Time Turning Conundrum

[June 1990]

Severus Snape stalked through the corridors, furiously muttering to himself. Three cauldrons, three! How in Merlin’s name can one student manage to do something as ridiculous as that? All in one lesson as well! 

Severus sighed in frustration, turning a corner and startling Mrs Norris, the caretaker’s cat, at his sudden emergence. She hissed at Severus before sprinting past him. He paid no attention to the feline, and continued on through the corridors, robes billowing out behind him.

Severus didn’t understand why he had accepted this job in the first place. If he wasn’t needed as a spy he certainly would not be working here as a professor.                                                                           

Severus almost preferred brewing potions for the Dark Lord. It was miles more enjoyable than teaching thickheaded fools what they believe to be potion making. These kids can hardly tell apart Sophorus Beans from regular Soy Beans! 

Brewing for the Dark Lord allowed him to experiment, to concoct potions that he had never even seen before, a much better profession in comparison to his current one.

Contrary to popular belief, Severus doesn’t hate children per se, it was just that they were far too obnoxious and loud for Severus to feel anything but annoyed at them. And how he dealt with that annoyance was by dishing out detentions to students. 

He was trying his best at actually teaching the thick-headed children something. It was just that he occasionally gave out one too many detentions that perhaps the children became weary of him. Though it wasn’t a problem in Severus’ book. If anything, he enjoyed it to some capacity. 

Plus, working with The Dark Lord wasn’t as bad as Dumbledore had chalked it up to be, nor as bad as any other of the witches and wizards from the ‘light side’ thought. 

The Dark Lord didn’t constantly punish his Death Eaters, usually only seriously doing so when they had made a serious mistake. Or oppose his authority, which rarely happens in the first place. 

He never forced Severus to brew anything that he didn’t want to, though he brewed everything that the Dark Lord had asked of him nonetheless.

Plus, with all the forbidden and long lost potions that the Dark Lord has asked him to brew, Severus considered it as the Dark Lord himself was doing Severus a favor! If the Dark Lord hadn’t offered Severus an unlimited access to potions equipment and ingredients, he would have likely never joined their side in the first place. 

Dumbledore certainly hadn’t offered such a deal to him when he ‘defected’ from ‘the dark side’. In all honesty, if Dumbledore had promised Severus such a thing, he probably would have changed sides. Alas for Dumbledore, ever the chess master, he didn’t see the need in that, only the fickle reassurance of emotional manipulation. 

Thus Severus, a Slytherin through and through, made the decision to remain on the Dark Lord’s side, with the proviso of having access to the resources and potions ingredients he needed. All for the benefit of the Dark Lord (and himself) of course.

He didn’t exactly enjoy the prospect of working under two people, but it was better than living on the streets, so he just took that part of his job in stride.

At the very least the Dark Lord is open with how he feels about someone, Severus thought, unlike a certain wizard, constantly trying to take control of everything.

So here he was, stuck miserably in Hogwarts with crackhead wizards and witches who can miraculously explode three cauldrons in one lesson! Even a month's detention with Filch couldn’t fix Severus’ frustration. 

In all honesty, Severus thought as he abruptly turned another corner, startling yet again another unsuspecting cat—a tabby, he noted absentmindedly, It is quite astonishing how the wizard had done it. Really, three cauldrons—

Severus shook his head. Well, there was no use complaining now. He just has to make sure Dumbledore pays for the damage this time using the school’s money, and not money out of his salary. He growled as he remembered the last time he had gone to the Headmaster to ask for the very same thing. 

—————

“Really Severus, you must admit that the cauldrons are your responsibility, as the Potions Master of Hogwarts,” Dumbledore had said as he looked at Severus with those twinkling eyes of his. 

“Yes Headmaster, but they are the school’s property, so I feel quite justified to ask for you to use the money that is specifically for the schools development, to replace all the cauldrons that the students have exploded! Your students, might I add.” Severus crossed his arms and looked pointedly at Dumbledore. 

“Ah, and they are your students too are they not?” Dumbledore smiled genially as he met Severus’ glare. 

“Yes, but I hardly think that my salary should be the one suffering because of those dunderhead’s mistakes.” Severus insisted, clearly annoyed that he even had to argue for this in the first place. 

“Indeed not Severus, yet one may also argue that your teaching could have been the result of said mistake, could it not? Though this is not at all to offend you, my boy,” Dumbledore added as Severus’ indignant look, “but merely only a possible perspective. I think you are doing a wonderful job at teaching the students. Our N.E.W.T. scores have gone up in Os by quite a substantial amount since you’ve started teaching, and I believe we have only you to thank for that, my boy.” Dumbledore ended by peering at Severus over his half-moon spectacles with a knowing smile and those insufferable twinkling blue eyes. 

Severus didn’t fall for the ruse. He scoffed at the endearing term.

“I am not your boy Headmaster,” 

“Of course you are, Severus. I genuinely care for you, why do you have to constantly push me away?” Dumbledore smiled sadly at Severus. 

Severus merely scowled. Really Dumbledore, he thought, you care for me, do you? Only now that I have some use to you and that your four Golden boys are gone, you ‘care’ for me? Manipulative old bastard, he doesn't even realize how much he had pushed me away when I was a student.

“And why can we not use the money from the school funds?” Severus said aloud, “You seem quite adamant on using my salary for something that should obviously be handled with the school’s funds.”

“Ah, that’s the thing, Severus, I have already bought the replacement cauldrons for you.” 

Severus stared at Dumbledore, who merely smiled back at him, absentmindedly sucking on one of those lemon drops of his. 

“What?”

“You heard me quite clearly, Severus. The cauldrons have already been ordered and are on their way,” Dumbledore told Severus as he watched Fawkes preen himself. 

Severus stared at Dumbledore in disbelief. What was this old man getting at? 

“Then why, pray tell, did you not just inform me of this at the start of this entire meeting?” Severus growled in frustration at the headmaster.

Dumbledore just smiled brightly at him. 

“Because you seemed so passionate about it my boy! Your can hardly blame me for wanting to see your point of view on the whole thing! And I must say, your perspective has been most insightful. I simply must thank you for that enlightening talk, Severus "

Severus scowled at Dumbledore. 

"Well then, headmaster, I shall take my leave." 

Severus then promptly whipped around and stormed out of the office. 

——————

Really, he thought, that old man pushes things too far way too often. 'See your point of view' Ha! He really just wanted to mess with me, didn't he? 

Though, Severus admitted, much to his own chagrin, I was foolish enough to assume that Dumbledore had actually used the school funds to replace the cauldrons. 

Severus had gotten quite the shock when his monthly Gringotts letter had arrived. When the owl had come, he noticed that there was exactly a 45 Galleon reduction from his salary—the exact same amount of 3 large cauldrons.

Severus had glared at the parchment, silently fuming at how he had overlooked Dumbledore’s word play. He hadn’t said what money he had used to replace the cauldrons. Plus, Severus still didn’t know why they couldn’t use the school’s money.

Severus turned another corner, silently grumbling to himself. The man should’ve been a slytherin with the number of these games that he has going on.

Severus stopped by a broom cupboard and narrowed his eyes. After a moment he threw the door open and found one Ravenclaw and one Hufflepuff tangled up in one another with half their clothing off. Severus growled and gave the two a week's detention —with Filch — each, before roughly throwing them out and sending them scampering off to their respective common rooms.

Severus took a deep breath and sighed in irritation. 

“Children,” he muttered to himself, continuing his patrol, “no sense of decency whatsoever. At the very least do it inside an actual bedroom! Who thought that it was a good idea to carry out such frivolities in broom closets? Certainly doesn't seem to be a very comfortable place to do that sort of thing. Not to mention the cleanliness of the area in the first place!”

Severus seriously didn’t know how he had survived nearly ten years in this place.

After the Dark Lord had ‘fallen’, Severus hadn’t really known what to do. Therefore he just remained at Hogwarts to preserve his post. 

Fortunately—or unfortunately, he supposed— Dumbledore hadn’t believed the Dark Lord had truly gone either, thus still needing to keep Severus close in case he ever needed his spy again. Hence it was rather easy for Severus to, one, stay out of Azkaban, and, two, keep his position as the Dark Lord’s spy without raising any suspicion. 

But really, Severus grumbled in his head again, being around and teaching this many loud dunderheads is pure torture! How difficult is it to just follow instructions on the board? Severus really couldn’t comprehend how hard it was to make a simple boil cure. 

I explain what each ingredient does, yet they just don’t absorb the information or take the time to study. How do they expect to learn anything like that?

Severus was quite sure his teaching was alright. The N.E.W.T. students certainly didn’t have any problem actually learning from him. He admittedly even had occasional—– some might even say amiable—– talks with some of his Upper Year students about their assignments. There was something that Dumbledore got right. 

Really though, he continued, three cauldrons!

Severus sighed as he swept up a staircase to patrol the third floor. Now he was just thinking in circles. He really should rest more, but he needed to mark those essays later and —

Severus paused as he heard a sound of something dropping in the corridor ahead of him. Severus smirked. Yet another student to send to detention, he thought as he rapidly stalked towards where the sound had come from. He turned the corner, ready to reprimand — and was met with an empty corridor. 

Where could they have gone… Severus narrowed his eyes and looked around suspiciously. His eyes landed on a small, golden looking object in front of him. What's this? He strode over and bent down to have a closer look. 

Severus’ eyes widened at what he saw. 

Is this what I think it is? Severus’ eyes darted around, making sure no one was nearby. He saw no one, but it certainly felt like he was being watched. His dark obsidian eyes roamed the hallway before settling back onto the object. 

A time turner.

He narrowed his eyes at it, slightly skeptical. This could very well just be a prank on him, or whoever was to find this. It certainly seemed real. He knew that this wasn't something that the ministry would so carelessly hand out and leave lying about. 

Severus drew his wand and cautiously waved it over the object, checking for anything that might point towards it being a fake or a prank. To his surprise, all his detection spells came up negative. 

It has got to be real then, has it not?

He studied the item on the ground. He had only seen this object in books, but never in real life. The Department of Mysteries did quite the excellent job at storing these things. There was only one book he had read that even had a single mention of these, and it was found in one of the dark books at Malfoy Manor, thus presumably an illegal one. 

Though, if this were a time turner, the sand inside it was quite an odd green color. It was not at all like what the book had said, which described it to contain regular sand. Although, the book could have been wrong for all he knew.

Severus stood up and considered his options. 

One, he could leave the time turner where it is and be on his merry way. No unnecessary complications, no conflictions, and certainly no meddling with the space time continuum. 

Then there was option two. He could take the time turner and return it to the Ministry. Severus quickly dismissed that option. He wasn’t about to make it look like he had used it before returning it. The Unspeakables likely couldn’t care less about who he was, but knowing the Aurors, they would likely conclude that Severus himself had stolen it and used it, ‘pretending’ to return it so as to not raise suspicion. 

Yes, severus mused, I wouldn’t put it past them.

And finally, there was option three. He could take the time turner and actually use it. This option was admittedly the most appealing to Severus. He could turn back the time, and fix everything! He could stop so many terrible decisions he had made in the past—undo all those mistakes. There were so many options for Severus, so many opportunities he could’ve taken! All he had to do was simply take the time turner and…

Severus sighed. No, he couldn’t just jump into it like some foolish Gryffindor. He didn’t even know how far exactly the time turner sends a person. Neither did he know how to adjust the time of which he would be sent back to. And if he were to use the time turner, what if he got caught? 

Severus was going to be in some serious trouble with the Ministry if he was found with the item. He had just barely avoided Azkaban with Dumbledore’s help, and he was doubtful he could again if he were caught. 

He pursed his lips. For wanting to avoid complications the situation itself was turning out to be quite complicated. Severus stared at the offending object. He narrowed his eyes and mulled over his options. 

He was becoming increasingly aware that he had been standing in that corridor for far too long. It was sure to look suspicious to anyone who came across him, regardless of whether he took the time turner or not. 

Severus cast one quick glance around and swooped down, picked up the item, and tucked it into his cloak. Severus stood up once again and dusted off the nonexistent dust of his robes. He took one final look around and swept off to finish his patrol. 

_________

Fortunately, Severus hadn’t caught any other students during the remaining part of his patrol. He would’ve usually hoped to have found some students to send to detention, but that day was different. 

He had used the calm silence of the Castle to think over what he should do about his situation, but still noticed the odd lack of students roaming around at night.

He refused to think that he had been too distracted by his conundrum to catch as many students as he usually did. He prided himself on his observational skills after all. 

Regardless, now he was in quarters and was once again staring at the time turner.

He had observed every inch of the device, but the only things of interest were the small hourglass in the center as well as the small dial on the side. Severus wasn’t so foolish to turn the dial without figuring out what it does, but it seemed pretty obvious that it was what activated the device.

He was still unsure of what exactly to do with the time turner. Though he had dismissed it, it was clearly the better option to return the time turner, now that he had the time to think through the option. Plus, he could show his memories to testify that he hadn’t actually used the device. 

Yet Severus couldn’t quite bring himself to turn it in quite yet. It was too big of an opportunity to pass up. He had already meticulously thought through most of his options, and ended up with these two final ones. He could either turn in the time turner or use it, and possibly make either the best or worst decision of his life.

He was obviously inclined to turn in the device to the Ministry, but he had argued internally with himself so much that he actually convinced himself that it wasn’t the worst idea to use the time turner. 

According to the book he had read, the time turner could only send a person back a few hours. He hadn’t remembered that when he had first come across the time turner, but now that he had recalled the fact, using the time turner certainly suddenly seemed much safer.

Sure, it had just thrown the whole idea of ‘changing his entire life’ out the window, but the prospect of traveling back in time was still quite appealing to Severus, the curious person that he was. 

Plus, it wasn’t as if he had too many major issues to fix, he mused. Many of his colleagues as well as Dumbledore thought that he was in love with Evans. That he would go back to his school days and try to fix his relationship with her. 

Hah, Severus thought bitterly, on the contrary I am quite glad that situation occurred.

As far as he was concerned, the ‘lake incident’, as they called it, had done him a huge favor. Thanks to that, he finally had the chance to see through Evans’ false demeanor. 

Severus let out a breath. This wasn’t a time to ‘reminisce’ about the past. He had a very serious dilemma in front of him and he should be focusing on that. Not Evans.

He looked back at the time turner innocently resting on the table. 

Using the time turner just once seemed to have no obvious complications, nor many possible downsides. Provided, of course, he threaded extremely carefully. 

He didn’t know yet if this were to send him physically back to the past or send memories of his present self to himself in the past. 

While both ideas were certainly interesting, the second idea was certainly safer for him. If it turned out to be the first option, then he had to be extremely careful not to change anything, especially meet himself. 

He narrowed his eyes at the time turner and picked it up. 

Yes, Severus mused as he held up the item, it shouldn’t affect anything as long as I am careful in this endeavor. 

Severus gazed at the time turner once more. It was exceedingly well crafted, with intricate carvings and complex design. Quite impressive.

Alright, he told himself, time to stop trying to stretch this out. 

Severus quickly checked the time and date, to ensure that he had something to cross reference when he was sent back. 

This way he would know what time exactly he had traveled to and how far back he had traveled. Both would be very important information, especially if something goes wrong.

He readied his fingers on the dial, and waited for a few moments for any last possible thing to stop him. No voice of consciousness said anything in his mind, and Severus took a deep breath. He exhaled. 

Alright, here we go.

Severus spun the dial, and watched in fascination and anticipation as the circular rings around the time turner spun rapidly, almost in a wild, undetermined direction. Suddenly, there was an extremely bright light, nearly blinding Severus. He shut his eyes. 

The light shone brighter for a just a moment, then slowly subsided.

Then, Severus disappeared.

To be continued