Chapter 34 - The Elixir of Magic
Harry reappeared and stumbled forward, falling on the individual who Side-Alonged him out of the diner, their collective weight disturbing the soft thick snow. He had his wand at the ready quite prepared to Stun the individual who was face up and pinned down under him, until he recognized the chocolate brown eyes that stared back at him just inches away.
"Hermione! You're all right!" he exclaimed, relieved that she was.
"I will be once you get off me and stop screaming in my ear," she replied.
She was squirming, trying to carve more space between their pressed bodies only to make it worse. Her breathing was stifled and was surprisingly annoyed at something. What was it this time? And he was already quite hopeful that after their cordial conversation, things were looking up and that they were, maybe, just a couple of snogs away from getting back on track. Scratch that. Must focus on immediate task at hand. They were just behind the hedge of his yard a few feet from his front door.
He got on his feet and pulled her up by the hand without asking, having done so countless times before, irked when she abruptly snatched her hand away from his as she got to her feet. Her response to his chivalrous action made him grit his teeth and once again could not help but vent his frustration.
"Was it too much to expect you to answer to your name?" he said unkindly.
"Well, pardon me for being inconsiderate," she replied in kind, "I really should have answered after I got away from the person who grabbed and pulled me but silly me thought it best not to just in case he was still close by."
"I could have seriously cursed you taking me out of there like that without a warning!"
"Fine! Next time we're in danger, I'll remember to leave you behind!"
It pissed him off even more that he had already put her at risk and she had not even been in Toronto half a day. He calmed down a bit.
"Did you see any faces?"
"It was kind of dark on my side of the booth and my Hand of Glory is in my other purse," she retorted sarcastically as she brushed off snow from her hair and clothes. "Who were they anyway?"
"I don't know. Bad guys?" he snapped at her.
"Don't you get snarky with me! I wasn't the one who left the potion on the table."
What?! She was the one who started it!
She then said to him, "We need to talk, securely."
He understood the need to do so; it was likely they were being watched and listened in to. Swearing many times to himself, he led Hermione back into his house down the corridor that led to his kitchen.
"I see you've easily assimilated the local culture and language," she commented on his foul mouth.
Hermione was annoyed and did not really require an answer. Yes, he did use bad language more but anyone would too if they worked with Andy.
"We have to get that potion back," he said to her before taking out his wand and pointed it to the four corners of the kitchen incanting "Impertubatus totalum" non-verbally.
She did not answer. She was pacing, thinking, maybe she did not hear him.
"Are we secure?" she asked after he stopped.
"We should be."
"I need your disguise kit."
"What for?"
"Just...just give it to me," she said to him impatiently complete with hand gestures and all.
It had been a long time since they worked together like this he almost forgot that this was how she was sometimes, preferring to not answer questions while she was in the middle of something.
"This changes everything," Hermione mumbled to herself, waiting, pacing again.
He kept his reply to that to himself as he summoned what she requested from a hidden closet and handed it to her.
Hermione set it on his kitchen counter and rummaged through his Ministry issue stealth and disguise kit, taking out the phial containing a thick, dark, muddy potion. With a nail file, she scraped something off the bottom of her nails from a couple of fingers on her left hand into the container. The potion frothed and acquired a different hue.
"We need it to stand a bit. I'm not quite sure I got enough," she said to him as he stood beside her and watched.
"You scratched him," she did, whoever it was who grabbed her, and what she had added to the potion was a bit of skin and dried blood.
"Or from the pinkish color, likely, her," she muttered a spell to cleanse her hands.
"Brilliant!"
He had always been amazed how quickly her mind responded under extreme pressure.
"It was reflex," she explained. Was she blushing? She then asked, "Aside from the entire Toronto MLE, and the Squibb who dropped it, who else knows you had it?"
"Realistically, anyone. Anyone in that briefing room could have blabbed to anyone," he answered.
"That narrows down our list of suspects."
He ignored her caustic remark.
"Whoever they were they knew it was important. They obviously don't want me to hand it into the MLE for analysis."
"Which means you're probably right about what it is. Or it's definitely something that they don't want the MLE to know."
She took a glance at the Polyjuice Potion, and, deciding it was the best it could be given the amount of subject they had in it, retrieved a mirror from within her purse and held up the phial in his face.
Her suggestion was met with unmistakable hesitance.
"What? You didn't really think I was mixing the potion for myself, did you?"
He did not have to answer.
"I got the specimen and I made the juice. It's only fair that you take it," she said to him as his face involuntarily acquired that look of disgust which always went with the thought of drinking Polyjuice.
He tried to reason with her, "But it's likely a woman's."
It was definitely wishful thinking on his part that that would matter.
"It'll do you good to experience being one. And if you do turn into a woman think of it as...um...poetic justice," she retorted, shaking the phial in front of him, enjoying all this too much, not giving him much of a choice, then with annoyance at the delay, added, "Just drink it. You've certainly taken it for less important reasons before. You want a suspect, don't you?"
He snatched the phial with bubbly pinkish potion from her and readied himself, as she held up the mirror for him to see, taking it straight up, fast, by experience the method he found the best. She was right, there was probably not enough specimen to make him transform to the exact likeness of the person she injured for he didn't feel the usual repulsiveness that came with drinking the juice. Hermione was scrutinizing every detail on him, her eyes appraising him inch by inch a little too much, he thought, he felt naked. Their eyes briefly met, locked, and she saw something that made her frown then suddenly look up.
Harry took the mirror from her, peeked in to see what it was and a pair of familiar green eyes stared back at him. Looking upwards he noticed the one change that did occur.
"Do you feel differently?" she asked.
"Like how?" he continued to peruse himself to see if there was anything else.
"Having a certain liking or craving for something that you don't normally have...wanting to do something that you don't normally do..."
The answer was no to the former and yes to the latter. Somehow he didn't think she would appreciate his honesty if he mentioned how he wanted to kiss her right then and right there.
"No."
"Feel a bit effeminate at all?"
"Ef...womanly, no."
"Any subtle physical changes down, you know, there?" she asked with some apprehension, motioning with her finger to a vague area below.
With a bit of dread over what he might see and already thinking about how he was ever going to recover from a memory like that, he unbuttoned his trousers and looked down his boxers, examining his thing thoroughly.
After careful assessment he reported, relieved, "No."
"Are you sure? Size...length..."
"No..."
"Hair color..."
"No..."
"Location, pattern, distribution..."
"No, no, no!" he reiterated, then, fed up, tugged his pants forward towards her mischievously offered, "You can see for yourself if you want!"
She stepped back, red in the face and declined defensively, "I was just being thorough!"
Right!
Hermione exhaled her frustration, obviously disappointed. And he was hoping she would be relieved, too.
"It's just too bad I didn't get enough for us to at least identify gender. Well, we do know one other thing," she replied.
"What?"
"You should never dye your hair pale blonde," she said matter-of-factly before moving away.
He wanted to ask her what she meant by that but she had turned her back and was already on the phone calling someone at St. Mungo's. Taking another furtive look at the mirror, he actually thought it looked good on him, save for the fact that it reminded him of something unpleasant he could not put a finger on.
Harry got Andy on the phone to tell her what just happened. Hermione had paced back towards where he was and they stood a few feet apart, both on the phone, staring in the direction of but past each other.
"So, you're quite certain there are no inscriptions inside the phial..."
"Hi, it's me."
"No letters?...No numbers?...What about foreign characters?"
"Yes, we were there. We lost it," he had to distance the phone away from his ear as a cacophony of swear words overflowed from it.
As he was with her phone conversation, Hermione was listening in to his. She faced away but not before he saw her scowl.
"No, huh? Try one thing for me...break it..."
"Andy..." he was trying to interrupt.
"You heard me, break it. Smash it, throw it, pulverize it...break it..."
"Andy...stop..."
"Yeah, I heard it break," she frowned.
"Instant Peruvian Darkness Powder...don't know who they were...best not to say anything to anyone yet until we have a plan. Any suggestions?"
"And the repairing charm just works fine on it...hmm..."
"Can you go over and find out what the Hit wizards are up to?"
"I need another favor…send it to Luna Lovegood at the Department of Mysteries…"
"And before you leave, check out the unused phial from the evidence locker."
"Nothing really, just grasping at straws…how's the miracle patient?"
Miracle patient?
"I just don't want it to go missing."
"And nothing yet from the works?"
"We'll talk later."
"Thanks, Delilah. Let me know if something else turns up."
Their phone conversations ended simultaneously and she stood in his kitchen, unmoving, deep in thought.
"I overheard about the phial," he said to her, breaking the silence between them.
She nodded.
"I'm sending it to Luna for more tests."
"Who's the miracle patient?"
Hermione recanted the strange events of the morning in Filch's hospital room with the student's wand and he told her about a similar incident the day before at the Muggle loony bin.
"Hmm…this is getting even more curious. Jane Doe, can I see her?"
"I don't see why not. The Healers at the Toronto Hospital are stumped about her they could use your help," Harry replied.
"I seriously doubt that after last year," she said absentmindedly, more to herself and added before he could say anything else, "What do you have to do?"
After beating himself up for losing the only evidence he had against Greasy?
"I have to go back to the Ministry and report the phial missing," Harry said to her, and, to give her an idea of how bad the situation was, said, "That will only add to the already popular belief that I'm loopy for thinking this magic enabling potion actually exists."
"Are you going to tell them how it went missing?"
"I don't see why not."
"For one it will make you appear even crazier if you're going to say there is some conspiracy theory trying to cover up its existence."
"But there is! I saw the potion used last year and the Squibs and Muggles who witnessed it are all dead, no trace or evidence of the potion was ever found and…"
His voice trailed off as Hermione gave him this look that reiterated the point she just made, making him even angrier at himself for losing the phial.
"Fine! But I said I had the phial, the Ministry is expecting me to turn it in and if I don't get it back, I'd have to tell them I lost it. Because, unless you tell me you can actually make the bloody purple potion, turning in something different will make me look worse than an imbecile!"
He was puffing from his rant and was even more irritated that Hermione seemed not to be getting the enormity of his problem.
"We need that potion back!"
"Why? You already know what it is and what it does. Maybe it is better that it remains unknown to the rest of the world," she said to him calmly.
"What?!" he couldn't believe she just said what she did.
"Maybe losing it was a good thing."
"I can't believe I'm hearing this."
"An elixir of magic will change a lot of things, Harry, particularly if everyone has the recipe to make it."
"But the world changes all the time. Change is constant. New technology is always developed and ways of life are altered. People will adapt. You do research to make things better. You know this," Harry approached her, puzzled by her non support of the concept of such a potion.
"I do, and yes, people will adapt to change but at what cost?" she replied, "With everything we always have to weigh benefits and risks. That's why Nicholas Flamel's elixir of life was never made for public use. Is this potion worth the social upheaval that it will bring?"
"Being able to do magic is great," he said as he remembered the very first time he intentionally made something happen with this wand.
"It is, but unless this elixir of magic can make everyone freely magical like you and me are, I would rather it did not exist."
Seeing his frown she continued, "We don't know enough about this new potion. We suspect it enables certain Squibs temporarily but will that be true for all? Will it enable all Muggles? Will it be readily available for everyone who needs it? What's needed to make it and how easy is it to make? And will it be safe for everyone to use?"
She had good points. Hermione wasn't done as she spoke passionately on the subject, trying to explain her point of view, hoping he would change his mind.
"While the intention to create one may have been noble, there will always be those who will use it to take advantage of the very beings it was made for and there will be those who will taint it by finding less humane uses."
"If you want proof, just look at history. The earliest weapons were not intended to be weapons but for use in hunting and survival. Then someone thought it would be great to use it to kill enemies, conquer lands, rule over other nations. Weapons and weapons technology is currently a billion dollar industry."
Hermione carried on, "And what started out as a search for alternative sources of energy gave us nuclear power. That seemed okay until someone put it inside a bomb, killing and maiming hundreds and thousands of civilians because they were not creative enough to come up with a better plan to end a war. Just imagine how many nuclear warheads are out there, now being peddled like common produce, to whoever will pay for it most? How many have died and how many more will because of it?"
"I'm sure the inventors didn't think that could happen," Harry interjected, "Fear of misfits using your invention to do harm should not be reason to stop trying to change the world for the better."
"That wasn't my point. The point is whether we like it or not a magic enabling potion will be a commodity and we have to be cautious about what we do if the purple potion is indeed one. You already said so; they're selling it. It will be subject to the laws of supply and demand, the highest bidders will get it and they will use it to profit even more, to take advantage."
"And if it can do for Muggles what it can do for Squibs I really don't think we can keep its existence hushed up and uphold the statute of secrecy. Muggle-borns like myself will want this for my family and the economic incentive to break it will be too great. And considering that this world cannot even feed its hungry and provide the thirsty clean water for free, I am skeptical about the potion ever becoming available for use at no cost by everyone who so chooses. I can't support unleashing to the general public something that will favor the haves over the have-nots and create more inequality."
"Of course, I could be wrong and worried over nothing but that's how I feel."
Hermione stopped, breathing heavily as if she had just finished a marathon. Harry felt pride and admiration for the woman before him who always championed the disadvantaged and had the moral fiber to look at the bigger picture. Her full blown diatribe on why the purple potion should not go public at this time actually embarrassed him.
"I'll be honest with you," he answered the look of anticipation on her face as she waited for his response. "I have not thought much about how this potion will affect the world. Until you said what you said, the phial to me was evidence that a Squib can do magic and I'm desperate to get it back."
"Is proving that more important than keeping this potion a secret?"
"He used magic to kill someone."
"Justice for one person is not enough reason to expose this. Many more will die once more riffraff become aware of its existence."
"Even if that person is Ron?"
She looked surprised and was speechless for a bit. Hermione did not expect it at all.
"This is the same Squib from last year?"
Harry was glad she at least remembered what he told her, why he was going to Toronto. At that time, he wasn't sure she was listening although the one thing she said to him was that Ron's death was an accident and that he should just let it go.
"Yes. He had something to do with Ron's death and that potion was the only evidence I had to prove he's capable of doing more than what the MLE thinks he is."
When he saw grief in her eyes he did not have the heart to add that with it he could probably have Ron's case re-opened. Understandably, thinking about what happened to Ron was still difficult for her. She bit her lower lip and turned away from him, the sight of her shutting him out was heart-wrenching for he wanted to comfort her, if only she would let him. He was afraid to hurt her more if he touched her.
"Ron's case aside, I hear what you're saying," he said to her softly, "But the fact still remains that the potion is out there, it's being sold and used illegally. I have to stop it and the more I know about it the better. Because if I'm not able to put an end to it, it won't matter whether the MLE knows what's in it or not. A lot more people, those who use it and those they'll use it on, will know it exists."
He waited for her response and after some time, Hermione brushed off some tears that had fallen on her cheeks and faced him. She knew he was right about this.
"You're positive about this potion and about this Squib?"
"Yes, I am."
"Do you trust me completely?
Always have and always will.
"You know I do. What is it?"
"Call your boss. Tell him what happened at the diner," she said to him and, from within her purse, took out quill and parchment, scribbling a list of names on it. "Tell him to arrange for these people to come to the MLE lab in two hours and to provide an eager Squibb to help in a closed-door demonstration of the Elixir of Magic. If he says no, tell him you're concerned about the statute of secrecy and will go to someone above him if you're forced to."
Seriously, she really had to stop making him figure out where she was going with this. He quickly glanced at the list that she handed him. Ministers of Magic, Heads of Departments of Mystery and the MLE, the Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards, the Head of the Association for the Protection of Squibs, the Headmistress of the Global Registry of Potionmakers …should he point out to her that they didn't have potion to demonstrate? Or was the point to embarrass him in front of the most influential people in the magical world?
"But..."
She did not allow him to interrupt.
"Before we meet with them I'm going to need an hour private use of a non-Ministry owned Level 5 potions lab."
"What are you up to?" he had to ask.
"I need to take a closer look at what's in this."
As she said that, Hermione pulled from within her robes pocket the phial with the purple potion, the very same one he thought they had lost in the diner.
A/N. What I really liked about JKR's Hermione was her quick thinking under stress and I can't write her any differently.