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.
Dies irae, dies illa
Solvet saeclum in favilla,
teste David cum Sibylla.
Quantus tremor est futurus,
quando judex est venturus,
cuncta stricte discussurus!
Chapter Fifteen
Severus Snape spent his Sunday morning harvesting ingredients from the garden and the afternoon hiking through the park and regretting not sending Hermione away without her memories. It was too late for that, however, and he expected to hear from her first thing Monday morning, hopefully with a formal contract from St. Mungo's with all his demands met. It wouldn't surprise him if they tried to push back a bit but he was firm on what they would need to pay him for his services.
He had written a few annotations on the notes Hermione had left. The quality of her work surprised him. She was detail oriented and nothing seemed to slip her mind. She had provided a formula for their current incarnation of the Wolfsbane potion with all of the changes and an itemized price list. She also provided estimates for a potion brewed by a private brewer or an apothecary.
The work she had already done (with his help, of course) was significant. It wasn't affordable yet but it was better. Hopefully the substitutions to come would not require equally expensive ingredients.
He considered the suggestions she had made for the Thunder God Vine: sarsaparilla, yucca, chlorella, and green tea. All of the ingredients were known to decrease inflammation but something seemed off about all of them to him. Sarsaparilla was known to cause excessive sweating and urination, which would shorten the half-life of the potion in the blood stream due to it being eliminated from the body much faster. The anti-inflammatory properties of yucca were limited at best. The chlorella would boost immune response by increasing the number of white blood cells present but it was not known as a strong anti-inflammatory. If Hestia Jone's infection theory was correct, it might prove beneficial in the long term if it were used in the cure Hermione proposed they create. She was definitely reaching when she suggested green tea. Sure, it had antioxidants but it simply wasn't potent enough to function in the potion unless they included at least three pounds of leaves, which would throw off the balance of the potion.
With no solution to that question presenting itself, he moved on to the next ingredients: flesh eating slug mucus. She proposed that they replace it with garden slug mucus, leeches, or flobberworms. The first two he could justify as possibilities. Garden slugs and flesh eating slugs had 99% of their DNA in common. Leeches were a similar organism and also fed on human tissue, thereby absorbing some human DNA. Other than being slimy nuisances, however, flobberworms really didn't share anything in common. He smelled a guess with that one. Granted, he didn't really have any better suggestions so he would let that addition go.
The owl came on Monday morning, bearing an obnoxiously bright green envelope that bore the official seal of St. Mungo's Hospital. It contained a sheaf of papers dictating his contract with the hospital. It was much more complicated than his contract as a brewer. Surprisingly, there was no push back on the salary. Perhaps he should have asked for more...
The contract dictated that he was not required to make appearances at the hospital and that Hermione would be his primary contact. He winced slightly when he read the notation that due to her obligations to the hospital, she would be allowed to see him only on weekends and evenings. That was a bit cruel of them, to deprive a single mother of her time with her children.
His own sympathies toward the young woman were shocking to him. He had disliked her when she was a child, though he recognized her intelligence. Now he couldn't even really call her an annoyance. He had agreed to work on her research project, after all. According to the contact, she was technically his superior as head of the research team. It didn't grate him quite as much as it should have and he reasoned that since the rest of the team would never even meet him, he couldn't exactly be considered the head of the team.
He read the entire contract twice to ensure there was nothing undesirable in the wording itself. Satisfied with that, he cast a series of spells to ensure that there was no magical component to the contact that was not explicitly written down. The contract glowed blue with the last wave of his wand, assuring him that everything was just as it should be. Then—heaven help him—he signed the contract in black ink and then tapped his name with his wand to attach his magical signature.
The contract rolled up and disappeared into thin air, presumably to go to the next party needing to sign the it. He got up from his kitchen table and descended to the basement lab to work on his latest order from St. Mungo's. His newly harvested peppermint would make a particularly potent pain relief potion. It was not complicated to brew but the efficacy of the potion was greatly increased with fresh ingredients.
When he returned upstairs to make his lunch, two owls were sitting in the tree outside his kitchen window. The first carried another bright green envelope. He opened it to find his copy of the contract, now affixed with Hermione's signature and the signature of the head healer at St. Mungos. The second letter was a missive from Hermione with details of her latest research.
Dear Mr. Hier-Snape,
I see the contract was to your satisfaction. Thank you for signing so quickly and allowing us to get to work. I have made contact with Neville Longbottom to consult with him regarding the replacement of the enchanted Belladonna. Are there any specific questions you wish for me to ask him on your behalf? I would invite you to the meeting but I can't imagine that you would come.
As the potions expert on the team, I request your input in regards to the other proposed substitutes. Terry is on loan to Experimental Charms for today and tomorrow but once he returns, I hope to have him run calculations on ingredients. I realize that some of my suggestions are unorthodox but they merit consideration. Terry is skilled enough to consider multiple factors in a single calculation so whether you think they are stupid or not, they will still be considered.
Looking forward to a speedy reply.
Hermione Weasley
He considered the contents of the letter. It was little more than a note. Nevertheless, he needed to reply and set the tone for the correspondence they would have. Yes, he needed to put her in her place.
Dear Healer Weasley,
If you wish to waste the time of one of your team members, far be it from me to prevent you from doing so. I suspect that Mr. Boot can figure out that flobberworms have no business in this potion even without arithmancy. But by all means, insist that he confirm it for you. It is your prerogative to do so after all, as head of your research team.
On that vein, do not assume that because you are the head of the research team that you can treat me like one of your ministry peons. You will treat me with the utmost respect that is due to a master of the art. Any disrespect will result in the immediate termination of our contract. Is that clear?
Sincerely,
Jack Hier
It was a farce that he was still signing his letters with Jack Hier's name and signature but he did not want to reveal himself in case a co-worker or assistant read her mail over her shoulder. He sent the letter off and went down to the basement to work on a special order for a fertility potion. A couple with a genetic predisposition to Walpurgia's blight—a disease that caused babies to be born covered in black pustules that eventually exploded in the brain—wished to have a child. The fertility potion in question would prevent the expression of the recessive gene in their offspring. It was a complex potion but it didn't take very long to brew.
By the time he came upstairs for a break, there was an owl waiting outside the kitchen window. He prepared a quick ploughman's lunch to consume as he read the letter.
Dear Mr. Hier,
I assure you that I will treat you with the utmost respect. I respect your expertise as a Potion's Master, otherwise I would not have asked you to be a part of this team. Your contributions are extremely valuable to this project.
In response to your suggestions in regards to replacing the flesh eating slug mucus, I welcome your contributions in this area. You have explained that none of my thoughts are remote possibilities, however, you have failed to include any alternative suggestions. By all means, please suggest some alternatives that I can have Terry analyze at the same time he analyzes the garden slug mucus, leeches, and flobberworms.
I trust the contract has been to your satisfaction, given that it has been signed and received. The hiring office was reluctant to agree to such a large salary for a contractor whom they have never met but I blatantly used my war hero status to get them to trust my judgment in the matter. Tell me: does this qualify as a Slytherin move for calling upon my social power or as a Gryffindor move for being so bold about it?
Sincerely,
Hermione Weasley
Dear Healer Weasley,
Whether your decision to call upon your war hero status to gain the desired outcome depends greatly on the manner in which you flaunted said status. Did you boldly proclaim "I had the intelligence to play a major hand in the downfall of You-Know-Who?" In such a case, it would be a decidedly Gryffindor move. If, however, you took a subtler approach, perhaps suggesting your acquaintance with various powerful wizards and thus reminded him of your accomplishments in the war, it would be considered more Slytherin. I highly suspect that you have employed the former tactic, given your propensity to rash behaviours and brash declarations to anyone with the ability to hear. I suppose it accomplished your desired end. The salary is satisfactory, as were the other terms of the contract. I, of course, tested the documents to be sure that there were no undesirable spells or conditions written into the magical signature of the document. I found none present and thus signed and returned the contract. It took you no time at all to agree to the terms as well, I note.
In response to your request for alternative suggestions for replacing the flesh eating slug mucus, I have a few options for you to replace your abysmal recommendations. The first is flesh eating sea slug mucus. Its properties are very similar to that of flesh eating slug mucus. Another option is the Pacific Propelling Nautilus.
Have you received any word from Mister Longbottom or Professor Sprout? I wish to work on replacing the enchanted Belladonna and I wish to have a list of potential ingredients by the end of the week. When that has been narrowed down, we will need to consider the proper enchantments to be placed upon the plant. It may require the addition of a charms expert. I assume that one is available to you through St. Mungos?
Sincerely,
Jack Hier
Dear Mr. Hier,
I will have you know that I did not loudly proclaim my war hero status to those in charge of contract negotiations. I simply chatted up the head of the department about what happened over the weekend. I mentioned spending time with Ginny Potter and all the time I spend with her and her husband. I also told her that I was meeting Ginny, Harry, and Kingsley for dinner this week to discuss preparations for the tenth anniversary celebration. Suddenly, she seemed much less reluctant to pay out the requested salary.
You seem to have missed the point of this project. Let me remind you that the goal is create a potion that is MORE affordable than the current derivation of the Wolfsbane Potion, not one that is more expensive. Both flesh eating sea slug mucus and Pacific Propelling Nautilus are more expensive than flesh eating slug mucus so using either would be completely pointless. Suggest something less expensive and I will consider it.
Neville is glad to assist with the enchanted Belladonna dilemma. He says it will require a bit more research on his part but he has a few ideas. As for recruiting a charms expert, there are several available in the research department should we need one.
Sincerely,
Hermione Weasley
Dear Healer Weasley,
I would never have believed you were capable of such subtleties. Congratulations. As a student, you were certainly never capable of this so apparently the years have changed you. I suppose it makes sense that some of those changes might be positive.
Forgive me for daring to make suggestions that are feasible rather than your completely impractical solutions. Really, Miss Granger, flobberworms? Could you not come up with something mildly more useful than the most boring and least utile creature on the planet? I shall perform my own research and get back to you with alternative suggestions. I will remind you that very few Potion's Masters consider ingredient cost in potion development.
You must be doing more than simply pestering me with owls. What have you been working on in between drafting your unresearched and borderline rude notes?
Sincerely,
Jack Hier
Dear Mr. Hier,
It has been many years since someone has referred to me as Miss Granger. Please refrain from doing so in the future. I confess that less time than I desire has been dedicated to performing research than either of us would have desired. If you recall the meeting with Harry, Ginny, and Kinglsey I mentioned the other day, I have been roped into the planning of the tenth anniversary ministry gala. It will be a regal affair with witches in elegant gowns and wizards in white tie dress robes. I am in charge of coordinating the sure to be pretentious speeches. Minister Shacklebolt will speak, of course, as will Harry. Kingsley seems to think that I should speak but I have refused. I am considering asking Minerva if she would perhaps do the honours. Unless you would like to come out of hiding and reveal yourself to the masses?
I have a few notes that Terry has made in regards to phase two (he runs so many calculations on so many subjects, I can't keep up), but nothing relevant to the situation at hand. If you so desire, we can conduct a meeting face to face over the weekend. I will warn you, however, that I do have my children this weekend and thus will not be able to travel to you. I assure you, however, that if you apparate into my back garden, you will not be seen by anyone other than myself. It would probably be best to schedule a meeting for their afternoon nap time which is at one-thirty in the afternoon. Please advise me by return owl whether this is amenable to you.
Sincerely,
Hermione Weasley
Dear Healer Weasley,
If you have no other options available to you, I suppose that your terms are amenable. What is your address?
Sincerely,
Jack Hier
Dear Mr. Hier,
My address is 24 the High Street, Hogsmeade. 1:30 Saturday.
Sincerely,
Hermione Weasley
Authors Notes: I apologize for the lateness of the chapter. It has been a rough few weeks. Things have been busy and on top of that, I just lost a very dear uncle. Trying to keep up with writing has been difficult.
Thanks to DanB for her wonderful beta work :)