Chapter Three: A Twist in Time
"Mysterious thing, time. Powerful, and when meddled with dangerous."
The next morning, as always, Azalea woke up before the rest of the girls in the Gryffindor Common room. She gave off a sluggish stretch before her eyes groggily scanned the room, stopping at the large bay window just across from her. The sky was in twilight zone so you could see the magificant complematary contrast of dawn ascending over the distant horizon, just minutes away.
Azalea lazily tossed the comforter aside and went to peer out the window. She watched as the dark, twilight sky faded into different tints of blush pink, cherry red and magenta as the sun surfaced above the lush horizon. Her mind drifted back to the information she acquired just a day ago. 'So, all I have to do is go back in time and change the most evil wizard in history, that should be easy' she sardonically reflected in her mind. Azalea didn't know whether to be exasperated or flattered that Dumbledore trusted her to handle a task with such importance as this. She closed her eyes, relaxing her rigid body, trying to find the silver linings in her cloudy day. Hogwarts was the one that instantaneously popped into her mind - it was the place she considered home. She never really thought of the Dursleys as her home. Her home was at Hogwarts - where her brother was.
Azalea was snapped from her train of thoughts when she heard the girls begin to stir and stretch, signalling that they were about the awaken. She grabbed her wand from her night stand and murmured at spell to change her pyjamas into her long, black, Gryffindor school robe. She looked down to notice the scarlet and gold badge that was proudly sitting just above collar bone. This was the Gryffindor Prefect Badge. Azalea was honoured to be chosen as the school prefect and took her duties in high regards, unlike Ron who she had seen disregard the rules on several occasions. It came as a surprise to her that he was even picked in the first place.
Azalea pushed her thoughts aside and started to head down to breakfast. She had always found it best to go early so the hall wasn't as packed with students. She walked into the Great Hall and went to sit at the Gryffindor Table. As she expected, the hall wasn't full at all. There was a group of first years sitting at the Ravenclaw Table, nervously chatting about there first day at Hogwarts and one other Gryffindor Prefect sitting at the other end of the table. She knew him to be Percy Weasley, Ron's older brother. Looking up at the staff table she notice Dumbledore looking at her intently, his preceptive blue eyes were lustrous as the sun's saffron-yellow rays danced across his elderly face.
Azalea turned back to the feast that laid before her. Just like the Start-of-Term-Feast, breakfast too contained an everlasting quantity foods like; eggs, sausages, bacon, pancakes, cinnamon buns, pastries and much, much more. Although there was plenty of choice, the intoxicating smell of bacon overwhelmed her senses and she briskly extended her arm in reach of the bacon.
After Azalea fulfilled the accomplishment of devouring her meal, she heard the doors of the great hall begin to oscillate. Promptly following was Professor McGonagall with parchments in her hand that were indecipherable from the distance they shared, however, Azalea could infer that they were the students' timetables. She walked down the hall and took her seat beside Dumbledore.
One by one, students started to pile in and she could see the unruly, jet-black hair of her brother and flaming red hair of her best friend, lost in the masses of the crowd. She suddenly stop and her eyes guardedly scanned the room, as she had an inexplicable feeling she was being monitored.
"Hey, why is Malfoy staring at you?" Harry asked as he claimed the seat beside her, glaring daggers in Malfoy's direction.
Azalea looked up to see Malfoy was indeed looking at her along with a few other Slytherins like; Crabbe, Goyle, Parkinson, Zabini, Marcus Flint and Adrian Pucey. Her eyes widened in shocked.
"I-I don't know," she said while furrowing her eyebrows in confusion.
"It's probably for some stupid reason, Harry. Just relax and eat," she continued, trying to de-escalate the situation.
Harry grudgingly obliged and started to dish out breakfast. After a few minutes of eating in silence and tranquility the undoubtedly annoyed voice of her best friend broke the silence.
"What are you looking at, Malfoy."
"Well, it's just that Azalea looks like she'd be good at quidditch, so I was wondering if she wanted to ride my Nimbus 2001," he said flirtatiously, his eyes glinting with mischief.
Azalea let out a scoff of disgust and rolled her eyes. She glanced briefly at her brother to see he was clenching and unclenching his jaw and his fist unmistakably set into a firm grip.
"Shove off, Malfoy," Harry said tempestuously rocketing out of his chair.
"Oh, hit a nerve, have I?" He said snickering along with a few of his friends. Parkinson, on the other hand didn't look amused at all, in fact, she was scowling and vigorously stabbing her now mutilated eggs.
Before either house could say another word to each other Professor Mcgonagall intervened, breaking off their stand-off. She had been walking up and down the Gryffindor Table handing students their time tables, before coming up to them.
"Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, your time tables," she said handing them their tables before walking away. She abruptly stopped and turned back around to face the trio.
"Oh, and Ms. Potter, Dumbledore has requested your presence in his office," she concluded and began mincing back up the table.
Azalea turned around to look into the turquoise eyes of her older brother and went to bring him in a suffocating embrace. There was no doubt in her mind that she was hugging the dear life out of him, but at this moment she didn't really care.
"What was that for?" Harry asked with an amused expression etched upon his face.
She disregarded his question and went to bring Ron in her Boa Constrictor like grip. She almost let out a slight giggle when she felt him awkwardly pat her back in what she assumed to be a comforting manner.
"I'm just going to miss you, both, that's all," she said in a shaky breath. She didn't trust herself to say much because she could already feel the teardrops trying to elude the boundaries of her eyes.
She turned away from the two boys and went to exit the without a second glance. Like last time, Azalea followed the long, narrow hallway to quickly find herself at the familiar mahogany door. She knocked and pulled open the door when she heard Dumbledore's voice telling her intrude.
"It is time, Azalea," he said grimly.
"I know, professor."
"Well then, lets get straight to it, shall we?" He said, pulling the Time Turner out of his robe pocket.
Azalea stalked up to him taking the necklace out of his possession. She put it around her neck and looked at him intently, waiting for further instructions.
"Now, before we begin there's something I need to share with you. The Time Turner's magic is extremely unstable and unpredictable. Any drastic broaches in the laws of time could cause horrendous and catastrophic events.-"
"Umm... What kind of horrendous and catastrophic events, professor?" Azalea interrupted apprehensively.
"Well, one being a witch or wizard altering their past life so drastically it can result in anomalies such as un-births."
Azalea's eyes widened in utter shock before saying, "I beg your pardon."
"You're not having second thoughts, are you Ms. Potter," he asked while raising a silver brow.
Azalea paused for a brief second before hesitantly replying, "Of course not, professor."
"Splendid! So then, if I remember correctly, ten spins should do the trick," he said going back to sit at his desk.
Azalea nodded her head, letting the professor know she understood his instructions.
1 spin. Will Harry and Ron forgive me?
2 spins. Will they be safe?
3 spins.
4 spins.
5 spins. What if they're not safe?
6 spins. Who will keep them out of trouble when I'm gone?
7 spins.
8 spins.
9 spins. No, they're marginally talented, I'm sure they can handle themselves.
10 spins. This is for the wizarding world!