“The question is,” said Hermione, “where did you get it?”

She was holding the Time Turner up to the light. They were in the Ministry Infirmary’s High Security Division, where sick and injured prisoners were brought. Gormanghast’s house elf, Trottie, lay on a hospital bed under bright lights, guarded by three house elves from Hermione’s House Elf Liaison Force (including Harry’s own house elf, Kreacher) and locked down with anti-Apparition shackles. Hermione had cast a Polytongue spell on her so that she could speak something approaching modern English. She was squinting up at Hermione, looking angry but defeated.

“Trottie shall not say,” said Trottie.

“We can make you talk,” said Ron, waggling his wand threateningly. He and Harry had just come over from the Care of Magical Items Department, where they’d repaired Ron’s wand. (It was the third time he’d had to ask them this month, and they were getting a little sarcastic about it.)

“Please, Ron,” said Hermione. “Threatening people is no way to establish trust.” She turned to Trottie. “Look, we’re on your side. We’re just trying to help you. We know you were only trying to protect your Master. No one blames you for that. But these Time Turners are very valuable and they’re a controlled magical item. We need to know how you got it.”

And how were you allowed to have one when you were a third year at Hogwarts? thought Harry. And weren’t all the Time Turners destroyed when Voldemort attacked the Ministry? But there was no time to get into that now.

Trottie closed her eyes, squeezed her lips shut, and shook her head firmly.

Hermione sighed. “All right. Why do you have this, then, Trottie? Why did you have a Time Turner?”

Trottie opened her eyes and looked around nervously. It seemed as though she wanted to answer, but wasn’t sure if she should.

“Answer the nice woman, Trottie,” said one of the HELF gently. “Gormanghast said all his elves should be nice and help the Ministry.”

“Is that true?” hissed Ron in Harry’s ear.

“Not sure,” whispered Harry. “I think when his magic gave out, he suddenly turned incredibly old. I’m pretty sure he’s almost dead. He’s not saying much.”

Trottie still looked uncertain, but apparently decided to chance it. “Trottie had herself to get the Hourwick, not so? Trottie had to. For the Master to save.”

“Hourwick?” said Ron

“It’s the older name of the Time Turners,” said Hermione. “They were invented about fifteen years ago by Chronotis Satyrn, an old eccentric wizard from over in Wales. He called them ‘hour wicks’, I’m not sure why. Everyone else calls them Time Turners. Of course there had been time travel experiments and spells before then, but Time Turners were the first magical devices. I read about that a few years ago when I — ”

“Thanks, Hermione,” interrupted Ron. Hermione scowled at him. “Trottie, did Gormenghast know this Satyrn guy?”

“Master Gormenghast knew of the Wizard Satyrn, ay,” said Trottie. “Gormenghast knew everything. He willed that he an Hourwick himself to have.”

“So he ordered you to get one?” asked Hermione.

“Oh ne, ne,” said Trottie. “Too dangerous should that be. Master Gormenghast would ne put his servants in danger. He had us ordered ne to get one, ne, ordered us ne to.”

“But you did anyway,” said Hermione. “Because you felt you had to. To save him?”

“Ay,” said Trottie, sighing. “We had ourselves to punish each other, most grievous.”

Hermione nodded. “Ok. What were you trying to save him from?”

Trottie’s eyes filled with tears. “Master Gormenghast would be his magic losing. We could feel it. We had him to save.”

“So you could tell he was going to be struck squib?” said Harry excitedly. “Really?” A thought struck him. “Can you tell when any wizard is going to be struck squib?”

Trottie didn’t look like she understood. The other house elves looked at each other and then looked at their feet.

“Wait a minute,” demanded Hermione. She looked round at the house elves accusingly. “You all can tell, can’t you? All of you house elves, you can tell when a wizard is going to get Leach’s Syndrome?”

They didn’t answer.

Harry rounded on Kreacher. “Kreacher! I order you to tell me if house elves can tell when a wizard is going to lose their magic!”

Kreacher looked miserable and wrung his hands and twisted his mouth up. “Aye, house elves can tell,” he said, sounding anguished.

“How?” demanded Ron.

Kreacher squinted his eyes shut and shook his head vigorously.

“Us have done it,” said Trottie sadly.

There was a short silence, and then in unison, Harry, Ron, and Hermione said, “What?!”

“Us have the magic taken,” said Trottie. She looked forlorn and guilty. “We have so bad, so sorry for the Masters, we felt us. But we had to, we had to. She said. So thus we did.”

“You’ve been taking magic from the wizards?” cried Hermione, flabbergasted. “How? Why?”

“She said,” said Trottie again. “So thus we did.”

“Who?” demanded Hermione. “Who is ‘she’?”

Trottie shook her head. “I mayn’t say,” she said.

“Kreacher!” cried Harry. “Did you know this? And you didn’t say?”

“Kreacher knew,” said Kreacher miserably. “But is secret, it is, Master! Kreacher was not allowed to tell! — And now Kreacher has told,” he muttered. “Has told, has told, he’ll have to be punished, yes he will.”

“Kreacher,” sighed Harry, “please don’t punish yourself. I’ve told you many, many times, you’re not allowed to do that.”

“Who told you not to tell?” said Ron.

“She did, of course,” said Kreacher.

“Who is ‘she’?” asked Harry. “Kreacher, I order you to tell me who she is!”

But Kreacher stopped up his ears, squeezed his eyes shut, and shook his head frantically. “Mustn’t tell! Mustn’t tell!” he muttered.

“If the elves are the ones stealing magic,” mused Hermione, “that’s really bad news. Not all the wizards who’ve been struck squib have house elves, which means maybe they can take magic from anyone they like, no matter how far away they are. So arresting them, locking them up, might not do any good. And anyway, it’s not like we can just round them all up and imprison them. There must be, I don’t know, hundreds of thousands of them.”

Harry had a sinking feeling in his gut. If they couldn’t be stopped, and they couldn’t be convinced to stop, then what could be done? Harry could only think of one solution… a horrible one.

“This is getting us nowhere,” said Hermione briskly. “We need more information. Trottie, why did you get the Hourwick? For what purpose?”

Trottie licked her lips. “The Hourwick, it much much magic has,” she said. “So much magic. We thought — we thought we could magic from them take, instead of magic from the Master. The Hourwicks, we could them all destroy. And then maybe enough magic would be for the Master.”

“Ok,” said Hermione. “Makes sense, I guess.”

“But that would mean there’s only a limited amount of magic in the world,” said Harry. “Is that true?”

“Not as far as I know,” said Hermione. “I don’t think anyone knows for sure. But what’s important, really, is whether the house elves believe that. If they believe there’s only a limited amount of magic, then destroying powerful magical items, like Time Turners, might make sense.”

“But that means that the house elves are taking the magic and using it for something?” asked Harry. “For what?”

“I may na say,” said Trottie.

“I’m going to wring her little neck,” said Ron.

“Where did you get the Hourwick, Trottie?” demanded Hermione. “At least answer me that.”

“I may na say,” said Trottie. And as Ron lunged forward, hands outstretched, she squealed, “No, please! I may na say! I may na say!”

“Never mind, Ron,” said Hermione, holding him back. “We’ll figure it out. She must have stolen it from the Department of Mysteries.”

“So there are some left?” asked Harry.

“A few,” said Hermione. “They’re extremely well-guarded.”

“Even from house elves?” asked Harry. “They can Apparate in and out of plenty of places that wizards can’t.”

“Even from house elves,” said Hermione. “Kreacher here helped check the department’s defenses just a few months ago.”

Kreacher cleared his throat and looked at his feet. “Kreacher checked the defenses, yes, he did,” he said.

Something in his tone rang an alarm bell in Harry’s mind. “Kreacher, you checked them, but were they secure?”

“The defenses were secure, Master Harry,” said Kreacher, still not looking at him. “The defenses were just fine. Nothing wrong with them.”

“So the defenses were fine,” said Harry, “but did they work? Would those defenses keep House Elves out of the Department of Mysteries?”

Kreacher looked at his feet and said something inaudible.

They all looked at each other.

“We have to get over there,” said Hermione. “Now.”