Possessiveness and Other Such Oddities

Ameliorate

a/n: hello lovely readers! i hope you're doing well. this chapter is a lot longer than last time's to make up for it, hopefully. i also created a spotify playlist (linked wherever wattpad put it)

C/W: vague references to panic attacks and past non/con, and talk of teen pregnancy in a gossipy sort of way

Harry woke up the next morning, feeling not right. He couldn't pinpoint exactly what he felt, but his skin was crawling, and it was a little hard to breathe. Stretching his limbs, he tried to get his mind off of the strange, oppressive cloud fogging up everything. Harry groaned as he remembered they had Potions today. He tiredly rubbed his eyes till white-hot dots swam, and he felt a little more in control. He sighed, and then again. Thankfully Michael and Terry were already up and more worried about getting themselves ready - small mercies. Harry headed down to breakfast with Draco and Hermione, waving away their concern, instead, focusing on eating his grits and sugar (a very delicious breakfast a Hufflepuff, Aquila Yates, who was a transfer from Ilvermorny, taught him). He also focused on clearing his mind and on the new debate: whether agrimony or hawthorn was better in blood-replenishing potions.

Eventually, they all had to head to their classes, so they said their goodbyes and went their separate ways; Harry with Hermione, Maisy, Anthony, and Terry. Harry prayed to Mother Magic, Morgana, and all the powers above that the Minister wasn't going to be in his Potions class - just this once. Alas, his prayers were left unanswered, and the Minister was sitting on one of the observing benches, scrawling away with a quill. Harry audibly groaned, and Maisy patted his shoulder in commiseration, but they had class, so they focused on Professor Black, who was writing instructions on the blackboard. Once everyone was seated at each of the tables - individually in this class - Professor Black greeted them.

"Hello Professor Black," they all chorused back.

"Today, we will be testing our Amarenovis and then going over what we did and how we can improve. I know you did this in partners, but you will be graded and assessed individually due to the sensitive nature of Amortentia and Amarenovis. In the meantime, you will be working on the potion written on the board. I will be calling you individually, and you will switch potions with the person called prior to you when it is your turn. This potion will be graded, so obviously, try your best. Now, first up for Amarenovis, Terry Boot."

At that, Terry walked over to Professor Black's office, where a ministry official - Madame Spinstra, the only person legally allowed to touch Amortentia - was waiting.

Harry turned his attention to the blackboard where the instructions for Pellisseatio, or more commonly known as Pink Skin Draught, were and went to his cubby to grab:

[18 g] Purpura Brassica, Crushed
[3 mL] Poppy Seed Oils
[6 g] Arachnanutmeg, Finely Ground
[12 g] Dragon Fruit Gnats, Whole
[24 g] Io Tongue, Evenly Chopped
[15 mL] Dawn Orchid Nectar

Before he did any potion-making, Harry set up his cauldron, knives, the salt mortar and pestles, measured out all his ingredients, chopped the Io tongue with a copper knife, and crushed his purpura brassica. Then he was finally ready to start making the actual potion, so in a brass cauldron, Harry poured 300 mL of Standard Potioning Water and the flame onto medium. He cast repretor and waited till his water was at 99 C º and then carefully measured out a third of the purpura brassica into the water and stirred three times counterclockwise, three seconds between each turn. He repeated those steps methodically and precisely till all the purpura brassica was in the potion.

Harry had six minutes for the next step, so he quickly but carefully poured six grams of the dragon fruit gnats into the mortar and crushed them into a fine powder. He then waited for the last two minutes and then turned on the hot flame and unceremoniously dumped the dragon fruit gnat powder into the cauldron. Harry turned the flame back to low and waited for 12 minutes. While he waited, Harry looked around the room and noticed that Finch-Fletchley was in the room, and Lavender looked more than a little queasy.