(1939-02-06) Brewing Life, Kinda
Details for Brewing Life, Kinda
Summary: Gabriel continues to work on trying to find out how to animate candy. This time Cillian and Madeline catch him in the Potions Classroom after hours.
Date: 1939-02-06
Location: Potions Classroom, Hogwarts Castle
Related: Chocolate Plots, Dance Unannounced

The Potions Classroom is quiet and empty now that the class day is over. anyone just glancing into the room might think its truly empty, since Gabriel has set himself up so that he can only be seen once someone has either closed the door and or stepped into the room and turned around to face the door. Of course, he could also be given away by the occasional rustle of pages turning, the wavering shadows cast by the flame under his cauldron of the other small sounds he makes working on whatever he's working on.

It took some time, a lot of work really to wiggle away from reading a love poem to a 4th year, being paid in chocolate by some other student. Cillian enters the Potions Classroom backwards, idly carrying one of his practice cauldrons and he's being SNEAKY as heck, very sneaky, wiggling and then turning around quickly to close the door behind him, noticing Gabriel with wide eyes.

Gabriel looks a little spooked himself as the door opens then closes with someone still in the room. Then he relaxes immediately, his lips spreading in a wide smile when he sees its only Cillian, "Cap'n! How are you doing? What brings you to this dingy corner of the castle today?"

"How am /I/ doin' here? What are /ye/ doin' here?" Cillian hisses softly before exhaling softly before settling down and setting down his cauldron with a soft laugh. He takes a deep breath. "Seriously what are ye workin' on?" He sets his cauldron up before taking a deep breath. "I wanted to try to make somethin'."

Gabe uncovers his cauldron and the room is immediately filled with the smell of chocolate and mint and something underneath that's hard to pinpoint. "I'm working on the same thing I've been working on for weeks. Our St. Valentine's plans." He grins at the other boy as he covers the cauldron back up, "And I've discovered animating chocolate animals has nothing to do with charms! Its actually a potion! And that's what I'm working on, seeing if I can mix it properly."

Cillian just gives Gabe a look and snickers softly before shaking his head and settling down on his backside with a firm nod. "Like I thought…well, what do ye need me to do…this is me best class after all." He arches an eyebrow.

Gabriel slides a particularly old looking book across the table to Cillian, tapping the open page with his wand, "This is the potion. I think the hardest part about it is it takes /hours/ to make and you have to do some really precise mixing and stirring at exact intervals or it says it won't work." Speaking of, he flips a little hour glass sitting next to his cauldron, opens it up again, and stirs it twice to the right, three times to the left and then three times in an hourglass motion before covering it back up and resetting the hourglass, "Another stir in five minutes. Nice thing about it is that supposedly you can put in almost any fruit or mint and not affect the animation."

Cillian ahhs softly and watches Gabriel thoughtfully, eyeing the cauldron and the instructions and tucking his hands under his legs as he scans the page carefully, nodding slowly to Gabriel as he listens and watches carefully.

Gabriel peers at Cillian for a bit before sauing, "Well, you're the quiet one today. Am I interrupting any big plans?" He smiles a bit as he ask, taking the book back and starting to study the next sequence of stirring motions.

Cillian shakes his head and smiles a bit before just toying a bit with a ladle and moving to his bag, tugging out a piece of parchment and a quill. "Nah, it just be seemin' like ye already know what to be seein' and mixin' and doin', watching and learning."

Gabriel smiles at Cillian and nods, "I've been doing a lot of studying for this, Cap'n. So what do you think about flavors, if I can make it all work right? And shapes? I have molds for butterflies, monkeys, puppies, kitten, froggies, and horses. Do we need anything else?"

Cillian considers the question for a few moments. "I tink ye've thought of all the shapes we may need. Mebbe a heart with wings could be helpin' too. Some stars, but that's for the normal chocolates."

Madeline rarely goes anywhere at a walk, when she could be going there as a careen instead. She comes around the corner abruptly, through the door-way - and then pulls up short when she sees someone else is in the classroom. Cautious surprise soon turns to broad smiles as she skips over. "Hey! Cap'n, Gunny. Is the game afoot?" she asks brightly.

Careens are easy to hear so by the time Madeline makes it through the door Gabriel is already looking in the direction of the door. He's about to say something when he catches a glimpse of his hourglass out of the corner of his eye. With a little "eep!" he turns hurriedly to his cauldron and uncovers it, filling the air with the smell of chocolate and mint again. Putting his wand into the cauldron he stirs three time to the right, five times to the left, and finally 18 times in a zig-zag pattern, always left to right. "Hello Maddie."

Cillian turns slightly where he was setting up his own cauldron and he smiles softly to Madeline, lifting a hand and bowing his head in agreement. "Somethin' like that. Gunny's figured it out and all, what we'll need to be doin'." He sniffs the air. "Movin' tidbits of chocolatey joy."

Madeline hauls over a chair, climbing up on it to sit at the same table as Gabriel and Cillian. She beams cheerfully at the two of them, hauling out her potions book. "Oh, right! The chocolates." Her brow wrinkles up before she asks, "You haven't have any trouble, have you? Since raining that chocolate on Sykes? It's only - Alphard Black was all uptight about it and wanted to find out who did it…"

Cillian just tilts his head to the side. "Rainin' chocolates?"

Gabriel rolls his eyes and sighs, "it was an accident, OK. I was testing charms to see if any of them worked to animate chocolates and ended up floating some around the ceiling in the auditorium. And Evil Princess #1 happened to be at the piano when the charm ran out. And I don't think that Black has figured out it was me, Maddie. He hasn't come after me at all."

"That's good. He didn't come after /me/ either, and mine wasn't an accident." Madeline beams - well pleased with herself now that the whole mess is weeks behind them, and her head hadn't ended up in a toilet even /once/. She pulls out a piece of cloth next, adding, "I think I've figured out how to make a real nice heart for the great hall. I transfigured it pink, you see? And the sparkles are a charm. And then I can even write on it too - but that's a little trickier."

"Ye first write on it I'd tink or ye could cut out letters on another parchment and transfigure those and add 'em on with glue or somethin'." Cillian suggests softly to Madeline after listening to the high jinx that he apparently missed or forgotten about. "Iffen we can keep his attention on me, then we'll be able to spare the other pirates of his toilety charms."

Gabriel nods "Those are good ideas, Cillian. Except for focusing Black's efforts just on you. There has to be something else that can be done so that he's not focusing on anyone…" But his train of though is interrupted as it is once again time to go through another bit of intricate stirring.

Madeline nods her head firmly. "I don't want /anyone's/ head in the toilet!" she agrees. "So there's gotta be something we can do. I mean, we're smart! Gotta be smarter than /him/, all of us together."

Cillian hmms softly as he looks between the two students before carefully getting to his feet, collecting his cauldron and few supplies before taking a deep breath. "We'll be gettin' it settled, trust me…It'll get settled."
