Wow, I'm on a serious roll here. Moving is done, and the time that I'm not spending job hunting, I'm spending writing. Therefore, I present to you chapter four!

Thank you so much to everyone who has read this story, and an extra hug to everyone who has followed this story or reviewed it! I can't believe how many of you are following it! It makes me so incredibly happy! :D

I loved hearing what you guys thought about what was going on last chapter! Still, nobody was able to correctly identify the Tim Burton reference! The answer is that in chapter two, I used the ingredients Worm's Wart and Frog's Breath in Hermione's potions. Sally adds these ingredients to the professors soup in Nightmare Before Christmas to cover up the scent of the Deadly Night Shade!

I don't own HP. I wish I did. But unfortunately, this is not a wish that can ever be granted. Because HP already belongs to JKR. I also dont have a beta. I'm sure you know the spiel by now. If you see any mistakes, PM or review, blah, blah, blah, I'll feix them, blah blah blah. Thanks much. :)

Here's the next chapter! Allons-y!

-Rayne

P.S. Thank you to harmswife for pointing out a few mistakes in this chapter! All fixed. :)

"Severus Tobias Snape," Hermione repeated, a forced smile on her face. "It's very nice to meet you."

"I suppose it's nice to meet you, too," he answered, a small smile appearing on his thin lips. Not a smirk, but an honest smile.

He looked so much younger than the Snape she knew. She supposed that made sense, seeing as though he was in fact nearly twenty years younger. His eyes had the mischievous glint of life and curiosity that had long since disappeared from her professor's gaze. There were no wrinkles on his brow from years of furrowing it in frustration, no natural pull that turned his lips down. His hair was just as long but wasn't as greasy.

Some things were the same, though. His voice was just as gravelly, his hands just as sure, his eyes just as criticizing, and his stance just as confident. This was definitely still Snape.

His smile widened slightly as he noticed her surveying him. "See something you like?" he teased.

Hermione's eyes widened. He had just teased her. It could even be considered as flirting. Her professor was flirting with her.

Upon seeing her shocked face, he laughed.

It wasn't the humorless chuckle, or the dark laugh she'd heard only an hour before. This was an honest and much lighter sound. His smile widened to show white teeth. His cheeks flushed slight. He was embarrassed, she realized.

"Sorry," he said, still smiling. "I don't usually do that sort of thing. My friend is usually the charmer. That's not me."

Hermione smiled slightly. "I know exactly what you mean," she answered, thinking of Ginny.

They were silent for a moment longer. Hermione studied him shamelessly, eyes scanning his face and moving across his shoulders, down his chest, following his arms, watching his hands. He wasn't handsome or particularly good-looking. His face was thin and sallow, his teeth were slightly crooked, his nose was obnoxiously large. But despite all that, he wasn't entirely difficult to look at. His smile was charming, his eyes bright and alert. He had broad shoulders and long limbs and would undoubtedly be another six inches taller within the next few years. He was well built, as well, as though he were an athlete. Hermione vaguely remembered her professor refereeing a game of Quidditch a few years back and wondered if that's what he played.

"Quidditch?" she asked out loud.

He nodded slightly. "Yeah, I'm a beater for the Slytherin team." He paused a moment longer before inquiring, "What is the year, exactly?"

"October of 1998," she answered.

He froze, much like the way her professor had before at the mention of his request. His eyes widened as he watched her. She could practically see the thoughts spinning through his head.

"1998?" he asked softly. "Shite."

"What's wrong with that?"

"I went forward in time," he growled. "I was supposed to go backwards. Like a Time Turner. Not forwards. This is bad."

"Can't you just use a Time Turner to get back?"

"No," he said. "The potion was designed to make it so that I'm immune to all kinds of time travel now. I didn't want to find a way back. That was the point in leaving in the first place."

"Oh," she said, feeling a little overwhelmed with how perfectly this whole thing had been plotted out.

At least she knew how Snape knew the time and the place that he would be appearing. And it would explain why Snape knew so much about the stranger. Still, though, so many more of her questions had been left unanswered.

"Do you know me? Am I still alive in this time?"

Hermione paused a moment before nodding. "Yes, I know you. You're my potions professor."

"Merlin," he groaned. "Fuck. Not only am I still alive, but I'm still living in this blasted castle? Shite. I've really screwed myself over."

"Why do you say that?"

"Bad things happen to most wizards who meddle with time," he said, repeating the words of her professor exactly.

"Yes, well, you aren't most wizards, are you, Severus?" she asked.

He looked up at her. "What do you mean?" he asked defensively.

"You're powerful," she responded softly. "More powerful than any other wizard you've ever met. Isn't that right?"

"How do you know all of this? That's a secret. Nobody knows that."

"I know you, remember?"

He frowned and took a step closer to her. "Just who are you? Who are you to me, I mean? How do you know my secret?"

"You told me," she explained. "Well, sort of. You told Dumbledore, who told me. With your permission of course. I'm your student, by the way. Well, the future you, anyway. I'm the only one who knows you're here. Besides Dumbledore and yourself, of course."

He looked amused. "You talk too much," he noted.

Hermione huffed. "You tell me that all the bloody time."

He smiled again. "Of course I do. I usually don't like people who talk too much."

"So you're friends back home never talked as much as me?"

The smile on his face immediately disappeared. "I don't want to talk about my past," he snapped.

Hermione frowned. This was the Snape she knew.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I won't bring it up again."

He gave her a curious look. "You're a strange young woman."

"How do you mean?"

"You don't pry."

"I try not to," she said with a smile. "I'm supposed to take you to the Room of Requirement for the time. There should be a room there for you to stay in."

"You know where that is?" he asked, frowning.

"Of course." They started down the corridor, walking side by side. "A friend of mine found it our fifth year. We used it to practice DADA when we had a bad teacher."

"How old are you?" he asked suddenly.

"Nineteen," she answered, flushing. "I was a year older than my class, and then skipped my seventh year. I've returned to take it again."

"Why did you skip your last year?"

"I'd rather not talk about that."

"Okay. So no discussion of our pasts for the time being."

"Sounds like a good idea."

"I'm seventeen. I was in my seventh year. I was a Slytherin, obviously."

"I thought we said nothing about our pasts?" she asked.

He smiled. "These are important things that you need to know about me if you are going to be spending time with me. I happen to be in a good mood right now, so enjoy it while it lasts. I'm warning you that I'm not always this easy to deal with."

"I know," she answered with a grin. "I can handle you, though."

He grinned down at her. "I'd like to find out if that's really true," he said with a wink.

Hermione flushed. "I'm in Gryffindor. I hope you don't mind."

He snorted. "I've had bad experiences with Gryffindors. But you are different; you don't seem too bad. I'm a half blood. The only one in Slytherin. They don't know that, though."

"Muggle born," she said softly. She turned to him to gage his reaction. He cringed. "I'm sorry if you don't want to deal with a Muggle born."

He shook his head. "Sorry, I didn't mean to react that way. It's just that – well, honestly, blood status doesn't matter to me. We'll just leave it at that."

Hermione frowned but let it be. "Thank you," she said. "I've never met a Slytherin who didn't care about blood status."

"Like you said, I'm not like most wizards," he said, smiling softly. It didn't reach his eyes, though. He was thinking about something.

They continued on in silence. When they reached the Room of Requirement, the doors appeared. Severus pushed them open. "Thanks, Hermione," he said.

Her body trilled at the sound of her name in his silky voice. "You're very welcome. Wait here. I'll be back in a couple of hours. I need to go talk to you and Dumbledore."

"Alright," he said with a nod. She was pleased that he didn't ask any questions. "See you in a bit, then."

He gently shut the door and once again, Hermione was left alone with her thoughts.

"What the bloody hell?" she snarled as soon as she walked into Dumbledore's office.

"I told you she'd take it well," Snape grumbled. He was seated in the same seat he had been before.

"You!" she yelled at him, pointing an accusing finger. "I just met you! I just met my bloody potions professor! Except that he's younger than me! He is from the past! Care to explain yourself? You flirted with me!"

Snape flinched at the word flirted. Dumbledore chuckled. "I apologize if I did something you didn't approve of, Miss Granger, but I'm afraid I'm not exactly in charge of my actions."

"Did I say I didn't approve?" she mumbled before she could stop herself.

Snape gaped up at her. "Excuse me?" he asked. She blushed, realizing he probably knew exactly what she had said.

"Miss Granger, please take a seat. We apologize, but we weren't sure if you would be willing to do this if you knew who it was that you'd be watching."

"Second most powerful wizard? Really?" she asked, more in awe than anything. She glanced at Snape.

"Don't," he muttered, grimacing and closing his eyes. "Please, don't."

"It's true, Miss Granger. It's hard for him, though. We really can't answer those questions. They will be answered in time."

"That's all I've been bloody told since this whole things started! You have answered none of my questions! Severus did, Snape did, but no, why would I get any answers from the man who orchestrated this whole thing?"

"He did no such thing," Snape snapped. "If you have any questions, he can't answer them. It's not him who was taken forward in time, was it?"

"So it happened to you too."

"Of course."

Hermione thought for a moment. She stared at the wizened and aged wizard before her. He was in her time, but years older than the Snape currently residing in the Room of Requirement. "We find a way to send you back."

"Unfortunately," he grumbled, looking away from her again.

Hermione frowned. "Can you not stay?"

"He cannot stay, Miss Granger," Dumbledore said. "We must find a way to get him back."

"Do you know how to send yourself back? It should be easy if you've already done it, right?"

"I'm afraid it's not that simple," Snape said.

"Why not?"

"You and I are the ones who created the potion to send me back, Miss Granger. The me that you've just met won't be there to help us."

"So basically you didn't think to ask about the potion in case it happened again when you were older."

Snape furrowed his brow and stared at the floor again. "I was a bit preoccupied. I didn't exactly have the time to wonder about what my older self and his apprentice were doing."

"You're saying we have to create a potion and we have no idea where to even begin."

"I'm saying, Miss Granger, that two brilliant minds need to come together and invent this new potion before my timeline is destroyed and history rewrites itself. It is vital that we complete this and do it in a timely manner. The lives of witches and wizards all over the world depend on the two of us in this time of need. If we aren't successful, the world you know today won't have ever existed."

OOOH so here's a bit of a twist I bet hardly any of you saw coming! Hermione and Professor Snape have to work together to create a potion? Uh oh, I have a feeling that it isn't going to turn out well for them.

What do you think? Will Snape and Hermione be able to stand working with each other long enough to create this potion? How does the younger Severus fit into all of this? Why doesn't the older Severus like to talk about just how much power he has? Why does the younger Severus feel the need to hide it? Review and tell me what you think!

Thanks a bunch for reading, lovelies!

-Rayne