A/N: Before you all go read up the next chapter, I would like to take the time and thank White Squirrel, who revised the scientific part of the story and uoduck for beta reading this whole chapter to make sure there weren't any stupid mistakes left. Thank you so much!
I also want to thank everyone for the great and wonderful reviews and all those who followed and favorited the story. I hope you will like this chapter as well :)
Enjoy!
Chapter 11 - The Z-Virus
17th July 2011, Fort Polk Military Base, Vernon Parish, Louisiana, USA
Harry
The days grew hotter and more humid. Sometimes it felt like they were living in a Swedish sauna. Not that he ever visited one, but if he had to guess on how it would be, this inhumanly hot weather would be it.
Unfortunately, they couldn't use the muggle air conditioners, due to the power saving the base went through. Since the CDC incident, General Pierce had ordered everyone to change their electricity production to a more renewable energy that could support the base on its own and without the dependence of fossil energy. A team of IT-Techs led by Specialist Walter Harris began to work on an alternative plan to ensure the power supply in the military base and the solution they had come up with had been renewable energy. Due to the climate in Louisiana, they decided that it would be best to get solar panels and generators that could save up to months of energy.
Until the electricity problem was solved, only a few places were allowed to receive constant run on air conditioner. Those places were the lab, control room and the hospital just to name a few.
It surprised Harry greatly to see how resourceful and inventive muggles could be, in order to make things work or to find a way to protect themselves effectively.
In the meantime, while they couldn't use a muggle air conditioner, Harry and Hermione cast cooling charms on their little family whenever they were alone.
"Bloody hell, it's too hot! I miss England weather."
"Teddy, language!"
"Sorry, Aunt Mione."
Harry tried to hide his smile as she watched his best friend, son and the new addition to the family sat at the dining table in the living room, having lunch. Hermione had insisted that they should at least eat once a day together, to give some sort of stability to the family. He had to agree with her and both had figured out on how to make this possible, which wasn't always easy.
Harry just finished his plate of pasta, when the mirror call came in. He pulled the little device out of his pocket and opened it quickly. He was greeted by Neville and the way he looked, made his smile drop immediately.
"Hey, Harry."
"Neville, what happened to you?" Harry asked, cutting to the chase.
He knew something must have gone wrong, the moment he noticed the visible injuries on his face. Hermione instantly stood up and crossed the distance to Harry. Jon had been in his baby chair, grabbing the mashed noodles and putting them into his mouth, whenever Hermione wasn't looking. Teddy sat next to Harry, as he leaned closer to look as well. Hermione gasped as soon as she saw him, which made the once shy boy cringe nervously.
Neville's face was covered in scratches, bruises and a long deep scar was seen on his left side of his face, beginning from his left forehead, to his eyebrow down to his cheek. It had barely missed his eye.
"I'm fine. Really. Didn't mean to worry you guys."
"But what happened?" Hermione asked.
Neville sighed and explained, "A few people, including myself, needed to get food supplies, clothes and such. The land I have at the Manor ground is still not ready yet, for harvesting and we needed food now. So, we decided to go to those muggle shops and well, we were a little careless. We didn't check the back of the store for any of the undead and a group of them attacked us. We fought them off, but one almost got me. I didn't see him coming at me."
Hermione sucked in her breath as her hand flew to her mouth. Harry froze at the information and reminded himself that Neville looked fine, but still asked him, "Did they…" He couldn't seem to finish the sentence. The thought of loosing someone close again was terrifying.
"No. I'm fine, but it was close. I almost got bitten, had it not been for my house-elf, Dinkel. He explained that he felt that I was in danger and appeared next to me and blasted the undead, before it… Anyway, he single handedly killed those things. But the strangest thing was, that when Dinkel appeared next to me, I noticed that they didn't seem aware of my house-elf, at first. Just when Dinkel began to talk and make movements, did they realize that he was there."
Harry looked at Hermione and could almost see her mind going into overdrive, as she probably thought about how this strange occurrence could have happened.
Harry turned back to Neville and asked, "So, you're saying that the house-elves can be undetected if they want to?"
"Yes, I think so."
"Of course!" Hermione exclaimed excitingly, "House-elves have a different body make up, which is the reason why they are incompatible with the pathogen. Their biological structure doesn't make them a priority to the undead."
At everyone's confused look, she explained, "From what we have discovered, the pathogen, the disease that changes us, from a fluid exchange with an undead, has two stages. The first is a mutated gene in our bodies that produces the inactive pathogen protein, and the second is the activated pathogen from the undead in our body. A few years ago, I got a blood sample from a house-elf, with his consent of course, and I found out that house-elves have a completely different DNA coding. Their blood has even a dark pink coloring. This doesn't make them appeal to the undead. Of course, from what we know, the undead still attack anything that still lives, but this means that house-elves won't be their top prey."
Harry involuntary closed his eyes for a moment. At the mention of house-elf and blood, his mind drifted to Dobby. It had been a while since he had thought of his lost friend. As if Hermione sensed his trail of thought, she placed a gentle hand on his forearm and squeezed it in apology. Harry gave her a small smile in return.
"To make it simple," she continued after a moment. "It's like with the animals. The disease cannot turn other species, instead, it kills them slowly and I believe, even painfully, as soon as they get it into their systems. I think house-elves, could easily hide in plain sight from the undead. From the research I've found out, other scientists had figured out that the undead don't see the animals as their primary target, only when they don't have a human target around, will they attack animals. A side effect, I would assume and I think that it is safe to say that magical creatures work the same way. The undead can smell and somehow sense living and uninfected humans."
Neville nodded and asked, "And what about the halfbreeds? Like a Veela, or even those remaining werewolves? Could they be saved from the undead?"
Hermione shook her head and answered, "No. They still have the same DNA make up of human. Even with the mutated genes, due to the curse or heritage, they are still human in essence. I could only theorize that maybe an undead will look twice if it comes across a Veela, Werewolf or half-giant, but it will attack in the end."
"Okay, I understand… and it makes sense."
Harry chuckled at Neville. He knew that she had used very simple words to make it understandable for Neville.
"Makes sense. I will inform Kingsley and I think they will broadcast this in the Wireless later today. We could maybe take our house-elves with us in the future for supply runs and they could provide us with more security."
Harry bit his tongue, as he was trying to stop himself from smiling, when he noted Hermione's face. Her eyes had narrowed dangerously at the mention of using house-elves. He guessed that even years later, SPEW was still somewhere on her mind.
"I really hope you don't plan to abuse the house-elves for such a dangerous prospect of sending them into the muggle world, which they are clearly unfamiliar with, Neville Longbottom."
Neville paled dramatically and looked from Hermione's enraged face, to Harry's, looking for help. Teddy began to chuckle, but stopped immediately after Harry elbowed him lightly. An angry Hermione was a dangerous Hermione, and that was the one thing Harry clearly avoided over the years.
Neville tried to say something, spluttered random words out, as he tried to deny having such intentions, which only made her eyes narrow further.
"I reckon I will have a word with Kingsley. Go fetch him, Neville."
20th July 2011, Fort Polk Military Base, Vernon Parish, Louisiana, USA
Hermione
"Are you sure you want to stay, my dear? We can continue tomorrow."
"No, it's alright. I will wait for the results of our testing and will leave you the notes of my conclusion."
"If you are sure," Walter relented.
"I am. Harry watches over the kids, so I'm good. Go get some rest, Walter. I will see you tomorrow."
With a final nod and well wishes, he left and as soon as the door closed, Hermione cast a quick Muggle Repelling and Locking Spell at the front and exit doors.
She walked towards her desk and pulled out a doll from her drawer. It was a magical human body replica with a fully functional body, bones, muscle, a blood stream, and organs. It was a lifeless vessel that has not the ability to live or become alive. These magical dummies were used for experiments and potion testing, which she had used several times in the past. It was also possible to inflict the magical dummy with the disease, which enabled people to see the effects of the potion with a human. A magical version of the muggle medical trials.
It had taken Hermione a week to recreate the magical dummies at her place, with a complicated transfiguration spells and charms that had several spell stages until completion.
Hermione placed the dummy on the large table in the lab and cast an enlargement charm and made it as tall as herself. She had used her own blood and duplicated it into the doll, which had also the same mutated DNA.
Hermione took a sample of the pathogen, which Walter and herself had activated from a simulated blood death. During their research with a lifeless undead body, both had noticed that the pathogen became gradually inactive in the host's body. It was like the pathogen was slowly dying. Even after two weeks, they were still active pathogen's within the lifeless undead body, but it was still contagious to any human and the only way to prevent any further infections, would be to burn the bodies. This was the only way to make sure that the infection got under control, which became the standard protocol.
Hermione went back to her secret magical testing and pulled out a Quick Quote Quill, as well as her notebook, where Hermione collected her findings, magical tests and theories.
"It's 20th July 2011. Testing the pathogen, on the magical dummy. I am injecting it with 10ml of the activated infected blood into the left forearm. I will monitor the process and behavior of the pathogen with a standard monitoring spell and a nervous system scan spell," Hermione spoke out clearly, as the quill quickly wrote every word down in the notebook.
22nd July 2011, Fort Polk Military Base, Vernon Parish, Louisiana, USA
Hermione
At first, they had planned to hold the presentation, an update of their discovery of their work, like last time, in the conference room, but Sergeant Ford moved them towards the large control room, where more people could watch and the IT-Techs could record their findings. Hermione became more nervous, when she realized that there were at least forty to fifty people in the room, as well as cameras that were recording everything. Even though, she had held several seminars, lectures or had in the past presented her work to a larger crowd, she had never gotten used to it.
Hermione stood next to Walter as he began to explain their theory and how they proceeded from there. She noted that he used simple words and explained the important ones.
"We believe that the unknown pathogen is in fact a new form of prion, which we call the Z-Prion, not a traditional virus or bacterium, derived from the protein produced by our mutated DNA. We're still investigating the source of the mutation, but based on its DNA signature, we suspect an as-yet-unidentified retrovirus that we're calling the Z-Virus, which has already infected the whole of the population. The Z-Virus produces mutated proteins in our nervous systems, and when the pathogen—the Z-Prion—comes in contact with them, they are transformed into more copies of the pathogen itself.
"Dr Granger and I believe that the Z-Virus won't be able to infect our body through skin or salvia contact, unless it finds a way into the blood stream through an injury. Yet, it would be better to prevent any such situation in the first place."
On the screen, Walter showed an enhanced picture of the Z-Prion, which switched to further pictures of the structure of the said prion. Specialist Matt Wilson, or some of his IT-Tech team, had been helpful in preparation of the presentation, by providing visualization of their work. Afterwards, Walter showed them the current mutated gene in the human body, and thanks to the database of the CDC, they were able to compare it with a healthy genetic sequence.
"This mutation and your hypothetical Z-Virus that caused all this, could it be possible that it was deliberately created to attack people? How did it start in the first place?" General Pierce asked.
"We can only theorize, sir," Hermione took over as she explained, "Seeing how the infection spread and became global so fast and uncontrollably, Dr. Harris and I believe that whatever had caused this mutation, was with the utmost probability airborne. We can't be certain about the virus bit yet. It could conceivably be a complex chemical toxin.
"We can also only guess, about the strategical attack and weaponization of the virus. It could be possible, yes. But we haven't found any such indication in the CDC files. However, if you ask my personal opinion, sir, I don't believe so."
"Please explain, Dr Granger."
"The mutation and the Z-Prion are something that hasn't been seen before. It breaks all science and biochemistry laws. There are thousands of viruses out there, created by evolution, nature or even mankind for the use of bioweapons, and not a few prions, but this, but this is something new. It's like a half of a puzzle. Due to the mutated gene in our body, it could have arisen from within us. There are endogenous retroviruses—remnants of ancient, dead retroviruses encoded in our DNA that have been inactive for millions of years—thousands of them, and they can move around on our chromosomes. Maybe some chemical in the air made them jump to a location where they became active again. We just don't know.
"What we know and had presented the last time was that we all are infected. Even if we don't get in contact with the Z-Prion, we will turn, due to the chemical changes upon death within the body. It appears that the reanimation of the body occurs in response to the chemical changes that normally happen at the onset of rigor mortis, two to six hours after death. As soon as this procedure begins, the brain stem activates itself and the previous dead person reanimates. There is no living being in the world, be it human or animal that has ever reanimation after a confirmed death. Biologically speaking, this should be an impossibility.
"But the other impossible thing is that no matter how it happened, this type of mutation occurring in every person in the world, most at nearly the same time should never have gone undetected for so long."
"How so?" someone from the audience asked.
"This level of extreme change should have been detected sooner, but this is not the case here. We haven't found any other documentation in the CDC files that could have shown a new mutation outbreak somewhere around the world, since the beginning of Project Wildfire. There have been no reports of people, who had shown a different reaction or even immunity towards this mutation or from a direct infection from the undead.
"Dr. Harris and I, even went through the documented supplies and items of patient zero, Dr. Magnus Morris, but there was absolutely nothing that could have even created a cough mixture in this lab, not to mention an undetectable mutated gene particle that had the capability to infect the whole world through a possible airborne outbreak, mutate their very gene-pool to only create within their own body, a never seen before virus and kill all humankind, only to reanimate them and hunt down all humans. I don't think so."
Walter spoke up next to Hermione,
"Other animals don't get infected the way we do and can't carry the disease because the mutated protein is specifically from a human gene. In animals, the Z-Prion only acts like a neurotoxin, slowly killing them. However, the greatest anomaly is the decaying process. The decomposition process begins usually shortly after the death. Even with the resurrection procedure, we would have expected that the decay phases would continue, but the body it is absolutely free of any decomposition phases. It doesn't decay like any other humans or species do, as we know it.
"We can only guess that something in the bodies of the undead kills all of the bacteria and fungi that cause decomposition. The undead bodies…slowly mummify, essentially, depending on the humidity. Eventually, they'll disintegrate like old leather, but that could take years. That's one more reason to burn the bodies instead of burying them, but we would've wanted to do that anyway because the only way to reliably destroy prions is incineration."
"This is all very informative and interesting, Dr. Walter, but why are we here?" General Pierce asked impatiently.
"Oh, right, well, Dr. Granger and I, we think we found a way to temporarily stop the infection, but it is quite an unorthodox way to achieve it."
Hermione noted that the people in the room looked with wide eyes at them both.
"You have a cure?" Sergeant Ford asked surprised.
"No, no. Not a cure, more of a last minute solution, if the worst should happen. My dear, I think it would be best if you could explain it, after all you did figure it out."
Walter smiled at Hermione and gestured for her to come forward again. She blushed a little at the sudden attention.
She recalled the tests she did on the magical dummy and began to explain her theory. "Walter and I made an autopsy on a lifeless undead body to try to figure out how the disease progressed. What we found is that even though the pathogen affects the nervous system, it pretty clearly travels through the blood. The veins around the bite wound were discolored, and the tissue damage was greater, even compared with other wounds from bullets and sharp objects."
Walter had pulled out a picture of what Hermione was describing and enhanced it with his remote. It was clear to see for anyone that the bite wound was almost black compared to the other rest of the body.
"A toxic infection, caused by a plant or animal poison has such a similar reaction. The infected area will show the greatest source of poisoning, even after it reached the body. Seeing the similarities, I believe that there is a small time window, that can save someone who gets bitten by the undead. Since we can't possibly remove the infection by cleaning out the wound, which is made in several poisoning treatments, we can only take a more drastic approach to ensure the survival of the patient. Upon infection cause by an undead, through a bite wound or deep scratch, in which body fluid were exchanged, the infected area has to be removed by… by cutting off the infected body part."
Everyone stared shocked at Hermione. She let her words sink in before she continued.
"I said that it was a rather unorthodox method," Walter chipped in.
"Depending on the circumstances, with a bite wound to an arm or a leg, it should take about thirty seconds for the pathogen to reach the torso through the bloodstream. I know that's not much time, but if someone else is there who can remove the injured limb that quickly, it will stop the infection."
"Let me get this straight, doc," Sergeant Ford spoke up, sounding doubtful, "You want someone, who gets bitten to chop off his arm or leg, above the bite or scratch wound caused by those walkers and all under two minutes?"
Before Hermione could say something, Walter spoke up, "Well, yes. I would suggest that someone else does the chopping off, because I don't think that the person would be able to cut ones limb, especially if a right-handed person get's bitten on that said arm." Walter chuckled at his own words, as he continued, "Quite an image, don't you think."
Even Hermione had to smile a little at his words. It had broken the dreary atmosphere in the room and several of the soldiers were laughing at Walter's words.
"And you are sure this will work, Dr. Granger?" General Pierce.
Hermione was certain that this approach would work. She had tried it on the magical test dummy and was able to stop the infection process with this method. It had been disturbing for Hermione to cut off limbs, even though it was just a lifeless doll like figure. She had tested the method several times under different timeframes and knew approximately how much time was left, until it was too late, but she couldn't tell this to the others. Only Harry knew of what she did and how she had experimented. He was currently recording the presentation with a magical pen, like a muggle camera that was hosted on his shirt.
"Yes, I am. It's not a foolproof method, but until we have found a permanent solution, I believe that this is the only way to save lives for now. It is a chance to survive."
It was a gruesome image, but the military men understood the situation well enough to follow her logic.
"How long will it take to find a cure?" Sergeant Smith asked next.
"Dr. Granger and have several lines of research that we're working on. The first is a way to either destroy the Z-Prion chemically or stimulate our immune systems to destroy it. If that works, we could use it to treat an active infection before the patient dies, and if we could disperse it into the environment, it would disable the undead and make the bodies start decaying again.
"The second line of attack is to remove or disable the mutation in our DNA so that our bodies stop producing the mutated protein. That's a standard genetic engineering method that's well-understood…well-understood in lab mice, at least.
"The third line is to isolate the Z-Virus retrovirus that caused the mutation in the first place and create a vaccine for it so that once we find a cure, we can't be infected again. We hope to combine all three treatments into a single serum, which we're calling NOVA. As of now, we can't tell how long it will take. It's a lot of work, much of it with experimental techniques, but Dr. Granger and I believe that we can create NOVA."
She noted the hopeful looks and silently prayed to anyone who was listening that they would succeed with NOVA.
"These are good news. I would like you both to explain again exactly how the emergency amputation should be performed to my squad leaders and other non-coms who haven't been here to witness this presentation. They will forward the information to their individual team members," General Pierce said.
Hermione and Walter agreed to the General's words and soon, both begun to explain in details to another room full of soldiers, of the emergency solution to an infection.
4th August 2011, Fort Polk Military Base, Vernon Parish, Louisiana, USA
Hermione
Laugher and delighted squeals filled the living room, as Hermione watched with a smile Teddy and Jon play around. It was not often that Hermione got to be at home and stay behind. Walter was at the lab and wrote down the protocol of their testing, which would later updated and shared with other facilities, while he kept watch on the test subjects as well. Hermione would join him after Harry returned from his own day of work with Sergeant Ford, overseeing the safety of the base.
Hermione sat back and simply enjoyed the day with her two boys, who meant to world to her.
Jon, who was almost seven months, supported himself on the coffee table and stood on his two wobbling legs. Hermione pulled out a camera and snapped a picture as soon as Jon tried to chase Teddy around the room, who scooted away from Jon, whenever he almost reached him. In addition, to the game Teddy played with the toddler, he changed his hair structure, color and nose randomly, which made Jon laugh even harder.
Sometimes, Hermione couldn't quite believe how fast he was growing. It seemed like it was yesterday, when she had found him on her journey to the military base.
Jon suddenly turned to Hermione, looking at her with his big blue eyes, and began to speak in his own way with Hermione, while he pointed his finger at Teddy. She pretended to understand him and enlightened him by speaking with him about Teddy, and encouraged him to catch Teddy. He grinned at her and went back to play with the teenager. Hermione smiled in return. She could see the tooth buds emerging from Jon's gums. It was now just a matter of days, probably a week when he would become fussier, while his teeth begun to grow. Luckily, there were useful spells and toys that would help him to overcome those upcoming difficult weeks.
Hermione was cut from her musing, when Jon laughed in delight, as Teddy tickled him mercilessly on the ground. She joined in the laugher and their game by rescuing Jon, so that both could begin their own tickle war with Teddy.
Hermione knew that she would cherish these moments forever and hoped that she would be able to have more of such beautiful days in the future.
12th September 2011, Fort Polk Military Base, Vernon Parish, Louisiana, USA
Hermione
Whenever the special team went out to get the supplies, Walter and Hermione would try to busy themselves by organizing the labs supply room. The General deemed it for the best that both scientists weren't there to follow up the mission, even though, it would have helped to get the correct supplies. Especially, since several team members wore a camera over their helm. He reasoned that the presence of them both, would distract the specialists and the team leader of the group. Another thing, Seth, Walter's son, mentioned is that the General didn't want Hermione and Walter to witness a possible failure of the mission. The failure of a mission might mean that the soldiers, who risked their lives to bring them much needed supplied, died.
The thought that these group of soldiers, or even one man of them could die on one of those missions, made her feel guilty and just terrible.
It was maddening. Especially on this specific supply run.
Daniel Hale, the wizard muggle soldier and Seth Harris were the ones to obtain the supplies they needed and the few remaining places they hadn't been raided, were universities. Walter was a mess.
He kept looking at the clock every few minutes, while he organized and re-organized the same shelf over and over again. Hermione had tried to distract him, with theories on the possible approaches on NOVA, but it was of little help.
"Dr. Harris? Dr. Granger? Are you there? Over?" a familiar voice spoke through the military microphone.
Walter immediately rushed towards the device and grabbed it hastily.
"Yes, yes. We are here. Is… is my son well?" he asked nervously and Hermione noted that he was shaking as well, but still added, "Over."
"Yes, sir. Captain Harris is well, but we need you both at the Bayne-Jones Army Community Hospital. There was an incident during the mission and your assistance will be required. Someone will come to pick you up soon. Over."
Hermione recognized the speaker to be the IT Specialist Matt Wilson. After Walter confirmed that they would be ready, both put the more unstable and sensitive supplies safely away. Even though it was a relief for Walter that his son was safe, it was still nerve wrecking to wait to hear the news of their supply hunt.
Just as they were about to leave the lab, Harry and Duncan McGonagall walked into the building.
"Harry!" Hermione called out, as soon as she noticed him and asked, "What's going on? We were just told that there was an incident, which requires our attention at the hospital."
Walter joined Hermione and stood next, as Harry begun to explain, "The mission went as planned. Well, at first that is. The team went to the university to get the chemistry supplies, as you know, when they came across a group of survivors. A physics scientists assistant, several students and three children; over all, around nine people. The team evacuated them and they are coming back here."
Hermione sighed in relief, as did Walter next to her.
"Things got bad, as they planned to leave the building. A group of undead, came almost out of nowhere and surrounded them. We still don't know how they got there. Maybe they missed clearing out an area? Who knows? It was a pretty close call; especially, with all the civilians. Just when they were about to get the situation under control, one of those things fell over a soldier, and bit him on his arm, before anyone could react."
Hermione gasped in horror and Walter looked deathly pale.
"They followed the new protocol, and immediately cut off the limb, then took the first aid measures to treat him. The soldier is still alive from what we know and should arrive, with everyone else in half an hour. The General wants you there to make sure that he won't turn."
"Did they do it in the given timeframe?" Walter asked worriedly.
Harry looked at Duncan for a moment and shook his head. "I don't know. It…everything went on so fast. We could barely see anything."
Hermione nodded silently, before she turned to Walter and both began right away to list the supplies and devices they would need for the hemogram and other tests. Harry and Duncan went to help them by carrying the boxes around, which Hermione and Walter filled up with the equipments and supplies they would need to test blood and tissue samples.
As soon as they got everything they needed, they went on their way to the hospital.
Duncan's walkie made a stasis sound, just as a voice spoke through it, "Private McGonagall, require status. Over."
"Private McGonagall here. Driving to the hospital with Agent Potter, Dr. Harris and Dr. Granger. Be there in five. Over."
"Copy that, Private McGonagall. Team Delta just arrived back at the base and heading towards the hospital. Dr. Mason expects your arrival. Over and Out!"
No one said anything, as Duncan pushed on the accelerator and drove even faster towards the hospital. Everyone was in deep thought about their current situation. Hermione's heart was racing with anticipation, fear and worry. She had tested the theory on a magical dummy by severing the infected limb and it had worked then, but so many factors still played an important part. Did they sever the limb in time? How much did they cut off the limb over the wound? Did they do a proper first aid treatment?
Before Hermione's mind could run completely wild with all different kind of scenarios, they arrived at the hospital only to see the military car coming to a hard stop just in front of the hospital gate. They saw as the medical team rushed with a gurney towards the car and immediately, a man was put on it and carried into the building, while the doctors shouted several commands. Two other soldiers followed them inside. One of them was Walter's son.
As soon as their own car came to a halt, Hermione and Walter made their way towards the building. Harry and Duncan, Hermione noted when she glanced behind, went to the back of the car and begun to carry their equipment out. Just as Hermione was about to go back, to help them, Harry called out, "Go, Hermione. We will handle this."
"Thank you, Harry," she said gratefully and followed Walter into the building. As she passed the other soldiers, she saw all the blood on their uniforms. They looked completely shaken, pale and worried. She was instantly filled with guilt and just terrible. She just wanted to go to them and apologize for putting them in danger for needing supplies that may or may not help for their research.
She walked towards the room, where Dr. Mason was giving rash orders to his team, in order to save the man on the table. Hermione stood outside the room and watched the procedure silently. She didn't know how long she stood there, until Dr. Mason begun to say that they needed to prepare him for the OR, when suddenly a voice next to her spoke, taking her by surprise.
"No, can't do, Dr. Mason. We need to make sure that Private Martin won't be a danger to anyone," General Pierce said seriously.
"This man needs to be in the OR, sir."
"I'm sorry, Dr. Mason, I can't take the risk. You will have to do your work here."
Dr. Mason nodded stiffly before he went back and gave out orders to tell his team what they would need in order to make the surgery here in this room.
"Dr. Granger?"
Hermione swiftly looked back that General, who continued, "I want you and Dr. Harris to test his blood and see if he is infected, before they begin with the surgery. How long will it take to get the results?"
"After everything is set up, no longer than an hour, sir."
General Pierce nodded. "Good. I want you and Dr. Harris to do that now. Get me the results as soon as you have them, Dr. Granger."
Hermione nodded and walked towards the same room where Dr. Mason just went through. She gently opened the room and spoke gently, "Dr. Mason? General Pierce wants me to make a hemogram of Private Martin."
The doctor nodded, while he worked on the open wound of the arm. Private Martin was under a full narcosis and looked deathly pale.
"Anne, please extract 50ml blood of Private Martin. I'm assuming that will be enough for you, Dr. Granger. The man has lost enough blood for today."
"I'm sorry, Dr. Mason."
Hermione watched as the nurse was about to take the blood sample. "I need it closer to the wound, to have the best possible results."
The nurse looked up at the doctor who nodded silently, as he kept working on the arm.
"How… how is he?" Hermione asked gently.
"He lost too much blood, which began to affect his internal organs, but hopefully, we were faster and prevented any permanent damage."
The nurse walked towards Hermione, with a metal surgical dish, where the full needle was placed in.
"Thank you, Dr. Mason. I will inform you of the results." Hermione turned around and just when she was about to leave the room, Dr. Mason said.
"For what is worth, Dr. Granger. I really hope that yours and Dr. Harris approach work."
Hermione nodded worriedly and said, before she walked out, "Me too."
She went to find Walter, as one of the soldiers pointed out where he went and followed the lead. She saw how the soldiers, civilians adults and children were treated and examined by the medical staff. Most of them looked completely shaken and were covered in dirt. One of them, Hermione noted, was talking rapidly to the doctor, who looked quite overwhelmed at his patient. Hermione would have found this situation quite funny, if it hadn't been for the dire situation they were currently in.
She found them soon at the end of the hall. It looked like a staff meeting room, or what used to be one, as she found Walter setting up the lab with Harry, Duncan and Seth.
"Ah, my dear, there you are," Walter called out, as soon as Hermione walked into the room. "We are almost done here. Do you know what the situation is?"
"Yes. Dr. Mason is still treating Private Martin and he is hanging in there," Hermione informed him and held up the metal dish for Walter to see. "I also got a blood sample for us to analyze. General Pierce wants us to make a full blood work now."
"Good, we can begin right away, my dear. Let's do a full examination," Walter said, as he took the plate from Hermione's hand and looked at it. "Well, it isn't much, but it will do. Would you mind beginning the test with the centrifugation, my dear? I will work on the basic examination meanwhile."
"Yes, of course."
Both went to work immediately and did a full screening of the blood sample they had. She barely paid attention to her surroundings, and only said something whenever she needed to direct Harry or the others with their lab supplies.
Hermione had just finished her own trial of tests and moved the computer towards Walter and showed him the results. "The chemical analyses didn't show any trace of the prion—other than high levels of amino acid from the molecular structure breaking down."
Walter smiled widely at the news and stated, "It worked, my dear."
Hermione nodded, feeling hopeful that the approach could have worked.
"We would still need to do another round of tests, to make sure that we didn't miss anything. We need to be sure there weren't any traces left behind." Hermione couldn't suppress her smile any longer at the possibility that they found a way to save people and said "But it looks like it worked."
Walter clapped his hand once and stood up excitingly. "Come my dear let's give the good news to the people."
Hermione stood up and followed Walter out of the room, down the hall. The closer they got to the emergency area, the more soldiers and other people waited for the more information. As soon as Hermione and Walter walked closer, the soldiers stood up and made room for them to walk towards the General, who was talking with several Sergeants. Hermione glanced back at the closed door of the control room.
"Dr. Harris, Dr. Granger, do you have the results?" General Pierce went straight to the point.
Walter nodded and replied quickly, "We did a full screening of the blood samples and everything came out clear. There was no active Z-Prion in the blood. As far as we know, Mr Martin isn't infected. To be absolutely sure, Dr. Granger and I will need to make regular blood tests, but we are optimistic that Mr Martin isn't infected."
A collective sigh of relief went through the room. People looked surprised, elated and happy that their friend wouldn't become one of the infected.
"When would you be absolutely sure that Private Martin isn't infected?"
Walter and Hermione looked at each other, before Hermione replied, "The longest known timespan between infection and death have been several hours until death. That gives us a timescale for how fast the infection propagates. Since the prion multiplies exponentially, any trace that got through before the amputation would need at most a few times that to establish the infection. I think it would be safe to say that, if his blood results don't show any infection after 24 hours that Mr Martin won't have the risk to be turned. We will take regular blood samples and do the same tests every two hours."
General Pierce looked relieved at the information. The news changed the atmosphere in the hospital drastically.
"Excuse me?" a voice spoke up from behind them. Hermione and Walter turned quickly around and saw a man, on the average look, around Hermione's age and with a quite outdated hairstyle, which strangely reminded Hermione of Elvis Presley haircut, only with a longer back hair. Behind him stood Walter's son.
"Yes?" Walter responded.
"During our evacuation from the university, I had witnessed the amputation of the soldier. I deducted that this procedure was to ensure the survival of the man, who got exposed to the infection. While the soldiers did the first aid on the man, I took upon the task to safeguard the infected object," the man said in an almost monotonous voice.
Hermione and Walter looked at each other in surprise, before they returned their eyes on the man before them. Hermione clarified, to make sure she understood everything clearly, "You're saying that you have brought back the severed arm? How?"
"I placed the object in a double reinforced hermetically-sealed bag along with a chemical bath that undergoes and endothermic reaction—essentially a giant instant cold pack to keep it cold."
Hermione and Walter looked with open mouth and shock written all over their faces at the strange man, while everyone else, who had listened on the conversation, looked just confused.
"Are… are you telling us, that you have the infected arm, preserved it in a plastic bag, kept it cool and have it with you?" Hermione could barely believe her own words, as she looked at the man. By now, everyone else began to understand what the strange man had said.
Wordlessly, the man help up the sealed dark blue backpack towards Hermione.
"Affirmative. I took the opinion that the scientists, who are in charge of the disease research, which I believe would be held here, within the military, would need of this evidence for their studies."
"I… thank you. Thank you!" Walter spoke, his voice filled with gratitude, and took the bag from the man, before he asked, "What's your name, son?"
"Eugene Porter."
14th September 2011, Fort Polk Military Base, Vernon Parish, Louisiana, USA
Hermione
"It's been 48 hours since we took the first sample and it still doesn't show any signs of the Z-Prion in his blood. We can officially confirm that Mr Martin isn't infected, nor does he harbor a risk for anyone else," Hermione said with a smile to Walter, as soon as she finished her set of testing.
It was also a good thing that the soldier had woken up a few hours later, after he had been operated on. So far he hadn't shown any signs of fever, infection of the amputation in an unsterilized area or any other signs of infection. But still, General Pierce wouldn't take the risk and made sure that the patient was detained on the bed, with two heavy armed soldiers stationed inside the hospital room and three more outside the room. Luckily, Private Martin wasn't against the added security. On the contrary, he used the opportunity to talk and gossip, with the men and woman, as Walter put it. The more time passed, without any signs of dying or fever, the more people began to relax and hope that this approach had truly worked.
"This is fantastic news, my dear. Do you want to come with me to inform the General?" Walter exclaimed with a grin at Hermione and stood up.
Hermione smiled at and shook her head. "No, you tell them the good news, Walter. I will stay behind and work on the limb. I want to begin the preparation for our dissection and the approach we need to do, in order to collect the information. I want to minimize any mistakes on our part and therefore want to plan ahead on how to do this."
Since Hermione and Walter got the infected arm, delivered by one of the rescued civilians, they had put it immediately in the lab fridge and cooled it down, preventing if from further decomposition of the limb.
Walter nodded stood up and gathered the papers of the blood results.
"That's a good idea. Maybe we will be so lucky and find the prion in a transitional state. Hopefully, it will show us on the tissue sample, how the prion turns the mutated receptor on the peripheral neurons into copies of itself, since our synthesized experiment of the prion with an uninfected blood sample by itself didn't give us much information."
That had been the initial problem for Walter and Hermione in their research to find the key factor on how to approach and create the NOVA serum effectively. It was much trickier to work with the tissue samples with nerve cells that they needed to use as opposed to simple blood samples.
"It shouldn't take longer than an hour, my dear. Then we can go over the approach and begin our dissection, my dear."
Hermione smiled at the elderly man as he made his way out of their warehouse lab.
"I will see you later, Walter."
She watched as he closed the door behind himself. A few minutes later, after she heard the call driving off, she walked towards the door and opened it, and was greeted by Duncan McGonagall, who took today's shift of security.
"Duncan, I will begin with my magical analyses on the arm. Could you please warn me if Walter or someone else intends to get here? I would really appreciate it."
Duncan nodded and said, "Of course, Hermione."
"Thank you," replied Hermione with a smile and walked back into the lab. Even though Duncan would watch out for any disturbance, Hermione still cast a strong Muggle Repelling Spell around the area she would be working. After everything was prepared for her magical analyses, which would show her how the prion spread and how much of the area it had infected. For now, it would be more of a superficial observation, basic facts that would help her understand how and where it infected exactly. Maybe if she had time, she would be able to extract some of the prion in it's turning point.
Hermione began to cast the first row of spells on the infected arm and document the information she achieved.
19th October 2011, Fort Polk Military Base, Vernon Parish, Louisiana, USA
Hermione
Harry stood next to her and Walter, as they watched Specialist Matt Wilson, the Information Technology Specialist at the base, introduce and show around Eugene Porter, who had turned out to be an Assistance Professor of Engineering at the university, and knew everything about energy efficiency, conservation, electric repairs and construction. The General immediately put him in the task to familiarize himself around the base with the help of Specialist Wilson, and from what Hermione was told by Harry, he would be tasked to build and maintain the renewable energy around the base. He even came up with a better way to produce energy and save it up.
"I don't understand half of the things he speaks, is it even a language?" Harry said next to Hermione, as they listened to the things he said to the Specialist. "I wouldn't be shocked if half of the words he speaks are completely made up."
"Possible. Maybe he had a neurological trauma to his temporal lobe or had an overdose of stimulation, which could have affected the hippocampus of the cortex. It would explain his behavior."
Harry looked at Walter with open mouth disbelief, before he turned to Hermione. "He just made some words up, didn't he?"
Hermione shook her head at the both of them and tried very hard not to laugh at those two. Walter wasn't so restrained and snickered openly at Harry's reaction, while he ate his candy.
Harry and Walter bickered back and forth about anything, while they waited for Eugene and Matt to finish their work. Hermione noted that Eugene kept glancing at them whenever he could. She didn't think much of it, until Harry pointed it out.
"I think someone has a crush on you," Harry pointed out with an amused grin.
Hermione's eyes widened and turned swiftly towards Harry.
"What?" she almost shrieked at his words.
Walter immediately joined Harry's teasing words, "Well, it does look that way, my dear and who wouldn't be interested in you. You are young, in a fertile age, which spikes the interest of many young men, and on top of that, you fill out all the characters that are valued by young men. The only drawback would be that some men can be quite intimidated by a smart and successful woman, but in my opinion these are simply weak men. Now that I mention it, I am quite surprised that you don't have many more suitors around here. Say Harry, do you think that the General has something to do with it? Interfering in the love life of our Hermione?"
Hermione didn't know what to say or react, as she watched speechlessly as Walter and Harry conspired about Hermione's non-existing love life and the possible involvement of General Pierce, as they had put it.
Harry immediately supported the theory, as he pointed out that he knew several people to have asked him about Hermione, the things she liked and enjoyed. Walter grinned when Harry supported his theory.
"My dear, if my son wouldn't be involved with his girlfriend, I am sure that my son would have asked you out, even if I have to point him in the right direction. You would have made a lovely couple. You and I would work on the serum, and afterwards my son would make a romantic dinner or night." Walter smiled openly at Hermione, while Harry sniggered shamelessly at Hermione's growing blush.
"I… I…" Hermione stuttered.
"You must know, my dear, I was quite the ladies man. A romanticist to the bone. I believe it is a Harris family trait," Walter said, thinking about something, while Hermione opened and closed her mouth, at loss for words.
"Say, my dear, since you are specialized in Genetic Engineering, do you believe that several domineering characteristics, such as the romantic nature in the Harris family, which isn't a scientific proven fact, I know, but theoretically speaking, if such a gene exists, do you think it could be a specific genetic code?" Walter asked Hermione and waited for her to say something, while he took another bite of his candy.
Hermione eyed the candy in Walter's hand and then the man itself, before she frowned deeply.
"Walter, how many candies did you eat?" Hermione asked instead of answering his bizarre question, while she tried to calm herself down.
"Oh, this," Walter said, looking down at the half eaten candy, before he looked up at grinned at Hermione. "My son brought a box of my favorite candy. He is very thoughtful and can be quite the gentleman. Just imagine how thoughtful and romantic he would be if he was together with you."
Harry only laughed harder at the display and Hermione could feel her face burning by now.
"Walter!" Hermione huffed in distress, "I think you had enough candy for today, don't you think."
Before he could say anything, Hermione took the candy from his hand, grabbed the large half empty box, and glared at the elderly man, whose face dropped dramatically at the loss of his candy.
"I will store them for you, until you come down from your sugar rush, Walter. And stop pairing me off to your son. He is already in a happy relationship."
"Oh. Right," Walter said with a little frown, before he smiled widely at Hermione, "But if he wasn't, I will make sure that he asks you out, my dear. Don't worry."
"I… Walter!"
"Hey Dad," came a voice from the entrance door, which she knew all too well. "I brought you some coffee from the kitchen, the one you like."
Walter only grinned further to Hermione, who couldn't even look at the newcomer. Walter leaned closer and whispered a little too loud, "See, he is such a thoughtful, charming boy. A true gentleman. Just imagine being with him and in no time you would be family, my dear. Not that you think that you aren't already considered as a family. But being with him, you would be official a family member. A Harris. Dr. Granger-Harris. It does has a ring to it."
Hermione's mouth dropped in disbelief, as Walter stood up, patted Hermione's hand gently, took his candy and walked towards his son.
"Seth, my boy! You are a godsend. I was just talking with dear charming Hermione about you."
Harry begun to openly laugh at the scene.
Hermione instantly walked away from the group, grabbed some papers, her bag and walked towards the exit, not able to look at anyone in the face.
"I…I.. Forgot something… need to finish it. Will come back later…after I finish it," Hermione babbled out and left the building, as fast as possible.
30th October 2011, Fort Polk Military Base, Vernon Parish, Louisiana, USA
Hermione
Everything was silent in the lab, except for the working machines and running computer, while Hermione prepared the highly contagious cells extracted from the infected arm with specially tagged enzymes to induce gene expression, hoping that she would have better luck at inducing them to produce the whole Z-Virus that had imbedded its genetic code into the host's nucleus than she did with healthy cells. In both cases, the cells only produced the mutated protein in either an active or inactive state, but there had to be a way to make them rebuild the complete retrovirus for it to have spread around the world in the first place
Walter had gone to bed, two hours ago, but Hermione couldn't bring herself to do the same. Walter and Hermione theorized that by simply curing the damage of the mutated protein in the body, the prion would still kill the victim like all the other animals did. What they needed was to find a way to make the prion ineffective in the human body and not deadly, and for that, they needed to understand the virus that produced it.
Hermione yawned and blinked a few times, before she looked up at the watch and noted that it was already three in the morning. She sighed deeply and knew that she would have to stop eventually, before she made an accident or mistakes that bore consequences for their work.
Hermione held her breath as she completed the final step of her test on the cell culture—adding a fluorescent tag that would stick to only the mutated gene, showing if there were any extra copies of it floating around. An optical microscope was the fastest way to see this. She prepared a slide and observed it under an ultraviolet lamp.
What she saw was almost a completely different cell culture. These cells weren't reanimated. They were dying, in the very familiar pattern of a viral infection. The fluorescent dye lit up the nuclei, where the gene was normally housed, but it also lit up many dots where extra copies were floating in the cytoplasm—whole viral particles.
Hermione carefully placed the slide back in a quarantine chamber, with a stasis charm, put away all her magical devices and ensured that the sample was safe, before she left the lab. A muggle soldier stood outside the building and upon seeing her, he addressed her formally. She told him quickly that she was going to Walter's place and would be back in a few minutes. Since Walter lived in the same building, which was only a few minutes walk away, she refused the escort.
Hermione rushed towards the building and knocked gently at the door, and called out Walter's name several time. She hoped that she hadn't woken anyone up, but unfortunately, it wasn't so and to her dismay, the door next to Walter's opened, and his son, Seth stood sleepily, with disheveled hair, in boxer shorts and topless, which showed his absolute perfectly shaped chest. Hermione blushed furiously at the view, especially remembering the teasing Walter and Harry did two weeks ago and for some reason they still kept doing it.
"Hermione? Is everything ok?" Seth asked, as he began to wake up.
"Yes, I'm sorry, Seth," Hermione said and tried to focus on his face, instead of his body. "I have a break though and need Walter in the lab immediately."
Seth nodded, "Well, my dad can sleep through anything. Fortunately for you, I have the key's to his apartment. Just give me a sec."
Hermione nodded and waited. A moment later, Seth walked out, still in only shorts and gave her a lopsided smile, which only made her blush further, as he walked inside Walter's place. The logical side of er mind wondered if he wasn't freezing, since the days were getting cooler now, not that she minded the view.
Hermione shook her head at her own uncharacteristic thoughts, probably caused by the lack of sleep and muttered to herself, "Merlin, I'm turning into a hormonal teenager."
"Hermione?" Walter's voice caught her attention, as he stood at his door in his morning coat. "Is everything alright?"
Hermione couldn't stop her smile, as she faced Walter. Not even his son, who stood behind Walter, could distract Hermione this time, as she informed him, "I did it, Walter. I isolated the retrovirus."
31st October 2011, Fort Polk Military Base, Vernon Parish, Louisiana, USA
Harry
Halloween was the day of the year, Harry would never come to enjoy. Not even after Voldemort's demise did he find pleasure in the holiday. Too many bad memories had been made on these days. It became more difficult when Teddy became more aware of the holiday and wanted to participate in it. He thanked Merlin that he had Hermione and Ron at that time, who gave Teddy what he needed. Dressing him up, from pumpkin, werewolf, various superheroes, and once even as Harry Potter, which had been everyone's favorite. He had to smile at the memory.
It had been Ron's idea to go as Harry Potter on Halloween. He had dug out his first year pictures of Hogwarts and Teddy had changed his appearance to look like an eleven year old boy, even though he had been nine at that time. He remembered quite clearly, how he had stood before his son, quite shocked and with wide eyes, thinking for a moment if he was dreaming and seeing his younger self. It had been the most hilarious and the handful of good experience of Halloween for Harry.
He shook himself out of the memory and went back to his work. It went unsaid that this particular holiday wouldn't be celebrated this year. Not after they had their own never ending horror show, just right outside these walls. He was one of the people in charge of the security on the base. Unknowing to the General and the Sergeants, Harry with help of the two other wizards, had cast several protection wards and carved invisible runes around the fences and walls of the base, which would make them stronger and more withstanding against attacks or time and weather forces.
His thoughts were interrupted when suddenly the two wizards, Duncan McGonagall and Daniel Hale, came towards Harry. Upon seeing their grim and pale faces, he knew that something was wrong. He excused himself and closed the distance between them.
"What's wrong?" Harry immediately asked, as soon as he was close to them.
"My wife, she was listening to the Wireless Radio and," Duncan paused and tried to stay calm, as he continued, "there has been an outbreak in Hogwarts, today. Apparently they have the situation under control, but didn't say how great the damage and casualties were. We… I would be grateful, if we could call my aunt through your mirror. She isn't picking up from mine. Maybe she forgot it somewhere and since your mirror is connected with other people-"
"Yes, of course!" Harry cut in and cursed under his breath, "Merlin! I just need a minute, to give them some excuse to leave. We need to tell Hermione about it."
"I will go ahead and inform her," Daniel spoke up and left swiftly.
Harry could feel himself shake at the thought of the outbreak in Hogwarts. To think that so many children had been at the center of an outbreak that Teddy could have been among this attack…terrified him. He could only imagine the horror the parents of the children must feel, hearing that their children had been in danger. He could barely remember the excuse he gave Ford, something about Teddy being sick or something, before he hurriedly left with Duncan.
He rushed to his flat and was met by a very pale anxious Hermione. They went into Harry's apartment and as soon as the door was closed, Hermione placed several spells around the room, to ensure their privacy. Luckily, Teddy and Jon were staying with Duncan's wife at his home.
Harry didn't say anything, as he grabbed his mirror and begun to call at first the Headmistress, but just as Duncan said, no one picked up the mirror. Next, he called Arthur's mirror and sighed in relief as soon as the mirror opened and a rather pale and shaken Arthur answered the call.
"Arthur!" Harry exclaimed in relief. "We heard about the outbreak in Hogwarts. What happened? Where is Professor McGonagall? Is everyone ok?"
"It has been terrible. Terrible indeed." Arthur shook his head in distress. They could hear the loud commotion in the background. Children were crying or shouting at something.
"Minerva is alright. It was close, but she is fine. Merlin, it could have ended in a disaster had someone acted the wrong way."
"What happened, Arthur?" Harry asked again a little impatiently.
"Everything seemed like any other day and after breakfast the children headed off to their classes. The forth years headed to the potion lab and… they went into the class when they saw Horace turning into one of the things. Thank the Gods, a few children were smart enough to get everyone out, while holding off Horace. I don't even want to imagine the scenario, if they hadn't reacted that way. But… but one of the children… I don't know exactly how it happened, but she pushed someone out of the way, when Horace was about to bite the child, and by doing so, she got bitten."
Hermione gasped in horror at the information.
Arthur's eyes filled with tears, as he continued, "We were too late when we reached the lab. Two of her friends, tried to get her out of Horace's clutches, but it was no use. Even with their spell casting, which wasn't strong enough, especially under such duress… they couldn't free their friend. They watched her be being eaten by… by that thing. I've.. I've never seen something so…" Arthur shook his head and brushed a few tears away, "Never seen something this horrible. The wound on the child was too severe. We couldn't cut off the limb to save her. She was barely alive and… and in so much pain. We tried to ease her pain, as much as we could, but she lost too much blood and… after she died, Minerva, she… she made sure that the Jennifer, that was her name, wouldn't turn. Merlin, she was only fourteen years old."
Harry was completely shocked at the news. The other wizards were completely pale and shaken and Hermione was silently crying in the back.
"How did this happen? No undead could have entered the castle," Duncan asked next to Harry.
Arthur shook his head and said, "Minerva and Poppy examined the Horace's body, after we… killed him, and we didn't find any injuries or bite wounds on the body that could indicate any infection. Poppy believes that he had died naturally in his sleep and must have turned afterwards. His sleeping quarters were right behind the classroom. Merlin! It could have been worse. If one of the younger classes had potions this morning…" Arthur cut himself off and shook firmly his head, as if to erase the horrible thought.
"Where is my Aunt, Mr Weasley?" Duncan asked after a moment.
"Minerva cancelled every class for today and got everyone into the great hall, while the ones that were closely involved are in the infirmary to make sure that they weren't otherwise injured and to console them. Molly is with them as well. Minerva plans to put new safety protocol, as soon as she returns."
Harry gave the mirror to Duncan and let them both talk, while he walked towards a distraught Hermione and pulled her into his arms, and let her cry.
"Merlin, I hate Halloween," Harry muttered quietly to himself.
A/N: Hope you liked it! :)
