Intertwined → Tom Riddle

CHAPTER TEN

As soon as the sun dipped behind the rolling hills, Amara and Juliet snuck out of the common room, equipment, and ingredients in hand. After Amara had told those first years about Peeves peeping the second-floor bathroom, it was all she had heard about all day long; she knew it would be safe for them.

They had spent hours transcribing the recipe for Amara's invisibility potion from the book she had borrowed from Slughorn. Tracing each letter, numbering each point, and finishing it all off with the annotations she had found in the margins. Although some of the steps were incomplete, Amara knew that this was her best bet. She could use her initiative, she could use the skills she had spent the last five years learning , she could do what needed to be done.

"Let's find somewhere to set this all up," Juliet said as the duo made their way deeper into the bathroom.

Once they found a quiet looking corner, away from the entrance point, the pair set up their equipment.

"Cauldrons," nodded Amara as she placed the shining copper onto the floor.

Juliet pulled a selection of items out of the bag, "stirrers," she dropped them down beside the cauldrons. "Phials and brass scales."

Amara added the last few items from her bag, glancing over at Juliet, "got the leaping toadstool caps and knotgrass sprigs?"

She nodded in response, "right here!" Juliet reached into her own bag, pulling out a bag of red button mushrooms, and green sprigs tied tightly together with string. "I..." she paused, "I think I feel excited Amara, is that bad?"

Amara took a moment, even she wasn't sure. This may have been just step one in a plan that had yet been fully formed, but it was a plan that would do more harm than good. The end goal, whether Juliet truly knew it or not, was to devastate Hogwarts - to rid them of the mudbloods who made it impure. Right now, it may just be small things, but eventually, everything would come together, culminating in something far bigger than either of them.

"I'm not sure." She answered truthfully, setting up the potions kit. "I think, for now, it's best we feel what we can, before it becomes too late."

Juliet gulped, "when will that be?"

"It will have to be soon," said Amara, "you know my father, he doesn't like to wait," she added the last part hurriedly.

"Is that what happened with Roman?" Although the pair hadn't spoken about it yet, Juliet was in deep, deep enough that Amara had to trust her.

Amara nodded, gazing off into the distance. "He was getting too slow; seven years and he achieved nothing of any use. Then, he rushed himself, he was never going to suceed, but he couldn't go home with nothing. Father got mad, and well, he had to be punished."

"He didn't deserve it, Amara."

"No," she shook her head with a sigh, "he didn't. Sometimes, it's just how it works out though."

Amara had simply never known any different. Her life at home had always simply been what it was, and it didn't seem she had a good comparison at Hogwarts either. All of the students in Slytherin lived the same life as her, it was just how it was.

"I wish it wasn't." Juliet took her hand, knowing that if it wasn't Amara, it would be her. There was no solution. Either way, it would always be one of them. Pureblood ideals corrupted the Sacred-Twenty-Eight and there was no way to put a stop to them.

"We should get started." Amara dropped her friends' hand, wiping away the tears that had been forming in her eyes.

"Right," nodded Juliet, "what's first?"

"Cut the cherries," she pointed over to the bag of them, "we need the juice and the seeds." Amara read over the instructions in the margins, "juice first is what the book says."

Juliet nodded, tying back her hair with a sage green ribbon. Knife in hand, she took out a selection of cherries, cutting a thick slit into them, and squeezing out the pit. "Here," she handed Amara the juice filled cherries, watching as she took them in her hand, pressing the juice out of each one.

"Incendia." Amara said simply, watching as the flames jumped from the tip of her wand, sending soft heat through the cauldron, "we'll have to be careful in here."

"Agreed," Juliet grabbed a handful of the drying seeds, "ready for them yet?"

Amara looked down at the bubbling cauldron, rich with the crimson juice. "Drop them in." She moved back slightly as the seeds jumped into cauldron. "Now we let it burn."

At the heat intensified, the thick smell of cherries began to circulate, bringing a thought to Juliet's mind. "What do you think Amortentia would smell like for you?"

"How do you mean?" Asked Amara, stirring the mixture aimlessly.

"Well, it's rumoured to smell differently to each person, according to what attracts them." Juliet felt a moment of pride at the thought of knowing more than Amara, especially regarding potions.

Amara hadn't even considered it, in all her years at Hogwarts, there had never once been anyone she felt attracted to. No person or smell seemed to truly pique her interest. "I suppose I like the smell of anything fresh, clean, perhaps citrus."

"Really? I figured you might like something more smokey or musky."

She let out a laugh, "Juliet, really? Come on then, how about you? Is it strawberries and flowers?"

Juliet rolled her eyes, "am I that predictable?

"Absolutely you are."

"Oh, well I think maybe.." Juliet paused, trying to think of anything else, but alas, Amara had her well and truly known. "Anyway," she began as the smell of burning began to block her nose, "those are definitely burning now."

"Time for the chicken and spiders-"

"Together?" Juliet gagged.

"It's just the feathers, and a bit of flesh, you can crush the spiders if you prefer?"

Neither one sounded too appealing. Reluctantly, Juliet took the spiders, crushing them with the end of the stirrers into a phial. "Take it," she pushed the phial of the fine powder towards her.

Amara wrinkled her nose, pouring the spider powder into the mixture, before dropping the chicken in. "This is disgusting."

"I have to agree."

Both of them were greatful for the smell of cherries, even if they were charred, compared to what they had now.

Amara looked down at the instructions, "well, it only gets worse." She gulped as she reached for the next ingredient.

"Troll bogey?" Juliet grimaced once she saw the container, "you can do that one too. I'm happy with the toadstool and knotgrass sprig. Had it been snotgrass, it would have been yours too." She set to cutting up the toadstool cap, watching with a frown as Amara finished up.

Amara took the final ingredients from Juliet, smiling once she added them to the potion. At once, it turned a silvery grey, shimmering and reflecting the dim light from the ceilings. Even without the fire beneath it, the potion bubbled away.

"Is it supposed to do that?" Juliet asked, tracing the recipe with her fingers.

Amara nodded, although entirely unsure. "I think so."

Unfortunately for her, that was the one part of the recipe she had been unable to fully decipher. She knew the steps, but what the potion should look like, that she did not know.

"It needs one full moon cycle to fully mature-"

"And then it will be ready."

"And then," said Amara, "I'll be ready."