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Title: Perfect Murder
Author: Evandar
Fandom: Harry Potter
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Gen
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and I am making no profit from this story.
Summary: There's a margin of error with the aconite in Wolfsbane potion. It makes it far too easy to 'slip'.
AN: Written for the Potions-themed Halloween mini-fest at![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
hp_darkarts.
It would be the perfect murder. So sweet, so subtle, and with the perfect excuse. He’d even be thanked for it, just as he was every month as he handed across a steaming goblet – thanked with a wan, reluctant smile that never quite reached Lupin’s eyes, as if he knew what Severus thought of as he brewed; as he added that essential extra pinch of dried herb.
There was margin for error with the aconite in the Wolfsbane potion; a far greater margin than in other potions, as if Belby had tried his hardest to make it as unpleasant for the werewolves as possible, and as easy as possible for potions masters to make a fatal ‘slip’. On the side of not enough, and the potion would wear off part way through the night, leaving the drinker in feral agony – too dangerous a result for him to experiment with in a school; even Dumbledore would be hard-pressed to forgive Severus that. But at the other end of the scale, the aconite would, over a period of time, build up to truly dangerous levels with symptoms that were all too easy to ignore. After all, wasn’t nausea in the days around the full moon a common symptom of lycanthropy? And weren’t the creeping numbness and tremors so subtle; so easily explained away?
And weren’t the blasted beasts just so grateful for a chance to be something other than monsters? Lupin was hardly an exception.
A perfect murder. Not even a crime, really; more of a community service, and just so easy.
Author: Evandar
Fandom: Harry Potter
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Gen
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and I am making no profit from this story.
Summary: There's a margin of error with the aconite in Wolfsbane potion. It makes it far too easy to 'slip'.
AN: Written for the Potions-themed Halloween mini-fest at
hp_darkarts.It would be the perfect murder. So sweet, so subtle, and with the perfect excuse. He’d even be thanked for it, just as he was every month as he handed across a steaming goblet – thanked with a wan, reluctant smile that never quite reached Lupin’s eyes, as if he knew what Severus thought of as he brewed; as he added that essential extra pinch of dried herb.
There was margin for error with the aconite in the Wolfsbane potion; a far greater margin than in other potions, as if Belby had tried his hardest to make it as unpleasant for the werewolves as possible, and as easy as possible for potions masters to make a fatal ‘slip’. On the side of not enough, and the potion would wear off part way through the night, leaving the drinker in feral agony – too dangerous a result for him to experiment with in a school; even Dumbledore would be hard-pressed to forgive Severus that. But at the other end of the scale, the aconite would, over a period of time, build up to truly dangerous levels with symptoms that were all too easy to ignore. After all, wasn’t nausea in the days around the full moon a common symptom of lycanthropy? And weren’t the creeping numbness and tremors so subtle; so easily explained away?
And weren’t the blasted beasts just so grateful for a chance to be something other than monsters? Lupin was hardly an exception.
A perfect murder. Not even a crime, really; more of a community service, and just so easy.
