Part 4 - Potions of vitriolic sleep

Ymous woke up around midnight with a massive headache, he immediately started beating himself up being absent minded.
Well, he thought, it didn't matter much now anyway, He had to sneak into the potions class sooner or later anyway.
he might aswell do it now that he had woken up during the time where everyone else was sleeping.
The boy crept silently into the common room and realized he wasn't alone.
He tried to sneak away without notice, but he realized that the other person was asleep on the couch, breathing calmly.
Ymous walked towards the couch, not really knowing why.
He realized that Merula had stayed in the common room to study after everyone else went to sleep.
Anon wasn't quite sure why Merula was studying so hard, but he stopped to look at the girl for a moment.
Looking at her calm face sleeping, the boy felt a surge of emotions surfacing, He felt angry and guilty that he drove the two into this situation.
He was somewhat happy to hear that she ran into less trouble ever since the two cut all ties, but it also made him extremely sad.
Ymous picked up a blanket from another couch nearby and extremely carefully covered the girl with it.
He also felt extremely jealous that the girl could sleep like that.

After sneaking out from the common room, Anon made his way to potions class first.
This wasn't his first time doing this, but he realized this wouldn't work forever, he had to be a bit more reckless this time.
He needed to get enough of the materials he couldn't pocket during potions classes, and it ran the risk of Snape realizing something was up.
But Anon felt desperate, as he slipped into the potions class, he went into the closet that had the materials he was lacking.
 Without a second thought he conjured a few jars and grabbed all the materials he needed and made his way out of the classroom.
and went out to a location he felt safe.
Ymous walked up and down a corridor a few times to make a peculiar room appear.
He entered the room, which was an alchemy laboratory he'd been using to brew his potions.
Originally he had used the room for brewing potions to help him get an advantage over Merula, but he came in the room for other reasons now.
The boy arranged his ingredients on the table and started working on his potion.
It had taken him a few tries to get the potion right, and even then he wasn't completely satisfied with it.

Merula had followed Ymous silently, she had pretended to be asleep when the boy appeared in the common room where she was studying.
She was confused at first, about why the boy was staring at her, but when he actually covered her up, she felt that she had to understand the boy's situation more.
At first she thought he had gone to look for the vaults without her, but it quickly became apparent that the boy was up to something else.
It made Merula a bit worried.
The girl noticed that the boy had disappeared into a room that only appeared when certain conditions were met, she didn't fully understand how the room worked.
Only that she had once before been in that room when she needed time alone, the girl started walking up and down the corridor, but couldn't make the room Anon was in appear.
 But she was determined to find out what was going on.
The girl looked for a comfortable position, where she could observe the mysterious room without being noticed and draped herself over the quilt Anon had pulled over her before leaving the common room.
 Merula started dozing off, but managed to stay awake for what felt like hours.
When Anon finally came out of the room Merula noticed the boy was carrying a bag and in his hand was a vial of purple liquid.
The girl waited for the boy to walk away when she started to walk past the room again, this time she knew the boy had used the room to brew potions.
So she knew exactly what to think of.
Once the door appeared she went inside and found a familiar sight, it was unmistakably a lab where Anon worked.
He had arranged his ingredients the exact same way he did during potion classes, she walked up to the table and sat down.
Looking at the table for clues as to what the boy was brewing.
The table had notes the boy had written.
She realized she had started smiling warmly as she looked at the way he had arranged the ingredients, in his usual logical way in order for when different ingredients were added.
She also noticed how the boy had alligned the cauldron a particular way, it wasn't directly infront of him, like you would think,
He was sligthly to the side, as if he had been working with someone else.
The girl went back to his notes and smirked lightly when she realized that the boy had crossed over different lines and wrote things like "the other book said stir six times, stupid!"
Her smile however vanished when she realized what potion he had been making.
She had to tell someone, but who would listen to her?
If she told Snape, Anon would be in trouble and she really didn't want that anymore.

Rowan woke up that morning and went to grab her glasses from the nightstand, when she realized Merula was standing infront of her bed, Rowan yelped a bit and got up.
"Merula, I didn't see you there, what are you doing?" Rowan asked startled.
"I need to talk to you, it's important." Merula said, she looked around the room and realized other Slytherin girls started staring at her and were murmuring among themselves.
"Somewhere private."
"Uhh... I... Why do you want to talk to me all of the sudden?" Rowan asked confused.
"I said it was important, and I can't talk to you about it here, you idiot" Merula felt irritated.
"Just trust me and meet me at courtyard after breakfast." Merula started to stomp away arms tensed to her sides.
Rowan went to dress up and decided to tell Anon about this, when Merula returned and turned Rowan around.
Merula was looking Rowan straight in her eyes and said.
"DO. NOT. TELL. ANON."
Merula wasn't letting go for Rowan's shoulders.
"Alright, Merula, I won't tell him." She promised the angry violet-eyed girl, who relented and walked away.

Rowan walked into the great hall and realized Anon was already there, usually it took him a bit longer to get out of the bed.
The girl walked towards her friend and sat infront of him, looking down on his plate, which again seemed to consists of nothing but bacon, sausages and eggs.
"You really should eat healthier breakfasts, Anon." She said more out of a forced habit than actually expecting for the boy to listen to her.
But to her surprise the boy started looking around the table and grabbed a plate that had fruits and vegetables on it.
"A-Are you okay?" Rowan asked, as she watched the boy push his greasy breakfast aside and filled his plate with vegetables.
The boy didn't lift his head but grunted a short "yes."
which made Rowan a bit more worried, she considered asking Anon what had happened with Merula, but she had already promised to listen to Merula first.
"I think I will go out on a short walk before classes." Rowan started, she realized she had made it sound more like an invitation out of habit because she really didn't know how to take free time from the boy's presence.
"Uh, alone, I need to clear my head a bit and I have... Uhh... Girl things..." She felt her face turning red as her voice faded into nothing.
The boy didn't seem to notice how flustered Rowan had become, but even he realized the girl wanted to be left alone, something he could relate to.
"Alright, I'll see you at classes then." The boy said while trying his best to eat his healthy breakfast.
Rowan finished her breakfast quickly, so she would have time to speak to Merula, who was looking at her from the other side of the table.
The two girls quickly got up and made their way towards the courtyard.

Penny had noticed Rowan and Merula were acting suspicious and decided to get to the bottom of it as well, she told her Hufflepuff cohorts that she needed some time alone to get ready for the day.
The girls looked sad but went back to gossipping when Penny left the table. She passed Anon and thought about just sitting next to him, trying to get some alone time with him, but she was more curious about what Merula and Rowan were talking about.
Penny followed the two girls into a secluded area at the courtyard, that had a bench obscured by hedges, she crept closer and tried to hear what the two were talking about.
"...And you found this out because you snuck out and followed him during the night?" Rowan asked Merula.
"Yes, I thought the idiot was going out to look for the vaults, trying to beat me." Merula said with her usual tone.
Rowan seemed to pause for a little.
"You knew he wasn't though, didn't you?"
After another pause Merula continued
"Well... Yes, he was acting weird when he walked into the common room, it's so infuriating how he's acting." The girl said angrily.
"Where was he brewing potions without anyone realizing?" Rowan asked.
"Obviously in that room that appears when someone needs something." Merula said to Rowan, as if she had asked a really stupid question.
"I don't know a room like that, and Anon never told me about anything like that." The girl said saddened that her best friend had kept something else from her.
Merula seemed to have picked up on Rowan's tone.
"It's very hard to make the room appear, maybe he waited for when he understood it better before he decided to tell you."
Merula tried to sound sympathetic, but sounded completely out of character.
"He probably didn't want to look foolish taking you to a room that didn't appear" Merula said quickly.
Rowan was silent.
"Well, I know why he didn't tell you about going out during night now, I found out what potion he was brewing.
I saw him come out of the room carrying vials of them." Merula said, trying to keep Rowan focused.
Penny had heard enough, she wanted to be part of this conversation. She walked around the hedge and sat next to the two surprised girls.
"You really picked a poor spot for your secret meeting, you should always do your gossipping in a crowded area with lots of chatter going on, it's harder to eavesdrop you then." Penny said with a smile.
"What are you doing here?" Merula demanded angrily.
"Oh, you're not the only ones who wants to help Anon." Penny smiled at the Slytherins.
Rowan was a bit relieved Penny had showed up, she was nervous about talking to Merula alone like this.
"Well, anyway then, what were you going to say next, Merula, what potion did Anon make?"
"He... He's been making sleeping potions." Merula said looking down.
"Ones that have serious side effects if abused."
Rowan and Penny both looked at Merula with wide eyes.
"Are you sure?"
"I saw his notes, he's been making potions of dreamless sleep" Merula said and pulled out Anon's notes she had taken from the room.
"He's not mastered the potion yet, it helps him sleep, but it's causing him psychological stress."
Rowan looked at the notes and then Penny.
"We have to tell someone."
"No!" Merula yelled.
"He's going to get into more trouble if Snape hears he's been recklessly making advanced potions to help him sleep."
Penny went trough Anon's clumsy notes and realized he had been making mistakes along the way.
"Have either of you noticed him being unable to sleep?"
"No, I don't know how it is with Hufflepuffs, but we sleep in separate dorms." Rowan said.
Penny just smiled mischieviously.
"Oh we do that too, I just thought that... Nevermind."
"What are we going to do about this?" Merula asked.
"The idiot is going to go insane if he keeps this up, it's a small wonder he hasn't already gone as crazy as his..." The girl stopped herself, feeling terrible she was about to go back to the old insults she threw at him.
"Don't worry, we'll find a way to help him out." Rowan tried to reassure Merula.
"How do you plan we go about doing that?" Penny asked.
"I don't know." Admitted Rowan.

Ymous was walking towards transfiguration classes alone.
He caught bits and pieces of other students gossipping about him as he went, Apparently his duel with the gryffindor had caused a bit of a stir.
The Slytherin wasn't bothered about rumors, after all he had been subjected to a bunch of speculation ever since he walked in the school.
Sure they quickly turned around when he stood up to Merula for some reason.
Fickle students were quick to jump into alternative narratives whenever someone is perceived as worse person.
He loathed to admit that he liked the fact people seemed to forget about the rumors regarding his ill fated brother in favour of his heroism against Merula.
It all made him sick in hindsight, Ymous started to feel worse by the passing moment and tried to think of something else to distract himself.
He was caught in his thoughts about today's class when he tried to push away a gryffindor student blocking his way, but the boy wouldn't budge.
"Excuse me, passing trough." Anon said with his unenthusiastic voice.
The gryffindor turned around without moving from his spot.
"'ello, what's this then?"
"He's the slytherin who beat Argus, he is." Said another gryffindor.
"Saw him at the courtyard yesterday."
Anon didn't recognize any of the redclad boys, and even if he cared enough, he probably  still wouldn't.
"Let me pass, I am not in the mood for this, your friend attacked me first." Anon tried to reason tiredly
"Nah, mate, see the thing is." The larger of the two gryffindors said trying to look intimidating.
"Duel's a duel, and ya won fair and square, ain't no one going to argue that. It's the fact ya gone went and threatened a gryffindor with curses. That is the problem here, see?"
Anon was a bit stumped, the gryffindor had a point, He had actually threatened to curse the boy with horrible maladies.
However, he wasn't actually serious about it, he simply wanted the boy to admit to lying to him.
"I wasn't going to curse him, I got lost in the moment when he claimed he'd..." Anon stopped.
"Ah, ye, is what ya Slitherins always do when you're caught, ya try to slink out of it without looking back." The gryffindor pulled his wand out.
Anon started beating himself up for getting dragged into a situation like this again.
"Alright, what do you want then?" Anon said without pulling out his wand.
"Do you want me to apologize to the boy?"
Although Anon had meant it about the apology the gryffindor took it as sarcasm and raised his wand.
"Flipendo" He shouted and pointed his wand at Anon, who was pushed back and fell on his back.
"Are you happy now, can I leave?" Anon said tiredly.
"Nah, not quite. See, I thought I would curse ya with that slug vomiting to teach ya a lesson." The gryffindor walked up to Anon pointing his wand at him.
"Slugulus Eructo!" The gryffindor shouted and pointed his wand at Anon, who had pulled out his wand.
"Expelliarmus" Anon said pointing his wand at the curse, which rebounded and hit the shorter gryffindor who immediately clutched his mouth.
"Ey, what's wrong." The larger gryffindor shouted at his friend. "Say something."
The shorter Gryffindor tried to open his mouth, only to start profusely vomiting slugs on the castle floors.
Anon got up and walked past the gryffindors and continued walking towards his class.
He definitely wasn't in the mood for this, his headache got worse and he just wanted to sit down and relax with practicing new spells.
The large gryffindor however wasn't going to let him go that easilly and pointed his wand at the Slytherin trying to leave the scene.
Anon noticed from the reactions of the students trying to get out of the way in front of him that the situation wasn't defused yet.
He pulled his wand and turned around.
"Expelliarmus!" he aimed his spell at the gryffindor at the last possible moment, who was surprised at Anon's reflexes.
"This ain't over yet, Ymous, ya just wait." The gryffindor shouted at him.
Anon closed his eyes and considered just turning himself in to Snape, but he knew he walked on a razor's edge already.
Snape had been uncharacteristically lenient on him for dueling but he wasn't going to risk being expelled in case this was the absolute for real final straw.
He however knew there were going to be consequences.

Rowan, Penny and Merula were rushing the hallways trying to find Anon, they all had different kinds of worst case scenarios playing in their heads about Anon's current mental state.
Rowan was especially harsh on herself for not noticing Anon's troubles earlier.
He had mentioned her about his trouble sleeping the day before his last duel against Merula, but had asked her not to pry into it.
She of course immediately backed off, because that's what she always did whenever Anon said something.
She was incredibly frustrated that she was powerless to do anything to stop Anon from doing reckless and stupid things, especially things that caused him or others harm.
She had not thought of it much before, because Anon's intentions seemed good most of the time, but he really was a reckless idiot quite often as well.
The three girls ran into a group of students surrounding some gryffindors causing a scene.
"What is going on here." Penny asked from another Hufflepuff, who was observing the situation.
"You know that Slytherin, Anon Ymous?" The Hufflepuff said with cautious tone.
"they're saying he cast some curse on a gryffindor bystander."
"I always knew he was trouble, after all the rumors surrounding him, but casting slugulus eructo on someone is a really rotten behaviour." Nearby Ravenclaw chimed in
"I wasn't here when it happened, but I heard he lost a duel and cursed someone because of it." The hufflepuff looked around the three girls and yelped when he noticed Penny was with two slytherins.
After he recognized the two slytherins Penny was with he let out a high pitched voice and backed into the Ravenclaw.
"We're not here to cause harm." said Rowan reassuringly.
"We just wanted to know what was going on."
Merula felt uneasy after hearing what Anon had done, she probably would've done something similar and admitting that felt even worse.
Especially hearing that it was Anon who did it on someone else, possibly a bystander.
"Don't listen to those mudbloods." A pale slytherin pushed past the other students to get to Rowan.
"Ymous defended Slytherin and the gryffindors attacked him without provocation."
"What really happened then?" Asked Rowan.
"Ymous taught these misguided gryffindors a lesson they needed to learn." The boy looked at the gryffindor, who was crying while choking on giant slugs, with disgust.
"It also sounded like Anon wasn't the one who cast Slugus ergurgio anyway..."
Rowan felt like correcting the other slytherin, but decided that teaching this incantation to people was a bad idea.
"Well, we're late from the classes, we really have to go."
The slytherin looked at the three girls hurrying down the hallway then went back to laughing at the gryffindor trying to hold back his tears.

"I refuse to believe Anon did this." declared Penny.
"It's not like him to just go around cursing people." agreed Rowan.
"Yeah, it was only characteristic for him to curse people other than me." Merula finally said frustrated, both of Anon's friends refused to see any flaws in him.
"He wouldn't cast a curse like this on you either, Merula" Rowan tried to calm her down, but was really unsure if he wouldn't.
Rowan just looked at Penny who looked back at her with a hint of a sad smile.
"It must be his emotions are messed up, because of the potions." Penny said to the other girls.
"Has either of you thought of what to do when we find him?" Rowan asked with a slight panic in her voice, she was really worried about what would happen if Anon snapped, he's been very closed to being expelled, because of his ruffles with Merula.
"We need to read up on the potion, find out if there are any ways to counter the side effects." Penny said trying to remember what she had read.
"Does it cause addiction, Merula?"
"Why are you asking me if..." Merula started in her usual way but stopped herself.
"I... I don't know, I am not sure if it causes chemical addiction, but if it's the only thing that lets him sleep, he's pretty dependent on it."
"We need to find out how large his dosage is, let's try to keep an eye on him during classes and try to think of a way to catch him taking the potions later." Rowan said while still hoping for the best, maybe the situation hasn't gotten as out of hands as it seemed like.
"Alright, I'll keep an eye on his stupid ass from a distance, he seems to be ignoring me anyway, so he probably wont even notice." Merula said.
"I'll do some research of my own, you two share more classes with him anyway." Penny said. "I need to leave for my own classes now, good luck to you two."
"Can we actually trust her?" Merula asked Rowan after a while.  She had felt uneasy about the hufflepuff eavesdropping on her and learning about the situation.
"We can trust Penny, she's a friend." Rowan assured Merula.
Friend... She had acted poorly towards the two girls who seemed to accept her a few weeks back and were now again helping her fix a situation with Anon, she partly felt responsible of.
Knowing that she felt worse, but she also realized the girls were in it to help Anon, Merula was just another part of it.
If she was her usual arrogant self, she'd have imagined Anon was suffering all because of her, but she was probably not a major reason behind Anon's troubles.
After all, she meant nothing to him.