(Untitled)

[lackxluster]

Week Name/Date/Time: A Moments Peace / Monday, October 3rd, 2005/ Just after supper
Location: 3rd Floor
Open To: Tze-Ming
Currently Involving: Julian O'Brien

With a full belly, Julian made his way up to the Hospital Wing. Over the years, he had accumulated a large number of visits to the Hospital Wing, and reckoned he could get there in his sleep.

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[lackxluster]

Had Ming mentioned it, Julian would have told him that everyone got butterflies in their stomach, just the more manly ones called it jitters. He didn't have butterflies zooming around his stomach, but he was rather excited at the chance to brew up some trouble. Julian had a feeling, however, that he might get caught this time around. He had been pushing his luck last time, and he didn't have all that much to be pushing around.

"Ming!" He said happily, noticing the stick in his cauldron. It was rather large, but Julian didn't know if that had been was Ming was looking for. "Let's go then," Julian said in response to his nod. Before he started off though, the stick had hit Ming in the head. The tone in which his little friend had grumbled suggested that the stick was a little larger than he had been wanting. Even though they hadn't spent ages together, he knew Ming wasn't one to openly accept help. So without a word (besides the spell), Julian tapped the stick so it shrunk to an appropriate size, for stirring, Julian reckoned..

"This way, I believe." Julian pointed down the hallway and began walking that way. "I've already got everything there, and it's locked up, so everything should go just fine." He was slightly nervous, however. Someone could've easily have cast alohomora and stolen all his thing!

[tzeming]

Ming offered a lopsided grin at Julian as his gigantic stick shrunk a few inches shorter. "Thanks, mate." One day, he vowed, he would perfect that spell and do it whenever he wanted to, wherever he needed to.

He merely followed him as they walked in the general direction of the empty room they had found the previous Saturday night, his eyes darting around him to ensure noone was following them. Well, he knows noone would be following them, but he had heard of Mr Filch's cat, Mrs Nordy or whatever, and that she had a tendency of showing up unexpectedly.

Slinging his cauldron over the crook of his elbow, he looked straight ahead and saw the familiar wooden door. "Where did you get all your ingredients? Did you steal them from Professor Snape?" he asked excitedly as they reached the room and stopped right in front of it. He was very attentive already, waiting eagerly to learn.

[lackxluster]

Julian just nodded, and continued walking. His pace was a little faster than usual (then again a snail moved faster than him usually). Ming was making him feel as if he had to live up to something. Julian was afraid he wouldn't be able to. He glanced a Ming a few times, who seemed to be antsy. Or at least he needed to see everything that was around him. Julian had to assure himself that it was because he was carrying a rather large pot around, with a large stick protruding from it. That could get a little conspicuous.

Julian too saw it and sighed thankfully. He would've died - literally keeled over and died - if he hadn't been able to lead Ming to the right place. What kind of 6th year was he? He was the sissy kind that his little friend had been thinking of.

"Steal them?!" He was shocked that Ming would think he (of all people) would steal anything. Not that he never had, it was just the point. "I bought them. I've got a whole trunk full of them, and if I don't have something I need, I pick it up at Hogsmeade when I go." Julian stuck his hand in his pocket nervously, the flask with liquid sloshing around in it gave him a bit of confidence. But not much. He stomach still did loop when the door wouldn't open.

Oh right, it was magically sealed. He prodded the lock with his wand and the door swung open to reveal his large cauldron. Also, where emptiness once filled the shelves, there was many bottles of different ingredients. There was also a place for Ming's cauldron: another table with a small burner waiting to be lit on it. "Well go on. Set it up. I'll start the fire if you need me to."

[tzeming]

Ming let out the breath he didn't know he was holding as Julian tried to open the door, but failed to. He froze. Are they going to be caught out here with his large cauldron and stick? No, that would turn ugly.

Luckily for the both of them, Julian seemed to have only forgotten the charm to use. The door swung open, and Ming realized he hadn't responded to Julian's earlier remark. "I didn't mean that you would steal them for the sake of stealing, but Professor Snape seems like the kind of person that noone could steal from. It'd be downright fabulous if one of us does." One day, he thought, I might just do it, a smirk appearing on his face.

"Oh, what's Hogsmeade like? I heard we could only go there in third year. That's so not fun." He was excited at the prospect of going to Hogsmeade, to see what a real Wizarding village was like, but waiting till he was bloody thirteen to be able to go, that just spoilt everything.

He walked into the room, and went to the empty table, the one meant for him. He was sharp and could tell that Julian had been here to set things up so that things could go smoothly. But he tried not to let his excitement show.

Walking over to the shelf with bottles of ingredients, he picked one with a cloudy green liquid and swirled it in his bottle. "What's all these stuff we're using? Some kind of plant essence?"

[lackxluster]

Julian shrugged, tending to his cauldron. "In my third year I needed to get some extra chopped mandrake root." Julian paused before adding, "And it was just so expensive in Hogsmeade that I had to take some. Very nearly got caught actually. That bloody cat Ms. Norris snuck up on me." He didn't realize was rambling so he continued. "And I don't that Filch character is actually a squib either. I think he's just a faulty wizard." Like me, Julian thought to himself. "I think he has a cat that is Ms. Norris, but I think he's an animagus. And his form looks exactly like that his bloody feline. How else could she retrieve him so fast?!" Julian looked up from his pot suddenly, right at Ming and rubbed his head, embarrassed. "Ah. Sorry." He hadn't realized what he had been doing until that very moment. He was just a poor first year, Julian didn't need to be unloading his complaints on to him!

"It's a bunch of a shops, and it's always busy. I think they should make separate weekends for the older students, so it wouldn't be so hectic. I think the third years act like they'll never see it again, so they better take everything in on their first -" Julian stopped himself. He was rambling again. "It's nice. You'll see it eventually. It's nice, being in the castle when everyone is gone, actually." If it hadn't been for Gabe's birthday, or needing to buy things, he wouldn't have gone.

"That," Julian said shakily, he had to resist the urge to rush over and snatch the bottle out of his hands, "is very dangerous if it touches your bare skin, unless it's mixed with..." Julian walked over, and picked up bottle with teal liquid inside. "This. We'll be using both of them, but not yet, and not without gloves." He set his bottle back down and waited a moment for Ming to do the same. Picking up a jug of water, he handed it to Ming, and grabbed one for himself. "The base is mostly water, but we'll need this," Julian snatched up a round container, "and this," he said, picking up a bottle and bringing it over to the table. "Come on."

[tzeming]

Ming nodded as he listened, but his eyes got wider and wider as Julian started droning on about Filch and his cat. That was saying a lot, as his are typical Chinese eyes, single eyelid and all. "But how can he be an Animagus when he's so obviously useless?" He had no idea what an Animagus was, but wasn't going to ask as he decided it would sound stupid. Yet another thing to research on. Groan.

"I don't reckon I'd buy so much, but I'd like candies! Jackie jie said she'll give me some chocolate frogs, and I've only had them once. Do you know her?" he shuffled his feet a little and turned to Julian. "The castle is only nice when there are not so many giggly, silly girls around." Of course, it didn't escape his mind that his Jackie jie was a girl, but they'd seen each other so many times over the years that she ceased to be one, in his eyes anyway.

Ming set the bottle he had been swirling back down and pursed his lips. He could examine them more later. Now he would get back to business. Their mission was important! And nothing, not even curious looking liquid with weird functions, could draw his attention away.

Taking the jug from Julian, he settled it on his own table. He watched carefully as Julian started collecting their ingredients. "So where do we begin?"

[lackxluster]

"I suppose he isn't, then, huh?" Julian shrugged, thinking about it for a moment. He didn't reckon he could ever become an animagus, but what a treat it would be if he could! What would he become? Maybe a bird, so he could fly successfully. A pigeon, actually, since people liked to feed those. "You know what an animagus is, right? Someone that can change into animal. Has Gonagall changed for you yet?" That had been his favorite part of transfiguration; forgetting turning one object into another, he wanted to see the professor become a cat! Julian seemed to have read Ming's mind, but Julian had just remembered that in his first year, he hadn't known what one was.

"Jackie?" The pieces were putting themselves together in his head, and he recalled a rather happy girl. "Oh yes. I do. And as for chocolate frogs and candies, I've got a bit of them I could give you, if you like." Julian laughed lightly about at Ming's comment on girls. "It won't be so bad when you're older. I promise. They don't giggle quite as much." Julian smiled and uncapped his jug.

"Well, you're going to need a flame," Julian said as he lit the burner under Ming's cauldron. His was already going, and the bottom of his pot was glowing. "Pour all the water in slowly, you don't want it to jump back out at you," Julian instructed as he did it himself. He was very careful, because as the first droplets hit his burning cauldron, they tried to jump back out, onto his robes. You should bring it up to a simmer, so the bubbles aren't quite popping to the surface yet." His own got there rather quickly, and Julian hastily opened the larger of the containers and grabbed a pinch of pale green powder. Tossing it into his cauldron, he took another and sprinkled this one over the water slowly. "Once it's ready, put two pinches into it." It didn't matter if his pinches were not quite the right size, this was only to make it colorless anyway.

[tzeming]

Right. So that was what it was. Changing into an animal at will. Ming supposed it was sort of cool to be able to do that. Turn into an eagle or something, since they're so majestic. Maybe it wasn't such a coincidence that he ended up in Ravenclaw. "Well, yeah, she did, in fact. She didn't tell us what it was called though." He shrugged slightly.

He grinned at Julian's remark on candies. "Oh yeah, of course I'd like some. One can never have too much can they? And girls, ugh!" He shuddered at the thought. "God forbids that I should have to face them all day, especially at home. My Aunt Ling pinches my cheeks whenever she visits. It seems to be a very girl thing to do, from what I see."

He followed Julian's instructions and poured the water in, letting in trickle into his own cauldron, which was already getting warm from the fire. As the other boy took out some green powder, he stared, feeling rather excited at their current activity. He reached his index finger and thumb into the container and pinched out a bit of the powder. He sprinkled it carefully onto the water, watching it dissolve, and repeated it a second time. One would have known how much Ming was into Potions from his actions, seeing that he seldom looked this focus. If only he was this interested in everything else, his parents would be so happy they'd be jumping off the Great Wall of China.

[lackxluster]

"Just like her," Julian said cheerfully, even though the statement out of context might have sounded slightly bitter. He gave his mixture a bit of a stir, looked into and smiled. This was coming along nicely, better than last time actually - then again they had only added one ingredient.

"I'll send them to you, then, huh? If I don't see you sometime soon, that is." Julian did love his candy; he had a small trunk for it that sat under his bed, right next the trunk for the ingredients. "No no. That's not a girl thing. That's a "horrible older woman" thing. I assure you." Julian could only think of his own horrible aunts, and how they viciously tugged at his cheeks, even now. And he was going to be 17!

"Give it a bit of a stir, and then we'll add something else." The bottle contained what looked like a funny pink, rather thick liquid. Without this, when their victims laughed, no hilarious snorting would happen. The uncapped it and fed his potion half. Julian then set it back down, nearer to Ming. "Pour all of that in, and don't be surprised if it turns a gross shade of brown." He looked into his own cauldron and smiled. It was lucky he had written down what happened at nearly every moment the first time, otherwise, he would've been surprised to see his potion turn that color.

It was obvious that Ming was very interested in the potion. Julian had noticed that the other boy's attention seemed to jump if the situation got boring. It was very fortunate Julian was not like that, he would never be able to pay attention to anything; his life was so dull.

[tzeming]

"That's great. So it's settled then, and I'll be waiting for your owl!" Ming exclaimed, hardly able to contain his excitement. He gave his mixture a thorough stir and frowned at what Julian said. "I'm going to hex them right if they ever do that to me again, now that I'm magical and everything," he said, finishing off with a smug smirk.

He reached for the disgusting looking pink stuff and poured it in in one swift motion. One look at the colour that his mixture turned into was enough to make him want to throw up. "Yuck. How do you stand looking at this stuff anyway?"

Looking at Julian, he decided to try something else. Instead of stirring in one direction, he let his stick go in slow circles, in clockwise direction 3 times, and then changed the direction. He had read that things might be different that way. He just wanted to see what, exactly.

[lackxluster]

Julian seemed busy with his potion as he nodded in Ming's direction. Really, he was just thinking of how he might procure the proper things to send a package. He was coming up short, but at the same time realized it might seem like he had been ignoring Ming and smiled brightly at his friend. "Ah, you might want to be careful. They'll snap your wand, and then where will you be?" He had meant the statement to be funny, but as he thought about it, he realized Ming would be in the same boat as himself - unable to successfully do any difficult magic.

"Oh, don't worry. It'll change to clear pretty soon," Julian said, walking back over to the shelves and picking up another bottle or two. One happened to be the funny green liquid Ming had been playing with before. Before returning to the table, he grabbed two pairs of gloves. One pair was much smaller than the other, and that one he handed to Ming. "You don't have to put those on yet," Julian said as he flicked open one flask and poured the entire thing into his cauldron. Luckily, for Ming's sake, he had brought over a duplicate. Also fortunate, this potions wasn't complicated enough to have stirring in the wrong direction ruin it. Or, at least he thought so; it might explode with a cool, orange smoke.

"Go ahead and add that," Julian said as he pushed the right bottle over and eyed the green liquid hesitantly. Ming seemed so excited about brewing this potion that Julian worried he might not be careful with that ingredient; it could potentially burn his flesh off, so that posed a possible problem.

[tzeming]

At the mention of his wand snapping, Ming whipped out his wand from the pockets of his robes and took a long look at it. "I don't know, back in the Muggle world?" He chuckled, not really caring, actually, but a part of him knew he had started to find the Wizarding world to be much more interesting than the Muggle one.

"Good, because it's starting to make me sick." The colour was nauseating, but a little while later, just as Julian had said, it started getting clearer. He smiled to himself before taking the gloves from Julian and slipping them on, and then adding the contents of the flask the other boy had pushed over. He looked at the green stuff in the bottle with interest, before looking up at Julian. "You really do get all the great stuff. Too bad not many people know how to appreciate them."

He continued stirring, thinking hard about who to prank. "Say, when will this be done? It'll be totally wicked for us to try it later!"

[lackxluster]

"Back to the muggle world with your father and I'd imagine a pile of books," Julian corrected as he absentmindedly stirred his potion. He peeked in, watching his own potion go rather clear. This was working out perfectly. Nothing like a good potion to make the day a million times better.

He had yet to put his own gloves on, and observed Ming. The other boy seemed to be very good at potions; Julian couldn't help but grin. Between tutoring people in potions, having competitions, and making flavor changing drinks, Julian's life was filled with cauldrons and raw ingredients. He hoped that Ming's would be just as filled, and that he would enjoy it as much as Julian himself had. He had always thought it was amazing, being able to make wonderful things out of seemingly useless ingredients. "...It is a shame, really," Julian said, coming slightly out of his daydream.

"Actually, this will be done quite soon." Julian checked his watch (he didn't know why, it provided no clues to when the potion would be done or when he could use it). "We'll be able to use it in the morning, yeah." He quickly pointed to five bottles aligned on the shelves, their contents nearly invisible. "See those? That's the antidote, so we don't have to brew it up. It's a hassle to get your cauldron clean enough to brew an antidote for anything."

[tzeming]

Ming gave a chuckle as Julian mentioned 'a pile of books' but turned at look at him, instead, face full of faux horror and shock. "Noo~," he whines, "anything but books, please." And he started laughing, though still careful not to make any drastic movements that would knock his cauldron over.

Catching the last few words of Julian's sentence, which he assumed was even a sentence at all, he continued to look at him. "What did you just say?" He stirred his cauldron mixture a little bit more, not sure what would count as the potion being ready.

He nodded as Julian told him about the being able to use the potions the next day. "Brilliant! I haven't thought of who to prank though. But it's going to be awesome, isn't it?" He beamed and looked at the antidote, glad that the other boy had at least thought about that.

[lackxluster]

And when Julian laughed, it was in the same cautious manner. Just because he could brew things did not mean his luck had grown at all. There was still the very real possibility that he could bump into his cauldron and watch it come crashing to the floor. That would look brilliant in front of first year.

He looked slightly startled for moment, before shaking his head. "Nothing. Nothing. You can go ahead and add half of the green now." Waving his hand as if to say, 'Go on', Julian then pulled on his gloves. He hoped that Ming would realize that he didn't want to let him judge what was half (he didn't have any extra of the liquid to make his come out correctly), but that he had let him. Trying not to look nervous is difficult, when you are extremely so.

"Best prank using potions, I would imagine. This one beats the love potions because it doesn't get anyones feelings hurt, aye?" He could barely quell his enthusiasm as he waited for Ming to be done with the final ingredient. "How long do you suppose we'll let it go on? Until lunch, dinner even?" Julian thought about not putting the antidote in until the next morning, but felt it was too devious to even say out loud. "Oh, and stir it four times to the left and four to the right, and it should become transparent almost immediately. If you go over, just do it an extra time the other way," Julian added quickly before Ming could get around to stirring.

(Meep! Sorry that too so long. I went to bed early and got up late. DX)

[tzeming]

Ming raised an eyebrow at Julian when he denied having said anything and shrugged. If he didn't want to say it, so be it. At the mention of the yucky green thing, he reached over for the bottle, and gingerly picked up, examining it again. Tipping the bottle slightly, he let the liquid drip until it was slightly more than half a bottle left. He looked at it curiously and then slowly let two more drops fall into his cauldron.

"There you go. Just right, half a bottle." He beamed at Julian and went back to stirring, this time using both hands and concentrating hard, as if staring at it hard enough would make it change its colour faster.

"I suggest the whole day! Is that possible? Or would we get a whole school full of snorting pigs?" His question seemed innocent enough, but inside, he was grinning cheekily and only too glad that he could witness something as spectacular as this. Perfect.

He stirred the cauldron as instructed, counting silently to himself to make sure things go smoothly. This could look like a boring activity to someone looking in, but anything to do with Potions is heaven for Ming.

((No problem. I'm sleepy already. But I'm gonna ask around about the next thread okay? XD))