Disclaimer: Is Sirius Black still dead? Then I don't own Harry Potter.

(A/N: I know this is the slowest update in the history of all that has ever been slow, but this is somehow not my fault.

If you can think of a good reason why this is not my fault, please notify me and I shall begin using it as an excuse immediately.)

Chapter 6: Out of Time

"James Potter, don't you move a bloody muscle!" Sirius shouted.

"Don't be stupid! He's going to die! Remus, help—"

Sirius threw up an arm and hit James square in the chest. "You touch him, you're responsible. If we just wait—"

"Then he'll die, and I'll have killed him. I'd rather get in trouble, thanks."

Sirius didn't remove his hand. "They could send you to Azkaban, James. That's what you want?"

"Remember that bit about being 'brave at heart', Sirius? That means I'd rather get in trouble for something that wasn't my fault than let someone die. Even Snivellus."

Sirius scowled intensely for a good thirty seconds, then sighed. "Complete rubbish, being noble. What to we do with him, then?"

This was where they ran into a bit of a problem. At the rate Snape was losing blood, he'd be dead long before they reached the hospital wing.

"Well," Remus said slowly and as though he'd rather not be suggesting it, "there is one thing we could do."

"Oh, brilliant, Moony, why don't you tell us next week when you've built up the proper amount of dramatic tension?" Sirius said angrily.

Remus cringed a little and spoke very quietly. "We are right near McGonagall's office."

The outburst was just as Remus had expected, as was its source.

"Absolutely bloody not!" Sirius shouted immediately. "We are not—we're completely capable of handling this ourselves—Moony, you like that medical stuff, do something!"

"I don't think chocolate is going to help at a time like this, Sirius," said James. His smile kept sliding off his face no matter how hard he tried to keep it fixed.

"I wasn't going to give him chocolate," Remus snapped. The frown he'd been wearing for the last four days became even more pronounced. "But I might as well at this stage. James?"

James let a long breath. "Always down to me, isn't it?" He tried to keep his voice light, but didn't quite manage it. "Well…let's see what McGonagall has to say, shall we?"

"Don't suppose there's anyway to talk you out of this?" Sirius grumbled.

"None whatsoever," said James as he hoisted Snape upwards. "Up you get, Snivellus, no time for a lie down now."

"James," Remus began warningly.

"No more boring rubbish from you, Moony," James said before he got out another word. "Everything's under control."

Of course, not much good had ever come of people thinking everything was under control.

OoOoOo

"Er…"

"Don't say it, Moony."

"But this is really taking—"

"I know."

"And there's quite a lot of—"

"I know."

"And it's not supposed to—"

James stopped. This involved very little effort, as ten minutes walking had only gotten them about halfway down the corridor. "Go on, say 'I told you' one bloody time—"

"I can't move anymore," Peter whined. Sirius tried to hit him but couldn't move his arm far enough.

"Shut up, Wormtail. You weren't even helping move him."

Remus looked at the ceiling. Then he looked at the floor. Then he looked at James. Then he smiled.

"Do you want to hear my boring rubbish now, James?"

James rubbed at his temples and give Remus a miserable look. "Any chance you won't gloat incessantly through this whole explanation?"

Remus gave him a strained smile. "None whatsoever."

James struggled to actually listen as Remus went off into lecture mode and talked for at least four minutes straight without a single pause.

"Stop—stop—Remus, shut up!"

Remus blinked, slightly startled. "What?"

"Dunno if you've noticed, but there's someone dying here. Could you give us the short version?"

"Can you think of anywhere we might find a singularity, James?" Remus snapped.

James was silent for an unreasonable length of time. "A what?"

"A singularity," Remus repeated very slowly and angrily. "The singularity which is slowing down time—and us. Which is why Peter can't move and why Sirius can't hit him and why we are, as I have said, all completely buggered. Short enough for you?"

"You're shouting, Remus," Sirius said lightly.

Remus fell back against the wall and sighed, putting his face in his hands and letting out a noise that was a mixture of a sigh and a groan. "I don't even know where to look."

"Don't look like that," Sirius said. "It's depressing."

"What does a singu-thingy look like, anyway?" Peter asked.

"Doesn't look like much of anything." The other boys looked at him with a complete lack of understanding. "I mean, you can't really see it, but you'll know it if you do. It's the exact opposite of …anything."

"Moony, what are you on about?"

Remus sighed again, but didn't lift his head. "Ready for another awful idea?"

OoOoOo

"Er…Sugar Quills."

"Acid Pops!"

"Ice Mice?"

"Cockroach…oh bloody hell, this never going to work."

"Shut up and keep guessing."

The gargoyle guarding the headmaster's office remained stoic as three teenage boys shouted the names of every candy they had ever heard of at it. A fourth was seated on the stone floor trying to keep the fifth from bleeding to death.

"How's he holding up, Remus?" Sirius asked concernedly, separating himself as best he could from the shouting going on next to him.

"Didn't think you cared," Remus said in a low voice. Sweat stood out on his brow as clearly as it did on Snape's; he was starting to panic.

"I care about James," said Sirius. "I care about you. If that git dies, we're all in for it.

"I don't just let people die, Sirius."

"I know," Sirius said with a small laugh. Then his face grew solemn for probably about the third time since they'd known each other. "But if it doesn't work like that…if something happens…"

Remus looked up. "What?"

Sirius swallowed thickly. "It's better if I—"

"I fear I'm in for rather a long explanation," said the perplexingly pleasant voice of Albus Dumbledore.

Sirius turned around, stood up straighter than he had in ten years, and said very clearly and carefully, "I did it, Professor. I killed him."

This had no visible effect on Dumbledore's expression. "I think we had better get Mr. Snape to the hospital wing," he said after several long moments. He muttered something that sounded very much like "pixie stix"(whatever those were) to the gargoyle and waved his wand at Snape's profoundly motionless figure so that James no longer had to carry him. "Mr. Potter, if you would—?"

James started as Dumbledore motioned a hand at his neck. "You know about—?"

"There will be time for questions later. This is a rather important matter."

Dumbfounded, James lifted the Time-Turner from his neck in a motion that seemed to take forever.

With a smile that was nevertheless quite unnerving, Dumbledore took it.

And threw it into the fireplace.

"Not one of your better ideas, Mr. Potter."

"Professor, I can explain—"

"No doubt you can, Mr. Potter. But now is not the time."

The fireplace flared suddenly green, and before James could get a word in edgeways, both Snape and Dumbledore had disappeared through it.

"How did—what did—how can he—what in the—?"

This went on for a long while before James finally said, "He's right."

Sirius gave him a questioning look. "About what?"

"That really wasn't one of my better ideas."