The next morning came sooner than Remus would have liked. He felt as if he had been run over by a hippogriff, a headache throbbing behind his temples. Nevertheless, he sat up and looked around, only to see that Severus had just woken up as well. 

While he had to admit that Severus looked better than the day before, he still looked horrible. Severus had always been pale, but the colour of his skin now was not much different from the very light grey of his curtains, and the bags under his eyes were the biggest Remus had ever seen. It was quite obvious that Severus had not taken advantage of the great weather outside and spent time in the sun. 

Nonetheless, sleep seemed to have helped - at least a bit. Before Remus had had a real chance at getting out of bed, Severus had already resumed brooding over his notebook, reading back what he had written down the night before. 

"I don't know. I can't figure out the missing ingredient - I just know that something is not right, the end colour should be grass green, but instead it has always turned a nasty greenish-yellow colour. "

"Severus, it is way too early to do this now - and your brain needs food to work and process things," replied Remus sleepily, hiding his face in his pillow. 

Severus' answer came promptly and slightly angrily: "No, Remus, we don't have time for that now. Plus, I'm not even hungry."

With a sigh, Remus swung his legs out of bed and walked over to his trunk, searched for a while, and then went over to Severus. 

"Here, eat this. It will help," and with that, he unwrapped a chocolate bar and broke it into two pieces, holding one out for his friend to take.

Begrudgingly, Severus took it and, although shooting Remus a dark look, he ate it. Satisfied with having achieved this small victory over the stubborn Severus, Remus went back to bed. 

Just as he had dozed off again, Severus bolted up with such force that his chair toppled over, making so much noise that Remus was almost certain the whole house would be up by now. 

"Remus, I think I found my mistake!"

"Huh?"

"I don't think I am missing an ingredient. I think I am just using a wrong sort of ingredient."

"Severus, it is early, and we haven't even had a proper breakfast. Let us get some, and then you can go absolute bonkers yet again, alright?"

Breakfast turned out to be just what they needed, but of course Severus was too stubborn to acknowledge that, so instead he just finished his plate quickly before going up to his room again. 

In a slightly better mood, but still feeling quite grumpy, Remus went after him, albeit less hastily. Upon entering the room he shared with his friend, he saw that Severus was feverishly going through all his notes again, obviously looking for the one piece that he seemed to be overlooking.

With a sigh, Remus pulled up a chair at the table next to Severus and said: "Listen, I know that between the two of us, you are definitely better at making potions, but maybe you are too close to the material. Read to me the ingredients that you are currently using."

After some silent protest in the form of shooting him a look, Severus started to enumerate: "I use a withered leaf, the skin of an orange snake, newt splee-"

He couldn't get past the third ingredient when Remus already interrupted him: "Stop, that might be it!" 

"What?"

"I take it that you are trying to undo the effects of the spell by reversing the recipe of an ageing potion, right?"

Severus nodded to this question, furrowing a brow at his friend, not knowing what he was getting at.

"Well, you said that you are not missing an ingredient, but that you are just using a wrong one. What if it is the colour of the snake that is influencing the effect. This seems quite far-fetched, but the original ageing potion also uses the skin of an orange snake. I don't really know, but perhaps try using a blue one," Remus replied.

"Oh god, I'm so stupid. That is it! You got it, Remus. The answer is so simple, and I just overlooked it. I need to see if Minerva has some in her cabinet. I could kiss you right now, respectfully!", Severus exclaimed already out in the hallway, running down the stairs to Minerva's cupboard of handy ingredients. 

Triumphantly, he returned just a few minutes later and immediately got brewing again. 

Knowing that he couldn't help with the process in any way, Remus instead went downstairs to find a book to read while waiting for Severus to finish the possible cure for Hermione.

He had just sat down when Minerva entered the little library. 

"Remus, we are running out of time. I know that Severus has been tirelessly working on a solution, but it is not looking well. She is barely there - we are losing her. Maybe it is time to give up. We have all done our very best, we have scoured books, talked to staff from St. Mungo's. Perhaps we should-"

"Should what? Stop everything and just let her wither away? That is my friend you are talking about, my very best friend. She is your granddaughter, for Merlin's sake! Oh wait, I forgot, she is not. Severus is this close to finishing up a brew that could save her, and I will not be the one to stop him now if there is still a chance, however slim it may be. It would kill him, it would kill me as well. I am not ready to give up on her!" 

Remus was clearly enraged, having got up from out of his armchair, his fists clenched by his sides, his face turning red.

"I know what stopping now would mean, and don't you dare for one second to think that I do not care. I do! She may not be my granddaughter by blood relation, but she has been with me for so many years, she just as well might be. However, there comes a point when giving up is the better option. She is hanging on by a thread, I do not even dare to leave her alone, so Severus' mother is with her, but I think she should be with you and Severus. After all, you are the people she came here to save. She knew what she could get herself into, and she risked it anyway. She risked it all for you and him. She was there for you when nobody else was, she stood by you, no matter what. Please, if you won't do this for me, then do it for her. She deserves that, she has earned that."

Once Minerva had finished, Remus left the room without a word. He went upstairs to Hermione's room, his fists still clenched, his knuckles ghastly white. As he opened the door, Eileen looked up at him, a wet cloth still in her hand. She put it down, stood up carefully and whispered: "I will leave you two alone, okay?"

He nodded in response and sat down in the chair pulled up to the bed. Shakily, he took her cold hand in his. 

"Hermione, if you hear me - please, hold on. I beg you. Just a bit longer. Severus is going nuts trying to work out a solution, and he is so close. The potion is brewing right now, you just have to hold on for it to finish. We can't live without you, we really can't. We have failed you. All you ever did was watch out for us and we should have done the same. If we had, you might have had a better fighting chance. We have failed you," he whispered as he put his hand on her cold cheek, a single tear rolling down his face.

With a bittersweet smile on his face, he then started talking about the years they spent together, recounting all the times she made him laugh out loud or when he and Severus had got into trouble, and she had to save them, chuckling occasionally himself as he thought back on those things.