Unlike a Sister (Harmione)

Chapter 23: Knowledge

James and Albus returned to Hogwarts that Sunday and Clymene Court again grew quiet and still, like an animal curling around itself in the cold.

On Monday evening, Dr. Alexander Peck called Harry, breathless.

"I've got the results of all your bloodwork. It's interesting..."

He offered to conference in Ron and Hermione-something Harry hadn't known was possible. Once Harry gave him their home number, all four of them were on the line.

"I must heavily caveat everything I'm about to say," said the doctor. "I've only tested your three samples, but there appears to be four to seven gene areas in your DNA that are different from the global database. All these genes relate to nerve and brain cells, which suggests that magic does indeed originate in the brain."

"So what do we do next?" said Hermione eagerly.

"With so little information, it'd be irresponsible to design a gene therapy at this stage," Alex sighed. "We need to test far more magical blood to confirm the findings."

"How much more blood do you need?" Harry asked.

"Ideally, we'd sample thousands of people. At a bare minimum, we need several hundred."

Silence.

"Well, there's an obvious answer, isn't there?" said Ron.

"What?" said Hermione.

"Vampires."

"What?" said Alex and Harry.

"Yeah," said Ron. "There's a shop in Knockturn Alley. I know the owner. He caters to more unusual tastes and he keeps a stock of blood for his vampire clients. Apparently vampires prefer magical blood over Muggle blood so I know he has arrangements with magical donors. Not sure how many, though."

"Ron!" said Hermione. "That's brilliant!"

"Could one of you meet with him?" said Alex. "Find out how many donors he has? I'm happy to come too. I've heard the Healers mention that street."

"Sure, you can come," said Ron. "It's not going to be cheap, though. I know he pays a lot for it and sells it at a markup."

"Whatever it is, we'll pay it," said Hermione immediately.

"All right. There goes Hugo's dress robes fund."

They laughed.

"While this is great," said Alex evenly, "I do think we need to try our first line of treatment, the blood transfusion. If simply having magical blood in their system finally allows the counter-charm to work, there'll be no need for the gene therapies. I blood typed the Camerons last week and I think we should try Walter Cameron first. His condition is relatively stable and his blood type is AB positive, so he can take blood from any of you. Which one of you wants to do it?"

"I'll-" said Hermione.

"I'll do it," Harry interrupted tightly.

Hermione was anemic. She couldn't donate large amounts of blood.

Alex seemed to remember too, for he quickly said, "Yes, that'd be great, Harry. I'll have to take a lot more than last time. At least one litre. It won't be fun."

"That's fine."

They arranged to meet the next day. Like an Auror sting operation, Harry constructed a plan. He would lend his Invisibility Cloak to Ron and Hermione. They would go to St. Mungo's during visiting hours, Ron staying under the cloak. Once in the Thickey Ward, Ron would take Polyjuice to become Walter Cameron. Hermione would put the real Walter under the cloak and return to the lobby to disapparate. They would meet Harry and Alex at the latter's flat to conduct the transfusion, which would take one to two hours.