☆ CHAPTER SEVEN ☆
☆ PUREBLOODED GIRLS ☆
"sometimes she wishes she was born a boy instead, with more opportunities and freedoms, because all good pureblooded girls always walk the same path in life."
☆☆☆
Eunbyeol's mildly surprised when she walks into the Potions classroom to see Fred, George, and Lee in the class. The three are crowded at a table meant for two, and she sets her bag down at the empty table in front of them before turning around. "Is it bad that I'm surprised that Professor Snape let you lot into his class?"
"Oh, thank Merlin," Lee groans when he sees her. "The beautiful Eunbyeol. At least I can relieve my eyes when watching Snape becomes too much of a strain."
"Hello, Eunbyeol!" Fred grins at her steadily darkening cheeks while whacking Lee. "I forgot that you shared Potions with us. And no," he adds, "I was a bit shocked too."
Eunbyeol sets her cauldron down then leans against the table and braces her hands behind her. "Why didn't you tell me you would be in my class? You three read my schedule, after all."
"Actually," George sighs, shaking his head solemnly, "None of us did. We're all illiterate, you see. Blind and as dumb as three bags of rocks."
"Shame," Eunbyeol hums. It's nice, she thinks, to be able to play along with people, to be a part of a joke. "I could use a partner in this class, but if none of you are able to read, I'll have to find someone else." She turns and rubs at an invisible speck of soot on her copper cauldron to hide her smile. "Maybe Roger Davies wouldn't mind."
George, in flamboyant Weasley twin manner, clambers over his table to stand next to her. "I'm actually not illiterate. I'm the most well-read person you'll ever meet! Shakespeare, Hemmingway, I know it all."
"Who?"
"Muggle authors," he explains. "Very famous. Wrote plays about star-crossed lovers and books about whales named Dick and whatnot."
"Whales named Dick?"
George shrugged. "I actually don't know. Wasn't really listening when my dad was telling me about it."
"Wait, George," Fred pouted. "I thought we were partners forever!" He batted his eyes prettily, and George wrinkled his nose.
"Absolutely not, mate. Anyways, if I'm paired with Eunbyeol, the potions whiz, nothing will explode in my face and I'll get high marks and I'm saving her from Lee's forever flirtatious clutches." He grins triumphantly. "It's smart thinking."
Professor Snape sweeps into the room, surveying the inhabitants with thinly veiled distaste. "Welcome to Potions," he drawls nasally. He gives his trademark speech about how this is an advanced class and how stupidity will not be tolerated—this part aimed specifically at Lee and the twins—and how he expects nothing but the very best from students before sending them on their way to make the Elixir to Induce Euphoria.
"I'll grab the stuff," George says, flicking through his book for the ingredient list. "What do we need?"
"Shrivelfig, porcupine quills, sopophorus beans, wormwood," Eunbyeol rattles off, scanning the instructions quickly. "I'll tell you if we need anything else."
"Anything else?" George laughs. "Why would you need anything besides what's on the ingredient list?"
She looks at him, almost confused. "Because why not?"
"Doesn't adding anything unnecessary fuck up the structural integrity of the potion or something?"
"George," Eunbyeol says gently, as if she was teaching something new to a small child, "Potions aren't always set in stone, it's an intuitive art. It's a lot like cooking. Experimentation can reap great results—it's how new potions are created, after all—but it only works if you're smart enough." She lets out a laugh because potions is the one field of study where she truly, effortlessly excels, and she'll get as cocky as she wants with it. "Lucky for you, I am smart enough. Also, Professor Snape likes me, so he appreciates my little modifications more."
George raises an eyebrow but laughs nonetheless. "Okay, Miss Moon! Snape despises me for some preposterous and unfathomable reason, so in this class, your wish is my command," he bows jokingly and backs away.
They're a surprisingly good team, her and George. She does most of the mixing and spellwork and tells him to grab random ingredients, like eucalyptus oil and essence of daisyroot, and he crushes and slices what's needed and reminds her of various instructions. The period passes in relative silence, with her murmuring tidbits as she fiddles with the potion and him cracking the odd joke. She can hear Fred and Lee squabbling over their potion and thinking of magical creatures that Professor Snape resembles. It's nice, Eunbyeol realizes. Working with Padma never went as smoothly as this, the other Ravenclaw was far too chatty and clumsy for proper potionswork. George, on the other hand, is far more focused. He actually seems interested in what the ingredients do and how they influence the properties of the potion. "So why the essence?" he asks as she trickles a few drops of the liquid into the potion.
Eunbyeol mutters a Cheering Charm after mixing the essence of daisyroot in and says, "Daisyroot's a key ingredient when making a Muffling Draught, it can counteract the Elixir to Induce Euphoria's side effect of excessive singing. The eucalyptus, if you're wondering, helps with congestion. Not exactly a solution for the nose-tweaking, but it certainly helps."
"Wait, if those counteract the negative side effects, why aren't they just in the recipe?"
"She looks at him with a bright smile. "You're very interested in the entire Potions business, aren't you?"
He shrugs. "It's fascinating. The way you approach it is fascinating. I've never seen anyone be as inventive as you and actually make the potion work." She tosses in a handful of shrivelfig, and he glances down at the book again. "Add enough shrivelfig to turn pink, then simmer until orange. Then add wormwood til it's yellow." She hums in acknowledgement, and George shifts in his spot. "Fred and I wanna open a joke shop."
"Why am I not that surprised?" she muses. "You two would be good at it, you know, with all those candies you sell to the other students."
He grins crookedly. "Yeah, hopefully. The candies are good, but they could be better. Aways can. We wanna make our own stuff, legit stuff, potions and ointments and whatnot. It's why we decided to take this class, actually." He scoffs, "As if Fred and I would take an advanced class with Snape for fun!"
Eunbyeol smiles softly as she watches the elixir shift from pink to a peachy hue. As George babbles about ideas he has for products and how he and Fred have been eyeing the property of Zonko's Joke Shop since second year, she thinks of how lovely it'd be to be independent and set out and make her own career. When she was younger and naïve and blind to what was to come in her future, she had all sorts of dreams of growing up and spending her life doing exciting things. An auror, a dragon keeper, a wandmaker—there wasn't a single career that little Eunbyeol didn't entertain as a possibility for her future. Potions changed everything, though. It's fascinating and exciting yet comfortable all at once. It feels like second nature to her. She loves doing this, she knows it. She could spend her life creating and inventing, being a healer or a potions master or the owner of an apothecary. She chews the inside of her lip and sighs inwardly, because her dreams will always be for naught. Sometimes she wishes she was born a boy instead, with more opportunities and freedoms, because all good pureblooded girls always walk the same path in life. The wizarding community isn't a religious one, but sometimes, she prays to whatever higher entity exists to let her do what she wants to in the future. She glances at potion, which is more of ochre than pumpkin. It must be due to the daisyroot, so she adds in the wormwood. "Do I just keep adding the wormwood until it changes color?" she asks. "George?"
His rambling has ceased and he looks lost in thought, just staring at her sort of vacantly. Halfway present, halfway not. She repeats her question and he snaps to attention. "Oh, um," he drags a finger down the page frantically with pink ears. Someone behind them—probably Fred—snickers. "Yeah, just keep going."
She nods and tosses more wormwood into the cauldron. "It'll come out a tinge more green than the textbook's sunshine yellow, just letting you know. Maybe a vermillion? It's not as appetizing of a color, but the side effects are neutralized. It's the lesser evil compared to nose-tweaking." As expected, the potion is a viscous yellow-green mixture, and Eunbyeol carefully pours it into a flask as George cleans up their table. The flask is labeled neatly (Eunbyeol M. and George W. - Elixir to Induce Euphoria, with daisyroot and eucalyptus) and submitted to Professor Snape with little incident, though he eyes the shade of the potion with some suspicion.
☆☆☆
"We make a good team, eh?" George nudges Eunbyeol as they leave the dungeons. "Say, are you sure you don't want to join me and Fred in brewing some fantastical prank potions?"
"No, George," Eunbyeol shakes her head and laughs. "No, I don't." Wreaking havoc simply wasn't her thing, and she was sure her parents would kill her if she got into a hint of trouble.
"I don't know, Eunbyeol," George sighs dramatically. "You could do a lot for Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes."
"Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes?" she repeats, thoroughly amused. "Nice alliteration." She teases, "How long did it take for you to think of that? A few years?"
"All our lives, actually," George nods solemnly. "We're very proud of the name. See, we've been thinking about this our whole lives! That's dedication."
Eunbyeol twists her lips to the side. "I appreciate that, I really do. But I have to decline."
"Please, save us from a potential explosions," Fred, who has seemed to catch the end of their conversation, appears next to George, Lee in tow. "Eunbyeol Moon, if you help us, I will personally supply you with a lifetime's worth of jelly slugs."
She raises an eyebrow. "Will you, now?"
"I absolutely," Fred paused in thought. "Will not, I lack the galleons to fund that. But you will experience the heartwarming feeling of helping your favorite set of twins succeed in life."
"Since when did I have a favorite set of twins?"
"Since now! You could agree to look the other way when we sell things, at least." George suggests. He looks so incredibly hopeful and is practically pouting. She feels a bit pitiful.
"I already do that." Eunbyeol squints up at him, then at Fred, then at Lee, who hasn't been paying attention at all. "What do you think, Lee?"
"Huh?"
"Make Eunbyeol help us." Fred deadpans.
"Well, I'm not really in a position to tell you what to do or not do." Lee starts off. "You really like potions, right? You're smart and you're good at them. So you are pretty well-equipped to help the twins. However," he hastily adds when George's smile grows too wide, "It's understandable to see why you're hesitant. Helping the twins with their business essentially means you're helping them with pranking and mischief making. That leads to nothing but trouble most, if not all, of the time and you're a prefect with a strict parents who care about how your actions would affect their reputation. You're not in a position to get into trouble. So that leaves you with a dilemma, doesn't it? Do you help your friends or do you anger your family? It's all up to you in the end, Eunbyeol." He catches the twins' slack expressions and frowns. "What?"
"That was smart," Fred breathes. "Blimey, you sounded like a Ravenclaw!"
"I have my moments," Lee replies smugly. He glances at Eunbyeol, who still looks terribly concerned, and sighs. "I'll make this point for Fred and George's case, though: you're bound to get into trouble by being seen with us anyways. Parkinson's a gossip and I hear that she writes about everything to her mum."
Oh, he did make a good point. This could be her chance to do something more with her life besides what was already planned for her, but if Parkinson decided to write to her mother about Eunbyeol's new choice of friends, she would get into a lot of trouble with her parents. However, befriending the Weasleys wouldn't get her into trouble with the school like a prank would. "I can be something like a consultant," she finally decides. "You can ask me for advice and I can write up potential recipes for you, but don't involve my name in anything, okay? I don't want any trouble or any attention from this."
"Yes!" The twins do some odd celebratory dance in front of Eunbyeol and Lee. "You won't regret this, Eunbyeol," George promises.
"Something tells me I will," she murmurs with a laugh. "But I'll do it anyways."
a note from startreatment;
kwekekekek adding this between 6 and the original 7 because i felt like it needed something to bridge the time gap!! also i like this chapter a lot, even tho its kind of a filler piece
were the twins and lee in advanced potions? idk but idc it doesn't impact the canon plot line and it's for the story.. it helps me delve into eunbyeols relationship w the weasleys a bit more and maybe a specific relationship w one of them?????? :0
EDIT: grammar + miiiiinor plot hole