Chapter 3: Time for a New Approach

It was the end of a long day, when Hermione and Teddy Apparated outside the Potter home in Godric's Hollow. The beautiful witch walked her best friend's godson up to the front door of Harry's house, where Teddy had been staying since being released from Azkaban. Teddy had told her about how he wanted to eventually someday get his own flat, should things with his condition improve, but for now, shacking up with his godparents would have to do.

The warm and inviting glow of lights from inside the house spilled out onto the front lawn as Harry and Ginny waited at the door. Stopping at the stoop, Teddy smiled gratefully at Hermione, while carrying the cauldron of Wolfsbane Potion that Rose had prepared for him. He passed the whole lot of it to Ginny, who turned away to store it inside.

"Give Rosie my thanks, Hermione. She really is bloody brilliant."

"Language," Hermione half-heartedly scolded him, though she smiled. "It's all her."

"Only cause the apple didn't fall far from the tree."

With Harry standing right there, Hermione did her best to not turn red, though her grin broadened. "Always the tone of surprise," she quipped dryly, causing her brother-in-law to chuckle. For a moment, a pang shot through her, but vanished just as quickly. She used to say much the same to Ron when they were first falling in love, and after they started going out. Oddly, she didn't feel bothered by coopting the phrase and passing it on to Teddy. Besides, he needed support from whatever corner he could find it.

As she finished saying goodnight, the overcast clouds above the Hollow parted, revealing the luminous beams of a full moon. Spying the celestial body in the heavens, Hermione blanched, whirling to Teddy.

"You took your potion tonight, right?" He nodded in pure fear.

That was all he could manage to do before his own eyes – impossibly blue – spotted the full moon.

Immediately, Teddy's entire body seized, and he doubled over, growling and contorting with pain. He was trying to fight it, Hermione could see, and she willed herself to not back away, no matter how great the temptation.

Snapping his head up, Teddy locked gazes with his godfather. "Harry…. help me!"

As Hermione watched, the hairy fur began to appear on Teddy's smooth skin. His nose elongated out from his face just slightly, and then flattened, like it had brushed up into a brick wall. His fingernails and toenails extended into claws, hair sprouting on the boy's hands and feet.

Teddy's cries for help were rapidly becoming growls, and though it disturbed her, Hermione waited patiently, hoping against hope that Rose had done the potion right. It wasn't that she didn't have confidence in her daughter's potion-making abilities; when properly brewed, the draught was supposed to allow a werewolf to keep their human mind even after he or she had transformed. When she had been a student at Hogwarts, Hermione recalled how Snape (as much as she had despised the man, and as much as there had been no love lost between Snape or Lupin) had managed to brew the potion on Remus's behalf – a potion that had worked wonders for him.

But, would this potion – the closest thing to a cure to lycanthropy for the past one hundred years – help the son as much as it had the father? She wasn't sure, but thus far, the prognosis wasn't good.

As Teddy's body expanded, the now large wolf rearing up on its massive hind legs, his clothes were torn to shreds, the swatches of fabric falling off of his body. Teddy thrashed about, eyes darting in every direction. He was frustrated, confused and terribly frightened. Such a emotionally potent combination, Hermione feared, might cause him to lash out if he didn't keep even his human mind, Wolfsbane potion or no.

"Hermione, get out of here!" Harry called, dashing forward. Desperately, he tried coaxing soothing words into his godson. "Teddy, this isn't you! You're Edward Remus Lupin, and I'm here for you. Please, try to calm down and listen to me!"

But Teddy would not be assuaged. At one point, his imposing frame swiveled to glance down at Hermione. Gazing into his eyes, Hermione registered a final plea for help.

Then there was a clap of purple light and Teddy's werewolf form went stiff, keeling over in Petrificus Totalus. Harry stood over the crumpled body, breathing hard, but his own emerald-green orbs were filled with despair.

"I don't think the batch Rosie prepared was strong enough. Even if it is…." he shook his head. "Perhaps Wolfsbane isn't enough to help Teddy."

Chocolate-brown eyes becoming glassy with tears, Hermione wiped at her face and turned away, Disapparating for a little flat in Muggle London. She needed to speak with her daughter.

Hermione appeared in the kitchen area of Rose's little flat to find her clever daughter busily mixing cauldrons and studying ingredients. Glancing up, her round face framed by flaming red hair – Ron's coloring, thank Merlin, Hermione noted proudly – Rose smiled.

"Hullo, Mum! How was work?"

Hermione shrugged. "It came along."

Rose shrugged back, turning away to attend to one pot. "Did Teddy get home OK? He's staying with Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny, isn't he?"

"Yes, and he got there. He took his potion, but…. there was a full moon tonight. Unexpected, I should have been paying attention to the lunar charts."

"Well, if he took the potion…"

"We don't think it worked, Rosie," Hermione explained as gently as she could. "How… how strong did you make that batch?"

"The strongest possible!" Rose cried, spinning to her mother and looking stricken. "What happened?"

"Teddy was still thrashing about and wild. Your uncle had to use Petrificus Totalus on him to knock him out."

Rose turned white, biting her lip before diving for a potions tome and whipping through the pages. "A Wolfsbane Draught of the strongest degree is guaranteed to let a werewolf keep their human mind. Teddy should have been able to maintain connection to his human conscience. Perhaps he was still scared and confused over what is happening to him."

Hermione bit her lip. That was probably the best guess, but it still presented concerning questions. What good was the strongest batch of Wolfsbane possible, if the werewolf was still scared out of its very human mind – scared enough to still pose a real threat to innocents, even without meaning to? A human-minded werewolf still terrified over being in such a monstrous form could still wreak havoc, which might as well render the effects of Wolfsbane useless. Once again, the solution was proving to not be so simple. Something greater – and as yet undiscovered – was probably the only hope for helping Teddy now.

Staring around at the cauldrons of potions, Hermione got an idea. "Rosie…. are you willing to mix it up a little?"

Her daughter frowned. "How do you mean, Mummy?"

"I mean, can you explore the possibility of brewing a potion that could reverse the effects of lycanthropy – permanently?"

Rose pressed her lips into a thin line, absorbing the problem the way a scientist would. Could it be done? She wasn't sure. But it could never be said that Rose Hermione Ginevra Weasley didn't like a challenge. "I'd have to ask Professor Longbottom about borrowing some plants from his greenhouse, and maybe even some ingredients from Professor Zabini's potion stores…. I'll try, Mum. For Teddy, I'll try."

Hermione beamed. "That's my girl." Turning to leave, however, she knew that even her exceedingly brilliant daughter couldn't tackle such a hefty challenge alone. "You'll probably need some help though," she voiced, almost casually. As a general rule, Hermione was against matchmaking or match-scheming – that was something more befitting her mother-in-law, though Molly had never meant anything bad by it. In this case, though….

"I want you to contact Scorpius and see if he can't give you a hand."

Rose snapped her head up, gawping. "But… but…" she sputtered in protest to asking for help from her ex-fiancé, whom she still wasn't speaking to.

"Excellent. I knew I could rely on you two." And with a CRACK, Hermione was gone.

Back in her own house, Hermione set about on a quiet evening taking out her needle and thread, along with her sewing kit. Her thoughts still in a tempest about Teddy, she decided that the most productive thing she could do to help, at least for tonight, was to go about making and sewing new garments for Teddy. His clothes had been ripped to pieces during his transformation.

With the assistance of magic, the process of making Teddy new garments was much more efficient. Getting an idea, Hermione also used charms to enlarge the clothing, and then cast more complicated charms. With any luck, these garments were ones that would not be in danger of tearing when Teddy transformed; he could leave them on in his werewolf form and still maintain some level of dignity.

Sitting back to admire her handiwork, Hermione glanced at the clock and realized the late hour. She hoped that Rose would take her advice and turn to Scorpius for assistance. Her almost son-in-law was almost as brilliant a potions student as Rose was; they had first started falling for each other while competing for top marks in the course at Hogwarts. As to whether Rose would actually swallow her pride and reach out to him…. Hermione wasn't sure. She knew most of the details to the halt of their engagement, and there was a lot of hurt there.

Gathering her purse, Hermione decided to take the preemptive approach. On the offchance that Rose wouldn't ask for Scorpius's help, she would ask Scorpius herself. Intervene on her daughter's, and also Teddy's, behalf. Scorpius might refuse Rose… but he wouldn't refuse Hermione Granger Weasley.