Chapter 30: Amoralato

Someone left me a review that said I had a hard-on for mystery. I think it was supposed to be an insult.

Now if you're mad for the long hiatus, that's criticism I will humbly admit fault to. It's hard to keep up with working and an infant and have time for anything else (like writing). But I must make the time!

Additionally, this chapter had an even longer hiatus than I intended as my computer would not cooperate. Because of this, you will get updates of the next few very soon.

"I don't recognize the curse, Albus," Madam Pomfrey whispered to the headmaster as she glanced down worriedly at the pale figure of Arabella Cook. "She'll have to be transferred to St. Mungo's immediately."

"That's better for her at any rate," Professor McGonagall chimed in from Pomfrey's right. "She's got family at St. Mungo's- they'll make sure she gets the best of care and frequent visitors."

"Family and healing staff only," Dumbledore said seriously. "We can't be too careful. This reads of something stronger than a mere house rivalry. Only someone learned in dark magic could have done this."

"You can't suspect that he would have ordered-"

"Maybe not directly," Dumbledore interrupted, eyes flashing behind his spectacles. "However, I can- and do- suspect that someone may have interpreted this attack as a fulfilment of Tom's wishes."

After a few more moments of whispering, Albus Dumbledore dismissed the two women to take care of Miss Cook's transfer to St. Mungo's Hospital and he glided quickly towards the entrance to the hospital wing where three girls were waiting quietly and nervously.

"Alright, I'll have you repeat your version of events again for me now, please. Miss Evans?"

"It came out of nowhere, Professor. We were in the courtyard under the covered walkway talking, just the three of us. No one else was around that we could see. We had been sitting and talking for a while and when we got up to leave, someone hit her from behind- they must have, we didn't even hear a curse, Arabella just fell to the ground and started shaking."

"That's when I yelled out and Annie and Snape came running," Marina chimed in. "We were trying to help Ari on the ground and they ran to find who it was, but the person had gone."

"They released a boggart, professor. In the opposite direction to where the curse had come from. It was enough of a distraction to allow the person to get away," Hermione followed up. Dumbledore's eyes bored into hers. She knew if he wasn't satisfied now, she'd have to explain more later in private.

"And," Dumbledore said after a pause to distill the information. "Where is Mr. Snape? He did not accompany you here."

"No, he doesn't know Arabella well-"

"Not even out of curiosity to see what had happened?"

The girls were silent, and Hermione could see the wheels turning in the other two's heads. "He was with me beforehand, professor. He couldn't have been the attacker."

"Ah, I see Miss Perri. What were the two of you doing?"

"Just talking."

"And that is also what you were doing beforehand, Miss Evans? Miss McKinnon? Just talking?"

"Yes," Lily said flatly.

"It is curious that you would need to be outside in the cold and completely alone before talking to your friends. Would any of you like to share the topic of conversation?"

"No," the three girls all answered loudly in unison.

"I see," said Dumbledore, already having expected this answer. "Well, if you think of any new details you have forgotten, please come and see me in my office. The gargoyle will know to let you up."

"Thank you Annie! You won't regret it!" The blonde seemed to have cheered up.

Hermione gave Elpida a weak smile. She had finally caved to the pressure and agreed to an interview at the Department of Transportation. If she did end up working at the ministry, she'd also said yes to sharing an apartment with Elpida. Hermione knew she'd have more time left in this time period- might as well get a job and earn something.

Neither of them brought up the unspoken question- what if Arabella couldn't be a flatmate come graduation after all? They were ignoring the situation and hoping for the best.

It had been three weeks since Arabella's transfer to St. Mungo's and the only news was that she was recovering, albeit very slowly. Arabella had finally woken two weeks after the attack, but was so fatigued that she could not stay awake more than a few minutes.

Hermione had noticed a change in Severus since the attack. He looked at her differently, but she, embarrassedly, felt it was a combination of offering him her virginity in a bottle and seeing that she was in love with him through her patronus- the stag patronus to his doe. So, she didn't directly ask him about his slight change in behaviour. He did seem that he was trying to be more intentional, more affectionate, even if he was almost overtly forceful as he did so.

She had asked him if he'd known who was behind the attack, and he hadn't- she believed him- but he promised he would try to find out. Between him finishing up his apprenticeship application and his long sojourns in the room of requirement, that is.

Hermione was growing increasingly worried about what Severus' Death Eater assignment was and what he could possibly be using the room for if it was no longer primarily for brewing. With the J. Pippin's Potions certificate and the sanguine virginis, he would have everything he needed to start his apprenticeship over the summer.

Easter holidays is when they would… extract the sanguine virginis. If Hermione thought about it like that, in terms of extracting a potions ingredient, then she wouldn't have to be nervous. Why she was nervous made no logical sense anyway, as she and Severus had all but done the deed in every sense of the word. Was she even truly a virgin anymore?

Well, yes. According to the blood purity rites and the requirements for collecting sanguine virginis, she was.

Hermione, ever the prepared type, was accounting for all possibilities. Pregnancy was not a worry, as she hadn't had menses since travelling to the past and she was able to get a potion from the hospital wing that would last two months, no questions asked.

The rest of the plan was simple enough. Hermione would stay the week of Easter holidays with Severus at his home, just as she had over Christmas. That's when the…extraction…would take place.

She had scheduled the interview at the Ministry for the last day of break, Friday April 7, after which she'd return to Hogwarts with Elpida for the weekend before class started again Monday. Elpida would escort her into the ministry and introduce her to the department heads, she had told her. Ellie also grudgingly agreed to be Hermione's alibi for the entire holiday week. So again, no one had to actually know she'd be with Severus.

When inquiring into the other girls' break schedules, she found Marlene would spend the week having tryouts with some of the British Quidditch teams and Marina would be tagging along, cheering on her sister.

Lily was vague about her plans, saying only she'd be spending time "with James", but a week before thebreak, she came into the dormitory pale as the Grey Lady and started to pack frantically.

"Car crash," Lily whispered. "Multi-car pileup."

Lily Evans' parents had been killed.

Ostensibly a muggle death, however, based on the glances around the room and the looks from Calliope and Elpida when they were told later in the library, everyone suspected it was retaliation. Lily was dating James- quite seriously from the looks of it- and James had stuck his neck out with that article.

Severus grunted thoughtfully when he heard the news.

Hermione looked at him inquisitively. He shrugged at her. "I had no issue with the Evans'." He said quietly. "They were kind, if a little naïve."

"Naïve?"

"What would you call parents who would go along with sending their daughter away to a witch boarding school with very little explanation and evidence about the wizarding world?"

Hermione frowned and glared at him. "You don't think very highly of muggles, I know."

"I would be more protective of my children." He said calmly.

She swallowed and looked away, not wanting to go down the rabbit hole of knowing Severus would be bitter, childless, and single in twenty years.

"It was retaliation, wasn't it?" She whispered across the table to him. They were in the library again, after all.

"Perhaps," he drawled.

"Because of James- and his article," she pressed on, bringing her eyes back to look at him. "And Lily's connection to him?"

"It is possible," he said neutrally.

"I wondered if even Arabella's attack was an accident," Hermione rambled on excitedly, "if it was a misaimed curse meant for Lily instead!"

Severus' brow wrinkled and he began to drum his fingers on the table lightly in thought.

"Continue," he said quietly, sounding very much like a teacher telling her to reason out her argument completely.

"Well because it wasn't done to hurt Arabella or Lily at all, but to hurt James! Could that be a possibility? It was rather dark in that part of the courtyard all in shadows-"

Severus got an odd look on his face, barely perceptible, but she could tell there was a train of thought he was following.

"And there were the three girls there," she said quickly, determined to keep talking and see if she could give him some realization. "Arabella, Marina, and Lily. Of the three of them, it makes most sense that Lily would be the target because of James, it's just confirmed now because of what happened to her parents that she's probably a target-"

"Of the three…"

"Yes! Everyone likes Arabella, and Marina doesn't have any enemies. It's most likely that either it was a misfire and they meant to hit Lily or they just confused her for Arabella in the dark-"

Suddenly Severus stopped tapping his fingers and she saw it. No tell except the glint in his eye- a glint of fury that showed he had figured it out.

"You know." Hermione stated, staring daringly at his face.

Severus gave her his most threatening glare. "Nothing confirmed."

He began to gather his things and stood, hurrying quickly and menacingly away from the library.

Before the week was out, Professor McGonagall confirmed that Arabella Cook had made an extraordinary recovery. She expected (with her staying at St. Mungo's for a few weeks and doing independent study to catch up in her classes) that Arabella could sit her N.E.W.T.s with her fellow students and graduate on time.

Hermione was able to approach Professor McGonagall alone after class. "Did they figure out what the curse was Professor?" She stood in front of her desk as McGonagall sat.

"Oh yes! And what a relief it's a simple student rivalry we're worried about, not from any group... more sinister." Hermione looked astounded and she clarified. "Thankfully, Miss Perri, it was an Amoralato spell, most likely performed by a romantic rival."

"Amoralato?"

"Yes, also known as the heartsick curse. Quite popular in Medieval times- it was used to separate two lovers who were from different class systems so they would not elope together. An uncivilized way to promote arranged marriages. I imagine a pureblooded student might have stumbled across it in a parent's library."

"Fascinating, Professor. I've never heard of it."

"Thankfully, love curses are not a covered subject at Hogwarts."

"But Arabella didn't seem to be… heartsick or heartbroken…"

"Well," McGonagall continued in her Scottish brogue. "Something went wrong this time- I don't believe Miss Cook has a lover she hopes to elope with, after all, so the caster clearly did something incorrectly. Perhaps out of a misplaced jealousy they didn't realize she was not a true rival? However, once the staff at St. Mungo's figured out what the spell was and that it was improperly cast, they could correctly target her heart and stomach and heal those areas. She should be back in a few weeks." McGonagall looked down at parchments in front of her, apparently done discussing the matter.

After a pause, Hermione continued hesitantly. "So… Professor, how is the spell supposed to work?"

McGonagall looked up at her sternly. "I don't quite know Miss Perri. I explained the mechanics I am aware of and the spell itself sounds barbaric. I hope if you hear of any information as to who did this to Miss Cook and why, you will report it. This is not the spell to deter a romantic rival with."

After some time-consuming searching, Hermione found only a brief explanation of the spell in the library. In was in a book entitled History of the European Royal Wizards.

"Amoralato was used on Catherine de Barzini to separate her from a servant she had fallen in love with so she could marry Apollonius Merkouris and join the two great families. Catherine became so physically ill at close proximity to the servant that he became completely undesirable." Hermione read the passage out to Elpida, who had been helping her search. She knew Severus wasn't going to enlighten her, after all, and it seemed that Ellie was the main partner in everything that Severus wasn't.

"So we are looking for someone who… tried to get Arabella to fall out of love?" Elpida asked, her short blonde hair swaying as she tilted her head in thought.

"Arabella isn't in love with anyone." Hermione agreed with the unspoken tone. It didn't add up.

"Or rather, she's in love with everyone. She's a flirt." Ellie shook her head, sending her hair flying again. "Possibly she flirted with the wrong boy and there was just a jealous hanger-on."

"Possibly," Hermione muttered, biting her lip.

"She'll make a full recovery though, I hear. She's probably chatting up all the healers now she's come to just to try to get tips on healing methods- she's got family working there too. I bet she can still room with us in a few months." Hermione mmhmmed and Ellie continued. "Just think, in a few months she'll be back at Mungo's for work and we'll be working at the Ministry so we can meet over lunch in London and figure it out then."

Easter holidays arrived within an instant, it seemed. Perhaps the year was also going faster because it had already happened in Hermione's timeline perspective- who knows.

She was still occasionally dealing with the strange fate feeling, vertigo-like, that made her feel her thoughts or actions were out of her control because they had already happened or been destined to happen. It wasn't all the time, but she felt it the most when it came to interacting with people she knew in the future. Severus especially, but it would happen sometimes in class with McGonagall or Karkaroff. She thought it was only when they used a phrase or a gesture she recognized from a future interaction, because they didn't have much significance to her personally.

Karkaroff was acting very strangely in class, but all she could do was report it to Dumbledore, who seemed to have already heard about it. He was very quiet and subdued, not at all like his previous braggart self. He appeared to be very tired as well, the bags under his eyes confirming his lack of sleep. Not much to go off of. Could be an indication he was now a stressed-out Death Eater, or could just be some personal problems.

Lily had been allowed to stay away three weeks and through the Easter break before returning afterwards for exams. She was coordinating with her sister to plan the funerals and divide up their parents' estate which sounded very stressful. Marina read snippets of a letter Lily had sent her to Hermione. It sounded like Lily was grieving but even more anxious to be managing her sister, Petunia, who was understandably weepy, but not as understandably screaming at everyone involved from the funeral director to the estate solicitor.

James and the rest of the gang were shaken up, but the terrorizing they were doing to let off steam was to Slytherins who were not Severus and Severus seemed too busy to care. The apprenticeship was secured with the promise of presenting a sealed bottle of sanguine virginis. Severus made a point of showing Hermione that Monsieur de Grasse sent an approval letter and confirmed that Severus' ingredient of choice was only to recommend him and would not be used or confiscated. Hermione hadn't been worried about it, as she'd seen it sitting in his office in the future, but he was angrily insistent on proving it. He did not want to appear careless with this gift.

As for the extraction of the gift…

She packed and left for the holidays with Ellie promising again to meet her at the Ministry for her interview in a week and to cover for the missing week if she was questioned.

The rest of the getting to Spinner's End and the settling in and the afternoon tea was a bit of a blur as Hermione's nerves were seriously getting to her. Her heart was racing like crazy, but that wasn't too out of the ordinary when Severus was around. She really had to get a grip.

"So," Severus said languidly as he set down his mug of tea. "What do we do first?" He glanced at her with a raised brow and such an innocent expression.

"Oh stop!" She blushed and tried to look angry, but it turned quickly into a smile.

"What? How do you want to spend the time? Reading, studying I know will happen for sure…"

"I want to get it out of the way," she blurted out.

His face blanched immediately. "No no no, I didn't mean it like that!" She got redder, and tried to backpedal quickly. "I just mean- oh it's not… not a very natural way of… going about it, I mean and… It will be better to just get it over with so that it can be…. More… natural afterwards… I suppose."

"Ah." He cleared his throat. "So we are sure we are speaking about the same thing, you mean that it will be better to extract the sanguine virginis sooner rather than later."

Hermione turned redder, if possible, but nodded emphatically.

"Forgive me if I overexplain, I just want to be sure there are no misunderstandings… what do you know about sanguine virginis, Hermione?"

She took a deep breath and, her eyes fluttering partially closed, recited what she knew. "Virgin's blood is a misnomer because it is not blood, nor only of the virgin. It consists of the seminal fluids of the virgin and the one… deflowering. It is extracted through mutual sexual congress."

Severus smirked, giving out a little huff. "A textbook definition, to be sure. What method of… extraction and bottling did you imagine I would be using?"

"I… well… I don't know the bottling method…"

"Hermione," he laughed abruptly. She was startled to see him smile so widely.

"What?" Her embarrassment was turning to annoyance and quickly growing. "That's not readily available in library books!"

Severus' laughter began to wind down and he stood to pull her into an embrace. "Extraction is done in the normal way, witch," he chuckled.

"The normal way?" Hermione said, puzzled.

"You do know what the normal way of deflowering is?" He continued to smirk at her.

She gave an irritated huff and batted his chest lightly. "Yes! Of course I know! But that… that wouldn't allow for sterile collection and contamination could occur from fibers in the sheets or clothing…"

"It's magical. It's not that complicated."

"Stop teasing me, Severus!" She cried, hitting his chest again. But the anxious mood was broken, so she couldn't stay angry, especially with him holding her and chuckling. His eyes were shining, and he was clearly enjoying riling her up like this.

Once she stopped struggling in his arms out of dual mortification and consternation, he kissed her gently and stroked her hair.

"There is a spell that I can use to remove all the spilled fluids from the sheets. As long as there is an ingredient bottle by the bed, the rest can be done in the… natural way, as you put it."

"Oh," she mumbled from his chest, now only mortified.

"There is one more thing." He cleared his throat. "Have you taken any contraceptive potions?"

"No," she answered. Hermione looked up. "I brought a two-month supply, but haven't taken it yet."

"Sanguine Virginis will not work with any contraceptives." Hermione waited for him to say more, but he didn't. She looked at him quizzically. His stoic mask was on now.

"Alright," she said.

"You still… wish to go ahead?"

Hermione nodded. She hadn't had a period in a few months, it should be fine. "I can take it afterwards?"

He nodded. "You still… wish to get it out of the way?"

"Yes," Hermione whispered.

Severus pulled her chin upwards and made her look at him before kissing her lips softly.

"You are not obligated to go through with it," he muttered after drawing back a slight distance.

"I want to," Hermione said earnestly. "I just- I'm inexperienced." She swallowed. "I don't want to disappoint you."

"Don't make me laugh again," he growled. He kissed her fiercely, pressing her to him as she felt her body melt into him, no longer anxious.

Amoralato- simple combination of amore and malato/ ammalato. Heart and sick/ill.