Spilled Ink (Hunter)

Vanessa sat in her favorite spot in the whole library. A tiny corner in the back, right by the window. She would sometimes curl up back there and work on homework, or new songs, or she would come here to just get away from everything. Hardly anyone bothered her back here, and she loved it. She pulled out some parchment, a quill, and an ink bottle. She began working on her potions essay.

The assignment was a 500 word essay on the use of the Bezoar and the benefits it has and how it can save you. She searched her brain for any information she could recall about the bezoar. But she was just drawing up a blank. She groaned in frustration and grabbed her text book from her bag. She hated having to use her book. She was supposed to be smart. Why couldn’t she remember this stuff on her own? She heard a bunch of people in the back of the library making a bunch of noise. She shook her head and sighed, most people didn’t even know Hogwarts had a library.

She began reading the pages of her text book and let the information swarm her mind. She began writing her essay. She wrote about how a bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and it will save you from most poisons. The Bezoar is an object that is usually made of hair, plant fibre, or similar indigestible matter that stays in the gut of an animal and forms a hard ball or "stone".

She was almost finished with her essay, when someone knocked over her ink bottle. Therefore, causing ink to spill all over her stuff including her almost finished essay! She jumped up to avoid getting ink all over her and gasped. “What the hell!”

Sometimes in life, you have to make sacrifices to get results. Sometimes, that involved giving up your comfort for the good of others. Sometimes, it involved working a job that you might not particularly like to stay afloat. But for Hunter, it involved something very simple. Hunter was about to set foot in the library - the one place that he went out of his way to avoid - for the sake of his felix felices potion, which he still hadn't managed to perfect.

So, with a grimace, Hunter stepped through the doorway into the eerily quiet room full of books and tables and more books. He had only been in the library a handful of times, so finding what he was looking for might prove to be a little difficult. He crossed the middle of the room and headed straight to the back left corner where he knew the potions books were located. With any luck, he'd find what he needed quickly and be able to slip out in a few moments.

But unfortunately, it wasn't that simple. Finding the potions section was easy. Finding a book that went into more detail about Felix Felices than his Advanced Potions book was proving to be hard. When he didn't find it in the first few minutes, he was a bit irritated. But when he didn't find it in the first twenty, he became frustrated. With an annoyed sigh, he swept around the corner to search the other side of the bookshelf, bumping unconsciously into a table as he did.

He wouldn't have even noticed he hit it if he hadn't heard an angry voice from behind him. "Sorry," he muttered instinctively as he turned around, not even sure who he'd disturbed. Then, he took in who it was. "Oh, it's you," he said, recognizing Vanessa, the ditzy Slytherin girl he'd met once or twice. His eyes lowered to her paper, which he'd successfully spilled ink all over. "Just use tergeo," he advised her. "It should come right off."

Vanessa recognized the boy. Hunter VanDerberg. Gryffindor. "Thats not the point Hunter." She used the spell and watched as the ink disappeared. Well most of it anyway. Some lingered no matter how many times she used the spell. "Damn it... My paper is due next class." She hid her head in her arms and groaned in frustration.

Not the point? He'd accidentally bumped into her table, ink spilled on the paper, and he'd told her how to fix it. Considering that Vanessa wasn't exactly on his exclusive list of people he could stand, he thought that was pretty nice of him to begin with. "What is the point then?" he asked her, rolling his eyes and turning back to the bookcase beside him to scan the shelves for what he was looking for. He sighed and turned back around as she kept complaining, stepping over to her table and leaning over her to look at her paper.

"Most of it came off," he told her, rolling his eyes at her over-dramatic reaction . "You can read more than half of what you wrote. Just rewrite it." Honestly, it was just a potions essay - hardly that difficult.

Vanessa growled and narrowed her eyes at the boy. What she wouldnt give to hex his pants off. "What are you looing for?" She said in a fake sweet voice. Keep your enemies close, she always said. She looked over his shoulder, "Mybe I can be of service to the all might Hunter VanDerberg?"

Hunter smirked at Vanessa's annoyed response. She'd always been overdramatic. Some people just never changed. When she asked what he was looking for, he responded with an even tone. "Nothing that you need to worry about." He couldn't just be going around school announcing to everyone that he was making felix felices. Because, first of all, he was using stolen ingredients for the potion. And second of all, if he managed to get it right and everyone found out, they'd all want some. "Though 'The Almighty Hunter VanDerberg' has a nice ring to it. Feel free to use it whenever you'd like. It's better than Blakey at least."

:Ill make a note to use it more often." Vanessa said through a clenched jaw. When he mentioned Blake she smiled and squealed. "How is Blake. I havent seen him in forever." She smiled and blushed a light shade of pink. "How is everyone anyway. Like Professor Di Angelo." She had been in Italy for the last year so she hadnt been around school.

Hunter winced as Vanessa squealed into his ear, since he was still leaning down next to her. He quickly backed away and glared at her. "Do you have to do that?" he replied irritably, turning to the bookshelf for the third time. When she kept talking, Hunter sighed and reached out to pluck a random potions book from the shelf titled Morphing Potions: A Guide To Identity Manipulation, deciding that he would probably never find what he was looking for with her there anyway.

Opening the book to a random page and falling back into an armchair near where Vanessa was sitting, his eyes skimmed the title as he replied. "Blake's fine, as usual. Don't know about your brother, I didn't take his class last term. Where were you all last year, anyway?" he asked, glancing up at her. She'd grown up a lot since he'd last seen her. She was pretty enough, now, but it was offset by how annoying she was.

"Well thats good." Vanessa didnt really know what to say. She didnt know why she was nervous all of a sudden. Hunter had gotten cute over the last couple of years. She smiled and nodded and took a seat beside him. "How have you been?" She decided to play it cool and see how things went.

Turned out there were some interesting potions in the book he'd grabbed. Polyjuice potion, invisibility potions, color changing potions, voice changing potions - he grinned to himself at the thought of slipping someone a potion that made them sound ridiculous for the whole day. He could make Ariel sound like a man or something! Maybe he could just sit here and pick one to try and eventually Vanessa would leave and he could go about looking for the book he actually needed in peace.

But no, she had to come sit closer to him and keep talking. He glanced up again from his book as she asked how he was, raising an eyebrow at her skeptically. Why was she acting normal now and not like the annoying, dramatic person that he knew she was? Not in the mood to question it and have to listen to her answer, he just replied, "Fine. Same as always. How about you, how was your year away from school?"

"Ive been good. Italy was fantastic. I needed to get away from all the drama of Hogwarts." She sighed and rubbed her neck nervously. She looked at the book he was reading, "You know, theres a killer voice changing potion in there, I used it on my sister over the break. She sounded like a man for a week. She was so mad. Im tempted to use it on Luca and make him sound like a little girl."

"Yeah, wish I could say it's gotten better in the drama department, but I'd be lying," Hunter agreed. Though he couldn't say much - he'd been the primary reason for all of the drama last term. Well, it was more Aoife's fault than his - but he'd played enough of a part that he could at least admit it. He looked up at Vanessa with slight interest when she referenced the potion he'd been looking at. "Yeah, I was thinking of slipping it to Ariel. But I don't know, I think I could do better."

"WHile voice changing is an honorable prank, why stop at the voice?" Vanessa smiled and took a step closer to Hunter. "Why not go voice, hair, appearance, the whole nine yards. Go big or go home, yeah?" There was a reason Vanessa was in Slytherin. And this was it.