Prodigal Insomnia

Sleeping Draught



Sophia was so, so tired. The problem was that she couldn’t sleep. She couldn’t fight the yawns, but for the past three days or so, she found herself getting less and less sleep at night. No matter how much she begged sleep to take her, she remained fitful and restless.

After the second night, she decided to do something about it. She studiously worked her way through her textbooks before remembering a lesson in Potions class about mind-altering potions. That was her solution. The Sleeping Draught.

Her grades were fine in Potions, and she was relatively confident in her abilities, but as she stared at the pile of ingredients that she had so carefully measured, she felt a twinge if doubt. She wasn’t meant to even learn this potion for another year.

But she was desperate. So desperate. Her performance in class was suffering and, most importantly, she felt awful. She had to do something.

With a focused breath, she cracked her knuckles and readied her mortar and pestle.

The first part was easy. Add four sprigs of lavender - for their calming properties - and two measures of Standard Ingredient. She then carefully crushed it with the mortar and pestle. This was the tricky part. Based on the consistencies of those ingredients, she expected a fine powder, but she was thankful they turned out as a creamy paste, exactly as she needed them to be.

Satisfied with the creamy, pasty mess in the mortar, she grimaced at the next step. She added two measures of Standard Ingredient and two blobs of Flobberworm Mucus. Yuck. She hated potions with Flobberworm Mucus. The thick texture made her sick. She truly was desperate.

She heated the cauldron gently for thirty seconds before adding three measures of the Lavender-Standard Ingredient paste. She waved her wand and braced herself for the worst part of the process. She had to wait while it brewed for seventy minutes.

After seventy excruciating minutes with a horrible headache borne of sleep deprivation, Sophia was almost giddy with delirious laughter. She was almost finished and she was so happy about that. She couldn’t let down her guard, though. She still had to be careful or the past hour would be a waste.

She added her final two measures of Standard Ingredient and blinked a few times to clear her blurring vision. She had to be careful. She couldn’t mess this up.

She heated the cauldron at a higher temperature for one minute before adding four Valerian Sprigs to the mixture. This was it. She could almost taste the Sleeping Draught in all its painfully thick, calming glory.

She cursed as she tried to remember which way was clockwise and which way was counter-clockwise. Lack of sleep really didn’t do her any good.

After seven carefully counted clockwise stirs, Sophia was finally home free. Now she only had one step remaining. She giddily laughed to herself as she gave her wand one final wave over the mixture, imbuing the potion with the magic energy necessary for its function.

She carefully inspected the final product and cheerfully gave a little fist pump at her success. The thick, dark purple solution rested in her cauldron, begging her to drink it.

The next morning, Sophia counted herself lucky to wake up fully rested with no bags under her eyes. Unfortunately for her, she also overslept and missed most of her first class, but she was happy to take her small victories.

[578 words]