then we'll still change the future for us and our past selves will just have to go through everything we did."

"No because if we still find it then nothing will have changed at all!"

"Not necessarily because if what you're saying is true, then we've already been here so it obviously changed because if it hadn't-"

"Oi! You two have to start fighting now too?" James hisses. "We don't have a lot of time. Stick to the plan and if nothing changes when we go back then we'll still have the hourglass to come back."

Corinne glares at Sirius as they grab the colored jar and place the sand into the plain one. They put the colorful jar back on the shelf and take the plain one now filled with the sand over to James and Steven.

"I don't think we can take it with us."

"I wouldn't want to. Let's hide it."

Sirius sighs, takes it rudely from Corinne, and walks back to the closet. He hides it in one of the boxes in the back corner, sure that no one will find it. He closes the door behind him, points his wand at it and mutters "colloportus".

"We're ready to go now," he tells the others.

"Let's get this over with already," Steven says wearily, taking the hourglass from Corinne. "Hold on to each other."

He twists it forward and after thirty two turns, they land in a lit corridor with a crash. James rubs his elbow and feels a slight bump from having landed on it. Steven looks around for the time turner and finds it on his right, next to Corinne who landed on Sirius. He forces his face to stay calm.

"As much as I love having you on top of me, I'd very much like to breathe," Sirius smirks.

Corinne blushes scarlet. "I didn't exactly get to choose where to land."

"No complaints here, love," he continues smirking.

"We have to get out of here," James says, scrambling to their feet.

"We can't be caught here," Steven says, suddenly scrambling up too.

"What's- oh."

Corinne and Sirius look at the wall the other two are staring at. It's full of foul language and comments aimed at the Slytherins. The writing is done in different colors and effects: glittering, flashing, moving . . . .

"I see."

They turn to make a run for it, but see the caretaker standing right in front of them.

"Have I mentioned how much I'm starting to hate Filch?" Steven mutters under his breath.


I seem to have neglected this story. I'm terribly sorry! I'll update more often, I hope. I just hit some nasty writer's block. Anyway, thanks for waiting so patiently :)