"Professor?" echoed Neville as stood dumbfounded. Harry took advantage and looped the delicate gold chain around the two other boys.
He made a noncommittal sound,"uh huh. Three turns should be plenty."
"I don't like this," Ron said, looking the pair in the eye before Harry took a breath and twisted the tiny dial gently.
The trio watched, mesmerised as the circles span and the suspended hourglass twisted and turned on it's axis. Around them, the moon was dipping back behind the forest, dropping from the sky as the late afternoon sunshine slowly crept back into the night sky and replaced the stars. Neville stiffened as a ghost drifted down the corridor backwards, three times faster than their usual sedate pace, paying them no piece of mind.
Eventually, the dials stopped turning and the golden wash of the setting sun was illuminating the grounds and the corridor.
"What time do you think it is?" Ron wondered, taking the chain from around his neck and placing it in Harry's open palm.
"I dunno, we've got maybe ten minutes before the last class," Harry replied, stuffing the time turner in its velvet pouch and then shoving that in the pocket of his robes. "Come on."
Neville and Ron, both dressed in their bedclothes were resigned to trailing Harry as he scouted the route before them.
"We can't be seen, under no circumstances."
Neville shook his head, unhappy at the turn of the night's events. If they had truly gone back to the time Harry was hoping for, Neville would be able to find himself in his little office, repotting bulbs happily.
The boys had arrived outside the tapestry to the Tower without seeing another soul. Once inside, Harry ran to fetch his cloak as Ron collapsed on the arm chair, throwing himself into the cushion with force.
"Do you think we can stop him?"
Ron had not made any comments about Hermione, nor had he really talked to anybody that evening. Neville wondered if the redhead was bottling his feelings up or if he knew something nobody else did.
"Nev..." Ron began, craning his neck so he could see the anxious wizard still stood in the doorway. "We'll sort this. And if not this time and this way, we'll figure something else out."
"She could die Ron."
"She won't," he replied, a dark tone lacing his words. He took a calming breath and pushed himself out of the chair, turning to look at his friend. "This is going to work Neville."
Ron's confidence carried the trio from the Tower, all cramped, back to chest, under the cloak. They worked together silently to avoid the steady flow of students passing them after their last class.
Nearly forty minutes later, the sun was beginning to set and Harry had sneezed only feet behind a group of first years. Thankfully, they burst into excited chatter about how the castle was alive instead of assuming they were being followed.
The Great Hall was empty save from a lone house elf in a stained apron, pottering about with a ostrich feather-duster. He turned and stared them down as they slipped in, still invisible, through the massive doors, pulling the cloak from their heads so they could breathe better.
"Masters should not be here. Masters should not be meddling with time," the little grey elf warned solemnly before he resumed dusting down the armour dotted around the perimeter of the hall.
"Have you see anybody else come in?" Harry enquired politely, elbowing Ron as he began to panic about being caught with a time turner - an illegal possession.
"Norman does not mess with Time Mr Potter. Only the werewolf and his mate have been here recently," the comment was met with a wrinkled nose and a disgusted expression. Harry didn't know whether is was due to Draco's lycanthropy or the activities the couple had probably been engaged in all afternoon.
"Thank you Norman," Neville cut in, bowing his head slightly as they crossed the expanse of the room. Once they were outside the anteroom, he turned and looked expectantly at the others. "Well..."
Harry shrugged, "I hadn't thought this far ahead."
"We should get Pans," Ron suggested, highlighting her knowledge of protective charms.
Harry shook his head. "Everything we experienced earlier is because of what we are doing now. Pansy was asleep when Theo left so we obviously didn't go and get her."
"I hate trying to keep up with time," Ron sighed. "Fine, we slip in and tell them what happened. Or what will happen if they stay there."
"Enter the room of a mating werewolf couple. Are you insane. I still wouldn't just barge in it it were Draco and Hermione reading a cross word, let alone an hour or so after they had finished 'reacquainting' themselves," Neville chuckled.
"Good point," Harry agreed. "I'll just-" Harry banged his fist against the wood several times.
Ron swore dejectedly and Neville stared at Harry like he had sprouted a second head.
"You said let's not barge in," Harry imitated Neville poorly.
The trio waited for a moment, staring at the door expectantly. When it didn't open, Harry turned round to his friends with an easy grin. "See, nothing to-"
The trio yelled and screamed in shock as the door was ripped from it's hinges suddenly.
Neville and Ron were clutching at each other as Harry whipped back around to come face to face with a half transformed Draco. His fingers were longer and thinner than those of a man, and he had a very slight muzzle. Sharp teeth and spit were all Harry could see as Draco stood taller, stooping in the doorway, hairy chest heaving as he seethed.
"The fuck are you twats doing?" he growled, eyes bright and skin glowing. Spit flew as he bared his teeth at the trio of intruders.
Harry couldn't stop himself, "You spat on me." The offended look on the wizard's face made Draco laugh, instantly calming his overprotective nature.
"What have you done?"
"Huh?" Harry was still staring at the small glistening droplet on his robe so Ron had answered the question.
"Why are you here. Why are you wearing bedclothes and why are you disturbing us?" Draco elaborated each word as if they were children. He was calming down and his face returned back to its normal sharp features.
"Can we come in," Ron asked, looking over his shoulder at the house elf.
Draco sighed dramatically and told them to wait for a minute. He shut the door on them and returned a few seconds later, dressed fully and back to his human self.
Hermione was still sleeping in a pile of clothes in the center of the room. Harry shrugged out of his robe and lay it over her and then looked at the cloak in his hand before placing that on the mound of clothes. Neville and Ron attempted to follow suit but Draco snapped at them.
"It's bad enough she'll be smelling like Potter," he muttered glancing at her with a coy smile that made Ron pretend to heave.
"There's something we need to tell you, will she wake up soon?"
"No, she's physically and magically exhausted. She's about as much use as Wesley's owl right about now."
"Hey!"
"So, if there were a hypothetical attack, she would not be able to defend herself. Even if she is the best witch to have walked inside these walls?" Neville wondered slowly, avoiding Draco's keen eye.
The blonde raised and eyebrow and turned his full attention to the trio. Harry couldn't help but notice how he had subconsciously put his body between Hermione, Ron and Neville. Harry felt humbled that Draco trusted him enough not to feel the need to protect Hermione from him.
"What is going on Potter?" Draco demanded lowly.
Harry sighed. "If I were to tell you that we may have used a time turner, how would you react?"
"A time turner," Draco repeated. He looked carefully from each face before allowing his eyes to slide to his mate. "What happened that you needed a time turner?"
"There was an attack," Neville began before Ron cut him off.
"Hermione was attacked in the charms corridor, or she will be in about an hour. Daphne will find her and attach her magical core to Hermione's. Theo will somehow find out and wake everybody before going to the girls and attaching his core to Daphne's. Ginny will come down here and find you with several broken bones. Then we will come back in time to an hour ago and this whole thing will start again."
"How do you know Ginny came down here?" Harry asked, accusation and hurt evident in his voice.
"Gin and I, we still communicate through the coins from the DA. Here," Ron fished the galleon out of his pocket and threw it at Draco.
The blonde inspected it closely, running the pad of his thumb over the words carved into the dull surface.
D injured, follow Harry
"By whom?" was all Draco said, tossing the galleon to Harry. "Who did this?"
"Alasdair Nott and an acomplice. McGonagall thinks the other guy knew the inner workings of the school, like a student or a professor," Neville answered him.
Draco let out a sharp laugh but it sounded painful and forced. "He's after Daphne. Hermione and I are just a happy coincidence he has stumbled upon."
"Why would he want Daphne? I thought he disowned Theo," Ron asked, sliding down the cabin at behind him so he could sit down.
"You've seen the Black family tree at Grimmauld haven't you Weasley." A nod. "Every pureblood estate has the same magical wall somewhere in their ancestral homes. They have certain charms that mean they are updated before anybody could know. Theo's tree would have extended when he married Daphne but Alasdair was on the run so he would never have known."
"So he's fighting them down now?"
"Their branch has grown. Daphne's carrying the heir of the Nott family. Two pure blooded parents. The child could ruin that line."
Harry adjusted his glasses, "now I'm confused. Isn't people like Alasdair Nott obsessed over how pure his bloodline is?"
"Yes, but inbreeding and tainted lines mean that this is probably, and should be, the last generation of only pure blooded children. Nott is looking to ensure that the child is never born, ensuring that his bloodline can continue with Theo and some foreign pureblood, not Daphne."
"Isn't it all the same though, Theo will probably be related to the foreign witch as much as he is to Daphne," theorised Neville. He had never fully grasped the idea of keeping magical lines pure. If anything, more squibs had been produced from the inbreeding in the last thirty years than every before.
Draco looked pained as he answered Neville. "Daphne and Theo are cousins Longbottom. That's as close as the pure bloods get. In some circles a decade ago, that would have been seen as incest. It's not even that harsh to some..."
"I think I going to vomit," Confessed Ron as he listened to Draco explain the gruesome views of the extreme purebloods.
"As long as it's not slugs then that's fine. I've ate enough slugs to last me a lifetime."
"Draco, we need to move the pair of you, before nine o'clock."
"Of course, let me just wake sleeping beauty and we will be off, ready to fight this intruder with ease," he snipped sarcastically. "She won't wake up even if I tried. Her body is healing Potter."
"Then we need to seal off the room before he-,"
"Too late for that," sneered a voice from the shadows.