Running On Air

Chapter 10

Narcissa owls Harry at the end of April.

Nothing found.

It's taken her this long — nearly three months — to completely search the manor, investigating every item, every room, to make sure no possible time-turner hid within. If the time-turner had gone with Draco, rather than being left behind, surely Draco would have hidden it at the manor.

Or the Renault Mégane, but then Harry remembers it might not exist in whatever time era Draco is caught in. Regardless, he searches the Renault and finds nothing. The time-turner would need to be hidden extremely well to prevent it from being stolen or found by the wrong sort of person, but surely Draco would have left clues...

Hermione tells Harry she's finalised the details of an extraction. That's what it's called, she explains. Rescuing someone from the past. An extraction. The process sounds complicated and involves some very difficult magic, but she's written it all up neatly, like a recipe, and says that at any moment, a team of Unspeakables can carry it out.

All they need is the time-turner.

And it makes it worse, somehow, looking at a puzzle with just one piece missing.

Harry drives a lot more these days. He drives along the coastlines of the country, he drives past the gritty skylines of cities and through the rolling hills of the countryside. He just drives.

Like he's looking for something.

And he can recognise the cyclical irony of the situation. In inceptum finis est, he thinks wryly.

In the beginning is the end.

And, on the second of May — the eighth anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts — Harry finds the time-turner.

The realisation dawns the day before, on the first day of the month. It's a mild spring day. Summer is beginning to approach the land again; he can feel it like the distant glow of a fire. There's warmth in the breeze that stirs the leaves of the trees, and he thinks a drive to Cornwall sounds nice. In the soft glow of a warm spring day, Helston looks far more friendly and cheerful, and the coastline itself seems gentler. The waves seem less furious and more playful as they roil and roll around the base of the cliffs. There's a young family taking photographs of the lighthouse, the children giggling and chasing each other around in circles.

Circles.

Harry walks along the south-west coastal track. Maybe he'll just keep walking and one day he'll find himself back here again. Making circles, making meaningless patterns.

Do you remember when we were eleven?

The familiar ache settles into Harry's heart. He knows that nostalgia well. Back when his biggest obstacles were homework and detentions. Back when the cruelest thing Draco ever did was throw a Remembrall across the sky.

A silver snitch.

Harry stops. In the distance, he can still hear the children laughing. Closer to him is the soft sound of the waves breaking over the rocks.

It's a five-hour drive back to London, but he barely remembers the journey at all.

He liked that silver snitch clasp. It was a gift from his father.

Yes, of course Draco had told Narcissa that. The coded meaning now becomes clear as pristine glass.

Do you know why he liked that clasp? He likes circles.

Of course. In the beginning is the end. A time-turner.

As soon as Harry enters his office, he goes straight for the file in his desk and opens it up. The photograph of Draco that Narcissa gave Harry so many months ago. Draco stares at Harry, his mouth small and serious, his eyes unblinking. The silver snitch clasp is neatly pinned to his robes.