- NOT MY STORY!! ALL CREDITS TO @slytherin_after_dark ON A03!!
She was reading her old notebook but every so often, her eyes glanced to Malfoy's will on her desk. She didn't want the Manor and his money. There was no way she could accept it though she wasn't sure what to do with it. Donate it to a charity perhaps?
Then her eyes went to the picture of her parents and now it felt even more horrific that she had obliviated them. Made them forget she ever existed.
Her memories weren't coming back. She had to find a distraction so she tried to focus on her research project. Grabbing her notebook, she went to the potion's classroom to talk to Dominic.
When she walked in, she saw him talking to Snape.
"Yes, Miss Granger?" Snape asked.
"I...just had a question."
Snape sighed. "I gathered as much."
"An academic question."
The professor's eyes lit up. "Go on."
She presented her notebook. "I've been working on this potion for my thesis but I obviously forgot everything I did over the last months. I'm trying to make sense of my notes but it's giving me a headache."
"Your thesis potion?" Snape's interest seemed to be piqued. "And what is that exactly?"
"Are you testing my memory, professor?"
"No, you never told me. In fact, you kept it a secret for months."
She had? What was the reason? And should she have not shared her notes with him? "Oh, well, it's a potion to remove my scar."
"An ambitious project."
"I used part of the formula to get Bellatrix's magic out of me."
"I am familiar with that part. It helped us in the murder investigation. How far have you gotten with the potion?"
"I think relatively far but then I was stuck, right here," she opened the last page and pointed at it.
Snape and Dominic leaned in and studied the text.
"Fascinating," Snape said.
Dominic started writing certain equations down, feverishly working on something in his brain. Snape gathered materials and began experimenting. They shared their thoughts openly. Perhaps it was too much of this ingredient? No, it was lacking another. Boiled too hot or with not enough water? For the next ten hours, the three of them were brainstorming. It seemed Dominic and Snape were both equally interested in solving this academic problem.
Then they finally had it. Dominic had taken off his robes by now and rolled up his sleeves but Snape still looked like he had when they began this session.
For years, the scar had been dictating her life. The nightmares were gone since Bellatrix's death but she wanted to remove it for good. Wanted to see her arm again and not be a reminder of one of the worst days of her life.
"Before you try it," Snape said. "I want to remind you of something I said to you. Normally I don't make a habit of repeating myself but I am sure you have no memory of me ever telling you this. What is the most important part of a potion?"
She stared at him blankly, thinking about base potions and ingredients.
"Intent, Miss Granger. So much of our magic is bound to our intentions. Potions most of all. When you follow the recipe we just created, I want you to think about what you actually want."
"I want to remove the scar."
He shook his head. "That's the outcome. What is the cause? What is it you truly want? Why do you need the scar removed?"
She lifted the sleeve of her shirt and looked at it. Mudblood. It wasn't just a scar on her flesh. It was a scar on her soul. "I want to be free from the pain. Free from the reminder of it."
Snape almost mustered a smile at that. "Use that intent as you brew the potion."
She stepped in front of the cauldron and as she put the ingredients together, she thought of her intent. Free. From pain. From the reminder. When it was done, she poured the potion into a vial. It was grey and shimmered with different shades of blue.
Dominic was biting his nails nervously as he watched her. Snape stood entirely still.
She took a breath of courage, hoping it was going to work and bracing herself for a possible failure. It felt cool and light on her tongue and tasted of green apple and fresh grass. She waited for something to happen, staring at her scar. Her heart began to sink. Nothing. It didn't work.
She closed her eyes but then she felt a strange sensation. It started in her core and rose to her heart. Her eyes flashed open again as she felt a cool breeze blow through her. Like the first fall air after a hot summer's day.
And then, the word disappeared. Letter by letter. First the M. Then the U. Hermione started crying tears of joy. Everyone had told her it was impossible. All these years of feeling like a prisoner in her own skin with nobody believing her. When the last D disappeared and her arm looked like nothing had ever happened, Dominic came over to her and hugged her.
"You did it," he said. "You actually did it."
"Well done, Miss Granger," Snape said with the friendliest look on his face she'd ever seen on him. "It appears you're going to be even richer than you were yesterday."
Dominic and Hermione broke their hug, both looking at Snape confused. She knew her potion was going to have several in the academic field very interested but what was the value in it?
"I don't understand," she said.
Snape straightened the cuffs on his robes. "Evidently you did what nobody could. You invented a potion to remove the Dark Mark."
There was a flush of adrenaline chasing through her body while everything else seemed to go quiet. "I what?" She had heard him. It was a stupid question but she was barely able to form words.
"Reading your notes, it became quite clear to me that the proprieties of your potion are also applicable to the Dark Mark."
"You really think it would work?"
"Only one way to find out."
The sun had just risen when Snape returned to the potion room with Theo. He had asked her which student she'd like to pick for the experiment. She knew he had the mark and given how freely he used drugs and alcohol, she assumed he was numbing something, and perhaps that something was the Dark Mark.
"What is this about?" Theo asked with a yawn.
"Miss Granger chose you for an experiment."
Theo made a face. "Do I get a say? Because, no offense, I know you're the brightest witch and all but since you can't even remember me, I'm not sure being your lab rat sounds all that enticing."
"Of course you get a say in this," Hermione assured.
The Slytherin glanced suspiciously at Dominic and Snape. "What does your little potion do, Granger?"
"It removes the Dark Mark."
He almost stumbled as his eyes widened. "Nobody can remove it. If this is your idea of a joke, it's not a very funny one."
"I brewed it to remove my own scar and Snape believes it will remove the Dark Mark as well."
"So you've already taken it?"
She nodded, showing him her arm that no longer had the scar on it.
Theo's eyes shot back to her. "And you haven't turned into a frog or anything?"
She smiled. "Unless you're talking to one right now."
"Yeah, fine. I'll do it."
He took off his robes and rolled up his sleeve. She hadn't seen anyone with the Dark Mark in years. Whenever she looked at it, a cold shudder went down her spine.
She handed Theo the potion.
"I just drink it?" He asked.
She nodded but right as he put his lips to the vial, Dominic stopped him. "Wait, we need to properly document this." He took his notebook. "I need you to describe the taste of it. Any weird sensations you might get."
Theo rolled his eyes. "Fine." Then he downed the potion. "Feels warm. Like sunshine. I'm tasting grapes and honey."
So it tasted differently to everyone? Fascinating. Good thing Dominic thought of asking those questions.
They all stared at the Dark Mark, the skull and snake winding down on Theo's arm.
"Probably doesn't help we're all staring at it," Theo said nervously. "A watched pot never boils, and all."
She recognized the hope in his eyes. Desperate. Clinging to this new possibility. Terrified he'd be disappointed again.
"How long has it been?" Theo asked and as Dominic looked at his watch, Hermione saw it.
"Theo!" She pointed at his arm where black ink was dissolving.
Theo gripped his arm tightly, staring at the mark disappearing bit by bit. Until there was nothing but clean skin left.
His eyes shot up and met hers. Silent tears were running down his face and he looked at her in disbelief. He stared back down at his arm and then he started to smile. "Fuck me." He wiped tears away and was laughing, still staring at his arm. Then he walked up to her. "You really are the brightest witch of our generation." He pulled her into a tight hug, arms almost crushing her against his chest. "Thank you," he said quietly. "Thank you, Granger. You have no idea what this means."
But she did. She knew how heavy the weight of a reminder of your trauma could be.
All day, Hermione was busy administering the potion to anyone at Hogwarts with the mark. Last was Snape.
The professor rolled up his sleeve and looked at her as she brewed his potion. "You won't remember this conversation we've had. Right in the beginning, you wanted to quit my class. Perhaps you felt I was too harsh with you. But I knew what you were capable of and it was more than what you presented to me at the time. I asked you to tell me why you wanted to take my class. You never truly gave me an answer. The answer now sits in that vial." He pointed at the grey potion. "I know the answer was more than just removing a scar. You finally connected with what your intent truly was. Trust yourself, Miss Granger. Trust your intuition."
She swallowed a knot in her throat away. Getting any type of praise from Snape seemed oddly unfamiliar.
Then he downed the potion and she grabbed her notebook, hoping she wasn't going to cry in front of him again.
"Cold," he said. "Like a winter's night. Notes of licorice and juniper."
She wrote it all down and then they watched as Snape's Dark Mark disappeared and he gave her the first true smile she'd ever seen on him.
The next day seemed just as busy. Snape was helping her get her notes in order to present them to the Ministry and get the potion approved for large distribution. He wanted to make sure that she had everything in order before they alerted the Ministry and the public to this. Once that happened, Snape assured, she would be surrounded by media, academics, and the potion industry.
Dominic helped write all their findings down.
As she went through her notebook again, she suddenly discovered a loose page, torn in two. She pulled it out and saw only the bottom part was still there.
It wasn't part of this potion. The ingredients were all wrong.
Test it on Monday! She had written on it. She had made another original potion? And she had tested it? She assumed on herself since there were no mentions of test subjects.
She flipped the page over and saw her writing once more.
Taste: extremely sour (too sour?) with notes of cacao.
Sour. The feeling of déjà vu returned in an instant. It was probably a coincidence but it didn't feel like it. Sour. Snape told her yesterday to trust her intuition. This was important. She just didn't know how.
"What is it?" Dominic asked, noticing the concentration on her face.
"I am not sure. It's this potion recipe that I wrote down and I think it's important but I only have half the page so I don't know what it's for."
"Let me see," Dominic took the page and read it carefully. "Yeah, I can't make sense of it. And why do you think this is important? You were working on an array of strange little potions, including a lipstick that glued bloke's lips together."
Ginny had told her about that. The reason she got kicked out of Gryffindor. "No, I really think this is important."
"Could the page have fallen out?"
"I don't think so. I only kept it in my drawer."
She thought back and remembered when the painting at the Manor had told her about her being the new owner and she had dropped her notebook.
"Let me just quickly check something," she said, grabbing her notebook and apparated to the Manor.
Instantly, warm light greeted her and she realized it smelled like water lilies.
"Welcome back, Miss," Morpheus said. "I was hoping the new smell was to your liking?"
"Yes, thank you." Her eyes scanned the floor but there was no page. She sighed in frustration.
"If you're looking for the piece of paper you dropped the other day, the Manor took the liberty to place it on your desk in your bedroom."
"My bedroom?"
"Yes, the master bedroom."
She walked up the stairs and to Malfoy's bedroom. There, on his mahogany desk, sat the half-torn note.
It talked about ingredients and brewing instructions. When she flipped the page, the blood in her veins seemed to freeze. Her ears began to ring. Everything narrowed on the word she had written on the very top of the page.
Anti-Obliviate Potion