Love Bites (REPOST)

Chapter 19 ~ Hermione Hits the Streets

Hermione departed her rooms very early the next morning, before the Potions Master arose. True, she wanted to avoid him, embarrassed about what had happened in her shower the night before, but she also had special supplies she needed to order in Diagon Alley. After agonizing over her immorality at enjoying the wizard diddling in her twiddle, Hermione got down to some serious thinking about Severus' situation.

She wasn't sure if she could find a magical cure for Severus, and decided it would be best to work on some preventative protections to keep him from being claimed by the Queen too easily should he go to her before Hermione found an answer. He would not turn until he had sex with her. If Vashti couldn't touch him, she couldn't turn him.

Adam had given her a very good idea for a protective spell, one she could easily adapt from a preexisting one. She also had some ideas for protecting herself from vampires. Some very ingenious spell ideas that would be quite simple to cast and yet be effective slowing the creatures down.

She also had an idea or two about a spell that might actually kill the Queen herself.

As she walked through Diagon Alley, Hermione felt a real sense of excitement and adventure ahead. Something she hadn't felt in years. There was challenge in her life now, on many levels. Not only did she plan to do some Spellmaking, she was going to do some brewing too. The infirmary lab was large enough to serve as a medical lab, Spellmaking lab and Potions lab. Her degrees were going to be something more than wall decorations.

Since Hermione was not hired for Spellmaking or Potions brewing at Hogwarts, she would have to purchase her supplies out of her own money. But she had plenty of it. She rarely spent any money she had acquired through grants, awards and fellowships she had received over the years, and placed those funds in the hands of very shrewd Gringotts' goblin investors, and they had turned it over quickly, reinvesting constantly and depositing her dividends in her account. She was quite well off. Plus Harry had left her a large sum of money in his will. Bless him. Dear sweet Harry.

The witch turned into the apocathery shop, and looked at the potions ingredients with all the enthusiasm of a child with a pocketful of galleons in a sweet shop. She pulled out her list and started shopping.

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Severus awoke with an enormous hard-on and his thoughts immediately turned to Hermione. He smirked and rolled out of bed. It was time to give her the morning show. He slipped on his boxers, strode out of his room, ready to pound on her door and wake her to use the loo. His greatly tented underwear would be sure to get a heated little rise out of her. The wizard found the bedroom door was open.

Scowling he walked into the room and found her bed neatly made. The witch was gone. Severus used the loo, and decided to take a quick shower since it was available and he hadn't taken one last night. After a refreshing wash, he wrapped himself in a towel and exited Hermione's bedroom.

He ran right into Adam.

The stout wizard had figured out the sequence of bricks to press to enter their quarters, much to his delight. He was actually snooping around, but quickly pretended to be looking at the tomes in the bookshelves when he heard the shower cut off.

Adam turned to see Severus with the towel wrapped low around his hips. The wizard smiled prettily at the Potions Master, who furrowed his brow.

"What are you doing in here, Adam?" he asked him, hoisting his towel up a bit.

"Just perusing the medical library, Professor," the effeminate wizard replied brightly, his glasses catching the torchlight, "among other things."

Severus looked at him.

"Adam, these books are centuries old, and most of the treatments in them are ancient," Severus replied. "Nothing in them could be remotely helpful to you."

"Can I help it if I'm a history buff?" Adam retorted, "and if I might say Professor, you are looking very buff this morning."

Adam's eyes rested directly on the Potions Master's loins when he said this. Severus stifled a shudder.

"Where is Dr. Granger?" he demanded of the wizard, who flicked his blue eyes to the Professor's face.

"Ah, she had some items to pick up in Diagon Alley and decided to get an early start, though I have to say she flew out of here like a banshee. I wonder why?" Adam said. "Nothing you could have done, Professor?"

Severus' eyes swept over Adam with distaste.

"You are a nosy little fruit, aren't you?" he commented, heading for his bedroom.

Adam watched him stalk away appreciatively, his eyes resting on his scarred, muscular back.

"A fruit ripe for the picking, Professor," he called to the wizard suggestively. Adam knew he was wasting his time, but he just couldn't help it.

Severus muttered an obscenity under his breath as he stalked into his bedroom.

"What a wizard," Adam breathed as Severus slammed the door behind him.

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The infirmary had several students in it. Some type of virus was going around and Adam had treated each student and kept him or her for observation. So Severus was confined to the rooms. He ordered his customary rare steaks for breakfast, and had a glass of wine to wash them down with, then he opened the room entrance to Hermione's medical lab and roamed about in there for a while, looking at all her muggle medical instruments.

Severus looked at her microscope with interest, studying it, running his pale fingers over the cold metal. Then the wizard placed his eye against the eyepiece and looked down on a sample of some sort. It looked like a mass of small black globes with pulsing red centers. He then looked at the slide itself. He could see nothing there but a very tiny, tiny dot. So she studied things like this? Hm.

Severus looked around the lab. Hermione only utilized a small part of the space. Several labs could be set up here. Maybe even a potions lab. Yes, he would ask her about it, then ask her to help him create the Restoration Elixir. He knew if he could trust anyone not to steal the flower, it was Hermione. She was too honest, too dedicated and too curious. The opportunity to brew one of the most valuable and difficult potions in the known wizarding world would be too alluring for the witch to pass up. She would gladly help him.

He examined a shelved closet. It was large and would make an excellent potions store. Yes, he was sure he could convince the witch to set up a Potions lab, even if he had to seduce it out of her. His mind went back to the shower last night, how the witch had responded to him, that beautiful, little body writhing under his hand, the sound of her voice…the hunger that remained in her eyes after he had brought her to orgasm.

Gods, he wanted to fuck her.

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Hermione walked up to the clerk sitting on a stool behind the counter. He was a young wizard, black-haired and blue-eyed, with a long, thin face. He was writing in a ledger.

"Excuse me," Hermione said politely.

The wizard looked up and smiled at her. He closed the ledger.

"How may I help you, Madame?" he asked her.

Hermione handed him the list. The wizard looked at it and whistled.

"You need all this?" he asked her, "You must be stocking a stores."

"That's correct," she said.

The wizard perused the list thoughtfully, his eyes blinking rapidly as he did so.

"You're in luck," he said, "We just got a delivery yesterday and have most of this items in…even the specialties. What we don't have I can order for you and have them delivered directly to you if you pay for them in advance. No handling fee."

Hermione smiled at him.

"That would be fine, Mr…" she began.

"Paul. Just call me Paul. Everyone does," he said, extending his hand over the counter to the witch. "And you are?"

"Dr. Granger," Hermione replied.

Paul looked at the witch with interest. "Doctor? Isn't that a muggle designation for a healer?" he asked the witch as he hopped off the school and walked around the counter. He was quite tall and thin.

"Yes, well it is my preferred title. But I am also a Healer as well as a Potions and Spells Mistress," she said as Paul grabbed a little cart and began to gather her items for her.

"That's certainly a lot of sheepskin, Dr. Granger," he said, smiling at her. "How'd you manage it? You barely look to be past your twenties. You must have doubled up and taken lots of pepper-up potions. I'm studying for just a Potions Degree and I'm fried almost every night. I need a whole weekend to recharge, get out for a bit."

Paul picked up a huge dragon's claw and tested it for flexibility. He frowned and put it back, selecting another that bent easily. He put it in the cart.

"I cut out the 'getting out for a bit' part," Hermione replied.

Paul looked at her.

"Dr. Granger, getting out a bit while you're in university is the only thing that keeps your soul intact. You can really lose yourself studying too much. There's a lot more to living than that," he said kindly.

"Yes, Paul. I found that out after I went through it. I'm only now starting to use all my degrees," she replied.

"Well, bully for you, doctor. I hope you can reclaim all those study-filled days a bit," he said, reaching high for some boomslang skins.

"I'm going to try, Paul," she said, smiling at the clerk. He was a right friendly fellow. Then she remembered what else she wanted to ask him.

"Paul, is the apocathery in? I need to speak to him about a rather clandestine matter of importance," she said.

Paul stopped collecting ingredients.

"Let me go check for you," he said, walking back down the aisle, dipping behind the desk and walking through a closed door.

He was gone several minutes, then returned.

"Yes, Dr. Granger, he will see you," Paul said, looking at her soberly, "but he is quite ancient. No one knows how he hangs on so long…some believe he has a philosopher's stone, though he denies it. His name is Master Toorahloo."

"Toorahloo?" Hermione asked.

"Yes, his father was a muggle. Irishman. Something about him being drunk in a pub, singing an old ballad about a jug of punch when the news came his wife had a baby boy and needed a name…"

"I see," Hermione said, smirking.

Paul smirked back at her, then gestured.

"Right this way, doctor," he said, showing her to the door.

"Go right in," he said.

Hermione walked into the room and immediately passed through an absolutely hideous curtain of what appeared to be dried lizards hung by their tails. She fought back an exclamation of disgust as they swung all around her, one catching in her ponytail. She yanked her hair loose and found herself in a rather small room that smelled of cabbage. A large caldron boiled in the center of it, set upon a magical fire of stones and wood. The walls were covered with all types of skulls, mostly horned. A rather humanish head with long fangs caught her eye immediately. Seated before the boiling cauldron appeared to be a pile of rags. It moved slightly.

"Take a seat, doctor," a surprisingly young sounding voice said from within the rags.

Hermione looked around and saw a rickety chair, tied together with ropes. Gingerly she pulled it toward the cauldron, sat down and peered at the rags.

"Master Toorahloo?" she asked.

Suddenly two claw like hands reached out from the rags and pulled down what was actually a hood. Two bright brown eyes stared out at her from the oldest, most wrinkled face she had ever seen. A long white mustache hung down from beneath the apocathery's nose and a scraggly white beard hung from the ancient chin. His scalp could be seen clearly beneath the strands of white hair on his head. The old wizard looked at her, and gave her a smile. She expected him to have broken teeth, but they were white and strong in his old head.

"My, you are pretty," the apocathery said, his brown eyes raking over her.

"Thank you, sir," Hermione replied.

"No, thank you, doctor. These old eyes haven't seen a thing of such beauty in years. I get mostly hags and crones as visitors. Hags and crones. Now how can I help a pretty witch such as yourself?"

Hermione hesitated. Master Toorahloo looked at her for a moment, then nodded.

"You need not worry. I am under a standing wizard's oath not to reveal anything said to me within this room," he said benignly.

Hermione relaxed.

"I need an anti-lust elixir that I won't build up a tolerance against," she said to the wizard.

The Master's bushy white eyebrows rose.

"I see. Is the lust generated by a spell?" he asked.

"I don't know if you would call it a spell, sir. I am in close proximity to a patient I am attempting to treat, and he is turning," she said.

"Vashti," the old man hissed.

Hermione's eyebrows rose.

"Vashti? You know about her? The Queen of the vampires?" Hermione asked him incredulous.

"Oh, I know about her all right. I tried to tell the Ministry eight years ago that the vampires weren't dead, but they didn't believe me. No one wants to believe an old man," Master Toorahloo said bitterly. "Vashti believes in self-preservation. She would never sacrifice all her minions for the Dark Lord. She is very old and very shrewd."

"How do you know about her?" Hermione asked the old man.

Master Toorahloo leaned forward with a great effort, and pulled down the neck of his piles of robes. Hermione saw a purplish mark on his neck.

"She tried to turn me," he said.

Hermione blinked at the wizard.

"How did you stop the turning, if I may ask?" she asked the wizard.

"The Restorative Elixir," he responded. "It broke her hold on me and had the effect of prolonging my life, which is why everyone thinks I have a philosopher's stone hidden somewhere. I am two hundred and ten. But I was forced to hide from her afterwards. Vashti does not like to be thwarted. I opened this shop and have resided in this room for many, many years. Now, I imagine she wouldn't want me," he chuckled. "Though now I'd be more than willing to give her a go if I could."

Hermione shook her head slightly. Even at two hundred and ten, the wizard obviously thought about sex. Master Toorahloo turned his eyes toward her.

"So the wizard's aura is having an effect on you?" he asked.

"Yes, and I need to control it before…before…"

"Before he takes you, doctor?" the wizard asked, his bright eyes studying her.

"Yes. And to be able to work around him. I can't do it if I am lusting after him," she said.

"You do know that once he takes you, you will be able to control your lust for him," the old wizard said. "That is better than any potion would be."

"No, I wasn't aware of that," she said.

"And are you aware that if you become his lover, you can slow his turning?" the Master asked, his eyes glinting at her now. "You won't be able to stop him seeking out the Queen unless he falls in love with you, but you can slow the process significantly for several weeks. And if he falls in love with you, you will become a target for death. Without you he will turn back to her."

"I don't want to be his lover," the witch said.

Master Toorahloo stared at her, his bright eyes glistening in the firelight.

"That is not true," he said shortly. "I can sense his signature on you…beyond the aura he exhibits. You long for him, but you are afraid. Why are you afraid? He is only a man. He will not harm you."

Hermione turned bright red at the wizard's firm declaration.

"Because…because I've never…" she began.

The old wizard gave her a gentle smile.

"Ah. A rare flower among witches your age," the wizard said kindly. "and quite fortuitous. If he takes you, he will be bound to you stronger than another witch who has been touched. He will be your first and despite what any wizard says, taking a witch's virginity is meaningful. He never forgets it. Vashti's lure could be held off for a good amount of time if he has you."

Hermione took this in.

"Still I would like a potion," she said softly.

Master Toorahloo sat back in his chair and studied Hermione for a few moments.

He stroked his scraggly beard, then leaned forward and said, "A very wise shaman, Don Miguel Luiz once said, 'Death is not the biggest fear we have; our biggest fear is taking the risk to be alive -- the risk to be alive and express what we really are.' I think you should consider those words, Dr. Granger."

Hermione swallowed and said, "I will, Master Toorahloo."

He nodded, then said, "In the meantime, you can use the Vellum Elixir to fight magically-inspired lust. I have a few bottles here. You only need a small amount of it. But if you take it, and find that you are still attracted to the wizard, it will not be because of Vashti's curse or any lust spell. It will be an honest attraction."

Hermione took this in. She had heard of the Vellum Elixir. It was rare and powerful. She doubted she had enough galleons with her to purchase it now. She watched as the old wizard pushed himself out of the chair. Then he walked surprisingly quickly to a table behind him that held about a dozen dusty bottles. He picked up a couple, blew the dust off them and read the labels carefully. Finally he nodded, turned and walked back toward her with the bottle, extending it with his clawed hand. Hermione didn't take it.

"Um, how much is the potion, Master Toorahloo? I may have to come back for it," she said.

"No charge. You feel you need this to fight Vashti's influence, and possibly stop a turning. Besides, I have a feeling it may not work for you, doctor," the old wizard said, his brown eyes twinkling.

Hermione shook her head.

"I couldn't possibly take such a valuable potion without some form of payment, Master Toorahloo," she said.

The Master studied her somberly.

"You are a Gryffindor, are you not?" he asked her.

"Yes, how did you know," she replied, her brow furrowed.

"The exaggerated sense of fairness. I was in Ravenclaw myself," he replied.

He looked at her and his eyes began to twinkle again.

"Very well. If you insist on giving some form of compensation, how about a kiss for an old wizard?" he asked, his brows rising.

Hermione looked at the wrinkled old face, and the kindly eyes, then stood and kissed Master Toorahloo on his forehead. The old wizard beamed and handed her the potion.

"Well worth it," he said, walking back over to his chair before the cauldron and settling down in it.

The Master reached into a bowl on the floor beside the chair, picked up a handful of something and tossed it into the caldron, sparks emitting from it momentarily, then it continued to simmer.

"Goodbye and good luck, doctor. I hope you find a way to stop the turning without lives, living lives being lost," he said soberly, dismissing the witch.

"Goodbye, Master Toorahloo," Hermione said, "and thank you."

She exited the room, carefully pushing the swinging dried lizards aside.

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A/N: All right. Hermione is getting back to herself, feeling the old excitement for life she used to. She now has a lust potion that will work on magically induced desire, but not on actual desire. So the apocathery was a survivor of Vashti's curse. But she continued to seek him out after his cure…which means even if the curse is broken the vampiress may still pursue Severus. How about Master Toorahloo's name? Lol. Well, let's see what happens next. Please review this chapter. Thanks.