All characters belong to JK Rowling They will never be mine.
7 July 1998
Harry went to breakfast looking like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders, he had not slept well the night before worrying about whether he would be able to finish the antidote on time. He knew that on paper they had enough time, but he couldn't help thinking about what would happen if something went wrong. Harry had lost more people in his life so far than anyone should have to deal with and the thought of losing another person who he cared about scared him.
"Harry don't look so worried. I know why you're worrying and everything will be ok. We have both brewed potions that are harder than this before and they have turned out fine. I know that this is more important, but all we have to do is keep a level head and everything will turn out fine." Said Hermione by way of a morning greeting.
"Good morning to you too Hermione. How are you today?" Sarcasm had always been Ron's domain, but Harry was not above being sarcastic when the occasion called for it.
"Are you sure that Draco will be able to get everything that we will need?"
"I don't see why not, anyway if he is not able to get them we will know soon enough, and we won't be any worse off than where we are now. Anyway we have nicked potions ingredients before and that was before me and Draco were prefects, it will be easy to get them now. So stop worrying."
"Okay I'll try to stop worrying, but I don't think that I will really stop worrying until I have seen Se...Snape drinking that potion."
"Are you going to eat your breakfast because if your not we might as well get going and start."
"I'm not hungry let's go."
They made their way up to the girls bathroom. Hermione worried about Harry, Harry worried about whether they would be able to save Severus's life. He was still surprised about how much he cared, while he would be concerned about anyone in the same position, but the worry was actually driving him crazy.
Hermione and Harry had to wait about 10 minutes before Draco joined them. He had all of the ingredients with him, which made Harry feel a little better all they had to do now was brew the potion properly.
"I know why you are brewing this potion, but wouldn't it be easier just to tell Severus how you feel about him, and that you are not leaving Hogwarts tomorrow. Then he wouldn't take the poison in the first place." Draco said looking confused.
It was the sort of question that Ron would have asked. In a weird way helped to settle Harry's nerves, it made thing just seem normal. By the time Harry had finished the thought process that he was thinking, Hermione had finished explaining to Draco why it was impossible to change the course of the stated future, and that they would simply have to explain to Snape what has been happening over the last couple of months in two days time and that there is no need to go to such drastic measures.
8 July 1998
Hogwart's students were treated to a sight that they never thought that they would ever see. Harry, Hermione and Draco were sitting together with their heads together. It was strange even though everyone in the school knew that Draco had turned to the side of the light and a few of them knew about Hermione and Draco being a couple, seeing the three of them obviously working together was something that they never thought that they would ever see. That it was the last day that the three of them would be at school as students made the sight even more ironic.
"Everything to do with the potion had gone perfectly so far and it will be finished in just over ten minutes Harry. Have you thought about how you are going to get him to drink it? I hadn't thought about that yet." Hermione said for the first time in the process looking worried.
"The antidote has no way of detecting it and you also don't need a lot of it for it to be effective. So I have two options I could slip some into his drink when I talk to him at the leaving feast. Although I think that it would be a risky because I think that he would notice me doing it. I mean he is always aware of what is happening around him isn't he.
"The other option would be to get one of the house elves to put it into his drink. I could get Dobby to do that all I would have to do is convince him that it is for Professor Snape's own good. I think that they trust me enough that they would do that for me. Although this is also risky because if they decide that they don't trust us, as they know about the animosity that we have had with Professor Snape and might think that we are trying to hurt him. Then we could end up in all kinds of trouble." Harry said looking worried again.
"Dumbledore knows about the diary right?" Harry and Hermione both nod at Draco's question. "So why don't you just tell him what the diary says is going to happen tell him that we have made the antidote and that we need him to make sure that Snape gets given it."
"That has got to be one of the most simple plans that I have ever heard and you know what it will work and I have no idea why we didn't think about it."
"Come on Hermione a plan where we just get the headmaster to help us there is no way that we would have ever thought of doing that. It's just not what we do." Harry said smirking.
"By the way I think we need to get the antidote. If anything goes wrong at this stage we are stuffed."
"Yeah come on lets go."
The three of them ran up to the bathroom. As you would expect from a potion brewed by Hermione it was of course perfect.
Hermione put the potion into a few potion phials. They had made more of the potion that they would need however they were pretty sure that Dumbledore would be able to find a use for the rest of it.
It took over an hour to explain what had been happening with the diary to Dumbledore. He agreed to make sure that Severus received the potion in his pumpkin juice that evening. The house elves would of course know that he wouldn't be trying to poison Snape so he did not have to worry about that.
Though he made the suggestion that as they had made so much of the potion that it would be easier to put the antidote into everyone's pumpkin juice that way they wouldn't have to make sure that Severus drank from a specific goblet. It would mean that less could go wrong.
Dumbledore watched Severus like a hawk at the leaving feast. However Dumbledore was actually far more subtle than anyone would give him credit for. So Severus ate his meal totally oblivious that Dumbledore was watching him. Although he was aware of being closely watched by Draco, Harry and Hermione. That made him slightly uncomfortable not that anything showed. What was even more strange for him that they all seemed to visibly relax at exactly the same time and stop watching him as intently.
Harry only began to relax at the leaving feast once he had seen Severus drink a good amount of his pumpkin juice. He felt proud of his, Draco's, and Hermione's work as Snape did not detect that anything had been done to his pumpkin juice at all.
Before going to bed for the last time in the Gryffindor dorms Harry told Severus how happy he was that he had been his teacher as it said that he should in the diary and went to bed happy thinking about the different direction that his life would be taking tomorrow.
I'm so so sorry that this took so long. A combination of a new job and receiving the Sims 2 has put this off. But I absolutely promise that I will have this story finished by the end of October I have one maybe two more chapters left.