The first indication of trouble was two weeks later, when Albus mentioned in a letter that some of his friends were sick. Three days later, an owl from Lily delivered the news that classes were cancelled due to an outbreak of Dragon Pox. Harry and Ginny weren't particularly worried; although Dragon Pox had been lethal in the past, potions experts, building on advances made by Gunhilda of Gorsemoor and

Albus Dumbledore, had developed treatment remedies that eliminated all fatalities. The following day, Harry and Ginny got a letter from the Headmistress saying that the school was in quarantine due to what appeared to be a Dragon Pox epidemic. They began to feel uneasy as such quarantines were highly unusual in the wizarding world, and especially not for Dragon Pox which today was easily treated. Four more days had passed when the news suddenly turned chilling: the headline in The Daily Prophet was about the death of a Hogwarts student, name withheld, due to an unknown illness.

Preparing breakfast, Ginny casually glanced at the headlines. She froze for a moment and then, hands shaking, started to read the article. At her shriek, Harry rushed to the eat-in kitchen. She turned to him fearfully and showed him the front page. "Harry, what's going on? Dragon Pox hasn't been lethal since before the kids were even born. What if it's James or Albus or Lily or Rose or Hugo or …"

Harry hugged his wife. "Our kids are fine," he said, trying to reassure himself as much as Ginny, "otherwise we would have been informed. But I'll firecall McGonagall to see how they are doing." He tossed some floo powder into the flames, stuck his head in the fireplace, and called out, "Headmistress, Hogwarts."

When he saw the person behind the desk in the familiar office, he was shocked to see how worn she appeared. "Professor McGonagall?"

She sounded distracted as she looked up. "Harry, this is not a good time. Can I get back with you?"

"Sure, I understand. But can you just tell me if my kids are OK?"

"Harry, there are so many sick kids ... You'll be notified if anything serious happens." Just before Professor McGonagall raised her wand to kill the flames in her office, Harry thought he heard her mumble "I thought I closed the floo after talking to the Minister …"

Harry pulled back from the fireplace and looked at Ginny in disbelief. The Headmistress had never been so abrupt with either of them. That made them more worried than anything she had said.

Ginny pursed her lips. "I'm going to St. Mungo's to see if they can shed any light on what's going on." Grabbing the table to steady herself and sounding distraught she added, "Harry, what if something happens to our kids?"

Harry felt his stomach sink. This wasn't supposed to be, his children were supposed to be safe at Hogwarts. He nodded. "Let me know right away if you find out anything."

Ginny left the dishes and food as they lay on the counter and floo'd to St. Mungo's. There she found a multitude of parents demanding to see the head healer to find out what was happening at the school. She thought a moment, realizing this was not going to get her any answers, and then sidled around the crowd and made her way to the office of her friend Susan Bones, who worked in the magical maladies department.

Susan looked like she had not had a day off in weeks, but gave Ginny a weak smile. "I'm not surprised to see you here."

"Is there anything you can tell me, Susan? Please tell me the Prophet got the story wrong and it's not as bad as they say."

Susan stopped smiling. "I wish I could. From what we theorize, it seems a parent had Dragon Pox when he went to the alumni weekend three weeks ago, and another parent had the much rarer and generally benign Elven Plague. When the two viruses met, somehow a new, mutated one developed, which is responsible for a new disease we've never seen before that we've named Dragon Plague. Ginny, it's not good. The school is quarantined for a good reason. It's not public knowledge yet, and please don't tell anyone, but there were two additional deaths this morning. Nearly three quarters of the students are showing symptoms."

Ginny sat down heavily with trepidation and clutched her chest. "Oh, Merlin and Circe! Can anyone do anything?"

"We have our entire research department working on it, and have offered a thousand galleon reward for any outside potions expert who comes up with a cure. We put that out quietly two days ago because we didn't want to cause a panic, but later this morning we'll release that information more broadly in order to get a wider circle of potions experts working on a cure. Other than that … Ginny, I'm a nervous wreck and I don't know what to do." She pointed to a picture on her desk of herself with her arm around a boy with light brown hair waving at the camera. "My son Gordan is in his sixth year..." Her voice faltered and she stopped talking. She gave a short sob and paused for a deep breath.

"Is there any hope at all?"
"The researchers seem stumped, though we do have one outside expert who yesterday asked for some blood samples, indicating he may be on the trail of a cure. His name's Douglas Carlson, and he's done great work for us in the past. He actually was key to the development of the current treatment for Dragon Pox. I'm afraid to get my hopes too high, though."

Ginny didn't remember making her way to Harry's office. He took one look at her face, pulled her into his office, shut the door and engulfed her in a loving embrace. "I'm afraid to ask what information you found," he whispered into her ear.
Ginny related the grave news from Susan. Her husband bit his lip and replied, "This is worse than I ever thought. I pray our kids will be fine." He paused. "You know, when you say potions expert, I automatically think of Professor Snape. He's not just an expert, he's a Potions Master. I wonder if he's working on the cure too."

"Is there any way to contact him? He owes you his life and his freedom – you were the one who brought the medics back to the Shrieking Shack and then spoke up for him at his trial."

"I owe him so much I never wanted to bring that up, but I can't afford not to at this point. Ginny, kids are dying! The problem is I don't know how to reach him. I haven't heard anything about him for years."

Ginny looked thoughtful. "Maybe Hermione can help. I know she must be frantic with worry for Rose and Hugo. If she can't find him, no one can."

"Come on, we'll see her right now."

Harry and Ginny caught Hermione as she was about to leave her book-strewn office. When she saw the harried looks on their faces, she paled. She banished the piles of paper on the two chairs in front of her desk and sat down. "What have you heard?"

Together, Harry and Ginny explained what they had found out. Hermione blanched. "I didn't realize it was so serious. I know muggle diseases can mutate and spread quickly. I should have guessed the same would be true for wizard diseases."

Harry looked at her. "Hermione, I'm going to do whatever I can. That means making sure the best potions experts are working on a cure, and that means Snape has to be involved. Can you help us find him?"

"You know I will. I'll drop everything and start right now. Let's plan on meeting at your house tonight and we'll go over the latest developments."

Ginny nodded, and then added, "I'd like to invite Susan Bones too – you remember her? She's working at St. Mungo's now. Maybe she can add something."

Hermione nodded. "Give me until seven."

Harry and Ginny stood up. "Seven at our house." Harry paused. "I hope you're successful. I don't want to think about what could happen if this isn't stopped …"

"I'll be there."

DPDPDP

A few minutes before seven, Hermione apparated to Godric's Hollow. She felt the wards recognize her and let her in. She had arranged with Ron to meet her there and he was already seated in the comfortable family room on the leather sofa in front of the lit fireplace. Harry, Ginny, and Susan sat on chairs on either side. Hermione sat down next to Ron and took his hand briefly to squeeze before taking out her notes.

"Susan, what's the latest news about the outbreak?" Ginny asked nervously as soon as they were all seated.

Looking distraught, Susan paused to collect her thoughts. "So far, St. Mungo's, Hogwarts, and the Ministry have been able to downplay the seriousness of this plague, but it's worse than we feared." Her voice began to quiver. "If this behaves like typical contagious muggle diseases, the fact that it's so virulent normally means it will further mutate and run its course quickly, but only after it kills far too many of its first victims, who in this case are … our children at Hogwarts," she said with a catch in her voice.

A terrified Ron looked at her. "Is there any evidence that this was deliberately created?"

Susan shook her head. "No. We've traced down the wizards who had Dragon Pox and Elven Plague. They were close friends, so the two families spent a lot of time together during alumni weekend. Neither of the wizards had symptoms at the time, but the carrier of Elven Plague died two weeks ago. We originally thought he was one of the rare fatal victims to that generally benign disease. However, we now suspect he actually was the first victim of the new disease. We have confirmed that he was exposed to Elven Plague when visiting family in Wales. Both wizards were respected members of the community, with no reason to have any grudges or dark tendencies. Unfortunately, the first student death from Dragon Plague was the daughter of the wizard who had been exposed to Dragon Pox. As you can imagine, he's devastated over her death and is guilt-ridden over his role in the development of the new disease."

Ginny closed her eyes briefly to hold back tears. "How is the search for the cure coming?" she asked unsteadily.

"Our in-house people are looking at both potions and charms. Right now, they think potions offer the better hope for both the cure and a means to prevent infection. As I mentioned to Ginny this morning, St. Mungo's is offering a thousand galleon reward to the person or team that comes up with something that will help."

Looking at Ginny, Harry made a swift decision. "I'll double that. Make it a two thousand galleon reward." He turned back to Susan. "You mentioned someone seemed to be making progress. David Charleston, I think, or something like that?"

"You mean Douglas Carlson. He supplies some of our potions. He's been most innovative, coming up with many potion modifications and several new potions in the last decade or so, including, as I told Ginny, treatment for the non-mutated Dragon Pox."

Ron looked up sharply. "This may sound way out there, but is there any way this Carlson guy and Snape are the same person?"

Susan shook her head negatively. "Carlson has been a potioneer since the first Death Eater War. While Carlson and Snape collaborated on at least one potion that I know of, they also exchanged acrimonious letters in several potions journals over various developments and in response to each other's articles in the years between the wars."

Harry turned to Hermione. "Which means we need to make sure Professor Snape is working on a cure as well. Have you found any way to contact him?"

Hermione nodded. "Possibly, but there are a couple of problems. First, the last time Professor Snape published anything was ten years ago. He may no longer brew potions, live in Britain, or even be alive."

Harry looked shocked. "I didn't realize so much time had passed since I'd heard of him. I think I would have heard if he were no longer around, though. Let's go under the assumption he is."

Hermione nodded again. "That brings up the means of contact. I don't know if you'll like it, and I'm not even sure it will work…"

Harry looked at her grimly. "I'll try anything if it means that our children will be saved."

Hermione took a long deep breath. "It means invoking the Life Debt he owes you."

Harry firmly shook his head no. "I don't know if he owes me anything. He saved my life so many times as a student…"

Ron broke in. "But that was in payment for the Life Debt he owed your Dad."

Hermione shook her head. "I think you both may be wrong. Harry, I know you want to think the best of your Dad, but when he stopped Snape from meeting Remus, he knew that by doing so he was preventing Sirius and Remus from being expelled, and maybe even Remus from being executed." Susan was looking curious, but didn't interrupt. "Thus, it wasn't a purely disinterested act, and therefore would not have invoked a Life Debt. And when he saved you at Hogwarts, he was acting as a responsible teacher, not as a bystander. He did not invoke a Life Debt since it was his job, just as healers don't invoke Life Debts when they save someone. However, when you went back for him after the battle, you had no possible gain and were under no obligation." Susan nodded at that.

Ginny looked confused. "But how will that help Harry find the Professor?"

Hermione took out a sheet of parchment. "If in fact Professor Snape owes you, then there's an old spell I found that you can use to locate him. This spell was created to prevent someone with a Life Debt from avoiding his or her responsibility."

"Are there any restrictions on what I can ask in payment of this debt?" asked Harry.

"Well, certainly having him search for a cure would fall within its boundaries, both legally and ethically."

Harry bit his lip and looked around. "Does anyone else have any other ideas?" he asked without much hope. When no one spoke up, he drew a deep breath and gave his wife's hand a brief squeeze, reassuring himself as much as her. "Ginny, I'll be back as soon as I can." He slowly stood up. "Everyone, wish me luck."

Ron rose and shook his hand. "Better you than me, mate, going to Snape to demand a favor. I don't know if there's anything that will prevent him from getting revenge afterwards in some way."

"Honestly, Ron," interrupted Hermione, "I doubt Professor Snape will mind helping."

"Yeah, but being willing to help and being forced to are two different things."

"Well, he may have thought he was being was forced to help us all our years at Hogwarts and things turned out."

"True, but I don't think he was happy about it, and an unhappy Snape is not easy to be around."

Harry took the parchment from Hermione. "It's not like I have a choice." He gave Ginny an encouraging kiss that said without words that everything would be fine and resolutely walked out the door to where he could apparate.

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