Before The Flame | Potions Lesson 1

What a liar, claiming he didn't speak French. Fine, he could keep his secrets, and she would keep these...uh...things the professor had had them prepare.

"But spend two years in the greenhouses and making potions with Cass – never mind."

Yeah, she knew they'd done that. Benji and Cassian had become quick friends once he'd pulled himself away from the wrong company, and they'd grown thick as thieves ever since. Rae knew they both volunteered in the greenhouse for the hospital wing, and, not being one for plants herself, she hadn't paid it much mind outside of that. The potions they did had equally been of no concern to her for obvious reasons.

It wasn't until Rosie had outed Benji back in January that Rae had even started questioning all the time the boys spent around the herbs. The girl had half a mind to chide him – a reminder he better not still be doing any of that – but she could see the sadness he tried so hard to hide and decided to drop it.

This time.

"Only enough to talk to Rocio in her native language."

His nerve kept growing. The boy didn't feel enough shame calling back to things he had no business doing. No, he had to bring his obsession with Rocio into things, too. Rae needed no reminders of how Benji walked around with his jaw dragging along the floor everywhere her third mother seemed to go. He'd been worse than a dog with a boy and decidedly as pathetic.

The Slytherin missed her friend terribly. She didn't miss the way Benji acted like she was the horizon upon which the sun rose every morning.

But she chose peace.

Rather than nitpick at that either, she snuffed out her flame like he'd said while Julia moved the class forward. Something about storage and heat or...not heat...but...

Yeah, she was done. Benji's suggestion that he would help went completely over her head. She didn't want his help.

Rae nudged everything onto his workbench that sat next to hers. The bigger things she lifted and plopped down next to him. Once she'd successfully transferred all her things, she leaned against her workbench and patiently waited.

He would get the idea soon, if he hadn't already.

The girl had reached her potions limit.

Apparently, she wasn't talking to him.

Benji didn't know what he'd said to make the girl go silent and simply dump all of her stuff on his side of the table, but he took it to mean that he would be bottling and storing all of her stuff for her.

No matter. Benji Henry was an extraordinary gentleman - a true lady's man - and would gladly take over for his girlfriend.

She was probably shit at storing this stuff anyway. It was for the best.

He glanced up when Maevie stopped off at their table, inspecting his own concoctions. A smirk played at the corner of his mouth, waiting for the younger girl to nod her approval. When she moved on without a word, he couldn't help the small laugh that escaped his lips, and with a sigh he rose to fetch all the containers they'd need.

A few jars, a satchel for the dry ingredients and some tops. A bit of wax to really seal it, and they were good to go.

Dropping all of it on his table, the boy got to work. Decoctions needed to cool a bit, so first was the infusions. Into a bottle they went, herbs and all. Infusions were better the longer they...infused. Corked and melted wax poured over. Done.

"Label that," he said, passing it to Rae before shoving the antimony into a satchel. The fact his mother was going to allow a bunch of students to keep that ingredient was interesting, but she'd never been one to follow standard procedures in all the time he'd known her.

Tinctures followed, these ones strained carefully and the alcohol discarded. Usually, people kept the alcohol and just added a few drops to their potions, but Benji found the alcohol-simmered herbs absorbed what little the alcohol's properties offered and using the herbs outright were always better. These, he patted dry and plopped them into another small bottle, twisting an airtight top over them, rather than a cork and wax.

Finally, the decoctions had cooled enough - at least enough to scald his fingertips when he poured the boiled bitter root into its container. Steam rose, clouding the glass jar, but the boy knew well enough that sealing it like this was a good thing. The hotter a decoction when sealed, the longer it lasted and the more airtight it became.

"That does it," Benji said, handing her portion of the ingredients to his girlfriend. He leaned over, dropping a kiss on her cheek in apology - even though he wasn't sure what he'd done. "Walk you to your next class?"

Julia observed quietly as the students strained, bottled, labeled and stored their ingredients, feeling a small surge of pride in all of them. For the most part, they'd all done well and very little mishaps had needed to be handled.

"Well done all of you," Julia said with a quick flick of her wrist, sending all unused ingredients and storage containers back to their proper place amongst the shelves. "These are all yours to keep. Consider them a mini-potions emergency kit."

If nothing else, it was a good way to see where they all were skill-wise and would give her a better idea of what they could handle in the coming classes. So far, she had no real concerns. Even the youngest in her class seemed to appreciate the importance of the little details.

"If you've cleaned up your stations, you're all free to go. Ensure you're storing your ingredients properly back in your dormitories. No need for a wayward decoction to be accidentally ingested." She stopped at her son's table, placing a light hand on his shoulder.

"Not you. You stay. Miss Elliot can walk herself." Benji needed to learn the importance of punctuality.

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*OOC: Class is dismissed! Thanks for your participation! Next class we'll do actual potions and test them on each other! :D

Feel free to get a last post in if you need it. I'll be locking the thread tomorrow afternoon 1/27.