Chapter 31

Chapter 31

"The addendum has been revoked until the plague is no longer a threat. The Wizengamot and the Ministry advise that any voluntary attempts to have children are put off until then, too, for obvious reasons.

"While I do understand your anger and feel your suffering...my utmost condolences to you all...I am sickened by the attempts I witnessed to murder two innocent people: Severus Snape and Hermione Granger. Both are worth a thousand of the cowards in this crowd who cast the metaphorical stones. Shame on you.

"Without Severus Snape, there would be no cure. He did not create it alone, but it would not have been found without him. And with no cure, there would be no witches. He is not the guilty party here; he did not create the plague, in all likelihood Voldemort did. That the cure 'failed' is also not Severus Snape's fault: the plague mutated.

"You, with the quill ... your masters at the Daily Prophet owe them both an unreserved apology for the omissions in this morning's paper that almost resulted in murder. The same could be said to be owed to the Ministry and the Wizengamot for inciting a riot, but in the circumstances I am more inclined to forgive and forget."

"Forgive and forget. An interesting choice of phrase," Lucius mused, raising his gaze from the newspaper in his hands to where Hermione sat opposite him. "Good of Shacklebolt to defend Severus, but I fear it will remind people of his shady past."

"Because they'll think he'll only help them if there's something in it for him? Even when Kingsley gave the explicit reason why he might be reluctant?"

"Indeed." Lucius smiled thinly. "Attempting to murder you. Which, incidentally, you neglected to mention. In fact, you neglected to mention it so well that you led me to believe that you hadn't set foot in the Ministry and had instead been contacted by Severus."

Hermione shrugged. As if it was nothing. "I didn't want to worry you. Wouldn't want that pretty hair of yours to fall out, would we?"

Lucius narrowed his eyes at her. Hair loss was a forbidden topic under his roof, and while she hadn't actually lied to him as such, her omission was nearly as bad.

"I didn't know about the riot when I went to the Ministry, although that doesn't really count for much because I would have gone even if I had known. Especially if I had."

'Gryffindor!' Yet Lucius could not stay angry with her. Not when he'd actually been on the point of going with Draco to Severus's rescue just as Hermione had returned with the news that all was well. Relieved, Draco left to watch over his wife.

As for Hermione trying to keep things secret from him ... well, for him to hold a grudge about that would be quite the double standard, considering his Pensieve porn. Not that he was about to come clean there, as it would be nothing less than suicide. He let it slide and returned his attention to the newspaper.

"I hope you'll be pleased to hear that the Prophet has done as Shacklebolt directed and printed an apology. And not hidden away, either." He turned the page, both to read on and to show her the apologetic babble under the transcript of the Minister's speech.

His eyes narrowed as the subheading of the article taking up most of the second page caught his attention: Muggle-borns Murdered! His fingers tightened on the paper with each sentence he read until the paper threatened to tear. Lucius forced his hands to relax and smoothed the paper.

"Another thing you neglected to mention?" His voice frigid, he handed the Prophet to Hermione. He couldn't really blame her for keeping it from him, though. Not when his opinions on Mudb...Muggle-borns until recently were well known.

"Amazing. I thought the Wizengamot might have tried to keep that quiet. Then again, they do have the guilty parties to push all of the blame onto and so can be seen to be doing their jobs for once," she spat bitterly and passed the paper back to him. "What it doesn't mention is that I'm the one who discovered that. You know I went to visit my parents this morning? Well, they had some information for me. Muggles have noticed higher infant mortality, and the fact that it's mostly girls made my parents think ..."

"That it was the plague's doing."

Hermione nodded. "I went to Hogwarts and got Slughorn to show me the book of names. What we saw ..." She sniffed, her eyes welling with tears. Lucius patted her hand and discreetly offered her his spare hanky. She wiped her eyes and blew her nose with a honk that had his lips twitching. To his relief, she did not offer it back.

"I know I have not always ... favoured Muggle-borns, but even in my days as the Dark Lord's pet, I would not have wished that fate on them. Especially not on children." He curled his lip. "Umbridge, on the other hand ... I do wonder why the likes of her survive while good witches die."

She frowned. "Come to that, why was she around to handle the distribution? Surely the plague should have had her insensate in St Mungo's too."

Lucius cleared his throat. "Rumour has it that she's a he. I certainly never knew a Dolores Umbridge at Hogwarts, but I did know a Brennan Umbridge. Funnily enough, he was an only child."

"I suppose that might explain a lot about Umbridge. All the pink, the sickening taste in decorations ... she... er, he, was overcompensating." Hermione shuddered. "But still more than I ever wanted to know."

He took pity on her and changed the subject. "Indeed, but there is some good news at least. The culprits have been arrested, and even those as wealthy as me could not buy their way out of that shitload of trouble. And you've got what you wanted: the addendum has been retracted!"

Hermione didn't smile. "I was there when they did it. Believe me, it's no victory. Not this way." She lurched to her feet and began to pace up and down. "We need an alternative solution to the addendum when it comes back. And there's nothing!"

The hairs on the back of his neck standing on end, Lucius readied himself to cast Shielding charms. While he'd tinkered with the wards so that his home and its contents could no longer be damaged by Hermione's temper, he still could be.

But the explosion of wandless magic did not come. Hermione's shoulders slumped. "Except there's no need for a solution until the plague is cured. Without that, there is no solution because no witches can be born."

"I'm sure Severus will..." Lucius stifled a surprised yelp as a silver creature burst through the wall and came to a sudden halt in front of Hermione. A Patronus. He frowned, trying to recall whether he knew of anyone with a pig as a guardian form.

"Ms Granger." Slughorn's voice emerged from the pig's throat rather than an oink. "Please come to Hogwarts. It's worse than we thought."

Hermione dragged a hand over her face. "What now?" she half-sobbed. "How can it get any worse?"

Lucius was lost for words. He stood and hesitantly walked over to her. Conscious that a comforting hug might get him in serious trouble with Severus, and possibly with Hermione herself if it was misconstrued, he awkwardly patted her shoulder.

She visibly pulled herself together, straightening her shoulders. "I'd better go." Hermione paused and patted her pocket. "Via Ollivander's. Severus will have my head if I go anywhere else without a wand."

Lucius blinked. If he remembered rightly, she'd been using Bellatrix's old wand ever since she'd appropriated it from the raving bitch. Where was it now?

"The rioters disarmed me." Presumably just before they tried to kill her ... Noticing Lucius's scowl, she hastily continued, "It gives me an excuse to get a new wand, so no harm done."

"I'll accompany you to Diagon Alley. Now. No argument, please, you do have enemies."

"Fine." Hermione sighed. "I suppose you'd sic Severus on me otherwise."

"Indeed." Lucius offered his arm. "Shall we?"

* * *

Hermione's new wand (yew and dragon heartstring) in her pocket, she Flooed directly to the Headmaster's office from Ollivander's. Lucius hurriedly thanked Ollivander before Flooing to his own fireplace. After the wandmaker's time as the Dark Lord's captive in his home, Lucius didn't feel comfortable in his presence, despite feeling as much a prisoner during that time.

While he waited for Hermione to return, Lucius visited his aviary. It was something he'd always liked to do when feeling out of sorts, and something he'd sorely missed during the Dark Lord's invasion. After all, if he'd inadvertently attracted the bastard's attention to it, his poor birds would have ended up on the dinner table at best and in Nagini's stomach at worst.

It seemed like mere minutes later that he felt Hermione's arrival in the library through the wards. He stroked his Snidget goodbye and Apparated to Hermione's side.

She stumbled back in surprise, one hand over her heart. "I hate it when you do that!"

He bowed. "My pleasure. What did you learn?"

Hermione shook her head, tight-lipped. "I can't tell you."

"I see. Too sensitive to share with the likes of me?" Lucius pouted. "I thought you trusted me."

She had the cheek to roll her eyes at him. "Honestly! I didn't ask you for an Unbreakable Vow after Tricksy poisoned me, did I? No, I trusted your word. I can't tell you yet, which I was about to say when you opened your mouth and inserted foot."

"Oh." Lucius felt his cheeks burn. "Why not yet?"

"Because it's really not something I want to repeat, so I'd rather wait until Severus can hear it too."

"But he won't be back for hours! I saw the note he left you, and it said he wouldn't be back until you were in bed."

Hermione shrugged. "I need a distraction. For longer, the better." She wandered over to the nearest shelf and selected a book.

"Humph." Lucius went back to his birds, Disapparating with an intentionally loud crack.

* * *

Severus returned earlier than his note had estimated, while Lucius and Hermione were eating dinner. A house-elf brought another heaped plate for Severus, which he picked at.

Impatient to hear Hermione's news, Lucius was about to prompt her when Severus threw down his fork.

"Fools," he spat. "The international research team now has no Arithmancers at all. The idiots got themselves killed and nearly finished off the rest of us too."

Come to think of it, Severus did look a bit haggard, his eyes bloodshot. Both were signs of magical exhaustion but easily mistaken for common or garden tiredness.

"They tried to combine the magic of the whole team in order to solve the equation which would reveal how the plague will mutate. The fallout ... it was a Master level spell! Of course it would kill those not skilled enough. One of the Arithmancers realised when it went wrong and released the rest of us, which meant we only suffered nosebleeds while they ..." He looked away.

Lucius frowned. "Wasn't there a Master Arithmancer among the team? I thought they were meant to be experts."

"You didn't do Arithmancy at Hogwarts," Hermione stated. Quite how she knew that from his perfectly reasonable question was beyond Lucius. "All Arithmancy Masters are actually Mistresses. For some reason no wizard is skilled enough – it's a witch speciality." At Lucius's affronted expression she continued, "Oh, wizards are good enough to pass up to NEWT level, even to get Outstanding, but they allow for gender handicap up to that point. It's just like Potions is a wizard speciality, it's nothing against the other gender that they cannot reach Mastery. Magic balances things out in other areas."

"But why doesn't the team have any..." Lucius came to a sickened halt as the truth occurred to him. "The Arithmancy Mistresses all died."

Hermione nodded reluctantly and turned to Severus. "What I don't understand is why the Arithmancers on your team didn't use Vector's test."

"Vector's what?"

"Something Professor Vector invented to test if an equation was too dangerous to perform." Her eyes widened. "Oh. Of course ... she had to do it for the boys. I think it's a 'witches only' thing. But why didn't the team get someone who could do it?"

"There are still no witches on the team because it needs to be able to operate when the plague is active. Quite why we shouldn't have witches to help until that happens is beyond me." Severus stabbed his fork into his dinner.

"We do need to know how the plague will mutate, and how long it will take before it's active again." Hermione hesitated, eyeing Severus. "I could try..."

"No. I will not risk you."

"But..."

"Please. Don't."

Hermione mercifully dropped it before Lucius had to witness Severus beg any more. Did the man have no shame? It had been a year of marital bliss before Lucius fell to such lows with Narcissa.

Lucius cleared his throat, uncomfortable with the tension between them. True, he wouldn't mind witnessing the inevitable shagging, but these raw emotions were another matter. "I think one of my ancestors was a famous Arithmancer. There's a portrait of her somewhere: I will ask her if she can help." He made to escape on that pretext.

Hermione called him back. "Wait. I should tell you what Slughorn called me back to Hogwarts about."

To Lucius's relief, the tense atmosphere faded slightly with her words.

"Slughorn did what he said he would and looked through the book in more detail. He knew how to make it show year by year intake." She turned away, hugging herself.

Severus moved to stand behind her, his hands resting on her shoulders. One of Hermione's hands moved to grip his, forcefully reminding Lucius of when Narcissa did the same with him.

"The intake drastically increased after the plague. But it can only be seen in the book because it's Muggle-born girls who never lived to reach Hogwarts. Looking at the numbers and comparing them to the witches that have died, whatever causes Muggle-born births is trying to balance things again," she said in a deadened monotone.

"Nature abhors a vacuum," Severus murmured.

Hermione nodded. What Lucius could see of her face was wet with tears.

"But this is good news, isn't it?" Lucius stepped close enough to offer her another hanky. She refused it, extracting the one he'd given her earlier from a pocket. "When the plague is cured, this will be the solution you've been searching for..." It was a strain to sound happy at the prospect of the wizarding world overrun by Mud...Muggle-borns. But for Hermione, he'd try.

"It's not good news yet," Severus snarled, glaring at Lucius. "Not when I must concentrate my efforts on adapting the cure. Not when it's entirely possible the plague has mutated independently with Muggle-borns who never had the now obsolete cure. Not when even in the event that the plague is gone forever, the pure-blood supremacists would rather kill the influx of Muggle-borns than have their world 'taken over' by the invaders."

"True," Lucius admitted. "Not too long ago, I would have been one of those misguided fools. One thing for sure, it will do no good to keep this information a secret. Not when Slughorn knows. At the very least, we must tell Shacklebolt, and it would be an idea to let the general public know, too. So that they can grow accustomed to the idea, so that we can put the best possible spin on this. Perhaps my former brethren will rethink their positions if I personally champion this." He winced. Generations of his forefathers must be rolling in the family mausoleum. "And it will give me something to do while you two work on the cure."

They were both staring at him as if he'd grown another head.

"Er, thanks." Hermione managed to find her voice. "Well, that's one way to prove to everyone that you've changed."

"Indeed," Severus murmured. "Perhaps you'd like to visit Kingsley while I inform my wife how she can be of assistance to me. After all, what the team does not know about witchly assistance won't hurt it."

"My pleasure," Lucius grumbled. While it had been his idea to update the Minister, he hadn't intended to be the one to do so. That would teach him to volunteer for anything.

* * *

Hermione turned to Severus as soon as Lucius left. "I thought you didn't want to 'risk' me." As soon as she had said it, she wished she'd kept her mouth shut. Now that he'd decided he wanted her help, she didn't want him to change his mind!

"There is no risk for what I have in mind. You're at least as good as Draco when it comes to potions, and I'd much rather spend the time with you than him."

"But it's the Arithmancy that you need!"

"Not at the cost of your life," Severus snapped. "How can you ask that of me after what I saw today? They dropped dead in front of me, burnt out husks, and you would have me see you die the same way."

Hermione opened her mouth to protest but didn't have the heart to push Severus. What he didn't know wouldn't hurt him. She'd just do the Arithmancy in private. With Vector's test, there was no risk. Well, not as much as Severus thought there was, the overprotective worrier.

Severus led the way to his lab, clearly expecting her to follow. She'd have to wait to do her clandestine calculations.

The lab was in a mess, or what passed for a mess with Severus's exacting standards. Congealed potions slowly corroded cauldrons shoved out of the way to clear space for what looked like a microscope.

Severus cursed under his breath as he noticed where she was looking. A series of irritable wand flicks cleared everything away except for the microscope and some vials arrayed next to it. "I was working on the memory restorer before you fell ill. After that I had more important things to worry about."

With that obvious reasoning, even Harry and Ron wouldn't find any glee in Severus going against his own classroom or lab rules.

"Will we be brewing more of the cure?"

"No. I am to work on altering it. While there is not much anyone can do to assist me, I would much rather it be you."

The unspoken 'in case you don't survive the next bout of the plague' made for an uncomfortable silence. To be honest, Hermione would much rather spend what time she could with him as well and could hardly fault Severus for wanting the same. She only hoped she would not be a distraction.

Severus peered into the microscope and adjusted some of the knobs. "Come and look at this." He stepped back to let her in.

Under the microscope Hermione could see what looked to be red blood cells and ... what in the world?! There was something else, something alien. Hermione had never seen a cell like that in her parents' medical textbooks. It was shaped more like some sort of virus, but ghostly, as if it was some sort of illusion. Whatever it was, it moved and slowly changed in front of her morbidly fascinated eyes.

"That is a sample of your blood with the plague active in it. I took it just before I gave you the cure for the second time." He reached over to twist a knob on the microscope. "And this is another sample of your blood, taken when you first fell ill."

Ah. Her blood. Talk about facing her own mortality! Hermione suppressed a shudder and resolutely stared down the microscope. It couldn't hurt her. Severus would hardly show her otherwise.

The picture was static this time, showing the plague before it mutated. Severus flicked the image back and forth, allowing her to see the difference.

"I had hoped I could calculate how it would change from comparing the two, but ..." He showed her a slideshow modelling how the plague should have mutated, but the end result was different to how the plague currently looked in the most recent blood sample. "It seems to mutate at random, although there must be some sort of pattern in there. Otherwise how can the cure still work on all witches previously given it? That, and I learned today from my colleagues that it has mutated in the same way worldwide."

"So the plague affects the blood," Hermione mused, straightening up. "Have blood transfusions been tried? Magically replacing all of the blood, if it's not too dangerous?"

Severus nodded. "It has been tried. The plague just spread to the new blood supply, far faster than any Muggle disease could. As fast as a curse, come to think of it, since Voldemort has been implicated with the creation of the plague, which is hardly surprising given the proximity to his death and the devastating effect."

"I guess if anyone would try to wreak vengeance like a bad loser, he would." And from what Hermione had seen, if anyone had the power to do such things it was Voldemort. A powerful wizard to begin with, he'd turned inhuman after creating too many Horcruxes.

"But we cannot be certain, as it didn't strike the moment his own Killing Curse backfired on him. Not knowing the cause for sure makes it ... difficult to engineer a cure."

Hermione slipped her hand into his and squeezed it. "You did it once. You'll do it again."

Severus gently pulled away and braced his hands on the table, a bleak expression on his face. "I appreciate your faith in me, but I fear it is misplaced. In order to adapt the cure I need to know what the plague will mutate into. I do need an Arithmancer. But I will not risk you."

At least that was a start ... Severus knew deep down inside that he was wrong to stop her, so maybe he'd turn a blind eye when she conveniently found some private time. Then again, maybe not, if the set of his jaw was anything to judge by.

"But maybe we could adapt the cure to mutate as well, to the same pattern as the plague," Severus murmured. He turned to Hermione. "If you're to help me, you'll need to know the background."

He held up a vial of clear fluid. When he swirled it around, it shone with an inner light. "I had the idea of phoenix tears when you fell ill. Fawkes doesn't cry for just anyone, but he did for you."

"So that's ..."

"Phoenix tears?" He shook his head. "When I gave you the tears, nothing happened. Fawkes provided some more after the discovery that the plague affected the blood. Normally topically applied phoenix tears will cure anything except a few curses: the instantly fatal ones.

"I intravenously applied the tears. Again, nothing happened. Or rather, nothing appeared to. Blood tests proved that they did work against the plague. The reason the tears 'failed' is that they were absorbed too quickly, something unheard of."

Severus put the vial down and began to fiddle with his magical microscope again. "Some Healers at St Mungo's tried to get me to have Fawkes cry enough tears so that the entire circulatory system would be cleansed of the disease. I vetoed that. I think you can guess why."

Because there was a limit to how much poor Fawkes could cry, and even a miracle cure like phoenix tears had to be dangerous in too large a dose. Hermione said as much.

"Indeed. Injecting too much of a foreign liquid, even a beneficial one, would kill you. By the time it was absorbed it would dilute your blood too much." He tenderly cupped her cheek. "I was not about to lose you to a cure worse than the disease.

"So phoenix tears were not an option. Thanks to Fawkes we knew what we needed, something that could do what the tears did but wouldn't be absorbed so quickly."

He flicked the vial containing the cure, resulting in a musical ring. "As such, the cure is effectively artificial phoenix tears, although it only works against the plague. Until now. By the time it was ready for testing, you had coughed up blood, even in the induced coma." Severus's lips pressed into a firm line, his eyes haunted.

"I insisted that you were among the test subjects. Risky, yes, but I ... you had no time to lose."

Hermione stepped closer to wrap her arms around his chest, tucking her head under his chin. "I take it coughing up blood is a particularly bad sign with this plague?" She pulled away slightly in order to speak without mumbling.

"It happens forty-eight hours before death. As the cure also takes time to work, by the time it had been administered and fought through your system ... put it this way, I prefer not to think of it."

She swallowed hard. "The Muggle-born babies are dying within forty-eight hours."

Severus's arms tightened around her briefly, before he stepped away, his brow furrowed in thought. "And the early symptoms of the plague were accelerated with you with this second attack. There might be a slight silver lining to this ... the plague is clearly more advanced with no influence of the cure. I would need blood samples to be sure, but perhaps it is a way to predict how the plague within you is mutating."

"Can't you just take another sample from me?"

"Once the cure has been applied, the plague is not visible. I would not be able to see it, although I am sure it is still mutating."

There was a fragile hope in Severus's eyes. Hermione prayed to whatever deity would listen that hope was not crushed by whatever he found out in the days to come. For both, no, for all of their sakes.

* * *

AN: Many thanks to Kribu, Septentrion and JunoMagic for betaing.

Sorry for the longer than intended delay in updating. Real life is rather demanding and will remain so until I finish uni. Please be patient, I will do my best to update when I can.