Tale of a Smart Witch: Rebrewed
by Teddylonglong
All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes. Warnings: completely AU. Time travel.
Hermione spent most of her Sunday lingering about the entrance to Severus' temporary room waiting for him to return. However, it was almost dinner time, when Twinkle, whom she knew to be Professor Dumbledore's personal house-elf, popped up in front of her and informed her that Severus had just arrived in the fireplace of the headmaster's office. "Master Professor Dumbledore wishes you to join them," the elf informed her.
"All right, thank you Twinkle," Hermione replied and hurried towards the gargoyle, which – to her relief – opened without making her guess a password.
'Thank Merlin,' Hermione thought, seeing Severus sitting in front of the headmaster. 'At least Voldemort didn't kill him.' Without pondering her action, she stepped in front of her classmate and pulled him into a hug. "Thank Merlin you came back alive," she breathed, only then noticing that Severus seemed to be in pain. "What happened?" she then enquired, eyeing him in concern.
"The Dark Lord happened," Severus replied, before he began to tell her and the headmaster everything about the meeting.
"So, you're officially his spy, but you don't have the Dark Mark, so he can't summon you," Hermione repeated, feeling relief but also worry, knowing that Severus would still have to interact with the Dark Lord.
"Yes, I had to promise to go to see him at least once a fortnight. On Saturday evenings right after dinner," he added. "He told me I could just floo to Malfoy Manor and find him there, until I'll be able to apparate."
"Before you go, I want you to come to me," Dumbledore spoke up, "so that we can discuss what kind of news you could feed him to mislead him as much as possible."
"Of course, sir," Severus agreed. "I'm sorry sir, for not speaking with you about the matter beforehand. Hermione advised me to become your spy, and I thought about it until the last minute."
"That's fine my boy," the headmaster replied in a gentle voice. "I'm glad that you saw reason and came to me."
"And that you didn't take the Dark Mark," Hermione added, happily. "Well done, Severus."
"Thanks," the boy replied with a small smile playing on his lips.
"What did he do to you?" she then enquired, giving him a sharp look. "Why are you in so much pain?"
Severus let out a deep sigh. "He cast the Cruciatus curse on me," he replied, matter-of-factly. "It's already a bit better, but it's still going to take a few days before wearing off."
Hermione stared at the boy in thought. "There was a potion for it in my time," she said, slowly. "I don't know the exact recipe though, only the main ingredients." She remained pensive for a moment before nodding in determination. "I think it was in my seventh-year Potions book."
"Let's go to the Potions classroom then," Severus replied, seemingly eager. "Maybe we can work it out together."
Hermione smiled. "I have my book. I'll fetch it."
They quickly took their leave and spent the evening in the Potions classroom, where they efficiently managed to brew the potion for the after effects of the Cruciatus curse according to the recipe in her future NEWT level Potions book.
HP
The following three weeks before Remus was due to return to Hogwarts passed much too slow for Hermione's liking. She and Severus engrossed themselves in their summer assignments, however, even those were finished after one week.
"Let's ask Dumbledore if we may go to Diagon Alley and buy our school supplies," Hermione suggested, when they finished their last assignment.
"Yes, that's a good idea, or we could try inventing more useful potions recipes from your memory of the future and the books you brought," Severus replied, smirking.
Hermione remained pensive for a moment, before deciding, "Let me take a look at the Potions books from first year onwards and see if anything's missing that was in our books."
During the following two weeks, Hermione and Severus brewed a couple of potions that were new in this time, for which Madam Pomfrey was extremely grateful. Only when they thought of Remus returning to Hogwarts shortly to wait for the full moon, Hermione remembered that she wanted to learn how to become an Animagus.
"Severus," she spoke up in excitement, "I completely forgot, but Remus and I spoke about becoming Animagi. Would you be interested in practising the Animagus transformation together with us?"
Her Slytherin friend cast her a surprised look, before he agreed. "Yes, I'd like that. Do you know what animal you want to become?"
Hermione let out a long sigh. "Maybe some kind of cat like Crookshanks. I thought about asking Professor Scamander if he could recommend some kind of feline."
"All right then," Severus said, pensively. "I was torn between becoming a basilisk and a magical chameleon, but I think I could try to become a magical lynx or something similar. That way, we'd at least be able to communicate whilst in our Animagus forms."
"Oh right, that's a great idea," Hermione agreed. "Do you think we could write to Regulus and ask if he wants to study together with us?"
Severus remained pensive for a moment, before he decided, "I'll do that. His parents seem to be very strict though. He surely won't be able to meet with us, before school begins again."
HP
After dinner the same day, they kept back Professor Scamander and asked for some kind of useful, magical feline.
The Care of Magical Creatures professor cast them a surprised look and remained pensive for an instant, before he voiced an idea. "I don't know how easy this is to achieve as an Animagus form, but I believe that the Equilina would be an extremely useful form."
"Excuse me, sir, but what exactly is the Equilina, and what does it look like?" Hermione was certain that she had never heard of that specific species.
Scamander smirked. "It is a combination of a magical cat and a horse, and it's able to change its size from the size of a beetle to that of a real horse. It is a rarely known species, and surprisingly, the smaller it is, the more dangerous is its bite. Its colour is usually black; however, I believe that an Equilina is able to change its colour to adapt to a situation. A whole herd of them is said to be living in the Forbidden Forest; however, I have never encountered any. Perhaps, it is only a myth. I will bring a couple of photographs with me to breakfast tomorrow."
They profusely thanked the old wizard and spent the rest of the evening in the library to research the Equilina. From the following day onwards, they eagerly tried to change their left hands into the front paw of their Equilina forms, however, by the time Remus arrived, they had not made any progress yet.
HP
"From next week onwards, James, Sirius and I are going to work together with Mr. Arko," Remus told them in clear excitement, and they quickly filled Severus in on the shop that the Marauders were going to take over after their NEWTs. "I just hope that your potion works as a permanent cure, so that I'll be able to lead a normal life and work with the responsibility of being able to work every day in the month." Apparently noticing the pitiful looks he received from Hermione and Severus, he added, "I'm fairly sure that it's a permanent cure by the way, because I feel completely normal and not like I've always felt this close to the full moon."
"What did Madam Pomfrey tell you?" Hermione enquired. "Did the lycanthropy still show up on her diagnostics?"
Remus shook his head. "She said it didn't show up, when she checked on me after the full moon, but who knows if it could be back now. She told me to spend the night in the Shrieking Shack to be sure."
Hermione quickly hugged her friend. "It'll probably be all right, and if not, Severus and I will try to make it a permanent cure."
"Exactly," Severus agreed – much to Hermione's surprise, since she had somehow assumed that Severus was not even listening to their conversation.
HP
To everyone's relief, Remus did not transform but spent the night in the Shrieking Shack joking and playing with Sirius and James in his human form.
When Madam Pomfrey went to collect him in the morning, he greeted her with enthusiasm and, instead of tiredly accompanying her to the hospital wing like so many times before, strode to the headmaster's office to tell Professor Dumbledore the good news.
HP
Hermione woke up with a jolt, when Twinkle suddenly popped up in front of her and instructed her to come to the headmaster's office. Using her wand to exchange her pyjamas with a dress, she hurried towards the headmaster's office, feeling utterly relieved when she met Severus on the way.
"Do you know anything?" the boy questioned her; however, Hermione shook her head.
"No, Twinkle didn't say anything except that the password was wolvescure," she replied before giving the password to the gargoyle, which opened the passage right away.
"Hermione, Severus," Dumbledore greeted them with his eyes twinkling merrily. "I must congratulate the two of you, as you indeed managed to cure Remus from lycanthropy."
"We did it?" Hermione blurted out in disbelief, staring wide-eyed at Remus. 'And on the first attempt; how cool is that?' she quietly marvelled.
"Yes, you did," Remus confirmed. "I didn't transform last night. Thank you so much for curing me. I…" Tears leaked from his eyes, when he continued in a rough voice, "I'll never be able to pay you back, but I'll never forget what you did for me."
"You're very welcome, Remus," Hermione replied, happily launching herself at her friend. "I'm so happy that it worked," she added, smiling broadly.
"Congratulations," Severus added, displaying a rare smile.
"Hermione, Severus," Dumbledore spoke again, "are you ready to brew many doses of your wolvescure? I'd like to tell the Minister of Magic of your success, firstly to get Remus off the list of the registered werewolves and secondly for the two of you to receive the Order of Merlin, which I'm sure will be granted to you if you agree to cure all werewolves over the next year or two."
Hermione and Severus exchanged a glance, before Severus nodded and promised, "We will."
"Of course," Hermione added, looking enthusiastically at Remus, "although I don't want the Order of Merlin. However, Damocles Belby must receive it together with Severus." She quickly explained about the Wolfsbane potion, and the headmaster nodded in understanding.
"I see. I shall explain the matter to him and also give his name together with your names to the minister."
tbc... (?)
Is anyone interested in this story at all?