Marauders In Time part 2

History of the Time-Turners

Time-Turners are the invention of Harold Dilby in 1885, who created a prototype as part of a project in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Dilby was honoured by the school, though any indication that the Time-Turner works to perfection was dismissed permanently. Despite the public now only using smaller Time-Turners that go backwards in time on the hour, the Department of Mysteries have been working on a project that allows an individual, or multiple, to transfer themselves through time whenever they please. This means the individual can go forward or backward in time to a set year, no matter how recent or distant it may be. We have successfully created hundreds of Time-Turners that have been tested and used successfully during our experiments, though it is recommended that they are not to be known by the public eye yet.

All this made perfect sense to James. If the world knew about a device that could carry someone between different years, it could cause mayhem and chaos. Explains why they are keeping this a very big secret. He read the first few lines again. Harold Dilby. Prototype as part of a project in Hogwarts. He remembered that Time-Turner. It was the one that took he and his friends forward into 1995. Where he met his son in the future. This Dilby created the very first Time-Turner and it triggered decades' worth of research by an entire Department on how to replicate it. James began to wonder what happened to Dilby.

"Hey!" someone shouted from across the room, causing James to jump.

The second he turned, a curse flew past him, narrowly missing his ear and hitting the board behind him.

"AVADA KEDAVRA!"

James ducked to the floor as a jet of green light appeared. He couldn't make out who was there, but from the Killing Curse, he figured it was the same Death Eaters that tried to get Neville, Rabastan and Jugson.

"You idiot! Don't kill him! How do we get rid of the body?" Jugson asked wildly.

James remained squatting behind a desk, his wand poised ready for a counter strike.

"What do you suggest we do?" Rabastan asked, clearly agitated.

"Put him under the Imperius Curse. It won't cause that much of a mess. Plus, we need to make it out here before anyone knows we got in."

Judging by the way they were talking, and how Rabastan had agreed to Jugson's suggestion, James figured they didn't know it was him. Otherwise Rabastan wouldn't have hesitated in blowing this place up. Hearing light footsteps approaching him, he knew they were planning to trap him.

"IMPE-"

"STUPEFY!"

James had stood up rapidly and Stunned his nearest attacker, which looked to be Jugson. 

"You!" Rabastan was on the other side of the room, now clearly seeing who it was they had encountered. 

James ran around to try and hide again as he heard the Killing Curse shouted again. He needed to get out before people arrived, but he couldn't leave without the Time-Turner.

"You're finished Potter!" Rabastan threatened.

James peeked around the side to see where Rabastan was. He couldn't see him anywhere, so he assumed he was hiding too. Looking further ahead, he could see the shelves of Time-Turners again. 

"Come out Potter!"

Bolting up, he found Rabastan hiding behind the corner of a wall. As soon as he jolted up, Rabastan tried to curse him but James was, naturally, quicker.

"PETRIFICUS TOTALUS!" 

Rabastan turned rigid and toppled over. Rushing to the shelves, he searched even quicker for the date he needed. 1997. He found the 19th century. He found the 21st century. He found ones that read the 40s and 50s. All the while, keeping an eye on Rabastan and Jugson.

"1960s...19970s...1990s..." James had found the shelf he needed.

He searched as quickly as he could to try and find the correct date. The problem was he forgot which date exactly Neville said. He also heard Jugson stir. He found 1997 and 1998. Was it March or November? James checked again quickly to see if his attackers were awake. Unfortunately, one of them was. Jugson had regained consciousness and had grabbed his wand.

"AVADA KEDAVRA!"

James ducked as Jugson cast the spell. The curse hit the shelf and a few Time-Turners smashed and broke. Panicking, James grabbed one off the shelf and cast another spell back at Jugson, missing him by inches. James ran around towards the door, dodging another curse from Jugson. As he reached the door, he heard Jugson unbind Rabastan from his Body-Bind curse. With his hand on the doorknob, he looked back to see both men fully conscious and moving. In a last-ditch attempt to loose them, he used the Reductor curse to blow up another shelf of Time-Turners next to them. Only the entire set of shelves blew up and toppled over each other, overcoming the two men. James opened the door and jumped out, but he wasn't in the circular room any longer. He had automatically reached the black hallway he was in earlier. Only now he heard a terrible alarm sounding.

People were coming.

Luckily, there was another door, a broom closet, by the side which James hid in as he heard footsteps running down and past him. James dared not to walk out until he was absolutely certain everything was all clear. But he doubt that would be the case anytime soon.

"What happened?" he heard someone ask. It was Bagnold.

"Someone broke into the Department of Mysteries," another, this time unknown, voice said.

James stayed well hidden in the tight closet he was in. He lifted the Time-Turner he grabbed to check that it was the right one and it wasn't damaged. The date read 2nd May 1998. It was the wrong year. James felt ashamed of himself at having failed his task, but all those thoughts were wiped away when he heard voices return.

"...No way of saving them now."

James heard Bagnold again but this time, he sounded even more worried. The footsteps had stopped, telling James they were right outside where he was hiding.

"How did they even get in?" Bagnold asked.

"Its not impossible but there is no way of anyone going in or out of that room now. The Time-Turners are destroyed-"

"You had Time-Turners?" Bagnold sounded astonished.

Whoever she was talking to seemed annoyed, "That's beside the point. The fact that decades of research is destroyed is more concerning. That and the fact that whoever is in there will now be stuck in a time loop from now on is abysmal."

"Can we get them out?"

"We don't even know what year they will be stuck in. They won't even know what year they will be stuck in. With the amount of Time-Turners broken, they will probably end up in some sort of reality where time is their only friend and only enemy. They will be trapped for eternity and there is no way we can get them out."

There was a pause until Bagnold spoke again, "Speak nothing of this to anyone."

"Of course Minister."