Say You Love Me

{16}

Severus started off a new week with eliminating potions that already existed and all of their intrinsic properties, as well as straight up offering her weed-killer with a Slytherin smirk hidden on his lips. He had merit to his idea, however, deciding that he would look at things potent to plants, especially lilies, which would slowly poison them out of her system, hopefully slowly enough to keep her emotions in tact.

Severus found it odd that while she was at the sea with him, during her lunch hour or when she was done with work for the evening, that she did not cough up a single petal. And while Hermione had been told to wait by Luna, she did allow Severus to theorize with her about what could be causing her lack of symptoms there.

Hermione did not live there, but she was staying for the week while he tried tests on her lungs and the petals she would bring him that still made her heart clench every time they came up.

She was very grateful, for not only the way he seemed to be in tune to her as a partner, but how dedicated he was to finding her some sort of cure or push-back that might help her. As well as the fact that he was sharing her process with her over every step that he took. It probably drove him crazy to do so, his solitude paramount, but Hermione was thankful nonetheless.

Wednesday evening, after getting out of work early for another one of her episodes, Hermione came back to Severus much more early than she had planned on. It was a great surprise to him, when she put her hands tentatively on his shoulders down in his lab, his back straightening immediately. It was the most surprise Hermione reckoned she could get from him.

"You're back early."

"Kingsley watched me cough up a couple petals and insisted that I head straight home."

"You're slightly off course," he muttered over his work, reaching for something instead of using his wand to levitate it to him. He must be rather distracted.

Hermione sighed, retracting her hands and moving to a different seat in the basement.

"I thought home was where the heart is?"

Severus stopped mechanically, looking over at her for the first time since she'd gotten there. There was nothing disapproving on his features, but there was some reservation.

"Please refrain from saying things you do not mean."

Hermione did mean it, but her hesitant nature at first meeting was poor evidence after only giving in to him a few days prior.

"In some capacity, I do," she said, attempting to sound reassuring as she stuck her head up, throwing her shoulders back.

His eyes moved over hers and then he returned back to his work unceremoniously.

"What are you working on?" Hermione wondered, hating to sit in the silence.

"Your antidote, obviously. Not much has changed since this morning, and I hate to give either of us hope. Yet I seem to have found a specific potion that has some properties to coat the lungs protectively, but I need it to also kill whatever else is inside them. There are a lot of variables, and I have also run into something, if I recall your excursions fourth year correctly, that will not bode well for your piece of mind."

"Tell me."

Severus sighed, and though it was not a command he seemed reluctant to obey, it was moreover the fact that he knew what would come of the situation and simply did not care to deal with the consequences.

"I would like to test whatever I might come up with in the future," he said and let the words hang, no need to elaborate on why such a thing would become problematic.