Bonding Over Potions
Chapter 1
Hermione Granger was an ambitious girl who believed just about anything was possible if she worked hard enough at it. She was considered the brightest girl in her year and whenever she came across something she didn't understand she would head straight for the school library. Even though she displayed many Ravenclaw qualities she was in fact a Gryffindor, as were her best friends Harry Potter and Ron Weasley. She was often teased for constantly being in the library or for knowing the answers to questions in class. However Hermione always believed it was best to be prepared for whatever lay ahead.
During her third year Hermione's third year she had a defence against the dark arts teacher called Professor Lupin. She was glad that they finally had a competent teacher in this subject and were learning about magical creatures such as boggarts. She found these lessons very interesting. However during the boggart lesson she was confused as to why Professor Lupin's boggart was a full moon. No-one else in the class appeared to have noticed this as they were all too excited talking about their own boggarts.
When Hermione finally realised that Professor Lupin was a werewolf she wasn't overly worried. She trusted that the teachers in the school would have taken precautions to keep all the students safe. Also as she was a muggle-born she didn't have the prejudices some magical people had towards werewolves. She decided she would do some research on werewolves but wouldn't tell anyone else what she had discovered.
This was easier than it normally would have been since Hermione had recently fallen out with her best friends over one of Harry's Christmas presents. Harry had received an expensive broom anonymously. Hermione believed it could have come from Sirius Black, a convicted murderer who was supposedly after Harry. Hermione had informed the teachers to protect Harry. He sometimes did reckless things without thinking about them especially when it involved quiddich.
HG
I was sitting alone in the library with about six books about werewolves open in front of me. I had decided to start my research on werewolves today. Harry and Ron were still not talking to me so it wasn't as if I had anything better to do. I had already found out lots of information about ways of identifying them when doing the essay Professor Snape had set when he covered a DADA lesson earlier on in the year. Everyone had thought he had chosen that subject just because it was the last chapter in the book. However I suspect he wanted people to work out that Professor Lupin was a werewolf. It was common knowledge that they disliked each other and many people thought he would do anything to get the DADA job he wanted.
The books I had found on werewolves turned out to be very interesting. There was information on how people were turned into werewolves. It turned out that the infection was passed through the blood when a werewolf attacked someone. There was also a book with pictures showing the transformation from human to wolf that every werewolf went through during the full moon.
There had been plenty of research into werewolves over recent years however no-one had found any cure. The only breakthrough had been the invention of wolfsbane potion which subdued the wolf's personality and therefore allowed the person to keep their mind when transformed and meant they didn't go around hurting themselves or others. This was probably the potion that Harry saw Professor Snape giving Professor Lupin at Halloween. The book gave instructions on how to make this potion and even I thought it looked very complicated.
All this information lead me to believe that the most promising avenue for finding a cure would be a potion or maybe several separate ones. If the infection was passed on through the blood you would need some kind of blood purifying potion to remove the infection. The wolfsbane potion could be used to subdue the wolf so it is less able to fight back and other would probably be needed for the wolf to relinquish its hold on the person. I decided to think about it and see if I could come up with any ideas. I knew that if qualified professionals hadn't found anything it was unlikely I would but maybe they just hadn't thought of looking at it in separate bits.
To start experimenting with potions I would need to get permission from Professor Snape to use the potions lab. This would probably be the most difficult part because he was very protective of the potions lab and tended to be paranoid that it might get blown up. However I was determined to at least attempt to arrange some time in there. It would just take some careful planning.
This chapter is just to introduce the story will get more interesting.
Next time – Will Hermione manage to persuade Snape to let her use the lab.