Chapter One: Eavesdropping Adventures

Harry Potter was sitting in his study at Potter Manor looking at his wife as she sat on the sofa in the corner attempting to do a muggle Sudoku that she had been addicted to since Hermione had given her one, one time Harry had been injured on the job and in St Mungo's. What he should have been doing was studying his sister-in-laws new time turner prototype, but seriously if you were there (or at least if you were Harry) you'd understand that Ginny was just too darn cute when she was concentrating on something not to watch. He was interrupted much too soon in his opinion from his ogling by the sound of the aforementioned sister-in-law bickering with what could only be her husband just outside the door.

'Ronald' Hermione said exasperatedly 'You cannot give them ice cream just before bed! They won't sleep, and now we've left them with your poor parents, they'll never babysit for us again.'

'Mione' Ron replied 'It was only two scoops each! And Rose, well she looks just like you, and she has that big eyed look like you and I can't say no to her when she she looks at me like that.'

'And you think she doesn't know that? She uses it to get what she wants from you, because she knows you won't say no to her!'

Ginnny chuckled and looked up at Harry who smirked at her, this was the usual way to know that the Granger-Weasleys were around. She smiled and held up three fingers, Harry held up two and they both looked at their watches.

'Please, she's only six how could you possibly think your daughter is that manipulative?' asked Ron.

'Because' replied Hermione 'I know my daughter, and I also know that she has her daddy wrapped right around her little finger.

Ron looked at her aghast, but Hermione hadn't finished yet.

'It's not just you' she countered 'It's all of you, every man with the last name of Weasley doesn't seem to be able to say no to their daughters! You, Bill, Percy, George, hell even Arthur still can't say no to Ginny. But even then it's not just you guys, have you ever heard Harry say no to Lilly? No! Because your daughters know all they've got to do is look at you all with their big eyes and say "Daddy" and that's it, whatever they want is theirs.'

Harry who had been silently laughing at Ron's expense and then at Ginny's pout at being brought into Hermione's row, suddenly quieted when he was brought into it.

'It's true you know?' said Ginny ' You can't say no to Lilly.'

'That's not true!' said Harry indignantly.

'Oh really' challenged Ginny 'When was the last time you told her she couldn't have something?'

Harry thought for a couple of seconds and then said triumphantly 'Last Saturday, she wanted to fly with all the others and I said she was too young and wouldn't be able to handle the broom.'

'Mmm hmm' mused Ginny 'If I remember correctly, she had just started to get tears in her eyes when you told her she could fly with you on your broom instead.'

Harry pretended not hear this, pushed his glasses up on his nose and poked his tongue out at her, while Ginny snorted at her man child of a husband. Outside the office Ron and Hermione were still arguing.

'Look Ron. I know you cant say know to either one of them and I've come to terms with that. Really I have.' she added because of Ron's derisive snort. 'Can you just promise me that you'll think of the babysitters before you hype them up on sugar next time. Please?'

'Ok, but I'm not making any promises.' Ron said exasperatedly 'in case you haven't noticed our children are adorable and impossible to say no to! Besides mum and dad brought up all us lot and us lot included Fred and George and if they can deal with that they can deal with a hyped up miniture Hermione Granger.'

Hermione smiled at that and said 'You always say the sweetest things, Ronald Weasley.'

'In the job discription of being your husband baby.'

'Never. Call. Me. Baby!' she said each word puntuated with a poke to Ron's chest.

With that she strode into the office without knocking, with a smirking, red eared Ron trailing behind her.

'Oh, three minutes and fifty one seconds.' Ginny crowed triumphantly looking at her watch 'Pay up Potter'

'I'll get you next time Potter' Harry said while pushing a sickle across the desk towards his wife.

'Bring it.' challenged Ginny.

They were grinning at each other while Ron got redder and Hermione catching on glowered at both of them.

'You put bets on our argument?' she huffed.

All she got in reply was a pair of Cheshire cat grins that seemed to get ever wider the more incensed she got.

'Yes, well' said Hermione clearly still annoyed at being bet on 'shall we get on with what we're here for? Or would you rather gamble some more?'

'I think we should work' grinned Harry 'The quicker we're done, the quicker you can relieve Molly and Arthur of a, what was it now? Oh yeah, "Hyped up miniature Hermione Granger".

Upstairs an eight year old James Sirius Potter was watching on with glee as his aunt and uncle turned up at his house at nine o'clock on a Thursday night. The only reason they would do this is if it was something about his fathers work, and something important at that. As soon as they made their way into his dads study James ran to his room and reached a box from under his bed, when he got it he pulled out what looked like a long fleshy piece of string and ran back out of his door.

'What are you doing?' asked Albus

James who had nearly yelled out in the shock of his brothers form just outside his bedroom door, decided that the quickest way to get rid of him would be to tell him the truth.

'Uncle Ron and Aunt Mione have just turned up' he said looking like that should answer any questions that Albus might have.

'Uh huh' said Albus 'and that means you've gotta get your extendable ears out because...?'

'Well my dear. young, sweet, naïve Albus' he smirked at his younger brother 'That means that something is up. And I want to know what it is.'

'If Mum and Dad want us to know they'll tell us'

James snorted at this 'Do you really think that Mum and Dad tell us any important stuff about Dads work? Cause if you do then you're even more stupid than I have ever thought'

'Hey!' Yelled Albus.

'What's going on? Why aren't you two in bed? You gonna be in twouble with Daddy.' said Lilly who came out of her room stuffed bunny in hand when Albus yelled.

'Umm, Lilly?' Albus said 'In case you haven't noticed, you're out of bed too so you'll be in trouble too if Dad catches us.'

'No I won't' said Lilly in a sing song voice 'I'll tell Daddy that you woke me up, and then you both be in even more twouble.' she giggled.

James groaned 'Look I'm not going to just stand here trying to make you two understand all night, so if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna find out what our parents are hiding from us.'

With that he started to unwind the Extendable ears all the way to his Dads study, once they reached the door he put one end in his ear and started listening.

"I just don't understand how it can even be possible?' his mother was saying 'I mean out of everyone, you're the last person I'd have ever thought of making this.'

'Ginny, I'm not doing this for world wide distribution' Hermione said 'I'm not even sure I ever want it to be used. I'm doing it to prove it can be done and therefore if we know how to do it, if we ever need to, we can. Also once we know the magic. We can trace it. So that if anyone actually does attempt to do it we can stop them before they get too close.'

'But it's still just a Time-Turner' said Ron.

At these words James' ears piqued a Time-turner? He'd only ever heard of them, he was sure that in one of the stories his parents and Aunts and Uncles had told him, that all the Time-Turners were destroyed in the Battle-Of-Something-Or-Other. His parents were involved in so many battles it was hard to keep track, the only one James really liked the name of was the Battle-Of-The-Seven-Potters. But Time-Turners. they fascinated him, he could only begin to imagine what he could do with one. He could be pranking his family while sitting with them so they would have absolutely no reason to blame him. One thing was for sure he had to find out where it was and how to use it and to do that he needed help.

'Hey you two' he said to his siblings 'you really want to come hear this.'

They both came other to him and handed them both an extendable ear, they immediately stuck them in their ears and listened.

'I thought Time-Turners could only be used to go back hours not weeks and years? said their Dad.

'Exactly' said Hermione 'But I thought to myself "Why can't we go back years instead?" I mean it's only a little bit different, it's still fundamentally the same thing. So I looked into the magic behind the original Time-Turners, you know the ones we destroyed? And tweaked it a little and taa daa! I give you the all new Time-Turner.'

'How do we know if it works?' asked Harry.

'We don't' replied Hermione 'But it has been with the Department Of Mysteries for three months now and from what they can tell it does work.'

'What do you mean "from what they can tell, it does work"?'

'Well' grimaced Hermione 'The only way to tell absolutely that it does work would be to get someone to use it.'

'Ah' smiled Harry 'So this is where I come in'

Lilly was bored of the conversation her family was having she wanted to go back to bed but she also knew that her brothers wouldn't let her sleep until they had finished listening in. James was always getting into trouble and when he wasn't in trouble he was looking for new and exciting ways to get into trouble. Albus on the other hand didn't like being in trouble, he hated seeing the disappointment on his parents faces, hated being punished, hated knowing he had done anything wrong, yet somehow still managed to get into trouble at least twice a day.

Lilly, well Lilly was a Daddy's girl, it didn't matter what was wrong with the world she knew her Daddy would come and save her. When her brothers had locked her in a cupboard her Daddy found her, when she lost her favourite stuffed bunny her Daddy had gone to the Burrow and searched and brought it back to her, when she fell down the stairs her Daddy had came, picked her up and fixed her. To Lilly there was nothing her Daddy couldn't do, so with that in mind she decided that her Daddy would be able to make her brothers go back to bed so she could go to sleep.

She made her way silently to he fathers study, her brothers didn't notice they were too entranced on the boring adult conversation to notice that Lilly wasn't with them any more. She pushed open the door to her fathers study and all the adults stopped talking immediately and looked at her.

'Lilly-Bean' said her Dad 'What are you doing up? You should be asleep it's late.'

'I was sleep Daddy' she said indignantly 'they woke me up!'

'Who woke you up, sweetie?' said Harry as Lilly climbed up on his lap.

'James and Albus' she replied 'they listening to you talk time.'

'James, Albus, Teddy, get down here now!' yelled their mother.

They all looked at each other wondering just how much the two boys had heard, or worst yet what they had actually understood. The three boys can trundling down the stairs, as they made their way into the room it was clear just who had been the mastermind of this little eavesdropping adventure. If there had been any doubt in the first place that is. Teddy just looked bewildered to be called downstairs and it was obvious to everyone that Ginny's yell had woke him. Albus looked terrified at being caught out, his green eyes looked way to big in his head and had already started to fill with tears, he looked positively terrified. James on the other hand, looked gleeful at his new found information, his brown eyes shone not with tears but with happiness. He couldn't wait to tell his cousins Fred and Roxanne, his partners in crime, they would love to know their was a Time-Turner at his house.

'Just why are you three up and not in bed, where you're supposed be?' asked Ginny already knowing the answer.

'Daddy can you tuck me in? Asked Lilly brown eyes pleading.

'Of course Lilly-Bean' replied her Dad almost immediately 'As soon as we're finished here.'

Knowing that it would be at least ten minutes before James admitted what he was doing Lilly resigned herself to looking around her fathers study. They weren't allowed in here so she took great advantage of this privilege, there were photos on the desk one of her whole family taken at her grandparents house just two weeks ago, her Uncle Charlie was holding her and pretending to growl like a dragon to make her laugh. The others were of her and her brothers and there was two of her mum, she understood why her mummy was the most beautifulest women in the whole world in her opinion and her Daddy said so too, so it had to be true. Right in the middle of the desk was a necklace, it didn't look like one she had ever seen before, maybe it was a present for her Mummy? While her parents and Aunt and Uncle were still asking the boys questions she picked up the pretty necklace, it had some kind of vial in the middle of it and it was filled with what looked like silver glitter. She poked at the vial and it turned and the glitter moved too so she turned it again and again mesmerised by the glitter. Suddenly her someone yanked the necklace out of her hand.

'Lilly no!' her Dad yelled. But it was too late everything around them had become a blur the room was spinning.

Lilly had buried her face into her dads shirt, she had made her Daddy yell, she was a bad girl, and the room was spinning and it was making her feel ill. After what felt like hours the spinning stopped as abruptly as it started, it didn't slow down it just stopped. Lilly looked up and there were twelve wands pointing right at them.