Lily
When we return to the Great Hall, the desks are back. Professor Marchbanks watches from the front of the hall, standing next to a blackboard. On each side of the room, there's a long skinny table, piled high with ingredients, as well as cauldrons and other equipment.
"Take a seat, take a seat," she calls.
I let go of James's hand. "I'm gonna sit up front with Marlene. See you after?"
He nods, and I'm grateful that he doesn't make a fuss. "Good luck!"
I turn to Marlene. "How about those two in the front?"
Once the last stragglers take their places, Professor Marchbanks continues. "You'll have three hours to brew your best attempts at two potions: the Draught of Living Death and Dreamless Sleep Potion. You will be evaluated on your speed, as well as, of course, the quality of your results."
She waves her wand at the blackboard. Text appears - "3:00:00" - and shifts, counting down the seconds.
"You may begin!"
I hurry to the side of the hall to collect things - I'll need two cauldrons, a knife, some measuring cups, a stirring rod… and a bunch of ingredients on top of that.
The Draught of Living Death takes significantly longer to brew, so I want to get that one started first. The final step is just stirring, and quite a bit of it. Takes about half an hour to get from lilac to clear; really tires your arm out. I figure I can charm the stirring rod to do that for me. It'll save time as well; I can get started on the Dreamless Sleep meanwhile.
I've never managed to brew the Draught of Living Death perfectly. Oh, I can follow instructions just fine, but that's not enough. If there's one thing my friendship with Severus taught me, it's that potion textbooks are riddled with mistakes. Not big ones, mind - the potion will still work approximately as it should. But it'll be much weaker than it could be. I can correct some of the errors, but I'm not skilled enough to catch them all.
The mistakes are intentional, we decided. The more dangerous the potion and the more advanced the textbook, the more mistakes we found. Well, he found, mostly - he always was better at noticing them.
We figured some of the mistakes existed to encourage students to gain a deeper understanding of the theory behind potions. What better way to test students' understanding than by introducing minor errors and seeing who discovers them? Especially for NEWT students, who ought to have some grasp of the theory.
The other mistakes, the ones in especially dangerous potions… I think it's gatekeeping. The fewer people who know how to brew a strong Amortentia, a strong Veritaserum, the better. That's not the sort of knowledge you want easily available.
When I get back to my desk, I realize it's not going to fit both cauldrons. I leave them on the ground and get out my wand.
"Engorgio."
Alright, that's better. I set up one cauldron on each side, sorting the ingredients by which potion they belong to.
I've grabbed some extra sopophorous beans for the Draught of Living Death. It'd be better if all the juice were from a single bean, I know - but I can never get enough juice out of mine. And extra beans is far better than insufficient juice; I learned that the hard way.
And indeed, when it's time to add the bean juice, the potion doesn't turn quite the lilac it's supposed to. But it's close, and I don't know how to do better. Maybe you need especially juicy beans to make the Draught of Living Death correctly, to get enough juice from a single bean? But probably there's just something I'm missing.
Oh well, good enough.
I charm my stirring rod to stir counterclockwise. I think this is another spot where a better potioneer could improve the process - when we brewed this in class, Severus barely spent any time at all stirring, it seemed. But by the time I noticed, it was too late to see what he'd done. And I haven't been able to figure it out on my own in the time since.
The Dreamless Sleep Potion is straightforward enough. Oh, it's a tricky potion, for sure. But I have a good handle on how it works. I know exactly what tweaks to make.
I finish with an hour and fifteen remaining. My Draught of Living Death isn't quite clear; it's a very pale yellow. And unlike true Draught of Living Death, the sleep mine induces will eventually wear off. It'll take years, but it'll happen. The result of using multiple sopophorous beans.
Whereas a potion with insufficient bean juice only reaches a middling shade of purple, and its sleep will wear off after mere days. Perhaps a more useful potion, but definitely a worse approximation of the Draught of Living Death.
My Dreamless Sleep Potion, on the other hand, is perfect.
I bring my completed potions to the front, where Professor Marchbanks accepts them, making a note of the time. Once I've cleaned up my work area, I head to the library to start revising for Charms.