𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐆𝐨

𝐗𝐋𝐈𝐈

We stayed up for the whole night brainstorming. Not that I hadn't been doing that by myself almost every night. I slept sometimes, but only when I deemed it absolutely necessary.

By the time the sun peaked in through the windows, my head had already been bobbing up and down for the previous hour nonstop. Draco's eyes were bloodshot and swollen and rested in a squint.

So far, we had come up with just short of nothing.

Oh, Hermione. How very disappointed she would be in us.

From what I heard from Ron, they were already done and had their sample turned in early. Ron had been in an almost permanent horizontal position on the common room couch ever since.

I didn't know what others were doing, but it most likely wasn't something as complicated as this.

"What about Horned Slug?" I suggested.

"Only good for boils," Draco muttered.

We had a couple of basic potion making materials already, but we needed to know the more complicated ingredients first before deciding which common materials to use.

"Goosegrass?" I asked, reading the ingredient off from my textbook.

"Unless I have scurvy, that will only be of use if I want to dye my hair red," he rolled his eyes.

I sighed, exasperated.

"It says here that it can be useful for skin aliments as well..."

"Do I have a skin aliment that I don't know about?" Draco asked, I could almost see the attitude dripping from his tongue.

"I don't know! I'm just reading about common healing properties in general."

I kept reading in silence, Draco doing the same.

The small print of my textbook was becoming fizzier by the minute. I kept having to read lines twice over as the letters kept jumping around the page.

It felt like the world was playing tricks on me, like I was just a big joke.

"Oh! Oh, here. What about... Bat Spleen? For swelling?"

Draco, still looking down at his book, seemed to be in thought for a moment before he nodded, slowly.

"Yes. Yes, that could work," he said, "Write that down."

I did, sloppily, but so that I could still read it. Sort of.

We kept reading. I could see that Draco also had a few things written down on his parchment, but the writing was just ineligible scribbled from where I was sitting.

I hoped to Merlin that we would at least have a place to start experiment brewing by the time we finished. Or, until one of us collapsed from exhaustion.

Whichever came first.

I had a strong feeling that it would be me. I was getting to the point where I could barely keep my eyes open anymore. My glasses seemed particularly foggy as well.

But, then again, Draco wasn't looking so much greater either. He had this sort of gaunt appearance to him.

From afar, I thought that it looked rather mysterious and intriguing. But up close, the dark circles and quivering arms became all that much more apparent.

"What do you have so far?" I asked finally after minutes of no more progress.

"Billywig Sting Slime has curative properties, Boom Berry is restorative, and then obviously Dittanty, Dragon Liver, and Fluxweed," he sounded bored. Though, it was probably just the fatigue.