Of Chambers and Secrets

Summer Chronicles - I

I: A Summer Day in Hawaii

*****

A dark, dank room filled with different jars that had interesting things stored inside, from the least harmful to the deadliest, most reactive one could put in a simmering, bubbling cauldron: a beetle, snakeskin, caterpillars all cocooned to sleep, and an all-important wax made from Komodo saliva. From the doorway, one could pinpoint a cupboard with a bottle of liquid mercury in one of the topmost shelves, hidden along with powdered asphodel and a living Venus flytrap in a terrarium. The walls were made of poorly chapped stones and half made bricks, giving off an aura of mystery and thrill. There was the black marbled counter, too, complete with a sink and stirrers and cauldrons of all kinds.

But the place was so alive. It was bustling, the walls reverberating from the three cauldrons that bubbled endlessly, noisily while a lean, now taller boy of eleven- oh, alright, almost twelve- watched over them.

The heat was making Harry sweat profusely against his potions stained laboratory coat, his face turning redder and redder by the minute. His ink stained fingers tapped along the counter, humming to himself a random melody he had heard the night before from a performer on the beachfront. From where Harry stood, he could see the potion to his right turning to an auburn, almost coppery colour. He winced. It looked like melted, rusted iron. If his calculations were right, it was supposed to be blue. After all, the Komodo wax had a yellow hue, and the potion before was coloured green. Green and yellow meant blue. Simple.

Green and yellow should not have equaled themselves to auburn or copper or whatever the hell this colour was.

Harry bit his inner cheek. His thoughts were all but clashed against one another as one voice questioned the heat index (maybe it was too high or too low, Harry) while the other said it was the Komodo wax (you should've added the rose thorn, Snape). Harry sighed, but his hands still worked nonetheless. The Pepper-Up Potion should be ready by now.

The moment Harry turned down the heat, the potion was done. One down, Harry thought, two to go.

The middle cauldron, where sat his second experiment of the day, a potion to give the drinker a few hours of being able to deflect curses, was simmering ever so quietly. Harry eyed the pastel pink potion with a bit of disappointment to the colour.

It was hurtful to look at.

Once again, Harry was subconsciously tapping the stone floor with his left shoe, fiddling with the phoenix feather quill Oak gave to him a friendly present. It was his favourite quill...

Outside, while Snape's boy was busy playing with his Potions, the whole island was bustling with energy. It was almost always summer in the small island state, and Severus decided to take his beloved son for the summer to Hawaii. After all, he thought, Harry could use a little sun in him.

Harry watched the tropical sun touch the playful people, both young and old, and while the white sand opted to sink beneath their feet, leaving behind a mark that was only to be washed away by the saltwater of the blue sea waves and to be replaced by another set, the children still shrieked with joy, the women laid on the sand, colourful towels beneath their backs, and the men were barely having a moment to move from one woman's body to the next.

The poi dancers were doing the hula, and people flocked to watch them. Harry could see several performers with a ukulele or a guitar, singing their hearts out to the sea.

Harry took notice of the surfers riding the giant waves of the waters, some toppling over without even getting on their boards, and some- the better ones, so it seems- were able to ride up and down the waves.