Yuletide Potions XVI
Title: Yuletide Potions XVI
Team: Spy for the Order
Word Count: 7x100
Rating: PG
Challenges: Broken Memory Charm, Comfort and Joy
Characters: Severus Snape, Hermione Granger
Here's the beginning.
Previously on Yuletide Potions...
Severus was left standing in the kitchen, feeling quite confused.
Did she mean it this time? He was trying not to get his hopes up, as love seemed to be a word she was sometimes quite careless about. Although this had seemed different - deliberate.
Being honest with himself, he had to admit that he hoped she did mean it. Even if he didn’t know whether he felt the same for her - or what it actually was that he felt for her.
But he did feel something. Something other than what a good employer should be feeling for a random employee.
* * *
He wasn’t sure if he’d find the answer he needed in Hermione’s book. It had been a while since he’d read it with this particular idea in mind, but it was a good, comprehensive book.
There were certain potions and charms that reacted badly with the Dark Lord’s spell. The first thing he needed to do was to find a good overview of memory-reversal spells and potions, preferably with ingredients listed. And then to confirm with Hermione which options she’d already tried.
He just hoped that she hadn’t done anything that would make it impossible to regain her parents’ memories.
* * *
Hermione returned a few moments later, the book in her hand and a smile on her face. She looked so eager, so full of hope and faith and trust - so vulnerable.
“What exactly would this dark spell do?” she asked. “Apart from the physical consequences to the neuropathways, that is. What was the purpose?”
Severus considered his answer for a moment. “It is quite adaptable. The caster can determine what he or she wants it to achieve. I believe that in this case, the purpose may have been rather simple - making sure that any prior memory charms would remain permanent.”
* * *
He found the index of reversal spells and potions and sighed. It was a very long list and knowing Hermione, she would have tried as many of them as she could - anything that she might have thought useful.
At least a sixth of those spells and potions might have sealed the changes in the pathways even more thoroughly.
Severus knew that with time and patience, he might manage to work out a way to reverse first the damage done by the fixing and then Umbridge’s spell. But he could not afford to experiment and get something wrong. He’d need luck.
* * *
He really needed to find out exactly what Hermione had tried. Yes, they had discussed it previously, and she had told him what she had tried, but what if her list was incomplete?
He just wasn’t sure how to approach the issue. The last thing he wanted to do was to make her feel - again - that she might have complicated things even further. Not now when she was looking at him with those big brown eyes full of trust and hope, and finally having someone else to blame as well. Even if Umbridge taking revenge on her was her fault.
* * *
Severus reached across the kitchen table and took her hand.
“About what you said before,” he started uneasily, wanting to give her some reassurance before potentially having to crush her hopes once again. “About you …”
“I do, you know,” she whispered, looking straight into his eyes. “Love you. At least that’s what it feels like. I’ve just been too blind to see it before. And I’m not saying it because you’re helping me … I think I’ve felt it for a while, but I didn’t know it.”
She squeezed his hand. “I’m not expecting you to feel the same.”
* * *
Severus raised her hand to his lips and pressed a gentle kiss on her fingertips.
“I am … not indifferent to you. If you are not opposed to the idea, we could, perhaps … see where this takes us. Explore it, later? When the time is more convenient.”
“I would really like that,” she confessed, biting her lip nervously. “Are you sure? I mean ... you’re not just saying this because Minerva told you to be nice to me?”
He couldn’t help sneering. “Do you really think that I would let Minerva tell me whom I should give my affection?”
--
On to part XVII.
Team: Spy for the Order
Word Count: 7x100
Rating: PG
Challenges: Broken Memory Charm, Comfort and Joy
Characters: Severus Snape, Hermione Granger
Here's the beginning.
Previously on Yuletide Potions...
Severus was left standing in the kitchen, feeling quite confused.
Did she mean it this time? He was trying not to get his hopes up, as love seemed to be a word she was sometimes quite careless about. Although this had seemed different - deliberate.
Being honest with himself, he had to admit that he hoped she did mean it. Even if he didn’t know whether he felt the same for her - or what it actually was that he felt for her.
But he did feel something. Something other than what a good employer should be feeling for a random employee.
* * *
He wasn’t sure if he’d find the answer he needed in Hermione’s book. It had been a while since he’d read it with this particular idea in mind, but it was a good, comprehensive book.
There were certain potions and charms that reacted badly with the Dark Lord’s spell. The first thing he needed to do was to find a good overview of memory-reversal spells and potions, preferably with ingredients listed. And then to confirm with Hermione which options she’d already tried.
He just hoped that she hadn’t done anything that would make it impossible to regain her parents’ memories.
* * *
Hermione returned a few moments later, the book in her hand and a smile on her face. She looked so eager, so full of hope and faith and trust - so vulnerable.
“What exactly would this dark spell do?” she asked. “Apart from the physical consequences to the neuropathways, that is. What was the purpose?”
Severus considered his answer for a moment. “It is quite adaptable. The caster can determine what he or she wants it to achieve. I believe that in this case, the purpose may have been rather simple - making sure that any prior memory charms would remain permanent.”
* * *
He found the index of reversal spells and potions and sighed. It was a very long list and knowing Hermione, she would have tried as many of them as she could - anything that she might have thought useful.
At least a sixth of those spells and potions might have sealed the changes in the pathways even more thoroughly.
Severus knew that with time and patience, he might manage to work out a way to reverse first the damage done by the fixing and then Umbridge’s spell. But he could not afford to experiment and get something wrong. He’d need luck.
* * *
He really needed to find out exactly what Hermione had tried. Yes, they had discussed it previously, and she had told him what she had tried, but what if her list was incomplete?
He just wasn’t sure how to approach the issue. The last thing he wanted to do was to make her feel - again - that she might have complicated things even further. Not now when she was looking at him with those big brown eyes full of trust and hope, and finally having someone else to blame as well. Even if Umbridge taking revenge on her was her fault.
* * *
Severus reached across the kitchen table and took her hand.
“About what you said before,” he started uneasily, wanting to give her some reassurance before potentially having to crush her hopes once again. “About you …”
“I do, you know,” she whispered, looking straight into his eyes. “Love you. At least that’s what it feels like. I’ve just been too blind to see it before. And I’m not saying it because you’re helping me … I think I’ve felt it for a while, but I didn’t know it.”
She squeezed his hand. “I’m not expecting you to feel the same.”
* * *
Severus raised her hand to his lips and pressed a gentle kiss on her fingertips.
“I am … not indifferent to you. If you are not opposed to the idea, we could, perhaps … see where this takes us. Explore it, later? When the time is more convenient.”
“I would really like that,” she confessed, biting her lip nervously. “Are you sure? I mean ... you’re not just saying this because Minerva told you to be nice to me?”
He couldn’t help sneering. “Do you really think that I would let Minerva tell me whom I should give my affection?”
--
On to part XVII.