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The Unexpected Side Effect of Draught No. 9	By : lovetoseverus Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Snape Views: 25605 -:- Recommendations : 5 -:- Currently Reading : 6
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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Chapter 5: In Flux / Revelations

“Have a seat.”

Severus had pointed to a stool nestled under one of the wooden work tables. He gave his wand a quick flourish to illuminate the room, and then walked towards the back of the lab and into what appeared to be his private storeroom. Just before he stepped all the way inside, he leaned his head back out of the doorway and addressed Harry. “Wait there. I need to check on a rather… volatile potion I completed yesterday.” He paused, seeming to consider something. “Please, do not touch anything.”

Harry got the distinct impression Severus was unused to people in his private space and was struggling a bit with how much or how little to say. Harry grinned slightly, but nodded his assent, finding Severus’ meticulous nature rather humorous at this point. He also knew Severus was no doubt remembering Harry’s ineptitude for potion-making and wondering how much damage he could cause in the few minutes he would be unsupervised.

Harry pulled out the stool and sat down, resting his elbows on the marred surface of the table. As he glanced around, he took stock of his surroundings. The room was windowless and fairly small, but seemed more than adequate for one person to work. It was dimly lit, much like Severus’ quarters, and Harry was starting to sense the dungeons uniquely suited his former professor. Two large work tables stood parallel to each other in the center of the room, both with a stool or two underneath. The black stone walls were lined from floor to ceiling with miles of books and reference materials, glass containers and vials (some empty, others filled with strange-looking liquids, objects or insects), dried plants and herbs, and cauldrons of all shapes and sizes. Although everything clearly had its place, there was an aura of frequent use and well-worn familiarity about the space that he liked.

But above everything else, what Harry noticed most was the enticing scent the air carried; something he had detected upon entering the lab, too. He tilted his head back slightly and inhaled. He couldn’t place it exactly, wondering if perhaps it was a mixture of many things, considering all the potions that were brewed here. But it was familiar somehow… and intoxicating in a way he didn’t expect. He found it to be comforting and industrious and masculine… and arousing? Harry suddenly wanted more of it, and inhaled slowly, deeply, luxuriating in the scent.

At that moment, the storeroom door opened and Severus reappeared, now donning a black apron and dragon-hide gloves. In one hand, he carried a large, glass vial of something that looked like – though Harry could hardly believe his eyes – flameless fire. As his mind rapidly shifted from scents to potions, he heard himself blurt out a question into the silence.

“What is… that?”

Severus was heading towards Harry with the vial, the hint of a satisfied grin on his face, but continued past him in favor of a small storage enclosure on the back wall. As he swept by, a light rush of air tickled Harry’s nostrils. And then it hit him: Severus. The lingering scent in the room was Severus. Harry considered this new information for a moment, a fluttering sensation beginning to drum in the pit of his stomach. The last time a scent had captured his attention like this, it was the perfume of Ginny Weasley; hers, though, was sweetly reminiscent of exotic florals. But as that relationship had eventually dissolved, so too had his interest in anything floral – and truthfully, for women in general. Perhaps he had always known that, he wasn’t sure. It had just never seemed important, or relevant, and he had never really had the opportunity to explore it. But now… since the war was over, anyway… maybe he’d have a chance to see one way or another.

The sound of a door latching, combined with Severus’ deep voice, brought Harry back to the present. He quickly pushed the indulgent thoughts from his mind.

“That, Mr. Potter, is a fire balm. Something Madam Pomfrey requests of me on occasion. It is very difficult to produce accurately and can take up to six weeks to fully mature. I am very pleased to see this batch was successful.” Severus’ voice was laden with self-satisfaction.

Harry glanced over to the enclosure on the wall and then back up at Severus, his mind flooded with questions and feelings but finding none pertinent enough to ask or admit. He felt his cheeks flush lightly under Severus’ gaze and quickly averted his eyes.

SSHP-SSHP-SSHP

Severus looked at Harry curiously, narrowing his eyes, wondering what had just transpired. It certainly did not seem to be about the fire balm. He continued to watch Harry as he shrugged the gloves off his hands and set them on the work table closest to him, removing the apron as well and draping it over the gloves. When Harry didn’t look back up at him, Severus became even more confused by his odd behavior.

“Harry?”

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Harry had felt Severus’ gaze the whole time but wasn’t sure how to respond. He was distracted with the onslaught of confusing messages his brain – and groin – were sending him. He tried mentally blocking himself to the scent in the room, but now that he was acutely aware of it, it seemed to be seeping into every pore of his body. He paused for a moment longer, taking a deep breath and adjusting his body on the stool. “Just… thinking,” was all he managed.

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Assuming Harry was nervous about Evochi, Severus nodded knowingly and pulled another stool over to sit next to him. “We can wait and do this another time if you are not ready. I fear I may have unduly pressured you.”

“No, that’s not it.” Harry paused again, seeming to steel himself. “I want to try it, you didn’t pressure me.”

Severus searched his eyes. “You are certain?” he asked, and Harry nodded, keeping his gaze fixed on Severus.

Severus sighed, feeling every bit like his consent in this case rallied against his better judgment, but could not decide why. Ultimately, he pushed the notion from his mind and walked over to the entrance to the room. After assessing its layout, he pulled out his wand and addressed Harry.

“Step over here by me, I need to alter the room.”

Harry did as he was asked and walked over to stand next to Severus, surveying the room before them with what looked like a mixture of nervousness and curiosity. Severus pointed his wand at the closest of the two work tables and muttered a spell under his breath, instantly transfiguring it into something that resembled a large chaise. Severus nodded his head in its direction.

“Sit.”

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Harry looked at Severus and then walked slowly over to the chaise, sitting tentatively on the edge of it. The dark gray fabric was smooth and soft under his fingertips.

“Make yourself comfortable. It is just a chair, it will not bite,” Severus mused.

Harry grimaced up at Severus and then looked around at the chaise. It wasn’t the chair he was worried about. His pulse quickened as a dawning realization hit him: although he had felt confident in his assertions, he really was quite nervous about trying Evochi. Deciding he could not turn back now, however, he swung his legs up and turned, stretching his body out and leaning back against the angled rise of the chair.

“Why a chaise?” he wondered aloud.

Severus had been gathering items from the shelves lining the walls before he stepped up to a black, high-backed chair and emptied his arms. Harry had not noticed the chair in the room and wondered if it had always been there. The elegance of its carved top rail and sloped armrests didn’t seem to fit with the heavy, rugged work tables.

“Did you wish to stand while under the influence of Evochi?” Severus asked simply, looking over his shoulder.

“Well, no, but why a chaise?”

“Why not a chaise? I assumed you would be more comfortable there than on a bed. If you would prefer that, I can conjure one.”

Harry felt his cheeks color slightly. “I need to be lying down for Evochi?”

“Not precisely, but it is safest that way. Once you are under Evochi’s influence, your conscious mind will be subdued completely, which means you will not have control over your physical body. If you were to be sitting on a stool or upright in a chair, you would slump onto the floor and likely injure yourself.”

Harry thought about this for a moment and then positioned himself squarely on the chaise, testing it by letting his whole body slacken. The chaise turned out to be more than adequate for the task, he found, wide enough to keep his arms and legs in place once he relaxed. Perhaps Severus did know what he was doing.

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Severus had watched the whole thing transpire, an amused expression on his face. He might have chuckled had it not been for the fact that he’d done the very same thing before his first experience. He put a hand in his pocket then and ran a finger reverently along the vial holding Evochi, remembering, and then finally pulled it out to look at it properly as he walked over to Harry. He then summoned the high-back chair and positioned it next to the chaise before sitting down.

“I am giving you a half batch this time—”

“What? Why?” Harry asked petulantly, sitting up.

Severus sighed. “As you have never used Evochi before, I need to observe its effects before I will feel comfortable administering a full dose. Honestly, Potter, did you not learn anything in my Potions class? You must always ease yourself into transformative substances.”

Harry blinked. “We talked about Evochi in your Potions class…?”

Severus rolled his eyes. “No, of course not. If I had, every one of you imbeciles would have whinged incessantly about it, begging me to teach you about its effects and how to brew it.”

At this, Harry laughed in earnest. “Would not!”

Severus arched an eyebrow, unconvinced, and muttered something noncommittal under his breath. “Anyway, I will start you with a half batch. Not to worry, the effects will be identical to a full batch. The only thing that changes is the time you spend under its influence. It will be—”

“—exactly half,” Harry interrupted, still smiling.

“Enough cheek, Potter,” Severus retorted, but he was fighting back his own smirk.

SSHP-SSHP-SSHP

Harry was glad for the sudden levity in the conversation, as it was going a long way towards making him feel comfortable with the process he was about to undergo.

“So how does this work?”

Severus eyed him impatiently, as though he were just about to explain this if only Harry would have given him the chance. Harry clamped his mouth shut then and waited, crossing his arms in his lap. He found that his nervousness was making way for a burgeoning excitement and anticipation and didn’t want to delay anymore.

“The potion is ingested orally, but may also induce an altered state if the fumes are inhaled. Therefore, you must be careful not to smell it while you drink, or it may take effect before you’ve had a chance to finish swallowing.”

“It works that fast?” Harry asked incredulously.

“It can, yes. Either way, you do not want your body to relax completely before you are done swallowing. If the potion does not get the opportunity to spread everywhere throughout your body – well, the result may be unfortunate, to say the least.”

“What happens…?” Harry heard how quiet his voice had become and Severus’ brow furrowed.

“A partially or incorrectly ingested dose of Evochi could force you into a coma.”

Harry felt his heart skip a few beats before settling into a rapid pace. A question rose up in his mind but he wasn’t sure he wanted to know the answer – but his curiosity always got the best of him.

“A… permanent coma?”

Severus looked down at the vial in his hands. “Yes and no. It depends on many factors. There are not a lot of recorded cases of Evochi-induced comas, as you might imagine, but that has more to do with the scarcity of the substance than anything. The dangers are still inherent.” At this, Severus looked back up at Harry. “To further complicate matters, the medical community is, at best, barely aware of Evochi’s existence, and thus they have little experience treating the more ill effects. This is one of the reasons I will be studying and overseeing your usage. I am, I think, uniquely qualified – or as qualified as it is possible to be, given the circumstances.”

“Why does… I mean… how does it result in a coma?”

“I do not know precisely, but my belief is that it shifts you into a stasis between consciousness and subconsciousness. You would likely be aware, on some level, that you were alive and trapped inside the mind, yet completely unable to control the functions of the physical body or fully return to your consciousness.” Severus frowned. “The worst sort of existence.”

Harry shuddered. Sometimes he wondered if it wasn’t better to stay ignorant and regretted asking the question in the first place. Yet, at the same time, he was grateful to learn as much as he could going in. He knew it was not in his nature to shy away from things – especially those that had elements of uncertainty or danger – and so reaffirmed his decision to move ahead as planned.

After all, he knew Severus well enough by now to trust that he would be taken care of to the best of his former professor’s abilities. Which, thankfully, were considerable.

SSHP-SSHP-SSHP

“Ready?” Severus’ voice was calm and even.

Harry leaned back and situated himself against the chaise, pressing his head firmly into the cushion as though to let his body – or the chair – know that he intended for everything to stay put exactly as it was now. He looked over at Severus when he was done and nodded, swallowing as his mouth went suddenly dry.

Severus pulled his chair closer and leaned over Harry. “Since this is a half dose, I estimate you will be under for thirty minutes.”

“Is that all?”

“Spare me the pout, Potter. Thirty minutes will be more than sufficient for your first try.”

But Harry was having a hard time believing that thirty minutes would be enough – for anything, really – or that it now meant a full dose would only last an hour. How could he create and experience a virtual reality in an hour?

Severus seemed to pick up on Harry’s discouragement. “Harry…” he started, causing Harry’s eyes to snap up to his own. “Do you generally remember your dreams upon waking?”

“Yes, I think so,” Harry replied.

“And do you sometimes have the sensation that a dream lasted for most of the night?”

Harry pondered this for a moment, then felt his face brighten at the realization. “Yeah…?”

“Then you will be displeased to learn that dreams rarely last beyond twenty to twenty-five minutes. It is merely your perception that leads you to believe otherwise. Time is irrelevant to the subconscious.” Harry made to speak but Severus cut across him. “A lot can happen in thirty minutes, Harry – even more so in an hour. You will come to find it is… plenty.”

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Severus pulled out an empty glass vial and uncorked the Evochi, carefully pouring half of its contents into the new container. When he was done, he handed the new vial over to Harry, who first wrapped his hand around it so gingerly that he almost dropped it. Quickly tightening his grip, Harry held his breath as he kept the substance as far from his face as possible. Severus then re-corked his own vial of Evochi and placed it in a small metal rack below the arm of his chair.

Harry felt his gaze drift to the vial in his hands and was surprised by how warm it felt, the indigo surface of the liquid seeming to pulse at him, even in the dim light of the lab.

“Before I administer the potion, you will need to intentionally hold in your mind the reality you want to create before saying the incantation aloud.” At this Severus reached down and took possession of the vial Harry had been holding.

“There is a spell that goes with this potion, too?”

“Indeed. I did say Evochi was a very complicated substance, did I not? With that comes a certain amount of safeguards.”

“But I thought you said the potion could affect you just by smelling it, or put you into a coma if you don’t take it correctly? How would someone know there is a spell that goes with it, too?”

Severus appeared to smile at this, but it was pained and devoid of mirth. “They wouldn’t… necessarily. That is one of the reasons why the potion is so dangerous. And why it so hard to come by.”

Harry suddenly marveled at Severus – not only had he acquainted himself with the substance in the first place, but had also learned how to brew it successfully and master its subtle and exacting intricacies. Harry wasn’t sure he wanted to know how that whole process had transpired, but realized for the first time how dangerous the life of a Potions Master could be, often having to use oneself as a test subject simply in the name of research and advancement. With a shock, Harry also thought about all of the things that could have gone wrong over the years – but hadn’t – and regarded Severus now with a renewed expression of awe.

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Severus straightened in his chair when he saw the look of wonder Harry was giving him. He wasn’t sure what it meant, but still felt the familiar twisting in his core that said Harry was giving him that look again. Severus shifted uncomfortably, hoping the scant light in the room was dim enough to hide whatever tinge might dare to color his cheeks. He found the scrutiny unsettling.

“What?” Severus asked finally.

Harry’s eyes widened as he swallowed quickly, looking for all the world like he was back in a Potions classroom and had just been caught not paying attention. “Nothing!” was all he managed to say, although his voice was much higher than normal.

Severus sighed. “Well, if you are quite done with these antics, I would like to begin so we are not here all day.”

Harry blanched. “Sorry…”

Severus regretted his harshness almost immediately but was at a loss for how to take it back. Old habits died hard, it seemed. “No matter. Let us simply proceed.” He paused a moment then, mentally recalling the conversation and where they had left off. “Yes… the incantation.”

Harry sat up straighter, no doubt wanting to pay close attention to this part.

“First, fill your mind with the reality of what you want to create – not the details, the subconscious will fill that in once you are there. Simply decide on the structure of it, the framework, along with your intentions and any people you want to… see. Do this now.”

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Harry nodded but felt his mouth go drier. Although he had followed Severus into his private lab earlier with the intention of talking to his parents again, now that he was here, moments away from his first experience with Evochi, he found that his resolve was fading fast. He was once again overcome with painful emotions and he quickly realized he would have to change his approach. At least this first time. Besides, he justified to himself, he only had a half hour – that was hardly enough time to do much with his parents. Perhaps in a future draught…

“Harry?”

Harry steeled his resolve for the second time that day, firmly holding his intention in his mind, having opted now for something much simpler and easier. This was his test run with Evochi, after all, and he wanted to get the hang of it first. “Yes. Done.”

But Severus had obviously seen the conflict on his face. “You are sure?” he prompted.

Harry nodded vigorously, hoping Severus would just continue before he could change his mind again. He closed his eyes in an attempt to steady his breathing. Why was he so nervous?

“Very well. Next you will say aloud the incantation, ‘prodeo quod strenuus sanctimonia animadverto’ and then I will administer the potion to you. Loosely translated, that means ‘activate the virtual reality.’”

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Harry took a deep breath and looked directly into Severus’ eyes. Severus felt his heart skip a beat as he took in the meaning behind the young man’s lucid, green gaze: protect me, watch over me, bring me back safely. Severus found he could do nothing for a moment but stare back intently, feeling the connection between them tingling in every fiber of his being. Finally, he inclined his head slightly, confirming that he understood, and would do so – always, he realized.

When he found his voice again, he spoke.

“Now tip your head back. After you say the incantation, I will pour the contents of the vial into your mouth. Swallow once when I am done and then close your eyes. Let yourself relax into the sensation. I will be here the entire time.” He paused, contemplating the strange sentiment he was about to impart. “You will be fine,” he added. It felt foreign on his lips but he sensed it was needed.

He watched Harry exhale, his relief both visible and audible. Then he wet his lips with his tongue.

“Prodeo quod strenuus sanctimonia animadverto,” he stated carefully and clearly.

With that, Severus leaned over and poured the contents of the vial into Harry’s mouth, watching as the indigo fluid layered itself into thick ribbons on his tongue. When the last drop fell from the rim of the vial, he pulled his hand back and watched Harry swallow hard, a strange and surprised expression settling into his features. As his eyes slid closed, his head lolled a bit to the side and his body went limp. Severus smiled softly as he admired the handsome face before him. He remembered that sense of serenity, that bliss, and found he envied Harry for what he was about to experience.

Sighing, he leaned over and grabbed a black, leather-bound journal, glanced up at the clock on the wall, and then scribbled the start time and date on the first available page, his quill the only noise in the room.

Perhaps one day he would feel compelled to use Evochi again. Perhaps. If it didn’t cause him as much agony as it did joy. Unless… no. No! He mustn’t let himself dwell on fantasy, and dismissed the thought immediately.

Unless…
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The Unexpected Side Effect of Draught No. 9