Chapter 12: Compound 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.

A massive hug of thanks goes out to VIVAvivacious for all of her hard work as my beta.

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There are sadistic scientists who hurry to hunt down errors instead of establishing the truth.

– Marie Curie.

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Camden, London: 13th November, 2003

As the potion bubbled away on the little table she had converted into a "lab" of sorts in her kitchen, Hermione flipped her way through textbook after textbook, looking for something that she could work with. Since her apprenticeship had ended with Master Elderbrook several months beforehand, she had not been able to find stable employment. Certainly, she had been able to do a little work brewing for some apothecaries and tutoring students at the College, but it had only been just enough to keep her afloat and pay her rent in the dingy flat she had been living in since the start of her tertiary education.

Aside from finding a useful job that would utilise, at the very least, her basic potion-making skills, she had made plans to take on a huge first project to get her name recognised within the Potions world. It was a very small niche sector, and they rarely welcomed newcomers into the fold unless they were able to prove themselves academically in a journal of some description.

Hermione's solution to this was to find a cure for Lycanthropy. She wasn't so sure it would be the thing to put her name in the books, but she was going to keep trying until she made her own way. She was not the kind of girl who rode on the coattails of others.

Pushing her book to the side, she got up and looked over the lip of the cauldron to ensure that the potion was simmering correctly. She had been brewing copious batches of Pepperup potion for all of the apothecaries in Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade that week, and the one currently in the cauldron was the last one she had to do before she would send all of it out. She bottled the potion in simple glass flasks; the apothecaries would do with the flasks whatever they liked once they were received, often repackaging the doses in their own bottles.

Satisfied that all was well, she made her way to the other side of the kitchen to put on a kettle to boil.

Hermione knew that the road ahead would be difficult for her. She had always anticipated that she would be forced to work hard to get where she wanted, and she was just fine with that. She was somewhat of a workaholic, and this often irritated her friends to no end, but they always ended up supporting her, no matter what her decision was. She was actually quite lucky to have Harry, Ginny, and Ron. If she didn't have them, then she really would probably be alone.

The kettle on the stove whistled loudly, drawing her focus back to the present. She removed it and poured the water into a teapot and sprinkled some leaves in it to brew. She let it steep for a few minutes before pouring herself a cup, then walked into her tiny living room. She wandered over to the fireplace and looked at the photos that she had placed along the mantle. Her favourite one pictured Ron, Harry, and herself all in the formal robes at their Hogwarts graduation. They were all smiling and waving, looking so young and happy, just like they ought to have.

Smiling, she moved away from the mantle and went over to one of her numerous bookshelves and pulled a thick novel out of the stacks. She was just about to take a seat in her armchair when she noticed the flames in the fireplace turn a violent shade of green. When Ginny's head appeared in the flames, Hermione abandoned her plans of sitting in her armchair and sat on the rug before the fire instead.

'Hello, Hermione,' Ginny said with a grin. 'That was good timing.'

'Hello, Ginny,' she replied, taking a sip of her tea. 'What can I do for you this evening?'

'Well... you remember how I said there was a new Healer coming to work at St. Mungo's from Canada? He's arrived now, and he is totally gorgeous,' Ginny exclaimed excitedly. 'He's working with me in the long-term care ward. I'll be finishing my last semester of internship with him as my mentor.'

'That's wonderful, but how does Harry feel about you working with such a gorgeous man?' Hermione teased.

'Very funny,' the younger witch said sarcastically. 'I am not interested in him myself, but I would be very happy to arrange for you to meet him. He is just your type – smart, good-looking, charming. You need to get out of that flat and start dating, Hermione.'

Hermione snorted. 'I am perfectly fine, and I really don't need you to keep trying to set me up with people who you work with, Gin. Besides, I have a very important Potions project that I am about to start, and the last thing I need is romantic entanglements to distract me from my work,' she said with a smile. 'And anyway, no man wants a girlfriend who is smarter than he is. Harry is exempt from this, of course. He needs a smart girl like you around.'

Ginny giggled. 'What's this work you find so important that you'd turn down a date with a dreamy Healer?' she asked, curious.

'I've decided to make my first Potions project a cure for Lycanthropy,' Hermione answered.

Ginny's eyes visibly widened. 'Are you serious?' she asked.

Hermione nodded. 'I was thinking that I wanted to do something important with what I learned at school and through my apprenticeship, something that means something to me. I had watched Remus struggle with himself for so long, and I would like to be able to help people like him,' she said, looking down sadly. Remus Lupin remained a sensitive topic since his death.

'That's actually really wonderful news,' Ginny said with a wide smile. 'You have no idea how excited people in medicine all over the world would feel about that kind of development!'

'You can't tell anyone I am working on it, Gin,' Hermione warned. 'It is only in the beginning stages, and I don't want to get anyone's hopes up.'

Ginny nodded in agreement. 'Well, I know I won't be able to convince you to let me introduce you to Healer Gibbons, but this is good news, as well. I'd better get going – Harry and I are going out for dinner somewhere. He hasn't told me, but he said to get dressed up,' she said, looking excited.

'I hope you have a good time out,' Hermione said, waving before Ginny's head disappeared from the flames, leaving her alone once more.

She smiled and stood, relocating to her armchair. She had a lot of work to do, and by the sounds of things, it was something important.

--

Wythenshawe, Manchester: 1st October, 2009

The sun filtered through the curtains, and the warmth of the rays woke Hermione from her slumber. She stretched and yawned, rolling over and grasping for her wand. She waved it at the curtains so they would open and brighten the room. Looking over at her clock, she saw it was almost eight in the morning. Sitting up drowsily, she eased out of bed and made her way over to the bathroom, using the loo before stripping off her pyjamas and stepping into a warm shower.

After she was fully awake, dry, and dressed, she plaited her hair in a sloppy braid and let it hang down her back, then wandered downstairs in a pair of jeans and a rough-knit wool sweater. She put the kettle on in the kitchen and arranged her teapot and leaves. She was not at all surprised when she heard the doorbell ring. Smiling, she walked into the hallway and opened the front door, beaming up at Snape, who was looming on the front doorstep. He had made a point of consistently arriving at the same time on days she was not teaching.

'Good morning, Severus,' she said, leaning up and kissing him lightly on the lips.

Snape's cheeks flooded with pink, and he cleared his throat uncomfortably. He was still unused to such a friendly greeting from her. 'Good morning to you,' he said, ducking his head down to meet hers in a second, longer kiss.

When they parted, Hermione's breathing was slightly irregular and coming out in short puffs as she struggled to compose herself. She beamed up at him again and pulled him inside, walking to the kitchen while he hung up his coat. He joined her there shortly after, pouring both of them a cup of tea while Hermione went through the refrigerator looking for the fixings to make breakfast.

'How do you feel about eggs?' she asked.

'I like eggs,' he said with a small smile. 'How are we going to eat them this morning?'

'I was thinking omelettes with mushrooms and spinach,' she replied, taking the eggs, cream, and vegetables out of the fridge.

'I approve,' Snape said, finding the mixing bowl, whisk, chopping board, and knife for them to cook with. He always had considered cooking to be rather like brewing potions, rather the same way Hermione had.

When they were sitting at the table with two steaming omelettes, Hermione decided it was time to approach Snape with her next potion idea. She had been doing rather great deal of thinking about things she had tried but had been unable to complete on her own, and she thought, with Snape around, the two of them would be able to provide different perspectives for one another. She just hoped he would be as amenable to the idea as he had been the last time.

'Severus, I wanted to talk to you about a project that I have been meaning to begin,' she said after swallowing a mouthful of egg.

'What kind of project?' Snape asked, intrigued.

'A cure for Lycanthropy,' she said, looking over at him nervously. She was uncertain how he would react. 'I had begun research on the subject when I first finished my apprenticeship, but after going in circles with it, I gave it up and put it in the pile of things I thought I'd never achieve. But with you... well, I think we could do something together. I mean, look at how well the brain regeneration potion worked...' Hermione knew she was babbling; she really wanted him to agree to work with her.

Snape held a hand up to stop her before she said any more. 'I would be honoured to collaborate with you on such an endeavour,' he said simply. 'Remus Lupin, despite all evidence to the contrary, was a valued friend and colleague of mine, especially toward the end of his life. I have some research of my own in this area that I would be glad to share with you.'

Hermione beamed. 'I was hoping you would say that,' she said, reaching across the table and grasping his hand. 'I know my own notes are not nearly as comprehensive as they could be, but we can easily fix that.'

Snape smiled at her eagerness. She knew she was coming off a little bit like a child in a toy store, but she couldn't help it. Their last collaboration had gone so well that she couldn't help but to be optimistic about this one, also. They quickly finished their breakfast and cleaned the kitchen, and Hermione enthusiastically led Snape down to her lab by the hand. She moved to go through the filing cabinet she had stored down there for her paperwork, but she stopped when Snape did not release her hand.

Instead, he pulled her back towards him and wrapped his arms around her, swooping in to steal a kiss. She looked up at him, dazed and confused, when the kiss finally ended.

'What was that for?' she asked with a smile.

'You are very beautiful when you are excited,' he said simply. 'Your eyes sparkle, and it amazes me that one person can be so passionate.'

Hermione blushed at his compliment and leaned up to give him a kiss on the cheek in thanks. He dipped his head shyly then and allowed her to lead him over to the filing cabinet. She dug around inside it for a while until she finally found the folder she was looking for, crowing in triumph. They moved over to the bench and sat on the stools, and she opened it up and pulled out all of her past notes on the project.

'This is how far I got when I last did research on the subject,' she said, flipping to the last page of the journal. 'I was eventually of the opinion that instead of creating a totally new formula, we should instead adapt the Wolfsbane Potion to include a feature that would prevent the change from human form into wolf and make it more permanent than a monthly potion.'

Snape nodded, looking thoughtful. 'I agree that the old potion should be looked at, but I am afraid that the potion is a volatile one. It would be very hard to find the proper ingredients that would not counteract the original properties of the potion, or create an explosion from a negative chemical reaction between non-compatible ingredients,' he explained.

'I do agree with you there,' she said with a small, embarrassed smile. 'I did a little experimentation with ingredients before I gave up on it and created something of an explosion in my old flat.'

Snape smirked. 'Had a bit of a Longbottom moment, did you?'

Hermione frowned and pulled a face at him. 'I learned from it,' she said with a sigh. 'I was evicted from that flat when the owners found out what had happened, and I decided then that I would need to find a place of my own.'

'This house?' he asked.

She nodded. 'I had saved a fair bit of money by that point, and I was able to get a loan from Gringotts to buy this house,' she explained.

'That is quite an accomplishment for one so young,' Snape said sincerely.

Hermione blushed. 'Thank you,' she said quietly.

Snape offered her a small smile and flipped to the next clean page in her journal. 'Let's get started, then, shall we?'

--

Grimmauld Place, London: 3rd October, 2009

Snape walked through the now clean, but still very empty, former headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix and sighed. The place looked nothing like it had when he had first seen it over ten years beforehand. It was, he assumed, Potter's doing, as he was the owner of the building since Sirius Black had perished. Shaking thoughts of his former tormentor from his head, Snape focussed on the task at hand. He made his way up the stairs and entered the library.

The room was cleaner than it had been, but otherwise, very little was changed; all of the same furnishings were still being used. Snape hoped nothing much else had changed either, or it would make his search that much more difficult. He left the library and continued up the stairs to the next level. Once there, he walked down the hall and entered the last bedroom on the right-hand side of the corridor. It was Remus Lupin's room from when he stayed at Grimmauld Place.

He walked over to the chest beside the bed and began opening each of the drawers, starting from the top and working his way down.

When he opened the third drawer, he found it filled with dusty, old photos and a thick, leather-bound journal. He grabbed the journal and wiped the dust off the cover with his hand. Removing the leather thong fastening it shut, he opened the book; inside, it was just as he had anticipated – Remus Lupin's journal. He closed it quickly and fished around inside the drawer until he pulled out a stack of photos.

The photo on the top was one of the original Order of the Phoenix. Beneath that was a photo of Remus and his parents when he had been a child. Snape bundled all of the contents of the drawer together and decided to take it with him. He would save the photos and all of Lupin's belongings and make sure the man was not forgotten with time.

Satisfied he had everything he had come for, Snape stood up, and after taking one last look around the room, departed from the house. He walked to the park across the road from Grimmauld Place and found a secluded thatch of trees. Once he was certain no Muggles were around, he Apparated to his house and went straight down to his laboratory.

He placed the photos and the journal on the bench and sat down on one of the stools before opening the journal once more and slowly reading the first entry. It was dated back to 1980, a few years after he and the Marauders had graduated from Hogwarts. The entry had some pieces of research Lupin had done into the cause of Lycanthropy and how the "disease," as it were, mutated the genes of the person infected with it.

Despite not being a Potions expert, Lupin had a fair bit of insight into Wolfsbane and the properties of all the ingredients. Snape was surprised at how thorough the man had been. A lot of the rest of the entry detailed how Remus felt when the transformation occurred and the different stages he went through over the course of the month.

He flipped through and read a few more of the entries. He found that each one carried more detail than the next, and that the man included more of his feelings along with more detailed research as time passed.

Pleased with his find, and what it would mean to his and Hermione's research, he closed the book. He would get a chance to read it more when he was sharing it with her.

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To be continued.