Patronus Messaging

"Welcome back, Miss Granger." Professor McGonagall warmly hugged an ash-covered Hermione as soon as she stepped out of the fireplace in the Headmistress's office.

"Good morning, Professor. Thank you for allowing me to come ahead of other students. I appreciate it very much." Hermione returned her greeting.

"You are welcome." Professor McGonagall smiled. "Why don't you go unpack in your dormitory and come back later. I will show you the laboratory then. For now, I have a very urgent order from St. Mungo's that I have to deal with."

"An order from the hospital?" Hermione asked curiously.

"Yes. A potion order. Last year Professor Snape developed what he called a Life Thread Potion. It is a draught that is administered to patients on their deathbed. It opens a channel in their suffering through which the Healers can give the cure directly to the source of the problem rather than deal with the pain and other effects of the problem. It is very important for patients close to death because in them the cause of their suffering inflates the effects so quickly that by the time the Healers eliminate the effects, the patients often already die. It has already saved several people in emergency in the past months.

"Why, you were given this potion as well! You were too exhausted to process the Pepper-up and the Blood-Replenishing Potions at the same time.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Hermione," Professor McGonagall stopped herself when she noticed Hermione turn green. "I didn't mean to cause you discomfort."

"It's all right, Professor." Hermione took a few deep breaths. "It is a very important potion. When should I return to give you enough time to brew it?"

"No, I will not brew the potion. We still have a small stock left, and the Healer is just momentarily coming to retrieve it. In any case, we haven't found the recipe yet, so we couldn't brew it ourselves. I'm afraid Professor Snape might not have written it down," Professor McGonagall replied.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hermione sat in a comfortable armchair in Snape's laboratory. She was carefully studying his experiment protocols and lab notes. She flipped a page, and a small, opaque pink cube jumped from the next page. By this time, she was used to his three-dimensional results charts materializing above the parchment, but it had startled her a few times earlier.

The notes read:

Silver pointer: 20 feet – undetected. 10 feet – change in probability of death detected only when tester cut himself at 1300. No change earlier when blood loss less than ¼ pint.

Before Hermione could contemplate what Snape meant and whether his "tester" relieved himself of a quarter of a pint of blood willingly, she jumped as the armchair suddenly stiffened beneath her, lifted her up and straightened her back.

She sighed and with a flick of her wand renewed the transfiguration spell. She was confined to his laboratory if she wanted to read his protocols; the wards would not allow any of his possessions to leave the designated area. He must have spent his time here too in the same way. How could Snape voluntarily sit on such uncomfortable chairs also in the privacy of his own laboratory? No wonder he was so sour.

But he was no doubt brilliant. He was apparently trying to modify the magicmeter in such a way that it would detect the health and condition of a person of interest in the distance. Hermione could clearly see how such a device would ease the insecurity of the families of those that disappeared in the war time. It would let them know whether there was still hope for their loved ones.

There was no doubt a parallel with Mrs. Weasley's famous clock. But where Mrs. Weasley's clock detected a chance of an unfortunate encounter or even an assumption that her family, as blood traitors, might be targeted by Death Eaters, Snape's modified magicmeter would precisely and accurately inform her of the acute and immediate physical well-being of her family members.

Not only family members, Hermione thought! Warriors as well. The magicmeters, if detecting the death probability over large distances, could report of any mission, or rather of any warriors on a mission. Tonks wouldn't have to worry about Lupin among werewolves if she had a magicmeter at her disposal. She could check from a distance how he had actually been.

In a full circle, Hermione was back to the usefulness of the device for family integrity.

Snape already tried to change several materials of different parts of the magicmeter and their combinations that could detect the death probability from the distance, and Hermione flipped quickly through the proceeding pages. She noticed that he was unsuccessful for a very long time, and she appreciated his endurance in the face of repeated failures. He got his first successful attempt when he replaced a metal used to construct a pointer. Then he used random metals with magical properties to increase the distance and sensitivity. She was so engrossed in following his logic that she almost skipped a nearly blank page in Snape's notebook with annoyance. There were no notes, but a cauldron jumped up from the page instead of a cube chart.

A cauldron!

In Snape's science notes!

But, of course! Snape and deception were one. Of course, it would be where no one would look. In between his very dull and completely non-magical essays on metal properties.

She felt so happy that her Patronus jumped from her wand almost of its own accord.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Severus Snape was just taking off his mask and collapsing wearily into an armchair when an overexcited otter ran into his room. He watched it circle him a while and frowned when it didn't spontaneously disappear. People were practising to conjure Patronuses these days everywhere. With the Dementors increased breeding, he couldn't blame them. He didn't know this Patronus, but apparently it was not someone's practice, but it carried a message too determined to ignore. He frowned and took the message.

'Found the Life Thread! Need password!'

How fitting, he sneered, for Granger to roam through his personal belongings. Just what was she doing in his private lab reading his Distant Probability experiments in Hogwarts before the school started?

He thought for a moment, considered his options and then conjured a reply.

'Granger. You are forbidden to copy the recipe, let anyone else read or hear it, or be present while you brew it. The Headmistress exclusively is to handle the orders from the hospital or infirmary. One dose at a time, only for immediate use. You may give a dose a week to Potter and Weasley and take one yourself.'

The Life Thread Potion was a cure as well as a weapon. The Dark Lord must never know of all its properties or have a way to test it. He was free of one master, he wanted to get rid of the other too. The potion could save lives that were close to ceasing from both directions in time. It opened a channel to the human core through which additional cure could enter. But it also kept a channel of life active if a healthy person was unexpectedly expected to die. It was exactly what the Dark Lord would want. If a person took the Life Thread and was hit by a full Killing Curse, he would stay alive long enough for the curse to wear off, just like any hex. It could keep Voldemort's life on indefinitely, longer than Flamel's. Snape was not sure if staying alive on a death bed with an incurable disease or being too old to function would be a life, but the Dark Lord was willing to opt for less when it came to staying alive.

In a too short while, the annoying otter was back.

'Fully accept your conditions. Send the password, sir. Please!'

Snape smirked menacingly and sent his Patronus straight back to Hogwarts with hope that he would have a few days of rest until she figured out his password and attacked him with more demands. She, of all people, wouldn't have expected it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hermione was eagerly poking her wand at the image of the pinkish cauldron and trying any revealing charm she could think of. Nothing worked. Or actually, everything worked the same. From a simple probe with a tip of her wand to the most complicated revealing charm, everything triggered a request for a password.

She didn't have to wait long, and a Patronus swished past her.

'You have it. Don't ask again.'

What?

I have it?

What is he playing at? She was agitated.

Hermione tried to calm down and think like Snape. How does one think like Snape?

She pulled out a piece of parchment and started to list things she knew about him. Leave out superstitions, filter out assumptions and list only facts. She soon figured out that she could not list much. Double spy, Death Eater, Head of Slytherin House, Potion master, half-blood made it to the top of her list. Then, of course, there was his discovery of a very important life-saving potion and attempts to track the wellbeing of another person.

She discarded those though because the other facts on her list cried out 'deceit', and she wasn't sure how his two discoveries could aid Lord Voldemort. Snape was secretive about the Life Thread Potion, and she could imagine something dark done with the tracking.

If cunning and deception were his main attributes, what kind of a password would he choose? One that people were unlikely to guess, but one that had a meaning to him and was easy to remember.

But if it was hard to deduce, how could she guess it? Did he want her to guess his important password? She doubted it. She tried to recall what his Patronuses exactly said. The last one said that she had the password. That she had it. If she already had it, the first Patronus must have brought it. A riddle then. She frowned, leaned deeper into the armchair, pulled her knees up, rested her chin on them and thought. What password? What password.

Hermione widened her eyes in surprised realisation, poked the image cauldron with her wand and whispered, "Granger."

The image disappeared, and the page illuminated with shiny letters of a recipe for the Life Thread Potion.

Her name! For all the books in the world, Snape's most secret password had been her name! But why? Was he surreptitiously in love with her? Hermione shuddered and quickly rejected the thought. Surely, he wasn't. Probably, Potter would have been too obvious a choice. Snape very likely noticed her enough to remember her, and disliked her enough to make her name hard to deduce. Very clever. Very Snape.

Hermione started to gather the necessary ingredients to prepare the potion. Her hands were shaking with anxiety. Such an important potion! And she was to brew it by herself!

Halfway through the list, she paused. The ingredient read: 3 drops of dragon blood (willingly given for enhanced effect).

Which dragon would ever give up his blood willingly?

She sent another Patronus for help.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Severus Snape had just dozed off when the otter arrived again.

'Where can I get willingly given dragon blood?'

Ah, she had solved it. Snape smiled to himself that his former student was smart enough to figure out the logic of his messages, and that she actually remembered his message so well. But he needed to sleep more than he wanted to contemplate on Granger's achievement at the moment.

'Never tickle a dragon. Use the blood in the storage room. Tomorrow. I remember having asked you to refrain from further communication.'

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Gentlemen, several issues surfaced at my meeting with Miss Granger today that I wished to discuss with you," Minerva McGonagall addressed the quickly assembled Arthur Weasley, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Dedalus Diggle and Mad-Eye Moody. "First, Miss Granger says that she found the recipe for the Life Thread Potion in Severus's laboratory."

The men got excited and started to murmur appreciatively, but McGonagall dismissed them with an impatient wave of her hand.

"Moreover, she claims that she can brew it because Severus has been tutoring her."

"What?"

"He cannot dare to come near Hogwarts!"

"Of course not," McGonagall silenced her colleagues. "But this brings us to the second and third point. Miss Granger says she communicates with him through Patronus Messaging. So, second, the Life Thread must be tested as it might not be the same as before with his distance tutoring in his current situation. And third, we haven't yet considered that Patronus Messaging might be breached. Is it still safe to use it for our internal communication?"

"What is your opinion, gentlemen? How should we approach these issues?" McGonagall sat down to wait for suggestions.

"First, the recipe is not to be trusted. Hence, second, Miss Granger is to be prohibited to brew the potion. And third, the Patronus Messaging must be considered a method freely available to Voldemort now. Stupid of us to overlook it for almost three months," Mad-Eye Moody recited and clapped his wooden foot for emphasis.

"While your points are a fair representation of the worst case scenario, Alastor, I wouldn't dismiss it so quickly," Diggle objected. "The Life Thread is an important potion, especially at war. It saved my cousin and niece several weeks ago, and I think we should consider the options in more detail."

"I agree, Dedalus," Mr. Weasley took the word. "Hermione is a very responsible and gifted young lady and could very likely perform her task by herself. We should, however, supervise her while she brews the potion to protect her from further accidents."

"She wouldn't allow it, Arthur," McGonagall countered. "She says Severus set her rules for handling the potion, and she fully intends to follow them."

"Alastor, can you see through warded walls?" Shacklebolt asked thoughtfully.

"It depends on the type of wards. I cannot see through a wall warded against sight penetration. What did you have in mind?" Moody was curious.

"I thought that we could have watched Miss Granger through the wall to ensure her safety and perhaps to copy the recipe too."

"Weren't you a Slytherin, Kingsley?" Professor McGonagall asked, very disturbed.

"Yes. Why?"

"If Miss Granger does not voluntarily want to share her knowledge, I'm fairly certain that she wouldn't appreciate being spied on." The Professor pierced the Auror with a glare that almost matched the intensity of Moody's magical eye.

"Oh. Yes. Of course. Sorry," Shacklebolt babbled. "Then it all comes down to trust, I guess. Whether we trust Dumbledore's murderer or not." Shacklebolt was purposely rude and watched McGonagall take in a sharp breath with satisfaction. He chose his words carefully to hurt her for her small victory as much as he could while remaining professional.

"Absolutely not, Kingsley!" Mr. Weasley failed to acknowledge the intense exchange, keeping his focus on Hermione's welfare. "We will thoroughly ward Hermione, so that a miscarried potion wouldn't hurt her. Further, we will have her report to us at regular intervals, given the potion's time schedule, to make sure she is all right. And we will acutely test the final product for performance before allowing patients to use it. The potion is important, and we need it profoundly, but there is no use rushing into the unknown without preparation!"

"My words precisely." Moody was content.

"I agree as well. Dedalus? Kingsley?" Minerva prompted the others. After giving their consent, she continued, "And what about safety of Patronus Messaging?"

"Definitely breached. I must insist on this point," Moody accentuated. "Even if we accept that Snape might not have revealed the communication channel earlier, such blind faith cannot be elucidated anymore. We have blatantly ignored this issue."

"On the contrary, Alastor," Mr. Weasley disagreed. "You yourself insisted many months ago that we experiment with intercepting messages addressed to someone else."

"Yes, I'm aware of it." Moody frowned. "We learned to breach our own system, and we recklessly taught it to Snape too."

"But this training also taught us to protect the messages from being revealed to an unauthorized person," Mr. Weasley said.

"True. But it all depends on the skill of a wizard. And You-Know-Who is pretty damn skilled and possesses unmatched power."

"Certainly," McGonagall shuddered, "no magic is infallible."

"I personally suggest that we continue using Patronus Messaging, but maximize our specificity in direction. We should, however, limit the extent and sensitivity of Order messages transmitted through Patronuses," Diggle concluded.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Professor?"

"Yes, Miss Granger? Please, come in," Professor McGonagall welcomed Hermione into her office.

"I have brought you the sample of the Life Thread for testing." Hermione played with the vial nervously, but did not hand it to her Professor.

"What is it, Miss Granger?" McGonagall rose from her chair, sensing Hermione's hesitation, and clasped her hands in front of her.

"Professor Snape does not agree with the extent of testing that you requested," Hermione admitted shyly. "He will not allow me to hand you more than one tester dose. All others must be validated emergency cases for patients' use only."

Professor McGonagall looked strictly at her student. "Miss Granger, let me remind you that Severus Snape is in no position to place requests and that his intensions are highly dubious in all cases."

"Yes, Professor, but..."

"Hence, I would suppose that a woman of your intelligence would realize that the Life Thread Potion is a product of the Headmaster's murderer, and that it cannot be granted safe without profound evidence."

"I understand." Hermione dropped her shoulders and looked at her toes.

"Then you might want to provide me with additional testing vials. Immediately."

"I can't, Professor. I'm sorry."

"We've just been through this, Miss Granger, and you agreed with my reasoning. Don't try my patience."

"Sorry, Professor, but I'm under the impression that Professor Snape does not wish for all attributes of the potion to be known."

"I've noticed that much. With his history of actions, we cannot afford this kind of secrecy for security reasons."

"I think that security is Professor Snape's reason for secrecy here, Professor."

"Security?" The earnestness of Hermione's voice made Professor McGonagall try to view the issue from a different perspective. "His or ours?"

"I don't know. It is just my perception. He vehemently refuses to discuss the properties of the potion. It is a question of trust again. Professor Dumbledore approved the use of the Potion for medical purposes. It has worked reliably for almost two years now. If the Potion I brewed has the same medical properties, looks and diagnostics, we should not insist on knowing the full extent of its power, but rather trust Professor Snape in this matter."

"I hope you understand my hesitation in trusting Severus Snape. It might be exceptionally dangerous."

"I do, Professor. But in this case, the importance of the Life Thread Potion might be balanced by our insecurity of what else this new batch might do."

Minerva McGonagall did not reply straight away, but a vertical line formed between her eyebrows as she scrutinised pros and cons of Hermione's ... er Severus's conditions.

"Very well, Hermione," the Headmistress admitted in the end and took the only test vial from Hermione's hand.

Author's notes: Please review. Reviews are the treat of writing.