Snips and Snails and Basilisk Tails.

He'd finished a five star dinner with his date in muggle London, and watched her slip off into the night as gracefully as black smoke blends into darkness. He smiled, satisfied, paid the tab, and found an unwatched corner of the restroom to apparate back to Knockturn.

He lit a cigarette as a clock someplace chimed 10 pm. He made his way down the twisted, narrow brick street to an old heavy wood door and slipped inside and down the winding stone stairs to the catacombs. The illegals lab had been abandoned by the Dent family months ago, and had been more than ripe for the pickings, especially now with witches and wizards desperate for a cure from the plague.

He walked in and was pleased to see his girls had had a banner day. They'd sold more than ever and they'd managed to brew over their quotas. The cashbox was bulging. He didn't wish the plague or death on anyone but a bit of a profit wasn't something he could ignore. One of the girls put on a pot of tea for him on the hearth and he drew out the weekly wages for each of them, along with bonuses. They were delighted, and gave him thank you kisses before saying goodnight and leaving for the night.

He poured the tea, and scanned the shelves. He chose 5 ingredients and floated them to the worktable and began chopping the leaves from the first jar with patience and meticulous attention, taking time only to take a sip of his tea or a puff of his cigarette in the otherwise silent stone potions lab.

Aaron waited ever so patiently in the alley, concealed only by extremely baggy clothing, and the darkness all around him. He was usually gifted at concealment charms, but the illness had left his magic rather weakened. He found that he could only use his magic at average power for no more than a few hours before he felt drained and ready to fall asleep. He was running out of options and he was growing increasingly more desperate with every passing hour. He could barely get up in the mornings, and when he did, he only thought of how wonderful the bed felt.

He heard the crack he had been waiting for and he readjusted himself as Lorcan came into view. He had received word from a few people that he had a few illegal potions that might be of some help to him, but he had also heard that he was a money maker. Aaron had two options. He could go in and bully the money out of the man which would lead to a fight. Normally Aaron would not have worried because he was confident in his skills, but he was too weak, and he felt like the duel would end quickly. The second was to try and get him on his side, to fund him perhaps. Aaron was, after all, a businessman.

When he vanished into the lab Aaron made his move. He followed suit behind him and he tapped his wand on the door after a good amount of time had passed. He quietly made his way in, being very careful not to make any noise. He made his way down the stairs and he quickly spotted Lorcan. Aaron approached slowly, not wanting to startle him and end up dead. He kept his hands very visible so that he could see that Aaron had no wand and was not there to attack him.

"Lorcan D'Eath..." He started, slowly bringing himself into the light so that he could see him. "I hear you are the man to talk to about potions."

Lorcan laid aside the thin sharp scalpel that he used to cut the herbs and looked up at the sound of a voice. It wasn't all that unusual to have someone show up at night. And susually because they either were somehow 'allergic' to daylight, or because they were desparate. This guy looked pale enough that he well could have passed for either. Either he was in that 'allergic' catagory or was another plague victim.

"I am," Lorcan confirmed. The potions Lorcan sold were, in some ways, similar between what he sold at Slugs and Jiggers legitimately, and what was sold here. The main difference was that, here, the dosages were typically considerably more potent and concentrated beyond what ministry standards would allow.

Lorcan wasn't particularly concerned about this man. He might have been if the man had presented as more of a threat. Somehow he didn't think his visitor was from the Ministry. They'd been leaving this location alone, largely, since the plague had reached epidemic proportions. Clearly they had more on their minds than busting up the illegals lab, and truth be told, it was proving useful. For those who did not like the more tame potions at Slugs and Jiggers and did not trust the care at St Mungos, Lorcan's underground business provided another alternative, and that reduced panic right now.

He gave the man a casual gesture to wave away any concerns he might have that Lorcan would strike back, so they could both be at ease enough to get on with business.

"So--how can I help you?" Lorcan asked. He was seeing more symptoms of the plague than anything else, but he did not want to merely presume.

The man responded and did not seemed at all threatened by Aaron. He was not used to this type of attitude because he usually walked around with an air of authority, and without even asking, demanded attention. For a moment he was almost upset that the man had not perceived him as a thread, but it made sense, he had seen himself in the mirror before he left and he looked like he could fall over dead at any moment. He took the attitude with a grain of salt and he moved forward to see what the man was working on.

He did not pay any mind to what he was doing, he did not care, but he was curious and he could not help but at least get a look. "I believe it is obvious why I am here," Aaron started slow, moving his eyes from the mans activities to lock onto Lorcan's. He was a firm believer in eye contact and he knew that it would let Lorcan know that he was serious and not here to waste time. "This illness, it has become a burden, and I intend to stop it." He spoke with confidence because it was all he had left. Negativity was going to get him nowhere besides dead.

"I have tried, and failed, multiple different things to try and counteract this damned thing and I am no closer to healing it then I was when I first started. I thought I could heal it with magic, at least delay the symptoms. The idea was simple, build a wand that was powerful enough to counter act the illness, but it never worked. No matter the power of the wand, it does not help." He felt the cough come before it even came out. He turned away and began to cough in an uncontrollable manor. It felt like his lungs were about to fly out, and when it was over, he looked at his hands to find blood. He let out a sigh and he wiped it on his coat before continuing.

"It was all time wasted. So now I have new theories, but much less time, and that is where you come in." He ran his hand along the table, admiring the mans work, but not wasting much time. "This illness, it profits you, sure. But imagine if you were to create a cure. Not only would you be able to name your price and soak in the coins, you would be hailed as a hero, a legend. Every man wants to be remembered and that would seal your fate in the history books." Aaron did not care about being remembered, he cared about the now, but he knew how to play a man's ego.

"You wont be able to do it alone, but I can help. I am a man full of contacts across the globe, knowledge that most men only dream of, and a desire unlike any other. I need this cure, more than anything, and I will do whatever it takes. I don't even want any of the profits, you get 100% of the coins, I just want the cure."

"Well, the good news is that I believe I might be able to reduce your symptoms for you somewhat, but that is still a temporary thing. The illness still progresses, but the symptomatic relief does buy some time." The man's cough wasn't good. It was a good indicator of the man's congestion levels. "And I shall presume that you do have some level or another of that truly annoying green rash."

He got up and went to the shelves and got out three different bottles. He brought them back and put them down in front of him on the counter.

"Your commitment to finding a cure is admirable, but if you are going to actually pursue this, then you need to be able to stay on your feet.

"This one," he showed him a bottle of lotion, "temporarily relieves the itching that the rash causes. It is a lotion only. The brown bottle is a decongestant and cough remedy. It will reduce some of that head and chest congestion and reduce the coughing. It should help your breathing. The clear bottle works on pain, fever and there is just a wee bit of a restorative in it to help compensate for body weakness and malaise. Will you feel like yourself again? I doubt it. But it might buy you time to do what you want to do

"I tried using my wand as well, and it did not seem to have any effect. I have started to believe that this might well not be a specific dark spell or curse. I have tried to go through as many old dark arts books as I can find, and I see similar things but not to this extent.

"Oh, just a side note," he said, "the decongestant, for some odd reason, in this strength can cause a case of the munchies in direct proportion to how much of it you ingest. It can be a good thing if the illness causes lack of appetite. But otherwise its just a nuisance."

When the man started to bring out all of the remedies Aaron wanted to jump for joy for the first time since he was a boy. He knew that their were remedies out there but he had not gone looking for them because of his own stupidity, he thought he could beat it before it got bad, but he was wrong. Now the potions and lotions were extremely hard to get and he did not even want to waste his time trying to get them the traditional way. He quickly downed the medicine the man gave him and he pocketed the lotion, saving it for later. The green was spreading all across his chest and stomach and to some areas he did not care to show Lorcan.

When Lorcan started going over things, Aaron pulled his tiny notebook out, and he opened it and flipped through the pages. "I have done nothing but research this. You are right, I do not think it is a curse, or at least not in the way that we think of." He slid found his notes in his journal and he slid them over to Lorcan. "During the years of Merlin it is mentioned, albeit briefly, of a sickness. Merlin barely touched on it, mentioning that it was the workings of a lunatic." He leaned back and let Lorcan go over his journal and he told him pretty much evverything that was in it.

"I started to research it more, seeing if I could pull any types of medical records from that time period, turns out there was a week long spree of people going to the hospitals with the exact same symptoms that the first stages of this illness is. Take a look Patients exhibited flu like symptoms when they came to the ward. Aches and pains seemed to be the most common but coughing and upset stomachs seemed to be evident." He gave Lorcan a few moments to look it over before continuing. "It was happening then also. So either it was just a freak coincidence or someone found a way to stop it before it got out of control." It was the only thing they had to go on, at least so far.

"I just hope it is not too late."

"A week?" Lorcan frowned. "Odd. So, there were, in Merlin's day something that repeated this. So--either they had a remedy, or...it makes sense to me that the circumstances created a minor degree of it--compared to what we have now. Or both. Merlin surely was clever enough to do what we so far have not been able to do. That case is well worth studying. Perhaps the victims descendants might know something.

"If there is a remedy, then surely there is a formula for it somewhere. If it is environmental, one would think that there might be a journal that talked about the things that were different when the illness was in effect, if they knew what it was, so that perhaps we can help look at what has changed in our world--either in the natural muggle sense of the word, or within our own magical spheres.

"One of the puzzling bits for me has been why some folks seem to get it and become deathly ill and even sometimes die, some just get a lingering sickness, and others are relatively unaffected. There is some commonality there that is sorting us into some rather distinctive spheres, and that whole connection, I think, is essential to explore. "

Lorcan knew that if the potion caused the man the munchies, it would be uncomfortable. "There is tea in the pot on the hearth. Mugs are there...on the shelf," he indicated. "And there is always a bowl of fruit on the mantel. If the potion kicks in and makes you hungry, you'd best feed it.

"Not to be rude, but do you have a name?" he asked.

Aaron nodded his head and he walked over and began to pour himself a glass of tea. "Merlin was very secretive and if he did discover a cure finding it will be nothing short of impossible." He finished pouring and he drank it all in one gulp, realizing he was already starting to feel better, and he poured himself another glass. "Especially because it was not common knowledge. Merlin probably thought that it would never come about again, so he might not have even recorded the cure, but that would not be like him. He was tedious with his note takings." Aaron had spent a lot of time reading about Merlin, he was a fascinating wizard who had accomplished a lot, which was worth studying.

"I suppose it is the same reason one person can get a cold and a day later it is gone but another person could get the exact same cold and it could cripple them, even kill them. Peoples immune systems are different, some can handle a lot, others cannot." Aaron was starting to become hungrier than he had been in a long time so he took up Lorcan's offer on the fruit and grabbed himself two oranges and began to peel them.

"Our best option would be to search every Merlin artifact we have. It could have been mentioned off handed in some of his teachings or it could be in some lost journal that has never been discovered." He finished peeling his oranges and he made his way back over to where Lorcan was. "Thanks for the food." He peeled a few slices off and ate them very hungrily, knowing full well they would not feed his ever growing appetite. "This is, by no means, going to be simple."

"I never studied Merlin much," Lorcan said. "Some little muggle twerp I met as a kid when we were on holiday ruined Merlin for me with some odd nonsense about muggle legends of him. Made him a laughing stock. I lost my interest in him after that.

"Anyway, it occurs to me that if there were any definitive books that still remained on Merlin or any of his journals, the most likely place for them to have ended up were in the hands of Dumbledore. If that is the case, then it seems to me that we do need to find a way to penetrate those castle walls and explore the restricted section of the library. It is worth a thought. There are parts of that section that haven't been used in decades. You don't, by chance, happen to know anyone in the castle enough to get in, do you?

"If you don't, it might be worth our while to attend the graduation ceremony. Perhaps my date and I could draw enough attention that you might be able to detour to the library. If you're any decent at stealth. it is a worth a thought at least." He stopped and smiled a satisfied sinister smile, a new thought occuring to him. "And, if worse comes to worse, my date is a woman who is definitely full of surprises."

"He was, indeed, known to the muggle world but most of the so called legends were all fabrications." He had heard of the stories that muggles talked about when they were discussing Merlin. They all had different ideas of what he could and could not do, often times making him to seem like some all powerful wizard. It was funny how muggles could misconstrue something with so little information, but he also found it funny that some would disregard such a great wizard because of muggle legend.

When he mentioned going to the graduation Aaron nodded his head. Not only could they get access to the library and get their hands on a few books, but he would also be able to get in touch with a student there who he had been watching for awhile. "The stealth part of it will not be a problem and going there during graduation would be perfect. No one would pay any attention to me and I would be able to sneak in with relative ease. Plus, I do know of a few people there as well."

Aaron was already flooding his mind with ideas on the whole ordeal. It would not be simple, nothing ever was, but it was going to be their best shot at getting their hands on something the need. "So it is settled then, we will go to the graduation and I will sneak into the library while everyone is in the great hall." He finished his oranges and then made his way back to the fruit bowl and pocketed a few more things for the road. "I assume I will be able to get more of this medicine from you in the future?"