25. Curing more people

After Severus was done with his last class of the day he decided to work some more on that potion book. Since he already had taken his shower earlier and the class had been the first year students he had had an easy time and didn't even get close to breaking a sweat. He knew Bobbie was in the Infirmary with Poppy who needed some help with the end of the month inventory, so he had about three hours until dinner would be served. He had made good progress and was hoping he would be able to hand it in to a publisher within the next few days. He only had a few finishing touches left to do. Today was the last day of November and he needed to replenish some of his potions soon anyway. This way he could run by the publisher and the apothecary in one trip.

He didn't get his hopes up too high though. This book wouldn't be the first one to be rejected and never get published. Many writers had tried and failed. He just hoped that the name he had made for himself with the invention of the cure for the Cruciatus insanity, the Muskle-Gro and the cure for Lycanthropy would inspire a publisher to at least take a closer look at it.

About 30 minutes before dinner he was satisfied enough with his manuscript to consider it finished. He put all of the parchments into a neat stack and tied them together with a string before he put the whole stack into the bag he usually took with him when he was going out for supplies. He had just laid it on top of the cupboard next to the door when Bobbie walked in.

"Looks like it is my turn for a shower," she said. "We cleaned out some cabinets and I got some spilled headache potion all over me. Poppy and I decided to reorganize a little. We put things we need more often into shelves where they can be reached without the stepladder."

"I think that is a splendid idea. I'd much rather you not climb any ladders in your condition. I will wait for you and then we can go to dinner together." He lifted her head and gently kissed her.

888

When they arrived in the Great Hall they saw that almost everybody had their noses in a skinny newspaper that only consisted of two pages. Bobbie asked, "What is going on? Since when does the newspaper come at dinner time?"

"I guess the Daily Prophet didn't want to wait with their breaking news and they printed a special edition," Minerva said and smiled at Severus while giving him her paper.

Severus and Bobbie sat down and read what it said. The headlines read The Cure for Lycanthropy is real and will be available soon! Underneath it was a large moving picture of everyone who had sat up on stage during the press conference in the morning.

Filius said, "Of course this was written by Rita Skeeter. Even though it sounds very reasonable you never know what is true and what isn't."

Severus said, "Quick-Quotes Quills were disallowed during the conference so whatever it is saying comes from her."

When Severus was done reading it he said with a tone of surprise in is voice, "Believe it or not, this is actually close to the truth beside the way she is describing everyone in the picture."

Minerva laughed and said, "From the way she described you it sounds like Rita Skeeter is fancying you, Severus."

"Good grief!" Severus growled and rolled his eyes. "Somebody keep that woman away from me."

"I told you I will have to beat the women off you with a stick." Bobbie grinned and winked at Minerva who grinned back.

"Could we please just go on with dinner?" Severus hissed and tossed the paper onto the table in front of him. He ignored the grins he saw on the teachers faces and started loading up his plate and began to eat.

888

When Severus and Bobbie came back to their quarters Severus said, "I actually intended to go to Diagon Alley during my free period tomorrow but now I don't know if this is such a good idea."

"Why not?" Bobbie asked.

"Because of this special edition newspaper. People will stop me on every street corner wanting to find out if it is true," he answered.

"Well, they all know that you are a teacher. Just tell them that it is true but you have no time to chat because you need to get back to the school," Bobbie suggested.

He sighed, "I suppose I don't have much of a choice. I need to stock up on some potion ingredients. I still have enough of the Lycanthropy potion for the full moon in three days but I need to have the ingredients ready in case this cure is taking off like the one against the Cruciatus insanity. By the next full moon in January we will likely need a lot more."

"How many people can you cure this time?" Bobbie asked.

"Provided anyone is signing up for it we should be able to cure 10 individuals at one time. Since these patients will gladly take the potion and won't resist like Thomson and the other two prisoners, Poppy and I can do two each and we have already three trained healers who also can cure two each," Severus said.

"I think they need to train a lot more healers to do this kind of stuff. There should be at least one or two in each hospital. I don't think you and Poppy should continue doing it. You both have a job and can't spend all night during every full moon in St Mungo's, especially on school nights. And sometimes Poppy has overnight patients."

"I have already spoken to Kingsley and Minerva about that. Especially since I need to do more research on the potion. There are a few children who also have the disease and the potion would surely be too strong for them."

"Don't you have to dilute the potion with distilled water before administering it? Would it be possible to calculate the diluting by the weight of the person? I don't know if you noticed it in all the excitement, with trying to administer the potion and not get bitten, but it looked to me that those who were a little lighter than others had a harder time getting back on their feet. I could be wrong since Oliver Thomson was the only healing I watched but when we saw those other ones after they had been cured in St Mungo's it sure seemed to be the case."

Severus stared at her in disbelieve and then said, "Are you sure?"

"Well, no, not entirely. But Hermione would know. She timed the whole thing and wrote everything down, including when people came back out of unconsciousness and how fatigued they were. The women who were lighter than the men had the hardest time to come around and Thomson, who is a tall man was much faster up on his feet than the other people."

"Right! This is brilliant! If that would be the case I could just dilute it some more. We need to weigh the people when they are signing up and then we can calculate the amount of the dilution. Could it really be that simple?" He beamed at her and hugged her exuberantly. "I need to call Hermione." And right away he got out his phone and dialed her.

Bobbie smiled seeing him like that and watched him talking things over with Hermione. She had been at home already but promised she would look at her notes first thing in the morning when she got back to work.

After Severus hung up the phone he looked at her and the look in his eyes went from excitement to compassion. He came to her and gently took her face in his hands and kissed her and said while putting his forehead to hers, "You look tired and I can see that your back is hurting. I hope you didn't overexert yourself today. Let's go to bed and I'll give you a back rub."

"I'd love that. Give it another month or two and I will be waddling like a duck," she said and smiled.

He put his arm around her waist and led her to the bedroom and said, "You will always be beautiful to me. I am also starting to get the highest respect for pregnant women."

Severus helped her out of her clothes and into the shower. When she was done he gave her the wide t-shirt she had started wearing a while ago because her silk sleepwear had gotten too tight for her growing belly. She decided she would buy a maternity gown when she was going to Diagon Alley with Hermione. She and Hermione had arranged to meet for lunch Saturday in two weeks at Hogsmeade and then they would go to Diagon Alley by side-along Apparation and do some Christmas shopping.

Severus made her comfortable and then he took his turn in the bathroom. When he came back he gave her a wonderful back massage after which she said, "Oh Baby that felt so good. Thank you. If I would be a cat I would have purred."

He smiled and kissed her, "Anything I can do for you and our little girl."

He pulled her to him and he molded himself against her back with his arm around her waist and his hand against her stomach. He nuzzled his nose into her hair and drew in her scent and kissed her on the side of her neck before he settled in to sleep. When Bobbie moaned and sidled up even closer to him he felt a wave of desire coming up in him.

As soon as Bobbie felt his hardness against her backside her tiredness evaporated and was replaced with an unbridled desire for him. She moaned and moved her hand in between them and stroked him. She heard Severus groan and felt him push himself into her hand. She pulled his pajama bottoms down and he rubbed himself against her and in between her thighs. When she pressed them together he gasped and pulled himself away to have enough room to hike up her shirt a little more and pull her panties down. By that time Bobbie's desire was in overdrive already.

When Severus probed her entrance with his silken shaft she drew in a sharp breath and he felt her moist and ready. He entered her slowly and savored the feeling of it. He fired her up even more by kissing and then gently sucking and biting the sensitive parts of the side of her neck and alternately stroking her sensitive nipples carefully with the pad of his thumb. When he heard her moaning with pleasure he started with long, slow strokes.

"Oh Severus...," she breathed while meeting each and every one of them. "Oh..."

Her throaty moans and the way she felt to him with each thrust were like instant gratification. He tried holding off some more and almost succeeded. But when she suddenly cried out his name and tightened around him he let himself go and met her in an overpowering climax. He clung to her while their bodies were shaking with pleasure in their release.

The time after was spent with gentle kisses, caresses and murmurings of love and devotion. Severus never thought he would ever say the things he was saying. He again thought about when Albus had been talking about the power of love and that he had always thought Albus being a little barmy. He now knew there was something to it. He didn't feel weak in these tender moments with his wife, he felt empowered.

He finally fell asleep with Bobbies back tugged against his front. Not that this sleeping position of spooning his wife was all that bad but he was looking forward to when they could get back to being in each others arms. He really missed it.

888

Severus and Poppy left for St Mungo's with several vials of potion in the early afternoon of December the 3rd. This time Frank Longbottom was teaching Severus's classes since Harry's skills were needed just in case something went awry and they needed defence against a fully developed werewolf. Two days earlier Severus had talked to Hermione about Bobbie's idea of figuring the strength of the potion according to the weight of the patient. Hermione's notes had confirmed what Bobbie had observed, that the heavier a person was the quicker they got their strength back. She had also said that about 40 people had already signed up on the two lists. Since it took some time and effort to search peoples backgrounds and if they qualified for financial aid, they had only had time to get three people approved so far.

They had decided to pick those three and seven from the list of those who were able to pay for their cure out of their own pockets. Hermione and Thomson had sent owls to the Wizards and Witches they had picked and told them to be at St Mungo's no later than 3:30 in the afternoon since the moon was rising shortly after 4 o'clock. Hermione had also called the hospital and told them that they needed to put each patient on a scale and make a note of their weight.

Severus had spent all of the night before calculating the strength of the potion to different weights and had made a chart which he fastened on the wall next to the scale as soon as he arrived. 15 minutes before they were going to cure the patients Severus mixed in the distilled water according to the weight of the individual person while Poppy and the healers paid attention. Everything was soon ready and the patients were in body binds. While Severus, Poppy and the three healers got ready to administer the potions there were five other healers from different hospitals behind a glass wall so they could learn how it was done by observing the entire process.

The new body binds that Harry, Neville and Ron had developed and now had even further improved worked perfectly, and even though the patients turned for a short time to werewolves, they were not able to move a finger - or paw - and do any damage.

Soon all ten patients were in separate rooms and under observation. After Severus, Poppy and the three healers answered a few questions for the five healers in training, everybody filed out to go their different ways.

888

Hermione called Severus the next morning. She had stayed overnight in St Mungo's to take notes on the proceedings, "Good news, Severus. Your calculations were spot-on. They all awoke within just minutes of each other and they all feel about the same. Yes, they are fatigued but nothing like the last time where the smaller patients were much worse off than the others."

"Thank you for letting me know. I suppose it is time to think about curing children. We should try it on young adults or teenagers first, just in case," Severus said.

"I agree!" Hermione said. "I will run it by the head healer of St Mungo's, since it looks like you and Poppy won't be there the next time. Those healers have to take on the task eventually."

"Well, let me know. We will have to move very slowly with trying it on children. I don't want anyone to get hurt. In any case, I'll have to go," Severus said.

"Yes, class is about to start... Oh, did Bobbie tell you about she and I are going to Diagon Alley?"

"Yes, Saturday after next. Take good care of her. She sometimes overtires herself."

"I will," Hermione promised.

They said their goodbyes and Severus walked to his class room.

888

On Monday morning 'The Daily Prophet' published a lengthy interview with one of the people who had been cured of their Lycanthropy the Thursday before. It turned out that the cure had been paid for him by the newspaper in exchange for an interview about the process. The man praised the cure, the healers and anybody and everything else that had to do with it. Needless to say the ensuing run to get healed by this new miracle potion was enormous.

Kingsley visited with Severus one evening a few days after the interview appeared in the Daily Prophet while Bobbie was out for a walk with the dogs. Severus who had actually not wanted to drink during Bobbie's pregnancy thought he would make an exception and offered Kingsley a drink. When he accepted Severus poured one for himself since he figured it wouldn't be polite to let him drink alone. They sat down in front of the fireplace and spoke about the interview in the newspaper when Kingsley mentioned, "I had no idea there were so many werewolves out there. There are double as many as what we had on the registration before the war. That shows you that about 50% weren't even registered."

"I don't really blame them. Fudge had at one time wanted them all rounded up and incarcerated. I'd rather try keeping my affliction a secret than losing my freedom," Severus said.

Kingsley stroked his chin in thought before he said, "I agree, which makes me think it may be time to get rid of that registry. Considering how many werewolves there are, there were very few new infections. It shows that they were careful not to infect anybody, either by taking the Wolfsbane potion or by locking themselves up."

"Unless the newly infected didn't register," Severus pointed out.

"Right, which proves my point about the registration being useless..."

Severus nodded slowly while swirling his drink around the glass. "We may get the werewolf population down to almost nothing within a year if we can train enough healers. With this Body-bind Curse Harry and his fellow Aurors perfected, there is almost no danger to the one administering the potion. I also don't have to waste time figuring out how to do it by injection."

"I agree but we need to teach it to Aurors all over the Wizarding population. Harry can't be everywhere during the full moon."

"Indeed!"

"Miss Granger mentioned there are requests for the cure from all around the world. Looks like we'll have our work cut out training people," Kingsley said.

"We may have to put an international convention together with 3-day training for healers and Aurors. The boys could teach the Body-bind and the healers form St Mungo's could teach the mixing and administering of the potion," Severus suggested.

"What about you? You don't want to be there?" Kingsley asked.

"Not if I can possibly help it," Severus said with a grin.

Kingsley laughed and said, "I had a feeling you were going to say that."

Severus smirked at Kingsley and said, "Well, you know how much I like large crowds and being the center of attention."

"I know, I know!" Kingsley waved it off.

In that moment the door opened and a half frozen Bobbie and two fluffed up dogs trotted in. Bobbie went straight to the fire and held her hands up to it and rubbed them together. "Brrr, I can't believe how cold it has gotten. Sorry Kingsley, I didn't mean to ignore you."

"Don't worry about it," Kingsley said.

He and Severus had remembered their manners and had gotten up.

"I can't believe you were out as long as you were," Kingsley continued.

"You guys sit back down. Don't forget I was born and raised in Canada. I can handle a little cold," she said with a smile and continued by pointing at the dogs. "Those two couldn't get enough of the snow."

"Yes, but next time take some gloves," Severus said with concern while rubbing her hands.

Benton had walked up to Kingsley who had sat down again and put his head on his knee. Kingsley looked at the large dog and said, "I guess he wants me to pet him?"

Both Bobbie and Severus turned to look at him and Benton. Bobbie said with a grin, "Oh yes, and he never gets tired of it."

Kingsley looked into the dogs adoring eyes and started ruffling the animals fur and said, "I have heard from the Longbottom's how your dogs helped their adopted little girl speak again. That is very impressive." Then he looked at his watch and said, "Unfortunately it is getting late. I better get home. My wife is probably wondering where I am."

Severus walked Kingsley to the door and said, "I think we have to talk a little more about our next step in organizing a wide spread program to eradicate Lycanthropy."

"Well, I think your idea about that convention is a good one. I'll have to run it by the Aurors and the healers and let them know they'll be needed in this expanding project."

The two Wizards said their goodbyes and Severus turned back to Bobbie who was still in front of the fireplace trying to warm up. Severus came up from behind her and wrapped her into his arms and kissed the lobe of her cold ear and said, "I hope you don't mind that I had a drink with Kingsley."

"What, why do you even say such a thing? Baby, I never asked you to abstain from alcohol while I am carrying this child. Don't get me wrong, I really appreciate that you are doing that with me, but I think you did a polite and sociable thing sharing a drink with Kingsley." She turned around in his arms and stroked his cheek with the back of her fingers. "You don't owe me anything, Sev. I sure hope you don't ever feel like I am confining you in any way."

"I would never feel confined, not with you. I feel lucky that I have you and that you love me. I thank Merlin for it every day." He stroked her hair and kissed the top of her head before hugging her closer to him, carefully not to crush her.

They finally went to bed where Severus made tender love to her.