The sky is dark with grey clouds and the wind whips around the stands aggressively. Although she isn't tired from the previous night and she hasn't fallen off her broom yet, the wind sure is trying its best to knock Agnes around the air. Thankfully, she is able to focus enough so she doesn't end up on the ground like last time.

Julia has already scored three times, helping Gryffindor get the lead of 60 to 70 against Ravenclaw. Ian and David seem to be locked in a fierce Beater battle, Ian trying to knock Julia off her broom and David protecting her. At least they aren't targeted at Agnes. The curly haired Seeker outlines the field, not wanting to stay in one place because of the wind.

Maria, Ethan, Lauren, and Hannah stand in the Gryffindor section right by the podium where the score is kept. Even though the teachers' stand is between them and the podium, they can still see the two announcers, Alana and Amy, perfectly.

Alana was nervous at first, but she seems to be in her domain. She forgot all about her fears and is having the time of her life announcing the game. "Look at him go! The youngest of the Miles brothers, Tyler zips past the opposing Chasers in an expert spin, scoring another ten points for Gryffindor. Ian Johnson slams the Bludger at David Miller, but Miller ducks just in time! The Bludger runs right into a Ravenclaw Chaser instead! Oh, that looks like it hurt!"

It starts sprinkling, and Agnes wishes she wore goggles or something to keep the water out of her eyes. She squints to clear her vision and lowers her upper body against her broom to fly faster. She looks to her left, and spots the Ravenclaw Seeker chasing something golden. Oh, no you don't. Agnes flips upside down to make a U-turn and speeds off. Right when she crosses paths with the other Seeker, she reaches her arm out and snags the small, golden ball.

"Yes! Agnes Higgins has caught the Snitch! 150 points for Gryffindor! They just won the Quidditch game!" Alana jumps up, gripping her microphone, and goes wild. The red side of the stands cheer along with her while the blue and bronze side is a bit angered at the outcome.

"That was so much fun! You did great once again, Agnes," Mary says as she walks back to the castle with the second years. "I wish I could stay longer and maybe see some magic."

"Oh, well, we wanted to attempt our special potion again, didn't we guys?" Julia asks, extremely excited for going back to the potion and trying to make it work.

"Ooo a potion? That sounds awesome! You sure it's allowed to make potions outside class, though?" Mary knows how much Agnes likes to play with the rules.

"Pfft, yeah it's fine. The Headmaster was standing right outside the room once and didn't even notice it." Agnes waves off the matter. Mary is still weary, but agrees to go with the girls to the mirror room before she has to leave.

The students are mostly relaxing for the weekend. The beginning of November means Christmas is coming soon, and it's getting too chilly outside to stay in the courtyard for too long. Normally the girls don't like the weather around this time, but are grateful for it this year. It gives them an excuse to stay indoors and tend to their potion. Everyone walks up the changing stairs until they reach the fourth floor, then make a left and walk along the dimly lit hallways until they reach the mirror room. Hannah opens the door and allows the others to enter before her.

"So, what's the potion supposed to do?"  Mary sits with the students in a circle around the cauldron.

Lauren opens a long box of potion ingredients and hands them to Maria. "It's called the Persequi Potion. It will allow us to form a path and find however we wish. All we have to do when finished is put something that belonged to the person in the cauldron."

"Woah, that's so cool! Who are you trying to find?" Mary sits on her knees and leans her face over the cauldron, excited to see what it looks like.

Alana looks at Agnes and shakes her head while Mary isn't looking. Agnes silently agrees and quickly says, "It's just for extra credit. We didn't wanna do the potion in the classroom because there's a lot of us in one group and it was overcrowded."

"The professor is letting you all work in one group even though you're in different houses?" Mary asks as she puts up her short, wavy hair.

"Yeah. We have to split the extra credit amongst the seven of us, though. The downsides of having a big group." Agnes sighs and gives Ethan his book. Hannah, Lauren, and Alana also take their books and open to the marked pages.

"Alright, so we've gotten pretty far. We have the sight itself down, and now we need a way to see the path. After that, we need to find a guidance ingredient and it should be done!" Lauren smiles, not believing that they are actually this close to discovering a potion.

"All the ingredients have had time to melt together overnight just as it was supposed to." Maria takes a glass rod and dips it into the potion. When she pulls it out, the liquid is clear and tinted just a bit yellow. "Anyone have any ideas on ingredients that are used to find things?"

"Let's look," Alana says and starts skimming through her book. The rest do the same, Mary reading over Hannah's shoulder.

The minutes turn into hours, and they have yet to find anything. Everyone is sprawled out around the room, lying on each other and reading different books. At one point, Julia and Ethan leave to get more books from the library and renew some of the ones they already have. Now everyone has their own personal potion book to read, including Mary who doesn't know what half of this stuff is. Right when they are about to give up, Mary turns the page and gasps. "Hey, look at this! Moonstone gem tamed by dragons. Rare, but invaluable. The moonstone gem can create a path in the mind as long as they have the sight to see it. You guys said you had the sight already, right?"

"Correct. So... how rare is the gem? We haven't had the best history with rare potion ingredients." Hannah jokes, remembering the Occamy Eggshell from last year.

"It's says that it's rare, but invaluable. I doubt anyone has it nearby." Mary sighs right as her watch dings. "Shoot, I have to go! It's already evening. Love you, Agnes, good job today."

Everyone says goodbye to Mary and gives her hugs. She sees herself out, knowing her way since she's been here before. Agnes rolls onto her back and stares up at the ceiling. "I wish we could just figure this out already. It's so annoying."

"Come on, someone has to have the gem, right? Sure, it's unique, but it's not impossible to get like the eggshell." Maria tries to look on the bright side.

"I have an idea. What if we borrowed some ingredients from Snape's storage? He's got to have some rare ingredients inside!" Ethan sits up and closes his book, making sure to mark the page. He has a smile on his face that tells Julia he's thinking of something mischievous.

Julia chuckles at her brother's excitement and shakes her head. "You mean steal from him? Ethan, do you know how easily we'd get caught?"

"He would suspect Gryffindors, sure, but what about the student who won his precious prize last year in the potion competition?" Lauren points out and everyone looks at Maria.

"No, no, no way! I am not going to steal from Snape!"

Maria sits in her Potions class the next Monday, feeling like she's going to pass out. They aren't making a potion today because their cauldrons need to rest for a whole week in the back room. The Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs are taking notes as Professor Snape teaches at the front by the chalkboard. Maria turns to Alana and whispers, "Please do it for me! Girl, I don't think I can do this."

"Yes, you can! I know you can. Just remember: take some basic ingredients and try to look for the moonstone. Lauren and I will cause a distraction." Alana smiles reassuringly and puts a hand on Maria's shoulder.

"Why can't I cause the distraction?" Maria has to remember not to make her voice louder as she complains.

"Because you're the one who always gets supplies whenever we start a new potion. You know where stuff is. Plus, if you get caught, which you won't, you are the least likely to get a detention." Alana explains, making Maria even more nervous when she mentions detention.

"Okay, fine. Just do it." Maria takes a deep breath. There's a reason she wasn't sorted into Gryffindor, and she just found out why.

Alana nods over to Lauren who gives her a thumbs up sign. Once Professor Snape's back is turned, Lauren slides out of her seat and takes her wand out. She aims it at Emmy's bag in the corner of the room. "Incendio."

The bag catches on fire and Lauren quickly gets back into her seat. Emmy and Jenna, who were closest to the bag, scream and knock each other out of their seats as they try to back away. The entire room causes a ruckus when the fire spreads to other bags. Snape tries to calm everyone down, but kids are running around and causing chaos. Maria creeps along the side of the room and creaks the door open before she slips into the storage room.

"Everyone back to your seats! Ms. Ulite, stop running into people and stay put! When I find out who did this-" Professor Snape cuts himself off when he notices the back of his cloak is on fire. Everyone holds in their laughter as he tries to stomp it out, but then pulls his wand from his pocket and says, "Aguamenti."

Alana laughs as she makes her way back to her seat. She leans over and whispers to Lauren, "Setting his cloak on fire was nerve wracking! I thought for sure he'd turn around and see me."

"Yeah, too bad he used Agnes's spell to put it out so quickly." Lauren becomes a bit nervous when the room settles down and Snape puts the backpacks out with the same spell. Maria still isn't out yet.

The Hufflepuff girl quickly fills her robes with any basic ingredient she remembers they are running out of. It helps that she has been holding the box of ingredients during their Persequi Potion meetings, so she knows what they have and what they need. Once she has everything, Maria goes further down the closet and looks for the moonstone gem. She's been looking at pictures of it all weekend to make sure she knows what it looks like, but she can't find any in here at all.

"You kidding?" Maria says under her breath. She turns her head and sees something sparkly and deep blue. "Yes!"

Maria stands on her tiptoes and grabs a handful of moonstone gems. She smiles and puts them inside her robes with the other ingredients. When she makes it to the door, she hears everything settling down and cracks it open to get a better look. Snape is scolding everyone for panicking, and the students are all standing around looking ashamed. Maria opens the door a little wider, enough for her to squeeze through, and softly shuts it behind her. She pretends to have been there the whole time.

"And I got a bunch of gems for the potion. So, in case we mess up again, we should have more to spare." Maria ends her story.

The girls and Ethan sit around the dinner table and eat their food while listening to Maria's story. Julia smiles at her friends proudly and says, "This is awesome! I say we try it tonight."

"Yeah, we should add the gems after dinner. Oh, I almost forgot! You wouldn't believe what happened to Julia in Defense Against the Dark Arts." Hannah brings up the topic and looks at her cousin.

"Oh, I just made a new friend. No biggie, really. Her and I connect the Slytherin half of the room to the Gryffindor half," Julia explains like it's not relevant.

"She's Slytherin?" Alana asks with interest. She knows the group of friends don't have the best relationship with the green house. "What's her name?"

"Kirsten," Julia answers. "It's awesome, though! Now I have a friend in each house! And we have a friend on the inside, you know?"

"How did you two become friends?" Lauren has suspicion in her voice, not fully believing what she's hearing is a good thing.

"That's what we wanted to tell you. Kirsten accidentally stunned Julia with her own spell." Agnes rolls her eyes at the thought of the Slytherin.

"Stupefy?" Maria asks for confirmation and the Gryffindors nod. "How does that make her your friend?"

"She told me she heard about me using the spell and wanted to show me how she does it. We talked about the spell for a bit. It was fun, way better than listening to Professor Knisely's class." Julia lets out an annoyed breath, not liking the group talking bad about Kirsten.

"Yeah, sure, okay then." Agnes stabs her beef harshly and changes subjects. "Anyway, I'm excited to make this potion. I hope the moonstone gems work."

"They should. I read more about them and they have no bad side effects when added to potions like what happened with the snouts. In other words, it's a neutral ingredient. That's why it's so rare, wizards use it in potions all the time. It's not as valuable as other things though, because it's not that hard to find if you know where to look." Ethan pulls out the book he was reading during Defense Against the Dark Arts. It's titled, Neutral Potion Ingredients and Why They're Important.

"Oh, we know where to look alright. Snape's supply closet." Alana laughs, making everyone join her in the joke. "I'll go with Maria to drop the ingredients off. See you all in the mirror room!"

Alana and Maria wave to the other students as they take their bags and head off to the mirror room. It doesn't take long to get there, and once they do Maria dumps all the ingredients out of her bag. "This will take weeks to clean."

"Ask Agnes to perform the Aguamenti spell and it'll wash right out," Alana says, making Maria laugh. "By the way, I'm excited for your Christmas concert."

"Oh no, are you going to come and watch?!" Maria has been nervous for the choir Christmas concert for a few days now, and she knows her nerves are only going to get worse. She's grateful Hannah is in the choir with her or she wouldn't know what to do. "I'm just glad most of the school isn't going to be here because then I'd have to perform in front of everyone."

"It'll be fun! You will get to sing with Hannah." Alana reassures Maria, making the latter less anxious about it.

After a couple more minutes, the rest of the gang enters the room and they all get into their seats. Lauren and Ethan read from the same book, but Lauren is the one who instructs on what to do. "Grind the gem into a powder and sprinkle three pinches into the potion. Do not stir! When you add the powder, make sure to sprinkle it evenly throughout the cauldron."

Maria, Alana, and Agnes grind a few gems into powder and Julia adds it to the potion. Everyone leans over the cauldron as the flakes sink and dissolve into the liquid, and then - BOOM - the top of the cauldron is set on fire and the potion explodes once again. The friends are knocked onto their backs.

Hannah coughs and waves the smoke away. She looks inside the cauldron, and is bummed to see the entire potion has vaporized. "Not again. What did we do wrong this time?"

"So... there's two ways to add moonstone gems. The powder releases toxins quicker, while adding them in full keeps their protective shell on the outside." Lauren sighs and looks further down the page. "Man, I really have to learn to read the full thing."

"At least we know what to do next time." Ethan scratches the back of his head and starts cleaning up the room. "For now, we should do our homework. It's Monday, after all."

The girls all reluctantly agree with Ethan. When they're done scrubbing the room clean, with the help of the Aguamenti spell courtesy of Agnes, they all go to the library to work on homework together. They are so close to completing the potion, but so far away. Thank goodness Maria was able to snag some more basic ingredients from Snape or they would be out of supplies to make another round of potion.