Disclaimer: I don't own and never will.

AN: Written for The Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition round 6. My chosen genre is sci-fi and my prompts are 1: (dialogue) "So… what exactly is that?" 3. (opening sentence) Time was running out. And 4. (word) chasing. The story is set during the Prisoner of Azkaban.

AN2: I have borrowed the word Thaum from the books of the late Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, which I highly recommend.

Time was running out.

To be fair, time was ALWAYS running out. If it wasn't one thing wrong with the system, it was another. It was a bit like trying to keep up with a never ending series of cracks in a dam really, except with realities instead of water.

"What universe is it this time?" Grayam Marsdon asked in a world-weary tone as he looked at the screen over the shoulder of his supervisor. His supervisor, a tall blond-haired man with muscles that looked like they could build pyramids on their own sighed.

"Well, it looks like we have a problem with 416. Again," the man said with a hint of annoyance. "It looks like they've got another leak in the timeline. Again."

"What is it this time?" Grayam asked and his supervisor jabbed his hand at the image of a huge castle at night with dark, shadowy shapes gliding across the outer boundaries.

"Some place called Hogwarts. It's a school for magic apparently and someone is playing around with a time loop and you need to fix the leak before any more time runs out," the man explained, gesturing to the screen. Grayam snorted.

"Magic? Seriously? Haven't they discovered the Thaum yet?" Grayam asked with a hint of disbelief and his supervisor shrugged.

"Apparently not," he replied with a shrug. "Now remember the rules. Avoid any involvement in the situation unless absolutely necessary or unavoidable. Seal the leak with minimal disruption."

"Then get out the same way I came, with minimal interaction. Erase any memories of my existence from the locals. That's what I have my partner for, remember?" Grayam said with a hint of exasperation. "I know my job, let me do it."

"Then you'll have no excuse to not follow them," his supervisor said sardonically. "I take it your partner is ready?"

"She's right behind me," Grayam said, gesturing to the floating collection of tentacles hovering behind him as if impatient to go. Which was of course impossible, everyone knew that the Memory Bugs didn't have feelings. "I'm sure we'll be fine. Just send us there and we'll fix the leak without any fuss. Do we know what type of leak it is?"

"A type two leak. Relatively easy to seal. You'll have to pump some time in as well to fill in what was lost and make sure that everything is ticking over nicely.

"Another day, another timeline. Just send us on our way, okay?" Grayam asked and his supervisor pressed the button to send them on their way.

Nothing happened.

The supervisor swore and Grayam rolled his eyes. Maybe one day, the tech people would actually managed to give the system the overhaul it so desperately needed instead of fobbing ever increasing number of temporary 'patch' jobs. He gave the transporter pad a kick and suddenly the world evaporated before his eyes.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP

"Hermione…" Harry started, tapping his friend on the shoulder.

"What is it Harry?" she asked, not taking her eyes off of Hagrid's hut as she waited for their past selves to emerge.

"It's supposed to be impossible to apparate in Hogwarts grounds, isn't it?" he asked and Hermione rolled her eyes.

"How many times have I told you this Harry?" she replied in exasperation. "It clearly states in Hogwart's a History that-"

"So…what exactly is that?" he asked, pointing to a rapidly appearing human shape just behind them.

"Well…that was unexpected," Grayam said as he finally finished teleporting, before noticing the presence of Harry and Hermione. "Oh damn."

"How…" Hermione began, apparently struck dumb in surprise. Harry was slowly drawing his wand, obviously expecting trouble. Fortunately, Grayam's partner appeared on the other side and promptly swung her tentacles into action, latching onto the back of their heads and swiftly erasing their memories of Grayam's arrival. Before they could recover, Grayam and his partner had moved out of sight.

"Well that was close," Grayam said as he slipped his way towards the source of the time leak. His partner gurgled something incomprehensible and Grayam sighed. "Yes, I know. Whoever was supposed to be looking after that transporter deserves a kick up the-" he was interrupted by more gurgling and he rolled his eyes. "What do you mean that I should watch my language? You don't!" there was some further gurgling. "Well yes, you don't strictly speaking talk as such. But still, I'm sure that counts as bad gurg-"

A sudden howling noise made Grayam abruptly stop. He turned his head slightly and listened.

"Werewolves," he said with a hint of annoyance. "This really should have been in the briefing."

His partner made a series of complicated gurgling sounds that could have meant anything really, but still Grayam replied.

"No, I didn't get the name of the supervisor. Pretty sure he's a clone anyway."

There were a further series of gurgles and Grayam shrugged.

"I'm pretty sure I've seen them in all sorts of places. Can't ask though, you know how tetchy some people are," he said as they trudged their way through the grounds towards their objective. They were close to the source of the leak, he could feel it. He looked at his watch and frowned. It wasn't due to turn up for a few hours yet. He climbed up one of the trees and waited, looking out over the lake in front of them. His partner gurgled a bit more and Grayam sighed.

"No, I don't know why we ended up this far off target. I'm really going to have something to say to the tech guys when we get back," he replied, rolling his eyes slightly as he thought about the variety of excuses they would inevitably give him for failing to give the system the overhaul it so desperately needed..

And so, the two of them sat and waited.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP

Grayam shivered as the hooded figures slowly closed on their prey. They were almost in touching distance of their objective, a man they had no doubt been chasing for some time. Grayam leaned forward to watch closely. According to his equipment, the time leak was due to appear any minute not. One of the figures cast a white spell, a weak patronus that was no match for the approaching creatures. He almost wished he could help, but he couldn't interfere. In fact, it was vital he didn't interfere and make the situation worse.

That didn't mean he had to like it.

Closer and closer the creatures came to their victims. Wraiths like these were horrible creatures and he wondered what kind of person would actually utilise such foul beings. Although technically, in this universe they were called dementors, Grayam preferred to use the standard classification system for the agency, made life easier all round.

Suddenly a lone figure leapt out of the bushes and cast a full bodied patronus, a stag no less, that charged down the wraiths and drove them away. When it had finished, the patronus returned to the castor and the figure held out his hand momentarily.

"That was impressive," Grayam said to himself as he watched the figure and a friend leave the site. He looked around, but the only people there were the unconscious ones across the lake. . He slid down the tree and switched on his goggles. Right in front of him was the time leak he'd been sent to seal.

"Gotcha," he said with a smile. Lifting a device not unlike a mobile phone, he dialled a number and pointed it at the oval-shaped leak. With a sudden squishing noise, it vanished and Grayam allowed himself a small smile. After everything that had gone wrong on this mission, it was good to have something go right. Typing another number into his device, a burping noise popped out as new time rushed in to replace what was lost.

A series of gurgles made him look up to see the first signs of someone stirring across the lake. He grabbed hold of his partner and tapped a red button on his device. Moments later, the two of them disappeared without a trace.