After I don't even know how long, I've finally finished! I didn't have a chance to edit, so please forgive any mistakes. Without further ado, voila!


She has no other choice, really.

This isn't one of their normal, inane arguments that they would eventually realize is quite ridiculous to be angry over and then go back to being mates. No, this is very different. Corinne had, unintentionally, exploited Sirius' affections for her, and if there is one thing she knows about Sirius, it is how unforgiving he is where his emotions are concerned. After all, he shows them to few people so rarely that it really comes down to a matter of trust, loyalty, and respect, all three of which she had broken in a matter of seconds with that bloody kiss used to prove a bloody point.

So faced with either never speaking to Sirius again or using the sand- which coincidentally, she knows the exact location of- to build another hourglass to go back in time and stop herself from ever making such an asinine mistake, well, the latter option wins. It is a simple task requiring four steps: 1) have Kevin Gillins from Hufflepuff fix one of the spare hourglasses remaining from The Incident just as he had previously done, 2) retrieve sand from dungeon, 3) fill hourglass with sand, and 4) use. Well, the fourth step is essentially a non-step, so three steps total then. It takes Corinne the remainder of that Sunday to accomplish the task, and by nine that night, she is ready to use it. Since the hourglass she has is an actual hourglass, and since the match took place at one the prior afternoon, Corinne counts twenty-one turns. All she really needs is twenty and a quarter turns, but since that is not possible, she settles for twenty-one.

What she didn't account for is where she would land, which happens to be the third floor corridor. It could have been worse, she supposes. She could have landed in the Great Hall, or the middle of the Quidditch stadium, or in Headmaster Dumbledore's office, so all things considered, she is rather fortunate to have landed in the corridor with the only witnesses being a couple of suggestible second years.

"Did you just Apparate?" one of the boys asks in awe.

"Have you never read Hogwarts: A History? Merlin himself couldn't've Apparated into Hogwarts. It's impossible," Corinne snaps.

"But you just appeared out of thin air!" the other boy says.

"Barking mad, the both of you. I was hiding from someone behind that tapestry and only just popped out. Now stop wasting my time," she tells them, hurriedly rounding the corner. Before she has an opportunity to slide into the first room she can find, Sirius sees her.

"Corinne? Where did you come from?" he frowns.

"Oh, I was, er, in my dormitory looking for my scarf, and I found it!" she titters nervously, playing with the blue and bronze material around her neck. "Shouldn't you be at the Quidditch-"

"I just saw you downstairs-" the realization of what has happened dawns on him. "What have you done?"

"What do you mean what have I done?"

"The sand. Tell me you haven't been playing with time."

"What are you going on about?"

"I walked through the Entrance Hall seconds ago, and you were there with Lisa and Kelly. So how is it that you're here now? Don't lie to me, Corinne."

One look at his cool grey eyes has Corinne spilling the truth. "I- yes. I used the sand," she says, hoping the vague answer buys her time to come up with a believable lie for the why he was sure to ask next.

Sirius pulls her into an empty classroom and closes the door before rounding on her. "What were you thinking?"

She feels like they've been in a similar scenario before. "I wasn't."

"Clearly! And you weren't even careful about it! Corinne, this isn't a game. This is time! Why did you do it?"

There's the question she was waiting for, but those cool grey eyes get her again, and she suddenly forgets her elaborate lie. "I . . . it was . . . you-"

"What? Spit it out!"

"I can't. I can't explain it."

"I don't have time for this right now, I should be down at the pitch already. I don't know how you did it, but don't leave this room until you're back to your original time!" he tells her before storming out, muttering angrily under his breath.

Corinne counts to one hundred before leaving the room. She's more careful this time, sneaking around the castle and checking around corners to make sure she isn't seen by any of her friends. There's a close call with Lily, but she manages to jump through a tapestry before she's seen. Lily probably would have thought nothing of it, but Corinne reckons it's best not to take any more risks than necessary. She is nearly at the first floor when she sees Steven coming down the hallway. She jumps into the nearest classroom but not soon enough. Steven walks in seconds later.

"Corinne, what's going on?"

"What are you doing here?"

"Sirius sent me to find you. He was in a rush but he said something about you and time travelling. What was he talking about?"

Corinne considers lying to him, saying Sirius must be mad, but thinks better of it. "Sirius and I got into a huge row the other day."

"So? That's nothing new. You two fight all the time and you stop talking for a while and then go back to being just fine."

"Not this time. He wouldn't so much as look at me no matter how much I tried to apologize. He . . . there was no going back."

"So you used the sand to go back and undo it? You thought that was the best solution? Seriously?"

"What else was I supposed to do? He would never forgive me so I had to make sure it never happened in the first place!"

"What did you do? Chop off his arm? Murder his owl?"

"No, he doesn't have an owl," Corinne says exasperatedly. It's then that she tells him everything from Sirius' kiss and confession to Sirius finding out about her bet.

"It was wrong of you to use him but it was worse of you to use time to try to clear your conscience. Sirius would have forgiven you in time and I'm sure you would have gone back to being mates."

"We don't have time, Steve. We only have three months left at Hogwarts and I'd probably never see him again. Besides, I don't want to be his friend."

"Are you saying you fancy him?"

"Yes. A lot."

"Merlin's beard, Corinne! This is a bleeding disaster! What were you planning to do? Tackle present-you and take your place to stop yourself from making the bet?"

"No, I was going to try to get myself alone and do the full body bind on present-me so I wouldn't yell or panic and then explain that I'm from the future and not to make any bets no matter what provocations Kelly throws at me." Steven stares at her, flabbergasted. "That sounded a lot better in my head."

"You're not doing this, Corinne. Go back to your present and deal with this the right way."

"I'm already here, Steve. Please, let me do this."

"It's for your own good. The truth would come out eventually. You may as well deal with it now."

"Fine. Go enjoy the stupid match. I'll leave as soon as you shut the door behind you."

"How stupid do you think I am? I'm not leaving this room until you're gone."

"Fine!" Corinne says, pulling out the hourglass. "Fine. By the way, Gryffindor wins," she says spitefully before twisting the hourglass to go back another hour. It's about forty minutes too far back, but at least Sirius hasn't caught her in this time . . . period, or frame, or whatever. She got this far, she'd be damned if she gave up so easily.

Corinne is surprised to find that she didn't move. She went back in time but wasn't transported to a random area in the castle. It's curious, but she doesn't have time to find a reason for the discrepancy. What was she doing at this time? Eating lunch with most of the school in the Great Hall, she remembers, after which she goes straight to the Quidditch Stadium with Kelly and Lisa. So how can she intercept herself somewhere between the Great Hall and the grounds?

The first step is to hide outside in the courtyard; she would figure out the rest of the plan later. She cracks open the door to make sure the corridor is clear and steps out, carefully making her way to the entrance hall. She stays close to a group of fifth year Hufflepuffs and uses her hair to shield her face in case anyone she knows is around. Sirius and James hurry past them but neither glances in their direction. The group she is walking near gives her a dirty look, so she leaves them and hurries onto the grounds. She has just reached the bottom of the marble staircase when Jeremy and Alicia see her. They both look perplexed, but Jeremy recovers first.

"Alicia, go back and tell Steve, privately, to meet me in the first room on the right on the second floor," he says, not taking his eyes off Corinne. "Tell him it's urgent, and you stay with the others."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Al-alright."

Corinne takes in his stony expression and can't fathom what she possibly couldn't done to warrant this reaction. And then it strikes her. She was in the Great Hall at this time, which is where they just came from, and Jeremy is no fool. "Go," he says, pulling out his wand and guiding her to first room on the right on the second floor. He doesn't say a word until the door is shut behind him. "Who are you?"

"It's me, Jeremy."

"Are you using the Polyjuice Potion? Is this some kind of dark magic? What do you want with Corinne?"

"No, it's not like that at all. It's me, really-"

"So you've somehow discovered how to be in two places at once? Well, 'Corinne', why don't you enlighten me?"

Corinne is saved from having to respond by Steven's entrance. He shuts the door and mutters "muffliato" before turning to the pair before him. He's no fool either, so he realizes what has happened right away. "You didn't."

"You don't understand-"

"Why are you both acting like this is normal?"

"It's not what you're thinking, Jeremy. It's . . . it sounds mad, but it's time travel."

"What?"

"I'll explain later. First I want to hear what the bloody hell Corinne was thinking using it in the first place. What was so damn important that it warranted this?"

"I accidentally did something unforgivable to Sirius and he refused to so much as acknowledge my presence so I had to come back and fix it."

"That's your reason. You and Sirius got in a row. That's it? Do you know what you could have caused all because you and Sirius got in a row?"

"It wasn't just-"

But Steven is done listening. "Go back to your own time, now."

Corinne nods and pulls out the hourglass. Instead of going forward, however, she turns back one more hour. She's gone through all this trouble, she won't give up just yet.

Strangely, she isn't transported anywhere else this time either. She is in the same classroom Jeremy led her to, though alone now. By her estimate, it is two hours until the match, so rather than wander the corridors until that time, she decides to stay put and form a reasonable plan before doing anything else. The room looks to have once been a classroom, judging by the dusty tables and the chalkboard covering the better part of one wall. The back corner of the room houses what looks to be a cramped storage closet. She walks over to it and finds that all its shelves are empty, save the very bottom. Kneeling down to have a closer look, Corinne finds that it's a notebook. It's worn, old, and empty notebook. She's about to rise from the hidden corner when the door to the room opens. Corinne kneels back down and tries to catch sight of the newcomers, a tall Slytherin bloke with some brunette hanging on his arm. A closer look reveals that the brunette happens to be none other than Helpless Henrietta.

At first, Corinne interprets the scene as Henrietta being attacked by a Slytherin, but that changes when she sees the girl pull down the Slytherin to kiss him. She kisses him.

"I saw your boyfriend heading this way. Aren't you afraid he'll catch us?" the Slytherin, who Corinne now recognizes as some smarmy sixth year, smirks.

"No one ever comes in here," Henrietta tells him, proceeding to kiss him once again.

"I wouldn't say ever," Corinne says, standing up. Her eyes are hard as she surveys the scene before her. "Rarely seems more accurate."

Henrietta's eyes widen. "Corinne, it's not-"

"Save it, Helpless Henrietta. Keep your prat boy toy and stay away from Benjamin," Corinne snaps, leaving the room without a second thought as to not being seen. But of course, with the luck she's been having, she runs into Benjamin right outside the door.

"Oi, Corinne! I thought you said you were going to the library before lunch?"

"Er, yeah but I-"

She's interrupted by the opening door which Henrietta and the Slytherin walk through. Corinne is partly glad that Benjamin has discovered this on his own, but at the same time, hates the devastated look that crosses his face when he realizes what it means. "I should go," Corinne says, hurrying away before anything else transpires. Of one thing she is sure: she is done with time. She gave it a shot and it wasn't meant to be because she was caught every time. So she rounds the corner, enters a random room, and pulls out the hourglass. Twenty-four turns later, she is back exactly where she started. Well, maybe not exactly. According to her watch, it is just past curfew and she landed in the middle of the Entrance Hall. Which means that, when she hears approaching footsteps, she has nowhere to run.

"Corinne Johnson, dear," Professor Sprout says upon approaching her. "Are you quite alright?"

"Yes, professor. I, er, I'm sorry for being out after hours-"

"It is a very foolish thing to do, but come, you are wanted in the Headmaster's office."

Corinne's heart races. "B-but what does Professor Dumbledore want with me?"

"You shall see soon enough," the witch says, walking the rest of the way in silence. When the pair reaches the stone gargoyle on the third floor, Professor Sprout says, "treacle tart" and moves aside.

"You aren't coming with me?"

"No, dear. You'll be fine," she tells Corinne, shooting her a sympathetic glance.

Corinne climbs the stairs slowly. Her stomach is in knots, she's a bundle of nerves. How did Dumbledore discover her stint with the time travel? Time travel! She still has the hourglass in her robes! She looks around desperately for a place to hide it, but there is nothing. She takes a deep breath and knocks on the door at the top of the staircase.

"Enter."

The room is spacious, warm, and full of trinkets and gadgets, many moving on their own. On the walls hand portraits of past Headmasters, and they all, including the present Headmaster, seem to be staring directly at her. "Miss Johnson, we worried when you were not found in Ravenclaw Tower."

"I'm sorry, Headmaster, there is no proper excuse for being out after hours."

"It is of no importance now, you are not here for punishment. Please, have a seat."

"Sir, if I am not in trouble, then," Corinne hesitates, trying to find the polite way to say then what is this all about, "did something happen?"

"Corinne, this is about your brother."

OoOoO

"Padfoot, what are you doing here?" Remus asks Sirius when he sees him in their dormitory.

Sirius sits up in his four-poster, feeling a foreboding sense of deja vu. "Er . . . I live here?"

"Well, yes, but I thought you'd be with Corinne."

"Why? I'm still not speaking to her."

"You don't know," Remus says.

"Know what?"

"Maybe you should talk to her. I don't think I should be the one to tell you."

"No Moony, you brought it up, now tell me."

"It's her brother, Cody. He's in the hospital."

"Why? What happened?" he asks, scrambling to his feet.

"Not sure, exactly. He was attacked. If the rumors are true, it was by these 'Death Eaters'. It . . . he's not doing very well."

"Is he at St. Mungo's?"

"You know they can only treat magical blood there. He's at St. Mary's in Paddington."

"But it was a magical attack."

"I dunno, mate. These are just rumors I've heard."

"I need to go," Sirius says, rushing out of the room.

"Wait!" Remus calls after him.

"What?" Sirius asks impatiently.

Remus hands him the Marauder's Map. "You'll probably need this."

"Thanks."

The map shows Sirius that she's in the Ravenclaw common room with her friends. Some Ravenclaw he snogged once told him that Ravenclaws don't use passwords but riddles. Sirius reckons he is as clever as any Ravenclaw and would have no trouble getting in, except he doesn't even need to bother because a small girl comes out as he approaches. "Hi there, do you mind if I go in?"

"You're not supposed to," the girl says, looking nervous that Sirius is speaking to her.

"I know, but it'll be a one-time thing, I promise," Sirius winks at her and doesn't wait for a response. He slides through the door she was holding open and searches the common room for Corinne. She isn't there, so he asks a Ravenclaw sitting near the door if he has seen her. "You're not supposed to be in here," he tells Sirius.

Blimey, are all Ravenclaws this uptight? "I know, but this is important. I need to see how she's doing. Please," Sirius asks, unused to using that word.

"I reckon you've heard about her brother then? Fine, she's in the seventh year boys' dormitory. Staircase on your left," the boy concedes.

"Right," Sirius says. He takes the steps two at a time and knocks on the last door at the top.

Jeremy opens the door looking somber. "Sirius, come on in."

Jenna, Steven, Benjamin, and Corinne all look up at the new arrival.

"Sirius," Corinne cries, walking over and throwing her arms around him.

"Hey, it's okay," he whispers soothingly to her. "It's okay."

"I'm so scared," she says between sobs.

"Everything will be alright," Sirius tells her, though he isn't sure if he's lying or not.

OoOoO

"Corinne?" Sirius asks, walking into the dungeon closet where she's frantically tossing items around. The second he heard the news about her brother's death that morning, he searched for her, though this is the last place he expected to find her.

Corinne doesn't answer or even acknowledge his presence. She clearly remembers putting it on the top shelf, but it isn't there. How can it not be there? Things don't just walk off and disappear on their own! She tosses an empty box behind her and hears a yelp.

"Oi Corinne! What are you doing?" Sirius asks, grabbing her shoulder and turning her around to face him. Her eyes are red and swollen, dry tears streak her cheeks.

"It was right here!" she says, pulling out of his grip and resuming her rampage through the storage closet. Sirius stands there at a momentary loss unsure of what brought this on or what to even do until, a few seconds later, she holds up a jar triumphantly.

Sirius recognizes it instantly and eyes Corinne warily. "I'll take that-"

"No!"

"Corinne-"

"He's dead, Sirius! Dead!" she says through fresh tears. "I need this."

Sirius closes the distance between them and wraps his arms around her. Corinne stiffens at first, but eventually returns the hug, though one hand is still gripping the jar tightly by its lid. "I'm so, so sorry, Corinne," he whispers.

"We would always fight, but it doesn't mean I didn't love him. He is- was- my big brother. I need him back."

"I know," he says soothingly as her tears subside.

Corinne pulls away slightly so she can see his face. "Will you help me?"

Sirius knows exactly what she wants to do, but he also knows he can't let her do it. "You're going to hate me for this, and I'm sorry, but you can't use the sand to change this."

She breaks away from his embrace. "What do you mean? Of course I can."

"Time is a sensitive thing, you can't go back and change something because you don't know how it would affect the present and future," he tries to explain, though he realizes how insensitive he sounds.

"We went back to change our futures."

"Yes, but that was only because it was something that should have never happened in the first place. It was a fluke caused by the sand, not something that was . . . well . . ."

"What? Something that was supposed to happen? Is that what you're trying to say? That Cody was supposed to die?"

"No-"

"Move out of my way," Corinne demands furiously. She wouldn't even have to be there in the first place if Steven hadn't hidden the perfectly functioning hourglass she had, but of course, like a Seer, he knew what she would do before she did it and took it away. The remaining sand in that jar is her last chance.

Sirius stays put. She's quite intimidating at that moment, standing there defiantly with wet cheeks, red, fierce eyes, and her classic glare, one hand firmly gripping the jar and the other on her wand. "I can't let you do this."

"You wouldn't be saying that if it were James."

"I reckon I wouldn't, but it wouldn't change the fact that time is sensitive and you can't change something this big. We don't know how it would affect everything, and I hope someone would be there to knock some sense into me."

"I'm not-"

"Accio jar," Sirius says, pointing at Corinne's hand.

The jar begins to slip out of her hand but she tries to regain her grip on it. Somewhere in the process, the jar falls and shatters on the ground. Corinne and Sirius have a split second to see the horror reflected on each other's face before that uncomfortable sensation of being flung back in time hits them.

Sirius lands with a hard thud in the middle of the third floor, judging by the charms classroom to his left. The corridor is dark save for a single torch hanging on the wall to his left casting a soft glow on a five foot radius. It must be after hours, which is great because that means he won't be see-

A figure appears at the end of the corridor. It takes off running. Sirius scurries to his feet and runs in the opposite direction. He rounds the corner and sees Corinne hiding behind a suit of armor. He starts running towards her but she runs away. "Corinne!" he hisses under his breath. He doesn't want to call any attention to them, but why is she being so childish? He understands that she's angry at him, but they need to-

He feels that sensation again and within seconds is back in the storage closet, directly in front of Corinne.

"Why did you run away from me?" Sirius asks her angrily.

"I didn't run away from you or anyone. I was on the fourth floor and I ran into Jenna, who didn't look surprised to see me at all. I think we went back to the night we played Midnight Tag."

"Which time? Last week?" Was it really just last week that they were doing something so mundane as playing Midnight Tag?

"Must have been. You said you saw me and I ran? Well, that would explain why I thought you appeared from nowhere when you caught me. I did see you that night, only it was you from the future."

"Oh . . . well, at least there's nothing we have to fix this time."

"Yeah."

Sirius points his wand at the shattered jar, fixes it, and fills it with the sand that spilled on the floor. "You're really not going to let me use that, are you?" she asks in a small voice.

Sirius stops what he's doing and looks at her. "I'm sorry, Corinne."

"I hate you," she says before running off.

He stares after her, dumbfounded and dejected. He understands why she said it, but it still cuts him.

He makes his way back to Gryffindor Tower, thinking about how just two days ago, he swore he would never speak to Corinne again. Then, when he heard about what happened to Cody, well, their dispute seemed pointless. She was wrong, she apologized, and it was time to move on because she needed him now. How time changes things.

"How is she?" Remus asks when he sees Sirius walk in.

"She hates me."

"Why?" Peter asks, his interest piqued.

Sirius takes a seat on the edge of his bed and explains what happened with the jar.

James pats him on the back. "Sorry mate, but you did the right thing."

"Prongs is right. You're sure nothing changed by going back this time?"

"Positive. The only people who saw us were running around playing Midnight Tag. Nothing happened."

"Right. Well, if it helps, she doesn't hate you," Remus tells his dejected friend. "She's angry and hurt, but she's also logical. She'll come around eventually."

"Her brother is dead and I won't let her go back in time. I don't think she'll ever come around."

OoOoO

Sirius was unnecessarily downtrodden over his latest fallout with Corinne because she did come around the following day. She told him that she was missing a day of lessons because she was attending her brother's funeral.

"Will you be here when I return?" she had asked him.

The question had confused Sirius. With two weeks of the year left, including N.E.W.T.s, where else would he go? But then he understood that she meant something more. They had never discussed where they stood after their fallout, it didn't seem important in light of what happened, but that's what she had wanted to know. "You don't even have to ask. I'll look for you the second you get back."

Which is what he does. She's on the Astronomy Tower staring at the view of the setting sun painting the sky in brilliant hues of pink and orange and reflecting off the gleaming lake.

"How was the funeral?" he asks, breaking the serenity.

"Depressing. Did I miss anything here?"

"Just a day of N.E.W.T. prep, but it isn't a big deal, I can help you study."

"Thanks, I appreciate it," she says, playing with an hourglass Sirius just noticed.

"That's the one I gave you for Christmas, isn't it?"

"It is. I never thanked you for it. It's lovely. I've been carrying it around wherever I go recently because it just really makes me think."

"About what?"

"Time. People say time fixes everything, but it doesn't, does it? I mean, things break: people, relationships, dreams . . . and sometimes those things are easily fixed with time. People forgive each other, relationships mend, but what are you supposed to do when what's broken isn't easily fixed? Cody is dead and no amount of time will ever bring him back, and going back in time isn't an option, so what is it good for?"

"It's good for change," he says quietly. "Time isn't meant to fix things. Time is just there, and sometimes we use it, and sometimes we let it pass us by, but either way, time changes things, and that's what it's good for."

"I don't like change."

"No, I don't reckon most people do."

"So where do we go from here?"

"Forward," Sirius says, putting an arm around her and drawing her close.

"I'm scared."

"Of what?"

"The future. The war. The changes we'll be faced with the second we graduate."

"We'll always be okay, Corinne. Always."


This is the end. I feel like I'm parting with a dear friend having finished this. I hope you all enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed writing it. Thank you to all who reviewed/favorited/followed/etc. this story, I'm eternally grateful :)