The Seaside Retreat

Chapter 21... Unexpected Discoveries

The months after Christmas holiday proved to be just as slippery as the months before it, and winter quickly melted into spring. Severus and Hermione had begun planning their wedding and were working hard on her final year potions project. Severus had groaned when she announced she wanted to work on a cure for Lycanthropy and had done everything in his power to change her mind. It wasn’t that he didn’t care about finding a cure, but he had worked on it for many years and gotten practically nowhere. He didn’t want her hopes to be dashed when she couldn’t do something so ambitious.

For her part, Hermione knew that the chance of her succeeding was slim, but she was willing to spend the rest of her life working on it and would consider it time well spent if she could even make the transformation a bit less painful. Remus was such a wonderful man, and since he and Tonks had finally gotten together, he was so much happier, but he deserved to be whole man, not the torture soul he was as of now.

Together Severus and Hermione spent many nights working on the cure and then making slow sweet love. Their wedding was set for the end of June and they had decided to hold it at the Burrow. She was hoping to have the cure done by then so that they could present it to Remus at the wedding. The research was going surprisingly well, though it was increasingly frustrating, leaving them with them with the feeling that they were on the verge of the discovery, but it was still just out of reach.

Hermione had decided to keep the project a secret, for fear of getting peoples hopes up then disappointing them. They had spent months researching ingredients and studying lycanthropy, had gone on outings several times to collect fresh ingredients, and had filled several journals with notes on brewing ideas. However tonight was a very special night, it was the night they were to begin testing their ideas.

They stood side by side in the lab lining up cauldrons of all different sizes and materials, and setting out the ingredients they had gathered. Severus looked to Hermione and smiled to himself, she was shiny faced and nearly bouncing out of her shoes in excitement.

“Okay Hermione, this is your project, what cauldron do you think we should use?” She looked excited at being able to give her opinion and thought hard for a few moments.

“Well, on one hand the silver cauldron seems out of the question, knowing how werewolves react to silver. Though I am beginning to think that if the potion is brewed with a moonflower base, it will direct the silver to work only against the lycanthrope gene and not against the werewolf’s human form. If given this potion during the day on a full moon cycle, I think it could be beneficial.”

Severus looked impressed at her logic and stood with his finger tapping his chin for a few moments before he answered her.

“I believe you are right, especially about the moonflower base reacting with the silver, but the traditional counterpart to moonflower is red algae, which would react very badly with the silver, so we need to find a substitute for that.”

With that said Hermione nodded her head in agreement and set the wheels in her head turning while they grabbed the silver cauldron and started on the base. When it was time to add the algae, they added the red despite their hunch, just to see how it would react. As predicted, the base turned thick and gooey and was immediately cleared ad given up as a bad idea. When Hermione’s furrowed brows suddenly separated and her face lit up, Severus was keen to hear her idea. Whenever she got that look, she said something brilliant, and he knew she wouldn’t disappoint him this time.

“What about kelp Severus?”

“Huh?” He responded less then eloquently.

“What if we use oceanic kelp Severus? It is still a living organism, like the algae, but it would react much more neutrally. Red alga is nothing but green algae that has been agitated. That is going to happen whenever we heat the algae, so there is no way to keep it neutral and still use it. I think kelp could work, though it’s a plant and not an algae, it’s used quite often in both the muggle and magical worlds!”

Severus pondered this and was immediately impressed with her line of thought. Though he didn’t have any kelp and would need to harvest some, which meant putting off the brewing again until next week. Hermione was upset they wouldn’t get to try her idea out right away, but was excited that Severus thought it was even a plausible thought.

They kissed goodnight at the door to the lab, and Severus made Hermione promise to eat more and sleep late the next morning, for she was looking a little peakish. She smiled sweetly at his concern, and promised to do as he asked. Then each set off for their quarters, yawning slightly but very excited about their near success.

The next week came and went with their potion base a success. The excitement was short lived however, when they couldn’t seem to get the next phase to do anything but turn a garish pink and turn into a watery consistency. They had tried everything they could think of, from phoenix tears to Remus’ own blood. Nothing worked, and it was nearly May with no results, when during an evening with short tempers and shorter patience a breakthrough finally came.

The couple had been brewing in a small silver cauldron, noticing earlier that month that making larger batches diluted the potion too much, when Hermione sliced her finger open while chopping wormwood. Severus rushed over to her, concerned, but watching in horrifyingly slow motion as she quickly brought her finger to her face to examine the wound, causing a small droplet to splash into the potion. He quickly grabbed her and ducked, but when no explosion came he stood cautiously and examined the potion. It had turned an iridescent blue, and held the consistency of cough syrup. It was perfect!

Severus picked Hermione up and kissed her passionately while spinning in fast circles, but the excitement was short lived when they realized they had a long night ahead of them trying to figure out why her blood had worked. They rebrewed the potion simultaneously in several cauldrons and watched with bated breath while Severus added a drop of his own blood, and the potion turned a sickly yellow brown. They then called Ginny down to the lab and had her add a drop of her blood, thinking it had to be female blood, but this time the potion turned fire red and congealed.

Again and again they tried many different peoples blood. From Filch’s to Minerva’s, but only Hermione’s blood caused the effect they were looking for. He thought it was because she was muggleborn, but even that turned out to be a dead end. Finally at his wits end, Severus asked Madame Pomfrey to run a diagnostic on Ginny and Hermione to find if there were any health differences between the two, thinking it may have to do with Hermione’s blood type.

Madame Pomfrey checked the girls’ blood types, but actually confirmed in an unlikely coincidence that they were both B positive, so she ran an overall health check. It showed Ginny as a normal healthy young lady, but when she waved her wand over Hermione she turned red and her eyes grew wide as she looked at Hermione. Becoming concerned, Hermione asked the mediwitch what was wrong, and was pulled to into the potions store room for a discussion in clipped tones.

When the two emerged, Pomfrey was quickly on her way telling Hermione to see her in the morning for more instructions. Hermione looking white and shaken, asked Ginny to leave her and Severus to talk for a moment. After Ginny had nodded and politely excused herself, a very shaken Hermione sat on the edge of a desk and looked at Severus.

“Severus, I know why my blood is different then Ginny’s”

“I don’t care about that, what is going on? Are you alright?” He spoke fast, concern evident in his voice as his strong hands engulfed her smaller shaking ones.

“I suppose I am okay, it depends on how you look at it I guess. Severus, my blood works in the potion for two reasons that I can think of. The first is that I willingly give it for the cure.”

“That doesn’t make sense Hermione; all the other willingly gave their blood samples as well.” Her interrupted, but stopped himself from going on when she held a hand to stop him

“The other reason Darling, I believe is because I am pregnant.”

She didn’t have time to gauge his reaction for herself, for she found a moment after telling him the news, she was running to the floo to call Madame Pomfrey again. However, this time it was for Severus, who upon hearing the news, had dropped the vial he was holding and promptly collapsed upon the floor.

A/N: So sorry about the cliffhanger, the story is moving very quickly now, and I ma not so sure I like how fast it’s going. Though I must admit I have an idea for a quick little PWP that I would like to get down, but I want to finish this story first. Hope all of you enjoy!
amd2175- I must admit I was rather mad at Snape for sneaking in the proposal too, but then again maybe I could arrange a chat between him and my boyfriend. We had been dating for a little over five years now, and I am hoping he would sneak in a proposal while I was drugged up as well. Lol. No can do though. I wish I could writ e down what I wanted him to do and have him follow it!

Heidi191976- I decided to push the pregnancy up a bit due to your suggestion. I am happy with the way they found out, and I think I would of waited another chapter or two if it weren’t for your idea. So, thanks a million, I am happy with this chapter, other then the glaringly obvious fact that I can not convincingly BS my way through a potions recipe.