Three weeks, Snape thought to himself as he made his way through Hogwarts to the Gryffindor tower guest quarters. He would not last another three days with those numbskull boys as research assistants. He needed to do something to keep them distracted, busy, and out of trouble. A tall order, but not completely impossible. He smirked at his first idea of make-work. Quite beneath him, but it would occupy them at least two or three days.

As he walked, his thoughts returned to the pleasant conversation he'd had in the gallery with the headmistress. He had not allowed such... pleasantries with a woman since he'd taken the Dark Mark. He had lost Lily Evans with a single word, and then he was responsible for her death. He had become a spy knowing that there would never be a normal life in his future. He neither could afford the risk, nor did he feel he deserved it.

Lyrica awakened something in his heart and it worried him. When he was in her presence he was able to see what could have been; love, family, a normal life.

He paused briefly in his walk, closing his eyes and pressing his fingertips to his temples to end the headache that threatened. Was she aware of how a simple smile from her was undoing him? Did she realize how much her acceptance of his touch sent his resolve toward his responsibilities into oblivion?

Snape forced these thoughts away as he pushed away from the wall he'd begun to lean against. He continued toward the guest wing, his thoughts now returned to the diversion he had planned for the three stooges.

Draco slumped over his table setting and rested one cheek on his fist. He began to slap a breadstick against his empty plate. Ron stared off into space while Harry spun his knife on the table. Hermione had left the table and was seated in the plush armchair reading. They had arrived at Snape's quarters in the guest wing in time for dinner, but as their teacher was nowhere to be seen, the kitchen elf would only serve them breadsticks.

The door banged open, startling all four of them. Snape swept into the room. "Miss Granger, put down your book and come to the table." Seating himself at the head of the table he waited until Hermione had obediently joined her fellows at the table.

"What is it, Professor?" Draco asked.

"I have met with the eminent Professor Grailing who has offered to lend us his assistance. In this time, he is considered the wizarding world's most brilliant wizard. We are fortunate that he is spending his retirement here at Hogwarts teaching and that he has time for us."

Ron grimaced, "Oh well, that's great then," he muttered. He was not looking forward to more time in the library.

Snape glared at the boy. "As for you, Mr. Weasley," Ron's head snapped up at the warning in that very familiar tone of voice that usually signalled he'd lost another dozen or so points for Gryffindor. "And you, Mr. Potter and Mr. Malfoy, I've had enough of you three in the library. At the rate you're handling those books, there may not be any left for our future. So consider yourselves excused from any further research."

Harry grinned at Ron and Draco let out a little whoop of joy. Their brief exclamations at their release was short-lived as Snape lowered an even darker look their way. "Surely you don't think I'd allow you to spend the rest of your time fishing at the lake while Miss Granger and I figured out a way home, do you?" Three forlorn heads shook slowly and Draco took to drumming his breadstick again. Harry snatched it away before a greater sentence could be handed down. "I have an assignment that I think the three of you, if you can cooperate, will help all of us in our quest for home."

The kitchen elf arrived with dinner and began serving. As they ate, Snape went over the assignment that he hoped would take up the boys' time for the next couple of days.

"Where are we going to build it?"

Draco, Ron and Harry were all seated at a desk in Harry's guest room.

"What materials are we going to use?"

"What good is this?"

Harry was about ready to strangle Draco. Despite having asked many of the same questions of Professor Snape at dinner last night, Draco felt he had to repeat them, over and over again. Ron had ignored most of the bickering between Draco and Harry and had gotten down to the serious business of drawing up blueprints.

"Malfoy," Ron called for the boy's attention. "The professor needs something to practice on. We're building a miniature mock-up of ourselves that Snape can try out any spells on he comes up with."

"But..." Began Draco.

"Look!" snapped Harry. "Do you want Snape to practice on us and maybe split us infinitely down the middle?"

Draco let out a sigh of exasperation and went over to see just what Ron was drawing. "You didn't make Snape's nose long enough," Draco critiqued.

Harry let out a chuckling snort, and Draco grinned at him. "Yeah," Ron said, "I was gonna make it longer, but I don't have that much parchment." Ron finished one last bit and then put down his quill. "All right. I didn't want to build this life-size, so I brought all the measurements down to a more reasonable size. I cut everything by 75. Wood, I think is the best material to start with, but I think we ought to also try stone. Weight might be a matter... don't know, yet. We can easily transfigure the wood into figures of us, but we really need some organic material from the Forbidden Forest."

Harry was staring at Ron. He was rather impressed at how Ron had taken Snape's idea and fleshed the whole thing out. Frankly, he hadn't known that his best friend had it in him. "So we can put it all together here, then."

"Right," said Ron.

"You said organic material, Weasley. Plants, that sort of thing, right?" Ron nodded at Draco. "So who's going to take us into the Forbidden Forest?"

"I'm not going in without a teacher." Ron stated.

"Same here," Draco chimed in. He was impressed by Ron's blueprints, yet he scowled again.

"What now?" asked Harry with exasperation.

"I think the professor's having us on." Draco's scowl had darkened considerably as his Slytherin mind began analyzing.

Hermione was seated to Snape's right at the head of the table. There were three books open in front of her and her notes and quill were within reach. Every once in awhile, her eyes lifted briefly from the books to glance quickly at Snape. He was hunched over a large volume and his hair hung down on either side of his face. His arms were on the table and he was busy taking notes and cross-checking notes from the boys. Most of the notes from the boys were being wadded up and tossed over his shoulder in a little display of quickly dissipating flame.

"Miss Granger, if something is on your mind, speak up. Otherwise, keep your eyes upon your books."

Hermione's heart leapt in her chest and she wondered how he could have even noticed she'd been stealing looks at him. For a moment she waited to see if he would move from his predatory hunch over the books and when it was clear he wasn't, Hermione finally found her voice. "Professor, the boys aren't as stupid as you think they are."

Snape slowly unfolded himself from the books and his notes and straightened in the chair. He then turned his head, almost like an owl, to stare darkly at her. Hermione had the brief thought that she was going to die right there in the library. "Explain yourself, Miss Granger, before I find a way to deduct 100 points for your impertinence."

The blood rose to Hermione's cheeks, but she drew in a breath, now determined to finish her thought. "They're going to realize that your project is nothing but make-work to keep them out of your hair... uhm, way."

Turning his body now, to fully face the young Gryffindor, he said, "So it is, Miss Granger. How did you come to that realization?"

"I knew it from the start. Experimenting on a replica isn't going to give us any information that's useful. The only way we'll know that our time travel solution is a viable one is to try it upon ourselves." Snape merely nodded and then turned back to his book. For a long moment, Hermione watched him and then she spoke up, "Professor Snape?"

"Yes, Miss Granger?"

"What if..." Snape's head turned slightly at the sound of her suddenly timid, and quiet voice. He eyed her through the fringes of his hair across his face. Hermione swallowed audibly. "What if we can't return? What will happen to us?"

Snape hated this. He had expected this question to come up at some time and with it would be the emotions of children missing their families. In Potter's case, well, he couldn't begin to guess what Potter's feeling might be. Sitting up again, his face like stone, he addressed the child.

"Miss Granger..." he heard a muffled sniffle and he cringed inwardly. Not tears, please, he muttered in his mind. "Hermione," he spoke softly and she looked into his eyes as she wiped away a tear with a handkerchief. "We shall do our best to get back to our time. However, if it is not meant to be, we will find a life in this time."

Snape had hoped that would be assurance enough, but it seemed only to break her last reserve. Dropping her head over the books and onto her arms, Hermione burst into tears. The thought that she might never see her parents again was too much. As for Snape, he could not deal with tears and a child's tears were the worst. He knew he couldn't let the crying continue; for one, he couldn't take it much longer, secondly, she'd be useless the rest of the afternoon. Snape rose from the chair and went to Hermione's side. He placed his hand upon her shoulder in what he hoped was comforting. Thank Merlin, he thought to himself, she hasn't thrown herself at me for a hug.

Hermione felt her teacher's hand upon her shoulder and inwardly shook herself. She was no good to anyone in this mess if she was going to let her emotions get the better of her. Pulling herself up, she wiped away the tears. Snape's hand remained briefly, and then was gone. "I'm sorry, Professor." She caught a last sob that tried to get out. "If you don't mind, I'm going to get a little fresh air."

"Of course, Miss Granger." Snape watched Hermione leave the library before he collapsed back into the wooden chair. He glared at the cluttered table, the notes and the utterly useless books. If it were just him, he would end the research today and seek to make a life for himself in this time. He had no family. He could live here and create the family he'd always thought would be completely out of his reach. The image of Lyrica's face fluttered briefly in his mind, but like a candle flame, he snuffed it out. He hadn't that choice. Until they'd exhausted all possibilities, he had a responsibility to get the children back home. And getting Mr. Potter back to his destiny.

"Will the little girl be all right?"

Snape shot to his feet at the sound of Professor Grailing's voice behind him. "Sir, I... oh yes. Miss Granger will be fine. She just needed some air."

Grailing smiled and took Hermione's chair. "One of my students blew up his cauldron, so it seems I have an hour while the elves clean up the worst of the mess and cast clearing and scourgify charms. If you have any theories about how to get back to your time, I'd like to review them."

Snape pulled his chair closer to the old man and placed several pieces of parchment in front of him. Snape first explained about the Dispercio charm and how Hermione had combined one charm with the motions of another. At the instant she'd cast the spell to disperse the Vohlfayr, Snape had attempted to apparate all of them back to Hogwarts. "Those spells combined with the phase shift field generated by the fae sent us back in time. We would have landed right where we left if your Forbidden Forest wasn't surrounded by warding spells. My apparate was possibly still in effect and so we wound up in an alley behind the Leaky Cauldron."

Grailing frowned as he scanned some of the notes. "Attempting to reverse those exact circumstances would be impossible. Blood Faeries are extremely dangerous and we couldn't risk bringing some here."

Snape shook his head. "If we get back, I will have to discover how and why the Vohlfayr showed up in our forest. They should not have been there." Snape grimaced. "I have dismissed tracing our footsteps and so we have been researching alternatives in travelling through time to the 20th century." Snape went through another set of notes and then placed them before Grailing. "Our most promising theory is the application of apparition. Miss Granger believes it possible for us to expand the capability of apparating to allow us to travel forward in time."

Grailing carefully studied Hermione's notes for several long minutes. "A sound theory, but at this moment, I do not see how we might manage this."