Trial and Error

The Potterverse is not mine.....*sigh*

Oh yeah, competition is coming soon....

I am going to try my hardest to write the next chapter. I have to juggle everything with work and school, but I promise I\'ll write the next chapter before Thanksgiving. Or maybe a day or two after. ;-) Thank you to everyone who is reviewing!!! Keep \'em up, it really helps me when I am writing!!
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Severus woke up a few hours later with a tight feeling in cheschest. \'IN?\' He raised a hand over his heart and felt the warm skin of someone\'s arm there. \'Ah, ON, not in...\' He turned over and came face to face with a sleeping Hermione. Severus groaned inwardly. \'Stupid girl. Stupid, stupid girl! Why did you have to stop me? Voldemort is suspicious of me now and if I make one more mistake, he\'ll kill me AND the girl..assuming I let slip that she is helping me...\'

His thoughts were interrupted when Hermione sighed in her sleep and scooted closer to him. He tensed up as he had when she approached him that afternoon, but relaxed again when he saw that she wasn\'t going to wake up. He face was tilted up and her lips were arched in a gentle half-smile. Several strands of hair were obscuring her eyes and Severus found himself reaching over and brushing them back with his thumb. Hermione moaned softly at the touch, but didn\'t wake. Severus took a sharp breath at the moan. \'What a beautiful sound....\' He ran his fingers lightly over her chin and down to her neck. She unconsciously obliged him with the noises she made. \'Severus, you need to stop this right now. What you are doing to this child is beyond horrible and if she wakes up and sees your hand there, there will be hell to pa--oh shit.\'

Hermione had just woken up and judging by the look on her face, she was well aware of what Severus was doing to her neck. Her eyes widened and she sighed deeply when he quickly drew his hand away. He was about to apologise when she found her voice.

\"Severus, please, come back.\" She reached for his hand and brought it to her mouth, kissing it gently and then tucking it under her chin in the way a child holds a precious teddy bear.

Severus was beyond words and lay completely still, staring at the girl who was obviously not fully awake...was she?

\"I thought I was going to lose you today, Severus. That vile of belladonna root would have killed you instantly if you had taken it. I can\'t stand the thought of you taking your life, Severus, and I wish you didn\'t have to endure so much pain by being alive.\" She closed her eyes and a tear was squeezed onto her cheek. Severus watched as it made a silvery trail down her face and dripped onto his hand. He knew he had to say something. She was opening herself to him, it was the least he could do in return.

\"Miss....Hermione...I...thank you, for saving my life today. I was distressed and was not thinking clearly.\"

Hermione smiled slightly at him. \"I noticed, Professor.\"

He sneered back. It was one thing to thank the girl. He would NOT be reduced to teasing and putting up with HER sarcasm.

\"Well, Granger, as you can see, I am perfectly fine. Now if you wouldn\'t mind leaving me for a bit so I can prepare to work on the potions.\" It was not a request and he enforced that fact by pulling the covers off of her and exposing her to the cool night air of his bedchambers.

Hermione shivered and quickly cast warming and freshening spells on herself after getting off of the bed.

\"I will prepare the mistletoe for our next trial potion. Is there a different silver sickle than the one you were using earlier, Professor?\"

Severus looked at her in wonderment. Any other dunderhead would have gone ahead and used the one with his blood on it. Leave it to Hermione to know that the sickle is now useless for the potion.

\"In the cupboard by the spare cauldrons. Use the one with the ebony handle.\"

Hermione nodded and left the room, the belladonna vial tucked safely in her pocket.

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A few hours later, Severus and Hermione were working feverishly on the trial potion. This batch had a distinct blue colour to it and Hermione tried hard not to get her hopes up, because before, the potion had been more green and purple.

\"Blue, Severus! It\'s blue!! It\'s going to work this time, isn\'t it!?\" she asked for the third time.

\"Hermione, please stop acting like a first year. It is giving me a headache. Yes, it is blue, and yes that is the colour it is supposed to be, but there is no way of knowing if it will work without a werewolf to test it on. Hand me the belladonna.\"

Hermione hesitated. She knew it was needed for the potion, but she would feel safer if SHE was the one who put it in the potion. She voiced her thoughts to Severus who groaned loudly.

\"I am perfectly capable of adding the correct amount, Granger, and I am not presently in any danger of myself. Now hand me the vial!\"

Hermione knew better than to get him more angry by refusing, so she slowly reached into her pockets and extracted the vial. She glared at him as she held it out to him. He snatched it and poured the required amount into the swirling potion. Hermione was about to leave to check on the wolfsbane potion when a hand on her shoulder stopped her. She turned and looked into Severus\' eyes. They were filled with an unexplained emotion. He thrust the half-empty vial into her hand.

\"I think you had better hold onto this,\" he said quietly, before turning back to the potion.

Hermione smiled sadly at his back and went to finish bottling up the potions they were going to send to the werewolves.
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Dear Albus,

All is not well, as I\'m sure Severus has told you. The Rockwells are dead. I knew they would be, but the confirmation came when two letters came to the children, telling them that I would be there guardian from now on. I don\'t know what to do, Albus. I love the children dearly, but have no idea how to be a father nor do I have time to keep a constant eye on them. It is with desperation that I ask for your help. I need a place to keep them where they will be safe while I continue my travels. Now that Voldemort is aware of my presence in North America, it will be greatly difficult for me to make contacts without alerting him to my whereabouts. I do not want to risk the lives of Bernadette and Aiden. I will bring them to the school in two days if I have your permission. They are grieving horribly right now and only when they got the letters did they stop blaming me for letting their parents get killed.

I am anxious for your reply and I hope all is well with you, Severus and Miss Granger.

-R. Lupin

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Albus rolled the scroll back up and wiped away the tear that had forced its way out of his eye. He summoned a clean roll of parchment and wrote a short reply.

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Remus,

You and the children are more than welcome here. I will be expecting you as soon as you can get here.

-Albus

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He gave the letter to Fawkes and said, \"Find Remus.\" There was a flash of sparks and Fawkes was gone. Albus lay back in his chair with his eyes closed; there were so many things on his mind. He was worried for Remus and the kids, he was worried for Severus and Hermione and most of all, he was worried for the entire wizarding and muggle worlds...what would happen to them all if Voldemort won the war? He opened his eyes again. The room was darker than usual; the candles had been burning low and he told the house elves not to bother fixing them yet. He didn\'t mind the gloomy atmosphere every once in a while. It helped him think more rationally than the bright, cheery lighting that regularly graced his office.

After a few more minutes of silence, he got up and headed down the spiraling staircase and to the dungeons. When he reached the door of the lab, he knocked twice before opening the door.

Severus was pouring over a caldron with his eyebrows knitted together in concentration. Hermione was sealing a flask with a cork stopper and a keeping spell. He stood watching for a moment until Hermione finished and put the glass with the others waiting to be sent. Albus coughed lightly to let her know he was there. She looked up and nodded.

\"Hello Professor Dumbledore.\"

\"Hermione, you needn\'t call me \'Professor\' when there are no other students around. Remus is coming with the children sometime in the next few days. I am going to ask you again for your help. Can you take care of the children?\"
Albus looked at her with raised eyebrows, as though he was afraid she would say \'no\'.

\"Of course I will, Pro--Albus,\" she said, the name \'Albus\' strange on her tongue.

He smiled at her.

\"I knew we could depend on you. If you would pass the news to Severus, I\'d be much obliged. I don\'t want to interrupt him right now.\" He inclined his head towards a busy Potions Master.

Hermione nodded again and went back to her caldron. Albus left without another word and she continued bottling up the potion.
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The next afternoon, after the potion had been sent to the werewolves, Hermione and Severus were both standing over the caldron with the trial potion in it.

\"Severus, maybe we should lower the temperature a bit. I\'m ad thd the potion will get too hot and our efforts will have been wasted.\"

Severus bristled for a moment, then relaxed. He was really going to have to get used to her giving ideas on their project. He grunted quietly before pulling out his wand to lower he flames beneath the caldron.

He still hadn\'t fully recovered from being told that the kids would be staying here. He wanted to push the whole Rockwell situation out of his mind...now it would be staring up at him from four accusing eyes and he wasn\'t sure he\'s be able to handle it. Thankfully, Hermione had agreed to keep them in her chambers (to which Albus had added an extra room) for most of the time.

Severus and Hermione worked in silence for another hour and at last finished the potion. All they could do now was let it simmer and then test it on a werewolf. They both collapsed onto over-stuffed chairs that Albus had insisted be brought down there.

Hermione took a deep breath and her eyes threatened to close of their own accord. They had been up for half the night before working on the potion, and now they could relax, if only for a short while.

Hermione started to doze off but was woken abruptly by Severus who was shaking her arm.

\"Hermione, get up. I believe Remus and the children are here,\" he said in a dead-pan voice before standing up and all but running to his chambers.

Hermione could now hear the knocking on the door. She stood up, smoothed her robes and hair, walked to the door, and opened it.

Remus almost fell inside and she had to put a hand on his chest to steady him.

\"Remus! Are you okay? You look awful! Where are the kids?\"

Remus did look awful. His robes were more tattered than usual, the circles under his eyes were more pronounced, and the nearing fullmoon gave him an overall unhealthy appearance.

\"I am fine, Hermione. The kids are coming. They are around the corner and wanted to make sure all was safe before coming out.\" At Hermione\'s confused look, he said, \"they are afraid of Severus. They think he killed their parents on purpose and nothing I say wilay tay them.\"

Hermione gasped very quietly. There had to be some way she could make them not blame Severus and realise that he had saved a lot of lives. She had her work cut out for her, there was no doubt about that.

As if on cue, the two children came out from behind the wall and walked cautiously up to Remus. They, too looked weak and worn and Hermione had to keep from sobbing at the sight of them.

When they got up to Remus, the girl grabbed onto his arm.

\"Uncle Remuth, ith that Hermy owny?\"

\"Yes, Bernadette, Aiden, this is Hermione. Hermione, Bernadette and Aiden.\"

The children shook Hermione\'s hand and tried to smile at her, but the loss of the parent\'s was still fresh on their minds, so all they managed was a trembling upturn of their lips. Hermione thought they were the best smiles she had ever seen in her life and her eyes filled suddenly with tears. She bent down and scooped the kids up to her chest and kissed their head. Remus remained standing, but tears were glistening in his eyes, too.

Inside the room, someone else was trying hard to keep control of his emotions as he watched the tearful greeting in the doorway to the lab.

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I am SOOOOOO sorry I took so long to review!!!! I will not give excuses. I should have stopped work and school to write my story but I didn\'t. I am bad. ::smacks self::

Okay, I will not write personal thanks to everyone until after I post or after next chapter. I don\'t want to delay this any longer! And I apologise for all the mistakes. Like I said, I don\'t want to delay any more.

:::hugs:::
-Gwen