Run Away ✧ Sebastian Sallow

chapter thirty-four

Float On by Modest Mouse

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The occamy's egg had been crushed and added gently into the cauldron leaving only the final step to be completed. The labor of love had been exhausting, the difficult potion had taken most of the prior term to understand and now in the latter half of the year, it was finally time to attempt to brew it. All that was left was to stir.

Once.

Twice.

The smoke rising was still white.

It needed to turn into a vibrant shade of blue in order to be considered a successful brew. A similar shade to his Ravenclaw sweater, only a bit brighter in tones, more cobalt than Oxford blue. However, the sweater was not fully blue anymore with the addition of the red thread at the end of the sleeve.

Focus.

Back to the potion, another stir would allow the potion to oxidize properly and bring out the correct shade that was supposed to result. The air misted with the smoke that shimmered with an iridescent glamour like a pearl.

By the fourth stir, the smoke was finally beginning to turn a gentle blue like a springtime sky. Then it began to change fast to the desired shade of cobalt blue. Wait, that might be too dark.

Then it boiled quickly bellowing into a sickening dark purple.

Only the potion was supposed to be purple. The instructions didn't say the smoke was supposed to turn that shade.

And by the final sixth stir of the cauldron, the smoke had turned completely black like coal. The air reeked of the burning potion. Another failed attempt at creating a Wolfsbane potion was added to the day's task.

Desmond Esper instantly dumped out of the cauldron of his botched potion and turned to his textbook to read over the instructions once more. It was already his third attempt. The first attempt that morning he had failed because the drops of dragon blood had fallen too fast out of the vial to count accurately and surpassed the suggested three drops. The second attempt was dead on arrival when he skipped over adding the mandrake leaves because he was too concerned about repeating the issue with the dragon blood. This time he had slowed down and took his time, but he still failed.

The third time was supposed to be the charm or that's how the saying is supposed to go. Desmond wasn't sure if there was a saying for a fourth attempt, but he hoped it was a positive one.

Wolfsbane was supposed to be difficult to brew as Professor Sharp had mentioned countless times, the class was called Advanced Potions for a reason, but he was sure he perfected it that time. He stared at the book for so long that he began to lose force on the words in front of him.

"You were stirring the wrong way," Anne Sallow spoke up from across their workbench. "Stir three times clockwise after the moonstone, but after the Occamy's egg, then it's supposed to be anti-clockwise six times. I only noticed after it turned black or I would have warned you sooner."

Desmond's eyes jumped to the section in the instructions to confirm, "You're right. Thank you, Anne."

"Do you want help? I'm nearly finished with mine so I can help you with another attempt before class ends."

"That's alright," He dismissed, "I'm not sure a fourth attempt will do me any extra good at this rate. I'll just wait until the next class to try again."