Chapter Four
The Love Potion
Merope stepped into the potion store with her head held high. She could feel the reassuring weight of her Galleons pressing against her leg with every small stride to the register. Behind the wooden counter, scorched by years of misuse, Madame Upson gave her a mistrustful glance.
"Where's your father, young lady?" she asked by way of greeting. Merope decided to ignore her, instead plopping her heavy purse on the counter. The woman immediately straightened up. "What was it you needed?" she asked instead.
So she told her everything, rattling off the ingredients as if casting a spell. The old woman moved slowly behind the counter, measuring the ingredients with a silence that also seemed measured and every so often casting a glare in Merope's direction.
The young girl didn't mind in the least. For the first time in her life, she was doing something that she was not told to do, and she would not be scolded when she arrived in her empty house. She'd waited her entire life for an opportunity, and she would not let it get away.
"That will be three galleons, two sickles and eight knuts," Madame Upson said, deftly twisting the top of the bag into a knot. Merope slid the money across the counter with a shyly defiant smile. The old woman took the money. "When I was young, girls never thought of these things," she grumbled as she rattled the cash register open.
Only when Merope received her change, did she reply, "That's why they didn't do them." She snatched the bag off of the counter and strode out the door.
It didn't take long at all to brew the potion. Merope had never believed it could be so easy, not after what her father had told her ever since she was young. She was never good enough for him, or her brother, or the family, but now she felt that she could be, that she could do what she wanted and do it well.
Merope felt reckless. Alive. Wonderful. She had such plans, things she'd only ever dreamed of, and now they were within reach, like the fireflies she'd always tried to catch when she was little. This love potion was her first step to a better life. She filled the chocolates with the concoction, and sent it away to his house, leaving the note anonymous.
Then she waited.