Devil's Lust

Devil’s Lust

“Harry?” Ginny said timidly over breakfast one morning. She had been waiting nearly a week for Harry to come down early so she could get him on his own.
“Yes?” he offered as he piled some pancakes onto his plate.
“Neville and I have been working on a kind of Herbology project and we were wondering if you’d be able to help us a bit.”
“I’m not sure how I’d be able to help. I’m not exactly incredible in Herbology.”
“Well, there’s a plant that grows in the Forest. We were hoping you might be able to help us find it. Or at least tell us if you’ve seen it,” Ginny added as Harry sighed. “I know you’re busy with the Tournament and everything, but we’d really appreciate the help.”
“I’ll do what I can,” Harry said finally. “I’m not promising that will be a lot though.” He started in on his pancakes as they discussed it further. “So, this plant, what does it look like?”
“Well, it looks a lot like Devil’s Snare. The main difference being that it won’t strangle you. It’s also a bit smaller than Devil’s Snare, from what I understand.”
“I’ve definitely never seen anything like that in the Forest. You’re sure it grows there?”
“Yes, but not very much, I think. It’s probably very deep in.”
“So, you want me to help you look for it?”
“I-don’t want to be a bother. Only if you can.”
“Well, maybe some night I’ll get Ron and Hermione and we’ll go down with you and Neville and look around.”
“Oh, no. Don’t tell Ron and Hermione about it. At least not yet. Neville and I want to keep it a secret for now.”
“Why?” Harry frowned slightly.
“We just do. Just for now please.”
“All right then.” Ginny was thankful that Harry was too preoccupied with his own problems to worry about why Ginny was keeping secrets. “Maybe I’ll try to ask Hagrid if he’s seen that plant anywhere; he might know.”
“No. I’ll talk to Hagrid,” Ginny said quickly. Harry raised an eyebrow at this, but decided not to pursue it further.
“Okay then.”
“Thanks Harry,” she said cheerily and left without having touched her food.

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“Well?” Neville asked as Ginny arrived in their corner of the Library.
“He’s never seen it,” Ginny informed him. “But he’s said he might be able to help us look for it some night.”
“That’s good then. I wouldn’t do well in the Forest on my own.”
“I still think we should try and find out where it is before we go into the Forest.”
“So who do you want to ask next then?”
“I’ve been thinking a lot about that. Well, Hermione and Ron have only been to the same parts of the Forest as Harry.”
“So they wouldn’t have seen it either.”
“Then there’s Hagrid, but I don’t think it would be safe to ask him. He probably helped Dumbledore move it to the Forest in the first place. Which means he knows exactly where it is, but he’ll also know exactly what it is.”
“So Fred and George then?”
“Seems so.”
“You think they’ll figure out what you’re up to?”
“I hope not.”

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“You know, a lot of that joke shop stuff’s pretty amazing,” Ginny told her brothers as they were browsing Zonko’s. “You guys are a lot smarter than you let on.”
“Well, thanks for that.” Fred grinned.
“Yeah. Considering we don’t let on much at all, I’m not sure if that’s a compliment.” But George was smiling too.
“You guys must be pretty well-rounded in a lot of subjects. Potions, Charms, Herbology.”
“We know a fair bit,” George admitted.
“Where do you get all of your supplies though?”
“Well,” Fred began. “We get some things from the student store cupboards.”
“We’ve nicked a few things from Snape’s cupboards.”
“We’ve also tried to establish a few suppliers in Hogsmeade.”
“But we get the majority of our stuff from the Forest.”
“Oh?” Ginny grinned inwardly as her guess was confirmed.
“Yeah,” said Fred. “There’s loads of stuff in there that you can’t find anywhere.”
“Really? Like what?”
“Well, lots of rare plants and stuff.”
“Where do you think they get the things for the Greenhouses?” George said.
“And we get on pretty well with most of the creatures in there. So we’ve been able to get them to help us out.”
“Hair, eggs, blood, loads of stuff.”
“Wow,” Ginny sighed. “Neville and I have been talking a lot about Herbology lately. Seen any interesting plants in there?”
“Oh, plenty of them,” George enthused. “There’s one that looks just like a rose bush, but each of the roses has like a mouth with sharp teeth in it.”
“Yeah,” Fred said. “And one that’s like a bright orange tomato plant.”
“That one makes you pass out straight away if you eat it.”
“Then there was one that looked almost exactly like Devil’s Snare.” Ginny fought hard to keep her expression calm.
“Only it doesn’t do anything at all.”
“We’ve been thinking of collecting a cutting of it to study though.”
“Wow,” Ginny said again. “It must be really exciting to see all that stuff firsthand.”
“I suppose so,” said George offhandedly.
“Is our baby sister thinking of exploring the Forest for herself?” Fred asked.
“I’ve thought about it,” Ginny said unfalteringly.
“Is that right?” George said with a half-glance at his twin.
“Well, we would recommend you take an experienced witch or wizard with you if you do.”
“Someone who knows their way around a bit.”
“And-” Fred looked to George, who nodded. “This would probably come in useful.” Fred extracted a piece of parchment from within his cloak.
“What’s that?” Ginny asked.
“That,” said George, “is quite possibly one of our greatest inventions, little sister.”
“We had a little help with the basic design,” Fred explained.
“But we’ve added our own modifications.”
“Allow us to show you how it works.” Fred tapped the parchment with his wand. “I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.” Ginny’s jaw dropped as the ink stretched all over the paper, showing a map of Hogwarts. At the top were the names of the authors, Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs.
“That’s incredible,” Ginny said.
“That’s only the beginning,” George informed her. “We didn’t actually write that one.”
“Show me The Burrow.” Fred gave it another top. Hogwarts was erased and a map of the Burrow appeared in its place. Mrs. Weasley was bustling about the living room.
“Show me Hogsmeade.” George tapped the map. Now it showed Hogsmeade on its face. Ginny saw herself, Fred and George in Zonko’s. Harry, Ron and Hermione were heading back toward the castle.
“Show me The Forest.” Fred tapped it yet again. A heard of Centaurs was on the move; Aragog was nestled quietly as his children moved about; even Mr. Weasley’s car was shown trundling about here and there.
“Blimey,” Ginny said finally. She looked closer to see some of the places the twins had marked. She was thrilled to see that they had marked each of the plants they had mentioned. Far in the Forest, beyond the place where the Centaurs were roaming was marked “Devil’s Snare?” It wouldn’t be easy to reach, but at least it wasn’t very far off the beaten path.
“You’d actually let me borrow this?” Ginny asked her brothers in disbelief.
“Not exactly,” Fred said slowly.
“Fred and I have worked out a useful spell though,” George said. Fred held his wand to the parchment.
“Germinio!” The parchment seemed to thicken and then split into two copies. “There you are then.” Fred held out the new copy to Ginny.
“Now you can see all those places too.”
“But unless you wan work a Protean Charm, you won’t be able to see any new ones George or myself might add.”
“If you’re planning to go ferreting around some new place, though, you can check with us first.”
“Wow.” Ginny was amazed at her brothers’ skill in crafting the map and at their generosity in sharing it with her. “Thank you,” she finally managed.
“Think nothing of it,” Fred said pompously with a wave of his hand.
“We can tell you’re learning the right family values from our example,” George added with a wink.
“Just put that to good use, eh?”
“I will,” Ginny assured them with a broad grin. “I definitely will.”