A concoction of wrongdoing PV Closed

Banner by Julia Evans

Interacting with:	@Madeline Tomlinson
Date:	15th of January, 2026
Date:—————————	Afternoon
Words:	357

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It had been a long day. Ever since Christmas he had attempted to be better at potions. It hadn’t worked. The embarrassment of being kicked out of his dads lab over the break still burned. He knew he was a mess at it. Something about the rigidity of the recipe never failed to confuse him. He could read it over a thousand times and still end up making mistakes. He read wrong, or the measurements were incorrect, or he skipped a step altogether. The fact way, he could have sworn he did it right. But disaster was the result more often than not.

So today he had almost willingly gone to the library. He had such a good plan for it too. He had brought a cauldron and all ingredients he could possibly need. If he just read for long enough, and practiced fake-making the potions many enough times, he was sure he would get it eventually. Some might have asked themselves why he did this in the library in the first place. Surely, the potions classroom was much more suitable. Well, he simply disliked the classroom. The general chill of it, as well as being underground. It didn’t freak him out per say, but he would rather avoid it when he could. Sort of like the library in fact. But he needed to improve, and that meant sacrifices had to be made.

He had been in a corner of the library for the past few hours, getting increasingly frustrated. Huddled in a corner with the book in his lap, the cauldron in front of him, and the ingredients spread all around. The irritation didn’t exactly help either, as it led to only more and more mistakes. He was sick and tired of it. So he shut the book with a snap, even though he mostly felt like throwing it at the closest window. Leaning back, he theatrically threw his hands up. «That’s it, I give up!» He declared it to no one in particular. He had a habit of talking to himself. «Just wish I could quit potions as hard as it has quit me…»