Chapter 20: Science, Full Circle

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 must go to DHLane for her help with the beta-ing of this chapter.

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Radium is not to enrich anyone. It is an element; it is for all people – Marie Curie.

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Greenwich, Ipswich: 16th May, 2010

A drop of sweat ran down the back of his neck, soaking into his collar. His hair, despite being pulled back with a leather thong, was getting drenched. The beginnings of summer were starting to show signs that it was going to be a hot one. Spring had been relatively warm for their part of the world, when usually it was dreary and wet. Snape frowned and placed his stirring rod into the final cauldron he was brewing with.

He and Hermione had set up seven cauldrons with which to brew their Lycanthropy potion, and each had slightly different timing, measurements, and stirring techniques. All of them were in holding with their original research and recipe, but they had to try a few different ways in order to achieve results. Hermione had left him briefly to make them some tea up in the kitchen, and he had been tasked with watching the potions as they bubbled away.

He heard the door open at the top of the stairs and then footsteps before Hermione appeared bearing two steaming mugs of tea.

He accepted the mug from her gratefully, taking a sip of the brew. 'Thank you, pet. It's just what I needed,' he said, sitting down on the stool beside the bench.

Hermione summoned another stool over to them and took a seat herself, craning her neck to look over all of the potions. 'This looks promising,' she said with a smile. 'There are already two of them that look about the right colour and consistency.'

'It will be a few more hours until we are able to test the results on the samples we have, but we may have finally hit the nail on the head,' Snape said, his dark eyes alight with something akin to excitement.

'We still have to add the unicorn blood though,' Hermione pointed out. 'That may yet alter some of the other potions, and perhaps, spoil the ones that look like they have promise right now.'

'In an hour we shall see,' Snape said, reaching over to brush a loose curl out of her eyes and tuck it behind her ear.

As the hour passed slowly, the sand in the timer trickling down at an almost glacial pace, Snape paced the lab, unable to remain seated. His nerves were on edge, and he could barely even think straight for worry that this time they would manage to fail again – seven times. He looked over to where Hermione was doodling on a piece of parchment, possible names and designs for the label. He thought she was being a little too hasty with those sorts of things, but was reluctant to interrupt her. She was very single-minded when she wanted to be.

As the hour drew to a close, he went to the storeroom to collect the final ingredient for the potion – the purifying agent that, in theory, would ultimately destroy the remnants of the mutation in the human gene.

Hermione had already set up the instruments they would be using to add and stir the blood into the potion by the time he returned with the flask full of the silver liquid. She carefully measured out the amount of blood they would need for each of the cauldrons into seven small measuring glasses while Snape set to work on carefully stirring it into each of the cauldrons. When they were finished, she lowered the temperature on all of the cauldrons simultaneously, and they went to stand close and examine the results.

Snape dipped a ladle into the first cauldron in the line and lifted the liquid up for inspection, pouring a small amount of it into an empty glass vial. It was a dark, smoky colour with flecks of silver through it. He frowned in frustration. The unicorn blood had not combined itself with the rest of the potion. It was useless. He poured the sample down the sink and set that cauldron aside. He would deal with the remnants later.

Hermione showed him the results of the second cauldron, which were similar – silver flecks spiralling through a thick, red-brown liquid that looked almost sickly. It was not at all the consistency or colour they were looking for.

'There are still five more cauldrons,' she said, putting a comforting hand on his shoulder. 'Do not despair just yet.'

He nodded and refocussed on the task at hand. He arrived at the fifth cauldron along, lifted out some of the serum and poured it into a flask. The colour was clear amber, and it was like water. Perfect. He held it up to a light to examine it closer. The blood had fully combined with the rest of the mixture, and it shimmered a golden colour when he tilted it in a different direction. He turned to Hermione and touched her shoulder gently to get her attention.

'I think we might have hit upon something here,' he said, not taking his eyes away from the potion.

She stopped what she was doing and turned around to look at the vial he was holding up. 'Oh! It's beautiful,' she exclaimed, taking the vial from him when he offered it. She wafted her hand towards her nose to smell it. 'It's like caramel! I think you're right, Severus. This looks like it might be perfect.'

Snape nodded with excitement in his eyes. 'I want to get excited about this, but we must examine the other two before we continue in this vein. Either of the other two may have produced similar results,' he said.

Hermione nodded in agreement, and they went back to work. Of the last two potions, only one seemed to be almost the correct colour and consistency, and it was slightly darker than the amber colour they were looking for. Snape collected a sample of both the fifth and seventh potion and moved those two cauldrons aside. Meanwhile Hermione set about to the task of bottling samples of the potions that were not useable and recording all of their results.

They cleaned the lab thoroughly and put away all of the tools and cauldrons once they were clean before setting up their microscope on the cleared bench space. Without having to even speak, Hermione collected the potion samples while Snape went into the storeroom to collect the werewolf blood samples and some glass slides for them to view under the microscope.

Using an eyedropper tool, Snape carefully put a drop of the blood, and with another, put a drop of the second potion sample onto it. He had doubts about it being the correct one and wanted to get it out of the way before testing the other. He placed it under the microscopic lens and gestured for Hermione to take a look before him. She moved over and peered down at to see the results. She pulled back, frowned and shook her head.

'The mutated werewolf cells are rejecting the potion,' she said solemnly.

'It was a bit of a long shot with that one, but at least we know for certain now,' Snape said, patting her shoulder comfortingly. 'Come now, we must test the next one.'

Hermione cleared away that slide and filed it away with their other failed test slides while Snape organised the next one, sliding it into place with the blood and the amber potion beneath the lens. He moved to look at it first and could barely contain his excitement when he watched as the tiny black specimens that clustered around the regular human blood cell was attacked by the large amber-gold cells of the potion and were dissolved away into nothingness. His stomach began to creep up his throat; he was almost sick with joy.

Wordlessly, he gestured for Hermione to stand where he had been so that she could look into the microscope and see what he had just seen. Not a moment later, she whooped aloud, moving away from the equipment and jumping at him, wrapping her arms around his neck. Snape caught her and lifted her up into the embrace, allowing her to wrap her legs around him. She peppered kisses all over his face and beamed the most beautiful smile of rapture at him.

'We finally did it!' she exclaimed jubilantly.

'That we did,' he said with a wide smile, unable to stop himself from laughing as he held his brilliant, beautiful wife against him. They had finally achieved another of their life goals.

After a few more minutes of embracing and celebration, Snape set her back down on her feet and they calmed themselves so they could continue with their work. After all, even though they had already achieved success with this sample, they still had many more samples and even werewolves to test the potion on before it would be confirmed as 100% successful, but they were hopeful. This was a positive step in the right direction and their first success after months of labouring in their free time.

'We still have much testing to do,' he said simply by way of explanation.

Hermione nodded in agreement, and the two of them set aside their moment of joy to continue with their important work, eager to prove that they had successfully brewed a cure for Lycanthropy. Snape hoped that Remus Lupin knew how hard they had worked to find the cure and that he was pleased, even if they had found it too late for him to make use of.

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Camden, London: 20th May, 2010

Hermione stared out across her class as they silently brewed their Draught of Living Death potions for that week's practical section of their assessment. She could see most of them were struggling to some extent and could remember back to her sixth year and how horridly jealous she had been that Harry, who was average in Potions at best, had managed to brew a better draught than even she. She smiled as she remembered why he had – it had been Snape's fault in the end. He hadn't been careful about where he had left his old school textbooks, and when Harry had gotten a hold of it, well, of course he had been reckless.

She shook herself from her reminiscence and stood at the front desk, deciding to do the rounds so she could watch her students work and also assist them if need be. Unlike Snape when he had taught at Hogwarts, she was a strict but fair teacher. She desired order above all in her classroom, but was not averse to giving aid and council when she knew a student needed extra encouragement.

Pleased that most of the students appeared to be on the right track despite their struggles, she returned to her desk. She would have been very disappointed indeed if her tertiary level students were not able to make a potion that was originally introduced in their sixth-year curriculum at Hogwarts and other magical schools.

Opening her notebook to a fresh page, she took out a quill and pot of ink and dipped the end in, her hand poised over the paper to write.

She and Snape had done extensive testing of their potion over the past few days, and with only a few more tests left to do, it was left to Hermione to organise the paperwork. They had a few things they needed to discuss with one another, such as how they were going to approach getting funding to create and supply the potion worldwide and organise patenting rights.

She began writing her to-do list so that when she left the college in the afternoon, she would be on top of everything. When the clock struck twelve, she stood from her desk and cleared her throat.

'Everyone, please clean up your area and store your potions with a stasis charm cast over them on the shelf at the back of the room,' she announced. 'You may continue with your potions in the next class, and don't forget to study for your Potions finals in two weeks time. After that, you will be receiving your results approximately one month into the summer break.'

The stools scraped against the stone of the floor, and there was a bustle as all of the students hurried to clean their workspaces and leave. When the last student walked through the door, Hermione gathered together all of her paperwork and placed it inside her briefcase before leaving the classroom. As she was walking down the hallway to leave the building and heading towards the Apparation point, one of her colleagues stepped out of another classroom and spun around, catching a glance of her and smiling.

'Ah, Professor Snape,' the man exclaimed. 'I was hoping I would catch you.'

Hermione, feeling put on the spot, gave him a small polite smile and a nod. 'What can I do for you, Professor Mason?'

'Well, all of the rest of us in the Potions community were wondering when you and that husband of yours would be coming out with the next big breakthrough,' he said, chuckling. 'It's been a while since your last potion was publicly released.'

She offered a small shrug. 'We have been very busy working on something important, but as to whether we will be making anything public any time soon is another matter,' she replied.

Mason eyebrows rose at her. 'I suppose that means I won't be able to convince you to say what it is you are working on, then hey?' he said.

'It's strictly confidential between my husband and me, ' she answered. 'You will simply have to be as patient as everyone else in regards to news about our project.'

Mason looked slightly affronted by her brusqueness. 'I suppose the two of you are hoping to add a few more awards to your already substantial collection. I'll bet you'll be wanting to put a couple of Order of Nimues up next to your Order of Merlins,' he said, sounding a little snide.

'Neither of us is doing extensive work and research in our own time for personal gain,' Hermione said, starting to get irritated with Mason. 'It is also entirely up to the Ministry for Medical Sciences to decide who is worthy of such a prestigious award. They don't just hand those out to anyone who has the good fortune to stumble across a new potion.'

'Of course,' Mason replied, looking at the ground uncomfortably. 'Well, I will let you get on your way...'

'Good day, sir,' she said briskly before turning on her heel and continuing on her way out of the building.

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Greenwich, Ipswich: 20th May, 2010

Snape was startled from his thoughts by the loud, angry crack of Apparation from just up the stairs.

He had been expecting Hermione home twenty minutes before, but had been quickly consumed by his work once more and had barely noticed the time since. Looking up from the microscope when he heard the door to the lab open at the top of the stairs, he watched as his irate wife stomped down to him, her expression a mixture of annoyance and disgust. As he knew he was not guilty of doing anything to anger her, Snape assumed that her ire was directed at someone or something else.

'Sweetling, I thought you'd be home earlier,' he said, removing his dragon hide gloves and walking over to give her a peck on the cheek and a tight hug. 'I did a fair bit more testing on the samples St. Mungo's and the Ministry gave over to us, and we've had only positive results.'

Her annoyance seemed to melt away the moment his arms wound around her. 'That is wonderful news,' she said, resting her head against his shoulder.

'Were your students really that horrible today, or was the Dean of the college trying to pester you again?' he asked, leading her over to the workbench and guiding her to sit on a stool.

'Neither, actually,' she answered with a heavy sigh. 'I did not see the Dean today, and it looks as though all of my first-year class will be passing this semester at the very least – there might even be a few distinctions.'

'What had you in such a foul mood when you arrived home?'

'One of my colleagues – he teaches the second and third year classes,' she answered. 'You might know him. He's an arrogant, nosey git by the name of William Mason. He's a tall chap with brown hair and the most obscenely enormous moustache known to man.'

'I recall meeting him at a convention once – probably even the one we attended last year,' he said, frowning in thought. He found it hard to believe he couldn't remember such a remarkable-sounding growth of facial hair.

'It doesn't matter now, anyway,' she said, closing her eyes and pinching the bridge of her nose. 'He was just pestering me about our work, trying to get gossip to sell to the Daily Prophet, no doubt. He seems rather jealous of our success.'

'And so he should be,' Snape said, leaning in to kiss his wife soundly on the lips. 'We are quite remarkable, aren't we?'

She giggled at that and smiled for the first time since arriving home that afternoon. 'You sweet talker,' she teased. 'I was working on a list during class today. We have a fair bit of paperwork to start filling out for this potion. And I was thinking instead of charging for distribution, we should apply for Ministry and external funding for the potion, and start a rehabilitation project to help magical folk affected by the mutation to re-enter wizarding society.'

'Do you ever let your mind take a break?' he asked, astounded that she had come up with so much in the few hours she was in London.

'That can wait until I am old and no longer have a use for it,' she replied. 'I want to take advantage of it while I am still young enough to remember what I had for breakfast.'

'Ambition is going to be the end of us, I swear it,' Snape said with a smile. 'When all of this business with the Lycanthropy cure is wrapped-up, what say we go on a little holiday during the summer?'

He could see the cogs turning in her head as she considered his proposal carefully. 'Oh, alright,' she replied. 'We could use a holiday after this.'

Snape smiled, and the two of them set to work drafting a list for their next steps on the road to their potion's completion.

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To be continued.