"I'm your what?" Hermione said as she unconsciously took a step back. Harry and Ron was just as surprised as everyone else. Except for Draco that is. His mind was running ragged over other things.

"We need to fill them in, Potter." Draco said calmly. It took Harry a minute to register Draco's words, but he eventually agreed. Draco led the way out of the dungeons and into one of the ground floor's studies.

"Can somebody tell me what the hell is going on?" Ron demanded. Draco tiredly rubbed the back of his neck and sighed.

"Long story short, that cute little thing in my dungeons used a time-turner to come back to try to kill me. She says that I…" Draco paused. He glanced up at Hermione whose face still hadn't composed itself of the color it had lost. "…That I killed her mother."

Hermione and Ron's gazes immediately turned to him. Ron blinked rapidly. "You killed Hermione?"

"I am not her mother." Hermione denied. She held her arms out in front of her and vehemently shook her head. "I can't be. I just… I can't!"

"I think she's pretty sure about who her mother is." Draco said. "But I'm in no hurry to confirm her words." He added as he thought of the girl's face. "We have to talk to her; find out what's really happened. She's pretty determined to do away with me."

"If you really do kill Hermione in the future I'll let her out of the cell myself." Ron replied fiercely.

"Calm down, Ron." Harry told him. "We can't penalize Malfoy for something he hasn't done yet."

Draco stared at Harry in surprise. Regardless of his words though, his eyes said otherwise. Draco dug his hands anxiously into his pockets. "Come on. Let's go back down to the dungeons."

"Fine." Harry conceded. "But we're not talking to her. Hermione is."

Hermione's eyes grew wide. "Me? Why me?"

"For one thing if Malfoy goes near her she'll probably rip him to shreds." Harry answered. "Aside from that, we have no indication of whether she knows Ron or me. She only calmed down when she looked at you, Hermione."

Hermione took a deep breath. Her hands were shaky. This was too much to take in way too quickly, but seeing as these were crucial times she regrettably said that she would. The four of them left Draco's study and went back down to the dungeons. It was only Hermione though that walked up to the girl's cell. She wasn't pacing as she had been before. She was leaning up against the cell walls and immediately walked over to the bars once she realized that Hermione was alone.

"I shouldn't have told you who you are to me. I'm sorry." The girl said. Hermione stared at her curiously and prodded her.

"Why not?"

"Messing with time is dangerous. You taught me that."

"And yet you're still here."

The girl guiltily looked down at the time-turner around her neck. "You were gone. You were gone and I was angry. I wanted him to pay for what he did to you."

Hermione frowned. She swallowed deeply and marveled at the girl's sadness. "What's your name?"

"Alex,"

"Well, Alex, I know myself. And I know that I wouldn't have wanted you to kill anyone."

Alex's sadness turned to rage just then. She banged her hands against the bars. "You were gone! It didn't matter what you would've wanted! All that mattered was that you were dead and no one could tell me what to do anymore. Not you, not Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny, not Uncle Ron, and for damn certain not your murderer. Now let me out of here so I can do what I came here to do."

"With no wand?"

Alex looked down at herself, and yes, her wand was missing. It was still in Draco's possession, but she shrugged it off. "Doesn't matter. I'm a good fighter. I'll take my chances."

Hermione shook her head. "I can't let you do that."

"He killed you!"

"Not yet," Hermione reminded. "Alex, I'm still here. Nothing's happened to me yet; look at me." She gestured to herself and then reached out for the girl's hand. Alex stared at their clasped hands and she grew teary-eyed.

"He'll kill you in more than one way, mum." Alex said as tears streaked her face. "He will. He's a bad influence on you. That's how it starts. And that's why it happens."

Hermione's brows furrowed. "How what starts? Why what happens?"

"I can't tell you. But if you won't let me kill him at least promise me that you'll stay away from him. Please."

"I… I promise." Hermione vowed. She didn't know how well she could keep that promise, but she would do anything to soothe the distraught look on her face. It worked. Alex smiled then and then nodded.

"Good. I… I was already willing to risk my life -my existence. And maybe just keeping your promise will be enough."

Alex brought her hands to the time-turner and began to spin the rings around it. "No!" Hermione cried, but it was too late. The rings of the time-turner were spinning on their own now, and Alex disappeared on the spot.

Draco, Harry, and Ron heard Hermione yell. All three of them took off on a run, but stopped as Hermione came running towards them as well.

"Alright," She addressed Harry and Draco. "Which one of the two of you idiots left the time-turner on her?"

"What?" Harry asked. Draco on the other hand ignored her and ran towards the cell. He stared at the empty room and cursed as he kicked at the bars.

"Damn it!" Draco swore. He leaned his back against the bars and shook his head. He stared at Hermione and her cohorts as they made their way towards him. "What did she tell you?"

"Well, her name is Alex, and she drove home one main point." Hermione answered as she held Draco's gaze. "She told me to stay away from you. She made me promise."

"Simple enough," Ron huffed with satisfaction. "The further you are away from Malfoy the better off you'll be."

"But that can't just be it." Hermione said with frustration. "She told me that Malfoy would be a bad influence on me. That it was how it starts and how it happened."

"What's the 'it?'" Harry questioned. Hermione shrugged.

"I don't know. But we need to find out. The future is more than just knowing what's going to happen. Changing it requires more than just one pebble drop into water. It can still even itself out and have the same end."

"Fine," Ron pursed his lips. He then took out his wand and pointed it at Draco. "Let's arrest him. Keep Malfoy in prison so he can't hurt you."

"Ron, don't!" Hermione shouted. Even Harry stepped in between his best mate's wand and Draco who had also taken out his.

"Put it down, Ron." Harry said sternly. "We could arrest him, sure, but on what grounds? He'd be let out by tomorrow afternoon and it would've served no purpose. We have to think of something else."

Ron stared past Harry and met Draco's stare. He scowled and set his wand down. "What do we do then?"

"We talk to Alex. Try to get more information out of her." Hermione suggested, but her words only warranted quizzical and concerned looks.

"We can't risk going into the future, Hermione." Harry argued. "Besides, we wouldn't even know where to find her."

"She's my daughter. And as her mother she'd be with me. Alex looked no more than sixteen. Adjusting for…marriage and actually having her we could go a year or two before that. Hopefully it'll be the time before…before I die. We could figure out what's going on then."

"But the risk, Hermione-"

"The risk would be for Malfoy and me, not for you or Ron."

At that Draco's ears perked up considerably. He side-glanced at her as she continued addressing her friends. "Neither you nor Ron should be there. Malfoy and I will go."

Ron eyed both her and Draco as he immediately began protesting. "Hermione, you can't be serious-"

"Alex is my daughter, Ron, and Malfoy kills me." Hermione said flatly. "We're the two players in this game and therefore the ones that will be going. You and Harry need to go to the Ministry and get us a time-turner."

"I thought they were all destroyed?" Draco questioned, but Harry told him no.

"Some are still there for safe keeping." Harry sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "The Ministry won't notice if one is missing."

"I'll have Avery take you to a Floo and I'll make sure the barriers are down by the time you return."

When Avery came Harry and Ron went with him. Hermione and Draco stayed in the dungeons, both laying their eyes on the cell that once held Alex. Draco wanted to say something. It was an utter understatement to say that he felt uncomfortable around her. This was the woman he was supposed to murder for Merlin's sake. But before he could utter a single word, Hermione spoke first.

"How do you think it happened?"

Draco didn't look at her. He simply kept his eyes focused on the cell. "I don't think I want to know. We don't have to know. Your death is about twenty years down the line. We'll change it. I won't kill you-"

"I wasn't talking about that." Hermione said as she turned to face him. "I meant Alex."

Draco had been determined not look at Hermione but he couldn't avoid it now. He took a harsh swallow and almost choked on his words. "W-what do you mean?"

"I'm not stupid, Malfoy. Aside from blatantly alluding to it, she looked…a lot like you. Ron was too freaked out about the prospect of me dying to notice. Harry…I don't know if he looked at her closely enough. But you and I know the truth."

"I guess we know how and why I was a bad influence on you." Draco chuckled. His laugh was short-lived as the darkness in his humor grew. "We were together." He became serious then and clenched his jaw. "However it happened, I can assure you that it won't now."

"How can you say that?" Hermione asked sadly. Draco took in her face and then scoffed.

"What? You want to be with me?"

"Not at all." She said quickly. She didn't miss the flaring of his nostrils at the instant dismissal of dating him, but she didn't dwell on it. "I'm only questioning how you could have set eyes on Alex, a beautiful sixteen-year-old, and dismiss a future with her in it."

"Easy," Draco replied sourly. "In that future I kill my wife and the mother of my kid. And that kid, that…beautiful sixteen-year-old wants to murder her father with absolutely no hesitancy. You didn't see her, Granger." He added, regret rising in his voice. "You saw a sweet girl wanting to avenge her mother's death. You want to know what I saw? A vengeful young woman who said the Killing Curse with the ease of Voldemort himself. With those consequences in mind, trust me, I'd rather not have her."

"If you guys want to find Hermione's future self, shouldn't you be using the time-turner at Hermione's place?" Ron was asking.

Hermione and Draco exchanged looks. They were all still in the dungeons with the time-turner chain draped over the pair. Technically speaking Ron was right. Of course there was no guarantee that Hermione would live in the same home almost two decades away. She and Draco knew this, of course. She would be living with Draco, most likely in Malfoy Manor. But Draco quickly spew the lie that they had come up with while they were waiting for Harry and Ron to return.

"Granger and I decided to go after my future self first." He informed them. "Find out what's going on and maybe even stop me. Better than putting the idea into Alex's head too early or worrying Granger's future self."

Ron looked to Harry who sighed in acceptance of Draco's explanation. Hermione took the time-turner in her hands and stared at it with trepidation. She turned it. She counted carefully so that the time-turner would take them a full twenty years into the future. They hoped that it wasn't too far into the future, but considering that they were each other's spouses, they figured that it would've take time for them to…grow to first like one another. To deal with their friends. To love one another. To get married. It was as Hermione was turning that she was thinking twenty years was too little, but it was too late. The world around them was reforming and what they saw was not what they expected.

They were still in the dungeons of Malfoy Manor, but all of the cells were gone. The entire area had been expanded considerably and it was filled with people. Some they knew. Some they didn't. Whether they knew them or not, the gazes that they were getting were not happy ones. Many began to point. Others were whispering harshly. This wasn't good.

"We need to get out of here." Draco said to Hermione. They turned to leave, but they were quickly shoved by someone into a corridor that had once never been there. A door was slammed shut and soon they found themselves completely in the dark.

"I never thought that I could be so stupid." Came Draco's voice, but it wasn't that of the one that was still connected to Hermione by a time-turner chain. Light erupted from a wand and illuminated an older, more tired, and disheveled-looking Draco. His eyes were staring at the time-turner and he scowled at it. "You should know better than using a time-turner in such an open location!" He hissed.

"It's my bloody dungeon." Draco hissed back. "Nobody's supposed to be down here!"

"Well, they are now." Future Draco said hotly. He let out a frustrated groan and sucked his teeth. Hermione watched him closely as he did so, clearly aware that he not once looked her in the eye. "Alright, out with it. What are you two doing here?"

"We wanted to talk to Alex." Hermione said, but it was to his past self that Draco answered.

"How the hell do you know about Alex?"

"She paid me a visit." Draco told him. "Cute kid, but she tried to kill me. She claimed that I killed, Granger."

At that Draco's future self paused and finally let his eyes settle on Hermione. It was now more than ever that she didn't want him to look at her. He looked sad. His strong posture began to slump and he leaned his back against the door.

"…So we go through with it then."

"Go through with what exactly?" Hermione asked. Draco's eyes had filled with tears now, but he was too full of himself to let them fall. Instead he blinked them back, cleared his throat, and puffed up his chest to mimic self-importance.

"Our plan to kill you."

Author's note: Well, not only does Draco really kill Hermione, it was a plan! What could've happened that he and whoever's with him would plan her death? That's the next chapter for you :). Thanks so much for all the reviews, favorites, and follows for the first chapter. It's much appreciated!

-WP