Chapter 10 : The Wolfsbane Soup
Akira had worked as a spy for Voldemort for way too long. The tasks that he was entrusting her with were thankless and dangerous. And she had never received the slightest reward for it despite the impressive amount of information that she had provided to the Dark Wizard about Dumbledore's plans to thwart him.
Akira could only feel a deep joy at the idea of putting an end to the dark and endless path that she was following. And she could thank Deloney - the journalist who had wanted to cause her trouble by revealing her connection to Voldemort in an attempt to get a great scoop - for it. The latter told everything to Dumbledore, only to be advised that the Headmaster was already aware of Akira's behaviour. And also that Dumbledore was even encouraging her to give some information to the Dark Wizard to show him that the resistance was ready to stop him. The end of her secret spy status saved Akira as Dumbledore was now her protector, preventing her from ever facing Rookwood again.
However, Akira's life wasn't peaceful from now on. She still got this threat over her head to see again Voldemort, who would surely eliminate her when he would learn that her undercover operation was discovered by his worst enemy. Being of no use to him anymore, Voldemort would definitely want to kill her to not let the other camp use her against him, especially after her summer training that transformed her into a skilled witch with terrific powers.
Therefore, Dumbledore forbade Akira to go back to Hogsmeade to make sure that she wouldn't cross the path of a Death Eater there. He also put in place a way to check on her while she was wandering in the school but he refused to tell her what. At least, she didn't spot any weasel running after her in the hallways which was good news as she couldn't withstand Tolfius anymore, the latter being really clingy. The Easter Holidays were also going to be spent at Hogwarts. Nor that it changed anything for her as she got used with the years to stay at the magic school during these days off, even if she had secretly hoped to pursue her training with Moody as it was really entertaining.
Because of all these rules to follow for her own security, Akira was now having a lot of free time. But getting bored wasn't part of the plan. With the OWLs that were approaching at fast speed, she really needed all this time to focus on her revisions. Especially after procrastinating during the whole school year since getting juicy information to give to Voldemort had been more important than anything else. Now, she was regretting it as the mass of lessons to catch up with was huge.
In the past, Akira would have counted on Arcturus to help her study, whether she wanted it or not as his biggest fear was that she would repeat her year and not him, preventing them from being together for their lessons.
But since a few weeks, Arcturus had been overwhelmed by his Potions homework for Phineas Bourne, the well-known Potioneer. It was so time consuming that he wasn't caring anymore to eat, or sleep, or helping Akira with her revisions. He was only focused on the impossible schedule that Bourne had planned for him.
The tasks were diversified at the beginning of these private lessons, if we could call them like this as it was mainly Arcturus doing his potion on his own only for Bourne to shout at him when the final result wasn't as he had expected. But then Bourne became obsessed on a very particular potion, namely the Wolfsbane Potion. This one was still in its experimental stage but many renowned Potioneers were vying to be the first to commercialize the final version. As expected, Bourne wanted to get this honor and to reach this goal, he began to further exploit his poor intern. And without paying him, as Bourne was considering that working for him was already a wonderful opportunity which would help Arcturus in his future career in the world of Potions.
"Surely. That would be awesome if my name is associated with the discovery of the final recipe for the Wolfsbane Potion." Arcturus commented with stars shining in his tired eyes.
"We'll talk about this latter." Bourne answered vaguely.
In the meantime, Arcturus was working himself to death. He would spend few hours sleeping, even less for eating, and miss classes to brew instead a new batch of the Wolfsbane Potion. He was getting chronically exhausted and this was exacerbating his clumsiness, making Bourne angry every time he would learn that his intern had spilled a small amount of ingredients or potion.
After this, it wasn't uncommon for Akira to find Arcturus curled up under a table in the Potions classroom, crying his eyes out. It was breaking her heart and at the same time raising in herself a huge resentment towards Bourne who had managed to destroy the nicest, kindest, happiest student in the whole school. According to her, it shouldn't go unpunished. So with the free time that she just got with the end of her spying tasks, she began to take a closer look at the horrible character that was Bourne. And everything wasn't so neat.
Starting with the way he was treating Arcturus. Akira had heard him several time yell at Arcturus, and it started again on a Friday night at the end of March. The weather was getting warm as Spring just began, but the Dungeons were still freezing cold since they were underground. However, it wasn't as cold as the tone that Bourne was using to shout at his intern, as Akira would discover when she was arriving behind the door of the Potions classroom to bring Arcturus a sandwich that she had made herself with the food found on the Gryffindor table during dinner.
"You moron ! I've told you a thousand times to put immediately your ingredient bottles back in their storage box, especially if you're unable to work properly without spilling them constantly ! Look at that mess. There's at least eight Galleons worth of dragon's blood on this table."
"I'm sorry. I didn't see the bottle…" Arcturus replied in a small, plaintive voice that was far from the cheerful tone that he was usually using.
"I don't want apologies ! I want some improvements for once." Bourne snapped angrily. "Can you imagine if the entire bottle got lost ? How would you have finished your potion which is already brewing ? You wouldn't have. Because without this ingredient, the whole content of your cauldron would just have been good to throw in the trash. But I think that's the only thing that I can await from an apprentice with no talent, just good enough to scour the bottom of cauldrons."
Akira's blood was boiling in her veins. How could he dare talk like this to Arcturus, the clumsiest but nicest person she had ever met ? She just wanted to burst through the door, catch Bourne by his collar and throw him out of this room, telling him to never come back. However, she didn't need to enter as Bourne was about to leave.
"Now, get back to work ! This potion isn't going to brew itself overnight. And I'm warning you. If by tomorrow morning I don't have this batch of one liter six hundred and seventy-two milliliters in a bottle, I'll send you to slay a dragon yourself before collecting its blood to use in your future potions."
It was on this threat that Bourne finally left the poor Arcturus alone. Rushing out of the room as if he was in a hurry, Bourne scanned the surroundings only to come face to face with Akira who had been so shocked by the harsh conversation that she hadn't thought to hide herself.
She got immediately surprised by Bourne's new outfit, as she had always seen him in a wizarding robe that was embroidered with gold but was nevertheless rather simple. Now, he was wearing a suit made with the skin of a dragon, probably an albino one given its pale whiteness. He had put on matching gloves as well as a traveling cloak made in the same expensive material - perhaps next time he would ask Arcturus to bring him the skin of the dragon that the latter should slay to get a vial of the creature's blood - and was holding in his hand a gold cane with a pearl knob. Seeing him decked out like that, one could guess that he was now living more than comfortably with a lot of money in his bank account, to the detriment of Arcturus who still couldn't afford to buy new wizarding robes. It was revolting.
And apparently, a salary wasn't the only thing that Bourne wanted to deprive Arcturus from.
"Is this for him ?" Bourne asked curtly while pointing at the home-made sandwich that Akira was holding.
Without even waiting for a response, he took his wand and made the sandwich vanish into nothingness.
"That way, he won't be distracted from his potion." Bourne added sadistically while putting his wand back in his pocket. "And you, keep your distance from my apprentice. That idiot needs to be focused on his work, as I won't tolerate any more mistakes from him. If I find out that he's neglected his research on the Wolfsbane Potion to hang out with his friends, he'll hear about it."
Now that things were clear, Bourne strode off from the Dungeons without a backward glance.
Not wanting to go see Arcturus without any food to give him to cheer him up, Akira left the Dungeons as well to go on a quest for anything that would put an end to his hunger. Dinner finished a long time ago, and sneaking into the kitchens of the school was no longer an option as Dumbledore was now monitoring all of her movements to prevent any Voldemort's followers to target her one way or another. The only choice that she had left was to go collect an instant ramen cup that she was keeping in her suitcase, just in case.
Akira reached her dorm, collected the food and went back to the Potions classroom. While doing so, she was wondering if Arcturus would like ramen since he wasn't used to it, having always eaten purely English dish. However, for sure he was really hungry after barely eating anything during the day. And in this state, he would surely devour the soup whether it was to his taste or not.
Being too focused on getting him some food as quickly as possible, Akira entered the room without thinking about announcing herself, for example by knocking on the door. Therefore, her sudden appearance startled Arcturus who was really nervous after his talk with his supervisor.
"I thought that it was Bourne." Arcturus even justified himself while hastily wiping away the tears that were blurring his vision.
"I ran into him when he left. He looked really annoyed." Akira revealed to her friend.
"I know. And it's my fault. I spilled another super expensive ingredient and I think that he's fed up with my clumsiness." Arcturus explained sheepishly.
"That's no excuse. Even Watterston isn't that strict during our Arithmancy lessons with him. And yet, he tells us at every class that we're the worst students that he's ever seen in his whole career."
"It's okay. I can handle Bourne's bad mood and I'm sure that he'll be nicer when the recipe for the Wolfsbane Potion will be perfect." Arcturus suggested as if to convince himself more than Akira.
His eyes then went on the cup of noodles that she was holding.
"What have you there ?" He asked while his stomach was growling.
Akira explained to him what ramen was, then helped him prepare it as they had everything in this room to heat some water to pour on the noodles. Once the meal was ready, Arcturus was eager to give it a try but with the chopsticks that he had never used before, eating turned into an impossible mission. Everything that he was bringing to his mouth was slipping away, producing a lot of mess on the table on which his Wolfsbane Potion was brewing. And a green onion slice eventually fell into his cauldron to the horror of Arcturus.
"NO ! THE RECIPE IS RUINED IF YOU PUT ANYTHING ELSE THAN THE INGREDIENTS LISTED !" He yelled while dropping his ramen cup which just fall on the floor only to splash and put noodles and vegetables everywhere.
He got immediately the reflex to save his expensive and hard-to-brew potion by plunging one of his hands in the boiling liquid to retrieve the piece of green onion.
"NO, YOU IDIOT !" Akira exclaimed in turn while rushing to his help.
Grabbing his arm to forcibly remove his scalded hand from the cauldron while he was crying in pain, Akira took his hand in hers and without thinking twice, she applied her healing chakra on the burned fingers. The palms of her hands began to glow green but Arcturus couldn't see them as he had closed his eyes shut. He slowly opened them only when she was done, after realizing that the throbbing pain had disappeared as quickly as it came. Akira finally released his hand and his fingers were pink but the skin was as good as new. He got no trace of nasty burns or any strange effect caused by the unfinished mixture of magical ingredients, which was quite reassuring for Arcturus and his healer. At least for now.
"Your injury doesn't seem to be serious. You didn't leave your hand in the cauldron long enough to get badly injured. However, it might be a good idea to go to the Hospital Wing to be sure of it." Akira advised him in a hurry before he could ask how his wound stopped hurting like hell.
But Arcturus seemed too shocked by this incident to say anything or even move. Cold sweat was running down his forehead, his whole body had become shaky and he was looking at his hand without really looking at it. It was only after a few seconds that he finally got out of his slumber.
"This event didn't kill me but Bourne will." He declared in a small voice while leaning over his cauldron which had almost deprived him of his right hand. "With this foreign ingredient that must have disintegrated in the mixture over time, this Wolfsbane Potion is a failure. I'll just have to start over and do it really quickly to have something to give to Bourne tomorrow morning."
"I'll help you." Akira offered out of the blue as she was feeling guilty for bringing the ramen that had led to his downfall. "Being two on this potion will help to finish it faster."
"We can try. But the main aspect of this potion is patience. We can't skip any heating or stirring steps. So we'll see how far we can go until Bourne's is back to collect it." Arcturus suggested while seeming as scared at failing than when he realized that he had just put his hand in a boiling potion.
"Don't worry about this. I'll give you more time to finish it by keeping Bourne busy. Slughorn probably won't mind spending some time discussing with this illustrious figure." Akira announced as she knew about the Professor interest in famous but sometimes despicable people. "But for now, the first thing to do is to bring you to the Hospital Wing. Just so your hand doesn't transfigurate or fall suddenly."
"Do what ?" Arcturus asked with horror after turning white at this awful eventuality.
Hello dear readers,
It's nice to be dedicated to its work but don't forget, safety first ! Then, there's dedication and dedication. You can do a few extra hours if the job is decently paid, rewarded now and then or at least appreciated. But Arcturus has nothing of this. He's brutalized by his supervisor, even after putting a lot of effort in the preparation of this new potion that will revolutionize the world, or at least the life of the poor people with lycanthropy.
However, Bourne is kind enough to defend a noble cause by trying to get the final recipe as quickly as possible. Or is he ? According to me, it's more for the fame and the money that go with this discovery. And spoiler alert : Arcturus isn't the only one who suffers from his will to have his name associated with the Wolfsbane Potion. More innocent souls will be used by him to reach this milestone, as you'll see in the next chapter that I'll publish this time in the middle of the month so that you don't wait too long for it.