(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]

"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))

[lackxluster]

"Good job!" Julian exclaimed, relieved. He took the bottle from Ming and poured the remnants in. Ming was a wunderkind, he thought happily to himself. Julian knew he could have hardly done better himself. He was also reasonably jealous that Ming had begun experimenting with potions as young as he was.

"The whole day," Julian said, surprised. "The potion will go on until we give them the antidote. I say the whole day sounds brilliant!" He hadn't started stirring his potion yet, but he got right to it. By the time he stopped, his potion was clear and quite thin. "How do you think yours turned out?" Julian leaned over to peek into his friends cauldron and grinned. "Ah. Looks good. I'll get cups!"

Julian merrily popped over to the shelves, grabbed four cups, one bottle of antidote, and a ladle. "Are you ready to try it then?" He was extremely excited about seeing how it turned out, not to mention he had almost forgot what the snorting sounded like.

[tzeming]

Ming gave Julian a lopsided grin as the older boy took the bottle from him. Not many people knew about Ming and his aptitude for Chemistry, or in this case, Potions, since those two are quite the same thing, anyway.

He peered into his cauldron and sniffed. It has an odd medicinal smell, rather subtle, but it was there. "It looks just like water. Maybe a little thicker."

At the sight of the cups, he perked up and nodded enthusiastically at Julian, eyes as wide as they could possibly go. "So, we just drink it?" he asked as the boy filled their cups with the potion. Wicked.

[lackxluster]

"Tastes just like water too, actually," Julian returned Ming's grin with a smile of his own, filling two of the cups. Both the antidote and the potion looked so similar, he decided not to fill the other two cups until later. Until after a few good belly laughs - or should I say snorts?

"So in the morning, get there early, and pour the potion into random goblets. Then on Wednesday, just put a little antidote in all the goblets, to account for everything." He had been thinking as he stirred, about how go about fixing everyone without them knowing their drinks had been tampered with. The obvious choice seemed to be that you would just give a little to every goblet, so no matter where the victim sat, they would be cured.

"Oh yes." Julian raised his cup to Ming, gave a hearty "Cheers," slugged his down. "I'm not sure how we're going to go about getting one another to laugh," he said, looking slightly troubled by the question.

Of course, he wasn't troubled for long. As he went to retrieve empty containers for their potions, he slipped on what appeared to be a bit of water. With a yelp and a thundering crash, Julian toppled to the floor. Much to his amusement, he began to laugh. Actually, he began to snort, which brought on more and more 'laughing', until no sound was coming from him, his eyes were watering, and he appeared to be gasping for breath.

[tzeming]

"Wouldn't that be dangerous, if they ended up not drinking from the right goblet? Or if we were seen pouring liquid into all the goblets?" Ming was curious. For once he was actually concerned. Perhaps his Ravenclaw reasoning side showing?

As much as he liked pranking, his way had always been to choose someone to play his prank on, and not randomly. In his mind he already thought of someone to 'offer'a drink to: the Claw prefect. Ming has seen him around the common room, always buried behind a book. Weird fellow.

He chuckled as Julian raised his cup, and took a swift swig from his own. It tasted.. sweet. And a little weird. "Is it supposed to be sweet?"

Not long after those words left his mouth had Julian slipped and fell, and the sounds which escaped his mouth had Ming laughing - or rather, snorting - himself. It sounded weird and funny at the same time, and he just kept on laughing at himself. He clutched his stomach and laughed even after Julian had stopped, trying to cover his mouth with either hand but failing to do so.

[lackxluster]

"The only danger would be getting caught, really. The antidote is completely safe - it'd be like you drinking a bunch of watered down juice. Actually, since there is so little, not even really watered down." He imagined they'd probably both get detentions if they were caught, but they wouldn't! No they wouldn't, he had assured himself ever since they had agreed on the plan.

Julian hadn't planned on anyone in particular, really. Anyone would be hilarious, he just hoped it wouldn't be Letty. She didn't seem very happy lately, and he was pretty sure she wouldn't appreciate snorting all day. Sadly, it occurred to him that she had been laughing so little lately that maybe if he did get her by accident, it wouldn't affect her.

Breathing heavily, he finally stood. His side was aching, and watching Ming laugh made him grin. Even if it meant poking fun at himself, Julian always loved making other people laugh. His bottom was rather sore, but that was alright too; he rubbed it absentmindedly, and managed to get the proper containers. He gave one to Ming, and between the occasional laugh managed out "F-fill that up-p."

((I'm sorry that I didn't get to this until today. I was so busy last night that I didn't have a chance. Did Sebby agree to the pranking? I asked Tyra and she's up for it.))

[tzeming]

"Right, you've a sure-fire way for not letting get caught" Ming asked wryly, raising an eyebrow. In actual fact, he really didn't care. But now that it had been mentioned, he thought he should just play along.

"Ouch, mate, don't think it's a good idea to fall right after you take the potion!" he snorted again. These sounds were absolutely hilarious, Ming decided. Almost made him not want to take the antidote so that he could continue hearing this. But he would be able to hear it soon, if their plan was carried out well. He fought to stiffle another chuckle as he filled the containers with the potion. "So I think it's time for the antidote?"