VIOLET (A Harry Potter Universe Fanfiction)

3.

"Which is?"

"An articulation infusion," said Caiti. She selected one of the fancy knives her parents had given her as a graduation gift and set to work preparing ingredients.

Marlowe eyed her, frowning. "Do you need a recipe for anything?" he asked.

Caiti smiled. "Sometimes. If I haven't made it before. Or if it's complicated."

"You've made this before?"

"Once," Caiti said. "My fifth year I think."

"And you still remember it?" asked Marlowe in utter disbelief.

"I think so," said Caiti. "It wasn't hard. I made it for Sean. For quidditch. Remember when he got that bludger to the elbow and it was bugging him for a while?"

"Remember when he broke his hand because someone shook it too hard?" Marlowe sniggered.

Caiti cracked a smile. "That actually did happen, you know. I went and saw him in the hospital wing. But anyway. I made him this potion and he never complained about it again. So maybe it'll help you, too."

Caiti paused. "I don't remember if I'm supposed to add the newt eyes or the spider legs first," she said. She stood up again and went rifling through a stack of potion books, pulling one out and flipping through it.

"Spider legs," she said and then put the book back where it came from. She tapped under her cauldron to set the flame and dropped the first ingredient in before the water even had a chance to heat up.

Marlowe watched her eye the cauldron and drop the newt eyes in at what seemed to be a very precise moment. She stirred a few times, watched the water become a thick, inky black that looked very unappetizing, and then she tossed in the next ingredient. A few more stirs and it turned pearly and iridescent.

"I vote for it to stay like that," Marlowe said. He wasn't too thrilled with the ingredients.

"This one doesn't taste bad," she said. "Or at least Sean didn't make a face or anything."

"Well that's a good sign." Sean had always been the pickiest eater of the four of them.

He watched as Caiti continued to work. She was always startlingly beautiful, but there was something about watching her make a potion that Marlowe found electrifying. She did not have the same focus today that she had when she made the wolfsbane potion. Marlowe had watched her make it twice and both times had been afraid to even breathe. But there was still something about the deliberate way she did everything, so careful and precise and thoughtful.

"Now," Caiti said, squeezing the juice out of an elderberry before she dropped it in. She gave the potion two or three stirs and tipped her head to the side to observe it. "We just wait until it turns pale green."

She got up from the table and came to sit by Marlowe.

"You should teach a class," he told her.

"I don't think I could," she said. "Half of it's intuition. I just sort of... I mean I follow the recipes and everything, but mostly I feel it out. You can just tell if something's off."

"You can, maybe," said Marlowe.

"You just have to pay attention," Caiti said. "But the techniques and everything... I mean it's nothing you wouldn't learn in a regular Hogwarts class. I don't do anything special or different. I just... I don't know. I watch it. I listen to it. And then I adjust."

"Do a live show then," Marlowe said. "Sell tickets. I'd pay to watch you brew anything. You could make a cure for boils and I'd be on the edge of my seat."