Kelvin had been staring at the cauldron for nearly an hour.  He had already messed up the potion twice, once earlier in the week, when he was supposed to have finished it, and once before lunch today.  He was starting to regret spending the previous day enjoying some light reading before the term started in earnest.  And now with a full stomach from lunch a nap seemed a much better idea, even if it did mean he failed this potions assignment.

He turned the page in the book, where he found more instructions.  He had stirred clockwise and counterclockwise the correct number of times but had forgotten to let the potion cool first.  He picked up the book ready to throw it across the room, "Really, what kind of book splits a step across the front and back of a page." He said to the otherwise empty dungeon before dropping the book back onto the desk with a sound of disgust.

Taking the cauldron off the heat, he cast a cooling charm on the cauldron, hoping that it wasn't to late to at least salvage a passing grade with the potion.  After the potion had a moment to cool, he tossed the last ingredient in, and instead of turning burgundy the liquid turned a beautiful shade of turquoise.  "No no no no" he said picking up the book, hoping that he could figure out a way to fix the potion, which was a good thing because the book ended up blocking the majority of the potion from hitting Kelvin in the face as it exploded with a bang into a bright blue-green cloud.

His sigh of relief that he had managed to avoid a face-full of whatever he had ended up creating turned into a groan when he noticed that the desks which had been hit with the potion were smoking.  "Great, not again."  It took him a second more to realize his clothes, which had been hit as well, were also smoking and he quickly pulled off the robe he had in a moment of foresight still been wearing and the t-shirt under it which had not been completely spared either.  Looking down, he was ready to pull off his pants if they started smoking, but thankfully they appeared to be as dry as they had been before the potion explosion.

Kelvin backed away from the cauldron and smoking desks, standing there in pants and dragon hide gloves looking around at the huge mess he had made of the assignment.

Ligeia had been frequenting the dungeons for expanded study in Potions. There was her experiments with her bleaching agent, plus a brew that needed a long time to brew that she had started before school had resumed. Luckily securing a private lab to let it brew without interruption had been cleared through the right channels. Sometimes there were perks besides the bathroom that made being a prefect fun.

Secondly was meeting the challenges of students in peril. She was walking back from checking in on her potion when she heard the explosion. Ah, the sounds of successful failure! You couldn't learn if you didn't move past failures.

She opened the door to brewing room where she had heard the noise. Grey smoke billowed out. "Prefect, any Ashwinders in here? No? Pity."

With quick movements Ligeia opened her parasol then latched her wand into one of the slots along the shaft. Though her parasol was made from wand quality wood, she didn't often perform magic with her wand latched to it, like Professor Hagrid and his pink umbrella. She supposed the the increased length of his 'wand' was a boon to the half-giant. With her parasol open, Ligeia's spell to clear the smoke away was applied over a larger area as she spun the parasol in her hands.

After a half minute of wafting the visibility was much better. "Kelvin!" She recognized the younger boy from her house. "Most people cover their chests when set in potion work although I like your initiative. Everyone gets into too much of a tizzy about keeping their clothes clean. What happened in here?"

Kelvin heard a voice through the accumulated smoke in the room, and then watched as it disappeared reveling Ligeia spinning her parasol.  The room looked even worse without smoke in the air.  He heard his name and the comment about his bare chest and he quickly crossed his arms, covering as much of himself as he could. 

"What happened in here?"  She asked.

Potion exploded, shirtless, and being interrogated by a prefect from his house.  Only thing that could make it worse would be if it had been a professor or an older guy.  Kelvin was pretty sure he'd have died from embarrassment then, so he figured it was probably a good thing it was Ligeia standing in front of him with her parasol.  "Um" He started before he coughed, the smoke had made his throat drier than he had realized.  "Umm, I stirred the potion the right number of times in the correct direction but I didn't take it off the heat so I used a cooling charm to try to salvage the potion and then I added the unicorn hair and it turned turquoise and then it blew up."  He said quickly before coughing a few more times. 

"Then I realized my robes and shirt were smoking so I pulled them off, I didn't really want to find out what happens if it touched my skin.  It was just supposed to be a simple antidote, this was my third time trying to get it right." He looked at his cauldron and realized it now had several holes in it where it had melted.  "Great.  And now I dont even have a cauldron."  He sat down with a thump in the chair next to him.  "My dad won't be able to get me a new one, my brother will want to know why I need one and give me a hard time about it, my mom won't even take"  Kelvin looked up at Ligeia, he had forgotten that he wasn't just going on in an empty room now.  "Sorry."

"Well, that would be a successful antidote, in the sense of of terminating it all. Unless you wanted to stop smoking," she drifted some more smoke away. She closed her parasol and lifted the remains of Kelvin's smoldering shirt with the tip of the shaft, analyzing it. "Looks like your skin could have blackened, burning and flaking off like ash from a cigar. I'd be sweeping you up with a broom." She grinned madly at him.

His cauldron had been destroyed too. "You've struck out a full lot here, Kelvin..." She frowned, a rare expression on her white face. "Problems, Watkins?" Ligeia really had to beg for anything, so she didn't understand why his family wouldn't want to replace an important piece of equipment he needed for classes. But his face looked distraught, broken, and saddened.

What she wouldn't give to have her camera already set up.

"Never mind, hold that thought for a moment. I have something you can use." With a flourish she handed him a coupon with several holes punched in it. "If we make yours the eighth corroded cauldron that's 88% percent off of a new one! My supplier in London prefers a full card instead of stacking ones with fewer holes."

"So, let's clean this up and see where you got things wrong." Gingerly picking up the spent cauldron, she took it over to a closet where she knew broken cauldrons were stored.

Kelvin shivered at the thought of being swept up with a broom, and the grin Ligeia gave him when she said it.  "Lots of problems."  He said sweeping his eyes around the room, and he didn't plan on elaborating more than that before she moved on anyways. 

He held the coupon in front of him, it took him a moment to realize what it was.  "I can afford a new one, my brother will send me one."  He held the coupon out to her, intending to give it back.  "If I tell him what the potion could have done, maybe he will be to distracted to take the mickey out of me."

"So, let's clean this up and see where you got things wrong." She said.

"I know what went wrong.  I opened my potions book and tried to brew an antidote."  Kelvin said defeated.  It wasn't even that he particularly cared about the class, he just didn't want to fail the course.

Ligeia tossed the cauldron into the pile of corroded, warped, stained, shattered and otherwise spent brothers. Returning to Kelvin's station she noticed him holding the coupon out to her.

"I insist," she took the coupon only to slap it back into his hand so that the pressed paper might stick from the impact. "You're sure to have a facile conversation for a new cauldron if it isn't going to cost as much. Rowena knows I'll fill up another one of my stub cards soon enough through experimentation." From living with someone like Alexandra Carstairs, Ligeia had learned that not everyone like to bring up their problems directly. Her intent was to foster an environment where Kelvin could feel free to talk as they worked...or fester the notion in his mind long enough that he spilled his sopophorous beans.

Ligeia did not frown at him again, though her smile darkened in that mysterious way she knew how. "Really, failure straight from the front page? I had no idea you checked out a cursed potions text from the library. Allow me to test that."

She retrieved the book with its bent pages and let it fall open. The book hand landed sprawled at the pages of Kelvin's antidote, she recognized from the ingredients he mentioned. "Am I supposed to expect to disintegrate in the next twenty four hours? The book is not at issue, I would recognized a cursed text if it truly was one."

There was a simple question to see if Kelvin could get it or not. "What is the most important thing in Potions class?"

Kelvin started to protest taking the coupon again, but she did have a point.  It would help if the cauldron didn't cost as much. He slid the coupon into his pocket and watched as she tested his potions book for a curse.  "I never said the book was cursed" He said a bit testily.  Though had it been cursed, all it would have taken would have been to open the book.  If only his trouble in potions could be boiled down to a cursed textbook.

 "What is the most important thing in Potions class?" She asked him.

What did that have to do with his potion exploding, he wondered.  "I don't know.  Paying attention to the instructions."  Or to the lessons in class.  Two things he wasn't really good at, since his mind tended to wander when he was working on a potion.  Potion brewing wasn't all that exciting, well not until it blew up in your face anyways.

"There you are, you need to know the process, inside and out, so know it!" Ligeia tapped him on the head for emphasis. "Don't care about whether the potion you make is good or bad, you could have stale ingredients or a horrendous horoscope."

"So what I want you to do to start with," she handed the book back to him, "is write out the instructions four times in a way you'll understand it. Shorthand, all on one page, whatever you need to do while I set to scrounging."

Scrounging started back in the closet of spent cauldrons, where she looked for a whole cauldron with the most caked on, irremovable remains.

Still rubbing his head where Ligeia had tapped him, he took the book with one hand flipping through till he found the antidote he had been attempting.  He pulled a piece of scrap parchment and quill and ink from his bag which had managed to avoid any damage underneath the table he had been working at.  Glancing at the door, he thought about trying to make a quick escape, it wasn't like he had to do as she said or at least when it came to classwork, but even if he did manage to escape the dungeons, being in the same house meant he couldn't avoid her forever.  And he had a feeling, she wouldn't let him off easy when she did find him.

He picked up his book and supplies and moved to a table in the corner that had not been hit by the potion and sat down top work, deciding the best way to do it would be to just write out the recipe word for word.  So blocking out the sound of cauldrons clanking against each other, he bent over the book, still shirt and robe-less, and copied out the antidote's instructions.  Over and over and over and over again.  His hand cramping during the last copy from writing too hard out of frustration.

Finished he looked up, "What is even the point of this?  If I was poisoned by the time I made this, I'd still be dead.  Potions is—It's just—" Kelvin threw his quill down on the table and stood "I don't even care if I pass—my mum won't even notice or care—potions is just—ugh—if Naomi can walk out of transfiguration, I can bloody well stop going to potions."  He started toward the door, not even bothering to grab anything but his wand.

With a soiled cauldron perfect for her plans, Ligeia checked a few other cupboards about the room. Soon she had a collection of different colored solutions and old shoelaces. Potions spilling on people's feet would cause them to chuck their shoes in here as well. Excluding the shoelaces, the solutions combined together were inert with only a change of color and temperature as the effects.

By the time she had a tray arranged of these materials, Kelvin had scribbled away the last of his copied instructions. She was about to complement him on the slant of his words when he grew frustrated. "What is even the point of this?  If I was poisoned by the time I made this, I'd still be dead.  Potions is—It's just—" Kelvin threw his quill down on the table and stood. "I don't even care if I pass—my mum won't even notice or care—potions is just—ugh—if Naomi can walk out of transfiguration, I can bloody well stop going to potions." He rose and headed for the door.

Ligeia's wand was swift and her words whispered. The door slammed shut with a thunderous boom. For an extra deterrent three inch long spikes transfigured from the door, popping out like driven nails.

She hadn't locked Kelvin in but the spikes would be a hindrance to his ability to reach the doorknob. All manners to dissuade him from leaving.

"I am surprised that someone from Ravenclaw house is deciding to give up so easily." Her voice was no different from its usual serene tones but there was a compelling ring to it. "No one expects you to have to brew this antidote the moment you find yourself poisoned. And for this particular poison you wouldn't have the time, let alone the ability once its preliminary effects kick in. A NEWT level student, such as myself, might be able to do so if we cut corners, though keep in mind we would only have the one shot."

Ligeia rated her abilities pridefully high of course. If she had a free weekend she might possibly attempt that, but not before sorting things out with Kelvin. "You should care about doing the best that you can OWL, if you aren't going to like the subject itself. Even if your career never has you stirring a pot again, having a decant grade and not continuing in a subject speaks volumes more than ending with a low grade indeed. 'Acceptables' really are acceptable if a career does not require the skill."

"As for Miss Foley..." Trouble for sure! Ligeia had a running bet on how soon one of the prefects would catch her out at night. Ligeia's estimate was a long stretch for not being caught but she would have to face a consequence someday. "...if we let all of you scamper off whenever a class didn't agree with you, pretty soon we would change Hogwarts from a school to a boarding house. She'll have a detention most likely and much more in store, but do you think she has any right to not go to a required class? She doesn't. You may also recall that Mr. O'Doherty doesn't like Herbology the same way you and Naomi don't like Potions and Transfiguration, respectively. He's on probation, and even if you don't blow up the potion dungeons on your way out you'll be stepping into the same thing."

Such fickle Fourth Years! Ligeia prided herself on keeping a stiff upper lip when she hadn't clung to Arithmancy the way she thought she would. She admitted this to Kelvin. "I thought Arithmancy was the most dull thing since the creation of the Ten-Second Pimple Vanisher when I took it my third year so I didn't continue in my fourth. Dropping an elective is different, because those specialized classes aren't required. Potions is a fundamental course so you are expected to know some of it until your fifth year. Then burn your potion texts, piss in the cauldron, revolt however you wish when you take the class no longer but not until you've earned the right to hate it. But you, all of you, are just starting a new term. It's okay to be frustrated at being rusty, if this was a subject bothering you since last year. You have time to get settled."

"I can't speak for your family, whether your mother not caring also means your father or siblings as well, but your certainly aren't going to let my coupon go to waste when I've given it to you!" She ended with a rather pronounced, theatrical 'huff.'

The door slammed shut before Kelvin could reach it, and sprouted spikes around the doorknob.  He tried to get his hand through the spikes, but there was no way to open the door without getting stabbed by at least one of the spikes, and he decided that it wasn't worth blood trying to escape. 

"I am surprised that someone from Ravenclaw house is deciding to give up so easily."  Ligeia started.

Refusing to turn around, he stared at the door.  He wondered if he could make the spikes disappear as Ligeia went on about how a NEWT student might be able to make a working antidote.  Not that it mattered to Kelvin, even if he couldn't get out of potions now, he certainly wouldn't take it after fifth year.  And she just kept on lecturing, and he kept trying to ignore her, but bits got through.  Of course he wanted to at least pass his potions OWL.  This had been his third try at killing himself with this potion.

"piss in the cauldron"  He heard her say, and he turned around, mouth hanging open.  That was...unexpected.

"I can't speak for your family, whether your mother not caring also means your father or siblings as well, but your certainly aren't going to let my coupon go to waste when I've given it to you!"  She finished with a huff.

He tried to reply, but nothing came out at first.  Piss in a cauldron. Really?!  He finally regained his ability to speak, "Who would piss...? Never mind." Some of his frustration had left, but there was still some anger at the whole situation.  Especially the mention of his mother, which was his own fault for letting it slip in the first place.  How many more of these outbursts was he going to have.  First week and he had already made a mess of plenty.  "Fine.  But I didn't ask for—"  And while Naomi was excellent company, Kelvin really didn't want to get lumped in with Casey being banned from a class.  "What is all that?"  He said looking at the stuff she had gathered.

Preaching at the back of a head never allowed for an impression of what was getting through. Ligeia was gladdened when she finally got a dumbstruck head reversal out of him, staving off a chuckle. It always surprised her on what people convulsed to and what they didn't. Kelvin was not as much of a hardball player as he thought.

"You seemed ready to release something. But remember, don't go taking any of my celebratory suggestions for 'Being Rid of Potions' until you've passed your OWL. That particular style of delinquency is more common than you think." A certain Hufflepuff apothecary shop boy leapt to mind though Ligeia was not about to advance his own mythos for him.

"The best gifts are the ones you don't ask for," she continued. Kelvin was about to get a gift of full Canterbury flavor but she held back, he had yet to submit with tackling his issues with potions.

Ligeia motioned to the bottles she had gathered. "This is how you learn the process of brewing the antidote without the risk of making the room look like the scene of a recent Fiendfyre. I've labeled all of the analogues like the actual ingredients." She shook two bottles, one sloshing a fluid inside and another, a chopped ingredient simulacra that was really full of gravel. "It will change color and temperature at the right stages but it's all magically colored water. We even have unicorn hair." She held up an enchanted shoe lace.

She arranged the tray and the old stained cauldron at his workstation, leaning from the other side of the counter. With a sharp flick of her wand and utterance, the spikes on the door retracted. The door remained shut, Ligeia wished it would.

"Before we begin, did you want to look over your notes again, make sure you have the process in your mind?"

Kelvin couldn't help but smile at the shoe lace/unicorn hair. "I wish I'd had those before I ruined my shirt."  He walked back over to his workstation where Ligeia was setting up all of the fake-ingredients, not noticing that she had removed the spikes from the door and that escape was possible again.  "Before we begin, did you want to look over your notes again, make sure you have the process in your mind?"  She asked and Kelvin nodded in reply.  Picking up the scraps of parchment he had copied the potion onto, he quickly read through every step again before setting down the parchment and picking up the liquid.

"Heat ginger juice to a boil"  He poured the fake juice into the cauldron and started the fire underneath.  Kelvin went through each step, saying it aloud before he performed it.  Making sure it was stirred the correct number of times in the correct direction over the correct heat and that each ingredient was added in the correct amounts, double checking the amounts after he almost added to much of the fake chopped mistletoe berry.  He was about to drop the unicorn hair in when he realized that the potion had not cooled sufficiently.  He had only waited half of the suggested time.  After another ten minutes he dropped the unicorn hair.  It was easier to stay focused when he had someone standing over him, which was usually his problem, contemplating nonbeing was always more fun than thinking about the potion he was working on.

The potion turned a dark red, not quite burgundy but close enough to be acceptable.  "Yes!"  Kelvin said, wiping sweat from his forehead.  "Finally got it."  He continued still excited until it dawned on him that he still had to do it with real ingredients.  "Except now I've got to do it again.  Thanks for the help.  I can probably do it by myself this time."  Disappointment evident in his voice, he didn't actually plan on doing the potion again if he could help it.

Ligeia watched from her perch bending over the counter as she watched Kelvin at work through the many minutes it took him to brew the antidote. It was a motion akin to those of her pet, Buzzard.

At last Kelvin achieved success with this fake brew. His jubilation was short when the grim of performing it live for class enclosed on him. "You know what they say, practice! You can always try this again if you want. Thought this isn't really an antidote," she contemplated the swill of improvised ingredients. "Except maybe the antidote to a clean floor."

"If you had any other concerns about Potions you can always talk to me," Ligeia smiled at him. "I could draw up a remedial plan to help you catch up."

Kelvin took a deep breath before letting it out slowly and dramatically.  "Probably should properly dispose of it then." He said, a slight smile forming on his face again.

"If you had any other concerns about Potions you can always talk to me, I could draw up a remedial plan to help you catch up." Ligeia said.

Kelvin groaned a little at the idea of a remedial plan.  He hated the idea that he needed 'help' in potions, even though he couldn't really deny that he did.  He had only barely managed an acceptable last year, and it was only going to be harder this year.  And next year with O.W.Ls.  He closed his eyes, he didn't really want to think about it, but he was going to have to.  "I think I've got this one," He hoped he did anyways, "But I could definitely use the help."

"And maybe even a remedial plan." He added quietly.