Atropos → george weasley

xvii. the poltergeist accomplice

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seventeen

the poltergeist accomplice

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If she could have, she would have just waited until the Christmas holiday to get the necessary ingredients. She could've just had her mum take her to Diagon Alley, and Ottilie would get them under the pretense they were for class. Her mum wouldn't question it.

It was best not to risk getting expelled.

However, she was pretty sure the apothecary in Diagon Alley wouldn't have mandrake leaves, as they were difficult to grow and rare. She'd need to get them from a specialty apothecary, but that would require potioneer credentials she didn't have. 

However, after the salamander eyes fiasco, her plan was beginning to form by itself.

She had been retelling the story of her genius strategy for revenge to Ernie and Justin. While Justin found the whole situation funny, Ernie disapproved ("She would have gotten really sick if she had actually eaten one!").

When she got to the part about Peeves and the egg, she remembered her threat to tell the Bloody Baron—Wymond—about his idea of a good joke.

If only she had control over the vexatious poltergeist like Wymond had. He could be extremely useful as a means of distraction, allowing her a perfect opportunity to steal the ingredients she needed. The only problem was that Peeves would never listen to her. And, even if the invitation for mischief did appeal to him, everything would have to go perfectly, and she couldn't trust Peeves to such a high degree.

Ottilie, Ernie, and Justin left the library for lunch. She pondered quietly while Ernie and Justin lamented the massive amount of homework to do before the holidays.

She wondered if she could get Wymond to tell Peeves what to do for her. But was it really smart to have her House ghost be her aider and abetter? He'd helped her stay out of trouble once before, sure, but asking him to goad Peeves into wreaking havoc was something else entirely.

"What is that?"

Justin's question broke through Ottilie's thoughts. She frowned and followed his wide-eyed gaze. They were standing in the entrance hall. While nothing amiss was immediately evident, Ottilie finally spotted a thick plume of smoke coming from the door that she knew led to the Hufflepuff basements.

"Is our common room on fire?" asked Ernie. His eyes went wide. "Oh no! Bluebell!"

Ernie took off in a sprint to the door and was almost mowed over by a pair of laughing ginger twins. Mrs. Norris was at their heels. But, Filch was much too slow and emerged from the smoke, gasps rattling, after they had gone somewhere up the staircase chamber.

Ottilie and Justin had made it over to a stunned Ernie when the twins' friend, Lee Jordan, emerged from the smoke. He was coughing roughly.

"What's going on? Is there a fire?" Ernie asked Lee.

"No, that was a smoke bomb," said Lee through his hacking.

"Where did you get a smoke bomb?" Ottilie asked, cutting off whatever Justin was about to say. Lee raised an eyebrow at her skeptically.

"The Weasley twins and I bought some from Zonko's Joke Shop when we took our Hogsmeade trip," he said. "Why, do you want some?"

Ottilie did her best not to seem too eager. "What exactly do they do?"