How to Prevent a War

1942

Harry and Ron woke the next morning with the girls shaking them, calling their names. With a groan, Harry cracked open his eyes and watched with a sleepy amusement how Ginny was struggling to get Ron out of bed. The redhead, growled grumpily and tried pushing his younger sister off, but the only girl in the Weasley family didn't let up in the slightest.

With a chuckle, Harry got out of his own bed and walked over to help his two female friends get the other boy awake. After about two minutes, they were finally successful when Padfoot barked loudly and jumped on top of the bed, effectively throwing Ron out of it. The group went to breakfast shortly after, Ron still in a pretty bad mood from his violent awakening.

"Are guys ready for leaving?" Hermione asked them while the two boys stuffed their faces with in syrup drowned pancakes.

"We packed last night, 'Mione," Ron replied, mouth still full with pancake.
"You were there, remember?"

Ginny rolled her eyes at her brother's table manners while Hermione narrowed her eyes and opened her mouth to reply, but Harry was faster.

"I'm sure we haven't forgotten anything," he assured her.
"We have money, the books you bought, my invisibility cloak and the marauders map..."

"Alright! Then we'll leave once you two are done eating like pigs," the young witch said, clapping in her hands.

Ron glared at her but didn't react on her last comment. Harry chuckled and wiped his mouth with a napkin, putting his plate aside and drinking the last of his orange juice. After a few seconds, Ginny too pushed her plate away, giving Harry a smile as the two of them started cleaning the table a bit before returning the empty plate food bowl from Sirius and the still half-full water bowl to the counter along with his and Ginny's plates. Once that was done, they walked back to the others.

"Let's do this before we start to regret it," Harry said smiling.

"Or before the Death Eaters catch onto us. I'm sure they already realized we're not with the Order right now," Ginny added.

The other two teens nodded and stood up from their seats. They walked out into the streets of Diagon Alley, moving over to a small, empty side alley so they would be out of sight. Once they were, Harry pulled out a wood box and opened it, revealing the time turner that lay inside. It wasn't, however, the same kind of time turner he and Hermione had used in their third year. It was larger, made out of white gold and embedded with expensive looking gems. The magic sand inside shone much brighter than the other version had done and it simply radiated magic.

"There you are!" two familiar synchronized voices called out before they could activate the time piece.

The group stared in horror as Fred and George Weasley approached, identical smirks twisting on their equally identical faces. They approached with quick steps, stopping on either side of Harry, each throwing an arm over his shoulder.

"We came over to warn you guys that mum found your empty beds this morning and went crazy," the one on the left, Fred, told them.

"Also, you shouldn't keep your time-travel research laying around like that," George added snickering.
"Imagine what would have happened if someone else found it instead of us!"

Harry stared horrified from one to the other before he turned towards Hermione.

"You left it at the house?!" he asked incredulously.
"You. You left it at the house?!"

"Everyone can make mistakes, Harry," the brunette huffed, but she still blushed.

"Are we going or not?" Ginny muttered out, glaring at her older brothers.
"The longer we stand here, the less I want to do this, you know."