Let's Try Not to Blow Anything Up, Shall We?

[Astin Descartes]

Astin rubbed at his left shoulder. He still hadn't completely regained feeling around the wound, but it was mostly healed; it at least had recovered better than the gash in his stomach. Of course, they both were going to scar something terrible, but at least the pain no longer prohibited him from walking like it had.

He shot a look to Dastan. He really shouldn't have been walking in his condition, or moving about at all, really. Astin had tried to beat some sense into him, but studying for OWLs apparently came above regard for one's general well-being.

Besides, they were going to be working on Potions today, and Astin needed all the help he could get. He'd heard that it was going to be painfully easy, but he'd blown up things countless times before. He doubted this time was going to be much different unless he prepared and improved drastically, beyond what he should have been able to in such a short time.

He was a Hufflepuff, however, and they were known for being able to do what they put their minds to through sheer hard work and effort. Astin hoped he could live up to that standard.

And, well, with a tutor as dedicated and as experienced at putting up with Astin's crap as Dastan was, maybe he could manage a pass.

Astin focused on their potions preparation as he paced in front of the wall, passing it by three times until he looked up and the door had appeared.

"Well, let's do this," he muttered, pushing open the door and stepping into a veritable cellar. It was lined with jars that were filled with odds and ends, the likes of which Astin had never seen. This certainly would be an interesting experience.

[Dastan Cross]

Dastan had been pleased when he'd been told that he was expected to make a full recovery. So pleased, in fact, that he'd decided to celebrate by getting the fuck out of there, nurse's advice be damned. Of course, his knee was killing him. And most of his other bones hadn't completely healed. And he still felt generally unhappy with regards to his physical state, but he was well enough, and so he'd gritted his teeth and limped out of there.

Even so, he was eternally grateful when Astin did the pacing, leaning up against the wall for support. God, his knee hurt. When the door appeared, Astin said, "Well, let's do this," and then walked through, Dastan following at a slower pace.

The room was filled to brimming with the best potions ingredients, books, and doo-dads lining the walls. And even more, there was a chair he could sit in on one side of the big cauldron in the middle so he could help Astin without having to stand up.

He quickly made his way over to the chair and lowered himself into it with a sigh of relief. "Okay. Why don't we start with a Boil Cure Potion? It's really simple, and I've heard sixth years saying that it never failed to be mentioned in the O.W.L.s."

He summoned a book from the shelf and then set it on the table, flipping the pages until they landed on the right one. "Let's get started," Dastan said, knowing this was going to be a long work-in-progress.

[Astin Descartes]

"Okay. Why don't we start with a Boil Cure Potion? It's really simple, and I've heard sixth years saying that it never failed to be mentioned in the O.W.L.s."

Astin nearly groaned. Not only was that an extremely basic first-year potion, but it was one that, if he butchered it terribly as he was prone to do, would cause the two of them to break out in boils all over. He hoped that Dastan was a better overseer than he looked, because he had a feeling that Das had underestimated how horribly Astin failed at Potions and following directions altogether. Even after five years, he hadn't figured out how to brew a Wit-Sharpening Potion successfully every time; nine times out of ten, it still ended with singed eyebrows and a charred cauldron.

"Let's get started."

Sighing, Astin moved to get the ingredients; Dastan's legs were obviously out of commission, anyhow. Dried nettles, crushed snake fangs, porcupine quills... after failing at this potion numerous times, Astin had memorized most of the ingredients (mostly due to a long session of sitting and staring at his Potions book). He just hoped he'd memorized the steps just as well.

He returned to the cauldron with full arms and unloaded the ingredients onto the table now standing there.

"Alright, what first?"

[Dastan Cross]

"Alright. What first?"

Dastan flipped the page and then put in some water with a quick aguamenti and tossed a few basic beginner ingredients in, just to create the base. "It says here to heat the cauldron until the base turns red. Not too hard is it? Go ahead and light the fire underneath, and then we can sort of watch until it turns red."

"The next steps are as follows:" Dastan flicked his wand at the board that the Room of Requirement had given them and the instructions appeared there, just so that they wouldn't have to keep on flipping through the book to know each step.
1. Heat the cauldron until the potion turns red.
2. Heat it again until turns green.
3. Pour Flobberworm Mucus until the potion turns pink.
4. Heat again until it turns orange.
5. Mix the dried nettles until it turns green.
6. Heat again until it turns blue.
7. Mix crushed snake fangs until the potion turns pink.
8. Mix Porcupine quills until the potion turns orange.
9. Pour stewed horned slugs until it turns turquoise.
10. And last, heat the potion until it turns red.

Sitting back, Dastan took in Astin's slightly worried expression. "And don't worry. I mastered Evanesco last Saturday, so I can make it disappear before we get covered in boils if all else fails, but I'm sure you'll do fine. I've got a few tips, but we'll get to that as we go. Remember how you told me that the main problem is following directions? Well, how's this? If we heat it up longer than necessary at the end, heat it until its pink, then it'll be an even stronger brew. The book wishes it knew that."

Dastan was rather proud of that little tidbit. Alex had given it to him in an Owl post last night to help him help Astin. Dastan had also asked Lord Alex if, should Astin want to, the blond could stay with them for a bit over the summer. He would ask Astin later if he felt like coming, but right now, they needed to concentrate on getting excellent scores on their O.W.L.s

[Astin Descartes]

Astin cast a quick spell to light the fire beneath the cauldron. Even he couldn't screw something that simple up; granted, it wasn't really related to potions, but still, it was an accomplishment. He'd been known to blow things up with less intent.

He walked around and leaned on the back of the armchair Dastan was sitting in. Staring over the top of black hair, Astin watched as the liquid in the cauldron slowly changed colors.

"Dastan," he said out of the blue, "If the book doesn't know that heating it a little longer will make it more effective, which seems like it's something rather easy to discover, how does it know all these other, complicated things? It doesn't seem like a very smart book. See, that's the problem; recipes can always be improved upon, and I don't like using someone else's methods, anyway." Astin frowned. "Besides, how often am I going to use this stuff? I mean, I've never been trapped in a basement with a cauldron and any of these ingredients before. It doesn't seem particularly useful, to me."

Astin managed to wipe the frown off his face and turn his attention back to watching the stupid potion change colors. Really, watching paint dry could have been more interesting in that moment. It had shifted to an odd, sort of dark salmon color. That was a shade of red, right?

"How red does this thing mean by red?" he asked. He knew his incessant questions were probably getting to be annoying, but if he didn't ask them, he was likely to fail his Potions OWL, and then he'd never become an Auror. If he didn't work his butt of to become an Auror, he wasn't sure he'd be able to do any other jobs. DADA was all he was good at, although he'd made drastic improvements in Charms and in Transfiguration, and it seemed like he was suited for that sort of life. He just needed to learn how to stop blowing up cauldrons.

[Dastan Cross]

"Besides, how often am I going to use this stuff? I mean, I've never been trapped in a basement with a cauldron and any of these ingredients before. It doesn't seem particularly useful, to me."

"It's not useful in the field," Dastan said, reaching over to stir the potion a little bit. It was turning pretty red, but he'd wait until the red was a bit deeper. "However, if you brew your potions prior to going out in the field, you can have an arsenal of explosives, or, more importantly, healing items. Having a Blood-Replenishing Potion brewed could save a friend's life. Imagine if one of us had had a Blood-Replenishing Potion in the labyrinth. We could've had you conscious and out of the woods sooner."

"How red does this thing mean by red?"

"You go for the deepest shade of the color possible. So, when it says red, it means crimson." Even as he spoke the potion turned a dark crimson shade. "And now it's ready. Put out the fire, let it cool, and then we'll reheat it until it's green. Can you do that?"

The Boil-Cure Potion was painfully simple, really. Maybe he and Astin could try brewing a Blood-Replenishing Potion next time, so that Astin could learn how to do something useful and practical. After all, people weren't generally covered in boils during a battle. And since both of them wanted to be an Auror, Blood-Replenishing Potions were that. In fact, he knew that Astin worked better when something could be seen as useful to him. Otherwise, learning it was like trying to teach a fat, lazy cat to roll over. One simply had to up the stakes sometimes. Make something worth doing, and then doing it became that much simpler.

[Astin Descartes]

Astin huffed. Of course he could put out the fire. What did Dastan think he was, five? Hell, even at five, he could put out a flipping fire. Stupid Dastan. With a slightly offended glare, Astin extinguished the flame and set back to wait some more.

"Are we allowed to help it along," he asked, "Or do we just have to sit here? Because correct potion-brewing seems awfully time-consuming and boring so far. How about I just not do anything that would require me to have a potion? That sounds good." He exhaled and stretched out along the back of the chair again. He hated waiting and sitting around doing nothing.

Maybe that was why else he sucked at potions so much; he had an extreme lack of patience when it came to just about everything. In fact, he wasn't sure he could even physically be patient. He sighed and looked down at the head of black hair about a foot from his face. Dastan was trying, and hard at that; the least Astin could do was attempt to cooperate. It wasn't easy, of course, to stifle the numerous complaints he had, but he clamped his mouth shut and continued to stare into the cauldron full of crimson... stuff.

Talk about boring.

[Dastan Cross]

"Are we allowed to help it along," Astin asked, "Or do we just have to sit here? Because correct potion-brewing seems awfully time-consuming and boring so far. How about I just not do anything that would require me to have a potion? That sounds good."

Dastan rolled his eyes and then pursed his lips, thinking of a way to make this a little quicker. "We could help it along, but a lot of the times, that messes it up. But in this case? I suppose we could."

Dastan pulled out his wand, wincing only slightly as he bent to retrieve it from his boot, and then he leveled it at the potion. He muttered a cooling spell and then grinned, "And now we re-heat it until it's green. And by green, I mean emerald green. Got it?"

Dastan sat back in his chair, content to let Astin do that. After all, Astin was the one that needed to practice. Dastan had made about a million Boil-Cure Potions. "Of course, you're going to want to do it the boring way for the Potions O.W.L.; we don't want to get in trouble for using unfair advantages or some shit like that," he added.

[Astin Descartes]

"Of course, you're going to want to do it the boring way for the Potions O.W.L.; we don't want to get in trouble for using unfair advantages or some shit like that."

Astin most definitely did not pout. Okay, he most definitely did not pout more than a little bit. And he certainly did not resemble a small animal of any sort, especially not a puppy. At least, not any more than a little, right? Right.

"You'd think that they'd give us points for ingenuity or something, right? Or for efficiency." He frowned, thinking about it. On second thought... "Actually, you're right. I'd probably still manage to blow something up."

He closed his mouth again, trying not to babble. He knew he wasn't the best pupil in the world to undertake, but he was trying. He was. He just really hated potions and waiting and the potion wasn't changing colors and oh, he supposed he should light the fire, shouldn't he? Hopig that Dastan hadn't noticed the lapse in his attention, he re-lit the flame beneath the cauldron ad waited again.

Astin had only looked away for a second, just long enough to check the next step on the board, and yet, when he turned back, the potion was already well on its way to being "emerald green." He only had to wait a little longer, although to him the wait still seemed forever.

He grabbed the vial of Flobberworm Mucus with distaste. After casting a quick glance to Dastan, he poured it in. Well. It sort of oozed out of the tube, actually. Astin grimaced. The stuff was so... gross, for lack of a better word. He wasn't easily squicked, but mucus? That was disgusting.

"What kind of pink are we talking here? Princess pink or radioactive pink?"

[Dastan Cross]

"What kind of pink are we talking here? Princess pink or radioactive pink?"

"Princess pink," Dastan said, wrinkling his nose in distaste at the continuing trail of mucus into the green potion. That was one thing he would never like about potion-making. Sure, he wasn't afraid of getting his hands dirty, but he liked to avoid nasty mucus and things. Of course, in potions, it wasn't like they had much choice in the matter.

Finally, the potion turned the shade of pink he wanted. "Stop, right there." He reached over and tilted the vial back up. "That's enough. Now, we stir. Simple, right?"

The rest of the potion-making went by in much the same manner: adding and stirring, then waiting, then adding something else, then stirring. It was mindless, and yet, it was nice. Finally came the tricky part. The porcupine quills.

"Now, it says to add the quills, but what it should have mentioned is that you have to take it off of the fire first. Adding the quills in while still on the fire will cause the concoction to melt the cauldron and we could be faced with something even more serious than simple boils. So, let's take the cauldron off of the fire and then add in the right amount of quills, yeah?"

[Astin Descartes]

Astin pushed his hair back off his forehead with a mischievous grin. "Well, since we already know how to make it..." He cast Dastan a sly glance. "I mean, what's the worst that could happen, right?"

Still, they'd been harmed enough recently; Astin still ached from it from time to time, although it was true that that could have been entirely in his head. That didn't make the pain feel any less extreme, however, whether it was mostly imagined or not. So, although he rather wanted to test out what would happen should he fail to extinguish the flame, Astin pushed aside his curiosity, minded his self-preservation instincts, and put out the fire.

"Alright," Astin said, picking up the porcupine quills, "Here we go." He dumped a small heap into the pot and watched it bubble as new colors mixed in. He still didn't understand this whole color-changing thing. He knew it was magic, and wizardry and witchcraft and such, but it made absolutely no sense whatsoever, even now. Astin doubted it ever would. Then again, he didn't need it to start making sense; he needed to be able to do it, regardless of how illogical it was.

[Dastan Cross]

"Here we go."

Dastan watched nervously as Astin poured the quills in, his wand at the ready in case Astin went overboard. Thankfully, it was fine. Dastan heaved a sigh of relief; they wouldn't be getting covered in boils/burned to death today, at least.

"Now for the finishing touches!" Dastan said, reaching over and grabbing the vial of stewed Horned Slugs. "These...are disgusting. Put them in the potion, and then stir it." Dastan waited for those things to be done.

"And now, we just have to heat it until it turns red, or, for a more potent brew, pink. See? Simple." Dastan sat back in his chair, feeling satisfaction well inside of him. They'd done it. He had helped Astin successfully brew a Boil-Cure Potion.

"Next time," Dastan suddenly added, "We can try something harder. Like that Blood-Replenishing Potion. Maybe that way, one of us can manage not to bleed to death on one of our other adventures, yeah?"