Animal Attraction Closed

Green nodded, brow knotting as he looked Uschi up and down with a cold, analytical stare. He rubbed his chin, humming. "Well, if you don't like them, that's another matter. There might be other ways to use better tested potions to assist," he theorized. "There are potions designed to stave off hunger, though it'd take a lot of them and they can be dangerous if you forget to eat. And it'd be long and expensive and blah blah blah," he waved a hand, nose wrinkling at the inelegance of that solution.

"If the literal weight is an issue, powdered billywig stings could be used to make you lighter at the same size... Does your ability extend to magical insects?" he asked, suddenly very interested. "That could be quite lucrative, actually," he purred, not a little avarice in his voice.

"Mind, the whole affair might be none of my business," he gestured, shrugging. "And in that case, you'd have every right to tell me to bugger right off. But I like problem solving, and frankly, I think I'd like it if you..." owed me a favor "... if we were working together on something," he amended, studying Uschi's expression.

"You underestimate your powers, I believe. Magical creatures are vital to so many of society's magical operations - even our wands require things from them. And personally, I am terrible with them," he said, looking at Lorelai.

Uschi listened to Green speak with enraptured attention. Potions to remove hunger? Potions to make you lighter? She wondered if the hunger one would work. Uschi couldn't say she ate because she felt hungry all the time. She ate because it felt good. It made her feel comfortable... whole - an embarrassing thought if ever there was one. But if she felt lighter then that might help her get about more, which might help her lose weight.

Lorelai Brunelle wrote: 19 May 2018, 03:14 And besides, there's nothing wrong with being a little overweight."

Uschi didn't look at her. There's no need for you to lie, she felt like saying, but didn't. She turned to Green.
"I... actually... don't know much about magical animals yet, outside of the books we bought for school." She had stayed up reading about them last night. "This is my first time in the library, I mean. This is the first book I picked up." She held up Fantastic beasts and their Alchemical Properties
"But if potions can do all you say they do, then I'm definitely interested," she said. Then she stood up, feeling a little awkward being the only one sitting down. "What do you want to work on?" She asked Green. "I'll be happy to help, especially if you'll teach me more about potions and... wizarding stuff."
She turned to Lorelai and offered her a smile. "And can Lorelai help too? If you want, I mean." She directed the last to Lorelai herself. "It'd be good to stick together, I think. The three of us I mean."

"I'd be happy to help out! Pretty much ever since I've gotten here I've been researching magical creatures. Mostly the more dangerous ones, but the more tame ones too. But like I said I'm not as crazy good as you are at getting along with them."Lorelai said. A thought popped into her head. Maybe Uschi would be able to use her magic or whatever she has to summon all the animals in the Hogwarts grounds that Lorelai knows are at least supposed there, but she's never gotten a chance to see. However, the thought never popped into Lorelai's head that maybe, just maybe, the girl didn't want to see a murderous sea demon. Because really who wouldn't want to. Maybe she'd ask for her to help her observe a grindylow at another date.

"I can help with the potions if you like. I'm pretty good at them, certainly no genius, but I can. We could ask the professor if we could make the potion when there's no class one day for 'academic' reasons. I feel like that would work. Worse case scenario, we could always sneak in one day, and make a potion. Although I guess we have to decide on a potion first."Lorelai turned to Green. "Well, what do you have planned?"

Green grinned victoriously, taking a step closer to the two. With a conspiratorial tilt of his had, he began: "Marvelous, glad to hear you're both interested. Perhaps the best place to start with be with a simple snuffling potion," he proposed. "Not as exciting as, say, a potion of invisibility, or a potion of strength, but it's all about where we start. First of all, it's an easy potion for beginners, so we should all be capable of the thing," he counted off on one finger. "Second, it appears quite harmless, so I doubt anyone would be too interested in stopping us, so long as we don't step on any toes," he continued. "And third and most important, it might lead us to finding more ingredients for future potions. Many animals track their prey through an advanced sense of smell, yes?" he asked Uschi, looking over at her. "Perhaps we could do the same. If we can simply train ourselves to know what billywigs look like, the three of us might be floating in no time."

Green took a step back, straightening. "If it works, we'd only be constrained by what we could find around here. I hear that you don't know much yet, Uschi, but I'm betting you'll find the information natural to gather once you start your research," he nodded at her. "And what we could really most use right now is a list of local wildlife that might be useful. Both magical and mundane. What do you think?" he asked, looking between the two.

“Um… yes, that’s ok. You mean what billywigs smell like?” she asked. Uschi had a pretty good sense of smell, she thought, so maybe she could smell a billywig, but her affinity for animals had always been more about the mind than the senses. “But I can get out this book. Let’s look for some more - I'll look up alchemy and you look up animals - then we can head for the desk.”
Uschi started browsing the shelf beside her, and found the problem wasn’t a lack of information but rather a flood. Almost all the books here were on alchemy, and she found it a bit overwhelming.
The snacks she had stuffed into her robe burned a hole in her pocket that felt the same size and shape as the one eating away at her insides. It was like eating them would remove her anxiety, but she resisted the urge for the moment – she hated eating in front of other people anyway. To Green she said:
“So, when you say float… we won’t really float, will be?” She could just imagine the jeers then. Balloon, they would call her. Or blimp – she used to be called that anyway. Just enough to take some pressure of her ankles and knees would be wonderful, or allow her to climb steps without feeling like she was carrying several sacks of potatoes with her.
At last she had scanned the whole bookshelf and had pulled out several promising titles. “This will do me,” she said. “What did you guys find?” For possibly the first time since she arrived there was a real smile on her face. Though they'd only just met, it was good to be part of a group, especially ones who seemed to know so much and be so willing to help her!

Lorelai was happy they were looking for books. Despite her small amount of time at Hogwarts, she felt she had already made a dent in the books about magical animals in the Hogwarts library. She already knew where a number of books about them were held, and which were the best. Mainly she chose ones that had information on animals that were local, she picked out whatever she knew had information on the native animals of Scotland. She had a large stack of books by the time she reunited with the group.

"I got all sorts of books."She said, plopping the numerous books onto a nearby desk, sorting them into piles. "These ones all have information on the animals in Scotland, so they should be able to tell us the kinds of things we can find on the Hogwarts grounds."She said placing a hand on a stack of three books, varying in size. She moved her hand to another pile, made up of two books, both rather thick. "These have a lot in them about how to get items from animals, like feathers or fur. Useful if we're going to make a potion. The rest are just books with general magical animal information."

She was glad her vast knowledge of the topic (the only thing she really had any expertise in) was helpful for once in her life. She was happy she was being useful.

"Excellent work, both of you," Green declared, looking over both of their finds with a grin. "I found a little something, myself, but I don't think we'll need much more than this," he said, setting down a book with a very hairy man on the cover. "It's shocking how little the library has on non-magical means of tracking; I had to go to the biography section for this," he nodded at it. "It's about a Scottish wizard's life and career in tracking and taming wild Welsh dragons. Not exactly a how-to, but the passages seem to be detailed, and it's better than waiting for later years to get ahold of spells we can actually use," he sighed, exasperated by the fact that he, an eleven-year-old-child, was not yet allowed to control dangerous animals with his mind.

"Yes, the billywig stings will make you float if you take too much of them," Green confirmed, nodding at Uschi. "The key will be to take only a very little of them at a time, and carefully record the results. Floating can be fun, but quite dangerous, and even one billywig sting can make a grown man float, so we'll need to dilute it quite a lot."

Uschi looked about at all the books they’d collected, glad she wouldn’t need to tackle them all together. As much as she liked books, she usually read fiction, and usually as a means of finding friends in the pages who wouldn’t judge her for being awkward and… big. Reading was something she did slowly. She cleared her throat. “Alright… I’ll take these to the counter and have them rented out then.” She picked up her pile of books and started waddling to the counter, behind which was an older lady with a sour expression and skin like wrinkled parchment. She looked Uschi up and down with something akin to amazed disdain.
“You’re not planning to eat these, are you?” she said, opening each one and stamping the large tag on the inside front cover.
Uschi was shocked to silence, and didn’t reply. But the librarian continued.
“Animals and alchemy? These books contain dangerous topics for a first year.” She finished her stamping then handed them back. “There’s a note in the front cover. Read it, now.”
Uschi leaned forward, reading in her head.
“Aloud!”
She jumped, then read again. “"A w… warning: If you rip, tear, shred… bend, fold, deface, disfigure, smear, smudge, throw, drop, or in any other manner damage, mistreat, or show l… lack of respect towards this book, the consequences will be as awful as it is within my power to make them."
“Good,” the librarian said, a tight smile beneath her hooked nose, and she pushed the books into Uschi’s arms. “Next!”
Uschi made her way towards the door of the library, then stood there waiting for the others, heart still pounding in her chest. She thought libraries were safe places, but apparently not. When her friends arrived she held back tears and said, “Where… where to next?” Though a sad, wet sniff may have escaped her otherwise calm demeanor.

Lorelai peeked into one of the books, flipping to a page dedicated to billwigs. She scanned the page for any information that might be useful to her. She liked this book especially, with its detailed drawings, and in-depth information. Looking up from her book, she saw how the librarian was giving Uschi a hard time. "Yeah, that happened to me when I first went to the library. It's not just you."

She continued to check out her books, without any issues luckily. The girl frequented the library enough that the librarian knew her well. The books were stacked against her chest, barely staying on. She scanned the page of the book she had opened for information that could be of use to the group. It proved to be difficult to read while holding so many books, but she did it somehow. Her brows furrowed when she read the first passage.

Billywigs are an incest native to Australia. They are around half an inch long and colored a striking, vivid blue. Their wings are affixed to their heads and rotate expeditious enough that they are able to fly.

Lorelai already saw an issue with Green's plan. She hoped she hadn't accidentally overlooked. a bit of the plan, and sounded like an idiot. Maybe he had already thought this up. She continued to silently read. After she had finished almost half the section on Billywig, she decided to speak regardless of her doubts. "Er-Green, I have a question. Billywigs are native to Australia. We are most certainly not in Australia. So I suppose we're going to have to get dried stings from the potions room? I don't know if they have the same effect when not on the billywig, but it's not like we're going to be able to go to Austrailia to try and get stung."

"They are?" Green asked Lorelai as she revealed that Billywigs were native to Australia. He sighed, let his head bonk against the wall. "Damn! I had assumed they were native due to the fact that they're an ingredient in fizzing whizbees.... Who ships an ingredient all the way from Australia just to make a mediocre candy?" he muttered, rubbing his cheek. He paused, thinking. "Really, who might? They must be getting their supply somehow. In the mean time, we could experiment with the candy itself. Not ideal, but it would still be plenty to work with, and the third years can get them from Hogsmeade readily enough," he murmured.

Green glared at the librarian as he passed, seething quietly with a curled lip as he joined Uschi a safe distance away. He put his book back down on the table, speaking quietly. "Suddenly, I don't find myself so very inclined to interact. If she wants to be unpleasant, she can do so away from the rest of us. Withered old bag could probably stand to eat a few books herself, it might re-inflate her; but she's probably too busy snogging them and crying into her pillow about how unfair it is that no one wants to date a pinch-faced shrew," he huffed, tossing his head.