CHAPTER 24

THE TIME-TURNER

After about a half hour, Rudomin returned to say that all was well and the Ministry were on their way to take the followers to Azkaban, with the exception of Nott and Dolohov, who had vanished during the battle. As soon as they were told to go to bed, Rose knew that there was still work to do. "Come on," she said to Al and Scorpius, and they followed her into a hallway off of the common room leading to the toilets.

"What's going on, Rose?" Scorpius asked, and she sighed.

"You know how I wanted to take four electives this year?" He nodded. "Well, I have been. With this," she said, and pulled the Time-Turner from under her shirt.

"You've got a Time-Turner?" he asked, sounding shocked and impressed at the same time. She nodded, and Al shook his head.

"That's the one your mum gave you for Christmas that year, right?"

"Yeah. I've been taking Runes with it. But I think there are some things we need to do now." She undid the chain as much as she could, and got all three of their heads inside it by huddling in closely. She checked the time, 10:38, and turned it back two times. The world seemed to go very dark, as usual, and she felt herself being pulled backward a bit more than she was used to, going back two hours instead of one. Suddenly, they were standing in the same room, but the last remnants of sunlight were still streaming through the windows.

"What did you just do?" Al asked.

"It's 8:38 p.m.," Rose said. "We've got to help Barton tell Nott where we aren't."

"Could you stop being so bloody cryptic?" Al muttered as she led them out of the common room. They ran down the stairs and out the front doors of the castle. The Auror guards didn't question them, luckily, and Rose walked down the hill, being very careful to pass the only windows of the Potions hallway that were above ground as they walked into the trees.

"Al, your Cloak's in your bag, right?" Rose said, and Al nodded, pulling it out. "Brilliant. We need to put it on."

"Why?" Al asked as they walked back across the grounds. Rose realized they couldn't exactly walk back in through the front doors, and walked around to the always unlocked back door James had shown them earlier in the year.

"So Barton thinks we're still in the Forest. He gave us up to Nott, remember? That bought us time. Because he did see us, but it wasn't us—yet. Understand?"

"Yeah," Al said, nodding, "I do. Finally."

"We have to go warn McGonagall now, right?" Scorpius asked when they reached the corridor and Al pulled off the Cloak. Rose shook her head.

"No. Anyone have any parchment?" she asked, and Scorpius produced a roll from his bag. "No, something smaller." Al pulled out a small slip from his pocket and Rose nodded. "Perfect." She took a quill out of her pocket and began to write against the castle wall.

Leave the Stone in the Room of Requirement. You're going to have to tell them about the Time-Turner.

"Come on," Rose said. "I'm about to go to the toilets."

They hurried down the hallway to the entrance hall, and Rose saw a girl getting up from the Gryffindor table through the open doors. "Hide! Quickly!" she hissed, and they dived behind the closest staircase. Rose watched as she walked out the doors and down the right corridor to the girls' bathroom, and she swore that she'd never seen anything stranger in her entire life.

"I've got to go put this note in my bag," Rose explained. "Stay here. You can't exactly see yourselves, it'll ruin the whole thing." Al nodded and she ran through the Great Hall doors before she realized she had no excuse for being back so soon. She slipped the note into her sleeve as she approached the table, and Scorpius looked a little confused.

"Hey," he said. "I thought you'd gone to the toilets."

"Yeah, er, I forgot something," she said quickly, opening her bag. She slipped the note in while her hand was in the bag, and pretended to take something out and put it in her pocket.

"What do you need for the bathroom?" Scorpius asked, sounding suspicious.

"…Girl stuff," she said quickly. "You probably don't want to know."

"Nope, not at all, just go," he said quickly, and she hurried back out of the Hall. She rolled her eyes when she reached the stairs again.

"You boys are so disgusted by… girl stuff that you didn't even question it," she said. Scorpius's eyes widened.

"That was… you? Just now?"

"How do I not remember this?" Al asked.

"You were already practically asleep," Scorpius said.

"Okay, now we have to warn McGonagall," she said. "But it has to just be me," she added.

Rose was about to walk out from under the stairs when Al pulled her by the arm back in. "What—?" Rose asked, but understood when she saw herself crossing back into the Great Hall. "Oh. Right."

"All right, go," Scorpius said when the Rose from two hours ago had gone, and she ran up the staircase two flights. She knew McGonagall was somewhere on the floor, and waited on a bench nearby until McGonagall showed up about ten seconds later.

"Professor!" she said, jumping up, and McGonagall looked startled.

"Yes, Miss Weasley?"

"I'm sorry, this is going to sound odd, but Nott is going to attack Hogwarts tonight, and soon," she said.

"Miss Weasley, how do you know this?"

"You have to trust me, Professor. I have to do something, it's important, but I'll be in the Great Hall in a minute or so."

"Miss Weasley, what do you mean?" McGonagall asked, but Rose took off running down the hall, and luckily, the headmistress didn't follow her. She waited about five minutes until she was sure that McGonagall would have been in and left the Great Hall and then ran down the stairs to Al and Scorpius.

"We have to get to the Room of Requirement, come on," she said, and they ran back upstairs to the third floor. They reached the hallway just as their past selves left, and Rose walked back in front of the Room.

I need a place to hide something where no one but me will ever find it, she thought again, and this time added, and a place where we can hide too, and the same door opened, to her relief. They ran in and sat on the ground near the statue where the Stone lay.

"Well, that was interesting," Scorpius said as the door into the Room disappeared behind them.

"Yeah," Rose said. "We have to wait out the attack now, I suppose."

"That was mad," Al sighed. "I can't believe we were behind everything. And I was so confused the first time…"

"Yeah," Rose said. "I can't believe Barton told him where he really thought we were. Git."

"He was tortured," Scorpius pointed out.

"For ten seconds," Rose scoffed. "James didn't start spilling his secrets."

"It's done," Al shrugged. "Well, I guess, technically not yet, but… you know. He'll be sacked when McGonagall finds out, though. Who do you think is going to be the next Potions master?"

"Probably another evil one," Scorpius muttered.

"This is getting to be ridiculous," Rose said. "I mean, honestly. Can we not have a Potions master for more than one term?"

"Apparently not. At least Rudomin's job isn't cursed anymore. I actually like him."

"Everyone does," Al said. "He's brilliant. Bloody powerful wizard, too. I think he's probably a lot better than he's letting on, and he's pretty impressive as it is. I mean, he took down Nott in seconds."

"Nott was distracted," Scorpius pointed out.

"Well, yeah, but still."

It was quiet for a while, and then Scorpius spoke again. "What do we do with the Stone?"

Rose said hesitantly, "I think it's more trouble than it's worth. I'm sorry, Al."

Al seemed to take a deep breath and said, "Yeah, I know. You're going to have to tell James, though. And we have to keep it safe still."

Rose nodded. "I'm not sure we can," she admitted. "With Nott coming after us for it… I think it needs to be kept safe by someone who knows what they're doing."

"Who?" Scorpius asked. "The Ministry doesn't exactly fit that description."

"We should give it to my dad," Al said. "He knows how to handle this stuff. And didn't McGonagall say it was his?"

"It used to be," Rose said. "I think that could work. Okay, I'll take it. We can give it to him over the summer."

"All right, then," Al said. "Should I—leave the Cloak here? It might be safer here."

Rose shook her head. "No, we need that. Plus, I'm not really sure anyone knows that's a Hallow really. Just McGonagall."

Al nodded and they suddenly heard a crash. "I think they're in again," Scorpius said grimly.

"We'll be safe," Rose said. "He clearly hadn't found us yet."

"Right." They waited for the rest of the attack to be over, but around 10:15 or so, they heard voices approaching the wall that held the door when they had entered the room. The door had disappeared, but they could make out voices from the other side.

"Nothing's happening," a low voice growled. Rose's heart lept when she realized it was Dolohov.

"I know it's here!" another voice, Nott's, exclaimed. "Malfoy told me about it when we were in school. I've never needed to use it, but it seems to be the best option as to how to escape this damned place."

"Well, it's not working," Dolohov said. "If it's even there."

"Of course it's there, you idiot!" he hissed. "Someone could be using it—perhaps this is where the Stone is."

"They can't get in, right?" Al whispered.

"No, the Room doesn't let more than one person use it at once," Rose whispered back.

"I cannot believe those children hid it from us," Nott continued.

"Are you sure they have it at all?" Dolohov asked.

"Of course I'm sure! Who else would Potter entrust it to?"

"If you're right… that's very dark magic. I can't think of anyone giving it to children—"

"Potter does anything and everything to save himself, I've seen it," Nott said. "I had the misfortune of attending six years of school with him."

"Well… I still hope you're wrong about this," Dolohov muttered.

"So do I," Nott said. "It would dilute, possibly forever alter the power the Stone possesses. But how else could Potter have survived?" More footsteps could be heard faintly the other way, and Nott hissed, "Through here!" They disappeared as the other people appeared out side the door.

"I thought I heard them down here, Neville."

"Yeah, so did I, Victor, they probably went this way. Let's keep moving." The professors continued on and Rose sighed.

"They won't find them," she said grimly, and Scorpius nodded.

"What do you think they were talking about?" Al asked.

"I don't know. But it's even more of a reason to ask your dad," Rose said.

Al nodded and they waited for another ten minutes or so. When it was a few minutes past 10:30, Rose stood up.

"We should go back now," she said. They all started to get up and she said, "Al, we should go back under the Cloak." They left the Room of Requirement, Rose taking the Stone from behind the statue and placing it securely into a small pocket of her bag, and slipped through the portrait hole when Rudomin left after telling the House that everything was all right. They walked over to the hallway and saw their past selves disappearing with the Time-Turner. They threw off the cloak once they were gone, and walked back out into the common room.

"I'm exhausted," Al said. "I'll see you in the morning."

"I'm going with you," Scorpius said. "Night, Weasley." They walked over to the boys' stairs, and Rose turned towards the girls'. She wanted nothing more than to fall asleep, and even thinking about Nott escaping wasn't even enough to keep her awake for very long that night.