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The Mystery That is Time


Albus Dumbledore handed James a glass of water and he walked across the room to a shelf and picked up a small wood and glass display case he had sitting upon the shelf. He carried it back to his desk and set it down in the middle, it’s back to James, as he opened a drawer and fished about until he’d retrieved a small gold key with a fine purple ribbon tied about it’s loop. “Drink your water, Mr. Potter,” Dumbledore advised.

James took a sip and it was not until the moment the liquid hit his tongue that he realised how insanely thirsty he was and he drank the entire glass in one go.

Dumbledore meanwhile unlocked the little case and the tiny door creaked when it opened, and he reached inside and took out an object that shined in the late afternoon sun coming through the window. Dumbledore held up his hand and let it fall from the chain that held it - a long gold chain - and at the end of the chain were two interconnecting hoops and a dial with a tiny little hourglass in the center with a fine gold powder in side. Dumbledore looked the trinket over, then closed the little door of the display case and put it aside, the key still in the door. He looked at James, whose eyes were trained on the trinket. It was so shiny that James half expected Newt Scamander’s Niffler to show up out of nowhere just to take it.

“Do you know what this is, James?”

“No,” James answered. His voice was terribly raw from all of the screaming. And he was still screaming in his heart.

Dumbledore gathered the chain up and held the trinket so that it laid in his palm. He stared down at it. “Three days ago, Mr. Potter, I sat here at this very desk, an hour and a half from now, and I had before me Mr. Pettigrew, and he sat in that very chair where you are now, and I had to tell him that every one of his closest friends, and many of the adults he knows and admire, had been killed by Death Eaters in a senseless, reckless mission that should never have taken place.”

James stared at Dumbledore. Three days ago, an hour and a half from now? What was the old man playing at?

“I have spent the last three days, trying to figure out exactly the moment that needed changing… exactly what point in time the events that took place at Malfoy Manor on 24 April came to be, and I have tried to out exactly how to unravel the threads that have become tangled. A great deal of events wove together to create a perfect storm however, a great deal of people have died that ought not to have died, and it has resulted in a mass chaos, and I needed the help of one of the people directly involved. See, the problem is that Mr. Pettigrew was so overlooked by your group this term, that he was not able to help me find the exact moment when everything changed for the negative in the timeline. He did not know even half of what has gone on. And so I had to breach protocol. I had to go back, I had to chance seeing myself, and I have travelled to Malfoy Manor and I have plucked you, Mr. Potter, out of the fray that killed you, and brought you here. And you, Mr. Potter, in tandem, will help me figure out the moment, and travel to that exact moment, and it is you, Mr. Potter, who will alter all that has happened.”

If Dumbledore thought he had cleared up the confusion, he was wrong. James continued to stare at him with a dumbfounded expression. “What are you talking about?” he asked.

“James, I am from the future,” Dumbledore said calmly, “Three days and several hours in your future. In my present day, it is 27 April, only a small bit before midnight, and I have just spent the last three days attending funerals - six funerals, Mr. Potter - and I am very tired and perhaps I am making a mistake, but I do not think so. I think we may be able to pull this off and perhaps, if we do it right, this will have never happened at all.”

James blinked in confusion. “And again... what?”

Dumbledore held up the shiny gold trinket again. “Mr. Potter, this is a time turner. Have you heard of them before? Time turners?”

“No.”

“They were created by the… partially... departed Kostos Mopsus.”

“Fuck that guy,” James said instinctively.

“Ah Mr. Potter.” Dumbledore shook his head.

James pursed his lips, “Sorry, sir, but… Mopsus sort of put us all through hell last term and I don’t exactly have any fond memories of him.”

“Few people do,” Dumbledore explained, “Few people knew him well.” He paused, then, “There are very few time turners in the world, all created by Kostos Mopsus, and most of them are at the Ministry under lock-and-key after some of the disasters that these trinkets have caused.” He paused in talking to look at the shimmers of the gold dust in the little hourglass. “It’s a dangerous thing, time, and best not meddled with - terrible things have happened, James, to wizards who have meddled with time.”

“Meddled with time?” James asked. He narrowed his eyes at the thing. “What are they - time turners? What do they do?”

Dumbledore smirked, and looked down at the trinket. “They are an instrument, James, a very dangerous, very powerful, very interesting instrument. They allow us to move through the fabric of time… backward and, in very rare cases, forward. Though, I do not recommend it (you learn a great deal of things you never wanted to know that way, it takes some time getting used to Knowng), it has been known to happen. Took a trip once myself with a dear friend who needed a holiday. Wasn’t much impressed with the future, I must say, although they do have some marvelous productions on Broadway, if you’re ever so inclined and you are into the musical theater, I must recommend Into the Woods - it doesn’t start production until 1986, but I do look forward to it’s premiere. We’ve already bought tickets.” He smiled.

James stared at him. “Wait. You’re talking about… about time travel. LIke on Doctor Who.”

“Yes, but sadly -- without the fancy blue box, I am afraid,” Dumbledore said, nodding. “Nor the keen fashion sense.”

James stared at Dumbledore for a long moment. “That little thing - that necklace thing - it… it… turns time?”

“Thus it is called a time-turner,” Dumbledore said, nodding.

James stared at the little golden trinket and he bit his lip. “But… how?”

“Oh a spin of the knob, a twist of the sands in the glass…” Dumbledore replied. “Next you know, you’re off. However, it is quite tricky magic, honestly. You see, you run the risk of driving yourself quite mad by allowing your path to cross with your own timeline. You don’t want to see yourself, it will either drive you mad in your present time or else in your own past. Go mad enough and you might understand a man like Kostos Mopsus a bit more than you had before.”

James couldn’t take his eyes off the trinket. Threat of madness or not, there were such a lot of things that James Potter would like to change.

Starting with getting back Sirius Black.

“Sir. Can I borrow that? Can I go save Sirius?”

Dumbledore held up a finger, indicating for James to hold on just one minute. “I have every intention of saving Sirius Black. He is one of the seven whose lives you will save.”

“Seven?” James breathed. “What seven? Who else are we saving?”

“ A good many people died in the attempted rescue of Harold Minchum,” Dumbledore explained. “Sirius Black was not the first, nor was he the last, to lose his life because of the Minchums.”

“Who else?” James asked, “Who else died?”

“You, for one.”

James felt a strange twist in his stomach. “Me?”

Dumbledore nodded, “Yes, Mr. Potter. You, Sirius Black, and Remus Lupin have all met your demise at the Malfoy Manor in my present. As have your father, Bilius Weasley, Ted Tonks, and… not in the same battle, mind, but… Maryrose Jenkins.”

James stared up at Dumbledore, his eyes wide with shock and horror.

Dumbledore cleared his throat, “I think you miss my point, Mr. Potter; you see, all of these lives, you can save.”

“M-Maryrose? I can save Maryrose?” James stammered.

“Yes, Mr. Potter. That is the intention. That is the power of the time turner… Should you wish to do it.”

“Yes!” James shouted, “Yes! Just - just tell me how to do it and I’ll do it! Just tell me!” He held out his hand for the trinket.

Dumbledore paused, holding the time turner away from James. “It is a dangerous task I ask you to do, Mr. Potter. Do you understand that?”

“Yes. I don’t care. If I can save Sirius and my dad and Remus and Bilius and Mr. Tonks, and - and even Maryrose… Dumbledore, you could ask me to do anything and I’d do it to save them.”

“Very well.” Dumbledore leaned forward conspiratorially. “At what point, then, do we believe that we could have changed Maryrose’s death… without undoing the positive result of rescuing Lucille Minchum?”

James could see it clearly in his mind.

“When we were behind the curtains.” He paused. He could still see it in his mind… could still see her. She stood there, pressed against the glass, facing him…

He looked up at Dumbledore.

“What could you do to change what happened?” Dumbledore asked. “Keeping in mind that you cannot be seen by yourself?”

“I could get her out of there. Instead of letting Rudolphus take her… I… I could take her. I could get her out of Number 12.”

Dumbledore nodded slowly.

“I could get her out and then while they’re distracted trying to catch me and Maryrose now, me and Lucy then could still escape the same as we did before.”

Dumbledore continued nodding.

“And if Maryrose never dies, then… oh such a lot changes, doesn’t it?” James stared up at Dumbledore. “Sir. Let’s go. Let’s save her. Let’s do it. Right now. I’m ready. I’m ready to go.”

Dumbledore held out the time turner.

“Let me know you how to use it…” and Dumbledore scooted forward in his seat, holding out the trinket, “This wheel shifts to indicate if the turner measures in minutes, hours, days, months, or years… you spin this here…” and he moved the center wheel. “In this case, we will be measuring months.” He moved it so that a funny rune lined up with a small etch in the edge of the outer ring. “And this knob here, turns the sands of time. One turn for each unit of measurement you wish to traverse. In this case, it is now 24 April and you are looking to visit 18 January… so you will spin the dial four times, the wheel to this rune here, and spin again another six times. In counter-clockwise direction. Do you understand?”

“Spin the dial four times, spin the wheel to that one rune, then spin the dial another six.” James nodded, “Yes. Yes I understand. How do I get back?”

“You will come to my office with Maryrose Jenkins and you will tell me what had happened and I will have know what to do.”

James nodded. “Okay. Alright.”

Dumbledore held out the time turner to James, who took it. It was incredibly light, considering, and James held it by the chain in his fist for a moment, staring at it. He shrugged off Sirius’s leather jacket. “I don’t want reckon this jacket is as lucky as Sirius thinks it is,” he explained to Dumbledore.

Dumbledore smirked at the jacket laying across the chair. “Well, one man’s luck is another man’s misfortune, and vice versa.”

“If… if something goes wrong, and I somehow… still lose Sirius… will I be able to get it back if I leave it here?”

Dumbledore nodded. “I will see to it.”

James nodded. He took a deep breath and looked down at the time turner.

“James. Put the chain about your neck,” Dumbledore said.

James nodded and took the chain and flipped it ‘round his neck and took a deep breath again and once more looked down at the time turner.

“Good luck, Mr. Potter,” Dumbledore said as James’s finger-tips closed ‘round the dial… and he started to spin it.