Chapter 2 - Poison Pen

"Miss Granger?"

"Yes, Margaret?"

"That tall, good looking gentleman from yesterday is back to see you."

Hermione glanced from the clock to the eager face of her young secretary. "Thank you, Margaret. Send him in."

The petite blonde escorted Neville inside then lingered at the threshold. Hermione smiled kindly. "That will be all, Margaret."

The girl sighed and closed the door behind her as Neville deposited a cup on Hermione's desk. "Here you go. Sorry I'm a bit early. Hope I'm not interrupting anything."

"You're fine. Margaret's just not used to me entertaining visitors." Hermione took a sip of her drink and hummed contentedly. "Oh. Merlin. Finally. A proper coffee. Thank you, Neville. You're a saint."

"You seriously drink that on a regular basis?"

"Yes. Why?"

"I had them pour out a little in separate cup for me to taste."

"What did you think?"

"Honestly?" He made a face. "No offense but I think the fact that someone else ordered the exact same thing ought to have been a clue something was up with the guy, Hermione."

Hermione began giggling in a way that surprised even her. "I suppose you're right. It is definitely an acquired taste."

"So's swamp water. Doesn't mean you should drink it," teased Neville.

"Fine. Laugh all you want. Just means more for me, then." Hermione smiled and took another long sip. "Now. If you're done critiquing my beverage choices, why don't you show me this spell you've come up with."

"Right. Got my notes here." Neville pulled some papers from an inside pocket of his robe then looked at her and grinned.

"What?"

"You've got foam on your nose."

"Oh, Merlin!" Hermione began digging in her desk for a tissue.

"Here you go," Neville said, producing a clean but slightly tattered handkerchief from his robe.

"Thank you," she said, gently dabbing her face. "Did I get it?"

"Yep."

"Then why are you still looking at me like that?"

"Sorry. Just thinking of the first time we ordered butterbeers at the Three Broomsticks. Remember?"

"How could I forget? I kept getting the foam up my nose."

"Better than me. I spilt more than I consumed. You'd have thought I was drinking fire whiskey the way I was shaking."

"You were nervous. We all were." She shook her head. "For two people who desperately wanted to fit in we sure found enough ways to make spectacles of ourselves, though, didn't we?"

Neville smiled in agreement then cleared his throat and placed the papers in front of her.

"So, here's the basic process I went through to develop the spell you asked about. It's a variation on a revelio charm..."

Hermione peered at his notations. "I see you've used Scarpin as a foundation."

Neville nodded, obviously pleased that she'd noticed. "Yes, but then I wove in theorems from Goshawk and Wenlock as well."

Hermione's eyes lit up. "I think I see what you've done here! You've taken..."

She was cut short by a loud pecking noise at her window. They turned to see a small owl grasping a letter, tapping furiously at the glass. With a flick of her wand, Hermione unfastened the latch. The bird swooped in and dropped the message on her desk before perching on the back of a nearby chair.

She was reaching for the parchment when Neville grabbed her wrist, causing her to jump.

"Sorry," he said, quickly releasing her. "Didn't mean to startle you but look at his talons."

She glanced over and nodded. "You're right. They're coated with something." She leaned closer to better inspect the bird's sharp claws. "What is that?"

"Looks like some sort of paraffin."

"Why would someone do that?" she asked.

"My guess? To keep whatever's on that parchment from affecting him before he delivered it to you."

Neville dug around in his pocket and produced a bag, some tweezers and a pair of graphorn scale gloves. He donned the gloves and carefully picked up the paper with the tweezers before depositing it in the bag which sparked wildly with a crackling blue flame.

Hermione studied the process with intense fascination. "What is that?"

"Specimen bag I developed with a built in neutralizer charm. Temporarily disables various kinds of magic so I can get whatever material I've found safely to a lab for analysis. How it reacts when I put something inside gives me a preliminary idea of what I'm dealing with. Originally made it to transport potentially poisonous plants then later on I tweaked the spell to include other items."

She couldn't help but look impressed. "And what does that reaction tell you?"

He took a step back, making sure to hold the bag as far away from her as possible. "It tells me this is some really nasty, dark arts kind of stuff, Hermione."

She took a deep breath. "Right. Okay. What do we do with it now?"

"We get it downstairs to the Auror lab and see if we can find someone with the proper background to give us more information."

"Well, I can help with that part at least." She picked up her wand and gestured towards the floo. "You arrange for the owl and the letter to be transported to the lab, I'll round us up an expert."