Enquiring Minds

Procrastination wasn't just for students. Selina kept her neat, tall pile of freshly inked essays from her 5th year students, ready to be picked apart with her discerning eyes. She had to be strict with them this year; she had to prepare them for their O.W.L.s. There was no point in them continuing Potions if they didn't know what they were talking about now.

Either way, she had some time before she had to give them their grades, so she left her students' work as a decorative piece while she sorted through her mail. Her mother was asking when her next visit, her father was hinting that she should consider a career at St. Mungos. She actually received correspondence from St. Mungos, which made her frown, but she was instantly curious when she realized it was an old schoolmate asking for her opinion on a new Potion being created. They were having issues with the side effects, which was making it difficult to make it patient-ready. The Potions Mistress was reading through the research with interest when the knock on the door made her look up. Olive Green? The Gryffindor had never come to her office before, so it was surprising to appear after all these years; it made her mildly curious. "Come in," she called out, sitting back in her seat, still skimming her letter.

Upon the professors invitation inside Olive gently opened the door just wide enough to slip through and lifted her head to find Ms. Roy at her rather crowded desk. Piles and piles of parchments and scrolls. Oh geeze. She thought ruefully to herself, the professor seemed to have her hands full already. I should just.. she thought for a moment, prepared to excuse herself but then something inside her stopped her, kept her grounded. It was Colin. Okay Maybe it wasn't but it was the passions she felt for him that kept her here, grounded, prepared to face whatever came her way. She slowly inched forward, tugging absently at the straps of her bag as she gathered herself.

"I just.." she began, staring at the crack on the floor beneath her feet, anything from directly staring at the Potions mistress "I er-- had a few questions about... " love potions... poly juice potions... her brain filled the gap but she didn't dare utter them just yet "Well you see" she stammered "I'm a .. I'm really interested in potions." she lied through her teeth trying to sound as convincing as possible.

Potions had to be one of her least liked classes. All the awful steps and processes were so mind numbingly boring. The stir three times counter clockwise then once clockwise kind of nonsense, did it really matter? And then there was the whole chopping to the exact centimeter and the smells. Oh if it was one thing she was grateful for it was knowing that she'd never have to take potions again after her fifth year.

But.. now.. It was important. She whimpered to herself, admitting defeat to that godawful subject. "I just had a few questions about you know the basics... shrinking solutions... antidotes.. love potions" she mumbled the last part about love potions to a barely audible whisper, her voice cracking as she suggested it.

The Gryffindor seemed a but anxious, which made Selina put her letter down and listen with sincerity. Whatever it was, the girl was having trouble expressing herself, the least she could do was listen. Olive stumbled a little before she... lied? Well, the Potions Mistress wasn't about to call her a liar, and didn't have much but her own recollection of her student to go on, but she never had the impression that the young woman was particularly interested in Potions. She had done well enough to pass her exams and submit her homework, but nothing that indicated a real inclination. Now Selina was watching Olive closely, trying to see if she had just interpreted the signs incorrectly.

When Olive got down to specifics, Selina's head tilted slightly, one eyebrow perking lightly. Shrinking solutions and antidotes were within the regular line of questioning, but love potions? That was on the other side of the spectrum, and nothing she covered with 4th years. Unfortunately for Olive, she wasn't even able to keep her request inconspicuous. Hiding her smile, Selina made a gesture to Olive as an invitation to sit across from her. She remembered being her age while at Hogwarts. She had been young, impressionable, and stubborn. She had a feeling Olive was some of those things as well, among others. "What are you looking for in particular?" She inquired gently, playing along for now. There was nothing wrong with questions and knowledge; what mattered was how that knowledge was applied.

Olive had hardly noticed Selina's eyebrow raise because she was too busy staring at the stacks of paper before her, trying desperately to give off any indication of her plans through her eyes. Mother did always say that the eyes were the window to ones soul, she knew better than to look the devil in the eyes as she told a lie her lies. For a moment she felt like she had been caught, that the professor knew. Oh god.. am I gonna get in trouble? No.. that was nonsense. You couldn't get in trouble before actually DOING anything.. or could you? Olives lip began to tremble but she quickly bit down on them to stop herself from doing anything drastic.

It was lucky for her Professor Roy had replied because she had been seconds away from excusing herself.

"Well" she looked up, her face seemingly full of sunshine. YES! YES YES! She cheered inside. "Concerning love potions.. ah-- I mean amortentia, I was a bit confused as to how the drinker of the potion would become enamored with one specific person. You see--" Olive cut herself off as she grabbed her bag off her shoulder and began fumbling with the contents inside, pulling at scraps of paper and the like until finding what she needed. It was her own writing, very scratchy and a bit of a disarray with math solutions on the top and ingredients and things circled and question marks.. lots and lots of question marks.

"I started to make---" she gaped " I mean... I started to research." she corrected herself innocently, "And I could only really find a 'love at first sight' kinda thing. How do I put me or uhh the intended person... not specifically me, into the potion?" suddenly aware of how awful whiney it sounded she stammered" It doesn't have to be me.. heh.. its just research you know curousity. I love potions, potions is the best" she yipped on and on laughing crazily as she tried her best to make an appeal that this was completely and totally innocent. shes onto me... i know it. Jesus.. whyd I say I love potions. Stupid stupid olive. But she'd already gotten this far, might as well wait it out. Olive folded her paper slightly to keep from her professors view point. She had managed to sneak a peak at one of the 'forbidden' texts in the school library before getting noticed. She'd only gotten a quick taste but the rest was a mix of guess work and research. Lots and lots of painful research.

It seemed that the Potions Mistress' invitation to stay had brightened up Olive's disposition. Selina hoped the Gryffindor didn't interpret that has permission to do anything extreme. The former Ravenclaw didn't mind answering some theoretical questions and offering guidance, but Amortentia could be a dangerous substance. To Olive's disadvantage, the recipe was in the Restricted Section of the Library and was extremely difficult to accomplish. She wasn't a poor Potions student, but it was quite a bit out of her abilities.

For the moment, Selina ignore Olive's verbal mistake when she admitted to beginning the potion itself, and casually glanced at the inked parchment she had retrieved from her bag. The Gryffindor quickly took it from her view before Selina would catching anything of importance from it. Placing her letter on the desk and sitting back against her chair, she crossed her legs comfortably, relieved at the young woman's questions. She hadn't been too successful at obtaining the whole recipe, otherwise she wouldn't have had to ask. At this point, Selina was comfortable enough to answer a few things with minimal detail with hopes to discourage her. "Well, the process to successfully brew Amortentia is quite extensive; there are several steps that require both specifically-prepared ingredients and Charmwork that ensures the Drinker is infatuated with the person that administers the potion, not the one who brews it. If I recall correctly, the Arithmancy for that portion is very precise and easily blundered. People are admitted into St. Mungos because of a bad batch all the time."

Selina watched her student for any change in body language. As a Professor, the last thing she should be doing was deterring a student from attempting something academically challenging, but she had to tread carefully around something like this. Any mishap would be hr responsibility, though she wasn't sure how severe the Headmaster would be. Since his loss of the Minister of Magic position, he had been acting strangely, to say the least. Almost manic. Her suspicions didn't have much substance, but she could tell he just wasn't the same. Either way, this was her job and her first precaution after this conversation would be to tighten up security Restricted Section, or even check out the books herself.

"I don't mind answering your questions, Olive," she continued softly, trying to engage her eyes with a small smile," but I would like you to assure me that you don't intend to brew Amortentia, mich less use it on someone." It was obvious that her classmate was the object of her affection, it was impossible for Olive to hide it, but Selina was not going to let this fly.

Olive's mind had begun to zone out as the Professor answered her question in quite a lengthy detail. Her mind had always seemed to wander when the subject of potions came up, and despite really wanting to know, her brain resisted and all she heard was 'blahbity blah potionsde blah. Blah blah.. lots of work blah'. Yes... this was turning out to be more work than she'd imagined. In her head she'd always assume the hardest step would be copying a page from the restricted section before the librarian noticed anyone was beyond the barriers, she'd all but forgotten the most important thing-- the brewing itself.

She sighed a bit, her eyes awash with boredom. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad for Colin to end up in St. Mungos? She could be his personal nurse and cater his poor and imbalanced mind to health and then he'd realize she really was worthy of his love. She smiled a bit at the thought. But no.. some things became more permanent.

There had to be another way. And when Professor Roy's finally breached her lulled state of mind, she had an idea.

"Oh.. no.. no of course not. I wouldn't dare" she admitted completely and totally honest. She really wouldn't dare to brew Amortentia herself. No.. but she knew someone who could. And with that in mind she straightened up a bit in her seat and returned a pleasant smile toward her now-suspicious Professor. She knew she'd have to get out of this soon before she blew the whistle but... she just had a few more questions, and for the moment it seemed like Professor Roy was more than willing to humor her. Olive pulled up a quill and quickly scribbled 'dunno ask Davina' next to one of the questions and moved onto the next,

"Is it possible to overdose on it?" she read out loud, then looked up at Professor Roy innocently "I mean to say..  I wonder what the normal dosage is for these kinds off things... like how long does one dose work for. Will organs be harmed? That sort of thing." she laughed nervously, folding her paper toward her once more to shield from prying eyes. She knew her time was ticking.. ticking.. But one had to make sure about some things before proceeding.

Although the young Lion was emphatic in her assurances, Selina had to keep in mind that her students could be destructive whether it was intentional or not. It was exactly their intentions that were in question the majority of the time. Selina wouldn't supervise her students every moment of each day, but it was possible to have the castle's house elves to be a little more vigilant. The Potions Mistress didn't have time for school age infatuations, but this situation might grow into something that might be too out of hand.

"Overdosing is possible, yes," she answered frankly. It was important for Olive to know the kind of Potion she was researching; it wasn't all flowers and chocolate frogs. "There is more arithmetic and Arithmancy to calculate the correct dose and its frequency to make sure there aren't any immediate side effects, but the long term effects can severe and irreparable." Of course, she failed to mention that there weren't many cases that got to that point, but she was fine with omitting that tidbit. "You have to remember that it influences brain chemistry, which is very delicate to begin with."

Selina watched her student with developing interest. Olive wasn't unfortunate looking, and it was obvious that she was intelligent. She wondered how she could be so smitten with Colin to the point that she had to research love potions. Selina herself had been in love before, but never to the point where she had this level of passion, though it was a bit extreme. Perhaps that was the reason she was now divorced. "Most Potions that are meant to alter a person's natural state can create adverse effects if taken for too long. Not a good idea."

Influences brain chemistry. Olive repeated in her head. Yes... And Professor Roy did say long term use could be permanent. She hid the smile that appeared on her lips, these very words seemed to erase everything else that the professor had warned her of, overdosing, and the like. Was that really such a problem when permanent love would ensue from it all. Olive could almost picture it, their life together after he'd realized the potential in her and could appreciate her undying love. Sigh... She'd make him so famous. He'd be on the posters, billboards you name it! They'd be the most loved couple of the wizarding world, star keeper Colin with his long time mate and agent, Olive Greene. She hugged the paper to her chest. oh Colin...

She'd completely missed the Professor's warning about long term use since shew as too busy picturing what their kids would look like. Little colin mini-me's running rampant in the world. No boring talk about arithmetic's and the like could pull her from this very real day dream. She absently began doodling little hearts on her paper and right beside the question listed scribbled a simple  'no probs'.

"Right right... overdose bad." she repeated, only half aware of what she was saying and quickly began gathering her things, stuffing her paper and inkless quill into her bag. She wondered what hours Professor Roy was in her office. Next time she'd need to get past to the Potions Cuppoard. Perhaps the professor could be distracted? Perhaps she could lure her away?

 "I think I can pass the OWLS without a problem now" she added rather plainly and pulled her bag to her shoulder, getting up as she did so and made a move to the door. "I gotta.... do homework" she grinned. "you know. Charmsey stuff" she laughed. "Thanks for everything!" and left before the Professor suspected anything more. All she needed was an accomplice. But who?