"Well … this is … completely expected," Sue Li said, her hands on her hips as she gazed at the remnants of Padma's potion making kit. They had left the cauldron of Baruffio's Brain Elixer brewing overnight, just as they were supposed to. They had now returned to the secret room behind the statue of Mad Marticus McGregor to add the finish touches to the potion, only for it to have exploded.
"I can't believe this! I'm soaked!" Parvati complained, she had took the full force of the exploding potion and was dripping with brain elixir.
"Oh, yeah, thanks for blocking it from me, I owe you one," Sue said with a smirk. Thanks to her small frame and the fact she had been at the back of the group, she had been the only one to emerge unblemished.
She wrinkled her nose. "You lot stink!" she said, delightedly. "Is brain elixir supposed to smell like …" she sniffed again and put her hands over her nostrils. "Rotten fish."
"No, it's meant to smell of roses," Parvati said, glaring at Padma.
Mandy was kneeling down next to the remnants of the cauldron, poking it with her wand. She was unphased by the fact she was covered in some stinky liquid. "You must have added the wrong ingredients," she said, wiping her glasses on a dry bit of her robes.
"No, Rusty must have stole the wrong ingredients!" Padma said, glaring at her sister.
"Nuh-huh," Parvati said as she tried in vain to wring some of the potion from her robes. "Leaping toadstools, frog brains, powered dragon claw, runespoor eggs"
"Hmmm," Padma said, skeptically. She knelt down next to Mandy to examine the wreckage. She poked a glob of congealed, white powder and picked it up.
"Sniff this," she said to Mandy.
"No, you sniff it!" Mandy replied.
Padma did so. "It's erumpent horn."
"What horn?" asked Lavender.
"Erumpent horn," she glared at Parvati. "Did you take erumpent horn instead of dragon claw?"
"No!" Parvati replied, putting her hands on her hips. "I think I'd know what powdered dragon claw and powedered whatever horn looks like. Did you add the wrong ingredients?"
"Wouldn't be the first time," muttered Sue.
"No," said Padma. "I don't think so," she added.
The girls all sighed.
"Next time I brew the potions," Lavender said.
"I'm the best at potions," Padma reminded them.
"Clearly not," said Sue. "If you can't tell the difference between dragon claw and erumpent horn."
Padma glared at her.
"Hang on," Lavender said, thoughtfully. "If Rusty didn't steal the wrong ingredients …"
"… I didn't," Parvati said.
"… and Toadstool didn't add the wrong ingredients …"
"I didn't," Padma said.
"Then there's only one possible explanation," Lavender said.
The girls all gazed at her expectantly.
"Somebody sabotaged it!" Lavender said, feeling pleased that she had figured this out.
"That's an idea," Padma said, thoughtfully. "I bet it was that Hermione—she didn't want us to ebat her in the exams!"
"Nah, Hermione's too much of a goody-two-shoes," Parvati said. "It's gotta be someone else."
"Lisa Turpin or Isobel Macdougal?" Sue suggested. "Lisa is sneaky—remember how you caught her reading your diary?"
"That's why I put a tickling charm on it now," Padma said.
"Which you got yourself with when you forgot to disable it," Mandy said with a giggle.
"That's beside the point," Padma said. "Point is, we now need to get revenge."
"If it was them," Lavender said, sensibly.
"Of course it was," Padma decided. "So, we'll all have to brainstorm ideas for payback."
"Maybe it better wait until next year?" Mandy suggested.
They all looked at her.
"Well," she shrugged. "It's the exams tomorrow—and the Triwizard Tournament final, soon. I'm sure … slipping Lisa and Isobel itching powder or trapping them with exploding stinksap can wait."
"Revenge is a dish best served cold," Lavender said.
"Ok, fine," Padma agreed. "That'll give us time to plan a good revenge. I like the stinksap idea, by the way."
"So do I," said Sue. "Simple but effective."