White Heather for Protection

By Any Other Name

Bright light woke Heather from deep slumber. She buried her face into her pillow, scrunching up her face at the thought of waking. Her mind was empty as she savoured the cosy warmth of her bed. Her body felt heavy, the kind of heaviness that felt like she was waking from a coma.

With a groan, she sat up, trying to remember how she got to bed. The last she remembered, she'd been in the lab, working on the werewolf potion. The thought made her stiffen. She immediately cast Tempus, finding out that it was late afternoon. Damnit Severus! Didn't he know that they were on a time crunch here?

She shot out of bed, rushing through her ablutions. Her stomach growled in defiance, but she ignored it in favour of going to the lab. She had little more than a day left to finish the potion, and she was nowhere near done!

Despite her best efforts, she hadn't made much progress with it. She'd met with failure after failure prior to her enforced bedrest the night before. She knew Severus had just been concerned, but really, she was on a deadline here!

Heather just knew she wouldn't be allowed to the battle as she was. Hadrian, Fred, George, Severus – and all the other worrywarts – would no doubt try to keep her from taking the risk. And she sort of agreed with them. Her injuries were like a ticking timebomb, ready to flare up at a moments' notice. If they acted up in the middle of things, she'd be a sitting duck.

When she pushed open the door to the lab, she came face-to-face with Severus himself. If she'd been clearheaded last night, not foggy with sleep deprivation, she wouldn't have fallen for his trick. And okay, that was probably one of the reasons she'd needed the rest in the first place, but seriously, she had priorities. And sleep wasn't high on the list.

"Have a good rest?" Severus asked pointedly, stirring his cauldron as he added what looked like silver dust into the concoction by the teaspoon.

"Yes, thank you," she replied. No matter how petulant she felt about it, she knew Severus was just looking out for her. No need to get snippy with the man.

"Have you eaten anything?"

She fought the urge to fidget.

Severus gave her a knowing glance. He pointed to the rest area behind him. "Sit. Eat."

One look and she knew he wouldn't budge on the matter, so she did as ordered. Her traitorous stomach growled ravenously. Fantastic.

She scarfed down the simple spread of toast and eggs. Reluctantly, she admitted to herself that the sleep and food was doing wonders for her state of mind. Perhaps forcing herself to work while she was exhausted hadn't been the best of ideas.

"I'm finished," she said quietly, peeking up at the still-busy man. After a short pause, she added, "Thank you."

Severus hummed. "You're welcome." Merlin, she could feel the smug satisfaction. "Come here. Take a look at this."

Curious, Heather walked over and watched Severus brew. With a jolt, she recognised the werewolf potion she'd been working on. Her eyes darted to the notebook on the table, flipped open to page she'd last written on. She surged forward when she noticed the familiar writing in the margins. With single-minded focus, she read through the comments Severus had written. Her mind whirled, making calculations about the changes he'd suggested. She turned back to observe Severus' movements. He was already in the final stages of brewing.

It didn't take long until he was decanting the finished potion into a phial. It looked almost like molten silver, with tiny flecks of purple mixed inside.

"See if it works." Severus handed her the phial. "As I understand, you are just this close to perfecting to the potion. I'm certain that between the two of us, we will finish it soon."