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.
Rex tremendae majestatis,
qui salvandos savas gratis,
salve me, fons pietatis.
Chapter Seventeen
Severus's time at Hermione Weasley's house had been a strange experience. It had been many years since he had been in the company of small children. After the end of the first war, he had suddenly become a part of Pureblood society. Half-blood though he was, he had been a member of the inner circle and was also head of Slytherin. Because of this, all the young potential Slytherins were trotted out before him at parties for his approval. In particular, he had seen quite a bit of Draco Malfoy as a youngster.
Draco had been a solemn child, educated in the rules of society since birth. His care had primarily fallen on a house elf named Minnie and later a governess named Mrs. Parks. He had rarely asked questions when he was trotted out in public, unlike Rose Weasley who had peppered him with them. Draco was a miniature Lucius with impeccable manners and white blond hair.
Contrary to popular belief, he didn't hate children themselves. Rather, he hated the role he was forced to play as a teacher. He did not like having to divide his attention between thirty eleven-year-old children at the same time while they worked with fire and ingredients that could be lethal in the wrong combinations. Working with a handful of them at a time was not so obnoxious, nor was Rose Weasley. He wondered what a child of his own would be like. Would they inherit his dour temperament? Severus supposed it would depend on who their mother was.
He shook his head. It was different watching a child for a few minutes and reading to her than it was to actually care for a child for an extended time, and especially different from having a child of his own. Besides, he doubted that a woman could ever put up with him long enough to have a child, not that he was sure that was something he would even want.
His thoughts kept going back to the subject of children however, despite all efforts to tear his mind away. Small children were blunt to a fault but were also not prone to cruelty. While Hermione was busy comforting the baby, Rose had commented on his large nose and then immediately moved on to talk about how she liked to read Mummy's potions books. He doubted she actually read them given her age but he said nothing about it. She had then demanded that he read to her so he had grabbed the nearest book and started to read about potion ingredients. Before he knew it, she had transitioned from sitting beside him to his lap, pointing at the pictures on the page. She knew a surprising amount for a child her age.
His thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of the morning paper. The owl scratched at the window and Severus put a few Knuts into the pouch on his leg before putting the kettle on to boil and preparing his toast.
The Daily Prophet contained another interview with a so-called war hero. Neville Longbottom graced the front page, smiling uncomfortably and occasionally rubbing at a smudge on his nose that only got worse with each attempt to clean it up. Morbid curiosity led him to actually read the interview.
Neville Longbottom has been a close personal friend of Harry Potter since they started at Hogwarts the same year, both in Gryffidor house. He is best known for slaying the snake, Nagini, thereby destroying He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's final Horcrux. Now, he is a leader in the field of Herbology, specializing in the care of rare magical plants and harvesting ingredients for potions. Neville has agreed to give us an exclusive interview about his thoughts and feelings as we approach the ten-year anniversary of the fall of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.
Justin Finch-Fletchley: Hello Neville. Thank you for agreeing to meet with me today. It has been a while since we were finishing at Hogwarts, eh?
Neville Longbottom: Hullo Justin. Yes, it has been a few years. Hardly seems like a decade, does it?
JF-F: I suppose not.
NL: But in other ways, it seems like it's been a lot longer than that, you know? So much has happened in the last decade.
JF-F: That it has, Neville. Tell us what you have been up to in the last ten years.
NL: Well, after the Battle of Hogwarts, I signed up for Auror training. It was great for a bit, but I had always been interested in Herbology and I have been pretty good at it since early on so Professor Sprout offered me an apprenticeship. I spent a few years travelling and seeing magical plants around the world. Three years ago, Pomona Sprout announced her retirement. I was asked to take the position, which I was very grateful to accept.
JF-F: And what about your personal life? I hear there is a special lady, eh?
NL: Er—um—well... Yes there is.
JF-F: And how is the lovely Hannah Abbott? She and I were mates at Hogwarts, you know.
NL: Well, she is doing well. She just bought the Leaky Cauldron last year, which keeps her plenty busy. We've had to push off plans til next year as a result.
JF-F: Plans? What sort of plans? Wedding plans?
[Neville Longbottom makes no audible response but let it be known he blushed brightly and looked embarrassed]
JF-F: Never mind that, then. I can sense a touchy subject.
NL: No, no... not at all. [This was said in a high-pitched strained voice]
JF-F: Now that we are in that vein, let's talk about the future. Are you pursuing anything other than teaching at Hogwarts?
NL: Indeed I am. While the majority of my time is spent teaching, I have been working on some individual research. My area of focus is on enhancing plants for use in potions. This involves breeding plants to preserve favourable characteristics and diminish those that are unfavourable.
JF-F: What effect does this have on potions?
NL: Well, it depends on the potion. In some cases, the increased potency of the ingredient means less is needed and thereby some cost is saved. In other cases, increased potency in the ingredients means a more effective potion.
JF-F: That's interesting. Have you been teaming up with any Potions Masters with your research?
NL: Most of this is still in the research and experimentation phase. I am working with a few development teams on other projects, however.
JF-F: Oh? What's that?
NL: I've recently started working with Hermione Weasley's team that is making improvements to the Wolfsbane Potion in order to make it more accessible to those who need it.
JF-F: Really? She didn't mention it when we interviewed her two weeks ago.
NL: Two weeks ago, we weren't working together. It is a recent development, as her team's expertise does not go so far as to understand the complexities of enchanted ingredients. It takes a master to understand the nuances of different plant ingredients. There are so many subtle ways to enhance an ingredient through different enchantments whether they are applied to the soil or the fertilizer or the plant itself.
JF-F: Er right. It's all very fascinating. Besides plants and enchanting them, what do you think is the biggest challenge facing Wizarding Society in this day and age?
NL: Hm, I would have to say that is the propensity for the Wizarding World to allow history to repeat itself. Voldemort is not the first Dark Lord; Grindlewald came before him. Voldemort wasn't even the second Dark Lord. He was the latest in a long line of Dark Lords. We tend to defeat one, pat ourselves on the back and say we will never be that stupid again. Then we listen to the next supposed great leader and allow them to rise up and divide society again. It's a cycle.
JF-F: Well, most people mention something about lack of trained wandmakers or a dwindling population.
NL: No, I suppose I have been a little different.
JF-F: Well, Neville, Thank you for agreeing to give this interview. This is Justine Finch-Fletchley for the Daily Prophet.
If he had a bird, he would have used the remains of the newspaper to line the cage. As it was, his owl preferred to live in the woods and perch in a tree rather than bear the indignity of a cage. Instead he settled for throwing the newspaper into the fire. He glared at the smoldering paper and decided that it was not burning fast enough. With a flick of his wand, the paper exploded into ash. He had never liked the stupid boy and seeing him lauded as a war hero was infuriating.
Temporarily satisfied, he returned to his seat at the table to finish his breakfast. Once the tea and toast was consumed, he did the dishes with a swish of his wand and went to his library. St. Mungo's had ordered a nerve-healing potion he had only made once before.
The patient in question had suffered repeated stings from a group of Billywigs he had imported with the intent of breeding them for apothecaries. Untrained in proper handling of the bright blue insects, he had opened the door of the tank to try to get one out to inspect it. Instead of plucking a single insect from the cage, the group of 100 insects swarmed to his hand and began stinging him. Yanking his hand from the cage had not immediately removed them from his hand. Instead, the Billywigs had hung on just long enough to be removed from their tank before letting go and proceeding to sting him all over his body.
While a few stings from the magical insect caused giddiness and levitation, a few hundred stings caused extensive damage to the nerve pathways in the extremities. From Severus's understanding, the patient had no feeling in his arms and legs. This was the only case of Billywig nerve poisoning seen in Britain as the insect was native to Australia. However, the Healers at St. Mungo's had consulted with a wizarding hospital in Perth that had been successful in healing Billywig induced nerve damage using the potion Severus was to brew.
It was a finicky potion and as it was not a common brew, Severus needed to submit a cost estimate prior to starting work. While apparently the patient had said cost was no object, he still needed to send in a bid. Reading over the recipe, he made a list of ingredients that he did not have in stock, the foremost ingredient being yarrow, one of the most essential ingredients for the potion. It promoted the healing of the nerve fibres themselves, especially the myelin sheath.
Not that the average Potions master understood the biology of how yarrow worked in the body. He had learned about the functioning of the central nervous system during biology lectures at Oxford after the first war. He had been curious about how muggle science and its potential applications to potion brewing. The knowledge of yarrow's specific effects came from a paper on the nerve-healing potion written by the inventor. The witch in question was from Australia where they were generally more liberal regarding the incorporation of Muggle science into magic.
He wrote down an order for ingredients to send to the apothecary and then sent off another missive to St Mungo's with his quote for brewing the potion. Severus stood to stretch when he noticed that the owl that carried Hermione's correspondence was waiting in the tree outside his library window. After opening the window, he summoned the bird to him, removing the parchment from its claws.
Dear Mr. Hier,
I do hope you are not so elevated on your high horse that you hurt yourself when you fall down. Really, for all your snobbery about my suggestions for ingredients, I'm sure this will be extremely painful. I, of course, am getting ahead of myself. You don't even know what I'm talking about yet.
I have attached the latest set of calculations performed by Terry Boot. You will see that neither Flesh-Eating Sea-Slug mucus nor the Pacific Propelling Nautilus work as a replacement ingredient for the Flesh-Eating Slug mucus. No, that honour goes to an ingredient you referred to as (and yes, I will quote directly, "the most boring and least utile creature on the planet.") Yes, the humble flobberworm is a satisfactory replacement for the Flesh-Eating Slug mucus.
I daresay you will be quite surprised at this development, perhaps even angry that as much as you scorned me for that suggestion, it proved to be the solution to our problem. I shall expect a reply when you have sufficiently recovered from your shock.
Sincerely,
Healer Weasley
P.S. I've also included a few notes from Neville about enchantments on plants. Perhaps you will find them useful.
Damn, damn, and double damn! Flobberworms were actually the correct substitution? He would never have guessed that in a thousand years. How had she known? What properties of the flobberworms lent themselves to working as a replacement for the Flesh-Eating Slug mucus? Part of him wanted to congratulate her for besting him at that particular discovery but he couldn't let her think that she was superior. No, he needed to put her in her place.
Dear Healer Weasley,
If you are seeking felicitations for discovering that flobberworms can be used in lieu of Flesh-Eating Slug mucus, I am afraid you have queried the wrong source. As with your days as a student, you are once again mistaking sheer luck to be skill on your own part. When you are done congratulating yourself, we will return to the real work of your little potion project: the enchanted Belladonna extract.
I'm sure this discovery will distract you for at least the rest of the day, if not tomorrow as well. Should I anticipate some information from you and your compatriot Mr. Longbottom tomorrow or perhaps the day after?
Sincerely,
Jack Hier
He watched as the owl as it flew away over the treetops, carrying his letter off to Hermione in London. Oddly, instead of dreading the impertinent woman's next letter, he looked forward to reading her undoubtedly waspish reply.
Author's Notes: I am very sorry for the delay in this chapter. I had a severe case of writers block on top of being extremely sick, dealing with a bug infestation in our apartment (one crawled out of my keurig. It wasn't pleasant), and the holidays on top of it.
I had a question a few weeks ago about the "funny words" at the top of each chapter. Those are the original Latin from the Catholic Requiem Mass, going along with the title of the story "Requiem for the Living." A requiem is generally viewed as a death mass or a funeral, however the literal translation for the word requiem is rest. Many composers have composed a requiem using the traditional latin text, my personal favorites being Mozart and John Rutter. If you are interested in what the latin actually means, I suggest googling "requiem translation." I would post a link but this website doesn't like them.
I find reviews to be most inspirational. Trying to get back to an every week posting schedule but I need to actually find writing time and inspiration for that. As always, many thanks to Danb86 for beta reading this story and helping to save you from my horrific grammar.