Brew With Me PV Piper Clark Abandoned

@Piper Clark

“…Eight banana, nine banana, ten banana.” Maison glanced up at the board for the next step. Wave your wand. His brow furrowed as he tried to decipher what that could possibly mean. Piper had done it, but he couldn’t remember exactly how. Shrugging, Maison moved his wand horizontally over the cauldron. Nothing appeared to happen, but then he wasn’t even sure if anything was supposed to. Trying not to dwell on it, he turned down the heat on his cauldron and left it to brew.

“I guess the little things are interesting,” Maison finally remarked in response to the Slytherin girl’s earlier statement. He too was curious to know exactly how certain combinations of ingredients gave potions their effects. Snake fangs didn't seem to have any relation to boils, but they were obviously a necessary part of the potion. Still, it wasn't as exciting as explosions or sparks or big chemical reactions. “But wouldn’t it be so much cooler if we could blow stuff up?” That’s how it always was in the movies, anyway.

Meanwhile, Piper’s potion appeared to have finished brewing and she was moving onto the second part. Maison made a point of watching her carry out the next step so that he would know what he was doing when it came time for him to move on. However, he was quickly distracted at the sight of her horned slugs. "Ewwwwwwwww." Piper was evidently disgusted by the creatures, but that didn't stop Maison's fascination.

“Woah!” he exclaimed, “I didn’t know slugs could have horns." Usually they had tentacles protruding from their heads, but not horns like these slugs clearly had. "Is that normal? Are they magic slugs? D’you reckon they’re alive?” He didn't even wait for Piper to address his onslaught of questions. Eager to see for himself, Maison sifted through his own store of ingredients for the slithery creatures, taking one and cradling it in his hand. Having spent countless hours of his childhood catching worms and insects in the back garden, the Gryffindor was not easily grossed out. “I’m going to name you Louie,” he remarked to the slug in a high-pitched tone, petting it with his free hand. Of course, Louie would soon be tossed into a hot cauldron, but Maison didn’t want to think about that just yet.

@Maison Pritchard

Piper frowned in disapproval as Maison did a swift horizontal motion over his cauldron. She was fairly sure the wand had to be in a circle, but she wouldn't say anything until something went wrong. At any rate, it wasn't looking as though her potion would be any better. Piper took comfort in the fact that she at least knew what was supposed to happen. Maybe. Maison admitted the smaller things were interesting, but he was still much more invested in the blowing-stuff-up aspect, it seemed.

As Piper tentatively added horned slugs to her cauldron (very much hoping they weren't alive), Maison's eyes widened and he seized one from his own bag. “Whoa! I didn’t know slugs could have horns. Is that normal? Are they magic slugs? D’you reckon they’re alive?" He looked fondly at the one he selected. "I'm going to name you Louie." Just when Piper thought his voice couldn't get any more annoyingly distracting, it went up several octaves. Well, maybe not that high, but it was certainly unnecessary. And was the Gryffindor....petting the slug? Piper could see fair reason for touching it if it was needed or to study it up close (after all, biochemistry called for a bit of that), but poking the slimy pest - Louie - was not her idea of fun.

Her mind turned to Maison's questions. She didn't suppose it was normal for slugs to have horns, though she wasn't much of an expert on snails or slugs. Wait, were they magical? It didn't look like it. Piper wondered if they had some secret, brilliant ability. As to if they were alive...she didn't want to think about throwing an animal, even if it was a slug, into a boiling cauldron alive. She thought she had heard something about stewed slugs.... thank the ever-loving heavens this potion wasn't to be ingested, what with snake fangs and slug slime. It occurred to her that if the slugs were stewed, then Maison was in fact petting and naming a dead slug. Either way...

"Erm...Maison-" it felt very odd addressing the boy by name - "Well, my mum and someone I know say not to name creatures before...y'know...anything. Plus...your slug could possibly already be dead..." She was trying to be nice about it but had a feeling she wasn't doing well again. But it was true, it made everything harder. An acquaintance back in London had a friend who raised beef cows, and rule number one was to never ever name them.

"Anyway." Piper turned to her potion, which was now a dark, murky magenta color. She wondered how a few snake fangs, a wave of a wand, and slugs could make that color. She sneaked a suspicious glance at a student (a Slytherin girl) at the next table, whose potion was a much brighter and better bubble-gum pink. Hmph. She unconsciously glared in the other student's direction.

Immediately add 2 porcupine quills. The next line of direction seemed basic. For Maison's benefit and for the formal purposes of being partnerly, Piper generously added, "The next step we need to do is to add porcupine quills." Piper rummaged around in her bag and pulled out a tall jar of long, grey porcupine quills. Were those magical either? What in this bloody concoction was magical!? Was it the simple wand waves? No ingredients seemed to even remotely relate to boils. Magic sure was funny.

Piper hastily pulled her porcupine quills out but jabbed her pointer finger with one in the process. She sucked on the bead of blood that had formed after the initial stab of pain, the disgusting taste of blood filling her mouth. "These are sharper than they look!" Embarrassed, she looked for somewhere else to divert the other first year's attention.

Piper looked at Maison's potion, unsure of what point in time constituted moving on. "D'you- d'you think your potion's ready?" she asked curiously.