บท 96: Daphne's Bizarre Adventure Part 3

"I wonder who could have made this," Daphne said, inspecting the beautifully decorated music box. "I'd like to ask them how they made this."

"Alchemy, from the looks of it," said Hermione, stifling a yawn. "And the music's also been imbued with the Dancing Legs Charm. Maybe the Weasley twins made it? They do love their pranks."

Hermione wobbled slightly; she was looking a little unsteady.

"Why don't we head to the Great Hall?" Daphne proposed, noticing this. "All this time travel is making me hungry. You can get some rest before people start coming in for breakfast."

Hermione nodded. The matter being settled, they headed back to the Great Hall. Students and teachers would be in class at this time of the day, so in theory, there shouldn't be anyone there.

Once they had reached their destination, Hermione slipped the Time-Turner's golden chain around their necks and flipped the small hourglass at its centre once, twi-

"Wait, Hermione," hissed Daphne, "There's someone watching us!"

Millicent Bulstrode had looked so natural, working her way through a pile of Danish pastries, that Daphne had unconsciously ignored her as part of the background.

But the warning came too late; Daphne reached out to stop Hermione, but the die had already been cast. As time twisted around them, Daphne spotted a small, silvery cubic object on the ground. She had accidentally knocked Oleandra's music box out of her pocket when she had reached out to Hermione!

Millicent watched, transfixed, as the two girls disappeared into nothingness. Two hours into the past; one hour before breakfast started, that is, Daphne and Hermione reappeared in an empty Great Hall.

"Where is it?" moaned Daphne, dropping on all fours the instant they arrived, looking for the missing music box.

"Did you drop something while we were moving backwards in time?" Hermione asked, alarmed. "Oh no, this is bad. Hold on, I'll check the manual on what to do in those situations."

But no matter how hard Daphne looked, the music box was nowhere to be found, and Hermione ended up spending the next hour poring through the Time-Turner's How-To manual instead of taking a nap.

"Maybe it stayed where you dropped it?" Hermione said. "I mean, when you dropped it. Maybe if we wait two hours, it'll still be there?"

"I certainly hope so," Daphne said. And then, a sickening feeling started growing in the pit of her stomach, as realization hit her. "Oh."

"Oh?" asked Hermione, raising an eyebrow.

"It did stay where I dropped it," Daphne breathed.

"How could you possibly know that for sure?" Hermione said skeptically.

"Because," Daphne drew in air sharply through her teeth, "Oleandra picks it up right here where I left it, an hour from now!"

"Wait, that doesn't make any sense," Hermione said categorically. "There's just no way! The Ministry of Magic's Time-Turners are paradox-proof!"

"But there is no paradox," Daphne insisted. "It's a closed loop!"

"Let me get my quill and some parchment," Hermione said, frowning. "I'm having trouble wrapping my head around this."

Hermione began sketching out a diagram.

0 Right after breakfast, Oleandra finds the box right under the Slytherin's table

"Let's call this hour zero," Hermione suggested. "That will be our reference point."

1 Daphne takes possession of the box after an hour-long Divination class

1 Hermione and Daphne go back in time one hour for an hour-long Muggle Studies class

1 Hermione and Daphne go back in time one hour for an hour-long Arithmancy class

1 Hermione and Daphne start the Time-Turner to go back two hours

"At this point there are three pairs of us running around," Daphne noted.

0 Daphne drops box while moving backwards in time (supposedly)

-1 Hermione and Daphne arrive without the box

"Wait, this doesn't make any sense," said Hermione. "If you're the one who gave the box to your sister in the first place, where did it originally come from? It's almost as if —"

"The music box came out of nowhere?" Daphne suggested.

"But that's impossible," insisted Hermione, who was beginning to get a headache. "Someone must have made it, decorated it, enchanted it. It clearly had a purpose."

"I think it's better if we don't think about it too hard," Daphne sighed. "We should be thankful we didn't break time, or that nobody ended up being unborn."

"But, but…" spluttered Hermione. "Why did this even happen to begin with? And who made the stupid music box!?"

"Indeed, who could have made such a thing?" said a sing-song voice. "Could it have been a Gulping Plimpy?"

Daphne and Hermione whirled around; a blonde girl had somehow crept up behind them as they were talking.

"How much did you hear?" said Daphne, eyeing the newcomer suspiciously.

"Only the last part about the stupid music boxes," the girl replied seriously.

"I know who you are," said Hermione. "You're Loo-, er, Luna Lovegood. I've heard about you."

"Why aren't you wearing shoes?" Daphne asked, frowning. Had this girl really removed her shoes in order to sneak up on them? But why reveal her presence, then?

"A Crumple-Horned Snorkack must have borrowed them," Luna said dreamily. "Though I hope it gives them back soon. It gets awfully draughty in this castle."

"Those don't exist," said Hermione, scowling. "Why did you come up to us, anyway?"

"You're friends of Harry Potter, aren't you?" Luna said with a wide smile. "That's really brave of you."

"How so?" Daphne asked.

"Well, he's the main character, isn't he?" Luna said as if this were the most obvious thing in the world. "By being his friends, you're creating drama for his story. And the most dramatic thing you can do is die, isn't it?"

Daphne opened and closed her mouth like a fish, for once in her life unable to come up with a response.

"Friendship is a two-way street," said Hermione hotly. "We don't just exist for his sake."

"I'm sorry," said Luna sadly. "I don't have any friends, so I don't know much about these things. I'll study up on friendship so that I can be a good friend by book five!"

"Did you sneak up on us just to tell us we're secondary characters in some book in your imagination?" hissed Daphne, who was beginning to lose her temper.

"No, actually," Luna said matter-of-factly. "I'm sort of friends with Ginny, and I thought she was acting weird. I was looking for you, because I wanted to ask your opinion."

"I think you're the weird one," said Daphne weakly. "Hermione, I'll see you in the afternoon. I don't think I can take much more of this."