Fred and George and the Toilers of Trouble (Year 1) ✔

Chapter 20:2

An hour later, the twins were entering greenhouse three for their first Herbology lesson of second term. Professor Sprout ushered them impatiently to the wall of misty windows.

"Two rows, if you will," she ordered, flattening the willful lip of her patched hat. "And don't go fondling the fungi. Some are exceptionally poisonous."

At the front of the line, George and Angelina shuffled to a stop in the narrow space between desks, each of them attempting to be more courteous to the other. Fred rolled his eyes and propelled his way through, while Sprout stood by, beaming.

"Good start to the term. Excellent start, in fact. I just knew harvesting Second Snow would help you get on with one another. Quite a demanding task, but it has value," she declared with pride, patting George firmly on the back. "So glad to see you working in tandem."

George's cheeks went absolutely purple as he and Angelina arranged themselves awkwardly in front of the plants, using Fred as a barrier between them.

"Come now! Faces forward. Much to cover," said Sprout with a flourish, as the rest of the class lined up before her. "Students, you truly cannot grasp how blessed you are to be surrounded by such magical vegetation. And your good fortune is not limited to Herbology. By attending this school, you are endowed with access to rare potion stores, priceless runes, scores of mathematical predictions, and unique creatures...which you will learn about in your third year, if you so choose. Let us not discount the near endless supply of the rarest books in all of Wizendom. If you perused even a fraction of these books, you would come to learn that all living things are connected."

She stopped to admire the wild plumage of a plant that was taking over half of the greenhouse. With her attention diverted, Lee nudged his way down the line to stand beside George.

"Well done losing five house points. Ever try whispering?" he said teasingly. "You think Montague had something to do with the paintings, then?"

"Who better?" said George, glancing down the line at Angelina. "He was out past curfew last night. We saw him with the woman who attacked us."

"So that's what you were up to?" she questioned, peeking past Fred.

"Her name is Aruzula Darc."

"What were they saying?"

"We weren't...close enough to hear," Fred answered, as he exchanged looks with Lee. Out of the four, Angelina was the only one who didn't know about the Marauder's Map. "George thinks Darc could be Montague's great aunt or something."

"If she's not in league with You-Know-Who, that is," said George. "It's likely Montague convinced one of the paintings to tell him where to find the treasure, then erased it and went searching for someone with more magical skill."

Angelina huffed. "Is that the reason you were asking Professor Binns about treasure yesterday? There's no treasure at Hogwarts."

"Why else would Parsimonae take the job? His son bragged about it to the Slytherins."

"And you think Montague found this treasure of yours, but he can't unlock it?"

"You heard Sprout, just then. If it's hidden at a wizarding school, it has to be covered in protection spells too powerful for any student to crack," George persisted. "He's only a first year!"

"That's why she attacked you two," said Lee, as Professor Sprout attempted to talk over him. "Aruzula can't be caught searching the school, right? But she's still popping up...which means it's gotta be around here somewhere!"

"For example," Sprout interjected. "If I removed Mister Jordan's tongue, and combined it with cuttings from seven of the potted plants behind you...were he to drown, I would have the makings of a health potion capable of restoring him back to life. He'd be just like new — except for the use of his tongue!" Her head trembled dismissively. "Though I'm not entirely sure that would be a disappointment."

Lee gulped, as he glanced at the others down the line.

The moment Professor Sprout returned to her lecture on the rarest species of magical plants, George tilted his head to one side. "There has to be someone who can tell us about Darc," he said softly to Fred. "If we aren't going to Dumbledore, maybe we can ask a professor?"

"Fine, but if we're onto something, they'll wonder where we saw her name."

George gazed out the grid of cloudy greenhouse windows, his eyes glinting. "What about Hagrid? Remember how strangely he was acting? He knows more about this than he's letting on. At the very least, we can rule him out as a suspect."

"We need to skive off our next lesson. Angelina?" Fred turned to face her. "You know more than us when it comes to plants, and that. Could one of these make us really sick?"

Beside him, George was nodding intensely. Against her better judgment, Angelina inspected the miniature jungle of multi-colored herbs and shrubberies.

"Well...there's this one," she said, pointing to a green leaf that shimmered like polished silver in the light of the windows.

Without hesitation, Fred and George reached back and plucked two of the leaves.

"Eat that, and you'll vomit everywhere. But you should —"

The twins stuffed the leaves into their mouths and swallowed them as quickly as possible before Sprout, or anyone else, could notice.

"— only — take a bite..." Angelina finished, her eyes gradually widening with concern.

Fred belched.

"Whoops."