Twist of Fate

Prologue

August 1996

*Flashback*
"SIRIUS" I scream at the top of my lungs.
Across the room I hear the sound of the killing curse. In a fraction of a second the spell hits Sirius who falls through the veil.
"NO SIRIUS NO" I screamed again as Remus restrained me.

"I killed Sirius Black"
*End of the Flashback*

Suddenly I open my eyes, sweating and breathless. Since the school year ended, there hasn't been a night where I slept in a row without nightmares.
I keep reliving that moment as if it were yesterday. I dream of it every night hoping for a different ending and instead it repeats itself all over again.

I turn around in bed and see it's almost 4 in the morning from the alarm clock on the bedside table. I get up to go get a glass of water trying to make the least noise possible not to wake my cousin and my uncles. I couldn't take the third degree just for one glass of water.

I go down to the kitchen, I take a glass from the cupboard and I approach the tap to get some water. I drink while taking deep breaths and trying to calm down after last night's dream.
Once finished, I rinse the glass and put it back so as not to upset Aunt Petunia in case she found a dirty glass in the sink the next morning.

A noise comes from the door, more precisely from the mailbox as if someone had just inserted one.
I leave the kitchen to head for the door and see what might have caused that noise. Who would deliver mail at 4:00 in the morning?

An envelope lays on the mat as expected.
I lower myself to pick it up and notice my name written in italics on the back and nothing else.
I open the envelope and inside it I find a letter and a time turner. Which fool would send me to time turner?
Looking at it closely, I can see that it's slightly different from what Hermione had during our third year, but maybe this because there are more versions.
The last thing I have left to read is the letter so that I can figure out who ever sent me this in the middle of the night. To my surprise, however, the sender is nowhere written nor clues to understand who it is. There are only four words written: choose your own destiny.

________
August 1996
(a few days after)

*Flashback*
"SIRIUS" I scream at the top of my lungs.
Across the room I hear the sound of the killing curse. In a fraction of a second the spell hits Sirius who falls through the veil.
"NO SIRIUS NO" I screamed again as Remus restrained me.

"I killed Sirius Black"
*End of the Flashback*

I wake up again from the same nightmare. When will this all end?
I take a deep breath to calm me down and catch my breath. I get out of bed making the slightest noise and go down to the kitchen for a glass of water. At this rate, this is becoming my night routine.

While I'm drinking I think back to what happened a couple of nights ago and the letter I received. That night, when I got back to bed, I removed the incident and looked the other way. It didn't seem like something important, strange yes and certainly a bit suspicious too but after the last few months I wasn't going to start investigating a letter without a sender. And then the time turner was useless at that time since it could go back in time just a few hours.

A noise comes from the mailbox as if someone had just inserted one. Again?
I approach the door and find on the doormat another envelope identical to the previous one. Inside, however, this time there is only a letter with drawn what appear to be instructions.

I run into the room and sit on the bed to read and encode the message, now more intrigued than ever.
On the sheet of paper there is a stylized drawing of the time turner with an arrow pointing to the number 20.

I think back to the first letter and the message "choose your own destiny". Is this all a sign of destiny? Or is it a bad joke?
I take the time turner and turn it twenty times as indicated on the letter. The last thing I see is a beam of light and then darkness.