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Time is Running Out	By : danniperson Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Snape Views: 3330 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or the universe or any of the characters and I am making no money from this work

Chapter List
- 1-Promise of an End
- 2-Last Chance Has Arrived
- 1
- 2
TIME IS RUNNING OUT

Chapter Two: Last Chance Has Arrived

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The Sorting Hat put me in Ravenclaw! Daddy and Papa are going to be so disappointed. I guess at least they'll stop arguing now over where I'll end up. I don't think anyoneexpected me to be anywhere but Gryffindor or Slytherin. I can't believe this is happening-

I messed up my first potion in class! That is so messed up and so embarrassing. My father is the potions master, for Merlin's sake! What is wrong with me? I know I never practiced much at home or anything, but shouldn't I still be good at it? I feel like I'm not good at anything. I guess the world had to make up for my dads both being so good at so many things by making me crap at everything-

Daddy told me today that I'm a really good artist. I don't know if he was trying to up my self esteem or something. What good is being good at drawing? I really fail as a witch since I have no real talents in magic-

-I have a feeling everyone is disappointed in me. I'm disappointed in myself.

Naomi got put in Slytherin. I hate her. Good and perfect Naomi Lane Potter, destined to be the Slytherin Princess. Papa was so proud of her and even Daddy was, though he teased her about being disappointed she wasn't in Gryffindor. Everyone knows Slytherin and Gryffindor are the best Houses! They never say anything bad about me being in Ravenclaw, but I know they're upset about it. Who wouldn't be? At least I'm not in Huffelpuff. I might have killed myself-

-Naomi is making perfect grades in Potions and DADA. I hate her.

-Naomi made the Qudditch team. A Chaser. I really hate her.

-I actually did really good on my potion today…but I got so nervous I ended up knocking over my cauldron and dropping the phial with the finished product! I really hate my life.

I love Regis so much. He says he loves me, too, but he can't be with me right now. He says I should talk to someone about my problems. I can't be happy and I can't make him happy until I do. But I don't have problems. Correction, I can't have problems. I'm bad enough as it is without telling everyone all of these dark thoughts going through my head. I can see the headlines now: Harry Potter's daughter is crazy! I'm not really crazy at least I don't think. Maybe I am, though. That would explain a lot, wouldn't it-

-I can't stand this anymore.

Richard's in Gryffindor. In twenty or so years he'll be the fucking Minister of Magic, too. I already heard people saying how many good things they've heard about Richard. So much better than me. I can't stand this. I can't stand being here anymore. No one will miss me. Daddy and Papa already have their two perfect children. Regis is trying to shag Arienne. He obviously never loved me. Everything is falling apart. Maybe I'll go jump off of the Astronomy Tower. Make it dramatic. Otherwise, they'd probably never even notice-

Harry reread Audrey's journal over and over again and every time his heart shattered into a million more pieces. The broken pieces seemed to pierce through everything, a blinding pain burning through every inch of his body. The pain was so deeply etched inside of him, he felt like it might never go away. The guilt gnawed at him worse than anything. His daughter had been depressed for years. So many entries were tragically painful and self-depreciating. How could his beautiful daughter hate herself so much? Harry certainly didn't think so low of her as Audrey apparently thought, and he was sure Severus didn't either.

More importantly: how had they never seen it? How could anyone suffer so much and feel so awful all of the time and no one ever know? Maybe she took after Severus in that sense, being too good at hiding her thoughts and emotions. He wished he could tell her that. She would revel in any comparison to either of her parents and would absolutely love being praised for a talent… it wasn't anything magical, though, so maybe not. Harry frowned deeply, blinking the tears away from his eyes.

"I'm not going," Harry whispered, grasping Audrey's open diary tightly in his lap. He was sitting on the couch in his home in Godric's Hollow still in his pajamas. Audrey was going to be buried in the local cemetery with her grandparents. She shouldn't be buried there at all until she had to be buried next to them, after he and Severus were long gone. Children should never die before their parents. It wasn't right.

"Oh, Harry," Hermione sighed sadly, slowly sitting down next to him and resting her hand comfortingly on his leg. Harry began shaking his head as soon as she opened her mouth again, but she spoke anyway. "You should go…You need to be there. For closure…to…to be there for her."

"How can I be there for her when she's gone?" Harry snapped acidly.

Hermione flinched at his tone, but gave his leg a gentle squeeze. "We're here for you, Harry…You and Severus…We're all here for you. It…I know it's not easy, but…You might regret it one day. You should come and say goodbye and…" Hermione's voice cracked and Harry wasn't sure if he felt more annoyed, pleased, or saddened by the tears that filled her eyes. Hermione cleared her throat, looking as though she was attempting to get herself under control.

"Vell now," said a gruff voice from down the hallway. Harry and Hermione turned at the loud stomping down the hallway and Viktor Krum appeared, looking agitated. "Harry, Hermione…Ve have a problem."

"What's wrong?" Hermione asked in a panic, jumping to her feet. It was perhaps more worry than the situation actually warranted, as Viktor didn't appear to be too bent out of shape, but everyone had been very on edge since Audrey's death. "Is it the children?"

"Ves, it is the children," Viktor huffed to his wife. "Come! Come, come!" he called out, turning and beckoning behind him. He stepped aside to let them all file in. Harry had known all of the children had been gathered in Naomi's room, trying to distract and cheer up his children. He hadn't thought much of all of the noise coming from down the hallway. He especially didn't, at first, notice anything wrong. Hearing Hermione gasp beside him, though, Harry took a closer look.

"Hugo Ivan Krum, what have you done?" Hermione hissed.

"Err…I can explain," fourteen year old Hugo said nervously, twisting around a strangely familiar chain in his hands. Harry's eyes grew wide as he recognized it and quickly let his eyes scan over the large group of young wizards and witches. He saw his own children, Naomi and Richard…Then there were Arienne and Odette Zabini; Hugo Krum; Dillon, Fergall, Kevin, Riley, Quinn, and Kyna Weasley; Scorpius and Daenerys Malfoy; Regis and Riana Shackelbolt; and Bliss and Everett Longbottom. Only instead of seventeen children there were twenty. There were now two of Hugo, Naomi, and Odette.

"Vell, then, explain!" Viktor demanded, folding his arms over his chest while Hermione stood tall and intimidating with her hands on her hips. No one envied Hugo. Both of his parents could be pretty scary.

"Well…I…I got the time-turner y-yesterday…f-for my classes," Hugo said, gulping.

"Yes, we know that," Hermione said impatiently. "I'm also very sure that Harry, Severus, Headmistress McGonagall, and your mother all warned you to be careful with it! Not only should no one else know about it, not only should you not be using it now, but you should definitely not get caught like this! What were you thinking?"

"I…I…" Hugo said, voice shaking and to their shock, tears welled up in his eyes as he looked away from them. "W…We wanted to go…to go back and try…and try to s-save Audrey. W…We couldn't figure out how far back to…to go, th-though s-so we ju-just stopped and…and ended up back h-here."

Silence fell over the room, only the nervous shuffling from the many children making any noise at all. Harry stared at his godson blankly for a long moment, feeling numb in his shock and eventually felt some spark of hope flame up inside of him. A time turner! They had saved Sirius and Buckbeak with one of those in his third year! The Ministry's entire collection of time-turners had been destroyed in the Time Room of the Department of Mysteries his fifth year, but he heard they recently succeeded in recreating a few of them. It didn't surprise Harry at all that Hermione's brainy son would follow in her footsteps in wanting to use one for school. He was also surprised he hadn't thought of that sooner! Of course! They could go back in time and save Audrey!

"Oh, honey," Hermione said, voice quivering. She stepped forward and pulled both versions of her son into a hug. Both Hugos looked at each other uneasily before hugging her back. "That's so…so sweet. But…but you can't, honey. It's dangerous. Time travel is not something to take lightly and you should never go back that far."

"Why not?" Harry whispered. "Severus!" he then called out, looking in the direction of Severus's office, knowing his husband had been hiding in there all day, especially since their guests started to arrive. Harry had barely seen him at all since the night they found Audrey.

"Harry," Hermione sighed sadly. "I know things ended up working out in third year, but you remember how hard it was! And we only went back three hours! You have no idea what sort of trouble you could create by going back seventy two hours! It…It's insane!"

"What's insane," Harry said slowly, "is not doing everything I possibly can to bring back my daughter."

"Harry?" Severus asked quietly, voice far more quiet and weary than anyone had ever heard it. He narrowed his eyes at the large group gathered in the hallway before turning his questioning gaze back to his husband.

"Harry, I love you and I love Audrey, but…You could do a lot more harm than good by doing something like that!" Hermione said.

"What foolish thing does Potter have in mind now?" Severus asked, rubbing his temples.

"He wants to use a time-turner to go back three days to save Audrey!" Hermione said, stepping aside and motioning at her two sons and his two daughters.

Severus's eyebrows scrunched together as he stared at them and then he scoffed. "I will assume this was not a well thought out plan…He was always prone to reckless behavior."

"Severus…Hugo, Naomi, and Odette tried to go back and save Audrey. We could…we could try," Harry said quickly, desperately. "We have to try."

"Harry, I'm sorry, but you can't," Hermione said sadly. "If it had been a short time, I would have agreed, but Harry…This is too dangerous. You could be risking more than Audrey by doing this!"

"Don't start with me, Hermione," Harry growled. "You have no idea what it's like!"

"I don't have any idea what what's like, Harry?" Hermione demanded coldly. "To lose a child? I did, Harry!"

Harry swallowed hard and looked away from Hermione as tears began leaking out of the corners of her eyes. Before she and Viktor had gotten married, they had gotten pregnant and Hermione had lost the baby late in her second trimester, a baby girl they called Anya Isadora Krum. Harry felt badly…almost guilty for having said that. But Hermione couldn't really understand…the two things were different. Yes, Hermione had hurt, but…It was still different. Harry had had Audrey and should still have her. Hermione hadn't had to see the broken form of her daughter at the bottom of the Astronomy Tower. Hermione hadn't had to read these journal entries that showed just how much of her child's suffering she had been missing. There was too much guilt and too much pain and too much pressure to do something differently, knowing that things could be changed. Harry wanted to scream at her, to tell her how different it was and how she could never know what he was going through exactly. The words were stuck in his mouth, though, and before he knew it his vision was blurred by hot tears and he choked back a sob, slamming his hand over his mouth and turning away from them.

He wanted Audrey back…he needed his baby girl to be alive and healthy. It didn't matter what anyone said. He had to save her because he couldn't bear to live through this.

"Viktor and Hermione, would you please take the children outside and let everyone know we'll be there shortly?" Severus requested quietly. "I'll keep the extras in the bedroom and I'll talk with Harry."

"Alright, Severus," Hermione said. "Thank you and…I'm so sorry."

Harry stood stiffly as Hermione walked by and gave him a gentle pat on the back before walking to the door and with her husband ushered the children all out ahead of them. Severus then instructed Hugo, Naomi, and Odette to return to Naomi's room and Harry turned to follow them back there, glancing over his shoulder as he went to be sure that the door was closed and that no one else was there, listening or watching. "Severus, we have to do this," Harry said, closing the door as he entered Naomi's room. "We can't just…not even try!"

"I know," Severus said. "Hugo, give us the time-turner."

Hugo blinked in surprise. "You're going to save Audrey?"

"Of course we are."

"Good!" Hugo said, looking relieved as he quickly went to remove the time-turner and in his excitement dropped it accidentally as he went to hand it to Severus.

"Careful!" Severus hissed as the time-turner hit the floor.

"S-sorry," Hugo stuttered, stepping forward to grab it and accidentally stepping on the chain. Harry cringed and hastily grabbed the time-turner before Hugo could do more damage to it. He took it in his hand and turned it over. The clasp looked a bit damaged and the hourglass looked smudged and a bit scratched, but it wasn't broken or anything. "Looks fine," he said and put the long chain around his neck and then stepped closer to Severus to help put it around him, too. Severus had to lean over a bit to have the chain fit them both comfortably, as he was a good bit taller than his short husband. "Okay, so how far back do we go?"

"We found her around…11:30 that night," Severus mumbled. "We can say she…she did it an hour before then, to be safe…We should probably go back before the feast so we have time to work everything out."

"Yeah, I'll sneak the Map out of our rooms and we can wait in the Astronomy Tower for her. If we do it during the feast, then no one should be in the corridors at all," Harry said.

"Good," Severus said. "We'll say…Seventy seven hours."

"And that's seventy seven turns," Harry agreed. He grasped the time-turner with shaky hands and slowly began to turn it. His heart was hammering out of control in his chest and he felt so lightheaded in his excitement and fear. They were going to have to be extremely careful and Hermione was right—it was incredibly risky. But it was well worth it. Harry was willing to do anything to make sure Audrey came back to them safe and sound. One look at his husband told Harry that Severus was feeling the same way. It didn't matter how crazy this plan was, neither could sit back and just bury their daughter, knowing that some alternative existed.

"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine…" Harry counted quietly as he turned the hourglass. His fingers were so shaky they slipped sometimes and in those moments Severus looked close to snapping at him before Harry quickly started turning it again. He was vaguely aware of the children whispering and Severus hissing at them to stop. Already he could feel that strange pull that he hadn't felt in so long. He began turning it faster, seeing sick in his excitement the closer to the number they got.

It was at fifty two that the small knob on the side of the charm, the one used to turn the hourglass, fell out. "Shite!" Harry hissed, in his overwhelmed state feeling like he could scream or cry. Instead he quickly yanked out his wand and began turning the hourglass with magic, hoping it would work.

"Potter, stop that!" Severus snapped. "Do you even remember where you left off? It's going too fast…Harry, stop!" Severus snarled.

It was true. The hourglass was spinning faster and faster and Harry couldn't remember how many turns he had done before the knob broke and especially hadn't kept track of how many it was doing now. Harry fumbled with his wand and nearly dropped it and ended up catching it between his wrist and his chest. Severus had already whipped out his wand to stop the turning. Harry grasped tightly onto his husband as the sensation hit harder, pulling on them both, the feeling of flying backwards very fast. Had it been this bad all those years ago? He felt so nauseous it almost hurt. Blurs of colors and shapes flew by them and his ears were pounding so hard and so loud he felt as though his head might explode.

Then he felt solid ground beneath his feet and everything came into focus again.

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Author's Note: While I really liked how the first chapter came out, I couldn't get this to really work as well as I had hoped. Oh well! I have lots of plans for this story so I hope everyone enjoys it and stays with me!

Thanks to Tarchimaru, Roguelle, and Suzie74 for reviewing!
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