Tempus Saeculum
James and Remus huddled around Sirius in the empty transfiguration classroom. Peter, worried as always, was wringing his hands together and peeking out of the door.
“She could come back any minute, if we get caught we’ll be in detention till we’re her age.”
James got up from his uncomfortable crouch and stretched
“Come on lighten up Pete, if this prank goes well we’ll be legends.” He walked over to Peter, placing a hand on his shoulder, “scratch that, heroes.”
“Well, heroes does sound nice.” Peter chuckled
Sirius rolled his eyes, James was always the best at convincing Peter to follow through with pranks.
“How old is our lovely Minnie anyway?” Sirius asked, raising his head out from behind the desk so he could see Peter.
“Well, you have to add seven years to each year,” Peter explained as if it was obvious. It was not. James crossed his arms with an amused grin.
“What are you talking about Pete?”
“Cat years. The ratio is different, seven human years for one cat year.”
Sirius couldn’t contain his laughter any longer.
“That’s dog years you prat.”
“Oi!” James pointed an accusatory finger at Sirius. Peter crossed his arms in front of his chest, and leaned against the wall, ignoring his lookout duties.
“Well then, how old is Sirius?”
“I’m an ageless entity, I will never grow old and I will never die, trivial human things such as years don’t apply to me. You should know this Pete.” Sirius explained with a joking smile and a dramatic toss of his hair. He disappeared behind the desk once again.
“Well I knew you were delusional but I didn’t think your head was that far up your own arse.” Peter scoffed, his tone changed, more annoyed than playful. Sirius’s middle finger shot up from behind the desk, as Remus stifled a laugh.
“Alright, I think we're derailing from the original mission.” Remus chimed in, his mass of brown curls bobbing behind the desk (he was too tall and couldn’t tuck himself away to properly hide like Sirius).
Now it was just him and Remus kneeling behind professor McGonagall's desk. Sirius tried another combination of disenchantment spells but to no avail, he glanced over to Remus who looked nervous. Normally Moony was fully on board, if not the brains of the operation, but now not so much. Another moment passed, Remus looked to James and Peter engrossed in their conversation by the door, then place a hand on Sirius's knee
“Sirius, are you sure about this? Breaking into Mcgonigal's desk is one thing but messing with time, I really don’t think this is a good idea.”
Sirius lowered his wand and stopped fiddling with the enchanted lock under the desk, he placed his hand on Remus's.
“Trust me, I actually did loads of research for this one,” Sirius squeezed Remus’s hand and smirked, “thought I should give you a break for a change,”
Remus smiled and sighed.
“How can I say no to you, dumbass.”
————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Half an hour later:
James reached out a hand to help Sirius to his feet
“Alright Sirius, I think it's probably time to give up on this one for today, besides I think Pete's going to have an aneurysm if we stay any longer.”
Just as James was about to pull his friend away form the lock, an audible click came from the enchanted device. Sirius looked up at James with a smug grin.
“You were saying.”
Sirius made a rather extravagant performance of opening the lockbox, much to Remus’s amusement. Sirius cleared his throat and held up the golden necklace. All the marauders seemed to hold their breath and Remus’s eyes grew wide.
“I..I’ve never seen a time turner this close before. It's beautiful.
Sirius smiled to himself, he loved seeing Remus like this.
“Alright lads, is everyone still clear on the plan?”
The majority nodded their heads, but from the corner of the room came a small.
“Uh, well…”
James shook his head and sighed.
“Seriously Pete, I think we’ve explained it at least ten times.”
“Sorry James, just one more time?”
“Alright, Pete… Sirius is going to enchant the time turner and go back two days, but his enchantment will apparently make it so that certain people still remember the previous days, For instance, the Gryffindors. We’re doing this so that our house will have extra time to study and ace the finals.”
Peter still looked confused but nodded along anyways.
Sirius, still looking at the time turner gave a sharp laugh.
“I’m looking forward to seeing Snape's greasy face when even Pete manages to ace the potions final.”
All the marauders except Peter laughed at Sirius's remark, but once again the room fell silent as all the marauders focused on Sirius.
“I guess it’s now or never, lads.” Sirius had done the research and was almost a hundred percent sure this spell would work. He held out his wand and exhald.
“Tempu—”
“Wait!”
Before he could finish, Remus placed a hand on Sirius's shoulder.
“You don't have to do this, we can find another prank. This feels way too dangerous.”
Sirius smiled and looked to Remus
“Don’t worry Moony, you can trust me.”
Remus looked unsure but slowly removed his hand. Sirius held his gaze for a few more moments, then focused again on his task. Wand at the ready, Sirius spoke once again.
“Tempus Saeculum”
A whirlwind of light, colour, and sound whizzed around Sirius, there was nothing he could do but close his eyes and wait. This was much worse than any apparition mishap. Not that Sirius would admit it, but a couple of months ago when he and the marauders learned how to apparate, Sirius constantly felt nauseous whenever he landed, but with time and some secret practice, he managed to make it look graceful and easy. This however was not that, when the spinning finally ceased Sirius had to brace himself against a nearby wall to help from falling into the mud below. He pressed himself against the rough wood, closing his eyes and taking deep steadying breaths. A little after the nausea had subsided, Sirius noticed a peculiar smell, the ocean. Had he apparated to Cornwall where the marauders had spent their summer? This made the most sense to Sirius. Maybe he accidentally apparated after he went back, there was no telling what side effects could come of time travel. He seemed to be in an alley of some sort, so this was probably the best place to apparate back as he didn’t want any muggle bystanders.
Sirius felt the rush of magic flow through his body as he willed himself home, but nothing happened. Trying not to panic, Sirius tried again, but nothing. Had he lost his magic?
Quickly he flourished his wand at a nearby rock, transforming it into a flower, Sirius let out a sigh of relief. If it wasn't his magic he must have gone back too far.
Suddenly a crash came from a street outside the alley.
“Look at what ya did, ya stupid boy!”
A gruff voice came from the mouth of the alley and echoed in the narrow space.
“Sorry father.”
A second barely audible voice came.
“I’m goin’ to the tavern, this better be cleaned up by the time I'm back.”
“Yes, father.”
Sirius frowned and tucked away the time turner and his wand. He straightened up, then took off. Sirius made his way toward the voices but before he reached the street a large balding man with soiled clothes walked past, muttering angrily to himself. That, Sirius assumed, was most likely the first voice.
As he exited the alley Sirius took a moment to assess his surroundings. The first thing he noticed was that it was not a wizard village. No wands, no robes, no magic. Second, it was not like any muggle village he’d ever seen. Remus lived in a muggle town, and when he would visit for the summer they would spend days together, rummaging through the thrift store bins or testing records at the music shop. It was all cheery painted doors and friendly shopkeepers, sunshine, and flowers growing out of the pavement.
This was not that.
This place looked old. And not just in the way Hogwarts was old. It was dirty. Like nobody had washed a building or swept a floor in over a hundred years, and everything smelled vaguely of shit. The street was made from cobblestone that was covered in mud and hay. The people were dirty too. Soot-covered faces and discoloured clothes. His crisp white school shirt and freshly pressed black trousers stood out like a sore thumb. There were stalls with people holding out fruit and other muggle objects he didn’t recognize, practically shouting at people walking by. They were made of wood, rickety, and looking like if Sirius sneezed they would collapse into a pile of dust. Everything felt damp as if it had just rained. The buildings were dark stone and the sun was hidden behind the tall roofs. Sirius felt trapped.
Where the fuck did he end up?
He spotted a small boy by a cart on his hands and knees picking up bunches of stray oranges.
Sirius made his way to the boy and cleared his throat in an attempt to not startle him.
The boy looked up from the ground taking in Sirius's appearance then scrambled to his feet.
“Begging your pardon m’lord, what can I do for you?”
Sirius blinked but ignored the comment. He recognized the boy’s voice, it must be the second one he’d heard in the alley.
“Uh…hello, I was just wondering what the date is today?”
The boy looked confused for a moment but answered courteously not wanting to offend his betters
“The date is June fourth seventeen seventy-two, m’lord.”
Sirius stood there gawking at the child. Two centuries, he’d gone back exactly two centuries. Sirius thanked the child and walked further down the cobblestone street in a daze. He knew precisely what went wrong with his spell, he mistranslated centuries for days from his stupid arithmancy textbook. Arithmancy was never his strongest subject. Remus was right, he was a dumbass. Sirius stopped dead in his tracks.
“Remus is gonna kill me.”