The Potion Master's Apprentice

Chapter 13

"Perfect. Can you guess about why Earth gets sage, a green candle and a pentagram?"

"Well, green is an earthy color and sage has a really earthy flavouring to it. I'm not sure about the pentagram."

"Pentagrams show balance. No beginning and no end with the circle and the star's points are equally placed to show a natural balance when there is no beginning and no end. All living things need earth to survive. It's what provides plants. Without plants, we wouldn't have herbivores and without them, carnivores and omnivores wouldn't survive. If we have Earth, we have life. If we have life, we have Earth. Does that make sense? It's something most people feel is right with their intuition rather than their minds."

"No, that makes sense. The harder I think about it, the less sense it makes but I get it. What's at the west, then?"

"West is Water." He handed Harry another bowl of salt and took one of the flowers from the altar. "A water lily represents spirituality, something that is strongly associated with water." He plucked each petal off one by one and added them to the bowl so Harry could mix the petals in. "Good, now place that at the west point." He handed Harry a blue candle and a scallop shell. "The shell goes in the salt, like the medallions." Harry nodded and placed the items down.

"Fire next. Red roses and Fire both are symbols of passion and sexuallity." They repeated the salt and flower petal process until the entire rose was in the bowl. Harry set it down and reached for the candle before placing it down and asked where the medallion was. "Fire gets a red ribbon, actually." Severus handed him a small bow tied out of red ribbon. "Same spot as the shall and medallions though. You really do catch on to things you find interesting quite quickly. Now come, sit next to me." Harry sunk down next to Severus and helped him clear off the altar.

"Now, Spirit is a little different. It's the combination of all the elements. We have a purple candle," he placed the candle down on the altar. "Next we have an empty bowl. I'll come back to that later. This chalice," he pulled out a simple chalice that had a coating of mother of pearl, "is to represent water. A sun has been painted onto one side of it and a pentagram at the other side. Go ahead and tie this ribbon along the base for Fire. Perfect. Now the chalice goes in the bowl." Severus got off his knees and sat with his legs crossed under him. "Now, I'm going to call forth the elements. When you see the candle light up, take a small portion of salt from that bowl and place it in this one around the bottom of the chalice." Harry nodded as Severus closed his eyes.

"Air, we call upon you to join our circle." The yellow candle flared to life and their hair swayed gently as a light breeze tickled their faces. Harry took a pinch of salt from the bowl and added it to the one on the altar. "Earth, we call upon you to join our circle." The candle flared to life and they continued.

Once the last bit of salt was added to the bowl on the altar, Harry was suddenly hit with a wave of gentle heat and burning lust. Seeing that Severus seemed to be unaffected, he swallowed and moved to sit next to him.

"Spirit, we call upon you to join our circle this night." The flame to this candle grew from nothing, slowly growing larger than the rest of the flames.

"We thank you for giving us that which we need to prosper. Without you, we wouldn't be here to witness the beauty of your work." Severus paused before continuing. "I've come to request assistance for Pomona. Her umbrella plants simply won't take to bloom in greenhouse four and she worries for them." A strange sense of peace filled Harry followed by a flash of the greenhouses full of blooming plants.

"Wow, thanks. She'll love it."

"Harry? What were you shown?"

"Pomona will have so many blooms, from all of her plants, she'll be beside herself. We should convince her to take tomorrow off and then check in on the greenhouses the next day."

"Thank you, kind elements." Severus turned back to Harry. "Was there anything you wanted to say or any questions so far?"

"Yeah, but it's embarrassing." The words had hardly left his mouth before he felt reassured that nothing could be embarrassing just then. "When you called the elements, I'd feel a little bit of that element. But when you called Fire, there was a moment when I was overcome with lust. Why is that?"

Severus eyed the red candle for a moment before answering. "Sometimes when you call on the elements to join your circle, the ones that have a request of you will make themselves known. It's usually an emotion that element wants you to focus on more to improve your life. Usually Fire gives you the sense that you need to change something or gives you bursts of very imaginative things for those who are creatively inclined. I myself owe Fire a great debt for helping me create several of my potions. It's never thrown lust at me before, but I've heard it can happen." Suddenly Severus stiffened and turned to look at Harry with dilated eyes. "I stand corrected."

"What do we do now?" Harry practically purred as he moved to straddle Severus's lap while wrapping his arms around the man's shoulders. Severus moaned.

"Harry, I'll never take your choice away so please don't feel pressured, but I think we're being urged to move along to the Rituale Ractionem." A rush of calm and encouragement flooded their systems.

"Would you be upset if I said I wanted it?" Harry tilted his head ever so slightly to subtly present his neck to Severus.

"No. Would you be upset if I said I wanted it too?"

"No," Harry's voice was barely above a whisper. "What do we do?" One of Severus's arms moved from Harry's lower back and reached into his robes before pulling something out of a pocket. Harry couldn't care less as long as he was drowning in those dark brown eyes.

"Harry, I offer you myself in complete surrender. Without your blood, I shall starve. I offer you myself as I am, if you would surrender yourself to me as well."

"Severus, I accept your offer of yourself and offer you myself in return. Never shall I seek the physical comfort of someone else as you are the center of my world. I offer myself to you completely and accept you completely." He felt more than heard Severus's breath hitch as a small band was placed around his wrist to settle comfortably before it disappeared from sight.

He must have closed his eyes at some point because he didn't see Severus leaning in closer to place gentle kisses along his neck. His arousal spiked when a tongue licked a particularly sensitive spot before a sharp prick startled him. He didn't even have time to flinch before he felt a wave of lust slam back into him. It was only a few moments, only a few swallows before the two of them were coming in their pants. Harry moaned as he felt his skin healing and practically collapsed into the strong arms that held him.

"We thank you Spirit for joining us. Be well." Harry felt the elements leaving one by one after that until it was just the two of them. Severus pulled out his wand so the ritual materials would fly back to their places in the storage closet before cradling Harry to his chest and walking back down to their rooms.

Harry slept through the night curled up against Severus's chest.