Beginning the Research

A/N: Many heartfelt thanks and much chocolate to my betas, Melusin_79 (who also Brit-picked) and Sahiya. Any remaining errors are all mine. Thanks also to Shalimar1981 for the early-on brainstorming.

Disclaimer: Not mine and not making any money.

Beginning the Research

“Vell, Herm-own-ninny, I did not think it vould require such circumstances for you to visit,” Viktor said.

“You’ve never asked,” Hermione pointed out with a smile. “Well, not recently.”

Severus scowled up at them both. He did not like idle pleasantries, Portchairs, or, for that matter, former Quidditch stars and Triwizard Tournament champions who had no business turning up again. He especially did not like former Quidditch stars whose fame alone, apparently, had spared them any consequences for having followed the Dark Lord. As he had barely enough strength to remain upright in the chair, however, he contented himself with scowling.

“Professor Snape,” the upstart said.

“Mr. Snape,” he snapped. “Haven’t been a professor in years.”

“But I thought Herm-own-ninny said you vere teaching ven the curse hit you?”

Apparently, Miss Granger had managed to avoid explaining precisely which curse was involved. Well, there had been several embedded in the Mark.

The boy would want to know which it had been, so as to avoid triggering it himself. The boy, he noticed, was flirting with Miss Granger. Perhaps he should know which curse it had been. Or, perhaps he should not. It mattered little. Granger knew and, whatever her faults, she would not inflict this upon someone knowingly.

Pity.

“I vould offer to show you to your rooms, but I am sure you vould prefer to go directly to the library,” their host continued, clearly having given up on receiving a reply to his question.

Hermione nodded vigorously, and Severus suffered himself to be levitated, chair and all, down the long, ornate hallway that led to the library, paying little attention to the rather impressive artwork they passed along the way.

~*~

Once they were settled in the library, Hermione fell into the familiar rhythm of research. She selected one of the texts Viktor had recommended and disarmed, and began reading, periodically glancing at Severus as he pored over another tome. Once, she caught a glimpse of him smoothing a page almost reverently, and a shudder ran through her.

Lucky book.

She banished the thought as inappropriate. The man was dying, had gone from lean to gaunt to skeletal in mere days, and having sex with him was what had got him this way in the first place. Dragging her attention back to her own book, she forced herself to focus on the words before her.

“Historically, magical brands have been used primarily in military contexts …”

Several hours later, she had a sheaf of notes but felt she had really only managed to scratch the surface. Certainly, she had a better understanding of the charms and hexes used for the basic Mark, but she had found nothing relating to how one might add additional curses, never mind how such curses might outlast the brand itself. The one thing that was very clear was that brands such as these should, in fact, disappear without a trace upon the death of the one to whom they were linked.

Severus, she saw, was almost falling asleep in his book. Her immediate instinct was to ask Viktor to have him put to bed. She stifled it, knowing it would only infuriate him. Besides, if it were her, she would insist on being part of the research, no matter what.

She selected another volume and began to read.

~*~

Severus had been both annoyed and relieved when Krum had insisted they break for dinner. As they were insistent upon chasing this false hope, they might as well be thorough about it. However, it was true that the mind needed fuel. More to the point, if he were going to survive long enough to utilise any counter-curse they might find, he needed to keep up his flagging strength.

Being floated down the hallway of Krum’s home to the dining room was humiliating, but more bearable for the fact there was no one else about. And Severus could not argue that the food was anything other than fortifying. Small surprise when one looked at Krum, who had filled out considerably since his visit to Hogwarts all those years ago. The lentil stew was particularly good, he thought, but he had never acquired a taste for moussaka. He chose to take his potions during that course. At least that way, their flavour would not spoil something he actually liked.

After dinner, he had hoped to return to the library, but his traitorous body required him to accept the most embarrassing assistance from the house-elves, after which sleep beckoned him like a siren.

How appropriate, he thought, to think of being lured to bed and seduced into oblivion.

Soon after, thought fled, and he sank into a restless sleep featuring dreams in which he watched Hermione continue to pore over musty old grimoires, periodically tucking her unruly hair back behind her ears and chewing on her lip.

~*~

The evening’s research was no more productive, though at least Hermione felt herself to be less distracted with Severus absent. She had waded nearly halfway through a third book when Viktor spoke up.

“Vy are you doing this, Herm-own-ninny?” he asked.

“He deserves to be helped,” she replied with a shrug.

“No, vy are you doing this?” he asked. “This is not your specialty.”

“No,” she admitted. “Curse-breaking is not my specialty.”

She noticed she’d been saying that a lot lately.

“Then vy?”

She sighed. “He is a friend. He was my teacher.”

“A friend only?”

She looked at him sharply, suddenly very uncomfortable.

“Why would you ask that?”

“I haff seen how you look at him.”

“You’re mistaking concern for something else.”

“Perhaps.”

An uneasy silence fell.

“There is vun curse vich vas not in the Dark Mark,” Viktor said, “but vas added later.”

She stiffened. She didn’t want him to know what specific curse had been activated and did not want to examine the reason for that too closely. But if he knew something….

“This could be that curse,” she said carefully.

“It vas never fully part of the Mark,” he said. “Many of us took care to remove it after the Mark had gone. Perhaps vun who had received it earlier vould not realise it only used the Mark. It vas not attached to it.”

She looked at him intently.

“It is not hard to remove, if you haff done it before it is activated.”

“And after?”

“I do not know, but these are the wrong books to seek that answer.”

She sighed and closed the book before her, which was beginning to growl again.

“Then where are the right books?”

She saw a flash of some emotion cross his face before he drew his wand to Summon a different selection of texts. These were even more fiercely protective of their contents than the previous set, and it took him the better part of half an hour to disarm one of them so that she could read it safely. That odd look crossed his features again as he handed it to her.

She smiled uncertainly and nodded before she began to read: Sex Magic and the Wandering Spouse.