Or possibly a painting heist. She thinks.
"You see what I mean, though?"
"It sounds like you had to read it for English class and there were no potions involved."
She looks slightly rueful. "I've probably put more time into the potion that I would into exams, but come on. Magic or Great Expectations? It's not even a contest."
"My sister likes old books. I don't see the appeal. I will totally trade you but I don't wanna be a test subject."
Alli waves this off. "Whatever, I've already had five, what's one more?" She offers her hand. "I'm Alli, for the record."
"So... I didn't actually bring the thing. The damn book is heavy and I've just made it five times, I didn't hardly need the ingredient list. I can bring it to school tomorrow, or something?"
And, one purchase of Lethe's Bramble later, Alli's on her way home. Potion attempt number six, she is coming for you.
"You look familiar...? Maybe?" she says dubiously to the other girl.
"Hi, Alli. This is my sister Bella, the one who can't get any magic to work. She's a junior."
Or at least 70% odds, instead of 40%.
She stops on the next page with a triumphant sound. "Aha! Potion recipe staring time?"
She goes over the recipe for Soph. There's quite a few steps, involving at least two Latin chants, extremely specific stirring directions, and bundles of precisely measured herbs. Some of it's smudged and hard to read, and the whole thing's rather... vague, in that way magic books often are.
"You see why it's such a pain in the ass?" Alli asks rhetorically.
"Yeah... like I said I haven't got into potions but I have got a little bit into Latin, I switched into it a few weeks ago when I discovered that there is almost no Spanish in spellbooks, and I know almost none of it so far, but is that conjugated right?" She points at a verb.
"...No. No, you're totally right. That's the wrong tense. Damn it all. I didn't think to check the Latin- I thought I measured something wrong-" she starts to scribble things down on a spare sheet of paper from her backpack. She's on her third year of Latin; she's not the world's best student, but she's past the basics. "And this is in the dative instead of the accusative, and this should be plural... who wrote this, they should be banned from magic."
"I am glad of that whenever I'm not doing my homework. You should do my homework, we're in the same level of Latin anyway."
"That would kind of defeat the purpose of you actually taking it. Besides, when I tried to help you with a spell you said it came out feeling wrong, whatever that means to you magical types."