Chapter 3: Savior
Severus Snape had no desire to be at Number 12 Grimmauld Place considering the owner of the house was his third most-hated person in the entire universe, following the Dark Lord and Wormtail (who managed to edge Black out of his position as second-most-hated for a little over a decade). However, he had news that needed to be shared with Arthur Weasley who was, presumably, staying at Headquarters. While the Dark Lord was laying low, there were machinations both within the ministry and the muggle world that Arthur was in a unique position to be able to throw a wrench into those works, so to speak.
Severus considered waiting until the weekend to deliver that information at the next Order meeting, however something in his gut told him to go now and, if there was one thing he had learned over the years, it was to trust his gut.
So it was with great reluctance he found himself before the magnificent and underrated Slytherin doorknocker to Number 12. Aware of the mad, though admittedly humorous, portrait of Black's mother in the entrance hall, he abandoned the formality of knocking and simply let himself in, slipping quietly into the shadowed entry hall. The house was quiet. Far too quiet for the brood of Weasley's.
A flicker in the shadows drew his attention and he spied Kreacher, the house elf, lurking. The elf was looking up the staircase with a leer. "Very soon, Mistress," the elf muttered. "The Mudblood will be gone soon." A shiver of alarm ran down Severus' spine, multiplied by the sight of a fat orange bandy-legged cat that came careening down the stairs in a series of inelegant thumps before crashing into his legs. The cat gave a loud Mrrrow and darted back toward the stairs, stopping to look over his shoulder.
Ignoring the elf as he passed, Severus darted up the stairs after the cat. It led him into a bedroom. The door had already been swung wide open and Severus first noticed the trail of books and potions supplies leading from a trunk at the end of a bed to the fireplace. That is where he saw the crumpled form of Hermione Granger, lying in her own vomit, head turned to the side and both arms extended in front of her. Dark purple veins stood out along her face and neck, which was concerning. One hand was slathered in orange burn-healing paste and had stopped moving in the middle of turning a page in her potions text. The page was unceremoniously folded from the weight of her hand falling on it and a greasy orange smear caused it to stick to the page behind it. The other hand was swollen and purple. This was the hand he focused his attention on as he crossed the room in a few quick steps.
Carefully lifting her hand, he found a bite mark and a quick glance at the area showed a book open to a page about doxies and the small corpse of a doxy off to the side. She had pulled out some of the ingredients for the Antidote to Uncommon Poisons but she appeared to be missing fire seeds and graphorn horn. A jar on the mantle caught his attention and he found Exploding Ginger Eyelashes, which was curious. A glance down the mantle and he spotted one lone fire seed. Ah, combining the two would start a fire without requiring a wand. Clever.
Finally, Severus took in the upturned vase of Moly flowers nearby and, now that he was looking for it, he could see bits of black leaves in the vomit. If she was lucky, that may have slowed down the venom long enough for him to keep her alive. He took quick stock of her potions supplies, noting she hadn't yet been to Diagon Alley to refill them, which was going to make this more challenging. Miss Granger was damned lucky a potions master found her, Severus thought, as he vanished the vomit both from the floor and the ash bucket nearby, then knelt on the floor and began rummaging through the detritus of her fourth-year potions kit.
"Sorry, Newt," he muttered as he flipped her Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them book by Newt Scamander closed and used it as a chopping board, making quick work of a dandelion root. With the amount of substitutions he was making to this potion, Severus reasoned he was inventing an entirely new potion. If it worked, he'd have to be sure to write it down later. He located Miss Granger's mortar and pestle among the mess and ground the chizpurfle carapaces, dumping the dust into her cauldron then hoisting it over a quickly lit fire. He added the chopped dandelion roots with precise clockwise stirs before turning to the remaining ingredients. He made judicious use of the Moly flowers in this concoction, shredding the petals and chopping the stems and leaves. The fire seed and billywig stings made their way in at reduced amounts from the original potion but he was confident the dandelion and Moly would make up the loss. He contemplated the potion thus far. It should work but he felt there was something missing. Glancing about at everything handy to him, Severus' eye fell on the dead doxy. Ah, that should do it. He felt a little vindictive glee as he ripped the wings off the doxy and crushed them before dusting them over the potion. The potion let out a belch then turned a lovely shade of aquamarine.
"There we are," he crooned into the cauldron, pleased. It truly was an art form. Without bothering to hunt down a vial, he pulled Miss Granger into his lap, resting her head against his shoulder and spooned the potion directly from the cauldron into her mouth. When she began to sputter, he clamped a hand over her lips, forcing the potion to remain in her mouth. Eventually her swallow reflex activated and he released her mouth and slid her head from his shoulder to the crook of his arm where he could better see her face. He peeled back an eyelid and noted the dilation of her pupils and the purple veins standing out in her eyes. As he observed, the purple in her eyes receded and he let go of her eyelid, allowing it to lower naturally.
The veins along her face and arm began to disappear as the potion counteracted the venom. Severus placed a hand on her forehead and noted she was still quite hot as her body fought for survival. Still cradling her in his arm, Severus looked around the room and curled his lip at the chaotic mess they were sitting in. Potions ingredients and tools were strewn about everywhere, books were in disarray, and the orange cat was sitting on top of One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi, tail and whiskers twitching as he stared at the girl.
"She'll be alright," he found himself saying to the cat. He might have felt stupid talking to it, but the cat met his gaze and gave a single nod before fixing its stare back on the girl. He suspected it must be part-kneazle if it was able to comprehend his speech.
Severus lifted Miss Granger's hand and saw that while the coloring was evening out, it remained quite swollen. "Another sip, I think," he murmured, laying her hand down and spooning out another dose of the as-of-yet unnamed potion. He felt absurdly as if he was nursing an infant as he cradled her head in the crook of his arm and spooned the potion between her lips. He highly doubted most caregivers held their hands over their child's mouth to force them to swallow though. So that helped him regain his equilibrium from the odd flight of fancy.
Once successfully swallowed, the second dose of potion did its work and the swelling in her hand began to go down. "Perfect," he muttered to himself. "I really am a genius." He smirked, feeling quite smug about his achievement. Now that he was confident in the success of his potion, Severus stood and carried the girl to her bed, laying her on top of the covers and feeling her forehead one more time. Still hot. He spotted a water glass full of orange burn-healing paste on her nightstand and remembered her wand-hand had been covered in it. Curiously, he lifted her hand and examined the snake burned into her palm. It was faded and he suspected another application of the burn paste would see it disappear completely. Wondering how she got the Slytherinish brand in the first place, he cleaned the smudged paste from her hand and dipped his fingers in the water glass, scooping up a dollop that he gently massaged into her palm. He set her hand down at her side, palm up, and stepped away from her bed.
Ever diligent about potions work, Severus cleaned up the mess in front of the fireplace, taking the cauldron and tools into a nearby bathroom to scrub in the tub. He did his best to clean and smooth the rumpled pages of her potions book and shooed her cat off the Herbology book so he could place it on the stack he was making next to her trunk. As for the doxy that caused all the problems to begin with, he sneered at it then transfigured it into a rock and tossed it in the ash bucket.
It felt a little odd using the old Death Eater trick on a doxy body, but it rather efficiently got the venomous creature out of the way. He scowled when he thought of how most of the Order members would react were they to learn many of the disappearances they heard about during the first war and that were beginning to crop up again now, were people that had been killed and then transfigured and tossed aside as junk. In some cases, families had unknowingly thrown their loved ones out with the garbage. There was nothing to be gained from passing that tidbit of information along. It would just distress them about something over which they had no control.
Speaking of Order members, where the bloody hell was everyone? Black, at least, should be present somewhere. He stormed through the house, starting in the basement kitchen and working his way upward. When he reached the attic and came face-to-face with an annoyed Hippogriff, Severus slammed the door shut and growled. Black was not supposed to leave the house. His anger, always close to the surface where Black was concerned, flared. How dare he? How dare he leave an underaged Muggleborn alone in his house? The place was crawling with anti-Muggle and blood-detecting hexes and curses. He'd nearly set off a few himself, due to being Halfblood. He sincerely doubted Granger had the experience or ability to sense those hexes before touching items in the house. The Weasley's would all be fine. Purebloods, the lot of them. But not her. And where were the damned Weasley's?
He stomped down the stairs and back to Granger's room where he checked on her again. Still alive, though a little feverish. Both hands showed signs of improvement. He was about to pull her bedroom door closed as he exited when he sensed the hex on the doorknob. Closer examination revealed there was a serpent carved into it. So that's how she burned her hand. He countered the hex, then out of pure spite, Severus stomped over to Black's bedroom and placed a similar hex aimed toward purebloods on his doorknob with a smirk. It was petty and childish, but he didn't care. The mongrel never should have left Granger here alone.
Which meant he, himself, could not leave until someone else arrived. Merlin's arse.
While Severus was not above being a hypocrite when it suited him, in this case, he figured it would be best to take the high road…where he could lord it over Black for eternity. With that in mind, he retreated to the kitchen and stuck his head in the fireplace with a pinch of floo powder, calling out for Dumbledore's office. He was going to relish passing along Black's failing, even if it was a decidedly tattletale move. He'd make sure to couch it in concern for a student's welfare. Yes, that would do nicely, he thought, smugly.
