Moste Potente Private Closed

Marla Quinlan as per usual, was completely and utterly exhausted. She had surprisingly gotten more than a few hours of sleep, to say the least, but the countless all-nighters the poor girl had been pulling were catching up to her brain. Even then, with her eyes half closed, encircled by exhausted darkness, she did make an effort to seem more awake. Her usual slightly messy hair was slicked back in a low ponytail, and in replacement of robes with a small red and gold emblem, she had slapped on some jeans and a nicer-than-usual t-shirt. Still looking like a hot mess, but an improvement nonetheless.

Soon after, the girl made her way to the dining hall with a book in hand as per usual. Most of her peers were... Interesting, to say the least. And so, to survive the loud and hyper nature of her fellow Gryffindors, Marla brought a book every day to at least attempt to tolerate them. Spoiler alert: it never works. But anywho, Marla really couldn't be that angry every day. Yes, it was the morning. Yes, mornings sucked. But what came in the morning? Breakfast. One of the things that Hogwarts does absolutely and positively right. Between the endless amounts of french toast, eggs, hashbrowns... Who could be upset?

And with this thought in mind, Marla finally plopped down in her usual spot at the table with countless students draped in red and gold, anticipating the morning feast. But before the girl could even look at the cover on her book, a silky voice spoke, followed by most of the people around her growing irritated looks on their faces.
"Nice to meet you all, I'm Airlia Winter and I'm a first year Hufflepuff." A voice, apparently Airlia spoke. Marla looked around for the source of the voice and found a significantly pretty girl with nearly white hair and light blue eyes. She (no offense) obviously didn't belong, kind of looked like a puppy dog in a pack of wolves in a way. What was a Hufflepuff doing at the Gryffindor table? It seemed she wasn't the only one asking herself those questions, as she heard the same thing being asked to other students around the elongated table.

But before she could spark a conversation with the Hufflepuff, the flapping of wings was heard throughout the room, and immediately, Marla recognized what time it was. Owls. The only reason she would look forward to those were if her Uncle sent her an owl... But most of the time he was busy at work. Today was no different. To her dismay, she got nothing. Unlike the pretty Hufflepuff, whose eyes shined as a package was dropped in front of her. Marla watched closely, seeing her pull a letter out from the square shaped gift. Was it her birthday? Was that why Airlia was so happy? It seemed not, since the girl looked more and more upset as she read through the note. Soon enough, she looked just a tad terrified and ripped open the paper, pulling out a leathery brown book with the title almost completely worn off. Now this was exciting. Marla was a complete sucker for books, and loved nothing more than to curl up by a warm fire and read for hours. Airlia... Not so much. Something was either absolutely horrifying in that book, or the Hufflepuff just loathed reading, because she slammed the damned thing shut and held it close to her chest, concealing it with her robes. She then spotted Marla staring, which was so terribly embarrassing that she flushed a bright red, reminiscent to the fiery shade of her hair. She looked Marla straight in the eyes, and whispered something that she would never expect;

"Want an adventure?"

Marla nodded, not only entranced by the girl's beauty, but by the thought of being able to get her hands on that book.. She had to read it now. Even if it would curse her for life or something like that... And in this case, she certainly hoped that curiosity wouldn't kill the cat.

"About that book? Yes." She remarked enthusiastically, followed by an almost sinister grin, an equally mischievous and threatening glint in her eyes.

Airlia smiled as she chose to try and act casual. She didn't want to attract too much attention so she took an apple, bit into it and whispered: "Let's go."

She got up and swiftly made her way to the corridor right outside the great hall. She leaned against the wall and waited for the red-headed girl to follow her. When she did appear Airlia waved her over.

She felt nervous. This book... Was bad... Worse than bad since it was strictly forbidden. Airlia wasn't sure if she could get expelled for having a forbidden book, but she could surely get into a whole lot of trouble for possessing it.

Detention did not sound welcoming to her. Especially knowing how her mother would react: 'Airlia Winter you are coming home right now! Hogwarts clearly isn't the place for you, time to go back to your etiquette training.'

Shuddering at the thought Airlia looked around, making sure that no one was wandering around the entrance of the great hall which they stood by and took a step closer to the Gryffindor girl so no one surely would hear her as she spoke.

The girl she was with looked interested. She had that little spark in her eye that ignited a flame in her brown eyes, revealing that she was indeed looking for adventure. Finding it at the breakfast table in the form of a doe-eyed Hufflepuff probably wasn't exactly how she had thought she'd find it.

After all, Hufflepuffs aren't really known for getting in trouble for breaking rules like the Gryffindors are. But Airlia could use a bit of courage, and this girl from Gryffindor seemed heaven sent as she knew she'd found the one that'll really help her with the book.

"This is Moste Potente. It's a forbidden potions book that can be found from the school's restricted section. It's full of dark potions with terrible side effects and it's never borrowed out to students. Especially the first years. This is something I could get in big trouble for." She ran her fingers down the cover of the book, feeling it's age and how worn down it was. It felt rough beneath her fingertips and she was worried the book might even break under her fingers.

You can't return a broken book that's this valuable. Surely then there would be a whole investigation and the book would be traced back to her. No, no one can even notice the book was ever gone. Airlia prayed in her head that the librarian hadn't done her daily check of the restricted section. A book this heavy would stand out if it was missing from the shelf, creating a huge space where it should reside.

Airlia looked at the girl for any signs of regret for getting into this mess but got none. The girl seemed almost more excited.

"I need to get this back to the restricted section where it belongs. Do you think you could help me?" Airlia asked, offering the book for the girl to scroll through. "You can still back out." Airlia offered, hoping with all her might that the girl wouldn't. She needed her help and quite desperately at that.

They say curiosity killed the cat. But maybe the cat might survive if she had a lookout.

"T-Take a few pages? What? No. It needs to be returned in the perfect condition so no one gets suspicious." Airlia said, feeling uncomfortable over the question and holding the book better against her chest so she wouldn't accidentally drop it. She bit her lip and studied the girl for a moment. She was obliviously a Gryffindor but looked innocent enough.

Airlia really could use some Gryffindor courage in this but the reckless part was exactly what she needed to avoid. They had to be sneaky, silent and effective in getting rid of this wretched book.

The book felt rugged under Airlia's fingertips and holding it was uncomfortable. She just wanted to throw it on the floor and run, leaving it to be the responsibility of whoever finds it next. However, someone could use it for bad and Airlia almost subconsiousöly knew that she couldn't just leave the book somewhere. It needed to be placed in its own spot and left there with care. Preferably under a dozen spells that'll make sure no one gets hold of it again. Especially a student up top no good.

"It was sent to me by a friend as a prank. I think he finds this all amusing but I could get into a lot of trouble and I don't even know how he got hold of it. He doesn't even go to this school. He attends Durms-" Suddenly Airlia halted. Durmstrang was known for having dark arts a part of its curriculum. The book couldn't be from Hogwarts restricted section. It was from Durmstrang.

Airlia should have realized this the second she got the book, but as always she was a little too slow to get revelations that quickly.

At this point, any other student would have also not handed the book to the Gryffindor girl. Especially when she'd asked to have a few pages of it. But careless, naive and slightly stupid as she was, Airlia went ahead and handed the old priceless book over to the other girl with a smile, anyway.

"Actually forget that. We just need to destroy the book. I think we should burn it." Airlia gave the girl a small smile. "I'm Airlia by the way. A first-year Hufflepuff. Nice to meet you."

Airlia wondered where they could burn the book and the common room was obliviously a great answer but they were from different houses. So that wouldn't work... Teachers had fireplaces in their offices and so did the headmaster but frankly going there would be risky. Airlia wanted to avoid getting detention to no end. She didn't want to have to explain that to her parents. They would freak out and write one of those icy calm letters written in perfect calligraphy that still gives her the creeps as she reads of their rage between the lines.

No... Detention was not something Airlia was willing to risk!