I A/N Once again, I'd like to thank Phaet for being an excellent beta. Also, this time, I'd like to thank all those who reviewed my previous chapters your comments were so nice to read and reaffirmed my belief in myself as a writer. So thanks again folks.
Also, to Hannah, my number one fan for putting up with my antics in London on Monday. Yay for 'Persian Snap'.
And also, to Matt, you aspiring addict to mine writing Oh and the title for Chapter 2 was taken from the 90's television show Knightmare. This one is from my most hated Shakespeare Macbeth. /IChapter 3 Double, Double, Potions and Trouble!
Hermione yawned as she sat at the kitchen table, a cup of bitterly-strong coffee in front of her. It had been a long, emotional night; one which she never wished to forget. i Dumbledore alive? /i She shook her head, still thinking it was a dream, despite many hours in the spare room which she had converted into a rough lab.
She yawned again, taking a sip of the cold brew, gagging slightly at the temperature. Her eyes were focused on what looked like a rough piece of parchment, attempting to determine its meaning and failing miserably. Dumbledore's words of the night before kept coming to the forefront of her mind.
i Harry is in danger /i , he had said. She shivered. Harry was her best friend. She'd asked Dumbledore what the danger was, and had been surprised when she'd actually gotten an answer out of him.
Harry was being poisoned. Slowly and methodically being transformed into some fell creature. Some dark thing. And she and Snape had to brew a potion and make up a few spells to cure him... Dumbledore had made it sound easy. When he'd Dissapparated, Snape had snarled a terse insult at the now-vacant spot, then proceeded to inform her that it wasn't going to be easy at all, and that there was much work to be done.
Hermione understood why Dumbledore had come to her now. It was because she had graduated at the top of her university class and had become a curse-breaker for Gringotts, after telling the Ministry precisely what they could do with their job offer when she discovered that they had been spying on her because she was Harry's friend.
A small sound roused her from her contemplation, a Snape gracefully swept into the kitchen and fixed himself a cup of tea.
"Really, Miss Granger, I would have thought you would be busily researching how to save your precious Potter, rather than staring into space," he sneered as he leaned against the counter, cup in hand. She wished she could throw her own mug at him, but that would prove unproductive at best. She was supposed to be working with the man, after all, not contemplating homicide.
"I was thinking," she replied weakly, the smug look on his face making her feel as if she were a student again. She swore at him and left the kitchen, heading to the small laboratory in her cellar.
Hermione stormed into her lab in the cellar and glared around dangerously. Even after all thee years Snape still made her want to cry. How were they supposed to work together when he made her feel so... inadequate? And it didn't help that she didn't even know what she was looking for, just that it was a spell to do something to a potion that Snape is going to make once he finds the right one in the pile of books Dumbledore had left.
She sighed and pulled her wand out as she moved over to a pile of those same books on her workbench. She chose one at random and waved her wand over it, muttering " I Specialis Revelio /I !" Why she hadn't thought of this sooner, she didn't know, but anything was worth a try.
The book shuddered and whipped open, pages flicking faster and it eventually settle on a spell. Hermione pulled another book to her, this one looked infinitely newer. It was leather bound and black, engraved with runes she recognised from Ancient Runes when she was a student. It was the sold reason she had bought the book when she had seen it in a muggle shop.
She opening it to its first page and inked a quill as she regarded the spell she had found. She read the spell to herself. "' I A spell to multiply the effect of any potion /I .' Hmm could be interesting and useful. Right, lets see then – ' I First, create the Amplifying Potion /I ' Amplifying Potion? Never heard of it," she frowned, absently chewing on the end of her inked quill, smearing the black ink onto her lips. "Okay let me read on and see... ' I Next drink the potion and raise your wand over the potion you wish to be blessed with multiplication. Flick the wand to the left, then the right and finally in a 'D' shape, saying this incantation 'Amply plus strenia' and shout the number of how much you wish the potion to be multiplied by /I .'" She wrote the spell down in her black tome. It might come in handy if the potion wasn't strong enough. She set a number of Dumbledore's books on her bench and waved her wand at them. As they flicked through themselves, she idly pottered around the lab, straightening the shelves and glancing at the titles of the books Dumbledore had left for Snape.
"If it were as easy as I that /I ," Snape smirked from the staircase, waving his hand at the flicking books. "Don't you think Albus and I would have found what we are looking for already?" He sneered at her as he moved into the lab, his robes billowing around him. He waved his wand at the books and they shut.
"What were you thinking?" He hissed as he glided up to her, staring dispassionately as the smaller witch in front of him.
"I... I... I merely thought..."
"No, thinking would have been to much to expect from the little Gryffindor Know-it-all. Perhaps you 'think'," the word was thick with sarcasm. "That the greatest wizard of all time had not tried this already. Or perhaps you thought you are a better witch than Albus Dumbledore is wizard? Or perhaps," he leaned in dangerously. "You thought you could half-heartedly search for the answer using the information that your pathetic brain already knows while you dreamt idly?" his voice had gotten dangerously low.
"I... No... I..." Hermione stammered and he sneered at her. "It's going to take months to read all these books. I just thought that maybe I could get the spells for potions..."
"Oh I'm sorry," he growled at her. "I I assumed /I you wanted to save the deplorable Potter. Forgive my mistake." He mocked bowed at her, the one act showing all of his loathing of the girl. Why on earth Albus thought that this... this I child /I could help them, gods only knew. Merlin, he hated the Potter brat, but Albus had all but forced him to aid this foolish endeavour.
Hermione was furious. How dare he? Of course she anted to save Harry; he was her friend. She raised her eyes to his, her cheeks red with her wrath.
"How dare you?" She seethed, her hands in fists shaking at her sides. "How I dare /I you suggest I don't want to help him? You don't know anything about me, about my life. We're not at school anymore I Professor /I . And you want to know something?" She asked and then carried on when he opened his mouth to answer her. She stared thrusting her finger into his chest at random intervals of her speech, emphasising certain words. "I'll tell you. We're long past any time when I'd have done practically anything to earn your praise; we're long past any time when I might have respected your intelligence. Because obviously you have none! You act like… like some sort of superior being, prancing around I my /I house like I was a student and you, my teacher, but I'm not and you're not! You haven't told me anything about what we're supposed to be searching for. How am I supposed to find some miracle spell when I don't know what's wrong with Harry or what the spell will do?" The last was snarled directly at the wizard. Their faces were so close in their anger that it seemed a single breath would bring their lips together.
Severus blinked slowly. "Have you quite finished your fit of histrionics, Miss Granger?" He asked slowly. Hermione took a ragged breath and nodded, stepping back when she realised how physically close she was to the man who had made her life hell in school. A delicate blush appeared on her cheeks as she slumped into a chair, suddenly exhausted.
"Good. Then perhaps we could continue?" He mocked, not waiting for her permission before opening a random book and beginning to flick through it.
"If you tell me what you've tried, then maybe I won't make stupid mistakes," she said in a small voice that sounded thick with emotion.
He sighed, closing his book. He felt sorry for he somewhat. After all she was close to the Potter boy and stood by him as he killed the Dark Lord.
"Very well, Miss Granger. The spell you seek is one, which will, hopefully, activate the potion I am searching for. What it, or the potion is named, I know not. Albus has already tried your little idea, but came up with nothing. We have discovered, however, that the answer is a half-half, that is half…"
"I know what half-half is."
"Of course you do," he sneered at her once more. "You need a male and a female to make the potion safe to drink, otherwise it is most deadly. However, perhaps you could double check. Albus is nothing if a bit absent minded." He waved his wand and Hermine's books started flicking once again. She nodded and settled to wait.
"As to what is wrong with Potter… he is the victim of some ancient magic which Albus is currently investigating."
xxxx
The rest of the day passed in a blur of magic, books and frustration. They'd forgotten lunch and dinner, so absorbed were they in their work. Hermione had filled in several blank paged in her tome with spells that could be used in conjunction with potions. Severus had copied several potions onto scrap pieces of parchment.
"Uhh," Severus groaned, pressing his hands to his forehead. Hermione glanced up, questioningly. "We should rest for now," he told her. She began to protest. "We might miss something if we are tired." His stomach rumbled. "And hungry," he added as an afterthought. She sighed and nodded, knowing he was right.
When they had tied up their books and left the lab, Hermione turned to the locked door and waved her wand, activating warding spells. Severus raised an eyebrow.
"Thieves. Or just in case," she elaborated as they made their way to her tiny kitchen to prepare a simple meal.
They ate in stony silence, their companionship not established, for she and he felt an immense dislike of the other. Small talk was not originated, yet once Severus brought up mention of their shared work, the conversation grew animated as they discussed the day's findings. Soon it was beyond midnight and they were both weary, having been up for roughly twenty-four hours each. Hermione stood and placed her plate in the sink, gesturing for him to do the same.
"Come on, I'll show you to a spare room," she said as she dragged her body through the door way and up the stairs. He followed her, not reluctantly, for he wished a good night's sleep and a productive day tomorrow. The quicker they found what they were looking for, the sooner he could leave this infuriating woman.
Hermione paused outside a room on the first floor. "This is my room," she informed him, giving him a level stare, which conveyed more than the words themselves, did. "The door way at the end of the hall is the bathroom. Feel free to use it. And this," she paused in front of another door. "Is yours. Dumbledore had said he'd Apparate your belongings here so you could change." Clearly the idea of him living in her house excited her about as much as the thought of watching a flobberworm reproduce. About the same as it excited him. He inclined his head at her and vanished into the room, firmly shutting the door in her face. How that woman riled him. He found his chest of clothes in the middle of the room and thought of Hermione's outburst in the lab earlier. I I do so ever much enjoy goading her /I , he thought, smirking to himself as he fished out a towel and made his way to the bathroom to wash.
Perhaps, he thought as he shaved, perhaps he should tell her exactly what was wrong with her beloved Potter? No, she wouldn't believe him. She still believed he was a Death Eater. He nicked himself with his razor and swore loud. Pressing some tissue to it, he headed back to his room and stripped for bed.
He had once thought the Granger woman an intellectual equal to himself. Today's display of her fiery Gryffindor temper and her stupidity in that reveal spell had made him think otherwise. But yet again, the damned woman had surprised him, not only by admitting her mistake, but also by trying to rectify it through reasonably and logically based arguments to which he finally acquiesced and gave her what she wanted. He gave the room a secretive smile as he remembered her in her sixth year at Hogwarts and the consequent years Albus had made him keep track of her. Oh, he'd watched her grow from a pathetic little girl always trying to please everyone, to a mature and capable adult. Someone who could stand in front of the Dark Lord and not be afraid to die. The mere thought aroused him once more as it did the years he had been her unseen observer.
He rolled onto his back, his erection pressing the sheets, and tried to sleep. After all, he would need all of his strength to top him from slapping her eagerness down in the morning.
