Hello and welcome to another chapter! Thank you to those who left kudos and comments! It made me fly through this chapter and a lot of the next!

Thank you to my Beta Paz!

Things to look forward too:
- More Dobby
- More time stuff
- Theories with Hermione Granger and Albus Dumbledore


The book slipped from her fingers and hit the floor with a soft 'thunk' as Hermione watched Dumbledore move slowly to his ornate seat. Settling himself comfortably in it, he then began to observe her over the rim of his glasses.

So many emotions raged through her at that moment; joy, anger, sadness, relief, distrust, just to name a few. She couldn't think of anything to say, so she just sat there gaping uselessly at the wizard before her.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Minister Granger…"

"Granger-Weasley." Came Draco's voice from the other side of the room.

Hermione's eyes flicked towards him sharply and he began staring at the ceiling as though it was the most interesting thing he had seen in his life.

Nodding differentially towards Malfoy, Dumbledore continued. "Minister Granger-Weasley then. Although it appears you already know me?"

Schooling her face into blankness, she glared back at the Headmaster. He was gazing serenely over his half moon glasses at her, a small smile pulling at the corner of his mouth. It was irritating. Everything about him sitting there - with his stupid half smile, his stupid glasses, his stupid beard and silly twinkling eyes - was extremely irritating.

She couldn't help the ache within her chest that started to rise the moment she locked eyes with him though, no matter how irksome she found him. Blinking back tears and swallowing heavily, Hermione sharply nodded once.

His eyes tightened slightly, appraising her carefully. He moved slowly, to keep from startling either of them, and picked up one of the books from the desk.

"The Circle of Time, by R. ," he picked up another, "Novikov's Self-Consistency Theory? Judging by these, Minister, I could surmise that you are in need of a bit of assistance. As I am unlikely to remember any of this conversation, if you do indeed repeat this day again, it would be quite safe for you to ask my assistance in this matter, would it not? At least for today?" His soft smile and calm demeanour were making her grit her teeth.

"He's got a point Granger." Came Draco's voice from the far corner, where he was slightly hiding behind Fawkes.

He did have a point, questionable choices aside, Dumbledore was…is…a brilliant wizard. He is one of the most intelligent men in the wizarding world and more likely to look at the problem objectively.

Clearing her throat, she sent a meaningful look at Draco, a sort of let me take it from here glance. "An outside perspective might be helpful, I don't really know where to start."

Dumbledore waved his hand in a 'continue' manner. "Perhaps if you share with me some of your theories?"

Frowning, Hermione took stock of her thoughts. "From my experience of using Time-urners before," Dumbledore's eyebrows rose in surprise, as did Draco's, "it followed Novikov's theory that you can't change anything by going back in time, as it has already happened within your timeline. So any changes you make…have already been done…by you, so the timeline stays intact. The one that the Boy's were using though was…is? Will be? Different. It created entirely different timelines, erasing the past and fracturing what was and would have been. Changed who lived, died and was born…" She shook her head slightly. "Which is baffling as it doesn't compare to Novikov's theory at all, and barely links to Mallet's theory of time as a loop."

She let out a frustrated groan before she continued. "And now it makes no sense at all, because the Time-Turner is gone and we are still travelling back, looping 24 Hours at a time!"

"Did you say that the Time-Turner is gone?" Dumbledore had leant forward as his fingers locked together on the table.

"Yes. Whilst I was dismantling it, I removed the outer casing, until all I had left was the final glass vial and the sands within." Pursing her lips slightly she thought about the dust. "Although it would make sense if some of the magic had clung to us…" She frowned deeply as her words trailed off.

Draco cleared his throat and walked towards the desk. "Um, I got Dobby to have a look at my magic this morning, and he says that it's contaminated with the sands of time." He looked a bit sheepish, "that's how he found you this morning, and it - the time magic, that is - is linked together." He was visibly squirming under both their gazes now, "I might have forgotten to mention it earlier?"

"I cannot believe…" shaking her head exasperatedly, and gazing to the heavens for strength, Hermione let out a deep breath.

"Could this Dobby, your house elf I presume? Could they replicate it?"

"Uh, yeah. I mean, probably, I'll…I'll just ask?" He stepped back a few paces then clearly spoke, "Dobby!"

For a beat, nothing happened, and then there was a sudden pop as Dobby appeared in front of them all, beaming happily in his dirty pillowcase. "Master Malfoy has summoned Dobby! What can Dobby do for Mast…" Dobby cut off his speech as he noticed the other two occupants of the room. "Lady Hermione Granger! Dobby is pleased to see Master Malfoy's very close friend again." He bowed deeply, ears flapping enthusiastically. His eyes then fell on Dumbledore and he let out a strange sound, like a squeak and a fast inhale of breath.

The Headmaster lowered his gaze, eyes peering curiously over his half-moon glasses at the small elf.

"Good Evening, Dobby," he said softly. "Young Master Malfoy here, was just telling us about how wonderful you were at revealing the time sands this morning. I, that is, we, would be ever so grateful to you if you could show us again? If you are able?"

By this point he was positively vibrating with joy, turning his large glassy orbs to Draco for permission, he leapt into action. He was practically skipping around Draco, who was watching Dobby with amusement.

Shifting forward, Hermione couldn't help but watch in fascination as Dobby swiftly moved his hands in strange patterns around Draco's body. When he suddenly stopped and snapped his hands back, she nearly fell out of her chair from shock as the golden particles exploded from his body like some sort of space projection.

She heard Dumbledore's equally impressed gasp from beside her, as her eyes trailed through the sands surrounding Draco's body.

Dobby was now moving to the side of Draco that was closest to her, he was still moving his hands and used them to tug on a section of the sand. A thin stream of it began to wink into existence between her and Draco, revealing a small layer of sand skittering over her own skin.

"I believe, Minister, we have found the sands of time, the source of your time travel." Dumbledore sounded a little breathless as he spoke and his eyes were wide with wonder.

"Yeah. This is probably because you stuck your hand in it, Draco. When I was applying the final spell to destroy the glass container, and the sand had to go somewhere. Shit!" She slumped back heavily in her chair, golden dust flitting across her at the sudden movement. "This is all my fault! I should never…I should've…at least realised, I'm such an idiot."

Flinging an arm across her eyes, she sat for a moment, just to collect her thoughts. Which was hard, as they were currently spinning dizzily around her head. It looked like they were now the containers for the sands, essentially a living Time-Turner. How the hell would that even work? Without the turning mechanism, how was it even sending them back? Was it because they moved during the day? Was proximity an issue? How would they stop the loop? Did they have to be further apart? Closer? Would it always only be 24 hours? Or would it bring them right back to this day every time? And why this day in particular?

A slight cough brought her attention back to the two wizards in front of her. Dumbledore was gazing at her curiously, with some humour to his smile. Draco's eyes kept flickering between her, the Headmaster and the sands currently twisting over his body.

Letting out a sigh she dropped her arm and sat up straight, neatly arranging her hands on her lap.

"It looks like we have absorbed the sand and by doing so have become a sort of living time turner. Unfortunately we are stuck on a 24 hour loop, from midnight to midnight, and unless we can find a way to control it…"

"You will both be stuck repeating the same day over and over." Came Dumbledore's soft voice from beside her.

Hermione didn't respond, she was watching Draco carefully. He was staring off into space with a deep look of concentration that marred his youthful face and gave away the presence of his older self.

"So what you are saying," he said calmly, still staring away, "is that we just need to figure out how it works? I have always been rather good at puzzles…it'll be just like making a new spell." His eyes met hers. "You've always been good at problem solving, right Minister?" A cheeky grin lit up his face, and she couldn't help but smile back.

"A compliment! Be still my beating heart! Who knew you'd be the optimistic one? This might be more difficult than coursework, I'm afraid. It will be a lot of trial and error on our part. We don't even know if it is just the one-day or if we will keep going back to the beginning even if we do know how to get to the next day. There are so many questions we need answered! I mean, maybe the sands decrease each time and eventually we will stop jumping back."

"Well I hope we can control it, as time travel could be a useful skill," Draco interjected.

"Not to mention we might not even be in our original timeline anymore, we could be in an entirely different universe fractured off from our original, and anything we do has no consequences on that one. But if it is the same, we could screw everything up! Voldemort could win! Everyone we love could die!"

She was rambling now and hardly taking a breath in between words.

"The darkness could rise and everything we worked so hard for last time would have been in vain! We're only children currently, what the hell can we do? I've got no clue where to even start with this."

"Easy Granger, let's just work on moving ahead one day, ey?" Draco patted her arm gently; "No need to fuss about anything else until we can at least move forward. And if we can't get to tomorrow, then we don't have to worry about fucking up the future! Just about going nuts!" He was smiling and trying to look encouraging; it was a bit like having Harry try to cheer her up.
That thought drew a laugh and she nodded gratefully to the blond.

Dumbledore stepped forward, a movement so fluid it barely ruffled his robes. "If I might interject, we are now approaching midnight. It may be useful to have Mr Dobby here relay any observations he may have during the travel sequence? It may help you figure out how to proceed towards tomorrow." At this Dobby had leapt forward and was nodding vigorously, he was practically vibrating with joy.

"If you wouldn't mind Dobby, I'd appreciate it." Draco said, meeting the elf's eyes sincerely.

"Dobby would be honoured!"

"Thank you Dobby, you are very kind." Hermione patted his arm as she spoke and Dobby nearly burst out crying from happiness.

Draco moved away to stand at the other side of the room; the golden thread connecting them was still glowing strongly. He bounced on his heels nervously, sending her a small smile as they waited for something to happen.

Dumbledore took out a pocket watch from within his robes and was watching the spinning planets on its surface. "One minute"

Hermione's stomach was twisting in knots and she bit her lip anxiously. Dobby was completely focused on the spiralling sands, his hands slowly moving in patterns as they all held their breath.

"40 seconds."

Nothing was happening. Maybe it was a fluke. Maybe nothing would happen.

"30 seconds."

Maybe they only had to do one day twice and then they would move onto the next one?

"20 seconds."

Maybe the sand had already used too much energy too soon?

"10 seconds."

Maybe…

"The sands are moving," came Dobby's voice "they are building up in Master Draco Malfoy's body." He was holding his hands out and they were shaking slightly in effort.

Hermione could see it, the golden specks were twisting wildly around and through Draco's body and he was looking more and more unnerved by it.

Suddenly there were sparks moving across his arms, they spun across his skin and flowed through the rest of his body. The thread between them suddenly surged as all the sands of time poured towards Hermione. She jolted back, but that made no difference. They twisted through her own body causing sparks to fly over her own skin, before violently rushing back towards Draco.

"The sands is turning by using yous bodies as the glass spinny!" Dobby was shouting loudly. "Yous is the turner!" His last words echoed loudly through her ears as the pressure built, and then she was spinning away.