Chapter 1
”What the hell are you doing Potter?”
An arm lashed out to knock him over but before he suffered the pain of the blow there was a surge to the pit of his stomach and a second later he found himself on the floor of what appeared to be a very dusty broom cupboard, choking under the weight of Draco Malfoy.
“Damn it Potter” Draco said angrily, trying to get up, not minding threading on Harry’s limbs in the process. He glared down at Harry from his standing position, looking very much like he wanted to kick him in the nuts. “You really are a dimwitted idiot” he let out instead.
Normally Harry wouldn’t put up with Draco’s insults but at the moment there wasn’t much he could say to his defense. Agreeing to being a dimwitted idiot was taking things one step too far though so he kept his mouth shut as he scrambled to his feet.
In his own opinion he was doing more than fine in his first year as an auror and his field work normally ran smoothly. Today’s house call about a rattling secretaire should have been a routine case. It was just that the golden chain at the bottom of the drawer had seemed impossibly alluring and…well, shiny.
“Why did you call me in today?” Draco asked in his usual, drawling voice.
“It’s standard procedure” Harry said with a shrug.
Every now and then the aurors came across suspicious objects, meaning a consulting cursebreaker was to be sent in, and more often than not, that consultant turned out to be Draco Malfoy. Thus, they had come across each other more than a dozen times over the past few months and awkward as their encounters had been at first, they’d come to work reasonably well together, apart from Draco taking every chance to insult him. Harry found it was rather a habit of his these days and usually took it with ease and returned the barbs without malice.
Draco nodded. “Right. And why did I come?”
“Er…because I told you to?”
His reply earned him a blow to the head, not hard but a light smack that ruffled his hair rather than pained him.
“I come in to investigate and remove curses from objects that are not safe to touch.”
Harry rolled his eyes. “I know that.”
“And yet” Draco spoke over him “you had to get your hands on something before I had the chance to do that.”
“It spoke to me” Harry said in a small voice, knowing the reply wasn’t good enough.
“Cursed objects do that. They are bound to lure you in. They carry an inherent desire to see the curses fulfilled and…”
“I know” Harry interrupted, temper rising. He didn’t need Draco to lecture him on how he’d fucked up, it was already pretty clear to him.
“You brag about being able to fend off an imperio, yet you can’t keep your hands away from a whispering necklace, you have about the control of a niffler in a jewel shop” Draco drawled on.
“Done?” Harry glared at him.
“No. You’re lucky to be alive, that could as well have been poisoned or held a strangling curse or…”
“I know, it didn’t though.”
“No, you just managed to land us in this nice and roomy cupboard, exactly where I wanted to spend my Friday evening.”
“You didn’t have to come along” Harry muttered, thinking the cupboard would be a lot roomier without a blond bastard in it.
“I was trying to stop you from touching it, you moron.”
“Mm, still not quick enough for me, are you?” Harry couldn’t help but let out, watching Draco’s nostrils flare. “Let’s just try to get back” he went on, fearing another smack on the head coming his way. “Where do you think we are?”
“The question isn’t where but when.”
“Meaning?”
Draco looked down. “That’s not any old necklace but a bloody time turner. You must have activated it, sending us back in time.”
He raised the chain he was holding to get a closer look at it, ascertaining Draco was right. It looked very much like the one Hermione had once had, only older and somewhat…shinier. He blushed, thinking Draco’s niffler comparison had only been too accurate. The object seemed to have lost its appeal by now though or maybe it was just the dim light of the cupboard making it look bland. He stuffed it into his robe pocket not to be tempted by it again.
“You’d better hold on to that, it’s our only way back to the present, given we can ever find out how to use it” Draco said managing to come across as condescending and fuming at once. Harry noticed a glimpse of fear behind the grey irises to add to the mix. He wasn’t that worried himself though, he’d been through far worse and the cupboard didn’t seem too much of a disaster, even with a raging Draco Malfoy in it.
“I’ve used one before” he said, which had Draco’s look transform to one of surprise. ”At Hogwarts, in third year.”
“Of course you did” Draco sighed. “No wonder the world is such a fucked-up place with thirteen-year-old you jumping around in time, creating rippers.”
“I didn’t jump around. It was only once and Hermione was in charge.”
“Whyever would Granger use a time turner? I’d thought her to be cleverer than that, the risks are enormous.”
“McGonagall gave it to her so that she could take multiple classes.”
Draco pinched the bridge of his nose. “Right, because handing out an object with the potential of ruining the world to a teenager is not dangerous at all. As long as Granger got to take ancient runes, that’s all fine.”
Harry didn’t know what to say to that so they came to stand in silence in the cupboard for a while.
“Well, are you going to use that thing to get us back any time soon?”
He lifted the timeturner, dangling it in front of his face to study it. It really was an intricate thing, multiple rings of glimmering gold twirling around each other but apart from lazily swinging back and forth in its chain, it did not appear to be up to much action.
“Er…it was Hermione who worked it” he said stupidly, poking at it. “I think you’re supposed to twist one of these pins a bit and it’ll start spinning.”
“Oh, just twist one of the pins a bit, let’s try that and see when we end up, might be fun. Merlin Potter, you are a complete disaster.”
Harry had suddenly had it. He pushed Draco against the wall. “Alright, I fucked up. I’m a useless dimwitted idiot who doesn’t know how to operate a time turner, because what wizard doesn’t, right? I know it’s my fault we’re here and I don’t know how to get back, but neither do you, so maybe you could just stop being a dick about it and we could try working out what to do.”
Draco’s face broke into a grin and Harry stepped away from him, yet the cupboard was tiny so they were still pretty much nose to nose.
“That’s quite alright Potter, glad we’re on the same page. Now, hearing you admit all that almost makes this inconvenient time jumping business worth it.”
“Git” Harry muttered but he could feel his mouth twitch too.
“So, what do you suggest we do auror Potter?” Draco asked with only a slight disdain to the word auror.
“We should probably start with finding out where we are.”
“Oh, that’s easy, we’re in the broom cupboard on the third-floor corridor in Hogwarts’ left wing.”
“How the hell do you know that?”
Draco pointed to a heart with the initials AM + GB clumsily carved into the ceiling. “Because I used to stare at that all through fifth year, leaning against these very walls while Pansy was blowing me.”
“Yuck” Harry said, instinctively taking a step to stand in the middle of the space which meant more or less jumping into Draco’s arms.
“That might not have happened yet, depending on when we are” Draco said smugly. “Although this has been a known hideout for rendezvous of the same kind in my house throughout generations so you’re likely surrounded by years of dried Slytherin spunk.
Harry glared at him and then stuck out his tongue, a gesture he applied whenever he found himself unable to come up with a suitable retort to Draco’s taunts, which was far too often. Still, he was glad for the information, if they really were at Hogwarts things didn’t seem too bad.
“Let’s try and find McGonagall to help us work the time turner” he said, hand on the doorknob because Slytherin spunk or not, he was eager to get out of there.
Draco knocked his hand away. “We can’t interact with people in this timeline, it could change the course of the future.”
Harry sighed, remembering Hermione’s words from third year only too well. He didn’t need Draco’s lecture but was forced to listen to it anyway.
“It’s the most basic rule of timetravel, not to be seen. Certainly not by yourself, there are countless of stories about witches and wizards who have ended up killing or hurting themselves while meddling with time. And if someone would see you of all people…they’d definitely think something wicked is going on.” Draco shook his head. “If you want to stay the boy who lived I suggest you keep out of sight.”
Harry thought about how he and Hermione had more or less been told to go back in time in third year and how that had worked out rather well for everyone. “We’ll go to Dumbledore and explain the situation, he can handle it” he let out before he could stop himself. After all these years part of him still thought of the late headmaster whenever he found himself in a tricky situation. The idea that he might be just round the corner this time was thrilling.
“Yes, what a cheerful visit that will be. Hello professor, I notice we haven’t got to the point where I kill you yet. Would you be so kind to bring us back to the present where you’re no longer alive thanks to me?”
It was one of those morbid jokes Draco sometimes made about himself which Harry didn’t know whether he was supposed to laugh at or not.
“You didn’t kill Dumbledore” he said instead.
Draco ignored his comment. “Besides, Dumbledore might not be around, this could well be before or after his time. And even if he is, us speaking to him might be the thing to alter the course of history and have you know who win the war.”
“Vol…” Harry begun to correct him, the way he always did when someone wouldn’t say the name but was stopped by Draco’s hand covering his mouth.
He immediately stopped speaking, stunned by the feeling of the soft skin of Draco’s palm against his lips. For a few moments they stood like that, looking at each other and the broom closet felt very small and hot.
“What if this is the war and the name is taboo” Draco hissed and removed his hand.
“Right, I didn’t think of that.”
Surprisingly Draco refrained from calling him an idiot this time but fiddled with the hem of his sleeve, looking somewhat flustered.
“Could that really be the case?” Harry tried to shift focus. “Isn’t there a limit to how far one can travel with these things?”
“You’re thinking of Croaker’s law?”
“Exactly” Harry said, vaguely aware he’d heard the name somewhere before.
Draco, as always, saw right through him pretending to know something he didn’t. He snorted but soon launched himself into an explanation.
“According to Croaker, the longest one can go back without disrupting the course of time is five hours, which is the reason time turners are manufactured with a built-in time limit.”
Harry considered that. He didn’t much fancy staying in a cramped, spunk sprinkled cupboard with nothing to do but glare at Draco Malfoy for five hours straight, still, it seemed the logical thing to do, just letting time catch up with itself.
“Those are ministry approved time turners though, I doubt we’re dealing with one of those here” Draco went on, gesturing to Harry’s pocket. “Who was the owner?”
“Barbarella Enstone, ninety-year-old lady, living on her own, she made a call about something rattling her drawers, supposedly a boggart” Harry tried to recall as much as he could from the report card which was now lying on the woman’s antique coffee table. “She’s made three similar calls in the past two years, one was a boggart in a kitchen cabinet, the other two turned out to be her own cat stuck in a closet.”
Draco snorted.
“Sweet lady, offered me some biscuits” he added.
“So not a suspect?”
“Not likely, no. The cat ladies rarely are.” Harry made a frown. “With the exception of Umbridge of course.”
“Of course” Draco mumbled. “Enstone you say?”
“You know her?”
“Not personally, but the Enstones are part of my family tree, on mother’s side that is.”
Harry’s eyes narrowed and he tried to recall his meeting with the old woman this morning to find anything odd but all that came to mind was that she’d worn baby blue, furry slippers.
“You’re prejudiced Potter. Not all pure bloods are involved with the dark arts. Besides, most wizarding families are connected one way or the other.” Draco lowered his voice dramatically and fixed Harry with his eyes. “There’s a rumor we’re related to the Weasleys, but if you ever tell, I will have to cut your throat.”
Harry let out a laugh. “Yeah, I already knew that…Sirius once said.” He offered what he thought was a well-intended smile. “You’re right, sorry, her ancestry should not be a cause of suspicion.”
Draco shrugged. “You have a point though. I’m sure she’s a lovely lady who smells like tea and biscuits but the Blacks have been known collectors of dark artefacts over the centuries. If she’s inherited her ancestors, her drawers are likely to be stuffed with bewitched objects, whether she’s aware of it or not.”
Harry considered it. “OK, so ancient, cursed heirloom, what do you suggest we do?”
“Cursed or not, we need to figure out how to work that time turner.”
Harry nodded. “Let’s go to the library then, if we really can’t seek advice, it’s our best option.” He wasn’t overly keen on searching through the endless bookshelves, without Hermione he’d never found much use for it. Still he was dying to get out of the cupboard.
Draco made a face. “We can’t be seen.”
“Lucky I brought this then” Harry said with a smile, extracting the invisibility cloak from his pocket.