A/N: I don't own Harry Potter

This is for the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

April Auction.

Day 28 - Auction 2 - Time Travel - Time Slip (like the time travellers wife for instance)

Word count: 2785

The castle loomed before him. A promise his mother had made once upon a time. His father, the horrible man who'd destroyed his mother, who had nearly killed him at birth, didn't know. Or he didn't care. Severus didn't rightly care anymore. The warm water licked at his fur. He slowly swam to shore and shed his seal coat. The coat gleamed in the darkness. He smiled stashing it in the small bag he had. This would be his home for the next seven years. No one would know he was different than the others. He smiled wondering what the witches and wizards would be like verses his seal family.

He stood on the shore for a moment wondering what he was supposed to do.

"Oh, hi! I'm sorry, I got lost from the group," a female voice stated. He turned and stared at the girl next to him. She had brown hair, brown eyes, and looked as though she'd crawled out of the lake. There were strands of seaweed in her hair. He gently reached over and removed one. She blushed taking it.

"I fell out of the boat," she explained. He nodded slowly.

"Mr. Snape, Miss Granger, there you are! We were worried, this way please," a tall witch said looking at the pair.

"I'm Hermione."

"Severus." She looked at him, studying him for a moment. For a moment she seemed confused, sad, but she shrugged.

"Nice to meet you," she whispered. Severus wondered if she could tell what he was. She shouldn't be able to, but something in her expression made him wonder.

"Because of your unique circumstances, you will both be sorted in Professor Dumbledore's office." Severus looked at the floor. Great, now this girl would know he was different. He risked a glance in her direction, she seemed annoyed.

"Let's get this farce over," she muttered. Farce? What did she mean by that? Severus was even more confused. The girl didn't seem to care that he was being sorted separately too.

"Professor Dumbledore, the two students you requested."

"Yes, please come in, sit." The old man motioned to two chairs. The girl, Hermione, rolled her eyes flopping into the chair. Severus sat slower. Professor Dumbledore rose and greeted the tall witch.

"Can we get this over with?" she asked.

"Yes, of course. The hat please, Professor McGonagall." Severus watched the tall witch hand the man a tattered looking hat.

"Miss Granger first," he stated placing the hat on her head.

"Gryffindor," she muttered as the hat yelled the same thing two second later. Severus stared at her. Had it been a lucky guess? She gave him a sad look before removing the hat.

"Mister Snape."

"Slytherin," the hat announced. Severus nodded. He'd figured he'd be in Slytherin house, it's where his mother had been, and her family before her.

"Professor McGonagall will you please escort Miss Granger to the Gryffindor dorm. I will escort Mister Snape." Hermione rolled her eyes.

"I know where the common room is by now," she grumbled following Professor McGonagall from the room.

"The Slytherin dorm is under the Black Lake?" Severus asked.

"Yes, it is. This way please. Your Head of House is Professor Slughorn. Here he is now, don't worry. I'm the only one who knows about your heritage." Severus nodded and followed Professor Slughorn to his new home.

"Everyone, this is Severus Snape. He missed the train, but was sorted into our house. Please welcome him accordingly." Severus was welcomed by a few of his housemates, but most just ignored him.

"You're last here, you get that bed," one of them stated pointing to a bed in the corner. Severus nodded putting his bag down. He wondered if it would be safe to keep his seal skin here, but decided against it. He put it in his pocket for now, glad the thing could shrink.

Severus' first night was horrible. He couldn't sleep well on the soft bed, it felt unnatural. Then there were the sounds. His roommate's snoring, people breathing. It was so different from the small splash of the waves and the sounds of his home. By the time morning arrived, he was exhausted. He followed the other Slytherins to breakfast. He'd stashed his seal skin in his bag, wanting to make sure he kept it on him at all times.

He glanced over the Gryffindor table. Hermione looked as though she'd fared no better. Her eyes had dark circles and she looked pale. She gave him a small nod seeing him looking at her. None of her housemates seemed too interested in talking to her. Severus glanced at his own housemates, most of them were ignoring him also.

"Schedules, pass them down, pass them down." Severus looked at his schedule. He was glad to see potions on the block for today. He knew a lot about various potions and had studied the book before coming here. He smiled thinking about how he'd sat in human form on a sunny rock in the middle of the ocean, reading his books as the water lapped at his toes.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Severus walked into the potions lab, smiling a little. It wasn't until he realized they shared the class with the Gryffindors that his smile faded.

"Everyone partner up, please," Professor Slughorn announced. Severus frowned as his housemates all partnered with each other. He tried to make his way to the red haired girl in the front of the room, but a guy with black hair chose her.

"I don't have a partner," Hermione stated. Severus blinked. She hadn't been there a minute ago, had she?

"I guess we're working together then." She nodded pulling out her book. Severus blinked looking at it. The cover didn't match his.

"Oh," she whispered looking at her book and then back at his. "I guess I bought the wrong edition." He nodded as she put hers away. He couldn't help but notice hers had said twentieth edition, while his only said tenth. There must have been a typo when they printed the cover.

They started working on their potion, Hermione and him nearly fighting to work on it.

"I already know how to do this, I've done it a hundred times at least."

"Then let me do it, so I can learn something, you insufferable know it all, " Severus snapped. Hermione glared at him.

"Never going to be any different than that are you," she muttered. He stared at her.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing. I meant...never mind, it's not going matter honestly. Here, go ahead, you're right." Severus watched her for a second. Her eyes filled with tears, the sadness he'd seen their first night returning.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Severus didn't see Hermione for the next three days. She wasn't in any of the classes they shared. Finally he got up the courage to ask.

"Where's Hermione?" he asked the red haired Gryffindor girl, Lily.

"Home, family emergency," she answered staring at him.

"Thank you, Lily."

"Um, you're welcome. It's Severus right?"

"Yes."

"Um, you're really good at potions."

"Thank you." Lily gave him a smile, the kind of smile that made the whole world just a little brighter before running off to join her housemates. He wondered what it would be like to kiss a normal girl, not a selkie girl. He shook the thought from his head. She was beyond out of his league, and even if she wasn't, he was sure he had an arranged marriage waiting for him back home.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

It had been nearly two months since he'd seen Hermione. No one talked about the missing girl, and he wondered if something had happened to her. War was building. Severus slowly started trying to start a friendship with Lily.

"Hey, Severus, guess who!" a pair of hands covered his eyes. He'd been sitting outside in the sun, missing his rock in the ocean. He could smell a soft scent, maybe shampoo.

"I thought you didn't like me," he stated.

"I don't, but I do, it's complicated," she laughed. She swung down from the tree nearly landing in Severus' lap.

"I see you talked to Lily. Don't do that."

"Do what?"

"Talk to Lily. Trust me, not something you really want to be doing. That's how you lose...nevermind, said too much," she muttered looking ashamed of herself.

"How I lose what?" Severus asked studying the girl. She looked different from the last time he'd saw her, older maybe?

"I can't... it will..I already said too much, I'm sorry Severus. I didn't want to come back to now, but..."

"You're not making sense Hermione. You say I shouldn't talk to Lily, but then you can't talk to me either? Where are you really from Hermione? You don't act like anyone else here."

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you, not that it really matters. You'll grow up to hate me, like you always do."

"See, there you go again, telling me what I'm going to do, are you from the future?" Severus asked her pointblank. She slowly nodded.

"Well, I think of it as the present, but yes, I'm from your future, our future. I...kind of can't help it. I just suddenly end up in another time, another place. And I'm not always the same age either, depends on when in my life I traveled."

"You keep coming back here."

"Yes. I know, and I wish I could stop. I don't want to hurt you again, Severus."

"Again?" She nodded slowly. "We end up becoming lovers, then husband and witch, and then...I disappear all over again. It seems like we can never stay together, but we keep stealing every moment we can. I was terrified when I landed this time. What if you had already fallen in love with me? But it breaks my heart to stay away."

"Hermione, what did you mean when you told me to stay away from Lily?"

"I shouldn't be telling you anything, Severus."

"Hermione, please, so far she's the only one who's been nice to me."

"She steals your skin, Severus, your seal skin. On a dare...it was stupid, she regrets it, but by then it's too late."

"I...become mortal?" Hermione nodded slightly her eyes filling with tears.

"Yes, you become mortal, you die in my arms. I love you," she whispered as she was engulfed in light and vanished.

Severus stared at where she had been standing. Her disappearance only added credit to the story she'd told him.

"Time travel...and she sees all of this? I need to help her," he stated.

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For the next three months, until he had to return to the sea for the summer, he researched what he could about time travel. There wasn't much, nothing other than theory. Was Hermione the only one who could do it? If so, why? He learned of an item called a time turner, but it wasn't made to travel great distances in time.

So time turners weren't the answer, at least not entirely. Maybe there was something there? He put the books back and watched the other students leaving the school. Soon he would return to the sea, to his seal family. What would happen to Hermione if she showed up here? It was in that second he made his decision. He wouldn't return to his people this summer, he'd stay here, at Black Lake. The water wasn't the same as home, but for Hermione, he would deal with it.

He stayed as seal as much as possible, to keep the teachers from noticing he hadn't left. He had asked Professor Dumbledore if he could stay here over the summer, the answer had been a hard 'no'.

He was swimming, diving down to the bottom of the lake and back up again when he saw the shadow. He hopped out of the water and slipped off his skin.

"Hermione."

"You're here?! I thought you might show up during the summer hols, so I stayed at the lake instead."

"You're an idiot, Severus. I told you not to fall in love with me," she whispered sinking to the ground next to him.

"I know I'm an idiot. You've told me how this turns out, how we turn out."

"And yet..."

"I'm trying to find a way to help you, but without more information, there's nothing about time travel in the books in the library." Severus looked at Hermione, this time she was older, old enough to maybe be his mum.

"You can't help, Severus. It's a genetic quirk, I have it, my mum had it, our daughter has it."

"Daughter?" Hermione blushed looking at the ground.

"I talk too much."

"Only to me."

"Yes, only to you. I feel like...Like you're the man I'm in love with during my time...sort of. It's so complicated."

"Everything is complicated with you, Hermione," Severus stated looking into her eyes.

"I'll see you next year, maybe," she said giving him a kiss on the forehead before disappearing again.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Severus watched the students leave the train and joined them. A few of them looked in his direction, but no one questioned where he had come from or why he hadn't been on the train.

"Severus, there you are. I tried writing you over the summer, but my owls kept coming back."

"I wasn't reachable, where my family lives...it's very...remote," Severus lied. Lily smiled at him.

"Oh, alright." Lily darted off to talk to someone else. Severus wondered if he could ever be her friend, knowing what he knew.

"Hey, handsome," a voice chirped from behind him. He spun. She looked a few years older than him now.

"Welcome to second year," he stated wrapping an arm around her waist. She laughed.

"Been here, done that. I'm fifteen, Severus, everyone's going to be jealous of the older girl paying attention to you."

"Lily stopped to talk to me. She said she owled me during the summer."

"Oh."

"I remember what you said, Hermione. I'm being careful...at least around her."

"What about me?" Hermione asked.

"You are driving me insane."

"Good."

"What am I like, Hermione, in the future?"

"You're a potions master, a horribly mean professor, at least according to my friends." Severus frowned. He'd never thought about the fact Hermione had friends in her own time. But she said they were married, so that meant...

"I'm how much older than you?"

"Right now, I'm older than you."

"Your age isn't set..."

"Nope, technically, if we're going by my actual birthday, not counting the hops I keep taking, you're about twenty-fourish years older than me." Severus blinked staring at her.

"Don't even look at me like, Severus. You're in love with me now, so it stands to reason you'll be in love with me when I'm supposed to exist...of course it does get extremely complicated when I show up for your class my first year."

"Headache." Hermione laughed giving him a kiss and slipping over the Gryffindor table. Severus sighed watching her. She was right. He loved her already.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

It happened on a Sunday, Severus was sunning himself, his skin the pocket of his cloak. He didn't hear Lily sneak up on him.

"Leave it alone," he heard Hermione shout. He opened his eyes. She was yelling at Lily. Lily had his cloak in her hands, Hermione was pulling it away from her. Severus looked at the two girls fighting over his cloak. Hermione had warned him about this, but would she actually be able to change anything?

Severus stood, his bare foot touching something hard. His wand. He picked it up and looked at the two girls.

"Accio seal skin," he yelled. He'd read about the summoning charm, yes it was a bit above his year, but it seemed something that would be useful to know. The skin slid right to his hand.

"Hermione, Lily. Enough!" Hermione dropped the cloak and Lily looked at the ground. Severus picked up his cloak. Hermione stared at him, in disbelief.

"I...you...you changed..." Severus looked at his seal skin.

"I did. What does this mean?"

"It means..." she ran into his arms and kissed him. He stared at her.

"This changes everything! How long do selkies live again?"

"Longer than wizards naturally," he answered.

"Perfect. I love you, Severus, let's live forever together," she laughed. He shook his head in disbelief. He wasn't going to die a mortal, and this witch, this insane witch would be by his side on and off forever.

"I'll see you soon enough," Hermione stated as she disappeared again. Severus smiled walking back to the castle. He had a lot of work to do if he was going to become a potions master.