Artemis arrives in a nauseating spin, one that brings back unpleasant memories of the 'Vampire Incident'. He takes a moment to visually scan his surroundings before heading to the meeting area. Dark, dank and grimy, just as before... He thinks with disgust.
However a new level of wonderfulness has been added since the last time, with the addition of some incoherent shrieks and yells, moaning and coughing.

Stalking confidently towards the main hall, the dreadful sounds get louder and louder, however when he passes one of the branching hallways right before his destination, he finds that the sounds come from the side, and not from the main hall as he had dreaded. With a nod to himself, and a quick toss of a bug towards the side passage with a barely noticeable flick of the wrist, he enters one of the last places on earth he wants to be.

He makes his way to the cowled figure of the Dark lord, who stands eerily still and does not react as Artemis grovels before him, kissing the hem of his robes as needed, then backing away to an empty spot in a half filled semi-circle.

Time passes, and a few others trickle in, until the Dark Lord suddenly straightens as if animated from his statue-like stance. He hisses, "We have freed many faithful followers today, and they require care to be made whole and strong once more. You have been chosen for your medical skills, whether spell or potion. Potioneers follow Severus to the brewing chambers. You will work until he releases you. Spell-Healers follow Wolfgang to the guest rooms where our brothers and sisters are currently resting.
Do not disappoint me." He ends with narrowed red eyes.

The Dark Lord turns with sudden motion, moving in a perfectly straight line to the doors, which open themselves soundlessly at his approach, then close behind him just as quietly. It all looks very artificial, and Artemis ponders the question of whether that is the result of countless dark rituals and being reborn from near death, or if it is actually some kind of simulacrum that the Dark Lord uses to give out orders and as a decoy.

Severus speaks in his usual curt, caustic tone, interrupting Artemis's analysis, and orders the potion brewers to follow.

What follows is endless hour after endless hour of cutting, measuring, stirring and pouring. Unlike a solo potion where Artemis would complete all the needed steps himself, here they are organized into groups to only perform one task repeatedly, assembly line style. It makes sense, for optimal speed and efficiency, however it is mindlessly boring, dull, and repetitive. Yet somehow still with an edge of terror underlying the mundanity of the task, as he can't help but imagine the condition of the people who need these potions, as most are the type to be used on the dying, or nearly dead.

Artemis ends up being assigned to measure the ingredients and portion them out for the others. He decides to take it as a possible a sign of trust in his skills, as it is one of the most demanding jobs available. Thank Frond that at least he doesn't have to try to use a knife to chop anything, as he'd probably lose a finger by the end of the night.

Adjusting for a patch of damp herbs here by increasing the dosage for one potion, then reducing another batch of flower petals because they were shredded too finely by the cutters. At least its not a complete mental wasteland, some cleverness is needed to ensure that the potions are of uniform strength. If any of the Azkaban escapees were to die from too strong of a dosage, the lifespan of the potion brewer responsible would probably not be too long.

As the hours pass, Artemis makes sure to carefully note which of the other brewers would make the best scapegoat, in the event that something goes wrong. Eventually he settles on two candidates, one is a particularly unfortunate looking fellow, who has a nasty case of boils on what skin is visible, and seems careless in adjusting the heat of the potions. The other is a well groomed man with expensive robes, and a stiff posture who is assigned to cutting ingredients, but who is too focused on not getting too dirty, to pay much attention to anything else. Now, how to best use this...

With a moments thought, and a wicked grin that is hidden by the smooth mask, Artemis sets a little plot into motion. A batch of grated gorgon tongue is carefully nudged into the location where Mr Groomed had spilled some lion-dandy sap. Artemis occupies himself with portioning out some moonstone dust, giving the sap time to soak in.

Then off the gorgon tongue goes, to be used in a particularly touchy potion that should never have any plant matter put in it. The lion-dandy sap would make the resulting potion off only a touch, but it might be enough to delay the recovery of some convicts. And the best part is that the off potion would appear as if it had been overheated at a crucial stage. Enough to be noticeable, and thus if anything goes wrong, blame ought to fall to Mr Boils.

Severus seems to not notice, so after a few hours being tense and waiting to be called out on his subtle sabotage, he relaxes as much as possible, and focuses on his plans for taking down this organization.
(And when a patronizing older Death Eater calls him 'Chuckles' affectionately during the lunch-break, and starts telling the other brewers about Artemis's absolutely "Informative Initiation", Artemis viciously alters a few plans to be more lethal. After all, I'm the only mudman on the job, and isn't that the job of us mudmen, to be nasty, brutish, and horrible? He thinks bitterly.)

Artemis was sick of potion making by the time he was allowed back to Hogwarts, just in time for the start of the week. Thank Frond that he rarely took meals in the great hall on the weekends. He was exhausted from the lack of sleep, and Snape was an absolute perfectionist and slave driver who did not tolerate any idle time that was not being spent making endless healing potions.
Artemis had used 5 pepper up potions so far, and would probably have to take some dreamless sleep tonight just to be able to get unconscious.
The resulting side-effects from that combination would be unpleasant, but necessary. But extra greasy hair for a few days was preferable to being unable to sleep, then nightmares if he did, then having to somehow suffer through another day with no proper sleep. And a good conditioner would take care of it.

Damn Azkaban and its damn security holes that you could fly a troll through! Artemis could feel his brain being slowed by fatigue, the dullness of thought was unbearable.

And now he had to go straight to helping teach a class with Filius, then run a Defense Club meeting, and help finish mark the papers he had abandoned halfway through at the start of the weekend. D'Arvit!

This is definitely not one of his better days.

AN: Back, cus I finally have more time for writing, yay! I promise I'll stick with it this time guys! Also, I'm gonna probably go back and edit previous chapters sometime, to make them more "Show" and less "Tell". I cringe to see the writing I started out with.
But this is a short teaser chapter, since its either you get this now, or you wait who knows how long to get more. Shorter seems to be easier for my brain to do. *Shrug*