Moonstone and Vinegar, Part One
Author: lesyeuxverts00
Title: Moonstone and Vinegar
Rating: R
Strange Brew Prompt: Post-war, H/C: Luna is injured by a magical creature (one of those the Quibbler reported about that no one knew really existed until she got hurt), her father pays a hefty fee to have the best potioner available, Severus Snape, take care of her and try to create a potion to cure her. During this, Severus develops feelings for her, but convinces himself he shouldn't act on them... until Luna starts to improve and convinces him otherwise.
Warnings:
Disclaimer: I have not made, nor will make, any attempt to infringe on the copyrights held by the Corporations or Individuals that are part of Harry Potter. This is purely for the enjoyment of the fans and no monetary gain is made from it.
Author's Notes: Thanks to bewarethesmirk for the lovely beta!
I'm sorry that I didn't finish in time for the fest deadline, but I will finish the story soon-ish and post the rest of it ...
Luna Lovegood bit her lip and stared, wide-eyed, at Severus, before she fumbled with the curtain and ducked behind it. She was making a clumsy braid with the golden strands of the tassels. The blue canopy that arched over her bed shook with her patient braiding, the curtain swaying and the tassels shining in the light. Her fingers shook in rhythm with the fluttering of her eyelashes, her entire body vibrating to a twitchy staccato beat.
Severus shook his head and turned away from her father. "There is nothing that I can do, Mr. Lovegood. I cannot afford to work for charity."
The man blinked and wrung his hands and fluttered at his daughter's bedside like a large gypsy moth. His eyes were luminous and tired. "I'll pay you, I'll give you anything. I can't afford to lose my daughter, sir."
Shaping his lips into a sneer, Severus turned away. "You can't afford to pay my fee."
"But you - you've -"
"I have helped your daughter until now, yes. Brewing potions on commission is one thing - there's no intelligence or creativity involved. A third-year Hufflepuff could have brewed the simple potions that I've made."
Lovegood reached out to touch Severus's sleeve. Severus blew him back with a touch of wandless magic, a flick of a wand, a flutter of magic, the wind disheveling his hair. He reached for Severus again, undeterred.
"The invention of a new potion is a delicate science, requiring not only a vast array of expensive ingredients but hours of experimentation and dedication as well as the intuition and subtlety of a Potions Master. You cannot afford my services, and I can do nothing more for your daughter."
Luna hid her face behind the curtain, peeping out to look at Severus. She crossed her eyes at him and touched her finger to the tip of her nose before she disappeared again. There was a touch of pink to her lips, a flare of roses in her cheeks, mockeries of health and happiness. Her internal organs, red and delicate, were being eaten away with acid, her strength and her life drained from her to leave this pale shell, blushing and solemn.
"Anything," Lovegood said. "Articles in the Quibbler to clear your name and reputation. All of the Galleons in my vault, all of our family land, our heirlooms. I'll make you my heir and give you our pureblood name. Name your price, sir, but save my daughter."
The curtain twitched, and Luna pushed it aside, staring at Severus with her uncanny, unblinking eyes. "Me," she said. "Take me."
She was pale and serious, her lips half-parted and her fingers twined in the tassels hanging from the curtain around her bed. The roses coiled through the lattice on the window, their rich velvet scent drifting through the sickroom like a half-remembered dream. Severus took a deep breath and turned away from her.
"Very well," he said. "You will pay for all of my expenses, as well as the fees that we agreed on previously, and when I have succeeded in curing your daughter, I will take your name by taking her hand in marriage."
Lovegood blinked, his mouth open and bright as a silverfish, and Luna reached out, her hand fluttering in the air before it landed on Severus's elbow. She smiled, the muscles around her lips twitching and making a grimace out of the expression, but Severus pressed a finger to her cheek and strode out of the room.
The smell of roses, the smoothness of her skin against his finger, and the brush of her hand against his shoulder lingered with him, fluttered behind him like an echo of his dark cloak with its dramatic motions. Severus touched his finger to his lips and tasted the rose-sweet smell that clung to his skin.
-----
Roses, the deep unhealthy red of blood roses, bruised Luna's cheeks when Severus brought her the first experimental potion. He brushed the sweat from her forehead, grimacing at the slickness on his fingers, and held her shoulders as she trembled. Her throat moved as she swallowed.
"Please," she said, grasping at Severus's hand. Her fingers were unsteady and sweaty, her untrimmed nails catching the delicate webbing between Severus's fingers. "Please, I don't -"
With a clatter at the door, Lovegood strode into the room, his hands clenched into fists. "What are you doing to my daughter?"
"Nothing unnecessary, I assure you," Severus said. He worked the rest of the potion down Luna's throat, stroking the clammy skin to make her swallow and holding her shoulders as she shuddered.
She clung to him when he moved away, her fingers in a loose circle around his wrist, and Severus freed himself with a sneer. "Do you not understand the meaning of the word experimental? If you barge in here every time I test a new potion, you'll only upset her."
Lovegood blinked and bent to retrieve the scattered books in the doorway. "I don't - I do. I trust you with my daughter. You don't - she's everything to me, you know. She's the only reminder of my wife that I have. "
He bent over the bed, smoothing gentle circles on the bright red that stained Luna's cheeks. "I won't disturb you while you're working," he said.
Luna lay silent in the bed after her father had left, her eyelashes fluttering and her blush fading. She reached out, twining her fingers around the gold tassels hanging down near her head and stroking the blue velvet curtains. "Please," she said, "he means well."
In the silence that followed Luna's pronouncement, Severus set out his potions journal and quill and ink, conjuring a chair to sit by her bedside. "What are your symptoms now, Miss Lovegood?"
"I feel as though a Crumple-Horned Snorkack bit me, actually," she said. She wet her lips with her tongue and took a deep breath. "Can I have a glass of water?"
"Wait several minutes before drinking after you take any potion," he told her. "Even a lackadaisical nitwit like you should remember that."
She smiled at his insult, her hands trembling as she pulled the duvet up to her chin. "I'm thirsty, Professor. Achy and thirsty and tired, but I'm sure the Crumple-Horned Snorkack is no happier than I am. Daddy was quite cross with it."
"I've no interest in your inane babbling or the fantastical creatures featured in your father's magazine, Miss Lovegood. Hold your tongue and hold still. I warn you now that I'll have no patience with you if you disrupt the diagnostic spells with your fidgeting."
She froze, watching him with wide eyes, and Severus waved his wand over her, recording her temperature and pulse in his journal. "Any other symptoms?" he asked.
Blinking at him, Luna pursed her lips together. "Well, I feel as though I could do with a kiss from my fiancé."
"Out of the question," he said. He spelled the potions vial clean, tucking it into his pocket, and began packing up his quill and ink. "I do not fraternize with my patients."
"It's no wonder that nobody seems to stay engaged for very long, then. I wouldn't want to go without kisses," she said.
Luna's trembling had resumed. It was the spastic twitching of muscles attacked with subtle and slow toxins, knocking her teeth together and distorting her smile. Severus sneered at her and put a vial of her pain-relieving potion on the bedside table.
"You can consider yourself engaged to me when you're no longer in danger of dying," he said. "When that happens, rest assured that I will be the one to dictate any kisses or other romantic fripperies, and not a flighty, moonlight-crazed girl like you. You may take a half-swallow of the painkiller on the hour as usual. Wait at least half an hour to give the first potion time to settle in your system."
She blinked at him, shaking and lack-witted, and she ducked behind the curtain to hide just before Severus whirled to leave. The impact of his dramatic exit lost, Severus let his cloak swirl and billow, slamming the door behind him.
-----
Moonstone and vinegar, acid and honey - the cauldron burbled and burped, the vapors rising to bathe Severus's hands in a sour, humid fog. The vapors coated the mahogany bedside table in a delicate, sparkling mist and hung in the air until Lovegood, hovering like an overgrown gnat by his daughter's bedside, coughed and left.
Severus stirred counterclockwise until the fumes dissipated. He scowled at Luna, who was peering out from behind the curtains.
She had the impertinence to giggle, her hands tracing vague sketches in the air, her head titled to one side as she stared at him. She hummed as he worked, her off-tempo melody punctuating the wet burbling noises made by the potion. The notes rose and fell, entwined with the roses that grew in the window, carried by the beams of sunlight and the vapors from the potion. The sickroom was cheerful and bright, disgusting and saccharine. Severus flicked his wand at the window, swathing them with dark velvet curtains.
"This step in the brewing process requires absolute silence and darkness," he told Luna. "If you are not silent, I will be forced to muzzle you."
She poked her tongue out between her lips, blinking as she watched him. "There's no reason at all why this potion would require silence. There's nothing in the ingredients that reacts badly in the presence of noises."
Severus silenced her with a glare and a spell. "I am the Potions Master, Miss Lovegood. You would do well to remember that."
She reached out and began tracing letters on his forearm before he jerked away from her. "Do not attempt to touch me, Miss Lovegood," he said. "I do not think that you will enjoy the consequences."
She reached underneath her pillow to retrieve her wand, and with a looping, swirling wave, she broke the Silencing spell. She smiled at him. "But we're going to be married, so surely I'm allowed to touch you."
"We will not remain engaged for long, if you continue with this immature, reckless and insipid behavior, and I will not show any sympathy for your father when he weeps at your funeral. Do you understand me, girl?"
This impudent chit was not his future wife. This girl on death's threshold was not his fiancée. The rosy flush in her cheeks faded and she looked away, sinking back into the pile of silken pillows. "Yes, sir."
Feverfew and fennel, dragonsbane and willow fronds plucked on the night of the new moon, Severus diced and ground and measured them, adding them to the cauldron together. Life to life and soul to soul, the conversion of herbs into healing was unsteady but true. The breath of life was subtle and green, the weight of the potion too heavy to bear it.
The potion fizzled with failure, green scum rising to the surface, and Severus Banished the ruined cauldron. He glared at Luna when she tittered at him, and threatened her with another Silencing spell.
"You added too much moonstone," she said.
Pushing aside the heavy blue duvet, Luna slipped out of the bed, and wobbled to the window, her frilly nightgown flowing behind her in the breeze. She plucked a handful of petals from the roses growing there and held them cupped in the palm of her hand.
Shaky and solemn, her face drained of all color, she blew the handful of petals across the room at Severus. Halfway there, the petals sputtered to the floor, falling in dizzying red swirls. "Too much moonstone and not enough rose petals," she said.
Severus was halfway across the room as she spoke, halfway to her as she collapsed. Her fingers clutched in spasms around the windowsill, her hair caught in the trellis and the thorns.
She was as light as silk and soft as breeze in his arms. He carried her back to the bed and tucked the duvet around her, letting her hair fan out across the pillow and pinching her cheeks to bring the color back into them. Like a flower unfurling, her eyes blinked open and she caught his hand in hers, and smiled at him.
Title: Moonstone and Vinegar
Rating: R
Strange Brew Prompt: Post-war, H/C: Luna is injured by a magical creature (one of those the Quibbler reported about that no one knew really existed until she got hurt), her father pays a hefty fee to have the best potioner available, Severus Snape, take care of her and try to create a potion to cure her. During this, Severus develops feelings for her, but convinces himself he shouldn't act on them... until Luna starts to improve and convinces him otherwise.
Warnings:
Disclaimer: I have not made, nor will make, any attempt to infringe on the copyrights held by the Corporations or Individuals that are part of Harry Potter. This is purely for the enjoyment of the fans and no monetary gain is made from it.
Author's Notes: Thanks to bewarethesmirk for the lovely beta!
I'm sorry that I didn't finish in time for the fest deadline, but I will finish the story soon-ish and post the rest of it ...
Luna Lovegood bit her lip and stared, wide-eyed, at Severus, before she fumbled with the curtain and ducked behind it. She was making a clumsy braid with the golden strands of the tassels. The blue canopy that arched over her bed shook with her patient braiding, the curtain swaying and the tassels shining in the light. Her fingers shook in rhythm with the fluttering of her eyelashes, her entire body vibrating to a twitchy staccato beat.
Severus shook his head and turned away from her father. "There is nothing that I can do, Mr. Lovegood. I cannot afford to work for charity."
The man blinked and wrung his hands and fluttered at his daughter's bedside like a large gypsy moth. His eyes were luminous and tired. "I'll pay you, I'll give you anything. I can't afford to lose my daughter, sir."
Shaping his lips into a sneer, Severus turned away. "You can't afford to pay my fee."
"But you - you've -"
"I have helped your daughter until now, yes. Brewing potions on commission is one thing - there's no intelligence or creativity involved. A third-year Hufflepuff could have brewed the simple potions that I've made."
Lovegood reached out to touch Severus's sleeve. Severus blew him back with a touch of wandless magic, a flick of a wand, a flutter of magic, the wind disheveling his hair. He reached for Severus again, undeterred.
"The invention of a new potion is a delicate science, requiring not only a vast array of expensive ingredients but hours of experimentation and dedication as well as the intuition and subtlety of a Potions Master. You cannot afford my services, and I can do nothing more for your daughter."
Luna hid her face behind the curtain, peeping out to look at Severus. She crossed her eyes at him and touched her finger to the tip of her nose before she disappeared again. There was a touch of pink to her lips, a flare of roses in her cheeks, mockeries of health and happiness. Her internal organs, red and delicate, were being eaten away with acid, her strength and her life drained from her to leave this pale shell, blushing and solemn.
"Anything," Lovegood said. "Articles in the Quibbler to clear your name and reputation. All of the Galleons in my vault, all of our family land, our heirlooms. I'll make you my heir and give you our pureblood name. Name your price, sir, but save my daughter."
The curtain twitched, and Luna pushed it aside, staring at Severus with her uncanny, unblinking eyes. "Me," she said. "Take me."
She was pale and serious, her lips half-parted and her fingers twined in the tassels hanging from the curtain around her bed. The roses coiled through the lattice on the window, their rich velvet scent drifting through the sickroom like a half-remembered dream. Severus took a deep breath and turned away from her.
"Very well," he said. "You will pay for all of my expenses, as well as the fees that we agreed on previously, and when I have succeeded in curing your daughter, I will take your name by taking her hand in marriage."
Lovegood blinked, his mouth open and bright as a silverfish, and Luna reached out, her hand fluttering in the air before it landed on Severus's elbow. She smiled, the muscles around her lips twitching and making a grimace out of the expression, but Severus pressed a finger to her cheek and strode out of the room.
The smell of roses, the smoothness of her skin against his finger, and the brush of her hand against his shoulder lingered with him, fluttered behind him like an echo of his dark cloak with its dramatic motions. Severus touched his finger to his lips and tasted the rose-sweet smell that clung to his skin.
-----
Roses, the deep unhealthy red of blood roses, bruised Luna's cheeks when Severus brought her the first experimental potion. He brushed the sweat from her forehead, grimacing at the slickness on his fingers, and held her shoulders as she trembled. Her throat moved as she swallowed.
"Please," she said, grasping at Severus's hand. Her fingers were unsteady and sweaty, her untrimmed nails catching the delicate webbing between Severus's fingers. "Please, I don't -"
With a clatter at the door, Lovegood strode into the room, his hands clenched into fists. "What are you doing to my daughter?"
"Nothing unnecessary, I assure you," Severus said. He worked the rest of the potion down Luna's throat, stroking the clammy skin to make her swallow and holding her shoulders as she shuddered.
She clung to him when he moved away, her fingers in a loose circle around his wrist, and Severus freed himself with a sneer. "Do you not understand the meaning of the word experimental? If you barge in here every time I test a new potion, you'll only upset her."
Lovegood blinked and bent to retrieve the scattered books in the doorway. "I don't - I do. I trust you with my daughter. You don't - she's everything to me, you know. She's the only reminder of my wife that I have. "
He bent over the bed, smoothing gentle circles on the bright red that stained Luna's cheeks. "I won't disturb you while you're working," he said.
Luna lay silent in the bed after her father had left, her eyelashes fluttering and her blush fading. She reached out, twining her fingers around the gold tassels hanging down near her head and stroking the blue velvet curtains. "Please," she said, "he means well."
In the silence that followed Luna's pronouncement, Severus set out his potions journal and quill and ink, conjuring a chair to sit by her bedside. "What are your symptoms now, Miss Lovegood?"
"I feel as though a Crumple-Horned Snorkack bit me, actually," she said. She wet her lips with her tongue and took a deep breath. "Can I have a glass of water?"
"Wait several minutes before drinking after you take any potion," he told her. "Even a lackadaisical nitwit like you should remember that."
She smiled at his insult, her hands trembling as she pulled the duvet up to her chin. "I'm thirsty, Professor. Achy and thirsty and tired, but I'm sure the Crumple-Horned Snorkack is no happier than I am. Daddy was quite cross with it."
"I've no interest in your inane babbling or the fantastical creatures featured in your father's magazine, Miss Lovegood. Hold your tongue and hold still. I warn you now that I'll have no patience with you if you disrupt the diagnostic spells with your fidgeting."
She froze, watching him with wide eyes, and Severus waved his wand over her, recording her temperature and pulse in his journal. "Any other symptoms?" he asked.
Blinking at him, Luna pursed her lips together. "Well, I feel as though I could do with a kiss from my fiancé."
"Out of the question," he said. He spelled the potions vial clean, tucking it into his pocket, and began packing up his quill and ink. "I do not fraternize with my patients."
"It's no wonder that nobody seems to stay engaged for very long, then. I wouldn't want to go without kisses," she said.
Luna's trembling had resumed. It was the spastic twitching of muscles attacked with subtle and slow toxins, knocking her teeth together and distorting her smile. Severus sneered at her and put a vial of her pain-relieving potion on the bedside table.
"You can consider yourself engaged to me when you're no longer in danger of dying," he said. "When that happens, rest assured that I will be the one to dictate any kisses or other romantic fripperies, and not a flighty, moonlight-crazed girl like you. You may take a half-swallow of the painkiller on the hour as usual. Wait at least half an hour to give the first potion time to settle in your system."
She blinked at him, shaking and lack-witted, and she ducked behind the curtain to hide just before Severus whirled to leave. The impact of his dramatic exit lost, Severus let his cloak swirl and billow, slamming the door behind him.
-----
Moonstone and vinegar, acid and honey - the cauldron burbled and burped, the vapors rising to bathe Severus's hands in a sour, humid fog. The vapors coated the mahogany bedside table in a delicate, sparkling mist and hung in the air until Lovegood, hovering like an overgrown gnat by his daughter's bedside, coughed and left.
Severus stirred counterclockwise until the fumes dissipated. He scowled at Luna, who was peering out from behind the curtains.
She had the impertinence to giggle, her hands tracing vague sketches in the air, her head titled to one side as she stared at him. She hummed as he worked, her off-tempo melody punctuating the wet burbling noises made by the potion. The notes rose and fell, entwined with the roses that grew in the window, carried by the beams of sunlight and the vapors from the potion. The sickroom was cheerful and bright, disgusting and saccharine. Severus flicked his wand at the window, swathing them with dark velvet curtains.
"This step in the brewing process requires absolute silence and darkness," he told Luna. "If you are not silent, I will be forced to muzzle you."
She poked her tongue out between her lips, blinking as she watched him. "There's no reason at all why this potion would require silence. There's nothing in the ingredients that reacts badly in the presence of noises."
Severus silenced her with a glare and a spell. "I am the Potions Master, Miss Lovegood. You would do well to remember that."
She reached out and began tracing letters on his forearm before he jerked away from her. "Do not attempt to touch me, Miss Lovegood," he said. "I do not think that you will enjoy the consequences."
She reached underneath her pillow to retrieve her wand, and with a looping, swirling wave, she broke the Silencing spell. She smiled at him. "But we're going to be married, so surely I'm allowed to touch you."
"We will not remain engaged for long, if you continue with this immature, reckless and insipid behavior, and I will not show any sympathy for your father when he weeps at your funeral. Do you understand me, girl?"
This impudent chit was not his future wife. This girl on death's threshold was not his fiancée. The rosy flush in her cheeks faded and she looked away, sinking back into the pile of silken pillows. "Yes, sir."
Feverfew and fennel, dragonsbane and willow fronds plucked on the night of the new moon, Severus diced and ground and measured them, adding them to the cauldron together. Life to life and soul to soul, the conversion of herbs into healing was unsteady but true. The breath of life was subtle and green, the weight of the potion too heavy to bear it.
The potion fizzled with failure, green scum rising to the surface, and Severus Banished the ruined cauldron. He glared at Luna when she tittered at him, and threatened her with another Silencing spell.
"You added too much moonstone," she said.
Pushing aside the heavy blue duvet, Luna slipped out of the bed, and wobbled to the window, her frilly nightgown flowing behind her in the breeze. She plucked a handful of petals from the roses growing there and held them cupped in the palm of her hand.
Shaky and solemn, her face drained of all color, she blew the handful of petals across the room at Severus. Halfway there, the petals sputtered to the floor, falling in dizzying red swirls. "Too much moonstone and not enough rose petals," she said.
Severus was halfway across the room as she spoke, halfway to her as she collapsed. Her fingers clutched in spasms around the windowsill, her hair caught in the trellis and the thorns.
She was as light as silk and soft as breeze in his arms. He carried her back to the bed and tucked the duvet around her, letting her hair fan out across the pillow and pinching her cheeks to bring the color back into them. Like a flower unfurling, her eyes blinked open and she caught his hand in hers, and smiled at him.