SIYE Time:3:46 on 5th December 2024 SIYE Login: no | | |
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A Time Turner in the Muggle World By harrystwin1
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Category: Alternate Universe
Characters:Harry/Ginny
Genres: Fluff, Humor
Warnings: None
Story is Complete
Rating: PG
Reviews: 5
Summary: AU Meet Shelby Curtis, a muggle who recieves a magical time turner with a package of Harry Potter memorabilia. When she discovers it really works will it take her to meet the real Harry Potter?
Hitcount: Story Total: 4421
Disclaimer: Harry Potter Publishing Rights © J.K.R. Note the opinions in this story are my own and in no way represent the owners of this site. This story subject to copyright law under transformative use. No compensation is made for this work.
Author's Notes: This is a oneshot that I hope you will all enjoy before the last book comes out in a couple of weeks. Thanks for reading and let me know what you think
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The impatient knock on my door this morning had me scurrying to turn down I tunes and drop the cleaning rag I was using to scrub the counter tops of my home. I yanked off the gloves I was wearing, hollered “I’m coming,” at whoever was pounding on the door, and tripped over the orange tabby cat.
“Damn it,” I yelled when I almost fell into the front door. Damn cat. I swear she’s trying to kill me so there’s no one between her and my husband, whom she seems to adore. I see the way she looks at me, all smug and - well cat-like! She runs between my feet trying to trip me every chance she gets.
I pushed back the hair that was pasted to my forehead with sweat, and glared at the UPS man standing on the other side of the door when I opened it. He was a small man with hair so blond it was white and little beady blue eyes. Now I have seen my share of UPS guys, and some them can really fill out the uniform if you know what I mean, this man didn’t. He was too fat to wear shorts that length, and the sunburn -well lets just say it didn’t improve my mood any to see him there.
“Shelby Curtis,” he said in a bored drawl. He didn’t even make eye contact. He didn’t wait for me to answer, just held out a package he carried, and that stupid electronic thing you have to sign with a pencil that has no real lead. Have you ever seen what your signature looks like after using one of those pencils?
Anyway I digress, I took the package signed for it, and squealed when I saw the return address and the name of the company on the label. “Ma’am is everything alright?” He asked with a bit more interest in his eyes.
“Is everything alright, everything is wonderful. I could kiss you.” I gushed.
He went tomato red and said after a hard swallow, “Ah ma’am that won’t be necessary, I’m just doing my job.”
“I envy you,” I sighed clutching the package to my chest and stroking it like it was my long lost child.
“Why,” he asked looking extremely bewildered.
“Because you get to bring happiness to the masses in the form of Harry Potter memorabilia,” I was almost dancing, and he was now looking at me as if I belonged in the nearest psychiatric ward. I was used to looks like that. I got them all the time from my friends. It isn’t easy pushing forty and being a rabid Harry Potter fan.
“You must be so excited for next month,” I told him. He blinked in surprise and said. “What are you talking about lady, what’s next month?”
“You know… the seventh Harry Potter novel is coming out.” I said as if everyone was supposed to be as excited about it as I was.
He pulled out a red bandana from his left pocket and wiped off his face. It was unusually hot for this time of year and he seemed to be suffering from it‘s effects. “You’re kidding me right,” he said, his face now purple with indignation. He looked like a large, overripe plum.
It didn’t occur to me to realize that he might not be as happy as I was about the impending arrival of the end of an era. I mean, everyone was excited, weren’t they? “Well no… I’m not kidding you; it’s a great moment in history.” What was the matter with this guy?
“You’re nuts!” He turned to leave then he stopped turned around and came back. He pointed a finger at me and said hoarsely. “I’ve worked for this company for ten years and every time on of those damn books comes out, my route doubles. I have to brave dogs, cats, and the occasional hedgehog. Then there are the screaming kids. The only day that’s worse is Christmas Eve, so don’t you tell me I should be happy. Bring happiness to the masses my foot!” He stopped for breath, and before I could comment on his tirade he was down the street and into his van. Who knew someone so pudgy could move so fast?” I only shrugged my shoulders, and mumbled to myself that he hadn’t given me the chance to ask him if he thought that Harry and Ginny would get back together before the hunt for the Horcruxes began. Some people are so rude!
Avoiding the murderous cat, I went into the kitchen and sat down at the table. I caressed the box in my hand as if it were my husband before the surgery. I placed it on the table and just savored looking at it.
I was thrilled when I had bought the DVD of the latest movie, and there was a small catalogue of Magic Wands, Time Turners, The Final Challenge chess set, Gringotts Bank Coin Collection, and a small replica of The Mirror of Erised. Of course I had to get one of everything, my husband will squeal like a little girl when the bill comes, and probably threaten divorce, but I don’t care. He doesn’t understand that these are collector’s items.
I finally opened the box and removed the packing material. I lifted out the wands first, one for Ron, one for Hermione and one for Harry. They all had a replica Ollivander wand boxes to store them in. I opened the box that held the replica of Harry’s wand, and when I picked it up it seemed like it really did vibrate in my hand.
Now that is just silly Shelby, stop imagining things.
I put is down on the table and removed the next item from the box. It was the Gringotts Bank Coin Collection. I’ll have to hide them or Craig will try to sell them on E-Bay. Next there was the Chess set and it was beautiful, the pieces were made out of pewter and exquisitely rendered. It looked just like the movies. The mirror of Erised was next; it stood sixteen and a half inches high and was lovely. I got up from the table to take it to its place of honor on the mantle piece. I took out the Time Turner last; it was a pendant just like Hermione’s in the book, with twenty four carat gold plating.
I was going to put it on, and see if it would turn like the catalog promised, when I noticed the clock on the wall. Damn, I needed to go grocery shopping, and I hadn’t even finished cleaning the kitchen yet. I didn’t want to stop playing with my new toys, but I had to get my chores done. I reluctantly packed everything away in the box till I could find a place for my treasures, and went back to the counter top I had been cleaning.
Of course when my husband returned home from work that evening, he had a fit at the sight of all of my new treasures. “Shelby, you can’t just buy all of this stuff because you have the itch. All of this cost’s good money you know. You don‘t work and you seem to think that the money I bring home grows on trees.”
I took my place on the couch to watch the evening news while he ranted on and on about the cost of everything from gasoline to bread. It was beginning to get very tiresome, till he said really sarcastically. “I wish there were such things as wizards, we could do with a bit of the Goblin’s Gold right now, wouldn’t you say.”
“You can’t steal from Gringotts; it’s protected by spells and enchantments.” I said, noticing that his face was going red.
“That’s it, you are in way too deep in this fantasy world, and I want it to stop.” He ordered me, is if he could tell me to do anything.
“Yeah well I wish magic were real so I could try a Bat-Bogey Hex on you.”
“There’s a witty comeback, did you think that up all by yourself?” He sat on the opposite side of the couch and picked up the paper. We couldn’t have a conversation without him looking at the God forsaken paper while we screamed at each other. I suddenly wished the pictures in the paper could move that would freak him out.
“Craig… is that your answers to everything insult me and then look at your paper.”
“I wouldn’t have to look at the paper if you’d listen to me for once, but I know that’s not going to happen,” he shot back before opening up the sports section.
“Oh for the love of Mike would you look at that the Rockies are -” He began his nightly rant at his favorite sports teams, and that was my cue to leave, or stay and be ignored. I chose to stay because I knew it would irritate him. I wondered if Ginny and Harry would get back together, and I thought at that moment that I wouldn’t wish marriage on anyone, not even my favorite fictional characters.
I stayed where I was because I hoped that Craig would apologize for disparaging the Potter universe. He didn’t, he just ignored me and changed the channel to his favorite TV program when done with the paper. That was my cue to leave.
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Two days passed before I was able to get around to putting my treasured memorabilia away. I took the box into the living room, and began to unpack it a second time. I took more time to look over the wands. I put the one that looked like Harry’s wand into my back pocket. I could almost hear Mad-Eye Moody say something sarcastic about wand safety. The other wands went back into their boxes.
I looked over the Mirror of Erised, polishing the glass surface with a clean rag, and wishing that I could look into its depths, and see the deepest desire of my heart. I think it was Dumbledore that said that it didn’t do to dwell on dreams and forget to live. It went back to its place on the shelf.
The chess set was lovely, and looked exactly like the one created for the movie. I wished that the figurines could move and speak. I speculated about what they would have told me if they could.
I set aside the Gold Coins, wondering what to do with them. I began to think that I needed a glass front cabinet to display all of this stuff, instead of leaving it all over the house. I lifted out the time turner, and put the pendant around my neck.
When I got to the bottom of the box I noticed something I hadn’t seen before, it was an envelope of heavy cream colored parchment. I took it out and there was a logo on the front of it. It was the name of the company that sold the knick knacks I had purchased. I opened the envelope, and extracted the parchment within. I unfolded it and noticed it was a letter of the sort that sometimes came with these types of purchases
Dear Fan of Harry Potter,
Your purchase of the products of the Universe of Harry Potter, has entitled you to a special offer from Gallant Products Inc. Enclosed with this letter you will find a spell that will allow you, a Muggle, to experience real magic. The spell is designed to allow your Time Turner to take you anywhere and anywhen and bring you back. This is a one time only offer, so choose your path wisely friend, you never know where it will take you.
Your’s sincerely,
Thaddeus Temple
Owner and CEO
Of course I laughed, who wouldn’t, there was no such thing as real magic. I put aside the first page of parchment and read the second one that was written in neon purple ink.
Repeat the following spell and turn your Time Turner three times.
Chains of time unlock for me
Give me the path that only I can see
Take me where my heart would be
Show the world hidden from me
I put the page down on the kitchen table and laughed. I have to admit that I haven’t had such a good laugh in a long time. I picked up the page and read the spell again, this time out loud. It was ridiculous, it wouldn’t work, how I could expect it to. It was about that time that I noticed a very warm sensation where the pendant hung against my chest, but I refused to look down. I tried to tell myself that it was only my imagination, but something was pulling my eyes down to the pendant.
I gasped in wonder at what I saw. The golden Time Turner was glowing like it had been lit from within. I seemed to hear a voice telling me to turn it. I resisted, if there were such thing as real magic, who knew where I would end up if I did as the spell wanted me to do.
I went to the living room, and snapped on the TV; maybe some daytime television would distract me. Unfortunately all the plots on these shows are too predictable, and didn’t help to shut out the compulsion that was getting stronger all the time. I looked down and it was still glowing, becoming brighter with each passing moment.
I picked up my favorite book and started to read, out loud, hoping the sound of the words would shut out what was driving me to use the Time Tuner. It was no use; even my favorite author couldn’t help me now.
I started to remind myself in a loud voice of what had happened to Harry and Hermione when they used a time turner. Hermione had reminded Harry that terrible things happened to wizards that played around with time. What if I went where I wanted to go and something awful happened?
That was crazy thinking. The spell wasn’t real, it couldn’t be. Magic was a fairytale, and Harry Potter was the creation of the wonderful imagination of one talented woman. I picked up the time turner and turned it three times. The next thing I knew the living room was fading around me, and I had time to say to myself. “Bloody Hell!” before it disappeared completely.
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When the room stopped spinning and returned to normal in front of me, I didn’t realize at first, what I was seeing. I was so dizzy I could hardly make sense of it. I thought I might faint, or that I had already fainted. What I was seeing couldn’t be right, I staggered forward and an arm came around my shoulders to steady me.
“What the hell,” I said, feeling for a moment like I had just come off a bender.
“You’re in the Ministry of Magic.” I was pushed down into a chair, and the person speaking to me moved into my line of sight. She wore her flame red hair in a messy bun on the top of her head. Her face was lightly freckled and her cinnamon eyes were very kind, but she also had the look of someone you didn’t mess with.
“Look sister, I’m not stupid, there is no such thing as a Ministry of Magic.” I tried to give her one of my patented “you’re crazy” looks. It didn’t faze her; she met my gaze without flinching.
“Well… luv I guess the direct approach isn’t going to work this time.” The voice I heard was male, and distinctly British.
“I told you that we had to be more careful with Muggles, but you insisted that we had to shock them.”
Them… who was she talking about, and she was English too. How had this happened? I couldn’t possibly be where they said I was, but the evidence of my eyes was undeniable.
A man stepped in front of me from my left, and I was rendered speechless for the first time in my life. He was medium height and build. His hair was black and his eyes were the deepest green I had ever seen. He wore a goatee, and a mustache. The hair was unruly and he wore glasses, but it was the lightening shaped scar I could see peeking out from under his hair that told me who he was.
This couldn’t be true or real. I was asleep or having hallucinations! In no scenario was I sitting in a room with parchment covering the desk, a white owl perched on the filing cabinet, and memos flying into the room and back out again. Paper simply didn’t fly under its own power! The owl hooted at me and the look on her face or the set of her beak told me that she was Hedwig. My head was beginning to spin.
I looked back at the man in front of me. He hadn’t moved or spoken while I looked around the office. “Harry Potter, I presume.” I said a bit breathlessly. It didn’t matter how I got there, I was sitting in front of a fictional character and talking to him like he was any man on the street.
“Yes ma’am, but you have me at a disadvantage, may I ask your name.” His voice was low and pleasant, and I could feel a blush creeping up my neck. I wanted to sink into the floor. I tried to remind myself that this was Harry Potter, and I was - well I was me, a married Muggle who was twelve years older then him.
“I’m… My name is Shelby Curtis.” This I blurted out louder than I had intended. God… this wasn’t going well at all.
“Miss Curtis, I’m afraid I have to be perfectly blunt. Do you know how you got here and why?” He pushed his glasses up on his nose and regarded me kindly.
“I don’t know really, I got this package you see and there was a time turner and a spell. I swear I didn’t know it would really work or I wouldn’t have messed around with it.” I couldn’t look at him, only down at my hands.
“You’re American, right?” The red headed woman asked me. She pulled a chair up next to mine and sat down. She smiled up at Harry and I envied her. So they had mended their relationship, one could see it just looking at them together.
“Yeah, I am. Look… I’m sorry, but how did I get here. Even if the time turner is real somehow, it takes you through time, not through space. I assume I’m in London, right?” I was trying hard to keep my voice steady; I didn’t think it was working.
“First, my name is Ginny Potter and this is my husband. He is the head of Magical Law Enforcement and you should know I am an Obliviater.”
“What is it; you look like you’re not surprised.” She asked when I smiled at her.
“I’m not, you have a wicked talent with Bat-Bogey Hexes, and so this seems like a natural progression, that’s all. I watched her give Harry a significant look.
“Wait a minute; you don’t seem surprised to see me, just when and where am I?”
“It’s July 21st 2007 and you’re in London, the Time Turner was also a port key.” Harry explained, and the anger I saw flare in his eyes made my heart flutter a little and not in a good way.
“I still don’t understand,” I got up and walked to the cabinet where Hedwig was perched. She hooted at me, and somehow hearing her gentle sounds convinced me this was real.
“Miss Curtis I -”
“Mr. Potter, please call me Shelby.” I returned to my own chair and sat down, dodging another memo that zoomed into the room. I noticed several smoldering remains of what looked like exploded Howlers and my curiosity ratcheted up another notch. Just what was going on?
“Alright Shelby, but only if you call me Harry we don’t stand on ceremony here.”
“So what happened, how did I work magic?” Maybe I was really a witch and just didn’t know it. I thought to myself.
“You received a letter from a Thaddeus Temple, yes.” Harry asked pushing his glasses up on his face again. I wondered why wizards couldn’t cure bad eyesight.
“Yes, I did.”
“He works in the Department of Mysteries, and is a bit over eager in his experimentations. He combined about three dozen Time Turners with port keys, and sent them out to unsuspecting Muggle to see how well they worked. We still don’t know what he hoped to accomplish. We’ve been working day and night to retrieve them before they got some poor Muggle lost in time or killed. So far we had retrieved them all, accept yours. You were the only Muggle in the United States to receive one. You used it before our American counterparts could be notified and sent to retrieve it. Lucky for us, you turned up here.”
I still couldn’t believe this was happening to me. There was no such thing as Wizards, were there?
“But I don’t understand, magic isn’t real, this has to be a dream or…”
“I assure you that it’s not.” Ginny countered pulling her wand from her robes.
“Harry let’s get this over with, we need to modify her memory and send her back to where she came from.”
“Please, before you do that, can’t I just ask you some questions? I know you have to erase my memory so it won’t hurt you to tell me how all of this is possible. I’ve already figured out that Harry was successful in killing Lord Voldemort, what harm is it if you tell me what I want to know about yourselves.”
I watched them look at each other again and again some silent communication passed between them. They looked at each other with such love it brought tears to my eyes.
“Are you okay?” Harry asked me pulling a handkerchief from his pocket and handing it to me.
“Thanks, I’m alright, it’s just good to know that you to make it through the last battle and end up together. A lot of people that read the books aren’t sure about that or weren‘t sure about that, I‘m not sure what tense to use now that I‘m two weeks into the future.”
I saw Ginny wink and Harry and then he began to chuckle. “What is so funny?” I wondered why they were laughing; I thought their break up in the Half-blood Prince was very serious.
“Shelby, what you have to understand is that the woman you know as JK Rowling is a bit over dramatic. Yes… we did break up, but Ginny here convinced me what a prat I was at Bill and Fleur’s wedding and we’ve never looked back.”
“So how did you meet JK Rowling?” I asked leaning forward in my chair and watching their every move.
“Well… you see Jo is a Muggle like yourself, but her best friend is a witch. They went to primary school together and when her friend got her letter to Hogwarts, she told Jo. When Voldemort came to power the ministry needed a way to fund the fight. So they told her about me and my parents. The agreement was that the proceeds from the books went to the wizarding world and Jo would get a two percent fee to write the story. We trusted her because she never revealed her friends secret.”
I interrupted rather indignantly, “But they say she’s worth over a billion dollars, that can’t be right because if it is that means…”
“Yes, you’re right, that means the books and the movies have made much more money then anyone ever dreamed. The goblins at Gringotts are masters at hiding the true figures.” Harry said laughing at my mouth which was hanging open in shock. I closed it.
“If not for her, we couldn’t have rebuilt Hogwarts when Voldemort and his Death Eaters destroyed it.” Ginny told me. I was flabbergasted by all of this. My head felt like it was going to explode!
“You see why we have to modify your memory. You will read the true story in the next book, but we can’t let the details get out before it’s released.” Harry said nodding to Ginny.
“But wait, what will happen to me, how will I get home?”
“Don’t worry Shelby; we’ll see that you get home.” Ginny raised her wand. “Sorry about this,” she said, and the look in her eyes told me that she was sorry to do this. Then she shouted “Obliviate” and all went dark around me.
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As I sit here and write this account in my journal, I can’t believe it happened to me. I know you wonder why I remember. I don’t know for sure myself. I only know that I woke up in my living room just minutes after I had left with the Time Turner. I couldn’t remember anything until eighteen days later when I got the new book. I started to read it and all the memories came back some how.
Harry and Ginny needn’t worry though; I will never tell anyone that magic is real. If anyone reads this they’ll think it’s more of my wild imagination as a writer and laugh at me. That’s okay though, I know the truth. Maybe one day I’ll see them again, and I can hear more of the adventures of Harry and Ginny Potter.
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