This is a plot idea that could affect as many or as few characters as you like!  It might seem big in that it could involve many parts, but the ripples should be quite shallow!  I'm going to be doing this with Figaro, but it'd be more fun if there were more people. 

Wizarding Youth Experiment With Unsafe Substance
When Figaro is home for Christmas, he finds out about this really fun new thing to do!  Billywig Stings!

It's well entertaining.  Trust me, my folks are apothecaries.  You just bite off the end like this and touch the liquid inside to your tongue.  You can suck on it, like this.  Tastes sour.  Bit spicy.  You get a bit giddy from it.  It's hilarious! Because if you take too much you get so light-headed you'll float off the ground.  Well it's not illegal. It's for potions.  Totally safe. Not like nightshade or anything. Calm down.

Get it? So let's say it's become a fad or trend among Wizarding youth, to get a buzz off billywig stings.  And like many teenage trends, it goes mostly unnoticed by adults for awhile. 

But there's a darker side!

• Billywig sting venom is very concentrated and normally diluted a great deal for ingredients in potions.
• Consuming too much can have health consequences! Like inflation of the stomach! The popping of eardrums! And the injuries associated with rising and falling from great heights, or bumping your head on things.
• They are rumored to be a part of Fizzing Whizbees, but Wizarding common sense classifies it as definitely not food.
  
• We can say that it's habit-forming.  A bit addictive?

How can students get stings?

• They are in the Potions stores and could, presumably, be stolen.
• They are on sale in any Apothecary, like the one in Hogsmeade.
• Figaro's parents own an Apothecary.  He has no doubt brought some back with him to school under some excuse.
• If possible, there could be a criminal or two who supplies students.
• Perhaps the Hogwarts mafia sees an opportunity?

Something Must Be Done About It!
Eventually something will have to be done!  It isn't safe, after all, and it could be illegal.  There are opportunities for intervention from...

• Tattletales
• Concerned teachers and parents
• Healers and St. Mungo's  staff
• The Improper Use of Magic Office

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Would you like to be involved? 

For me personally... I'd love for Figaro to have some friends to do this with, or maybe people to tell him he's an idiot.  It might be fun for him to get caught doing it in class.  Figaro would happily share/sell his stings until he runs out.  He might even help someone raid the Potions stores. 

Hell, we could start off with a thread on the train ride to school on Jan 3rd. 

We've got a tag: Everybody Get High

I'd love to get some characters involved! I'm not sure who, but I guess whoever will fit where the plot goes! I have:

Maiko (counselor)
Flynn (St Mungos healer)
Juni (4th year Ravenclaw)
Zel (6th year Hufflepuff)

I'm not quite sure who I want to get involved yet, but I want someone to!

It's definitely a more open plot without a centralized leader!  So feel free to just dive in! I won't assign roles or anything. 

I'm going to be doing it and others can play as well! I hope that in the end, the adults can spoil the fun as they should.

Who would like a thread on the train with Figaro?  We can pack them in there. 

Nicholas would definitely be down for trying 'new' and fun substances.

And I'd be down for throwing him into a train compartment with Figaro.

Would doing these and getting sick from them land a kid in the Creature Injurie's floor?

If so, Kale is welcome to slap some sense into a few of them. He was addicted to far more dangerous potions/drugs when he was younger and would want to help keep them from screwing up their lives

Warren would love to be in the compartment, see these shenanigans, and then leave. Not to tell of course, that's not his style. Just to shake his head 

Angie typically isn't a troublemaker; but if she thought it was just for fun, I could see her trying it just as a 'why not?' sort of move. She'd probably completely freak out after learning it was addictive and she would probably take her troubles to Maiko. Only thing is, if this is going to blow up into some big troublesome thing, I'll keep her out so she doesn't lose her captain title. Then I can just have her be a tattletale if you'd like.

Haha! This is cracking me up!

I'd like to get Evie involved... in a way. On one hand, she doesn't see how taking advantage of a naturally occurring, untampered with substance can be wrong, so she's not against the trend in the abstract... BUT... on the other hand, she is sort of an advocate for insects, and the reason she isn't taking Potions at NEWT level is because she is wary of all of the animal products used and likes knowing exactly where her ingredients come from, ESPECIALLY ingredients that come from the bodies of living or once living things. She definitely wouldn't advocate sucking on any insect parts if the billywigs were murdered for their stings. She MIGHT consider letting it slide if the billywigs were free range, unharmed in the harvesting, and allowed lived out their natural lives in peace...which seems, erm, unlikely.   

Therefore, although she'd likely know all about the side effects, her concern wouldn't be about the potentially dangerous effects of the venom as much as it would be about raising awareness of the plight of the insects whose stings are being harvested so schoolchildren can get their kicks. Billywig rights, man! Murder isn't organic!

I imagine she'll be alone in this crusade, but if anyone else DOES want to boycott the fad in the name of insect rights, I'm sure she'd appreciate the company!

I want Erin and Fig to get high together and insult each other the whole time.

That is all.

Phillip would definitely, definitely try to make some money out of the trend and start smuggling it in. Where there's demand...

He also has a habit of breaking into the storeroom, breaking and entering being one of his favorite pastimes. He might enlist Figaro's help on this one? If they might know each other?

I don't know if he'd also try it tho, he prefers his illicit substances of the muggle variety...

Compartment Thread for Anyone Who's Interested.

Like I mentioned, probably students probably wouldn't know so much about billywig stings other than their use in Potions class, so stick with me on that.  ^^  Figaro just learned about it over holiday from someone at Spellpunk, we'll say.  Not to say it's a totally new idea, just hasn't been through this generation of kids yet?

Kale:  Yes! Could certainly be a Creatures thing! Maybe getting stung by a billywig is pretty serious so they'd know about the venom and that.

Evelyn: I know exactly where you're coming from.  THAT would be a fun discussion to have.  ^^ The ethics of sucking on stings. 

Erin:  Yes, please.  It's been far too long since those two have 'hung out'. 

Phil:  Fig fancies he knows everyone and gravitates towards strong lads with a bad-boy vibe to them.  Figaro most wants to be 'cool' and accepted right now (although he's growing up a bit) so I can see him hanging out around Phil when possible. 

So yes! The thing I like about Figaro as a character is that it's easy to get him into a thread with anyone, and any topic broached!  So everyone - happy to have a thread.  ^^

There an age cut-off you're looking to do?

Obviously, this isn't the same as actual addictions but if told that Billywig Stings are in Fizzing Whisbees (one of her favorite candies) Obderedria would unwittingly ingest some.

Otherwise, when it comes time to be cracking down on the 'Stingers' Sissel could hitch up his authority.

If anyone wants an external source, Dotty has been known to cover billywig smuggling and wouldn't see an immorality giving some to kids, might spurn rivalry with those getting them external with those like the mafia or whoever that try to cultivate stings in house from the Hogwarts Potions stores.

Gigi will be stompy and prefecty and critical of their choice in drugs.

Unless the faculty makes a big deal out of it, I don't see Raine going out of her way as a prefect to bother with the users.

If students are stealing from the dungeons stockroom however, I'm sure Leyla would have a thing or two to say about it. She would try to send a gentle nudge about it to the usual suspects or whatnot.

Love this plot idea~

Theo wouldn't care too much, either—unless there was something in it for him. That said, he'd be very open to the idea of people trying to buy his silence...