"I thought everyone had gone," she huffed before frowning. "Who are you?"
Was she serious?
She genuinely didn't seem to know who he was, and though a part of Harry was glad for that, how could she not? He had spent the last five years being gawped at by almost everyone that passed through the school.
However, he did not recognise this girl either and she was someone he would remember, especially with such a strong, Scottish accent.
"Who are you?" he returned, feeling more apprehensive by the moment.
Before the girl could answer or the tense situation deteriorate any more, the two were distracted as the entrance to the common room opened and two men that Harry did not recognise entered with their wands drawn.
"This just gets better," the girl groaned, trying her best to preserve her modesty whilst keeping her wand trained on Harry.
"Who the bloody hell are you two?" Harry demanded, panic beginning to set in.
The younger of the two, a man with short brown hair and a cropped beard to match shot a look of amusement towards the girl whilst the older, a thick-set man with darker hair kept his questioning eyes fixed on Harry.
"You have some explaining to do, young man," the latter growled. "How did you get in here?"
Harry frowned confusedly.
"I'm a student here," he fired back, turning his wand towards the man.
He seemed to be the most volatile of the two and the most likely to attack.
"I think it would be best if we all calmed down," the younger urged. "We were alerted to a rather significant magical disturbance. Was that you?"
There was something very familiar about his demeanour and the way he spoke, though Harry could not place it.
He said nothing, and the standoff resumed for a moment before the younger man spoke again.
"My name is Albus Dumbledore, I am the Transfiguration Professor and Head of Gryffindor house here at Hogwarts," he introduced himself.
Harry's eyes widened, his chest tightening at the words.
No, it couldn't be possible. This must be a mistake, but as Harry slowly looked into the man's eyes, he could not deny it. The face was youthful and unfamiliar, but this was undoubtedly his own headmaster, only much younger.
"Professor Dumbledore?" Harry balked.
The man smiled somewhat reassuringly, though his expression was one of confusion.
"You are aware of who I am?" he asked.
Harry nodded as he lowered his wand and the tension eased somewhat.
Had he done something wrong with the time-turner? If so, what had happened? He must have travelled back several decades.
Dumbledore, seeing his state of turmoil lowered his own wand.
"Perhaps we should begin with how it is you find yourself here?" he suggested. "I know every student that attends the school, yet I do not know who you are. What is your name?"
His mouth was dry, and Harry could feel his heart thumping in his chest. This was not right, but if there was any chance that his mishap could be undone, Dumbledore was likely the best person that could help him.
He hoped.
"Harry Potter," he answered honestly.
Dumbledore frowned, and the other man's eyebrows all but disappeared into his hairline.
"As in the Potters?" he asked, "the pureblood family?"
Harry shrugged.
"I suppose so. I don't know anything about them. I'm not a pureblood," he explained.
The older man looked at Dumbledore and shook his head, evidently not knowing what to say.
"Does the name William Potter mean anything to you?" Dumbledore asked.
Harry shook his head.
"What about Charlus?" the girl broke in, seemingly confused by everything that was happening around her.
"No," Harry answered. "I don't know any of them. I'm an orphan."
"Impossible," the older man declared. "If you were a Potter, William would be your father. He is the only possibility."
Before Harry could refute the man, Dumbledore spoke.
"Wait, Armando. I think there is much more to this," he said as he turned to Harry once more. "How did you find yourself here, Harry?"
How could he even begin to explain that?
He couldn't. What he had done should not have been possible. If he remembered correctly, the longest anyone had managed to go back in time was by around a week.
Just how far had he gone?
Without saying a word, he opened the hand that was clutching the time-turner and showed it to the men.
"Merlin, is that a…"
"It is," Dumbledore cut off his colleague severely. "May I?"
Harry nodded and the Professor carefully took the device.
Staring at it thoughtfully, he hummed and tapped it with his wand.
"Where did you come by this?" he asked/
"The Department of Mysteries."
Dumbledore's gaze snapped towards him.
"And how did you end up in such a place?"
He did not seem to be angry but curious how such an event had occurred.
"That is a long story," Harry sighed.
The other man, Armando seemed keen to hear it, but Dumbledore held up a hand to prevent any questions.
"This is unlike any other time-turner I have seen," he muttered as he continued to examine it. "Might I assume that it did not work as intended?"
"It didn't," Harry answered. "I only wanted to go back six hours."
"And yet, you have come back much further. What is the date?" Dumbledore asked.
"It's the eighteenth of June," Harry answered.
He knew it only because he had been counting down the days to his final OWL exam.
"And what year?" Dumbledore pressed.
"1996."
Armando scoffed, his eyes almost bulging from their sockets as the girl gasped.
Dumbledore said nothing, his reaction calm, as he stared speculatively at Harry.
"Then something has certainly gone amiss," he sighed apologetically. "There is no other way of breaking this to you, Harry, but the time-turner brought you back six decades instead of six hours."
"Impossible," Armando whispered. "Albus, this is madness!"
Dumbledore nodded, his eyes not leaving Harry who was speechless.
"The study of time is an imprecise art," he mused aloud. "Given where this device came from, I would hazard a guess that this is an experimental piece and was certainly not intended for a young man to come across."
Albus watched the almost catatonic boy as the reality of what had happened set in.