Closed A toast to trouble

[Penny Wills]

Out of Character:

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Penny left the dungeons carrying a cauldron filled with ingredients that was covered with a blanket as to not look suspicious, and took it all the way to the abandoned classroom. The time had come for Finn and her to do the most rebellious thing she'd certainly ever done and maybe even Finn too, but she was excited as they had been planning it for ages.

Penny nudged the door open with her hip and walked in backwards while her arms were preoccupied holding the cauldron. “Psssst, anyone in here?” She whispered into the dark room. If Finn had beat her to the room, then he hadn’t turned the lights on. She walked over to the desk nearest the door and placed her cauldron down to turn on the lights. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust. She looked around, Penny had never been in the abandoned classroom before but it was good enough for their purpose.

 

[Finn Lockley]

They had planned this for a while and now it was time to put things in action. They had gathered ingredients and Penny had done some research about the potion they were going to make. It was easier for Penny to carry everything since she was closer to the abandoned classroom and people in the dungeons didn't look up weirdly if you walked there with a cauldron. Finn walked from the fifth floor to the abandoned classroom and spotted the lights already on. He peeked inside and spotted Penny. ''Hey Penny, ready for everything?'' Finn whispered. ''Maybe we should shut the light off and use lumos, the lights give us away I think.'' Finn looked at the filled cauldron with all their ingredients. He was excited to finally brew a potion, he didn't care that this was illegal. It was ridiculous they didn't let first years brew something of their own.

 

[Penny Wills]

A click of the door was enough to get Penny's attention, she turned quickly, relieved to find Finn standing in the doorway. "Hey, come in, come in, and close the door. Yes I have everything here." She answered, gesturing to the table. She looked at all the lights, Finn was right, it was kind of bright and might draw attention were someone to be passing, "Yeah that's probably a good idea." Penny cast Lumos then extinguished the main lights. The classroom was much darker with just a wand and created a mysterious atmosphere that suited their rule breaking better.

Penny explained what she had done so far, she did not speak louder than a whisper as a precaution. "I've written a parchment of instructions. We have all the ingredients we need, except for one I couldn't get my hands on. The instructions said powdered moonstone," Penny moved in front of the cauldron and began to unpack the ingredients, "But we don't have that, so I've substituted for glitter." Penny removed a small vial of multi-coloured glitter and waved it in front of Finn, you could always rely on Penny for glitter, and they needed it unless Finn had a moonstone handy. "The rest of the ingredients are here. I think it'll be fine!" She smiled at Finn hoping he would agree. Penny was excited to actually be brewing a Potion at last! "If you're ready, I suppose we should get the water boiling!"

 

[Finn Lockley]

Finn quickly closed the door behind him and followed Penny to the table that had the cauldron and the ingredients. The room was much darker and people wouldn’t think of joining because there was something going on. Finn looked through the instructions and the ingredients she had taken with her. If Penny wanted to start on the potion, he could use his own wand for light. The fact that they didn’t have a moonstone was troublesome, but Finn was way too excited to care. Switching out ingredients wasn’t that bad right. He knew moonstones were really expensive, so there was no way people had them laying around and he didn’t dare so go and borrow one from the Professor. The multi coloured glitter looked like powdered moonstone and it was probably okay if they did the rest correctly. ‘’Definitely, if we just follow the other steps perfectly.’’ Finn looked at the recipe and started the burner to get the cauldron ready for boiling. ‘’Let’s go, make our first potion.’’ Finn said happily.

 

[Penny Wills]

With Finn's support, Penny felt confident the plan could go ahead. Agreeing with the logic meant it couldn't be wrong. She watched Finn start the flame and a trickle of excitement ran down her spine, she had a really good feeling about this! And then they waited for the cauldron to boil. And they waited, and waited over fifteen minutes! Penny huffed, placing her arms on the table, "I forgot how long water takes to boil!" She leaned forward to glance inside the cauldron, "Aha, look bubbles!" Within a few minutes later the cauldron was boiling nicely. They could begin.

Penny used the wand light to read the instructions out, she told Finn what to add and when, how many times to stir the cauldron and in which direction. They worked as a team and it seemed to be going well, almost too well that she could not understand why first years weren't brewing in class. "Okay, and now add the moonstone glitter and stir four times anti-clockwise." She told him, they were nearly finished.

 

[Finn Lockley]

Finn looked at the cauldron and it finally started to boil. I took a while, but he was sure the cauldron had the right temperature. Penny read the instructions and Finn add the ingredients, they were a nice team and it worked out fine. He stirred for the correct times and chopped everything as fine as the instructions had stated. It was going great and Finn was glad he had done this with Penny. It was weird they didn't allow students to brew potions in their first year. You were allowed to paralyze others in the Defense against the Arts lessons, but you weren't allowed to brew an innocent potion it was so weird. He grabbed the vial of glitter from Penny and wondered how much powder would come of a moonstone, he had to add the exact same amount of glitter. ''How much do you think I need to add?'' Finn whispered. Penny answered and he opened the glitter container and dumped the glitter in. He started stirring anti clockwise.

The potion began to change colour and it started to make this high pitched sound. It was going harder and harder and Finn was sure that the sound could be heard from outside the abandoned classroom. The potion was going rogue it was bubbling on a very rapid pace and the sound was getting louder and louder. Finn grabbed his wand and tried the counter spell. ''Finite'' He pointed it at the cauldron, nothing really happened and he knew they had to abandon ship, ''Penny we have to go now, they can't catch us if they don't know who was here, we can't fix this anymore'' He said a bit louder than actually whispering. He was stressed and he knew there was no good outcome anymore than abandoning this potion and making an attempt to run. ''Throw the blanket over it and leave, we have to go now.'' Finn said and he ran after Penny.

 

[Penny Wills]

All was going so well until the Potion made this high pitched noise that Penny could akin to a scream. The scream was loud, long and grew higher in pitch. It would undoubtedly be heard in other parts of the castle and someone was bound to come investigating. Finite did little to steady the Potion so Penny shut off the flame hoping that would stable the Potion instead. But Finn was right, they had to get out of there or they would get caught.

Penny threw the blanket over the cauldron and grabbed her wand, leaving everything else behind to go with Finn out the door. Underneath the blanket the Potion continued to bubble and change colour, first a vivid blue, then a furling red but the two first years had gone by then.

@Blake Lodge @Harper Alston

 

[Harper Alston]

The History of Magic lecture that week had been fairly interesting, but Harper was more than ready to head back to Gryffindor tower and do something more fun. What she would do, she wasn't sure yet. Maybe she could explore the castle further? It was getting colder outside, and she'd already explored most of the grounds outside the castle. Maybe now was a good time to find some secret passageways and hidden rooms. Harper mentally tried to map out the parts of the castle, lost in thought, as her body moved in autopilot, following some other Gryffindors back to the tower.

Her surroundings came rushing back to her when Harper nearly ran into one of her roommates. She looked up, startled, to see Blake. "Sorry," she said, smiling sheepishly. Harper started to resume her thoughts of exploring the castle before realizing it was probably a good thing that she'd seen the other girl. They hadn't really talked since the Valentine's Dance, and from what Harper had heard, her roommate had been busy. "Soooo, what's up with you and Lysander?" she asked with a knowing grin. Naturally, sharing a room with two dozen other girls meant rumors were always flying around, and last she heard, Blake had dramatically swooped onto the pitch after the Gryffindor-Slytherin game with a banner and a dozen roses to declare her undying love for Lysander. Harper knew that version of the story was probably exaggerated, but all rumors had to start from somewhere, right? As she waited for Blake to answer, a faint high-pitched noise caught her attention. It sounded a bit like screaming though it was too faint to tell. "Wait, do you hear that?" Harper cocked her head to the side, trying to hear better.

 

[Blake Lodge]

Blake was heading towards the common room alongside with the other first year Gryffindors, after this week's History of Magic lesson she definitely need to study a bit as she wasn't really memorizing anything that Professor Pourroulis lectured. She was lost in thought wondering what topic she should start studying first when Harper bumped into her. The girl gave her a warm smile to let the other girl know that it was alright, it was nice to meet Harper outside any dance or ball since that was when they usually met.
Blake couldn't help but chuckle, Harper wasn't immune to rumors and Blake knew that there was a lot of girls talking bout her and Lysander, she was still to figure out how they came to know that she talked to him. "Before you start imagining things, we just talked after the game. I'm not even sure if we are friends." she said before being interrupted by a high pitched noise. She turned to Harper who had clearly also heard that "Yeah..." she said before going after the noise.
For what she knew it could be someone or something in danger and in that case she would need to help. She started following the sound that seemed still a few levels above where she was. "You coming?" she asked Harper but starting to walk away before getting an answer. She followed the sound that seemed to come from a door in the second floor corridor. She had heard that inside that dorm there was an abandoned classroom where the ghost used to hang out. She put one hand on the door knob asking herself if it was a good idea to go in there but now it was too late, she had already opened the door.

 

[Harper Alston]

Blake's version of the story was much more boring than the one floating around the Gryffindor dorm. "That's it? You didn't shower him with rose petals? You're not even dating?" Harper asked, a bit disappointed. She knew they were a bit too young to actually start dating. But then again, Blake had always seemed older for her age. Harper didn't have much time to dwell on this disappointing revelation as Blake confirmed that she too had heard the weird high-pitched noise. There was always something strange going on at Hogwarts, but even this was a bit out of the ordinary.

Harper followed Blake towards the sound. It took some time, but they finally arrived at a door, where the noise was more pronounced but still muffled. Was someone hurt? Blake opened the door, and a loud shriek filled the air, causing Harper to wince. The strange thing was that it was dark inside except for a glowing lump in the middle. "Hello?" Harper fumbled around a bit before finding the light. No one was inside the room. Even with the light on, the strange blanket-covered object still glowed strongly, its top moving as if it were alive.

Moving on instinct, Harper sidestepped some discarded bits of trash around the object and whipped the blanket off to reveal a cauldron. Her eyes widened as she realized there was a potion inside, bubbling violently, sending scarlet droplets up higher and higher. "Blake?" she called, panic rising in her voice. She could barely hear the sound of her own voice over the screaming that was coming from the potion. Harper took a step back, not daring to take her eyes off the thing in case it exploded. There was no fire as far as she could tell. Why was the potion still bubbling? "How do we stop this thing?"

 

[Blake Lodge]

Blake entered the room with Harper. There was something glowing in the middle of the room and Blake froze for a moment, she had no idea what to do. She watched as the other girl tried to carefully remove the blanket that was on top of it. Blake was about to tell Harper not to do that but she was as curious as the other girl to see what was underneath, besides, she wasn't thinking very rationally at the moment and then the best thing happened to a person who wasn't being very rational at the moment. She was asked for a solution.
The Gryffindor girl started walking in small circles taking deep breaths and trying to force herself to think. Think Blake, think. That was the sentence she was saying to herself on repeat, then the million galleons idea came up. "Ok so clearly the potion is boiling, must be hot. We just have to cast a freezing spell" she said but then realising it wasn't possible. "Right... we don't know a freezing spell. Guess Charms class was kind of useless after all" she said with her voice going up a notch because of the panic. She looked down at her feet and then she had a plan B.
"Got it" she said triumphantly "We need something that will stupefy the potion but the actual stunning spell might cause an explosion, a big one, like bye bye Hogwarts. So, we use my mom's advice that for once was helpful" she said taking of one of her heels with one hand and using the other to get some support from a dusty desk "We use these as weapons" she said shaking her shoe.
"One of us casts Protego, in case something goes awry, and the other throws the shoe" she said kind of proud of her idea "Wanna give it a go?" she said handing the shoe to Harper.

 

[Harper Alston]

To her credit, Blake started spouting off ideas. However, Harper wasn't too sure how great those ideas were. "But—" Harper started to say, trying to point out that the potion wasn't hot since there were no flames. But Blake cut her off, something about Charms being useless. It was clear the other girl was panicking too, which didn't exactly help with Harper's rising stress levels. She took a deep breath, trying to remain level-headed. She'd gotten out of tricky situations in the past, but none had ever involved magic. She was totally out of her depth here.

Blake suddenly exclaimed, causing Harper to flinch. She took her eyes off the cauldron for a second as Blake explained that stupefy would cause a major explosion. "What?" There was no way that could be true. That meant they were standing in front of the equivalent of a bomb. All Harper had wanted to do was stop the terrible shrieking that was coming from the potion and prevent it from bubbling over and getting everywhere. There was no way this thing could actually cause a real explosion.

Harper was finally convinced that she was right and Blake had no idea what she was doing or saying when the other girl started to take off her shoe. Blake had officially lost her mind. Harper stared incredulously at Blake and the outstretched heel before shaking her head. "What? No! Stupefy makes more sense than tossing a shoe in there. It's a potion, we don't need weapons. Adding a shoe would be like adding an ingredient, and who knows what that'll do." The noise seemed to get even louder, and Harper looked over to see that the potion had turned a deep, sparkling purple and droplets were shooting up high enough to splatter the ceiling, leaving glittery spots. "Better idea— we run for it and get Professor Mowry."

 

[Blake Lodge]

Blake still though that throwing a shoe against the cauldron to take it down was a great idea but she shuddered as the other girl quickly dismissed her idea. "Well considering Professor Mowry's office is three floors below us I don't think that is a very good idea. Let's just find ONE professor, anyone really. One that is already in this floor" she said heading towards but then it happened.
As soon as the girl touched the knob of the door to leave the cauldron exploded making glitter and a very sticky red mixture go everywhere. Blake couldn't help but let out a scream when she heard the boom. She turned around slowly, covered in whatever that was, a perfectly good outfit ruined. And the worst was that the red sticky thing was also all over her hair which she presumed it would be incredibly hard to wash away. Blake was about to talk but before she coughed a little cloud of glitter "Tell me I'm dreaming and that this didn't happened" she said, still petrified, to Harper.

 

[Harper Alston]

Blake had a good point about Professor Mowry being far away. They just needed one professor, or maybe even just an older student. Surely it wouldn't be hard to find someone in this castle who knew what to do. Literally anyone would be more equipped than two first years to deal with this. It struck Harper that they really hadn't learned anything useful during Potions last semester. "Okay, let's do that," Harper said nodding. She turned to follow Blake out the door.

There was suddenly a loud bang, and Harper shrieked, shutting her eyes and trying to shield her head. Thankfully, she had been facing the door, so most of the potion splattered across her back. Still, some had gotten on her side, including her face. Harper cautiously opened her eyes and found Blake staring back at her, reflecting her own scared expression. "I wish this was a dream. Are you okay?" It looked like Blake may have gotten a mouthful of glitter and considering that this was an unknown potion they were dealing with, Harper was worried about her roommate. Harper wiped at a bit of the liquid on her own face and looked down to see that it was red, sticky and very glittery. It smelled a bit like sour milk, causing her to grimace. She didn't even want to think about the state of her hair.

The screaming had stopped, and Harper surveyed the room. Despite the noise of the explosion, there didn't appear to be any damage aside from the glitter and red splatters that were everywhere. Most of the potion was concentrated in a sticky pool on the floor surrounding the cauldron. Harper took a few tentative steps toward the cauldron and peered inside to see that an inch of liquid was still bubbling, albeit not nearly as violent as before. "Ugh, it smells even worse over here." She stepped back, wrinkling her nose. Now that she didn't have to worry about an imminent explosion, she could see that there were discarded bits of potions ingredients everywhere, most of it covered in the sparkly red liquid. A piece of parchment with some writing on it lay nearby, and Harper picked it up and held it up for Blake to see. "Hey, look at this." It was covered in glittery smears, but from what she could see, there were instructions on it. Maybe it'd help them identify what exactly they were covered in. The liquid didn't burn or hurt or anything, but it was magic. She didn't know how concerned she needed to be.

 

[Blake Lodge]

Blake nodded her head "Yeah I'm fine all things considered" she said with a little chuckle, she did not expect this to happen when she left the History of Magic classroom. Blake watched as Harper started to examine the room, there were a few things on the floor involved in that sticky red solution. Blake picked up what seemed to be a white flower "This looks like Asphodel" she said to Harper.
She turned her head to the other girl when Harper seemed to have found some sort of paper. Blake grabbed it and tried to read it but it was too dirty to read much "Let's keep it and investigate this later. I just want to get out of here and take a shower" she said putting the paper in her bag and heading towards the door.

@Professor Misha Haden

 

[Professor Misha Haden]

Misha was not often on the second floor, but he was meandering back to his classroom, and he meandered through this hallway. It was until a foul smell brought him towards the abandon classroom. He wasn't sure what had gone on, but certainly people had caused a bit of problems. He approached the door and opened it. Greeted with a sight of two young students, not ones he knew because he wasn't a professor of the younger students, but they were in a room with a suspicious looking potion thing and just generally like they perhaps shouldn't be there. "Does one of you want to explain what's going on here?" he asked. he didn't immediately clean up the room, keen to first ascertain what was going on in here. ​

 

[Harper Alston]

Harper couldn't figure out why someone had decided to brew a potion in an empty classroom. Or why they would abandon it, along with all of their stuff. Maybe this was someone's idea of a prank? She nodded numbly as Blake pointed out a flower and took the parchment from her. "Same. It's going to take hours to get this stuff from my hair." Harper picked at a strand, wincing at the stickiness. "Should we find a professor first to clean this up?"

Almost as if on cue, the door swung open, and Harper jumped and looked up a bit guiltily, as if she'd been caught doing something she shouldn't. Not that she had done anything wrong, of course. A professor — one whom she didn't recognize — stepped in and asked for an explanation. Harper frowned slightly when he didn't make a move to clean everything up. The smell near the cauldron, where she stood, was starting to become overwhelming. "We heard this weird screaming coming from the room, and when we arrived, there was no one here. A potion was making the sound." She pointed to the nearby cauldron. "We couldn't figure out how to make it stop and it exploded." Harper glanced over at Blake in case she had anything else to add.

 

[Blake Lodge]

Blake nodded to Harper about finding a professor and suddenly she was surprised by a deep voice behind her. She turned around to see a man and she couldn't help but scream but she quickly cover her mouth with her hands and gave him an apologetic look "Sorry, still a little jumpy due to recent events" she said.
She looked at Harper as she explained the story really quickly and nodded as she talked as if agreeing with everything. "That's what happened" she added in confirmation.
She had been in her fair share of courts, been around lawyers, judges and cops way more than she would like to but all of that taught her one thing. When defending her case, if she has nothing to add it's better to stay quiet and not be a smartypants, that only usually causes more trouble. Blake was going to say that they weren't the ones who did that but she guessed it was already explicit enough in Harper's speech. Now the man just had to believe them.