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The Drink of Disenchantment

Arc Number One
A Whisper Within the Castle​

.Past

A first year student clutched a letter close to her body as she slowly crept further into the Forbidden Forrest. She was small in stature, but not considered short for her age. Her long dirty blonde hair was French braided and fell midway down her back and her deep blue green eyes were wide with a mixture of wonder and fear of her surroundings. It wasn't yet late, but the eerily still forest seemed to be in a constant state of whispers, rustles and other sounds one couldn't quite put their finger on. Once the sun began to set and she could see dusk taking over through the thick of branches her professor's words began to echo in her mind,

"Listen to me carefully, Hogwarts is a wonderful place to be, but you should know there have been a few incidents over the past few weeks. I won't go into too many details, but there were attempts of intrusion and dangerous dark magic in close proximity to our castle. To keep you safe, especially while you're still so new to magic, no one is allowed outside the Ravenclaw common room after 8:00pm without my permission. Anyone caught breaking this rule will be severely punished."

It was the sound of a loud thud behind her that snapped her back to reality. Spinning around, she was greeted by the wind and the sudden unwelcome realization that she no longer could make out the trail to get her where she was standing at this exact moment. Hands shaking, she peered down at the letter, still able to make out the words as it grew darker still,

"Alozandra, you shall finally find all that you seek if you follow my word down the winding path in the Forbidden Forrest all the way to the vast, bubbling creek. – Anonymous."

Alozandra felt the hairs on her neck stick up. The note had appeared on her pillow several nights before. She thought it was a new friend's prank, but now she had this sinking feeling that..

"Why hello there, isn't it a little late for such a little witch to be out here all on her own?"

Turning around, Alozandra gasped. A man in a tattered black robe stood maybe six feet from her and she never even sensed him. Grotesque was a kind way to describe his appearance, his hair was falling out and only a few patches of greasy red clumps stuck to his head. What frightened her though, were his eyes: deep blood red and rolling in different directions. Even though his gaze never landed directly on her,
Alozandra felt him staring daggers at her. He started to laugh and smoke slowly began to rise from his shoulder and with one fell swoop, he lunged and Alozandra turned to run as fast as her legs would carry her.

Screaming seemed to do very little, it felt as if her voice fell, never soaring to the tops of the trees, only radiating the few feet around her. Soon, the trees even started fighting back, branches malleable like putty swung down and scratched her, hitting her, trying to slow her down. As she continued to run down the dark path, blood began to drip down her arms.

It was only her first week at Hogwarts and Alozandra began praying profusely that it wouldn't be her last.

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.Present

It was nearing mid October and the Castle was beginning to feel cold. Students wore their scarves and robes around indoors, rather than strictly outside. It had yet to snow, but the leaves had fallen from the trees and the wind had a bite to it that let them know that flakes would soon be falling. Slytherin and Gryffindor students were clumped together, as they made their way outside to Herbology, all except two students who lingered in the back, hoping no one would notice they were gone. A fifth year Gryffindor called Leonard with shaggy brown hair and green eyes and a fourth year Slytherin girl, Amelia, with sleek blonde hair pulled back into a low ponytail that swayed as she walked.

The girl looked around the corridor making sure no one could hear them when she whispered "So are you ever going to tell me what this surprise is?" Leonard chuckled quietly, "You Slytherins have no patience, do you?". Their walking finally came to a halt when they reached a door that Amelia had never seen before. Leonard confidently pushed the door open and they walked in together.

It was a very plain room. The walls were a light gray with nothing upon them: no windows, pictures, maps, anything to clue them in on where they were. In fact, the only things in the room were two small desks accompanied by two small chairs. It was almost as if the room was there just for the two of them.

"What is this place?" Amelia asked as she took a seat on one of the chairs, putting her books Standard Spells, Grade 4 and A History of Dark Magic on the desk in front of her.

"It's the room of requirements. My brother told me about it; the room appears when you need it most and well," he said searching around his bag "we needed a secluded place to see this." He pulled out a small vial and held it up in the light.

Amelia frowned. "You had me skip herbology again to look at a stupid small vial? I swear, my parents will send a million consecutive howlers if I get another detention." she snapped.

"Do you really think I'd have us skip class if it weren't important? What you're so lucky to be looking at is the drink of disenchantment". A small smile began to curl on Leonard's face as he watched Amelia's expression change as she scooted towards the edge of her seat.

"Shut up, I thought that was just a BS lie the Ministry made up to get crime rates to go down." she whispered even though they were alone. "Nope, it's real...and pretty underwhelming if I'm being honest," he sighed examining the vial between his fingers. "I thought my brother had given me a small container of water as a joke. He opened the lid and smelled the liquid as Amelia winced in disgust and horror. "Smells like water too".

"How did you brother manage to get that, if it is real, it's not like it's just lying around." Amelia asked, her eyes narrowing.

Leonard laughed, "My cousin crazy Marty found it. He's an odd one, but he's whip smart and works for Ministry within the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes. Word got around that a sample of this made its way to the Department of Mysteries. I guess they wanted to keep it safe in case the woman who made it left her post at Azkaban. So, if Marty is to be believed, he got the smallest container he could find and snuck into the Department of Mysteries long after hours once he finished an overdue project. He took a few drops and here we are. Gave it to my brother as a birthday gift."

"You know, most people just give chocolate frogs or books." Amelia said incredulously.

"Well he isn't called crazy Marty for nothing," He stopped and considered the vial once more. "So, the million Galleon question is...what do we do with it?"

"What do you mean "do with it"? That potion shouldn't be anywhere in this school" she said more loudly. Amelia sat back in her seat and crossed her arms in disbelief.

"Aww come on, I thought it would be a fun prank! We could just leave it lying around somewhere and see how badly people freak out. I doubt anyone is so stupid as to drink it." Leonard pleaded.

"You're insane, that's not funny. I don't want that thing anywhere near me! You could destroy someone's life with that, what's wrong with you?" She yelled, not caring if anyone could hear them.

"Lighten up, would you? I'm not trying to ruin anyone's life. I'll just hide it in the building somewhere and see where it turns up. No harm in that...hey come on!"

But it was no use, Amelia got up and furiously grabbed her books before stomping out and slamming the door behind her, leaving just Leonard alone with the potion and his thoughts. Leonard stayed a little while longer looking at the vial. It was very hard to believe that something so potent, so powerful looked so harmless and small in his hand. Sitting down in the other chair, he thought of the Hogwarts castle and all the different locations one could stumble upon this potion.
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You are a student at Hogwarts who is a little over a month into your studies.

1. Begin character building. We want to know who your character is, what kind of person they are, their morals, background, or anything else you can think of that's important to your character.

2. It doesn't have to be your first post, but have them come across a rumor of the potion. Whether they're just now finding out about it's existence, or overhearing that it may be within castle walls, all up to you.

Link the the OOC and Sign Up post: Here

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Act 1.1
Ivan Thermopolis • Year 5 • House Slytherin

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Glazed sunlight peered and escaped from the windows and began to flood the Slytherin dorms with its brightness. It started to creep slowly and into the sleepy eyes from a young wizard bathed in blankets, underneath, Ivan began to feel the warmth of day with a hint of a chill from the nearing winter. Half-awake, he smiled, he liked the cold, and was very much looking forward to the snow.

He considered traveling to sleep again, that was a nice thought indeed, but he knew that it wasn't tolerated. He began to emerged from the bed, fighting its alluring grasps of comfort. He was greeted by a small avian creature - its eyes a piercing smoky black and its feathers a palate of autumn laddered winter, a majority of brown with white specks throughout, it was a female Collared scops-owl, he began to rub under its beak and moved upwards toward the owl's head - it cooed in ease.

"Good morning Plume," he said in a raspy morning tone. The owl let out a small chirp that greeted back. He straightened his arms upwards and stretchered out the numbness from deep slumber. "Another day..." he jumped out of his bed and separated the curtains to let in more light to flush into the room that viewed the beautiful landscape that surrounds the castle. "...in Hogwarts."

After sometime of bathing and doing his usual morning rituals, he got dressed for classes - dark robes with green accents bearing the Slytherin snake crest - and carried on out. He entered the house common room, greeted a few familiar faces on the way out. Along the busy hallways of the castle, a wave of students made headway toward their morning classes, Ivan, on the other hand, religiously made his way in the direction of the Hufflepuff dorm.

A corner away from the said house dorm, stood a young girl, pale in color with flowing black hair in her robes. "Psst!" he exclaimed. The girl turned around and cheekily smiled at the sight of him. "Ivan? Good morning!" she said. "What are you doing here?"

"I just came to see my little sister." he smiled, and crossed his arms. "Is there anything wrong with that?" he said with a cheerful tone.

"No," she shook her head. "But, I'm not your baby sister anymore Ivan," she affirmed.

"I know, I know," the young wizard patted the first year's head. "Well, you should be heading off to class."

"I could say the same thing about you," she replied.

"Yeah, I just wanted to check up on you," his voice became monotone.

The girl raised her eyebrows in confusion. "Is there anything wrong?"

"Well, no." he trailed off. "I'm just hearing these silly rumors."

"About the..." she paused. "drink?" Ivan nodded and shook off the thought of the said potion.

"I don't believe it exists,"

"I don't too,"

Ivan sighed. "They're just rumors, maybe some prank," both of them nodded in unison. "Yeah," the girl replied, an awkward silence followed.

"It's best that we'll both be careful though, right Lucy?" Ivan warned.

"Sure!" Lucy replied and smiled.

"I'm going to class now, you should too." he informed her and she replied with a nod.

"Ok bye, little sis." she rolled her eyes and smiled as Ivan began to descend down the stairs.

He wasn't one to believe in rumors, who would believe that such a thing could suck away all your magical powers? It was a ruse, a joke, a lark - propaganda by the Ministry to scare off criminals. And whispers have spread that by some means, the very potion was in the halls of the wizarding school - it was far-fetched.

But somehow, at the back of his mind, he had believed it - even in lilliputian amounts.

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"Well look who finally decided to show up for breakfast."

Cyrus grunted in response, recognizing the voice to belong to the Scottish woman after his heart, in what he assumed to be a very litteral sense, Alice Rowenah.

"Oh don't act like you just woke up, I know for a fact you were snooping around earlier looking for this secret vault that you've heard about." Alice remarked plainly, throwing a roll at his head.

"Can you blame me? We all know the founders all had their secrets. Whose to say that there isn't a secret vault somewhere in the dungeons?" Cyrus snapped in reply, easily catching the roll.

"Well, irregardless of if thats true or not there are more important matters of which we should be discussing." Alice sighed in frustration, waving a manicured hand in dismissal.

"The drink of disenchantment..." Cyrus replied after a moment, stroking his chin thoughtfully.

The red haired young woman clasped her hands together and rested her pointy chin upon them, staring at the abnormally pale Cyrus with her snakelike brown eyes.

The black haired young man ignored her piercing gaze and began piling his platter with ham, motioning for one of the ever so obedient first years to fill his glass for him. How easy it was to convince an eleven year olds to be your complete slave.

"What do you think about it." He finally asked after a very long awkward period of silence spare the chewing noises from around the extraordinarily long table.

"Well, rumor has it... the drink of disenchantment was created to drain the magical powers from dark wizards. Rumor also dictates that a certain amount of the drink has been smuggled into Hogwarts." Alice muttered, sipping her pumpkin juice slowly and elegantly, as if she was the queen of the castle and everyone was on her time.

Cyrus shook his head as Alice spoke. "I've had some people look into it. As far as we can tell, its just been rumors and speculation. None of the known smugglers have been bringing it in. However... if it is being brought in, its somebody with resources. Somebody who knows how to keep an operation like that a secret. However, I don't think any of Slytherin would be able to pull this off without me... I mean us knowing. I also have a hard time believing anybody outside Slytherin would be able to pull this off. Certainly not the Gryfindors with their honour and pride... Defiantly not the hufflepuffs with their... uh... less than talented members. That leaves the Ravenclaws... actually they would be able too..." He mumbled.

The young woman tilted her head in contemplation. "Well I certainly would prefer something like that to be in our hands. Of course, I wouldn't trust any of these pathetic excuses for Slytherins to have it. Honestly, an embarrassment to the founder this lot." She growled while snatching a goblet from a nearby third year girl who scurried away to a cluster of other young Slytherins down the bench.

"To be fair, you wouldn't trust ME with the drink of disenchantment, as much as I wouldn't trust you with it. Anything that could be used against you would be best to be kept out of the hands of the enemy... What was it you told me in our second year? Friends are only enemies in disguise?" Cryus chuckled to himself as he downed the rest of his pumpkin juice.

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Cyrus lay across an armchair in the Slytherin common room. He had just returned from breakfast and had been looking to get some of his fellow Slytherin to go spy on the Ravenclaws, but it seemed that none of them were around at the moment.

"Its times like these when I think having the kiddo around could be useful. Who knows how many times Sis used me to do her spying." Cyrus mumbled to the very bored looking Egyptian Mau on the back of his chair.

"Mrooow" The cat replied, sliding down onto his head.

"Hey don't you question me Hijinks. Its quite hard being the king of Slytherin dorm. I've got plenty of people trying to rise up against me and take my throne without having my thought process judged by a cat thank you." Cyrus complained, pushing the cat off of his face and onto the floor.

"King of Slytherin? Really? You?" A snarky voice echoed from the stairway to the guys dorms.

"Oh let me guess... nasaly voice, disrespect to his superior... Luther Willren, the pond scum who is turning my less than loyal subjects against me." Cyrus muttered plainly, not even turning around to face the newcomer.
"Oh you think you're so tough because you have daddy making sure nothing happens to his little boy. Well let me tell you what Blackwood. I've got friends in high places too. And oh boy, what we've got planned for you..." The nasally voice continued,

"What? Did you really come here to tell me to watch my back? If you were a real Slytherin you would have thrown the knife into it without warning. Get. Lost. Punk." Cyrus snarled, rising to his feet to face the intruder.

Luther Willren was a white haired sixth year who had quickly become Cyrus' rival ever since their first year. They had clashed several times over the years, usually escalating in one of them in the infirmary. So far they were pretty well balanced on wins and losses.

"You won't be saying that when my shipment of the drink arrives." Luther huffed as walked to the door out of the Slytherin common room.

"As if." Cyrus snorted as the door slammed shut behind the albino boy.

"He's got to be lying... but it would make sense. For a halfblood he isn't as dumb as somebody raised by a muggle would seem. Having the drink would certainly swing the public opinion into his favor, not only that he could quite literally get rid of his opposition." Cyrus mused, Hijinks once again listening to him intently.

"I'm going to regret this, but I might have to resort to using non Slytherins to help me keep this drink out of the wrong hands... and maybe into mine." He added with an evil laugh that echoed through the empty common room.

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