The time turner
The time room. Clocks, watches, hourglasses. Rows upon rows of cabinets stacked with confiscated time turners.
Tables littered with books of all shapes, colors and sizes. Papers stacked upon each other, hiding layers of history and meddled upon timelines.
The war had left the Department of Magical Law enforcement busy, with countless estates belonging to imprisoned Death Eaters being confiscated and put under the temporary custody of the Ministry. Innumerable cursed items and unregistered illegal time turners were seized and sent to the Department of Mysteries.
Every day, there was another reported incident of the changing of muggle or magical history.
More importantly, death eaters still ran about years later trying to catch hold of a time turner or a magical artifact that would transport them back to their golden days. They were driven by the possibility that if they succeeded, they could bring back Voldemort.
So Hermione worked herself to the brim to prevent such a possibility from happening again.
“Miss Granger, you should really consider taking a break” Saul Croaker peeked at her past his spectacles “At the rate you’re going, I wouldn’t be half surprised if you didn’t fall off your chair”
“I’m really considering it, actually, but I can’t bring myself to do it”
“This department really is doing much better than we were before, I would have you know” Saul spoke
Hermione palmed the tea cup she had while looming over a parchment she had just received via owl “So i’ve been told… but we’re highly lacking on the staff as it is, and it looks like we’ve been needing more auror enforcements. Half of the people we have here are not qualified to fight.” she huffed. She traced her finger along the letter she had been reading, stopping suddenly “It looks like i’ve been summoned elsewhere. They found something”
“Do tell”
“Until I am briefed and allowed to tell, I won’t. You know this” Hermione hated that she was a higher up in the Department and had to hide things from her most trusted co-worker, but she made a promise when she joined the Ministry, and she intended to keep it.
She grabbed her wand and made a beeline for the door, almost tripping over a 1829 rocking chair she had found in the wrong timeline.
Hermione ran a hand through her frizzy hair, today wasn’t her day. The letter had said that the item was “highly suspicious” but nothing else. Maybe they just needed Unspeakable expertise.
She made her way down a series of hallways until she reached the elevator, exhaling quietly from her anxiousness.
What was wrong with her today?
She was used to her composure and sense of routine. But she had taken more and more work upon herself that she had forgotten how to breathe normally. Everything was simply work, sleep, work. Most times, she fell asleep in the office. The elevator doors were opening so slowly. Everything was working against her today.
She took off right to the DMLE offices, making sure to enter Dawlish’s office, he was the head of the department.
As she pushed the door open, Dawlish turned to look at her “Miss Granger. We’ve been expecting you”. A room full of aurors was what she had just barged into. She made eye contact with Harry, who smiled in acknowledgement but quickly turned his attention back to Dawlish
“I came as soon as I received the message”
“Please, let us waste no more time. Take a seat”
Frowning, she took a seat at the meeting table. Dawlish cleared his voice “The aurors who were on the mission at Spinner’s End already know what we’ve found. Granger, we believe we found incriminating evidence of time tampering at the hand of Severus Snape and Draco Malfoy.”
He pulled out a metal object, resembling a globe, placing it quietly on the table for all to see. Sure enough, the initials D.M. were engraved on it’s side. It looked like a bigger version of a golden snitch, only bronze in color and slightly rusted. There was nothing special about it except from small pulsating bursts of energy it emitted when close to an individual
Obviously, she could see why the aurors had come to that conclusion “Severus Snape is dead”. Spinner’s end had been his childhood home.
“He is indeed”
“He was a hero” she looked at Harry for reassurance “How do we know it’s not harmless?”
Dawlish looked away “Evidence suggests otherwise, does it not? Wasn’t he the one to kill Albus Dumbledore? Excuse me if I am wrong, but our main suspects seem to be two former Death Eaters”
Someone cleared their throat “I can assure you Dawlish, that his loyalty lay with Dumbledore until his death” Harry spoke “Hermione is right. We have no reason to jump to conclusions.
Hermione looked at Dawlish “Have you tried contacting Draco Malfoy? He might be able to answer all our questions”
“We have, but seeing as he works as an auror in France, we have been told by the French Ministry that it can wait until Monday because he is on the trail of two highly dangerous unregistered animagis and cannot be disturbed” Dawlish rolled his eyes “I’m telling all of you, if this proves to be dangerous or another —Granger knows!— ploy to bring Tom Riddle back, I will be the one to personally escort him to Azkaban like his father before him!” he mused
Some aurors whistled their agreement.
Dawlish continued “You will be taking it to the time room Granger. You have every authorization to try to find out what it is meant for, until Draco Malfoy decides to make an appearance” he sighed his dissaproval “It is a clear violation of our agression pact with the French Ministry. If a worker or citizen of UK is requested on an investigative summons, they must arrive pronto! Back in the days, we didn’t protect death eaters.”
“former death eater” Hermione sighed, as she stood up and moved to take the package, careful not to touch it’s side by wrapping it in a summoned napkin. Once she had it in her hands, she placed it into her purple satchel that hanged loose at her side. “It’s for the French to decide. Law applies to him as it does to every other citizen in France.” they seemed to trust him enough to hire him for the auror position, considering he had been the one to lead blood-thirsty murderers through a Vanishing Cabinet and into Hogwarts, before attempting to murder Albus Dumbledore. “How did you think to verify Spinner’s End for cursed objects?”
This time, Harry spoke first “Completely by chance. An old woman by the name of Suzanne Minks had bought the house in 79’, but died later that year, leaving the house to the Ministry. Dawlish and I went over the list and saw Spinner’s End, Snape’s childhood home. I recognized it from my legilimency sessions with him”
***
“So the legilimency sessions served for something after all” she joked after the ‘meeting’ had ended
Harry’s lip quirked “They did”
“How’s Ginny?” Hermione had to ask. Ginny had been pregnant and very far along with their second child, and although Ginny was strong, magical babies were fiercely brutal when in the womb.
“She’s doing fine, I have a normal work schedule now, so I can leave early to help her in the afternoons. Luna comes around more often to pick up little Lily, but I’m worried that she tries to do too much. Have you heard from Ron?”
“No” she bit her lip “after he said what he said about me and my work, i’m just waiting for an apology that i’m not sure will come”
Harry was silent like that for a few seconds before he decided to change the topic “Dawlish has given you the lead on this one, so I’ll send you an owl when we have a hold of Malfoy.”
She said her goodbyes and headed towards her department.
That object had had no role to play during the war. It would have continued to stay at Spinner’s End had it not been found by accident. So what were the motives behind it?