The two Heads reached Dumbledore's office in a few minutes, their trip completed in silence despite what valuable information this next conversation could hold for both of them.

"Lemon Drops," Hermione said excitedly, watching with glee as the gargoyle leapt aside and allowed then entry onto the ascending staircase. She was so ready to see Dumbledore and put this mess behind them, she wished the staircase were moving at warp speed just so she could get there faster. Beside her, Draco stared ahead in silence, not showing an ounce of emotion. She wondered what he was thinking, mainly why he wasn't as excited as he seemed to be back in the common room. Concluding that this might be too personal of a question, and the answer might elicit an angry response, she didn't bother asking.

What Hermione didn't know was that Draco had emotions coursing through him, he was just very good at masking them. He felt oddly sad that they were going to talk to Dumbledore about getting rid of their jinx, almost as if he didn't want it gone. In fact, he was beginning to realize that maybe…maybe he liked having the jinx on them. Even though at times it was frustrating, other times…it was almost as if he and Hermione were…friends? No, it was something more than just friends, but not "love," that would be going too far. It was all very confusing, but it was also the first time he felt anything close to really loving someone, even if it wasn't complete. There was a small part of him that just wanted to hold on to that feeling for as long as he could, afraid that if it left…well, maybe it would never come back. Maybe it would all just seem like a dream once the spell was broken, and whatever Hermione and he had would be gone forever.

"Malfoy!" Hermione practically shouted, snapping her fingers in front of his face.

Draco shook out of his reverie and into reality to see them both standing in front of the large wooden door that led into Dumbledore's office. Apparently Hermione had not knocked on the door yet, although Draco had a sneaky suspicion that the headmaster already knew they were there.

"Sorry, what?" he asked in confusion, still a little dazed.

She eyed him curiously and repeated her question. "I said, are you ready for this?"

He stared at her for a second, then took a deep breath and forced himself to roll his eyes and scowl.

"Blimey, Granger, it's a conversation, not an interrogation. Just get on with it!" he said in exasperation.

Her slight smile disappeared as his negative attitude resurfaced. "Fine. Knock away, Malfoy."

"Why do I have to knock? Why can't you?" he replied, indignant.

"Because, you're the one who wants to 'get on with it,' so you can knock on the door!" Hermione answered.

Draco practically growled at her. "Why are we having this idiotic conversation? Just knock on the ruddy do—"

The door swung open just then, interrupting their argument.

"Good morning!" said a cheery Dumbledore. "I took the liberty of opening the door myself, considering the two of you had some difficulty with it, I assume?"

The two Heads stared at him in dumfounded silence until Hermione spoke up.

"Yes, well…good morning, Professor!" she enthused, turning on her bright smile.

"Isn't it?" he replied jovially. Draco stared at him in irritation, wondering how anyone could be so cheery that early in the morning.

"Do come in, won't you?" Dumbledore opened the door even more so they could pass by him easily and make their way to the chairs positioned by his desk. "Take a seat. Biscuit? Pumpkin juice?"

"No, thank you, Professor," Hermione declined him politely. "We're just here to ask you something…something that is very important to us, and I think to you as well."

The headmaster looked at Hermione with interest, and then glanced at Draco, whose face was now filled with nervous anticipation. Dumbledore held his fingertips against one another as he waited for her to continue.

"We were wondering…," she began, getting more anxious by the second. What if he thinks we're crazy? What if he doesn't want to help us? Maybe he won't even remember what the antijinx is!

"Go on, Miss Granger. There is nothing to fear," Dumbledore urged her with a reassuring smile. If only he knew.

"We need your antijinx!" Draco blurted out, clearly too on edge to keep quiet any longer. Hermione shot him a look of annoyance, but he ignored it and focused on the matter at hand.

"Mister Malfoy?" he questioned further.

"The antijinx! You know what I'm talking about, you're the one who made it, the one that gets rid of this ruddy love jinx!"

Ever the picture of a clam façade, Dumbledore remained quiet in thought for a moment before answering. "A love jinx, Mister Malfoy? I'm not sure what you mean."

Hermione piped up then. "It's called Love Bind, Professor. Somehow we've ended up with it being cast upon us and there's no way to get rid of it without an antijinx. It was created over eight hundred years ago, but we found reference of it in a more recent book and…well, it said that you had created an antijinx for it."

The headmaster frowned then, and if Hermione hadn't been staring at him intently for any sign of a light bulb going off in his head, she probably wouldn't have believed it herself—Dumbledore rarely had a frown on his face. This did not seem like a good omen to Hermione.

"Ah, Love Bind."

"Yes, yes, that's the one, now can you give us the antijinx so we can be rid of it forever?" Draco drummed heatedly.

"I'm afraid it's a bit more complicated than that, Mister Malfoy," Dumbledore replied, seemingly upset about it himself.

Draco and Hermione sighed at the same time and exchanged a worried glance.

He then cursed under his breath," Of course it is."

"Professor, are you saying that there isn't an antijinx?" Hermione asked, worry defining every feature of her face.

"Oh no, Miss Granger, there most definitely is an antijinx," Dumbledore replied, to which Hermione visibly relaxed and let out a sigh. "I did create it, as you have discovered yourself. But there were, ah, some complications that I did not account for, you see."

Draco stared at him, still annoyed he wasn't just spitting out the information they needed to know—did he enjoy taunting them like this? "Well? What were they?"

"Well, in my younger days I was in love. I know, it must be hard to imagine with me not being married at my age. Even I myself remember it as a distant dream, and often wonder if it ever happened at all. But, of course, we both know that it did," the Headmaster said, staring off into space.

Draco glanced over at Hermione to see her staring in rapture at her precious Professor. He smirked and laughed under his breath before returning his attention to Dumbledore.

"Anyway, she was a lovely girl, wonderful witch, and most talented in all areas of magic. Out of all the other girls I knew, she impressed me the most. Usually I was the smartest person I knew; not to sound conceited, but that's the interaction I was limited to in those days. I befriended her and soon found myself falling in love. Unfortunately, the affection was not returned to me, and I was devastated. I resorted to searching for love potions and spells, anything that could make her see that I was the one for her. As it were, I came across the Love Bind—drastic, I'll admit now, but then it seemed it was the perfect solution. She would spend so much time with me that, eventually, she would have to love me, or suffer death. I convinced her I was casting a spell to make us more intelligent, but she soon discovered my trick when we could not be more than ten feet apart. She despise me for it—I had taken her freedom from her, her choices, everything. Essentially, I had stolen her life. We stayed like this for months, and meanwhile I kept hoping she would soon realize her hatred of me was misplaced love. It never came about though, and soon it was more than she could bear. She talked of killing herself just so she could be put out of the misery that was her life now, the life that I had caused. Fake emotions, however close to love they are, are still not real, true love. They never feel the same. It was then that I realized I loved her too much to force this upon her—I had to create an antijinx since none yet existed. Impossible it may seem to the both of you, but I had done this before. I was young, but I was mature beyond my years when it came to advanced magic. After a few weeks of meddling about in different spells, I thought I had finally conjured up a solution. The only problem was that I had no test subjects to try it out on, only ourselves. If something went wrong, there was no turning back. I told her what I had created and she was more than ready to test it, consequences or not."

At this point Dumbledore stopped talking and was quiet for a moment, seemingly to collect his thoughts. He lightly held his face in his hands, almost as if he were holding back tears. Hermione looked on him with concern. "Professor, are you alright?"

He looked up at her with a smile. "Yes, yes, Miss Granger. Sorry for the interruption. Allow me to finish my story." With a deep sign he continued on.

"Well, I performed the spell to reverse the jinx, all in the exact same manner that I had done when putting the jinx on us for the first time, and everything seemed to go just fine. It was only after I was done that I realized something was wrong. Despite her hatred of me, she ran to me for an embrace due to her happiness that the jinx was gone. The hug I expected never came, though, because she was thrown backwards across the room as soon as she got an inch away from me. I tried to help her up but an unseen barrier existed between us. You see, by breaking the bind that connected me to my only love, I was unable to touch her ever again. And due to that, I am also unable to love ever again in that way. That is the reason I have never married. The only love I am able to feel now is that of family and friends. The other complication we did not discover until that evening, when she attempted to do a simple cleaning spell in her home. She was very surprised when nothing happened. She tried again, and again nothing occurred. No pots were scrubbed, no floor was swept. Her magic was gone; in essence, she was now a Squib. I still don't know why that happened, but you can imagine how devastated she was."

Hermione and Draco stared at him, their mouths hanging open. Draco's eyes were the size of dinner plates, while Hermione looked as if she were about to pass out.

"So…so you're saying that if we try to use this antijinx, I'll turn into a Squib and Malfoy will never be able to love?" Hermione questioned in disbelief.

Dumbledore sighed once again. "Perhaps. One could never know unless it was attempted. I have only ever tried it once, obviously. The results could be totally different in your situation, considering neither of you love one another in that way. It is a risk, to be sure, but the choice is up to you."

Draco gritted his teeth together. "That's it? That's all you're going to give us? No special fix to our problem? Granger always said you could do anything, remedy any situation! But I knew better, I knew you were a joke, you could never help us at all!" he shouted, standing up from his chair and heading to the door.

"Mister Malfoy."

Draco whirled around to face the aging man. "What!"

"If you would sit down, we could discuss this rationally and explore the options. I am flattered Miss Granger would praise me in such a way," he quickly smiled at Hermione appreciatively, "but regrettably I cannot always fix everything. I will, however, do the best that I can, seeing that I can empathize with your situation quite well."

He glared at him for a moment longer and then gave up, stomping back to the chair he was just sitting in, and plopping down heavily.

"Not to be rude, Professor, but what options do we really have?" Hermione pointed out glumly.

"Well, there is one thing you could do. It would be risky, and not to mention dangerous, but it could possibly allow you a way out," he said mysteriously, looking rather hopeful.

Draco's eyes lit up. "What do we have to do?"

Dumbledore opened up one of his drawers and carefully pulled out a small, silver hourglass hanging on a golden chain.

Hermione smiled, understanding dawning on her. "That's brilliant, Professor!"

Draco looked at her in confusion, and then back at the Headmaster. "What's brilliant? What is that thing? How is that supposed to help us be free?"

"It's a Time-Turner, Malfoy," Hermione explained excitedly. "Professor Dumbledore is suggesting we go back in time to find the creators of the jinx and find out how to get rid of it! But Professor—," she paused in thought, "how are we supposed to go back that far? One inversion goes back only an hour, we'd have to turn it a million times!"

Dumbledore smiled, as if he'd already thought about that. "Ah, well Miss Granger that is a special Time-Turner I had made especially for myself. It can go back as many years as you want, all you must do is point your wand at it, say the date, and you will be there in no time at all."

Draco still wasn't convinced, and his eyes narrowed at Dumbledore. "Wait a minute, how come you never went back in time in the first place? Then you would be able to love and that girl wouldn't be a Squib."

"Time-Turners hadn't been invented then, Mister Malfoy. Trust me, I would have taken that chance had it been an option."

There was a moment of silence while Hermione looked expectantly at Draco, Draco sat in thought, and the Headmaster glanced back and fourth between the two of them. The blonde-haired Slytherin finally looked up at them, his face resolute.

"Alright, let's do it."

Back in the Head's common room, Hermione and Draco stood facing one another by the fireplace. In the Gryffindor's hand was the Time-Turner, and in the Slytherin's hand was floo powder. Dumbledore had explained to them that his special timepiece could only be used outside the grounds of Hogwarts; therefore they would have to floo to Hogsmeade and then journey from there. He had given them the day off from school to complete this adventure, warning them to keep their wands at the ready and their minds alert—who knew what dangers would be held in the land they were about to travel to?

"Ready?" Hermione asked, staring Draco in the eyes.

He looked back with just as much intensity. "Ready."

They climbed side-by-side into the large fireplace, and with one sweeping motion, Draco threw down the floor powder and said in a clear voice, "Hogsmeade!"

Both Heads stumbled out of the fireplace in the Three Broomsticks and quickly exited out onto the street. Hermione wrapped her scarf tighter around her neck; the wind was whipping quickly and snow was falling around them.

"Let's…let's go to the outskirts of town, I don't really want anyone seeing us do this," Draco suggested, already starting to walk towards the Hog's Head.

"Why not?" Hermione questioned as she followed.

"I duno, it just seems like it's something that should be done in private, that's all."

She scoffed under her breath. "Oh please, it's quite clear that you don't want to be seen with me, Malfoy. You can admit it, you know."

"It has nothing to do with that, Granger!" he retorted, clearly upset by the idea. "Blood purity isn't the only thing I think about, ok? I do have my own thoughts and opinions! I'm not my father."

Taken aback by his statements, Hermione fell silent as they continued to walk on. After a little while she quietly said, "For what it's worth, you are nothing like your father."

She glanced sidelong at Draco to see if this had any impact on him, and she was not disappointed. He lifted his eyes to meet hers, question and confusion spelt across his face. Their walk slowed down considerably as he took his time to respond.

"How would you know, Granger? You don't know me and you don't know my father," he replied coldly, staring ahead once again.

"Malfoy, you saved my life. I'll never forget that. Your father never even considered it as an option. You're more different than you think."

Draco looked at her, really looked at her then. She was being genuine, he could tell. He would never admit it to her, or to anyone for that matter, but her words warmed him inside. I'm not like my father. She said I was different. No one has ever said that to me before. He didn't know how to reply to that, so he muttered out a, "Thanks," and said no more.

Before Hermione could think of something else to say, they had reached the outskirts of Hogsmeade. Here, the wind blew more fiercely than in the town for there was no protection from buildings, so the pair huddled together as best they could without actually touching one another.

"Alright, turn the blasted thing already, it's freezing!" Draco exclaimed, rubbing his hands rapidly up and down his arms.

"Ok, ok, hold onto me then!" she replied, pointing her wand at the Time-Turner. Once Draco was secured to her arm, Hermione turned it once and shouted, "Greece, 1210!"