Severus Snape and the secrets of time

Chapter 5 Pursuing peril

Just as May was once again approaching, he packed everything into the pocket of his father's old coat, took the large time turner, and turned it back seventeen times.

His hands shook as he placed it back in his pocket and turned to set the shelter back up in the same location. Now was the moment of truth. He had six months to find James and Lily and warn them. Could he succeed in saving their lives without creating a far bigger mess than he already had? He would soon find out.

He noticed right away that his clothes were much looser, and he had to take his belt in three notches. He cast protection and concealment charms over the area, made the shelter functional, if not comfortable, and cooked himself a real meal for the first time in months. It was only then that he realized, the beard he had grown to disguise himself was gone, and when he took his hair down to brush it, it was far thicker and longer than he remembered. He rummaged around for the small pocket mirror he had packed and enlarged it. Staring back at him was not the scruffy and haggard thirty eight year old Severus he expected to see, but the fresh faced twenty one year old Severus from so long ago. He wondered if he would still be able to alter his appearance, or if the time turner's magic trapped him in whatever look he had adopted at the time. Would he be able to cut his hair or grow a beard, if his former self had chosen not to? There were a few side effects he was not sure of. This could complicate blending in. Well, the beard wouldn't come very fast or thick at any rate. He had barely been able to grow one, even in his late twenties. He would need to do little things to make himself blend in, and yet distinctly different than his other self.

He decided it would probably be a good idea to sit down and read the book he had taken about time turners, before going any farther. He had already taken huge risks, using the time turners as many times as he already had with little to no knowledge of how to use them correctly, or the consequences of incorrect or over use.

As he had seen in the ministry archives, there were three different kinds of time turner:

There was the safest kind that created a stasis bubble around you, so that you can go forwards and backwards in time hundreds of years if you want, but because you're in a bubble, you can not affect time in any way, shape, or form, and you can only stay for a limited amount of time.

There was the kind that takes you backward and forward in time, but you are limited to your lifetime because time affects you, and anything you say or do affects the timeline, but you are unlimited in the amount of time you can stay. You don't want to return to the same point more than once, because the risk of running into yourself, and therefore altering the timeline, increases with each other self in the same timeline. The writer was unsure of what would happen if you ran into your other self, other than altering the timeline, but strongly cautioned against it.

Then there was the most dangerous kind, where you can go forwards and backwards inside a time stasis bubble, where you remain unaltered. You are only able to go for a limited amount of time, but you can affect the timeline. The more you visit a particular point, the more unstable it and you become. If you visit/travel too much, you and/or that particular point in time, cease to exist.

Even the most learned of wizards, usually only learned of the existence of the third kind, and only as a cautionary tale, to keep them from trying to use time turners. The ministry had no idea how many, nor how often time turners were used, as they were virtually untraceable, and their effects became the only known reality to all but the user of the time turner.

Severus quickly went through and separated the three different kinds, to protect against mistakes. The likelihood of him using the third kind was almost nil, but he kept them, protected by multiple safeguards, on the off chance he might need them.

For the next several months, Severus awoke every morning with only one goal: find James or Lily and warn them. After a certain point he realized, he had to find Peter and get him to tell him where they were. James and Lily were now fedeliused, and as Peter was the secret keeper, they would be completely undiscoverable without Peter revealing them. But if there's one thing a coward and a traitor is good at, it's hiding.

The months rolled by, summer passed, and fall set in. Still, he was no closer to finding them or Peter. As September came and went, he began to get desperate, taking more and more chances and risking exposure and discovery by his other self.

He set up camp just outside of Godricks hollow, as he knew they had been killed there, in hopes that he might somehow manage to find them. But he knew, until he could get the "secret keeper" to tell him their location, he could run into them, and he wouldn't know it.

He seemed always one to two steps behind Peter, sometimes missing him by minutes. He was closing in, but running out of time. He couldn't risk a second visit, especially with how erratic he was becoming.

On October thirtieth, the day before they were to die, he managed to catch a glimpse of a fleeting Peter. Concentrating, he managed to hear Peter's thoughts about a meeting he was to have the next day, as he disapperated. Severus was cutting it way too close. Had he failed again? Still he had to try to intercept Peter. What choice did he have?

As Severus hid in the shadows the next day, waiting for Peter to arrive, hoping he wouldn't see him until it was too late, he ran through in his mind what he could possibly do to get Peter to tell him where they were. He was obviously in on Voldemort's plan to kill James and Lily. There was no appealing to his sense of loyalty or love for Lily and Harry. He had none. After months of being forced to live with him, Severus knew he had no morality or sympathy either. And with Voldemort's promise to protect him, he would have little to no fear.

He saw Peter skitter around the corner, looking around nervously, waiting. Before Peter could escape again, Severus hit him with a body bind and levitated him to eye level, a trick he had learned from James and Sirius when they used to torment him. He was a good three to four inches taller than Peter, so it was terrifying as Peter hovered, gasping for breath.

He had intended to play it tough, see how badly he could scare Peter, but when he opened his mouth he found himself pleading in desperation.

"Please, Peter, you have to tell me where they're at, Voldemort's going to kill them!"

"Yes! And Sirius will be blamed." Peter nearly spat. "I would think you, of all people, would be glad to see James killed. To watch Sirius be dragged off to Azkaban. Payback for the way they treated us."

"Yes, but what about Lily? What about the baby? They don't deserve to die! Let me save them. Please!"

Peter's voice was rougher now. "It's the boy the dark lord wants. You can't save him."

"But what about Lily?"

Peter's eyes looked sad as he thought of Lily. Severus forced his way into Peter's mind, playing the conflict that was so plain on his face, to Lily and Harry's advantage. It wasn't really imperiousing him, Severus told himself. I'm just "pressuring" him.

"It's the last house on the right. When the houses end, there is one more, hidden. That's the Potter's place. Save her if you can."

He released his grip, letting Peter fall to the floor confundused, and apperated to Godric's Hollow. He knew what day she had died, but had never been told what time. He could already be too late.