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Chapter 20

Once they had finished eating, Snape stood, and walked over to the door leading to his private workroom, pushing his chair under the table as he did so. Harry followed suit. Once inside, Snape rolled up the sleeves to his robes, and gestured with one hand to where a few sheets of paper were lying on the far end of the main bench. Beside them lay several chopping boards, and petry dishes, along with droppers, syringes, and several test tubes.

'Today we begin work on the crutiatus potion. I want you to prepare a first batch of ingredients, following those instructions. If you have any difficulties, ask me. This is powerful work, and could quite literally blow up in our faces.'

Harry quietly nodded his understanding, and moved over to the end of the bench, leaving Snape to set up a small cauldron. Scanning the list of ingredients, Harry mentally whistled, impressed by the power of the stuff. Checking the piece of paper every few minutes, he began his work.

As he finished preparing each ingredient, Snape took them off him, and added them to the simmering cauldron, asking no questions, sometime putting all of whatever it was in at once, sometimes adding it grain by grain. On the other side of the room, Harry kept his mind on his own task.

Nearing the bottom of the list, Harry came upon the instruction for the preparation of Mandrake Root. Mentally, Harry remembered what he had learned about it's restorative properties the year before. Again, he was impressed.

Time passed quickly, and soon Harry was watching as Snape added the last of the ingredients, frambias spleen. As the potion turned from a murky brown to a deep blue, Snape snapped back, and stretched. Harry winced as he heard the snapping of stiff joints.

Snape reached for his wand, and flicked it in the direction of a glass timer mounted on wooden brackets in the dungeon wall. It turned, and the sands began to fall. As they left the room, Snape answered the questioning look Harry sent him.

'It needs to rest for six hours on a low heat. Then it will be ready to be tested.'

Harry's eyebrows furrowed.

'How will we test it?'

Snape sat down with a sigh, flopping into one of the two armchairs in the main room. Harry did the same, gratefully accepting the glass of conjured pumpkin juice he was handed.

'There are several stages. To start with, we will test the potion on a rat, using a mild pain-causing curse. If that is successful, we will use a stronger curse. Finally, the crucitus. Before we move on, we must know it can hold up for long periods of time, and work for repeated exposure. Then, we try it on a person, a volunteer that the Order will supply us with. We go through the same stages with them. If it holds up to everything we can throw at it, we will make a test batch of.say 100 doses, give them to members working in the field. A month later, if all the reports are good, it gets its official marketing seal, and our job is done.'

Harry swilled the juice in his goblet, as if hidden in its depths were the answers to his next question. Snape looked on, amusement glittering in his eyes.

'So how long does this usually take?'

Snape sighed lightly, and shrugged.

'Days, weeks, months, even years. For this, it will probably be the latter.'

Snape didn't need Harry's frown to prompt him to continue.

'That's because this is an entirely new potion, not an old one we are simply altering the change its effects. In truth, we actually have no idea if it is possible. There is still much that we don't know about so many ingredients that are traditionally used in magical healing, many of which counteract each other.'

The discussion continues, and eventually moved on from potions to curses, and many other topics Harry suddenly realised he knew very little about. Atr some point the discussion grew sop heated that one of the old, dusty tomes was pulled out, in order for the correct information could be verified, and the debate settled. Glancing through to the workroom as Harry refilled their goblets for the ninth time, Snape stood up. Abandoning the juice, Harry followed him.

Once in the room, Snape took a small vial, and scooped up a few drops of the potion. Handing it to Harry, he reached up onto the top shelf, and pulled down a cage that Harry had failed to notice beforehand. Unaware of the stony look Harry had adopted, Snape reached for on of the squirming rats in the cage, and then replaced it on the shelf.

Taking the vial from his apprentice, Snape care full pored it down the rat's throat. Motioning at Harry for him to stand back, Snape released his captive, and before Harry could speak, Snape had his wand out and had cast what Harry recognised as a hex that caused a sharp pain in the chest of the victim. Having fallen foul to that particular curse several times, courtesy of his master, Harry winced, felling slightly sorry for the creature, despite his newly developed dislike for rats.

Immediately Harry could tell the potion had failed, the rat trembled uncontrollably, and thair was filled wityh high pitched squeals. Snape quickly lifted his wand. As Snape putnthe r\at back with the other, Harry remained silent, trying to gage hiow huis master was feeling. Picking up a sheaf of papers, Snape walked back out into the main room. He sat down once more, running his hand through his dark hair. Unsure of what he was suppost to do, Harry gave a quiet query.

'My lord?'

Snape spoke through his hands.

'Now we have the task of going through the ingredients, and cross referencing their properties and effects, trying to work out why it went wrong. I want you to take this list of ingredients, and go through the ingredients catalogue. For each one, I want a list of all the known counter ingredients. If you get any matches, tell me. If you get hungry, help yourself to some sandwiches'

'Yes, my lord.'

Harry took up the book and paper, and flipped open the index. The task was a monotonous one, and yet required great concentration. Several plates of sandwiches later, Harry stood up suddenly. Snape gaze flickered upwards.

'My lord, I think I've got it. Downweed counteracts hinkypunk skin, which is said to have some of the same properties as frambias spleen. Therefore, its reasonable to think it counteracts that as well.'

The book was snatched from his hands, as Snape swiftly checked the information. Once he had finished reading, he looked over at his apprentice.

'Good work. We should be able to nullify the effect, simply by increasing the concentration of the honeycone sap.'

Snape looked pleased, and Harry grinned, before hurriedly lifting a hand to his mouth to stifle a yawn. Snape glanced over at the clock. It read half past midnight.

'Right, we'll continue with this tomorrow. Normal time for you tomorrow. Harry gave a half hearted groan, which he quickly halted upon seeing his master's raised eyebrow.

'Good night, my lord.'

Harry bowed, and Snape nodded to him. As Harry disappeared into his chambers, Snape gathered up the dirty plates and put them on the table, before blowing out the various candled around the room, and retiring to his own room. Soon, both were asleep.