Chapter 30 Elsie #2
“I left my Arcane Policy class and was walking back to my dorm when I noticed everyone caught up in romance. Couples were snogging, running hand in hand back to their dorms, embracing in every way. When I got to my building, I had to dodge couples just to get into my dorm. I knew quickly that it was a love potion.” Henri’s eyes stayed focused on Alicia as she stepped around the front of the courtroom.
“And were you affected by the symptoms of the love potion?”
“At that time, no. I didn’t have a fancy for anyone during the first attack.” Henri’s mouth turned up in a small smile, and her eyes flitted briefly to Noah. That earned a hushed giggle from Ivy.
“Ms. Baker, what was your response to the attacks continuing?”
“I wanted to solve the problem. Since I wasn’t affected, I wanted to come up with a solution, so I went to a potions lab and began working toward an anti-potion.
” Henri’s eyes beamed with pride. “It was there that I ended up partnering with Noah Lawrence, and we investigated the origin of the attacks.”
Noah shifted uncomfortably in his seat.
Vane nodded, walking closer to Henri. Her voice rang clear as she asked a pointed question. “Did anyone try to stop your investigation?”
Henri took a slow breath before answering.
I listened with rapt attention as the questioning continued, hearing every detail of how Henri and Noah had been threatened to stop looking into the love potion, how she’d gotten anonymous texts.
It was a story I’d only heard bits and pieces of previously, and Henri told it with so much bravery and boldness.
There was a collective gasp when Henri revealed that she originally thought that her best friend, Ivy, was behind the love potion attacks.
I held Ivy’s hand as Henri recounted those moments.
The gallery held its breath as she revealed she had confronted Ivy and asked her about the love poison and the threatening notes, and that was when she had realised Ivy was not truly behind the attacks.
Henri’s eyes met her best friend’s for a silent moment.
Then she told of their discovery of the ingredients and method to turn the potion into a poison.
“What did you do when you discovered there might be a second person behind the attacks? Behind the poison?”
“I called Noah, and he told me not to look for answers without him. He didn’t feel it was safe.
I was waiting for him near the potions building, and I was overcome with nausea, so I ran in and went to the bathroom.
While I was in there, I heard someone yelling on the phone.
” Henri shifted around in her seat, the topic finally seeming to make her nervous.
“What did the person in the bathroom say?”
“I didn’t catch the entire conversation, but she was angry.
Begging for someone to take her back because she knew they still loved her.
As she left the bathroom, I heard what could have been a threat.
At that point, I thought Professor Fortenberry, Aster’s ex, was potentially behind the potion.
But when I heard the conversation, it made me wonder if it could be her.
” Henri gulped, then wet her lips with her tongue.
“I followed Professor Aster to her lab.”
Vane nodded, clasping her hands together, giving Henri some time to breathe.
“What did you notice when you got to her lab?”
“Before I walked in, I heard her yell at Robert—Professor Fortenberry—that he would regret not taking her back. I knew I should have left. But I watched her as she started casting a spell and was worried…worried for everyone on campus. I was terrified that she would use the poison and spell-cast it. She-she knew I’d followed her.
” Henri took a staggered breath, and every ounce of tension Noah had felt at the beginning was back in his body, and it doubled.
He leaned forward as though he were going to jump over the banister to get to Henri.
Vane asked Henri more questions, and slowly, Henri answered.
I teared up as I watched this girl I cherished nearly shaking as she recalled this terrible event.
Henri carefully told of Aster’s confession to making the love potion, to entrapping Ivy with a blood oath, and to making the poison to ensure that Professor Fortenberry would get back together with her or die.
“She told me she would cast the love poison, and that-that I wouldn’t be leaving the room.
I tried to defend myself, but I never studied defensive magic.
Aster eventually…disarmed me and forced me into a closet.
” Henri took a massive breath. “She told me her secret would die with me. Then, she hit me with another spell, and I passed out.”
I was fully in tears as I watched Henri tell her story with tears in her own eyes. Her voice was fairly even, and she hardly stumbled over her words, but it was obvious how traumatic this event was for her. Ivy was crying too, and I squeezed her hand tighter.
“When you became conscious again, what did you notice?”
“My heart was pounding as though I were sprinting. It was painful, it was beating so hard. All I could think about at first was Noah and how I needed to be near him. I remembered what had happened and realized it was a consequence of the poison. I thought I was going to die, because there was no way that Noah would find me in the locked closet. I screamed for him anyway. Not sure if that was the poison or my fear, or both.”
The fear in her voice gripped the entire room, the tension palpable in the air.
Vane nodded again in sympathy. “Ms. Baker, how were you saved?”
“Noah found me. The poison affected him as well, and he busted through doors to get to me.” Henri locked eyes with Noah, tears streaming down her face. “He had already altered our love potion antidote to work for the love poison, so he cast it on the whole campus. He saved everyone.”
Alicia turned to the judge, a broad smile on her face. “That is all the questions I have for Ms. Baker.”