Fellowship & Fairydust

In the time Harry was recovering from his ordeal, he thought hard about the things he read and had been told about werewolf transformations. The idea that he had lost control of himself in such a manner was alarming. He did not like missing memories from an entire night.

When he’d arrived back at the castle the next morning, he was taken straight to the hospital wing where his injuries were healed. Remus had come in about an hour before him, and was asleep. Remus’ body was more used to these changes, and seemed to recover more quickly. By the time Harry made his way to the Slytherin common room, it was nearly noon. He was dead tired, but his face was free of claw marks and bruises. Somehow he managed to drag himself as far as his bed, and fell asleep before his head hit the pillow.

For the next couple of days, Harry lounged in bed and rested. It was a good thing that he was so far ahead in his homework assignments, because he didn’t feel like doing much of anything and alternated between reading and sleeping. Severus brought his meals to him. By the time he was well enough to get out of bed, it was Monday and time for school.

During class, Harry got to thinking of everything he had learned about werewolves, and his mind started coming up with a concept that—if he was correct—would change things for the better. All he had to do was test it out. At lunch time, he told Severus to meet him in the potions lab after classes. Later, Harry got permission from Slughorn to work in the lab for a few hours to brew an awakening potion. He felt bad about lying, but this was the only way he could gain access to the Wolfsbane plant.

* * *

Making his way to the potions lab after transfiguration was exhausting, and Severus couldn’t wait to take a long nap after he was done helping Harry. He wasn’t sure what Harry needed, because the younger boy had been quite vague and mysterious.

When Severus opened the door to the potions lab, the first thing he saw was Harry dragging a knife across his hand and blood dripping into a small dish.

“Harry! What are you doing?” Severus cried, running towards him.

Harry was now wiping his bleeding hand with a small hand towel. “Don’t worry. I just needed a little bit of my blood,” he explained, pointing to the ingredients he had gathered before him. “Watch.”

With a pair of tweezers, Harry took a wolfsbane leaf and dropped it into the little dish of blood. Nothing happened immediately, but soon different components in the blood began visibly responding, and it dulled in color.

“If you look close enough, the werewolf component of the blood is neutralized. I just need to figure out how to stabilise it in a way that won’t kill the drinker,” Harry explained, showing Severus the mixture with a pair of magically enhanced glasses.

“What are you talking about?” Severus asked with a confused look on his face, still concerned with Harry’s bleeding hand.

“If it works, I think we can create a potion that will make werewolves less dangerous,” Harry explained as he picked up several bits of parchment and tossed them in Severus’ direction with a wide grin. “Remember when Remus said they line the door of the Shrieking Shack with wolfsbane so he can’t leave? I want to create a potion that has a similar effect, but keeps the werewolf lucid even in wolf form.”

Severus stared at the little dish, then back at Harry, his mind was reeling from everything he was hearing. “Do you have any ideas that could work? Anything that would bring the poison factor down might make it lose the effect you’re looking for,” he explained, sitting to read Harry’s notes. The ideas were good, the concepts were brilliant, and the reasoning was sound. In theory, everything Harry had written should work, but theory and practice were two different things.

“I’m going to attempt to make this for the next full moon, and I want to test it out,” Harry whispered excitedly.

Severus wondered if this was a good idea. “Who knows how your body would react to such a potion? It sounds dangerous.”

“It’s either me or Remus, and personally, I’d rather test it on myself,” Harry said, not wanting to put his new friend in too much danger. “But I need your help with mixing the potion. Between the two of us, we should be able to make this happen.”

Severus looked back and forth between the notes and Harry before giving a loud sigh of defeat. The younger boy was going to do it with or without his help. At least this way he could try and keep anything too bad from happening.

They spent the rest of the evening successfully testing different components of Harry’s potion. Within the next couple of days the potion would be completed, and they would be able to test it properly.

* * *

Classes were hard for Harry the next day; he wanted to work more on his potion, but had to focus on transfiguring a cotton ball into cotton candy. So far only Harry, Alex and a girl called Katy had succeeded. One boy was mumbling about why they had to make muggle sweets when there were better things they could be doing with their time; he was the only one who hadn’t at least turned his cotton ball pink.

By the end of class, only four students had gotten cotton candy; three had given up, and somehow a Gryffindor girl made her cotton ball explode. One Gryffindor boy had lost a few points for throwing his cotton balls out the window.

Since it was the last class of the day, Harry went back to the potions lab and worked for a little while until Severus found him. At first, he was confused as to why Severus was wearing pajamas until he realised it was nearly bedtime.

As he stood up, his stomach let out a noise that resembled a whale’s mating call, causing Severus to chuckle lightly.

“I’m guessing you skipped supper.”

Rolling his eyes, Harry nodded and rubbed his stomach, which was starting to feel emptier by the second.

“I have some biscuits left from mum’s last package if you want them,” Severus said to Harry, whose face lit up brightly at the offer. “You must have been working really hard on that potion.”

“I just found something that was going in the right direction, and I couldn’t leave.”

Severus looked thoughtful for a few seconds before he burst into laughter. Harry stared at him as though he had grown a second head. “I’m sorry, it’s just funny that you tell me I’m the youngest potions master in the world when you appear to be taking that record from me yourself.”

“I’m sorry…”

“I don’t care, it’s just funny when you think about it.”

With a shrug Severus led Harry towards the common room; neither said anything for a few minutes. Harry was thinking about the potion and what he could do to make it safer. He was nervous about the idea of testing, but it would have to be done eventually, and by him. After all, who in their right mind would try out a potion created by an eleven-year-old using a highly poisonous plant?

The next morning, Severus and Harry sat in the Great Hall watching as James made a couple of attempts to strike up conversations with Lily Evans. Harry was conflicted in how he felt about the interaction; he was glad to see James being rejected, yet worried for his own sake about what would happen if James and Lily didn’t end up together. But it was not like he could go back to his own time, anyway.

After a few seconds, Lily finally rolled her eyes and stormed out of the Great Hall; she looked furious about something James had said. Even James’ friends were staring at him with disapproval. After receiving a few pointed glances from Sirius and Remus, James finally got the hint and dashed out after Lily. James had probably said something more conceited and egotistical than usual.

“I hope everything is okay,” Harry said. “Lily really seemed upset.”

Severus nodded in agreement as he stared towards the Great Hall doors, his eyes wide with concern as they always were when he was given reason to believe anything was wrong with Lily. For the millionth time since arriving in the past, Harry found himself wondering exactly how Lily ended up with James instead of Severus.

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