บท 52: Chapter 53: Evanesco

'Let's get started.'

I started gathering the ingredients. This thing required dozens of things I wasn't even sure I would find. Like who keeps 'exploding fluid' somewhere in a lab?

Answer- Snape.

Cause I found it, a substantial amount of it at that. Well, good for me.

Just going through the shelves for everything took so long, it left me tired. Not to mention this potion takes 2 hours to brew, and since I am making an equivalent of 5 portions, it make take even longer.

'I just hope 5 portions are enough. This was already the biggest size cauldron I could find.'

'The process for converting the recipe from serving of 1 to 5 should be simple enough, just use everything 5 times. Easy!'

Sometimes, my genius scares me.

With everything gathered, I stared the preparation with cutting, mashing or grinding the stuff as written. Every ingredient had to be processed before adding to the cauldron, and why not do it before rather than on the spot.

The silence of the night is oddly comforting. This is one the reasons I like to stay awake at night than get up in the morning. No one disturbs you at night, it is just you and your mind.

'I have to ask Snape where he got this knife from, it is exceptionally smooth and small.'

Say whatever you want about the guy, he does keep quality stuff with him.

After processing the ingredients, it was time to finally begin.

The easy thing about this potion, you get to know if you are on the right track regularly. This potion changes colour 5 times during the whole brewing process, so if you are wrong at any point, one of the checkpoints can help you know.

The hard part, mess up badly enough, and it gets blown up your face.

I was careful with every step, doing everything as said by the books. With a few tweaks here and there, to hopefully compensate for the increased volume.

It was mostly a lot of stirring, and waiting. The potion behaves weirdly with the addition of some ingredients, like bubbling wildly or suddenly cooling down.

After loooong time, it was finally time for the most important step- the exploding fluid.

After adding this, the success or failure would be determined in a few minutes with the potion turning blue if successful.

I measured it and poured it in the cauldron, in a swirling pattern and turned off the heat.

Now I wait…..

I start seeing the potion turn a vivid blue, getting brighter every passing moment.

"Well, I am not am not exactly hap-"

Before I could continue the potion suddenly turned a deep black and started releasing fumes.

'Yes!'

"Evanesco!"

I heard a shout from front and the potion which I worked so hard on just disappeared.

….. 'Who the fuck?!'

I look to where the shout came from, to see Snape and Pince standing there, with Snape's wand drawn out.

'Fuck me sideways.'

"I see you still haven't given up your thieving habits. Breaking into my lab at this ungodly hour, stealing my ingredients and tools, to try and blow it up. I have to say, I am almost impressed with this courage and sheer stupidity."

"*sigh* You have the worst timing ever." I honestly don't even have the energy to shout at him.

"If I was a second slower your head would have blown off and the elves would have had to scrape you from the walls." Snape says in his monotone voice.

That however, got him a sharp jab in the stomach from Irma. She said something about his words in front of a kid.

"That was a praise-worthy attempt at potion-making. You were meticulous at every step and you handled the large batch quite well enough, though there were minor faults here and there, nothing too significant. Except at last when you didn't cool it down fast enough. Just turning off the heat isn't enough, you have to use a cooling spell for it to succeed. Tough next time, try and brew a single batch for your first time, rather than filling the cauldron to the brim." Irma explained, for some reason.

"…..How long have you been watching for?"

"From the start. I knew you would try something from that book, so I was ready. And after your last break-in, Prof Snape had cast magic on the door to alarm him about it. So the second you broke the door, we knew."

"So, you just watched me this whole time?" I am a little creeped out.

"Yes, we were here the whole time under an invisibility spell." Irma cheerfully admits.

"To make sure you don't end up blowing my lab. And looks like it was the right choice." Snape says.

"Now it is almost morning, but it's not like you attend any classes so go back to your bed." Irma declares.

I was feeling tired after all this, hours of hard work, and it just went 'poof'.

I quietly go back to my dorm for some sleep. Though not before handing the potion book back to Irma. I don't think I am getting that book back anytime soon.

As soon I got back in my room and laid my head on the pillow, I was out.