"I don't get it." Harry said.

"Save more than an innocent man's life ." Hermione muttered as though it were a tough question on an exam, then her eyes lit up "Your father, Arlene!"

Arlene frowned "What?"

"When I was doing the essay about werewolves –it said unicorn tears heals werewolf scratches, and with your father's testimony-"

"-We'll save Sirius!" Harry whisper-yelled "Brilliant!"

He paused "Wait –how are we going to save Arlene's dad?"

"With this." Hermione told him proudly, pulling the chain of the necklace she was wearing "a time turner."

"Is it like a time machine?" Harry asked, looking even more confused when she nodded "But can't someone who has it go back and undo anything? We can go back right now to the night Voldemort died and stop him from dying- then the entire future changed."

"It's not that simple." She informed him as Arlene went snooping in the medicine cabinet "Some time-turners only go back a few hours –like this one- others go back years, but they're all in the Department of Mysteries and only Unspeakables know the complex magic to make one."

"Not to mention," continued Hermione "The past doesn't want to be changed, the farther back you go, the more resistance there'll be. Think of it this way, if you stop a man from dying fifty years ago; an entirely different chain of events that affects the world as we know it happens, but stop a man from dying an hour ago? Not much changes."

"Yes yes yes" Arlene suddenly interrupted once she found the little vial titled 'unicorn tears', she pocketed the wolfsbane as well "we're all aware of Professor Croaker's Law and Morgana's Paradox-"

"We can only stay five hours in the past before we create serious harm, and Morgana documented time loops like un-births." Hermione whispered to the confused Harry.

"-now can we please just go? Pomfrey will be back any moment now."

Hermione rolled her eyes and grabbed her hand, she linked her arm to Harry as she turned the little hourglass "We'll be in the Entrance Hall"

And into the past they went.

When Arlene opened her eyes, she was in front of the Moving Staircase and the sun was just starting to set.

Neither Harry nor Hermione were with her "We'll be in the entrance Hall." She'd said.

Which meant that Past Arlene would be there any moment now.

She quickly hid behind a close statue and watched herself speak with Dobby then leave in the opposite direction, Future her –or present her (this was starting to get confusing) snuck to the other side to meet with the other two.

She had to hide again once she arrived at the Hall because Past Harry and the others were passing. Once they left, Future Hermione and Harry exited a broom closet.

Hermione signalled for her to follow them as they crept discreetly to the forest; the sky was now a deep orange colour and the grounds were empty; Arlene strongly wished that nobody would be admiring the view from their windows and spot them.

They went from behind the Greenhouses at Hermione's insistence, after a while of navigating the outskirts of the forest, they reached Hagrid's cabin but remained out of sight "Peter's in there right now." Harry whispered.

"Harry, no." Hermione told him firmly "I know what you're thinking, don't you understand? We're breaking one of the most important wizarding laws! Nobody's supposed to change time, nobody! You heard Dumbledore, if we're seen-"

Arlene thought they were already breaking Time Laws by reversing a death but she didn't comment.

"We'd only be seen by ourselves and Hagrid!"

"Harry, what do you think you'd do if you saw yourself bursting into Hagrid's house? You wouldn't understand, you might even attack yourself! Don't you see? Professor McGonagall told me what awful things have happened when wizards have meddled with time, loads of them ended up killing their past or future selves by mistake!"

"Okay!" said Harry. "It was just an idea, I just thought-"

But Hermione nudged him and pointed toward the castle, Dumbledore, Fudge, the old Committee member, Malfoy and Macnair the executioner were coming down the steps.

"We're about to come out!" Hermione breathed, she was proven correct a few seconds later when the four of them left the cabin.

They hadn't stayed to hear the verdict, but Arlene was sure that Buckbeak was doomed even with her mother's interference.

"Where is the beast?" came the cold voice of Macnair.

"Outside," Hagrid croaked.

Macnair's face appeared at Hagrid's window, staring out at Buckbeak, then they heard Fudge.

"We have to read you the official notice of execution, Hagrid. I'll make it quick, then you and Macnair need to sign it, Macnair, you're supposed to listen too, that's procedure-"

"Execution?" Paloma repeated, crossing her arms "This is supposed to be an appeal, where's McMillan?"

The members of the committee looked at her like it was a bizarre question –it was, they all knew the committee had been bribed and threatened by Malfoy.

"McMillan wasn't able to come." Malfoy finally said "but the committee decided-"

"So after the trial was in Hagrid's favor, you're going to execute the Hippogriff anyway? Without even an appeal? Do any of you realized how unprecedented this is!?"

The men suddenly looked very uncomfortable, except Malfoy, who looked angry "The execution has already been decided on, Paloma, you can't come in here with your twisted words and lawyer your way out of this!"

"Excuse me!?" Paloma spat, she was most certainly trying to lawyer her way out of it "this is a mistrial! Mr Fudge, how can you bear witness to this gross obstruction of justice? You are taking judge jury and executioner to a new level, Malfoy, wait until the Papers hear about this, they'll have a field day!"

The veiled threat worked, Fudge turned to the committee "Maybe you made a rushed decision, gentlemen, it seems miss Burke might be right-"

"I can't believe this!" Hermione whispered "Arlene your mum's awesome!"

"Merlin," Harry agreed "Buckbeak's going to be okay!"

Paloma continued with her monologue, ripping the men a new once as she scolded them. Dumbledore seemed to find the whole ordeal very funny "Hagrid, I could do with a cup of tea, or a large brandy."

"O'- o' course, Professor," said Hagrid, who sounded weak with happiness, he kept looking at Paloma like he was waiting for her to turn around and tell him that the execution will happen "Come in, come in...."

They listened closely, they heard footsteps, the soft cursing of the executioner, the snap of the door, and then silence once more.

"Now what?" whispered Harry, looking around.

"We wait."

And so they did, they watched quietly as Ron was dragged into the tunnel, as Past Harry and Hermione followed and Arlene stayed.

"This is so weird." Harry muttered. Arlene agreed.

"Still not over the Crookshanks reveal." Hermione added as the cat shifted into Regulus.

"Ohmygodohmygod-" past her was saying, future her cringed.

They stayed silent through the explanation, until Arlene suddenly realized what was coming next.

"Oh no." she mumbled.

"-Hermione turned out to be very smart and kind by the way, good choice." Her father was saying.

If Arlene had dripped acid over her face, it wouldn't burn it as much as the humiliation did at that moment. She avoided looking at Hermione's inquiring eyes or Harry oblivious face. When all of this was over she was going to jump off the astronomy tower.

She continued to sit in shame as Lupin and Snape arrived, a while later Past Arlene and Regulus disapparated.

When they were finally alone, Hermione sat down. It seemed like they weren't going to talk about that incident right now. She sat next to Harry and wrapped her arms around her legs.

"There's something I don't understand." Hermione started "me and Arlene both passed out, so did Sirius, what made the Dementors retreat?"

"There's only one thing that makes the Dementors leave." Harry said quietly "A patronus, a real, powerful one."

"But who cast it?" Hermione asked eagerly. Arlene had elected to ignore both of them.

Harry went on to explain how he believed it to be his dead father's patronus. But then again Arlene's father was supposedly dead until a few hours ago so maybe it wasn't so far-fetched.

Finally, after what seemed to be days, past them started to appear. Arlene gripped the vial with anticipation. Showtime.

"Are we supposed to let Peter escape again?" Harry asked bitterly.

"Do you want to try finding a rat in the dark?"

Harry seemed to want to continue the argument, but then paused "We need to move."

"Harry-"

"Lupin is coming right at us!"

Arlene turned back, sure enough, the werewolf was coming in the direction.

The three of them started to run, but it would've been helpful for them to agree beforehand where to go, because Arlene bolted to her father, Harry ran to he lake to catch a glimpse of the Patronus caster, and Hermione, the only one with any sense, ran to Hagrid's cabin.

Lupin elected to follow Arlene, or maybe he was returning to the scent of blood-

"He fancied Regulus a scratching post." She remembered Snape saying.

Not on her watch.

She swung her wand around fiercely "INCENDIO!"

She worried for a moment that she would be disrupting the time sequence, but a quick glance at her watch told her that they would all be passed out by now and that she had a few minutes before Snape awakes.

A few minutes to save her father.

The fire spell managed to keep Lupin at bay, but he charged again once the flames calmed. Arlene was painfully aware of her father's labored breaths.

Lupin's shining golden eyes were filled with rage, Arlene would later wonder how she didn't piss herself while staring him down. She reached for the vial belt around her waist (it was part of the uniform and most wizards wore one daily, but students usually didn't unless they had an exam or were in the dueling club) and grabbed the tiny glass filled with wolfsbane powder. It took all of her will power to wait until Lupin was close enough to throw it.

Just like vervain was deadly to Vampires, Wolfsbane was lethal to Werewolves, hence its name. It became abundantly clear exactly how lethal it was when Lupin howled in pain and started to retreat, she felt bad for a total of two seconds before she remembered that he was about to murder her father.

Speaking of.

She knelt in front of him. It was even worse than she remembered, he was hurt from both the hit and the scratches, his clothes were covered in so much blood that it was almost impossible to see the injury.

"Episkey." She whispered, and the blood began to retreat, the wounds on his sides and head started to heal, but the places where Lupin's claws had been remained untouched.

She kept looking around as she worked, making sure neither Snape nor Lupin were close.

She bit her lip as she dropped the shimmery liquid. Only Phoenix and Unicorn tears can heal a wound inflicted by dark magic –or dark creatures.

The results were instant. It was like his flesh was a sponge, it absorbed the drops and almost immediately started to close. After a few seconds, only large claw scars remained where the wounds were.

Arlene felt like the weight of the world lifted of her shoulder, she kneeled over him and started to sob again like she had only a few hours earlier, this time tears of joy.

"Arlene?" Regulus asked, his voice raspy.

Shit.

She wasn't supposed to be seen by anybody. Shit shit shit shit shit.

A few yards away, Snape's head lolled to the side, in the other direction the light of a Patronus shone over the lake.

She looked at her watch. Sixty more seconds.

"Turn." She hissed to her father anxiously. With an inquiring look but no questions, he turned into Crookshanks.

Arlene grabbed the tiny ball of fluff and ran like her life depended on it, because it did.

Fifty seconds. She turned and used a burst of air to blow the discarded vials into a nearby bush.

Forty seconds. Snape had his back to her, but he was back on his feet.

Thirty seconds. The dementors formed a dark cloud over the moon as they retreated.

Twenty seconds. She could see Future Harry running to the Cabin.

Ten seconds. She barely managed to dive behind the trees before Snape appeared with Ron on a stretcher.

She stayed silent as Snape passed her. He reappeared once again with four more stretchers.

They were now in that crucial period where every second matters, by now Snape would have already discovered Regulus' body –which he now won't- in little over ten minutes they'd be waking up in the Hospital Wing.

Regulus turned back "Arlene, what-"

"Not Arlene." She said curtly "Arlene from the future, no time to explain, but Peter is somewhere in the forest, he couldn't have gotten far –he was injured- Sirius will be administered the kiss five minutes before midnight."

She gave him her watch and her wand –his had been dropped at the Willow "You need to arrive at the castle no later than eight minutes from now. Good luck."

He didn't seem confused at the slightest, only determined; as though he didn't almost become a werewolf chew toy a mere moments earlier.

"Appare Vistiguim." She heard him whisper as she started to leave. A few feet away little rat footsteps glowed like glow sticks.

Confident in her father and aware of time, she sprinted to Hagrid's cabin.

Buckbeak didn't react when she passed, only raised his head slightly. Hermione was standing behind the cabin, looking anxiously around.

Her face broke out into instant relief when she saw her "Arlene! You were almost late, did you do it?"

"Dad's okay." She said with a smile. Almost like she couldn't believe it herself "he's looking for Peter."

Hermione looked horror struck "Arlene!" she hissed "how is he going to find a rat in-" she checked her watch "five minutes?"

Arlene looked at her dumbly "Tracking spell."

"Oh."

Harry snickered "Oi, remember when we told you to lite a fire and you said there wasn't any wood?"

"Shut up."

Sneaking around was so much easier when it was the middle of the night and there was nobody on the grounds, with three minutes left they dashed across the grounds. Two minutes and they were hiding from Peeves. One minutes and they were running across the corridor to the Hospital Wing.

Dumbledore, who was standing outside the door, smiled at them from under his half-glasses. She supposed the last three hours didn't even add up to a minute for him.

Arlene glanced into the large room. She saw Past Hermione turn the hourglass and disappear. She heard Future Hermione mutter '3...2...1"

She turned back to see the other girl hold her watch bearing wrist truimphly "...and Zero."

Dumbledore chuckled at their childlike enthusiasm "Well?"

"Dad's alive." Arlene repeated, she wanted to repeat it until her tongue fell off "He's tracking Peter right now, should be here any minute now, whether he finds him or not."

The headmaster nodded "I will lock you in right now, and then I will be explaining to the minister why two dead men have resurfaced tonight."

The three of them stepped in where they'd been standing a few seconds –or was it three hours?- ago and listened intently as the locks on the large door turned.

It wasn't long before they heard Snape's yells.

The three of them simultaneously smiled.