After a busy week, Niamh hurried down to the Dark Arts classroom as soon as her last class finished. Whilst others hustled towards the chilly Quidditch pitch for practice, or to the library or common room for study chats, she weaved around students, the only one knocking for entry.
The door gently clicked. Severus had set their cauldrons already on the lab table, the ingredients laid out for use. A warm fire licked at the hearth, for once.
He turned, setting the last ingredient down. Even in a certain sadness, they lit up at her presence, dark eyes glittering in the incandescent glow.
Niamh placed her items aside on a spare desk, then met Severus's figure. She took one look at him, that faint, twist of a smile on his lips. Wrapping her arms around him, leaning her head on his chest, she gazed at their two cauldrons, the iron exterior reflecting the candlelight. Severus's fingers trailed in her vision, brushing her astray tresses as she listened to his heartbeat.
The atmosphere reminisced of home, of future. Of a ritual old; a wife apparating home to find her husband set the table of two bowls, accompanied by little shakers of spices, herbs, and sauces. A small table, just for the two of them, in a house warmed by only hearth flame and intimacy.
Niamh flipped open the potions books, feeling Severus's eyes on her. She took out the last ingredient, rosemary. As she released the oils beneath her pinching fingers, her lover stood at her side, marking assignments on the lab table. He graded in such proximity that his cloak brushed against her working arms, and he often stilled his quill as his eyes darted to hers.
Severus's eyes often rested on her lips. His breathing sometimes grew heavier.
Niamh's hand shook as she leveled the teaspoon of dried rosemary, desiring him just the same. She knew he wanted her. But his internal conflict, perhaps with terms with himself as a spy put fear into his soul, hesitating every pursuit.
She released the rosemary. The leaves spread into their potions. The cloudy liquid cleared to see the iron texture of the cauldron's base, almost identical to Veritaserum. With a flick of his wand, the flames vanished, their potions stilling to a glass pool.
Severus gestured to her quartz pendant. She bent down to her chest, unsealing it as she guided it upward.
Severus took the quartz, slightly pulling at the fine silver chains around her neck. He inserted a dropper into her cauldron, filling it with a tinted transparency. Drop by drop, Severus concentrated as her quartz filled, even to a minuscule dome of liquid at the top. "Three months."
Niamh closed her hand over his as he clasped it closed, gently laying it on her chest. Question filled his black eyes as he tucked her quartz pendant, slowly pushing her hair back. Questioning, and a nostalgia, a yearning glistened in his gaze, but he spoke nothing.
Niamh leaned in, resting her ear on his chest. "Three months," she repeated, finally finished with the antidote. He wrapped an arm around her body, squeezing her forearm tightly with his large hands. His love for her was selfless, he sacrificed three months teaching and brewing a potion to one day save the one she loves.
His love for her was selfless, because as he held her in her arms, he did not know it was him. He loved her so deeply, he would not ask her who the antidote was for. He would not ask who it was she needed to save.
It was a tragedy, when he gazed his sincere, yearning question his eyes. Because she cannot tell him. Niamh cannot warn him of the pain he must endure, of how she made it just for him and not for someone else.
As Niamh's eyes trailed her quartz pendant nestled between his chest and hers, his desk came into view on the side. Niamh lifted her chin on his chest. "Severus?"
"Mmm?" He stroked a finger through her hair.
"What's that?"
"The only potion I cannot make."
Niamh went to his desk. She hovered a finger above the white dust coating the warped cauldron. "You've attempted it for months."
"Years." Severus curled his fingers around the cauldron, drawing it away from her.
She clasped the cold rim of the cauldron, the damaged surface poking into her palm on the opposite side, stopping him. "Why?"
"It was a simple dream. Of a bezoar and phoenix tears. Invoking a feeling in which I cannot find words for. I've calculated every combination I know, every ingredient, every incantation I believe can replicate what I experienced. And the potion yields failure after failure."
Niamh frowned, rubbing the white dust on her fingers, the salty air puffing into her nostrils. "But what does it do? What would it do?"
"Do you think I know?" Severus snapped, his dark eyes glaring at her. He pulled her hands off the cauldron, then pulled the wrecked cauldron towards himself. He set it beneath his desk.
His voice softened. "I've held onto this mess to record my first attempt; my first failure. All I know is that it exists, the potion is as real as life itself."
Niamh planted both hands on the desk. "Would you invite me along this journey? Would you let me experiment with you?"
"You do not know the dream as I do."
I'm a writer; an inventor of potions. I dream of plot; of recipes.
"I have imagination."
Niamh waited as he ignored her, wiping away the leftover powder on his desk with palms. "Have you tried rue? Valerian root? Aconite? I've assumed you've repeated the use of Honeywater as your base, that's the most obvious one to test."
Severus crossed his arms. "You might well have asked if I created the Panacea."
Niamh opened her mouth, then looked down to her feet.
"Not even Sal Ammoniac succeeds," Severus said bitterly. "Yes," his shadow loomed over her, his dark eyes challenging. "I. Have. Tried. Everything. Not a color, not a scent, nor a tangible measure of progression."
The firelight glinted in her eyes, and had he not boarded the Dark Arts classroom in darkness, she would watch as the blanketed skies released wisps of snowflakes. Thanksgiving had recently passed, and she drew her robes tighter around herself. "A full moon draws near," she spoke softly. "The seventh of December. Should lunar magic exist on that night, we can attempt it again."
"The snow shall freeze your body. And the tempest gales," he drew nearer, drawing a finger across her mouth. A certain wetness collected upon his elegant thumb. "shall nip your lips."
He leaned into her.
"But have you tried brewing on such a night?" she spoke breathily beneath his hovering lips.
Severus cupped her chin. "Have I a choice, Felicity?" He pressed his lips to hers.
Polyjuice potion was one of the most critical potions in the Harry Potter series. Polyjuice potion was difficult to concoct, but well worth the effort (and horrible taste). When brewed correctly, it allows the drinker to take the form of another person (or in the case of Hermione's accidental brewโฆa cat).
Author's comments. J. K. Rowling has said that Veritaserum "works best upon the unsuspecting, the vulnerable and those insufficiently skilled (in one way or another) to protect themselves against it...just like every other kind of magic within the books, Veritaserum is not infallible".
Those who could not prove that they had magical heritage โ in other words, any Muggle-born and potentially some half-bloods โ were sentenced to Azkaban for having "stolen" magic. Some, however, were apparently released after being stripped of their wands and their jobs, and ended up homeless.
Because of the potion's usage being heavily controlled by the Ministry, its usages over the series are unauthorised and/or illegal: Dumbledore did not acquire permission from the Ministry before using it on Crouch, Umbridge used it for interrogating students despite such action being forbidden (though being a high- ...
Witches and Wizards can get any illness, injury or disease that a muggle can however they can heal/cure them easily even if it would prove fatal to a muggle. JK Rowling has written on this for Pottermore (now on the Wizarding World site).
So, for polyjuice, the potion is legal for everyday use, like allowing a celebrity to go shopping uninterrupted, but if you use polyjuice to commit a crime, it is the crime that is illegal, not the polyjuice itself.
Splash potion of harming II is the hardest potion to create in minecraft because it requires multiple steps. After creating a poison potion, you have to give the potion a fermented spider eye, glowstone, and gunpowder.
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