OOC:

In anther thread, Bella, Scarlett's cat, snuck into the apothecary, toppling potion ingredients and knocking over a barrel of live horned toads. Now the toads are the size of large dogs--and still growing at an alarming rate--and are running amok in Diagon Alley.

BIC:
Sil ran out into Diagon Alley, hoping to do something about the giant lizards that were crawling all around. The street was in pandemonium. Witches and wizards ran about screaming, firing spells, scattering the street mercants' wares. the lizards's increasing size hadn't slowed them down a bit; they moved far faster than a person could run.

He took aim at one with his wand and fired a reducio spell. Nothing hapened. He tried a stunner. It bounced off and hit an old wizard just as he was comming out of Nocturne Alley.

Maybe I can turn it to stone, Sil thought. He tried a duro spell. The lizard stopped in its tracks. As Sil breathed a sigh of relief and was about to turn to the next one, the one he thought he'd just dealt with swelled to the size of a bear and turned towards him. He dove for cover.

Scarlett followed Sil out into the paniced street. She wanted to help clean up Bella's mess, but when she saw that it was getting bigger by the minute she was sure she could. Her dismay grew when she saw that Sil's spell seemed to have no effect on the giant lizards. When the biggest one came for Sil she dived for cover with him. "If we can't use spell on them, maybe we can use spells to trap them. If we could heard them all into a sheild spell, maybe we could trap them until the potion wears off."

Emma swung the keys to Honeydukes on her fingers as she walked back to Hogwarts, the long way. She was bundled up tight in her coat, her red hair flying back behind her head by the wind. Happy to see the school in the distance, she turned a corner onto Diagon Alley to stop dead in her tracks when Sil fired a spell at an old man. "Oh my god!" she said, catching the man quickly as he fell back from being stunned. Slowly, she pulled the weight of his body over to a nearby bench, propping him up on it.

Turning back around, she saw Sil and Scarlett try to protect them selves from an over-grown animal. "Hey guys, what potion went wrong?" she asked, with a grin, side stepping over a lizard to get near them.

Scarlett heard Emma's question called to her from her postion of cover behind some crates, "We're not exactly sure. It was something Bella mixed up when she got loose in Sil's store. Don't bother fireing spells at them. They seem to be immune and sometimes the magic makes them bigger."

Jojo ran out from the apothecary, panicked by the sudden shrieks echoeing around the street. Her eyes widened as she saw several giant horned toads destroying the place.
Whipping out her wand, she looked around for someone she could help, dodging a bag filled with candy that had just come flying out of a little boy's hand. Suddenly, she spotted Sil, Scarlett, and Emma, all with their wands out, too.
"Sil!" she yelled, running over to them. "Do you have any idea what's happening?"

Emma looked up at Jo with raised eyebrows as her friend came out of the apothecary. She then looked back to Scarlett who said that spells did not hurt them. "Well then we are going to have to do this muggle style!" she said, aiming a kick at a nearby lizard, sending it crashing into a wall.

Twi came running around the corner with her wand in her hand. She'd heard the commotion. She didn't know what was happening, but she didn't want to miss out on it, whatever it was.

She arrived just in time to see Emma kick a very large lizard against a wall. A very, very large lizard. In fact, it looked a lot like a small horned dinosaur. And there were several more just like it tramping around. One was busy turning over garbage bins.

Sil from the apothecary was watching, along with Scarlett and Jojo. "Nice kick, Emma!" Twi shouted.

"Thanks!" she said to Twi, watching as the lizard got up and shot fire at her. "What the heck?" she yelled, turing to Sil, wondering what he had given these things. "I can deal with over-sized animals, but over-sized animals and fire breathing! I think not!" she said, ducking as the lizard aimed at her head.

Scarlett was utterly appalled the lizards could breath fire. She knew just how devastating that could be. But at the same time she was a little excited about it. The first thing she was going to do when this was all over was to go back to Sil's shop and read the broken jars on his floor. If she could figure out what made the lizards breath fire, maybe she could figure out what made her breath fire. One problem at a time though. "Ok some of us need to set up sheild charms that keep physical objects in and the rest of us need to chase the lizards into them and try to get them penned. Whose casting?"

"Those lizards must have some dragon blood in them," Twi said after one breathed fire at Emma.

The big lizard stared at them, shook itself, and belched smoke.

"I want to be a chaser!" Twi told Scarlett. "Just like in quidditch. Besides, it will probably safer to be behind them, if they break through the containment spell."

Henry was walking into Diagon Alley and he saw Scarlett, Emma, and some other people. Henry walked up to Emma and said, "Hey what's going on here?" Henry then noticed that there were lizards and other animals cralling around. "Oh my gosh what happened here?" Henry saw a cage so he took out his wand. He pointed it at a lizard and said, "Wingardium Leviosa!" Henry moved the spell into the cage and landed the lizard in there. "There, one down a lot more to go!" Henry was looking to see if he could count how many lizards there were but he couldn't. Henry then said to Scarlett, "How many lizards are there any ways?" Henry was hoping it was a somewhat low number, otherwise it would take forever to get all these lizards back in there cages.

Emma watched as Henry tried to put the lizard in a cage, but obvisouly the lizard had other plans because it burnt down its cage and walked back out. Turning to Scarlett, she said.."I can cast or chase, but do you think I should try to block off the alleyway so people walking by cant get hurt?"

Sil looked around at the havoc the engorgified lizards were causing. "That's a good plan, Scarlett," he said after hearing her idea about corraling the beasts with sheild spells. "But what will we do woth them once their penned? It's not as if they'll just go back to being regular horned... That's it! Go back!"

He ran back into the apothecary and returned moments later with his arms full of phials containing a bright green potion.

"Here," he said. "Everybody take some. It's shrinking solution. It should cause them to go back to their natural state."

Twilight took a phial from Sil and looked at it skeptically.

"Do you think it will it stop them from breathing fire, Sil?" Twilight asked. The thought of a tiny lizard belching fire was almost funny.

"And how do we use it?" she asked. "Do we just sneak up on a lizard and pour it on him? Or do we have to get it into his mouth?"

Trying to pour the potion into a fire-breathing mouth seemed like a good way to get toasted.

"It should make them revert back to their original states," Sil grimaced. "That is, I hope it does."
(OOC: it turned Neville's toad into a tadpole in the books)

BIC:
"Some stuff got knocked over in the apothecary," he continued, "and I ended up with a swelling solution on the floor, which the horned toads crawled through. Of course, I don't know what additional effects the glumbuble fluid will have... At any rate, just throw it on them. Use freezing charms on the flames if you have to. That might slow them down, too; they ae cold blooded."

“Emma that is an excellent idea about blocking off the alley. You should go do that. Now that we have these shrinking solutions,” Scarelett said taking one from Sil, “We should just block off the alley and try to nail the lizards with them.”

Just then one of the lizards looked like it was about to make a break for it at the mouth of alley. Bella leaped from a fire escape onto the lizard’s back and dug her claws in deeply. The lizard let out a pain croaking sound and ran back the other way. Scarlett was happy to see the cat helping clean up her own mess. “Ok folks, let’s get crackin’ ‘for somebody gets hurt,” Scarlett called as she advance on the lizard being ridden by Bella with an uncorked vial.

"That's the ticket," Sil called to Scarlett. "Only be careful not to hit your c--" He caught himself, remembering that this whole situation had sparked off when he'd tried coaxing Bella with 'here, kitty-kitty.'

"...not to hit Bella," he quickly ammended.

He turned around and saw that one of the lizards was nearby was quite distracted and happily gorging itself on some of Florian Fetescues' ice cream. He tossed a phial of shrinking solution, and the lizard spun around when the potion splashed all over its back. It was surprisingly fast for its size, and as Sil turned to run, he tripped over some debris.

He lay there unable to move, waiting for the massive lizard to trample him, but felt nothing. He looked up tenatively, and saw that the lizard had shrunk and was now only the size of a house cat.

'Well, how about that? The potion works, Sil!" Twilight said happily.

She walked past Sil to the cat-sized lizard and picked it up carefully. It burped some blue smoke and wiggled a bit. She tucked it under her arm. "It's kind of cute," she said, looking around for a place to put it where it wouldn't get away. She finally found an empty rain barrel and stowed it in there.

"Let's see if I can get another one," she said. She opened her phial of potion and started sneaking toward a lizard that was rooting around in some garbage.

Scarlett heard Sil’s warning, and really did try hard not to hit Bella with the shrinking potion, but one cannot really control splash. Both Bella and the lizard shrunk. The lizard was about the size she had been and she was about the size of a mouse. Scarlett scooped her up quickly before the lizard could think about eating her, though Scarlett supposed that was a possibility all along. Scarlett put Bella in her pocket telling her to stay and looked for another lizard. She wasn’t too worried about Bella. She figure Sil could fix it later.

Twilight tried to soothe the lizard as she approached it from behind. "Nice lizard, pretty lizard, just stay calm now," she said, clutching her phial of potion as she crept forward.

The lizard had found a juicy tidbit in the garbage and was ignoring Twi. Then suddenly it noticed her and whirled around. It stared at her with its dark eyes, and then it started waddling toward her. She pointed her wand at it and started backing away.

Sil saw twilight cornered by one of the large beasts, and quickly aimed his wand to cast a freezing charm. Before he could work the spell, however, he was knocked down from behind by another lizard. The phial of shrinking solution he'd been holding was crushed beneath him. He felt a wobbly seasick sensation.

He tossed another bottle of shrinking solution at the lizard that had knocked him over, then groaned as he stood up. He was now seeing the world from house-elf level.

Well, he thought, at least my clothes shrunk with me.

Twilight was dismayed to see Sil shrink. Now he was about the right size to be a quick snack for one of the lizards!

Twi's lizard turned its head and looked at Sil. Twi knew she'd better act fast, while it wasn't looking at her. She wasn't close enough to throw the potion on it, so she pointed her wand and shouted the freezing spell.

A cloud of snow and ice shot from Twi's wand. It enveloped the lizard, and the big reptile started to slow down. But suddenly the lizard shook its head and belched fire, melting the cloud.

Twi cast the spell again, and this time is was too much for the lizard. It slowed to a halt, covered in snow. Twi breathed a sigh of relief and looked over at Sil. "Are you OK, little guy?" she asked, grinning.

Having shrunk another lizard, Scarlett was looking for Sil to see if he had anymore potions, but she didn’t see him. There were only two more giant lizards that Scarlett could see and she kept an eye on them as decided to regroup with Twilight. “Have you seen Sil?” Scarlett asked the Hufflepuff girl.

"Have I seen Sil? Yeah, Scarlett, he's right over there." Twi said, pointing.

"Be careful not to step on him. He had a bit of an accident with the shrinking potion. I wonder if he knows an antidote?"

Twi was trying to figure out what to do with the semi-frozen giant lizard. She didn't want to waste any shrinking potion on it, but she was afraid that it would thaw out shortly and become a problem again. She decided to shrink it and put it in the rain barrel with her first one.

"Little guy?" Sil fumed, his face bright red. "Who do you think you're calling..." He trailed of and started laughing. "Yeah, I'm fine. It'll wear off eventually. Just go light on the short jokes, please."

He looked around for his wand, which had dropped and rolled away when the lizard knocked him over, and picked it up. It had not shrunk, and he knew it would be difficult to weild and far to large to fit in his pocket.

Scarlett couldn’t stop the giggle that bubble past her lips when she saw Sil. “What are you goin’ to do with that?” she asked as she saw him try to lug his wand up off the ground. “Did you crush all the potions when you fell?” She asked more seriously as she looked anxiously over at a lizard that had set one of the shops on fire. “We still have two more to go.”

Sil frowned. Holding the wand was like holding a baseball bat, but he wasn't about to start swinging it. "Not much, I guess," he answered Scarlett. "And there are more potions in the shop if the rest of you have run out."

He ran into the apothecary and set his wand behind the counter.

"I see the creatures are giving you a little trouble," the register smirked.

"Shove it," Sil replied.

"It was an innocent comment, Silly. No need to be short with me."

Sil gave Reg a cold look. "At least I'll be back to my regular size by tomorrow. You, on the other hand, will still be a calculator with delusions of grandeur."

He grabbed a couple of bottles of shrinking solution--they were the size of bowling pins in his arms--and started out the door. But he instantly retreaded back into the shop when he encountered on of the shrunken lizards. Even small, it was Half the height of Sil.

"Um, could someone give me hand over here," he shouted (though it was more of a squeak).

Scarlett had been watching for Sil’s return so she saw the problem as soon as it occurred. “Sorry,” She said picking the shrunken lizard up and tossing it in the water barrel alongside Twilight’s, “Forgot to put mine away.”

Scarlett took two more bottles of the shrinking solution from Sil and chucked them at the remaining lizards. Her aim was true and she scrambled after the closer one to put it with it’s kin in the barrel.

Sil looked around at the Alley. The place was a shambles and people were beginning to peek out from their hiding places. He wondered how long it would be before they all realized where the beasts had come from and pulled out the pitchforks and torches. He wished he could use his wand; the place was in desparate need of some reparo spells.

He had to stand on tiptoe to peer into the barrel of lizards. "We should probably get these guys inside... or at least out of sight."

(OOC: Sorry Scarlettl I just gotta...)

BIC:
As he looked down on the lizards, wondering what to do with them, one of them belched a short tounge of blue flame. "You know," he said. "I wouldn't mind having one running around my dormroom."

Scarlett rounded up the last lizard and she saw Sil peaking over the rim of the barrel at the fire-breathing its fire-breathing fellows. She rolled her eyes at him. “I should make you wait until you are big enough to help me move this barrel into your shop, but I don’t think we have time. So help me if, I break a nail then I will be dining on giant horny toad jerky for the next month.” Scarlett began moving the barrel toward Sil shop as she made her empty threats. The truth was she was feeling very guilty as she surveyed the distruction done to Diagon Alley. After all it had been her pet that caused all this trouble and she got to keep Bella.

Twilight was using the Aguamenti spell to put out some of the fires that the lizards had started when she saw Sil trying to help Scarlett move the barrel. It was a very silly sight because Sil was so small, and she wished that she'd brought a camera.

"Hey, let me help you with that!" she called to them, and she ran over to help them get the barrel into Sil's shop.

"Thanks Twilight," Scarlett said a little breathlessly. The girls moved their akward burden into Sil's shop. The place was still a mess with broken bottles everywhere. Scarlett groaned inwardly at the clean up job ahead of her, but it would give her a chance to talk to Sil about why the lizards breathed fire.

Sil looked around the shop, wondering where he could possibly hide the barrel of lizards. They obviously coul not run loose. He finally decided plain open sight was the best place of all. If anyone asked, he'd just say they were some rare speceis from Austrailia or something and they were not for sale. "Thanks you two," he said to Scarlett and Twilight. "There's really no way I could have moved them myself."

He ran into the back room and returned with two handfulls (which didn't amount to much in his shrunken hands) of dried crickets, which he tossed into the barrel. they were already starting to stir as the freezing spells war off and their blood warmed. One of them started to gobble the crickets down with vigor, and Sil thought, Quite the greedy fellow, that one. One other moved about sluggishly, and Sil couldn't help but laugh at the lazy creature.

"I know the perfect names for these guys," he said. "The greedy one is Avaritia; the lazy one is Acedia; and the others would be Gula, Ira, Invidia, Luxuria, and Superbia."

He wished there were something he could do about cleaning up the shop and the Alley, but he was pretty much helpless since he couldn't use his wand. He'd just have to wait for the shrinking potion to wear off.

Twilight sat on the counter and watched Sil feeding the lizards. Through the front window, she could see that people were starting to clean up the wreckage in the alley. They'd never guess that the cute little lizards on display in Sil's shop had caused all that mess. But there probably would be some kind of inquiry. Some awkward questions might be asked.

"Sil," she said quietly, "They're going to stay small now, aren't they? I mean, if you're going to get larger when the potion wears off, will the same thing happen to them, too? Because if it does, we're going to need a lot more crickets."

Sil couldn't help but laugh when Twilight said they'd need more crickets if the lizards were going to grow again. "Well," he said. "I think crickets would be the least of our problems. Besides, if I wasn't sure they would stay this size, I definitely wouldn't be thinking of keeping them around."

he took a collecting rod off one of the shelve--one low enough for him to reach, thankfully--and started gathering some of the potion on the floor, the stuff that had caused this fiasco, into an empty jar. "The shrinking solution and the swelling solution counteract one another, so the lizards will stay the size they are. I'll run some tests on this stuff just to be sure that it's permanent but I'm sure it will be." He wasn't sure what he'd do if not; the only place he could think of where the lizards in their giant form would be safe was a dragon reservation, and even there the dragons would probably kill them, thinking them malformed.

In my case, I could use a swelling solution to retun to my rightful size, but it's very hard to judge how much of the counteracting potion to use to get the size exact. As you can see, even though the lizards have been shrunk, they are still much larger than their original size. No, it's far less risky, albeit frustrating, for me to just wait for the potion to wear off. But at least I'm not a Sytherin; I'd surely be mistaken for a leprechaun if I were wearing green."

Scarlett turned away throuroughly grossed out by Sil feeding his lizards live crickets. She was glad Twilight had brougt up the akward question of size, for Scarlett had been loath to do so herself, but she had been worried about it. Sil's explination sounded plausible enough, he had obviously formed some kind of bizaar attachment to the lizards and Scarlett was worried that at some point they might grow again. There were somethings about boys she would never understand.

When he began cleaning up the solution that had caused this whole problem Scarlett leaned forward interestedly. "Sil, what do you think caused them to breath fire?"

Sil looked inquisitively at Scarlett. Compared to the lizards' having grown to the size of large cows, the firebreathing seemed, to him at least, only a trivial curiosity. He thought her interest in it was a bit odd. Still, it gave him something to think about other than his own diminished stature.

"I can think of a couple of explanations," he said. "The most likely one is that it's a side effect of the growins solution. When they're used on animals, growing and shrinking potions don't always just affect size. A shrinking solution will turn a frog into a tadpole, for instance. growing solutions, on the other hand, can sometimes wake up traits that have long since disappeared in the evolutionary process, because the genes for those traits are still there only turned off. It quite likely that horned toads are a distant cousin to dragons, thus the growing solution reawakened their ability to breathe fire."

He made a mental list of the stuff that had been knocked off the shelves to create the accidental potion. "Then again, it could be the potion itself. In that case it would make any animal breathe fire. But I don't think that's very likely. Mark would probably be able to tell us if he takes a look at this," he said, holding up the flask of the potion he'd collected.

Listening to Sil talk, all Scarlett could think that Sil was so danm smart. He just knew all kinds of stuff off the top of his head. It amazed Scarlett. She knew one thing, she needed to know what was in that flask. And she would prefer to ask Mark without Sil around. Mark had already seen the worst of what Scarlett could do so she could be straight with him, but she would prefer to keep her secret to herself until she grew more accustomed to the knowlegde of her distructive power. "Tell me Sil," she began smiling at him, "What can I do to help you out?"

Twilight was looking into the barrel, watching the lizards. Like Sil, she had grown rather fond of them.

"Sil, I think you should publish your theory about the genetic basis for fire-breathing horned toads and their relationship to dragons," she said. "It would revolutionize herpetology."

Twi reached into the barrel and started scratching Superbia under the chin. "Kitchy-koo, little lizard!" she said. The lizard happily closed her eyes and lifted her head in response.

Then Twi pulled her hand back suddenly when Superbia belched a tiny fireball.

Sil sighed. "There's really not much to do, I guess, Scarlett," he said. "If you want, you can reparo some of the broken stuff in here. I won't be able to use my wand awhile yet."

He looked at Twilight in shock. "Publish?! And let people know about these guys? Everyone would want to run tests, see what makes 'em tick. They'd be poked and prodded and dissected and who knows what else. Personally, I think they'd be much happier running around in the Hufflepuff common room. Of course, Sonkie would either end up transfiguring them into pillows or training them to attack first years on sight."