Yuletide Potions XVII

[a_bees_buzz]

Title: Yuletide Potions XVII
Team: Spy for the Order of the Phoenix
Word Count: 13 x 100
Rating: G
Challenges: Broken Memory Charm, Comfort and Joy
Characters: Severus, Hermione, Wendell and Monica Wilkins/Granger
A/N: Sorry for the delay, yesterday didn’t turn out to be a good writing day.

Where it all started
Where we left offThe kitchen had

Comments

[anethema_device]

Fantastic and I loved the last line.

[a_bees_buzz]

Thank you.

[septentrion1970]

Research can be a very tedious process, but so rewarding in the end.

I like the way you describe hope in Severus's heart at the end.

[a_bees_buzz]

Research is essential. Hermione and Severus are very good at what they do, but they both tend to focus very narrowly. You have to do the boring research bits first, before you go off looking for solutions.

[firefly124]

Ooh, I love the contentiousness about science versus magic and then the Legilimency research. His determination to do what is right even though he is certain it will cost him any shred of friendship with Hermione is just so Severus. And that last line is just wonderful!

[a_bees_buzz]

Both Severus and Hermione are very sure of themselves and neither is a big-picture thinker. I thought they needed a bit of scientific method to shake them up. Plus, these are Hermione's parents; they are not useless observers, and Severus needed to recognize that.

Severus has a strong protective instinct, a depressive personality, and an absurdly overblown martyr complex; he would not be remotely surprised to have to give up the most important relationship in his life for the sake of the woman he cares about.

[kribu]

Excellent! The wait was well worth this.

Not the Dark Spell after all - that should hopefully make things easier.

That last line is just wonderful.

[a_bees_buzz]

The Dark Spell struck me as unlikely, both because Umbridge, evil as she was in her own way, was not a Death Eater nor likely to be taken into Voldemort's higher circles if she became one, and because it was the first thing they thought of. Yes, I realize that always works in canon, but not in real life. They were working on an assumption instead of doing the hard work to find the facts. It's not that I didn't want to have to invent a method for fixing neural pathways, really. Not at all. Okay, maybe just a little bit.

[kribu]

Of course it wasn't that at all... *pats*

Just as it had nothing to do at all with me pushing the issue somewhere further away from my set... ;-)

I quite agree though - Umbridge was thoroughly nasty and very obviously happy to work under the Dark Lord's rule, but I don't think we ever got any indication of her actually having been a Death Eater or anywhere close to any of Voldemort's most trusted minions.

I couldn't help but feel sorry for Severus immediately assuming that looking into Hermione's mind would destroy their friendship, or seeing all the horrid things she must have thought and felt about him. (I'm sure there could have been a fair share of "argh, he really is so unfair!" from Hermione's school years, but beyond that... I doubt he'd have found anything considerably worse than that even if he'd looked!)

[a_bees_buzz]

It is quite plausible that Umbridge eventually joined the DEs after Fudge was discredited; she's a true sycophant, who needs a power-figure to follow. But why would she be casting memory spells on Muggles? In DH, she had a clearly defined role within the ministry that served Voldemort's purposes without her having to step out of her preferred bureaucrat persona. Going around dealing with Muggle memories doesn't seem to be her style, unless it's personal as it was with the Grangers

[sshg316]

And it's stuff like this that makes me a Buzzy fangirl.

SQUEEEEEEEEEEE

Absolutely gorgeous, honey. I loved each and every single word. The imagery, the plot, characterization ... just every little thing ... it's all fabulous. *happy sigh*

[a_bees_buzz]

*blushes*

You are too, too kind. And you know I love every bit of it. *squishes you*