Author's Notes: Before anybody criticizes my Latin, I never actually intended it to be proper Latin. It is instead a strange, Wizarding perversion of Latin, like so many of their spells and potions.
Chapter 20
Hermione stumbled out of the fireplace and examined her surroundings. She seemed to be in some sort of wooden cabin with neither magical nor non-magical comforts. She brushed the soot off her robes and pulled the hood of her cloak down.
A moment later she was joined by Luna, who happily bounced over as she brushed herself off. There was a flare of green light as Irma stepped through the fire as well.
"Where are we?" asked Hermione.
"My cousin's hunting cabin," explained Irma. "He gave us permission to use his land to practice apparition and any other spells we may study for which we need to be outside or more space than we have in my office."
"Ah," said Hermione.
"Come along," said Irma. "We'll be practicing outside. The last thing we need is to accidentally damage something or for you to splinch yourselves around a chair."
Irma led the two out of the cabin. Hermione shivered once before she pushed down her hood and wrapped her scarf around her head and hat. She then pulled her hood back up. It was better not to have any spells-even warming charms-on ones self when learning a new form of magic, something Hermione had learned the hard was several months before.
The area was beautiful, Hermione admitted to herself. There was a large, iced over lake, surrounded on all sides with an old, thick forest. Next to the cabin was a small clearing which seemed to lead to a road. Though the snow was a foot and a half deep, Hermione could still tell where the road was because of the long even space between trees and bushes which curved out of view.
Irma motioned with her hand, clearing two perfect circles of snow, down to the yellow grass. "When I attended Salem, they taught students to apparate in their sixth and seventh years. The instructor told us all one needed was destination, determination, and deliberation. She had it right on some aspects, but it was obvious she'd never studied witchcraft. Luna, if you were to apparate, how would you do so?"
"I would decide where I wanted to apparate to. Then, I would imagine myself standing there, whole. Finally, I would will myself there, using some of my magic, keeping in mind that I wanted all my body parts and clothing to remain where they are supposed to be."
"Hermione, how would you apparate?"
"I would decide where I wanted to be and will myself-my entire self there." Hermione paused. "Apparition seems to be more instinctual than intellectual. With that in mind, I would let my body and my magic take charge-to an extent."
"Hermione is right. Apparition is instinctual. It's one of the most common forms of childhood accidental magic," explained Irma. "Splinching occurs most often when apparition is over thought. That said, loosing concentration can also cause splinching. Now, Hermione, I want you to try to apparate in the manner you described to the circle on the right. Luna, try to apparate into the circle on the left."
Hermione quickly did as ordered. She focused on the circle, on the feeling of being pulled through a straw, on wanting to be in that circle. And then she began to will herself into the circle, allowing the minimum of magic to do this. For a moment, she felt herself being squeezed and her vision waver. That moment quickly passed.
"Good Hermione," said Irma. "You almost had it. Allow a bit more magic this time. Luna, don't over think this. Try again. "
She nodded and did as instructed. She almost lost her concentration when she felt herself being pulled through what felt like a straw, but managed to regain control. Hermione blinked at the change in view.
She'd done it! She had apparated!
"Good job, Hermione. Now, apparate back to your starting position."
"That's going to leave a mark," said Luna.
"Oh shut up," said Hermione, as she disinfected the cut.
Two hours into the lesson, Hermione had landed wrong and fell. At the time she hadn't noticed, but once they were back at Hogwarts, the pain had begun to set in. Luna had helped Hermione limp back to their tower rooms, where Hermione had pulled up her skirts to find her left knee all but bereft of skin. By that point the blood had slowed, beginning to congeal into a scab.
"Just give me some gauze," continued Hermione, her bed mood showing through.
Luna handed her the gauze, which Hermione placed upon her knee and then a roll of bandages. Hermione carefully wrapped the bandages around her knee, lower thigh and upper calf, to ensure that the bandage stayed in place before tying it off.
"So now we know how to apparate," said Luna. "What potions are you going to make?"
"Veritas Solution. It's less powerful than Veritaserum, but just as effective. Not to mention that Veritas Solution leaves the… victim aware enough to actually answer questions beyond yes or no, unlike Veritaserum. I've ordered the rarer ingredients for Polyjuice, they should be here next week. Uh… and I'm looking into sleep potions, trying to find something which would work for our purposes. But I haven't gotten very far yet. What about you?"
"I've been putting together first aid kits we can fit into our belts, including healing potions," explained Luna. "Should we ask the twins about some of their ideas? I mean, we won't tell them anything, but they might have some good ideas."
Hermione let out a yawn as she went through the book before her. It was amazing just who they let third years take out. Sleep and Potions by Melanie Drake was one of the most advanced texts on sleep potions in the library. Technically, it was a medical text meant for student Healers.
Absentmindedly, Hermione wrote down the name and edition on a growing list of books she intended to buy or had already ordered for her own use. Included in the list were Moste Potente Potions and a number of medical, potion, and charms texts which she had found to be particularly useful.
At least now she had time to devote to potions research. The belts and pouches had been finished the day before. The wand holsters had been completed the previous week. All that was left was for Luna to finish her part of the project, namely the embroidery.
She pet Crookshanks with her right hand as she took notes with her left. Most sleep potions, it seemed, were meant to remain in liquid form. From what she could see, turning them into some for of gas would be incredibly difficult. For a moment, she considered putting a potion in a perfume bottle and spritzing it at whomever she wanted to knock out. Hermione couldn't help but giggle at that ridiculous thought.
Her eyes narrowed as she read a passage on potions meant to make dreams more vivid.
"A variant of the Sands of Sleep, Dormita Sand is noted for its ability cause the most vivid of dreams in those who are suffering from sleep disorders such as insomnia. This potion is not recommended for those suffering Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as it…"
Hermione put a book marker there before turning to the index. The Sands of Sleep sounded promising. Upon realizing that the potion was not in the book, Hermione let out a string of curses, before writing down the title. She'd look for it later in the library.
Several potions later, Hermione stopped short. She'd never heard of Dreamless Sleep before. As she read, a selfish part of Hermione reared its head. A part of her that was tired of sleeping so short an amount of time each night. A part of her that never wanted to go through one of those nightmares again.
She seized upon the part of the text which mentioned that it would allow for her to sleep without dreaming. The part which mentioned that it was useful in aiding and speeding up recuperation. She skimmed the text for warnings, not paying much attention at all.
Not allowing herself to rethink what she was about to do, Hermione went to her trunk and pulled out her potion ingredients and her cauldron. She gathered the needed ingredients and copied the recipe on a spare piece of parchment. If she started now, the potion would be finished in time for her to go to sleep the next evening.
Luna blinked at the sight before her. For the first time since the Dementor attacks, her sister seemed to be well rested. She smiled and turned back to her breakfast, happy for this change. It seemed that the nightmares had finally begun to fade.
"So, what are we going to do today?" asked Luna.
"What we do every day, Pinky," said Hermione, happily.
"Huh?" said Ron as Luna gave her sister a confused look.
"We're going to take over the world," said Harry.
"We are?" said Ron.
Hermione and Harry shared a look before shaking their heads. Maybe it was a recent Muggle reference. It was the only think Luna could think of.
"When are we doing this?" asked Luna. "After the Quidditch game?"
"That was yesterday," pointed out Hermione, referencing the Slytherin-Ravenclaw game of the morning before. "Or do you mean the Gryffindor-Slytherin game on the fifth?"
"That's the one."
Hermione shook her head. "There's either going to be a huge party which I have to be at, or I'm going to spend the night comforting the boys. Not to mention that we have lessons the next morning. We need to be awake for that. What about Friday the fourth? The night before the game. I don't think anybody would be searching for me then and we can be half asleep for the game-nobody would notice."
Luna nodded her agreement. "I think that would work. How are you coming on the potions?"
"Veritas Solution is complete-there are about sixteen doses per potion. Polyjuice should be done in three weeks-just in time for the fourth. I'm looking for a good sleep potion. I found a reference to something called the Sands of Sleep, but I haven't been able to find a decent description or recipe anywhere. I don't even know if I'm on the wrong track."
"I've heard of the Sands of Sleep. They were inspired by the story about the Sandman putting sand in people's eyes to make them sleep. Or maybe they were the sands that the Sandman used. The Sandman could just be a historical figure which Beedle the Bards tales are based off of."
"What do you mean?" asked Hermione.
"Have you ever heard the tale of the Deathly Hallows?" asked Luna, a mischievous look upon her face.
"What's that?" asked Harry.
Hermione looked up to see an owl, heavily burdened with a package flying her way. "A book I ordered. I think."
Hermione quickly cleared some space for the bird to land. She took the package from the owl and pushed a glass of water in front of the tired creature's beak. The owl gratefully drank the water and accepted the offered bacon.
Hermione noted the return address upon the package. She'd ordered the books through a second hand book store, which specialized in finding out of print and older editions of books. Hermione put the package in her pack, deciding to open it in the tower rooms, rather than someplace where her slightly questionable books could be seen.
"Found it!"
Luna looked up from the pouch she was embroidering for added strength and space. "Found what?"
"The Sands of Sleep. It's in Moste Potente Potions-one of the books I received this morning," explained Hermione. "Listed to this: 'The Sands of Sleep is a sleep potion in sand form. To use, make contact between the Sands and the intended target. Depending upon exposure, a human may be unconscious for ten minutes to ten days.'"
"How do you expose somebody to the Sands?" asked Luna.
"It suggests placing it on furniture or in food," said Hermione. "But it seems that so long as it gets into the body in some way, it will work. From the looks of it, the Sands are powerful enough to work by absorbed through a person's skin."
Luna nodded her understanding. "We'll figure out how to use it once it's made." She paused. "Can you make it?"
"It looks a bit difficult. I think I'll have to give it my undivided attention, but I can manage. The potion should only take four hours to make. And look at this-I have almost all these ingredients in my kitchen at home. I think we may have to beg the House Elves for cooking spices."
"I'm sure they'll give it to us if we ask nicely," shrugged Luna.
"I suppose." Hermione absentmindedly put something in the cauldron containing the half finished Polyjuice potion. "Do you want to do it or should I?"
"What's wrong?" asked Hermione as she helped Irma reshelf books.
"They moved up Buckbeak's hearing to the eleventh of February," explained Irma. "I've found only two cases where they've allowed the animal to live. I need more time to research."
"Oh," said Hermione. "Do you need help?"
Irma shook her head. "You concentrate on your studies. I'll deal with this."
Hermione carefully mixed the potion clockwise as she noted the change of texture. At the fourth stir, she added ground lacewing flies. She watched through her goggles with amazement as the liquid quickly dried, turning into an almost sand like substance.
She'd used lacewing flies before, but never just their bodies. Generally, only their wings were used in potions. Hermione distinctly remembered the warning to never use the body of a lacewing fly in a potion in her texts, though the reasoning had never been explained.
At the time when she'd been preparing the potion ingredients, Hermione had been unsure the purpose of the lacewing fly bodies. Not only was it one of two ingredients not commonly found in a kitchen, but it was also never used in potions-to her knowledge. However, it seemed to simultaneously imbue some sort of magic to the potion and dry it up into the sand like substance.
Once the liquid had been completely absorbed, Hermione placed the potion into a beaker and sealed it. Eyes narrowed, Hermione carefully cleaned the cauldron and any surface the sand might have ended up on. The last thing she wanted was to expose herself or Luna.
That done, she examined the sand through the glass. How were they to administer it?
Hermione let out a mental sigh. She and Luna could figure that out later.