melusin (melusin) wrote in melusin_la_fey, @ 2010-12-09 15:13:00 |
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Entry tags: | ppp, ss/hg |
The Purple Passion Potion: Part 2
Title: The Purple Passion Potion
Rating: NC-17.
Author's Note Disclaimer: Characters depicted belong to JK Rowling. No money has changed hands.
It was definitely not the weather for a thin, short-sleeved, muslin robe. The temperature had dropped several degrees in the space of twenty-four hours, making Hermione extremely grateful that Snape had given her permission to Apparate directly into his laboratory and that she wouldn’t have to brave the bitterly cold, late Autumn wind dressed in something so flimsy. She still took the precaution of casting a warming charm before securing her hair in a loose ponytail and putting on her cloak, though; cutting and preparing ingredients wasn’t going to bring her out in a sweat, after all.
With Ron out of the picture, the only male Hermione had to worry about feeding was Crookshanks, and he would be absolutely fine with some tuna and biscuits. She double-checked that his water bowl was full, grabbed her bag and Disapparated.
Snape didn’t so much as flinch when Hermione appeared a few feet away from him at the appointed time.
‘You are one minute late,’ he said without looking up.
‘Sorry, my watch must be slow.’ Hermione smiled tightly as she took off her cloak and hung it up behind the door. ‘Oh, you’ve started without me.’
‘The preparation does not require your presence,’ Severus said, pounding something red in the mortar and pestle. About half the workbench was covered in small dishes filled with brightly coloured ingredients. ‘And as you can see, I have almost finished. But you may chop the hellebore roots now that you’re here. With this…’ He passed her a silver knife, handle first. ‘I take it Miss Weasley is still with us?’
‘Hmm?’ Hermione’s eyes scanned the table. She’d never known a potion with such a wide variety of components. This was going to take a lot of stirring. ‘Oh, yes, she’s fine. Very relieved it’s all over…' That was one hour of her life she didn’t want repeated. 'If you don’t mind me saying so, you’ve got an awful lot of crushed minerals, here.’
Severus stopped pounding. ‘Indeed. It would appear that each stage of the brewing process is stabilised by a semi-precious gem or mineral. Colour seems to be significant, which is why the ingredients are so arranged.’ A handful more of the red stuff—some sort of beetle, Hermione noted—went into the mortar. ‘The quantity required, fortunately, survives in the text.’
‘It’s like a rainbow,’ Hermione murmured. ‘Must be costing your client a fortune, though. What if the experiment’s a failure? Will we try again?’
He snorted. ‘Money is not a problem for my client—other than establishing whether or not her current admirer is more interested in it than her.’
‘But the potion…’ Hermione frowned, puzzled. ‘That doesn’t make sense. Even if it works, it won’t tell her that, just that her current love interest is or isn’t the one. It’s not going to tell her if he’s after her money.’
‘Quite.’ The corner of his mouth quirked ever so slightly. ‘But I was not about to tell her that.’
Was that a stab at humour? Surely not? Probably best to ignore it. ‘I suppose we’d better get on with it, then.’
The hellebore roots were easy to spot, and soon Hermione was cutting them finely to Severus’ exact specifications. She worked quickly, effortlessly falling into the rhythm of chopping and slicing as if it were something she did it every day for a living. Severus supervised for a while, but once he’d finished crushing the red beetles into a paste, he busied himself with fetching and preparing the cauldron: large, pewter with a copper bottom, it looked heavy, but he managed to lift it onto the workbench without any spellwork nor without so much as a grunt of exertion. Satisfied that everything was now in order, Severus lit the flame and declared they were ready to begin.
‘The base will be formed by the red components,’ he said, shuffling the appropriate dishes closer to the cauldron. ‘I shall add while you stir.’
‘Okay… Wood or glass?’ Hermione nodded towards the stirring rods laid out with military precision on an adjacent bench.
‘Wood.’
Hermione chose a sturdy looking piece of birch and approached the cauldron. ‘So… you didn’t really say why the brewer needs to be the same gender as the client.’
‘Do you intend pestering me with your interminable questions all afternoon?’ Severus grumbled. ‘Or can we get on?’
‘I only asked,’ Hermione replied with a huff. ‘I’m just interested, that’s all.’
‘Oh,very well.’ Picking up the first dish, Severus emptied its contents into the cauldron. ‘From what I can understand, there must be a degree of empathy if the person in need of the potion does not have the skill to brew it,’ Severus began. ‘The notes to the recipe stipulate that this potion, if brewed by a man for a woman to use, cannot be guaranteed to be totally effective, and the opposite is also true when the genders are reversed. And as you have already ascertained, this is an expensive experiment. There is no point in taking the risk; there are enough variables already. Now, unless you wish to waste any more precious time, I suggest we proceed…’