If This Isn't Love (Fred Weasley Sequel)

Chapter 9 | Scheme

When you get to the potion, please don't search it up. For your own enjoyment/ entertainment, just wait until it's revealed.

Thursday, September 14

Fred and I finally came up with the brilliant idea to poison McLaggen. It isn't as cruel as I had hoped it would be, but it is something.

Maybe I'm just being cruel myself. This Umbridge woman is getting particularly annoying and I don't know how long I can take it.

We have to figure out what poison we are using how we're going to use it. Neither of us have ideas, but we do know Hermione and she is incredibly smart.

I am asking Hermione right after I find her. And, just my luck, she is in the library. "Hey, 'Mione. I need help on something," I announce as I waltz in as if I own the place.

She looks up from her book and tells me to hush. I ignore her and flop in a chair right beside her. She takes a deep breath and closes her book. "What?"

"I'm going to poison McLaggen but I don't know how." I say it so casually that Hermione hits my shoulder and tells me to quiet down.

"Sorry," I whisper. "Alright, do you know any potions or something I can do?"

She ponders at that. "I don't know. What exactly are you looking for? Do you want to hurt him or make him look weird?"

I think about about it... And of course, I tell her both. She sighs and gets up. "I can't think of anything. Let's look it up."

So we do. For at least an hour and the only decent potion I find is the Emerald Potion. Basically, it pains the drinker at first, gives them horrible memories, then it makes them incredibly thirsty. It's agonizing.

The only drawback is there is no way I can brew something like this. So as enticing as it is, I'll have to figure something else out.

Hermione is searching a book for a potion I can actually brew that is good enough to teach a lesson to McLaggen. I hope whatever she finds haunts him for life.

I am close to falling asleep reading this Poison book when Hermione shakes me and points at something she found in a book. I squint to read it.

Perfect.

I won't tell you exactly what the potion is, I'll just have you wait for it.

The ingredients are, however, pretty difficult to acquire. Octopus powder? Dried toad's tongue? And perhaps the rarest, dragon's blood. How the hell am I supposed to get dragon blood?

Others things are easy to get, like water or different types of mushrooms. I'll need help to get everything else.

Help from someone other than a student. But who knows how to get all these ingredients?

"It's great, Hermione," I tell her while we are in the Gryffindor common room. "But really, how am I supposed to brew this?"

"Well, it has instructions in the book," she responds. Smart ass.

I roll my eyes. "You know anyone who can somehow find 3 ounces of dragon's blood?"

She pauses. "I doubt any student can. And it's not like a teacher would happily lend us some."

"Hagrid would happily lend you anything if you stayed in the hut long enough," Ron cuts in.

"You don't even know what we're talking about," I snap.

He shrugs. "Sorry."

I think about what he said. Hagrid... Would he give me dragon's blood if I really needed it? Perhaps that is a good idea after all.

"Actually, Ronald, you might be on to something," I say.

"What were you talking about?" He asks, looking up from his
oh-so-frustrating homework.

"We'll tell you later," Hermione says, catching on to my idea. "We've got to have a chat with Hagrid."

~~~~
"Wha' in Merlin's beard would yeh need dragon's blood for?" The half-giant asks, bewildered of our request.

I put on a childish, scared face while Hermione explains. "Cormac McLaggen really frightened (Y/N) on her birthday. He tried to sexually assault her even after she told him to stop numerous times." She then proceeds to tell him that it wasn't much, but Cormac deserves to have his drink spiked with the potion we want to brew.

Hagrid sighs. "Please. This is mad! Fiddlin' around with someone's drink like this, is absurd." He looks at our pleading faces. "Oh, come on, how do yeh expect I ge' this kinda thin'?"

"Please, Hagrid!" Hermione cries. "He did something really wrong, and we don't know what else to do."

Maybe it's not a good time to tell him how I sabotaged McLaggen's Herbology class last year.

He frowns and scratches his beard. "How much do yeh need?"

"3 ounces, sir," I say, stretching the politeness a bit.

His eyes dart back and forth. "I guess I can handle tha'. Righ', I'll have it as soon as possible. Yeh run along then. And don' be causin' anymore trouble than this!"

"One more thing, sir," Hermione says.

Before he can decline, I tell him, "Octopus powder is in that potion, too. Only I have no idea how to get that."

He massages his temples, grumbling about us kids and how we were only causing trouble these days.

In the end, Hagrid decides to find us part of an octopus. He tells us we'd have to dry it ourselves, though.

However long we have to wait for these things, we don't know. But it's a start and when I tell Fred, he's going to be proud of our work.

Hermione and I would have started to collect mushrooms but it is getting dark, so we go inside instead. We have all week to get the mushrooms (shitake, button, and portabella).

Fred is amazed at how far we've gotten in just a few hours. He also loves my idea of having that particular potion.

McLaggen is really going to pay for being an asshole.

~~~~
Published 5-7-20

Like I said in the beginning of the chapter, please don't search up the Potion yet.

All will be revealed soon, my children.