Requiem for the Living
By Jinxd n Cursed
Disclaimer: This is a work of fanfiction. I merely play in the world of J.K. Rowling; she still owns the characters.
Kyrie, eleison.
Christe, eleison.
Kyrie, eleison.
Chapter Twelve
Hermione made it in to work early the next morning for a meeting with the hospital president, Laura Burbage. The older woman wanted to hear about her research, their progress, and estimated dates for completion. She seemed pleased with the progress so far but as usual, was not happy that there was no predicted completion date. Those outside of research generally had a difficult time grasping the idea that certain timelines simply could not be predicted. There was no way to guess when she would locate an acceptable substitute for each of the ingredients, much less when they would actually be able to create a cure for lycanthropy.
Laura Burbage was a career Healer on the spell damage floor and was familiar with the processes needed for charms and transfiguration development for reversing the damages of spells. What she was not familiar with beyond her original Healer training was potions development. It was not the most popular field to go into, but Hermione loved it. In many ways, it was like a large logic puzzle, trying to find a different piece to fit in the same place. The best part was when it took the place of more than one piece. Unfortunately, finding the best fit often took a long time. Perhaps it would go a little faster if they could actually manage to find a Potions master. That was neither here nor there at that point however, as no candidates were presenting themselves. Hopefully Jack Hier would choose to commit.
Arriving at her desk once the meeting was over, she opened the letter from Jack Hier and began to read.
Dear Healer Weasley,
Congratulations on determining an appropriate substitute for the powdered horn of Bicorn. Perhaps you are not quite the dunderhead I first assumed. I wish to see the report from Ms. Jones as soon as you read it.
It appears you are finally utilizing your colleagues' talents to their full potential rather than doing inferior work for yourself. No doubt you will be further utilizing his talents for your calculations on the other ingredients you propose to replace. I would suggest first looking at Hippogriff feathers as a replacement for the Griffin feathers. I believe the correct amount is five feathers. I find they usually require anti-clockwise stirring.
It is somewhat pitiable that you cannot think of a replacement for the enchanted Belladonna. That is the single most expensive ingredient in the Wolfsbane potion and if you cannot find a replacement for it, you will never be able to make the potion affordable to the greater population. I am sure you have considered this. What is your research plan for this particular ingredient? Do you have an expert on Herbology and Charms at your disposal or are you going to attempt to figure it out on your own?
I await your speedy reply,
Jack Hier
She reveled in his congratulations on her work for a moment. Even at the age of twenty-eight, she still responded to people complimenting her work like she had at the age of eleven. Then she read his critique and requests again. He had a point about the replacement for enchanted Belladonna being the most important in terms of lowering the cost. She also suspected that he had actually completed the calculations to determine to substitution of Hippogriff feathers but she would need to verify. She decided to read the letter again before starting a reply.
And that was when her heart stopped.
Her eyes stuck to the word "dunderhead" in the very first paragraph and she knew exactly whose handwriting she had been looking at: Severus Snape.
Though Hermione had always known he was alive, to have a letter from him in her hands was almost like talking to a ghost. For all intents and purposes, Severus Snape was dead. There was even an empty grave beside Dumbledore's tomb. She had set fire to the Shrieking Shack so that no one else would find the clues that he was alive. Magical law enforcement had assumed arson was the cause but Hermione knew better, not that she would ever confess. She considered purchasing the property to be her act of remorse.
That she had been conversing with Severus Snape explained much. It explained the snarky tone and the insults and the obvious expertise. No wonder she had never found Jack Hier on the registry of British Potions masters; he wasn't even a real person!
She needed to think long and hard about how to proceed with this information. Obviously, she wasn't going to just write him a letter telling him she knew who he was. Technically, she couldn't be 100% sure without going to see him.
Going to see him...
It was a stupid idea, really. Extremely stupid, but the infinitely curious part of her needed to confirm the evidence. She HAD to see him and know that it was really Severus Snape she had been writing to. It was Friday and the children were spending the weekend with Molly and Arthur along with the rest of the grandchildren, so it wasn't like she had to care for them that weekend. She had plans with Ginny to go shopping at Gladrags and Madam Malkin's since both of them needed new robes but that was in the morning.
The first step in carrying out such a plan to verify that he was alive was to discover where he lived. She needed to compose another letter to him and place a tracking spell on the parchment that would alert her as to his location. Ron had taught her how to make the spell untraceable when he was in Auror training so at least he would not realize she was after his location.
Unfortunately, she did not have a good idea of what to write just yet. With a big sigh, she turned back to his letter and decided to verify the information he had passed on. She wrote down the factors to check and handed them off to Terry who had quietly been working on his general calculations about a cure for lycanthropy. Within a few minutes, he handed it back to her, confirming exactly what had been sent in the letter. She began to write.
Dear Mr. Hier,
Thank you for your congratulations on our latest discovery. We are very excited that we have been successful in our attempts thus far. There is still a long way to go as you have so kindly pointed out to me. I have enclosed the preliminary report from Ms. Jones for your reading pleasure and informational purposes. It is quite enlightening and I find myself coming around to Ms. Jone's way of thinking on how lycanthropy is transmitted.
As I am sure you are aware, enchanted ingredients are notoriously difficult to create and to replace in a potion. I have a number of Herbology experts I can consult when the need arises, including Pomona Sprout and Neville Longbottom, her successor at Hogwarts.
The first step would be to find a plant ingredient that has the same properties as Belladonna prior to enchantment. Belladonna is a pain reliever, muscle relaxant, and anti-inflammatory. These effects are caused by the presence of atropine, which raises the heart rate, dilates pupils, and reduces secretions. The reduction of secretions is the most desired effect of the Belladonna. Somewhat counter-intuitively, the enchantments applied to the plant prior to extraction actually amplify the anti-inflammatory characteristics at the expense of the ability to limit secretions. Therefore, it stands to reason that the replacement ingredient must have anti-inflammatory properties. A few suggested ingredients are ginger, cinnamon, garlic, cayenne, boswellia, and yarrow. It has also been suggested that adding the proper enchantments to the turmeric that is already present in the potion could have the desired effect. I am doubtful of this hypothesis but it is possible.
The next step is to consider the enchantments themselves. Enchantments can be applied at several different phases: to the seeds prior to growth, to the growing plant, to the harvested plant, and to the extract itself. In the case of Belladonna, the enchantment is applied to the harvested plant prior to extraction. I believe it most likely that enchantments will need to be applied at the same point in the growth and harvest cycle of the replacement ingredient. Most enchantments placed on ingredients are varying forms of amplification charms to increase the powers of desirable properties. In the case of Belladonna, the enchantments used increase the anti-inflammatory properties and also suppress the poisonous characteristics of the plant. The enchantments needed will depend entirely on the ingredient but it is doubtful that a suppression charm will be necessary.
Have you ever worked to replace an enchanted ingredient within a potion? Very few masters have done so and as a result, I am having a difficult time finding someone with the necessary expertise to assist in our project. I do hope you are still considering taking a place on our research team. I am assured that the salary is negotiable and we should be able to come to agreeable terms. Do tell me what your thoughts are regarding this possibility in your next correspondence. You have great depth of knowledge in potions development and I should like to have you on our side.
Sincerely,
Hermione Weasley
It seemed like a blatant violation of privacy to attach the charm that would alert her to his location to the scroll but she knew she had to do it. The somewhat complex charm would convey the geographical coordinates of parchment when the hands of someone other than herself grasped it. There was always a slight risk of someone else intercepting it and throwing off her search, but she deemed that possibility unlikely. Zelda had gone back and forth between London and Wales many times now and would not be likely to stop off somewhere other than her destination.
After sending off the letter, she spent the rest of the day in the Ministry library doing research on various ingredients. She wrote scads of notes in a blue spiral notebook, though she honestly wasn't sure that she had learned anything useful. At five o'clock, she made her way back to her office to hang her lime green healer's robes and exchange them for the chocolate brown robe she had worn over a deep green dress with tights and brown buttoned ankle boots.
The parchment on her desk glowed with the coordinates of the letter delivery. +51° 54' 9.2514",-3° 24' 38.8866" . It was Wales, as expected, but as for its exact location, she would need to do some research. Obviously, she wouldn't want to apparate to that exact point and just pop into his kitchen. Besides, he was likely to have installed anti-apparation wards around his home. Tucking the parchment into her purse, she pulled on her robe and locked up the office. She was going to treat herself to dinner at the Three Broomsticks on her way home. While she was more than capable of cooking, she simply didn't enjoy it and was more than happy to allow others to do it for her.
She ordered the fish and chips along with a pint of mead and ate them at a small table in the back corner. She loved the way Rosmerta made the mushy peas in particular. She topped it off with sticky toffee pudding, smothered in custard. It had been a favourite of hers her whole life, though she had not often been able to enjoy it due to the imposition of sugar restrictions from her dentist parents. Dessert had been a Sunday only affair until she was at Hogwarts. The three Grangers had rotated who chose dessert. Mum always chose trifle, Dad chose banoffee pie, and Hermione chose sticky toffee pudding.
Her heart twisted at the thought of her parents. Though she had released them from the memory charm not long after the end of the war, they hadn't understood her decision and were somewhat resentful of it. They chose to remain in Australia under their new identities and remained on Christmas card terms. It was exceptionally difficult for Hermione to bear that her once loving, doting parents could barely talk to her. They had come to the wedding, but her father refused to give her away. While they expressed their congratulations at the births of both her children, they had never met Rose or Hugo, nor had they come to Ron's funeral. In many ways, Molly and Arthur had become her only set of parents and the only grandparents to her children.
Finishing up her dessert, she walked up the high street toward her home. Though the windows were darkened, the front door immediately recognized her magical signature and let her inside, turning on several of the lights. Locking the door behind her, she proceeded up the steps to her bedroom and bath. Tired from a long week of work and with no children to feed and bathe, she would not stay awake very late. She changed into her softest pale blue nightgown, and laid out an outfit for the next day before returning to the living room with a book of maps.
Hermione discovered that the coordinates in question put her in the middle of Brecon Beacons National Park in Wales. It was not especially near a road or even a marked trail. Surveying the map, she chose a spot about a mile away in the middle of nowhere to apparate to. She copied the map so she would have an idea of where she was going, then placed the volume up on the shelf. After reading from a novel for a bit, she went back upstairs and went to sleep.
The next morning, she met Ginny for breakfast at the Leaky Cauldron. After a full fry-up, they prowled Diagon Alley for the latest in witch fashion. Hermione wound up purchasing three new sets of robes from Gladrags: a set of French blue summer weight crepe de chine robes, a luxurious buff coloured robe made of silk wool, and lastly a very slim cut set of aubergine robes of silk cotton voile. She should have felt guilty for the indulgence but they were on sale and the only new robes she had purchased in the last two years were the set of heavy black velvet she wore to Ron's funeral. At Madam Malkin's, she purchased one set of flame and potion resistant work robes in utilitarian black.
Even as she and Ginny shopped and tried on outrageous styles they would never actually wear, Hermione was anxious for what would come that afternoon. After a hearty portion of bubble and squeak at the restaurant next to Gladrags, Hermione apparated home. She changed from her robes into a pair of jeans with a long sleeved white shirt and a green vest. Finishing the ensemble with her hiking boots, she tucked a few items into her purse, including her potions notes.
Dressed and ready to go, she picked opened up the notebook with her intended destination. Closing her eyes, she focused on that spot and with a pop, Hermione was gone from her home.
Author's Notes:
While the coordinates used for the location of Severus Snape's stone cottage are in fact in Wales in Brecon Beacon's national park, I make no guarantees that there is in fact a stone cottage with a sexy potion's master inside.
I would also like to note, dear readers, that the only payment I receive for this story is your reviews. Seriously, reviews inspire me to keep writing.