Chapter 5: Plan of Attack
In three of the four houses, when a student wanted information, he or she had two recourses: Ask a teacher or go to the library.
Gryffindor was blessed with a third option: Miss Hermione Granger. Hermione was faster than the library and safer and more discreet than a teacher.
"A Potion d'Venus will turn a male into a female for twenty-four hours," Hermione said. "The potion is designed to relieve certain pains that women get. Men don't have the anatomy that the potion works on, so the potion turns them into women, in order to relieve the pain in that portion of their anatomy."
Hermione paused for breath, then a sudden thought hit her and she looked at Ginny with dire suspicion.
"No! I don't plan to use it on Harry!" Ginny said hurriedly.
"So, who are you planning to use it on?"
"I thought if I could prank Snape, then maybe Harry would feel better and maybe, just maybe, he'd forgive me."
Hermione patted her on the shoulder. "I think he'll forgive you if you apologize," she said.
"I apologized last night, and he looked so… sad," Ginny said in a small voice. "Oh, Hermione, I just wanted him to notice me!"
Hermione made a wry face. "I think we can safely assume that he has done that." She looked at the Flask of Pink Potion and her face grew thoughtful. "I'll bet this is a partial Potion d'Venus," she said. "Let me do some research."
Which, of course, was exactly what Ginny hoped she would say.
Several days later, once they had the "full-fledged" Potion d'Venus on hand, the trick was delivering it to its intended target. Ginny and Ron could come up with dozens of methods to feed the stuff to Snape.
"The trouble is, it will take Snape about five minutes to figure out who gave it to him," Ron said in disgust. "He won't be satisfied with detention for this. He'll want the perpetrator expelled!"
Hermione looked at him in shock.
"Yes, Hermione, I do know polysyllabic words!"
"I'm not sure that pranking Professor Snape will help. Harry wasn't happy when he saw how his father pranked young Severus Snape," Hermione said.
"That was before…" Ron stopped. "Well, I doubt that Harry will mind seeing Snape get pranked now."
"Well, maybe," Hermione said.
"Right," Ginny said, not wanting to wait for another Ron-and-Hermione battle. "It's my problem. I'll have to figure out how to get Snape to take it on my own."
"Mum will go spare if you get expelled," Ron warned.
Ginny nodded. "I won't get caught," she vowed.
She left the Common Room with the Potion d'Venus in her pack. She had an audacious plan in mind. Something she didn't want her brother or Hermione associated with should it backfire.
If it worked, however, Snape would never know what hit him.
Actually, Snape would never know who hit him, as the what would be painfully obvious.
Ginny took a deep breath and headed for the lion's den.