Love Potion No. 9

9 Chester Square
London

Hook, line, and sinker. He had taken the bait, and that was exactly what Ursula had expected of him. She had expected that he was going to fall for her cut out dress, and her legs that went on for miles. Ursula did not need the potion that she had sprinkled in his drink, and over his food. She hadn’t needed it to catch his attention, but she was going to use it to hold it.

What she wanted from him was a lot more than just his attention. She wanted his undivided attention. She wanted him worshipping the ground that she walked on. And not just because that was a good place for him. But because when it came to what she wanted to do with his heart, it was a lot easier to convince a drugged man to do just about anything. And she wanted his heart. Still beating. In her hand.

Smiling at him across the table she twirled her fork in her fingers as she watched him. The steak that she had put in front of him had been doused in the love potion as well. A mild dose. Not enough to really change his thoughts about her in a noticeable way. But enough that she thought that he was going to be that much more attentive. And she could deal with a little clingy if that got her what she wanted.

“I hope you like it. It’s been awhile since I made steak, I’ll admit.” She hadn’t actually made it in any case. She had supervised Lunete making it. But the elf had dictated what she was doing the whole time. Ursula would not be misinformed about what she had or had not done. She was still trying to make sure she was impressing him. Even with her little bit of magical assistance.

---

@lassiter • 308 • ursula's outfit

Honestly, the fact that a woman a beautiful as she was, had been interested in him. Not that he doubted his looks or his skills but it was the fact that she was just so damned pretty and just so damned perfect! She had asked him over for dinner, and this was nothing that she had not seen before. She at least seemed to know what she was doing in the kitchen, which was more than he could say about himself. He was okay, but only when it came to some things. His mother had taught him, but a lot of his skill had gone unused since he a Dorie had divorced. It was easier to just get whatever he wanted from the shop, or go out to eat. When he wasn’t at the hospital that was.

She had cooked for him, asked him over and she looked good enough to eat as well. Maybe it was the wine going to his head or the fact that he had been alone for so long, but she looked more beautiful that night then she did at the hospital. He had a slight smirk on his face as he thanked her softly.

” Well, if I am going by smells, it will be delicious.” He said softly before winking at her. He cut the steak and it was done just the way that he liked it so he took a bite and savored the flavor. ” Yes, delicious. Damn. “ He said before taking a sip of his wine.

words: 257

It had been a set up. He was her target, and he had fallen so easily into her trap. Ursula wasn’t sure what it was about him that had made him such easy prey, but she honestly didn’t mind. She thought that there was something about him that was just vulnerable. Lonely, perhaps. Not everyone existed as she did. Floating in and out of other people’s lives.

She had distanced herself from the boys, and every now and again she missed them. But she thought that perhaps Rabastan had been right. Perhaps it was time to stop playing with little boys and start trying to catch some bigger fish. Not that she really needed a bigger fish. Not yet anyway. But she did know that her mentor was not the fish that she wanted. Or needed. Rabastan could help her, he could teach her, but he was never going to love her, not when he loved her aunt the way that he did. And she was never going to love him.

And she knew that he had wanted that too. She could care for him. She did care for him. There would always be an affection for the man. But she did not love anyone. She took what she wanted from men. That was simply who she was, but Ursula thought that she had about the same chance of actually getting invested in a man as one of Vayda’s black widows.

No, that wasn’t the life that she wanted. A web was a necessity, but strings were a burden.

That’s why this was perfect. She could take what she wanted from William Lassiter. And in return, well, in return he could have her. For a little while. She had never been a particularly prudish pureblood. She had learned very young what she could make a boy, and then a man, do with a smile, and what lay between her very long legs.

The wine lifted to his lips and her smile twisted just a little bit. Unstoppable. That’s what she was going to be, the more he drank. The more he ate, the more irresistible she was going to become. And then she would be one step closer to getting what she wanted. But Ursula was a patient witch. She would play with her toys, before she broke them.

“I’m so glad.” A fake show of relief washed over her features when he said that it was delicious. “I owed you a thank you after you turned me around and pointed me in the right direction the other day.” The fact that she hadn’t actually been lost was entirely irrelevant. “And you can’t eat out of takeout containers forever, that’s positively shameful.”

452 • ursula's outfit

After Dorie, he hadn’t seen the reason to look for love. He was jaded, yes, but he was aware that there was a pretty large cross-section of women who found him attractive. Given that he was not the kind of man who honestly looked for love or drama only served to help his case a lot of the time. He didn’t want things to get in the way of his work and the things that he wanted. He was selfish that way, and he had found that though this was not exactly the life that he had wanted for himself, it was the life that he had; and that was better than nothing. He was a healer, though he was not sure if he was respected in his field, he worked hard. he played harder too. William enjoyed his solitude, he enjoyed being able to come and go as he pleased. Years of being single had ruined him as thus, and he had created a certain set of rules for himself that worked for the most part.

Age, race, status, blood status, none of it mattered much to William, he had grown up in Canada, and it was a very different place than Wizarding Great Britain. He had heard a great many people calling it Wixen society, which he could never remember hearing. The importance of purebloods in this society was also something that he could not understand. The One Percent, the Haves, and The Have Nots were so obvious in this place that it often set his teeth on edge. It reminded him often of things that he would not outrightly say, but that did not mean that he took a stance with each side. No, not at all. He stayed out of it. As a foreigner, it was not his place to judge or have opinions, and he was a half-blood, after all, so his voice would never matter here.

he was playing a dangerous game with his health and with his mind, and he was getting a little annoyed with himself all the time. It was funny that this girl had seemed to come at just the right time for him. Wil had been going out more, he had been working more, but he found that he didn’t want to be in the stillness of his apartment alone anymore. Maybe he needed a cat. Oh, gods. He was going to be one of them. He and Dorie had mocked them, really, when he had been back home. He had mocked the older doctors who had pets but no life. Always around the hospital always worked and always talking about their animals, because everyone in their lives had left them.

A life of contentment was what he wanted, he wasn’t sure he wanted to love or a family or anything else, but he knew that he wanted something. Something more. He needed something more than whatever this existence was. The truth was always glaring there in the eye, but nothing that he could obviously.

He couldn’t help the smile that formed on his lips and his deep, rumbling laugh fell from his lips as he looked up at her. ” As I said then, Ursula, it was no real problem at all, really. I live to serve, and it got me out of the boring paperwork that always seems to fall straight into my hands.” He ate a little more and nodded his head. ” The fact that your own cooking skills so heavily outweighs my own, love, says otherwise. I am lucky that I have not burned down my building when I try and make something. “ He had found when he was younger, there was no reason to learn, and later he had Dorie so had no reason to do so himself. He was never of use in the kitchen, would rather be on the couch with a beer.

words: 653

She was clever, and she knew it. Ursula had always been clever. There had been no question when she had gotten off of that train at eleven years old, just which house she was going to find herself sorted into. If there was one thing that she thought that she had in common with most of the women with her surname, it was their ability to manipulate men. They were not meek women. They never had been. And even if her mother hadn’t been born a Le Fay, Ursula truly believed that she had been born to be one.

There was something strong about a Le Fay witch. If you had that blood in your veins, there was just something about you. Something that made you dangerous. Something that made you deadly. And whether that deadliness be literal or not… That was something that varied from witch to witch. But in her case, it was very literal. Ursula was extremely well acquainted with Death. From the time that she was young, she had been.

Necromancy had long ago pulled her in. Potions and Charms, and Transfiguration. The things that she was going to need to reanimate a corpse. But that wasn’t her goal. Not anymore. Her necromancy had evolved. It had grown into a passion for something else. Something that wasn’t quite death, but that certainly wasn’t life. She had a mind to rip the still beating heart out of a man and keep it in an enchanted box. To keep him alive, but heartless. The perfect puppet. The perfect solider.

That was what she wanted. And she wanted it for no other reason other than to say that she could. She wanted to prove that it could be done. It was a desire for the knowledge more than it was for the power that could come with it. Someone else could have control of them once she had done it. Once she had successfully proven that it could be done. But she knew that it was a Dark magic. She knew that she had always been of the darker persuasion when it came to her interests and abilities.

For someone to come out of a family that had long made a name for being decidedly neutral in all matters, as the heir, she was making quite the name for herself in certain circles. Ones that did not look down on what it was that she did. Ones that found intrigue and could understand the desire that she held for knowledge more than anything else. Those were the people that she wanted to be acquainted with. The people like Rabastan Lestrange. The people that could help her and guide her.

The Blackwood Coven.

They were the people that she found herself most comfortable around. But tonight, was not about them. Tonight, was about making sure that William Lassiter fell hopelessly in love with her. Love potions were not exactly legal. But if you didn’t get caught, no one would know any the wiser, and she hadn’t given him enough to raise suspicions. At least not yet. Simply enough to make sure that the hooks she had already landed in him were not going to come loose any time soon.

She could play this game. Ursula could keep him interested. But making sure that devotion was taking hold was the goal for now. “Well, we couldn’t have that. Then I wouldn’t get to learn more about what you do. You work with the little children?” Her fake interest in what he did dripped off of her lips with the warmest of sincerity. She could fake her way through nearly anything, and when she wanted it badly enough, she could nearly always get her way. “Burning your house down cooking seems like a terrible way for all of those poor little children to receive improper care…”

644 • ursula's outfit