Simon:

"Baz!" I shouted, my hands outstretching towards him without my permission. I was inches away from gripping his sleeve when he vanished in a flash of light.

I stand frozen for a moment, staring at the space that had been occupied a few minutes ago by my arch-rival, arm still out in a pathetic attempt to grip something tangible. Slowly, I take a step back. Why did I feel so upset that he'd gone?

Plotting, my mind supplied, He's off plotting your downfall.

But those words just didn't seem to ring true anymore.

Gingerly, I leaned down, and picked up his wand from where it had fallen to the ground in the last moment before he'd disappeared. Surely if Baz was off doing something dastardly or nefarious, he'd need this? I swallowed, and turned it over in my hands once,, before tucking it in my pocket and turning to the next clue to Baz's location.

An spell book lay open on his bed. It was coated in a disrupted layer of dust, and the paper was tarnished, and on the brink of falling apart. I take a seat on Baz's bed, half-expecting him to appear from some corner and start screeching at me for encroaching on his side of the room.

Nothing.

The smell of cedar and bergamot still lingered on the sheets, and as much as I hated to admit it, I found it comforting.

Pulling the book onto my legs (I don't understand how Baz managed to lug this thing up the stairs to our room, it weighed half a ton), I examined the page that Baz had been looking at.

Time travel spells

"Back to the future"

Be sure to say every syllable clearly, and place emphasis upon the last word.

Back to the Future is a spell that will allow the user to go forward in time by three years. Once there, the user will be able to spend a week as their future selves in that time period before returning to their own.

Alternatively, the spell can be broken early by:

A paste ground from frog slime, unicorn dust, and oak leaves

True love's first kiss

Riding a pig up Mount Everest, while shouting "Yee haw!"

Always be cautious of how you affect the future while underneath the spell.

I read the whole thing twice, and then select parts once more for good measure, before snapping it shut, and heaving it off my legs.

What in Merlin's name would Baz want to be doing in the future?

Killing you? One voice in my head suggested.

Getting a sneak peek of his future life with Agatha as a wife, and ten children? Another proffered.

Both options made me equally ticked off for some reason.

I bit the back of my thumb, and entertained the idea of going after him for a moment.

Then I heaved the book into my arms, and went running down the stairs to talk to Penny.

….()….

"I honestly don't know what to tell you, Simon." Penny said, looking over the spell "It's a banned spell, so he probably did it for a kick"

"Baz doesn't do things for kicks!" I whined, my head down on the table "He does things because he's plotting and evil! Do you think he's gone to the future to kill me while my guard's down?"

"I distinctly remember having this conversation with you yesterday, Simon" She says primly, rolling her eyes a little "You even seemed to take a few of my points on board. This seems like a major step back."

"That was before!" I muttered "I just… want to know that he's okay"

Wait. That came out as both softer and gayer than I meant it to. But when I looked up, Penny doesn't even seem surprised by my comment. She took it in stride.

"I think that you want me to convince you to go after him. Right?"

"Well…" I considered it for a moment "Yes."

"Then just go!"

I sat up, red indents on my cheek from where I'd been squashing my face into the tablecloth "You think it's a good idea?"
"No." Penny picked up the book, and flicked throught it a little, not even bothering to look up at me "Frankly, I think it's a terrible one. But no matter what I say, you're going to convince yourself that it's for the greater good or something silly like that and do it anyway. Am I right?"

Disregarding my mumbled answer, Penny departed with no more than a gesture towards the book, and a quick "I'm keeping this."

I don't sit around this time. I ran out of the dining hall, out of the grounds, and into the Wavering Woods. I securely enclosed Baz's wand in one pocket, a few sour cherry scones I nicked from the kitchen earlier in the other, and pointed my wand up at the sky.

Like Baz did.

"Back to the future!"

…..()….

Baz:

For a moment, I'm unable to do anything more than stare at Snow (no, not Snow, some sort of strange, messed up version. He'd have to be messed up to kiss me), make indecipherable noises, and slowly raise my hand to my lips.

If anything, that just seemed to spur Not-Snow on even more, and he gently kissed my nose, cheeks, and forehead, before snuggling back down into the blankets.

"Crowley, it's finally the weekend" He sighed, stretching out in bed "Thought we'd never make it. What with your asshole professor, and the sudden Attack of the Essays on my end. Right, Baz?"

I say nothing. I needed a distraction. Anything to pull my mind from the fact that he wasn't wearing a shirt.

At last, he seemed to notice that something wasn't quite right (He retained the observation skills of Snow then), and pulled me down, taking my face in his hands. He frowned, blond hair falling in his face, covering his left eye. He needed a haircut, I noted

"Hey, are you okay?" His voice brought me back to the situation I was in. Not-Snow leaned even closer to me, and gently pressed his forehead against mine "You don't seem to have a temperature."

"I'm fine." I finally managed to choke out, traitorous pulse quickening at the touch.

"You sure? You seem a lot… tamer than usual. Normally you would have made one of your half-hearted jabs at me by now."

Half-hearted jabs?

And that's when I noticed the wings and tail.

I had no idea as to how they'd escaped my scrutiny for that long. But there they were, clear as day. Wings, and an honest to Merlin cartoon devil's tail protruding from underneath the blanket.

Even more unnerved, I scooted back a tiny bit.

Not-Snow made a noise of complaint, and yanked me closer to him.

I wriggled out of his grasp.

That's it. I was in my own personal hell. A torment of showing me what I could have had.

When Not-Snow reached out for me again, I snapped. Pure panic overtook me, and I found myself spitting "I don't know what you're trying to pull, Snow, but it's not working. Run back to your sidekick and your golden girlfriend before they ditch you too."

His jaw dropped, but I was already out of bed, undertaking the profound realisation that I was also not wearing a shirt.

Making for the bathroom, I heard Not-Snow scrabbling out of bed behind me, his voice emotion riddled "Baz, I-"

The door slammed shut in his face, and I stared at the space where it had been for a second before shaking my head violently.

He stayed outside for a few minutes more, making vague pleas, and sounding an awful lot like he was crying. Which just proved that the spell messed up somewhere, and I was in some sort of parallel world. Snow wouldn't cry because of me. I make him angry, not sad.

If I said that sort of thing to the real Snow, he'd probably stand there gormlessly for a minute or so before going off like an H bomb.

Sitting on the closed toilet seat, I smacked myself in the face. Once. Twice. I hated my magic for making me end up wherever the heck I was. And I hated myself for liking the idea of waking up with Snow every day. Kissing him in the morning every day. Living with him in a way that didn't mean both of us were either in silence, or sniping at one another

All I wanted to do was fix the mistake of falling in love with him. Now I'd somehow ended up in a situation quickly spiralling out of control, where the prospect of Simon loving me was dangled in front of my nose with the disclaimer of none of it being real.

I kicked the towel rail a few times, before tentatively unlocking the door, and poking my head out.

Not-Snow had disappeared off somewhere, although I could still hear his voice nearby. Speaking so quickly his words fused, and I couldn't understand them without being right next to him.

I took the chance to look around the room. The layout of the room, and obvious design choices seemed to suit my tastes- to the point where it really seemed that I'd designed it myself. Touches of Snow lay everywhere, however- like where there was a random poster of a cartoon cat on the wall for no apparent reason.

Perusing the pictures on the wall more closely, my heart clenched. There was one of me and Snow at the Leaver's Ball, another of us wearing goofy winter sweaters, and holding hands in front of a Christmas tree. And finally there was a particularly artistic close-up of my face and Simon's, inches away from each other, as if we're about to kiss. Fairy lights are strung in the background.

Feeling sick, I averted my gaze, and walked towards Not-Snow's voice. I had to work out what was going on here, and find a way to leave.

Too long, and I'd never want to.

"-and I just don't know, Pen" Simon's voice filters through the oak door. He was definitely crying now. My fists clenched by my sides, and I found myself supressing tears as well "It's like he doesn't remember anything. Like he has amnesia. He doesn't kiss back, he won't talk to me, and I'm just so scared. I don't know what I'd do if we broke up."

This was quite possibly the worst moment of my life. I bit my lip so tightly I drew blood, and my fangs popped.

Snow listened to the voice on the other end of the line for a moment, scrubbing at his face "Yeah… okay. I just-AGH"

He broke off mid-sentence, and clutched his head, stumbling backwards, a guttural scream coming from his throat.

The phone slipped from his grip, and bounced onto the tiled floor.

Everything slowed down for a moment, before speeding right back up again, double-speed.

I threw open the door and ran towards him. Whatever was going on aside, Not-Snow was the spitting image of Real-Snow.

My feelings for him didn't allow me to just overlook him being hurt.

Before I could get to him however, he crashed backwards into the wall, and slumped unconscious, tears still dripping down his face.

My breath quickened as I finally crouched next to him, wrapping him tightly in my arms. This really was my own personal hell.

"Wake up, Simon" I hissed, shaking him desperately "Please."

A violent shudder passed through his body, and his eyes snapped open.

"BASILTON GRIMM-PITCH!" He screamed suddenly, jerking upright, his eyes rolling back in their sockets. He barely noticed when I quickly let him go "I FOUND YO-"

He stopped, and dabbed curiously at his eyes "Why am I crying?"

Then he spotted his wings and tail.

A piercing scream shook the room.