Chapter Text
Harry Potter, Boy who Lived Twice, Golden Boy and Savior, was tired. Tired of all his titles, tired of living life in the spotlight. And definitely tired from all the jokes his Auror partner and former school yard bully was saying at his expenses. That last part wasn’t really true, but Harry liked to think so.
Malfoy had definitely gotten better over the last couple of years and Harry was aware that Kingsley had probably just placed them together in a team originally so they could work out their differences. And ever since that had happened, they had gotten unbeatable.
“Potter, we can’t leave yet” Malfoy said as he entered their shared office almost in a house elf like fashion as he threw the door closed and the following explosion made Harry jump in his seat. He threw the thin folder onto his desk and grabbed the official Auror robe that was hanging by the door.
Looking up, Harry scowled. “Please don’t tell me that Kingsley’s got another ‘quick adventure’ for us!” He looked at the parchments on his desk, and sighed. He moved them around a little, looking through them to find the time tables. They should have been able to leave an hour ago, right?
Malfoy snorted. He walked over to him and pulled on a parchment sticking out into his direction, which turned out to be exactly what Harry was looking for. Rolling his eyes, Harry grabbed it and placed it on top of all the other parchments.
“We still have twenty minutes on the clock, Potter” he said, pointing to the red color. “Then, your Indian friends will take over, because we all know the Ministry can’t stay alive without Indians inside.”
Harry snorted and looked at his partner. “You sound a little racist, Auror Malfoy. One might think that you do not only follow the pureblood rituals but also the pure-race ideas.”
“I don’t think I’d be working with you, Auror Potter, if I had any intention on ‘cleaning up’ the British society, as they call it.” Malfoy rolled his eyes and smirked. “Besides, a little diversity is what makes life interesting.”
Shrugging his shoulders, Harry moved some other folders from one side of his desk to the other and grinned at the Slytherin. “You just totally ruined my joke, so that’s unfair.”
“Your joke?”
“Yeah, my joke!” Harry nodded. “I was going to say that you at least had the possibilities of saying that you have nothing against my people, because you work with someone from India and I am fine and shit like that.”
Malfoy rolled his eyes. “You are terrible, you know that?”
“I know and enjoy that, thank you very much.”
“At least with Kingsley’s actions, their voices had gotten somewhat quieter” the Slytherin shrugged his shoulders, while he watched as Harry was once again looking for the time table, which he had just had on top of his desk and now it was gone again.
How was that possible?! Harry moved the folders around again, while Malfoy snorted. “You know, someone gave Kingsley an award for running a neat Auror program, just last month. If they’d get to see your desk, they’d take that away in a heartbeat, Potter.”
“It’s not my mistake, we never have time to clean up!”
Grinning, Malfoy walked over his clean desk dramatically and sat down, running his hands over the wooden plate. “No, definitely not your problem” he grinned, while Harry threw him a dark look. Malfoy stood up again and motioned him to follow. “Come along now. Technically, we’ve still got half an hour on the clock.”
“I thought you said twenty minutes!”
“You spent so much time looking for the time table that it decided to run backwards now” Malfoy joked and evaded a harmless stinging hex.
Harry sighed and followed his partner out of the office. “What’s the adventure anyway?” he asked as he had caught up to the Slytherin.
Malfoy smirked. “Time travel!” He sounded very interested, almost like a child seeing Santa Claus for the first time that Christmas. When he looked at Harry, he raised his eyebrows, as if silently questioning why Harry wasn’t as awed as he was.
“Been there, done that, it was underwhelming” he commented, while Malfoy stopped and pulled his arm back so he couldn’t continue walking. It was almost comical looking at Malfoy’s huge eyes, as if he couldn’t believe what Harry was saying right now.
“What?”
Harry smirked. “Third year, Malfoy. Hermione and I travelled back in time to safe Buckbeak and Sirius, before he was supposed to be kissed by a Dementor.”
That seemed to have messed with the blond's head, though he was quickly back to his normal character, as he rolled his eyes. “And you did that without me? Unbelievable.” Harry snorted and grinned, when his partner started walking again and they continued down the almost empty corridor. “Kingsley said something about re-building the Time Turners and we’re the first to test them. Amazing, right?!”
That was a terrible idea… If just something went wrong…, what if they travelled back a hundred years and couldn’t find the return button? What if that button was broken? What if they were stuck back in time?!
Harry shook his head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Malfoy.“
“Oh come on, Potter.” Malfoy rolled his eyes and smirked. “We’re the youngest Aurors around with the highest case solving number. Not even Weasley and Old Nutter have that number and Old Nutter’s been doing that job for ten years, he should know how things work.”
“I don’t think Farmer would appreciate you calling him Old Nutter” Harry commented and now it was his time to evade a stinging hex. He wasn’t quite as talented, which was mostly the case due to Malfoy’s ability to surprise him every day! He yelped and jumped to the side, while Malfoy grinned triumphantly.
And it was true, his sorrows about the Time Turner. But he also knew that Malfoy would never stop pestering him into going… It still didn’t convince Harry to go back in time, even though Malfoy pulled him further down the corridor. It looked as if he had already made up his mind. And he wanted to do it even if it killed him. Harry had to be honest: He had done enough of these adventures during his childhood for it to be interesting right now. As a matter of fact… why had he become an Auror if all their small adventures annoyed him so much?
So, Harry shook his head and held Malfoy back. “No, we shouldn’t do it!”
Scowling, Malfoy crossed his arms over his chest and raised his eyebrows. “Why not, tell me then, Potter.”
“Because every time I’m involved, things tend to go wrong.”
“Ah, that’s just… in your head.” Malfoy smirked and shrugged his shoulders.
Harry snorted. “It’s not. Just look at my Hogwarts career!”
Malfoy was clearly trying to suppress a wide grin, as he sighed and grabbed Harry by his shoulders. “Calm yourself, Potter. It’s just a test whether or not the Time Turner we’ve found is still working. That’s all.” He stepped back and motioned to Kingsley’s office and then theirs. “Quick in and out and we’re done.”
Harry thought he heard someone laughing, but that too must have been in his head. He sighed and groaned. Malfoy always had been good in getting him to do whatever he wanted to do. “Fine. Let’s do it. But I need to be back before seven, I’ve got a date.”
“Copy that, let’s go.”
As they headed down the corridor, Harry rolled his eyes and frowned as he walked past two unknown people. It was fairly late for visitors to the Auror Department and these two seemed so amused by a comment from the darker man. Maybe they were the replacement Aurors should anything go wrong. Something was surely going to go wrong, Harry knew it.
He also knew it as he walked into the Head Auror office and came face to face with the clearly rebuilt and not ‘found’ Time Turner. “I hate this so much” he murmured, with only Malfoy catching it.
The Slytherin smirked at him and then turned to Kingsley. “Good evening, gentlemen! How are you doing?”
“Looking forward to my bed” Harry answered truthfully and quirked his eyebrows towards Malfoy who grinned.
“We’re ready for this! And I am very excited” he said and turned to Harry. “Just because you already did that, doesn’t mean you can take away my excitement.”
Harry snorted, though he didn’t comment further. Kingsley gave them each a string of the Time Turner. The metal felt cold around Harry’s neck and he carefully accepted the turning piece in the middle, holding it tightly, just so he didn’t accidentally turn it and miss any instructions Kingsley still had for them.
“We’ll test it with something small first. Half an hour to be exact. So, turn it a quarter that way” Kingsley showed Harry where to turn and which thing he needed to turn. “And then, go to the cafeteria and wait there for me. I’ll come down right now, so hopefully we’ll meet there.”
Sighing, Harry looked over at Malfoy who had big eyes. “I hate you so much for this.”
Malfoy grinned. “Just let me have this! I’ve never time travelled before and this half an hour is all I’ll probably ever get. So… do it!”
“For the records… I don’t think that’s a good idea” Harry said. Malfoy motioned him to finally do it and Harry shrugged his shoulders. He had said it, Kingsley had heard it, Malfoy heard it… That was all he could do.
Rolling his eyes, he carefully turned the specific piece Kingsley had motioned and with one last look at the Head Auror and Malfoy, he let go. The last few minutes flew by while Malfoy stared at it with wide eyes. Harry snorted and was just about to say something, when smoke appeared from within the time device.
‘That’s not good’, Harry thought while the time around them started to speed up. It started to race through their entire Aurors career and Harry saw himself in the office talking to Kingsley in street clothes. Specific street clothes actually… that was right after he had freed Malfoy from going to Azkaban.
Wait… they had gone back four years already?! The device was broken! Harry tried to grab the spinning Time Turner, but it just picked up speed, making it impossible for him to stop travelling back in time.
The Ministry was in fire, Dementors were floating down the halls. He heard fights, glass shattering, water rising. Then finally, it sped up so much than everything around Malfoy and him turned white. They were standing nowhere, the spinning time device between them and the metal burning around their necks. The panic was clearly on his partner's face and Harry could also feel hsi breathing kicking up. This was a very bad idea! This had been the worst idea ever!
As time seemingly stopped working, Harry looked at the grey eyes of his partner. He coulnd't feel his body anymore. It felt like that time in between stages, where he had met Dumbledore and talked with him about returning to Hogwarts to finish the fight. They just... existed, but nothing else seemed to happen.
“What’s going on?” Malfoy asked, clearly scared.
“I don’t know. Shit!” Harry turned around and looked at the whiteness around them. His eyes finally found the almost exploding time thing still turning and smoking in the middle of them. “We need to stop it. I have no idea where we are or how far we’ve travelled back!”
Malfoy stared at him and inhaled shakingly. He then reached out with Seeker reflexes and stopped the Time Turner with both his hands. He let out a somewhat suppressed howl of pain and doubled over just as time around them stopped and they weren’t inside the Ministry anymore.
Harry didn't care to look around where they were. He heard his partner falling to the floor, moaning in pain. Not risking travelling even further back in time by accident, hepulled the chains away from them, before he kneeled down next to the Slytherin. “Show me”, he ordered softly.
Opening his hands, Malfoy cursed and Harry saw burning marks and a Time Turner turned to dust. Quickly grabbing his wand, Harry healed the burns on Malfoy’s palms. He then looked around and found himself not in the Ministry. It seemed as if they hadn’t only travelled through time but also places.
They stood in front of the castle of Hogwarts. It was eerily quiet. Malfoy got up and frowned at the scene. He thanked Harry quickly and walked inside the castle. “Maybe we’ll find McGonagall and we can ask her what we should do.”
Harry had a fleeting feeling that McGonagall wasn’t yet the Headmistress of Hogwarts. As they walked through the hallways, Harry was wondering why it was so quiet. All they could hear was the echo of their own footsteps. Maybe it was in the middle of the summer term, but something in Harry's mind told him that something bad was going on. Not actually, though, as there was nothing visible going on and no students were out.
Malfoy seemed to be confused as well, as he turned around the corner and was just about to say something to Harry, when he widened his eyes and cursed. Harry frowned and looked around the corner. There, in big clear letters on the wall stood proud and scary at the same time:
Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever
Harry choked on air and he stumbled to the other wall, staring at that message. “Ginny!”