9:58
3 Grains of Sand Left"Oh, shit," Remus muttered and then looked at Mia who stood frozen, one hand
gripping her wand, the other the Time-Turner. "What's going to happen?"
"I don't know," she replied, shrugging her shoulders. "The last time I used a Time-
Turner, when everything ran out, time caught back up with itself. But that was just hours,
no more than three at a time. It's been eight years. Remus, I could just... vanish."
"No," he said, trying to think of something, anything to fix this. He quickly did the
first thing he could think of and pulled the chain of the Time-Turner from her grip, looping
it around her neck.
"What are you doing?"
"Saving you. It's my job, right? I send you back. You said that it wasn't just a Time-
Turner; it was a Portkey that brought you here into the past."
Mia nodded.
"Then I'll figure out how to layer the spells," he promised her. "I already know the
date you get sent back, and now I know the date you have to... have to leave," he said,
fighting his own set of tears that were threatening to emerge. "I'll set a time-activated
Portkey to go off on the nineteenth of September, 1979 at exactly one minute after ten.
I've got... I've got nineteen years to figure out how to do it."
2 Grains of Sand LeftNineteen years. "Oh Merlin, nineteen years. Nineteen years without.. ." Remus
looked down at the witch, holding back the tears that were building in the corners of his
eyes. "Without you." A part of him wanted to pull the chain back and vanish the Time-
Turner entirely. "How am I supposed to live nineteen years without you?"
"Fourteen." She wrapped her arms around him tightly. "Remus, I love you," she
mumbled through her sobs. "You're my best friend, and I love you. Please take care of
him. Remember what I said: trust Sirius. Always Sirius."