Drabble Wars: Write your character overcoming a weakness that has previously overwhelmed or prevented her from progressing.
Chocolate Frog Card: (Silver) Mundungus Fletcher: Challenge: Write about a character using illicit substances, either real or created.
Gringotts: Calming Draught [Potions]
Word Count: 331
"Rowena, what on Merlin's Earth is wrong with you?" Helga gasped, holding her friend's head up with her hands to stop it from lolling around like a doll. "What happened?"
"Helga? Where's Rowena? She was meant to have a chat with someone from the Ministry but she never showed up." That was Godric, Rowena could figure out in her fuddled brain. It was nice to hear her friends so worried about her.
"She's in here," Helga replied. Rowena focused her eyes on Helga, for she had no other choice, and noticed Godric appear in her eyesight.
"Oh Merlin," he cursed quietly. "She's been drugged."
Godric started looking around the room, taking note of the vast amount of calming draught vials on the floor, all of them empty.
"Correction," he breathed. "I think she did this willingly."
Helga's eyes filled with tears as she looked at her friend. "Why?" she asked, knowing Rowena was in no state to answer coherently but voicing her question regardless. "Why?"
"I'm so nervous," Rowena hissed, her hands shaking. She pushed them against her robes, trying to hide the movement but only serving to slow them down.
Godric and Helga stood in front of the Potions cabinet, both of them wearing worried looks on their faces but she knew they wouldn't let her pass. The addiction she'd had for the calming draught had almost ruined her life, and she'd become fairly dependent on it. It had stopped her from making huge progress in magical research since she hadn't had a sane mind to do so but it wasn't going to happen today.
"Go," Salazar ordered gruffly. He'd been told of her actions and had stopped brewing the potion completely. "You'll be fine."
Rowena's hands still shook and her palms were sweating and her heart was racing really uncomfortably but she knew, that once she started talking and expressing her ideas and theories and debating logical answers, she'd be fine.
She didn't even glance at her potion cabinet.