Repaying The Life Debt - My weekly Dictionary Drabble
Here is the second installment of the saga.
Repaying The Life Debt
His New Apprentice
It’s Hermione’s first Friday as Severus’s apprentice. Well, if Hermione was going to insist on being Severus’s apprentice as repayment of his life debt, he might as well put her to work, right?
This is my response for the Dictionary Drabbles Fun Challenge for March 29.
I wish to give the accolades due to my beta, Southern_Witch_69 for all her time making this story presentable. Thank you, so very much, and I just want you to know I appreciate it very much.
March 29
Severus had to give her credit. Ms. Granger had been at his door promptly at eight every morning ready to begin whichever chore he set her, even the task of preparing every disgusting ingredient he could think of.
“I thought there was an anathema set against bloodletting,” Hermione said, reading the third potion Severus intended to brew that day.
Actually, the potion would take him the entire weekend to brew and was very time sensitive with each step. For this reason he’d set up a cot in his lab, although he really hated using the old thing. “No, Ms. Granger, Blood-Letting Potion does not, in fact, make the drinker bleed. While bloodletting has been deemed as reprehensible, and there is quite a bit of reprobation regarding its practice, the Plethora Potion, as it’s properly called, simply relieves the excessive amount of blood in the system caused by a superabundance of red blood.”
“This potion will take at least four days to complete and needs constant attention,” she said after scanning the directions. She looked up at him, her brown eyes innocent. “Will I be needed? Am I to sleep there?” she asked, pointing to his cot.
He smirked at her request. “Do not tell me you repine to sleep with me?” he asked smoothly, purposefully using his smooth drawl to both tease her and watch her squirm.
“Would I have reason to repine, Professor? I, er, sorry,” she stammered, blushing several shades of red. “I simply meant that I’d be happy to stay with you until the potion is complete.”
“Indeed,” he said silkily. He smirked in amusement as he watched the dance of color on her cheeks. “Calling me ‘Professor’ is a misnomer, Ms. Granger. You should refer to me as Master or sir, whichever you prefer.”
Hermione swallowed and blushed again as she averted her eyes back to the Potions books on his desk. “I don’t know what the hullabaloo is about then if the potion helps people?” she asked, obviously trying to change the subject.
“Only to certain people - the uneducated and narrow minded,” he stated. “May I suggest that you sojourn in the spare room, Ms. Granger?” he asked, eyeing her speculatively.
“Then how will I know when I need to wake to assist you with the potion?” she asked demurely. “Besides, we are both mature adults. I’m quite certain you can refrain yourself if I slept on a second cot.”
“Have it your way, Ms. Granger,” he said, his tone rather acrid, returning to his desk. Mother of Merlin, refrain myself - of course I can, you idiot girl. How dare she imply I cannot.
~TBC~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~o0o~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The word list (swiped from the past week's list):
1. anathema
2. plethora
3. repine
4. misnomer
5. acrid
6. hullabaloo
7. sojourn
Words with definitions below:
#1. anathema \uh-NATH-uh- muh\, noun:
1. A ban or curse pronounced with religious solemnity by ecclesiastical authority, and accompanied by excommunication. Hence: Denunciation of anything as accursed.
2. An imprecation; a curse; a malediction.
3. Any person or thing anathematized, or cursed by ecclesiastical authority.
4. Any person or thing that is intensely disliked.
------------ ---------
#2. plethora \PLETH-uh-ruh\ , noun:
1. An abnormal bodily condition characterized by an excessive amount of blood in the system.
2. Excess; superabundance.
------------ ---------
#3. repine \rih-PINE\, intransitive verb:
1. To feel or express discontent.
2. To long for something.
------------ ---------
#4. misnomer \mis-NO-muhr\ , noun:
1. The misnaming of a person in a legal instrument, as in a complaint or indictment.
2. Any misnaming of a person or thing; also, a wrong or inapplicable name or designation.
------------ ---------
#5. acrid \AK-rid\, adjective:
1. Sharp and harsh, or bitter to the taste or smell; pungent.
2. Caustic in language or tone; bitter.
------------ ---------
#6. hullabaloo \HUL-uh-buh- loo\, noun:
A confused noise; uproar; tumult.
------------ ---------
#7. sojourn \SOH-juhrn; so-JURN\, intransitive verb:
1. To stay as a temporary resident; to dwell for a time.
2. A temporary stay.
Author’s Notes:
Today it is well-established that bloodletting is not effective for most diseases or at best less effective than modern treatments. Bloodletting still has its place in the treatment of a few diseases and is practiced by specifically trained practitioners in hospitals, using modern techniques. Therapeutic phlebotomy (or bloodletting) refers to the drawing of a unit of blood in specific cases like haemochromatosis, polycythemia, porphyria, etc., to reduce the amount of red blood cells.
Haemochromatosis, also spelled hemochromatosis, is a hereditary disease of improper dietary iron metabolism or an iron overload, which causes the accumulation of iron in a number of body tissues.
Primary polycythemia, often called polycythemia vera (PCV), polycythemia rubra vera (PRV), or erythremia, occurs when excess red blood cells are produced as a result of an abnormality of the bone marrow. Often, excess white blood cells and platelets are also produced.
These two conditions or diseases primarily noted in those of Northern European descent, especially people of English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh descent.
Porphyria cutanea tarda (PCT) is the most common subtype of porohria. The disorder results from low levels of the enzyme responsible for the fifth step in the heme production. Heme is a vital molecule for all of the body's organs. It is a component of hemoglobin, the molecule that carries oxygen in the blood.
Repaying The Life Debt
His New Apprentice
It’s Hermione’s first Friday as Severus’s apprentice. Well, if Hermione was going to insist on being Severus’s apprentice as repayment of his life debt, he might as well put her to work, right?
This is my response for the Dictionary Drabbles Fun Challenge for March 29.
I wish to give the accolades due to my beta, Southern_Witch_69 for all her time making this story presentable. Thank you, so very much, and I just want you to know I appreciate it very much.
March 29
Severus had to give her credit. Ms. Granger had been at his door promptly at eight every morning ready to begin whichever chore he set her, even the task of preparing every disgusting ingredient he could think of.
“I thought there was an anathema set against bloodletting,” Hermione said, reading the third potion Severus intended to brew that day.
Actually, the potion would take him the entire weekend to brew and was very time sensitive with each step. For this reason he’d set up a cot in his lab, although he really hated using the old thing. “No, Ms. Granger, Blood-Letting Potion does not, in fact, make the drinker bleed. While bloodletting has been deemed as reprehensible, and there is quite a bit of reprobation regarding its practice, the Plethora Potion, as it’s properly called, simply relieves the excessive amount of blood in the system caused by a superabundance of red blood.”
“This potion will take at least four days to complete and needs constant attention,” she said after scanning the directions. She looked up at him, her brown eyes innocent. “Will I be needed? Am I to sleep there?” she asked, pointing to his cot.
He smirked at her request. “Do not tell me you repine to sleep with me?” he asked smoothly, purposefully using his smooth drawl to both tease her and watch her squirm.
“Would I have reason to repine, Professor? I, er, sorry,” she stammered, blushing several shades of red. “I simply meant that I’d be happy to stay with you until the potion is complete.”
“Indeed,” he said silkily. He smirked in amusement as he watched the dance of color on her cheeks. “Calling me ‘Professor’ is a misnomer, Ms. Granger. You should refer to me as Master or sir, whichever you prefer.”
Hermione swallowed and blushed again as she averted her eyes back to the Potions books on his desk. “I don’t know what the hullabaloo is about then if the potion helps people?” she asked, obviously trying to change the subject.
“Only to certain people - the uneducated and narrow minded,” he stated. “May I suggest that you sojourn in the spare room, Ms. Granger?” he asked, eyeing her speculatively.
“Then how will I know when I need to wake to assist you with the potion?” she asked demurely. “Besides, we are both mature adults. I’m quite certain you can refrain yourself if I slept on a second cot.”
“Have it your way, Ms. Granger,” he said, his tone rather acrid, returning to his desk. Mother of Merlin, refrain myself - of course I can, you idiot girl. How dare she imply I cannot.
~TBC~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~o0o~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The word list (swiped from the past week's list):
1. anathema
2. plethora
3. repine
4. misnomer
5. acrid
6. hullabaloo
7. sojourn
Words with definitions below:
#1. anathema \uh-NATH-uh- muh\, noun:
1. A ban or curse pronounced with religious solemnity by ecclesiastical authority, and accompanied by excommunication. Hence: Denunciation of anything as accursed.
2. An imprecation; a curse; a malediction.
3. Any person or thing anathematized, or cursed by ecclesiastical authority.
4. Any person or thing that is intensely disliked.
------------ ---------
#2. plethora \PLETH-uh-ruh\ , noun:
1. An abnormal bodily condition characterized by an excessive amount of blood in the system.
2. Excess; superabundance.
------------ ---------
#3. repine \rih-PINE\, intransitive verb:
1. To feel or express discontent.
2. To long for something.
------------ ---------
#4. misnomer \mis-NO-muhr\ , noun:
1. The misnaming of a person in a legal instrument, as in a complaint or indictment.
2. Any misnaming of a person or thing; also, a wrong or inapplicable name or designation.
------------ ---------
#5. acrid \AK-rid\, adjective:
1. Sharp and harsh, or bitter to the taste or smell; pungent.
2. Caustic in language or tone; bitter.
------------ ---------
#6. hullabaloo \HUL-uh-buh- loo\, noun:
A confused noise; uproar; tumult.
------------ ---------
#7. sojourn \SOH-juhrn; so-JURN\, intransitive verb:
1. To stay as a temporary resident; to dwell for a time.
2. A temporary stay.
Author’s Notes:
Today it is well-established that bloodletting is not effective for most diseases or at best less effective than modern treatments. Bloodletting still has its place in the treatment of a few diseases and is practiced by specifically trained practitioners in hospitals, using modern techniques. Therapeutic phlebotomy (or bloodletting) refers to the drawing of a unit of blood in specific cases like haemochromatosis, polycythemia, porphyria, etc., to reduce the amount of red blood cells.
Haemochromatosis, also spelled hemochromatosis, is a hereditary disease of improper dietary iron metabolism or an iron overload, which causes the accumulation of iron in a number of body tissues.
Primary polycythemia, often called polycythemia vera (PCV), polycythemia rubra vera (PRV), or erythremia, occurs when excess red blood cells are produced as a result of an abnormality of the bone marrow. Often, excess white blood cells and platelets are also produced.
These two conditions or diseases primarily noted in those of Northern European descent, especially people of English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh descent.
Porphyria cutanea tarda (PCT) is the most common subtype of porohria. The disorder results from low levels of the enzyme responsible for the fifth step in the heme production. Heme is a vital molecule for all of the body's organs. It is a component of hemoglobin, the molecule that carries oxygen in the blood.