A/N CAUTION: Gets a little greusome here.
They followed him down to his lab. It was quite gruesome. The dank stone walls were lined with jars of murky Merlin only knows what. The only light was coming from the fire beneath the large black cauldron on a tripod. The flame beneath it was in shades of purple and green and occasionally yellow sparks hissed at them. It bubbled and rolled like a thing from hell. The smell was something horrible. "Did you notice the timing Severus? I needed to obtain my specimens on the quarter moon cycles. It took so much longer to procure them, but it was important for the brew. I would be honored if you would accompany me in adding the final ingredient."
Hermione was horrified to see a bloody sheet covering a female body on a table on the side of the room. "Monster", was the only word she could think of.
"What's that Hermione?" He looked over at the corpse without feeling. "You must mean my last ingredient. Six weeks ago, I gave Kathy there a lust potion along with a fertility drug. She had sex with the young man you met tonight and conceived. I harvested her precisely on time. My final potion must have a female embryo added on the dark of the moon. Tonight, as it happens. You'll be glad to know that she is the last. After tonight I will go home and save my people, if there is anyone left after my delay." He looked at her as if she were the cause of some holocaust he would exact payment for.
Hermione returned his look with loathing. Severus looked only at the cauldron.
Dr Mamani spoke almost gently. "Don't worry Hermione. Those that have given their lives for my people will be honored and remembered by the Tawantinsuyu for all time. I have marked them so that the Gods will know and care for them, as they do my people."
"Why is a potion necessary?" Severus was intrigued by this spectacle.
"Ages ago the Tawantinsuyu once ruled an empire the length of a continent. The history of which goes back to the Gods. Our cities housed millions in a marvel of stone while yours were still in mud huts. Our science mapped time and the universe, cured brain tumors, fed the masses. Paved roads connected us so that all the riches of the earth were ours. Our army held the more primitive people around us in check and kept our streets free from crime. Centered around it all was our king. More than a king he was worshipped as a god. He cared for his empire with his own blood. All of it a golden gilt wonder to behold. Until you came with your lust for treasure and diseases that we had no immunity to. You murdered our king, took the gold and left the dead piled in the square for the vultures. My ancestor took what was left of my people and fled to the jungle. I am his descendant in an unbroken line since then."
Severus and Hermione stood transfixed by the emotion coming from Mamani. "We prospered there for uncounted generations, sheltered, keeping the old ways alive. We are a peaceful people. Content in our lives deep in the jungles of South America. So remote we had not seen a white person in hundreds of years. One day a canoe drifted close to our village. There was a body in it of a white man. He was almost dead, and they brought him to me. It was simple exposure and dehydration. A wizard lost in our world while looking for ingredients and other treasures. We cared for him, and he became what you would call, a celebrity, in my village. Often we sat around the fire while he told us of his world and its wonders. He favored many of our women with his seed."
Mamani paused for a moment lost in what looked to be grief. "He also brought a strange disease that covered the skin of my people in purple and green rashes that killed them. My wife and son included. I consulted the bones, and they said that because he had come from this place, the cure must be brewed in this place. Our Gods must be avenged. All the Hampi Runa came, and we discussed what to do. As the leader of my people, I was selected to come. They scattered the rest in isolation until I return."
Hermione wasn't buying it. "You are a well educated man, doctor, not Tarzan. You practiced at St Mungos. You know we have a cure for dragon pox. We could have helped you. No one needed to die. This is a trick of some kind. I'm going to make sure you spend your life in Azkaban."
"Keep your ill-bred prejudice to yourself madam! I may come from the rainforest, but that doesn't mean I am ignorant or powerless. How typically Victorian of you. Do you mean to wipe out all that is left of the Tawantinsuyu, Hermione? They will continue to die unless I return successful. Don't you realize that is why I took the post? Hoping you had another way. You overestimate your potions effectiveness on us. Your cure only works on a percentage of your own patients. Many still die. Did you ever wonder why? I discovered that its composition is based on the physiology and viral history of Europe. My people have no such history." He went to the cauldron and stared at it. "My potion will cure and protect my people for generations to come. Are your eight souls so much more important than the innocent hundreds already dead!? The many who now await me with hope?!"
Hermione bowed her head in thought. Could what he had done be justified by his need to save his people?
"I risked my life and the lives of everyone I hold dear to come here and try to correct an injustice. MY people helped one of yours and in turn he destroyed a way of life. Skills and crafts that have fed and clothed and protected my people for millennia have been lost forever. Their masters dying in agony, whole families wiped out. You dare to complain over the loss of eight souls!? You're lucky I don't kill you now for delaying me!" He had come dangerously close to Hermione with his wand drawn.
"MAMANI!" Severus knew the beginning signs of madness and bloodlust when he saw them. He had to be distracted. "Add your ingredient."
The red haze in the doctor's eyes faded as he regained his veneer of civility. You're quite right Severus." Without warning Mamani's wand shot out at Hermione, binding her to the wall.
Severus held his wand to Mamani's throat. "Release her."
"It's alright Severus. She is unharmed, but she will not be allowed to interfere."
Severus knew he was being tested. "Very well." Hermione screamed under her gag in disbelief. "Move against her again and I will vanish your potion before your eyes."
Mamani nodded in agreement. A wave of his wand and he was dressed in a brown toga like robe with gold embroidery. On his head was a kind of crown made of colorful feathers, golden leaves, flowers and fruit. A necklace of gold with a stylized face and turquois beads adorned his neck. Both wrists were heavy with wide gold cuffs. He turned and collected a bloody ceramic tray with the progeny that was never to be. Standing in front of the cauldron he began to sing an ancient ritual.
It was a song from the mists of time. Soft and low and reverberated in your spine. Severus and Hermione listed to it enchanted. A low hum wove through what sounded like a plea for mercy followed by unwavering faith and ending in the joy of creation. It was utterly beautiful. When the song ended Mamani put his last ingredient in the center of the cauldron, bowed his head and raised his hands up high. Severus watched with fascination as the mixture rolled, changing colors from brilliant reds, to yellow, to a pearlized blue. The doctor clasped his hands to his chest and looked up. His eyes closed, he began speaking in his native tongue. It was a prayer of gratitude to his gods. He looked again at Severus, relief clearly written on his face. "It is done. I can go home now and save my people. Do you intend to try and stop me?"