evanescent┆彡 remus lupin

prologue

Octavius Dalton was an extremely busy man.

He worked in the ministry, the department of, Time.

Yes, time.

And not only that, he was the head of his department.

The department of time, however, was more mysterious than the department of mysteries, despite its name. The department of time; the only department hidden to the eyes of the public.

Time is a simple thing, right?

No, it's not.

Time at its own flow and in that; its own beauty, for it could not be commanded by wind as water could, yet only pass with unique divinity.

Time. Such a beautiful concept.

Beautiful, but dangerous.

Something that could change the entire fate of the universe if met with the wrong hands.

Which is why, when the department of time was found; the ministry agreed to close the curtains, to bury the mere thought of the department so deep into the ground that even the minister of magic himself would have to think twice before remembering that such a department even existed.

Now, one may ask, what does Octavius Dalton have to do with this all?

Well, you see, Octavius Dalton simply despised being late. He also, unsurprisingly, despised being early. He liked to be just on time, not having to keep anyone waiting, not having to wait for anyone himself.

Which adds another reason to why, after close consideration, Millicent Bagnold, the previous minister of magic grabbed Octavius's arm, and dragged him away from his old department, the department of mysteries, and led him to a place he has never seen, let alone heard of before.

He stood next to the minister in a large dazzling room, around the size of a public library. Dark, yes, but dazzling nonetheless. Hourglasses, some large, some small, stood in one section of the room, and a couple people dressed in smart suits stood with clipboards, observing the objects with prominent frowns written on the faces. In another section, stood a couple grandfather clocks, with, yet again, a group of people dressed in similar suits next to it, scribbling away furiously on their clipboards as the grandfather clock ticks, ticks.

However, despite the countless other alluring gadgets, what caught Octavius's eye the most was the giant branch in the middle of the room. Well, it looked like a branch, at least. It was silver and ghastly, and held the biggest crowd of people yet.

Octavius squinted his eyes slightly, only to find that there were smaller looking branches, all silver, growing out from the big branch. And, there were even smaller branches growing out from the small branches, and so on.

The department of time.

Of course, Octavius reacted how every other worker in this department have acted when they were first shown the place.

"The department of what, now? I didn't even know this existed!" He had exclaimed enthusiastically.

"Well, it is a secret department, after all. Glad to see the secrecy remains." Bagnold had replied proudly, before shoving Octavius forward, grabbing a clipboard (which seemed to have appeared out of thin air), and shoving it into his hands. "Take this. From now on, you work here. Promoted? Demoted? Whatever you decide it be. Work hard, be rewarded! But make sure-" He had paused, leaning closer slightly as if to add a more dramatic effect. "nobody. I repeat, nobody knows. Not your wife; not even your daughter. Hear me?"

He leaned back slightly, ignoring how Octavius's incredulous and slightly scared expression. "Right! Now, go on. Find a tour or something, I'm busy." Bagnold declared before turning tail and marching out of the room with his head high.

Octavius had taken his new position very seriously. Working harder than ever every single day, he worked his way up the ranks; climbing higher, higher, until he was assigned to work on the big silver branch he had seen in his first day, which, he had learnt, was actually called the Branch of Time (Ha, it was a branch, after all!).

He learned many things about the department. He learned that the department's main purpose was to fix errors in the past which could've had the potential to create a whole other universe. These "errors" were mostly disturbances caused by misuse of time travelling. 

He also kept a journal, which he called the Timekeeping journal. He recorded all the fascinating things that happened in the department, as well as his own discoveries. 

One afternoon, Octavius saw an extremely fascinating and slightly disturbing event. He woke up early in the morning, 6am sharp. He was getting ready for work, until he received a message telling him that he had the day off. 

And it was at the perfect time, too, as he desperately wanted to spend some time with his pregnant wife. 

But while he stood in his soon-to-be daughter's new room, he saw her.

A girl with brown hair, standing in the middle of the room with her back faced towards him.

Octavius was shocked to say the least. He was angry, as well. But before he was able to whip out his wand, the girl had dashed past him and raced out of the room. He didn't have any luck in chasing her down, nor did he catch her face. But there was something familiar, very, very familiar about that girl.

I'll deal with it later. Octavius thought irritatedly. But the birth of his baby daughter pushed the thought out of his mind, and he never recalled it again.

16 years later, Octavius was still the same busy man. He had been given the job of the timekeeper, the most superior one of them all, the leader of the department. He had recently developed a time-turning set, he liked to call it. The set included a time-turner, and a small bracelet with a hourglass charm, and the 0 0 0 0 carved onto the charm.

The time-turning set was advanced, yes. It could take the traveller to any year, whether it be a thousand years back, or even just a few hours.

He was proud, to say the least. Yet, he let his triumph get the best of him. Because one night, a couple days before his daughter were to return after her 6th year at Hogwarts, he left his time-turning set after spending the past hours studying. Yes, left it on the table, left the room, and forgot about it.

It wasn't until a few months later that he recalled this event. But he was all the way over in Hong Kong, way too invested in another time-related issue to care about the fate of his set.

Little did he know...