Hidden Tales From The Chamber of Secrets - 93 Pewter
by Polydicta
Old fashioned pewter is not the same as modern pewter.
Disclaimer:
All fiction is derivative and fan fiction doubly so. I make no claim to own any part of any of the following, all I have done is an attempt to put together the elements in a novel fashion, using words and ideas like Lego ™ bricks.
There is no money involved – all I do is to share what I do for my own amusement.
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Hidden Tales From The Chamber of Secrets - 93 Pewter
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It was late in the summer after his third year that Harry had an interesting discussion with Percy Weasley.
Percy had been prattling on about pewter cauldron bottoms. On and on and on. He seemed to think that it was a matter of critical importance so Harry asked why.
"It's a three-fold thing, Potter. Most obviously uneven thickness will lead to areas of over or under heating of parts of a potion, leading to an inferior potion - often with disasterous results."
That seemed reasonable to Harry. "How disasterous?"
"Potentially explosive. Volatile potions require the bulk of the liquid to transmute evenly, after all."
Harry made a mental note of this while Percy went on. "For an individual and for school work, the second matter is fairly unimportant. Having a cauldron bottom too thick or too thin will affect the rate of heating and cooling of the potion while using a standard heating mantle. Mass producers rely on standardised equipment in order to reduce the amount of supervision a potion will require."
"So, for you and I, we would be watching our cauldron all the time, so we are able to adjust the heat as we need, you mean?"
"Exactly. Now the third part is down to the nature of pewter. All pewter cauldrons use a standardised tin lead alloy. This is important as the presence of lead in the cauldron has a stabilising effect upon the brewing. We have found that the cheap imported cauldrons have a variable lead level as well as the non-standard bottoms."
Harry blinked. Hasving been raised in the muggle world, he knew that lead was toxic.
"Indeed, many of the cauldrons being imported contain virtually no lead, and what is present seems to be ... muted in its nature, what's more, it seems to contain copper, which is death to the brewing process."
Harry remembered that discussion in school. "Um, Percy, what you're describing is the muggle pewter. There's no lead, but it contains ant ... um ... anti-something. A different metal."
Percy regarded Harry coolly. "Really? You're sure of this?"
"Yes, Percy. The muggles determined that lead is poisonous, and will come out of the pewter when used for certain foods and drinks. The muggle pewter is lead-free. It's used mainly for decoration, though."
"I'll have to confirm what you say, Potter, but thanks. I need to go and send an owl to my boss."
Harry blinked owlishly, wondering what the fuss was.
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The following summer, after the horrors of the Tri Wizard Tournament, Harry had bought a lead-free cauldron he found in a junk shop. It looked like his school cauldron, but it lacked the blackish outer surface and slight white bloom inside.
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Harry's head was pounding from Snape's so-called legillimency lessons. Harry wanted to see the man dead for his treatment of him over the years. A plan slowly formed in Harry's mind.
It took a few tries, but Harry managed to transfigure the surface of his lead-free cauldron to mimic his school cauldron.
The next time he had Potions with Snape, he deliberately antagonised the git in order to get a detention.
That night, when Snape left the lab for a short while, Harry transfigured his muggle cauldron to match Snape's triple-sized pewter cauldron, and then vanished Snapes cauldron.
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Snape was brewing a healing potion for the hospital wing when the transfiguration failed, leaving a full, lead-free cauldron with a decidedly non-standard, paper-thin bottom. The magic from the decay of the transfiguration somewhat over charged the potion.
Snape attempted to take the potion off of the heat, but by the time he had a hold of the handle, the reaction had gone critically wrong. The heating had gone to far, to fast and without any stabilisation from the lead which was not there, it went from an almost completed flesh-kit potion to an expanding cloud of hot gasses and hyper-sonic pewter globules in the blink of an eye.
When the dust and debris settled, all that was left of Professor Severus Snape was most of a pair of legs and a few DNA traces mixed with the rock and plaster of the destroyed lab.
Severus Snape's one taste of immortality was as a case study as to how even an acknowledged Master Potioneer could be fooled by a counterfeit cauldron.
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