Every New Iteration by JAWorley
Summary: Something strange is happening at Hogwarts, and Severus Snape is determined to find out what. Harry’s acting strange, Dumbledore seems oddly aloof about the whole situation and… wait, haven’t they done this day already? Several times?
Categories: Teacher Snape > Professor Snape Main Characters: .Snape and Harry (required), Dumbledore
Snape Flavour: Snape is Angry, Canon Snape, Snape is Desperate, Snape is Stern
Genres: Angst, Fantasy, General, Hurt/Comfort, Mystery
Media Type: None
Tags: Injured!Harry
Takes Place: 5th Year
Warnings: Abusive Dursleys, Bullying, Neglect, Violence
Prompts: Groundhog Day At Hogwarts
Challenges: Groundhog Day At Hogwarts
Series: None
Chapters: 4 Completed: No Word count: 10627 Read: 19511 Published: 05 Oct 2021 Updated: 27 Jan 2022

1. Haven't We Done This All Before? by JAWorley

2. And Again We Go Down The Rabbit Hole by JAWorley

3. Just A Normal Monday by JAWorley

4. Things Like This Always Happen On Monday... by JAWorley

Haven't We Done This All Before? by JAWorley
Potter was acting... odd. There was no other way to describe it. The fifteen year old Gryffindor had just gone up to one of the sixth year Slytherin girls and smiled at her. What was that all about? What was the brat up to now? Severus had known for years that the boy was full of himself, strutting about the school as if he owned the place. His fame had clearly gone to his head well before he'd even arrived for his first year of schooling, and the rest of the staff played into it, bending and breaking rules for the boy wherever he went. It was one of the things that was predictable about the boy and fit neatly into what Severus believed about him. The other predictable thing (aside from trouble following wherever he went), was that Potter hated all Slytherins and avoided them like the plague. So what was he up to smiling at Jade Jones, and what was she doing smiling back?

Severus narrowed his eyes as Potter sauntered away, bruise beginning to form on his right eye. It looked as though he'd been fighting, and Severus wouldn't put it past him. He fully intended on questioning the brat, but the child had already slipped away and into the Transfiguration classroom. Severus turned and strode down the corridor away from the staff room, where he'd gone to find Filch to repair the leak in the boy's bathroom in the Dungeons and headed for his office. He had a free period before his first class (with Potter coincidentally), and he wanted to finish grading the first year papers on the healing properties of wormwood.

He was nearly to the Entrance Hall when something solid collided with him on the stairs, followed by a squeak. On pure instinct he reached out and grabbed for whoever it was so they wouldn't topple down the stairs.

"I'm so sorry sir!" said Dennis Creevy, trying to regain his balance so his Potions Master would let go of the front of his robe. "I'm late to third year Charms!"

"See that you leave breakfast earlier next time," he snapped, already feeling as though this was the worst start to a Monday morning he'd had in ages. "If I catch you running again in the corridors I will charm your feet to be sticky for the week to teach you to go slower."

"Yes sir," the Gryffindor said, and made it a point of walking slowly away from Snape, though the further away he got the faster he walked.

Severus dusted off his robes and continued down to the dungeons.

Half an hour into grading the first year essays, he already had a headache and reached into a desk drawer for a headache draught. These little fools would get themselves killed if they didn't learn what they could and couldn't mix wormwood with in a potion. Rowan Bailie had written that to improve the taste of healing potions one should add cherries or citrus fruits. Citrus and wormwood would explode in his face if he tried, and cherries mixed with powdered wormwood would cause a caustic mixture that would take skin off if it splashed anywhere. Marking a large red D across the top of the Hufflepuff's paper he moved on to the paper of Bram Bath. The first year Slytherin had clearly not understood the text or not paid attention and had written to heat wormwood potions to two hundred degrees. That much heat for any amount of time would ruin the healing qualities and make it little better than water.

The strange thing was, Severus was certain he had told both of these boys this before. He remembered telling Bram to keep the temperature around 90 degrees and he could have sworn he'd written a lengthy note to Rowan to stick to the written ingredients so he didn't kill himself or his peers. He had, hadn't he?

Severus shook the feeling away, thinking that if he hadn't told them already then he really should, and brought both of the essays back to himself to write the notes out quickly in red ink.

The rest of the day didn't seem to go much better for Severus. Potter slipped out of the room at the end of his class before Severus could ask him what he was up to, Minerva had made fun of him at lunch for ‘causing a scene on the stairwell and scaring Dennis Creevy half to death', and just after dinner he'd had to give several of his fourth year's detention for fighting in the corridor leading to the Slytherin common room.

At the end of the worst Monday ever, Severus went to bed after a third headache draught and felt reassured that bad days like this one rarely ever repeated themselves. Tomorrow was Tuesday, a fresh day in which he was determined to keep to himself as much as possible.

* * *

Severus was nursing a headache when he woke. Wonderful, he snipped at himself. This was just the way he wanted to start a Monday morning. He had first year papers to grade before his first class, and he needed to track down Argus about the leak in the boy's bathroom outside the Potions classrooms before the caretaker got too busy with other tasks for the day.

Dressing himself and ignoring his headache, Severus went to the Great Hall only to retrieve a mug of coffee with a lid and headed up to the staff room on the first floor. Filch usually avoided breakfast in favor of the staff room, which was always stocked with hot coffee, tea, scones and muffins by the house elves. Severus sometimes skipped meals and took refuge in the quiet of the staffroom as well if he was having a particularly difficult day, especially if he knew the other staff were in class.

He couldn't find Filch in the staffroom this morning though. When was that man going to fix that leak? He'd asked him yesterday hadn't he? Irritated with the caretaker for neglecting his duties to the Slytherin students living in the dungeons he left the staff room and headed for the dungeons to grade the first year paper's on the healing properties of wormwood.

Pulling back just short of the stairs to avoid Dennis Creevy, he was glad his mug had a lid or his coffee would have spilled. "Mr. Creevy!" he snapped, and Dennis skidded to a halt at the top of the stairs, nearly toppling backwards and down the stairs with the effort.

"Pedibus Reptans!" Severus aimed the spell down at the boy's feet. The boy lifted his foot, dismayed to find that it was hard to do so as the bottom of it was sticky and hard to pull away from the stone floor.

"Sir?"

"I told you to stop running in the corridors! Now you will be forced to walk until I remove the spell."

"You did sir? Sorry sir, I was late to Charms class."

"If I have to send a house elf to drag you away from breakfast earlier so you can get to your classes on time, I will be very displeased."

"Yes sir, I swear it won't happen again," the third year said, eyes wide.

"See that it doesn't."

Severus continued down to his office in the dungeons and sat to grade papers. He barely looked at Rowan's paper before marking it with a D. It was obvious from the first few sentences that the boy was going to brew something dangerous. Moving on to Bram's paper it was clear right away that it was a D as well and that the Slytherin hadn't understood a word of the text. Severus went to reach for a third paper to grade but paused, hand over the stack of parchments. He had the oddest feeling that he'd graded these already. Hadn't he? Had he done it the night before, before he'd gone to bed? That would explain his headache this morning, but it wouldn't explain why the papers sat here still waiting to be graded. Brushing the feeling away, he reached for the stack of first year essays and continued working until it was time to go to the fifth year Gryffindor-Slytherin Potions class.

An hour later, Severus sneered when Potter came into the potions room with a black eye. What had the brat been doing now, starting a brawl in the corridors? He intended to find out, but couldn't find a single reason to hold the boy after class. His potion was perfect, and the brat had even raised his hand to answer several questions, though Severus has never called on him. What was he up to? The fifth year Gryffindor slipped out of his class at the end of the lesson before he could make him stay behind.

* * *

Monday's were the worst. Severus felt like he had a hangover. He hadn't been drinking the night before had he? Pulling himself from bed, he dragged his body into the bathroom for a hot shower. He had things to do today, like find Filch and get him to repair the leak in the boy's bathroom, and grade student essays before his first class of the day. He just didn't want to though. His head pounded and after he got out of the shower he rummaged around for a headache potion. The potion did nothing to knock down the throbbing in his temple, so he also downed a hangover potion, though he really could not remember drinking the night before. He rarely drank during the term, and even then only a little and only on weekends. The Headmaster would never let him get away with skipping classes because he was hungover. He wasn't Sybill.

By the time he left his quarters it was too late to get breakfast or coffee, and too late to find Filch about the leak in the boy's bathroom in the dungeons. Dennis Creevy went running up the stairs to the first floor and Severus shouted a leg locker jynx at the boy, sending him face first into the floor at the top of the stairs. He waved his wand to unlock the boy's legs and the child sat up, looking confused.

"Detention!" Snape shouted. "If I have to tell you one more time not to run in the corridors, I'll ask the Headmaster to have you expelled!"

The boy squeaked, got to his feet, and hurried off as slowly as he could so he didn't get yelled at again by the grouchy Potion's Master standing down in the Entrance Hall. He turned and found Potter sitting on the steps leading up to the first floor with one of his sixth year Slytherin girls, Jade Jones. The brat had a black eye and was giving Severus an odd look... it was almost like the boy was trying to tell him something with his eyes... trying to get him to understand something only the two of them should. Didn't the brat have any sense of self-preservation?

"Don't you have somewhere to be?" Severus snapped. "That goes for you as well Miss Jones," he said, and turned on his heel to stalk away and back into the Dungeons. Forget grading papers, he had a feeling most of them would be D's anyway. He might as well just re-teach the lesson on wormwood to the first years because they probably hadn't understood the lesson at all.

In fifth year Potions an hour later, Potter's hand was in the air. Why was his hand in the air? He never offered to answer questions in class. Severus was too tired, his headache sapping all his energy to care who he called on, so he waved to Potter, and pinched the bridge of his nose, waiting for whatever foolish thing the boy would say.

"The potion needs to be attenuated in the first stage to remove the impurities sir," Harry said. "Then it has to be done again in the second stage. At the third stage it has to be mixed with barberry before it can be attenuated a third time."

Severus narrowed his eyes. He'd only asked about removing impurities in the first stage. Headache growing worse, he thought ahead and realized the boy had answered all of the questions he had been prepared to ask the class before they began their brewing for the day.

"Get to work," he snapped, and sat in his chair, wishing this Monday would just be over already. Potter's potion was perfect at the end of class, and the irritating whelp hung around after he'd dismissed the class, the last to leave the room. He kept giving Severus a meaningful look, but Severus was intentionally ignoring him. What was the brat's problem? Severus felt like he was up to something, but didn't have the energy to figure out what it was.

To be continued...
And Again We Go Down The Rabbit Hole by JAWorley
It was Monday. Why was it always Monday? Severus felt like it should be Tuesday already, or Wednesday, or Friday, but he knew it was Monday. Monday Monday Monday. He had important things to do on Monday, like finding Filch and failing a bunch of first years for not studying the chapter about Wormwood, and finding out what Potter was up to. What was Potter up to? He'd been trying to tell Severus something with his eyes yesterday.... on Monday. Yesterday was Monday, but today was Monday too.

As Severus puzzled over it, his headache finally started to lessen. It didn't go away completely, but it wasn't like an ice pick driving through his skull anymore. It had been like that yesterday, on Monday. Today was not Tuesday, it was still Monday, but the headache was getting better. What the hell was going on?

He groaned and rolled over, sitting up and putting his head in his hand. Monday's were the worst. He'd always hated Monday's and he was certain he'd had this thought yesterday, and the day prior, and maybe even the day before that. It was the strangest feeling of déjà vu he'd ever had. He knew it couldn't possibly be Monday yet again, but it was. He knew it wasn't possible to know every single thing that was going to happen that day, but he did.

Severus skipped his shower and went up to the Great Hall. It was full of students eating breakfast. The Headmaster looked cheerful and was having a spirited conversation with Hagrid about the pumpkins he was growing for Halloween this year.

"What's happened to you?" Minerva asked as Severus took his seat beside her. "You look as though you haven't slept."

"It's Monday," he said, feeling some sort of grim satisfaction that he had finally nailed down what day it was, and what day it was going to be tomorrow, and what day it had been yesterday. Did she know it was Monday as well?

"Yes, well," she said, "only four more days until Friday. You look like you're not feeling well. Maybe you should ask Albus for some extra time off this week."

If only, he sneered down into his coffee. If only it were only four more days until Friday.

He forced himself to eat some toast and drank two cups of coffee. The more he thought about Monday as he ate, the better his head felt, until his headache was completely gone by the time he rose to go to the Dungeons. Maybe he would grade those first year essays after all. Or maybe he wouldn't. He already knew what grade each of the essays in the stack on his desk deserved.

"Happy Monday sir," came a voice from behind him as he crossed the Entrance Hall. Severus turned and glared down at Potter, who was sitting on the stone steps leading to the first floor by himself.

"Why do you have a black eye?" he snapped. He'd been wanting to ask the brat for ages... or for days at least.

Harry shrugged, gave him a meaningful look and said, "Things like this always happen on Monday sir."

Severus was about to open his mouth but Dennis Creevy ran past them at that moment and up the stairs. Severus closed his eyes and took a shuddering breath. That boy! When he opened his eyes again a moment later, both Potter and Creevy were gone.

How he loathed Mondays.

Later that day when Potter entered his potions classroom, Severus snapped, "Detention Potter! Tonight at seven. And for every night this week."

"Yes sir," Harry said. "Would that be for Tuesday and the other days as well, or only for Monday?"

"Ten points from Gryffindor," Snape said. The other students sat quickly and quietly, having heard the back and forth between them. They were prepared to sit silently and not speak out of turn when Snape was in a mood like this.

He began to ask questions and Harry's hand went up into the air. The boy looked bored. "You're not allowed to answer questions Potter," he snapped, and the boy's hand fell. He heard Weasley mutter quietly, "Hardly seems fair if you know the answer."

"Do you know the answer Weasley?" Severus snapped, turning suddenly to face the three Gryffindors sitting at the desk halfway back.

"No sir," Ron said with a frown, "but Harry does."

"Of course he does," Severus said. He ended up giving the class the answers to the three questions himself in a short lecture and set them to work. When Potter turned in his potion at the end of class Severus looked at him and said, "Why bother even turning it in Potter? It's Monday."

"Yes sir," Harry said. "It is." He left the room and after he'd gone Severus stared down at Potter's perfect potion. Only it wasn't perfect. It looked as though the boy had not boiled the potion long enough in the first step to get all the impurities out. It needed at least another thirty seconds of boiling before the second step. But Potter's potion was perfect the day before. It was, wasn't it? Wasn't it always perfect on Mondays?

* * *

"I don't know what game you're playing at Potter, but it ends now."

"Sir?" The Gryffindor sat in the wooden chair in Snape's office. Severus slammed his hand down on the desk in front of him as he leaned over the fifth year. The boy flinched, but looked bored.

"How many times have we done this?" Severus asked, standing up. He wasn't angry any more, just confused and exhausted. It had been a long day.

"Sir?"

"You look bored Potter. How many times have we done this? In this office?"

"Since I've come to Hogwarts?" Harry asked.

"Today!" Severus snapped.

Harry gave him a hard look, staring into his eyes, as if he was trying to determine something. Then he said, "Five or six sir. Five or six times on Monday."

"Five or six," Severus thought out loud, bewildered. This was the first one he could remember. He could remember other things from other Monday's but this was the first detention on a Monday he'd given Potter that he could remember.

"Explain."

"Every once in a while you remember a previous Monday, or I do something stupid in class or in the corridor because I can, and you drag me in for detention. Actually, the last time you gave me an all night detention. It didn't stop Monday from resetting though."

Severus stared at the boy as if he was an alien creature who had just crash landed in his office. When he didn't respond Harry continued with, "I'm kind of surprised it took you this long. I thought you were starting to remember weeks ago, but you kept forgetting. Then this week you kept shouting at Dennis that you'd already told him to quit running, and I thought you might be remembering for real this time."

"How long have we been stuck on Monday?" Severus asked.

Harry shrugged. "Don't know."

"And who else knows what's happening?"

"You and me sir. Maybe the Headmaster. I tried explaining it to people... to different teachers, and my friends. No one believes me, and the day always resets at midnight."

"And you have tried to break the loop?" Severus asked warily.

"Sure. I tried going to sleep in different places than my bed. I tried staying up all night. I've written myself letters and notes with the date. I tried flying as far away as I could from school. One time I flew straight from my dorm room window as soon as I woke up, and I flew all day and into the night, straight away from the castle. But at midnight, I'm always returned to Monday."

"What does Jade Jones have to do with this?"

"Sir?"

"You keep talking to Jade Jones."

Harry's cheeks turned slightly pink. "I like her."

"She's in Slytherin."

He shrugged. "She's nice, and she doesn't mind talking to me even though I'm a fifth year."

"If you do anything to her Potter-" he started, but the boy had a horrified look on his face.

"I wouldn't do that sir," he said.

"What did I give you detention for previously then?"

Harry gave him an irritated look. "Flying in the Great Hall."

"Flying your broom in the school Potter?" he snapped.

"I was delivering the mail. You already gave me detention for that, whether you remember it or not."

"Brat."

Harry stood up even though he hadn't been dismissed, and Snape didn't protest, his mind spinning from all he'd been told.

"If you forget again," Harry said, "I can't remind you."

"Why not?"

"When I try, you always yell at me. I'd rather you just keep believing it's a normal Monday." He pulled open the office door and left Severus there to his thoughts. Monday, Monday. He and Potter were stuck alone together on a repeating Monday.

To be continued...
End Notes:
I know it's been two short chapters. This story will probably have shorter chapters compared to other stories I have.
Just A Normal Monday by JAWorley
Severus watched Albus at breakfast Monday morning. Yesterday he had talked to Hagrid about his prized pumpkins and had an in depth conversation about which potions and magic the gamekeeper was using to make them grow. Today he was talking to Minerva about a new Transfiguration journal and encouraging her to get back into writing research papers as it had been years since she'd submitted one to Transfiguration Today or The Compendium Of Transfigurative Magic. From what Severus could remember, he had mostly stuck to doing the same mundane things Monday after Monday until he'd grown suspicious that the day was repeating itself. Albus seemed to be doing things differently every day. Perhaps Potter was right and the Headmaster knew exactly what was going on. Why did he seem so unperturbed by it if he knew though?

Breakfast ended and Albus rose, eyes scanning the sea of students as they took their backpacks and headed to their first class of the day.

"I would like a word," Severus said before Albus could head upstairs to his office.

"Of course dear boy, have a seat." He sat back down at the staff table as the last of the students and staff filtered out, leaving them alone.

"Do you know what today is?"

"Monday Severus," he said, blue eyes twinkling.

"And do you know what yesterday was?"


"Monday of course."

"You know we are stuck in a time loop," Severus said. It irritated him that the old man didn't seem to be worried or care in the slightest.

"Welcome to Monday Severus," Albus said as if he were proud of him. "It's been a while since I've had anyone else to really talk to."

"You just had a rousing conversation with Minerva about Transfiguration and yesterday with Hagrid about pumpkins."

"Today Severus, both of them were on Monday." Severus glared. Of course the old man would be enjoying this. "But you're the only other staff member who has realized what's going on."

"I don't have a clue what's going on," Severus said, irritated. "How long have we been in a time loop?"

"I don't have an exact time frame," he said. "I've been aware of the loop for fourteen days. It's been going on longer than that however. Harry was the first to become aware of it and alert me to it. He told me fourteen days ago, and he doesn't know how long it took him to realize what was happening."

"So it could have been a month, or even years." The world could have continued on around them while they were stuck there on Monday. Someday they might break free of the loop and come out of the castle to a Tuesday in a world they no longer recognized.

"I don't believe it has been quite that long," Albus said.

"What evidence do you have?"

"It's only a feeling Severus."

"Do you know what's causing this?" Severus felt like an animal backed into a corner that desperately needed to escape. He didn't want to live out the rest of his days stuck on a Monday where certain things were destined to happen no matter what he did to change them.

"I only have a guess. You're aware the castle has deep rooted and ancient magic."

Severus nodded.

"That includes protection charms, not only for the protection of the school, but for the students as well. Occasionally, when a student is in danger, or is feeling particularly vulnerable, and those issues are not being taken care of, the castle's magic reaches out to rectify the issue."

Severus had heard of this happening, but as far as he was aware it had never happened while he had been teaching or had been a student at school. Severus had often felt vulnerable and unsafe as a student, yet the castle had never helped him.

"That hasn't happened in a long time," Severus said.

"That we know of. It isn't always obvious. In my time as a teacher here I've seen it happen a number of times. Sometimes it's as simple as the castle refusing a student or teacher entry to a certain room or corridor, thus sending them down a different hall. Once Filius was unable to get down the east hall to his office because it was flooded. Instead he was forced to come down the west hall, and happened upon a student who was on their way out of Ravenclaw tower to run away."

"That isn't ancient magic, it's coincidence."

"Perhaps, however when he finally returned to the east corridor leading to his office, there was no sign it had ever been flooded."

"Flooding a corridor is a lot different than stranding the entire staff and student body in a time loop," Severus said, eyes narrowed. "How can you be so certain this is the castle's doing and not a magical experiment gone awry? A student could have broken a time-turner or brought some other dangerous device to school."

"I've been investigating that possibility for the last two weeks," Albus said. "There are no signs of a time-turner being broken, or of another device causing this. The castle's magic has always worked in mysterious and little understood ways. I don't find it to be outside the realm of possibility that it's doing this to benefit a student."

"Which student?" Severus asked. The fact that Potter knew what was happening and had known before any of them prickled at the back of his mind. He was certain Potter had done something foolish to cause this. Even if he hadn't gotten his hands on a time-turner, he had a vault full of gold to buy expensive and rare artifacts with. Time loops and the magical disasters that caused them were well documented. At least one every fifty or sixty years occurred due to unbalanced magic, potions gone wrong, or time-turners being shattered on accident (or on purpose in one case).

"I have only begun to look into that," Albus said. "Now that you're fully aware of what has been going on, you can help me investigate different students. School has only been back in for a week and a half-"

"Or years," Severus interrupted with a mutter, but Albus continued, "so anything that has happened to a student over the summer will still be fresh enough for us to uncover."

"You mean abuse," Severus said seriously.

"Or another trauma. Remember, the castle doesn't always react because a student is in danger. Sometimes it happens because a student is feeling particularly vulnerable in a way that can't be helped because of extenuating circumstances."

"Meaning?"

"Have you never wondered why no suicides take place on school grounds?" Albus asked. "Many schools face that issue, but never Hogwarts."


"You are saying the castle always intervenes before it can happen."

"Yes."

"So there is potentially a suicidal student who is re-living the day they were about to kill themself over and over again until we notice them?"

"It's a possibility. It could also be something completely different. There's no way of knowing until we investigate and break the loop."

"Have you investigated Potter yet?"

"You believe he is the student having issues?"

"He's the only other person who seems to know, and he knew what was going on first. He could have brought a rare artifact to school and set it off, on accident or on purpose."

"He didn't seem to know why we were in the loop. When he brought it to my attention he had already spoken to several other teachers, none of whom believed him. He seemed rather desperate to figure out what was happening."

"Why us then? Why are we the only three who remember previous Monday's?"

Albus gave him a small smile. "We see what we want to see dear boy. Everyone around us wants to see a normal, everyday Monday. They want to believe everything is fine, so when they get a feeling of déjà vu, or feel like something isn't quite the way it should be, they push it to the back of their mind and let themselves forget. Once Harry told me he suspected we were repeating the same day again and again, I stopped to think about that feeling in the back of my mind that something was off. I determined myself to find out the truth, and that spell of intentional ignorance over me was broken. How did you come to determine the truth?"

"I had a feeling I had already told certain students certain things multiple times already. I could not understand why they kept ignoring instructions I had already given them. Then I realized Potter was acting strangely. A few days ago he kept saying things such as, ‘things like this always happen on Monday'. I had a terrible headache for days. When I decided that the day had been repeating itself... that we were in a time loop, the headache went away."

"Perhaps your mind was working overtime to tell you something was amiss, and when you ignored it, it caused a conflict, and thus the headache. It seems plausible given that similar things happen to others well versed in occlumency."

"Yes, but only when someone is invading your mind, and you are ignoring it." They were silent for long moments, pondering on the situation. "So we just continue on as normal?" Severus asked, "as though this is just a normal Monday?"

"You could," Albus agreed, "however that would be the same as ignoring the time loop altogether. It won't fix the issue. I have taken the past two weeks to investigate the loop."

"I have classes to teach."

"If you're asking my permission to cancel them, you have it. You might use the time in classes to investigate the students in those classes at least. We have a repeating day. It seems as if the castle wishes us to make the best use of it. Harry certainly has been."

"You mean flying around the Great Hall delivering letters like an owl?"

"You remember that?"

"He told me."

"A repeating day can seem like infinite time, especially to a young imaginative boy like Harry," Albus said. "Some might see it as an opportunity to do things they've always wanted to do, or to learn things they've never had time to learn before."

Severus could see Hermione Granger taking advantage of a day like this to read every book in the school library. She would probably discover how to break the loop but choose to do so only when she was good and ready.

"You expect me to let Potter off the hook for skipping classes and doing asinine things that are against the rules simply because the day will repeat itself and wipe the slate clean?" Severus asked, feeling testy.

"What you do on your repeating day is up to you Severus," Albus said. "If you will be skipping classes to use the day to your advantage, you may consider it unfair not to allow the same leeway to Harry. As far as I'm aware he has already attended all of today's classes many times over.... turned the day's homework in again and again, answered questions in all of his classes, and mastered the day's material."

Albus rose from his seat and turned to leave. He turned back and gave Severus a smile, "I'm glad you have joined us Severus," he said, then he turned and left, though Severus didn't have a clue as to where.

Severus didn't rise to go to his office or down to his classroom. Being stuck like this, never being able to move forward or to grow seemed distinctly unfair. It was unfair for him and for the rest of the students and staff. Though as he remembered the students and staff eating breakfast that morning, chatting happily and carrying on as if nothing was amiss, he was reminded that they didn't think it was unfair. Maybe it was better if they remained ignorant of the situation... if they didn't know. Severus almost wished he hadn't learned that every day for weeks and potentially for weeks to come had been and would still be Monday. Albus was crazy if he thought this was some sort of advantage, aside from the obvious of being able to find and help whatever student had caused this. It was an inconvenience... one he couldn't wait to get past.

He looked at his watch and realized his first class would begin in twenty minutes, and hurried down to the dungeons. He wrote a quick note informing students that his class was cancelled for the day and that they were to spend the time in the Great Hall studying, and spelled it to his classroom door. Once he'd done that and gone back to his office though, he didn't know what to do with himself if his classes were cancelled.

It was several minutes before he settled on making a mental list of students he should check in with. Most abused students had ended up in Slytherin over the years. Perhaps he would hold a house meeting tonight. He was willing to bet that Potter wasn't the only student who remembered what was going on. Whatever student was having an issue bad enough to cause a time-loop would remember. Now all Severus just had to figure out who it was.

To be continued...
Things Like This Always Happen On Monday... by JAWorley
Harry had tried every way imaginable to avoid Crabbe and Goyle. He had no idea why they seemed to be extra irritated with him this year, but they were, and they had been determined on the first repeating Monday, and therefore every Monday after, to pummel him the moment they caught sight of him.

On that first interminable Monday they had been waiting outside the common room door for him. Ron and Hermione had already left for breakfast because Harry had woken up late, and the moment he'd stepped out of Gryffindor tower into the corridor, they had been there. He hadn't even seen them, he'd just felt a blow to his right eye and found himself on the floor with them hanging above him, laughing heartily.

Crabbe and Goyle had been his first tip-off that something wasn't right. They'd given him a black eye on Monday, and it had hurt all day. He just hadn't had time to go to the Hospital Wing to get it taken care of, so all day he'd grimaced every time he smiled or laughed or forgot and touched it. Then the next morning he'd woken up and the black eye had been gone. It hadn't been the first time in his life he'd been miraculously healed overnight, so while it surprised him, he didn't find it odd. Then he'd stepped out of the common room into the corridor and been hit, and found himself on the floor again with the two goons hanging over him laughing.

Two days in a row of getting beaten by Slythern's biggest thugs. Harry had figured they just really had it out for him and wanted to ensure the black eye stuck with him after his miraculous healing. Dudley and his friends were the same way, often waiting in ambush to beat him up or push him to the ground. After a second day of walking around with a black eye, (and oddly, the teachers teaching the same things they had the day before), Harry had gone back to his dorm room to find some solitude. That second Monday had been a truly strange day for him. "Didn't we do this yesterday?" he'd asked his friends in Potions, but Ron had only shrugged and Hermione had shushed him. "Why is McGonagall going over this again?" he'd asked in the class after that.

"You know her, she probably thinks we weren't smart enough to pick it up the first time," Ron had told him.

Then in Charms when Harry had asked yet again why they were doing the same lesson over again, Hermione had told him, "If you take the time to listen instead of talking in class you might actually learn something."

It had been an odd day, but just a fluke, Harry had told himself. That was until the third day when Harry had woken and his eye had again been healed, and Crabbe and Goyle had again been waiting for him outside the common room. That was when Harry knew he was in trouble. They weren't seeking him out day after day to give him a black eye, they were waiting in one spot on the same day, the same day that seemed to be repeating itself, to pummel him and have a good laugh.

None of his friends had believed him, and after the fourth or fifth day he'd started going to teachers to tell them. McGonagall had asked if he needed to go to the Hospital Wing, Flitwick didn't seem to be paying attention, Sprout gave a little laugh and asked if Harry was trying to pull a prank, and even Snape hadn't believed him when he'd gone to him with the issue. "If we were stuck in a time loop Potter, I would know. Time loops are serious magical disasters that are well documented. It doesn't take a genius to figure out when you're stuck in one." The next day the teachers had remembered none of the conversations he'd had with them. Harry had tried for several days to find even a single teacher or student in school who believed him, but hadn't found one until Dumbledore, who seemed skeptical but was at least willing to consider the possibility.

With no help from his teachers Harry had decided to try to break the time loop himself. He had tried going to sleep in the common room instead of his dorm, and in an empty classroom, and even in an empty corridor. He always woke up again in the morning in his bed no matter where he went to sleep.

Harry had tried to stay up all night several times, and he'd tried twice to fly away from the castle, yet at midnight he always blacked out and woke up in his bed, black eye miraculously healed.

When Harry finally gave up on getting out of the time loop he turned his focus instead on making his day better, primarily by avoiding Crabbe and Goyle. Every morning they waited by the entrance to Gryffindor tower. Harry thought to wake earlier and get out of the tower before they arrived, but he had no control over what time he woke up. He always woke at 6:55, too late to catch Ron and Hermione before they left without him on their way to the Great Hall for breakfast.

One day Harry tried to skip breakfast and waited until he was late to his first class, but Crabbe and Goyle had skipped their first class as well to wait for him to give him a black eye.

Another day Harry had used his broom to fly out a window from Gryffindor tower and go directly down to the school entrance and then to breakfast from there, but after his first class Crabbe and Goyle had found him and given him a black eye when he'd gone down to the Dungeons for Potions.

One day Harry asked Ron and Hermione to stick with him for the whole day. He'd told Ron that Crabbe and Goyle were planning to beat him up, and Ron had promised to not leave his side, but they couldn't be together every moment. No matter how many days Harry tried it, Ron had to go to the bathroom, or was held back after Transfiguration by McGonagall to talk about his bad grade on the previous day's homework, or was pulled aside right after lunch by Lavender Brown, who had set her eyes on Ron that year and was determined to get him to like her. The moment Harry separated from Ron, Crabbe and Goyle always cornered him and punched him in the face. Eventually Harry gave up trying to avoid them, and had gone back to leaving the common room each morning to face them and Crabbe's solid punch to the face.

Harry was lying on his back on the floor just outside Gryffindor tower presently, Crabbe and Goyle hanging over him laughing.

"Yeah," Harry said, wincing at the pain in his eye. "Haha guys, very funny," he said unenthusiastically. "You got me. Again."

The pair walked away, still laughing, and Harry decided officially that Mondays were the worst. Why couldn't they have been stuck on a repeating Sunday, where he could spend his entire day in the tower playing games with his friends? He hadn't gotten a summer holiday, not really, and a repeating Sunday would have been wonderful. But his lot in life seemed to be that he should be stuck on a repeating Monday.

Harry had watched Snape struggle through remembering previous Mondays for weeks. He had tried to tell him several more times, but he always got yelled at, and sometimes was given detention for making things up. Occasionally he skipped Potions, but the dour Potions Master always tracked him down at lunch or dinner to tell him off, take house points and assign him another detention. Harry had decided early on not to skip Potions class, even if he was going to skip his others. He didn't want every Monday to end in detention. That just wouldn't be a fair way to spend the rest of his days... getting punched in the morning and scrubbing floors in the evening. If he had wanted a life like that he could have stayed back at the Dursleys. It surprised Harry then when Snape canceled all of his classes for a day. It wasn't just for a day either, it was for several days. Each day he went to Potions with his friends, and when they saw the notice on the door that Potions was canceled and to go to the Great Hall, Ron whooped and Hermione fretted that they were going to miss out on valuable information that day.

Harry had gone to the Great Hall with them the first few days, because it was something new and different to the same mundane Monday he'd been living over again for weeks, but this too grew boring. He started bringing card games with him so he and Ron could play games instead of study the same material Harry was thoroughly sick of now.

"You two will fail this week's potions and assignments," Hermione chastised.

"No I won't," Harry said.

"But we're missing a day of class, and if you don't study we won't know what we need to to pass the test later this week."

"Hermione, I could ace the test if I was sleeping. I could brew the potion with my eyes closed and one hand tied behind my back. I could not show up and still get an O."

Hermione just stared at him like he was some bizarre creature she'd never met before. Harry never had such confidence when it came to classes.

"Let's see then," she said. "How many minutes should the potion attenuate in the first stage?"

"Seconds Hermione," Harry corrected, not even looking up at her as he took the cards Ron had dealt to him. "Forty five seconds in the first stage. 59 in the second stage, and four minutes in the third stage. When decanted into a vial you'll be able to see three separate layers of the potion, suspended with three levels of purity. The layer on the bottom will be dark gray, the middle layer will be light gray and the top layer will be light silver."

"The book says thirty seconds for the first stage," Hermione said, surprised he'd given her mostly right information.

"The book is wrong," Harry said. "Snape will snap at you to boil it for fifteen more seconds if you only boil it for thirty."

"How would you know?" Hermione asked. "We haven't brewed the potion yet."

"Hermione, I've brewed it dozens of times."

"How am I supposed to believe you? We've never brewed this potion before and were supposed to do it today."

Harry shrugged, not looking over at her as he handed a card back to Ron to exchange it for another. "I don't know Hermione," Harry said, "that seems like a personal problem. You never believe me when I tell you that today is Monday, that it's been Monday for ages, and that we've done that Potions class over and over again."

"What are you talking about? Did Crabbe hit you hard enough to give you a concussion this morning?"

"Sure," Harry said easily, trying to pretend like he wasn't bothered by her easy dismissal of him yet again, because it had happened so many times already.

He had stopped going to the Great Hall with them after that on the days when Snape canceled Potions. It was canceled most days, but not all days, and on the days when Snape was holding Potions class now he seemed less interested in teaching them or grading the potions they were turning in than he was in scrutinizing each student, staring at a Slytherin for minutes at a time without blinking before moving on to the next student, and then the next. Harry wasn't sure what the man was doing, but it was making him uneasy. At least Snape never stared at him like that, and seemed content to ignore him, which worked out in Harry's favor when he decided to quit brewing in class and opted instead to sit in the back of the room away from his friends and read a novel. He'd been through five novels now and was starting to enjoy the time to read. He had never appreciated reading for pleasure before, but now that he had the time and was bored, it was something to do. It gave his mind something to think about and lose itself in.

* * *

"Why do you have a black eye every Monday Potter?" Snape asked him, finally turning his attention to Harry on one of the Mondays when he'd decided to hold classes. Harry was sitting in the back of the room reading again, and Hermione was too stressed out about brewing her potion correctly to reprimand him for not doing his schoolwork or to question him about it until class was over.

"Things like this happen on Monday," he said, not looking up from his book as he turned the page. He startled a moment later when Snape's hand shot out of nowhere and grabbed the novel. He gave it a quick look, sneered at it and snapped it shut, tossing it onto the table in front of Harry.

"You have endless days to better yourself, to actually learn something, and you waste your time on reading adventure novels?"

"I haven't had a whole lot of time to waste on reading, sir," Harry said through gritted teeth. He'd gotten used to the man ignoring him on these repeating days and wished he'd continue to do so.

"Answer my question. Why do you have a black eye?"

"Does it matter sir?"


"Twenty points from-"

"Yeah?" Harry asked, feeling a little cocky. If he took points, they'd reappear the next day. And if he took all of Gryffindor's points the next day, it wouldn't matter, because it would always be Monday again and the points would come back.

Snape narrowed his eyes and shook his head. He leaned down and put his hands flat on the table across from Harry and said in a low voice, "Do not think for an instant Potter, that I will let you get away with disrespect to your betters simply because the day is repeating itself. I can make each and every new iteration of the day a new experience in detention just for you."

Harry picked up his book, trying to force his anxiety at the possibility of all day detentions every day for the rest of his life down into the pit of his stomach. He didn't want Snape to know he'd affected him with what he'd said. "I'm in class," he said, teeth gritted so he didn't start shouting and interrupt his friends in their brewing, "isn't that enough?"

"You don't go to all of your classes, only this one, why?"

"Because when I skip, you yell at me and give me detention, so I'm here. If you don't want me here, say so and I'll happily spend the day in the library."

"Wasting your time with silly novels."

"Yeah," Harry said, "that's me, wasting my days away spending my time actually enjoying something for once." He stood up with his book, grabbed his bookbag and made for the door, the eyes of the class following him.

"Sit back down Potter."

He turned and gave a sarcastic salute to Snape as he backed toward the door, "Yes sir, absolutely sir, I live to please you Mr. Snape sir." Then he strode into the corridor and was gone. The class stared after him and at Snape, who was turning several shades of red.

"Potter!" He stormed out after the brat but he was gone. The moment he'd stepped into the long corridor, he must have taken off at a run. If the brat thought he could get away with that kind of behavior he was wrong. He couldn't avoid him because they were all stuck in the castle together and he knew where the boy would wake up every morning and where to find him before he could escape to another part of the castle to hide all day.

Severus had put a lot of thought into what the Headmaster had said about the brat already having attended all of the day's classes numerous times, so it wasn't really skipping out. He had seen that the boy could brew a passable potion for the day, so he had allowed the defiant behavior of moving to the back of the classroom to study. But the brat wasn't studying, he was reading stories. And he knew from Albus that Potter wasn't going to his other classes anymore, only Potions. At least now he knew why.

Albus had been spending time in the last week and a half sitting in on various classes. It was his right as headmaster to do so, to evaluate the performance of the staff, though it didn't happen very often and almost never with seasoned professors. None of the teachers had questioned him then when he stepped into their classes and stood by the door and just watched. The old man wasn't watching the teachers though, he was watching the students. So far Albus had made his way through ninety percent of the classes and had had ample opportunity to observe most of the students to see if he could spot anything amiss. Potter hadn't been in those classes though, so he had asked Severus to take a look at him in Potions. Now he had, but he still had no answers. The boy wouldn't even answer the simple question of why he had a black eye every morning.

Determined to find out the answer, Severus decided that in the morning he would wake up and stake out the entrance to Gryffindor tower. If the brat came out of his common room with a black eye, Severus could ask him if another Gryffindor had done it or if he had done something stupid like trip and slam his face into something. That had to be why the brat wouldn't tell him... he was protecting a friend or his pride. Either way Severus was going to find out.

Severus woke every morning at half past six. When Monday began to repeat itself yet again he rose from bed, dressed, and hurried up to the entrance to Gryffindor tower. A few students were coming and going from the portrait hole, but not Potter. Weasley and Granger left without him, giving Snape an odd look, and he thought it might be best to disillusion himself in case they decided to go back in and tell Potter that he was waiting outside the portrait hole. No sooner had he cast a disillusionment charm on himself than Crabbe and Goyle came around the corner into the short dead-end corridor holding the entrance to Gryffindor.

"I didn't see him go downstairs with his friends," Goyle said. "He's gotta still be inside."

"Good," Crabbe said, cracking his knuckles. "No witnesses."

Severus narrowed his eyes at the two. They were troublemakers and had been from their first day at school. At least Draco had begun to distance himself from them and was no longer allowing them to trail after him everywhere he went. Who were they here for though? Surely not Potter.

Severus found he was wrong though. A few minutes later the portrait opened and the moment Potter stepped out, Crabbe threw a punch slamming his fist into the Gryffindor's eye, sending him backwards to the stone floor.

"Yeah-" Harry said in a sarcastic tone, lying on his back, "this isn't getting old."

The boy's laughed at him, but stopped when Severus cleared his throat a moment later, canceling the charm hiding him from view. He gripped the neck of both of their robes and said in a cold voice, "Care to let me in on the joke?"

Both Slytherins started stammering while Harry lay on his back on the stone floor and stared up at their predicament in awe. Snape ignored the Gryffindor and tightened his grip on the boy's necks until it was uncomfortable. He would never hurt them, but he wasn't above intimidating them until they told the truth.

"Uh, Potter fell sir. He's clumsy," Crabbe finally managed to get out.

"Is that so?" Severus asked in a menacing tone.

"I guess we must have scared him and he fell over backwards," Goyle added.

"And though he landed on his back, he somehow hit his face, giving himself a black eye?"

Crabbe started stammering again. "Erm, uh, well you see-"

"Enough," Severus snapped, and his tone made Harry jump along with his assailants.

Severus let go of the two boy's necks. "I witnessed the entire asinine incident for myself," he said angrily. "The two of you in particular have been warned repeatedly about bullying other students, both inside and outside of Slytherin. You will be skipping classes for the rest of the day to do detention with Filch."

"But there's a test in Divination," Goyle protested weakly.

"Then you will have to receive a zero for the day."

He gripped the back of both of their shirts and turned them towards the corridor, intending to frog march them all the way to Filch's office. As they began to move forward Severus turned to Harry and spat, "Hospital Wing Potter! If you're not there in ten minutes you'll be serving detention as well."

Harry lay dumbly on his back on the floor, propped up on his forearms as the trio disappeared around the corner and out of sight. What had just happened? Harry really wasn't sure, but didn't fancy serving detention all day with Crabbe and Goyle who would surely take their punishment out on him, so he picked himself up and headed for the Hospital Wing. Didn't Snape understand that this was a repeating day? Had he forgotten again? Crabbe and Goyle would only come back tomorrow, and he doubted the Potions Master would be waiting for them there again. Harry was surprised he'd been there at all. He must have been passing through on his way to the Headmaster's office. That was it. He would never lay in wait to stop Harry from getting bullied, not when Snape was the biggest bully of them all.

* * *

The next Monday, Harry walked out of the common room by himself, expecting to be hit in the face, but Crabbe and Goyle weren't there. He frowned, and looked up and down the corridor, but they were nowhere in sight. Was this finally a Tuesday? Had the loop been broken somehow while he slept? He wracked his brain for what he had dreamt about, but as far as he could tell he had only dreamt of his rotten summer. He always dreamed of his rotten summer these days. At first he hadn't remembered his dreams, but after so many repeating days he couldn't do anything but remember.

Harry walked cautiously down to the Great Hall for breakfast, expecting Crabbe and Goyle to leap out at him from around a corner or statue, but they didn't appear to be there. Had they realized they were repeating Monday as well and decided not to chance an all day detention again?

Feeling out of sorts, like nothing was as it should be, Harry sat down at Gryffindor table and found his friends sitting in their usual spots.

"Hermione-" Harry asked slowly, reaching for a muffin, "what was the homework for Potions that's due today?"

"Oh Harry, you didn't do it? The potion we're brewing today has so many steps, and if you don't attenuate correctly at each step you'll get a bad mark for the day!" She seemed stressed about Harry's apparent lack of homework.

"Detrectante?" Harry asked for clarification. "We're brewing Detrectante today?"

"So you did do the homework?" Hermione asked.

"Only if this is Monday," Harry said with a sigh. He was relieved and disappointed at the same time, though he wasn't sure why. Everything was as it should be, because it was predictable Monday as always, but disappointed that there would be nothing new to do or see until a Tuesday which might never come.

"Of course it's Monday Harry," Ron said. "They should start giving us three days a week off instead of just the weekend. Could you imagine if we had Monday's off? We'd never have to dread the weekend ending again."

"Until Tuesday," Hermione said. "You'd take the entire week off if you could."

"Why not? Maybe if they gave us extra days off every now and again I'd be more refreshed when I do go to classes."

"You'd be more refreshed if you went to bed at a reasonable hour," she said.

Harry tuned his friend's out. They'd had this conversation several times already. It didn't always start the same way, and sometimes the phrasing of it was different, but it was always the same old argument.

As he finished his breakfast (wishing the elves would remember they'd been repeating days so he could have something different than oatmeal, muffins and fruit for a change), Harry considered his predicament yet again. There was nothing new to do. The routine was getting older than usual. The only thing different in the last few days was Snape catching Crabbe and Goyle and sending Harry to the Hospital Wing, and Crabbe and Goyle's unusual disappearance from outside the common room that morning. Harry longed for a change, even another small one. Perhaps he'd skip Potions for the day. He wondered if Snape would care. Harry had finished his novel the evening before and wanted to get a new one from the library. It could take him a while to find something he wanted to read, and if he started looking early, he could be well into the book by lunch.

"Where you going Harry?" Ron asked as he rose before his friends were finished eating.

"Library."

"But you'll be late to class."

"I'm not going today."

"What?" Hermione choked out, coughing on a bite of blueberry muffin.

In response Harry only waved, not bothering to turn back to her.

On his way to the library, Harry found another one of those little changes he'd been wishing for, though he wasn't sure what to make of it. Crabbe and Goyle were mopping the floor outside of Filch's office. He paused when he caught sight of them. They were clearly in detention, but for what Harry couldn't fathom since they'd left him alone that morning.

"What did you guys do to get detention before breakfast?" Harry asked.

Goyle murmured something unfriendly and Crabbe held the mop handle toward Harry like he'd like to smack him with it. "We'll get you for this Potter."

"Me?"

Crabbe turned back to his mopping when they heard Filch move around in his office as the door was ajar. "I don't know how you found out about what we were going to do, but we'll pay you back. Just watch."

Harry skirted around the angry pair and hurried on his way to the library. How odd. They didn't seem to remember repeating days, but they still had detention, like they'd had yesterday, and they seemed to think it was because of him. Had Snape done this? Harry wasn't sure, but pushed it from his mind as he made it into the library.

He spent half an hour browsing books in the fiction section and then settled down on the floor between two towering bookshelves. It was quiet here, and as he read, skipping lunch, he found that almost no one ventured down this aisle throughout the day. Madam Pince seemed to be aware he was there, but hadn't mentioned him skipping classes and let him be. Harry was content to spend a peaceful day lost in an adventure novel about a boy living on a world called Cradle. If only he could have spent his summer like this too.

To be continued...


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