I would like to thank all of you who sent messages of comfort during this last week. My father's funeral is over, the out-of-town family has gone home, and my mother and I are tackling the legal necessities and sorting things through in the house. Over the next week or so as things settle down, I do plan to respond to everyone. Thank you all for your prayers and support.
Thank you to Julia, who betaed and Brit-picked this chapter.
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Hermione
November 27, 1998
Hermione pulled the basket onto her lap and began pulling the leaves off the stems. She had already de-stemmed a basket of veneno mentha viridis, a magical spearmint. Now she was stripping the stems from veneno gaultheria procumbens, magical wintergreen. The ashwinder burn potion called for the magical form of wintergreen. Severus wanted to determine if adding the spearmint would enhance the potion further.
It was one thing to prepare enough leaves by hand to brew the potion for a rat. Treatment for an ashwinder burn required a tiny amount it would ingest from the internal potion and then bathing the rat in coldwater with a stronger version of the potion mixed in. Preparing it in sufficient volume for a human being would be another thing entirely. Hermione sincerely hoped Severus didn't plan for her to prepare the essential oils by hand. She didn't care to think how many leaves it would take to produce the thirty-two ounces of essential oil needed to make enough of the external potion for multiple human trials.
They had completed one animal trial yesterday with the potion she prepared using only veneno mentha viridis. Severus wanted to determine the exact water temperature necessary to give the rat relief from burn pain. Intellectually, Hermione knew that animal testing was necessary but she was struggling with it emotionally.
She had to steel herself when they exposed the rat to the ashwinder. The poor white rat squealed in pain when it took the burn. It was almost as bad having to hold the writhing animal while Severus squirted the potion down its little throat with an eyedropper. The potion did seem to help quickly, as did putting it in the shallow cauldron of chilled water with the external potion added.
Hermione reduced the temperature in the cauldron one degree at a time, taking it from 84 degrees down to 77 degrees. At that point the animal was pain free, just cold. When she removed it from the bowl and started to dry it off, the rat bit her finger through the latex glove.
Not that she blamed the rat. If someone had just done the same thing to her she probably would have started biting, too.
Severus allowed her to do the healing charm on the rat. That did make her feel better about the whole thing. When she muttered something about Obliviating the animal, he'd smirked at her.
That led to a lecture from Professor Snape about not getting attached to laboratory animals. He pointed out, quite accurately, that the animal had been a subject in Transfiguration classes and had already been turned into a wide assortment of inanimate objects. Although there were only a few potion ingredients made from rat parts, there were plenty of other animals raised for the sole purpose of turning them into ingredients. To say nothing of the fact that Hermione was hardly a vegetarian and one of the ingredients in an Italian beef sandwich had big brown eyes and mooed.
By that time, Hermione was covering her face with her hands in embarrassment. Severus had her absolutely dead to rights on that one. She had a double standard. She could eat meat and didn't really want to give it up, but it was a whole different thing to eat a cow one had met face-to-face.
She confessed to the inconsistency and had no arguments for resolving it. It still didn't relieve her of the feeling that she owed that rat a better life. She'd spent most of the time during busy work thinking about how she could sneak the rat out of the lab and make it a pet. Problem was, Crookshanks was unlikely to view the rat as anything other than dinner on four feet and there was a limit to how many laboratory animals she could adopt and provide a decent home for.
Severus was right. Never give a laboratory animal a name.
Hermione stood and stretched, her rear end going numb from sitting on the lab stool so long. She stretched forwards, extending out her arms, and then did the same thing stretching back. She bent at the waist and bounced forward a couple of times and then did a couple of deep knee bends.
"Preparing for a Quidditch match, Hermione?" asked Severus coming down the stairs.
"I sincerely hope not," she answered. "Whatever team I played for would be doomed. Just getting the circulation back in my legs after sitting so long." Hermione went back to pulling leaves from stems, standing this time.
"I have been giving thought to moving the testing from ashwinder burns to actual Crucio," said Severus. "There is no way to do this without casting the Unforgiveable. Albus and Remus agree it must be done here."
Hermione paused in her work, thoughtful.
"When Barty Crouch, Jr. polyjuiced himself into Professor Moody, he demonstrated Crucio on a spider during a Defense Against the Dark Arts class. I'd always heard that Unforgiveables couldn't be cast inside Hogwarts without setting off one of the wards. How did he do that?"
"The Headmaster permitted the wards to be lowered in the classroom on that day, a decision I fully supported. Although none of us realized at the time that Moody was not Moody, I was pleased that one of the DADA instructors was finally teaching students what they might one day face in a duel. Death Eaters do not waste their time on a Bat-bogey hex."
"That certainly makes sense," said Hermione. "Hogwarts, A History doesn't specify it, but implies that the Headmaster of the school is able to get the castle to do things others can't. Is that a part of it?"
"It is not made entirely clear in the book, but it is an open secret that each Headmaster goes through something of a bonding ritual with the castle upon taking up the post. The castle has certain sentient qualities imbued in it by the Four Founders. The Headmaster is capable of communicating with the castle to have it raise and lower wards built into the stone and mortar of the building. He can request the building make physical changes, such as rearranging rooms, moving a door, or changing walls," explained Severus. "The Headmaster is usually quite accommodating to such requests from teachers."
"I can see where that would come in handy," said Hermione. "I always wondered if the teachers had a special agreement with the moving stairs so they would always arrange themselves to give the teachers the shortest journey to wherever they wanted to go. It would certainly explain how you managed to swoop down on us in the corridor to Astronomy Tower when we could have sworn you were just in the dungeons."
"Shhhhh," hushed Severus, "Leave the staff a few secrets."
Hermione smiled at Severus. Her former teacher and current mentor could actually be amusing when he chose to be. What a difference six months had made in their relationship, which Hermione would now describe as a friendship.
"There are also plenty of secret passageways and corridors in the castle known only to teachers, regardless of claims made by the originators of the Marauder's Map," continued Severus, "Since students outnumber teachers by a considerable proportion, we must claim every advantage we can."
"I guess this means I will not be writing the Secrets of Hogwarts Handbook anytime soon." Hermione sighed dramatically. "It could have been my ticket to fortune and fame."
"Speaking of fortune," said Severus, pausing for a moment. He appeared to be considering his words carefully. "We have not discussed the work you did in brewing the antidote for Remus when he was poisoned. It appears to have worked exactly as it should. It was fortunate you were available to brew the maiden's portion. When I thought we would have to resort to a Hogwarts student supervised by Minerva, it diminished Remus' chance of survival. In fact, when you arrived my initial response was to have you provide the supervision. Your knowledge of potions making exceeds Minerva's by a considerable degree."
"Thank you, sir," said Hermione, unsure of where this was leading.
"For Remus' sake, the best of all possibilities was that you could do the work yourself, which you did." Severus paused again. He met Hermione's eyes, rather uncomfortably. "I am attempting to determine how to say this without embarrassing either of us and putting my arse at risk of a good hexing."
Hermione's eyebrows shot up. 'Professor Snape just said the word arse? And what exactly is he trying to say?' she wondered.
"With your current, erm, status, there is a way to make money from it."
Hermione's eyebrows shot up higher. 'He is suggesting I do what?'
Severus straightened up.
"That did not come out exactly the way I meant it," said Severus, stumbling over his words. "There is a way for a virgin to make a profit…. No, that is not what I mean to say either."
He ran his hands through his hair in frustration. "Let me try this again," he groaned.
He took a deep breath and blurted it out as quickly as he could.
"An untouched woman who can prepare a maiden brewed potion can make a considerable amount of money if she intends to preserve her status for a while."
He exhaled and looked relieved to have gotten the words out.
Hermione looked surprised. 'Professor Snape was concerned about my reaction to him bringing up the subject of my virginity?' she thought. 'Did he think I would hex him or something?'
"There are a number of healing potions that are virtually impossible to obtain because one cannot find a qualified female potions maker," Severus explained, once again capable of making eye contact with Hermione. "St. Mungo's and other hospitals will pay a high price to get these kinds of potions, probably enough to cover your college tuition for several years with one summer's work. You could be employed directly by St. Mungo's or perhaps as a contractor. Madame Pomfrey could probably work out the connections you would need to make."
Hermione's hands went up to her face and she started to shake.
She could not see his reaction, but Severus went silent fearing he had just offended Hermione beyond redemption. He hoped she was not crying. He really hated dealing with women when they cried.
She wasn't. Hermione started to laugh so hard, tears were running down her face and she couldn't catch her breath.
'It figures,' she thought, 'It just figures. Part of me is frustrated because I'm not in a relationship where I'm getting any sex. Now I can make all kinds of money if I don't ever have sex.'
Her hands slid down to her mouth and she looked up at Severus who was eyeing her with a look of complete confusion on his face. 'Oh, heavens, now Severus doesn't know what to make of my reaction.' Hermione pulled a tissue from her pocket and mopped at her face.
"I'm sorry," she hiccupped, "I have this image in my head where I'm running around in a t-shirt that reads Hermione Granger, Professional Virgin. I'm sort of the anti-hooker. Pay me and I won't do it with you, but you'll feel ever so much better."
Hermione doubled over again, laughing. "I can't believe I'm making these kind of jokes with you."
She put her head down on the table with her elbows on either side and covered her head with her hands, still laughing and snorting. She quieted a bit and raised her head to catch her breath.
She peeked at Severus who was leaning back in the chair with his hand over his mouth, doing his best to hide the laugh that was making his shoulders shake.
Hermione gave him a big grin and started laughing again.
Severus' hand went down and he joined in, his baritone blending with her soprano in a harmony of nearly uncontrolled mirth.
It took a minute for both of them to stop laughing enough to get sufficient breath to speak. Hermione wasn't sure if it was because she was too exhausted to care from laughing so hard, but at this moment in time it did not bother her that Severus Snape knew she was a virgin, had made reference to it in conversation, had talked to her about a way she could make money for college by being one, and laughed with her when she made jokes about it.
'Whoever would have thought it was possible?' she thought, 'I embarrassed Professor Snape and got him laughing."
"I don't know about you, Severus, but I need a break," said Hermione, holding a hand to her aching stomach. "I'm going make some tea." Hermione got up and began to gather the tea things while they both recovered their respective composures.
She heard footsteps on the stairway and Hermione turned to see Remus walking down.
"Good evening," he said, looking curious. "I heard the two of you laughing and wanted to find out what was going on."
"Potions humor," answered Severus, covering nicely for their short diversion into mildly smutty talk.
"I see," Remus responded, "An inside joke?"
Hermione restrained herself from responding to the inside joke remark since the joke was about not letting anything inside. She didn't dare start laughing again, because somebody would expect her to explain what was funny.
She brought out three mugs, poured the hot water, and set out the boxes of Earl Grey and English Breakfast teabags she'd brought. Remus took an English Breakfast teabag while Severus and Hermione took Earl Grey.
"How is the research coming?" asked Remus.
"We have determined the water temperature at which the rat achieves pain relief with the external treatment mixed into the water," replied Severus. "Considering that the body temperature of a rat is typically 100 degrees Fahrenheit and the water temperature was 77 degrees before complete pain relief was achieved, I believe we would need to take the temperature down to about 70 degrees for a human to achieve complete pain relief."
"We also found that the internal potion seems to have a vasodilation effect, causing the blood vessels to have a slight increase in diameter," added Hermione. "This would cause the rat's internal temperature and blood pressure to decrease."
"The next step will be to confirm this with a human test using an ashwinder burn. If it works on a human, we will know we have the formulation correct as it was used eight hundred years ago. We will then move onto developing a Cruciatus version." Severus made a face as he removed the teabag from the mug.
"Is there no one in the Order who understands the value of loose tea and a strainer?" he muttered.
Hermione was careful to conceal her alarm when Severus spoke of a human test. She was about to ask when Remus did it for her.
"Planning to experiment on yourself, Severus?"
"Unless Potter steps forward and volunteers, in which case I will gladly step aside."
Hermione resisted the urge to respond.
"Is it really necessary to give yourself an ashwinder burn to make this work?" asked Remus.
"Yes, for a number of reasons," replied Severus. First, I need to confirm that the internal and external potions do work on a human to relieve the burn pain."
"Second, although there is nothing lethal in any of the ingredients, I need to be certain it will not cause serious side effects."
"Third, we need to determine the temperature at which the external potion achieves pain relief."
"And fourth, I am curious if ingesting this magical menthol will result in an internal feeling of coolness and internal body temperature change."
"Madame Pomfrey will be present when you do this? And you will have an antidote standing by?" asked Remus.
"It is standard protocol to have Madame Pomfrey at hand when I am testing a potion. As for antidotes, I can use a standard remedy for clearing toxins from the body. There are potions which can chelate or neutralize almost any magical substance from the body, as long as it is not a fast-acting lethal substance." Severus explained further, "For example, the silver infused into your blood stream was slow-acting. It would have taken about twelve hours to kill you. Although you were not found for almost six hours, there was still enough time to identify the poison and prepare the antidote."
"When are you planning to do this?"
"Tonight," answered Severus. "Madame Pomfrey will not be available until about 8:30 pm. The trial should not take more than one half hour to complete."
"You are volunteering for what is supposed to be one of the most painful burns one could possibly experience," remarked Remus, keeping his voice casual to prevent Severus from snapping at him.
"I would be pleased to allow you to volunteer," Severus replied dryly, "but as a werewolf your physiological responses are somewhat altered from standard and we could not be certain our data would generalize beyond the werewolf population."
"That may be so, but if there is some way I can assist I would like to," offered Remus.
Hermione sat back and watched the exchange between the two men. Things had changed a great deal between them in the five years since Remus had worked at Hogwarts as the DADA instructor. She suspected she would never know the whole story of what seemed to have resolved things between them.
At one time, Severus would not have spat on Remus if his fur were on fire. Only two weeks ago, Severus saved his life by determining the antidote needed for the poison. Tonight, Remus was recognizing Severus' willingness to accept the pain of an ashwinder burn in order to find a treatment for Crucio. A level of respect had developed between the two somewhere along the line.
Severus appeared to contemplate the request. "Perhaps you could aid with the ashwinders. I would prefer Hermione and Poppy not get anywhere near them."
"Certainly," responded Remus casually.
"I would be willing to take the burn," said Hermione.
Both men turned their heads simultaneously and said, "NO."
'Male chauvinists,' she thought.
"Are you sure there is no other way to do this other than getting burned?" asked Hermione. "No way of simulating the effect or doing another kind of animal test?"
The corners of his mouth turned up slightly and he looked amused. "You had a difficult enough time dealing with a test on a rat. I doubt you would handle a primate test at all well."
Severus finished his tea and set the mug down. "There are times when it is necessary to test things on oneself. There is scarcely a Potions Master in history who has not done so. The protocol requires the presence of medical help and antidotes. If things go badly, which there is no reason to anticipate given the results of the rat test, Madame Pomfrey is quite capable of treating an ashwinder burn."
"I know," she answered simply, "I'd just prefer you didn't have to go through it." Hermione looked at her watch. "Madame Pomfrey should be here soon. I'll go ahead and set up."
Remus watched as Hermione pulled a pewter cauldron off the shelf. Severus stood and removed his frock coat, draping it over a rickety chair in the corner. He wore one of his standard tailored shirts, buttoned up over his throat with sleeves extending past his wrists. Severus unbuttoned the right cuff and began rolling up the sleeve to above his elbow. Of course, it was the arm without the Dark Mark.
Hermione brought the cauldron over to where Severus stood and placed it on the table in front of him. She did a little fancy wand waving and the cauldron elongated and narrowed, becoming shallower. Severus tested the size by placing his hand and forearm into it. Hermione made it a little longer to give his hand and arm more room. Severus withdrew his arm. Hermione cast a cleansing and sterilizing charm onto what now looked like a log basket made of pewter. She began pouring distilled water into it. Severus took two blue vials out of the cabinet and set them both on the table.
Remus got up and went over to the small ashwinder cage Severus had borrowed from Hagrid. The cage was made from an old cauldron, enchanted to prevent it from melting or distorting in the high heat preferred by the ashwinders. The inside was full of stones and red hot charcoal, simulating an ashwinder pit. There were two eggs in there now that looked ready to hatch. Once they did, the ashwinders would live only for an hour. They lived just long enough to mate, consume fire, produce eggs, and the cycle would begin again.
"I will go upstairs and wait for Poppy," said Remus. He returned about fifteen minutes later, accompanied by the Mediwitch.
"I see I have the privilege of providing backup and repair work if one of your wild experiments goes wrong, Severus," said Madame Pomfrey, primly.
"Fortunately, they rarely go wrong," commented Severus. "Good evening Poppy. Thank you for coming." Severus gave Madame Pomfrey a detailed explanation of what they were doing and what to expect during the experiment.
Remus checked the interior of the ashwinder cage. One of the eggs had hatched and the fiery ashwinder was winding around the stones.
They were ready to begin.
After putting on latex gloves, Hermione poured the vial of the external remedy into the water. She checked the temperature of the water and then charmed it to 80 degrees.
Remus levitated the ashwinder cage up to the table. Severus stood beside it. Hermione had her wand ready in case the ashwinder attempted to travel up Severus' arm. Gritting his teeth, Severus lowered his hand and forearm into the cage. The ashwinder darted and Severus gave a quick grunt of pain as his inside forearm took the burn, just slightly above the wrist. He quickly pulled his hand out and Remus levitated the cage back to the corner on the floor.
Severus cradled his right arm with his left hand. Hermione reached over and uncorked the vial with the internal remedy and held it to his lips. Severus opened his mouth and swallowed the potion. Madame Pomfrey stood beside him, taking readings.
"It should take three minutes for the internal potion to work," said Hermione.
"Your temperature is 98.2, which is normal for you," said Madame Pomfrey. "Blood pressure is 126 over 80, a little higher than usual."
"On a scale of one to ten, where one is no pain and ten is the worst pain imaginable, where are you now?" asked Hermione.
Remus noticed a dictoquill taking notes on a parchment on the other table.
Severus barely grunted the words out between clenched teeth. "About nine."
Madame Pomfrey looked at the burn. "This is a classic ashwinder burn. It is about three inches long, two inches wide, deep red and blistering around the edges. There is a half inch charred spot at the center. I estimate the deepest part of the burn is ½ inch."
"Two minutes to go," said Hermione. "Are you feeling anything, yet?"
"A little cooler," groaned Severus, his eyes closed.
Madame Pomfrey took another set of readings. "Temperature is 98.1, blood pressure is 122 over 80."
Remus could see drops of sweat on Severus' forehead. He was concentrating on not crying out from the burn, which had to be excruciating. Hermione must have noticed, because she took a flannel from a cabinet and poured some of the distilled water onto it.
"Severus," she said softly, "I'm going to wipe the sweat off your face before it gets in your eyes."
Severus opened his eyes and looked at her. Hermione took the flannel and wiped his forehead. He closed his eyes and she gently wiped the rest of his face.
"How is the pain?" asked Hermione.
"Down to an eight," answered Severus. "I am beginning to feel a chill."
More readings from Madame Pomfrey. "Blood pressure is 116 over 77. Temperature is 97.9 degrees."
"We're getting the vasodilation effect," said Hermione. "Thirty seconds to go."
Remus began a mental countdown. When he reached five seconds, he said it aloud.
"Five, four, three, two, one, zero. We are at three minutes."
Severus plunged his arm into the cooled water.
"The pain just went down to about a six," he said, sounding relieved.
"I will reduce the temperature of the water by one degree every thirty seconds." Hermione looked at her watch and held her wand over the water.
Madame Pomfrey took another set of readings. "Blood pressure is 108 over 75 and temperature is 97.6 degrees."
"Temperature at 79 degrees," said Hermione
"I am feeling chilled," said Severus.
"Temperature at 78 degrees."
"Blood pressure is 106 over 72 and body temperature is 97.4 degrees."
"Temperature at 77 degrees."
"The pain is down to a five."
"Temperature at 76 degrees."
"Blood pressure is 106 over 73 and body temperature is 97.3 degrees."
"Temperature at 75 degrees."
"The pain is down to a four."
"Temperature at 74 degrees."
"I am cold."
"Blood pressure appears to be stabilizing at 106 over 75 and body temperature is 97.2 degrees."
"Temperature at 73 degrees."
"I am starting to shiver."
"Temperature at 72 degrees."
"The pain is down to a one."
"Temperature at 71 degrees."
"The pain is down to zero." Severus' teeth were chattering. He was smiling around it.
"Let us keep your arm in there for another thirty seconds at 71 degrees," said Madame Pomfrey. "Blood pressure is 107 over 76 and body temperature is 97.2 degrees."
Hermione was looking at her watch. She gave a countdown, "Five, four, three, two, one." She looked up at Severus who pulled his arm out of the water. Hermione reached over for the towel.
Severus tested his arm, moving it up and down. The water dripped off into the transfigured cauldron.
"There is still no pain and I am still cold," he said.
"Let us give it some time," said Madame Pomfrey.
Hermione placed the towel on the table. Severus rested his arm on the towel.
"Accio Severus' robe," said Hermione.His robe shot out of the corner and into her hands. She stood behind him and placed it over his shoulders.
"Blood pressure is 108 over 76 and body temperature is 97.3 degrees," said Madame Pomfrey. "Still no pain?"
"None," said Severus, "but I am still chilly."
Fifteen minutes later, the burn was still there but there was no pain. Severus blood pressure was back up to 119 over 82 and his body temperature was 98.4. He reported feeling cool, but the shivers and chills were gone.
"I believe we can say this experiment is a success," pronounced Madame Pomfrey. "I will go ahead and heal the burn now." Severus nodded his agreement and a few wand waves and a burn ointment later, his arm looked clear and the skin was healthy.
"Remarkable," said Hermione, looking at Severus' arm. "We live in a world where magic can heal." There was no mark on his arm to show where the burn had been. She lifted her head and smiled at Severus.
Remus leaned back against the cabinet where he had been watching the procedure. It surprised him how smoothly it had gone and how successful the treatment was. But, the truly amazing moment was when Hermione wiped Severus' face with the wet cloth. In that moment in time when Severus opened his eyes and met hers, it was as if there was no one else in the room.
Remus smiled.