The Battle For Hogwarts

Turning Back Time

Chapter 11: Turning Back Time

You turn the corner and hide from Ame and professor McGonagall.

"Professor McGonagall is gonna be so mad at me when I get back, running away from a teacher and a friend."

"Don't worry about it. They'll understand."

"Where are you, child?" professor McGonagall asks in the distance.

"We need to find a safe place to get ourselves here faster! We've already wasted 30 minutes on the brooms!"

"You told us it was safer!"

"Well, we need to hurry."

"How about Hagrid's hut?"

"Hagrid might be there."

"Any common rooms?"

"The students might be back in their respective common rooms."

"The Dark Forest?"

"Who in their right mind would enter a place of death and decay."

"I would." Newt and Harry say in unison.

"The greenhouses!"

"We're wasting time! We should just move and see where we end up!"

"I agree. Let's head to the owlery. There should be nobody at the owlery."

"Sure, why not? We'll see what we can do from there. We have 25 minutes."

You go to the owlery and all the owls start hooting and screeching as you enter.

"Athena! Come here, girl!"

She lands on your arm.

"Harry, where's your owl? Hedwig, was it?"

"She sacrificed herself when we were trying to get back to the Order's Headquarters."

"Just do what you need to do, man. Hedwig would've wanted Athena to do her duty to you."

"Alright. Athena, keep watch outside. Alert us if anyone is coming."

She flies outside the door.

"Voldemort and Grindelwald should be coming back now. The rain is gone."

Newt opens the suitcase and peeks inside. Sure enough, our past selves were still there.

"Over here." he says.

No reply.

"I don't think they hear us." Newt says.

"Let me try." you say, clearing your throat. "This way!"

"This way? That's what you came up with?"

"What did you expect me to say?"

Athena screeches outside.

"Quick! We need to go!"

"We're trying to help you! Don't use the time turner!" Harry shouts into the suitcase.

Athena screeches again, louder.

"Over there! Look, it's Athena!" Ame's voice says from outside.

Athena goes back inside the owlery as Newt props the suitcase on the wall and opens it.

"Good work Athena. I'll give you a treat later."

She ruffles her feathers and heads back onto her stand.

"Get in!"

You go back into the suitcase and your past selves are gone.

"We're too late!"

"The door is opening! Quiet!"

"Hello? Are you guys here?" Ame asks.

"Students, come out please." professor McGonagall says.

"Why was Athena out?"

"The door must've been left open. We must go. I have a meeting with the other professors."

They leave and you hear the door closing behind them. You exit the suitcase.

"Well, we're too late now. They're on their way here already. We need to get back to our timeline or else everything will break apart."

"Wait! Maybe we could help them!"

"Out in the open? Like we would show ourselves ourselves!"

"Obviously not. We're gonna be helping from the shadows!"

"That's gonna change our timeline!"

"I don't care! We'll help them or I'm staying in this timeline and break everything else!"

Harry and Newt stare at you like you're crazy. Maybe you are. Maybe those words came out of your mouth without you thinking first. Maybe you just don't want to go back yet.

"Fine. If ever they see us, we are dead and we're going back."

"Deal."

You go back to the courtyard, hiding in piles of rocks, wood, and behind walls and arches.

"There they are!" you point at the two trails of smoke in the sky.

You aim your wand at them.

"Wait! Not yet. Let them land."

They land and talk to each other.

"Finally those freaks are gone. Let us claim Hogwarts for ourselves."

"Yes, Grindelwald. Destroy the front doors."

"Yes, my Lord. Bombarda Maxima!"

"Finite Incantatum!"

The spell from Grindelwald explodes before hitting the doors.

"Who's there?"

You stay quiet.

"Bombarda Maxima!"

"Finite Incantatum!"

"Avada Kedavra!"

You had just enough time to duck back down.

"Come out, children."

You see your past selves flying over the school, going to the owlery.

"This shouldn't be happening!" Newt says. "While we're on our way here, we never saw Voldemort and Grindelwald! We already broke the timeline!"

"We need to get back! Harry, the time turner!"

You hold on to Harry as everything around you freezes.

"Turn it back!"

He returns the time turner to its original state and everything around you becomes a blur. Just like that, you're back at the courtyard.

"We should have never used time travel!"

"What happened?!?!"

"You messed with a timeline!"

"So you're telling me that I should've let them break the doors down?"

"Guys, shut your traps! Voldemort and Grindelwald are coming!"

He points at the smoke trails in the sky just like the trails you saw a few moments before.

"They're landing!"

"Finally those freaks are gone. Let us claim Hogwarts for ourselves."

"Yes, Grindelwald. Destroy the front doors."

"Yes my Lord. Bombarda Maxima!"

Newt holds you down and the doors come crashing down.

"Don't."

"I wasn't going to."

Voldemort and Grindelwald enter the school.

To be continued