And so, in the blink of an eye, a week passed.
Well, actually, it was a bit more than a week since the third years visit to Hogsmeade was on Sunday.
But that didn't matter. What really mattered was that today, the third years were going to Hogsmeade, and that James could sneak up with them.
He already knew what secret passage could be taken to go there: it was the same as when he went to the forbidden forest.
While on the way, he tried not to recall the terrific events of that night, and as he couldn't do that, his thought drifted on the egg he got.
He still didn't know, weeks later, what this egg was, and when it would hatch. He checked on it every two or three days, and there was no apparent change to the thing.
Checking on it was very bothersome: the entrance to the pump was in the girl's bathroom, after all. It was very embarrassing for him, and should he be caught, he would be in serious troubles.
There were probably charms to check further into the egg's condition, but he didn't find any mention of them in the library. He was thinking of the restricted section, but with no way to go there, he put that idea aside.
While thinking all that, he had arrived to Hogsmeade. He had to admit it, the pedestrian grand entrance was very stylish. He didn't see it the times he and his father were here, but now he was impressed. There were very big black gates, along with a road, with Hogsmeade unfolding behind it. Said like that, it was not a big deal, but seeing the view in person was much better.
He asked older students in the common room where he could buy the ingredients he needed and was now searching the shops on the big map, which was located at the entrance of the village.
When he knew all the locations, he uses a very useful charm he learnt while spending his time in the library. The charm was very simple too: it didn't require a lot of magical power and allowed the user to see a path to his destination, should he have the location in mind.
Using this charm, he quickly found himself with all the ingredients he needed. He was regretful that his purse was now empty, after working so hard to get it full, but his spirit went up after reminding himself that he could get it to an even better state at the next issue release.
He returned to the castle with the secret passage and was careful not to be seen with the ingredients.
He also knew the perfect room to brew his potion: the magical pump, once again!
He got there soon, and before doing anything else, he checked on the egg.
After that, he started brewing the potion, by following the instructions of the book – instructions that were in reality most annotations.
He wanted to put those annotations to the test, to see if, should he find another annotated potion book, he could follow them again.
Now, he was in the final step of brewing the potion, and soon finished it.
The problem was now James' temperament. He tended to be really excited for things like that, especially when related to magic, and so had trouble waiting, or even sleeping due to that. Knowing that, it was easy to infer James' state right now: he could not even follow classes or discussion, he was constantly thinking about the potion, and how it could turn out!
First, he obviously didn't sleep well, and the next day, he was unable to be attentive during classes, both from fatigue and from excitement. In the later half of that day, stress was even added to that already full pile of emotions; stress from a simple thought: 'What if it didn't work out at all, and I have wasted all of my money?'.
The school's professors were not really happy about that, as James was usually one of the top students. They were accustomed to it though, as some days he would be like that, with no apparent reason.
And so, a day passed like that.
At noon, after classes, James got back to the pump, full of all the accumulated emotions of the day.
Unlike last time, he didn't even stopped to check on the egg, and immediately gave his full focus to the potion.
It was a bright green color, slightly brighter than the one in the book.
It seemed the potion had worked out correctly. Unfortunately, James had no mean to test it directly. He wouldn't inflict damage on himself just to test a potion!
So, as he prepared lots of potion, he put the content of the cauldron in three different small glass bottle and put them inside his school's robe.
When the occasion presents itself, he will definitely test this potion!
James didn't have to wait for a really long time to do that, as a few days later, while searching through books at the library, he fell down a pile of books – no asking how he got there – and stupidly hurt himself.
He was in quite the pain, but his expression brightened as he remembered the potion, still in his robe. It was the perfect time to test it!
He took it out, and in his usual daring fashion, chugged it down completely and swiftly.
Immediately, his pain loosened, and soon he didn't even feel it anymore.
His potion really worked, and even better than it should!
James concluded the man annotating was trustworthy, and, as he was still in the library, set himself to find another book modified in the same way.
Unluckily, he couldn't find one. It was not that there were difficulty finding annotated books, it was that there were virtually no potion books in the library, and the ones he founded were not interesting, and obviously not annotated.
After much time of failed search, he called it a day and went to the common room to play wizard chess with Ethan.
After loosing quite a few times, James and Ethan went to dinner, and shortly after to bed; they were both very tired. Each other didn't knew why the other was tired – it was quite unusual for them to be this tired – but they minded their own business and were not in a position to ask anyways.
This night, James dreamt about weird things. He had a nightmare, where he was standing, in a field at night. Around him were blood, lots of blood, and corpses. Because it was raining, the blood was dissolving into a weird substance.
In the middle of all this, he was uncontrollably laughing.
It stayed like that for a few minutes, before suddenly someone, a man, attacked him from behind. Without James muttering a single word, the spell the man had cast was deflected, and soon after James made another small wand movement, before the man brutally exploded. This added another ton of blood to the field, and James started laughing once again.
Thankfully, the dream ended here.
While James had that nightmare, he missed on quite the rumor in the Gryffindor's common room: apparently, there was an unknown room in the castle that contained many ancient objects and artifacts!