Cure pt. 3

Stop gap measure complete. Greyback's son reveals a secret to Hermione. Now to find or work out a cure.

It had been three days. Three days since she was snatched by Greyback. Three days since she was told about Scabior. Three days since Harry had been brought to her. Three days since she realized she'd found a way to, at least, slow the infection down. It wouldn't kill it outright but it was slowing the infection down more each day.

Werewolf venom was her answer. Harry Potter was now a werewolf. Once the next full moon arrived, he would start transforming with the other wolves. She wasn't sure what the plan was for herself. She'd half expected Greyback to bite her soon after she injected the venom into Harry and Scabior. So far, though, he had yet to mention turning her. Maybe that was to be her punishment if she failed to keep the boys alive.

Harry was now talking and laughing, going on with her much the same way as before. He refused to let her remove the muzzle or the Soft Claws though, just in case he relapsed without warning. The Snatcher, Scabior, was taking longer but, as Greyback had pointed out, he was actually bitten. Harry had only been scratched. Naturally his recovery was going to take longer.

She was sitting on the table with Harry, Scabior and Philip, Greyback's oldest son. She had discovered that Scabior was calmest when he had her sandwiched between himself and Philip. Philip was the one who told her why. Whenever he and Scabior went out to the taverns and pubs, before the world went to hell in a hand basket, they would always move in on a girl together. Tag teaming her, as Scabior had once told him. Hermione was supposed to have been their next conquest. Philip admitted, rather reluctantly, that he had been sworn to silence about that, unless the time came that Scabior himself couldn't tell her. At this point, he looked pointedly at Scabior.

He shrugged. "When Scabior went back to claim you from Bellatrix, he was going to bring you home to the den. Dad was going to turn him. Then we were both going to mark you as belonging to us both. We weren't going to turn you, though. A turned female can't have pups."

"Why not?" Hermione asked curiously. Very much intrigued by the thought, even though she was the subject of the discussion.

"Because the transformation would kill the pups. The female would survive, though. As there's no way to keep from transforming, there would never be any pups. That's why we infect our mates but don't turn them. As long as they already have lycanthropy, we know their scent and they are safe, even in human form. We do have a safe house for them during the full moon nights, just as a precaution." He stroked back a strand of hair from her forehead. He could see why Scabior was so taken by this little witch. She was beautiful, not perfect, but beautiful in her own special way.

"I didn't know that. I always thought female werewolves had children the same as other women. I didn't realize they would lose their babies like that. I guess I never thought of it. That must be why Remus has never turned Dora. If he does, she'd never be able to have babies with him. Of course, he's always said he doesn't want children, but Dora does. If he tried it and she found out that's why he did it, she'd probably kill him." Hermione chewed her lip as she thought fondly of Remus and Dora. Dora had already said whenever she and Remus had their first child, she wanted to name Hermione as its godmother and Harry would be named godfather.

"How long do you think this thing will last? Is anyone from the Muggle world trying to find a cure as well? Or are they all dead?" he asked. He'd never been to the Muggle world. Maybe once this whole thing was over with, she'd take him and Scabior out of Wizarding London into the Muggles community and show them around.

"I don't know. I wish I did. We haven't been in the Muggle world since the summer before what should have been our seventh year." Hermione thought of her parents and prayed that this thing, this virus or whatever the devil it was, hadn't made its way to Australia where her parents were still hidden. Just the thought of her sweet mother and kind father being infected with this thing that would turn them into killers, well, it just didn't bear thinking about.

She looked at Scabior, currently sleeping peacefully on her shoulder. Harry was busy reading a potions book and marking every calming potion he found. Hermione thought that might be a good start of a cure of her own if she couldn't find the actual cure. She looked at Philip then. He did look very similar to his intimidating father. He had the ice blue eyes and long, blondish hair but he didn't have the facial hair. His father had a neatly trimmed beard. Philip also kept his fangs retracted. Greyback kept his fangs in full view. She had to admit, it was exciting knowing Scabior had been coming back for her. Just as exciting as knowing he and Philip would have been sharing her. She wondered if that was even still a possibility. 'Not as long as this killer disease was hanging about!' she thought angrily.

"Harry, how many have you found?" she looked at the boy she dearly loved. He was the pesky little brother she'd never realized she wanted.

"I've found about six so far. Three of them look promising. I've marked them all for you. Have you found any in your book?" he asked, having seen her talking to the younger Greyback.

"I'm almost through this one. I've found about twelve in here. This is all the potions books we have though. I don't have any of our school books and there's no way to get to Hogwarts right now. Hopefully, Professor Snape has the gates locked up tight and nobody there was bitten or scratched." Hermione sighed. Harry rolled his eyes at the name.

"Well, it's not like we can send him a note and ask for some potions books, is it?" he snorted.

"Don't be like that, Harry. Just remember he could have killed you several times over the past couple of years. I still think there's a reason behind his actions." She told him.

"Yeah, he got tired of being a teacher, he got lonely for his friends, the Death Eaters, yeah, Hermione, there's any number of reasons why he killed Dumbledore!" Harry retorted.

"Didn't you over hear him talking to Draco, something about an Unbreakable Bow? Maybe that was why he did it." Hermione knew there had to be a reason behind the former Potion master's actions.

"I really don't know and I really don't care." Harry said stubbornly. It was Hermione's turn to roll her eyes.

"Well, we need more potions books and, like it or not, Harry Potter, he's our answer! We learned a great deal more about Potions from him than we did Slughorn. You should remember that, YOU were beating ME that year! Why? Because I was using the regular potions book and YOU were using Snape's book! You had all those notes in the margins, telling shortcuts and extra instructions. We need his instructions, Harry! Ten to one, he knows SOMETHING that would help us!" Hermione was sure that Snape could help them.

"Hermione, you're forgetting something very important! He is a Death Eater! Why would he help us? Tell me that! Why would he want to help us? This plays to Riddle's advantage, everyone is dead or dying and he gets to rule what's left of the world!" Harry couldn't see why she was still defending him.

"Because he wants to beat him as much as we do. You'll not change my mind about this, Harry. Hate him all you want but I still believe in him!" Hermione frowned at him. Philip frowned as he listened to them argue, they were starting to disturb Scabior.

"Hey." He said softly, nudging her and motioning to Scabior. Hermione noted the frown forming on the young Snatcher's face. She shushed Harry and stroked her fingers across Scabior's forehead. He sighed and relaxed back into a peaceful slumber. Harry and Hermione waited until he was settled before they spoke again.

"I'm sorry, Hermione. You know how I get when HE'S mentioned." Harry whispered. His animosity with the Potions teacher was well known.

"Yeah, I know. I'm sorry, too. Let's just try the potions we have marked right now and go from there, ok?" she replied. Harry nodded, glad she wasn't angry at him.

They returned to their reading. Pretty soon Harry gave up and, carefully marking his spot, flopped over and fell asleep on Scabior's other shoulder. Greyback came through soon after and found an amusing sight. Philip was leaned against the wall, holding Hermione, who held Scabior, who in turn held Harry. They were all four deeply asleep. He motioned to Bertrand who chuckled softly at the sight. It wasn't often that his nephew was caught in such a vulnerable position!