The Broken Time Turner

The Appearance of Eight

1996

There was a week until Christmas and everything was quite well and happy at the Burrow. Ginny had attacked the house with her paper chains and snowflakes, the boys taken quite a lot of pride in themselves when putting the ugly little gnome with the tu-tu on top of the tree, Remus was happy being with friends, Arthur and Bill had time off of work for the holidays, and Fleur and Molly hadn't strangled each other yet (which was a great accomplishment all on its own).

Right now everyone was in the sitting room talking and laughing. Ginny and George sat on the floor playing Exploding Snap. Remus and Molly were having a serious conversation about werewolf rights, while close by Arthur, Bill, and Fleur talked about work at Gringotts and the Ministry. And Fred, Harry, and Ron were laughing about how the Quidditch season is going and Weasley Wizard Weezes sales with a few breaks in the conversation as Ginny or George add something to it.

Then with a brilliant flash of light and a loud "thud" there was a pile of kids deposited nun-to lightly on the opposite side of the room with quite a lot of cries and shouts."I can't breath."-"Ow! That hurts!"-"What happened?"-"Get your foot out of my face, Hugo!" - "That isn't me!"-"James what did you do!"-"Nothing! Why does everyone always blame me!"-"Oh geez, I wonder why?"

The first to get to their feet was a tall 17 year old boy with bright turquoise hair, dark brown eyes, and a pale heart-shaped face. He didn't even glance at them just leaned down and quickly pulled two little kids (a boy and a girl) to their feet and knelt down in front of them. "Are you both okay? Is anything broken?" he askes them worriedly. The boy just shook his head and the girl said "I'm fine Teddy."

The older boy-Teddy?-visibly relaxed and smiled at them. They were both around 7, the boy was about half-a-head taller than the girl with a thick hedge of light brown hair, bright blue eyes, and a very freckled face. The girl though had light brown eyes, had almost as many (though fainter) freckles as the boy, and a sheet of brilliant flaming red hair that wouldn't be out of place on the Weasleys.

Next to them two more kids who were obviously brother and sister were brushing themselves off. This girl was fussing over her brother worse than Teddy with the two 7 year olds and definitely cared about him a lot. Both were very good-looking with long silvery blonde hair, jewel-like deep blue eyes,tall graceful structures, and pale flawless faces. And everyone started when they saw how much both looked like Fleur. The boy kept trying to calm down his sister but finally had to take her arms and shake her. "I swear I'm fine Victoire, calm down!"

Finally the people from the past looked at the final three children-two boys and one girl. The oldest was a boy with a thin freckled face, almond-shaped chocolate brown eyes that twinkled with mischeif behind by rectangular framed glasses, and extremely messy bright red hair. Next to him stood a girl with curly red hair, light blue eyes, and a splattering of barely noticable freckles across her nose and cheeks. By now the Weasley's and their guests were completely and thoroughly confused but those feelings were just heightened when they saw the final boy. Everyone let out an audible gasp. He was the spitting image of Harry. Unruly jet-black hair, brilliant gleaming green almond-shaped eyes, and a thin face.

There were a few notable differences between this stranger and Harry though-the boy wasn't quite as thin and malnourished as Harry,he wore no glasses but seemed to be able to see quite well, there was no scare one his forehead, he had more of an athletic build for a nine year old, and looked happy and well loved, possibly adored. But still...

"How did you break it James?" cried the girl with curly red hair talking to the red-headed boy who crossed his arms and exclaimed, "Me? Louis threw it!" He pointed to the blonde boy who looked outraged. "Well if you had caught it James!" he yelled back.

"I did and I don't know how it broke." James said his anger fading, despair choking out the curiousity and mischief in those bright brown eyes. Everyone, even those who didn't know him, felt bad for him. The Harry look alike spoke up then in a soft kind voice while holding out his hand. "Can I see it James?" James nodded "Sure, Al." Then he carefully stepped forward and placed a golden hour glass necklace in the younger boys hand. All the adults and Harry's eyes widened "A time turner!" Molly whispered.

Al turned it over in his hands gingerly as though it was going to explode at any moment. The side it was showing now had a large crack running through it. Al looked up frowning "It broke when it hit the bookshelf in dad's study remember?" All of the other strangers chorused a loud "OH!" and nodded as Al tucked the time turner into his pocket.

Then while he was looking up he seemed to catch sight of them finally. "Oh god this is worse than I thought." he moaned and all of the others swung around. "Dammit!" cried Teddy as Victoire stepped forward and asked in a trembling voice "Um, Wh-what year is it?"

A stunned silence filled the room until the twins burst out laughing. "What year is it? thats a good one." George gasped and Fred continued "How come we never thought of that?" they kept laughing until Bill said "You guys stop it! I think they're serious." Then he looked at them and gave a small smile albiet a confused one and answeres kindly "It's 1996 and could you tell us who you are and why you're here?"

Victoire tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear and cast a nervous look over at her brother and friends. Teddy stepped forward and said "Oh uh well there is no easy way to say th-" but Remus cut across him standing up and pulling out his wand "Wait we dont know who they are-who's to say they aren't Death Eaters?"

"D-death Eat-eaters?" Louis stuttred looking thoroughly confused the same time Molly cried "Dont be silly Remus they're just children." but there was an extremely worried note to her voice. Remus didn't respond he just kept his wand trained on them. James then shoved through everyone and stood right in between the wand point and his siblings "Hey I don't know who you are but if you keep pointing that wand at my little brother and sister your gonna find it somewhere very uncomfortable!" he growled angrily, and startled a Remus let his wand drop as (despite the serious situation) everyone burst out laughing amused that a 10 year old, short for his age, had let his redhead temper get the better of him and had yelled at a fully grown werewolf who was pointing a wand in his face.

After calming down Arthur stood up and placed a hand on Remus's shoulder. "How about we floo Dumbledore listen to their story and see what he thinks Remus?" Remus nodded still smiling slightly at the fact he had just been told off by this little boy, and Arthur quickly walked into the kitchen to floo Dumbledore. Remus then turned and sat down studying this new James who was now standing in between Al and the small redheaded girl talking to them softly.

A few minutes Arthur walked in Albus Dumbledore following right behind him. He looked at the time travelers with twinkling eyes and said warmly "Well I hear you have all caused quite a disturbence here at the Burrow. Would you like to tell us how you came to be here?" All of the kids stared in awe at the man Al was named after for a few seconds until Teddy said hesitaintly "You won't belive us but we're from the future 2014 to be exact."

Everyone sat there gaping at him until Dumbledore muttered while nodding "Yes hes telling the truth I can tell." Bill looked at him confused "Are you serious Professor? Time Travel over years. Thats impossible!"

"Well you'll just have to trust me Mr. Weasley because I can assure you they are telling the truth and we should now hear the incredible story of how they got here." Dumbledore said. They did all trust him and now they all believed that these kids had come from the future. Murmuring their consent they looked at Teddy expectantly. He shifted his feet slightly then said "Well it started when we were..."