VIOLET (A Harry Potter Universe Fanfiction)

4.

The sun violets stared Caiti down, the deep purple spot around the center of the flower like an angry eye. She had put off doing anything other than caring for her plants a whole six days now. The first three days, she told herself it was because they had just been transported to a new environment and she wanted to be sure they were well established in their new home, not stressed from being moved, and generally healthy enough to start plucking petals off. The fourth day, she had been so busy brewing the wolfsbane potion and delivering it that she hadn't really had time for anything else.

Then she'd woken up at four AM the day after to brew Marlowe a potion for nausea that was best taken fresh. She never slept well on full moon nights worrying about him, so by the time he'd left for work, she was exhausted. She went home and took a three hour nap and then felt so groggy the rest of the day, she told herself it was fine to take the rest of the day off.

Marlowe had been off the following day and it was his first day off since she'd been home, so Caiti had decided not to go into the greenhouse at all except to make sure the plants were watered.

He was back to work today though, Caiti was well-rested, free of commitments,and knew she had no excuse left except her own sheer terror.

She clutched her wand in her hand and stared at the plants for a solid ten minutes before she worked up the courage to go for it. She used a spell Professor Munslow had taught her to carefully remove the petals from exactly one flower from the second plant she had started growing. She was too afraid to mess with the original, even though it had the most blooms. If anything went wrong because of this, she couldn't risk it being that one that died.

She used her wand to guide the petals onto a very clean glass tray, and then carried them into the other room, afraid to even breathe in case one fell on the floor.

She set the tray down gingerly on the table where she had already selected several other ingredients from the wolfsbane potion — the ones that were cheapest and easiest to replace.

She opened the new notebook she'd purchased in Diagon Alley last week to a blank page, recorded the date in the upper righthand corner, jotted down a few notes about the cauldron she would be using, the volume of water she would use, the temperature she would heat it to — all the controls she had decided on to ensure her tests were fair.

She was wasting time and she knew it.

Taking a deep breath, Caiti reached for her wand again, filled her pewter cauldron halfway with water, and started a flame beneath it. It rose to a boil quickly and Caiti lowered the flame. Then she traded her wand for one petal and a teaspoon of powdered dittany, the same amount she used in the wolfsbane potion.

She dropped both into the cauldron, stirred until the dittany had dissolved, and then quickly picked her quill back up to write what happened.

The result was unremarkable. The water turned bubblegum pink and a light floral scent rose out of the cauldron, but that was all. She wasn't sure what she had expected. What was she supposed to be looking for? What was this supposed to prove to her?

She let it simmer for another quarter of an hour, trying to convince herself that some realization would dawn on her, but mostly she just felt stupid.

This didn't make any sense. There was no goal here. No hypothesis to prove or disprove. How was she ever supposed to know if this ingredient mattered in the way she needed it to?

No clearer on her intention, Caiti collected several bottles of the mixture and cleared the rest of the cauldron. She wasn't going to waste these petals, whatever little she learned from using them.

She labeled the first vials African Sun Violet/Dittany, 6-19-19, and then started all over again with one more petal and two and a half teaspoons of powdered moonstone.