Hermione Riddle

Charms and Potions

"We will work on a charm after Severus brews the potion. It is Saturday and the beginning of Holidays starts on Monday, so we can always set up notes to be sent and received to make it seem as if you are elsewhere." Tom nodded to Severus who got up and Hermione stood as well.

"Do you mind if I go with you to help brew? Then we will be done faster and I can get to practice Occlumency. I know the basics, I just need to find better imagery in order to keep it in tack. Potions sooth me and it will allow me to meditate easier." Hermione looked over to Harry, making sure he was alright with the idea of being left alone with Tom and he nodded.

"I don't see why that would be a problem. Harry and I will work on his shields for now and possibly discuss something to do for both of your appearances." Tom nodded over to Harry who grinned at him.

"Sounds good to me!" Harry said excitedly and glanced over at Tom who chuckled at him. Severus snorted and turned on his heel and left leaving Hermione to scurry behind him. Once they made their way downstairs Severus let her into his private lab. Severus watched as Hermione looked around in awe.

"This is amazing, Severus." She let her fingers graze over the counter tops and immaculate potion brewing equipment. She looked up at Severus and he chuckled at her.

"Best equipment money can buy, this is years of collecting and saving. I have more antique equipment in there." He pointed to a door and Hermione felt her fingers twitch, she longed to go in there and look at all of it. He called them antiques, but she was sure they were all in perfect condition and looked brand new. Severus saw her twitching fingers and snorted.

"Feel the urge to take notes Miss Granger?" He raised a single eyebrow at her and smirked. Hermione let out a laugh and flicked him off. Severus gaped at her and Hermione dissolved into giggles. "Do I even want to know where you picked up such a rude gesture?"

"Seamus Finnigan." Was all she said and Severus was not the least bit surprised, the boy's mother was Irish and he knew how to say rather crude things in Gaelic, after swearing in English got him into a lot of trouble. "Not to mention his use of crude Gaelic." She laughed and Severus shook his head.

"Why am I not surprised?" He shook his head and went to his store room. Severus began taking out ingredients and setting up his workbench to brew. He first prepped the ingredients for the base and let it simmer while he chopped, sliced, and ground the rest. Hermione had not even been aware she was staring until Severus looked up at her and she flushed and ducked her head.

"Sorry, I just have never really seen you work like this before. It really is a great chance to learn and see one of the world's best Potioneers in his own space working." Hermione gushed and Severus felt a slight heat rise to his cheeks. He let his hair fall into his face to hide his embarrassment and Hermione sighed. She wished he would be more open with her, but she knew it was going to be a slow transition.

"You need to start occluding your mind remember?" He raised an eyebrow at her and Hermione nodded. She sat on the couch cross-legged and closed her eyes. She slowly eased her way into her mind and began to compartmentalize the different aspects of her brain. She opened her eyes when Severus gently laid a hand on her shoulder and realized more time had passed than she must have been aware of. Severus had already brewed three more potions and everything was clean and tidy once more.

"Are you ready to go back upstairs?" Severus held out his hand and Hermione accepted it with a small smile. Severus helped her from her seat and they made their way back to where Tom and Harry were waiting. As Hermione walked in she looked over at Harry and stopped dead in her tracks, causing Severus to run into her. Severus looked up and couldn't contain his laughter. Harry was sporting rainbow colored hair down to the floor and Tom's was bright blonde with braids, ribbons, and bows down to his hips. Hermione started giggling and conjured two mirrors so that they could see themselves and both men began to laugh, falling back into their chairs. Hermione sat down on the couch across from them and shook her head.

"You two are terrible. I am not even going to ask how that started." Hermione sat down and called for a house elf. "Hello, Rook, may I have something to snack on please, and some refreshments brought for everyone else." She made herself comfortable and summoned a book to her lap. Severus took a seat next to her and summoned parchment, paper, and a lap desk to write on. They started on their research as Harry and Tom made tea for everyone. Harry finally canceled the charms on himself and Tom after remembering about that and they set up a game of wizard's chess.

"Severus, if we combine the glamours with the concealment potion, no one should be able to see passed them." She made notes on another piece of paper, drawing up the arithmancy numbers and working out the equation. Severus looked over it and nodded. He jotted down more notes and Hermione began looking through the book once more. "Luckily our voices didn't really change so we don't have to worry about that." She stood and passed out food to everyone. "Here, we all need to eat, I'm sure it is quite passed lunch time." She sat down with her sandwich and began happily munching on it. Suddenly a thought struck her and she but her food down, banishing the crumbs as she grabbed a quill and the lap desk.

"Hermione?" Harry asked and Severus shook his head, Harry nodded and waited until she had finished her calculations.

"I think I figured it out. If we make the potion and embed it within a gem, we should be able to have the glamour up fully without anyone being able to see through it or cancel it. We can wear it on a necklace, ring, or bracelet. Something discrete. Then not even Mad-Eye Moody would be able to see through it. I have read about embedding it into the skin, but we don't need anything that permanent." She waved her wand and the calculations and runes floated above the paper, finishing themselves out in her matrix. "A sapphire or emerald would work the best, a ruby would not work. It needs to be in almost perfect condition and clean cut." She sat back against the couch with a sigh and vanished the matrix.

"What's wrong Hermione?" Harry said as moved a piece on the board that ended the game, his queen slashing through Tom's king. Tom glared at the boy and Hermione chuckled as Harry grinned at Tom with a cat got the cream expression.

"I don't know where we are going to get stones like that. We would need to get the same type in order to make it so that we could say we gave them to each other, that they are protection gems or something. In case anyone sees them." She sighed and rubbed her temples.

"We should be able to find something in all of our vaults, we can have the goblins search the vaults and compile them for us. If there is anything in there that has sentimental value we will have it placed back in the original vault." Tom sipped his tea and Severus nodded in agreement.

"I know I may have something in the prince vaults that would work. There are several rings in my great grandfathers vault that should work. You will have to think of something to say to Weasley, because he will not be getting one. Perhaps say that you two were back to Hogwarts early and its something you created together with a book from Sirius' possessions that he left for Harry. You can always say you didn't think he would be interested in it." Severus grinned slyly and Hermione and Harry laughed.

"That's a good idea, and that is also true about Ronald. Shall we go and see the goblins again?" Hermione started to arrange the noted and everything in a neat fashion and Harry and Tom stood, cleaning up there messes as well. Severus offered Hermione his hand which she accepted with a faint blush, that darkened as he helped her put her traveling cloak on.

"We can throw up temporary glamours for now, and drop them once we are in Ragnok's office." Tom suggested and everyone nodded. Severus drew his wand and applied the glamours to Hermione and Harry, while Tom did himself and Severus in turn. They looked like a plain ordinary group of friends, no discernible qualities that might make them seem out of places. Hermione looked everyone over and nodded.

"Perfect, let's get this over with." She smiled and turned, allowing Tom to lead everyone out of the Manor and to the apparation point. They landed in a dark alley near the bank and swiftly made their way inside. Tom flashed his ring at the goblin at the counter and the goblin stood, walking over to another before coming back to Tom.

"Ragnok is busy at the moment, but you may wait in his office, if that pleases you Lord Slytherin." The goblin bowed and Tom bowed back.

"Yes, that should do just fine, thank you Griphook." Tom looked over to the others and inclined his head to the others, who soon began following the goblin to the office he had just mentioned.