Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. It and any characters from the franchise that may appear in this fanfiction are the intellectual property of J.K. Rowling. This story was written for entertainment purposes only and no profit is made from this story.
Author's note: Eternal thanks to my beta, GeekandProud (AO3) a.k.a. AnimeIsMyCrack (FF) who also made the cover image for this story.
For those of you who've been reading since before the rewrite, I'm happy to announce we're almost back on track. I hope you've enjoyed the additions I've sprinkled throughout the story so far, especially everything from Hermione's perspective. Major changes are coming up for fourth year, so stay tuned :)
- D.A.D.A. classroom, 7th of June 1994 -
"Professor, I'm sorry, but I will be writing a formal complaint to the school board if they dare to fire you." Hermione said as she crossed her arms in fury. Apparently, some parents had gotten wind of Remus potentially being a werewolf and they had written to the school board that he should be fired. If only they could begin working on the cure. Instead, they'd spent some of their evenings sneaking out after curfew to meet up with Deandra in an old unused classroom. The spirit had offered to help them with any calculations they needed and had even suggested a substitute ingredient in case the ones they had now wouldn't work.
"Isn't there anything I can do?" Harry inquired. "I am Lord Slytherin. If I say you stay, you stay."
Remus smiled at his three Slytherin students. "You're very kind, just like your mother, Harry." He said, catching Harry off guard. "But I'm afraid that the parents' concerns about me being a werewolf are very legitimate. If they decide by the end of summer that I should not be coming back, then I won't come back."
"What proof do they even have?" Draco asked. "Did anyone see you transform?"
Remus shook his head. "Just like Miss Granger, some students added up my sick days and the specific timings of the month. They could have me tried in front of the Wizengamot under veritaserum if I would lie about my condition."
Hermione looked at Draco, her arms still crossed over her chest as she was leaning back against one of the benches. He could tell that she wouldn't just let this go.
"Let's begin as soon as possible ," she told him. "As soon as summer holidays start."
"I will write to my mother and tell her our plans have changed." He agreed.
- Grimmauld Place, 31st of July 1994 -
They were all celebrating Harry's 14th birthday as well as Tonks becoming an auror at Grimmauld Place on the last day of July.
Tonks, feeling high on her accomplishments, had announced to everyone present, meaning: her own family, the Black-Bones family, and the silver trio, that she and Remus were now dating .
After a round of cheering and raised glasses, Remus had admitted he was quite scared of what others would think. Not only about his condition but considering the age gap between the two.
Sirius had waved it off. Thirteen years was nothing considering most wizards lived to be at least a hundred thirty-seven years old.
Castor and Polarys smiled happily at their father as Sirius charmed two spoons to keep feeding them their baby food so he could enjoy his dinner in peace.
"Not for me." Remus had murmured sadly to everyone else seated at the table. "The lycanthropy is already taking its toll on my body. I can only hope it won't affect Dora, or any children we might have." He sighed, letting his head fall into his hands.
"I told you that I don't care !" The spitfire said, her hair turning from bubble-gum pink to a dark red colour, indicating she was displeased. "I don't care how often you say you are old or poor or dangerous. I love you. And that's that. Right mum? You didn't care about being blasted off the family tree back when you shagged dad. Then I shouldn't care about a hairy little problem."
Andromeda almost choked on her wine as her daughter had talked so bluntly but nodded at her in agreement. "Your father was also quite scared when we first started dating. It's just a thing with men…" She winked.
Hermione had stayed awfully quiet during the conversation, pushing her food around her plate.
Harry had noticed that his two best friends kept giving each other glances whenever the topic of lycanthropy was being talked about. Were they hiding something from him?
Even Remus had noticed something was up with the two of them, as he pulled the silver trio to the side in the kitchen after dinner while everyone else retreated to the living room. "Alright you two, tell me what's up." Their professor said as the four of them sat down around the kitchen table. "I could almost smell the excitement coming off you, Hermione. Your nerves were all over the place and I thought you were going to jump out of your chair. What is it that you want to tell us?"
Draco looked at Hermione in pride when she managed to contain her excitement, and instead put her hand in her pocket and shoved a small vial with a purple liquid in it towards Lupin.
The werewolf took a deep breath, sniffing its contents, and frowned. "That smells foul. What is it?"
The blond nudged Hermione with his knee under the table, encouraging her to continue. Most of the work had been hers after all, since she'd been studying the topic for the past six months.
Granted, Draco's and Deandra's combined knowledge had been very useful. The spirit had even warded off the potions lab whenever they were working in the Manor, making Lucius forget what he was doing when he tried to check up on them. Instead, she'd sent him to the kitchen to nibble on cookies every single time. Together, the three of them had come up with a potion which they suspected would possibly cure lycanthropy.
Severus had looked over their notes, as well as their concoction, just a few days earlier. He'd been beside himself with pride. Draco had never seen his godfather this excited or ask this many questions.
All they were missing now, to be a hundred percent sure the potion would work, was a willing test subject. Severus, Deandra, Draco, and Hermione had all individually made calculations and deemed the potion safe for use. Yet, they could never be completely sure.
"As you know, I inherited the contents of the Dagworth-Granger vaults at the beginning of first year." Hermione began. "The past three years Draco, Professor Snape, Daphne, and I have been sorting through some of the research that my ancestors had started. One of them was a potion which I initially thought to be an early version of wolfsbane. The more research I did, the more it seemed to be something else. Draco and I have been working tirelessly together with a…" She thought for a second how to explain that a three thousand year old spirit had helped them. "A wise and older friend," she decided on. "We think we've found something of a cure for lycanthropy. Professor Snape has checked our work and thinks it will work as well. All we need is someone willing to test it."
Harry and Remus blinked at them, unsure if they had heard them right. "You what ?" the werewolf breathed out. "A cure ? But that's impossible, Hermione, the mediwizards and mediwitches at St. Mungos-"
Hermione huffed, interrupting him. "Have all been trained to be healers . They have never seen muggle technology or science and the muggles' knowledge of diseases. In the muggle world, this would very much be seen as a disease , as Lycanthropy spreads through blood. It's not a curse. They would find a way to cure it, eventually. My mother looked at the medical reasoning me and Draco used to come up with the last components of the potion, as did Professor Snape. There is very little chance that anything will go wrong if you decide to take it."
Draco pulled another potion out of his pocket. "Just in case something does go wrong, my godfather brewed us the strongest antidote he knows off." He supplied. "If you wish to take the potion, my aunt could also monitor your health and administer the antidote as she is a certified healer."
Remus could not believe his ears. These two teenagers had come up with a cure . Granted, they hadn't done it all by themselves, but still. That they had cared enough to put their time and effort, and what he suspected almost all of their summer holiday so far into helping him, made him tear up. "I'd love it if Andromeda, Dora, and Sirius could be here with us." He whispered.
Harry got up, putting his hand encouragingly on his uncle's shoulder, and went to get the others.
Amelia was about to put the twins to bed as Sirius had just changed their nappies, but Susan offered to take them instead, claiming that her aunt would need to be present if an actual cure had been found.
"Let me just check your vitals quickly before you take the potion." Andromeda stated, waving her wand in intricate ways, a magical duplicate of Remus appearing beside them. "You seem perfectly fine, except for the curse in your blood of course." The healer stated, watching the magical duplicate before nodding to Remus.
Sirius clapped his best friend's back and Tonks looked worried, her hair colour changing every second like a disco ball as she bit her nails nervously.
"Bottoms up." Lupin exclaimed as he jugged the purple liquid in one go. He made a face. "Well that tastes ten times more awful than the-"
His whole body froze, and the empty potion vial fell to the floor, shattering.
Tonks cried out and jumped forward, Sirius running to his best friend's other side in an instant.
Lupin's eyes turned yellow and cat-like, as if he was going to transform any minute now.
Draco grasped Hermione's hand under the table, both of them holding their breaths. This had to work.
Andromeda was waving her wand over Remus again and they could see small yellow dots in his bloodstream light up and vanish . Bloody hell. They'd done it.
The more dots vanished, the more colour came back to Remus' cheeks. The younger he looked. The grey strands in his hair slowly disappeared and his hair got thicker and a darker shade of brown, even turning curly. All the wrinkles on his face slowly started to disappear as well, the stress of the transformations seemingly being reversed. Once all of the dots were gone, all that was left were the scars across his face, the only reminder of the werewolf he once was.
Remus blinked, his eyes turning their regular brownish colour again as he seemed to regain control of his body. He smiled widely. "Is this what it feels like to live without a constant ache in your muscles and bones?" He wondered out loud, making Tonks choke up and kiss him full on the lips, tears streaming down her face.
"Well, you're not old and dangerous anymore, Moony." Sirius joked as he slung his shoulder around his best friend. "Now you're just poor."
"I seem to remember that Professors at Hogwarts earn quite well." Draco quipped, squeezing Hermione's hand under the table. "I'm sure none of the parents would oppose a regular wizard teaching us Defence?"
Remus got up and hugged both Draco and Hermione closer to him. They could both feel the tears run down his cheeks as he thanked them from the bottom of his heart. He reached behind them for Harry, enclosing him in their group hug.
"I wish your mum and dad could've been here to witness this, Harry." He said, his voice filled with emotion.
"I am sure they were cheering you on from behind the veil." Harry whispered to his parents' best friend. He looked at his own best friends then, both Hermione and Draco smiling widely because their plan had worked. "Thank you. What would I ever do without you two?"
Draco ruffled his hair and Hermione adjusted his glasses when they stopped hugging.
"Let's not tell anyone about what we've done. Not yet." Draco said to everyone present. "There's a certain werewolf out there who will be in for a surprise when he's caught by the D.M.L.E. and force-fed that potion."
Sirius grinned. "Thinking like a true snake."
The night had ended with celebrations and loads of butterbeer and firewhiskey, Draco definitely staying away from that last one.
Everyone was in high spirits and Draco and Hermione had floo-called their mothers, asking if it was alright if they stayed the night at Grimmauld.
Amelia and Sirius transfigured two extra beds for them in Harry's room, Sirius winking at everyone to behave themselves before Amelia hit him in the arm.
The three of them fell asleep soon after.
Only two hours later, Draco shot up in panic, his wand in his hand as he heard a scream tearing through the room. The sound of terror echoed around the walls.
Hermione was already at Harry's side, trying to wake him up. Sweat was running down the Boy Who Lived's face, and the brunette was shaking him now.
"I can't wake him up, Draco!" She panicked. "What's going on with him? His magic is all over the place."
Sirius and Amelia had also entered the room now, their wands drawn. Susan looked sleepy, but worried from behind them.
"Pup, what's the matter?" Sirius asked as he crouched down next to Harry and wiped his sweaty hair off his forehead. "It's alright. We're all here, Harry. Wake up, son."
With another scream chilling all of them to their core, Harry sat up straight, the panic clear in his eyes as they darted between the faces looking down at him.
"I saw him . Voldemort . He killed a witch… and there was a snake. A giant snake. He's out there, barely alive, but strong enough to kill... Pettigrew is with him, and some other wizard..." He rasped out, shaking uncontrollably.
Sirius frowned as Susan walked over with a glass of water. "It was just a nightmare, pup. Voldemort can't hurt you or anyone for that matter. He's dead."
Draco contemplated if he should say something or not. Deandra was musing in the back of his head if this meant Nagini had become a Horcrux again. He couldn't give himself away. But they needed to know . Perhaps, if he just made them look in the right direction… He still needed to take Harry with him to Ragnok after all. Wasn't this the perfect opportunity?
"Harry, has your scar always looked so violently red?" The blond wondered out loud, making the other four lean over him worriedly. The scar looked exactly the same as it always had, but the others hadn't noticed in their state of panic.
Amelia immediately had her wand out, casting a spell on it.
"Sirius," she whispered in horror as she dissected a tiny dot of black mist from it, pulling the foul magic out with her wand. "Have you ever seen this?"
Draco could feel Hermione's worry increase as neither one of the adults were explaining anything, but only getting more panicked instead. He took her hand in his, rubbing soothing circles over her hand. She leaned up against him, trying to get a better look at whatever dark magic Amelia had just found in Harry's scar.
Sirius had also taken his wand, and cast some spells rather dark in nature at the black mist, angrily stabbing at it as it hissed back at him. "It can't be…" the older wizard said in shock.
"What is it?" Susan asked, pulling her nightdress closer to her body, hugging herself.
Amelia turned around to her niece, fear evident on her face as she looked at the three teenagers behind her. "It's a Horcrux ." She whispered.
"A what?" Harry asked, as confused as Hermione and Susan were.
Amelia looked at him sadly. "A piece of someone else's soul. Foul, dark magic. It's usually found in a physical container, not in a living being…"
Hermione and Susan gasped loudly. Harry looked as if he was about to faint from fear.
"The goblins might be able to take it out?" Draco casually suggested. "They've gotten rid of some dark objects for you, haven't they, Sirius? It wouldn't hurt to ask them. They are probably more well-versed in this type of magic than we are. Besides, if the wizarding world learns of this… They will think Harry is the Dark Lord incarnate."
Lord Black nodded absentmindedly as he wiped his godson's forehead. "Everything will be fine, pup." He said. "We can go and speak to the goblins first thing tomorrow."
Draco smirked inwardly. The Director and his team had found a solution months ago. He just hadn't found the right opportunity to get Harry there. Seems like everything was falling into place. As it should.