Legal Disclaimer: I own my stuff, but not the original source material. That belongs to whoever. Also, the opinions and interpretations I use here may not reflect the same in said whoever that owns the source material. Look, I'm just a poor college librarian. Suing me isn't going to get you anything but tears.

Warning: This work may be offensive to some readers. There's also frank discussion of plans for non-consensual use of a love potion. Feel free to back out if need be.

Author's Note: This is for Bex, who specifically requested a love potion blowing up in the brewer's face.

Submitting Info:
Stacked with: Hogwarts (Term 14); Mc4A (Year 4)
Individual Challenges: Short Jog; Old Shoes (Y); Lunar Era; Rian-Russo Inversion; Gryffindor MC (x2); Bucket Listing (Y); Booger Breath
House: Slytherin
Assignment No.: Term 14 – Assignment 05
Subject (Task No.): Women's History (Task#1: Write a fic that includes one of the following colors significantly: Purple, Green, White, or Yellow.)
Other Hogwarts Challenges: Fantastic Beasts [97](George Weasley); 365 Prompts [291](Brewing a potion); Scavenger Hunt [50](Gift Fic for a Mod); Days of the Year [Mar 11th](pulling an all-nighter); National Weddings Month [09](Guest Book); Penguin Awareness [06](adult coloring book); Flowers [06]("...secret?"); But Can You Spell It? [L](Lucky); Bottle Fame/Brew Glory [Amortentia](Step 2)[Someone trying/failing to make/use a love potion]
Other MC4A Challenges: SpB [2B](Supplicant); TrB [5B](Red Herring); Hunt [Sp Items](Desk);
Representation(s): Ginny & George Weasley
Primary & Secondary Bonus Challenges: Ladylike; Not a Lamp; Persistence Still; Endless Wonder
Tertiary & Generic Bonus Challenges: n/a
Word Count: 1758 words

(^^)
Green Things
(^^)

George looked up from where he had been coloring green into the intricate design with a fine tipped marker. Both the adult coloring book and the marker set had been Lee's gift to both twins for their birth last year. The charm work that made the markers never dry out or run out of color was a gift from Katie, Angelina, and Alicia. The gift was actually rather thoughtful of them as it gave them something do during the long hours of brewing potions for their future shop—something that had to be started from scratch as their mother had destroyed most of their stock right before the start of last year.

He watched as the door to their lab opened quietly and then closed again, just as quietly. All of that was without any visible person entering. As if that wasn't suspect enough on its own, there was also the distinct tang in the air that camouflage spells left in their wake. Though there was something that smelled vaguely like yarrow blossoms. His sense of his twin had Fred still on the other side of the castle, so whoever had just arrived couldn't be him.

Lee wasn't likely either, since he had been assigned the dubious task of running interference with the Chasers and wouldn't be deterred from that task unless the girls tied him up and left him in another broom closet. George knew that Lee had a crush on at least one of the girls, but so far, Lee hadn't figured out that the three girls were dating each other. If he didn't figure it out before Angelina graduated next summer, George was set to win the House pot on the matter.

So not Fred or Lee, but there was only so many people who knew where their lab was. The secrecy was necessary. As much as it was tradition anymore for students to take over one of the many abandoned classrooms, it was just as much of one for the professors to reclaim the classroom and return it to its previous abandoned state. George scrunched his nose as he thought about who might have been able to figure out where they were working on their wheezes.

Really, there was only one possibility.

"Ginny?"

She lowered the hood of the invisibility cloak she was wearing. Idly, George wondered if Harry knew just how often his cloak got passed around the Gryffindor dorms. The odds were fairly even on the matter, as Harry tended to overlook how often people ignored boundaries with him as well as his being a generous person with those he viewed as his friends. A single shiver of unease worked its way down his spine at the idea of his baby sister using the cloak to come here.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, trying for merely curious. Whatever she was up to, it wouldn't do any good for her to know that he already suspected her. Ginny was not nearly as sneaky as she thought she was, at least not to the twins. Their parents were definitely still fooled into thinking that she was their perfect little girl. "Do you need help with something?"

"I need somewhere to brew where I will not be disturbed." She gave him an easy grin. Parting the cloak, she showed him the pewter cauldron she was carrying. He suppressed a wince at how she was also using it to carry a bunch of potion ingredients, including bright green bundles of herbs that weren't in containers. That was a ruined potion waiting to happen. "As you can see, I've got all my ingredients and tools. I just need somewhere to set up."

He glanced around their lab, frowning just a bit as he thought of how to respond. If he kept her where he could watch her, he may be able to protect her from or at least respond quickly to any mishaps. On the other hand, he didn't want to risk all of their hard work because Ginny was careless with her brewing.

"What are you planning on brewing?" he asked, finally concluding that he couldn't decide where to let her set up without that information. She bounced on her feet a bit. The green glass containers in her cauldron clinked with the motion. George suppressed another wince. Green glass was reserved for potion ingredients that were naturally volatile and likely to explode.

"Can you keep a secret?" she countered, still grinning. He quirked his left eyebrow at the question. Ginny nodded as if she was some all knowing sage that was just teasing him. "Of course you can! You know how Mum gave Dad a nudge to notice her?"

George's stomach twisted a bit. He had never liked that story. Their mother always treated it as if it had been a harmless lark, and both he and Fred had secretly dosed their father with enough counters to potions over the years that maybe it was in their case, but so many things could go wrong with using potions on someone without their knowledge. The fact that their mother had used a love potion on their father just seemed to make the entire situation a thousand times worse.

At least the 'love potion' they planned on stocking for their shop was even an actual love potion so much as something that turned the imbiber some shade of pink or red for a short period of time.

Yet here was Ginny, who had always loved that story and thought it was just as romantic as Mum seemed to, planning to do the same thing herself. She was only fourteen! She should be worrying about trying out for the Quidditch team and preparing to take her OWLs next year. Or worrying about how much of a nuisance Umbridge had proven herself to be despite how school had been in session less than a month.

She shouldn't be thinking about entrapping someone into marriage.

"Who's the lucky wix?" George asked as he reached onto the shelf built into the desk he had been coloring at while waiting for the latest batch of their custom sleeping draught went through the simmering stage. He pulled out a deep green journal that they jokingly called the lab's guest book. They used it to keep track of what was brewing at each of the eight stations they had set up around the room. He used the emerald marker to point Ginny towards the farthest station from the door and then noted that she would be brewing a love potion there in the book.

"Harry, of course," Ginny said brightly as she crossed the room and began emptying the ingredients from the pot. George tapped the marker against his lips as she didn't clean out the leaf bits that were sure to have broken off while being jostled like they had been. She did organize the ingredients and her potions kit to make the brewing and ingredient prep go relatively smoothly. And she had even brought her own bottle of brewing water, so she wasn't going to be using up their stock. "This is going to be the year that he finally sees me as something other than Ron's little sister."

George hummed noncommittally. The odds were not in Ginny's favor as a romantic interest. Even aside from how Harry didn't seem to actually like anyone in that fashion, Ginny never made an effort to spend time with Harry or even just talk to him about everyday topics. Not to mention that with the state of the House of Potter at the time of Harry's birth, there was likely to be at least an agreement for first courting rights if not an actual betrothal contract. The noble families did that all the time.

He couldn't ignore the way his gut screamed that they would be lucky if this didn't end in a disaster.

It was going to be a long night.

(^^)

George was dozing on one of the cots they kept in the lab for these overnight brewing sessions. He had waved off Fred's offer to swap out near curfew. It would be less obvious to Ginny that they were babysitting her if they didn't change which twin had stayed. Ginny wasn't really any better at telling which twin was which than their mother, but Fred had come in streaked with luminescent green algae.

That was, unfortunately, kind of distinctive.

Of course, just because neither twin was willing to leave Ginny alone in their lab to brew a morally dubious (at best) but completely legal potion, didn't mean that George intended to help any. In the six hours before he had decided to lie down, she had made twelve critical errors that he could clock from across the room. At this point, it wouldn't matter if she figured out a way to actually get it into Harry, because it definitely wouldn't work as a love potion. He supposed that there was a risk of poisoning.

He smelled the change in the potion just a moment before he heard the explosion. Ginny screeched like a banshee as George sprung up from the cot to rush to her side. By the time he had crossed the room, Ginny had started wiping off the green slime that the love potion had become.

George froze when he realized that all of her hair was coming with it. A part of him, the one that was constantly looking for product ideas, wondered if he could get her to list out exactly what she had done while he was dozing so that he could replicate it. Effortless hair removal had so many applications, after all.

"MY HAIR!" Ginny screeched again as she noticed the same thing that he had. She stomped her feet in frustration. George jumped away to avoid being splashed by the slimy potion remains. "MY HAIR!"

"I think you may have a bit of a problem here," George told her solemnly. Her brown eyes glared out of her green-tinted face.

"YES!" she yelled, shaking potion off her hands. "Yes! I think I have a problem here! I have to start from scratch again! I was awake all night and now I have to start over! AND I LOOK LIKE THIS!"

"Ginny, I want you to listen to me very carefully," George said. If looks could kill, he would be dead, brother or not. "You had this coming."

Ginny gave another screech of rage.

George was just thankful that Ginny wasn't any kind of veela.