Stealing - er, BORROWING - ingredients (OPEN!!!)

Hunter was hungry. Starving, actually. His stomach growled loudly as he made his way through the castle corridors. It was lunchtime, and the rest of the school would be in the great hall waiting for food to appear on the long, wooden tables. But though it pained him to do so, Hunter passed by the large doors that separated him from the great hall without a second glance. It was a pity to miss lunch, especially when he'd already slept through breakfast, but some things were more important. Well, okay, nothing was more important than food. But food could temporarily wait in order for certain things to be accomplished.

Passing through the entrance hall, Hunter quickly ducked into the dungeon corridors, trying to keep as quiet as he could. Stealth wasn't exactly his strong point, which was why he always made these trips while the rest of the castle was preoccupied. Still, just because lunch was going on didn't mean that everyone was actually at lunch. Hunter wasn't. But with any luck, Professor Henley was at lunch, and wouldn't catch him. Hunter knew most of the students, and could probably talk his way out of a tight spot if one of them noticed him. But he couldn't fool Henley.

Of course, there was no rule saying that Hunter couldn't be in the dungeons, but it was better to not be seen in the area at all. That way, nobody could connect him to the theft - well, theft wasn't exactly what Hunter liked to call it. More like borrowing, with no intention of returning. But Hunter had to, if he ever wanted to start working on another felix potion. His potion last year had ended up being no good, turning black at the addition of the last ingredients. He didn't feel like he needed it anymore - not really. But Hunter was, for some strange reason, set on getting it right. So he'd keep trying until he brewed a perfect potion. Which could be a long time, because each batch took three weeks to brew. And a ton of effort and energy to keep maintained. Who knew how many he'd screw up before managing it.

But before Hunter could start the potion, he needed the ingredients. He currently had very little of what he needed. He had only had enough money to buy a third of what he'd needed from the Apothecary - and that was only enough for one batch anyway. And the only other way to get a hold of the ingredients was to take them from Professor Henley's storeroom. It was a slow and painful process, because he couldn't take too much at one time or she'd notice for sure. And this was only his first run. Thankfully, he reached the storeroom without coming into contact with anyone and was able to slip into it unseen. He quickly grabbed what he needed and shoved it into his bag, able to easily identify the correct ingredients from using them last year. The moment he had his bag zipped, he slid out of the door, sure that he was in the clear!

Summer had been a lot of fun. Other than the usual threats of making poor Toby into bacon from her brothers. It didn't get any funnier the more they teased her and Lyn. Lyra hardly saw her siblings at all during term time. Lyn was in Hufflepuff and Hunter was always surrounded by a crowd of friends who worshipped him. So going back to the farm had been great, mainly because she saw Jack but also because she got to talk to Lynnie and Hunter. Sibling bonding time and all. She did miss them all a lot at school, even though she would very rarely admit it to anyone.

It was back to school now and she didn't mind at all. More opportunities to learn cool spells that she could use to blow things up. She hadn't been back too long but the homework was piling up quickly. Third-year was when things started to get serious and you had to start thinking about those important wizard exams that were only a couple of years away. Lyra hated doing homework in the busy, loud common room and the library annoyed her, so she was never there in the evenings or breaks while she was studying. Instead, she had found a tiny abandoned room in the dungeons where it was quiet and peaceful. She was heading down there to get some work done. It was lunchtime but she had a huge breakfast earlier and she couldn't eat any more.

As she walked quickly along the corridor, she saw a familiar figure coming in the opposite direction. "Hunter?" she asked a little surprisedly. "What are you doing down here?" Where it was cold, near the Slytherins he hated and lunchtime. It was weird that he wasn't eating.

Now all Hunter had to do was escape the dungeons completely without being caught. He looked behind him as he walked, just to be sure Henley wouldn't pop out of some ridiculous hiding place or something and catch him. Before he was able to turn his gaze forward again, his name echoed through the hallway, bouncing off of the stone walls, and Hunter jumped as the sound startled him. He looked up quickly, inhaling a quick breath, sure that he'd finally been busted - his hand reached up to grip the handle of his backpack as if throwing it far away from him would spare him. Hunter wasn't afraid of losing points or getting detention - but if he was caught, he wouldn't be able to continue his potion. Ever. Because Henley would be onto him.

But it turned out that it was only Lyra. He gave her an exasperated smile and breathed out a sigh of relief. "Sorry, you just startled me," he told her, trying and most likely failing to brush aside his odd reaction. What was he doing in the dungeons? "I just... forgot something in class," he lied, shrugging. Then, hopefully before she could tear apart his terrible cover story, he raised an eyebrow and turned the same question around on his sister. "What about you, what are you doing down here?" he asked, trying to make his voice sound accusatory so that she would forget about Hunter and focus on defending herself instead.

He seemed relieved that it was her. Was he afraid of the big scary dungeon monster or something? "You're acting suspiciously," Lyra commented, smiling widely. It wasn't hard to tell, Hunter needed to get better at acting if she was ever going to believe his lies. Maybe she had startled him, but even before she had turned up behind him he had seemed on edge, or however she was to describe it. "Sure, I believe you," she added sarcastically when he tried the typical "forgot-something-in-class" excuse. "So what did you forget?"

She shook her head as he tried to reverse it to make it about her. For goodness sake, Hunter of all people should know that she wasn't totally stupid and gullible. Or stupid and gullible at all. "Well, I was going to graffiti my name all over the walls, blow some stuff up and put dungbombs in Henley's office. You know, for the anger therapy." Obviously not. But it wasn't her being suspicious here, so there was mo reason for her to honestly answer her brother's question.