Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Chapter 6

Trouble Brewing

    The conversation with Dumbledore was short. The Headmaster wanted to set up a time during the weekend for Harry's first Occlumency lesson. The trio headed outside to feed toast to the giant squid, and to find out that Hagrid wasn't back from his mission, presumably to talk to the giants again. "I do hope he has better luck this time. His face looked horrible last time he came back from the giant's camp," Hermione said.

    "I just hope he wasn't slowed down by the injuries he got from the stupid Ministry officials in June. He was hit a few times when Umbridge tried to fire him," Harry said, ducking as the giant squid attempted to splash at him.

    "We should probably go in and get Divination out of the way," Hermione said.

    The rest of the day passed quickly with the trio studying intensely for their Divination OWL and waiting to see if Sirius and Remus would come by to chat. They wanted to hear from Sirius how he had gotten out of the veil, and more importantly how he had convinced Fudge to not immediately call for the Dementors and instead give him a trial. By the end of the day all three of them had earned O's on the Divination OWL and had begun to study for Ancient Runes which they would test on the next day.

    Sirius and Remus didn't come by that night, but sent a letter with a handsome screech owl that they would be there by dinner time the next night to bring Harry, Hermione, and Ron the things they had asked for.

    Friday passed much the same way as Thursday had and another OWL was added to their records. "Well now, only three more to go and the potions we wanted to brew. Maybe since we finished early we can start getting things together and read the instructions a few times, especially on the Wolfsbane. Are we just going to brew it here? I was thinking, if this is a room of requirement, we could just ask it for a room suitable for brewing potions," Harry said, thinking aloud.

    "Good idea, Harry, and I think we'll have time to start the brewing anyway before our company comes by. We still have three hours or so until dinner. Oh, and Ron, we want to try something one of these nights. Harry and I found out we're telepaths and there is a way to add someone else to the connection. We figured it would be useful in battle," Hermione said.

    "And for other things, like Potions class," Ron said.

    "What is it with you two and cheating in Potions?" Hermione said jokingly.

    "It might save house points, since you know the answer all the time and he never calls on you unless he has to. Next time you can just let us see the answers through our link and we won't have to say ‘I don't know Professor,' all the time," Ron said.

    Just then three owls fluttered into the room and dropped letters in front of them. "Well, here's our lists and prefect badges," Hermione said, opening the seal and pulling a silver prefect badge and the letters from the envelope. "Let's see, normal notice about the Hogwarts Express. I'm thinking we won't be riding it this year. If the Death Eaters are going to attack that would be the most obvious place. Here's our prefect information. If we don't ride the train the other prefects will have even more work," Hermione said.

    "Hey, here's the course selection list," Harry said.

    The trio were so absorbed with looking at their lists that they didn't hear the portrait door open to let Sirius and Remus in.

    "Students may enroll in no more than six classes at NEWT level. NO EXCEPTIONS will be made," Hermione read.

    "No time turner this year," Ron said.

    "I wouldn't do that anyway. Dumbledore would have to ask a favour from the Ministry and after last year I doubt that the Minister would be so willing," Hermione said.

    "And if Umbridge somehow collected her wits after the centaurs got done scrambling them I am sure she would refuse the request and try to have you arrested for even asking to borrow a time turner in the first place," Harry said.

    "Let's see what we should take," Ron said.

    "Well, I'll be taking DADA, Potions, Charms, and Transfiguration to be able to be an Auror. That leaves two electives. Hey, there's a few new classes on the list," Harry said.

    "It looks like we'll all have the same four main classes," Hermione said, looking at Ron's list and her own and noticing that they were identical to Harry's. "We've all chosen to be Aurors," she said.

    "Should we continue in Care of Magical Creatures? I would rather not if Hagrid's not the teacher. Grubbly-Plank really isn't all that interesting," Harry said.

    "Hey, they're offering Duelling, and look, Harry, it says that Sirius is the teacher," Ron said.

    "What! Hey, why didn't he tell us he was going to be teaching here?" Harry said.

    "Maybe because I wanted it to be a surprise, at least until you got your book lists anyway," Sirius said from his chair near the fire.

    "Sirius, Remus, when did you get here?" Harry asked, noticing them sitting by the fire.

    "Right after you got your letters. We were waiting for you to finish choosing your electives, or at least to notice the Duelling class anyway," Sirius said.

    "We come bearing gifts, but first choose two classes so the letters can return to Professor McGonagall's office," Remus said.

    "Oh, look they're offering Healing as well. That could be useful with the war and all," Hermione said.

    "I agree. I'm picking Duelling and Healing. They're far more important than another two years of Trelawny telling me that she sees a Grim in my teacup," Harry said, checking the flashing boxes for Duelling and Healing and watching as the letter folded itself and disappeared in a puff of blue smoke. Ron and Hermione also checked Duelling and Healing and watched their letters disappear.

    "You three will enjoy my class," Sirius said, unshrinking the parcels in his pockets and handing them to the trio. "Here you are. Oh, and here's a little something for you, Hermione, and one for Ron," Sirius said, handing each of them a money bag full of Galleons. "Here's yours, Harry, and your key," Sirius said.

    "This is far too much," Hermione said, noticing that the pouch was full.

    "Thank you, Sirius, but I shouldn't accept this. Mum wouldn't be happy," Ron said.

    "Take it, both of you. Like I said, I'll never spend it all and neither will Remus, especially since I had to force him to get new robes as it was. It's the money the Ministry gave me for having mistakenly locked me in Azkaban for twelve years and then chasing me for another two," Sirius said.

    "That reminds me. How did you get set free anyway, Sirius?" Hermione asked, putting her money bag with the book she had asked for and her new robes.

    "Good question. I mean besides the obvious of how you got out of that veil thing, how did you ever convince Fudge to give you a trial?" Ron asked, also putting his money bag aside with his sweets and robe.

    "Let's go eat dinner and I'll tell you what I can. It's a rather long story and there are parts of it that involve Order work, so I can't tell you the whole thing, but there are parts that everyone knows so that should be okay to tell you," Sirius said, gesturing to the table which was already set waiting for their orders.

    As soon as they had ordered their food, Harry looked at Sirius, wanting to hear how he had gotten away and why Remus hadn't been surprised to see Sirius in Dumbledore's office. "So, the last thing I saw was Bellatrix blasting you through the veil and seeing you fall backwards. Everyone told me you were gone for good. I even tried the mirror you gave me but you didn't answer so I smashed it," Harry said.

    "Oh Harry. I heard you in the mirror. I just couldn't answer. For the first bit of time I couldn't move at all from where I had landed. It was as if all my muscles were frozen. Then all of a sudden something gave me a push towards the curtain that I could see in the distance and I could move again. I started walking towards the curtain, but there was something pulling me backwards. I knew somehow that I couldn't let it get me or I wouldn't be able to get back to you. I thought it had only taken me a few hours to get out but it actually took me about ten days. I was thrown out of the veil and smashed into the floor in front of the dais. I laid there for another day before some Unspeakable found me. He didn't recognize me, but I told him that I had fallen behind the veil and that it had thrown me out. I begged him to help me out of the Ministry because I needed to talk to Dumbledore and he let me out through one of the side exits. I made my way back to Grimmauld Place and scared everyone half to death when I just walked in. Dumbledore was actually speechless for a full minute," Sirius said.

    "So how did you get a trial? You said they caught Wormtail, but he wasn't one of the Death Eaters caught at the Department of Mysteries was he?" Harry asked.

    "Actually he was, the little rat was hiding in the prophecy room after you and Dumbledore beat Voldemort in the atrium. Kingsley found him there and took him to an Order safe house instead of letting him be sent to Azkaban with the rest. He figured they could use him to at least clear me posthumously. By the time they got around to questioning him I had reappeared. Snape actually made an extra strong dose of Veritaserum to use on him and Dumbledore hauled Fudge and Amelia Bones in to question Wormtail. I think Dumbledore intimidated Fudge into finding me innocent. He's on his way out as minister anyway," Sirius said.

    "So were you at Grimmauld, Remus, when Sirius just showed up? Is that why you weren't surprised in Dumbledore's office when he transformed?" Hermione asked.

    "No I wasn't at Grimmauld that day. I was off doing something for the Order. I didn't find out until about 15 minutes before you did, Hermione. That's one of the reasons I was crying. Part of it was worrying over Harry, but it was mostly happy tears that I had Padfoot back," Remus said.

    "I don't know what I'm going to do if I lose you again. I'm scared of being alone after this war is through," Harry said, sharing a bit of the newest round of dreams that were plaguing him the last few nights, even with Hermione helping him to sleep.

    "Oh Harry, are you still having that same nightmare?" Hermione asked.

    "What nightmare?" Sirius asked.

    "Everyone dies one by one until I'm the only one left. It has to do with the...I don't know if I can tell you...Hermione only knows because we have a telepathic link. I guess Ron will find out when we add him to the link," Harry said, his thoughts scattering.

    "What is it, pup?" Sirius asked, concern showing in his eyes.

    "If you're worried about Voldemort finding out, we both know Occlumency. Please tell us, cub, it's tearing you apart," Remus said.

    "It's the prophecy. The one that Voldemort was after...that you nearly died for, Sirius," Harry said.

    "What about it?" Sirius said.

    "Didn't it break when Neville dropped the little ball?" Ron asked.

    "Yes, but I heard it anyway," Harry said.

    "How? The room was far too noisy to hear anything properly," Ron said.

    "Dumbledore was the one the prophecy was told to in the first place. He told me in his office after I thought I lost Sirius. This one little prophecy is the reason that Voldemort killed my parents and has been after me since I came back to the wizarding world," Harry said.

    "What does it say?" Sirius said, his concern rising. Dumbledore had never said anything about a prophecy concerning Harry.

    Harry took a deep breath and remembered the words of the prophecy. "The one with the power to vanquish the dark lord approaches...Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies...And the dark lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the dark lord knows not...and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives... The one with the power to vanquish the dark lord will be Born as the seventh month dies," Harry said quietly.

    "But that means...you have to kill him?" Ron said.

    "I'm the only one who can defeat him, although I'm not so sure about the power the dark lord knows not," Harry said.

    "Maybe that's why Dumbledore gave you Gryffindor's sword, Harry, after the third task you found out that you can't really use your wand against him all that well. Maybe you're meant to duel with swords, or at least surprise him with the sword anyway," Hermione said, thinking about Harry's growing wandless magic and his connection to the sword, being the heir of Gryffindor and all.

    "We'll be here for you, Harry, as long as we can be," Sirius said.

    "We could always have a portrait painted, in case we are killed then you could have us around like your parents," Remus said, tears in his eyes from hearing the hopelessness in Harry's voice. ‘Why on earth hadn't Dumbledore told them about this before now?' Remus asked himself.

    "It might just be Voldemort feeding me dreams again, although it doesn't feel the same as the dream about the Department of Mysteries did. I just keep seeing everyone die during the battle and you're all staring at me with your eyes wide open and you're not moving. I can even feel how cold the bodies are at the end of the dream and I wake up shaking and crying," Harry said.

    Remus' tears fell faster as he listened to what Harry was forced to see every night. "I'll ask Severus for some Dreamless Sleep for you, cub. You need to rest before school starts and while you haven't mastered Occlumency.

    "Do you think he'll make any for me? I'm not his favourite person, especially since he's stuck with me in Potions for two more years," Harry said.

    "He will if he knows what is good for him. I'll be back in a moment, I'll go get the potion for you, Harry. We'll be back tomorrow to maybe play a quick game of Quidditch since you haven't flown in awhile," Remus said.

    "That sounds great. We'll be brewing potions in the morning, but we have the afternoon free don't we, Mione? They have to simmer for a few hours anyway," Harry said.

    "We should have some time to take a break," Hermione said, smiling as Harry's face lit up at the thought of flying again.

    The next morning Harry felt much better after having taken the potion. He had the first nightmare free night's sleep in the last week. Due to that, or his excitement over getting to fly again, Harry was up first and decided to create their potion brewing room. It ended up nearly an exact replica of Snape's classroom. "Well that's disturbing," Ron said, coming into the room a half-hour later.

    "I guess it depends on what you're thinking about when you ask for something. Maybe it will help us work better," Harry said.

    "Look, we have our own copy of Moste Potente Potions in here. The room really does give you everything," Hermione said.

    "And it looks like we have a fully stocked potion storeroom. We'll still need our wolfsbane. There aren't any of the tougher to get ingredients in here," Harry added, taking out the things they would need.

    "Shall I write the directions on the blackboard?" Hermione asked.

    "You might as well, we're used to working from that rather than our books," Ron said, setting up the cauldron that Remus and Sirius had gotten for him on their shopping trip. "I wonder why the room didn't give us cauldrons?" Ron said.

    "Who knows? I'm surprised it worked at all. So how many pages are the directions, Mione?" Harry asked.

    "Eight. I'll write them on the board one page at a time," Hermione said, pointing her wand at the book. "Duplicato," she said, and then pointed the wand to the blackboard, where she said, "Transcribo," causing the text to transfer to the board.

    "Wow, no wonder this is considered a complicated potion, at least in terms of long wordy directions anyway. There are only four ingredients. Wait, according to these directions the potion will be mixed all the way in the next ten minutes it only has to simmer for the next day. We can start on the Animagi potion, if I can get the room to give us some extra cauldrons anyway," Harry said, as he spoke three extra cauldrons set themselves up at the other counter in the room. "Oops, I guess I should have asked before," Harry said.

    After chopping the moonflower, shredding the boomslang skin (which brought back fond memories of the Polyjuice potion), powdering the wolfsbane, cubing the mandrake, stirring precisely 232 times counterclockwise, adding four cups cold water at exactly one cup every five minutes, and then stirring exactly 112 times clockwise the potion was a murky brown mess of bubbling slime. "Well, it looks like the mess that Remus has to drink every month," Harry said.

    "It smells like it too," Ron said.

    "Do we have to wait until it's set before we test if it's poison or not?" Harry asked.

    "No, bring the hair here and we'll test," Hermione said. She dipped one hair in each cauldron and it grew stronger and about an inch longer. "We did it," Hermione said.

    "I think my arm is going to fall off from stirring. The animagus potion doesn't require nearly as much. It's mostly adding ingredients," Harry said, using the spells that Hermione had used to copy the directions (only one page this time) to the board. An hour later they were finished with the potion.

    "Hey Hermione, is there anything in either potion that would react badly if they were mixed together?" Harry asked.

    "I don't believe so, why?" Hermione asked.

    "I wondered what would happen if you mixed animagus potion and wolfsbane that's all...maybe it would make the transformation even more bearable for Remus," Harry said.

    "Let's try it," Ron said.

    "Let's move over there first though, so we don't ruin our other potions if it does happen to explode. I'm not sure about the mandrake and moonflower and how they'll react with the unicorn horn and shrivelfig combination," Hermione said.

    "Here goes nothing," Harry said, pouring the brownish glop of the wolfsbane into a flask and then filling another flask full of swirling blue animagus potion. Ron grabbed a medium sized bowl and Hermione grabbed a notebook to write down what they were doing. Harry first poured the wolfsbane into the bowl and then slowly poured the animagus potion over the top. "I think they need to be stirred," Harry said, noticing how the blue potion sat on the surface of the wolfsbane.

    "Wait, there's some silver-green smoke starting to rise up here," Ron said.

    All of a sudden there was a bang and the trio ducked to avoid flying potion, a trick they had become good at during five years of sharing Potions with Neville Longbottom. "Well at least it's our own lab and not Snape's," Ron said.

    "It didn't explode, it imploded and it actually mixed together," Hermione said, staring into the bowl where there was now a thick green goo with silver steam swirling from the surface. "I wonder how it reacts to werewolf hair," Hermione said, grabbing a few strands of Remus's hair and dipping them in the potion. The hair didn't shrivel up or grow, but they turned from grey to a chestnut brown.

    "What is this then, a hair-dye potion?" Ron asked.

    "No Ron. I think it did what Harry intended. It would make Remus's transformation easier," Hermione said. She grabbed a vial of werewolf blood and spooned out a bit of the new potion.

    "What are you doing?" Harry asked.

    "See how there's silver in this werewolf blood?" she asked.

    "Yes, what does that have to do with anything," he asked.

    "Honestly. The silver streaks are the infection. They are what cause lycanthropy. I want to see what happens to them with our new potion," Hermione said. She stirred a drop of the potion into the blood and they all waited as silver steam billowed from the mixture. When they looked a few minutes later there were only five silver streaks instead of ten.

    "Hermione, half of the infection is gone," Harry said.

    "We have to show someone, Harry," Hermione said.

    "Won't they ask how we got the ingredients for either of these potions? They're both technically illegal. I don't think even curing lycanthropy would get us off on that charge," Harry said.

    "What was that, Harry?" came Remus' voice from the doorway.

    "Remus, we made your wolfsbane. It will be ready for you tomorrow when you need to take it. Come here and see this though," Hermione said.

    "What have you been up to in here?" Remus asked, wrinkling his oversensitive nose at the strong wolfsbane smell.

    "We, well Harry, got bored or curious and decided to mix the wolfsbane potion with the animagus potion we worked on next and it came out rather interestingly. So I added a hair you gave us and instead of growing it turned from grey to brown again. Then I tested the new potion with werewolf blood and it eliminated half the silver streaks from the blood sample with only one drop, although I think it would take more in your case," Hermione said.

    "What do you mean?" Remus asked, wanting to be sure of what they were saying.

    "I think....we may have at least partially cured lycanthropy," Hermione said.

    "I was thinking that adding the animagus potion would make your transformation closer to Sirius' so you might have to change with the moon but you won't hurt yourself anymore, but the potion actually takes away some of the infection so maybe more of it would take out all the infection. Would you be willing to try it tomorrow? It has the wolfsbane mixed in, and you'll have Padfoot in case something goes wrong. He can tell us what happens when you transform," Harry said.

    Remus gave Harry a hug and smiled. "I would be happy to be your test werewolf. I can smell the wolfsbane from out in the living room so I know it's correct and your animagus potion smells correct also, if not just a little strong. Be careful taking it you'll probably change right away with that much shrivelfig," Remus said. "You know, the mixture of the two potions actually doesn't smell half bad," Remus added.

    "Should we go play Quidditch now?" Harry asked.

    "Sirius is already out at the pitch waiting for us," Remus said.

    "Let's go then. Are you coming to watch, Mione?" Harry asked.

    "Of course," Hermione answered.

    The trio along with Sirius and Remus spent the day playing Quidditch, or watching in Hermione's case, and soon it was another late evening of sitting around the fire telling stories.

    "What time do you need the potion by tomorrow?" Harry asked Remus.

    "Eight a.m., twelve hours before a moon rise is best," Remus answered.

    "Why don't you just stay here then, and not have to apparate to Hogsmeade and then Floo here so early," Harry said.

    "Yes, we can easily get another couple of rooms for you to use," Hermione said.

    "If you insist. Hey, why don't you three go get the animagus potion and we can see what you'll be. If you can control the transformation by tomorrow night you can come with us, or we can stay right here so you can watch what happens with Remus," Sirius said, still worried about Remus being used as a test subject.

    "I was thinking the same thing so I brought three vials out earlier when I checked on the wolfsbane. Is it supposed to smell like rotten eggs at this point?" Harry asked.

    "Yes, very much so. How does the hybrid potion smell?" Remus answered.

    "Like rotten eggs mixed with something fruity," Harry answered, pulling out the vials of animagus potion. "Here we go," he said, uncorking his vial. "On the count of three?" Harry asked.

    "One, Two, Three," Hermione said. On her three they all drank the potion.

    Almost instantly Harry felt himself shrink and start to grow fur. He felt his backbone bend and twist but it didn't hurt. Then he suddenly saw everything in black and white or shades of grey. ‘I bet I'm a wolf, it feels like how Remus describes Moony, only I have my mind' Harry thought.

    Remus and Sirius watched as a large black shaggy wolf formed where Harry had just stood. "He looks like a cross between Padfoot and Moony," Remus said.

    Sirius looked over to see what Hermione and Ron had turned into and saw a tawny brown lioness and a bright red fox looking at him. "Well, what do we have here? How about Midnight for our wolf, Paws for the fox, and we need an M name for our lioness. All I can think of is Majesty," Sirius said.

    "She looks like a Majesty," Remus said. "Okay you three, just think about your human shape and you'll change back," Remus added.

    Harry managed the change first and smiled. "That was awesome. Am I right? I felt like a wolf," Harry said.

    "Yes, you were a large black wolf, Hermione as you can see is a lioness, and Ron is a fox," Sirius said.

    "I heard your nicknames for us. I like it. The new generation of marauders are Midnight, Paws, and Majesty," Harry said.

    "I agree," Ron said, popping back to human form.

    "Me too," Hermione agreed a moment later.

    "All right new marauders time for sleep," Remus said.

    "First, we need some blood to test our hybrid potion, just to be sure it won't hurt you Remus," Hermione said apologetically.

    "No problem," Remus said, conjuring a knife and a vial. Cutting his palm he let the blood run into the vial until it was about half full.

    "Let's see what happens," Hermione said, going to the potion room and coming back with a vial of the mixed potion which they had made extra of during the afternoon just to be sure, and to have some on hand for testing later. Hermione added a drop of potion to the blood and watched the steam billow as before. This time though only one silver streak had vanished. "I guess it takes a lot more. Maybe you get new silver streaks in your blood for every year you carry the infection. We'll see after tomorrow if there's any difference in your blood," Hermione said.

    Harry asked for two more rooms to be added and everyone went to sleep quickly to get to the next day and the transformation. The trio were eager to see what result, if any, their potion had on Remus' condition.

    The next morning they ate quickly and watched Remus drink a large goblet of the combined potion which had cooled an odd silver colour with only a hint of green remaining. Hermione was impatient knowing she'd have to wait until after the full moon to test what effect the potion had on Remus. Instead they spent the rest of the day practising their animagus transformation which they mastered by lunch, and then Harry went to his Occlumency lesson for three hours with Dumbledore.

    The moon rose at eight p.m. and Sirius was ready as Padfoot in case the wolfsbane hadn't worked properly. He trapped Remus in the bedroom that Remus had used last night and waited for the usual howls and horrible sounds of bones breaking that usually accompanied the transformation. Instead there was one painful sounding crack and then Moony was standing there wagging his tail ready to play with Padfoot and the new friends that he could smell on the other side of the door. "Come on in, you three did something, he didn't even howl when he transformed," Sirius said, having transformed back to open the door, earning himself a sloppy kiss from Moony.

    "He's tame," Harry said, also transforming back to pet Moony.

    "Yeah, the wolfsbane really helps. He's not usually this tame though. I really think you three are on to something, the transformation was much more like an animagus rather than a werewolf," Sirius said.

    The marauders, old and new, spent the night running about an imitated forest that the room had conjured after Sirius had wanted to go outside if it only wasn't so dangerous for Harry to accidentally roam past the apparation barrier. When morning came, Remus transformed back with barely any pain and only one loud pop, which served to wake the others from their slumber.

    "How do you feel?" Harry asked, giving Remus a hug.

    "Much better. I only felt the change for the first few minutes and then it was like I stopped fighting it even more than usual and my mind stayed in the front instead of Moony coming to try to take over," Remus said, hugging Harry back. "Thank you, Harry," Remus whispered in Harry's ear.

    "Would you mind giving another blood sample?" Hermione asked.

    "Not at all, I'm anxious to see what you've managed to erase. I feel at least five years younger," Remus said.

    "You look it too. Some of your grey hair is gone this morning," Harry said.

    Remus cut his hand again and then healed the gash while he waited for Hermione to test the blood sample. "You started with 30 silver streaks yesterday and now after the full moon and the potion you have 20 left," Hermione said.

    "We took ten years of damage away in one full moon, and made the pain more bearable. It wasn't an outright cure but maybe over the next two full moons as the damage repairs more it will reverse completely," Harry said, writing the findings in the notebook.

    "We should tell Dumbledore," Remus said, thinking that the cure could be what they needed to get the werewolves on their side instead of going to Voldemort.

    "Are you thinking the cure could be a way to entice the werewolves?" Hermione asked.

    "Exactly. I'll let you three tell Dumbledore. It is your discovery," Remus said.

    "Tell me what?" Dumbledore asked from the doorway.

    "We think we may have found a possible cure for lycanthropy," Hermione answered.

    "Remus tried it last night. It took ten years of damage away from him and caused the transformation to be nearly as painless as an animagus transformation," Harry added.

    "You three never cease to amaze me, unfortunately I need to borrow Sirius and Remus today. There's been an attack on Diagon Alley late last night and we're needed to sort the survivors and those less fortunate. I believe there may be several Hogwarts students who will not be returning for the new term on September 1," Dumbledore said gravely.