Carnival of Rust
Chapter Ten
Authoress Note: Sorry it's taken so long to get something up. I'm going back through and re-doing some parts and adding to several parts and combining chapters; I'll try at get a chapter up a day from there on out.
After several cups of strong coffee Ron managed to make his way into Diagon Alley before making his way to Flourish and Blott's not surprised to find that the store was empty at such an early hour.
He located the manager a Mr. Brown, no relation to Lavender Brown, in his office just as a tea kettle started whistling.
"Mr. Weasley, pleasure to meet you, I'm Mr. Brown, owner and manager of Flourish and Blott's Diagon Alley location. A Miss Septa is the manager at the Hogsmeade Location, you'll meet her tomorrow. Now, fix yourself a cup of tea and we'll get started on the paperwork you'll need to go over and learn." He said, waving his wand to pour a cup of tea as Ron took a seat opposite of Mr. Brown's chair next to the fireplace.
"Now, there isn't really much to know about running a bookstore. You keep an eye on the orders that are on the shelves and stock as the books come in for special orders and then at the beginning of the school year. We get most of our new books at the beginning of July so that people can get their school shopping out of the way. Right now all our new books are starting to come in for the school year. When you receive a shipment order you'll check the order over and make sure everything is there as it should be and then place them in the stock room. When it comes time to rearrange the shelves we'll start early and should be able to get everything on the shelves before we open. July 1st is usually one of our busiest days stocking wise while the end of August is our busiest time shopping wise. You'll need to familiarize yourself with the shops layout if you don't already know it." He said, pausing to take a sip of tea before turning to Ron with a smile.
"Like I said it's a rather easy apprenticeship but the apprenticeship is just a mask, but I'm sure you've figured that out by now." He said, raising an eyebrow in Ron's direction as Ron chuckled.
"Yes sir but a mask for what?" Ron asked, leaning forward on his elbows to be closer to hear Mr. Brown.
"Books, Mr. Weasley. The headmaster and I agree that it would be beneficial for all of you to learn spell-crafting and other forms of restricted or regulated magic and between your three apprenticeships we can get you the books you'll need to know anything you could possibly need to know to defeat He-Who-must-Not-Be-Named." Mr. Brown said, glad to see Ron give a grimace of a smile.
"It's no secret that Hermione and I will be there for Harry when he needs us." He said, eyeing Mr. Brown as if he was trying to decide if he was trustworthy or not.
"And that is why we're helping you." Mr. Brown replied, nodding his head to the corner of the room where a few boxes sat. " That's everything that you, Miss Granger, or Mr. Potter could need to get started with. Some of them are rather dark books and I'll teach you the spells to keep them from being defaced or written is as well as how to charm the covers into something else if you need it to. Today you just need to spend time going through the boxes and seeing what all is there, once that's done, you need to read this book." He said, handing Ron a rather thin book. "It's just the basics of spells for protection purposes and they aren't that hard to master at all, but they are the building blocks for the rest of the spell work."
Ron just nodded his head in agreement, he could tell it was going to be a busy year or so for them.
Upon returning to Hermione's house Harry found that both Ron and Hermione where locked away in the study going through books at an alarming rate, well for Ron anyway.
"We got another order of potions and herbs from Miss Matthews at Professor Dumbledore's orders. Hermione do you think you could help me label them all and put it all up?" He asked as he pulled the small box from his pocket before making his way to brewing room with Hermione hot on his heels. She always got excited at the prospect of books, herbs, or potions ingredients which was something he had yet to come to understand in the almost six years they had been friends.
"What is in the order?" Hermione asked, knowing that Miss Matthews more than likely sent out a packing list with her orders as she was a muggle-born witch.
"Tons of stuff; it's a lot larger than the order he gave us at the start of this week. It looks like he expects us to be very busy over the course of this summer." Harry said before he tapped his wand to the small box he had set on the floor as it enlarged to its full capacity.
True to Harry's word the second order that had been placed for them was by far the largest order they had received in the short time they had been working this summer but thankfully all of the preparation work had been done to most of the ingredients, including the rat spleens, which was Harry's least favorite part of potions ingredients prep.
"We have a lot of dried muggle herbs which I thought was weird when I started packing the box. Miss Matthews didn't even tell me the box was for us just that I needed to start working on it." Harry said as he looked at the allotted cabinets they had and back at the supplies, wondering just how all of it was going to fit.
"Hermione, do you think you'd be capable of adding a storage room for us? It'd make things a lot easier and we could just use our cupboards to store our finished potions." He asked, looking at the one blank wall they had within her brewing room with interest.
"I probably could but it would be much easier to ask Professor Dumbledore to come and do it for us. He's supposed to be showing up for dinner tonight if I remember correctly, I'll just owl him and ask if he's still coming to dinner and if so we'll ask him if he can add the extra storage room for us. It's almost dinner time anyway so I need to get started on that as soon as I can." She said, looking at the giant box that was still in the middle of their brewing room.
"Why don't you get started on the letter to Professor Dumbledore and I'll get started on dinner." Harry said, knowing that she wasn't the best cook in the world but it was edible which said something.
They soon went their separate ways as Harry made his way into the kitchen to start making the enchiladas for their dinner. About the time he put them in the oven to melt the cheese he heard the tell-tale sign of a 'pop' which meant that Professor Dumbledore had arrived in their living room, which had been designated as the apparition point within the Granger household.
"It smells wonderful Harry. I assume Miss Granger and Mr. Weasley are upstairs?" Dumbledore asked as he entered the kitchen wearing full wizarding regalia with a style only he could pull off.
"Yes sir. Hermione should be in the office or the brewing room. Not quite sure where Ron is." He said, making him wonder exactly where Ron was.
"I'll go collect them as it looks like dinner is almost ready. It shouldn't take me long to add a storage cupboard to Hermione's brewing room so I'll do that before we nip back down." He said, before once again disappearing and reappearing on the upper-level of the house.
They returned within ten minutes, this time taking the stairs, as Hermione talked animatedly about the addition to her brewing room and the supplies they had received earlier in the day.
"Professor, are you sure on all the supplies you sent us? It's an awful lot …" she trailed off. Although Hermione wasn't poor by any means, she was money conscious as it seemed like Professor Dumbledore had been spending money left and right and had no intentions of slowing down, even if the same could be said for her.
"Like I said earlier Miss Granger, I'd rather you be well over-prepared than underprepared by any means; if it means using the interest out of a few of my vaults then so be it." He said, putting her at ease that he was only pulling the interest out of his vaults and not touching any money that he himself had put in the goblin-guarded vaults.
They talked throughout the dinner and subsequent tea about what all they had been learning through the aromatherapy course as well as the massive amounts of Potion's brewing that they had been doing. Upon seeing their greenhouse Professor Dumbledore was pleasantly surprised by the number of planets they had inside and how quickly they were growing with the right care and attention. As Professor Dumbledore left with the promise of more seeds, books, and vials Hermione turned her attention back to her personal brewing room.
Mentally deciding that there wasn't such a thing as too much Polyjuice Potion, or Pepper-Ups for that matter, Hermione began the process of starting four cauldron's apiece of Polyjuice Potion, Pepper-Up Potions, Grand Pepper-Up Potion, a Sleeping Draught, a Calming Draught, as well as a Blemish Biltzer that she was almost out of. From there she started a rather large cauldron of the Draught of Peace, as well as Essence of Dittany, a fresh batch of Flesh-Eating Slug Repellant on the off chance she would need it for her greenhouse, the Wiggenweld Potion, which could cure minor damage and awaken a person from a magical induced sleep such as the Draught of Living Death, the Grand Wiggenweld Potion and an Invigoration Draught.
Thankfully the potions she had made earlier in the summer, aside from the Polyjuice Potion, where quick to make and could be put into self-stirring cauldrons and left alone for their simmer period which meant she could focus on the rest of the potions which would require her full attention, such as the Draught of Peace and Invigoration Draught. Thirty two ounces of a potion gave her two hundred and fifty five vials. That meant she would have 1,020 vials of Polyjuice, Pepper Up, Grand Pepper Up, Sleeping Draught, Calming Draught, Essence of Dittany and Blemish Blitzer. The large cauldron she was using was 32 ounces and she had made sure to change the recipe to accommodate for that, which meant she would have 255 vials of the Wiggenweld Potion, the Grand Wiggenweld Potion and the Invigoration Draught. For the Essence of Dittany she planned to use 4 ounce jars which meant she would need eight jars for just the Dittany and she knew she didn't have that many extra on hand.
When her potions where finally at the point they could be left alone Hermione stuck her head into the office they shared to find the boys actually hard at work, reading over some of their books for their apprenticeship, which pleased Hermione to no end.
"I've got a lot of potions brewing in the lab but I need to pop over to the Apothecary to get some more vials as well as holding jars if we decide not to divide them into vials just yet. Can you keep an eye on the potions for me? I shouldn't be more than an hour." Hermione said, as Harry stood and entered the brewing room that she was still in.
"I'll do it. I want to get started on some more Aromatherapy work anyway. I need a break from working on the Herbology cataloging I'm doing." He said before pulling his glasses off his face and pinching the bridge of his nose before placing his glasses back on.
"Perfect. Do you think you'll need any more containers while I'm at the apothecary?" she asked, not wanting to have to a make a second trip for something she could pick up while she was already there.
"Not that I know of although you may just want to go ahead and throw in a few extra vials, we seem to keep running out once you get it in your head to brew something." He said, giving her a wink to let her know that he was joking as she blushed before picking up her bag and then turning back to him.
"You're probably right. Just for what I have brewing now it will take 6,885 vials and eight four ounce jars. Do you think another order of ten thousand would do or should I just go ahead and double the order to twenty thousand?" she asked, as the reality of just how many potions she had been brewing dawned on her, but as Professor Dumbledore said, it was better to be safe than sorry.
"Just go ahead and double the order to twenty thousand and you might as well get at least five hundred containers between the ¼ ounce, one ounce, two ounce, four ounce, and sixteen ounce jar containers." He said, knowing that it would give them one hundred containers per size, which would work well within their favor.
"Sounds good; like I said I should be back within the hour." She said, before touching her necklace that was her portkey before she was whisked away to Diagon Alley with a tight pull feeling within her naval.
Entering the apothecary Hermione relished in the smell of the herbs and potions ingredients, as just like her precious books, it had a calming effect on her immediately.
"What can I do for you today Miss Granger?" she asked, not surprised to see Hermione coming into the store; the girl wasn't called the brightest witch of her age by being lazy.
" A lot actually. We need twenty thousand vials, half of which I actually have to use once I get back home and then we'll need one hundred of the ¼ ounce, one ounce, two ounce, four ounce and sixteen ounce glass containers, preferably with the screw on tops." Hermione said, glancing down at her list to see if she had forgotten anything.
"Have you thought about adding any more spray bottles, I have the regular squirt bottles and then the ones with the trigger if you would prefer. I also have the 1/8 ounce glass roll on bottles if you'll be making anything to wear or lip balms as well as the plastic lip balm containers. From there the only things I have left that you don't have would be the plastic bottles with the flip-top, snap-top and disc top, which is the bottle that you press down on one side of the lid and then the other side pops up. The plastic dropper bottles for eye washes and things of that sort and a 50 ml acrylic lotion pump, a plastic deodorant container and the glass bottles with the dropper tops and finally a 64 Amber Glass Jug that would be good for storing mead if you're ever inclined to make any for ritual purposes." She said, running through the rest of her supplies, other than potions or herbology ingredients, knowing that it would be of interest to Hermione.
"What would be a good number to start out with?" Hermione asked, as they had yet to get that far into their Aromatherapy course, although anything they bought would be put to use in one way or another if Hermione had any say in it.
"At the rate you're going, and with your curiosity level, I'd say five hundred of each; if you need more you can always come back." She said, as she once again closed the sign on her door to 'Closed' since it was past her regular closing time anyway as she motioned Hermione to follow her into the back of the store into her store room.
As they entered the store room Miss Matthews pulled down a large crate before she began the rather quick process of packing the crate for Hermione. With a final wave of her wand the package sealed itself and then shrank itself so that it would fit inside Hermione's bag that she carried with her.
"I also included one ounce, two ounce, four ounce, eight ounce and sixteen ounce Flint Jars which are used for Bath Salts, Body Butters, Muds, Balms, Clays, and Powdered Herbal Blends. From there it's the same sizes for the Flat Cream Jars which are good for lip balms or creams. There are three hundred Round Bail Jars which make for pretty displays for bath salts, herbal blends and milk baths. There are close to three hundred wooden beveled scoops which should come in handy as well as three hundred small wooden beveled scoops. From there you have a thousand Muslim Drawstring Bags in 3x5 and 4x6 as well as 10,000 small and large sealable tea bags and ten stainless steel tea ball infusers. Double-treaded Stackable Shifter Jars, the Inserts, Dome Cream Jars and Slider Tins seal the deal at a thousand a piece." She said, running through a mental check list of everything she had added on top of what they had talked about.
Hermione looked at the relatively young Potions Mistress in front of her with a look of shock upon her face at the amount of products that had been added to her order.
"Don't worry about it. Dumbledore is still paying for your orders. He gave me a rough idea what is going on. You can expect a massive order on each of your birthdays as well as at Halloween, Yule, the Spring Equinox, and right before school lets out of the year. I will not see the three of you go into this unprepared be it for Potions, Herbology or even something as simple as Aromatherapy to help keep you mentally sane. There are also some books in there on soap making ranging from Natural Soap Making to Milk Based Soaps. There's more in the order than that but you'll figure it out when you unpack it." She said, giving Hermione a hard look when she looked like she was about to protest.
Instead of voicing her disagreement at the massive order, or orders to come for that matter, Hermione simply allowed herself to be pulled into a hug by Miss Matthews before she made her way back to her parents' home, still in shock about the order of supplies that she had received.
Upon returning to her home she made her way back into the brewing room, as Harry was decanting one of the potions into vials.
"Get everything you need?" he asked, never taking his eyes from the potion he was working on, which made Hermione proud of him.
"Yes and then some. I'll be in the storage room, come find me if you finish before I do. This is going to take a while to put up. Miss Matthews seems to love loading us down with supplies." She said, letting Harry know with a look that Professor Dumbledore was behind it somehow.
When Harry gave her a positive answer she entered their new storage room and began the rather slow process of putting up the supplies that had been given to them. By the time Harry joined her she only had half the box put up but with his help they managed to get the rest of the box put up within ten more minutes before taking the 20,000 vial order and the 8 ounce plastic containers with them to place in the empty cupboard that they stored the supplies they knew they were going to be using soon in.
"Well there was a lot more in there than I thought. She didn't tell me about the thirteen kinds of clay she added or the two types of mud, but it makes sense because we're doing an Aromatherapy course. I did appreciate the extra salts she threw in, I think there where eleven, as well as the three types of sugar as they go into Bath Salts or Sugar Scrubs and things of that nature which we'll get to eventually in Aromatherapy." Hermione said as she started taking another partial inventory.
When her inventory was finished she was surprised to find there where eleven different kinds of vegetable butter, which she assumed was for making body butters. There was also the fruit seeds and fibers, she wasn't sure what they were for, all she knew was that they were dried and there was a lot of them for her never having heard of them. Three types of organic sea vegetables, several kinds of milk powder, and three different oils in a rather large amount, as well as three powders and oddly enough several galleons of apple cider vinegar, mica powder, silk powder and surprisingly, baking soda, citric acid, corn starch and cocoa powder which really confused her.
Putting it from her mind to deal with later Hermione made her way back into her brewing room with Harry on her heels as they finished decanting everything but the Polyjuice Potion; it would take a full month to brew.
"Harry if you could label those for me I still have time to get another set of potions going and finished before it's time to slow down for the evening." Hermione said, already running through a list of things she needed to do the next day and the next; it seemed like a never ending list of brewing, supply gathering, and working in the greenhouse.
Entering her office she pulled down the magical beauty books she had received when she started working on reversing the effects of the time-turner slowly aging a person. Finding the first potion she wanted she began the quick process of starting a cold crème that was a wonderful face cleanser. Once that was to a point it could stir itself, she started in on the seaweed lotion, or astringent, that she had come to love since she learned about it towards the end of her last term at Hogwarts the previous year.
Once those where started she started her acne buster potion, glad to have found this one when Ginny had told her about it. From there she moved onto more of what she considered practical potions. A fever-reducer potion was started as was a vomit-inducing potion, on the off chance a poison got ingested into the body. From there it was an anti-nausea potion just because it made sense to add it to the batch she was brewing. Looking through Most Potent Potions Hermione decided on her final potion of the day: a Restoration Potion which could reverse the effects of almost any spell.
As she chopped the ingredients for the Restoration Potion Hermione allowed herself to relax just a little and enjoy the solitude of the brewing room, because she had a feeling the further they got into the summer, the less relaxed she would be.