Everything I Do, I Do It For You

Chapter 35:- It’s in the Medication

Hermione walked the couple of blocks over to Calan Park; her mind was trying to grasp what her supposed Potions teacher had told her. She was a witch! It didn’t make sense, but she was determined to find out the truth behind everything. How had he just vanished? Had he just been a hallucination? She knew nothing about her life before she came to be in Calan Park, and it was very frustrating to her.

Entering the main lobby, Hermione headed straight for the reception area that adorned the centre of the vast foyer to Calan Park. When she reached it, she took in the new face that was behind the counter.

’Great,’ she thought, even as a huge smile adorned her features, ’just what I need, another unfamiliar face.’

“Hello,” she said politely, “my name is Hermione Granger and I would like to speak to Dr. Lopes.” She used the best sugar-coated voice that she possessed.

The nurse, looking up into Hermione’s beaming face, replied, “He’s not in right now, but if you would just come back in the morning, he will be in around six.”

Hermione fought with herself not to yell and make a scene right here in the foyer, as she took in the name tag on the nurse’s uniform.

“Miss Morgan,” Hermione said, emphasising the ‘Miss.’ “It is imperative that I speak with him now, so if you could just call him down here and …”

The nurse held up her hand, cutting Hermione off.

“I will do no such thing. Now, as I said before, he has left and will be back in the morning. You can, of course, have a word with Miss Harefield,” the nurse replied calmly.

Hermione was becoming quite flustered. She waved her hands in the air, losing what little self-control she had left, and shouted, “You don’t understand! I had a confrontation earlier this evening in which my medication was stolen. I NEED to speak with Doctor Lopes, NOW.”

Hermione’s face was red with suppressed anger and her hands were balled up in fists at her sides. She could feel her fingernails digging into her palms, but she didn’t really care. She was making quite a scene in the reception area; the people who were seated there looked up at her, all with expressions of anticipation, dread or disbelief.

Nurse Morgan pressed a button underneath her desk as she rose up from her seat. She tried to calm the young woman as she waited for the orderlies to arrive.
“Yes, yes I will get him here for you. Just try to calm down.”

Hermione took two large gulps of air as she visibly settled. She started to pace as she waited for Dr. Lopes, as she had a lot of nervous tension that she had to expel somehow.

***

Head Orderly Robert Finn was walking the main corridors of the patients’ rooms, checking on the various lowlifes that he had to deal with day in and day out, making sure they behaved themselves. His beeper vibrated against his hip and he paused a second to retrieve it. He saw on the screen that he was required, rather urgently, in the foyer of the hospital. Placing the beeper into his pocket, he broke into a run.

Robert made it to the entrance in just under a minute to find a rather agitated Hermione Granger, pacing about ten feet away from the admissions desk. She was mumbling to herself and seemed to be quite frantic, throwing her hands in the air every couple of seconds.

He slowed down to a walk and approached her casually; she didn’t seem to notice him until he was only a couple of feet away from her.

“What’s up, Hermione?” he asked as he stopped, panting slightly, careful not to touch her, as he knew that she didn’t like to be touched.

Hermione startled and looked up at Orderly Finn. Her face relaxed from apprehension to calmness in the blink of an eye.

“Oh, Orderly Finn,” she began, whilst taking in calming breaths. “I just had an altercation with someone from my past, and I really need to speak with Dr. Lopes.”

She thought that now was not the time to tell him that Dr. Lopes had actually given her his mobile phone number, and she had lost it. Besides, it was a secret that just she and Dr. Lopes had shared.

Robert’s eyebrows drew together in a scowl, as he began to wonder who it was she had seen. Quickly composing himself, he pasted on a false smile and added, “Well, Hermione, I’ll be more than happy to help you out while we wait for Doctor Lopes to get here. However, do you think that right here in the foyer is the best place to be having this conversation?” He motioned with one arm at the people who were regarding them curiously, sitting in the entranceway waiting room.

Hermione looked around; upon seeing everyone’s eyes on her, she blushed and dropped her head. “Of course not,” she half mumbled to the ground.

“Well, if you’ll just follow me then we can get this all sorted out,” he replied, motioning down the hall.

Hermione’s gaze fell on the two other orderlies who had come to the nurse’s aid. They had quite attentively remained in the background once they had seen that the Head Orderly had the situation under control.

Robert nodded his head at them, and the nurse, to let them know that he had the situation in hand. They all quickly scurried back to whatever else they were doing before their beepers had gone off.

Robert led Hermione into a room and closed the door. He motioned for her to take a seat and she complied willingly. Taking the seat across from her, he noticed that she was wringing her hands together in an attempt to calm herself down. She was looking down at the floor and seemed to be studying something there.

“So you said you had an altercation with someone you knew, or at least think you knew. Would you care to explain?” Finn started in a pleasant voice.

Hermione looked up into Orderly Finn’s face. He was smiling at her and looking as though he had all the time in the world for her to relate her story, so she began.

“Well, I was coming home from work and I wasn’t looking where I was going. Anyway, I bumped into this really weird looking man who told me that he was my Potions professor from a place called Hogwarts, and that he had been searching for me. He also told me that I am a witch and that he was a wizard, and he came to give me back my wand.” Hermione reached into her pocket and pulled out what would have looked like, to the untrained eye, a stick, and waved it around.

Robert quickly ducked down in his seat. If what the Minister had told him was correct, Hermione was a very powerful witch indeed, and he didn’t want to be on the receiving end of a nasty hex. He recovered when he realised that she was just waving it for effect.

Hermione didn’t seem to notice this.

“Please don’t do that, Hermione,” Robert said, “How am I to know that you don’t have a knife or something in your pocket, and besides, you could have poked my eye out with that thing.”

Hermione put her wand down on the seat next to her. She gave him a little smile in the form of an apology, before continuing.

“I kneed him in the groin.” She looked up meekly to see the amused look on Robert’s face; it puzzled her somewhat but she continued, “I ran up to my apartment and locked the door. I went into the kitchen to grab my meds, but I was so nervous that I accidentally dropped most of them down the kitchen sink.”

Orderly Finn sat up straighter at this; he didn’t have enough of the potions left to make her a new batch of her altered medications.

Hermione noticed this and quickly added, “Oh, don’t worry, I managed to save three of them, and even took one then.”

Robert motioned for her to continue her tale. He had been most intrigued by the part where Hermione had kneed her ex-Potions professor in the groin, and he was beaming inside. However, his victory was short-lived at the mention of her dropping her medication down the drain.

He, of course, knew of Severus Snape, the Potions Master of Hogwarts. From all accounts, the man was a bloody menace, and Finn would have liked to have been there to see him taken down a couple of pegs by this young woman in front of him.

“Now where was I?” Hermione said, looking thoughtful. “Ah yes, I had just taken one of the pills, and you have to understand that I was shocked and scared at this point in time.” She looked over at Finn.

Robert just nodded his head; he was impatient for her to continue, but if he were to rush her too much, she might clam up and refuse to tell him any more. So he waited, as he had seen Dr. Lopes do on numerous occasions.

Hermione continued with her story. “I heard him on the other side of my door and my heart was pounding in my chest. I wanted to get up and call the police, but my legs just wouldn’t work. I had dead-bolted the door, but somehow he managed to get in.”

Hermione looked up at Finn, her eyes pleading with him.

“You do believe me, don’t you?” she asked, almost afraid of the answer.

“Of course, Hermione. Now please continue.”

“He handed me my wand and that’s when I dropped my medication container on the floor. He picked it up and asked me about it. Then he went into the kitchen, grabbed my other pills, and just disappeared,” she finished, looking up into Finn’s face with trepidation.

“You say he disappeared, like he left the room?” Robert asked.

“No,” Hermione replied as she shook her head. “I mean that he was standing before me and then he wasn’t.” She paused. “Oh look, I know how this must sound - you’d better lock me up and throw away the key - but it’s the God’s honest truth.” Tears started to flow down her cheeks.

“Oh, it’s okay,” Robert said in the least menacing tone he could muster given the circumstances. “It will all work out. But I need you to do something for me,” he added, as Hermione quickly swiped at the tears on her face with the back of her hand and nodded.

“I need you to tell no one of this conversation.” At her disbelieving look, he added, “Do you really want to come back to this place?”

When she shook her head, he continued, “It will be our little secret, okay? I will get you some more medication. I want you to come back tomorrow afternoon for it, as it is getting quite late now. We have to be careful, as you know how expensive the pills are.” He hoped to induce her sense of self-preservation and quickly added, “I know you don’t have the money for them, and you would end up having to pay for them yourself.”

This was technically not true, but who really cared, as long as she believed him. He just didn’t want her back in Calan Park, where she could be monitored by Dr. Lopes and then, most probably, have the good doctor giving her the medication himself. Finn had realised a while back that Dr. Lopes had a special bond with Hermione, and if she had a relapse, he couldn’t guarantee that he could get her the potion-laced tablets. The doctor would give her unaltered medication, so Finn had to make sure he was the one giving Hermione her meds.

“I will call Dr. Lopes and let him know that I have sorted it all out.” He was lying, as Doctor Lopes had never been called to begin with.

’No, I am doing this my way,’ he thought to himself before standing up and motioning her towards the door.

He would have to send Fydles to the Minister tonight; he just hoped he wasn’t infuriated by this newest development.

***

Tolmie’s efforts had turned up something, though what he wouldn’t be sure of until the Potions Master working away next to him had completed his work. He had worked on the pills for most of the night, and he could safely say that there was something added into the tablets, some kind of potion.

Severus was almost finished with his potion when he noticed Tolmie staring at him.

“Yes?” he drawled.

“I’ve finished with my analysis of the pills. It seems that they are indeed laced with a potion, though we will not know what kind of potion until you are done.” He looked at Severus with a kind smile.

“I am almost done here,” Severus stated. He flicked his wand at the flame underneath the cauldron to extinguish the flame.

Carefully he brought an eyedropper to the now cooling concoction within the cauldron. Measuring out a precise amount of potion, he then brought it to hover over one of the tablets. Holding his breath, he allowed four drops of the liquid to land on the capsule. Both men watched and waited.

After only a handful of seconds ticked by, the pill turned an eerie yellowish colour as words formed magically in the air before them.

Severus squinted to read the text. It was a list of potion ingredients along with directions. Reading through the list, he inhaled quickly as he realized what this potion was.

He had been asked to brew it numerous times for the Dark Lord; it had the effect of stopping all the magical ability of a specific wizard or witch. There was a broader-acting variety of this potion; however, it didn’t work quite so well. If this potion was mixed with the exact signature of the said party in mind, it worked almost instantaneously.

He frowned, and looking over at Tolmie, he saw almost the exact same frown on his face.

Carefully refilling the eyedropper, he moved on to the next tablet and dropped the precise amount once more. Waiting until it turned the same yellowish colour, he read the text as it appeared in the air before him.

This potion was different. It had been tweaked a little but he still understood the basic principle of it - he wouldn’t have been a Potions Master had he not. This potion was used to rob the victim of his or her memories, and if used for long periods could cause irreparable damage.

Looking over at the older man standing next to him, he growled out quietly, “Someone has been giving Miss Granger a potion to deprive her of her magical abilities, and another potion to cause her to forget who and what she is. So help them when I find out who it is.”

Severus picked up the remaining tablets and stalked out of the potions lab, leaving Tolmie behind.

***

A/N: What is Finn going to do now?

Thanks to everyone who has left a review. Keep on guessing as to what you think just might happen.

Cheers, LariLee, you’re the best beta a girl could ask for.

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