The green liquid bubbles away in the pot, spurting up the worst smell possible and looking generally disgusting. Such was life in potions class.
"Does it look right?" Cade asks.
"According to the book," I respond. The temptation to look over at Mona and Ryan's cauldron next to us is high. None of it will be my brother's work, he's terrible at potions. But Mona has a gift for it, and with her helping him, he actually stands a chance of successfully brewing this one.
Not that I want to copy them. If Ryan's made one mistake, it could destroy the integrity of their entire potion. I don't envy Mona at all.
Cade stirs the potion and it spits out a bit of green goop. It lands on the table and gives a loud hiss as it burns the table.
"I think we did something wrong," I muse.
He chuckles and brushes a hand across my lower back. At first, it's a foreign touch and I'm not sure how to take it. But then I remember we've sorted things out between us and I relax into him, enjoying the intimacy this one moment gives us. I didn't come to Grimalkin expecting anything like this to happen, but I can't help but be glad it has. There's something even more magical about the budding relationships with the guys than on the actual magic we perform.
"Psst, Mona?" I wave my best friend over.
"Don't touch the potion," she warns Ryan before slipping over to me. "What's up?"
"We did something wrong." I point to the potion.
Mona wrinkles her nose. "I think you've done a lot wrong."
I frown. This is the one subject Mona is better at than I am, and I try not to take it too personally. She doesn't lord it over me or anything. That doesn't mean I'm not aware of it though.
"Is it saveable?" That's the only thing we need to know right now, or else Cade and I need to start again, and there isn't enough time to rebrew it.
"Yes. You just need to add a bit of ginger and a teaspoon of arrowroot. No more than that or you'll make it worse," she warns me.
"Thank you."
"Always." Her smile is genuine, but I can see the worry that still rests within her. She has so much going on at the moment, I'm amazed she's finding it in her to care about potions and her other classes. It only makes me respect her more.
I send Cade to the storeroom to get the ingredients she specified, before turning back to the recipe in front of us so I can try and work out where we went wrong. That's something I can appreciate about our professor. He doesn't mind if things go wrong, so long as we can work out where it did and how we'd do things differently next time. I like it because it helps me learn.
Which means that asking Mona what we did wrong is out of the question. More is the pity.
Cade sets the ginger down and starts to measure the arrowroot out.
"She said to be careful with that," I remind her.
"I know, I was listening," he throws back.
"Sorry."
"It's okay, I know how much it means to you to do well." He drops the powder into the potion.
It hisses again, but this time the green mellows and turns into a kind of sickly yellow.
"I'm not sure that’s better," I mutter.
"Hopefully it'll do what it's supposed to once the ginger is in?" he tries.
"I hope so." I push the flat of the knife against the ginger, leaking the juice all over the chopping board. Sometimes it confuses me that this is the way that works better, but I can also see why, it gets all the good stuff out of it.
I scrape it in, and this time the yellow turns brighter. "I think that looks right." I pull my tablet closer so I can look at what the recipe says about the colour of it.
"A bright sunshine yellow," I read aloud.
We both look at the cauldron and pull faces. It's not what I'd call sunshine, but it's certainly closer than it was before.
"I guess it'll do?" Cade says, but I can hear the reluctance in his voice.
"I suppose so. What's the next instruction?" I know we're still a way off finishing it.
"I think it's just to simmer it. Maybe it'll change colour once that's happened?"
"We can hope." I glance down into it, hoping for the best and fearing for the worst.
A loud crash sounds outside the room, silencing the room except for the bubbling of potions.
"Everyone go back to the work," the professor calls through the room. "I'll see what's going on." He walks towards the door with a purposeful stride.
I exchange a worried look with Cade. In my experience, loud sounds outside a classroom are never a good thing.
Instead of going back to the potion, I watch the door instead. There's something going on out there and I don't know what it is. I wish there could be fewer people in the room, then I could sneak off and turn into a cat to try and go eavesdrop.
"I can tell what you're thinking," Cade warns. "I don't think it's a good idea."
"But..."
"No, Daphne. It's too dangerous. There's too many people around."
I pout. I don't want to admit he's right, but he has a point.
"Alright, fine. Let's focus on the potion and discover what the issue is later on." I could have argued that having Mona pretend to cast a spell could cover up me turning into a cat. Everyone is used to the feline consequences of Mona's magic backfiring. I doubt people even notice any more.
I can't use my best friend in order to cover up my own antics though. I'm just going to have to wait and find out with the rest of the class.
How annoying. What's the point of having a cool ability if I can't use it when I want to find out information?