Requiem for the Living

By Jinxd n Cursed

Disclaimer: This is a work of fan fiction. 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 Twenty

Hermione spent Friday evening packing bags for Rosie and Hugo for their trip to Severus's cottage the next day. It was surprisingly difficult to prepare to take two small children away to a new place for one day. Thankfully, with the aide of an undetectable extension charm, she was able to fit everything she could possibly need into the diaper bag. There were nappies, wipes, powder, diaper cream, pacifiers, blankets, two changes of clothing for each child, snacks for Rosie, toys for both children, and the pack and play. It contained the children so well, especially when she magically extended the walls upward invisibly. The pack and play was one of the few pieces of muggle child-rearing equipment Hermione insisted upon using. In addition to keeping one or both children contained, it also served as a portable crib for nap times, and was much easier than constantly keeping the baby strapped to her person.

Though she slept well that night, Hermione woke early, even without Rosie prodding at her. She showered and dressed before waking Hugo to nurse. Rosie was miraculously still sleeping at eight when Hermione was finished carrying out her morning tasks. Tempting though it was to let sleeping children lie, it was time that she got up.

"What are we going to do today, Mummy?" Rosie asked as Hermione led her down the stairs.

"Well first thing, we are going to eat breakfast," she replied.

"Well of course," Rosie replied in the same know-it-all voice Hermione had produced as a child. "But what else are we going to do?"

"After breakfast, I will get you dressed and then we are going on an adventure to visit one of Mummy's friends," Hermione told her. "Now, do you want porridge or yoghurt and cereal?"

Rosie contemplated. "Can't I have porridge and yoghurt?"

"Porridge and yoghurt it is," Hermione answered. She set a small tub of strawberry yoghurt in front of her daughter before setting about making porridge for both herself and Rosie.

Fortunately for her, Hugo had almost immediately gone back to sleep after being burped. Hopefully he would remain that way until it was time to apparate to Wales. She wasn't sure she could cook, feed herself and Rosie, dress Rosie, and calm her own nerves while calming a fussy baby.

Once breakfast dishes were cleaned up, Rosie was dressed, and she had checked the diaper bag one last time to make sure she hadn't forgotten anything, it was time to leave. She apparated them a polite distance away from the cottage. Hugo, of course, immediately started crying because of the loud noise and Rosie spotted a bird that she needed to chase.

Hermione patted Hugo on the head to comfort him while calling after Rose as she ran off.

"Rose Molly Weasley! You know better than to run off without Mummy!" Hermione called after her.

The toddler ignored her and continued running off in the direction of the bird's flight path. Thankfully, it was in the same direction of the stone cottage. With Hugo fussing in his sling and a hefty diaper bag on her shoulder, she could only run so fast while not tripping over rocks and tree roots. Huffing and puffing, she came to a stop in front of an area of neat garden beds where the bird was pecking at the dirt.

"Rose," Hermione puffed. "You are not to run off without me. What would have happened if you got hurt?"

"But the birdie Mummy! I had to see where he was going!" The small redhead protested.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Come on. Perhaps you can play with the birdie later," she said, taking the child's small hand and tugging her up to her feet. Reluctantly, Rose followed her to the door of the cottage. Before she could knock on the door, it swung open, revealing Severus Snape in all his glory. His face was far more pleasant than she was ever accustomed to seeing him.

"Good morning," he said.

"Mr. Sevus!" Rosie exclaimed, throwing herself around the man's legs.

"Rosie," Hermione said sternly.

"She is all right," Severus said with a small smirk down at the child. "We shall work in the library. How do you presume to occupy your offspring?"

"There is more to this bag than meets the eye," she informed him, gesturing to the diaper bag.

He nodded, before stepping out of the way to allow them into the house and leading them to the library. Hermione set the bag on a chair with a thump and set about removing the pack and play from the bag and wedging it into the corner. Selecting a few few toys from the bag and tossing them in, she was ready to put Rosie into her spot. The child in question was peppering her former Potions Master with questions about everything from the bird outside to his large nose. Exasperated, Hermione grabbed her under the arms and put her in the pen.

"Mummy!" Rosie protested, "I want to play with Mr. Sevus!"

"You can play with him later if he so desires," Hermione informed her. "For now, Mummy and Mr. Snape have a few things to discuss. Play with Herpy the Hippogriff and the time will be up before you know it."

Rosie frowned but did as she requested. Hugo, thankfully, had calmed and gone back to sleep so rather than disturbing him, she elected to keep the baby in the sling and work around him. She pulled her notes out the bag and turned to her colleague.

"Is this a normal set of behaviors for her?" Severus asked mildly.

"Unfortunately, yes," Hermione said with a sigh. "As I told you the other week, I was apparently worse. She has a lot of questions."

"As you say," he replied. "I, however, did not allow you into my home to play babysitter so shall we attend to the matter at hand?"

"Indeed," she replied. "I am most pleased that you were able to discover the appropriate charm for the yarrow root. I was sure that we would need to consult an expert in Charms."

He smirked. "You underestimated my abilities greatly, then."

"As you underestimated mine," she answered. "I have already written a draft of the research that I performed prior to you joining the team." She handed him a thick sheaf of papers.

"Are you presenting an article or a novel, Weasley?" he sneered.

"An academic article. You know perfectly well that Potions Quarterly regularly publishes articles of greater length than this," she snapped back. "Besides, this is a draft and not ready for submission by any means. You should see the stack of calculations that Terry gave me to include."

"Dare I imagine?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"'Hogwarts: A History' has fewer pages," she informed him.

He winced.

"I decided to spare you those details. I insisted that he simplify it down to the most essential calculations in less than ten pages," she said with a slight smile.

"For that we can all be thankful," he said, lapsing into silence as he read her draft.

Hermione took out her own parchment on which to continue writing about the final formulation and brewing procedures. As she wrote, she occasionally glanced over at her former professor who was scratching revisions to her draft in red ink. Memories of six years worth of essays covered in red ink came flooding back. His expectations had always been very high with his number one criticism of her papers being that they were too long. It was unsurprising that he would say the same thing about the draft he was reading.

As she finished writing out the procedures for the first phase of brewing, Severus cleared his throat. "It occurs to me that prior to publication, we need to brew the altered potion and test it on a subject."

She nodded her agreement. "I have lined up a test subject for the next lunar cycle. I had it in my mind to discuss who will brew it this afternoon."

He rolled his eyes. "Who else would brew it but myself? Last I checked I am the only Potions Master in the room."

"I know that," she began, "but I would like to present for the brewing as well. After all, I was rather pivotal in the development of the formula, was I not?"

"Very well," he said. "You shall observe but I will be the primary brewer. With the timing of the lunar cycle, we will need to brew next week in the evenings."

Hermione hesitated. "Would you possibly be amenable to brewing in my basement lab? If I have to ask Molly to watch the children, there will be a lot of questions."

"You may bring them here as you have done today," he said.

"While that is fine on weekends, I do have to have the children to bed at their normal time during the week if I want to preserve the peace at all," she argued.

"Fine," he conceded. "You will have all the proper equipment present, yes?"

"I have everything but the silver cauldron," she said.

"Then I shall bring it with me," he replied. "You said you have a test subject lined up. May I inquire as to his or her identity?"

"Amelia Abbey," she told him.

His face showed his shock. "The Hufflepuff?"

She nodded grimly. "Fenrir Greyback had a number of victims in the Final Battle. Amelia was the youngest. She was fourteen."

He shook his head. "She was surprisingly adept at Potions for a Hufflepuff."

Hermione nodded. "Indeed. She is a technician at Jigger's Apothecary in Hogsmeade."

"I see," he said. "She has been apprised of our work?"

"Yes she has," she replied. "She is eager to try it. I will admit that she is one of the biggest reasons I want to find a cure. She is skilled enough to become a Potions Mistress but she has been unable to find a Master willing to take her on."

"As noble as it is to want to improve her life and the lives of others, you know that we may research for years and never make any progress," he told her, his voice surprisingly gentle.

"I know. But I still need to try," Hermione said.

Hugo chose take moment to wake up with a muffled cry. Hermione checked her watch and then looked at her compatriot uncomfortably. "It's time for me to nurse him."

Severus flushed bright red. "By all means, there is a room next door where you can nurse him. I will watch your daughter."

"Thank you," she said, getting up and taking Hugo into the room next door. It turned out to be a bedroom with a narrow bed covered with a blue and red quilt. She sat on the bed, laying Hugo down beside her so she could pull up her jumper before lifting him back up.

When she was done, she carried him back into the library. To her shock, Severus was sitting on the floor with her daughter, building with the blocks he must have fished out of the diaper bag. Not wanting to disturb the peaceful (albeit surprising scene), she went back to her chair and pulled a teething ring out of the bag for Hugo. Hermione watched as Severus spoke gently to her daughter as they built a tower with the blocks. She smiled fondly at the two of them.

As Rose knocked the tower over, Severus looked over at her and cleared his throat. "Your daughter is incorrigible. She would not take no for an answer," he explained.

"She does that often," Hermione replied.

"If you wish to continue, she will do no harm here on the floor," Severus said, moving to get up with a visible wince.

Hermione nodded and placed Hugo in the pack and play along with his teething ring and a stuffed Unicorn. The baby cooed happily.

"There is one thing that is different in your approach than those that have gone before," Severus said, as he took a seat. "Ms. Jones' theory that lycanthropy is a pathogen requires a completely different approach to treatment."

"Yes it would," Hermione said. "Whether the theory is correct remains to be seen, however. We need to perform tests."

"You will need muggle laboratory equipment to do that," he said. "Microscopes, centrifuges, and a computer at the very least."

"Hestia has also requested equipment to do Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. She is being spoiled by the Microbiology labs at Oxford," Hermione informed him.

"Would she be able to do the analysis there?" he asked.

She shook her head. "Unfortunately, she is the only witch in the microbiology program. It would raise a lot of questions if she were to be researching a magical virus or bacterium."

He tipped his head in agreement. "Well, we shall have to find a way to obtain the proper equipment."

"So we shall," she said. "Well, I suppose we ought to take a look at the matter at hand: an article worthy of publication."

"Indeed. As usual, you have included three times the amount of information than any normal person would possibly want to know," Severus said.

"I disagree. I have included all the information that I would want to know if I were reading the article," she argued.

"I said a normal person, Granger," he said.

"Weasley," she reminded him. "By all means, show me what ought to be deleted."

"You will find my notes in red," he informed her, handing her the sheaf of parchment.

Hermione began reading through the first page. "Why have you crossed out the calculation on whether or not it is possible to replace any of the ingredients?"

"You prove throughout the paper it is possible; you certainly don't need a full page equation to show it," Severus told her.

"Fair enough, but why have you crossed out the original formulation?"

"Readers can look it up for themselves. Besides, the journal is not going to want to pay royalties to print the formula."

They bickered back and forth in that manner for several hours, both conceding on certain points. Both would have been content to continue doing so if Rosie had not tugged on Hermione's skirt.

"Mummy, I'm hungry," she said.

Hermione looked at her watch. "It's five o'clock so it's a bit late for a snack, Rose. Gather your things and we will go home so Mummy can make dinner."

The toddler nodded and started dropping the blocks one by one into the bag. The noise of the wooden blocks colliding with the rest of the contents of the bag woke Hugo who had fallen asleep in the pack and play. Hermione picked him up and checked his nappy, finding it exceedingly full. She pulled the changing pad out of the bag and began changing him only to look up and find Severus's unreadable face staring at her and the baby.

"If you are not otherwise engaged, I bought enough sausages and potatoes to make dinner for you and your offspring as well as myself," Severus informed her.

"Well—we—um—thank you. Of course we'd love to stay for dinner if it wouldn't be putting you out," Hermione stammered.

"It is no matter," he said. "I shall be in the kitchen when you have disposed of... that." He gestured to the dirty nappy.

Hermione nodded. When Hugo was changed, she brought both children into the kitchen where Severus was peeling potatoes. "I know a charm for that," Hermione said. "May I assist since we have more than doubled your work?"

He nodded and backed away from the sink.

"Corium Apstraho!" she chanted, drawing a circle with her wand and finishing with a sharp jab. The potatoes jumped out of their skin and into the empty pot beside the sink.

"Where did you learn this particular skill?" Severus asked.

"Molly Weasley," Hermione told him. "I've told her she ought to write a book. She has taught me more than any of the dozens of household manuals I have purchased over the last ten years."

"She is a formidable witch," Severus conceded. "While the Prewetts came into nobility five centuries ago, prior to that they were primarily domestic workers. I suspect many of these spells are family treasures."

"I've suspected as much," Hermione replied. "Molly is the last of the Prewetts, though, and I wouldn't want the magic to die with her."

"Indeed not," he said. "You and the youngest, Ginevra, will carry it on. Though, I suppose, it would not be a disservice if you were to convince Molly to publish her family secrets."

"I thought so," Hermione said.

Dinner was otherwise uneventful, except for Rosie spilling her milk. Severus had deftly comforted her upset daughter and cleaned the mess before Hermione had a chance to react beyond a short scolding.

It wasn't until Hermione was back home with both children tucked into bed that it occurred to her that Severus had seemed fully at ease with the children. He'd wrinkled his nose at Hugo's nappy and looked uncomfortable at the thought of her breastfeeding but in her experience, most men—including Ron—were oddly uncomfortable with it. He had played with Rosie on the floor and answered all of her questions without ever referencing dunderheads or sneering. And then, of course, was the spilled milk incident in which she would have assumed he regularly dealt with upset toddlers who weren't quite ready for a glass without a sippy top. One would think he was a father.

With a yawn, Hermione shook her head at that particular line of thinking. Would wonders never cease that Severus Snape of all people was good with her children?

Author's Notes:

Thank you to those who have stuck with me through this unexpected long break. In February, my Mom lost her battle with cancer. Between being busy with arrangements immediately following her passing and struggling with grief and depression since then, I haven't exactly been inspired to write. I am trying to write more regularly but alas, I also just started graduate school. I will try to keep a regular posting schedule but I make no promises.

I've also recently gone back to do some editing on older chapters. I needed to fix some spelling/grammar stuff that fell through the cracks and tweak a few time-line-y things since I made a few errors (I blame Severus and Hermione who have been making demands lately). One such demand is the next chapter that Severus ABSOLUTELY INSISTED UPON. ...jerk.

If anyone wants it, I will include the time-line of important events up to this point in the story. I've spent a fair amount of time ironing it out of late.

Last but not least, I have thus far been unable to get back in contact with my beta reader. I've read this chapter approximately 1,000 times to check for grammar and spelling errors and apologize if any happen to remain.