A/N: This month's Roll-A-Drabble over at the Haven was Marauders Era themed which meant time travel was automatic. Then we were rolled for a trope to go hand in hand with time travel as well as who the other piece of our pairing was.

This month I was assigned Severus Snape and Creature. I am saying this now, this is not a true blue creature fic. I've never written a creature fic because it is not something that I am interested in and I'm only writing it because that's what the dice said I was writing. Please don't hate me if this isn't what you were expecting.

This little drabble was beta read by the wonderful GaeilgeRua. She's a life saver when it comes to needing a beta.

Title: Searching for Smoke
Rating: K
Pairing: Sevmione
Summary: A brief interaction after a time travelling mishap leads to a discovery that could help to save a friend.

Check me out on social media if you enjoy my writing style! I hang out under my penname all over the place.

Hopefully I didn't screw things up to badly! Be sure to let me know what you think!

Love always,

~starr

Hogwarts 1993

Hermione sat on the edge of her bed and stared at the Time-Turner in her hands. She wondered where it might take her if she took the chance and gave it a spin. She always wondered what it would be like to just use the device to explore the past, even if it wasn't always the safest method of travel and she could royally screw things up with one wrong step.

All of the ways that this could go wrong were flying around her head as she brushed her thumb along the smooth surface. However, regardless of the possibility of things to go wrong, there was a part of her curiosity that just wanted to know what could happen.

"I'll just be extremely careful," she mumbled under her breath as she looped the chain around her head and took a deep breath as she readied to activate it. Closing her eyes, she sighed as she spun the Time Turner around three times.

. . . . . . . . .

Hogwarts 1977

Severus glanced at the ingredient list out of the corner of his eye and furrowed his brow. It appeared that this potion might have been a little more difficult than he had initally thought. He may have been at the top of his potions class, but that didn't mean he didn't have still have a lot to learn.

Regardless of the difficulty of this potion, he needed to figure out a way to make this work. His continued friendship with Lily depended on him making this potion work. If he could help Remus deal with everything that was happening to his body, then maybe James and Sirius would be willing to accept him into their circle of friends. Or at least Lily could convince them to let him into their circle.

Every recipe he tried stated that the potion was supposed to release a burst of blue smoke when it was complete. Unfortunately, he had yet to see the smoke appear at all. Every time he added the last ingredient, he heard a faint fizzle and then the potion turned pitch black in the cauldron. He had no idea what was going wrong, but with advice from Professor Slughorn, he was going to attempt to make some modifications and hope for the best.

Reaching for a vial of moon dust, Severus heard a loud thud on the ground behind him. With his brow furrowed he quickly spun around and noticed a pile of curly hair lying in the corner opposite him. As far as he was aware, there hadn't been a pile of hair there when he came into the dungeons a few hours earlier.

Just as he went to take a few steps towards the hair, it moved. Startled by the motion, he collapsed back against the bench behind him, causing the vials of ingredients to rattle softly. Suddenly standing in front of him was a female he didn't recognize with a gold chain wrapped around her neck.

"Who the hell are you?" he asked, taking a few deep breaths as he moved across the room in her general direction. "And how the hell did you get in here?"

She looked at him for a few moments; her browed scrunched as though she recognized him, but couldn't place how. So he decided to take advantage of her silence and make his own observations of the current situation.

The door to the dungeons was still closed, so obviously she didn't come in through the door. He glanced up at the roof and noticed that it was still intact. That put to rest the idea that she had been lurking in the eaves and just fallen through. Maybe she was a ghost and just travelled through the wall. However, that wouldn't have explained the loud thud he had heard. The only option left now would have been apparition, but he didn't recognize her as a fellow student, and the clothing she wore wasn't familiar to him.

"I'm waiting," he grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Sorry about that," she mumbled, running a hand nervously through her hair. "My name is Herm-" As she was about to say her name, she realized exactly who she was standing in front of. The slick black hair and the nose that was slightly too large for his face. She was in the presence of her Potions Master during his time at Hogwarts. If she identified herself, then she would undoubtedly alter the timeline.

"My name is Hermia Dranger," she replied. "I'm not entirely sure how I got here, but there must be something here that could use my attention or else I wouldn't have appeared."

Biting her lip, she hoped that he would believe her tale. Time Travel was difficult enough to explain without messing up the timeline. She was walking on a slippery slope, and all she could do was hope that he would believe her.

Severus looked her up and down once more. He wasn't sure if the words she spoke were true, but he was struggling to find the right combination to allow the potion to work and he was in need of assistance. Maybe if he let her help, then he might be able to work past the issues he was having and finally brew a successful batch.

"Well," he said, carding a hand nervously through his hair, "I'm currently working on a potion to help a friend out, but I haven't been successful at producing the smoke that signifies the magic is complete. It is safe to assume you are familiar with magic?"

Eagerly Hermione nodded her head and walked toward the bench that Severus was working on. She quickly skimmed over the collection of ingredients spread out on the table and then glanced at the open spell book lying on the table.

"You're working on a potion for the effects of lycanthropy?" she asked, glancing back at him over her shoulder. "Who's your friend?"

"Yes I'm working on a potion for lycanthropy, but who it is for is none of your concern," he replied, shaking his head as he walked up to the bench and stood beside her. "I was just about to add some moon dust when you interrupted me."

"Don't use moon dust!" she shouted, grabbing the vial out of his hands quickly. She recalled a lesson from Potions earlier this year where Snape told them to avoid adding moon dust in any potions if at all possible.

Glaring at her, Severus grumbled something under his breath before letting out a long sigh. "Then what should I use instead?"

Thinking back through her potion lessons, Hermione attempted to recall what Snape had been using in his potions that involved the moon in some way when the name of the ingredient struck her. Her eyes widened, and a smile appeared on her lips as she looked around the dungeon. Spying the bottle along the back wall, she ran over to the shelves and grabbed it. The smile was still beaming brightly from her face when she returned and handed it to him proudly.

"Wolfsbane?" Severus asked, quirking his brow as he looked over the bottle briefly. "I never even thought to use it. The Forbidden Forest has so many of these plants along the edge. If this works, then it could change the future for those suffering from lycanthropy."

"So let's hope it works," Hermione said with a wink.

Slowly Severus added the final ingredient to the potion and stirred it three times, clockwise. They both waited with baited breath as a small cloud of smoke began to form on the surface of the potion. Just as it was about to rise into the air, the smoke turned a brilliant shade of blue.

"It worked!" Severus exclaimed, turning to face Hermia only to find that she had disappeared. Disappointed that he had no one to share in the victory with, Severus took a deep breath and sighed as he reached for a vial. He needed to find Remus so that they could at least test this batch and make any necessary changes.

. . . . . . . .

Hogwarts 1993

"Professor, why is it called Wolfsbane Potion?" Neville asked nervously as he glanced into the potion that Snape was currently standing over.

"Because it's the ingredient that does most of the work," Snape replied through gritted teeth. This potion required his focus, and he didn't have time to be answering ridiculous questions.

"Who determined that wolfsbane should be used?" Hermione asked from the back of the classroom.

Snape looked up and made eye contact with the young witch for a few moments as he thought about his answer. Granger reminded him of the young woman who inspired him to use wolfsbane in the first place, but he hadn't spent enough time around Hermia to know how far the similarities went.

"A wise young witch that I met in my youth," Severus replied, lowering his gaze back to the potion in front of him.

Hermione smiled proudly to herself. Who knew that paying attention to Snape's lectures would have helped to aid in the creation of an antidote for someone that had come to mean so much to her friends.