Disclaimer: I don't own anything except for the OCs. The world of Harry Potter was created by J. K. Rowling and I'm just borrowing her characters and settings for my readers' and my own enjoyment.

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1. Tonks hates time magic

or where Tonks is clumsy and Time-Turners are fragile

Tonks didn't expect to see Mundungus Fletcher ever again after Harry confronted the thief. She envisioned the man staying in the dark, not showing his face, maybe even skipping the country. With the war going badly, she mostly wasn't sure he was ready to be a known member of the Order and not because he was frightened by a sixteen-year-old. She should have known better than to think that the man would just disappear. Mundungus was a coward, but even the thought of money was enough to give him courage. Maybe he was even a tiny bit loyal to the Order – or at least to Dumbledore. She never enquired what the old wizard had done for the thief that got Dung involved with the Order, but now she was burning with curiosity. The old man seemed to have a way to ensnare the most unlikely people to the cause with his mind magic. (Snape?!)

Still, she hadn't seen Mundungus for months and to be honest she wouldn't have minded another few either. Luck hadn't been on her side recently though. Ever since the death of Sirius she felt that nothing was going the way she would have liked. Remus stupidly insisted that they shouldn't be together and ran off to play house with feral werewolves while having the excuse of helping the Order. Then there was the Ministry as well - while they acknowledged You-Know-Who's existence by now, they still downplayed the danger and tried to play political games instead of focusing on an existing war.

She felt like You-Know-Who and his minions were getting stronger every day, his army bigger and bigger while she was stuck in a limbo, a continuous existence of grey. She didn't mind having been stationed as an Auror at Hogsmeade as part of the protection of the students of Hogwarts or patrolling the corridors of the school for Dumbledore, but she felt that the school year had greatly progressed and they were no closer to defeating You-Know-Who than they were after the Battle of the Department of Mysteries last year. When the Ministry was denying that You-Know-Who was back it always seemed to her that the moment they realized they were wrong, the Light side would win. It was, of course, a stupid notion, but now that the Ministry indeed accepted that they weren't rid of the evil wizard, it was no better – the Order was still frowned upon even.

She faced Mundungus Fletcher with such dark thoughts. He was standing in the shadows in an alley with another dark-clothed man bending over a weathered suitcase. If it was anyone else than Dung, Tonks would have suspected him to be a Death Eater. Knowing the man though, he was just doing his usual business – not that his everyday job wasn't illegal according to the Ministry regulations. Knowing that as an Auror it was still her job to make sure the citizens of wizarding Britain abided by the Ministry's regulations, she made her way quickly towards the pair.

At moments like this, she greatly missed her ability to change her appearance – the same ability that hasn't exactly worked ever since Sirius' death reminded her of what was going on and Remus broke her heart just because he was being stupid, a self-sacrificing prat. Trying to focus on what was going on she quickly made her way towards the pair. She raised her wand, but before she could have done anything the buyer suddenly looked up and he noticed her, Disapparating with a cracking sound. Mundungus was obviously surprised by the sound and let go of the suitcase as an automatic reaction to the loud and close noise. It was full of old and most probably magical junk. She suspected at least part of the stuff in there were from the Black family home he raided after Sirius' death. She wouldn't be surprised if this was the case Harry caught him with a few months prior.

Some of the antiques fell out of the suitcase and landed on the ground surrounding Mundungus with various sound effects probably based on their material. She disarmed the smuggler before he could collect his junk and disappear not unlike what he did when Harry confronted him. The wand flew out of his hand, but it landed among the stuff that spilt out of the case. At the same moment, they both leapt towards it.

"Stupefy," she pointed her wands towards the short wizard with bandy legs and long, straggly ginger hair. Mundungus fell over like a sack of potatoes. With Voldemort on the loose the Ministry had much bigger problems than the likes of Mundungus. Especially as while half the things the man did on regular basis were completely against all magical laws, he was the member of a secret organization working on bringing down the real evil guy.

So as useless and worthless Mundungus sometimes seemed – not to mention bad – he was essentially not only the lesser evil but a good guy as well. He was pretty well-informed and well-known in the shadier circles. With Death Eaters running around freely it seemed like such a waste to throw an Order member in Azkaban just for doing some stupid and highly illegal business. Tonks knew well that the Ministry was not exactly fair nowadays. To make it seem like it was a capable institution they were ready to throw everyone in Azkaban (except for Death Eaters as they were harder to catch and keep under lock).

So, Tonks didn't really have the heart to take Mundungus to the Ministry. She couldn't leave him in the alley when he had lost his consciousness, not when Death Eaters were around either. She supposed she could take him directly to Dumbledore – who was probably the only person on Earth Mundungus respected in some form – or take him to the Order Headquarters directly.

She supposed Dumbledore made more sense if they ever wanted to see him again. She was pretty sure if she left him at the Order's building, by the time someone got there, he wouldn't be around. First, as he was out for a while, as an Auror she insisted on getting a look at his goods. She was sure Dumbledore would take care of the stuff as well, but she still wanted to make sure there was nothing extra bad or very important among the stuff. She might need some back-up otherwise. The potential buyer might want something so badly that he came back and took it by force after all. Plus, she felt that Mundungus was more loyal to his wallet than towards the Order.

There were countless pieces of silverware with the Black family crest. However, what first caught Tonks' attention among the stuff was a necklace that gleamed like gold. When she reached for it, her hands were shaking. She picked it up by the chain and touched the glass. To her greatest alarm, it seemed like the glass was cracked and the natural gleaming got stronger. To make it worse, the chain itself was getting hotter by the second, as if it was currently being trained by fire. In her fright at the discovery and the burning sensation of holding it, she accidentally let go of it. Instead of falling in the suitcase which was about a foot away from her it met with the ground at her feet with a shockingly loud cracking sound and the necklace's glass literally exploded with not only glass pieces speeding in the air, but with a strange heat wave. She was surprised that no pain came – somehow none of the glass pieces seemed to have reached her. She took a look at Mundungus and he seemed equally spared from blood dripping down on him and looking like a glass hedgehog.

She bent down and reached for the remaining of the necklace while noting the strange sand on the ground was still gleaming in the same golden light. In hindsight, it was a bad idea. The moment she touched the necklace, her fingers brushed against the sand on the ground. The last thing she saw was Mundungus lying on the ground like he was sleeping soundlessly. The sand started gleaming even more brightly. She jerked her hand back and closed her eyes to protect them from the sudden bright light which was blindingly strong.

She felt strangely weightless and light headed all of a sudden. She couldn't keep standing, her entire body was shaking, not keeping her weight and she collapsed like she had been just hit by a stunning spell. A stunning spell, that had to be it.

"Ma'am, are you alright? Do you need a healer?" The voice seemed very distant. "Madam?" It seemed to be getting closer though and somewhat stronger.

"Do you need medical attention, ma'am?" Now she was certain that she was the one being asked, but she couldn't open her mouth or even eyes. Someone started shaking her and this time she felt strong enough to open her eyes. The first thing he noticed that she was being shaken by a man who was oddly familiar.

"Ah, you are awake!" He seemed rather relieved at the thought. She was able to conjure a slight smile on her face.

"Yeah – th-thank you," she replied, her voice shaking a bit. "D-do you know what happened to me?" He was silent for a moment as he let go of her and he took a step backwards. She needed only a moment to realize that she was still in the same alley in Hogsmeade as previously, but nor Mundungus neither his case with the spilt goods was anywhere. Instead, she was half-lying, half-sitting in an awkward position on the ground.

"No – not really. I only saw a sudden bright light coming from the alley as I was passing by and then you on the ground. I suspect that you were hit by some spell and the perpetrator slipped away. Though, I don't think he Apparated, because I heard nothing," he explained, though Tonks had no clue what was going on. While Mundungus hated everyone at the Ministry who had any power against petty criminals like him, she was pretty sure that he wouldn't leave her on the ground like that – not when she was supposed to be guarding Hogwarts on Dumbledore's behalf. While as an Auror it was her duty to stop Dung's business meetings, they were essentially on the same side. She was sure that Mundungus knew she wouldn't turn him in so he had no reason to just slip away like that.

Was she attacked by Death Eaters then? She was about to send a Patronus to Dumbledore, but she didn't want an eye-witness, even if the said witness seemed to want to help her. It was wartime which sadly meant that no one could be trusted outside of their small circle. Even sadder was that sometimes that small circle had traitors too. Could Mundungus be that for the reformed Order of Phoenix?

"Thank you for your help," she muttered. She hesitantly stood up and realized that she was still not completely coordinated. While trying to find her footing she spent a bit more time on trying to put a name to the face or at least to remember where she had seen him before. She didn't think that it was this man who attacked her, but it was bad enough that she had been knocked out once already; she had to be more careful now. The one who did knock her out could still be around after all. She had to have more information.

"It was nothing," he insisted. "Are you sure you don't need to go to Saint Mungo's?" he asked and she shook her head, but that made her dizzy, so she leaned against the cool wall of the alley. If she was going anywhere, it was to Hogwarts – she could personally tell Dumbledore what went on with Mundungus and maybe get checked out by the matron if she still felt bad after the private audience with the headmaster.

"And what about at least sitting down for a while in my shop? It's right around the corner," he suggested. She now recognized the bald man – the owner of Honeydukes, the widely popular sweets shop of Hogsmeade. She spent long hours in his shop during the Hogsmeade trips with her friends while at school. Something was off with him though. He was still wearing a hat on his bald head and he had on a long brown robe, but his face seemed less lined as if another war wasn't just going on so soon after the first one. He seemed much younger this way.

"Ah, Honeydukes," she brightened. She straightened her back and he caught sight of her standard Auror robe which obviously unsettled him. She had a feeling that the reason behind it wasn't that he had something to hide from the Ministry, but because that meant whatever she faced in that alley was enough to take down a qualified Auror. She knew that she was upset about the implications of the situation as well. "Mr Flume, right?"

"Yes, yes," he forced a smile on his face. "And you are Auror –" he trailed off obviously waiting for her name which she provided fairly easily, just not the real one. Mad-Eye had forbidden her to go around telling her real name to adult, qualified witches and wizards as long as she was unable to morph. She found it a bit paranoid, but as she was deeply disturbed by the loss of her ability, she agreed. It was wartime after all and even the candy man could have a dark agenda. It was also strange to always have the same appearance – a bit unsettling for someone who spent her whole life changing it up.

"Auror Turner," she said easily. Turner was one of the most common surnames in Muggle Britain, but there were enough traces of the name in the magical community so her blood status couldn't be guessed easily. She could just as easily be a half-blood as a Muggle-born, she was pretty sure that there might even be a few quasi-pure-blood Turners around. It felt a bit absurd to be so paranoid, but she had to remind herself that she was just a kid when the war ended, sheltered from the whole affair. Now less than a year after the open war has started once again, she already sensed that her mentor's paranoia had some solid roots.

"So, would you like a hot chocolate in my modest shop?" he asked with a genuine smile that must have been the result of her Auror status. These days everyone aware of what was really going on in the wizarding world was more cautious with strangers. However, people seemed to trust Aurors – they were supposed to be the dark wizard catchers after all. Tonks herself knew that with the Ministry not entirely on the right side it was a bit more complicated than that idea, but she still understood those who felt at ease once they realized she was trained to stop the dark arts users.

"Thank you for your offer Mr Flume, but I need to look around here," she gestured towards the alley. "Just to make sure that our village is safe and sound." She also needed to see Dumbledore, she added to herself making a mental list. Maybe even Mad-Eye, the old man would hate to miss some action if there was to be any around Hogsmeade and Hogwarts. Though to be honest she didn't want to face her mentor knowing how she was obviously stunned by someone who left without a trace.

Trace – there could still be one, she supposed, she didn't need to be that negative. With a smile and another 'thank you' she bid goodbye to Mr Flume and turned towards the dark alley. The first thing she noticed that while the ground was filthy the blinding sand she foolishly touched (one of her last memories before being stunned) was not there at all. It was all just filth and grime. She also noted that there was no trace of any of the goods Mundungus dropped. If he was the mastermind behind the loss of her consciousness then the guy was good in cleaning up after himself. If he wasn't then she didn't really want to know what happened to the missing thief, it was probably not pretty. She added to the growing list she had to do to look for Mundungus – he was an Order member after all. If he was kidnapped then he could give up important information.

She did some basic detection spells such as Specialis Revelio and Homenum Revelio. She was alone in the dark alley and she couldn't detect any charms or hexes left behind. The whole affair with that annoying thief, Mundungus seemed like a lifetime ago. There really didn't seem to be any trace of what went on.

She left the alley with an air of uncertainty, but she straightened her back and tried to look confident. She was stationed in the village to protect its people and the students close by. She was supposed to have the air of someone who could be trusted to keep everyone safe. She had to step up, couldn't look as uncertain as she felt. Not to mention that maybe she was just making it a bigger issue than it was. Maybe Mundungus really just wanted a way out of the Order and got her out of the way before she could report him to Dumbledore.

However, no matter how many times she told herself that Mundungus was a git who only cared about money, she still felt unsettled. She could fairly easily accept that Dung hexed her, but a deeper layer of her consciousness in the form of an annoying little voice nagged her that there was more to the story. She entered the Three Broomstick in need of butterbeer. (Honestly, she would have preferred something stronger, but she was on duty, plus if she had a concussion or at least hit her had then some real alcohol was probably best not consumed.)

She entered the popular pub which was now pretty empty as it was in the middle of a weekday. It was still cosy and warm though which immediately cheered up Tonks. It was nice to know that even in the middle of a war one could appreciate a good butterbeer.

"Hey! What can I get you?" Madam Rosmerta asked with a polite smile. Tonks looked up at the woman and was once again stunned. Rosmerta was always a desirable witch, a curvy sort of woman with a pretty face and high heels. Not one of Tonks' mates during school had a crush on the barmaid. However, now she looked even better – like she was about ten years younger at least. Only a few days ago Tonks ventured into the pub and then Rosmerta looked completely different, clearly shaken by everything that has been going on.

However, it wasn't Madam Rosmerta's appearance that turned Tonks into a statue, but a pair of – boys. They approached the barmaid from the direction of the door and Tonks noted that Rosmerta was shaking her head and had a fond smile when she noticed the boys. They were both wearing standard Hogwarts uniform with the red and gold of Gryffindor crest. That itself caused one or two other patrons to look up, probably because after a Gryffindor girl was cursed during the first Hogsmeade trip of the year, the future visits of the students to the village were cancelled. Even if the patrons didn't know that if they ever attended the school of witchcraft and wizardry then they had to remember that the village was always visited during the weekends. Hogwarts students were not supposed to be in Hogsmeade during the weekdays.

They were obviously around the sixth or seventh year, nearly adults, maybe by the law they already were. It was the faces that had shaken Tonks. One was tall, well-built, darkly handsome boy with fair skin, medium-length, lustrous black hair, striking grey eyes and an air of casual elegance. He stepped into the pub and seemed already to own it with his easy smile. If the first face reminded her of someone, the sight of the second stepped on her heart and crushed it into tiny pieces. He was tall as well but seemed to disappear behind the ego of his companion. Behind the previous boy probably only Hagrid couldn't hide. The second one's face was pale with premature lines and he had light brown hair. Tonks didn't really need to stare at him to know that he had a lovely shade of light green eyes.

It was impossible and yet she had no doubt who the two boys were. If only they were twenty years older and one didn't disappear in a creepy veil dying in a particularly strange way she still didn't quite understand. (Who died by a tapestry?)

"Hey, miss, what can I get you?" Rosmerta once again turned towards her while the two boys approached them. Up close the resemblance to the men Tonks knew well was even more striking. A pair of grey and light green eyes was turned towards her. She had a feeling that she was staring at the boys rather creepily which made her rather flustered because they undoubtedly noticed it.

"Now boys, you know that you shouldn't be here – one day soon I will have to tell the professors how often I see one of you misfits around here," the barmaid turned towards the two students. The young Sirius lookalike had the careless elegance that was Sirius Black even after twelve years of Azkaban mastered. Her own mother was quite different – a proper lady, as she liked to say. She always tried to be proper, to stand and sit as a lady would. On the other hand, Sirius looked the part of a nobleman, even more, when he was not trying like he knew who he was and didn't even have to work for it, it was all his birthright, it was in his blood.

"Ah, dear sweet Rosmerta you wound me – I thought that you and I were meant to be. This place is like home to me. Can't I just come home to my sweetheart?" the Sirius lookalike tilted his head and pressed his lips together as if the idea of being reported to a teacher by the barmaid really bothered him. Rosmerta shook her head with a quiet laugh.

"Sirius Black, you will be the death of me one day," she replied and the moment she said the name Tonks forgot how to breathe. It couldn't be – yet the boy in front of her looked just like Sirius Black at the age of seventeen did base on the photos she had seen. It wasn't possible though. Not only was Sirius Black dead but he was supposed to be thirty-seven even if he had been still alive.

The Remus lookalike caught her eyes once again probably noticing her panic. "Are you alright, miss?" he asked softly but with purpose and Tonks really was close to losing her head because the voice was achingly familiar, but lacked the warmth. It was polite but distant. Still, his voice always reminded her of melted chocolate even when he was cold with her.

"I just need a bit of air," she said suddenly and jumped up from her seat. She tore her eyes off the boys that weren't supposed to exist and made her way through the pub as quickly as possible passing by the two without looking back.

Once she was outside she couldn't help, but look back. Something was wrong and it had to be bigger than annoying Mundungus Fletcher doing some illegal trading. As she looked around Hogsmeade she hardly saw any difference to what she was used to. She couldn't even point out what felt odd, but she knew that something was off. However, just as a tiny wizard passed by her who oddly reminded her of Professor Flitwick, she once again remembered the last of her memories before she opened her eyes in the alleyway.

The customer of Mundungus Disapparated and it surprised Mundungus whose case of goods fell on the ground. Some of the stuff spilt out of it including the Black silverware. There was a golden necklace with some sort of glass charm on it as well. She picked it up and the glass part of it was cracked. It was strange, it was gleaming in an unusual way and it was too hot to touch – it fell out of her hand and landed by her feet. It didn't just break but exploded, but as she once again looked at her skin and clothes, she noted that not even her robes were shattered by the glass pieces flying off in the heat of the explosion. Some shining sand covered the ground around her and when she wanted to pick up the remains of the self-exploding necklace she touched it. Touching the weird sand was the last thing she could remember if she didn't count the bright light. She was also fairly certain that then Mundungus was still out cold.

She leaned against the wall of the Three Broomsticks and watched as the door opened and the two familiar faces left the pub with hands full of butterbeer talking quietly with each other.

An impossible thought occurred to her: the necklace. There were many antiquities among the goods of Mundungus – why was she so captured by that necklace? The answer came to her suddenly: it reminded her of Time-Turners. It was not the exact same type that she had seen during her training as an Auror she was certain of that, but she also knew that all of the old families had some strange magical items at home. She spent enough time at Grimmauld Place to know how many disturbing, but interesting pieces were found there.

All Time-Turners were destroyed during the Battle of the Department of Mysteries officially. However, surely there was at least one Unspeakable listed somewhere on that big tapestry of a family tree on the wall of the Black townhouse. The Blacks weren't known for always abiding by the laws. Not to mention the fact that she knew about at least one Unspeakable who was a Death Eater during the first war. She was certain Rookwood didn't always follow the rules of the Department either. Could it be possible that she somehow accidentally broke a Time-Turner?

She was never particularly interested in time magic, but during the training she had to learn a bit about Time-Turners even if the Department of Mysteries was the most independent department, the only that wasn't under the control of DMLE. Apparently, it was part of the training even if hardly ever were any cases where Aurors had the chance to use them.

The ones in the Department that got destroyed were all the same prototype – only able to go back five hours and they created a time loop. They were pretty much only used for time management issues and even then one needed to fill out thousands of forms and go through dozens of screenings. However, the reason for that was that there were many time travel experiments beforehand and the consequences were not pretty.

But what if one of her crazed relatives on that stupid tapestry thought they could create something better than the standard regularized Time-Turners? Maybe an Unspeakable who didn't feel appreciated? Harry and his friends pretty much 'destroyed' an entire stock of Time-Turners without any consequences. Due to the way one of the devices fell when their counter was knocked over, the entire stock was trapped in a loop of falling over, un-falling, and then re-falling, in an endless cycle for all eternity, but the kids themselves remained in the present. If she remembered well only these Time-Turners were forced into a time loop. The original time experiments were all about changing history, which meant that if some loony relative of hers created an unauthorized Time-Turner, it could easily be one that intact or destroyed worked differently than the normal ones used for petty issues.

The conclusion she had was rather disturbing: if she accidentally destroyed an experimental Time-Turner she could have ended up in the past with no way back to the future, changing the future with every breath she took.

Why did she have to be so clumsy?

With a sigh, she tossed herself away from the wall. She needed more information as soon as possible. No matter how much she analysed the situation, the idea that she was stuck in the past seemed impossible to her. Based on the fact that Sirius and Remus were still at Hogwarts if this was really all real then she was about twenty years in the past. Oh, Merlin.

She thought of just asking the first witch or wizard who came close to her the date, but she didn't want to look like a lunatic. Instead, she remembered that at least in the eighties and nineties Madam Rosmerta always had a Daily Prophet or two laying around in the pub for those who wanted to read something while drinking or waiting for someone.

She re-entered the pub and made sure that this time she had a smile plastered on her face.

"Hi, sorry for being so rude previously. I didn't feel quite well. Could I get a butterbeer?" she asked once she approached the bar. Rosmerta didn't seem to hold a grudge instead she smiled sympathetically.

"Poor dear, you do look quite pale," she remarked. "A butterbeer, dear." She placed the drink on the counter. Tonks quickly grabbed two sickles from her pouch and placed it in front of the barmaid.

"Thank you. Would you have an issue of today's Prophet? Sadly I missed it and with what's going on nowadays, it's good to be informed," she asked pleasantly. It was kind of sobering that no matter if she travelled twenty years or not a war was going on. Rosmerta was busying herself behind the bar, but she nodded automatically.

"Of course, here, just leave it on the counter when you leave." She placed the newspaper in front of Tonks who eagerly reached for it. She only needed a moment to see the date on it.

Thursday, 21st April 1977

Exactly twenty years.

Later she concluded that she must have hit her head hard because the first thought she had once there was concrete evidence that she was stuck in the past was that at least the list of excuses Remus had against their relationship just got shorter: he was certainly not too old for her anymore. Now she was the one in love with someone six years younger than her. (Well, at least as of March Remus was an adult by wizarding laws.)

"Everything okay, dear?" Rosmerta interrupted her desperate chain of thoughts. She smiled wickedly.

"Oh, absolutely. It's such a perfectly normal day, you know?" Unfortunately, she had the feeling that living in the seventies would be the norm for her from now on. Until now she was just never interested in time magic, but that now certainly changed. She hated time magic.