Chapter 152: Rewinding Time

Ursula Krüger, director of the Department of Mysteries for the Ministry of Magic in Germany, was also a witch. When it concerned the puzzling and inscrutable aspects of magic, witches appeared to possess a natural advantage over wizards. They were able to delve deeper into these facets of magic. Hilke walked into Director Krüger's office as she was scrutinizing a lengthy piece of parchment that trailed onto the floor behind her, her brow furrowed as she perused its contents.

"What's the verdict?" Hilke queried. Being a woman succinct in her speech, even in front of her superior. Krüger handed her the parchment without hesitation.

"The necklace your friend procured is a kind of Time-Turner, but not the common type stored in the Ministry. As you know, using a normal Time-Turner the user can only stay in the past for five hours, this Time-Turner, however, is able to break this limit," she replied, her hands folded on her desk and a worried furrow to her brow. "The old goblin you previously conferred with was likely intentionally withholding this information."

"Goblins have always been famous for their mastery of Alchemy, even though this artifact is over two centuries old it surpasses anything modern wizards could produce. Somehow they were able to improve the reversal mechanisms to a point where there is seemingly no limit to the time spent in the past!" Krüger continued with some excitement.

"Then why didn't they put this to use back then?" Hilke asked in a soft, barely audible whisper.

"The Time-Turner has one big caveat, it has to have lived through the time you want to reverse. Consequently you can't go back before the date of its construction," Krüger spat. "Once it was constructed, the goblins concealed this device in the underground stronghold near Hogwarts. They designated a precise moment in time as the destination for the Time-Turner as it seems."

"Once someone finds the Time-Turner it would start repairing itself, until it's ready the perform the time reversal. On the day it is fully repaired, exactly as the clock strikes midnight, it will transport its wearer back - which is why the necklace had to ensure that the wearer couldn't take it off," Krüger elucidated further.

"According to our investigation the Time-Turner was constructed in 1753, at the end of the second goblin rebellion. The designated point in time that it will take the wearer to, however, is set 30 years later in 1783. There a goblin by the name of Lara will wait for its appearance, of course the Time-Turner only transports the wizard in time, not space, so Lara would have to track it down first."

"Lara was among the central members of the rebels, though not one of the leaders, which is why she was merely imprisoned after the rebellion, instead of being executed, like the leading figures of the rebellion. By 1783 Lara's prison sentence would be over, so she was the perfect candidate to receive the wizard from the future," Krüger continued.

"Lara would then be in possession of the Time-Turner and a wizard with decades to centuries of future knowledge. Her task then would be to extract secret information from this wizard about the internal operations of the wizards during the second rebellion. Using this information she would go back in time yet again to the time during the rebellion to influence key moments of the war."

"Lara would be able to sidestep any error made by the goblins while taking advantage of her knowledge of the wizards operations to finally reverse the outcome of the rebellion."

"The goblins had thought it all through, but an unanticipated event occurred that ruined their meticulous plan," Hilke chimed in as she read this section of the report. "Fiddlesticks consumed Lala's soul."

"Indeed, and not just Lala but until 1753, the year the goblins had set as the return point, Fiddlesticks had consumed the souls of nearly all the goblins in the prison."

"The historical records state that during this period, an unknown plague spread in the prison leading to the demise of the goblins. But the goblins had always assumed that the wizards were behind it, almost causing a third uprising."

"Two centuries have passed and Fiddlesticks' memories have blurred, but his recollection of this event is crystal clear. He remembers the days of the past fondly, which is why he was so obsessed with finding the Time-Turner as soon as he escaped."

"He aims to employ the Time-Turner to time travel two centuries back to the period he believes would best suit his survival. It seems he is terrified of what is to come in the future, he expects something terrible to happen to him that would necessitate him hiding in the past."

Director Krüger concluded her explanation, shaking her head in a hopeless sigh, "Despite meticulous planning, they could not evade the treacherous clutches of destiny. That's why divination seems more reliable. Thankfully, we have you, Hilke."

Hilke chose to not respond. She clasped the lengthy parchment in her grip firmly, as though wanting to rip it apart, before abruptly rising from her seat. "Connect me to the British Floo Network, I need to go to Hogwarts!"

...

Sherlock watched as the hands of the pocket watch moved backwards, and the scenery around him altered rapidly! It was as though golden streaks of light retreated, leaving only him and Snape alone in the entire world.

The hands of Sherlock's pocket watch kept on spinning backwards, the world blurring into afterimages that danced before his eyes. A strong feeling of unease welled within him; he instinctively knew that if he allowed the watch's relentless reversal to continue, the consequences would be dire.

He had to stop it, and fast! Sherlock attempted to use his wand to halt the spinning hands within the pocket watch, but it was as if they were phantoms, immune to any physical interruption. His unease intensified. However, instead of succumbing to despair, he began to cast various spells upon the rebellious timepiece. Sherlock released all two hundred of his wands (bar the one he had lent to Sirius). As if suspended in mid-air by an invisible hand, they all floated around him, their tips pointed ominously towards the timepiece nestled in his palm. "Finite Incantatem!" he commanded.

Just as he uttered the incantation, a fiery, orange-red substance sprung from the wand tips; it danced around Sherlock like a fiery wisp, reminding him of flames. In mere moments, a monochrome world of gold and red sprung forth, ensnaring both Sherlock and Snape in their ethereal bounds. As two hundred advanced unlocking spells ricocheted around them, it became evident that the golden threads of light zipping around them were considerably slowed.

This change of pace was mirrored in the hands of the pocket watch; Sherlock finally could discern the path of their orbit, which infused him with a spark of hope. Reaffirmed, he pressed on, pouring out advanced General Counter-Spell like water from a jug. Thanks to the spell's nature of continuous stacking, a sheer increase in quantity could morph into significant changes in quality.

By the third time Sherlock brandished his wands to conjure the counter-spell again, their surroundings had metamorphosed into a dizzying rave of crisscrossing gold and red. The force amassed from six hundred counter-spells gradually wore down the golden streaks. The tiresome hands of the pocket watch now moved at the same pace as a typical second hand on a clock!

Sherlock was gulping for air, the incessant spell casting had left him drained, but he powered through, casting another round of counter-spells. The final two hundred joined the ongoing battle between gold and red, finally tipping the scales towards a one-sided victory. The golden ribbons of light that had encapsulated him and Snape shattered with a resounding crack! The hands of the pocket watch, at last, ground to a standstill, twitching feebly as if trying to limber forward yet unable to move even a fraction of an inch.

Sherlock's feet kissed the pliable wheat field below. His wands, speckling the azure sky above, tumbled down as Snape, still frozen and unaffected by the counter-spells, dropped heavily into the expanse of wheat. Exhaustion clutched at Sherlock's body relentlessly, yet he managed to rise and survey the landscape. The blazing sun was at zenith, clearly showing that it was no longer midnight. They had appeared in a wheat field, a sea of golden blades swaying gently around them.

A stone's throw away, two Muggles, a boy and an elder, raised their sickles at the new arrivals, their faces pale with disbelief. Sherlock ignored the fallen Snape, focusing instead on the visibly shocked Muggles. He asked the younger one, "Where are we?"

"Scotland," The boy answered curtly in return, his voice laced with barely concealed anxiety.

"Whereabouts in Scotland?"

"We're in Perthshire," the young man replied again.

Struggling to control his mounting impatience, a distinctly agitated Sherlock retorted, "Can you tell me the time? What year is it?"

At this point, the elderly man finally regained his senses and interjected, "Who are you!" Undeterred, Sherlock casually swished his wand causing the sickles in the Muggles' grasp to be flung into the air; ropes emerged from the ground, ensnaring the pair in a tight cocoon.

"Answer my questions honestly, and I'll release you," Sherlock warned, frustration etching a frown onto his face, "What day of what year is it?"

In response, the two Muggles regarded him, widening eyes filled with terror. The older one bellowed, "Witchcraft! Sorcery!"

The young boy, however, managed to maintain his composure in the face of this revelation, stuttering, "It's... around 1 p.m. … It's the 29th of June, '77. Or perhaps the 28th, I cannot quite recall the exact date..."

Sherlock expression immediately turned ashen. He had inadvertently propelled him and Snape back in time by seventeen years! If his interruption of the pocket watch's rewind mechanism had been even fractionally delayed, they could have ended up in another century altogether! Grasping this alarming reality, Sherlock swiftly used a Memory Charm to erase the last three hours from the memory of the two Muggles.

Then, he utilized a Levitation Charm to hoist the still unconscious Snape out of the wheat field. Finding a quiet corner, Sherlock disarmed Snape, taking his wand, and then finally released him from the Petrification Curse. Snape sported an odd expression, it was neither anger nor sorrow, rather, an unlikely blend of incredulity, eagerness, and an undercurrent of excitement. He croaked, pure disbelief echoed through each syllable, "He said... It's '77... it's actually '77! Haha!"