Content Warning: Brief Mention of a Previous Abusive Incident

Chapter 19: Getting Comfortable

Brixton woke up and stretched in her bed. The large mattress was much more comfortable than the twin-size in her dormitory or her cousin's couch. She had not even had time to unpack before she passed out from sheer exhaustion the night before. She sat up and looked around the room. In the center of the room was the large brass-framed bed that she was sitting in. Her new bedding was a plaid comforter in Ravenclaw colors with matching sheets. There was a large wooden dresser in front of her with a large oval mirror and a matching armoire was to her right. The door to her office was next to the dresser. To the left of the bed was a short bookshelf. To Brixton's left was a door that led to a small bathroom with a black tiled floor that contained a shower and bathtub combo, which made her beyond happy. It was a modest setup, but far grander than anything that Brixton had ever had in her life. When she lived with her wealthy father he had never allowed her to have much of anything out of his sheer hatred for her.

She took the time to put her clothes away and was happy to be able to hang her new dresses and robes up in the armoire. She didn't have very much, but she had not liked how crammed everything was in her dresser and trunk in her dormitory. Realizing just how few clothes she owned now that she wouldn't be able to wear her school uniforms was a little discouraging. She quickly decided that she would have to purchase more clothes as soon as she received her commission from the blood clotting potion.

Her shoes were lined up neatly inside her old trunk and she decided that the foot of her bed would be a good home for them. She wanted to make sure that her clothes were without any wrinkles as she stepped into her new position as Potions Mistress. With the use of her wand she was able to hang several pictures of her friends next to the armoire. There was a picture of Ginny flying on her broom in her Chaser gear and one of Harry smiling proudly in his first year after having caught the snitch. She put those two side-by-side. There was another picture of Ron, Harry, Brixton, and Hermione sitting in the courtyard that had been taken in their fifth year. Another picture showed Luna wearing her Spectrespecs and reading The Quibbler upside down. One was of Neville, covered in dirt, with a giant grin on his face outside one of the greenhouses. The largest photograph was a picture of Brixton and Luna with Hogwarts castle in the background, their arms were wrapped around each other's shoulders and both young women were smiling brightly.

She put all of her notebooks and knickknacks on the small bookshelf. She hoped that when Professor Flitwick got back he would be able to put a window charm of where the thestrals lived above the bookshelf, it was the perfect spot. She pulled out the only picture she had of her mother and put it on top of the dresser to the side of the mirror. As she looked at her mother's smiling face Brixton hoped that she would be proud of her and all that she had accomplished. The room was already beginning to feel like home.

After getting the room situated the way she liked she took a quick shower and dressed herself in a lacy purple top, a black skirt that fell just above her knees, and black flats. She put the necklace that held her mother's wedding band and her key to the Potions storeroom back around her neck. She never went anywhere without that. Satisfied with how she looked for the day she opened the door and went into her new office.

Looking around, she noticed that most of the many bookshelves that lined the walls were empty. Severus had told her that he was leaving most of his books on Potions for her to use and it appeared that those alone filled up three of the bookshelves. The bookshelves were empty save for some brewing apparatuses here and there. She told herself with the income she was soon to receive she would be able to purchase as many books as she wanted that would be good for her research in continuing to make her own potions. She was still feeling elated at yesterday's success. The green leather couches and armchairs were gone, as well as the coffee table, presumably moved to Severus' new office in the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom.

The large black desk that sat in the corner of the room was still there, but the liquor cabinet was gone. She thought that behind the desk would be a perfect place for a window charm of a view overlooking Hogsmead. That would make her very happy as that was soon going to be where she had her first date. Just like the classroom, all Slytherin banners were removed in exchange for ones for Ravenclaw.

It didn't appear that she was really in need of much so she called Dobby. "Yes, Mistress Brixton?" he asked as he apparated with a loud POP.

"Just Brixton, remember?" Brixton replied.

"Oh, no miss. Dobby is sorry, but now that you are a professor Dobby must show you the proper level of respect," Dobby uttered in an almost fearful fashion.

"Dobby, you are a hero who saved lives during the war. We are equals and you deserve my respect as well. As your friend who respects you, I really wish you would call me Brixton. Let the students worry about formalities," Brixton said softly.

Dobby thought about this for a minute before nodding, "As you wish. What can Dobby do for Brixton?"

"I was told that if I needed any furniture for my office that you would be the one to ask," she smiled.

"Oh, yes! Dobby can get Brixton furniture. Just tell Dobby what you would like," he smiled up at her brightly.

"I really liked the way that Professor Snape had the room set up before. I would like a black leather couch, matching armchairs, and a metal coffee table with a glass top. I would also like a large blue rug for the space to match the Ravenclaw décor, please," she smiled back.

Dobby nodded, "That is no trouble at all. I can get Brixton the things that she needs. It will be done before the day is over."

"Thank you so much, Dobby. There is one other thing I would like to ask, is there any way that you could bring me something for breakfast. I have some work to do today and I am hoping not to have to go all the way to the Great Hall. I don't want to be any trouble, but I thought I would ask," she said shyly.

The House Elf smiled and said, "Oh, it's no trouble at all!" In a flash Dobby was gone and back again with a tray carrying a blueberry muffin, a bowl of cut fruit, and a pot of tea with a cup. Brixton quickly took the tray from Dobby.

"Thank you so very much, Dobby," Brixton said.

"It's my pleasure to serve such wonderful witches like you. That is why Dobby chose to stay and work at Hogwarts even though Dobby is a free Elf. Now, Dobby can go start getting you the furniture you need," he replied.

"Wait, Dobby. Would you care to join me for some tea?" she asked, "We could go sit in the classroom at one of the workstations."

"Oh, Miss," Dobby wiped a tear from his eye, "Dobby is so lucky to have such good friends as you. I would love to join you for tea." With a snap of his fingers another cup appeared on the tray.

After sharing tea and a wonderful conversation with Dobby, Brixton felt so happy. Maybe the summer wasn't going to be so lonely after all. She stood and set about her work. She grabbed a pewter cauldron and all the necessary utensils. She then went to the storeroom and gathered her materials. This was another potion that would not require particularly expensive or rare ingredients so she decided to make a large batch. She opened a book to the Burn Healing Paste recipe and turned her own notebook to a page that was scribbled with notes.

Brixton quickly got to work and soon she had made the Burn Healing Paste exactly as it was supposed to be and she stared down at the large bright orange glob of paste in the bottom of her cauldron. She turned to her additional ingredients and hoped that this would work. She finely crushed the wiggentree bark in her mortar until it was almost a powder and added five scoops to the paste. This changed the color of the paste to a light brown. She lowered the flame underneath the cauldron until it was at its lowest setting. While the mixture was simmering, Brixton finely diced a handful of fresh stargrass and then added it to her cauldron. She then stirred the mixture rapidly to incorporate the grass into the paste. This resulted in the paste turning a dark green color. Finally, Brixton added essence of wormwood to the cauldron while stirring counter-clockwise. When the paste turned a vibrant purple she pulled out her wand and cast "Offero" over the paste. She shut the flame off to allow it to cool.

As the mixture was cooling Brixton turned the page in her notebook and took very detailed notes of everything that she had done and all of the changes that the paste had gone through. When she was finished she realized that the paste was still extremely hot. She knew that due to the paste's thickness it would take a long time for it to cool, but she was very impatient. Instead of standing there staring at her creation she went to a cabinet and fetched a bottle of cleaning solution and a few hand towels. In that moment she was so thankful that Severus liked to give detentions that included forcing students to clean cauldrons the Muggle way.

Brixton worked from top to bottom and bent down and cleaned every shelf. After a couple hours the room and every apparatus in it was sparkling clean and she was proud of her work. Finally, she went over to her cauldron and was happy to see that the paste was cool enough for application. Knowing the room like the back of her hand by this point, Brixton went to a cabinet and fetched a new white plastic tub with a lid. She dished out enough paste to fill the tub and then hurried to her private quarters.

Shaking with anticipation, she stuck two fingers into the purple paste and smeared an ample amount on her neck where the two raised red circular scars were. She sat down on her trunk and waited. She knew that the traditional Burn Healing Paste took at least 20 minutes to fully work so she told herself to be patient. However, she only had to wait minutes before she felt a strong tingling sensation that caused her to jump right off of her trunk. It didn't hurt at all but she was so excited at the possibility that the paste was going to work. After a few minutes the tingling stopped and Brixton ran to her bathroom to get a washcloth to wipe the paste off. She went back into the bedroom and stood in front of the large oval dresser mirror and her eyes grew wide as she saw that the scars from Rikkon's curse were gone.

"I did it!" she practically shouted. An idea hit her and she quickly pulled up her skirt and turned around to look at the back of her thigh. There was a small white circle from when her father had put a cigarette out on the back of her leg in a drunken outburst. She put some of the purple paste on the scar and was happy to discover that it began to tingle after a few minutes. When she wiped it clean the little scar was gone.

Brixton was absolutely over the moon. She had done what even Severus thought impossible. She quickly undressed herself and covered her chest, shoulders, and back with the paste. It took a good deal of stretching, but she managed to apply a thick coat of the paste everywhere the scars were. When the tingling stopped she rushed to the shower and washed all of the paste away. When she stepped out she was so happy to see that her skin was smooth and pale once more. There wasn't a scar in sight.

Excitedly, Brixton went to her office and pulled out some parchment. She used "Accio" to fetch the little black box that Severus had given her for her birthday. She set out the two silver quill stands, put the quills in their stands, and pulled out the jars of ink and set them on either side of the quills. She had been saving the gift for when she was officially a professor and now that she had been so successful in her potioneering it seemed like as good a time as any. She wrote three letters:

"Luna,

I know that it has only been a couple of days but I have the most exciting news to share with you! First, I managed to create a potion that extends the properties of ingesting gillyweed up to eight hours. I thought that this might be especially useful during your trip to Australia. I have enclosed eight vials of the potion. Seeing as how that is a long time to be under the water you may want to halve the vial for four hours or take a quarter-dose for two hours. I had not anticipated the strength of the potion, so please do not under estimate it. I figured this would be plenty for you and your father to explore the reef without much trouble. I imagine that all the gear that Muggles use to go diving would scare anything you are looking for away. I also managed to create a paste that healed me from the scars that Rikkon's curse gave me. It also healed a regular scar that I got from my father when I was a child. I plan on seeing if I can sell the recipe to George to sell in his shop. I expect I could make a nice commission off of his sales. I know his bruise remedy is very popular so I am sure my Scar Removal Paste will be too. Anyway, I hope to hear from you soon.

-Brixton"

"Hermione,

You won't believe it! You were right! There was a way to remove the scars that Rikkon's curse left me with. I started with Burn Healing Paste as a base and added some ingredients that I don't want to mention by owl because I plan to try and sell the recipe to George for a commission. It also removed a non-magical scar that my father gave me. I am absolutely beside myself. I have included enough for what Bellatrix did to your arm. Severus has been gone the past two days so I have been able to experiment freely. I won't say more about that right now, again it's by owl, and I would hate for anything to fall into the wrong hands. I also made what I am calling Water Breathing Potion that extends the effects of gillyweed. Too bad I hadn't already made it when Harry was in the Triwizard Tournament. He would have been a lot safer. I hope you and your parents are well and I look forward to your owl.

-Brixton"

"George,

I hope you and your family and the shop are well. As you know, I have taken over as Potions Mistress at Hogwarts. With my newfound privileges I have been doing some experimenting. Here is a sample of my Scar Removal Paste. It works exceptionally well for scars caused by curses and those acquired by non-magical means. Try it out and see what you think. I would be interested in selling the recipe to you for a commission of all sales. I won't have the time to make it in bulk, but I would like a friend to benefit from the sale of it. It is not expensive to make and I imagine will be almost as popular as your bruise remedy. Let me know what kind of percentage of profits you think is fair if you are interested.

-Brixton"

After writing the letters Brixton went into the classroom and got two smaller tubs to put the paste in for George and Hermione. She then wrapped them in paper so that it could be easily attached to an owl. She put the rest of the ointment into bigger tubs and labeled them. She intended to deliver them to Madame Pomfrey when she returned before the start of term. She grabbed a large mason jar of the Water Breathing Potion and measured out eight vials. She wrapped them in paper and then found a small box to put them in. Brixton then headed off to the owlery full of optimism.