"Where were you last night?" I asked Elijah Hadleigh at breakfast. "You missed the Slytherin party in the common room. I didn't see you there."
"Had something better to do," he said with an unimpressed shrug.
"Who were you shagging?" Wyatt blurted out.
I blinked. I had just given Wyatt the Happy Hallucinations potion that I owed him, but I did not expect him to drink it all right away. Elijah looked like he was suppressing a smirk at Wyatt's bluntness.
"Wouldn't you like to know?"
"Er, don't ask such bizarre questions, Wyatt," I said, concerned. I patted him on the back and urged him with my eyes to behave. I did not need James to find out that I had given Wyatt a potion again.
"Oh, it's not a bizarre question," Wyatt insisted earnestly. "I was genuinely wondering because why else was Isaiah out of the dorm room, yesterday night? Partying? Please. It was his first party."
"It wasn't my first party," Isaiah inserted. "Though I admit, I don't party often."
"I've literally never seen you attend any," Wyatt deadpanned.
"That's because you're always in detention, Nye," Elijah said cheekily.
"Rubbish!" Wyatt scoffed. "I am a model student! An honour student! How dare you—?"
"Hey, Wyatt?" I interrupted. He looked at me vaguely curiously. "How'd that dance with Pansy Parkinson go? She's cute, right?"
"I suppose she's not ugly. I've definitely encountered ugly before, such as—"
"So, you agree? You think she's really pretty?" I probed. Wyatt frowned at me.
"What?"
"Ah," James said. "So, I reckon you're the one who orchestrated that affair."
"Me?" I repeated, feigning shock. "Of course, not. I'm not cupid. I'm just, you know, a regular third-year student at Hogwarts who happens to think Wyatt and that girl dancing was a splendid idea!"
"Oddly enough, you're making it sound like you are cupid," Isaiah shook his head at me in disbelief. "Now, what'd you do?"
I laughed awkwardly and waved my hand dismissively.
"You're so funny, Isaiah," I said, pretending to repress my laughter. He looked unconvinced.
"Well, in any case, MERLIN'S LEFT SACK—" Wyatt's irises seemingly reduced in size as he looked up at the ceiling, wide-eyed. "IT'S WORKING — SALAZAR!"
I facepalmed and shook my head. The potion was taking effect now, and Wyatt was finally hallucinating, which was the second effect of the potion, right after overflowing racing thoughts. I felt foolish for not getting Wyatt out of the Great Hall sooner, but I also did not expect him to make it so bloody obvious that he was high.
Wyatt started climbing on the table, crazy-eyed. He then went on all fours on the table, and... barked. Incessantly.
Several students in the Great Hall, especially those near us, gasped. Elijah, Isaiah, and James, almost instantly grabbed Wyatt's body and pulled him off the table before too many people could notice him.
"AHAHAHAHA," Wyatt laughed terribly loudly as he swatted invisible flies in the air with his hands. James and Elijah were carrying him out of the Great Hall, Isaiah trailing nearby behind them. Students across the Great Hall whispered as they passed by.
I was fucked, to put it simply. The S4 would soon realize that Wyatt had gotten the potion from me.
I couldn't even come up with the excuse that Wyatt had stolen the potion from me either because Isaiah knew damn well about that enchantment he showed me that made it impossible for anyone that wasn't me to pry into my belongings — which, now that I thought about it... How in the Hells did Millicent Bulstrode get her hands on my truth serum that day we played Truth or Dare?
"Bulstrode!" I said, upon my arrival at the end of the Slytherin table where she sat with Marcus Flint and his friends.
"Huh?" she bored her eyes into mine, unbothered by my sudden appearance.
"I need to speak with you in private," I urged.
Millicent stared into my eyes with a dead look on her face. I tried to not let it scare me and to remind myself that this was simply her resting face.
She suddenly shrugged and got up from the table. I ushered her to the edge of the Great Hall where we'd most likely not get eavesdropped on.
"How did you get ahold of my truth serum," I cut to the chase. She cackled somehow calmly.
"That enchantment of yours was pathetic," she said, grinning. "It was fairly easy to come up with the counter spell for it."
"But how?" I pried.
She lazily rolled her eyes.
"I figured it out months ago," she said, recalling the memory fondly. "Probably wrote my drafts and results in my journal somewhere. You're welcome to have a look, but remember that I'll find a way past whatever new enchantment you come up with."
I was a bit stunned but decided to not let her entitlement to my belongings bother me.
"Yes, well, of course, I'm interested in seeing how you did it," I said.
"Very well," she said, almost giddy. "Accio Journal."
We stood there silently staring at each other for a moment before her journal zoomed into the Great Hall and into her hands. She skimmed through it until she found what she was looking for. Snickering, she handed me her journal.
There were scribbles everywhere, and her handwriting was so messy, I could barely make out what was written. Diagrams it seemed, with similar patterns to how the enchantment on my bags and drawers were done.
"I don't get it," I admitted with a sigh, shaking my head.
"I put an analysis spell on your bags to understand why I couldn't open them. Then, I saw the patterns of that enchantment you used and drew it in here. After a modicum of research on wards and protection spells, I realized I simply had to undo this part—" she pointed at the left-hand side of the diagram, which was highlighted in red, "to break down the entire structure. Then, after I looked through your bag and took what I needed, I simply put back the same enchantment you made before so you'd never notice."
"How..." I tried to think of the appropriate word to describe her without praising her actions.
"Resourceful? Cunning?" Millicent offered, actually smiling. "Now that you know how I undid your enchantment, you better make it more challenging for me, next time."
I groaned and gave Millicent her notebook back.
"Ideally, I don't need you snooping through my belongings, Bulstrode," I said with annoyance. "But... I suppose I'm thankful for your honesty. Well played, I guess."
"You're welcome," she said with a devious smirk. I tried not to take her too seriously or I'd lose my mind.
"Just know that you owe me some galleons for all those stolen potions, Bulstrode," I said sternly. She nearly laughed.
"I only ever took the truth serum. I was actually hoping I'd find something more interesting in there, such as a Polyjuice potion," she said.
"If I made you one, would you pay me in galleons?" I asked.
"No," she said. "I pay you in making you realize how shit your privacy enchantments are."
"I suppose I'll consider it," I groaned again, my arms crossed.
"Splendid," Millicent said, her lips curving upwards while her eyes remained dead.
Now that I knew about Millicent going through my belongings, a new problem arose. How was I to improve this privacy enchantment if I couldn't even do it without Isaiah's help? I wasn't sure what the S4 would do about Wyatt's outburst this morning, or if the troublemaker was going to admit to his friends that he got the potion from me, hence his odd behaviour. But I realized very quickly that I had to steer clear of the S4 for the time being, at least until Wyatt cooled down from being high. That only meant I'd have to hide more potions in Myrtle's Bathroom for the time being.
Millicent's interest in my potions certainly sparked some encouragement in me to restart my potion-selling business. It would have to be on the down-low of course. Perhaps I could go by an anonymous name? Maybe I could sell my potions disguised as someone else.
I laughed as this new outrageous idea came to mind.
I could use Polyjuice potion to disguise myself as Draco Malfoy selling potions. If I ever got caught, he'd be the one in trouble.
This only meant one thing: I had to go back to brewing.
I felt no remorse as I skipped Care of Magical Creatures in the morning in favour of reuniting with my bathroom buddy, Myrtle, but mostly to start brewing. I had previously encountered the recipe for Polyjuice potion in one of the books Amirah had stolen from the restricted section for me: Moste Potente Potions. I gaped as I analyzed the list of ingredients.
"Bihorn horn?" I repeated, cocking my head to the side in puzzlement. "Merlin, they misspelled Bicorn. This can't be a good sign."
Shaking my head, I waved my wand and fixed the spelling mistake. Myrtle chuckled next to me.
"Absolutely ridiculous," I huffed. "I have to stew lacewing flies for 21 days, pick fluxweeds but only under a full moon — This will take over a month just like with Veritaserum."
"And who do you plan on turning into?" Myrtle asked.
"Draco Malfoy," I said.
"That should be interesting. Careful not to accidentally use his cat's hair," she giggled as if imagining it.
"Hmm," I hummed, looking at the instructions. "It does say not to try to turn into an animal. Whatever does happen if I do?"
"Granger could tell you," Myrtle could not stop laughing in her hands.
"Well, she did tell me that this very bathroom was where she brewed Polyjuice potion with Harry and Ron, but she didn't say anything about turning into an animal."
"OH, it was absolutely hilarious!" Myrtle squealed, floating above me in excitement. "Granger thought she took Bulstrode's hair from her robes to be able to transform into her. But it turned out, it was Bulstrode's cat hair! And when she drank the potion, she turned into a human-sized cat. Oh, how funny!"
And Myrtle exploded into fits of laughter, floating around the bathroom giddily.
"But Bulstrode doesn't even own a cat. How could she have cat hair on herself?" I laughed awkwardly. "Hmm... You know what? Knowing her, maybe it's best I don't pry."
Myrtle looked at me curiously but didn't ask for my reasoning. Instead, she went back to giggling about Hermione turning into a human-sized cat last year. The image certainly was funny to conjure up in my mind, but I didn't dwell on it too hard.
"In any case," I said. "Draco Malfoy does not own any cats. And I cannot think of anything more hilarious than him slowly losing the hair on his head as I steal a strand every day."
This time, it was my turn to explode into a fit of laughter.
"Oh, this is so good," I said after having had a good laugh. "I cannot wait to tell Daphne and Tracey."
I did not get to brew anything more than the lacewing flies today, which I had to leave aside so I could attend Arithmancy class soon after. I knew Professor Vector would not take too kindly to me skipping in the same way that Professor Hagrid would.
"Hi Hermione," I greeted, sitting next to her in the Arithmancy classroom. She beamed and returned my greeting.
Soon after, we were all engulfed in another Arithmancy class, and it took me some getting used to, being in a classroom setting and having to take notes consistently. Draco, his goons, along with Blaise, Millicent, Daphne, and Pansy sat at the back of the classroom, while Tracey joined me and Hermione at the front, sitting right behind us next to a Ravenclaw student named Padma Patil. This type of seating arrangement had been set in place ever since Tracey worked with Hermione and me on the last Arithmancy project. It seemed that in the next group assignment, we would be joined by Tracey's new tablemate, Padma, as it now required four people.
The next class I had was Defence Against the Dark Arts, and surprisingly, Hermione wasn't sitting with Harry and Ron, which perplexed me as she took a seat next to me and Tracey.
"Did something happen between you and your friends?" I asked immediately as she heaved her bag onto the table with a large thud; her bag was so overflowed with books that she couldn't even close it.
"Ronald Weasley is under the impression that I am purposefully sabotaging Harry's chances of winning the next quidditch game against Ravenclaw, all because I told Professor McGonagall about a Firebolt that Harry received from a mysterious sender," she huffed all in one breath. "Professor McGonagall confiscated the Firebolt so that she and Professor Flickwick could inspect it beforehand in case it had been cursed."
"Why would someone want to curse Potter's broom?" Tracey asked.
"Sirius Black," Hermione said. "Aren't you two familiar with Sirius Black's connection with Harry Potter?"
"Naturally, my family being friends with the Malfoys, I am," I said. "I don't know if Tracey is familiar though."
"Care to explain?" Tracey urged.
At that moment, Professor Lupin demanded our attention for the start of class, but I vowed to explain everything to Tracey after class.
The rest of the day went by quickly and before I knew it, I was already on my way to the Great Hall for supper. Fred and George waved at me at the Gryffindor table as they saw me enter the Great Hall. With one knowing glance at the Slytherin table where the S4 sat together as usual, I shrugged and went off to the Gryffindor table.
"Maeve, I'm glad you're here," Hermione said. She was sitting with Ginny and the Weasley twins. "We have to schedule some time with Tracey and Padma for our Arithmancy assignment. I just got instructions for my Ancient Runes assignment and it's just as time-consuming. I'm currently devising a homework schedule to manage everything."
"Hang on, you're taking Ancient Runes on top of Arithmancy and Care for Magical Creatures?" I asked. "How are you allowed to take so many classes at once? I thought we were allowed just two electives."
"She's also taking Muggle Studies and Divination," Ginny interjected. I blinked, processing this information.
"Are you quite literally mental?" I said, baffled.
"Professor McGonagall has arranged everything for me. You don't need to worry," Hermione said almost airily.
"Well, colour me impressed," I huffed, having learned that expression from Amirah. Hermione looked up at me and giggled softly.
"Little Maeve," George suddenly said next to me, catching my attention. "Fred and I's got a little proposition for you."
"We reckon you'd love to be in on this little surprise," Fred added.
"But first, we need to know how strong your potion skills are," George said.
"I'd say fairly strong," I said rather proudly. Of course, they already knew all about my love for potion-making.
"Excellent," George beamed.
"Ivy's birthday is coming up and we want your help to prepare a little bit of a prank," Fred said.
"We're not poisoning anybody, though, right?" I said jokingly, remembering the last time I witnessed a prank at the hands of Ivy Law: most of Slytherin House ending up in the Infirmary.
"Of course not," George said with a boisterous laugh. "We're not pranking with Ivy. We're pranking her, of course."
"Well, I hope she likes being a victim of pranks — What do you two need me to do, anyway?" I asked.
"We're just honing out the details, now," Fred said.
"And naturally, we want your input," George added.
I laughed and braced myself for some more laughs and giggles as I helped Fred and George prepare for Ivy Law's birthday prank.
The next few days leading up to the Slytherin versus Ravenclaw quidditch match on Saturday were spent on my own, brewing my Polyjuice potion in Mrytle's bathroom and preparing another cauldron with Fred and George's request for Ivy Law's birthday prank. I hadn't skipped any classes again — just Care for Magical Creatures as I was told by my classmates that we were simply making bonfires for flame-loving salamanders. I had also come to realize that Professor Hagrid rarely ever took attendance it seemed, as I often got away with skipping his class and never got detention from him or my Head of House. Perhaps being outside in the field made it difficult for him to keep track of who was there or not, but either way, I took this as an opportunity to advance on my recent potion-making promises to myself and to George and Fred.
Saturday arrived sooner than anticipated, however, and so did my confrontation with the S4 after what had happened earlier that week with Wyatt. I was certain that Isaiah coming to see me on this snowy January day was to let me know that they knew I had given Wyatt a Hallucination potion at the start of term. We stood in the Greenhouse courtyard in our winter gear, snow falling at the tips of our noses and at the tips of our boots — I was on my way to the quidditch pitch until Isaiah stopped me to speak with me urgently.
"Can't we speak when we get there?" I asked, tightly shoving my hands in my pocket to keep as warm as I could in this cold weather.
"I don't want to talk about this in front of Wyatt," he said. I looked ahead and noticed the rest of the S4 walking toward the courtyard exit along with many other students on their way to the imminent quidditch match.
"What is it?" I asked, trying to feign innocence as much as I could.
We began walking down the path to the quidditch pitch but kept a large distance from the S4 who were already much much further away.
"Well," Isaiah said, huffing. A large poof of mist expelled from his mouth as his warm breath wrapped around the cool air. "I don't know how else to tell you this, but... We've figured out that Wyatt got ahold of one of your potions — he may have stolen from you."
"Oh?" I said.
"Have you been using that spell I taught you last term? The privacy enchantment?" he asked.
"Er — Well, the truth is I cannot use this spell without your help, and well, my dormmate recently told me that she had easily found the counterspell and had been rummaging through my belongings without my consent for months."
"Really?" Isaiah asked, very surprised. "I thought it would be foolproof — surely, Wyatt couldn't have found the counterspell — I didn't even know there could be one..."
"Well, apparently, Millicent Bulstrode did," I said, shrugging. "But I highly doubt that Wyatt could have figured it out on his own — Even I have to admit that my dormmate is particularly skilled in a way that most aren't."
"I see," Isaiah said, humming as he thought. "What if she sold that potion to Wyatt? Or is it possible that someone else in our school runs a potions business?"
"I don't exactly run a potions business — not anymore, at least," I admitted. "And I can't be sure if I have competitors or not."
"Well, in any case, Wyatt keeps denying everything. He says he made it himself — frankly, I find it hard to believe — I mean, the effects of that potion were very strong," Isaiah said, sighing. I tried to not smile at the mention of Wyatt's denial. Not that I necessarily ever doubted his loyalty to me, but it was nice to know he did not snitch. "Well, I'm just glad you agreed a long time ago to not willingly give him any potions. James is right. Wyatt is impulsive. And when it comes to instant gratification... Well, he's a hedonist."
"Right," I said, melting inside with guilt. Although I wasn't lying word-for-word, keeping things hidden and playing dumb with Isaiah felt like a crime. "Well, it's really cold. Let's keep moving, okay?"
"Of course, I told you what I needed to tell you — We can meet again later to improve that privacy enchantment," Isaiah said lastly.
"Of course," I said absentmindedly, just glad that this conversation was over and that we weren't talking about Wyatt being high anymore.
And we marched onwards, silently fighting the cold as we shuffled through the snow, following the other students to the entrance of the quidditch stands.