blood bound

chapter 19: Lucius' Folly

Severus spent several hours after they got back first finding and setting up an impromptu potions lab. He had the elves help him scour the entire room by hand and without magic before finally setting up to brew the new special elixir that Harry needed. A word to one of the elves had a decent clipping of hair and several vials of blood from both of his mates delivered to him so that it could be used in the potion. Nagini's venom and scales were also carefully collected by the elves for the potion. He tested the pure gold cauldron for magical resonance by tapping the side with a silver stirring rod, listening to the lovely magical chime that would help turn the potion into a true elixir.

Severus first added half the cauldron's worth of pure distilled water, setting it to heat and added the mint once it was at a nice light simmer. Next came the crushed lavender, lightly chopped thyme, and shredded chamomile. Leaving them to brew he quickly and efficiently both crushed the Bezoar stone into medium-small sized chunks before grinding the freely given unicorn horn to powder, mixing both with the phoenix tears and letting them settle. Nagini's scales were crushed together with hair from each of the three of them before adding half a vial of their combined blood.

The horn/stone/tears mix went into the cauldron at the 75 minute mark accompanied by 15 stirs counter-clockwise, 8 figure eight stirs, and 6 clockwise stirs at half speed. At two and a half hours the scale/hair/blood mix was added while the cauldron was immediately removed from the fire being quickly stirred two and half times clockwise. Once fully cooled roughly an hour later it was placed back on the heat at a low simmer, being given one and 3/4 stirs clockwise wait five minutes before giving 3 stirs counter clockwise with a figure eight at the end. At the four hour mark he pulled it off the fire for the final cooling before bottling it and finally answered the elves incessant attempts to talk to him.

"Yes? What is it?" Severus asked gruffly.

"Missy, was told to make certain Master Severus eats his foods," The young elf explained with a slight blush at telling a wizard what to do.

"I'll eat once I've bottled the potion and cleaned up most of my mess," Severus said dismissively, following his long established habits of doing just that. He carefully bottled and labeled the elixir. He noted on the label that it was specifically keyed to the three of them before cleaning up the limited mess and instructing Missy to ensure that the cauldron was cleaned by hand just in case. A small sandwhich was devoured at the elf's insistence before he finally headed for their bedroom, elixir in hand. Severus practically ran over Lucius who was standing outside his make-shift lab.

"Slow down my friend. What has you in such a hurry?" Lucius asked with as much false charm as he could dredge up. Severus ignored him and tried to push past, more concerned with getting the potion inside Harry than offending the blond snake only to be yanked up short by the firm grip on his arm. "Now, is that any way to treat an old friend?"

"Lucius, we have nothing to discuss and I have a potion to deliver to the Dark Lord. I have already taken longer than it should have and he knows it," Severus said stiffly, unwilling to divulge exactly what he had been brewing and why. Lucius' unpleasant smile sent a chill down his spine.

"You think that you can side with the Potter brat so openly and get away with it? Its only a matter of time before our lord decides that you've outlived your usefulness and then it would be in your interest not to have offended someone as powerful as me who also hold such favor. Of course that could be quietly corrected and you would receive as much protection as I can give you, provided you bind yourself to me," Lucius drawled, smirk firmly in place.