Well here is Chapter 25. I hope you enjoy. As usual I do not own Harry Potter. Please Check out Labyrinth...my other SS/HG. I would be grateful and appreciative of some reviews for it.
I will try to update this story soon!
I am going to finish this story before I update Labyrinth though. Please check it out even though it may be a bit confusing because of all the flips between different places that take place.
Harry did stop by to see me the following day.
"Is Sirius here?" Harry asked as he sat down in the small parlor that was just off the main entry hall in my house.
"No, he is up at the school right now," I answered looking up sharply at the strange question. "We do not live together Harry and I'm not having sex with him and I won't, not until we are married."
"Hermione, Sirius is treating you right, isn't he? That scene from yesterday has been niggling in the back of my mind since last night," Harry said as I passed him a teacup. "What did he do to you?"
"Harry, why are you so worried? What is making you this way?"
"Well the fact that all you could do before Valentines Day this year and all the previous year was complain about him and talk of his rudeness and poor teaching ability and talk about who you did like. I come back Valentines Night to see you in his arms comfortable and happy when you were talking earlier that day of what an asshole he is," Harry said and he paused for breath. "What makes me worry? Well the way he was talking to you for one. He is not treating you like he cares for you. He told you to shut up and he yelled at you and you said that he was hurting you when he grabbed your arm and he did nothing to try to lessen your pain. He just told you to shut up. That's not right Hermione. That is not how people who love each other act."
"Harry, please I do not particularly want to talk about this. He has never hit me. He insults me a lot but physically I have never been mistreated. I don't quite know what to do. I think he is crazy. Maybe I'm crazy for being with him. I don't know. I've never given him a chance and doesn't everyone deserve a chance, at least? My mind and heart are haywire and it is worse when he is close by. When he looks into my eyes I just lose it. I have to do what he is telling me because every time he looks into my eyes I feel so strange. I can't stop myself from doing what he says. I can't remember what he says. It is like some strange form of the imperious curse and I forget more of my past and my life whenever he does this. Harry I am scared. You have to help me," I whimpered. "I do not remember anything of what occurred in 1977. I can barely remember how I ended up there."
"Hermione, it's going to be alright. Professor Snape and Remus are working as fast as they can to help you. But we have to know what antidotes to use. If we use the wrong ones...well I stopped listening because I didn't understand."
"Harry, the wrong antidote for a memory potion could possibly cause me to become like Lockhart and the wrong antidote for the Love Potion could kill me. It would make my heart stop."
"Professor Snape said that you didn't necessarily need the antidote. It is entirely possible to overcome it without it," Harry said. He stood up and wrapped an arm around me from behind. "I wish there was more we could do but I have no other ideas except that you try to fight Sirius when he tried to force you to do things you don't want to do and avoid looking him in the eyes. I have to leave now for Auror Training. I promise to write you when I get there."
"Thanks Harry," I whispered.
- Remus Lupin -
"So will you help me?" I asked.
"Sure thing. Hermione is one of my best friends and I can tell something is wrong. Her behavior yesterday was enough to tip me off," the young woman in front of me said. She hadn't even graduated. What a brave Gryffindor. We needed all the help we could get. "I'll help Professor Snape even though he is such a grinch."
"Thanks Ginny. We really need your help," I said. I felt an enormous surge of relief knowing that we had another bright witch on the job, not to mention Ginny was going to be Severus' apprentice next year. She knew more about potions than anyone I know but Severus. She was trying to become a potions mistress.
"Not a problem Professor Lupin."
- Severus Snape -
I flipped through the books in my private library for any information regarding Memory potions and Love potions. I am ninety-nine point nine percent sure I knew what Love potion he had used. It was down to two possibilities and considering what I had seen yesterday one of them had lost a lot of the weight it had carried. The two potions I was thinking of were the Drúis and the Dall Grá. I was betting my fortune on the Dall Grá. Both of the afore mentioned potions were extremely dangerous and highly illegal in the British Isles. They were both legal in France though. Black didn't have too far to go to buy it. That answered how he got such a complex, delicate potion when I knew he did not possess the patience or the ability to brew it. He'd barely passed potions the seven years he had had to take it at Hogwarts. I decided it might be best to go and seek Albus' council. I strode quickly up out of the dungeons and up to the stone gargoyle that guarded the entrance to the Headmaster's office.
"Blood Flavored Lollipop," I said with a grimace.
What was it with that old man and sweets? It was absolutely revolting.
"Severus come in," Albus called as I raised my hand to knock. How does he do that?
"Good Afternoon Albus," I said as I seated myself in one of the red protuberant chairs that Albus was so fond of.
"Good Afternoon Severus. Would you care for any tea?"
"No thank you. I have an extremely pressing matter to discuss in regard to a former student and the relationship she now has with her ex-professor."
"So it is of Miss Granger's new and, presumably, unfounded feelings for Sirius. I must confess I have my doubts about their relationship. I do not want to interfere with these things. All people cope with things differently," the headmaster spoke softly. The normal twinkling blue eyes had been replaced by a pained expression.
I nodded curtly. "What do you mean cope differently? What is wrong with her?"
"Her parents were killed in an unfortunate car accident and she has had her own trials over the past school year apart from that. I have been worried for her since the accident."
"It is not as simple as all that. I have spoken with her and her memory is not functioning normally. I originally thought that Hermione was merely suffering from stress caused by her N.E.W.T.s but I am afraid that it has not gotten better in the weeks since the testing was conducted. At Mr. Potter's birthday she seemed most out of sorts. I am certain Black is using some potion to control her. Her memory seems to get worse every time she and Black are around each other. She seems to become a girl totally unlike herself. I am certain of the love potion he was using but I do not know what memory potion was being used and I do not think it would be wise to administer the antidote. It would be safer to know first what memory potion the love potion is acting in cohorts with."
"What potion was Sirius using?" Albus asked lowering his head.
"The Dall Græquot; I spat without bothering to hide my hatred for the potion and my disgust with any human who would stoop low enough to use it. "It has some properties of the imperious curse. It was originally designed by a man with exceptionally bizarre sexual fantasies."
Headmaster Dumbledore stood and moved to look out his window.
"Do you have any idea when the potion was administered to Miss Granger?"
"I first began to notice behavioral irregularities and memory problems shortly after the fourteenth of February. She forgot to write a very important paper for my class but she was given some time to correct it."
"We must exercise great caution now if we are to save Miss Granger's heart. Begin to brew the counter-potion immediately. It will take some months, will it not?"
"Till shortly after Halloween. But it is dangerous for that potion to be given to her so long after the first was given. Not deadly but with the memory potion working as well it is difficult to tell. It is always possible for her to overcome the potions effects on her own."
"Perhaps we should wait as long as possible before giving it to her. It would be best not to confound her mind further."
"I agree but I will begin brewing a counter-potion. I don't want to see Hermione make a decision in her current state of mind that would effect the rest of her life even when and if she recovers hidden memories. Separation of marriage is unheard of in our world after all."
"Severus, my boy, do you have any feelings for Miss Granger?" the headmaster asked and his eyes appeared saddened. "You must forgive an old man."
What was that supposed to mean? I suppose he meant the nosy question about Hermione.
"At the present time I'm concerned for her. I do not wish to see another girl treated poorly by Black. She reminds me of my love more than any other person I have ever come in contact with."
The headmaster gave me a knowing smile that infuriated me.
"What does that smile mean?"
"It means be patient my boy and wait for good things to happen. All will be revealed to you in due time. I am not the one who has to tell you these things."
"I'm just going to go start brewing a potion to help Hermione," I said in a clipped tone. "Be careful not to repeat past mistakes Albus."
I exited the office of the headmaster in a whirl of black robes.
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