The previous day:

The underground was pretty empty these days. Some of the monsters who liked the quiet, like Gryftrot, had stayed under the earth, but the others were all on the surface now.

"It must have been quite something when everyone was down here," Kurt Kairos said, looking around Snowden town, the machine floating along behind them. It was a ghost town now, but he could still see what used to be shops and homes.

"eh, not that much different than a human town," Sans the skeleton said. Sans was, and there was no other way to put it, something else. He was a punster, temporal physicist, apparently lazy, but capable of noticing everything. Kurt liked him.

Sans had called Kurt down here to investigate what the skeleton called an anomaly in "The Space Time Continuum", a phrase which sounded pretty weird to Kurt. Then again, despite being in the department of mysteries, he hadn't been allowed to research time all that much.

And that didn't feel fair to Kurt. He'd earned seven OWLs, five NEWTs, and that had earned him his position. But actually investigating these kinds of things? Not allowed, due to something that had happened in the past. That was why, on a Sunday, Kurt was trekking through a mostly empty underground, to do something rather illegal. He didn't really have anything better to do, anyway. If Sans hadn't contacted him, he'd probably have spent the day at the Leaky Cauldron. This was much more interesting.

"this seems to be a likely spot," Sans said. They'd stopped on a long wooden trail, snow fell lightly around them. In front of them, a broken gate did nothing to keep someone from passing over a bridge. "let's set up the machine here."

The machine was magnificent. It was a hybrid of skeleton know-how, muggle technology, and human magic. If certain of Kurt's coworkers had seen it, they'd have have had the Aurors after him right off. But they didn't need to know, did they? It had started as a time machine, but they'd used the past two months to improve it even further. It'd taken work to keep it stable with a heavier payload, but the majority of the time was spent allowing it to travel even further than just time. Now it could travel though what Sans called 'Possibilities', to try to find the source of the anomalies.

"Very good," Kurt said, flicking his wand, allowing the machine to settle to the ground. They took the few delicate parts they didn't want to risk on the levitation spell and set about putting them back in the machine. At its heart was a time turner. It had belonged to Dumbledore, and Sans had said he'd told him he was borrowing it. Kurt wasn't so sure, but Dumbledore hadn't come looking for it, either. So Kurt wasn't about to upset the apple cart. "So what are we looking for again?" Kurt asked.

"when he vanished, doctor Gaster was researching these anomalies. he was working on a machine of his own," Sans went quiet for a second, his eyelights burning brighter before dimming again. "then there was nothing. nobody other than me remembered him, not even Papyrus. alphys was chief scientist and thought she'd always had been. i want to know what happened. i promised him that."

"I was there," Kurt reminded him. "You promised to put him back together."

Sans didn't reply to that. He finished the last connection. "i always thought this would require a cup of really hot tea," he said, his eyelights glinting at Kurt.

Kurt looked at him blankly. "Why would that be?"

"you've never read..." Sans started, then stopped himself. "i'll have to find... i'll have alphys order you a copy. it's hilarious, like me." He shrugged, and climbed into the now much roomier machine.

Kurt followed Sans's lead, climbing into the machine's left seat. "Are we absolutely sure we'll be able to get back again?"

"i've programmed this machine with every single thing I can think of to bring it back where it came from," Sans said. "i can't promise we'll go anywhere," he said, though Kurt was pretty sure that was a joke. "but if we do, i absolutely promise we'll come back."

"Alright then. No time like the present," Kurt told him, grinning.

"except for whatever time we land in," Sans said. He pulled out another device, the scanner he used to find the anomaly in the first place. He plugged in the numbers and pressed the big red engage button. Kurt heard the machine rumble and power on. The world past the shielding faded to white, and then black, before reversing and presenting them with a scene that didn't look that much different from the one they left.

They got out, and looked around. There was still snow gently falling, but there were no footprints to show they'd just been standing there. "Did it work? Are we where, and when, you think we need to be?"

Sans consulted his scanner again. "i think so. whatever got the doctor's attention came from that direction," he said, pointing over the bridge with its still broken gate. Before Kurt could reply, Sans set off.

"Let's go take a look, then," Kurt said wryly to himself, and trailed after the swiftly striding skeleton. A bit down the path, a giant branch lay across the trail. It looked like something really big had stepped on it, snapping it in two. "Uh, Sans? Do you know what did that?"

"what?" Sans asked, looking behind him. "uh, i shot that. frisk didn't know i was there, and we hadn't met yet. it wasn't very nice to mess with her like that. it was kind of fun to see her track back and to see her expression."

"Shot it? With what?"

"blasters," Sans responded. This didn't answer Kurt's question, but Sans had set off again. They stopped when they were presented with a large closed stone door. Sans reached out to pull the handle, but to his surprise, it didn't open. "huh. if we are when i thought we would be, that door shouldn't be locked." He tugged at it again.

"Maybe we also traveled in time," Kurt postulated. "Or this possibility doesn't line up with ours, chronologically speaking."

"huh. makes sense. don't really want to wait though. think you could open this door?"

"Easily," Kurt said, pulling his wand from his robe, but he was interrupted before he could cast.

"think you might want to put on your cloak, first. don't know what we'll find back there. maybe things have really changed. don't think we should advertise an out-of-time human."

"Good idea," he took out a rather carefully folded thin cloak and draped it over the robe. It wasn't a true invisibility cloak, but one with a permanent disillusionment charm on it, so it amounted to the same thing. Once cloaked, he pointed his wand, "Alohamora!" The lock clicked, and the door swung open of its own accord. He pointed down the corridor with his wand, "After you."

Sans bowed, and headed down the long passage, Kurt following him. Behind them, the door to Snowden banged shut, and there was another loud click of the door relocking. At the other end of the hall was another locked door, which surprised Sans further. Kurt used the unlocking charm to open this door as well. It creaked open, and the new breeze swirled dust into the corridor, causing Kurt to promptly sneeze. Twice. "Doesn't seem like anyone has been down this way recently," he said.

"huh," Sans said. "we'd better be careful. torii lives above us. but we're really close, and i don't want to shortcut our way past the anomaly." But when he led the way up the stairs into the home, it was clear that he did need to have worried. The house was apparently empty. They looked around, but despite a door that was "Closed for Remodeling", there didn't seem to be anything living there.

When they went out to the garden, there were a couple of Froggits hopping around. They took a look at Sans, and hopped back away from the house. But it was the tree that drew Kurt's attention. "That tree looks dead, but there's something on it."

"torrii was never that good of a, what?" Sans said, looking up.

What was that? It looked like a single white glove. "Accio!" Kurt declared, but when he did it, he immediately regretted it, as it was no glove. It was a skeletal hand, he could seen the individual bones, which should have made it fall apart. But it hung together, lifeless. Kurt managed to not drop it in disgust. "Is this it? The anomaly?" Kurt asked.

Sans looked at the scanner, then at the bones, then at the scanner again. "yeah, that's it. is that a piece of Gaster?" He cupped his own bony hands, allowing Kurt to drop it in to his hands. "how is it still intact? without a soul to hold us together, monsters disintegrate pretty quickly. i'm going to have to run some tests on this." Sans pulled out some cloth, wrapping the hand tightly in it, and tucked it in his pocket.

"Excellent!" Kurt said, smiling at his partner. "Let's go home."

"not yet," Sans said, and he pulled out his cell phone. He dialed it. "don't want to freak her out, because i shouldn't have her number yet... but..." he held it to his ear. But as far as Kurt could tell, didn't get any answer. Sans's smile didn't leave his face, but his eyelights dimmed, and he tried again. There was still no reply.

"don't like this," Sans said. He began manipulating his phone in a way Kurt didn't understand. "let's start heading back to the machine." A single bone finger scrolled the phone repeatedly. "please say there's undernet posts, ah there he is." He released a deep sigh of relief. "Papyrus and alphys. so frisk made it to hotland."

They started the walk back to the machine as Sans kept reading through posts. "timing on this wasn't too long ago. hours. guess you were right that the possibilities didn't line up. hmm. wonder." Sans dialed again, this time getting an answer.

"Sans! You're calling me! You never call me!"

"hi, Papyrus," Sans said. "just got a quick question for you. where are you?"

"I'm at Undyne's house! I'm convinced the human and her would make good friends. I just need to wait until she gets here."

"who? the human?"

"No. Undyne. She will get here eventually."

"thanks brother. i'll see you later," Sans said. He hung up, and then began to scroll through posts again. "ngh. kurt? need to detour to hotland. let's drop the piece in the machine, then we'll take a shortcut."

"Alright, why?"

"because i think that undyne had a really bad time." Kurt stared at him. "i think she's dead."

They took the boat from Snowden to Hotland, and Sans took them in his shortcut way back towards Waterfall. It was a bit nerve wracking to see the riverperson pierce his cloak, but Sans assured the wizard that secret was safe on the water.

It was impossible to really tell if Sans's feeling had born out, but Kurt didn't see Undyne anywhere. And Sans apparently found evidence that made sense to him. "the water dispenser, it's completely full." Kurt wasn't sure what to make of that. "how?" Sans asked, the first time Kurt had ever seen him at a lost for words. "the frisk i know couldn't have done anything like this. i'd have seen it in her eyes. LOVE changes a person."

Kurt didn't know fully what 'LOVE' was, except it probably wasn't the love Kurt was familiar with. But this didn't see the time or the time to ask for more information. "Let's get home," Kurt said. "Our timeline won't have changed. Maybe it wasn't Frisk?"

"maybe," Sans sounded dubious. "but you're right. let's go home. it'd be dangerous to change anything here."


The letter haunted Frisk through the first day of classes. She had to shove it aside for a while, though. She was back in school, and if one was hopeful some of those professors would be lenient on their first day back, one's hopes were quickly dashed. The professors began right where they left off the winter term. At least Frisk started with Charms this year, a subject far less likely to put her to sleep than History of Magic, which she'd had been Monday's first class last year.

At lunch, Chara and Asriel sought her out, talking excitedly about the classes they'd had. "Everyone is treating you okay?" Frisk asked Asriel.

He paused in sandwich selection. "They are! Actually, it's kind of," Asriel searched for the word. "pressuring? It's like being the king's son all over again. People think I'm more important than I actually am."

"It was like that my first day too," Frisk said. "Because I came back with mom and dad after the barrier had broken. "What do you have this afternoon?"

"Double potions," Chara reported after checking her schedule. "With the Slytherins." She drank a swallow of pumpkin juice.

"We're doomed to always be with the Slytherins," Ginny told her from her other side. "Just once, I'd like a term with potions with, say, the Ravenclaws."

"Seems to be," agreed Frisk. "I have it tomorrow afternoon. If you really want to try to impress Professor Snape, try to partner with one of them." Frisk didn't think they'd listen, but she'd try anyway. "He's the head of house for Slytherin, and would probably like it if you showed a willingness to try to accept them, too."

To Frisk's surprise, Asriel nodded. "It's not like we don't have every class together, right Chara?"

But Chara looked uncomfortable. "We'll see if any of them take us up," she said after thinking about it for a few seconds.

After lunch, Frisk had history of magic. And probably there was no safe time to have the class. The heaviness of the food along with the droning of the ghost professor did no wonders for her study habits.

After classes were over, and dinner was eaten, they went back up to the Gryffindor common room, taking a seat towards one edge of the room. "So," Frisk asked. "How was Professor Snape?"

"He knows," Chara said quietly, and her face was pale. "I could tell in the way he looked at me. Did the headmaster tell everyone? I should have known, Mr. Snape was one of uncle's best friends."

"He knows what?" Frisk asked before it hit her. "Wait, he knows that?" Frisk asked. When Chara didn't reply, she went on. "I wouldn't think Dumbledore would have told anyone. But, I guess I'm not sure."

Chara would not meet Frisk's eyes. "Could you ask for me? I don't want anyone to guess what I'm asking, not if they already know."

"Write him a note," Frisk promised, "And I'll take it up to him."

"Thanks, Frisk I will."

"So," said Ginny Weasley said, sitting down at their table. "How was your first day of class?" And that got Asriel started all over again. Frisk grinned slightly, pulled out a piece of parchment, and started to think.

There were two things that each happened in only one loop each. She had almost forgotten about them, since nobody else had ever asked her anything like it. The first was the child, completely grey, who had stared at her with empty eyes on a Waterfall dock. A world where everything is exactly the same... except you don't exist. She had stayed with that child, and even brought him an umbrella as a gift. She wasn't sure why, but something Sans asked her in a previous loop had stuck with her: "Is it raining somewhere else?". (It had been a reference to the chaotic weather above ground, she wasn't sure why she'd remembered it.)

Then there was the other, in a corridor near where Sans had pranked her with a telescope with pink ink on it had seemed unnaturally long. It was one of her last loops, and she had thought she'd memorized the underground. When she had seen the door, which had never been there before, she'd felt compelled to open it and see what was going on.

There had been a person inside. Probably a monster. His head looked like a cracked skull, with pieces missing. He didn't react when she called to him, and he hadn't noticed her until she'd tried to reach out and touch him. And her hand has passed right through him. But he had noticed. He looked right at her, and simply vanished. When she asked Sans about it, at Mettaton's resort, Sans didn't say anything. His eyelights had gone out, so she hadn't pressed the issue.

But was that Gaster? Frisk didn't know. But if Sans was asking now, it was time to tell him, and maybe he could make sense of it all. She committed all of this to paper, still listening to Chara (who was forcing sounding cheerful) and Asriel talk about their first day of classes.