Potions and Snitches
Snape and Harry Gen Fanfiction Archive

Author's Chapter Notes:
Anti-litigation charm; JK Rowling owns the Harry Potter Universe, to her we bow. Warner Brothers and Various Publishers also have their own rights. We are just playing in their backyard and we promise to leave the temple alone.
Chapter 7 Blood

Severus listened closely to the sounds coming from the ensuite. He’d let Brendan have his privacy so long as his health was not endangered. When it became obvious from the sounds issuing forth that Brendan was in severe trouble, Severus raced into the room taking the potion kit with him. He also conjured a damp, warm, lavender scented cloth as he went. Brendan was doubled over, his physical form morphing and straining as it tried to return to its normal state. The effect was probably worse than normal this time given the portal crossings and the time Brendan had spent under Polyjuice.

Holding the cloth to the young man’s neck, Severus just sighed, “You really do have to take better care of yourself, Brendan.” Severus grinned as he felt Brendan ‘snort’ and barf at the same time in his arms.

“Pot calling, Severus,” Brendan got out around another bout of retching. When that finally settled, he accepted the vial Severus pressed into his hand, drinking it swiftly. The effect, whilst not pronounced, did ease the retching and allowed Brendan to take a few much needed deep breaths. The cloth on his neck also helping. “You’re not angry?” he finally asked, turning his head to look at Severus.

“Absolutely livid,” Severus snapped, a smile taking some of the sting out of his words. “I’m leaving the castigation until you are well enough to handle it.”

“Thank you ever so much, old man,” Brendan replied as dryly as possible, all the while thinking, ‘Better warn Jaidy’. Severus rarely pulled rank, but when he did he was as frightening as the students at Hogwarts believed; as far as Brendan was concerned he’d rather be raked now, at least Severus would moderate his anger, later it would be uncomfortable. ‘I must be worse off than I imagined’, he thought given that Severus usually didn’t wait to rake either. “What time is it, by the way?”

“Late enough, about one in the afternoon. You really did push it this time, Brendan.”

“Well at least everyone at Hogwarts thinks you are hale and hearty. Though I’d avoid Black for the next millennium or so,” Brendan said grinning slightly as he remembered Black being dragged off by Dumbledore. “Hmm, better make that Lupin, Potter and Dumbledore as well, come to think of it.”

Severus quirked an eyebrow at that. “Why doesn’t that surprise me?” he muttered. “Just what exactly happened this morning, or don’t I want to know? No, no, don’t answer that just yet,” he finished as it looked as though Brendan was going to launch into a long explanation, “let’s get you cleaned up first.”

Helping Brendan, who had finally settled into his own shape, to his feet Severus wondered at the fierce loyalty shown him by the young man. He still found it difficult to accept that anyone could actually like him after so many years of playing the bastard. He lead Brendan back into his rooms and helped him settle back into bed. “Now that you have had sufficient time to marshal your thoughts, can I have a concise run down, please?”

“What’s the last thing you remember, Severus?” Brendan asked as he prevaricated.

“Collapsing in the laboratory. I think I remember giving some instructions, but it’s all a bit hazy,” Severus admitted, not exactly comfortable with the loss of any memories.

“Ok, long and sort of it? Jaidy revived you with House magics, long enough for you to tell us you needed to be seen whole,” Brendan started by way of explanation. He then went on to cover the ‘bare’ bones of what had happened between then and now, glossing over most of the details about Hermione Granger’s involvement. “You were seen at breakfast; whole, hale and hearty by the students and the faculty, though Dumbledore and Madam Pomfrey were rather aghast, I suspect due to your apparent quick recovery. Dumbledore decided not to go with an ‘arrest story’, instead you are now on leave of absence due to your sense of loss.”

Severus snorted before asking, “And just how did you manage that?”

“Dumbledore actually suggested it, in fact he was thinking of ‘stress related’ illnesses. He’s warded your quarters and removed it from the floo network.”

“And who’s looking after my Slytherins?” Severus hissed, dreading the answer.

‘Déjà vu’, thought Brendan, ‘and he’ll probably react worse that I did when I tell him’. The thought did little to cheer Brendan. “Black and Lupin.” Brendan said as fast as he could.

“Of all the incompetent, ignoble ignoramuses that Dumbledore could have picked…Those two are in charge of MY Slytherins. By Merlin, they’ll be dog food within a day.” Brendan wasn’t too sure to whom Severus was referring too, and wasn’t too keen to ask for clarification. Brendan could see the vein in Severus’ temple throbbing, and flinched. An inarticulate cry, or was that growl, and Brendan, well versed in self-preservation, dived for the floor. The ceiling above disintegrated from the force of the spell that was released in Severus’ towering rage. Fortunately, Severus still had some modicum of preservation, and stopped the debris from squashing them both flat. Severus was breathing irregularly, but far more calmly than before. “Never liked that décor anyway,” as he casually put it all back together, with modifications.

Brendan continued, “To make matters worse…”

“Worse, they can get worse?” Severus sighed.

“Jaidy was seen leaving Hogwarts.”

“And?” Severus asked waiting for the other shoe to drop.

“She broke Potter’s nose getting the blood.”

“Has anything gone right?”

“Well, you’re whole again, so you can put that down as a definite yes,” Brendan said defiantly, not backing down at all on this.

Severus just rolled his eyes as he recognised the intransigence in the man opposite him. “Ok Brendan just what did you leave out?” Severus’ eyebrow quirked. “This time, go back to the beginning and I want all the details.”

Reluctantly, Brendan complied but refused to falter, watching Severus’ expression get more and more severe. “Can I have that scroll please, Brendan?” Severus said as Brendan filled in the final details. Dumbledore had effectively ‘confined’ Severus to quarters after Harry had collapsed again, though the fiction would be maintained that Severus was on leave. “I want to know where you are at all times Severus,” Dumbledore had said implacably as he’d turned to help Black and Lupin take Harry to the infirmary, “though I won’t remove the wards on your quarters,” he continued, casting a look at the fuming Black. Dumbledore had then handed Severus a scroll, “Use this to notify me of your movements. Hitting it against any hard surface will cause it to ‘port’ directly to me, and it is spelled so only I can read it.”


Hermione Granger found herself ensconced in the room she had woken in this morning. How she got there she wasn’t quite sure, as her last recollection was of handing Professor Snape the completed potion. One moment she had the potion in hand, the next she was standing in front of a desk, facing out through the window she’d awoken to. That the desk was suddenly piled high with text books that looked to cover the curriculum for the rest of sixth year, and a large portion of the seventh year curriculum as well did little to ease her frustrations. How Professor Snape had ‘remotely’ apparated her here she had no idea, but she added that to the list of questions she wanted answers to, a rather long list, and growing by the moment.

Whilst part of her, a fairly large part given the quality of the books, actually contemplated sitting down and reading the books on the desk, she pushed that thought away and headed for the door back to the corridor. She had questions and she wanted some answers. The door should have been exactly were she had left it, she was sure of that, but whilst the bathroom door was where she had left it, the double door leading to the corridor was not. Pulling her ‘new’ wand out from a pocket in her robes she began casting every opening spell she knew, all the standard ones, plus a large contingent of spells even the seventh years weren’t taught.

After an hour-long display of Gryffindor stubbornness, Hermione finally accepted that the door was not coming back, at least to her calling. What she had noticed whilst practicing her casting skills was that she seemed to be able to focus with a degree of clarity of mind she’d never felt before, given her ‘native’ ability to focus, this new development was somewhat surprising. “The wand chooses the wizard,” she remembered Ollivander saying, “The wand chooses the wizard.” Just what was special about this wand? Given that she appeared ‘trapped’ until someone decided to come and get her she decided to focus on how the wand may have affected her other magical levels.


With Brendan safely back on his feet Severus finally felt able to vent his anger at just what Brendan and Jaidy had done. Intellectually he could understand their probable motives, but as far as he was concerned the cost was too high. Knowing that Granger was ‘locked’ in his old room, and that the boys were still asleep, Severus called in Jaidy and Brendan, and from the hangdog looks on their faces, it was obvious that they were expecting a serious dressing down. However, what worried him was that they also had a number of scrolls with them; they were prepared for battle.

“All right, explain yourselves, and this had better be good,” he thundered at the two of them. For their part, Jaidy and Brendan met the storm calmly, gamely clutching to their righteousness of their actions. Brendan dumped the scrolls on his desk. Severus had to grin; they were the ‘standing orders’ in case of emergencies. ‘Sometimes I think I should never have written those’, he thought to himself, ‘too late now, and if they did not have those I suspect they would have found some other way to justify the measures they took’.

Meanwhile Jaidy was calmly but respectfully outlining their reasons. As Jaidy went into highly esoteric magical terminology, Severus had somewhat of an epiphany. He let out a sigh and Jaidy cowered a little as he turned his full attention onto her. “Jaidy, Brendan, I know what you did and I understand in some part why you did it, but you do realise that all my secrets, all my plans, all my endeavours may come to nothing if Voldemort ever gets even the slightest whiff of a link between Harry and I?”

“Begging your pardon, your eminenceness, buts he-whos-not-be-naming is no match for elf magic. To puts it bluntly, master, he having not a clue.” Severus and Brendan were treated to the unprecedented sight of Jaidy hopping around happily. If they could have read her mind they’d have been even more worried, Jaidy still remembered Granger’s tears, and she had felt them incorporate themselves into the magic she had been working.

“And what of Malfoy,” Severus enquired sweetly, his honeyed words dripping venom. “Unfortunately, he *has* got a clue, as you so eloquently put it, because of his mistreatment of Dobby, or had you forgotten that?”

“As Jaidy explained it to me, he’s got to know what he’s looking for first, Severus, and Lucius is not that twisted to even contemplate what we have done here,” Brendan said confidently.

“I hope you are right; I hope you are both right, otherwise it is going to get very sticky very fast. Just what am I going to do with you? No, no, don’t say anything, leave your notes, I’ll look over them, but it’s too late; far too late to do anything about it, so I’ll just have to live with it. Now out of my sight before I change my mind. I’ll be approachable in a few hours; I can’t afford to indulge in any more than that. Until then, I suggest you both disappear.”

Jaidy and Brendan looked at him and decided not to argue. They walked out, with exceeding haste, and left Severus to silently contemplate the scrolls on the table. Suddenly, Severus screamed, “Damn them,” and swept the scrolls from the tabletop. He collapsed in a heap and for the second time that day Severus wept. He knew that they had no choice, but he also expected their actions could and probably would have consequences that were truly awful in their capacity for chaos and destruction. He obsessively tore the scrolls into tinier and tinier pieces as he continued to cry, almost as if he was trying to erase the knowledge of what had happened. He hoped against all hope that no one worked out what had happened, too many lives were at stake.

When he had finally worked out his anger Severus sat and began to contemplate contingency plans, the fact that the sun was beginning to set triggered a thought in the back of his head. ‘That might work’, he thought, ‘but will she agree’?


Hermione Granger looked up as the double door to the corridor reappeared some five hours after she had been summarily transported back to what she now thought of as ‘her room’. The door framed a dishevelled but remarkably healthy looking Professor Snape, a remarkably embarrassed looking Professor Snape. Hermione found herself glancing out the window; no, the world did not appear to be ending, in fact it looked like a rather pleasant evening to be locked inside with a pile of school books. Even if she had now determined that said pile included the *entire* seventh year curriculum, and beyond… and that worried her a little.

Whilst she wouldn’t admit it she was actually glad to see him in one piece again. The sight of Professor Snape, bane of Hogwarts, broken as he had been, was likely to give her nightmares for a while. What surprised her was her reaction to his more casual mode of dress: ‘If he wore that at Hogwarts he’d be fighting them off with a stick, or maybe a cauldron’, she mused. Black slacks belling slightly at the ankles, what looked like black boots mirror-finished, and that shirt? Hermione Granger had never been a fan of the piratical look until now, but Severus Snape wore it so well, white shirt, belled sleeves at the wrists, open at the neck, showing muscular shoulders, and with a line of pearl buttons and lace down the front.

“Professor Snape, to what do I owe this pleasure?” she asked, still peeved at being confined. She also realized she was almost drooling over Professor Snape.

“Miss Granger, settling in, I hope?” Severus said gently, ignoring her mood, attributing it to the situation. ‘Ah, so that’s why Potter and the boy blunder go out of their way not to aggravate her, she looks just about ready to kill’, he thought to himself as he entered the room. The door disappeared behind him.

“I don’t appear to be going anywhere,” Hermione replied eyeing off the wall behind the Professor. “Just what is my situation here, Professor?” she asked in what she hoped was a more reasonable tone; she hadn’t missed the sight stiffening in Professor Snape’s manner when she snapped earlier. Apparently it wasn’t that moderated.

“Let me be perfectly clear on this, Miss Granger, you will be my guest here for at least the foreseeable future. Unless of course you would rather actually be dead instead of my guest. Though, if that is the case, you would most likely be responsible for a few other deaths as well, mine included,” Severus replied, though he had to stifle a smile at the look that crossed Hermione’s face on the last comment. “I suppose my death might not be considered a high price, but there are a few others who would be positively crushed.” He watched her closely, weighing up his next words carefully. “At this very moment Lord Voldemort believes that I am harvesting you and your fellow Gryffindors for various components that would be useful in brewing some of the more darker potions I am apparently researching.”

Hermione had gone slightly green at the mention of harvesting, so much so that she almost missed the comment about potions research. ‘One thing at a time girl’, she admonished herself whilst she whispered, dreading the answer, “Harvesting?”

“As a fiction, it allows me to take with me whomever I happen to be ‘working’ on at the revels,” Severus replied. “Unfortunately I will need to be able to produce *some* evidence of said harvesting. Lord Voldemort can get a little testy if he doesn’t see any tangible results of his, shall we say, indulgences?” Hermione flinched at the totally dead inflection in Snape’s words, and not for the first time, wondered at the balancing act that he appeared to be attempting, admittedly very well. “It tends to keep Lord Voldemort from suspecting my activities.”

“You want to take a bit of me? Is that it?” Hermione finally asked.

“The short answer Miss Granger is ‘yes’.”

“And the long answer is?” Hermione asked.

“Voldemort has considerable protections layered about him, protection that will need to be broken if Harry is going to be able to kill him.” He sighed, frowning slightly when Hermione again looked out the window.

Hermione was actually in shock. ‘No Kansas here, no’, she admonished herself. Had she just heard Professor Snape mention Harry’s name without actually growling, snarking or generally being unpleasant? “And?” Hermione prompted, though the fact that Professor Snape flushed red at the question worried her

If she could see into he is mind at that moment she would have been more than worried. She would, in fact, be mortified, for in the same way that Hermione Granger had her own ‘internal’ calendar of ‘bad Snape days’, Severus Snape kept a veritable database of student information in his head, particularly related to the female students ‘moon’ days. He may never have ‘apparently’ made allowances, but in truth he was normally less critical of the female students during that time. It was that, and the fact that tonight was a ‘Blue Moon’ that placed him in a somewhat embarrassing but exciting position. At this moment Hermione Granger could supply one of the most potent potion ingredients ever known; how potent would be affected by her willingness to assist.

Taking a deep sigh Severus ploughed ahead, “I am aware that you are on the cusp of menstruating, Miss Granger, and before you ask, most teachers are generally aware of their female students ‘patterns’; it is considered a survival tactic. As you are well aware, magic tends to be a little, ummmm, off, you might say during that time. What I need to know is are you still chaste?”

‘Forget about Kansas Toto, I don’t think I’m in the same universe anymore’, Hermione thought to herself. “Chaste?” she asked in a bewildered tone.

“A virgin, Miss Granger, are you still a virgin?” Severus snapped, definitely not the picture of control he normally exhibited to the world.

“Professor, that is a rather personal question,” Hermione Granger said somewhat stiffly, “I mean...”

“Miss Granger, I personally couldn’t care less if you had been cavorting with the entire Gryffindor house. However, personal privacy is not the issue here. Now answer the bloody question, are you a virgin?” It took most of his formidable control not to roll his eyes as he realized the inadvertent pun. ‘Can today get any worse? No, Merlin, don’t answer that’, he thought to himself.

“Yes I am,” Hermione finally said, “but why exactly do you need to know?”

“Because, as you well know Miss Granger,” the inadvertent compliment caused Hermione to blush, “Moon blood is a rather potent potions ingredient, what you may not be aware of is that Moon Blood taken on a Blue Moon is one of the most potent of potion ingredients. In fact I may be able to use it as a basis of a potion to crack the shields around Lord Voldemort.

“In your specific case, it would also assist in maintaining the fiction that you and your fellow students are dead, and believe me, Miss Granger, I want Lord Voldemort to very much believe you are no longer alive.”

Hermione just stared at her Professor. For good measure she stared again, he wasn’t kidding. But the whole idea, “So I’m dead am I?” she asked giving herself ‘room’ to think.

“Yes Miss Granger, I am afraid you are. I will have to confine you to the manor until this is all over,” Severus said gently, allowing her time to integrate the consequences. “I can place the boys in a wizarding school in Europe, but you are a much harder child to hide.”

“But my lessons, my classes, oh Merlin, my NEWTS!” Hermione wailed as the implication of Professor Snape’s comment filtered through her already overloaded brain.

“I am sure you will find the library here sufficient for study purposes, and I am sure we can deal with the rest later,” Severus snapped despite his good intentions. “But right now I need to concentrate on fucking Voldemort, and I do not have to worry about such inconsequential things as your NEWTS.”

“But,” Hermione started to say before she thought better of it. Looking for some other topic to discuss she turned her mind to Professor Snape’s ‘unguarded’ reactions to Voldemort’s name. Hermione Granger was not an idiot, and one thing she noticed as she and the Professor had been talking was that every time Professor Snape said Voldemort’s name he’d frown, just slightly, but it was there. “Just how many children’s lives are you talking about, Professor?” she finally asked, hoping to deflect some of that anger whilst getting some idea of the extent of Snape’s deception.

“About one hundred, Miss Granger,” Severus answered accepting the deflection for what it was, it was all so Gryffindor, “and yes, you are the first person I’ve told outside of Brendan and Jaidy. Now can we please get back to the original topic?” he finished, some of the anger drained from his tone.

“Yes you may take my blood Professor,” she said quietly, “if it will help, I will gladly allow you to take it.”

Severus sighed deeply, “Miss Granger, thank you, though it is not strictly I who would be taking it. If you will come with me?” he said as he turned back to the door which wasn’t there before.

“Where are we going?” Hermione asked suddenly worried about exactly how Professor Snape was going to obtain her blood given his last comment.

“You will see,” she heard Severus say as he strode off down the hall

Realizing the door was still open, and that she’d rather be anywhere else other than stuck in that room for any longer, Hermione quickly followed. Severus led her down the stairs and out into the gardens behind the manor. Lit by rising moonlight and the last of the fading sun she saw a small temple on the island of the Estate’s ornamental lake. The Goddess in her three forms, Maiden, Mother and Crone looked down on Severus and Hermione as they approached. Severus smiled gently as he helped Hermione into the small boat at the lake’s edge, “To counter Lord Voldemort, we must call on older forces,” he said, Severus hadn’t missed the look of awe that had crossed Miss Granger’s features.

Hermione for her part was remembering a comment about Russia during the Second World War. ‘An enigma, wrapped up in a mystery’, Churchill had said describing Russia. ‘That comment could as well be applied to Professor Snape’, she thought to herself as the boat glided, propelled by some unseen force, towards the temple. This was further confirmed as she watched Professor Snape make his observances to the Lady; perfunctory they were not. “Come, Miss Granger, I have someone you would like to meet,” Severus said enigmatically as he walked into the temple.

That ‘someone’ soon became obvious. In the centre of the Temple stood a statue, tall, graceful embodied with the power of woman one moment, a girl on the cusp purity shining forth then next, and sometimes, only sometimes, aged, dignified and still very powerful, the crone. The statue stopped shifting, the maiden aspect looking at Hermione. “She is strong, Severus,” the statue commented, “very strong. Are you sure you want to play with that fire?”

“I have no choice at the moment.” Severus said, “If the fire can provide a weapon, then with fire I will play.”

“You wish to help Severus, my priest, my warrior, my love?” the statue said smiling benevolently. Hermione did not think she could be any more shocked. She was wrong. The Lady continued addressing Hermione. “Do you offer freely and of your own will?”

Severus looked at Hermione sharply. “Answer her honestly, with all that Gryffindor courage, girl.”

As Hermione murmured her assent, the robes she was wearing were transformed, no longer dark and heavy, they glowed white, purest virgin silk draped diaphanously down, pooling at her feet, which she noticed in passing were now unclad.

Hermione drew her gaze back towards the Professor to find his aspect changed, pagan tales of Celtic High Priests came to mind. Like Jaidy before, Severus Snape appeared to wear an otherworldly aspect, Herne, the Hunter, in all his glory. His clothes now a robe of deep forest green, open to reveal his muscular form, trews of green hugged his legs and his feet to were unclad. The Hunter overlaid Professor Snape; the two were one.

It was the statue, though, that spoke the ritual words, the statue that questioned her, and the statue that summoned her blood. Hermione felt the ripple of power that surged through her as the Maiden drew her moonblood forth, a stain appearing on the white silken robe at the place where her womb lay. Suspended before her, awaiting the final commands, her blood danced in a suspended globe before her eyes.

The statue turned her attention to her High Priest, the Hunter, who stood as silent as the grave, waiting. In his hands a bloodstone dagger, and a vial of translucent moonstone. As Hermione’s blood had appeared, the Hunter had taken the dagger and drawn it across his chest. The incision was above the heart, at the point where Jaidy had made her incision earlier; one drop of the Hunter’s blood for every drop of Hermione’s blood spilled to the floor. The Maiden smiled as an equal weight of blood was given to the earth in place of Hermione’s blood which would not be shed this moon. It was the High Priest who spoke the words to summon Hermione’s blood to the vial.

Severus Snape felt the High Priest’s Aspect leaving him and with it came the pain of the self-inflicted wound, a wound that would only heal under natures time. Grateful that this time duty had only required his blood, he sent forth his thanks to the Powers. He stepped forward carefully and took Hermione’s hand, “Come child,” he said, his voice still overlaid with the last of the High Priest, as he drew her back towards the boat, “you have done well this night.”

Hermione, exhausted and bewildered, leaned heavily on her professor as he led her back to the boat. The trip seemed much longer this time, and she barely noticed her sleeping robes had been summoned before she was slipped in between the sheets of her new bed.


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