"Plan? You have a plan to kill me?" Hermione said in disbelief. "What the hell is happening that you'd want to kill me? And who are the others that more than one of you have a plan?"

"The refugees that you saw out there? Those are the 'others' that planned to kill you. Are planning." He corrected. "I and the rest of the inner circle have the final say, of course. I just… I didn't think we'd actually go through with it." Draco's macho persona was faltering yet again. He let his gaze fall to the ground and stay there. "I loved you, Hermione. And it's my fault that this happened."

"That what happened? Alex said the same thing but that doesn't explain why my assassination is being planned."

Draco took a deep breath. "The Dark Arts. You become involved in the Dark Arts. It started with one book and one spell. That's all it took and you just went deeper and deeper. You had my help, naturally. Who else would have access to those books? I didn't realize what it was doing to you. Not until it was too late." His eyes turned to angry slits then as he scowled at both of them. "My advice to you? Stay the hell away from each other."

"That's it?" the Draco that came with Hermione huffed. "That's all you've got to say to us? I didn't think that I could be so cold. Granger's your wife, you idiot."

Hermione looked at him in surprise. A complete hypocrite he was being as he was willing to give up a future with their daughter in it not too long ago. Regardless of that, she looked to future Draco for his response –one that was quite unexpected.

"Hermione's not my wife, you twit. Alex was an accident. A happy one, but an accident nonetheless. I did what was right by both of them and let them live in the Manor. It wasn't until Alex was seven that I started falling for Hermione. And it was over those same, bloody books that helped cause this mess in the first place.

'I started to love her; to love you." Draco said to Hermione. "But you began to love the Dark Arts more. It doesn't end well for us, Hermione. And seeing that this is the consequence of us being together, I'd rather for it not to happen at all."

Hermione grew silent. An older, more experienced Draco, yes, but his mentality was the same. But she still couldn't believe that somehow she was the reason that dozens of people were strewn about Malfoy Manor's dungeons as refugees. The Draco that had come with her was standing next to her with the same thoughts running through his head. How on earth could she, the pinnacle of all that was good and moral turn into someone that people feared? If anyone would turn to the Dark Arts it would've been him. Hell, it could've been Harry too with his vengeance-laden personality and need to prove himself –characteristics that were now dormant, but could be roused again if need be.

"Stop that!" The future Draco ordered the two of them. Both Hermione and the Draco from her time jumped at the unexpected bellow. The younger Draco cocked a brow.

"Stop what, exactly?"

"Thinking," He seethed. "I know you. The both of you. Your minds are going like clockwork and you're thinking of ways to stop this from happening. Good. Do that. But not by time hopping all over the damn place to see what happens and then try to fix it. It doesn't work."

At that Hermione's eyes began to grow wide. Both Draco-s noticed this, but it was the older version who grew angry and yet remorseful when he understood that she had come to a horrifying conclusion.

"You've done this before, haven't you?" She asked. "It was no coincidence that you were there right when we appeared. You knew that we were coming."

The Draco standing next to her was bewildered, but he turned to himself for an explanation. It was clear that that explanation he didn't want to give, but his resolve told them that he knew he was going to have to say it anyway.

"Yes, I knew. I remember it clearly. I remember using a time-turner with Hermione and coming here, talking to myself. We had this conversation, more or less. And after this we had been determined to figure out exactly how and why this…hell happened. We went back to different years, different places, just observing and never being seen. We figured that if we knew the events, we could stop it.

'Obviously it didn't work." Draco scoffed to himself as he stared at the pair. He then sucked and teeth and shook his head. "No, I take that back. The future may not have changed entirely, but it did in small aspects."

"In what ways?" Hermione prodded.

"Well, for starters, Alex was supposed to be a boy." He chuckled. "That had been an interesting turn for the both of us. But we had liked the name and stuck with it. But that's only the smallest of details that's changed." He sighed then and looked between the both of them, obviously trying to find a proper way to say his next words.

"It wasn't Alex who had come back in time to kill me. It was Harry."

"Harry?"

"Imagine my surprise." Draco said as he thought of it as a fond memory. "I thought it had been the present day version and that he had gone out of his bloody mind. I had sent Avery to fetch Hermione and Ron and that's when we had learned of the future."

"…If the future changed once it could be changed again." Past Draco said, but his future self's eyes grew narrow as he rounded on him.

"Open your bloody eyes! Did you forget what you saw out there? Things have changed, yes, but they were only bumps in the road and the future still held." Draco turned on Hermione then and pointed a finger at her. "'Changing it requires more than just one pebble drop into water. It can still even itself out and have the same end.' That's what you said, Hermione."

Hermione stood with her mouth slightly agape as, yes, that's what she had said to the Draco who was standing beside her. Future Draco ran a hand over his tired face and frowned. "Going through this future twice now, first through time-turner and then actually living it? I've realized that this future is meant to be. And maybe…maybe staying away from each other won't work either. But I know for damn sure that together the future is a catastrophe.

'Go home." Draco ordered. "Go back and leave each other alone. Don't make me live through this a third time."

Draco watched his future take a small clear jaw from a shelf and use his wand to create a flame. He put it back on the shelf and then left after giving them one last look. Hermione turned to her fellow time-traveller and frowned. He saw the look in her eyes and knew that she was contemplating greatly on how far back to turn the rings on the time-turner. He casted his gaze down at his feet.

"…Don't you want to see it?" She asked him. Draco looked at her and felt a heavy weight on his chest.

"We already have." He told her. "We have and we tried and you still end up dead. Who's going to come back to try to kill me next? Weasley? And maybe we'll have twins and name them Alex and Alexandria." Draco sighed and ran his hands through his hair. It was too much. "Let's do what he –I said. We'll stay away from each other. How hard can it be?" Draco stared at her and then forced a smile that was heavy-laden with anxiety. "I don't even like you that way."

"You don't have to like someone for accidents to happen." Hermione reminded, averted her eyes and then gave the time-turner twenty spins.

Draco didn't speak much when he and Hermione got back. Regardless she did what he had hoped she would do: lied to her friends. Quite frankly he thought that he would have to force her to do it. He didn't think that the lies would blatantly roll off of her tongue with such expertise. But she was a smart woman. She knew how they would handle the news and who knew what kind of reactions they had would affect the future? Simply "time-hopping" as his future self had said it and seeing what the future held had caused him to have a daughter instead of a son and fuel her with enough anger to want to kill her own father; not to mention destroy her own existence. The thought of it threw chills down his spine.

"I guess here's to never seeing you again, Malfoy." Ron said. It was neither a direct statement, sneer, nor taunt. It was a simple fact that Draco nodded to as he watched him leave via Floo. Harry followed after. Hermione stood in his fireplace with the Floo powder in her hands and didn't move. Draco felt compelled to throw in Floo powder and send her away himself, but eventually she did it. When she was gone Draco sighed.

Twenty years was a long time. Draco doubted very much that he could stay away from Hermione for that long. It wasn't that he longed to be with her. Far from it. But he wasn't about to up and leave the country so he could be sure never to see her again. And the wizarding community was but so large that he could avoid her. But then again it didn't have to be for that very long, did it? Only long enough for certain milestones not to happen. They hadn't gotten married, so that was one thing. It seemed that the major factor in their being together was Alex. Draco scoffed. He couldn't imagine being close enough to kiss Hermione, let alone sleep with her. His future self had said Alex had been an accident. He was more than sure now that that "accident" had to have involved an intoxicating substance of some sort. Draco's eyes gravitated to the door of his entertainment room and he thought of the minibar that lay inside.

"Time to quit drinking."

Author's note: So I'm going to be without internet sometime this week, so I decided to post early! I couldn't let you guys go without the next chapter past Tuesday. That would be mean of me.

First Alex, now Draco himself. Everyone's so determined to keep Hermione and Draco apart and, in retrospect of the terrible future, they're kind of right. But do you really think just avoiding each other will keep the future at bay? We'll see :)

Also big kudos to those of you who have been theorizing what's going to happen, why certain things are happening, etc. I love to read stuff like that and see how close you get. Kudos once again!

-WP