The Trouble With Potions [Open!]

Posts : 10 Join date : 2017-08-19

First Week of Oct || Year 4

Extra potions assignments for some might have been considered a joy, or something they wanted to do. For Nora, it was hell. Already she'd somehow managed to turn her potion into a purple bomb, and it had taken a good half hour and multiple cleaning spells to rid the air of the thick purple haze. The plus side was that it had smelt of plums, instead of anything awful, although how Nora didn't know; she hadn't used anything remotely similar to plums in the potion.

Her second attempt hadn't gone so well, either. She messed up somewhere between step six and step nine (she wasn't sure which; she lost concentration at step 5) and ended with an entire cauldron of a solid red mass. At the very least, it was the right colour instead of the purple it was before.

Cleaning this time had gone better, after she figured out how to get the stuff out of the pot. (It had hardened to a point where it fit the exact shape of the cauldron. In the end, she opted to blast it to pieces, before vanishing them individually.)

Third time, she had hoped, would be the charm. She was wrong, and with a sizzling cauldron before her that seemed to have melted the wooden stick she'd used to stir it. She'd managed to cast a spell to clear the liquid before it did anything worse.

Now, she was seated on one of the stools, staring at one of the walls, lost in thought. She meant to take a short, ten minute break an hour ago, but somewhere between then and now, she had started thinking about pixies, and was now deep in a hyperfocused wormhole. The fire on her cauldron had long since fizzled out, and she tapped her wand rythmatically against the table, eyes focused on nothing and everything at the same time.

Admin Posts : 16 Join date : 2017-09-06

Mariah was on step seven. Or maybe six. She couldn't remember what she did last, but she was pretty sure she'd already done step six...maybe she was on step eight? No, definitely seven. Probably. She shook her head, and decided to just go for it and hope for the best.

Potions always required waiting for varying amounts of time for things to heat up, or cool down, and when she had long periods of time where she had nothing to do, she tended to just zone out. And then she lost track of time. And lost her place in the instructions.

Step seven said to stir eighteen times counterclockwise, then fourteen times clockwise. She grabbed her stirring stick and plunged it into the cauldron with a soft blop. Eighteen times clockwise...no, counterclockwise. She pictured a clock in her mind to make sure she was going the right way. Counterclockwise.

One. Two. Three. Four. Five. She felt like she was cooking a really disgusting soup. It was a weird greyish color. Was it supposed to be that color? Wait...had she forgotten to add something? Hold on, what number was she on? She'd been stirring absentmindedly as she thought. Twelve? That felt about right. Okay, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen! Now for fourteen in the other direction.

She looked at the instructions to make sure she had that right. Uh oh...it was supposed to be light pink? She peered into her cauldron. She could convince herself that it had a pinkish tinge...yeah, it was definitely a little pink. She nodded to herself, and started stirring clockwise.

She'd gotten to ten, when suddenly the potion began to bubble violently. She dropped her stirring stick in panic, and slid her chair backwards to avoid the mass of bubbles which had swelled and begun to overflow from the mouth of the cauldron. They oozed over her desk and onto the floor, thankfully not eating through anything, but definitely leaving a dark grey stain wherever they touched.

Mariah's cheeks grew hot as she looked on in mortification. Were people watching? She didn't want to find out. She pointedly avoided looking at anyone else as her face flushed red, and she hurriedly grabbed her wand.

"Evanesco!" she squeaked softly. Half of the bubbles vanished, but more continued to pour from the cauldron. She'd never been very good at that spell...it was one of the last things Mr. Weber had taught her, and she'd only been practicing it for a few weeks before she moved. She repeated it, even quieter this time out of embarrassment--a desperate whisper. The rest of the potion disappeared, and she let out a sigh of relief.

The stains on the floor and desk remained, but she wasn't sure what to do about those. She let her hair hide her face, ashamed to face anyone who might have seen. She hated potions.

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