(A/N): Hey Guys! Whoowee, it's a long one folks! I'm surprised with myself! Usually I struggle to make a chapter longer than 1,00 words, and here comes this monstrosity! Thanks for all your reviews guys!

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the potions and spells you don't recognise, and Elaine, Leo, Shari, Nicholai and Quiggly.

Leo

It had been two weeks, even with McGonagall's help, that we had managed to figure out how Maloney was putting all the students, and teachers, under his spell. Well, not spell exactly, considering he was using a potion.

Extaticus Parere, to be exact. Literally translates from Latin into, "Trance, obey."

It provided all the same symptoms, and it was the only one that did. Trouble is, it's cure, Extaticus Confractus, or, more literally, "Trance Break", is extremely hard to brew, and takes months.

"Great, and we don't even have Horace to help us!" McGonagall exclaimed, thoroughly frustrated. "Not to mention I now have to spend months with you two-" We both cut her off with glares. Yes, we know, she's our elder, and she's our teacher, but would you really put up with her insulting you like that? No, didn't think so.

"We'll manage. We always do." I muttered, before standing up to clear the books off the table except the one with the Potion specific information. I closed my eyes, and willed the books to their original places. McGonagall jumped, as per usual, as the books disappeared into thin air, except for the one she held in her hands.

"Yes well, we'll have to get the ingredients for this. Though...I don't know where we'd get these except for Horace's private store." She furrowed her eyebrows, and I glanced at Remus, who wasn't looking at me, before glancing at my watch.

"Oh, is that the time? We better go to bed, we have to be up early tomorrow for lessons!" McGonagall glanced at her watch before jumping out of her seat, dropping the book on the table.

"You're right, to bed, both of you!" I yawned, and let her shuffle us out of the room.

"Now, go back to the dormitories. Go!" She said, shooing us in the direction of our tower, before following us.

Remus and I made our way back to the Gryffindor dorms under the watchful eye of the good Professor, and he fell into bed exhausted, after sneaking past the boys. I hear the door lock click behind me, and shook my head.

"I have to go to the bathroom." He grunted, and a snore escaped from his mouth, and I knew he was asleep. A small smirk crept onto my lips. I entered the bathroom, locking the door behind me, before slipping the Potions book from under my shirt, into my hands. I had snuck it from the table as McGonagall was ushering us out, and now I was going to get us those ingredients.

I had hoped to do this differently, safely, but unfortunately, the lock on the dorm door prohibited that.

I pushed open the bathroom window as quietly as I could before slinging my leg over it, and taking a deep breath.

Here it is. One wrong move now, and there's no coming back from it. I pushed myself up on the sill, and turned on the thin stone ledge, latching my fingers onto the sill above it. I exhaled quietly before sighing slightly.

One step down, a whole butt load more to go.

I peeled the fingers of one hand from the top sill before reaching out to one of the shingles on the tower wall next to me, and pushing lightly to make sure it wouldn't slip around too much, before sliding the foot on the same side across the thin ledge that continued all the way around the tower.

I shimmied my body around until I was directly above the drain pipe, and bent my knees as far as I could without falling off the ledge, before sliding my right foot out slowly until only my toes were on the ledge, leaning my chest and face against the cold shingles of the rooftop for balance, and pushing my foot the last bit off, moving it downwards until it came in contact with the metal brace on the side of the drain pipe. I gritted my teeth, in both fright and determination, before starting to slide my other foot off the ledge. As my foot slipped, and I could feel myself start to lose my balance, a flash of fear ran pulsed through my veins, and my finger dug under the edges of the shingles, and I hung on only by my fingertip, the one foot already secured, and the pressure of my head and chest against the roof. I breathed shallow breaths as I fumbled my foot around in the dark, before finally making contact with the other bracket.

I breathed a sigh of relief, relaxing my grip on the shingles lightly, bending my knees further and quickly moving my hands down the slanted rooftop, before securing them again on the shingles.

I breathed in and out for a few seconds, trying to calm myself slightly before removing my left foot from the bracket, and letting it descend, using the pipe as a guide to reach the next bracket. I did this again with the other foot, before looking up, watching my hands to make sure I got this right, otherwise, I was a dead man. Boy. Man-boy.

I released the shingle with my left hand and cautiously moved it to the first bracket, and following it with the right hand.

At this point, I lent my forehead against the cold, comforting metal pole in relief, letting the freezing metal cool my sweat-drenched skin. I was taking a stupid risk, but otherwise, we might not be able to free the others from Maloney's trance. It was the right thing to do, but I was so terrified...I puffed out one last breath before removing my skin from the metal, and starting to descend, using the brackets on the side of the drain pipe as a ladder.

They probably wouldn't have supported an adult, or maybe even a normal child, but over the summer I trained to be lighter on my feet, and that was definitely helping me here.

As I reached my destination, a hallway two floors down, I leaned across to the window next to the pipe, peering through the glass to look for patrolling teachers, or worse, Peeves.

Seeing the coast clear, I pressed my fingers to the glass pane of the window, pushing on it firmly, making it open slightly, just enough to fit the end of my finger through, enough to lift the latch keeping it closed.

I wrapped my arm around the top window ledge before making a leap for it, sure I'd make it. What I didn't take into account, however, was the rounded edges of the sills. I gasped loudly in fear as my left foot, the one I was leading with, slipped off the ledge, into the free air, my right knee slamming into the stone sill hard enough to make me grunt in pain. Fear shot through my veins once more, and I tumbled through the opening by some chance of luck.

One centimetre further out, and I would've fallen, I would have died, and they would have to scrape me from the courtyard below the next morning when a poor unfortunate soul found my now pancake-flat corpse. I sighed in relief for the billionth time in the past five minutes, laying on my back for a minute, catching my breath, and letting some of the adrenaline I had accumulated to fade.

I rolled onto my side before pushing myself to my feet.

To the dungeons it is then.

A little while and several almost brushes with different staff members later, I reached Professor Slughorn's office, where he both slept, and kept his personal storeroom, the place I would need to get into if I was going to find all the ingredients.

I exhaled silently as I faced the door to Slughorn's personal chambers, before reaching for the knob, twisting, and slowly pushing the door open.

I slipped in through the smallest opening I could, and tip-toed across the room to the storeroom I could see on the opposite side of the room. Behind Slughorn's bed.

You have got to be kidding me! I thought, frustrated.

First I had to scale the side of the building, and now I have to make my way past Slughorn?!

I shuffled up to the bed, wrinkling my nose at the hulking, sleeping figure before making my way around to the storeroom door.

This is it! I thought as I rested my hand on the doorknob, before twisting as quietly as I could, and slipping through the opening.

I was screwed if he woke up now, he'd know that I was stealing, and I'd probably be thrown out of school. Damn it Leo, you're supposed to be behaving! I scolded myself, before reminding myself that it was for a good cause. Why couldn't I just let McGonagall find the ingredients on her own? She's perfectly capable! Why, why, why!?

While internally, I was screaming at my own stupidity, externally I was closing the storeroom door behind me silently.

More work, yes, but at least this way, if he woke up, he wouldn't know I was here.

"Lumos." I whispered, and the tip of my wand flared up with the usual pale white light, and I shielded the door with my back to keep the light from creeping underneath.

I pulled the book from under my shirt again and opened it, thumbing through the pages till I found the ingredients list for our potion.

Half of these things could be found in the Hogwarts grounds...but some of them, were very rare.

I scanned the shelves, and spotted the several ingredients I would need. Now I just needed something to carry them in...

Ah! I noticed some small glass jars in the corner of the storeroom, and grabbed one, moving to the first ingredient, and scooping the needed amount into the jar, before adding another scoop, so Slughorn wouldn't be able to figure out what potion we were making by the exact measurements I stole.

I quickly repeated this with the other ingredients before searching around the floor for something to muffle the sound.

"This will do nicely." I muttered almost silently as I salvaged some cloth from underneath an empty box. I wrapped the cloth around each of the glass jars, so that they wouldn't clink together when moved, before placing them all, lids secure, in the small bag I had brought with me.

Just enough to carry them, not enough to give them space to move around. Perfect.

I now turned to the rest of the jars, the ones I had taken ingredients from, and raised my wand at them.

"Duplices Facinore." I murmured, and a string of electric blue glitter floated into the jars, and the stock looked to be replenished, though I knew it wasn't. The spell was advanced, for my age, but I had been reading about all kinds of spells in my transfiguration book, and I decided to put it to the test.

Funny thing is, the book said that the spell was a different colour for everyone, based on their personality. So, why was mine electric blue?

"Nox." I whispered, and my wands light went out, and I slipped it back in my pocket before silently opening the door, and once more, sneaking out.

I made a detour to the Room of Requirement, to drop off the jars of ingredients, before wishing for more containers. I grinned slightly while I slipped them inside my bag, and made my way out again, this time heading for the grounds.

I used every secret passageway I could, and avoided all the teacher, managing to sneak outside without anyone noticing. I ran across the grounds, using the shadows to hide myself along with vampiric speed, and into the Forbidden forest.

Forbidden, yes, but most of the ingredients I still required were in there, and what did I really have to fear from the creatures of the forest, seeing as I was practically one of them?

A few hours of rummaging around in the dirt, trees, and even sometimes the sky, I managed to collect all the ingredients we needed, and returned them to the Room of Requirement before making my way back to the dorms.

Of course, seeing as I had snuck out, and the door was locked, I actually made my way back to that corridor I had first entered, sliding out onto the ledge again before climbing up the drain pipe once more.

It was easier this time, seeing as I could see where I was putting my hands and feet at all times, unlike last time, where I was climbing blind.

I quickly found myself back in the boys bathroom, and I closed the window behind me softly before unlocking the door swiftly but quietly and getting changed, carefully monitoring the boys breathing to make sure they weren't awake to hear, or see, me come in, before finally climbing into my bed, fully exhausted now, and feeling rather pleased with myself.

(A/N: So, does it make any sense at all?

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