Andy Targeted

Since Slytherin's Quidditch team lost, Sean had stopped paying attention to Quidditch. He returned to his usual routine of study and daily life, while spending every weekend brewing potions in the Room of Requirement to give to Andy. By selling potions, Sean had now managed to save up a little money.

"Andy, I need some new ingredients. Do you think you can get them?"

Having just accepted the fifteen Mind Recovery Potions Sean had provided, Andy heard this and immediately replied without hesitation, "Of course. I just don't know what ingredients you need. If they're too difficult to obtain, I might need some time."

Seeing Andy's attitude, Sean immediately realized that his previous impression of Andy had been somewhat conservative. The guy had not even said he couldn't get them—only that he would need time. In other words, Andy was confident he could obtain most Potion Ingredients, or he would not have sounded so assured.

"I need Scarab Beetles, Ginger Root, and Armadillo Bile..."

As Andy listened to the ingredients Sean listed, his eyes lit up slightly. "That's for Smartening Potion! Sean, do you want to make Smartening Potion?"

Smartening Potion was a potion that could make the drinker's mind clear for a certain period of time. It did not actually increase intelligence; it merely gave the drinker an exceptionally lucid mind and far more flexible thinking while its effects lasted. Those abilities had always belonged to the drinker—it was simply that the Smartening Potion brought them fully into play.

Even so, Smartening Potion was an extremely popular potion within Hogwarts, especially at the end of term and among fifth-year and seventh-year students. After all, whatever one learned while under the effects of Smartening Potion remained one's own even after the potion wore off. Thus, as long as they could afford it, many people bought Smartening Potion to aid their daily studies and exam preparation.

Naturally, it had a large market and was worth even more.

Sean looked at Andy and said, "Andy, don't get so excited yet. I'm planning to use this for myself. And Smartening Potion is more difficult to brew than Mind Recovery Potion. I still can't raise my success rate enough to sell it anytime soon. I can only buy the ingredients and brew Smartening Potion for my own use."

"This..."

Andy sighed in disappointment, but quickly spoke again. "Sean, can you raise your success rate for making Mind Recovery Potions anytime soon? If you can, could you increase the supply? More and more people are coming to me to buy Mind Recovery Potions now. Some orders have already been scheduled into next month."

"There's nothing I can do about that. I need to have my own studies and life too, don't I?"

"That's true. I'll head off first, then. I need to slow down on taking orders this month. Otherwise, if too many orders pile up, it'll be easy for problems to arise."

Andy left, looking deeply troubled.

Blaise watched Andy leave, then closed Sean's door before speaking to him. "Sean, I've investigated it. Andy does have potion suppliers besides you, but at the start of this term, two of the three people who had been steadily supplying him with potions were poached away. If he hadn't found you afterward, Andy's business at Hogwarts would have suffered a huge blow—he might even have been forced to shut down."

"Do you know who did it?"

Blaise nodded. "I found that out too. It was a fourth-year named Dorian Cooke. He also comes from a minor family, one even smaller than Andy's. So I suspect someone is backing Cooke. I've already had my family investigate it. We should have the answer before long."

"Alright, I understand. Thanks."

Rolling his eyes, Blaise said impatiently, "You're always like this, thanking people over and over. This isn't difficult for me. All I have to do is write a letter and have an owl deliver it. It takes no effort at all, so you don't need to thank me."

"Then consider it thanks to the people in your family who helped you look into this."

Blaise shot Sean a glance and said helplessly, "Fine. I'll accept it on their behalf."

The two chatted for a while longer before Sean and Blaise left together. Sean headed for the Potions Club, while Blaise went to meet his girlfriend for a date. He had recently been getting along passionately with that third-year senior girl, and they had officially become boyfriend and girlfriend. Yet for some reason, the more passionately they got along, the more Sean felt that Blaise might end up hurting that senior girl. He had no proof; he simply wasn't sure about Blaise's character in relationships.

Sean left the Common Room. As he did, two older students watching him depart immediately began speaking in low voices.

"Judging by the time and the books in his hands, he's definitely heading to the Potions Club."

"So the potion expert Andy found is actually a first-year?"

The other person smiled and continued, "You may not know much about him, but he's no ordinary student. He won two Pureblood Duels in a row, and in the second one, he beat that Malfoy family brat badly enough to send him to the Hospital Wing. Old Malfoy even came to Hogwarts afterward and still couldn't do anything to him. He's no ordinary first-year."

"No matter how unusual he is, he's still only a first-year. So what if his surname is Bulstrode? He's just the son of a Squib. The head of the Bulstrode family probably only protected him a little for the family's reputation and because of his personal ability. How could a true pure-blood family possibly go all out to protect the son of a Squib?"

The man did not refute his companion. The other was an extreme supporter of pure-bloods; if he had lived years ago, he would surely have been prime Death Eater material. People like that were dangerous by nature, and there was no need to argue with him. As long as they could work together to earn Galleons, that was enough.

"Let's not talk about that. It's certain that he caught our Head of House's eye and entered the Potions Club. We've also studied the Mind Recovery Potion he brews—his skill is quite good. And his output is extremely high. Since we promised to make sure Andy can no longer do business at Hogwarts, we have to deal with Sean. Otherwise, with fifteen Mind Recovery Potions every week, Andy's business can keep going indefinitely!"

"Leave it to me. I was the one who poached those previous two people, and this one won't be an exception!"