A Potionate Distraction PV Finley Greer Closed

What Finley was not expecting to happen after Farron left was a process of grief. The former astronomy professor was only a short walk away in Hogsmeade, after all. But something about the departure of the red-headed Aussie had stirred up something in Finley, stirred up feelings that she had buried over a year ago when Aiden had left and her father, well, left. Fin hadn't allowed herself to grieve either properly, she'd realized, opting to throw herself into her new job instead. Perhaps that was the reason why she elected to staff that summer camp...

But the castle certainly was a little less exciting, and her nights were excruciatingly more boring without stargazing. She hadn't taken time to get to know the new astronomy professor (it was maybe a little bit out of spite), Finley didn't imagine he'd be keen to stay up until the wee hours of the morning with her looking at stars.

When a small piece of parchment came fluttering into her office, the caretaker's first reaction was one of annoyance. "I swear if another student broke a greenhouse window I'm going to lose my mind..." Reluctantly, Fin plucked the note out of the air, opening it with an air of annoyance. To her delight, it had nothing to do with broken greenhouse windows. Assistance in the potions classroom... Finley thought to herself as she grabbed her wand and began making the long, long trek from her office to the potions classroom.

"Need assistance, need assistance," she muttered under her breath. Méabh was a very capable person, any lessons or brews gone awry had been handled by her and hadn't required any assistance from the caretaker. Fin braced herself for whatever disaster was surely awaiting her on the other side of the classroom door.

She gave a quick knock before stepping in. "Hiya, you needed me?"

When Finley entered the Potions classroom, she'd find nothing worse than Méabh's usual chaos... well, not much worse, at least. There were three different cauldrons on different tables, spewing fumes of various colours, and ingredients scattered next to what were clearly potions in various stages of completion. Between them, there was a slightly frazzled looking Méabh, completing steps of all three potions in varying order and with flying fingers. It likely looked like a recipe for disaster.

She spun around at Finley's knock, then offered her colleague a bright smile. "Fin! Hi. Yes, perfect timing, please come here and stir this for me, will you? Three times, clockwise, not too fast or the potion will turn orange and we don't want that. Better use your left hand, too. Just kidding, the hand doesn't matter. Also, don't breathe in the fumes, it's not advisable."

There was no explanation given for why Méabh had ordered Finley here, of all people; she didn't actually know a thing about the caretaker's potion brewing capabilities, but that wasn't the point of the exercise, anyway. Truth was, Méabh could likely have handled these three potions on her own, although her life would have been made a lot easier if she'd chosen to brew them consecutively rather than at once, or at least only two at the same time.

"Need them for class tomorrow," she explained, giving no opportunity for protest, while spinning back around to stir the second cauldron five times, then grabbed a ginger root off the last desk and started cutting it into thin, even slices, the motions quick and efficient. She'd glance at Finley out of the corner of her eyes while she did so, trusting her fingers to know what they were doing. "If you're done with that, do me a favour and chop the peppermint leaves on that table? The scurvy grass, too. Roughly is fine. And you could soften them a little with the flat of the knife, so they incorporate better into the potion. Thank you!"

Ginger root chopped, she quickly scooped the pieces into a mortar, then set it onto the desk nearest to Finley, before she reached past her to pour what looked like an arbitrary amount of honey water into the last cauldron. "Here, this needs to be a paste." If the caretaker went along with her rapid requests, Méabh would continue to fire instructions at her at a pace just a little too fast to follow, while herself twirling around the room, seemingly everywhere at once, chopping and dicing and stirring whatever required her attention at the moment.