Magic (5sos/l.h. Hogwarts AU)

Chapter 32

~A/N~ What a shit month, I just finished 24 exams and also relapsed so badly my body started breaking down and now I have to see a doctor but
Enjoy the chapter!
Leila xx

Most of the rest of the train ride was spent in silence, but once we had arrived at school the usual chat resumed.

"Did you see how the Dementor affected Michael?" Ashton whispered to me as we trod over the shining floor of the Entrance Hall. "It looked like he was having a fit."

"What do you mean?"

"Like, he was shaking and hyperventilating, like you do when you're upset. It was scary."

"Maybe it's because he's had the worst life experiences out of all of us," I reasoned. "When the Dementor was there, it felt like I was reliving all of my worst moments. Michael's worst moments must be so much worse than mine, so it probably affected him the most."

"I hope we don't run into another one."

"I doubt we will. It was probably looking for Sirius Black, and what are the chances he'll be at Hogwarts?"

"Ahmed! Irwin!" the sharp voice of Professor McGonagall floated over our heads and I flipped around to see her striding towards us, the usual tight expression on her face. "Come with me, please. And Miss Granger, if you would come too."

The others gave us strange looks and my heart dropped down to my feet as we followed her to her office. The last time I had been in the small room, I had spent the whole time in tears after finding out my best friend was dead, so my hopes were not high for this visit.

"Sit," the teacher instructed, and we did as she said. I smiled a silent greeting to Hermione, whom I hadn't seen since before the holidays, and she returned it.

"It has come to my attention that the three of you in particular are very interested in your studies," McGonagall said. "And, when the time came for you to choose the subjects you were to be taking this year, you picked more than any other students. Miss Granger, you chose all possible subjects, while Irwin and Miss Ahmed chose just one less.

"Now you have three options. As we cannot fit all the lessons into your timetable, the option I would advise would be to drop a subject, or in Miss Granger's case, drop two. However I doubt you would want to do that, so you could also either have several extra, one to one lessons at the weekend or in your spare time, or take a time turner.

"You must understand that this is an incredibly dangerous magical object that allows you to turn back time in order to attend lessons you may have missed - essentially, to be in two places at once. Yet with great power comes great responsibility, and I must warn you that abusing the use of this object does not come without great consequence.

"One wrong move could change the course of time, and I cannot even begin to explain what could happen if your past self were to see your future self. This option is very dangerous, and would require great care, so be careful which you choose."

There was a long, stretching silence during which the three of us quietly came to a decision. I had already ruled out option one - there was no way I would drop a subject. And so, in the end I came to the conclusion that I was far too curious to handle a time turner, and would definitely end up messing with the timeline just to see what would happen.

Ashton and Hermione, on the other hand, did not seem to want to give up their free time and instead chose to take the time turners. With that all out of the way, we thanked Professor McGonagall and were sent off to the start-of-year feast.

"Where have you been?" hissed Calum as we took our seats at the Gryffindor table.

"Oh, we've missed the Sorting," I said glumly instead of answering his question. Calum seemed to take this as a hint not to ask questions, and leaned back to take in the gaggle of new first years.