Ellemaera

Disclaimer: Harry Potter does not belong to me.
The poison Ellemaera does, however, belong to me (Just to avoid confusion).

Chapter One:
Harry Potter had hoped he would never have to walk down this hallway again, but fate had been cruel. Why? Why was this happening to him? He had defeated Voldemort. He had saved the wizarding world. Wasn’t he supposed to get a break? Harry was so lost in thought that he jumped when a ghost phased through the wall next to him; he should have been used to that by now.

“Harry Potter! What are you doing here? I was not aware that you were coming to visit,” the ghost exclaimed cheerfully.

“Hello Nick, how has death been treating you lately?”

“Oh, I have been fine, just fine. So Harry, how long are you staying? Why didn’t I know you were visiting today?”

“I’m not staying long, Nick,” Harry said quickly, “I didn’t tell anyone I was coming because I have urgent business elsewhere and I didn’t want to let everyone down.”

“Oh, I see,” Nick said, but Harry could tell that he really didn’t understand why Harry couldn’t stay and chat. “Well then, I suppose I should let you go to . . . wherever you are going.”

“Goodbye Nick, I’ll try to come visit soon.” Nick’s face brightened slightly at this, and he bid Harry farewell before floating away. Harry almost wished Nick hadn’t left. He was nervous. His stomach was doing flips and his wand hand had started to twitch. ‘I have to do this,’ he told himself as he came closer to his destination, ‘If I don’t do this she’ll die.’

The heavy wooden door looked exactly like he had remembered. It was just as large and menacing as it had been when he was a student, but he wouldn’t let a door scare him now. He raised his hand and knocked on the door, and he waited. There was no answer. ‘Dammit, I don’t have time for this!’ He pushed the door open and stepped inside. The classroom was empty.

Harry swore under his breath as he looked around the classroom for any sign of life. There! There was a light coming from beneath a door in the corner. He was in front of the door in five steps. He was about to knock when the door swung open to reveal the person Harry had been searching for. “Professor,” he began but he was cut off abruptly.

“What are you doing in my classroom, Potter? I thought I was rid of you when you graduated last year.”

“I... Professor Snape, I need your help.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Severus Snape had been sitting in his office, grading papers, when he heard the door to his classroom open. He didn’t get up. If it was Albus then he would just come into his office. If it was a student, well, they could sweat for a moment while he finished grading one particularly horrendous essay. When he heard the footsteps coming toward his office he figured that it was Albus, but then the footsteps stopped. Albus never paused before coming in. Severus left the essays on his desk and opened the door . . . He had not been expecting to see Harry Potter standing there. He had thought it might have been Miss Weasley. She had been acting different lately. She would stay after class and open her mouth as if she was going to say something, but then she would leave in a hurry. No, he had definitely not been expecting Potter.

“Professor,” the boy began, but Severus cut him off.

“What are you doing in my classroom, Potter? I thought I was rid of you when you graduated last year,” he growled as he glared at the boy.

He noticed the boy hesitate for a moment before answering, “I . . . Professor Snape, I need your help.”

He had not been expecting that. It took him a minute to recover from shock before he realized he had not replied to the boy’s request. “I don’t care, Potter. You are no longer my responsibility. Find someone else to help you, because I will not.”

“There is no one else who can help me.”

“That is your problem. Now, get out of my classroom.”

He was about to close his office door when Potter spoke again, “Ellemaera.”

Snape froze as if he had been hit by a stunning spell. “What did you say?” He asked, not bothering to add the normal bite to his tone.

“Ellemaera,” Harry repeated, “She has been poisoned with Ellemaera.”

Severus gripped the edge of the door tightly. Ellemaera, the most deadly of poisons. Named for its two most active ingredients, hellebore and the egg shell of a chimaera egg, it was extremely rare. It also had no antidote. It was too difficult to get all of the ingredients, one of them being the scale of a basilisk, and it was even harder to brew. No one had ever tried to make an antidote because of the extreme potency of the potion. There was also no way to test an antidote because Ellemaera killed its victim within a month and a half. That was simply not enough time to research, gather, and brew a potion.

The victim suffered a slow and painful death. No pain relieving potion or spell could lessen the pain. They had once tried to give an Ellemaera victim a fast acting poison, in hopes of putting the person out of their misery. It hadn’t worked. Instead of speeding up the process the extra poison slowed the process down. The person’s pain had increased tenfold, but they had also lived two weeks longer than expected.

That had happened more than two hundred years ago, and the last recorded use of Ellemaera was during Grindlewald’s reign. Even Voldemort hadn’t dared to use Ellemaera in his fight for power. While the thought of using both Crucio and Avada Kadavra hadn’t made the evil man wince, just the mention of Ellemaera made him shake in his boots. And now, someone had used it again on . . .

“You said ‘she has been poisoned by Ellemaera.’ Who is she?”

Harry didn’t look at Snape as he spoke. He was too busy trying to hide the tears that were running down his cheeks. “Hermione Granger,” He whispered

The wood of the door groaned as Severus’ already tight grip tightened even further.



AN: I know I should be dedicating most of my free time to writing the next chapter of \"The Dark Art of Seduction,\" but this evil, rabid plot bunny was eating my brain and it wouldn\'t go away! Damn you plot bunnies! *shakes fist*

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