CHAPTER 51
Disclaimer: All recognizable characters belong to JKR. All situations are mine. No $$$ is being made from this fanfic.
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Chapter 51 ~ The Fruits of Dedication
For the next three months, sex was non-existent between Severus and Hermione, the witch was so caught up in her experiments with the Dementor-nifflers, the stricken nifflers and finding the proper balance of Agistani flower to Basilisk heart and blood.
Hermione had ten niffler Dementors now, and ten stricken nifflers which had the spirit sucked out of them. Eli cared for these animals for her, forcing a nutritious fluid down each throat with an eyedropper three times a day, working their limbs so they didn’t atrophy and turning their bodies periodically so no sores developed. They were quite labor-intensive and the elf loved the extra work.
The first nifflers she tried the adapted elixir on turned into rather altered Dementors which died within ten hours. They couldn’t absorb spirits and showed no interest in attacking the other Dementors, only living nifflers. Hermione continued adapting the potion. The nifflers lost less hair during the transformation and kept their eyes, but still showed no desire to kiss other Dementors.
Then Hermione began to use the Imperious curse on the newly changed nifflers, after carefully adding a sustained containment spell around her lab so no Aurors would catch the signature of the Unforgivable. The Dementor-nifflers would suck out what was left of the spirits of the altered nifflers, since the elixir still released part of the soul.
Hermione worked furiously, even getting up in the middle of the night when an idea hit her and running down to the lab to implement it.
Severus would arrive on the weekends to try and get the witch to take a break, but he was hard put for it. She didn’t sleep with him because she was in such a disagreeable condition and temper. One Saturday evening she slipped down to the lab, and Severus busted her. The witch tried to hex him so she could continue working. Severus grabbed her, twisted her arm and walked her screaming and yelling back up the stairs, took her wand and locked her in her bedroom.
For the most part when he was there, Hermione paced constantly, scribbling notes and talking to herself, preparing for Monday morning when she could get back to the Work. There was no sex between them, but it wasn’t that hard on the wizard considering how bad Hermione looked. One Sunday morning he was so disgusted at her appearance at breakfast that he wrestled her into his bedroom, stripped her and forced her into the shower with him. He was fully clothed and scrubbed the fighting witch thoroughly. It was like dealing with a wild child.
But not all Severus’ time was spent babysitting Hermione. He utilized the Spells lab to practice and hone his Harper magic. He found he could move objects with the notes as well as…pulverize them. He crushed several large stones Eli moved to the basement for him with the power of the notes. He even managed to practice a bit on an unwilling Hermione, strapping her to a chair and manipulating her emotions. Too bad it only worked when he was playing. He might have sweetened the witch’s disposition. As she was, she was snarkier than Severus.
He even had to spank Hermione once, when she bad-temperedly threw a bowl of soup at him when he wouldn’t let her go down to the lab for an hour. He spanked her with her jeans on however, but Hermione was hardly contrite despite the spanking.
Finally the wizard gave up and let Hermione work every day. This improved her temper but not her appearance. Her libido had all but disappeared. Severus patiently waited, sitting in on her experiments after scourgifying her several times so it was bearable to be in her presence. He watched as she tried elixir after elixir…the results varying. Finally she created one that didn’t seem to physically affect the test animal at all. When she put the niffler in the cage with the niffler-Dementors, and used the Imperious curse to make it kiss one, the animal didn’t pull out the Dementor’s spirit, but neither could the Dementor pull out the spirit of the altered niffler. That was a big success.
Severus watched as the rat-haired witch danced about wildly, thrusting her fist in the air. Hermione attempted to hug him, but he extended his pale hand and shook his head as he eyed her absolutely filthy lab coat.
“Not on your life, witch,” he said to her, frowning.
Hermione didn’t care. She had a breakthrough…finally. She had reached a median. Now she applied herself even more to the work, sleeping only four hours a night. Once again Eli had to hide the pepper-up potion, and Severus himself had to come to the house several times during the week and make Hermione eat, binding her to the kitchen chair and sitting down at the table and actually feeding her himself, using his wand to shock her when she wouldn’t cooperate.
“If you would just eat, I wouldn’t have to torment you,” the wizard said, a blatant smile on his face as he gave Hermione shock after shock to make her open her mouth. He enjoyed that part.
A month and a half later, Severus was in the Spells lab strengthening his Harper abilities when a loud shriek came from the Potions lab. Hastily he put his instrument down and drew his wand, running to the lab thinking something awful had happened. He found Hermione staring at the Dementor-niffler cage. One of the Dementors was on the floor of the cage twitching, as an altered niffler stood over it. The rest of the Dementors were backed into a corner of the cage, hissing in fear…and in the large cage that held the stricken nifflers, one was sitting up, sniffing about…its spirit restored.
“It worked,” Hermione said in a low voice. She turned her hollow, baggy eyes toward Severus. “Severus…it worked. The niffler got its spirit back. I’ve found the antidote…I’ve…finally…found it.”
Severus rushed forward and caught the exhausted witch before she hit the lab floor. When Hermione realized she had found the proper elixir, all the wear and tear she had put on her body caught up with her. The witch was nearly dead on her feet. Severus looked down at her and shook his head.
Slowly he carried the witch upstairs and tended to her, putting her in the bath and bathing her thoroughly, washing the semi-conscious witch’s hair and adding replenishing potion to the water. Severus dried her, dressed her in a nightgown and put her in his own bed. He then undressed down to his boxers and slid in beside her, drawing her warm body into his and listening to her breathe.
“Sleep witch. You’ve done it. Now sleep,” he said softly, kissing her mouth lightly and closing his eyes with a satisfied sigh.
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After testing and retesting the anti-Dementor elixir, Hermione was satisfied she had the answer. Now, the next question was how to administer it to free range Dementors. They weren’t caged after all, and could fly. When they realized what was happening, they would attempt escape. Then there was the question of who would do the kissing.
Hermione asked Severus to come to the Spells lab with his violin. She had created five more Dementor nifflers. It seemed only five could be kissed before more potion had to be imbibed. So the kisser was vulnerable to being kissed himself if he wasn’t fast when taking the next dosage. Hermione needed to design a delivery system for drinking the potion quickly between Dementors. Luckily only about a cup of the elixir was necessary to be effective.
Severus entered the lab with his violin and bow. Hermione was looking much better now that she had the elixir, but was still focused on the project. Severus hoped she could wrap it up within the next two weeks. He wasn’t used to being celibate anymore, and was having very erotic dreams about the witch. His black eyes glittered when he looked at her, but Hermione didn’t even notice. The five Dementors floated hissing in their cage and another cage held five stricken nifflers whose spirits were in the others.
Hermione dosed a normal niffler to turn it into a Kisser and placed it on the floor, then released the five Dementor-nifflers which drifted hissing about the room, out of range of the altered creature that was supposed to kiss them.
Hermione addressed Severus.
“You see, Severus. This is the problem. The Dementors can evade the Kisser. We can count on the same problem when we go for the real ones. I want you to try and bind the Dementor-nifflers and bring them down to where they can be reached. I don’t know if you can bind all of them…but it would be ideal if you could,” she said, looking at the wizard hopefully.
Severus had discovered he could make the notes do several things at once. He had no doubt he could bind the little horrors. He nodded at the witch, lifted his instrument and began to play. Immediately the golden notes emerged and converged on the hissing nifflers, wrapping around them and bringing them to floor level. Using the Imperious curse, Hermione had the dosed niffler kiss all five of them. The Dementors fell to the floor and the stricken creatures woke up, sniffing and staring about as if to say, “What are we doing here?”
Hermione smiled.
“We’ve done it,” she said, looking at Severus. “You are going to have to bind the Dementors while I kiss them.”
Severus looked at her incredulously.
“You?” he said, “Why you, Hermione?”
”Because it makes sense for me to agree to do it, then spend time trying to find a volunteer who won’t trust the potion. I’m not afraid to do it, Severus and I am the best choice,” the witch said. “I know the elixir inside and out.”
The Professor’s face contorted as he thought of those lips he had kissed so many times locking on to a Dementor’s mouth. The creatures were absolutely fetid. But then again, it had to be done…and her Gryffindorness was in full force. Besides, he would be there to help her and protect her. Yes…it could be done.
Severus invited Albus to his house to give a demonstration of the elixir using the nifflers. The Headmaster watched as Hermione administered the elixir to a niffler, and Severus played music on a violin that emitted golden notes which bound the Dementor-niffler and brought it within reach of the Kisser. Using the Imperious curse, Hermione made the niffler kiss the Dementor, which fell to the floor shuddering, and suddenly the stricken niffler squealed and stood up, looking bewildered.
Albus jumped up and ran over to the restored niffler, who wriggled its nose at him. He examined it thoroughly, then turned to Hermione with tears in his eyes.
“How soon?” he croaked, “How soon until we can use this miraculous restorative?”
“As soon as you can arrange passage to India, Headmaster. I will be doing the kissing myself,” Hermione said as tears rolled down Albus’ face. “Severus will do the binding.”
Albus looked at the Potions Master, who cleared his throat at the old wizard’s great emotion.
“We already have a plan to contain the creatures utilizing Order members distributed around the temple with Patronuses to keep them from exiting the ruin. Both of you can enter and dispose of them. A contingent of Order members will go with you as backup,” Albus said, wiping at his eyes. He looked at Hermione and opened his arms.
The witch walked up to him and Albus embraced her.
“Thank you. Thank you my dear for making it possible for Minerva to come back to me,” he said, his voice hoarse. “Thank you Hermione. Thank you.”
Hermione’s eyes glistened.
“You’re welcome, Headmaster,” she said softly, kissing his cheek.
Albus released the witch and sniffed, then held out his hand to Severus, who took it firmly in his own.
“And thank you Severus, for making this possible. Without your patronage, none of this could have been accomplished,” the Headmaster said.
The wizard nodded but didn’t respond.
Albus drew a deep breath.
“I must go,” he said, sounding stronger, “There are souls to recover!”
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A/N: Ah, success! After so much sacrifice…no nookie for the Potions Master for months. I’m sure he intends to make up for lost time. Yay on the successful creation of the elixir. Minerva might be coming home! Please review.