UNBREAK | D.M (UNRAVEL BOOK 5)

[ 44 ]

There it was!

Aine tried so hard to restrain a beam from the result but she holds a poker face. Her clasped fingers, however, displayed her excitement. She redirects her mind to focus back on her brewing, not wanting to let her delight ruin anything. As close as she was nearing the end of the potion, anything could mess up right now if she wasn't attentive or careful.

She lowers the heat of the blazing flames with her wand before wheeling over to take the Hellebore Syrup. Then, very accurately, she added seven drops of the blue ingredient into her cauldron. Her golden eyes widen at every drop she adds and her fingers tremble as she squeezes the pipette.

Finally, the white potion turned turquoise blue and light silver vapour rose from her cauldron. Aine pumped her fists when she saw the strips of vapour rising from her pot, she could see Slughorn smiling ever so proudly when he noticed the result, failing to contain his apathetic face like the two other examiners. After she allowed the mixture to simmer a little longer, with a wave of a wand, she extinguishes the flame beneath the cauldron. Then, she nodded to the three assessors and allowed them to come forth and have a look at her concoction while she completes writing her final thesis. 

The written questions were mainly about the Draught of Peace. She wrote the remaining preparation steps before continuing on with the other sections inquiring about the potion.

Her eyes scan across the second last question:

'What are the consequences when the potion is brewed incorrectly?'

Aine dips her quill into the ink and scribbles down the answer, her words flowing with certainty. She tried not to be too arrogant with her memories but after lots of trial and error, she knows some of the potential outcomes whenever she crafts the potion wrongly. She wrote:

'Adding excessive ingredients may cause the drinker to fall into a deep and sometimes irreversible sleep.'

Then she turns to the final question:

'List down three of the characteristics of a failed batch of Draught of Peace.'

Again, Aine cringed at herself when she recalled the past attempts at brewing the supposed potion. She remembered all the times her father pointed out her flawed and unusable Draught of Peace, even showing her what it would do on some of their plants to see the effects of it. Thinking back, it was a truly good memorable time... 

The girl frowns at the fond memories, knowing that she would no longer recreate such experiences with her father anymore. With a heavy heart and solemn expression, she finishes up her answer:

'A failed batch of Draught of Peace would have endless characteristics. For example— The potion's consistency will turn into a cement-like texture, or produce a sulphurous odour and sometimes even result in a more dangerous instability which may cause the mixture to explode.'

With the remaining time Aine has left, she double-checked her answers and made sure there were no mistakes in them. There were about fifteen minutes left by the time she was done with her paper and while the examiners were testing the potion she was brewing, Aine took the time to clean up her station and stowed away the ingredients she had nicked. By the time she had finished, the time was up.

"Thank you, Miss Estoileon," Professor Slughorn said to her as he collected her papers. He shot her a nod and gave her a thumbs up when the other assessor gathered the Draught of Peace that she had brewed into a bottle for further testing.