"We don't know either?" Ron looked bewildered.
It was not just him. Harry, Hermione, and Neville all looked bewildered too.
Just moments earlier, when Dumbledore had given up, believing Harry and the others could never return, the four-no, five of them, including Peter Pettigrew-had appeared together.
A shattered little hourglass had appeared with them. It was a Time-Turner, a wondrous, powerful, yet dangerous magical device. Now, however, it was a broken Time-Turner.
The instant they appeared, Professor McGonagall, who had been overcome with grief, and Dumbledore, who had been about to leave, both rushed straight over to them.
As for Peter, who had pushed Ron off and was preparing to act, a golden hammer of light fell from above and knocked him flat on the ground. The hammer became a curtain of light that pinned him there, leaving him unable to move even a finger.
"Hermione, Harry, Ron, Neville, are you all right?" Dumbledore casually brought Peter down, then carefully examined the four youngsters before him.
Seeing that they seemed unharmed apart from being covered in dust from rolling on the ground, he felt a little relieved. But then doubts arose in his mind.
Although he had never studied Time-Turners in detail, he did know something about them.
These devices were very unusual. They could send people outside a span of time.
Outside, mind you! Not before it, nor after it.
Yet everyone who had tried to travel forward had failed to return, as though they had vanished from this world. This seemed to mean that those who went into the future could not return. Thus, apart from the earliest attempts, no one had done it again.
Going back into the past also came with complications.
The further back one went, the greater the danger seemed to be.
Anyone who