House: Ravenclaw

Year: 7th Year (Standing in for Cat-Loves-Tea)

Category: Short

Prompt: Orange

W/C: 743

Notes: Pre-Hogwarts Could Still Be AU Maybe, But Just To Be Safe

Read & Enjoy

Sirius stares at the book in front of him, lazily stirring the orange liquid in his cauldron by hand. He followed the steps almost exactly, though he supposes he could have done something out of order. It's been a few minutes and he already decided that this potion wasn't ever really going to be valuable to him – what with his plans to be a part-time Auror and full-time Rockstar when he leaves Hogwarts. As soon as this war is behind them, all of them, he's going to be living the high life where potion making is no longer his concern.

He wants to fill a phial and turn the potion in as it is, but fears the marks he would get. Knowing he's blown off much of his work this year already, and decides to slowly review each of the steps. Maybe he can fix it if he just clears his mind a small bit.

Step one: Slice bursting mushrooms and add into cauldron.

Sirius did that, and he knows it because he didn't slice them evenly and James had snickered off to his right about it. He didn't mess up step one, unless he was supposed to cut them into triangles at the stroke of midnight on a new moon. That could be a requirement for something, but unless there's invisible text in the book – he didn't have to worry about that for this potion.

Step two: Stir potion clockwise until the potion turns blue.

Sirius hadn't been looking at the potion. In fact, he had used magic to stir the potion while he snuck a treacle tart from his pocket to nibble, waiting for his peers to catch up. They weren't behind him so much as they were taking their time and reading the full recipe before beginning. James had whispered at some point that Sirius should slow down, but he thought James meant with the treacle tart. Whoops.

Step three: Add salamander blood to potion and stir counterclockwise until potion turns green.

All of these colors and none of them were the right color. Sirius glances into his cauldron again. It's orange. He doesn't remember it being anything but orange. If it had been any color before this he was sure it would have had to have been red and yellow, what with red and yellow making orange and such. That made sense, right? Blue and green just make teal. But something is wrong, and Sirius is still pretty sure he did these steps right. Well, basically right.

Step four: Crush Wartcap into a powder using a pestle.

That is always Sirius' favorite part of potion making. He'd somehow convinced his parents to buy this obsidian pestle that was super fancy and expensive because he just loves this bit. Crushing something into a powder is fabulous way to lose oneself in thought, and also get out some frustration. Sirius knows, confidently, that he's done this exactly right. Who could mess up grinding something into a powder?

Step five: Add Wartcap powder to potion and, stir clockwise until potion is red.

Red is almost orange! Sirius must've just stirred the wrong way at first, or he didn't add enough. He sees left over powder in the pestle and reaches for it, intending to use his finger to brush the rest into the potion. But Remus scoffs at him.

"What?" Sirius asks, somewhat annoyed.

"You did it out of order,' Remus explains.

Clarity washes over Sirius, recalling his initial excitement about the pestle. He had ground the Wartcap first, indeed, and didn't hesitate to add it to the mixture in the potion. Afterwards is when he'd done the bursting mushrooms. James hadn't even been laughing at his cutting, then, had he? That git had been laughing that Sirius was just going on his jolly way without a care. Finally, after that, he'd tried to get his head back into class and picked up from there, doing step three last.

"Do you reckon he'll actually test it," Sirius asks, deciding he may as well just turn it in orange. Surely he'd get decent enough marks on it, and it is better than not turning it in at all. Remus smirks at him but when his mouth opens, the voice isn't right. It isn't him speaking.

"He reckons that you'll brew it again in detention if you don't fix it now."

Sirius gulps back his pride, realizing Slughorn was listening. "Yes, professor."

Acknowledgements:

Again, shout out to my homegirl 2DaughtersofAthena for always having my back on the little things that need fine-tuning.