This Impossible Love

Summary: A mysterious potion, that only true potion masters can brew, claims it can not only show you your soulmate but transverse space, time and reality to bring your soulmate to you. Although skeptical at the preposterous claim Severus brews it, if only to prove his mastery at potions, but like with most areas of magic it does deliver on its promise. Forcefully throwing Hermione Granger into a time and reality that isn't her own. Now stuck 19 some-odd years in the past she tries to not completely un-write the future or her existence. Trying to avoid former professors and not developing crushes on said boys is harder than she thought it would be. Especially when one Slytherin is lurking behind every shadow. Eventual SS/HG. AU. Time travel.

Disclaimer: The Wizarding World of Harry Potter does not belong to LittleTee, (who shall henceforth be referred to as "The Author.") While the plot of this fanfiction, (henceforth to be referred to as the "Story,") is of The Author's creation, neither the characters nor the locations therein belong to The Author, as they belong to JK Rowling, with the exception of any characters or locations within this Story which have no representation in cannon-these original characters and locations are the property of The Author. This is a work of fiction produced for the single purpose of entertaining fans of Harry Potter, and no Copyright infringement is intended.

Chapter One

"... Stir ten times anti-clockwise; simmer five minutes; wave your wand in the following motion while chanting this incantation trice." Severus muttered to himself checking over the old potion recipe he had discovered by sheer luck from a book he had brought from Professor Jones, who had taken over the Defense Against the Dark Arts teaching post from Professor Hoag after the incidence between Mulciber and Macdonald. He still blamed himself for not coming to Mary's aid. If it hadn't been for the quick thinking of that Ravenclaw first-year Lockhart...

Severus shook his head as he willed himself not to think of that incident. Mary Macdonald was alive that was the important thing to remember, and his former housemate was behind bars at Azkaban where he belongs for using an unforgivable. He finished crushing the dry mixture of blended ingredients in the mortar and pinched four measures of the mixture into the bubbling brew before him.

After stirring the allotted ten times anti-clockwise he set the underlying flame to the desired length and intensity before enchanting his wand to notify him when the five minutes had passed. He had spent so much time and energy to get to this far of the three-part potion. He didn't want to miss a chance to see his friend's face again by over cooking the brew. He was too close to take a chance.

He walked over to one of the bare windows that lined the old, abandoned classroom at Hogwarts. The classroom, which had not been used since the mid-nineteenth century if the thick cobwebs and layers of dust that made up the room was anything to go on, looked out onto the Black Lake and the Forbidden Forest. The beauty and magic of the old castle slash school had turned to one painful reminder that he was alone and friendless. He had acquaintances and confrères if he could use the latter term for his house-mates, but he lacked anyone he could truly call a friend. An ally. Like he once had.

Severus turned away from the window. He willed himself against reliving one of the saddest moment of his life when he had – by allowing his anger to grow unchecked – lost the only bright aspect of his life, his friendship to Lily Evans.

"If this potion works like it should...," he silently tailed off as his wand chimed the five notes notifying Severus that the potion needed his attention. He strode across the classroom in four quick steps and began waving his wand in the pattern that resembled a Celtic-knot and chanted the inscribed Latin phrase from the book three times.

He took a step back watching as the purple haze floated up from his cauldron. The potion had been brewed correctly; the color of the haze and the desired effect of the haze becoming a pillar told Severus as much. It slowly began to morph into an apparition of a girl.

Severus dropped his wand as the haze finished its transformation. Shades of purple painted the image of a girl about his age in a haunting greyscale, but even if it had been in Technicolor he could tell that the vision of the girl was differently not Lily. The eyes staring back into his own shined with a different depth of intensity and the hair. Sweet Merlin, help him. That hair! Lily didn't have a curly mane of bushy hair like that. Nor did Lily have two front teeth that were slightly longer than the rest. Or, later when he was being honest with himself, the warmth that radiated off her persona when this girl smiled. Like she was doing now.

Her grin helped him regain his momentary stupor. The supposed picture of his soul-mate was not Lily, but another girl. A girl he had never seen before.

"No!" He shouted picking up a vial of one of the potion ingredients and raised it, but before he followed his impulse of throwing it against the classroom wall he stopped himself. Anger. He had been momentary blinded with anger. He closed his eyes forcing his respirations to return to their normal slow pace. As he pictured his anger leaving with each exhaled breath while silently reciting potion ingredients alphabetically.

After reaching the C's Severus reevaluated his emotional state. The anger that had flooded his senses had ebbed away as he had performed his calming exercises. He slowly placed the vial back to the old teacher's table; purposely not looking up at the haze that was still floating in the air only a few inches from him.

He mentally went over his steps of brewing the potion looking for any errors on his part, but he knew he had made none. After all the potion had displayed the expected response of a puff of purple haze before forming the medium for which to see the image of his soulmate by. Severus took one more steadying breath and looked back up to the floating vision of the girl.

This time he surveyed her and studied her appearance. The main physical characteristics that had told him that this was not Lily were still there, but now he also saw that she wore a school robe, a hat, and carried a pile of four books in front of her. Her school robe was similar to Hogwarts but unlike Hogwarts, it showed no highlight of color at its helm, and it appeared to be a pull-over. No underlying uniform was visible. The hat was identical to the hats that he had to wear during the special feasts and holidays. How he disliked those hats.

The books were held with the cover of the one foremost facing him. That volume looked like a copy of Hogwarts, A History, he should know he had a copy himself. The Hogwarts' School Crest proudly embedded into it.

Then the apparition shifted her hold on her bundle of books and brought up one hand to wave at him as she smiled faintly before she began to fade out.

"Wait! Please," Severus called out to the apparition. To his surprise, he did not want to see her go. Not yet. The apparition paused and nodded her head for Severus to continue. He knew that what he was doing was silly, but he needed to know. After all the book had said that the brewer could ask one question from the image and that the answer would be based on the real person's experiences and reasoning.

"Could you love me?" He asked, his voice shaky and only slightly above a whisper. Severus watched as the girl frowned for a moment and cocked her head studying him with her eyes. Severus resisted the urge to shift his feet under the intensity of her examining gaze. After what seemed like an eternity for Severus – although in all reality were but a few seconds – the image of the girl grinned and nodded her head once before disappearing from his view.

Severus stood there in the old classroom not moving for several minutes after the apparition had answered his questioned pondering over the emotions that were raging inside him. He didn't know quite what he should feel, but he felt... dare he say it? Happy? Hopeful?

He had a soulmate somewhere. A soulmate that could love him. Him! The boy with the mismatched clothes. The boy with the crooked nose and terrible hair.

It hadn't been Lily like he had expected, but to his chagrin, he wasn't as disappointed as he thought he would be at that revelation. Sure he had been angered at first, but if he was completely honest with himself, it wasn't because it had been an image of another girl. No, he was angered at messing up the potion and that his fantasy life that he had always envisioned was just that, a fantasy.

His heart would still lurch painfully downward, heavy with remorse whenever he thought of how he caused his first friendship to end before it really began, that alone told him he had feelings towards the red haired, green eyed girl; but in comparison with how his heart had done a somersault when the apparition nodded yes to his question… well, it just didn't compare really. Not yet. He would need some more data before he could honestly evaluate the two, but he did know he enjoyed the pleasant mood that had descended on him.

Snapping himself out of his silent reverie he retrieved his wand from the floor and began cleaning up his secret brewing station. Tomorrow would be the start of the summer holidays and during them, he would brew the third and final step to the three-part potion. The one which would bring his soulmate to him. That thought stayed with him as he packed his trunks and even invaded his dreams as he dreamed of a bright eyed, bushy haired girl.

Author's Note: A little rushed and a tad short but hopefully you enjoyed this first chapter. I enjoyed writing it that's for sure, and I think it is a good self-birthday gift. Since I love time-travel Hermione/Severus stories. This is a prequel to a one-shot of mine, Another Path in the Garden of Time. Like almost always this is un-beta'ed, so sadly some spelling and grammar errors are no doubt hiding. (If you spot anything please send me a note or tell me in a review. Thanks!)

.

.

.

And, big thanks to Caepio on AO3 for spotting that error. (Apparition was what I meant instead of aspiration. My bad.)