Angelinus

Chapter 9

The Scientific Way

Severus woke briefly to a tickling nose and a warm solidness snuggled against his chest. He swatted the stray curl away from his nostril, almost smiled at Remus' indistinct protest then drifted back to sleep.

Stabbingly bright light lanced through his skull when he attempted to open his eyes some indefinable time later. Muttering furiously under his breath, he groped for his wand but couldn't find it. Squinting painfully, he cursed Remus for lighting all the torches and mumbled 'nox' but nothing happened. Utterly furious, Snape held up his hand, slammed it into a fist and bellowed - 'Bloody NOX!' - At the top of his lungs. There was a groan and a crash of stone then blessed darkness. His sigh of relief was very short lived.

"Severus Snape! You put those windows back immediately, do you hear me!" Poppy's voice could have cut glass as it reverberated down the ward. "Don't make me cast Lumos on you!" she threatened suggestively.

"Woman, if you wish to blind me then you had better choose a different method! How is a body supposed to wake up in a decent temper when it's bright enough to fry eyeballs in here?" Severus snapped back aggrieved. "I hate mornings!" he grumbled under his breath squinting miserably as he undid his wandless magic with a disgruntled air.

"Here," a voice said close at hand and something cool slid over his face.

He opened one eye then opened both in surprise. The private room and the ward beyond were still brightly lit but some sort of dark glasses were perched on his nose, blocking and subduing the light to a manageable level. "What are these?"

"Ray-bans," Sandy said in amusement. "They suit you. Here, lean forward and I'll fluff your pillows up. Better? Good. How are you feeling now? You were out for the count when Remus woke before lunch but Poppy thought it best to let you sleep as long as possible. Here, drink this; it will make you feel more the ticket."

Cushioned by the flow of soft chatter, Severus found himself swallowing the potion without a single squeak of protest. He glared at the girl but then realised the dark glasses rather defeated the purpose but he wasn't about to give up their comfort at this point so he crossed his arms over his chest militantly instead. "What are you still doing here and why are you fussing around like a demented duck with one chick?"

"Good morning to you too," Sandy grinned as she slid a tray over his knees. "Professor Dumbledore thought I would be an asset here in the infirmary while the children were recovering."

"He did, did he? And what is this rubbish?" He poked at the tray's contents without real interest.

"It's breakfast. Lightly poached eggs on wheat toast with grilled tomatoes, bacon and a small serve of lamb's kidneys. Remus seemed to feel it was what you would prefer for breakfast," Sandy said pointedly and was amused to see the objections gathering in his expression fade away at that statement. She was even more pleased to realise he had eaten most of the food before he stopped and stared at her, fork poised. "Remus is fine, the children are still sleeping and they are fine too. The Malfoys sent a message that the first batch of potion was cooling and as soon as it was bottled, they would bring it in for you. Poppy says you are desperately dehydrated and undernourished but what else is new? Remus also said to tell you that whatever the spell you did yesterday was supposed to accomplish, it seems to have faded into a background, place-keeping mode of operation. Would you like coffee or tea? There you go, it is hot mind."

"Tea is supposed to be hot," Severus grumbled but was content to sip the brew quietly. The young Australian had settled herself on the chair near his bed and seemed quite disposed to sit there quietly, without chattering. It was, 'pleasant', he decided, opting for a second cup of tea before he pushed the tray aside. "So, clear off! I need to get dressed and find out what sort of hash Draco has made of the damned potion."

Sandy grinned. "Yeah, yeah, sure! Scoff the nosh then duck out of the dishes, I know."

Severus blinked at her then smirked. "A woman's work is never done, don't you know? Thank Merlin for house-elves!"

Sandy laughed as she exited the room and closed the door after her.

Dressed in the comfortable robes Remus must have brought up for him, Severus debated keeping the dark glasses on but decided they were a little too affected for everyday use. Still, he didn't have even a twinge of low-level headache so he thought he might invest in a pair of his own. Snape stalked out of the private cubicle he had been in and, ignoring the two students in the far side of the ward with quidditch training injuries, swooped to check the small child who was curled up on her side, her cheeks rosy with sleep.

Waving a hand over her, he brought the bed's Acclaro charm up to full effect and murmured the added impetus for the detection of direstium. The tell tale green sparkles were still present and glowing malignantly in the child's system but the usual debilitation that accompanied the poison had not advanced past the stage it had been the day before. In fact, some of the damage seemed to have been repaired, some of the magic and mundane resources restored. Thoughtfully, Severus made a note on the record Poppy had been compiling and was about to leave the ward when the door to the infirmary swung open.

Two very hefty wizards dragged a limp, unwashed and smelly youth in between them, Draco Malfoy bringing up the rear. One of Snape's eyebrows rose toward his hairline as the two men in Auror's uniforms dropped the young man in a heap on the floor. Draco smiled sunnily as he skirted the stinking mess and handed a pair of vials to the Potion Master.

"I made a double lot as I was very sure you would want to test it before you used it in earnest."

"Good thinking. Who is the guinea-pig?" Snape asked stirring the bundle with his toe.

"He is one of the Crabbe cousins. I promised Crabbe that, if this didn't work, I would turn him over to the Aurors and let the direstium do its job. After all, the Crabbe clan has a very firm policy about Squibs."

"Are they still allowed to cut their throats and bury them in the well with lime packing?" Snape asked in well-simulated surprise, which made Draco chuckle, the Aurors swap exasperated glances and the youth mewl miserably. "What is it called? I don't recognise it."

Even Malfoy had to blink at that statement until he studied the youth objectively, a walking skeleton with drooping folds of skin indicating a sudden and dramatic weight loss. "Humm, perhaps you wouldn't at that. He is Robert Vaughton-Crabbe, from three years ago."

"Good Merlin, I would never have guessed. He was enormously fat!"

"Professor, have you really invented a cure for direstium poisoning?" Auror Mark Brown interjected a worried frown on his face.

"I truly hope so," Snape replied, casting Acclaro over the boy and marking the huge amounts of green sparkles the reveal spell showed up. "He is on his last dregs, isn't he? Still with that much stored lard no wonder he is still alive. Another couple of days and he would have nothing left of his magic and probably die in a couple of days after that."

The second Auror named Peter Newbury, stirred irritably. "Why is it that some of them die immediately after the magic has gone even though their bodies are not particularly damaged?"

"Psychic shock, more or less. Some people just can't survive without magic coursing through their bodies, others manage, and especially the Muggle-born I think. So, he is indeed a direstium addict and quite heavily dosed. I wonder if curing him will make any difference. Will he leave it alone forever more or will he just go back to it as soon as he is let loose? Quite a conundrum, is it not?" Severus mused.

"Oh, I think we can guarantee he will stay clean for at least ten years. He was busted for dealing as well as possession and there's no direstium in Azkaban."

"You hope," Draco murmured in the background as he hooked a goblet off the shelving near the door. "How much will you give him Uncle Severus?"

"Each adult needs to consume about thirty millilitres, depending on the strength of the infestation and how much of them are left. Giving it to him in one dose would probably kill him and destroy the experiment. I recommend giving ten mm in the initial dose, then five mm in each dose thereafter until it is gone. Every four hours should do it, I believe."

"Will he be coherent after that?"

Snape gave Auror Newbury a disgusted look as he turned away. "I guarantee he will be direstium free, the rest is unknown."

"Er, Professor Snape, one more question, if we may? Why have you suddenly felt the need to create an antidote to one of the current worst threats to wizarding society?" Mark Brown asked, not at all as air headed as his sister Lavender.

"Sheer altruism?" Snape suggested sardonically as he grabbed a handful of the unfortunate youth's hair and pulled his head back for Draco to administer the potion.

Young Crabbe screamed as the potion burned all the way down his gullet, going into immediate convulsions that seemed likely to break his back. Poppy came at a run and almost had conniptions when she saw the man writhing on her floor. "Why didn't you transfer him to a private room or at least put him into a proper bed?" she demanded angrily.

"He doesn't deserve the consideration Poppy. Besides, he would only jerk himself out of the bed and end up on the floor which might be worse in the long run." Severus sniffed.

"And he never thought of it," Draco put in grimly as he slowly retreated from the repugnant sight in the middle of the Infirmary's main ward.

Snape shot him an amused smirk while Poppy insisted the Aurors move the writhing body into a private alcove out of the main passageway. At a gesture from Poppy, Sandy hurriedly moved the two children out of their beds and to another ward despite their intense curiosity. Madam Pomfrey ranged herself beside Snape, her scientific curiosity overcoming her compassionate streak in the face of the experiment.

Draco hung back, a little green around the gills at the sight of the son of a good friend thrashing and writhing on the floor in the grip of the drug, gasping and foaming at the mouth. Drugs had never really interested him, mainly because his father would have killed him if he had succumbed to such a weakness. Even worse, Draco had a weak stomach. Regardless of whatever people thought and no matter how his father had threatened or punished, he still couldn't bear to see anyone tortured or in pain. Moving back unobtrusively, he really wished he was anywhere but here, especially when the youth lost control of his muscles and the smell became very disturbing. Draco leaned himself against the doorjamb and carefully closed his eyes and invoked the mind calming spell he had perfected in his father's torture chambers many years ago.

The Aurors stood grim faced while Snape simply recorded his observations in a recording crystal that appeared in his hand as soon as the potion was administered. The Acclaro spell flashed and glowed, purplish sparks tangling and exploding the green spots of poison in a visual representation of the battle going on inside the boy's system.

"Worse than Crucio in effect," Severus remarked grimly. "It would be interesting to see Cruciatus under an Acclaro spell and compare them."

Madame Pomfrey snorted. "I have the remember-crystal we rescued after the final battle in my library. Tom Riddle was nothing if not thorough and often documented such things when he was sane. I think you'll find that under crucio the general aura shows up green in keeping with the nature of the curse and the over stimulation of the nerve endings shows up as red. I think you gave him too much Severus. Perhaps a weaker solution but in more frequent doses, say a ten percent solution consumed over a period of twenty four hours, one mouthful at a time," the last was said in very academic tones.

"You might have something there. I wonder if we should calculate the dosage on weight. Ah, the worst seems to be wearing off, or is he just dying? No, no, he seems to be getting his breath back. Jolly good. See, there's at least a fifty percent reduction in the drug in his system after only ten mils. The side effects seem to have drained him; perhaps some fortifying solution might help against the worst debilitation," Snape mused, Poppy hurrying to fetch the correct vials.

Wrinkling his nose in disgust, Draco stepped in to perform some cleansing charms over the boy and indicated the Aurors haul him up onto the bed where he could be guarded while his recovery was charted. Madame Pomfrey moved in behind him and hurriedly administered the necessary potions before dashing off again to be sure the others under her care were not disturbed or upset by what they had seen.

Sandy had them well in hand; telling the children stories about Australia as she checked temperatures and bandages, smoothed quilts and generally coddled them. Catching her eye, Poppy nodded at her to carry on then continued to where Severus was standing over the child, a deeply contemplative frown on his brow.

"Dare we chance it Poppy?" he asked as soon as the woman appeared at his elbow.

"Do we have a choice? The child is poisoned and will die relatively quickly, that is a certainty. Your potion removed direstium from a wizard's system, also a certainty. All we have to do is decide how much potion we dare chance at a time so as not to hurt the child."

"It's a matter of weights and measures. We know how much is too much and how big the boy is, if we divide the potion in half for his weight then work out the fractions based on the child's weight," Severus smirked gleefully, tapping his chin with a finger as he did the maths. "Let's try one millilitre in one hundred mils of water, administered over a period of twelve hours and see what effect we achieve. I wish we had a few more addicts to try it on."

"If wishes were broomsticks we'd all play quidditch."

"Oh, spare me!" Snape shuddered theatrically. "Check my calculations Poppy and we'll get on with it."

"You don't want to wait for Remus to get here?"

"No. There shouldn't be too much to see for the first part of the cure. Best he finishes whatever he is doing before he comes to stand vigil with us."

At first there was no appreciable difference in the small girl as Poppy dripped the first ten mils of mix into the rosebud mouth. They waited almost thirty minutes before the next five mils went in and by then the sparks of green in the Acclaro spell were beginning to be surrounded and not so much attacked as absorbed by the purplish amoeba produced by the diluted potion. The child changed to a boy and moved somewhat restlessly as the third ten-mil dose was administered.

Severus concentrated all his powers of Legilimens on the child; ready to call the experiment off if the slightest difficulties or trauma showed in the child's mind but apart from some bad dreams involving something with teeth and claws, there was no upset. Indicating Poppy should continue the treatment, Severus went to check on their other patient, his acclaro charm showing that the amount of direstium in his body had been reduced by half but was still at far too high a level to be safe. Measuring another dose, he administered it and recorded the results in the remember-crystal. Draco watched carefully as his cousin moved a lot less vigorously this time, the potion obviously not warring so mightily with the drug in his system.

"A much more desirable result," Severus remarked as the younger man drifted to his side. "These are the results we are seeing with the child, a sort of sluggish engulfing and destroying of the invader, rather than trying to explode the stuff. Humm, that's interesting. Well, I had better send a call to Remus as the child should be waking soon and he should be here."

A fire-call to their quarters brought Remus at a run, skidding down the central aisle to fetch up against Severus. The two Aurors almost hit him with a double hex but didn't seem to notice that both Draco and Severus went for their wands to protect him. Remus didn't notice either as he wrapped an arm around Severus' waist and fixed eager eyes on the small figure in the bed. He frowned at the spell covering the child, a slightly puzzled air about him.

Taking pity, Severus moved behind him and draped both arms around his waist, leaning his chin lightly on the top of Remus' head. "They have had twenty mils in the last two hours and as you can see, the dose has reduced the direstium by about half. The direstium is represented by the green sparks; the potion by the purple clumps. The clumps eat the sparks."

"What is the greyish mist there almost on the bottom of the child's back? See?"

Severus peered forward and frowned, exchanging looks with Poppy Pomfrey. "How odd, any ideas?"

The older woman peered into the spell and frowned thoughtfully. "Almost like a residue from the destruction process. Now, I have seen something like that before, I know I have, but where?" Chewing her lip thoughtfully, Poppy paged back through her long memory of experience for quite some time before clicking her fingers. "It's ash! No, no, not the real thing, bodily ash, the residue left by poisons that have to be expelled from the body before it can be classed as fully healed. My old Professor at St Mungo's used to be very big on getting rid of the poisonous residue after a sickness. He used to recommend liver cleansing potions and cold baths but I've always found a warm bath with Epsom salts to be much more effective. I think the more modern term is fatigue toxins."

"I wonder...." Severus strode off down the ward to the Crabbe youth's ward and checked the spell over him, seeing a lot of the grey mist circulating his body. "Can we try expurgo sanies, I wonder?" Suiting actions to words, Severus cast the spell and watched as the grey mist swirled away but realised that the youth was obviously being quite badly hurt by the action. Keeping the incantation going, Severus reduced its power to a milder form and was pleased to see the youth respond quite well. His liver, which had been getting larger and larger, seemed to be slowly deflating and the mist was getting very slightly thinner. Nodding to himself, Severus hurried back to the small child and performed the similar spell on her, also noting that her liver had started to take on a swollen look.

Something else he noticed too was that Remus seemed to be getting a little thin drawn looking and he caught his husband's chin to stare into his eyes in worried reflection. "You need to eat," he said in surprise. "When did you last eat? You look half starved again."

"Actually, I am somewhat peckish," Remus said in surprise as his stomach growled hungrily. "Odd. I only ate an hour ago."

Curving his hand in a tiny gesture, Severus brought the spell he had cast over Remus to the fore and blinked in amazement. The outflow of magic down the conduit he had created between man and child was fast and furious. The vampire spell was feeding Remus' energy into the child at a huge rate. Poppy caught the tail of the acclaro spell and dropped her jaw in surprise before hurrying to prepare a fortified draught for the werewolf. Severus checked his own spell and found he too was contributing to the child's energy at a less violent rate but he was also sending a small amount of energy to Remus too.

"You really did it this time, didn't you?" Remus teased gently, brushing his lips over Severus' pale cheek. "Still, it's not a life threatening drain at the moment and if it improves the baby's chance to survive then it is well worth it. Oh, thank you Poppy," he commented as the matron thrust a large mug into his hand. It smelled pretty awful so he downed it in one and shuddered delicately as it hit his empty stomach. "Better get Severus some of this stuff too. He is going to need it."

"Tattle tale!" Severus murmured, still concentrating on the spell over the bed. He downed the potion without seeming to taste it, so deeply wrapped in concentration was he. Occasionally he asked Poppy to get him something but on the whole, he simply observed the course of the antidote as it travelled through the patient and systematically destroyed the damning sparks of poison in its wake. "You know, there's an awful lot of direstium in the child's system, more than can be accounted for in the single dose Sandy gave her. I have a horrible feeling that this stuff reproduces itself, that it feeds and grows on magic within the body. It's really quite insidious. I must test that theory later but not now. How are we off for time Poppy?"

The two consulted, made decisions and administered medicine, always observing the effects it had and recording them for later analysis. Just before dawn one of the Aurors put his head in at the door and asked that Severus come quickly, the patient was awake.

The youth was a sad and sorry sight; a skeleton wrapped in grey, unhealthy folds of parchment, sitting up in the white hospital bed with an air of unreality, his eyes dull and unthinking. He blinked and half twitched as Snape entered the room, shrinking back from his dominant figure. "So, Mr Crabbe, you are back with us then?" Severus purred, glaring down at the sorry excuse for an ex-student. "What do you have to say for yourself?"

"I'm, I'm sorry Sir," the boy gasped, shuddering violently.

"Not nearly as sorry as you will be, I do assure you," Severus hissed then straightened, clicking his fingers. "Give me his wand."

Before either could think, the Aurors handed over the wand in question and Severus tossed it to the boy who grasped it as if it was precious. Ignoring the official protests, Severus produced a quill from inside his robes and tossed it onto the quilt beside Robert. "Levitate it."

There was a concerted gasp of 'what' then the boy realised what was meant and pointed his wand muttering 'Wingardium Leviosa' almost sullenly. Nothing happened much to the evident shock of the victim. He tried again, putting much more effort and concentration into the child's charm. Again nothing happened. Looking totally horrified, he glanced around wildly then strained with all his might, the sweat of effort standing out in stark beads on his pale clammy skin. The feather wobbled and rose a few inches then flumped back to the quilt lethargically. Robert Vaughton -Crabbe burst into desolate and devastated tears.

"Well," Severus exclaimed in satisfaction as he studied the Acclaro charm on the bed. "Not quite as low-level as a Squib but close to it. There may be some recovery of power over the next few months but a close eye should be kept on him. It seems that the direstium actually feeds and grows within the body, we feel and so, if we've missed a bit, it will only come back and kill him anyway. It's fascinating stuff. I will apparate in, in a few days to check on him and give him a booster dose of the potion just in case."

"If our senior staff agrees to it," Peter cautioned officiously.

"I am quite sure Ron Weasley will be more than willing to assist in the attempt to cure our people of a pernicious and devastating addiction that is destroying some of our youngest and finest." Severus smirked, an eyebrow cocked in supercilious surprise.

"Yes Sir. May we take the prisoner away now Sir?" Mark asked almost diffidently.

"Of course, he is of no further interest to er, science."

~~<*>~~

The little girl stirred and opened sleepy brown eyes that looked almost black in the early morning light. She smiled tentatively and turned her head until she spotted Sandy then smiled more cheerfully. "Hi," she said rustily then turned back to the man beside the bed. "You're Uncle Remus, aren't you? We dreamed about you. You came to our house and read the possum book to us."

"That's right, pet, I did," Remus smiled back gently. "I'm pleased to meet you in the real world."

The girl grinned cheekily then a smile of pure, unadulterated joy transformed her features. "Mummy!" she exclaimed, making everyone blink. Then the joy faded and died, mutating into desolation and loss. "You aren't my mummy!" she wailed her mouth distending in a keen of pure distress as Severus came further into the room. "I want my Mummy!" she screamed as Severus sighed deeply and laid a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"Don't we all," he murmured under his breath as he picked the child up and held her close despite her wailing and thrashing. "Don't we all," he muttered into her hair and Remus caught a hint of equal desolation in the flat onyx eyes as they closed.