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.