Oh dear.
Ohhhhh dear.
Ohhhhhhhhhh dear.
Now is when some genuine panic was starting to set in. It was time for them to add in liquid; the alcohol. The panic arose from this was the part where if an accident occurred, say too much alcohol was poured into the mason jar, it would be pretty much past the point of no return. Only pretty much though, because while more of the powder could be made in theory, there still was a limited supply in which they could make. This was given by however much of the lavender, marjoram, or mint they were able to gather up. While there was still enough of the buds to probably whip up another batch if push came to shove, Archie still wanted to try to avoid this to the best of his abilities. Though, now was certainly a good time to at least make mention of it in a question to the Professor, so he'd ask "What happens if we mess up and don't have enough of the herb to make some more?" With that being out of the way though.
He'd take a deep breath to try and ground himself in the moment. Sometimes it was best to just rip off the band-aid and go. Now was certainly one of those times. Immediately to try and get the initial pour right, he'd place his index and middle finger flat on the desk, lying next to the outer bottom rim of the jar. With the bottle of ethanol in his other hand, the clear viscous substance would be slowly poured in. It would be done so at a snail's pace. Going in tiny bits where the bottle would start pouring, then stop. Starting, then stopping. And it just went in that same process until he was able to eye about two fingers. from the bottom. It was possibly a fraction too little, but it was so menial Archie didn't think it would matter too much.
With the hard part now out of the way, making sure the tincture wouldn't be touching any metal, he'd complete the other steps of wrapping the jar up. First, the spell-o-wrap would be placed over the top and sealed tightly against the glass. For extra measure, the Slytherin would place another spell-o-wrap over top of the first one to double seal it like how it was written they could if they wanted to. Next was placing the lid on top, with the careful addition that some of the covering was peaking underneath its edges. An extra precaution that was being made to keep the metal definitively away from the tincture. Then, the aluminum foil was wrapped around it. As written, a mental note and an actual note in his binder were put down that this step kept it out of any source of light. Followed by the final step, further covering it all in silk. The silk that was being used for the O'Brien youngster's tincture was, surprise surprise, a purple one.
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... MISUNDERSTOOD ... DILIGENT ... SECRETIVE ... |