Chapter Text
It is too late.
What we need is more time.
Sirius.
You must not be seen.
Five minutes to midnight.
Three turns.
“-arry. Harry!”
Harry blinked slowly, looking at his friend. “I don’t— Three turns? What is going on, Hermione?” That last conversation between her and Dumbledore had flown over his head, the only thing he had managed to catch were a few detached words. Since Hermione hadn't answered his question, and a quick look at her made it obvious she wasn't going to do it any time soon. She was too distracted fidgeting with something beneath her shirt.
Harry tried to take a peek to see what she was doing, but he couldn't get a good look at it. He would've offered to help if he knew how, but as it was, he could only stare helplessly while his mind chanted that Sirius was going to die.
It wasn't fair. It wasn't, Harry had only just gotten him. A flicker and weak light at the end of the tunnel, a fluttering hope he had long since stopped dreaming about. And now he had no choice but to stand still, useless, while it was taken away. It was not fair that he met him only to lose him. If that was how it was always supposed to end, Harry would've rather never met him at all.
It wasn't fair! Sirius was innocent, and Harry…
Harry was awful for mourning the loss of freedom, the possibility of safety, the chance to be loved more than the thin, desperate man that had offered them. Maybe he did deserve to lose him, maybe he had never deserved him at all.
He blinked away the tears that had been slowly threatening to appear and cleared his throat, looking for a distraction. The door of the hospital wing was shut, the whole wing was bathed in the pale light of the moon, and for a moment, Harry thought that, standing outside the window, there was another version of himself. His eyes closed for less than a second, and when they opened again, there was nothing but his reflection on the window. Maybe sleep was catching up to him after all. He was about to ask Hermione if she'd seen something, but all that left his mouth was a squeak. A surprisingly tight grip on his arm pulled him until he was stumbling into Hermione and faced with a shiny golden thing.
For a second, he thought it was a golden snitch. But after straightening up and when he was no longer cross-eyed trying to look at the glittering thing, he realized it was the tiniest hourglass he'd ever seen.
"Harry, quick!" He was once again pulled before he could even comprehend what she had wanted. "Here," Hermione carefully but efficiently looped the thin chain that held the hourglass around his neck. The fragile chain was so cold it almost burned. And it was heavy, more heavy than such a delicate and small thing had any right to be, it was like she had draped a necklace made of lead across his neck.
Her voice was almost a whisper when she spoke again, nothing like how she urgently snapped before. “It’s a Time-Turner,” she fidgeted with the chain again, looping it once more and gently pulling the chain to center the pendant that held the hourglass without actually touching it. “I’ve been using it all year to get to my classes. Professor McGonagall gave it to me on our first day back. A Time-Turner lets you do hours again, that's how I was able to take several lessons that overlapped. For every turn you give the hourglass, you get an hour back. I know you have questions but, I don't—" Hermione shook her head, making her curls bounce a bit, and when she looked at Harry again, she looked older.
Maybe she was. Maybe— "It doesn't matter. I think Dumbledore wants us to change something that happened around now, Harry. Something that's happening or is going to happen. What happened three hours ago?"
Harry was still having a hard time making sense of anything that happened since he woke up in the morning, but his head hurt, and the chain seemed to grow heavier each second, so he decided he could deal with everything that had happened before later and focus on what was happening now. "Ehh… I think we were walking down to Hagrid's?"
"Hagrid's, what were we doing— Oh, Buckbeak." Hermione's face fell for a second, remembering the hippogriff, before it lit up again with a delighted giggle. "Wait! Buckbeak! Of course, if we can save him, we can fly to the window of Flitwick’s office and save Sirius, they can leave together. We can save them both! We just have to— "
Hermione didn't finish the sentence, all the excitement she previously had banished as quickly as it had come. "Harry I…" She looked pale, almost like the semi-corporal silhouettes of the ghost that haunted the school. Her fingers trembled when she carefully reached to straighten the chain again. "I can’t go this time."
"What? Why not?" Harry asked, utterly confused. She was the one who knew how it worked, she had used it before, she was the one who came up with the plan in the first place.
“I’ve already used it today. You can't abuse its use. You must let time recover before you stretch it again. And you’re not supposed to cross paths with yourself. Every time I’ve used it before, I was careful—so careful—not to cross paths with myself. I planned everything. But this… this is different. I won’t have time to prepare. I’ll get caught, Harry, I know I will!” Hermione’s voice cracked slightly. “If I’m seen by myself or anyone else, it could ruin everything. You’ll have to go alone.”
“Alone? Hermione, I don’t even know how this thing works!”
“You’ll be fine,” she said firmly, thrusting the chain over his neck. “Turn it three times. Exactly three. And whatever happens, do not let yourself be seen.”
“But—”
“Harry, please! There’s no other way! We can't lose any more time.”
She was right, the more he lingered, the later he would start, and that meant less time to save Sirius. Besides, at some point, Hermione had used it for the first time, and she'd succeed. Harry could do the same.
All he needed to do was keep in the shadows, out of sight, out of mind. He had experience in that. Growing up in a house where his presence wasn't wanted, he quickly learned to make himself scarce, though sometimes he couldn't keep his mouth shut. He had done so for years; he could do it again.
This time, it was his hands that trembled when he grabbed the hourglass. "Uh… I'll see you later— After?" Hermione's face was grim, but she forced her lips into a small smile for him.
"Good luck, Harry." He swallowed and nodded, turning his attention to the Time-Turner and ignoring the sense of foreboding that had been present ever since the chain had been put on his neck. The tiny thing was nestled inside a circular golden frame. The hourglass was comfortable in its center, and the rest was decorated with different hollowed star shapes. Surrounding it were two thin concentric rings, also made of gold, with inscriptions written on the outside of them.
Harry focused on the small mechanisms on the lateral side of the largest ring. He slowly twisted it and watched, fascinated, as the golden rings started to move. He carefully counted the turns, each one making the thing heavier and heavier until it was too much. His hands couldn't hold it any longer, and instinct had him pulling them away before they could be squashed under its weight. The Time-Turner hurtled to the floor at a terrifying speed, and soon Harry followed, dragged by the chain digging into his neck.
The hourglass crashed into the floor with a sickening sound, and for a second, Harry thought someone was reaching for him. But there wasn't, and he hit the stone floor with his knees. The sand that had previously been trapped inside the hourglass exploded around him, swirling free for the first time, and then everything changed.