Beta'd brilliantly, and very efficiently by Mirabelle P. Who I'm so sorry to, because I forgot to credit her when I first posted!
Beta's are the often overlooked heroes of fanfiction. truly. It's so hard to write well without that second pair of eyes, and the occasional "You've lost me... what are you trying to say here?" in the comments column. xx
Hogwarts Castle was eerily quiet that cold Saturday afternoon. Most of its inhabitants were in Hogsmeade, or if they weren't old enough to visit the village they were staying close to their common room fires. Lily Potter was grateful for this, because it meant there was no one to observe her as she made her way through the school. Professor McGonagall walked at her side as they descended the staircase from the Entrance Hall to the basement corridor. The Headmistress still wore her tartan scarf, having just arrived back from the village herself. Lily found it very strange to be at Hogwarts without planning to see her son, but this was a secret potion brewing mission, not a family visit. Besides, she didn't really want to cause Harry the dire shame only a thirteen-year-old boy knows when having to admit he has something as embarrassing as a mother.
Her son had already suffered that very trauma once this term. When he'd taken a bludger to the head in the first Quidditch match of the season two weeks ago she and James had visited him in the hospital. It was very unrewarding having a teenage son most of the time, they had rushed up to the school – James had been bleary-eyed and exhausted from his disastrous night with Remus in the forest – and when they arrived, concerned and flustered from the spur of the moment trip, Harry had all but rolled his eyes beneath his bandage-turban and told them he was fine and that they didn't need to be there.
Sometimes Lily privately wished she'd had a girl, a sweet little thing who played dress-up and tea parties and wanted nothing more than to please her Mummy. Instead she'd had a grubby, tree-climbing, mud-eating scallywag who thought she would be far more impressed by him learning to dive vertically on his broom than say please and thank you without prompting. Not that she didn't love his naughty little soul, but a bit of appreciation wouldn't go amiss.
"I'm glad it's you doing this for the Aurors Lily," McGonagall said, interrupting Lily's reminisces of all the times she'd been flooed or owled because Harry had climbed, exploded or jinxed something or someone he wasn't supposed to. She certainly couldn't complain about having a dull life. Professor McGonagall sounded quite fed-up with the whole potion-tampering situation as she continued, "I really don't want to deal with the Ministerial Inquiry that will surely follow if word of Remus's mishap gets out."
"I was surprised Moody asked me," Lily said. "I thought I'd have to have Ministry clearance or something to work for them."
McGonagall gave her a shrewd glance. "I think you'll find that a lot of the specifics of this case will be glossed over in the final report. Moody is concerned about copycats."
Lily had been considering that too, she wondered what Hermione thought about such blatant corruption, even if it was beneficial to their friend. Perhaps Sirius had carefully neglected to tell her. "I guess that will be better for Remus in the long run," she said lightly, not wanting to get into a discussion about ethics with the still slightly intimidating McGonagall.
"Definitely," the Professor said, "and you'll be alright working with Severus?"
This was something else Lily had been giving a lot of thought to. She was certainly nervous to be in his company again, but so much time had passed since they were forced apart by politics and bad decisions, surely they could tolerate each other now. Lily gave a small determined smile as she answered, "Yes. I think so, or I hope so at least. He knows it's me the Aurors have brought in?"
McGonagall didn't quite meet her eye as she replied a touch too casually, "I'm not sure about that actually."
Great, Lily thought. A possibly hostile Severus Snape would make a very irksome companion during the brewing process, tolerating each other might be pushing it after all. They reached the Potion Master's office shortly after that – it was cold and damp this far down in the castle and Lily was resigned and nervous in equal measure as Professor McGonagall knocked on Snape's door.
The iron-hinged wood swung inwards swiftly in response to their knock. Lily did her best to restrain her little smirk at Severus's appearance as he loomed in the doorway; the affected scowl, the black on black robes, his wand held not quite threateningly but still very obviously present – no wonder the students were scared of him. But even Severus Snape, Master of Deception, was unable to maintain his glower at the shock of Lily Evans appearing at his dungeon door – apparently the Aurors hadn't warned him.
"Lily?" he said, clearly thunderstruck, but he recovered his mask quickly, the surprise and interest on his face blanked out by grim indifference. "Minerva," he continued, holding the door wider to allow them entry.
Snape closed the door softly, taking a moment before he turned to face them once more. He looked directly at Lily when he did, and she found it very strange to see her childhood friend staring out from the depths of the formidably dour man before her. "So the Aurors sent you to check my work," he said quietly, he didn't seem angry so much as cynically philosophical. "Figures," he muttered under his breath as he circled his desk and took a seat behind it.
"It's nice to see you too," Lily said, refusing to let him be rude to her. "They needed someone who would keep their mouth shut, and who you'd not be too likely to frighten." She smiled widely and it felt a little forced as she added lightly, "I fit the bill."
"Indeed," said Snape. His black eyes flickered to life briefly, and Lily couldn't tell if it was annoyance or amusement that caused it.
McGonagall cleared her throat. "I have made arrangements for Lily to stay in the West Tower. Alastor told me you have your instructions?"
"Yes," they both said.
Lily was to stay at the castle for the whole week so that she could be present whenever Snape was working on the potion. It had to rest for several hours at a time during the brewing process so she was able to get sleep and time away from the dungeon, as long as the cauldron was locked away with only a charm she could break – simple enough. Her presence was really just a precaution, no one, not even James, thought Snape was the culprit now, but nothing was being left to chance this coming full moon.
"I shall leave you to it then," McGonagall said. "Lily, I've connected the fire in your quarters to mine if you should need anything."
"Thanks Professor," Lily said, wishing the Headmistress wasn't in quite such a hurry to leave. She was more nervous than she'd expected to be left alone with Severus.
Snape rose from his chair and nodded, "Good Afternoon Minerva." The door shut behind the Headmistress and he resumed his seat, the old wood creaked noisily in the silence. Lily felt very awkward, standing in the middle of the office unsure what to say or do.
"I have the ingredients here," Snape said after a pause, his voice just slightly louder than usual. He was clearly uncomfortable too. He stood and indicated the work bench that ran the length of the back wall. "I'm sure you need to examine them to rule out contaminated produce, then we can prepare the initial phase."
"Aconite simmered in salt water for six hours," Lily rattled off automatically, glad she had brushed up on the method. Until she had stepped into the dungeon it had seemed eons ago that Severus had been her friend, but now the familiar sight of cauldron and brewing equipment pulled the reasons for their friendship to the front of her mind, obscuring the intervening decade and a half. They had competed fiercely for the top mark in Slughorn's class for six years. Even in their seventh, though they had not been speaking to each other any longer, the one unbreakable bond between them had been comparing their scores on every test. Lily got the impression that even now Severus was sizing up her ability.
"Salted water," Snape corrected, snippily. "Salt water gives the impression you're to drudge a bucket up from the firth."
Lily gave a little snort, amused by his unchanged nit-pickery. "Terribly sorry," she murmured, a tiny flutter in the vicinity of her stomach made her realise how pleased she was to have this unlikely opportunity to get to know the friend she though had been gone forever.
"As you should be," Snape nodded, his expression shifted to challenging rather than superior. "I'd hate to think you're slipping."
"Step two," Lily said, letting him goad her, "stir fourteen times clockwise with a bronze stirring rod, then add three crushed swamp-mellow heads."
Severus gave her the smallest of smiles and stepped back towards his desk, sweeping his hand in the direction of the laid-out ingredients. "Inspect away," he said.
The ingredients were all of exceptional quality, much better than the ones she had used so many years ago when Remus had delivered her that miraculous and unexplained recipe for a potion that would change his life. She'd figured out not long after the revelation of Hermione's true identity that she must have brought it with her from the future. This was very thoughtful of course, but Lily did wonder about the original inventor. He must have been more than annoyed when the potion he was yet to perfect appeared, fully functional and ready for distribution and brewed by someone he'd never heard of. If he'd begun work on it in '81 that was. No one had ever claimed Lily had stolen the potion though. She'd been asked many times to write an article on her work for potions periodicals the world over but she'd refused, giving the reason that she'd only done it to help her friend – the famous Voldemort slayer Remus Lupin – and not for recognition.
"Do you have any idea why someone would try to hurt Remus?" Lily asked as they stood side by side carefully shaving the fibrous stalks of aconite while the cauldron heated on its fire just down from them on the worktop.
"Other than for his abysmal teaching and hideously cheerful disposition?" Severus said brusquely, not pausing in his task.
Lily arched an eyebrow at him. "Yes, because otherwise you should be locked up for the crime."
"Touché," Severus permitted, "but no, whatever I say about him, Lupin has done more than his fair share of good in the world, cliché Gryffindor that he is," he added peevishly, "but none of it is a reason for the public crucifixion that so nearly occurred."
"It has to be because of the werewolf stuff though right?" Lily was quite keen to find out Severus's opinion, and to have someone to talk with about the whole situation. Being surrounded by Aurors and Ministry staff in her personal life often left Lily less informed, because they were all under oath not to discuss their work 'til after the fact. "I just can't see why someone would target his potion, unless they hated werewolves. It just seems too messy, and so many people could have been hurt."
"Surely Aurors Potter and Black have it all worked out?" Severus insisted condescendingly, just as he made a particularly violent scrape of his blade against the tough stalk pinned to the cutting board by his thumb.
"Auror Potter isn't even on the case," Lily said lightly, refusing to bite, "and Frank and Sirius don't talk to me about criminal investigations."
Severus did not reply, finished with his aconite, he was now intensely focused on the difficult task of seeing if the water in the cauldron was boiling yet. After several more silent minutes during which he watched the water and Lily arranged the prepared aconite into exactly parallel lines, the Potions Master spoke again.
"The Aurors had me check Lupin's office and quarters for dark curses that can affect potions before he was allowed back in," he began. "I find it quite suspicious that even though Lupin tore himself apart that night, the place where he normally spends full moon nights was completely untouched." He finally took his eyes from the cauldron and gave Lily a significant look. She wondered if he knew that James and Sirius had been there that evening, like the old days. She'd never been a hundred percent on whether Severus knew about the unregistered animagus part of the Lupin-is-a-werewolf secret while they were at school.
She arranged her face into a puzzled expression. "Really?" she said, playing as innocent as possible. "Well I wouldn't know why that would be." She looked at him only briefly before returning to the finely shredded stalks on the bench in front of her.
"No neither do I," Severus said casually. "Suspicious, like I said." They fell into silence again, but it was broken by Severus after only a moment. "The water has attained the right temperature, you may add the aconite."
Lily did as she was bade, sliding the flat of one of the large cleavers they'd used to cut the plant beneath the perfectly ordered paper-thin slices and transferred the aconite to the bubbling water. They splashed on contact and almost immediately the surface roiled and the boiling increased rapidly.
"Do you want me to lock the lid on now?" she asked, as she lifted the heavy pewter disk from the bench next to the cauldron.
"Yes," Severus said. Lily slotted it into place, shuddering at the scrape of the rough cast metal as the lid slid against the lip of the cauldron. "I have rounds this evening," he continued, as she performed the locking charm. "So when you return for stage two please let yourself in, the password on the door is Dimidium-sanguinis Princeps. I will be back in time to add the swamp-mellow but I wouldn't want you waiting around in the corridor for me."
Lily let herself into the Potion Master's office later that evening - after three tries at his complicated password. She'd forgotten how much casual Latin Hogwarts required of a person. She was also feeling full and lazy due to the large meal a very eager house elf had delivered to her room. It had taken her less time than she thought to make her way down to the dungeons, and she'd managed it without being seen by any students. Though she wasn't too concerned about that, even if someone did recognise her as Harry's mother they would just think she was there for something to do with him, another reason Moody had asked her no doubt.
It was very quiet in Snape's office, jars of goo-suspended specimens lined the walls on row after row of shelves. There were two entrances to the office, the one from the corridor she'd just used and the one that led into the larger dungeon space where Potions lessons were taught. Through the narrow window that ran down the door above the handle, Lily could see that the classroom beyond the door was still lit and she was distracted by the sight of the familiar front row desk she and Severus had shared for many years. It still looked the same.
The constant sound of the soft simmering of the Wolfsbane filled the room while Lily looked over the ingredients for the next addition to the potion. Severus had the swamp-mellow resting in a small silver dish near the cauldron. Prepared as always, Lily thought, as she sank into the chair behind the desk. It was the only one in the room, Severus obviously didn't encourage his office visitors to linger.
She'd only been sat waiting for a few minutes when there was a noise from the potions classroom. Lily got up from Severus's chair and peered through the window in the door . She was surprised to see a twitchy-looking Draco Malfoy entering the classroom.
The boy shut the door firmly behind himself and then made a circuit of the room, bending to look under work benches and checking in the student store cupboard. Lily moved out of sight of the window as he passed the office. His shadow blocked out the lit window and he jiggled the handle, but the door didn't open. No doubt Severus would have sealed it with the same spell as the door Lily had entered through. Draco's shadow moved away and Lily edged closer again to see what he was doing.
Apparently satisfied that he was alone, Draco now stood in the middle of the room with his wand held at his side and his back to where Lily was hidden in the office. This didn't last though, within a few minutes Draco began pacing the width of the room, constantly looking at the door to the corridor. He held his wand tightly in his hand, Lily could see his knuckles turning white with the pressure – it looked like he was readying himself for a fight. But Draco doesn't fight, she told herself. He complained, or at least argued his way out of trouble, or tried to as far as she was aware.
The corridor door opened with a bang and Draco spun around to face the boy entering the room. He was older than Draco, fifteen or sixteen Lily thought, and tall too. He noticed Draco's drawn wand at once. Lily hastily whispered Snape's password and the office door clicked open, she pushed it ajar the tiniest bit, just enough to allow the voice of the newcomer to reach her ears.
"Gonna duel me are you?" the older boy was saying scornfully. "I hardly think it needs to come to that."
"I've had enough Stuart," Draco said bluntly, his fingers clenched and unclenched around the handle of his wand. "I just wanted to tell you that. I'm not doing it anymore." Then he walked straight past Stuart, clearly intent on leaving after saying his very short and cryptic piece. He had nearly reached the door when the older boy reacted.
"Fine," he said loftily. "Didn't realise you missed your daily hexing so badly, best practice your shield charms." Stuart withdrew his own wand, and Lily, still just inside the door, did too. She didn't want to interfere, but she couldn't let them have an actual duel.
"Just fuck off," Draco said harshly, but his face was pale and his wand shook in his hand as he foolishly stood his ground.
"Run away Draco," Stuart taunted, "just like Daddy, caught running away while the brave men fought."
"I am not my father," Draco said through gritted teeth. "Don't talk about things you don't understand."
Stuart let out an affected sigh. "I understand my father died fighting for the Dark Lord, whereas yours turned tail like a coward. I think it's pretty clear who the better man was, who showed the most loyalty."
"Loyalty," Draco repeated with a cold sneer. "What are you, a Hufflepuff? Who gives a shit? Riddle is dead and gone, killed by a werewolf before I could even talk – why do you keep banging on about him? My Grandfather says he was too unhinged to run the country anyway."
Stuart's eyes narrowed as Draco spoke, he seemed cautious rather than cocky now. "You're very brave tonight," Stuart said, his gaze flicking about the room as though expecting an ambush. "What's got into you?"
"Nothing." Draco drew himself up, obviously buoyed by his rival's uncertainty. "Fuck you," he said again. "I've just had enough, you can say whatever you like and if you hex me…" He shrugged it off. "I'm not getting expelled for stealing for you. Find someone else to do it, or hell, study then you won't need to cheat your way through every test."
Stuart's caution morphed to anger and he advanced on Draco. "You lippy little shit," he spat, as he lifted his wand. Then the door opened behind Draco, bumping into him and knocking him off balance.
Lily, still poised by the office door and reluctant to act unless it was necessary, breathed a sigh of relief – it must be Severus back from his rounds.
It wasn't. Two more boys entered, both clearly older than Draco. The tallest of the pair had dark skin and close cropped black hair and the other was slightly pudgy with a shaggy ash-coloured mop that half covered his eyes. Both wore Slytherin ties and expressions of interest at the sight of Draco and Stuart with their wands out.
Stuart greeted them with a sinister grin. "Hello chaps, you're right on time." Draco's head swivelled back and forward between the old threat of Stuart in front of him and the new one blocking his exit. Stuart took a few steps closer as he continued to talk to his friends, "Sad news, Malfoy's quit on us."
Draco seemed to realise the game was up in an instant. He turned his back on Stuart and sent a swiftly cast jelly-legs jinx at the pudgy boy, no doubt with the idea that this would give him a broader escape route. The boy wobbled as his legs jigged about and Draco shouldered his way past, but he wasn't quick enough. The dark one caught him by the scruff of the neck and held him back, while simultaneously directing the anti-jinx at his weak-kneed friend.
"Nice try," he said, and Lily thought he almost sounded impressed. She certainly was. But she knew she couldn't let them attack Draco, and now that he was being physically restrained she had to step in.
"Good evening lads," Lily said cheerfully, stepping out from the shadow of the doorway. She held her wand in clear view, and all four sets of eyes snapped to it. "I think I've heard quite enough. You three," she pointed her wand at the shocked upper years, "you'll need to take a seat. Professor Snape will be returning from his rounds soon and I'm sure he'd like to hear this story."
"Who are you?" Stuart said indignantly, just as Draco spluttered, "Mrs Potter? What are you doing in Snape's office?"
"Severus and I are old friends," Lily said quickly, realising the magnitude of her mistake in revealing herself. "We are working on a private project together," she improvised.
"You have no authority over us," Stuart sneered at her, though he seemed unwilling to pick a fight right in front of an unfriendly adult because he summoned his two mates with a gruff, "Come on," and pushed past Draco toward the door. Draco did not look relieved or grateful for Lily's presence, the boys paused to glare at him when they reached the door and his face paled. "See ya in the common room, twerp."
Lily wished she'd considered the repercussions of protecting Draco, of course it would make it much worse for him later. But he surprised her again. "Can't wait," he said sarcastically, flipping them off at the same time.
Stuart's eyebrows went up in surprise. "Merlin Malfoy, anyone would think you'd grown some balls." Then he smirked meanly, "Shame I'll still own you in a duel."
"There's a great surprise," Malfoy shot back at him. "A third year can't take a fifth year and his two mates in a duel – anyone would think you'd grown a brain."
The taller of Stuart's friends snorted, and Lily was quite sure he was trying to hide a laugh. She didn't blame him, whatever had gotten into to Draco certainly made him fearless.
Then from behind Lily Snape's icily furious voice made her jump. "What is going on here?" He had somehow managed to approach the scene silently, and now stood glaring at the students from the doorway to his office.
"Severus," Lily said, in relief, "I believe these boys have something to confess."
Lily had been the one to add the swamp-mellow to the potion and complete the stirring rotations that evening, because Severus was detained by dealing with the bullies and Draco. Half an hour later, with detentions doled out and the four boys sent off to bed, Lily sat opposite Severus in his office. He'd conjured her a chair to sit on and even made them a pot of tea. She almost felt welcome in this dark little room now.
"You should not have interfered with that Lily," Severus said, his expression wary as he poured their tea.
"God, I know," Lily said at once, regretting unlocking the classroom door in the first place. "I realised when I was already out there. But they were going to hurt him, I couldn't let that happen, he's such an odd kid," she said fondly, "much braver than I would have guessed. He told those boys to fuck off. Right to their face! That takes some guts."
"I agree," Snape said. "He's a good boy, he talks to me a lot," he appraised Lily curiously over his tea cup, his heavy brows and lank hanging hair made him look so severe. "I didn't realise you knew him so well."
"And I'm surprised you tolerate him," Lily said. "You realise he's Sirius's nephew, right?"
"Cousin once removed actually," Severus sniffed. "He also had the decency to be sorted into the proper house, and is nothing at all like Bla– "
"Probably stop there," Lily interrupted, "you don't want to argue with me." Severus looked cowed as he stirred his tea so Lily let it go. "I know Draco because Sirius brings him round to our place when he visits Godric's Hollow, so he and Harry can fly in the woods together."
"He and Potter?" Severus echoed, with unmistakeable scepticism.
Lily let out a frustrated breath. "My son you mean? Honestly Severus, it's so small of you to hold on to all that schoolyard nonsense."
Severus gave her a disbelieving glare. "Two weeks ago your husband exploded a barrel of frog guts in my face. I'm not the only one who hangs on to it."
Lily had to concede that he had a point. James was juvenile when it came to Snape. "If it helps Moody's made him lead trainee sprints every morning since," Lily offered as a white flag. "He can barely walk when he wakes up in the morning, all seized up in terrible pain."
"I don't care how small it makes me, that definitely helps," Severus muttered with a surprising amount of petulance before he said normally, "I was unaware that Draco and Harry get along – they certainly don't at school. Draco is under the impression that he has no friends. In his opinion this is because most of the school hates him because he's son of a Death Eater and the Slytherins hate him because he's son of a Death Eater who tried to desert."
"That's what those boys were saying tonight. I can't believe that they even think about all that stuff." Lily couldn't understand it, Harry didn't show the slightest inkling of interest on the topic, unless it was in the form of highly dramatized retellings of Auror adventures from the year and a half James and Sirius were trainee partners. "Most of us who lived through it avoid the subject as often as possible," Lily said, sobered by the memories of fear and anxiety that flooded her at the mention of that dark time.
"That is part of the problem I think," Severus nodded pensively. "The war is romanticised by history; brave wizards and witches fighting for what they believed in. What the children don't understand is the lack of choice – none of us, no matter what side, wanted to be at war, to wonder every night if tomorrow would be our final day." Severus focused solely on his tea cup and continued through tightly twisted lips, "Believing in the cause made us carry on, but it didn't make it this exciting adventure the students seem to think it was."
"That's very true," Lily said, hearing her old friend more clearly than ever as he suggested such a well-reasoned theory. "I suppose there's no real way to make them understand that though, is there?"
"No. I've tried very hard to instil the Slytherins with a more realist version of the experience but there is still a lot of bigotry. I can't control their home life after all."
"Severus Snape, championing mudbloods," Lily said, slightly dumbfounded. "There's something I never thought I'd see."
"Stanger things have happened," Severus said shortly. Then he looked at her and said in an entirely different tone, determinedly leaving the war behind them, "Like Lupin's predicament. I'm baffled by it. Something I would not admit to lightly."
"You must have a theory, I know you haven't changed that much," Lily said, quite keen to return to the topic from that afternoon. If anyone could solve a riddle it was him.
But Severus just sighed. "That's it though isn't it? We've ruled out everything."
"Do you think it was an accident?" Lily asked, surprised to hear him so openly defeated.
"I had actually wondered if Poppy had mistakenly put her teaspoon of sugar in Lupin's beaker rather than her cup of tea, but she's very meticulous in her practices as a rule and a highly capable Healer."
"But you would have found that in all your tests, wouldn't you?" Lily asked. She knew Remus had been subjected to every counter-agent detection spell and process available.
Severus shook his head. "It's impossible to test the patient for it. Sugar in the system doesn't affect the potion, only if it's added to the dose before they drink it. I think Lupin is practically made of sugar, the amount of chocolate the man consumes is disturbing. But it's never effected his potion until now, so why would this time be any different?"
"That's true, what about the vessels used? Weren't they tested?"
"Sadly, Poppy and her careful routine meant the beakers were washed and sterilized before the moon even rose."
"So if it's sugar…" Lily contemplated aloud, "which it seems like it must be if you couldn't find anything else in Remus, then how could it get in the cup?"
"That why I ruled it out at the start," Severus said, frustration creeping into his voice. "There's no way anyone could get to the cup beforehand because they are sterilized directly before they are used, and it wasn't in Miss Reeves's dose so it had to be added after the potion was dispensed when no one, except Poppy had access to it."
Poppy Pomfrey, mother and booboo fixer to several generations of Hogwarts students putting them all in such peril? It was a ludicrous notion, in Lily's opinion. "Have they talked to her?" she asked. Surely Sirius and Frank hadn't overlooked her, even if they thought it as crazy as Lily did.
"Yes, and I'm still surprised she hasn't been arrested." Severus looked at her, his black eyes full of genuine confusion, and then the slightest regret as he added, "She's the only person that could have done it."
"That's a big accusation Sev," Lily said cautiously, sort of staggered by his blunt statement, Madam Pomfrey was as much a staple of Hogwarts as McGonagall.
Severus blinked at her use of his old nickname and there was a definite reduction in the normal sallowness of his cheeks as he continued, "I'm not accusing her," he backtracked. "I'm just saying that someone did something to his potion and she's the only one who had the opportunity." He did not look pleased by the idea, a weighty frown pulled at his eyebrows. But not for long, the worried expression lifted to something much more thoughtful, as though a new possibility was dawning on him. "You know the only reason no one else could get at the potions was because her office was full of patient records?" Lily nodded, but Severus explained anyway, "Her extension charm on the filing cabinet malfunctioned when she removed the records magically. But the NHS inspector … he's always seemed like the likely one to me, what if he just threw a sugar cube from the doorway?"
Lily was disappointed, she'd expected something much more conclusive and complicated. "I guess," she said hesitantly. "He'd have to be a pretty good shot, to hit the right beaker."
"What am I talking about, threw," Severus said scornfully, obviously annoyed at himself. "He could have levitated it, guided it across the room." He looked directly at Lily again, his concern evident. "Even a first year could do that spell."
"Do you really think that's likely?"
"It doesn't really matter if it's likely, it's possible." Severus seemed almost relieved. "I've been going mad trying to think of a way for this to have occurred. You know as well as I do that my potion would have been up to scratch. And all curses that could counter the potions effects would be detectable. It must be sugar, I just hadn't been able to figure out how sugar got in Lupin's dose and not Miss Reeves's. But if it was in cube form that would be easy to control with a levitation or banishing charm."
"You need to tell the Aurors," Lily said, thinking that if this was true it would be the most ridiculously simple poisoning plot on record… or not on record as the case may be. "Sirius and Frank need all the leads they can get. What if whoever it was does it again next week?"
"Well, I'd guess that the Aurors will be present for the big night. And they won't be letting anyone just wander around the hospital wing unattended."
"Still," Lily insisted.
"Very well," Severus caved. "I'll floo Longbottom in the morning."
"Good," Lily said, satisfied. "Now I should probably get some sleep, there's only seven hours til we need to add the bittercress paste."
Severus frowned. "You mean six hours and forty –" he paused to pull back his sleeve and check his watch, "–three minutes."
Lily smiled as she stood up. "Of course I did," she agreed. "I never thought I would have missed your nit-picking, but I think I have."
"Diligence is a more accurate term," Severus grumbled, but he looked pleased as he showed her out. "See you in the morning Lily."
"Good night Sev," Lily replied, feeling very silly for the unexpected sharp prickling of emotion in the corners of her eyes. She really hadn't realised how much she'd missed her very first magical friend until now.
A/N: Thanks for the feedback on the last chapter, love to hear your thoughts on this one too.
Mrs J xx