Disclaimer: see prologue
Guide: "Speech", Thoughts, ~letters and other written things, "Parseltongue"
Warning: The usual sexual themes and kinks
AN: Enjoy the second part. I deeply apologize for the delay. I was on a business trip and had the doc-files on a USB stick with me. Once I arrived at the destination of my week-long business trip, the USB stick decided to be broken. :( At least it did not break after I finished the chapter, then I really would have been annoyed. This way, I at least had a copy of the current chapter on my private laptop, even if it took me 1 week access it again.
Working out how exactly the Human Cauldron method worked took some time too.
-~-~- Altair -~-~-
-~-~-by Still waters are deep-~-~-
-~-~- Chapter 46 – Human Cauldron meets Polyjuice Potion -~-~-
Sunday, 29th February 1998
Three days have passed since Harry and Draco had determined with the help of a not so innocent Twister game that both of them would have to slice the leeches for the Polyjuice Potion. And now it was finally time to brew the potion the Human Cauldron style. Fortunately, Professor Essentjelly had been kind enough to provide the pre-prepared lacewing flies for them, otherwise brewing the potion would have taken them a full month instead of just a Sunday afternoon.
In their first lesson on Human Cauldron potions, they'd learned all that was to know about the Human Cauldron brewing process. At least, this was what they believed until their second lesson on the topic. Then, Professor Essentjelly finally told them that what they learned in their previous lesson was the so called 'standalone Human Cauldron', sometimes also called the traditional or true Human Cauldron brewing process.
Even though they'd been tasked to write an essay on the advantages and disadvantages of the standalone Human Cauldron with the focus on the Draught of Peace, Professor Essentjelly spent a good fifteen minutes on explaining why, as powerful as the Human Cauldron brewing style was, the Wizarding World still searched for an alternative. He especially emphasized on the poisonous Hellebore that was a key ingredient in the Draught of Peace and commented that his students hopefully all had written about this in their essays.
The result of a two century long search was the modern Human Cauldron brewing process. Though, in Harry's eyes, 'modern' was definitely the wrong term for it. The modern style had been invented by Salazar Slytherin, so it was already over one thousand years old.
In case of the Draught of Peace, the modern Human Cauldron method ensured that the person acting as the Human Cauldron would not poison themselves with the Hellebore as only the cauldron was in direct contact with the poisonous plant. Professor Essentjelly then went on to explain why most Potions masters did not consider the modern Human Cauldron method as real Human Cauldron brewing. This also explained why he, in their first lesson, did not correct Hermione when she said that Human Cauldron brewing never included a real cauldron.
The remaining thirty minutes of the lesson, Professor Essentjelly had spent on explaining how the modern Human Cauldron style worked. Apparently, Slytherin invented a potion that allowed a human to connect with a cauldron, and named it the Ceangal* Potion. While the cauldron functioned as the vessel where something was mixed together, the human that is connected to the cauldron is the medium which influences the temperature and also how the potion is stirred similar to the standalone Human Cauldron.
For example, if the temperature of the cauldron was supposed to be increased then, instead of lightening a flame underneath the cauldron, the human connected to the cauldron would be sexually aroused or at other times they would simply take a warm bath. The potion could be cooled down by doing the opposed actions, for example the person connected to the cauldron could take a cold shower or an ice bath, or they could be brought down from their sexually aroused state.
The stirring of the potion was achieved by stimulating the nipples and surrounding chest area. Here, stimulating the right nipple led to a clockwise movement, whereas a counter-clockwise stirring was achieved by touching the left nipple. The speed, amount and shape of the movement was determined by how the surrounding chest area was touched. If you circled the left chest of the Human Cauldron with your finger once while also stimulating the left nipple, than you were stirring the content of the connected cauldron one time counter-clockwise. The faster you circled the nipple, the faster the cauldron was stirred and the wider your circle the farther away from the centre of the cauldron you were moving.
"I'm sure you're wondering how you can draw an even circle with your finger around the nipple when your second hand is blocking your way as it is stimulating said nipple. The answer lies with this little helping hand," Professor Essentjelly answered his own question and held out a nipple clamp in the shape of a hand.
"Slytherin himself was the one who found out that his method still worked even if the nipple that determines the direction of the stirring is stimulated with an object. On the other hand, using a feather to draw the circles while a hand is stimulating the nipple does not work," he told them.
At this point Draco had raised his hand. When he received the go-ahead the blond asked his question. "So when the instruction says to first stir clockwise and then counter-clockwise, one has to first stimulate the right side and then the left side. But what happens at the moment where I switch the sides? Can it be translated as simply changing the stirring direction or is it closer to taking out the stirring rod and inserting it again?"
"A very good question, Mr Malfoy," Professor Essentjelly praised. "If we translate the Human Cauldron brewing method to the normal brewing process then letting go of the nipple would mean that the stirring rod is taken out of the cauldron. However, there is a short latency period. If you coordinate the removal of one nipple clamp with the application of the other clamp well, then it is like you're just changing the direction and not taking out the rod," the Potions master answered.
"Therefore, I would advise all of you to always use two clamps, one for each side. Also, if you need other stirring directions then clockwise and counter-clockwise, you have to stimulate both nipples equally to annul their counter-directional movements, allowing you to define the direction by your finger movement," he explained.
"Hence, be very careful where and when you touch the person who acts as the cauldron. While I know that you girls are all moving your hair out of your face, I want everyone to secure your tightly while using the human cauldron method, less the tips of your bangs or ponytails are touching your partner at the wrong moment," he warned them.
At their Professor's words, Hermione's mind conjured an image of Harry trying to tame his uncontrollable hair with a dozen of pink hair clips to make sure that no strand would accidentally touch Draco. Once she suppressed her laugh, she whispered her though into Blaise's ear, who imagined not only Harry but also Draco with the pink hair clips. He laughed.
"Care to share what is so funny, Mr Zabini?" Professor Essentjelly asked.
"I'm just happy that my hair is so short that I wont need any pink hair clips to secure it, unlike some other blokes," Blaise answered, pointedly looking at Harry and Draco. He had no doubt that if his hair had been longer, Hermione would have forced him to use the hair clips. Though in that case he probably would have just shaved his head bald rather than to wear the dreadfully girly hair clips.
The lesson ended with Professor Essentjelly assigning them another essay. He asked them to write about the brewing process of the Polyjuice Potion in the Human Cauldron method of their choice. He informed them that it was their choice whether they wanted to use the standalone or modern Human Cauldron brewing.
"However," he added, getting their attention as they put away their writing material. "Half of your grade depends on how long your Polyjuice Potion lasts. So think carefully if you want to try the more powerful but also more difficult standalone Human Cauldron process or the weaker but easier to brew modern Human Cauldron method. Independent of your choice, you'll all brew the Ceangal Potion that connects the human with the cauldron during our next lesson."
Harry and Draco had decided to brew their Polyjuice Potion with the modern Human Cauldron method. While they had not asked their classmates, Harry and Draco had the feeling that nearly everyone had decided to use the modern Human Cauldron brewing process. How many of them had picked Professor Essentjelly's offer to brew the potion under his supervision, they did not want to know. But with the standalone Human Cauldron method, they could understand why some people would prefer to have a Potions master nearby.
Harry had briefly wondered if Hermione had taken Professor Essentjelly up on his offer to brew the potion under his supervision. But Hermione did not seem like an Exhibitionist to him, even if the knowledge of the happenings would remain inside whichever room they used. On the other hand, he could also imagine that her pursuit for perfection would make her at least consider the offer.
For him and Draco, there was no question that they would brew the potion on their own, in the privacy of their bedroom. Brewing with the help of a Human Cauldron began like any other brewing method with the preparation of all ingredients. At least this was the way Draco preferred to brew his potions. He said that it was less hectic if he already sliced, cut and measured the required ingredients and had them ready to add to the cauldron when he worked on a more complex potion. Harry just followed Draco's lead, after all the blond was the one who wanted to become a Potions master and not he.
Draco used a sponge to rub the Ceangal Potion on the outside of the cauldron. In the meantime, Harry drank his own share of the Ceangal Potion and than placed his hand on the rim of the cauldron. Draco took a step back, pulled out his wand and cast the spell that with the help of the Ceangal Potion established the connection between Harry and the cauldron. When the spell was finished, a soft red glow could be seen surrounding both Harry and the cauldron.
"It seems to work," Draco said, placing his wand on the bed, ready to be used at short notice in case their potion showed signs of blowing up.
Professor Essentjelly had stressed that in such a case they should always cut the connection between the human and the cauldron. While the spell and Ceangal Potion created a connection between human and cauldron that was supposed to be one-way only, with the magical ingredients inside a blown up cauldron, there was always the chance that the connection could backfire and seriously harm the witch or wizard; nerve-damage being the most often encountered ill effect.
"Are you feeling okay?" Draco asked.
"Yeah, I get the same tingling feeling as yesterday, but otherwise I feel not weird at all," Harry said as he laid down face-up on the bed. In order to see the potion they'd moved the pillows to the other end of the bed. This way, Draco could look towards the table and the mirror they hung above it to see what happened inside the cauldron.
While maybe not strictly necessary, both boys thought that it was a good idea to try the modern Human Cauldron method to see first hand how the stirring and heating through the connection worked. So Draco'd brewed an extra batch of the Ceangal Potion, and they tried to heat, cool down a cauldron filled with water and tested the stirring by adding some ink drops into the water. Draco especially found it useful to see how fast the water-ink mix was stirred, depending on how he touched Harry's body.
Having received the positive response from Harry, Draco went back to the table and started to brew the Polyjuice Potion by adding the Lacewing flies they'd received from Professor Essentjelly to the cauldron. He next added a small cup of purified water as well as the pre-prepared leeches to the cauldron. The next step was to stir the cauldron four times counter-clockwise, two times clockwise and then again four times counter-clockwise. Translated to the modern Human Cauldron brewing process this meant that Draco had to stimulate first Harry's left nipple, then change to the right side before he would concentrate on the left side once more.
Draco noticed that he felt much more nervous than yesterday. Then it had been more of a curious and excited kind of nervousness, but today it was the pent-up kind of nervousness, triggered by the knowledge that it was not a harmless water and ink mix that was inside the cauldron.
Harry noticed Draco's tenseness and said, "You already successfully brewed the potion last year, the modern Human Cauldron style is far less dangerous then the traditional one and if it really should blow up, which I do believe won't happen at all, I'm still the Boy Who Lived," he joked.
"I could kiss you right now," Draco answered, feeling a lot more at ease as got comfortable at the edge of the bed.
"That you're not kissing me speaks for itself," Harry answered with a soft smile. Draco would certainly become a very good Potions master if he had the self-control to stay focused on the actual brewing process because kissing Harry had the potential to unsettle the potion.
"You're not making it any easier for me," Draco said. "And now hush, we have a potion to brew." With that said, Draco grabbed the first nipple clamp, the ones they'd chosen resembling snakes, and put it on the Gryffindor's left nipple. He then took the second clamp into his left hand, having it at the ready when it was time to change from the counter-clockwise movement to the clockwise movement. Careful to not touch Harry anywhere else, the Slytherin then used the forefinger of his right hand to circle Harry's nipple four times. Once he finished he tried to simultaneously remove the nipple clamp on Harry's left nipple and put the second clamp on the brunet's other nipple. While he took a bit longer than he would have liked to put on the new clamp, he overall found that it was a good transition.
Draco went on the circle Harry's right nipple twice, risking a quick glance at Harry's face to see how he was faring with the nipple clamp. Then the blond repeated the process of exchanging the clamps and circling the left nipple four times once more, this time looking at the mirror to see how their Polyjuice Potion was developing. Once the nipple clamp was removed, Harry gave his boyfriend an encouraging smile.
So far, brewing with the Human Cauldron method was the least sexually arousing Sexual Magic they'd performed. In Harry's opinion, this was mainly because he felt that he was objectified as a means to an end. When they'd brewed other Sexual Potions, Draco's full attention had always stayed with him when he was touching the brunet. But now, he noticed how he had to share the Slytherin's focus with the cauldron at the other side of the room.
Draco right now could not spare much thoughts on this topic, having to evenly sprinkle the powdered bicorn horn on top of the now thick and dark green potion. Like with the normally brewed Polyjuice Potion, it now had to simmer for ten minutes under a medium heat. Turning around the hourglass, Draco took the device with him towards the bed.
As no stirring was allowed at that point, Draco was cautious to not touch Harry's upper body at all. Instead he sat down next to the Gryffindor's hip and began to sensually touch Harry's groin area. With the fingers of his right hand, he followed Harry's happy trail downwards, skipping the cock for now and massaging the balls slowly. Having been in a sexual relationship for half a year made it easy for him to know how exactly he had to touch Harry to just arouse the brunet without bringing him too close to his peak which would case the potion to overheat.
"I will take proper care of this later," Draco promised after three minutes as he leisurely and only with the barest of pressure stroked Harry's cock. He was watching Harry's face and especially his eyes to see if he should either increase or decrease the pressure to keep on a constant level of slight arousal.
Harry right now felt better than before. With ten minutes in his hand and having confident in his knowledge of Harry's body's response to his touch, Draco felt at ease enough to put most of his attention on Harry instead of the cauldron, only rarely sparing it and the hourglass a short glance. Only when the ten minutes were nearly up did the blond move his eyes away from Harry's face towards the hourglass.
"Think of Weasley's ginger ass," Draco said when he stopped touching Harry and had to return to the cauldron to add the Knotgrass and Fluxweed.
"But I l rather think of yours," Harry answered teasingly.
"And I need you to get all limp again so that I can add the next ingredients," the blond replied.
After waiting for a moment longer, Draco added the Knotgrass and Fluxweed before he returned to Harry to stir the potion twenty-seven times clockwise. With each additional circle of his finger around Harry's chest the potion's colour changed from the dark green to a deep yellow colour.
"We're half-way done," he told Harry as he removed the nipple clamp.
"I hope that when you said you would take care of me later, you did not refer to now," Harry said with a pout when Draco with an expert hand brought his cock to full attention in order to bring the potion to boil.
"You should now by now that I would not let the potion explode just to let you come," Draco teased and then leaned down to lick the first drops of pre-cum off of his boyfriend's cock.
"It's good to know where.. ahh... I'm… mhm... standing in your… ahh yes... priority list," Harry replied between proclamations of pleasure.
"At the very top, love," Draco replied and quickly moved his forefinger and thumb around the base of Harry's cock to stop him from coming and the potion from exploding. "Later," he said in a promising voice as he with a last lust-filled glance left Harry on the bed to add the last ingredient, shredded Boomslang skin.
Now came the only step that differed from the normally brewed Polyjuice Potion. Instead of stirring it while it boiled on a medium flame and then adding the strand of hair to the potion, the Polyjuice Potion brewed with the modern Human Cauldron method had to be cooled down over the time of half an hour. For this, the wizard or witch acting as the cauldron had to take a cold ice bath.
"You wouldn't put an actual cauldron from the flames directly into an ice bath, you would cool it down more slowly," Draco had explained to Harry when they wrote their essays on the topic. "Here, it says that it should be cooled down for half an hour and as I understand the note, it means in the duration of half an hour it should cool from three hundred degrees to zero."
Harry was relieved to hear this. He had feared that he would have to sit in the ice cold bath for the whole thirty minutes. Even if the bedroom and bathroom were cosily warm, a cold seems to be an inevitable outcome.
Before they'd prepared the ingredients, they'd already filled their bathtub with hot water. By now, it should have cooled down to a nearly lukewarm temperature. "You can go into the tub now," Draco told Harry. He would follow the other soon, but first he wanted to watch hot the potion would react to Harry entering the bathtub.
"I'm in," Harry called out moments later. Seeing nothing unusual happening, Draco turned the larger hourclass and followed him into the other room.
"It still has a comfy temperature," Harry said conversationally.
"Good," Draco answered with a smile as he sat down on the edge of the bathtub. "I do not want you to freeze to death for a potion."
From time to time Draco would either get up to check on the progress of the potion or he would add a bowl of ice cubes to the water to cool it down a bit faster. But mainly, the two of them would just sit there and talk.
"I've been thinking about the spring ritual," Harry began. "I would really like to perform the first part of the pregnancy ritual. I've talked with Hermione and Ron about a possible pregnancy. Ron advised me to follow my heart and Hermione suggested to contact St Mungo's—anonymously, of course—and ask whether they believe it would be possible to perform all pregnancy rituals while I'm in Healer training."
"They said that it was too risky?" Draco guessed.
"Basically yes. The first ritual should still be okay if my magic is powerful enough. But after that, they said that I would not be able to successfully continue my training, especially since each year the focus is shifted more and more towards the practical application. While I really want to start helping people, I want a child more. So I've been thinking about waiting until after we have a child before I start my Healer training."
"If this is really what you wish, then it is up to you. It's your life and your choice," Draco said.
"It is," Harry announced. "But you also have a say on when we have children," the Gryffindor stressed.
"We talked about neither of us wanting to have a child right now," Draco began. "Though, I still believe that I'll be ready for them in some years. And if not, we can talk about it when the time comes to perform the last ritual and see what we'll do then. But right now, I'll stand behind whatever you decide."
"So we will start the process this year?" Harry asked for confirmation.
"We can but you have to promise me to not give up on our dream of a family if something should go wrong because you're stressed over NEWTs," the blond replied and absently added some more ice cubes to the water. "Now that I'm thinking about it, if you're not at St Mungo's, we won't need to worry that an illness from one of your patients could endanger our unborn child."
"Yeah," Harry agreed, feeling further reassured in his decision.
The remaining minutes they both were lost in their own thoughts, imagining a little boy with blond hair and green eyes and a not much younger girl with dark hair and grey eyes running around them, challenging them to catch them.
"I'll tell you when I finished filling it into the flasks," Draco said as he got up from where he'd been sitting at the edge of the tube. The thirty minutes were up. The strand of hair would be added right before one wanted to use the Polyjuice Potion.
"Hurry up, I want to get out of here," Harry called after him, only now, when he came out of his thoughts of his potential children, did he notice how cold the bathwater had gotten.
~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-
Harry and Draco enjoyed a nice cup of tea in the living room, both boys very much satisfied after their latest round of shower sex. Draco having fulfilled his promise to Harry to take care of his little problem.
"You know what I've been wondering about?" Harry asked, disrupting the comfortable silence between them. "How can the Polyjuice Potion be brewed with the standalone Human Cauldron method? At the end you usually add a strand of hair of the person you want to turn into, but, if the ingredients come into contact with the spit of the 'cauldron' first, isn't the potion contaminated?"
"That's a very interesting question. While usually a piece of hair is added to the classically brewed Polyjuice Potion, I know that other parts can be used too; spit being one of them," Draco answered, annoyed at himself for not having thought of this on his own. And as far as he knew, Professor Essentjelly did not plan to hold any further lessons on the Polyjuice Potion, as he said that writing an essay of how it is brewed with their chosen Human Cauldron method and the actual brewing process was sufficient to cover the potion. So they could not expect to get an answer during their next Sexual Potions lesson. "Care to find out the answer with me?" he asked. Harry agreed with a smile.
Not wanting to wait until their Potions or Sexual Potions class on Wednesday, Draco visited his godfather Severus on Monday morning while Harry was in Transfiguration. "Severus?" he asked, "Could you please give me a pass for the Restricted Section?"
"What for?" Professor Snape enquired.
"Harry raised an interesting concern in regards to our current Sexual Potions project. We want to explore the issue further and thus require some more references," he said, not wantng to give too much detail, knowing that his godfather would not want to know what he and Harry were up to behind closed doors.
"And pray tell what has Potter so worried?" Severus asked with a raised eyebrow.
"That brewing the Polyjuice Potion with the standalone Human Cauldron method will contaminates the potion," Draco replied. "So far, our theory is that you can only use this kind of Polyjuice Potion to turn into the person that acted as the cauldron."
Severus raised an eyebrow in curiosity, but worthlessly signed a pass for Draco and, surprisingly, also for Harry to access the Restricted Section.
With a final "Thank you," the blond left the office and walked towards his first class of the week: Herbology.
~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-
Wednesday, 3rd March 1998
"One point to Gryffindor," Professor Snape said when he inspected Harry's potion.
"What did you do to get a point?" Ron asked, shocked.
"I have no idea," Harry whispered back, as bewildered as Ron. He hoped that hell had not frozen over, or worse, that Voldemort returned from whatever part of hell he'd ended up in.
Draco just smiled, having a good idea that it was because of the talk he'd had with his godfather on Monday and also from the short talk they had before the start of today's lesson.
As it turned out, if the Polyjuice Potion was brewed with the standalone Human Cauldron method it could last up to twelve hours. However, and this was the great downside, it could not be used universally. As Harry had feared, the fact that the Polyjuice potion came in contact with the spit of the Human Cauldron contaminated the potion. And while they initially predicted that it meant that it could only be used to turn into the person who acted as the 'cauldron', their research showed that it could alternatively also be used by the 'cauldron' (and only the Human Cauldron) to change into any other person.
Harry certainly had been happy that they never had to use Dumbledore's plan to have others use the Polyjuice Potion to turn into him to safely bring him away from Privet Drive. Knowing Snape, he would have wanted to use the Human Cauldron method to not wast more than the absolutely necessary amount of his precious potion ingredients. And allowing Snape to use him as a Human Cauldron was something he never wanted to experience.
"You worry too much," Draco had answered. "Do you really believe that Severus would want to be this intimate with you? You remember how your godfather told us how they got out of being Altair partners. He certainly would have found a way to get out of brewing it with you. Maybe he would have asked me to brew it with you?" he had suggested in a seductive voice, which led to a tryst on their living room couch.
~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-
Ceangal: Irish for connect
~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-
AN: The concept to have the wand at the ready to cancel the spell is inspired by having scissors available in case of an emergency when one performs bondage.
Next: Using the Polyjuice Potion. It will be updated before New Year's Eve. At least this is what I am aiming for.