Chapter 5: For the Sake of Science

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author.

Thanks go out to VIVAvivacious for the beta of this chapter.

Note: I am aware that in canon Ginny's eyes are brown, but for the purpose of this story, I have deliberately made them blue.

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Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained.

– Marie Curie

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Wythenshawe, Manchester: 21st June, 2009

The sun shone through the window, the glass reflecting the light oddly due to the convex shape of each individual pane.

Hermione sat staring at the fireplace in the sitting room. It was dark and dusty, and the logs that sat in a small pile within it were dry and grey. She had spent the past week sitting in the laboratory going over her notes time and again, but she could not for the life of her figure out what it was that seemed to be stopping her from completing the Cruciatus Reversal Potion. She had used Snape's hint from Ars Alchemica and replaced a few ingredients in the potion with the rare orchid. She had spent a small fortune on purchasing enough of the precious flower to brew in trials and the final formula when it finally came to that.

The problem left to her now was Snape himself.

Though she had not seen him since departing London, she had been constantly going over their conversations in her head. Though they had been few and far between, she had gained more from him than she had from any of the talks at the symposium. She had a strong feeling Snape had been trying to communicate something important to her that she had simply been unable to understand. Why had he shown her that article? What on Earth had he been working on in his workbook whenever he thought nobody was looking?

Sighing in frustration, Hermione stood up and walked to the kitchen, filling her kettle with water and putting it on the stove before igniting the flame beneath it. As she waited for the kettle to begin whistling, she prepared a pot with peppermint tea leaves and collected the water just as the pot began to sing. Pouring in the water until her pot was three-quarters full, she let the tea steep for five minutes before pouring herself a cup. Taking a sip, she let out a soft sigh, smiling at the delicate, soothing flavour. She loved tea when it was properly brewed.

Returning to her books in the sitting room with her pot of tea and cup, she set them down on the coffee table in front of her before reaching out to grab a thick textbook she had yet to crack open. As she read the contents page, her mind returned to thoughts of her former Hogwarts professor.

Snape was a genius. He was the one teacher she had never managed to impress in her entire career as a student. But even so, he was the height of his field, and ever since her first day in Potions class, Hermione had aspired to be like him. Not that she wanted to be snarky or unlikeable; she simply wanted to be as good as he was in Potions. She wanted to work with someone of his calibre and learn from him. After all, to be the best, you had to learn from the best, and she was desperate to do so.

Heaving a heavy breath, she took another sip of her soothing tea. Her stomach began to slowly unknot itself. Snape was a puzzle. He allowed very few people to speak to him and was, for all intents and purposes, a total recluse. So why had he allowed her to spend time in his company? She supposed it might have been because she pestered him to no end and persisted in forcing him to endure her presence. He had probably just given in to stop her from asking him annoying or invasive questions. But she had a strong feeling there was more to it than that. Had she not seen him looking at her notebook thoughtfully?

She frowned, and then it finally dawned on her.

The article, the way he spoke and evaded many of her questions. It was all very simple. He was trying to create a counter potion for the Cruciatus curse, also. He had to be. She thought hard about all of the stilted conversations and the hints she had gotten from him, even if he had dropped them by accident. Snape was trying to create the exact same potion as she was. And if her assumptions were correct, he had been as of yet unable to complete it.

A smile grew on her face. She was floored by the knowledge that she and Snape might both be striving to achieve the same end. Throwing her arm out in the direction of the doorway, she wandlessly summoned a piece of parchment from her upstairs study to her. It flew into her hand and she pulled her notebook onto her lap to so she could write a letter. If Snape and she were both stuck while trying to create the same potion, it made absolutely no sense to her for them to continue in vain when two heads were better than one. Together they might have a chance of coming to some sort of resolution.

Professor Snape,

Hermione Granger

She placed her quill back into the pot of ink in front of her and blew on the parchment to dry the words she had hastily penned to Snape. She knew it was a bit sudden to be writing to the man, especially when all she was going on was a hunch. However, she felt in her gut that she was right, and she was never one to waste her time when it could be otherwise occupied on more important things, like the potion.

Rushing upstairs, she went to her study and threw open the window, whistling a high-pitched tune. She didn't have to wait long until she heard the beating of wings, and soon her eagle owl, Ophelia, was perched on the sill before her. She reached out a finger and gently stroked the bird's beautiful, dark feathers, lingering on the softer feather of her head and neck. She had received her second familiar as a gift from Harry and Ginny upon completing her Master's in Potions. She folded her correspondence over at her desk and sealed it with navy blue wax before grabbing a bit of yarn and tying it to her owl's leg.

'Please take this to Professor Snape as quickly as you can,' she informed the owl. 'Wait for him to write back to me.'

The owl hooted softly and rubbed itself affectionately against Hermione's palm once more before taking off from the windowsill and into the orange-pink of the sunset. As Hermione closed her window, she paused for a moment to stare after her familiar. She hoped Snape was willing to give her a chance to prove herself.

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Greenwich, Ipswich: 23rd June, 2009

Snape sighed when he heard the tapping against the window nearest his desk in the study.

Standing from his chair, he made his way over to the window and saw that the thrice-damned owl of Hermione Granger was once again perched on the edge of his windowsill. For the third day in a row her familiar had come with a letter attached to its leg. It was a feisty bird, much like its owner, and it was one of the more beautiful owls he had come across. Much like its owner, the owl was uniquely beautiful, although Snape would never be admitting that aloud. That his thoughts had even gone in that direction was something he was ashamed of. After all, the woman had been his student and was young enough to be his daughter.

Opening the window, he quickly untied the letter from the leg of the creature and pushed an owl treat onto the windowsill beside it. Leaving the window open, he retreated to his desk as he unfolded the correspondence. He knew what would be written there even before reading it. For the past three days, Hermione Granger had been asking him to consider collaborating on the Cruciatus Reversal Potion with her.

While they had been at the conference, he had gotten the distinct impression from her that the project she was working on was the same as his. When he had shown her the article on the Midnight Orchid, his suspicions had been confirmed by the excitement she displayed over it. To be frank, he had been rather excited about the discovery also, but when he had returned to his home to integrate the flower into his formula, there was still something missing that was holding him back from his goal.

When he had received the first letter from Granger three days beforehand, he had discovered that she was experiencing trouble also.

He knew he should have responded affirmatively to her first letter, but something in him was still unwilling to do so. To collaborate with another was something he was as unfamiliar with as he was unfamiliar with Divination theory. The idea of coming out of his shell and interacting with another was daunting. He had spent many years content to be on his own, in peace, after a lifetime of struggle and atoning for a mistake he had made when he was very young.

He was afraid of being taken advantage of again, even though he was quite certain that Hermione Granger was the person least likely to do so. Everything about the woman screamed sincerity, and he was hard-pressed to ignore her. Snape sighed heavily, pinching his brow to try and ease the headache that was starting to distract him from thinking clearly. Once it began to ebb, he looked over to see her owl still perched on the sill. As if it sensed his indecision, it launched itself off the sill and flew over to his desk, landing gracefully on the parchment before him. It made a soft hooting noise, and unlike the last two times it had visited, it rubbed its soft head against the back of his hand instead of trying to bite him.

He laughed out loud at this action and proceeded to stroke the soft feathers. It was as if Granger's owl was entreating him to give in to its owner's request.

'You're a strange bird,' he muttered, and then chuckled when said bird turned sharp eyes on him. 'I didn't say it was a bad thing.'

Content, the bird allowed him to continue petting it. Snape rolled his eyes. Well, he had come to a figurative brick wall in his research, and Granger was correct – two heads were oftentimes better than one. Sighing in resignation, he removed his hand from the owl and opened the top drawer of his desk, pulling out a fresh piece of parchment. Grabbing a quill, he began to write.

Miss Granger,

S. Snape

Satisfied that the message was clear, he folded up the small note and attached it to the leg of her familiar. 'Take that to your Mistress,' he told the bird.

With a soft hoot, Ophelia took off into the darkness of the night sky. Snape watched for a moment until all he could no longer see the shadow of the bird as it flew back to Granger. He got up from his desk and went to the armchair before the empty fireplace, Summoning all the notebooks he had that concerned the Cruciatus Reversal Potion. It would take him all night to make copies of his written notes, but he imagined Granger would be doing the same for him. If he was consistent, their collaboration could continue via owl post, and he wouldn't even have to leave the comfortable surroundings of his own home and laboratory.

Picking up his first journal, he pulled out his wand and began to make copies.

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Wythenshawe, Manchester: 26th June, 2009

Hermione looked at the two piles of bound notes before her. The day before, Snape had sent his work so far to her with his hawk owl, who she was amused to find he had named Hephaestus.

His notes were as comprehensive as her own, and he had so many that he had been forced to bind them into two separate volumes. Hermione was just glad that in the Magical world they lived in, there was such a thing as Weightlessness Charms to cast on packages, or their postal delivery system would have collapsed into chaos long ago. Then again, she supposed with their society being the way it was, there would be a solution for it regardless of the charm.

She was still reading the first few pages of a summary he had written that encompassed basic facts about each of the parts that she would encounter as she read. Snape was, if nothing else, extremely comprehensive and considered everything when he agreed to send her his work up-to-date. She, too, had been considerate enough to categorise her notes and do up a sort of rough summary and contents page for him to refer to when he wanted specific information. She had no doubt that once they were past the tedious beginning stages of their collaboration, the two of them would work very well together and might come to a conclusion in the near future.

Midday was upon her sooner than she had expected, and she was forced to leave the sanctuary of her upstairs study and make a trip to her kitchen in search of some sustenance for herself and a snack for her owl. She threw together a small platter of sandwiches so that she could nibble on them slowly while she worked for a few more hours and pulled out the box of owl treats she kept in her food store. Hermione was already at the top of the stairs and was surprised when she heard the front doorbell ring. Unsure of who would be lurking in her doorway at that time of the day, she cast a levitation charm on the food and sent it into her study before heading back down to greet her unexpected guest.

On opening the door, she immediately smiled widely at the shock of red hair that greeted her in the form of Ginny Potter.

'Ginny! What brings you this way?' she exclaimed, standing aside to allow her entry.

'Well, I was sitting alone at home thinking about what I could possibly do today, and it occurred to me that I haven't seen you for a few weeks now,' she replied as she walked in and revealed that she was wearing one of the baby carriers on her back. 'So I thought I would drop by and let Lily spend some quality time with her godmother.'

'Oh, look at that hair,' Hermione said softly, gently lifting the little baby out of the carrier and into her arms before stroking the fluffy shock of red hair.

Ginny laughed softly. 'Harry and I didn't think she'd end up with his hair,' she said with a smile. 'She has my eyes, though – blue as the sky when she opens them.'

'Well, come on upstairs,' Hermione said, gesturing for Ginny to walk ahead of her. 'I made some sandwiches to eat up there while I work on reading some research notes that Professor Snape sent to me.'

'Severus Snape?' Ginny asked, the shock in her eyes belying her neutral tone.

'We've begun to collaborate on a potion,' Hermione answered, walking into the study and sitting down on the lounge with the little baby still in her arms.

'Oh! Well, that is really something,' Ginny said, picking up a triangle of sandwich and biting into it, chewing with relish. 'The last I heard, Snape was a bit of a recluse and stayed out of the way of anyone from the old days.'

Hermione nodded, looking down at the girl in her arms. 'Well, I suppose he feels like the work is important enough to sacrifice a little of his solitude,' she murmured.

'For your sake, I hope it goes well for you.'

'Thanks, Ginny,' Hermione replied, stroking Lily's soft, little cheek. 'She really is a chubby little thing at the moment, isn't she?'

Ginny laughed aloud at that. 'She is always hungry, I swear. I can never eat enough to feed that girl,' she replied.

Hermione grinned. 'She'll grow out of it and be as beautiful as her mother, one day.'

Ginny walked over to join Hermione and the two women embraced, breaking apart when the little girl between them started to make gurgling sounds to gain their attention. Hermione wondered if there would ever be a day when she was looking down at her own baby as she held Lily gently in her arms, rocking her ever so slightly.

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To be continued.