 Lovely™ | Captain Hurted | Ariana's Bane | Resident Antagonist | Unparalleled Delight
Nem had momentarily abandoned the crushing of the three Dransul leaves in favour of checking in on the phial of elf-made wine vinegar, into which they had dropped a fourth leaf that had been rolled and squashed between their fingertips until they had started to tingle, and the leaf had become soft and droopy. They peered into the phial, then through the glass, then gave it a sniff. After a moment, Nem set it back down again, evidently uninterested, and returned to the leaves they had been crushing. The rest of the room may as well not have existed for all the attention they appeared to be paying it.
The Dransul leaves in the mortar had been stewing in their own acid for the minute or so that Nem had left them, and now there was enough to be sucked up into the dropper. This they did, and added three drops to the simmering liquid in the cauldron before making three ultra-precise anti-clockwise stirs, barely a millimetre's difference between the stop/start point. Nem added the billywig stings one at a time, using the tweezers from their potions kit, watching the liquid steadily darken until it became unmistakably burgundy after sting number two, and then even darker with the third.
They flicked their wand from their holster again, and aimed it at the potion. Agitatum. The spiral movement sent the liquid into motion, and Nem reholstered their wand and grabbed the snargaluff pod set aside for this purpose. Rather than add it straight away, however, they held it between their hands and applied pressure here and there, until it was pulsating and seemed almost ready to burst - at this point, they lowered it into the moving liquid, carefully, so it wouldn't splash half its contents all over the place, or explode when it hit the bottom. Call it a discovery or just personal preference, but Nem found that, in the context of expediting the brewing process, provoking the snargaluff pod in such a way sped things up exponentially, but it took a lot of practice to do so without things ending in an inconvenient mess. Trial and error. They'd been through it all.
Cancelling the flame below the cauldron with the subtlest of flicks, Nem left the potion to cool and returned their attention again to their little side project. It was yielding answers, but not to the questions they were asking. Given it was almost certainly time to start moving on soon, they started clearing things away, vanishing some mixtures and ingredients, and stoppering others to see what an extra few hours would reveal. Not to get derailed or anything, but this had opened up entirely new lines of thought, though Nem would have to wait just a little longer to explore them freely.
To their right, their roiling potion had cooled its way to an inky black hue.
__________________ Days of Potter 2023:___________________________ Which Bertie Botts Flavour Are You?
You are Chocolate! |