"Hold it right there!" shouted Oleandra, as she and Daphne sprinted down the hall. "We just want to talk, that's all!"
The Gryffindor trio kept on running, pretending they hadn't heard. The library wasn't too far away from the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. They only had to keep their lead, and the book was theirs!
"Down there! They've taken the stairs!" shouted Daphne, pointing ahead of her.
Oleandra briefly considered making the staircase slippery with the ice rune, but dismissed the idea as too dangerous. It wouldn't be funny if one of them broke their neck as a result of her magic.
The twins hurtled down the stairs, emerging in the Transfiguration Courtyard. From there, it was only a quick jaunt across the courtyard to the building on the opposite side, and then the library was only a hall and a left turn away!
"Oh, for goodness' sake," said Daphne. "Impedimenta!"
An invisible obstacle materialized at Granger's feet, making her trip and fall face first into the lawn.
"Go on without me!" she called out to her friends.
Oleandra and Daphne almost shed a tear at Granger's noble sacrifice, as they jumped over her. This turned out to be a mistake, as Granger reached out and grabbed at Daphne's ankle, making her face-plant.
"Forget about me, you have to catch up! Yeeeoww—" Daphne yelped in pain as Granger yanked at her hair. "You've done it now, you little—"
The two girls rolled around on the ground, scratching and pulling at each other's hair. Oleandra wisely chose to leave them be and keep running.
"Isaaaaaz…" Oleandra said, forming the hand sign for the ice and stillness rune.
Ahead of her, the two boys' movements slowed, but it was too little too late! They were too far, and they were actively resisting the spell. Potter threw open the door to the library, and he and Weasley rushed inside. Oleandra quickly followed them in.
"QUIET IN THE LIBRARY!"
That voice belonged to Madam Pince, the librarian. Apparently, she hadn't appreciated the way the two boys had entered her workplace.
"We're here to borrow a book from the Restricted Section. We have a signed slip from Lockhart. Moste Potente Potions, please," Potter said breathlessly.
"Moste Potente Potions?" asked Madam Pince, staring at the pair suspiciously. "Let's see it, then."
She held out her hand, waiting.
Potter searched his robes and bag, a look of panic creeping on to his face.
"Hermione has the permission slip…" he said sheepishly. "She'll, um, be here shortly."
"I'm also here for Moste Potente Potions," said Oleandra triumphantly, as she fumbled around her pouch. "I have the permission slip right here— um…"
Oleandra's face turned white. Daphne had been the one holding on to it!
Madam Pince was beginning to lose patience. "Have you all decided to come play tricks on me? I'll have you banned from the library unless you—"
At that moment, a very dishevelled Granger and Daphne emerged from the doorway. Bits of grass stuck to their clothes, branches in their hair, bloody scratches, the works!
"We've decided it's pointless to fight," said Daphne tiredly. "We'll borrow the book together, Madam Pince. Here's our permission slip."
Madam Pince snatched the paper from Daphne's fingers, holding it up to the light, as if she were appraising a fake bill. Somewhat to her disappointment, it turned out to be real. She grumpily walked off to the Restricted Section, returning a few minutes later carefully carrying a mouldy old grimoire.
Daphne delicately took the large volume into her arms and walked away from the counter. The other four followed her to a nearby table.
"Now, the deal was that you'd copy down whatever recipe you needed, then you'd leave us the book," Granger reminded Daphne, as she happily stored her own autographed permission slip in between the pages of one of her books.
"I know, I was there when we agreed on it two minutes ago," said Daphne irritably, as she opened the book. Then, almost imperceptibly, she whispered, "Ingwaz."
"What were you hoping to brew?" asked Potter curiously.
"Nothing good, I'd wager," said Weasley under his breath.
Oleandra watched as Daphne turned the pages without dignifying them with an answer. There were some nasty potions in there, she thought, observing the illustrations.
Unbeknownst to the Gryffindor Trio, Daphne had activated the divine spark rune, granting her unparalleled and unperpendiculared memorization abilities!
"Um, sister?" Oleandra asked, confused. Daphne had just leafed past the page on Ovid's Tincture.
Daphne shot her sister a warning stare, then went back to turning the pages of the mouldy old book. Thirty minutes later, the Gryffindor Trio were getting rather impatient, but Daphne was finally done.
"What a shame," she said dramatically. "The recipe we were looking for wasn't in there. I guess we'll have to look elsewhere. Come, dear sister."
"By the way, between you and Granger, who won the fight?" Oleandra said with a smirk, getting a dark look in return.
Granger's eyes narrowed as she watched them leave. She didn't believe for a single second that Daphne hadn't got what she was looking for. But she had just watched Daphne rapidly flick through the pages, never spending more than two seconds on each one. There wasn't nearly enough time to memorize anything unless one had a photographic memory. Or was it that there was a secret hidden between the pages of the old tome?
Back at the Slytherin common room, Daphne was busy copying down Ovid's Tincture's recipe down on a piece of parchment under Oleandra's accusing stare.
"You shouldn't have done that," said Oleandra quietly. "Knowledge is a poison. Once you know how to do something, you'll be more inclined to use it over some other means. I looked at the illustrations, and by the looks of it, there were some pretty nasty potions in there."
"You worry too much, dear sister," Daphne replied dismissively, waving her hand. "You can never have enough knowledge."
She went back to scribbling down the recipe, sometimes dipping her quill to refill its ink.
"If you're holding on to a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail, you know?" said Oleandra, trying to come up with reasons why Daphne shouldn't have memorized the entirety of the book. She knew that better than anyone. She practiced runic magic at the expense of catching up on her Transfiguration Spells!
"There, I'm done. Want me to explain how it works?" Daphne said, ignoring her sister's concerns. "Ovid's Tincture is a starter solution for a few other potions. First, it renders the body more malleable, more receptive to transformations, then once changes have occurred, it permanently fixes the body in its current state."
"There's a lot of ingredients," said Oleandra, glancing at the list. "And not just common ones. Sands of Time, King Slime, ashes of a Phoenix… The instructions are complicated too. It'll take a month to brew at least."
"All the more reason to get started as soon as possible!" said Daphne firmly. "We'll use the Scriptorium as our base, nobody will bother us there."