Harry Potter and the Prince of Slytherin 147 October pt.1

"Why what happened?"

"Filch happened." Theodore said with an annoyed look on his face, "I was getting out of the passage when Filch found me all dirty and muddy. He took me to the office and started going on this crazy rant about me dirtying the school ground. You should be thankful, I found your case and bought it here as Filch was just about to take it away."

"Yeah! Yeah!" Draco waved his hands around lazily. Even if Filch really found his secret there was nothing he could do about it. Just a simple memory charm and Filch would forget about the entire incident and there wasn't anything he could do to fight back at all.

"Hmph! But I did manage to find something interesting."

"What is it?" Draco asked.

Theodore didn't say anything and gave him a large, glossy, purple envelope with silver lettering on the front which read,

Kwikspell

A Correspondence Course in Beginners' Magic.

Intrigued, Draco flicked the envelope open and pulled out the sheaf of parchment inside. More curly silver writing on the front page said:

Feel out of step in the world of modern magic? Find yourself making excuses not to perform simple spells? Ever been taunted for your woeful wandwork?

There is an answer!

Kwikspell is an all-new, fail-safe, quick-result, easy-learn course. Hundreds of witches and wizards have benefited from the Kwikspell method!

Madam Z. Nettles of Topsham writes:

"I had no memory for incantations and my potions were a family joke! Now, after a Kwikspell course, I am the center of attention at parties and friends beg for the recipe of my Scintillation Solution!"

Warlock D. J. Prod of Didsbury says:

"My wife used to sneer at my feeble charms, but one month into your fabulous Kwikspell course and I succeeded in turning her into a yak! Thank you, Kwikspell!"

Draco put down the envelope knowing it was a normal wizarding advertisement for a correspondence course in beginner's magic run by the Kwikspell Company, called Kwikspell. The course is designed to help adult witches and wizards brush up on their magical skills. The course has been proven to be quite useful for wizards and witches who really aren't too bright but for Squib like Filch it was quite useless.

"Interesting, isn't it?" Theodore smirked as he threw a book in Draco's hand.

The book seemed to be pretty old just looking at it and the writing seemed to be handwritten. Just reading the title of the book he could figure out that the book was about potions and a very interesting sort of potions. The book claimed that these potions would be able to make even a muggle into a full-fledged wizard. Draco knew about this type of fake-books which were sold all over the black markets, it featured the same style of book, old and handwritten. To fool gullible people into thinking they could make someone wizards. The books target audience was always Squibs and Muggle-born wizards who wanted to make their friends or family members wizards.

Draco turned a couple of pages of the books reading through the content quickly as he snorted in disdain. All the recipes mentioned in the potion book were full of shit, Draco was sure even a wizard in their first year could come up with a better book than this crap. The recipes mentioned in the books were all random and worthless, while most of them would just result in a failed potion there were still some of them that were totally poisonous. Selling this book to someone was equal to trying to murder them.

"Now I understand..."

"What?"

"The reason, I went to check on the kelpies was because of them suddenly acting out and when I looked into it, I found out that someone had been dumping some useless potion in the well." Draco said, "It caused the death of all the Kelpies in the well, except for two who luckily survived them."

"So you doubt Filch is behind it?"

"I thought so, but now I am sure." Draco said waving the envelope and the book, "Looks like our dear old Mr. Filch wants to be a wizard so badly that he is willing to do all this stuff."

"So what we are we going to do?" Theodore asked, "I am sure we can't really do much about this."

"We won't." Draco said, "I already cleared up the well so no one would be harmed from his deeds any longer, well the ones that were bound to get harmed are dead anyway. Keep this with you--Pretty sure it would come in handy when Filch acts out on us."

"That was what I was thinking." Theodore said taking back the envelope and the book, "It's like our free pass and we won't have to use magic on him as well. I thought it was his desperate attempt to be a wizard but who knew he was going crazy about this."

"Men do crazy things." Draco said laying on the bed, "Especially when they realize they can be something more than just... normal."

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October arrived, spreading a damp chill over the grounds and into the castle. Madam Pomfrey, the nurse, was kept busy by a sudden spate of colds among the staff and students. Her Pepperup potion worked instantly, though it left the drinker smoking at the ears for several hours afterward. Ginny Weasley, who had been looking pale, was bullied into taking some by Percy. The steam pouring from under her vivid hair gave the impression that her whole head was on fire.

Draco forced Daphne and Pansy to take some as well due to them getting sick and Draco's version of the potion was a bit worse but effective enough to revive a dead Dragon. Both Pansy and Daphne cried in pain for hours as the side effect went on for quite some time but the results were much better than normal ordinary potions. Draco was sure that the girls would never catch a cold in their life again but instead of being thankful the girls' guilt trip Draco into owing both of them a favor which he gave in and obliged to.

Raindrops the size of bullets thundered on the castle windows for days on end; the lake rose, the flower beds turned into muddy streams, and Hagrid's pumpkins swelled to the size of garden sheds. Pansy's enthusiasm for regular training sessions, however, was not dampened, which was why Draco was to be found, late one stormy Saturday afternoon, returning to Slytherin common room, drenched to the skin and splattered with mud.

Since the previous incident, Flint looked lost and hopeless whenever he was seen, and he even quit the Quidditch team soon after. People believed the humiliation was the cause of it but no one ever knows for sure as he stopped talking to his friends as well. Snape wanted Draco to be the new captain as it was partially his fault that Flint became weird but both of them knew that was impossible due to schedules as Draco was moving away to Durmstrang the next month. Since the position of captain was empty Draco pushed Pansy in the captain's position and with Snape practically forcing him, Draco had to coach the Slytherin Quidditch team as long as he was here.

Pansy who was even better than Draco needed not so much of a guidance on flying but she still needed to learn leadership. So Pansy got in charge of the training secession for the Quidditch team and Draco became the strategist for the team. For Slytherins who usually play with brute force being in a strategized formation was quite difficult for them. But with work and a lot of patience they came around and allowed themselves to use their brains for once.

Chapter end