"Can we talk?"
Quinn gazed at Ivy with his peripheral vision on the wall behind which the AID office was. His destination had changed a few feet from workshop to office space.
«Let's read her mind and get it over with.»
Said his voice dripping with lethargy.
«Alone in an office, maybe behind a locked door? Me likey!»
Said another version of his voice, this one hoarse and throaty.
Quinn shivered at the second whisper; he had sounded like the former plenty of times, but the latter one he had never sounded like, yet it sounded so much like him.
"... Sure, let's go in and have a talk," he said, pushing past the thought.
Ivy nodded.
Quinn unlocked the door and entered the office, which hadn't changed much since Astoria had become part of AID. He felt she was restricting herself by not making changes till he was there even though he had invited her to make changes to the office to make it feel like her space and not his and Luna's.
"So, what do you want to talk about?" asked Quinn after they sat down.
He looked at Ivy, who was shifting in her chair, clutching the bottom edge of her school sweater, and looked like she was making herself smaller. She looked more uncomfortable than he had ever seen her.
"Um... about Katie and her curse!" Ivy said, her voice much hurried and louder than usual, but she immediately hushed down to just above a whisper. "I didn't curse her...."
Quinn quirked her brow. 'Where did that come from?' he thought.
"Who said anything about you cursing her?" he asked, confused from the bottom of his mind.
"The Halfblood Prince book... it-it was there," she said, her voice gloomy and downtrodden.
Quinn's mind went into his memories of the book. Snape's copy of Advanced Potions had been there for years, collecting dust, and he had only once picked it up to glance through it — his current version of potion recipes was better than teenager Snape's. However, that book was much more than just an improved potions recipe book; it held much more than that in the form of Snape's personal collection of self-made spells.
And that was when it clicked in his mind.
"Ah.... was there a spell like there in the book?" he asked.
Ivy nodded, her head down. "It's... Levicorpus — it lifts people from their ankle" — Katie had been lifted up in the air by her ankle — "B-BUT, I didn't cause the levitation and the screaming, that wasn't me, I promise!"
She threaded her fingers into her hair, grabbed her head, and hunched down.
The spell became clear in his mind with its use case. It was a spell made by Severus Snape with the motive of making fun of someone (humiliating someone.) Though Quinn could clearly remember from his canon memories that the spell had ended up against Snape... and that too by his worse nemesis, James Potter.
"Seeing your reaction, I assume you weren't looking at anywhere but at Katie, were you?" Quinn sighed, feeling for the nervous wreck of a girl. "Bell's unfortunate situation, fortunately, wasn't caused by you."
His words seemed to be an elixir to Ivy as she at once looked up at Quinn with a bright, hopeful light in her eyes, and her pale complexion regained some of its previous rosiness.
"R-Really?"
Quinn nodded. "You might have missed it in the rush and suddenness of the situation, but Bell was cursed because of a cursed item she was forced to carry because of the Imperius she was under. Leanne Paige, her friend, was skeptical of the package's nature and how Bell was acting and tried to pry it off her, and in the struggle, the packaging came undone, and Bell ended up touching it, which transferred the curse onto her... and you know the rest."
Ivy collapsed into her chair, and the tension seemed to leave her body like a deflated balloon.
"I'm happy that you're responsible and conscious about what you have in the book — benefits and dangers," he said, though he saw the embarrassed expression Ivy gave in response, which told him that she had done things that were not so responsible.
"Thank god," she said with a slow smile. "When I suddenly saw you push past us, I thought you would think that I cursed Katie... I am so glad...."
Quinn thinned his lips. He couldn't lie that someone caring for his opinion of them didn't feel good, but especially not with the voice in his head.
«mm-mM-MM! Now, that just made my day! She should definitely get a reward~!»
He flexed the muscles all over his body and kept them flexed to restraint himself from getting up from his spot. His body demanded him to lose control so that he could take over control.
"I hope you're enjoying the Halfblood Prince's copy. It's a great book on Potions," said Quinn, modulating his voice to sound as normal as he could.
"It's a great book, alright. Even mum's notes didn't have as much detail as crammed into the margins and between the lines of the book. The corrections and additions he has added to the recipes are fascinating, to say the least," Ivy said, her hands expressing her assignments. "Every potion that I make using the modified recipes comes out perfect," she said, putting the P in the perfect and throwing an 'OK' sign.
«Not better than mine, it's not.»
"Did you also use Halfblood Prince's book last year?" she asked.
"I did not. I knew of the copy's existence from a couple years back; I prefer my own methods," Quinn said, feeling the Pride bubble up.
"Do you... do you know the Halfblood Prince's identity?" she asked, leaning forward and whispering as if hoping to be let in on a well-hidden secret.
Quinn laughed with his hand on his chest. "No, I don't—."
The door to the office opened up, and Ivy turned when Quinn stopped speaking... and laughing.
There stood by the door, Daphne looking at them. After spending so much time with her, Quinn had learned to detect emotion from Daphne's not-so-expressive face, and right now, they were screaming displeasure. Daphne's gaze sharpened like knives when she saw Quinn sitting with... Ivy Potter.
She silently closed the door behind her and walked towards them, passing by Ivy without looking at her, and came to a stop beside Quinn, who had to stop himself from flinching when on his shoulder.
"Ivy," Daphne said in her 'public' voice, "what brings you to AID at this time? I remember seeing you exiting the castle to go down to Hogsmeade... yet, you are here."
Ivy removed her eyes from Quinn's shoulder and Daphne's hand. She looked up at Daphne and met her cold-blue eyes with her vivid-viridian ones. "Aren't you asking too much, Daphne? I might have been talking something private before you barged in so rudely."
"I doubt that you had anything 'private' to talk with Quinn. Especially not with how the two were laughing... do share with me what's so fun; I would also love to have a laugh on this cold day," Daphne said, and Quinn became hyper-conscious of her nails that he could feel somehow feel through layers of clothing.
"Furthermore," Daphne retrieved an AID card (Quinn-version[black-and-gold]) from her robes, "the card isn't showing that Quinn is in for a consult, so I doubt this is anything formal, and he's very particular about these sorts of things."
"He might have forgotten switching it on," Ivy countered.
"Not likely; he never forgets this. Moreover, Quinn, right about now, should be on Hogsmeade with me." Daphne turned to Quinn to ask, "So Quinn, why are you here and not in the village?"
Quinn looked up at Daphne and touched her hand as he spoke, "Katie Bell got assaulted by a curse from a cursed item. I was fortunately there to stop the curse and had to bring her to the Hospital Wing. She was Imperiused, the poor girl." He made an apologetic expression, "After the incident, I wasn't in the mood to have a day out in Hogsmeade... sorry about that."
Daphne grabbed Quinn's hand and side-eyed Ivy. "It's okay; I heard about the incident; Weasley was spouting it in the pub. After an Imperius and a cursed item, I too wouldn't have been in the mood."
"I'll make it up to you somehow," said Quinn. "I promise."
Daphne nodded with a small smile, then turned to Ivy and spoke, "While our date stands cancelled, I would still like to spend some time with my boyfriend, so if you'd excuse us, Ivy, we would like to be alone."
The two girls stared at each other for a few moments before Ivy stood up from her chair and turned to Quinn. "I shall leave you two alone then... see you around, Quinn. Thank you for taking action so quickly; we would have been at a loss at what to do if you didn't arrive." And with one last glance to Daphne, Ivy exited the office, leaving Daphne and Quinn behind.
Daphne followed Ivy with her eyes until she left before looking at Quinn, and he could tell that she was still unhappy. "You could've at least sent a message to me; you very well know that I still carry my DA coin at all times," she said.
Quinn could only nod. The DA members still carried the coins with them, and he held one of the few master coins, which could be used to send messages to all subordinate coins or target a single one.
"I am sorry, I was preoccupied with my thoughts about the events," said Quinn, studying Daphne's expressions and responses. He thought she would be much angrier at him— he had ditched on their date before it had even started and was found laughing it up with Ivy, with who she didn't have a cordial relationship with.
Daphne sighed, "And so you came to the office."
Quinn nodded, but then a smile appeared on his face.
"Why are you smiling?" she asked.
"You knew that I would be at the office," said Quinn, feeling a bit giddy. "You know me well."
A red blush crawled up on Daphne's cheeks, and she looked away from him to avoid his gaze.
"H-How did the things with Marcus go?" she asked.
Quinn grinned at her attempt to change the subject. "Yeah, I dropped him off with grandfather. They're probably talking now at Scrivenshaft.
Ah, before I forgot, I have something that I wanted to give to you."
He got up and walked into the workshop. When he came back, he had a light-tan leather-bound book with him. "Here you go," he said, handing the book to Daphne.
Daphne gazed at the book and read the title—
「West's Take On Modern Potions」
"This.. " she looked up at Quinn.
"Well, you were really pouty when Ivy beat you to the Felix Felicis." Quinn tapped his finger on the book, "It took me a while to compile my research on OWL and NEWT level potions— believe me, there was a lot of stuff, in a lot of places... I really need to better organize my stuff—
Yeah, so I compiled recipes for the standard OWL and NEWT recipes but also went beyond to add what I think should be taught in school along with what's taught around the globe— every country has something unique they do.
This guide will help you crack Slughorn's lessons over their head with absolutely no competition."
Quinn felt that he had to do it because he was partially responsible, given that he was the one who led Ivy to the Halfblood Prince's Advanced Potions copy.
Daphne stared at the book for a couple seconds before she grabbed Quinn's collar and walked into the workshop while pulling Quinn with her, who was both pleasantly surprised and a little worried with the voice in his mind speaking louder than ever.
.
-*-*-*-*-*-
.
Quinn West - MC - About to have some fun.
Daphne Greengrass - Girlfriend - Ultimately happy with her boyfriend.
Ivy Potter - Holder of Halfblood Prince's Book - Used a spell in the book, which set a loud alarm-like sound that woke up the entire Gryffindor dorm.
FictionOnlyReader - Author - I don't do well with drafts. Can't seem to write when I have a chapter in stack.
