Chapter 25:- The Other Potions Master

The sound of loud, rich laughter awoke Severus from his musings as he stared at the wizard before him.

"Don't look so surprised," Tolmie said with a snort.

Severus closed his slightly agape jaws with a loud snap. He had thought he was ready for anything. He had had thought up every plan and counter-plan, but this wasn't even close to what he imagined.

"What are you going to do with me?" he asked, as he steeled his face into a cold mask and brought his head up in defiance.

"Nothing," the older wizard said, a grin still plastered firmly on his face. "I just wanted to make sure you weren't going to come in here hexing me before I got a chance to explain everything to you."

Tolmie motioned towards two plush chairs that were in the room, and Severus reluctantly made his way over to one of them. He never took his eyes off the older wizard as he sat gracefully in the chair. He laid his arms on the armrests and sat tensely.

He waited until Tolmie was seated, before he gave him his best Potions Master sneer.

Tolmie's eyes lit up. "I bet that works well on your students," he said with a smile.

"Indeed," was Severus' only reply.

"Well," Tolmie started, while Severus watched him eagerly twirl his wand in his hand. "I am an Empath." The older wizard continued and then waited, watching the Potions Master's reaction.

Severus' features flickered for a brief moment before both of his eyebrows almost receded into his hairline.

Doctor Andrew Lopes made his way to the hospital wing of Calan Park. He really hated to over-medicate his patients, as some of the other facilities did. He preferred to treat them while they were lucid, not drugged up on every form of prescription known to mankind.

Thoughts were whirling around his head; the one that was furthermost in his mind was what were the underlining factors to make Hermione feel that she couldn't talk to him before attempting to take her own life. Hadn't he shown her kindness and compassion? Well, perhaps not in showing her the photos of her parents, but besides that, he had been nothing but patient with her.

Another thought reared to the front of his brain, if she had truly meant to go through with it, then why had she come to him in his dreams? He was a man of science and, up until recently, didn't believe in the supernatural. He wanted some answers, but wasn't too sure how to go about getting them.

He sighed loudly. 'Well here goes nothing,' he thought, as he opened the door to the hospital ward and stepped through.

Hermione was awake, staring at the wall. She was trying to think about everything, but her mind seemed so foggy. She hurt all over. Although she could now open up her other eye, her vision was still blurry and her head hurt with the bright lights of the room.

She heard the door open and she froze. 'What if it's 'the sadistic bastard' come back to taunt and hurt me again?' she thoughtas she silently began to cry. She didn't look up in the direction of the door; she kept her gaze firmly on wall to her right.

Andrew took in the scene before him; he knew she would be in pain, even with the heavy medication being given to her intravenously. He cleared his throat before speaking. "Hermione," he half-whispered before berating himself. 'What am I whispering for? This is my hospital, and I have to seem strong for all of my patients.'

Hermione was very special to him; he couldn't really explain it although he had some idea. It was as though he felt some kind of link to her, he was drawn to her, and he couldn't quite put his finger on it. It had to have something to do with the dream, no, the vision he had had of her a couple of nights ago. When he had been awakened by that image, he had a sensation of dread deep in the pit of his stomach. He never wanted to endure that feeling again, well, not if he could help it.

Crossing over to face her, he looked deep into her eyes. They seemed dead. He could tell she was alive, as her chest was rising and falling in slow breaths, but she wasn't really there.

"Hermione," he said, stronger this time as her eyes focused on him for a brief second, before taking on their previous glazed look.

"Why did you do it?" It was the only question he wanted answered right now, and the only thing that seemed to want to come out of his mouth.

He stood there staring at her. She didn't even blink. He could see the fresh tear tracks down her cheeks as his expression changed to one of concern.

'Give her some time,' he considered, as she held her blank appearance.

He heard the doorknob turn and looked over to the entrance; he missed the look of absolute terror that flashed briefly on Hermione's face before settling back to her calm exterior.

Walking through the door was Head Orderly Robert Finn. He was twirling a set of keys in his hand, and whistling out a tune. He abruptly stopped when his eyes settled on the doctor, and Robert gave him a grin.

"How's the patient doing, Doc?" he asked.

"Fine," Andrew replied with an air of defeat in his voice.

Robert walked around to stand next to the doctor and smirked to himself. He reached out his hand and brushed some of Hermione's loose hair out of her face.

It took every ounce of her inner strength not to recoil from his touch; however, she managed it, and his hand left her face.

Andrew reached over and checked the dressing on Hermione's neck. It looked as if it was healing nicely. Placing the dressing back over it, he looked into her eyes once more. Nothing.

Robert, feeling Andrew's apprehension spoke. "Give her little bit of time, Doc," he said, aiming, and succeeding, to put the measured amounts of concern in his voice. "She'll come around."

"I hope so," was all that Andrew said before giving her one more glance. "Well, I have other patients to attend to," he said, turning around quickly and exiting the room.

When the door closed, Robert got down on his haunches until he was eye to eye with Hermione. "You don't have to pretend like you're not there, Hermione," Robert said with an evil grin playing across his lips. "It's only me and you now, and I for one liked it better when you were being feisty," he said with a smirk.

Hermione was petrified, 'What is he going to do to now?' She maintained the far off look, but inside she was scared for her life.

Giving up, Robert stood once more. "Don't worry; we'll have you fixed up before you know it. I hope you haven't already forgotten our little talk yesterday." He spoke with a hint of malice in his voice. Noticing that her eyes suddenly filled with tears once more, he continued. "I see that you haven't, good. Until next time, Hermione, I'll be watching you."

He brought his hand up to caress her face; she felt sick to her stomach and quickly tried to pull her head away from him, however, he was too quick for her as he cupped her jaw in his hand and forced her to look at him.

"See, that wasn't so hard now, was it?" he asked.

A look of pure hatred mixed with panic emanated from her eyes, as the tears still fell.

"Good," he said, as he still held her face roughly with his hand. "I want you to loath me." Robert gave off a quick bark of laughter before letting go of her face.

He turned around to leave before coming back. Standing next to Hermione once more, he took his index finger and, reaching up seductively, outlined her right breast.

She shuddered against this unwanted attention and looked up into his eyes with a piercing glare that showed nothing more than the purest form of hatred she could muster.

Removing his finger, he just smiled at her, before heading for the door.

'If looks could kill,' he thought to himself, 'I would have just been struck down where I was standing.'

Severus just sat there with what he assumed was, a look of bewilderment on his face. Before he could say anything, Tolmie continued.

"I can feel other people's emotions, their true feelings, whether they be good or bad," Tolmie looked at the Potions Master's face before progressing. "I have had this gift or curse, depending on how you look at it, all of my life. I have grown to embrace it, if you will, and found it to be quite useful. Especially when Voldemort was in power; however, now that I don't have that problem anymore, I feel empty inside. That is to say, before you came along." He gauged the younger wizard features before him; Severus was opening his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but then closed it once more. Satisfied that he was not going to get any interruptions, Tolmie carried on.

"I can feel your power radiating from you; you are not a normal wizard that much I can tell. Your inner struggles are great, good and evil both play a part in your subconscious, though I see that you have chosen the correct side, at least that much is clear." He paused for a brief second before continuing. "Why, you may ask yourself, did I make myself known to you? That is quite simple, really -- because I feel a need in you. It is greater than you are. It is the need to succeed in everything you do. You feel indebted to someone, someone even more powerful than you are, although thankfully, they are working for the greater good of all wizarding kind. You are searching for someone," he said, whilst quickly turning to face the Potions Master. "Ah, it doesn't matter right now as we will get to that soon enough," he said kindly. "I'm sure that you want to know more about me."

He stood then and started pacing. "Where to begin, ah - okay, I am a self-taught Master of Potions." He looked over to Severus to see him just sitting there with a look of awe on his face. "My family was too poor to send me to Hogwarts and so, I taught myself everything and anything that I could get my hands on. Books were a form of escapism for me, and I thought with the right amounts of studying I could pick my family up from the proverbial gutter and live in the riches we deserved. That was before Voldemort rose to power and squashed any dreams out of my head," he said with hatred rising up in his voice. "I was left all alone, with no one to turn to; I only had my books with me and so I started to form a plan in my mind. I was going to find a potion that would exact my revenge. I got my hands onto every Potion book I could find. I taught myself Latin, Greek, French and German. I transcribed ancient texts. I was possessed; nothing was going to stop me taking out my revenge. It took me nearly twenty-seven years to find and make a potion that would rid the world of the scum, Voldemort. But alas, that was never meant to be."

He finished his monologue and took his seat once more. His chest was rising and falling quite fast as he tried to catch his breath.

"Now, tell me about the one you seek." He spoke with an air of power.

To say Severus was stunned into silence would have been an understatement. It took him a handful of seconds to recompose himself. "It was, I mean is, a student," he stated, still a little shocked at what he had just heard. "Her name is Hermione Granger, and she disappeared from the Final Battle and hasn't been seen since. Nobody knows of her whereabouts and I feel that I am at a complete loss as to why she would have fled," he finished, running his hands though his slightly greasy locks.

"And you believe her to still be alive?" Tolmie asked.

"Until it is proven otherwise, I feel compelled to continue searching for her, as per the Headmaster's orders," Severus replied, with a slight sigh.

"So, he is the one you feel so fiercely loyal to?" Tolmie enquired. When Severus nodded his head slightly, Tolmie continued.

"Very well then, do you wish to join me? I think that I have a primeval Potions text around here somewhere. I must warn you, however," he looked Severus in the eye and a seriousness passed over his face, "most of these texts are Dark, pretty evil stuff, and were they to fall into the wrong hands, we could very well be looking at a new Dark Lord rising."

"I will swear a blood oath to you now-if you wish it," Severus said, his features serious, and Tolmie could sense he was being honest.

"No," Tolmie said, with a small laugh. "That won't be necessary."

With that being said, Tolmie stood up and handed Severus back his wand. Gesturing for him to follow, they both made their way out into the library.

A/N: And the plot thickens!

Disclaimer: Am making no money off this little story however, I am having a blast writing it.