The Water's Coming in Fast

[Phoebe Holland]

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It had been a while since Phoebe had a plan, a real plan that excited her. Today it was time, as she had finally talked Veronica into trying to brew a potion with her. It was ridiculous, after all, that she was nearly halfway through her second year and hadn't been allowed to brew a single one yet. Potions was something Phoebe had looked forward to since the moment she knew it was a subject at the school, and so far it had been interesting but nothing like what she had imagined. Never one to be patient, Phoebe had decided to take matters into her own hands.

Scouting the dungeons ahead of time, she had found a storage room that was big enough for their plans. She had carried down her cauldron, ingredients, and her book one by one over the past few days, using the new locking charm she had learned in Charms to keep them relatively safe there. She had the feeling not many people ventured that deep into the dungeons anyway, and if they stumbled onto her stuff they would probably just assume they were supplies in storage.

Talking Veronica into it had actualy been the hardest part, and she hadn't really expected that to be the case. The only person she knew that was more curious than Veronica was herself, so she had assumed her friend would be eager to try it out too. They were both brilliant! And it was a second-year potion they were going to try. As second-years, that meant it wouldn't be that much of a risk. Maybe if they were the kind of students that barely paid attention in class or had no attention to detail, but that wasn't them. They were top of the class.

She grinned at her friend a she lead her to the cauldron she had hidden away. "It's going to be so awesome. I mean, the boil-cure potion isn't the most exciting but we can surely try a third year one next time, after this goes perfectly of course." She said with a wink before opening the door. "So... let's see." She picked up the book and opened it to the right page. "Water, nettles, snake fangs, one stewed horned slug and porcupine quills." She pointed at each ingredient as she read it out loud, grinning. "We're ready."

 

[Veronica Willows]

Now that they were actually standing down here in the dungeons, Veronica didn't quite know how she had managed to let herself be talked into this. Brewing their first potion with no adult supervision, without anyone knowing they were down here? All sorts of things could go wrong, Veronica was sure of it - there weren't any express rules that said they couldn't do what they were doing, as Phoebe had pointed out during one of her attempts to convince her, but it was definitely the sort of thing that would get them in trouble if a professor found out. The problem was - Veronica was reminded as she took in the excited look on her friend's face - she just wanted to impress Phoebe so much. After spending many years at muggle school always slightly on the outskirts of the predominant social circles, meeting someone who shared and encouraged her interests had been like finally entering an oasis. And Phoebe was so clever and talented herself, too - Veronica was actually quite flattered that the other girl trusted her enough to involve her in this plan in the first place.

It had taken a bit of time, but eventually Phoebe had managed to wear her down - it turned out Veronica just couldn't say no to her friends, no matter what concerns indicated that she should do so. She managed to only smile weakly at Phoebe's wish to move onto a third year potion next. "Maybe..." But she trailed off as she took in the little set up Phoebe had waiting for them. Perhaps the worst part of all this, Veronica thought, was that despite all her worries she still actually wanted to finally have the experience of brewing her own potion. The guilt, nervousness and excitement was mixing together in her stomach in a way that would become unpleasant if she didn't distract herself from it however, so she peered over Phoebe's arm as the other girl opened the book. Veronica's eyes flicked down the page as she read over all of the instructions, before then making her way over to the ingredients. It followed that the sooner they began with this scheme, the sooner they would be finished and could return to less dangerous waters. "I can begin crushing the snake fangs if you want to get the cauldron ready," she offered. It seemed the more tedious task, and the whole point of agreeing had been so Phoebe could do something she enjoyed, after all.

 

[Phoebe Holland]

Phoebe could tell Veronica was still reluctant, and part of her felt bad for dragging the girl into this so... aggressively. But she knew Veronica would enjoy herself shortly so she didn't feel too guilty. This was going to be a great step into their future as witches, and she knew that Veronica wouldn't really want to miss it. Phoebe nodded at Veronica's suggestion. "Sure, if you want to." She said, nearly skipping over to the cauldron to put the water in it. She measured it all carefully, her smile wide. This was going to be awesome! She lit the fire to a medium heat and watched as the water slowly started to boil. She beamed at Veronica. "Are the snake fangs done? I'm putting the nettles in and they have to be in it after." She told Veronica with a grin."You can stir once they're in, if you want." She offered.

 

[Veronica Willows]

Veronica began crushing the snake fangs as offered, and as she did she slowly felt herself fall into a mindset of wanting to brew the potion properly. Now that she was here, doing it... everything would be fine as long as they followed the instructions. She certainly trusted herself to do that, and she knew that Phoebe wouldn't want to do anything that would endanger the potion's chance of success. Looking up at the other girl as she measured the water into the cauldron, Veronica couldn't help but smile at the expression on her friend's face... this was why she had ended up agreeing, there was no doubt about it. The rhythm of crushing the snake fangs was soothing, and Veronica lost herself in it a little, making sure that the grains were as fine as she could make them. Called back to her surroundings by the sound of Phoebe's voice, Veronica blinked slightly at her and stared down into the mortar to check her progress. "Oh, yes! Um, just a second." She put the pestle down and made her way over to the cauldron, watching as her friend dropped in the nettle leaves and then tipping in the snake fangs after. With her other hand she grabbed the stirrer and began a smooth and steady stirring motion in the clockwise direction. "If you get the horned slug ready to put in... can you tell me when time's up?" She stirred a little more and then lifted her head up to look at Phoebe. "Do you want to stir the second time? It's longer, so..."

 

[Phoebe Holland]

Phoebe was thrilled with how smoothly this was going. If this was really all there was to it, she really didn't get why she hadn't been allowed to try this a year ago. Heck, she could have done this before going to Hogwarts. She wasn't stupid enough to stop following the instructions, at least for this time. Experimentation was a necessity, but later, when they were more familiar with the potion and the act of brewing one.

She watched Veronica stir for a moment, still giddy. "Sure thing." She said, turning to get the horned slug. She looked at her watch carefully. "Time's up!" She said eagerly, dropping the slug in with a vicious grin before nodding. "Sure, I'll take over." She said, flexing her arm. "I can handle it," she joked before grabbing the stirrer. A feeling of pride started to swell in her chest, they were really doing it! The potion looked perfect so far. "The porcupine quills need to be put in when I'm done, can you grab them?"

 

[Veronica Willows]

Veronica relinquished the stirrer to Phoebe and smiled at her friend's joke. "I just thought you'd get bored watching me with nothing to do, is all. This was your idea, you should get to have fun doing it." Nodding at her friend's request, Veronica made sure to check the time from which the two minutes started before going over to pick up the porcupine quills. They were almost finished now and so far nothing terrible had happened, which was an immense relief. A small part of her was sort of worried about the fact that Phoebe would want to brew more potions like this in the future, a thought that raised her anxiety levels a little bit. Mostly, however, she wanted to get this potion perfect, and so any other thoughts were easily pushed to the back of her mind as she focused on the task at hand. Picking up the porcupine quills, Veronica turned back to Phoebe and peered at the watch on the girl's wrist to check how long her friend needed to continue stirring. There was still some time yet, but Veronica knew that they would need to immediately remove the cauldron from the heat once Phoebe was done. Still paying attention to the watch she said, "Here," and passed the porcupine quills across to the other girl, leaving both of her own hands free to deal with the cauldron when the time came.

 

[Phoebe Holland]

Phoebe shook her head. "It's for both of us! I know it was my idea but we should both have fun." She said with a bright smile at her best friend. This was going great so far, completely and utterly the way she had imagined it would. When this was done, she was going to head to the library to find something more advanced to try. The setup here worked, why wouldn't she continue? She could only imagine the look on Professor Pendleton's face when she performed flawlessly in the lessons. At this rate, she would be inventing her own potions in no time. That thought made her smile, and she only noticed the time was nearly up when her she noticed her friend looking at her watch. Veronica passed her the quills and she nodded. Then she was done stirring and knew the next step was to throw them in. A small voice in the back of her mind tried to tell her to re-check the book but Phoebe pushed it aside. She knew the order of the steps. Without a glance at her friend or even a moment of hesitation, she dropped the quills into the potion. "That's it, right?" She asked, but her eyes widened at the sight of bright green smoke starting to appear. That... was not what was supposed to happen, had she messed up? Surely not.

 

[Veronica Willows]

Veronica returned Phoebe's smile, but remained focused on her task as the critical stage came closer. She saw the other girl had been paying attention to the time as well, so didn't feel the need to remind her that the two minutes were up and instead waited for Phoebe to remove the stirrer from the cauldron. What she didn't expect to happen was for the other girl to immediately drop the porcupine quills into the potion. Veronica blinked, and then just stared at where they had sunk into the mixture, almost unable to comprehend what she had seen. They had missed a step. The most important step. Without realising it a small whine of distress escaped her throat, and she was so focused on the fact that a mistake had happened that she almost didn't hear Phoebe talking to her.

Looking up at the other girl, Veronica wondered how she could be so calm, when her own stomach was currently twisting itself up into a knot of panic. "No, no... oh no, no, no..." It was inconceivable that this could have happened, and yet it had. "I was... we had to... remove the cauldron from the heat, and then -" But finally seeing panic begin to appear on her friend's face, Veronica broke off to follow Phoebe's gaze - and saw green smoke begin curling up from the surface of the potion. Her world had narrowed down to this one moment, and her focus on Phoebe meant she was closer to the cauldron than she should have been. Frozen to the spot, she completely forgot the key word of their failure - acid smoke.

 

[Phoebe Holland]

Phoebe heard Veronica make a whining noise and she knew that she had screwed up even before the other girl said anything. Of course, the cauldron had to be taken off the heat first. Phoebe cursed, angrier at herself than she could remember ever being before. Not only was the potion ruined now, it had been because of her mistake. She had been so sure she would do perfectly at this without trying, without double-checking the book. It had been stupid, arrogant, plain and simple. All the warnings her parents had given her about how dangerous her experiments were suddenly came back to her, she had always dismissed them. The smoke was starting to become thicker and rise from the cauldron, and Phoebe coughed. It hurt, she felt a few stings on her arms where the smoke touched her. She knew it was acid, she had at least remembered that much from the book. They needed to get out of here, away from it. Veronica was standing stock-still and Phoebe turned and started to push at her. "Go! Come on!" She pushed at her friend to get her to move away from the cauldron, but then her she placed her foot on something wet and slippery. Some potion that spilled? Simple water? Maybe a horned slug she had dropped? She couldn't be sure, as in a moment it made her slip and crash to the floor. "Ouch!" She yelled, more in frustration than in pain, though her nose definitely hurt. She could feel something warm and on her face and knew she was bleeding. With a groan, she tried to scramble to her feet again. The green smoke was in the air now and spreading fast, she felt her eyes well up, this wasn't what was supposed to happen.

 

[Veronica Willows]

The smoke was spreading fairly quickly, and before Veronica could even think to step back from it she felt it pressing against her arms, immediately causing a burning sensation that her mind couldn't really describe as cold or hot but just painful. It was enough to finally get her brain and body to communicate the need to move, but Phoebe was quicker, already trying to push her away from the cauldron. Veronica stumbled backwards a few steps as her legs yielded to the pressure of her friend's urgency, but as the other girl suddenly slipped and fell to the floor Veronica immediately became more concerned with helping her. Bending over, she scrabbled at Phoebe's arms to try and help her up, her panic continuing to grow as the reaction only impaired her movements. "You're bleeding," she almost sobbed as she saw her friend's face, ignoring the new stings she could feel appearing along her forehead and the side of her face where the cauldron was. "Please be okay, please be okay," she muttered, half to Phoebe and half to herself. She was having trouble keeping up with how fast everything seemed to be happening.

 

[Monty Pendleton]

Professor Pendleton knew the dungeons like the back of his hand. He knew about the hidden passages, and the storerooms, and the corridors which were actually dead ends, and the door that wasn't actually a door at all, but just a wall pretending to be one; and perhaps better than anything else, he knew about the smell. The aroma of a Boil Cure potion was quite powerful, and could linger around the dungeons for some time after one of his lessons. This characteristic wasn't usually a cause for concern - a correctly brewed Boil Cure, whilst pungent, was not in itself hazardous to one's health. What was unusual was to smell the aforementioned potion almost a week before his class had brewed it.

Monty frowned, stopping in his tracks. Still he was not particularly alarmed: pupils did occasionally practice brewing in their own free time, and often down in the dungeons, where potion ingredients were easy to get a hold of. As a professor, however, he felt it would be irresponsible not to at least locate the source of the smell, if only to rest his mind that the proper equipment and safety measures had been employed. Thus decided, he began to follow his nose, making it only half way along the corridor when suddenly a voice cried out. He sprinted the rest of the way, pushing open a door that had been left ajar and entering the room.

The sight was shocking. Through the thick green smoke he could see two young Ravenclaws scrambling to their feet - and was that blood? Never mind that - the smoke was burning their skin. "Get away from that," he ordered, pulling his wand and using his left arm to wave the children away. With a series of spells he cleared the potion from the cauldron, lifted the smoke cloud to a less threatening height, and then finally forced it to disperse. As a precaution, he ushered Veronica and Phoebe out of the small room and into the corridor, lighting a few more sconces to get a clearer look at their injuries. Phoebe's nose was certainly bleeding, and the smoke had clearly touched Veronica's face. Monty conjured a tissue and offered it to Phoebe, not nearly confident enough at healing spells to attempt anything more drastic. "Right," he said. "You've been burned, but not terribly. I think you two had better follow me to the hospital wing. Perhaps on the way you can explain to me what you were doing, hm?"

 

[Phoebe Holland]

Oddly enough, falling on her face seemed to clear Phoebe's head. She could hear the threatening sob in Veronica's voice and knew she had to act, to help. Of the two of them it was Phoebe who was supposed to take charge, to be a leader. After all, she had pulled them into this mess. "I'm okay." She said to her friend, though her voice shook. "We have to get out-- the door..."

But the door was blocked by a figure, and Phoebe first felt panic as her mind had trouble thinking of a reason for anything to stand in the way of their freedom. It took her an embarrassingly long time to realise it was a person, and even longer who it was. He told them to get away from it, as if they hadn't been trying! But then he made the stinging smoke disappear and Phoebe forgot any sarcastic thought she had. Professor Pendleton had saved them.

They were ushered out of the room and Phoebe felt her skin sting in places it had been burned. She also felt her eyes sting, which was humiliating. She wasn't the type of girl to cry. She wasn't a baby. Numbly, she took the tissue from Professor Pendleton and hastily wiped at her face. It didnt do much to remove the blood, she mostly spread it around more. Professor Pendleton told them they needed to go to the hospital wing, and he didn't sound too angry, so Phoebe felt a spark of hope. Maybe he could appreciate their willingnes to learn and take risks? She coughed before speaking. "We were brewing the boil cure potion, sir." She said without a hint of shame. "But I made a mistake." That part was less easy to admit to and she averted her eyes.

 

[Veronica Willows]

Caught up in her panic and apparent uselessness at helping Phoebe, the first Veronica knew of someone else entering the room was when she heard their voice telling them to get away from the cauldron. It seemed the obvious solution, but if it was so easy, why couldn't she do it? She stumbled to the side, mostly guided by Phoebe and whoever else had appeared, and watched numbly as the smoke around them began to recede to reveal... Veronica's stomach dropped completely. She couldn't even begin to imagine how much trouble they would be in now that Professor Pendleton had discovered what they had been doing. She was very glad he had, of course, but... it was too much for her already overwhelmed mind, and with the pain from her burns beginning to become more apparent as they left the room, the only response Veronica's body seemed to be able to make was to begin crying. It wasn't loud, or overly dramatic, but the tears flowed freely as Professor Pendleton didn't even yell at them. Wasn't he mad? Disappointed? He must be, and Veronica both needed and dreaded to hear it. Mutely she stood beside Phoebe, staring at the ground and trying to hold back her hiccups, but looked up in alarm as her friend began explaining what had happened. "No, Professor! It was my fault, I should have... I knew we needed to follow the instructions perfectly, and I should have been quicker, I could have caught the quills... I could have... We should have been more careful, we shouldn't have done it at all, I could have stopped this from happening, I'm sorry!" She was babbling as she tried to explain, but Veronica couldn't stand the idea of Phoebe taking the blame when she had done just as many if not more things wrong.

 

[Monty Pendleton]

Monty was always horrified when students cried, but he was even more horrified to think that he'd made Veronica cry. Well, he hadn't really - she was ashamed of her actions, he presumed. Nonetheless, it took some self restraint not to apologize. "Now, there's no need for that," he said. He looked at both of the girls in turn. "Neither of you should have been brewing this potion before we'd practised it in class, and therefore I think you'll find the blame to be shared equally between yourselves." His eyes settled on Phoebe, and narrowed. "At least one of you feels some remorse for your behaviour." He turned on his heel. "Follow me, please." And then, as he started to walk, "This is precisely the reason we employ these rules, girls: to keep you from getting hurt."

 

[Phoebe Holland]

Phoebe's calm demeanor after getting out of the room filled with acid clouds crumbled pretty quickly, though she fought to keep it up. This was a lot harder as Veronica started to cry next to her. Guilt overwhelmed her, she had put her friend in danger. She had made the mistake. When Veronica said she should have been quicker and caught the quills, Phoebe shook her head. "No, it was my mistake. I put them in too early, I forgot." She said with a frown at her friend, before putting an arm around her. It grated her to have to admit she had messed up again, but she couldn't let Veronica say it had been her. "You did it right, it was me that messed up." Her voice started to shake on the last sentence and she swallowed down her own tears. This wouldn't do any good.

It seemed like any hope of Professor Pendleton approving of this idea was gone too. The way his gaze settled on her made her realize he knew exactly who was to blame, and who had had the idea. Well, at least there was no use dramatically confessing it. Phoebe frowned. "I don't feel remorse for trying to learn. Professor." She said in response to him. The burns on her arm were stinging and she sighed as she followed him. She glanced at Veronica. "It wasn't your fault." She said quietly as they walked. "Stop... crying, please? Does it hurt that much?"

 

[Veronica Willows]

Veronica felt absolutely miserable, and Professor Pendleton's words did nothing to alleviate the shame and upset currently trying to claw its way out of her stomach. She didn't think she'd be able to hold the tears back now if she tried, although at least she seemed to have a handle on the hiccups... for now. Ducking her head again, Veronica tried not to look at either of them. Phoebe's reassurance didn't make her feel any better either - she didn't want to place the blame on her friend, and hearing Phoebe say it herself was just as jarring. She should never have let the other girl get into this situation in the first place; Veronica knew how hard Phoebe would be taking the failure. Trying to shake her head in protest that she hadn't helped cause the accident, Veronica almost crumbled into the arm her friend placed around her shoulders. "I... I'd like to," she sniffed, trying to wipe away some of the tears. "But I can't." She tried for a wobbly smile, but it didn't stay on her face for very long. "The... the burns don't hurt so badly. Are you okay?" The pain was more of a dull throb at the moment, numbed by her focus elsewhere. Flicking her gaze slowly over Phoebe, Veronica didn't know if the new tears that formed were related to this, or just a coincidence. Professor Pendleton was moving away now as well, and swallowing heavily, Veronica began to shuffle after him. She was silent for a moment, but then asked in a shaky voice, "Are... are we in a lot of trouble, Professor?" They must be - but what would the scale of their punishment be? All sorts of horrendous situations were beginning to cloud Veronica's mind and the dread returned full-scale - what would her parents say when they found out? They'd be so disappointed.