A/N. Here's the penultimate chapter...
Chapter 66 - The Potion
Malfoy remained unemotional and detached as they studied Tilden Toots' modified plants. If it was possible at all to convince him to not go through with his plans before his conversation with Mia, it was definitely not possible now. Malfoy-the-good, real or fake, was gone, at least for the moment.
It was very disturbing seeing the altered plants. As she walked by she thought she heard voices, some sad some angry, asking her, pleading her, demanding for justice. But judging from the non-reaction of Toots and Malfoy it was likely all her imagination. She felt a mix of grief, guilt and sorrow knowing that pieces of Firenze, Winky and Ragnok were now part of them, immortalized without consent. It would be incorrect to assume that all of them would want this distinction.
Make the potion or watch others die; watch Harry die. She had clear choices; unpopular, undesirable, but clear. The answer to that was a no-brainer and not the conundrum troubling her at the moment.
Disquiet was raging within Hermione and she realized that it was because she never got to answer her question about what she thought of the potion Malfoy wanted her to create. If she was asked to do this without coercion would she? It would have been easy to hide behind his veiled threats and not think further but now that she was 'up', she needed an honest answer for herself. Could she really do this? Was this the right thing to do? Did she agree that the potion had to be made?
Her anxiety about the outcome of what she was about to do had quadrupled since she found out Malfoy was involved. It did not escape her that Malfoy gave her the same Bruin sob story Ted Waterman gave Mia to get her involved and, earnest or not, there was no way she was going to trust him ever again. What made it complicated was the fact that distrust aside she agreed with Malfoy; the potion in its current state would kill far more beings and cause more chaos than the one he intended to make.
But being in this garden of death made her realize just now how immoral it would be to proceed. Malfoy was in the wrong and she agreed with Mia. This wasn't the way to go; nothing good could ever result from the evil that it took to get them to where they were. The means did not justify the end no matter how pretty a picture it painted. In a few minutes she would be brewing this version of the Bruin magic enabling potion not because she believed it to be the right thing to do but because she had to and if she was unlucky enough to survive she would have to live with its consequences until the day she died.
"Mr. Toots, Healer Granger. Hermione, this is Mr. Toots."
Toots was listless as they were briefly introduced. It was as if the life had been sucked out of him. He was staring blankly at his three green thumbs, darkening in hue by the minute, muttering apologies for invoking dark magic that Snape had developed to fuse animal and plant genes into one. As instructed by the Potion Master, Toots had created for them several iterations of the magical being plants differing in the organ used. While the original Sophie Bruin recipe did not specify which tissues were most suitable, as Malfoy documented in the experiment methodology, her potion substitute rule of purity stated that the more distinct the proxy's properties were, the less compatibility issues they would encounter. The fact that they were attempting to replace all the original ingredients was going to be a challenge and Malfoy theorized that using singular organ plants was going to negate some of that. Hermione thought that made sense.
Part of their task was to find the right mix to make the most potent potion they could. He had decided on Winky's elfin heart because from Helga Braun's notes the organ had been anecdotally identified as the most packed with magical powers. But first they had to create a stable base. Firenze's brain and the half-giant's skin seemed like the most natural picks. Malfoy did not have to ask her expertise.
After Malfoy harvested small amounts of select plant parts, they went back into the potions lab and he stood beside her behind a protective barrier, the both of them facing the transparent glass chamber in which a medium sized cauldron was perched serenely in the centre. Time passed quickly and before she knew it she was slowly adding crushed wood chunks of the giant tree into the steaming cauldron of grey liquid extracted from the fluid fruit pulp of the centaur bush and stirring it clockwise six times. She checked potion color before adding the next bit. Malfoy was keeping track of how much they were putting in although they were watching for the same marker Sophie Bruin had been when she made hers. After several additions, they noticed red sparks jumping off the surface of the boiling concoction.
"Your potion has a lot more visible energy than what I had with mine. Do you think it's stable or should we scale down the giant portion a touch?" Malfoy asked, his attention to detail about the making of the potion at obsessive levels.
Annoyed at the fact that she had chosen to work with him and annoyed at him in general she snapped, "Why are you asking me? How would I know?"
"Aren't you the expert?" he pointed out derisively.
"Aren't you the Potion Master? Unlike you I've never made this potion before!"
"Best educated guess, that's all I'm asking," he backed down.
"It hasn't exploded on us. What's your best educated guess?"
Malfoy did not take her bait of sarcasm, "Each end point is crucial..."
"I know how bloody crucial it is!" she bit off his head again, then tied her now bushier mane back and examined the bubbling from the cauldron more closely.
He was right, there was a lot more going on than what she saw with his version but he had mass produced and used a mixture of centaur organs to have enough potion base. She decided to go with her gut instinct.
"It's stable enough."
If her gut was wrong adding the goblin tissue derivative into it could be catastrophic as what at least fifteen Bruins of the past found out. Malfoy lifted an empty cauldron and was about to introduce it into the glass vacuum containing their potion-in-progress when there was a noticeable increase in concoction activity of the disruptive kind. When he stopped, the unrest mellowed a bit. As he resumed, it acted up again.
Curious, she took the cauldron from him and did as he intended to do. No untoward reaction. Interesting…
"You picky bastard," Malfoy whispered over her shoulder, amused, "You want Mummy to do it."
"Don't call it a bastard," she chastised.
Hermione did not know what irritated her more, her discovery that like her he also talked to potion as if it was a living thing or his reference to it as a bastard. If she was Mummy she had a guess who he thought Daddy was. She could already see how historians would write about them.
The Father and Mother of Magic Enabling Potion.
Ew...the idea was...ew...a definite disincentive to collaborate.
"Sorry bud," he apologized to the potion, irking her even more.
As he had planned, she decanted most of their centaur-giant potion base into the other cauldron and set it aside under the counter, well protected from any subsequent dangers the next additions would subject all of them to. She saw from the video and Malfoy warned her too that the addition of goblin tissue was going to be tricky. This step was likely where they were going to spend a lot of time. That was not surprising considering how difficult goblins naturally were in real life. She concluded that this was the reason Malfoy chose Ragnok. Ragnok was level-headed and easier to work with than most goblins as Firenze was for a centaur.
Malfoy handed her a pinch of crushed leaves.
"Liver," he told her.
She took it, deciding not to ask why he picked that to start with.
"You better stand back," she said automatically, having done so with assistants countless times before.
"You're not thinking straight. This is actually a good opportunity for you to get rid of me."
Tempting...
"Oh, right," she replied, "In that case, move closer."
He actually did with an irritating smugness she chose to disregard. She prepared herself. The mere introduction of the goblin tissue into the chamber caused unrest. Her gut told her not to proceed.
"We should try something else," she expressed her concern.
Malfoy thought otherwise, "The reaction is expected. According to Helga Braun's notes use of goblin liver had the highest success and stability rate."
"That may be so but I'm telling you it doesn't feel right."
"Then it won't work and I'll let you pick the next one," Malfoy said pointedly.
It was an order; likely more a show of who the boss was than a belief that liver leaves would work best. She bit her lower lip and decided not to fight this battle. Floating the crushed greens above the mouth of the cauldron, she gradually dropped them in. The frenzied bubbling from within the potion stopped completely and they both moved in closer to take a look. The lack of reaction was not what they were looking for.
"It looks like the goblin neutralized the potion," Malfoy aired his thoughts out loud.
"Cauldron and intra-chamber temperatures haven't dropped off," she noted, examining, thinking, "The potion still has energy."
Malfoy recalibrated the measuring tools then after a few minutes of fiddling declared, "The indicators are wrong. The potion is dead."
No, it wasn't.
She waited. After sufficient time had elapsed for any untoward incident to occur (or so she thought), she put the protective magical barrier down to get a better view. She moved right up against the glass vacuum container.
"Discard it. Let's not waste time," Malfoy told her.
She ignored what he said and continued to study the potion. While it lacked the rainbow colored emissions they were expecting it was definitely not dead. The potion level was rising and falling ever so slightly as if it was breathing.
Malfoy noticed and inched even closer. The second he stepped up front and had unobstructed view of the cauldron the whole thing erupted.
Boom!
The flash of orange red and the thunderous sound of the explosion made her instinctively close her eyes. It was as if she had been standing on the verge of a dormant volcano looking in just before it had woken up unexpectedly, although nobody ever came back from that to describe what it was like. Unable to conjure any defensive spell, the disturbance lifted her off her feet and she felt her body going down. Hard stone floor broke her fall but before she could fully appreciate the pain of the impact it was followed by a crushing heaviness on top of her.
The building shook as the singular blast ricocheted off the walls, ceiling and floor and a series of crashing noises sounded in succession around her. If she could hear this, feel this and think this then she wasn't dead. She opened her eyes and was surprised at the set of grey ones looking down upon her. It took a moment for her to realize what had happened. Malfoy must have grabbed her and pulled her down just as the potion exploded and the weight on her was his body shielding hers from the continuing damage about them. Between that and the haze of debris building up, she could hardly breathe. In their tiny makeshift cocoon there was not much she could do except breathe the same air Malfoy took in and return Malfoy's piercing gaze. She really was averse to doing that.
She shut her eyes again to concentrate on breathing. Her heart pounded like crazy while she prayed for the destruction around them to end. She could feel his arms in a losing battle to keep rubble off their heads tighten every now and then in reaction to something smashing near them, not to mention the fast thumping against her chest that she knew wasn't hers. It was confirmation that contrary to how she saw him at the moment Malfoy actually had a heart just like everybody else.
Finally, everything was still. He got up and helped her on her feet. Both quickly walked over to the broken almost unrecognizable experimental glass chamber and did not find a trace of the potion nor the cauldron that held it.
Malfoy accused her, "Were you taking my advice and trying to kill me?"
Hermione had no objection to him believing that. She actually suspected that it was the potion which was trying to do them in.
"You said it was dead," she reminded him.
"I was wrong."
"You think?" she replied back angrily as he winced, noticing just then that he wasn't fine. "You're bleeding."
Hermione pointed to the bright red pool of blood expanding on the floor. They both traced it up to its origins and saw a foot-long half-inch thick metal rod, a part of smashed shelving, protruding from his right side.
"No wonder it hurts," Malfoy commented dryly.
"It's lodged in your kidney and from the looks of it nicked a major artery. You need to go to a hospital," she answered, trying hard not to show the reflexive Healer concern that he was leaking out too fast.
It was good advice. If he didn't take it, it wasn't her problem. Fine, it actually would be because had he not been where he was the projectile that injured him could have easily found her. Really, he could have Disapparated to save himself.
"It'll heal on its own."
Waterman as Neville spontaneously healed without intervention when he was injured at the Ministry yesterday. Malfoy pulled the object out but the blood kept oozing from the gaping hole. The potion, at least its self regenerative property, wasn't working anymore.
"Shit!" Malfoy cursed under his breath then instructed someone at the control panel, "I need some potion here!"
Hermione could not just stand there and do nothing. She pointed her wand at his flank and scanned. She was right; artery tear. Visualizing the injury, she fired a blood vessel repairing and a clotting spell into the gash.
Reparo arterioso…Thrombocorpusculus…
"What are you doing?" he asked as one of his minions appeared beside him with a belt of potion-filled phials.
There was less red fluid coming out but it wasn't quite healed. She sent another one into the wound.
Thrombocorpusculus!
The bleeding finally stopped. As she was about to scan it again, Malfoy shoved her wand arm away and drank the phial of potion in his hand. Skin crept up from the edges and closed the gap leaving a pink scar where the wound was. He looked angry that she did what she just did.
"You passed up a chance to curse me!"
That's what he's upset about?
"I just hate it when that happens. I'll remember to never to do that again," she answered with equal irritation but had to thank him for his chivalrous behaviour, "It would have been me had you not…pulled me down. Thanks for being rude."
She couldn't express gratitude properly but she figured that was better than not expressing it at all.
"Next time don't put the barrier down! I'm not Potter! Don't expect me to look out for you!"
He was shouting so she screamed back.
"I didn't ask you to look out for me!"
"You can be reckless with your life after you make the potion! Is that understood?"
It was all about the potion. He was huffing and puffing hard like this was a big deal to him, glaring at her. She returned the stare in kind.
"Understood!"
"Good," he calmed down somewhat then added, "And don't do me any more favors or try to save my life again. I'd rather not be a part of yet another thing you'll regret having done."
He was infuriating! Should she point out that he already was? Why did he even bring that up again? Admittedly, he had a good point about the missed opportunity. She should have hexed him or tried to escape. But the Healer in her took over and she couldn't, not while he was bleeding…that much!
Before they could resume the potion creation the lab had to be put back together. As Malfoy went off to do that she headed in the opposite direction to walk off her rage. Yes, she was mad at him for betraying her trust, for the murders, for what he had done and was planning to do with Harry and for proving her wrong that someone like him could change. But she was madder at herself for not being mad at him enough. Hard as she tried to think of him as someone she had utmost disgust for, that resolve had been waning since hearing him and Mia talk and more so after his reflexive albeit selfish act of shielding her from death by impaling.
She was not about to kid herself that her paucity of repugnance for him was because of Dennis' potion although she was hoping this was merely the classic transference described of what happens between abductor and abducted over a period of time. The truth was a part of her pitied him for his inability to escape his family's legacy. A part of her identified with his desire to make up for a past mistake. A part of her understood the difficulty of living with oneself knowing someone was dead because of what one did or didn't do. And because of all these parts of hers acting on their own, there was not much of her left to detest him the way she wanted to.
They had an unspoken kinship borne out of walking in the same path the other had and Malfoy's unsolicited advice about Ron was as much for him as it was for her. For like her with Ron, he could not forgive himself for what happened to Mia.
It was his choice. It wasn't your fault.
It was Mia's choice and not his fault that she died. Malfoy knew as Hermione did that it was logically true but emotionally meaningless. There was no comfort there except in knowing that they did not have the market on that crazy emotion.
Consequence, remorse, penance. Forgiveness and eternal damnation. Life sentence…
Malfoy had chosen this to atone for Mia's death, to finish what Mia started. As wrong as his methods were at least he was trying to do something which he thought was good, to help him make sense of what happened. What about her? What did she ever do to make up for her transgression? She shut out her accomplice and ran away from the haunting nightmares. How pathetic was that?
And to add to this there was her stupidity to forgive Malfoy so easily. That would not have happened years ago but after what Harry did to her and what she did to Ron, forgiving Malfoy was surprisingly easy. It was reassuring at the time for if she could forgive Malfoy then there was hope that she could forgive herself. Her hideous act had made her vulnerable which in turn made her lose perspective. It was her fault Malfoy had gotten as far as he had and her responsibility to thwart him from getting farther.
Her emotions significantly quieted down with that sobering thought and her surroundings came into focus. She had to remember this wasn't about her but about those who lived and died by the potion. It was about preventing more beings from being hurt.
Hermione had to focus on the dastardly deeds and not the tragic human mitigating circumstances behind them or the 'altruistic' end he had in mind. He deceived, maimed and killed. Even though between the two of them she thought him the better, Malfoy was a murderer, is a murderer and had to be stopped.
She looked over to where he was. Malfoy was behind her some distance away, trying to reach someone on the phone, seemingly unsuccessfully. Taking out the cauldron of centaur-giant base she had set aside earlier, she quickly filled an unbreakable phial with it and slipped the container into her robes pocket. As cover, she decanted some potion into a fresh pot.
Thinking ahead, she took out a tray of test tissues. It was a platter of twenty-four cube inch compartments, each one with simulated biological material representing major human organs. Test tissues were the closest thing to checking for human toxicity besides having someone actually drink the potion. Soaking each compartment with the half finished brew, the immediate results were heartening. Hermione was about to wave her wand to hasten the process when Malfoy called out from behind her.
Malfoy's gaze fell from counter to her, eyeing her suspiciously, "Didn't we agree to test for toxicity after we successfully add the goblin factor in?"
She looked him in the eye, steeled her nerves and blew him off, "I never agreed to your stupid idea. It makes more sense to check at each stage. If this base potion damages tissue, then what's the point in adding the rest? Nobody will drink your potion if it kills."
Hermione knew she was right about that. Malfoy approached, took the tray of test tissues and examined it.
"Have you done the hastening charm?" he asked, no doubt examining her for any sign of treachery.
"I was about to."
Malfoy waved his right hand over it and watched the contents intently, handing it to her after a few seconds.
"It's all good. Happy now?"
As Malfoy walked away she looked it over and was buoyed by the outcome.
You have no idea.
Should she push for actual human testing? It may not be lethal but it may also not work. She decided against it, thinking it might raise more suspicion. There would be other ways to test efficacy.
It took a few more minutes for the lab to be ready and as that was being done they had decided on a few goblin alternatives. For another half an hour they toiled over the inclusion of the goblin component. Admittedly, she wasn't trying very hard, hoping it wasn't obvious that she was trying to delay the process as long as she could in the hope that would give MLE time to find them and possibly mount a rescue. With growing frustration Malfoy took a break, walked away and got on the phone again. Not one minute after he hung up, a loud noise startled them.
Blag!
The door to the control booth swung open forcefully backstopped by the adjacent wall. Out came one very angry hag not unfamiliar to Hermione. So, she was a Malfoy accomplice. Yet another traitor. Malfoy resourcefulness was unfortunately impressive.
"I believe you know each other."
Hermione could not kick herself enough about not suspecting Lana Hama at all.
"This is not what we planned! She's not supposed to know who we are!" a very upset Hama hissed at Malfoy.
"I did warn you this could happen," Malfoy replied calmly.
"You know what this means," the witch said to him as she eyed Hermione with annoyance.
"That you have to kill me after?" Hermione joined in, "He knows."
"It's nothing personal," Malfoy attempted an apology.
"I feel so much better about being murdered already," she retorted, the full meaning of it not sinking in.
There was no sense of urgency, at least not yet because the potion was not finished. They still needed her for that and she wasn't going to die without a fight. In the meantime, she thought she'd work on the Healer.
"Nice racket you had going with Ted Waterman stealing research ideas. Makes one wonder which ones you're credited with really are your own."
"I'm not a common thief!" the Healer replied with indignation, "I was looking for Sophie's granddaughter and anything related to Sophie's work. It was about making the potion. It was about giving others the opportunity to make it better."
Mystery Witch confirmed. Loony mystery witch. Something about what she just said reminded her of what Mia mentioned to Malfoy earlier. During that big meeting with the Mugwump, she was against the Unspeakables taking the potion apart. She was the voice of reason in that meeting and she not only diverted suspicion away from her, she caused a deep-rooted law to be changed. Ingenious...
"Those phials Waterman lost in the underground were meant to be found," Hermione realized, "You made sure the Unspeakables wouldn't touch the potion that day so the Supreme Mugwump would recommend Section 55 to be abolished. You wanted it repealed all along."
"It's a stupid rule anyway," Malfoy added, "Experimenting on magical potions will be safer now that it can be done out in the open."
Hoping to figure out pecking order or get divergent answers, Hermione asked Hama, "So tell me. Do you work for him or does he work for you?"
"We're equal partners," the older Healer replied.
Hermione laughed derisively, "And you're convinced of that? Good one, Malfoy."
"What's so funny?" the other witch asked her.
"Your equal partner here killed Cousin Teddy because he blames your operation for his girlfriend's death," Hermione pointed out.
"Healer Hama knows that," Malfoy admitted to another murder without hesitation.
"Does she now?" Hermione looked straight at the expressionless healer and continued, "What exactly is your share in the partnership? I guess bringing Tilden Toots out of hiding was one. Great job on that one. And Dennis worked for you while he was in Detroit. You really didn't need him anymore that's why you set him up to be murdered. Do you have anything else to do or was that it?"
"Don't listen to her," Malfoy cautioned, "She's playing with your mind."
"Malfoy may not have killed you yet but unless you're the Bruin granddaughter I would start worrying if I were you."
The Healer answered back heatedly, "If I were the Bruin granddaughter then you wouldn't have to be here right now, would you?"
The blindside effectively silenced her. Malfoy gave Hama an admonishing look which the latter just shrugged off.
"I don't care if you think you're immune to the deathbed curse but I don't want you talking to her about family," he snapped at Hama.
"You think I'm the Bruin granddaughter?" she looked at Hama incredulously.
He replied, "We know you are."
"You're out of your mind!"
"But that's not the reason why you can make this potion," Malfoy brushed it off. "Bruin or not you know your stuff. The fact that you are is merely a coincidence."
"No it isn't," Hama disagreed. "The Prophecy…"
"I don't care about the bloody prophecy!" Hermione cut her off, "How did you come to this bizarre conclusion?!"
"Healer Braun had a magical document of Sophie Bruin's family tree that night Tommy killed her," Malfoy explained. "Aside from finding Mia on it, Teddy found supposedly dead granddaughters on the anti-potion Bruin side having children and figured that there were other Bruin cursed who escaped the Elder Council's deadly mandate. Healer Hama took the Braun information and used the potionmakers registry data to match ranges of dates of birth with that of its members and came up with a list of names. Yours was on it."
"Well it's clearly not me!"
"She thought so too. She set the list aside thinking it was a dead end," Malfoy replied for Hama before the witch could. "When Aunt Bella took over operations after Teddy died she went back to it and did a more meticulous search into your and your parents' lives. There is indisputable medical proof that you're not your parents' daughter. You're not Muggleborn. I'm so sorry. I know you were so proud about being one."
It actually answered the question she had asked herself a few times since she got to Toronto. Why her?Lestrange had intended for Hermione to brew the potion all along. If the Dark Witch was indeed into the Hufflepuff prophecies as these Bruins were then by simple logic Lestrange believed her to be the Bruin granddaughter prophesied to make the potion.
But just because they thought she was didn't mean that she really was. She had to see the evidence herself to believe it. Her mental to-do list just got longer.
"She doesn't believe us," Hama noted the obvious.
"Why would I? He's a murderer and you're a Bruin traitor."
"We should at least show her proof."
"Forget that. She won't believe it unless it's proof she dug up herself," Malfoy surprised her with that accurate insight.
"So you think I'm a Bruin. That's why you stopped calling me Mudblood. It makes more sense now," she said acidly.
"Good," Malfoy answered, unaffected, annoying her more, "We can get back to work."
He took his phone out again and pressed redial. It rang and rang until voicemail kicked in.
"Tom's ignoring his phone," he commented angrily. "I already told him he could play with Marsh after we're done. He has no patience."
Andy was tough; Hermione hoped she would be alright.
"Speaking of patience, don't you think it's too soon?" Hama asked Malfoy.
What was too soon?
"She's holding back. She needs motivation."
They were looking at and talking about her. She was busted and she had a good guess what they were going to do to about it. Malfoy wanted Waterman to bring Harry to the lab.
Think fast…think faster…
"I can send someone down," Hama offered.
"Watch her. I'll go get them myself."
"No need, I'm here!" Waterman announced his presence.
"Where the hell were you?!" Malfoy vented his ire at the Squib.
"I was busy. We had a bit of trouble with Potter and the Professor," Waterman said to him quite peeved of the inquisition.
Her heart hitched when another Malfoy accomplice towed in a hovering and struggling Harry into the room, face bloodied and beaten up. He was magically gagged, bound at the wrists and ankles, trying to fight and speak in futility. They left him to float a few feet in front of her. She tried to get to him but was restrained from behind by Malfoy. Harry did not seem to see her at all, as he was busy trying to get Malfoy's attention who was still going at it with Waterman.
"Why didn't you tell me you were having trouble?!"
"What for?! It wasn't a problem and I've managed not to kill him."
"You and your men keep on screwing up! We're in the middle of creating history here!"
"I don't fucking care!"
"Stop acting like children," Hama scolded, physically getting in between them, "Let's just do this."
Malfoy and Waterman glared at each other but buckled down. The Slytherin turned to her still furious.
"So what will it be?"
Hermione caught Harry looking, his head shaking, his emerald eyes protesting.
Smack!
"Let her decide on her own!" Waterman bellowed at him after hitting him in the face with a clenched fist.
Hermione answered, figuring Harry would not want her to give in, "Ho…honestly, I'm trying…but it's harder than we thought."
Malfoy gave Waterman a nod, "Do it."
Waterman obeyed with pleasure.
"Crucio!"
She watched as Harry screamed silently, his face and body contorting in agony she muffled a cry and had to turn away.
"Hmm, something's missing," Waterman commented pensively, "I know."
"Finite incantatem."
"Go to he..."
"Crucio!"
"Arrgh!!"
She looked at the painful sight of torture again but was unable to connect with Harry a second time. His consciousness was fading.
Please...someone...anyone...help...
"Much better. Crucio!"
"Arrgh!!"
"Please..." she managed to say in between sobs but they didn't hear her.
"Watch. Listen," Malfoy said coldly, "He doesn't have to suffer."
"You can end this," Hama reminded her.
Harry will understand. He knows you had no choice...
"This is so much fun. Cru...!"
Hermione bellowed, "Enough! Stop!"
"Stop?"
"I'll do it," she said to Malfoy, her voice cracking. "Just don't hurt him anymore."
"How sweet," Waterman mocked as he dropped his wand arm down to his side. "Fuck! And I was just getting warmed up."
She looked at Harry's writhing figure as Waterman set him free down on the ground. Malfoy was still holding her back, his grip tightening as her body leaned towards Harry. Even if she managed to get him the potion base, he was in no condition to use it effectively.
They had been in danger so many times and this was the first instance she had no good ideas. She not only got him into this, she was failing to get him out.
"Wise decision," Malfoy patted her on the back and instructed the rest to get behind the magical protective barrier. He asked her, "What should we try next? Keep in mind that each time you're wrong you'll get a piece of Potter as prize."
"Can we start with his eyeballs. I've always hated his eyes," Waterman suggested.
Hermione gritted her teeth, dark thoughts in her mind seeking relief. There was only one way out of this.
Staring angrily at Malfoy, she answered, "Bone."
"Why?" he was curious.
"It's the most inert part of the body."
"That makes perfect sense," Malfoy had a Eureka moment.
He gave her root shavings to introduce into the potion and the instant the goblin derivative hit the concoction it turned the rich deep blue it was supposed to.
"See what a little motivation can do? You're a genius!" Malfoy commented as he took out the test tissues.
The interim brew cleared toxicity screens as the previous stage did. Malfoy was smiling when he handed her the minced fiery red fruit of the elfin heart.
This was it. The last step of the Bruin magic enabling potion. History would judge them but she had already damned herself for doing it. Hermione glanced over to Harry one last time. She was doing this for him but hoped he would not feel responsible for its creation.
As expected, addition of the elfin portion went smoothly. Each drop of the plant's fruit juice began turning the bluish substrate into progressive shades of purple going from light to dark. She kept on adding until its shade changed no more.
The purple potion was complete.
She heard rejoicing in the background. Malfoy had relief and happiness on his face. Even before Malfoy filled the tray of test tissues with it Hermione already knew it would pass with flying colours. He decanted some potion into an unbreakable phial, corked it and took it out of the chamber.
By that time all magical protective barriers had been disengaged. Hama and Waterman gathered around the potion with Malfoy, leaving Harry with two guards. The one on his left in the Bruin robes had just put another silencing charm on him and kicked him in the gut. The assistant who had given Malfoy the belt of phials was on his right and he too took a cheap shot.
"Take it," Malfoy ordered Waterman, handing him the phial.
"Fuck no! I'm not going to be the first to drink it," the Squib replied, stunning Malfoy as much as Hama and her. If he was able to resist the order then the potion within him must have been waning in strength. Waterman pointed at Hermione, "She could have put poison in there. Have her drink it first."
Hermione waited. If they let her, she would. The elfin tissue was a risk but it might give her additional magical traits to fight them.
Hama interjected, motioning to Harry's captors, "What about one of them?"
But Malfoy had already decided. He left Waterman and Hama instructions.
"If something bad happens to me just kill them all."
Malfoy looked at Hermione straight in the eye with the openness she had seen days ago. In him she saw not malice, not wickedness, not intent to harm, but gratitude.
"Cheers…"
He uncorked the phial and drank the purple potion.