Disclaimer: Harry Potter not mine. Plot mine.

A/N: This is the longest chapter I've ever written for this story. A whole... 2,154 words. Read/Relax/Review!

Chapter Six: Father Time in Wonderland

"This way, Harry," Draco whispered, waving his hand at Harry to follow.

Harry smiled and followed Draco, skipping along merrily into the dark classroom beyond. No one was inside. It was, after all, past curfew.

Draco meandered around all the empty desks until he came back to the front of the classroom, and Harry stood by the door, watching happily; and, why wouldn't he be happy? Draco wanted him back. Everything was right as rain.

"Kiss me, Harry," Draco said as he leaned against a teacher's old, unused desk. Harry's smile widened as he stepped closer to the man he desired. His lips nearly touched Draco's when his eyes turned fierce and angry. "Potter, what are you doing!" he yelled, placing his hands on Harry's chest and shoving him aside. "I don't swing that way!"

The man with pale blonde hair stormed out of the classroom, and Harry tried to chase after him, but the door kept traveling farther and farther away from his grasp. Soon, the door was just a speck in the distance, and Harry was left running in the dark. Suddenly, the floor gave out, and he could feel the air rushing past him as he kept falling, but never seeing, or feeling, the end.

And then there were clocks. They were everywhere: clocks on normal time, clocks on Japan time, and clocks for teatime. But the water got in the way as Harry plummeted into the salty, cold ocean. Seawater raced into his nose as he paddled his hands worriedly to the top. He broke into the surface, breathing in as much air as humanly possible, and watched, with disbelief, as the water slowly started decreasing, like someone pulled the plug in an overfilled bathtub. When all the water finally went down the tube (yes, there was a tube. Harry checked.), he began to look more closely at the clocks surrounding him. Yes, there were the clocks mentioned before, but he just noticed them in passing. Now he could look more closely.

All sides of the walls were decorated peculiarly, according to what clocks each side held. Walls with normal, everyday clocks were, well, ordinary everyday walls. However, the wall telling you when it was time to do things looked calm and happy, with blues, pinks, and yellows swirled together, much like the happy colors of Easter. But, then there was the wall telling you when time was running out, which Harry found the most fascinating of all. The wall was just plain red, perhaps for fury of the loss of time, but it was curious nonetheless. He studied the clocks on this wall even further, coming across simple ones saying you're loosing time to do your taxes, and how much time you have left to send them to MRS: Magical Revenue Service. Or the really freaky ones saying how much time left you have to live. Yet, the most interesting one had Harry's name on it. And Draco's.

Harry reached out and took the clock of the wall, and held it closer to his face to inspect it more closely. Time Harry Potter has left to ensnare Draco Malfoy before it's too late.

This might be useful, Harry thought as he looked to see how much time he had left.

Two weeks, four days, twenty hours, thirty minutes, and seventeen seconds.

Sixteen seconds.

Fifteen seconds.

Harry shook his head. Would it be okay for him to pocket such a clock? Well, it does have his name on it… What use would it be to anyone but him? He quickly placed it in his pocket.

Immediately, it started searing a hole into his pocket and began scorching his right leg. Harry screamed as he tried to throw it away from himself, but it attached itself to Harry's leg, continuing to burn and having a mind of its own as it attempted to inhumanly, since it was a magical clock, burn right through his leg. Harry screamed even louder, even though he knew it had no use, but screaming anyway since he couldn't control it. It, too, had a mind of its own.

"Harry…" said a singsong voice from above. "Harry…"

Harry stopped screaming as the burning ceased and twisted his head this way and that in search of this beautiful voice. He knew he hadn't heard it before, and his natural curiosity was about to show itself.

"Harry…" said the voice again, but now Harry could feel its presence around him. Wildly, Harry waved his arms around, trying to catch it hopelessly. It was much like trying to catch a ghost. Hopeless.

"Harry…" said the voice from behind him. Like a deer on alert, Harry turned around.

It was the caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland. "Who… are… you?" he asked, blowing smoke-rings in the air.

"I'm Harry Potter," he said, wondering where the caterpillar came from. It was not the singsong voice that entranced him.

"I do not… know of any… Harry Potter," the caterpillar said, beginning to blow smoky ships into the air. "What are… you doing here?"

Then, it dawned on Harry. He was here to win Draco back! "I'm trying to find a way to win my boyfriend back."

"Ah, yes, I can help you there."

"You can?" Harry asked, raising an eyebrow. Did it ever prosper Alice to listen to the caterpillar? He couldn't remember.

"Yes," he said, smoke billowing out from his green lips and colliding with Harry's face. Harry coughed at the smoke intake, but quickly recovered. He saw the cryptic caterpillar ripping pieces of mushroom from various mushrooms. "Eat this to gain more time," he said, handing him a mushroom slice, "and this to loose time," handing him another.

Harry blinked, and the caterpillar was gone. Instead, before him, stood a man as old as time. His robes flapped behind him in the imaginary wind, and had the clichéd silver stars and moons adorning his navy blue attire. His beard reached the belt that lay across his stomach, reminding him of no other than Professor Dumbledore, but the eyes were wrong. Dumbledore's eyes were usually a twinkling, periwinkle blue. This man's eyes were black with stone.

The man's lips parted. "You do not have much time, young Master Potter. Before long, Draco will be beyond your grasp. Do whatever you can with the time given to you to win his heart. I shall now give you a clock, which you will do well not to loose. It shows the amount of time you have left to ensnare him before all time is lost." He reached into his navy blue robes and pulled out a clock that looked identical to the one Harry took off the wall, and handed it to him. Confused, Harry's hand went inside his right pant leg pocket, to find the watch had gone, and the hole still there.

"It shall not burn you this time," he said as he began fading into the background.

"Harry…"

There it was again.

"Harry…"

Harry's eyes snapped open to the darkness that engulfed the boys' dormitory, and realized that morning hadn't arrived yet. He then noticed something small and metal resting in his right hand, and he brought it near his face.

The clock.

The clock had survived the dream. He still had it. That's… never happened before. Who was that man? Why does he still have this clock?

He checked it out of curiosity.

Two weeks, four days, nineteen hours, thirty minutes, eight seconds.

He turned to the right to see the actual time, or a clock on his bedside table. Five thirty in the morning.

All right, so it was actually morning. Just dark outside.

He had an hour before he had to get up, but he didn't feel like sleeping anymore. Now he knew how Hermione felt. He had the need to do some research! He had the need to find out why he had this clock! He had the need… for Hermione. Hermione would know where to look for this information.

He took off his pajamas, replaced them with jeans and a dark blue t-shirt, and made his way down to the commons where he would wait for Hermione. Not only did he want Hermione's help, but she still hadn't told him of the fireworks idea she had come up with. She said that he and Ron should probably go to bed since it was late, although she never really cared about time before, which he pointed out. "Never you mind," she said. "Go to bed." Once Hermione makes up her mind, it's impossible to change it, and after years of Hermione's friendship, he and Ron didn't want to waste their time to try. Therefore, they went to bed, and Harry still didn't know what Hermione wanted to do with fireworks. Bloody hell.

Two weeks, four days, eighteen hours, forty minutes, five seconds.

People should be getting up around now.

Wait… It's Sunday.

Shit.

Harry scratched his head.

Harry rekindled the fire in the fireplace.

Harry wrote a love note to Draco that he never intended to send.

Harry checked the clock.

Two weeks, four days, eighteen hours, five minutes, sixteen seconds.

Harry stood up from the armchair he sat in and stuffed the letter into his pocket. He was fed up with waiting for Hermione. Girls sleep too damned long. Okay, scratch that. Guys usually do that. Hermione slept long enough anyway. He quietly snuck into his dorm and wrapped his invisibility cloak around himself, and swiftly ran down the stairs. He anticipated the girls' staircase turning to a slide, and he cast a weak sticking charm to his shoes. Strong enough so he can walk on the slide, but weak enough so he could lift his feet.

A few steps upward, and he noticed the shluck shlucking of his shoes upon the stone slide. He ran a tired hand down his face in exasperation. When will things go his way?

He stood there for a moment. The girls were asleep… weren't they? Maybe some were light sleepers, but Harry could be at Hermione's dorm before they knew the shluck shlucking wasn't part of their dreams… Yes, this could work.

And then he ran. Ran up the stony slide and reached the damned top; the top that signaled his arrival at forbidden territory: Hermione's dorm room. Excitedly, he turned the doorknob and went inside.

He remembered in time not to laugh when he saw Hermione sleeping, with her hair spread out at all angles, muttering numbers in her sleep. Harry rolled his eyes. Hermione.

Oh yeah. His mission. Right.

Perhaps he should've brought a camera to take a picture for dear, old Ron. Ah well, he didn't want to go through this ordeal again. Besides, he had his own purposes for being here. He spent enough time getting side-tracked.

"Psssst," Harry pssssssted into Hermione's sleeping ear.

Is Hermione a light sleeper? That seemed so unlike her.

"Hermione… Psssssst," Harry whispered again.

"Oofshalupshud," Hermione grumbled. Harry withheld his laughter once more.

Hermione's eyelids fluttered opened to Harry's eyes less than an inch away from hers. "Good morning, Sunshine," Harry whispered.

Hermione gasped and involuntarily pushed herself to the other side of her bed, pulling the bed sheets up along the way. "What are you doing in here?" she whispered angrily. "And how did you get in here?"

"Good question," Harry said. "Get up and meet me in the commons in ten minutes. I'll tell you then."

He left Hermione resting her eyes on her fluffy white pillow as he recovered himself with his invisibility cloak. He wondered how it fell off in the first place. Ah well. Too late.

"All right, Harry. Here I am. What do you want?" Hermione said not ten minutes later, but fifteen. She seemed kind of grouchy, but Harry didn't really care at the moment. There were more important things to think about, such as the old man giving him the clock in his dream and carrying it into the real world, and the fireworks. The mushrooms the caterpillar gave him were deemed useless. Besides, Harry didn't have them with him anymore. No need to worry about mushrooms from Wonderland, or wherever Alice journeyed to.

He explained these ideas to Hermione over the next fifteen minutes, just not about mushrooms, caterpillars, and Alice. Those thoughts were kept to himself.

Hermione sat in silence after Harry finished explaining his dream, and Hermione ignored his comments about the fireworks for the while. "Harry… The only thing that makes sense to me is that… the man was Father Time. I don't see how that would work though… He can't be real… Or, you're having strange dreams again. I think you need to see Dumbledore about it."

"Maybe later. The Father Time thing does seem plausible… But, it's too weird for my taste. So, what about the fireworks?"

Hermione smiled mischievously as she opened her mouth to answer.

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PS

If you have any ideas on how Harry can win Draco back, I'd love to hear them! If I use any, I'll give you credit. :)