Befuddlement Drought (4th-7th years)

He was babbling again, Theo heard while watching her potion for bubbles. She tapped her fingers against the desk, gaze flashing to the Gryffindor to see if she can give the answer (Theo could give six or seven other names for the queen of poisons) and to the Ravenclaw immediately after. She smiled at that one, recalling Muffle’s stories. Her mom had been muggleborn and she brought Theo up on plenty of muggle fairytales. Somewhere among those there was Odysseus, who had used Moly to help resist a witch’s dark magic.* That said, Theo hadn’t needed Herbology to learn that Moly was best used as protection against dark enchantments.

Her potion boiled and she made a swift motion to turn off the heat. Draught of Living Death? “A single leaf should be placed into the potion,” she said quickly. Lucky that her potion did not demand much attention at that moment, or Theo would not have heard any of the questions, perhaps even failed to answer hers. She lifted the mortar and angled it above her cauldron to let the mixture fall in. “If it disintegrates, it means the potion’s well made.” Theo, she was the one who usually lost points, not gained them. Exception was Potions where she got all the points she would ever earn.

She checked the mixture that had settled at the bottom of her cauldron, then dipped in her wooden ladle and started stirring. She got through seven counter clockwise turns when she paused to add half a teaspoon of sneezewort. One more turn and the other half got in too. Clockwise stirring took seven turns as well, a pause before the eighth that drew nice and smooth.

She dug through her bag in search for her wand, pushing aside charm-protected vials and several small containers that held either powders or pastes. When she finally pulled the stick out, she found Quentin’s slime all over it and had to walk herself to the sink to wash it off. Nothing exciting happened in the seconds it took her to dry it off and then finally touch the surface of the draught with the tip of the wand.

The ten minutes gave her plenty time to prepare the rest of her ingredients. Theo put aside two equal lovage leaves, then shuffled through others in search for the third. She picked out two valerian springs, cut both in halves and added a third half so she had two and a half. All in halves. She packed away the rest and reached for the glass jar, extracting two juniper berries.

(*this is not a fairytale of course, but in the jumble of Muffles' stories, it is how Theo would remember it. plus Circe was also a goddess, but gosh details xD)

By the time she was done preparing the rest of her ingredients, the liquid inside Theo’s cauldron had turned a pleasant shade of yellow. Checking the clock, she found two more minutes at her disposition, and spent she spent them by casting her eyes around the classroom, to see what she had missed. There was a rude Slytherin, nothing new in Theo’s life, always rather fun subjects to her pranks, however. And a rather gorgeous Ravenclaw, one that Theo had certainly seen before, and who often made her cheeks warm in a blush. She carried with so much grace that made even Theo want to start acting like a lady.

Her potion had become the murky yellow that the instructions so plainly stated. Theo cracked her knuckles and then reached for the lovage leaves, holding all three above the cauldron a moment before she would drop them, thus making them a part of the mixture at nearly the same moment, one lagging behind the other perhaps in milliseconds. Immediately as they touched the surface of the draught the leaves began denigrating, and white smoke rose above Theo’s cauldron. She let a smile play on her lips, couldn’t help but look just a little pleased with herself. The potion was far from brewed, of course, but even making it this far was oddly satisfying.

The smoke cleared soon enough, and Theo was adding the valerian springs and juniper berries to her mixture when Austen ran his mouth again. She frowned because really, her own brain was brilliant if anything. She shuddered at a fleeting thought, then shook her head and tapped at the surface of her desk. Perhaps Austen didn’t realize it or perhaps he was just an idiot after all, but by insulting that Slytherin kid, he was insulting all purebloods. Theo wondered how many were present in the classroom. And truly, for a professor to fall to the level of a stupid kid, it was quite unprofessional. Not much unlike an insult Theo might throw, but certainly not one that should be found on the lips of a grown man who had been claimed a professional by the educating system.

Theo picked up a slotted spoon to pick out the whitened berries; and nearly dropped them back in as the banging from the storeroom sounded again. She cast an alarmed glance to the wooden door to the room, then to Austen, then back to the greenish liquid of her potion. She scooped whatever was left of both the berries and the valerian, and put aside the same to trash them later. That seemed to be all, though Theo cast a final look over her notes before tapping her wand against the surface of the draught. She noted an error going through the ingredients again, and failing to remember one in her steps. What even was a Hinkypunk? Theo certainly didn’t have it among her own ingredients, she never even heard of smoke of this creature being used in potions! The name was vaguely familiar, as if she was supposed to have studied it before, but Theo was sure it was never mentioned in Potions class. Herbology was out too, but COMC perhaps? No, she was pretty sure it wasn’t COMC either. There were plenty of creatures used in potions, and Theo usually made it her business to know which ones they were.

“Professor!” her hand shot up in the air as the initial alarm at having missed an ingredient slowly turned to panic. “There is no step indicating the use of Hinkypunk smoke.”