The Hepatic Hex

Ok, it looks as though that good mood is still active because the next chapter has arrived.
As I mentioned previously this is the second chapter dedicated to Kiri for her helpful input and is where the real issues she pointed out to me are dealt with. Kiri, I hope you approve.


Enjoy

Shemhamforashxxx
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Chapter 19

“HERMIONE, WAKE UP!” Snape was shouting so loudly he ware tre that he could be heard in Hogsmead, but finally his efforts had the desired effect. Hermione’s eyes flew open, wide, red from the tears that had been flooding from them and so full of terror, it made Snape panic inwardly.

“Hermione?” he tried again softly and this time she looked directly at him, relief washing over her distraught face. She jumped so violently into his arms he was momentarily unable to return her embrace as he struggled with his own arms to balance and brace them both onto the bed and avoid tumbling them in a heap onto the stone floor. He felt her shiver into him, sobbing openly, so Snape did the only thing he could think of – He let her. He held her for seemed an eternity before the incoherent mumblings she had been choking out between her tears started to make sense.

“I thought I’d lost you.” she started “Gods Severus don’t leave me – don’t you ever leave me again. I almost died – God’s you were dead – they were all dead – and… and…” She looked into his black eyes to reconfirm that he was real “It is all my fault.. Oh God’s Sev, Im so sorry… I…I…Oh Gods!” She broke down again. After a long moment Snape noticed that her sobbing had ceased and her breathing had deepened. She was asleep again.

Gently Snape lifted her up and holding her against him whispered a command, which made the covers of his bed turn down. He lay her down and placed a chaste kiss on her forehead before drawing the covers up to her neck and rising from the bed. Thinking that she really did have the right idea, Snape headed for his bathroom, stripped off his robes and showered. Wrapping a towel around his taut waist he had the intention of joining her in his bed, when Dumbledore’s voice called for him from his office. Waving his wand over his body, he was dried and dressed just as the Headmaster stepped from the fireplace in the next room.

“Severus, I hope I am not interrupting anything.” Dumbledore smiled – no smirked at Snape after seeing the young female occupant of his bed over Snape’s shoulder.

‘The man has the nerve to smirk at me?’ Snape thought to himself as he less than discreetly closed his bedroom door behind him.

“No Albus, you never interrupt anything. Not once in my life have you ever actually interrupted anything. Hell, not even my life.” Snape drawled at him.

Dumbledore chuckled “No not interrupted, just most decidedly inconveniently caused you to postpone.” Snape snorted at him.

“Now, SeveSeverus, as much as I would enjoy continuing this banter, I regret that this is not a social visit.” Dumbledore said in a suddenly serious tone.

“What is it now then?” Snape said as he ran his fingers through his still damp hair and collapsed into a chair.

Dumbledore sighed as he sat across from the young wizard, his insides churning over what he needed to tell him about the thorough reading he had done on the ritual that would allow for the separation of the magic from Artemis’ blood for distribution to the population.

“Tell me Severus, what did my niece call you for?” Dumbledore started hoping against hope he could postpone the inevitable permanently. ‘Ahhh paradoxes’ he mused silently. Guilt flooded through his mind at the thought of once again failing to protect his only son.

“Well I am still not entirely sure myself Albus.” Snape started earning him a quizzical look from the Headmaster. “When I arrived she said absolutely nothing. She had us stand there for two hours, not moving, not saying a word to us. Eventually people started falling, passing out I believe from the exhaustion of the curse. As people fell she reassigned the circle, those that fell first were relegated to the outer circle, and those that were still standing promoted to the inner. Fortunately I was able to stay on my feet so I am still well positioned to gather information. Malfoy was not so lucky though. Apparently he has been drowning his sorrows for the past week over the demise of the Dark Lord. It seems that alcohol increases the destruction of the magic, impairing the function of the liver further.

I don’t know what Owen’s plans are, but I can’t hide my feelings that reshuffling the circle is a dangerous move on her part. Putting a powerful wizard lMalfMalfoy in the outer ring is like committing political suicide. He still has strong standing amongst the Death Eaters and the Ministry. I just don’t understand the reasoning of that woman. In the end she dismissed everyone but beckoned me to stay. She asked me about you and Hogwarts and I relayed the message you gave me. At first I thought she was going to hex me into oblivion with the look of rage on her face. You can imagine my surprise then when she broke out in hysterical laughter and dismissed me.”

“Hmmmm...” Dumbledore mused and there was a long silence between the two before he started again.

“I feared she may do something like this,” the old man said morosely after sometime.

“I don’t think I follow you Albus.” Snape replied confused.

Dumbledore sighed and shook his head before he began his explanation.

“After you left my office and Miss Granger went to owl her friend I starreadreading through the ritual that we would need to perform to separate the magical properties from Artemis’ blood. I know I said earlier in my office that the cure was a simple procedure of a transfusion – and in practice the cure itself is. I had not however previously acquainted myself with the actual process. I have never had the need to have that knowledge. In my training of the Dark Arts within my family works, I never felt I needed to know past the fact that there was a cure. I never in my life imagined that one day I would need that knowledge. Now my naivety has come back to haunt me.”

“Damn it Albus, get to the bloody point!” Snape snarled in frustration.

“I am Severus, but don’t be so anxious to hear what I have to say. It is not a happy thought.” Dumbledore warned.

“I have dealt with nothing but pain and disappointment my entire life Albus. Just get on with it.”

“All right. Firstly let me explain what this curse does exactly. From kno knowledge about the liver you have learned from Miss Granger, what can you tell me about the difference between a Muggle’s liver and a wizard’s liver?” Dumbledore asked.

“Inherently there is no difference from what Hermione said to me after Lilliana tasted me and deduced the problem, just that in wizards the liver produces our magic. I suppose that it must happen through a different gene, maybe one that is dormant in Muggles. This would explain the existence of Mud… Muggleborns.”

“That is exactly right Severus. Now what this particular curse does is make that gene in our livers shut down, become dormant by producing antibodies against our own magical properties. That is why a transfusion of magic from someone else can work. The liver is not capable of reproducing the antibodies to the new magical properties because the gene becomes active again and in a short time can flood our bodies with full strength magic. Now thinking about this explanation Severus, what could the possible implications be?” Dumbledore questioned.

Snape thought hard for a long while before his head shot up in realization. If it were possible for him to physically do so, his face would have gone pale. As it was already so naturally, his shock was most discernable in his eyes and noticeably in the quivering timbre of his voice as he spoke.

“If the magical transfusion can reactivate the magic producing gene in wizards, then theoretically – no not teticetically, it CAN be used to the same effect on the dormant gene in Muggles” Snape finished in loathing.

“Exactly. As you said the gene is present in both wizards and Muggles, but only normally active in wizards. This cure could be used to activate the magic producing gene in Muggles.” Dumbledore summarized.

Another long silence passed between the two before Snape spoke.

“I don’t know if I understand what this has to do with they dismay you voiced when I told you of Suzie Owen reorganizing the ranks of the circle though.” He quizzed.

Dumbledore looked at him wearily before answering.

“Tell me Severus, how did she redistribute everyone?”

Snape thought this was a bizarre question but as he mused he realized one particular aspect of the new standings.

“She reorganized it so that there was one member of the inner circle spread through out each of the 10 ranks.” Snape answered.

“Politically, what does this suggest to you Severus?” Dumbledore asked him.

“The members of the inner circle have always commanded the respect of those in the outer ranks. Despite the standing we were granted by Voldemort, we were followed with an almost blind loyalty by those beneath us. Maybe – I mean look at who was there Malfoy, Avery, McNair, Lestrange – well you know who we are and you know that we are all from the longest and purest bloodlines. Because of that I suppose it makes us the most powerful wizards in Voldemort’s – no the whole of our world, besides of course yourself and the absent De la Rosa’s. Potters and as much as I hate to admit it the Weasly’s.” Snape shuddered subconsciously at the thought of the Weasly kids being amongst the purest and therefore essentially most powerful mage’s in their world. “I suppose” Snape continued, “that kind of lineage promotes respect in itself. I still don’t understand though…”

“Think Severus!” Dumbledore interrupted him angrily. “This cure issibssibly the most powerful political tool the world has seen. Imagine the consequences if Suzie split the circle the way she did to provide the curse and its cure to each of the original members of the inner circle without them knowing that with her donation she would be able to control them anyway. She is setting up our world and the Muggle world for the greatest factional war it has ever seen. Giving the members of the inner circle that power – could you imagine Malfoy, McNair, Avery and Lestrange sitting on their hands when they possessed such a tool?”

“No!” growled Snape. “Of course not. What the hell do we do now then? It seems that no matter what we do she is going to come out victorious.” Snape spat in finality.

Dumbledore sank back in his chair and readied himself before replying.

“There is a way to stop all of this from happening, Severus, but I fear that it is the most selfish request our world could ever make on one of our own.” The old man started.

Snape sent him a confused look and almost regretfully Dumbledore began to explain.

“There are two variations of the ritual to retrieve what we need for the cure. The first merely allows the castor to separate the magic from the blood and offers no protection against its misuse. No doubt this is the option that my niece was going to pursue. The second alternative affords safety to the world be installing the one who performs the ritual as a kind of keeper of the ritual.”

“Well what is the problem then? Surely you are quite capable of performing the ritual Albus!” Snape said frustrated at the Headmasters concerns that so far appeared to him to be baseless.

“Actually I can’t Severus, neither can you nor any of the other members of the Order, or the other Professors here at the school. I doubt that even if I could find a suitable candidate at the Ministry, that any of them would be trust worthy enough to be the keeper of the ritual.”

“Albus, you know that I have the utmost respect for you, but right now I am ready to kill you with my bare hands out of frustration of having to continually probe you to explain your concerns. Whatever the problem is with finding the keeper of the ritual just- spit it out- for Merlin’s sake Albus!”

“Fine” Dumbledore spat back angrily and Snape almost flinched at the uncharacteristic demeanor of the ageing wizard. “Firstly the castor of the ritual has to be a talented and powerful witch younger than the donator. Secondly, said witch needs to be virginal, thirdly, as long as the donator is alive, the henceforth-ritual keeper must remain a virgin to protect the magic of the ritual, mainly because until such time that they lose their virginity, witches magic is protected within them by the force of Earth magic. When they lose their virginity, tartharth magic ceases the protection of the witch to concentrate on protecting any offspring that may be created from a union. For this reason, the bloodline of the witch is not an issue. Also, as long as the ritual keeper remains virginal, the ritual cannot be performed again – ever. Even if the keeper dies, as long as they do so a physical virgin then the ritual is safe and cannot be performed again. If however the keeper loses their virginity, the protection that was granted all of us by the inability to recreate to cure, is lost. It is for these reasons that I have been at a pain to try to find someone to fulfill the criteria. Whoever it is will be giving up their rigo fao fall in love and lead a normal happy life filled with children and a family, and they will always need to be protected against those who might want to take advantage of them, rape them and thereby voiding the keepers role. Now can you see the problem Severus?”

“I am sorry Headmaster, I didn’t realize.” Snape started. “Do you have any candidates for the ritual?” Snape asked hesitantly.

“I think you know as well as I do there is only one possible witch capabf caf casting the ritual and be strong enough to fulfill the duties required of her.” Dumbledore countered sadly.

Snape caught on immediately. “No! I will not let you do this to her. We don’t even know for sure that she is a…”

“I am.” The third voice entering their conversation caused both men to turn and face its owner. One looked at her in sad resignation, pleading for forgiveness, the other in raging disbelief that the Headmaster would make such a request from the woman he loved, and taking away from him the happiness he had finally found with her. Hermione cut through the pursuing silence with stoic finality in her voice.

“And I will do it.”
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A longer chapter than the last - I hope a good one too, but for some reason I can\'t help but think that I am going to be flooded with flames now. *gulp*


Shemhamforash xxx