answer to prompt 6: "I thought that was what you wanted!"
A puff of green smoke erupts from the cauldron, and James knows he's in trouble.
Lily immediately stops carefully chopping beetles to give him such a withering glare that he considers throwing himself into the cauldron alongside the armadillo bile he just poured in.
"What did you do?" she asks, her eyes narrowing slightly. James can tell this is a trick question, because she already knows what he's done. He's seen her gaze flit between the smoke and the small vial in his hand, watched her put two and two together.
"I just did what you told me to do," is the answer he settles on, which he realizes is a mistake the moment it leaves his lips.
Pinning the blame on Lily may not be the most effective way of appeasing her. She's still holding the knife, which, albeit small, is quite sharp.
Her lips purse, and when she speaks, her voice has dropped almost to a whisper. It's the silence before the storm. "And what, exactly, did I tell you to do?"
"Pour the armadillo bile in before the beetles?" he squeaks. Is he seeing things, or is there smoke coming out of her ears?
"I thought that was what you wanted!" he exclaims, in a last ditch effort to appeal to her humane side. Surely, she can appreciate that this is all just a simple misunderstanding.
Lily sets the knife down onto the workstation and takes a deep breath.
Oh, he's in big trouble.