Chapter Four
-Bad News-
I'd never lie to you
Unless I had to
I'll do what I got to
Unless I had to I'll do what I go to
Remus Lupin looked thoughtfully at the letter in his hands. Hedwig had tapped urgently on his kitchen window earlier that morning-the letter tied to her leg. He read it over again; Harry's messy handwriting had scribbled only a few words:
Lupin-
Hermione sick.
Healer says `Efflectum Memoria'
Can you help?
-Harry
He'd always known Harry to be a man of few words, but this was ridiculous. Three lines? Words of a spell he'd never heard of? Lupin sighed and rubbed his eyes, fighting back a yawn. He grabbed a quill and a fresh scrap of parchment and scribbled back:
Harry-
I'll help-any more information you can give me?
I'll start researching.
How sick?
-Lupin
A response came that afternoon just after lunch:
Lupin-
Sick.
Thanks.
-Harry
***
Harry had felt bad about being so short in his letters to Lupin, but truthfully, he'd had no time for lengthy correspondence. He'd spent the last four days researching the mystery curse with Ron, Ginny, Fred, George, and Hermione at home. She'd been released until the Healers could determine some sort of treatment and had insisted that they immediately get to work researching and learning all they could about Efflectum Memoria.
All they could, unfortunately, was a lot of nothing.
"Nothing, nothing, nothing, bloody nothing!" Ron slammed his sixth heavy Dark Magic book shut. "I can't find a damn thing and the pages of that book burn my fingers!"
"Really?" Ginny leaned over her brother's hand with interest. "Oh yeah…look, they're all red and swollen. Do you think they'd hurt to touch them?"
"Piss off, Gin," Ron grumbled, stealing his hand back from his sister.
"Aw, ickle Ronnikins…" George shook his head, "is that mean book hurting your feelings?" He clucked his tongue and ruffled Ron's hair.
"Don't worry, Ron-Bon…we won't let those mean books hurt your delicate hands anymore," Fred snatched the book away and tossed it unceremoniously into the discard pile.
Hermione, who had been growing more and more irritated with each passing moment, slammed down the book she'd been flipping through. "Fred!"
He looked up innocently, "What?"
"That book is over twelve centuries old!"
His twin and he shared a confused look, "So? It's not like I threw a new one."
She groaned and put her aching head in her hands. "Are we getting anywhere?"
"No," Ginny answered honestly, twirling a lock of her hair around her finger. "We've been through every book we have on the subject." She spun to begin stacking the discarded books properly, listing them as she did so. "Modern Curses of the Twentieth Century; Dark and Nasty Magic of the Northern Isles; Modern Curses of the Twenty-First Century-"
"That seems a bit premature, don't you think?" George interjected suddenly, "It's only just begun, after all."
Ginny ignored him. "Boils and Sores: A History of Vulgar and Unfortunate Curses; and as we've just found out causes flesh to sizzle, De Bevrediging Van Kwaad Doet…which, I don't actually understand what that means…but it doesn't sound good and it wasn't helpful."
"It's Dutch," Hermione said passively, feeling her headache pain begin to increase as her potion wore off further.
"Oh," Ginny studied the title again, "What's it mean?"
"It means…" Hermione thought for a moment. "Um…it's Dutch for…" She knew this. She knew she knew this-she remembered seeing the book in the Restricted Section and going to translate it straight away. "Means…"
"The Satisfaction of Evil Doing," Harry reminded softly, not looking up from his book.
Hermione bit her lip, "Right, yeah. That's…that's what it means."
He looked up apologetically, "I only remember because it was talked about in one of my classes."
Ginny nodded slowly, taking in what was going on across the room. "Well, it's good that we all know."
"Right, that's the important thing," Hermione pretended to brush away some crumbs from the sandwich she'd barely touched and looked around for another book. "What else have we got?"
"A few books from Hogwarts, nothing too inspiring," Ron looked at the dwindling pile.
"Can I make a suggestion?" Ginny asked, timidly. Everyone turned to her expectantly. "I don't think this is going to do much, our sitting around flipping through a bunch of books. I mean, who knows how sick Hermione might get before we even find a mention of this curse."
"Quite right, Miss Weasley," a familiar voice from the doorway made them all jump in surprise. They turned from their places scattered about the living room to see Lupin shutting the front door behind him. "Harry, you'll want to be better about locking you door-anyone could just walk right in."
Harry had gotten to his feet and greeted the older man with a brotherly hug. "Thanks for coming, Professor."
"Just Remus, Harry. We've been over this."
"Come to help then, Just Remus?" Ron flipped his hair from his eyes but seemed quite relieved for a break in the tension.
"Come to do what I can, Ron. Only what I can." Lupin set his coat over the back of the sofa. "What have we got so far?"
"Nothing," Harry sighed, sitting back down.
"Nothing at all," Ron added miserably.
"More nothing than that," Ginny conceded, dropping her chin onto her hands.
"Well…" the news of so much nothing only knocked the wind from Remus' sails slightly. "No matter, we'll just have to be more thorough."
"How'd you expect we do that, exactly, when all the books we have are written by good wizards for good wizards who wouldn't have the slightest clue what do with a curse like this?" Hermione asked, not bothering to mask her annoyance.
"Aha, Hermione-you of all people should know that the key to effective research is to know where to look."
"And where do you suggest we look?" she asked, eyebrows raised expectantly.
"Actually, it was more of a `whom' than a `where.'" Remus cleared his throat. "The trick to Dark Magic is being able to think like a Dark wizard."
"So what are you suggesting, we take a field trip to Azkaban?" George looked at him incredulously.
"No, no, dear boy. I'm suggesting we tap into one of the few people we know who actually has thought like a Dark wizard and see what he knows."
Harry's eyes got wide. "Oh no-if you're suggesting who I think you're suggesting…"
"He's our best hope, Harry."
Hermione looked from one man to the other before realization dawned on her. "You've got to be kidding me."
***
Snape's office, despite having moved from the dungeons to the upstairs of the castle, was still ice cold as Lupin and Harry waited impatiently inside.
The door opened suddenly and Severus swept in, pausing for a moment to take in the strange sight before him. "You've got to be kidding me."
"Well, we know how you love a good joke," Harry mumbled, rolling his eyes.
"Quite possibly the last two people I ever expected to see asking for my help."
"We're not asking for your help!" Harry snapped, getting to his feet.
Remus grabbed his arm and forced him back into his chair. "We are, actually, Severus. We're asking for your help." He gave Harry a glare which cleared said `control your temper.'
"Why, on this green and fertile earth would I have need to help you?"
"It's Hermione Granger."
"Oh Lord," Snape rolled his eyes and sat down behind his desk.
Harry's eyes flashed angrily and he made a move toward his former professor before Lupin restrained him again. "This isn't working; Harry-why don't you go and wait outside."
With a grumble and a few muttered obscenities, Harry turned from the desk and out of the office, closing the door behind him. He stood uselessly in the hall for a few moments before deciding that a visit to McGonagall's wouldn't be a complete waste of time. He'd taken roughly five steps away from the door to Snape's office before crashing head-on into Malfoy.
"Let's keep that swollen head of yours up, eh Potter?" Malfoy muttered, pushing past.
"Piss off, Malfoy," Harry agreed, continuing on his way.
After a moment, they both stopped and turned.
"What are you doing here?" they asked in unison.
"Me? What about you?"
Draco shook his head and waited a moment to see if Harry would say anything before he answered his own question. "I work here, Potter. What's your excuse?"
"Here to see someone."
"Really."
"Wait a minute," Harry's brow furrowed, "you're working here?"
"Did I stutter?"
"Who the devil would hire you?"
"Not really much of your concern, is it Potter? You still haven't really answered my question."
"It's none of your business why I'm here Malfoy-don't you have some students to be harassing?"
"Not at the moment, I just made a third year cry-it's been a full morning."
"Lovely to see your ambition reaching such great heights," Harry commented dryly.
Snape's door opened and both men immerged, looking grim. Severus' black eyes fell on the scene before him. "Malfoy, I'll need a word," he ushered his colleague into his office and shut the door behind them.
"How'd that go?" Harry asked once they were alone.
"Better once you left," Lupin answered honestly. "Harry, you've got to learn to control your temper. We're all concerned about Hermione and everyone is trying to do what they can to help-sometimes that means doing things you may not want to do."
"Such as?"
"For starters, more research. Severus has given me-and consequently you-free reign over the Hogwarts library, Restricted Section included."
"Fabulous." Harry seemed less than excited.
"It's our best option at the moment-we'll take what we can back with us and start over again."
Harry sighed, "Yeah, sure."
***
"Guess what I found!" George exclaimed, hoisting a decrepit-looking book into the air.
"What?"
"More nothing than usual," he dropped it back into his lap and began flipping through the pages again.
Hermione sighed. "Wonderful. At this rate I'll be found out before we dead anything." She stopped for a moment. "I mean that the other way around."
Ginny smiled pacifically, "We know you did." She got to her feet and started toward the kitchen, "We're all just tired-I'm going to go make some tea."
Ron smiled, "A Weasley reflex-whenever something is going badly, put on some tea."
Harry smiled to himself and turned the page, finding it to nothing but a huge, dark, stain of blood. "This is helpful," he muttered, looking up to see Hermione staring at him from across the room. "Hermione, are you sure you've never heard of this curse before? Nothing in your studies or in Hogwarts: A History?" The last part was meant to be a joke, but Hermione dropped her head to her hands and looked as though she were about to cry. Instantly, Harry was on his feet and at her side. "I was just kidding," he said quickly, "if you say you've never heard of it, I believe you."
She sniffled, "But I feel like I have heard of it. Or at least, I think I did. But everything is so jumbled up…it's all mixed up and none makes any sense anymore."
He rubbed her back comfortingly. "It's okay, Hermione. No one expects you to know everything."
"Maybe there's something we've overlooked-it's got to be somewhere," Ginny said encouragingly passing her friend a fresh cup of tea.
"No, Weasley, actually it doesn't." A voice from the door made them all jump and turn again. Malfoy stood leaning casually on the doorframe, his arms crossed lazily, looking incredibly bored.
"What the bloody hell are you doing here?" Ron asked, getting to his feet.
"Special assignment from Snape-Potter, honestly, I could've been Voldemort himself, you'll want to lock your door."
"Believe me, I am kicking myself," Harry informed him, pushing his glasses up onto the bridge of his nose.
"What do you want, Malfoy?" Ron asked again, not satisfied with the answer he'd been given.
"Snape sent me to help out your little justice league, Weasleby: claws in. I'm just here to pass on what he knows about this whole curse thing."
"And here, I thought they had owls for that sort of thing," Fred commented.
"Usually, yes. But I thought I'd brighten your day with a personal visit."
"Could you all just shut up so he can tell us what he has to and go?" Ginny snapped, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Thank you," Draco took a few steps into the flat. "Efflectum Memoria, my friends, is not something you're going to find in a book."
"We're hardly friends, Malfoy," Ron grumbled.
"Weasley-you're throwing off my monologue. Pipe down." He cleared his throat. "As I was saying, it's ancient, deep magic. Blood magic. Stuff that was around before they started writing and teaching it to each other. It's rare to find someone who knows what it is, let alone how to do it-it's apparently a very complicated spell."
"Fine, Malfoy, we can't do a paper on it-why don't you tell us what it does?" Harry prompted impatiently.
"It's bad, Potter. Really bad." He paused for dramatic effect. "It destroys the mind."
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A/N: Hope you enjoyed! Review and continue to be the wonderful human beings you are!
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