Chapter 21-Wand Potion

Rose was sitting at the lunch table, egg dangling at the edge of her fork as she watched people shove food down their throats so they could hurry and get seats for the game. She could hardly focus on the game, what with what was about to happen.

"So today's the day."

"Ah!" Rose jumped at the dark figure which had settled beside her. "Carina?" How did she do that?

"You're making your wand today," she said.

"Ah…How did you know that?"

Carina smiled and rested her head in her hand. "Call it intuition. Anyway, I'd like to see it."

"Y-You would?" Not even Patricia wanted to miss this game. It was promised to be a show. "You don't want to see the Quidditch match?"

"I've seen it," she said. "It's a shame you're to miss it."

Rose looked her over for a moment, bewildered. Her hair was down in long, loose curls that she'd clearly put in with a fine potion of some sort. They were just too perfect. What she didn't understand was what potion she could've used for that nighttime color that made her think of storm clouds moving across the daytime sky, blocking out the sun.

She'd never spoken to Carina outside of the time she'd spent as a bird, but it didn't seem to make a difference to the girl. They were just as good of friends now, sitting side-by-side, as they had been yesterday when she sat on the girl's shoulder as a finch. In fact, she still felt a bit like a bird, as odd as it was to say, but only now that she was with Carina. Rose had many strange feelings around the girl. Though they'd just met yesterday, she felt as if she'd spoken to her hundreds of times.

"Have you eaten already?" she asked, stuffing some food into her mouth in case she had and wanted to leave.

"I've been here for a while, yes."

"Then, if you're not going to the game, we should go start making my wand."

"Pocahontas!" Frieda shouted, strutting up to the two of them at the relatively empty Gryffindor table. "Are you coming with me to the Quidditch match?"

"No," she said simply, grabbing a bit of toast and pinching a piece off of the end.

Frieda looked astonished. "No?! What do you mean? You're not sitting in the Hufflepuff section?"

"I'm busy helping a friend."

"Friend? What friend? You don't have any friends."

"Of course she does. We're very good friends," Rose said, though she wasn't quite sure where it came from.

Frieda scrunched her eyebrows. "You are? Since when? Yesterday?"

"Ah…" Well…

"Yes," Carina told her truthfully.

"And you're to be helping her with a chore today, is that right?"

"She isn't trying to take advantage of me, Frieda. She's helping me a bit more than I am her, actually." Rose gave her a quizzical look. She was? What was she talking about?

"Oh…well, bother. I thought for sure you'd want to come to cheer on Jeremy, at the very least."

"Oh, that's right, Jeremy," Rose smiled.

"Why would I bother cheering on just Jeremy?"

"Don't play stupid, Pocahontas. You fancy that boy."

"And this is based off of what evidence? The robes I borrowed from him? They were just robes."

"They were not just robes! They were his robes that he wanted you to wear."

"He was just being nice."

"Oh, please," Frieda scoffed. "Boys are nice when it's convenient."

"You are just like Leo. He places witches in these categories just as you place wizards into them."

"Because wizards are stupid prats with sticks up their arses."

"Does this have anything to do with Sean?"

She sat down at the table as Rose added bacon to her stomach mechanically, watching the two.

"Oh, Pocahontas, it's awful! He's run off with that Natasha Patil."

"Natasha?" Rose asked. "I thought she was Zabini's girlfriend."

"She was Zabini's girlfriend. She left him for Sean. You're obviously not in on the latest gossip if you don't know. Sean and Zabini actually dueled and Zabini lost by a long shot. Wish I could duel like that. It was a good show. Zabini actually managed to get a good shot at Sean's face and made his face sag low all day. Both of them were in the hospital wing. I can't believe you don't know this."

Carina and Rose exchanged glances.

"I can," Rose said. "It's just trivial gossip and drama. I don't see how anyone can keep up. It must consume so much of your time."

Frieda turned her nose up. "I like to know what people are up to. I'm going to be a politician one day, you know."

"I didn't know that, Frieda," Carina said.

"Well, it's true. I'm going to rework the whole social services bureaucracy. It's simply criminal the way they treat orphans and children of bad homes."

"That's very well, Frieda. I admire that."

Frieda smiled. "Well, thanks. I should be getting to the game, though. You're sure you don't want to come and watch?"

"I'm sure," she said.

"Fine, then. I'm off." With that, she left and ran up to some people leaving the room, catching onto the conversation quicker than anyone ever could.

Rose looked over at Carina, finishing off her plate of breakfast.

"So, she's your friend, is she?"

"Yes. She's very social."

"That's one way of putting it."

The Great Hall was near empty, the professors having left before to make their way to the Quidditch match before the onslaught of children trampled them.

"I've got everything in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom," Rose told her, getting up.

"I know," Carina said. "I would have met you there, but I didn't want to scare you. I know you don't recall telling me about any of it."

Rose was silent for a moment as they walked from the Great Hall.

"You've got one of those time-turners, haven't you? Those things that were destroyed year ago during the war. You've got one."

"If I had a time-turner, you'd know it."

"So then what is your deal? Why do you know all of this? Are you a psychic?"

"Not in the traditional sense, but yes. I couldn't explain it, though, so don't ask me to."

"So, when I was a bird, did you know it was me?"

"I had my suspicions about you, but I never guessed you were Rose, no."

"So you don't know everything."

She smiled. "That would be quite impossible."

"But you're the one who gave me my idea for the wand."

Carina stopped and turned to Rose, her eyes swirling circles of grey and black. "How did you know that?"

"Lovey told me all about you."

"Lovey? Lovey is a bird."

"And she's followed you around through our adventures with goblins and Leo and standing half-naked on the roof and everything. She's perplexed by you. She doesn't know what to make of it all. Neither do I. You erase people's memories of you."

"Not on purpose," Carina promised her.

"But you've been around me a lot more than just yesterday and today, haven't you?"

"It's true. I talk to you often, but how could Lovey have told you all of that? Can birds really pick up on all that's been going on and communicate it so effectively? If so, they must be far more magical than I thought."

"Well, that's just the thing, Carina. Remember yesterday when I said I needed to talk to you about something? There's something that you and Leo don't know about Lovey."

Jeremy gripped his broom as he stood on the Quidditch field and watched as the captains walked forward and strangled each other's hands, their eyes locked in furious stares. He looked out across the pitch at the green figures on the grass and noticed a lack of Lorcan Scamander. His brother, Lysander, was there, though, and he was really the devil of the team. He looked up into the stands and let the cheer and excitement fill him with adrenaline before the chase even began. The balls were released into the air and the whistle blew long and clear. The tiny second-year Ravenclaw seeker immediately shot towards the stands meaning he'd seen the snitch already. This could be a short game. He'd need to score as many points as possible quickly. Not to mention their tactic would need to change if Lorcan was no longer there as a beater.

He rode high into the air and was off.

When they arrived at the bathroom, a pale boy in Slytherin robes lurked outside of the door. He was leaning against the wall, playing with his wand like muggles played with knives. The stick swung between his fingers.

"Malfoy," Rose sneered. "I'm surprised to see you here."

"Nothing in the match of interest to me," he said, going into the bathroom before the two of them, unafraid of the Girls sign hanging above the door.

"That wasn't what I meant," Rose said, following him in. "What are you doing here, Scorpius?"

He flipped his wand around some more in his hands. "I've been accused of throwing a wild party without inviting Slytherins and turning someone into a finch. Do you know what those two things have in common?"

Rose rolled her eyes. "I'm sorry, Scorpius. Is that what you want to hear? You were an easy target to blame considering, let's face it, you're usually guilty of things like that."

"And you think it's as easy to get rid of me as a backhanded apology? The boys in this school have really spoiled you for your looks."

"Scorpius, get out of here. You're already dueling Albus. Take your revenge then. I've been working on getting this right for months."

"Albus isn't to blame here, surprising as it is, and I hate to see you passing the job onto your cousin like stuck-up girl you are. Can't even fight your own battles."

"I would fight you now if it meant you'd leave my cousin and the rest of us alone, but somehow I think that would be quite impossible for you to do."

"You don't need to break a nail. All I want is to watch."

Rose crossed her arms. "To watch me make my wand? I don't think so."

"Touchy, touchy. Afraid you'll slip up and I'll tell the school about how the great Rose Weasley, daughter of Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, failed?"

"Why would you want to be here if not to wreck my wand?"

"I'm interested in wand-making," Scorpius said unconvincingly. "I want to be the next Ollivander."

"Oh, that is a load of Hogwash."

"Does it matter?" Carina asked. "He's just baiting you, Rose. If he really did want to destroy your wand, he wouldn't have come here so openly. He just wants to pester you."

"No. I'm not here to pester," Scorpius promised. "You have my word."

"And what good is your word, Scorpius? How did you find out about this anyway? I only told my friends."

"Some friends you got. Leaking your secrets like that."

"They wouldn't have told anyone."

"Sure they wouldn't. You just keep telling yourself that."

"Get out!"

"Let him stay," Carina said. Rose looked over at her, surprised. "I want to see what he does."

Jeremy dodged his way around the players and was about to go in for a shot when something whacked him hard. He was used to waking up covered in bruises from being battered left and right, it was a feature of Quidditch, but this made his entire body lurch right and propelled him off of his broom. He held fast to the stick and swung around so all that separated him from a speedy descent were five fingers gripping the broom as he hung over the open air. Just as he regained himself from the blow, he saw George Abbot's familiar pixie cut just before she flashed a smile and dove downwards, towards her next victim. George was their new beater? He'd never known her to be a good player, but she sure packed a punch.

Rose glared at Scorpius from across the way as she set up her instruments. Carina set out the cauldron as Rose positioned a contraption she'd been working on to release all five potions at the same time into the cauldron. Scorpius walked closer and inspected the wooden structure.

"Did you build this?" he asked.

"What's it to you?" Rose sneered.

"Don't be so touchy. It was a compliment."

Rose didn't understand why Carina hadn't helped her fight him. She was some sort of psychic, though. Maybe she knew what Scorpius was really here for. If so, why didn't she tell me? Rose wondered. Carina seemed to enjoy keeping to herself which was irksome to say the least, especially when she didn't seem to mind showing that she knew things she shouldn't.

"Where'd you get the wood for this thing?" Scorpius questioned.

"I bought an art easel."

Scorpius turned his head and squinted his eyes for a bit before nodding without a word.

Rose had already prepared the measurements for all of the ingredients and laid them out in order of placement in little cups all around. Rose could tell from the look on his face that Scorpius wanted nothing better than to knock one over and let the contents spill across the floor so she'd have to find more and rework the measurements. Surprisingly, though, the boy did nothing. He just sat and watched which annoyed her. This was supposed to be her day of triumph—if not complete failure—and he was ruining it just by being there and making her worry about what he was up to.

Rose began chopping ingredients and Carina used her wand to slice the Bladderwrack evenly around his its pouches. It was vital that only one pair of hands touch the ingredients.

"How long is this going to take?" Scorpius asked.

"If you're bored, why don't you scamper off a cliff?"

"Why didn't you do all of this before?"

"This is a high-level potion," Rose told him, pausing in her chopping of the ginger. "The ingredients have to be freshly prepared or they won't work as well." She deposited the ginger into one of the containers as the water began to boil. There was silence as the two of them worked and Scorpius sat on the sidelines, watching. There wasn't much preparation considering most of the work had been completed beforehand. When they had finished and emptied everything into the jars, they all sat, looking at it.

"Is it ready?" Carina asked.

"Only one way to find out."

Rose stood up, reached forward, and yanked away the rope holding everything in place. The jars tipped and the ingredients fell together, into the large cauldron. Instantly, the potion sizzled released a breath of purple vapor that poured over the sides of the pot and settled a lavender veil over the air so the room glowed.

Scorpius stood and looked around and back to her. "That is supposed to happen?"

"The vapor will go through the entire color spectrum. When it turns white, we can start."

"How long will that take?"

"Hard to say," she said, looking about her. "A skilled wandmaker could tell you down to the second, but I don't know my own work. It could be over an hour."

"Terrific."

"Now we wait?" Carina questioned on the ground.

Rose nodded, looking to Scorpius. "Now we wait."

The Ravenclaws were up in points, but the Gryffindors weren't far behind and had the chance to win if the snitch was caught soon. Things were tough. Jeremy felt as though George was intentionally targeting him. Every time he neared an objective he'd set his eyes on, it was as if she had a direct link to his thoughts and he jolted swiftly to the side, losing his opportunity. He knew to keep a tighter grip on his broomstick, but every time he repositioned himself, she swung her bat. She is targeting me, he thought. I've scored the most points today.

Leo's voice echoed throughout the stadium. And look! The golden snitch has been spotted by the Ravenclaw team seeker who speeds after it in hot pursuit! The Gryffindor seeker quickly catches on and is following, but making for it from the opposite end of the stadium!

Lysander took the split-second of distraction to go for the quaffle and shot it past the keeper, through the hoop.

"Do you really think this is going to help you with your spells?" Scorpius asked, sitting in the diluted red glow of the cauldron.

Rose looked over at him from her seat. It was hard to see, but the last color was gradually fading. "Well, I wouldn't be doing it if I didn't, now would I?"

"I suppose not, though it seems pointless to me."

"Then why watch at all?"

"It's not the wand that won't work. It'll manage fine. It's you that doesn't work."

"I can do magic just fine, thank you very much. I just need a wand especially for me."

"Mmmm. I'm sure that's it. Yeah."

"If there's something you have to say, spit it out."

"No, no, nothing."

Rose looked away as the spell drifted into a pearl color that settled over the room.

"Alright. It's almost ready," she said.

"Tell me, how does it feel to do a spell or two correctly as opposed to the thousands you've butchered?" Scorpius asked.

Rose glared at him. "Scorpius—."

"No, really. I'm serious. I want to know why you're a master of potions, but you can't even light your wand without something exploding."

"I wouldn't be criticizing—." She stopped. "Did you just call me a master at potions?"

"Master of potions. If you're quoting someone, get it right."

"But you think I'm good at potions."

Scorpius smiled, but not in contempt. "I know you're good at potions. Everyone does. You're better than most adults."

"I don't think—."

"Then you're dim." He looked her straight in the eyes and she could see the light from the windows shine in and reflect off each of his eyes in a vibrant crescent suns. Each dark eye was a solar eclipse. "Rose, you can make NEWT-level potions. You help people older than you with exams. Only a few people on Earth exist who are skilled enough to make wands and you just decided to one day just because you didn't like the one you had. Any other person would've gotten a new one. Do you know what I would give to be that amazing?"

Rose said nothing.

"You know what your problem is."

"My problem?"

"With spells. The reason why you can't do them. You think too much. It's a fatal flaw. With potions, it's about memorization and the intelligence to know just what a potion needs like a healer giving a diagnosis."

"It's like making a soup," Rose told him. "You can have a recipe, but what matters is that it tastes good to you."

"Right," Scorpius said. "You think about charms as being like that, but it just isn't."

"Yes it is. You can put multiple spells together and make a different one."

"But most spells are raw. You need to learn how to eat eggs straight out of the shell instead of making them over easy every time."

Rose smiled and cocked her head. "What?"

"You have to eat an apple instead of a pie. You need the banana before you make it into a split. Do you get it?"

"Um…no."

"Do a wand lighting charm."

Rose took out her wand and said, "Lumos." She shut her eyes "Now, you see, it's too bright." She snuffed it.

"Do it again and don't think about it."

"Don't think about it? You need to think about light for light to come out of the wand. That's how it works. With a Patronus spell you need to think of happy memories. With a Cruciatus curse you need to feel hate and really mean what you're doing, want the other person to suffer."

"But it's not the same with other spells. Those are advanced and rarely used. This is what comes of having a brilliantly advanced witch for a mother. She and probably the rest of your family taught you about advanced magic before the basics. For most people in your situation, it wouldn't have been a problem because they would've failed at advanced spells immediately and gone to simple ones, but you probably just kept trying at the hard ones until you got them and applied the same technique to all the other spells you've ever learned in school. That's why your spells are always too powerful. It's not your wand. You just think too much." As he said the last bit, he waved his wand and it shone a careful glow that lit the fog.

Rose took out her wand. "I don't think about it?"

"Too hard for you?"

"No! Of course not. I'm just not used to it. So I just say 'lumos.'" Her wand lit. "Merlin's beard! You must be joking! That's not possible. You changed my wand."

"And why would I want to make you feel better about yourself? I'm just trying to lessen your stupidity."

"But I've never been able to do it! Merlin, it must've been explained to me a thousand times. Clocks and chickens and such and it never made any sense. Everyone else was so confusing."

"Because it comes to them so easy. I had the same trouble when I was younger, but my father realized what the matter was and corrected it."

"Knox," she said. The light shone brighter.

"Don't think about it," he repeated.

She closed her eyes and cleared her mind, but she couldn't stop thinking about the light going out. She opened them and looked at Scorpius and in that moment when she was focused on him sitting in front of her instead of the spell, she said "Knox" and the light went out.

"Yes!" she shouted. She jumped to her feet and shot a laughing charm at him like it was just a potion being thrown to the ground and he burst into a fit of laughter against the stone. "I can't believe it!"

"Aguamenti!" he shouted between laughs, drenching her in water as he got to his feet.

"Ugh!" she ran after him, shouting spells and he flicked some back at her, their voices echoing off the walls of the bathroom, laughter filling the place. Suddenly she stopped.

Scorpius took a moment to quell his laughter and held his side. "What is it?" he huffed.

"Nothing. It's just. The potion."

"Forget it. You don't need it anymore."

"I know, but..." she walked over to the cauldron. "Where's is it?"

Scorpius surveyed the empty room. "Your friend's got it."

She looked back at him. "Carina? Why would she want my potion? She was the one who wanted me to make it in the first place."

Scorpius sighed. "But don't you see? It was never for you."