She held the pendant in her hands, her heart thudding loudly beneath her black robe. She could feel the intricate design on the metal, the engraved lines softened with years of fingering. The golden circlet throbbed in her hands, its smooth glass centre thumping softly against her palms like a beating heart. She brushed her thumb against the round of metal, willing herself to wait. But her fingers twitched around the pendant, the fingers of a goody-two-shoes who was about to break all the rules ever made in Hogwarts. She quickened her step up the stairs, her black robe billowing behind her. If she had calculated correctly, this would only work on the Astronomy tower.

The moon was a round disc by the time she reached the Astronomy tower. A million stars scattered across the sky, a few streaking across the darkness like comets before fizzing out. She stepped up and out into the balcony, letting the November winds whip at her face. It had to work here. She lifted her chin to stare at the streaking lights, placing her prayers on a shooting star. Her long fingers, numb from the chill of winter, fumbled with the locket in her hand. The hourglass shape embedded in the middle of the locket gleamed beneath the moonlight, blinding her momentarily. She tightened her grasp on the hourglass, and began to twist it. Exactly how long each twist was worth, she wasn’t sure. But natural instinct told her to stop at the fifteenth revolution and wait. With an almost inaudible hum, the Astronomy tower was empty. Minerva McGonagall had faded into the darkness, her hands clutched around the time turner.

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A Harry Potter fanfiction, this story follows a young Minerva McGonagall as she entered her second year at Hogwarts, her adventures and her invention of an object that defied time. During this year, a certain young man started his first year at Hogwarts, an orphaned boy called Tom Marvolo Riddle. Amidst World War II, Minerva had to deal with not only the normal happenings of a Hogwarts student but with something much bigger. For silence about her secret will lead to a pact with the most dangerous of them all.

updated Jul 28 '11 by HeyJude