Real glory springs from the silent conquest of ourselves.
- Joseph P. Thompson
Severus was holed up in the would-be nursery, completely ignoring the fact that the walls needed finishing, and the changing table had yet to be put together. Instead, he was sitting in the rocking chair in complete darkness, plumbing the recesses of his mind. He'd begun to have a splitting headache ages ago, but he continued to search for the seam. He knew it would be there somewhere, and if he could find it he could tear it open and see what was hidden behind it.
The door creaked open, but to his relief the light in the hall had already been extinguished. With his hearing as sensitive as it was he could hear her padding gently into the room, and tried not to wince at the sound of sock brushing carpet.
"I think you should stop for the night," she whispered. "I know you won't want to talk because of the headache, but I'd prefer your silent company to Ron's rather chatty company."
Severus would have groaned at that if he didn't think it would split his head in two. Her hallucinations were growing worse, and that was the reason he wanted to keep working at this. Yet it was the reason she needed him to stop, at least for the night.
"I brought a headache potion," Hermione coaxed quietly. "I'll even massage your scalp if you come to bed with me."
"You needn't beg," he whispered hoarsely as he drug himself out of the rocking chair. "I won't leave you to be tormented by Ronald Weasley."
"Tonight he seems to be set on talking about Quidditch," Hermione said with a light airy laugh. "I have years of practice learning to tune that out."
Severus wrapped his arm around her shoulder and allowed her to lead him to their bedroom with his eyes clamped shut against the pulsing headache. He knew where she had gotten the headache potion from, and it was laced with dreamless sleep, so he did not want to take it until he was lying down in their bed. He had brewed that particular potion after her first seizure since moving to England and he hadn't anticipated needing to use it himself.
"Hey Hermione," Harry said cheerfully as he poked his head into her office. "Do you want to eat lunch together? The cafeteria has scalloped potatoes today."
"Are you really still obsessed with scalloped potatoes?" Hermione chuckled, keeping her eyes locked firmly on Harry's so they would not wander to the hallucination of Ronald standing behind him.
"How could I not be," he laughed. "They're delicious."
"I suppose I could go for scalloped potatoes," Hermione shrugged, shuffling out from behind her desktop join him.
Harry gave her a beaming smile when she pressed her hand to her lower back, and knew that he wanted to say something about how much bigger she had gotten since he had seen her three weeks ago. She had to laugh at that, imagining that he had gotten a terribly hormonal reaction from Ginny for saying something along those lines to her.
"Yes, I'm bigger," she laughed as she joined him out in the hallway and started to waddle down the hall alongside him. "I imagine over the course of the next ten weeks I will get even bigger."
"You still look beautiful," he said somewhat awkwardly, but with a continued smile.
Hermione tried to ignore the way that Ronald glowered at Harry as she chuckled.
"Oh don't worry, I haven't had any concerns about size," Hermione told him easily. "I spent too long looking like a half dead skeleton to be upset about gaining weight."
"Well, you know what's good for weight gain don't you?" Harry asked while rubbing his somewhat rounded belly jokingly.
"Scalloped potatoes," the both laughed at the same time.
Hermione laughed more heartily when a passing walked right through the apparition of Ron, dispersing him. She felt a weight lift from her chest when Ronald was no longer walking with them. Harry slid his arm around her shoulder like old times as the two of them slid into one of the lifts with a crowd of other's heading down to lunch.
Her amusement with the familiarity was short lived when she felt a tremor roll through her shoulders. She tried to play it off like nothing had happened, but she felt Harry immediately angle himself toward her. She attempted to offer him a smile, but a second tremor rolled through her causing both of her arms to jerk before she could clench her fists and control the movement.
"You know I've completely forgotten, I was supposed to have lunch at home with Severus," Hermione said hurriedly as she shuffled out from under Harry's arm and out of the lift when the door opened. "Rain check on those potatoes?"
"Uh sure," Harry said, hurrying out of the lift behind her much to her consternation. "I'll walk you to the floo."
Hermione tucked her hands into the pockets of her robes to hide the that they were spasming uncontrollably now. Harry kept pace with her despite the fact that she was as close to jogging as she could manage with her size and the somewhat crowded hallway.
"Hermione, what's happening?" Harry whispered as he stepped forward to block the flow of traffic so she would have first dibs on the floo in front of them.
She looked at him, prepared to spit out a lie, but his face was so contorted with concern that she couldn't seem to find the words to deceive him. Instead she pulled on of her trembling hands out of her robe and showed it to him as she stepped into the fireplace.
"I'm about to have a seizure," she whispered back. "I need to get home."
Harry's brows both flew up into his hair as he grabbed a handful of floo powder from the pot on the wall. He surprised her by stepping into the fireplace with her before dropping the lot of it at their feet. He wrapped his arm protectively around her, pulling her closer to him in an effort to keep her from falling as he waited for her to announce their destination. Hermione said it quickly, and she was glad for his presence when they started to spin away and her arms were trembling too much for her to tuck them into her body safely on her own. He held the down with his own while they whipped past grate after grate.
They arrived at her house quickly, and the pair of them staggered awkwardly out of the grate with Harry struggling to keep her held against him as the seizure began to really take hold of her. She had her eyes open long enough to see that Severus had been sitting on the floor scratching notes out on parchment that was spread out in front of him before she clenched her eyes shut trying to suppress the groan that was forcing it's way out of her as the muscles in her chest.
"Jesus what do I do?" she heard Harry asking as her knees buckled on her and the only thing keeping her from falling on the floor was his tenuous grip on her flailing body.
"Help me lay her on her side," she heard Severus say distantly over the roaring that had started in her ears. "No not there, she'll hurt herself on the flag stones."
Both men could only guess as to if Hermione could even hear them talking as they settled her on the ground. Severus made her as comfortable as he could on their living room carpet, sliding a pillow from under the couch under her head to keep her from slamming it onto the floor. Harry stood off to the side once she had been laid own, watching in abject horror as he very pregnant body flailed helplessly on the floor. He was horribly reminded of what she had looked like when under the point of Ron's wand and it brought tears to his eyes but he fought to keep them from falling.
After what seemed like a lifetime to him her body fell still. Harry watched as Severus tore his gaze away from his watch and immediately reached out to press his fingers to Hermione's jugular. Harry was worried that she wasn't moving at all now, but some of the concern had bleed out of Severus's face as he took stock of his wife's vitals and that reassured Harry.
"How long had she been seizing before you arrived?" Severus asked quietly as he pushed her hair back so he could see her face.
"I'm not sure," he admitted. "A couple seconds? It started while we were in the lift, but the worst of it didn't start until we were in the floo."
"So the entire episode was less than sixty seconds," Severus said, nodding to himself before turning his full attention on Hermione and starting to whisper so lowly Harry nearly couldn't hear him. "I need you to open your eyes sweetheart. I know it hurts, I'll be quick."
Harry watch helplessly from off to the side as Severus made Hermione follow his finger back and forth before lighting the tip of his wand and shining it in her eyes. He had never seen his former teacher look as kind and loving as he did when he brushed his thumb over his friends cheek as he told her she could close her eyes. He then began casting spells that Harry did not even recognize over Hermione quickly reading the results that were being presented to him in the form of different colored runes hovering just above her body.
"Blood pressure is in the tank, but everything else looks fine. Philip is a little agitated, but healthy," Severus said in that same quiet whisper that meant he was talking to Hermione. "I don't want you going back to work today so there is no hurry to get up off the floor if you aren't ready."
"Harry saw," she ground out, eyes still firmly closed, and Harry realized she had no idea he was still here.
"He isn't going to say anything," Severus said soothingly, gently running his hands through her hair until the lines of worry fell from her face.
"What happened," Harry asked quietly, his voice surprisingly hoarse. "Why is she having seizures?"
"Her cancer has returned," Severus said in a feral voice, looking at Harry as if he hated him. "And we can't do anything about it because of the interfering ministry!"
"What?" Harry gasped unable to process what he had heard.
"Did you remember something?' Hermione rasped, sounding somewhat confused.
"Not enough," he moaned turning away from Harry to hide the way he was breaking. "I was able to recall enough to know that we had he cure. We had it in our hands, and now I can't seem to find it within my mind."
"What," Harry repeated again, his head feeling light as he tried to process everything they were saying.
"Hermione found the cure for cancer," Severus said, on his feet and rounding on Harry with rage in his eyes in less than a second. "She sent her research off to the ministry, and suddenly we had an unspeakable in our home, accusing us of violating the statute of secrecy, and obliviating us."
"What," Harry repeated, landing roughly on the floor when his legs gave out beneath him. "They wouldn't. they couldn't just let her die like that."
"They don't care about one person's life, don't be niave," Severus scathed. "Now our only hope is for me to pull these memories out from where they've been buried beneath my occlumency shields. And believe me I will find them if it's the last thing I do. I will not stand by and watch my wife die!"
"Severus," Hermione said quietly, her eyes open once more, but pain clear on her face. "Please don't yell, it wasn't Harry who did it."
"Maybe not," Severus retorted, dropping his voice several notches. "But he is the poster boy for the ministry, that has to say something."
Harry tugged at his own hair as he thought about what he had just heard. Hermione was sick again? How were they managing to function while their baby was at risk, and Hermione's life was at risk? Why would an unspeakable have been sent to them? Was there anything he could do to help them?
"Do you know who the unspeakable was?" Harry asked in a hoarse whisper.
"The man never gave his name," Severus explained. "But he had a trainee with him. It was Rita Skeeter."
Harry's blood boiled at the name, and if he hadn't been motivated to raise hell when he returned to work he was now. Rita Skeeter was not going to hurt Hermione again, and not in such a lethal way. He'd go straight to Kingsley and he wouldn't leave until he had his way. There was no way to un-wipe their memories, but Harry might be able to get his hands on their research. The unspeakable surely would have collected it and filed it away in the department of mysteries.
"I'll have his name by the end of the day, if not more than that," Harry said as he pulled himself up to his feet. "I'll make sure your office is covered Hermione. I hope you feel better soon."
Harry took a bit of their floo powder and climbed back into the fire place, quickly announcing his intended destination and disappearing.
"Tell me again," Hermione whispered into the darkness.
They were laying together in bed. The sun had gone down hours ago, but Hermione had awoken once the headache potions had worn off and she had been full of questions. Severus would not allow her to sit up or move about much, but was doing his best to keep her happy by answering any question she asked.
"I found the sieve sometime this morning," he repeated. "Some memories were fully intact such as the night they came into our home, and your face when you told me you had finally found the cure. The others are blurry or missing. I've written down what I've been able to work out. I don't have the full answer, but I know there is a spell and a potion involved. The only memory I can pull up of casting a spell however is of myself casting the spell that reveals whether or not a patient has cancer, I was casting it on a rat."
"That feels as if it is familiar, or as if it should be," Hermione said quietly. "Like a vague sense of dejavu. I can't make anything clear, but I feel like I know something about that rat."
"Her name was Bertha," Severus said distractedly.
"Yes, that is familiar too," Hermione said before groaning. "This is so frustrating. Why can't I just remember?"
"You've been obliviated," Severus shushed her, running his hand soothingly down her back. "Let me do the work of trying to remember things."
"I hate this," Hermione admitted in a broken voice. "I'm so afraid."
"I am not going to allow anything bad to happen to you," Severus swore, wrapping his arms protectively around her. "I am going to find the answers, and I am going to fix this. I promise you."