En Memoriam

Chapter 33

"I did not expect to see you back so soon Miss Granger, are you alright?" Madame Pomfrey had been organizing her stores when the floo connected to the private room had activated. She hadn't at all expected Hermione to have come through, "Are you alright? You look a bit flushed..."

Hermione waved a dismissive hand to her appearance, she'd basically run through the ministry towards the public floo's. Leaving her a little out of breath and far more fatigued than she believed a woman of her age should have been. Regardless, she merely moved towards the medi-witch with the paper in her hand, "What would happen...if..." She took a deep breath rubbing her chest to try and ease its tightness. Definitely out of shape, she admonished, "You combined these potion ingredients?"

Madame Pomfrey ignored the paper, instead she took Hermione's arm to settle her in the chair behind her desk, "Did you run here?" Her cool fingers pressed gently to Hermione's dampened brow.

"I'm fine, just...a little out of shape..." A glass of water was immediately pressed into her hand and she took it without complaint to her lips. While she gulped she raised the paper again, this time the elder witch took it.

"Out shape is putting it lightly Miss Granger," Poppy scolded, "Need I remind you, once more, that the feeling of strength you get after treatment is exceptionally temporary, and the harder you push yourself the shorter time you'll have between?"

"I'm sorry...Truly...I just..." Hermione took another breath her chest gradually easing as her heart returned to a more balanced rhythm, "Get excited..."

"Quite." Poppy harrumphed, refilling the glass for the young woman before actually taking in what she'd given her. She pulled her glasses from her apron before settling at the edge of her desk, her brows increasingly furrowing as she read through, "What is this exactly?"

Hermione gulped down the second half of her water, taking a final calming breath. Settling the glass down she turned and reached into her pocket pulling out the single capsule, "It's this...I had Luna break down what it was made of. That, was the result. Have you ever seen anything like it before?"

Poppy gingerly took the vial from her hand, her head tilting as she turned it in the light. There was a moment where nothing came to mind before her eyes widened in sudden realization, "Yes...yes I have... Though not like this..."

"Ma'am?" Hermione came to her feet as Poppy moved towards her stores. Keeping close behind and a strict eye on the vial. Poppy leaned down towards the bottom of her shelf, digging through a series of boxes before finally pulling one from the very back, "I used to keep some of Severus' potions here for him... Sometimes he couldn't make it back to his own stores..."

Hermione swallowed at the hidden meaning, her hand coming around her waist in a self-soothing gesture.

"I remember asking him once what was in the box but he never let me open it myself. Kept it warded." Poppy finally pulled out a box no bigger than the one she'd given to Hermione. The size of a tissue box, the wood was a deep stained black with no keyhole, "Once I did manage to see something...but I couldn't understand at the time."

Poppy set it on a nearby counter, glancing towards Hermione, "I'm sure the wards would be no challenge for you."

Hermione grinned slightly, pulling her wand from her sleeve. When she drew up the sigils she found herself exceptionally surprised to find the design to be just the same as the one put over his father's memorial. A word-coded lock. Her eyes narrowed for a moment, her wand idly moving around the letters. The code held six spaces and though she had seen an 'L' and 'Y' there were no 'I's. Her lips twitched as she pulled the available letters, moving them, combining and rearranging. There were extra's of course but only so many possible six-letter words. She tried a couple to no avail before something Harry had told her fluttered through her inner thoughts. On a whim, she pulled the necessary letters towards the lock.