#8 - In the Quiet Damp

'Well, this is a waste of time,' Phillip muttered when he didn't immediately spied what he was looking for. The boathouse was unusually dark this time of day, probably due to the weather, Phillip figured. He looked at the ceiling as if his glare could move the clouds and give way to the sun that would ease his search.

He was stubborn enough not to leave immediately, thinking back on how he had to venture further away from the forest path to get any ingredients. Phillip's patient combing of the pier's walls seemed to pay off when he spied pale dots down one of the edges. In his excitement, Phillip darted nearer what he hoped was Mercy's Lace.

In the heat of the moment, Phillip didn't account for the slickness of the stones, and he slipped. He momentarily lost his balance, but managed to regain it after some flailing that was far from graceful. When Phillip finally stilled, he was in a half-standing, half-crouched position with his arms extended like some scene from a Muggle cartoon that Dawson children watched in the mornings.

'Okay, okay,' Phillip said to himself as he slowly went down on his knees. He deliberated for a moment, noting he might not reach the Mercy's Lace, so he completed laid down on the pier, crawling to the edge and looking down. There was quite a lot of the plant, so Phillip slowly started to harvest the ingredients. The Slytherin noted he had enough of Mercy's Lace for two, wondering if there were any fish around or if it was too cold or something since Phillip didn't immediately spied any.

When Phillip grabbed the second Mercy's Lace, he yelped in surprise when something bit him. He shot to his feet from shock, almost slipped again before landing on his butt on the cold stones. Phillip looked at his finger, but luckily there was nothing that signified any larger or long-lasting damage, just the memory of the pain.

'I swear I'll get you and use you for ingredients!' Phillip yelled at what he supposed was fish in the water. He inspected his finger further, wondering whether he should do something about the red area. Phillip decided that he'd just keep an eye on it and if it'd get worse, he would visit the Hospital Wing.

The Slytherin had two ingredients, but he wanted more. Water was out of the question, he thought, giving it an angry glare and Phillip wasn't really in the mood for catching live spiders, especially after the bite he just got. 

'Lumos!' Phillip cast the spell to reveal the dark corners of the boathouse. That would probably scare away the living spiders, but he might have some luck with red spider eggs on the seemingly abandoned cobwebs.

With a considering look, Phillip watch the spell light up the boathouse. There was a spider he could’ve gotten getting away, but the Slytherin wasn’t in the mood to give chase.

‘I’ll get you one of these days,’ Philip muttered. ‘Or your family in dungeons,’ he lamely added, wondering if talking to himself was something to be concerned about. Lately, though, Phillip noticed that he himself was his best company.

What brought his mood up, though, was the plenitude of empty cobwebs hanging around the walls and the corners. Bit too much if you asked him. With a moment of consideration, Phillip put on his protective gloves. While he wasn’t too squeamish about digging into the spiders’ cobwebs, he did think they’d offer him some protection from the dirt, dust and general cobweb-iness.

‘Here I go,’ Phillip muttered and started searching for the tell-tale pink sacs to get to the spider eggs, clearing out the abandoned cobwebs. Gloves gave him some trouble with graceful movement, but nothing he couldn’t handle.

It seemed to Phillip that luck was not on his side. While there were plenty of cobwebs, there didn't seem to be that many of pink sacs which held the eggs he needed. For a few minutes, all Phillip did was taking away the empty cobwebs. 

'Come on,' he murmured in frustration when he happened upon some marks left on the walls at one of the furthermost corners in the back. Phillip frowned in thought, moving his lit up wand closer for inspection. Something made a mess in the corner, with water where it shouldn't be (even if the lake was particularly wavy) and what appeared to be either paw prints or claw marks.

'What's going on at this school?' Phillip asked himself, thinking back to his similar find in the forest. While not the completely same tracks, all of this was too suspicious to be coincidental. 

'Magical disappearing deer, water cobweb-eating cats, what's next, flying ferrets?' he wondered when he spied something pink from torn up cobwebs. With a sound of triumph, Phillip picked a pink sac and brought it to the light in the middle of the boathouse's pier.

'Nox,' Phillip extinguished the tip of his wand and focused his attention on the sac. He tried it with his fingers and it was pretty tough. If he had a knife it'd be no problem getting the sac open, but Phillip didn't bring any with him. 

Now he had two options as far as he could see. Either Phillip could take his sweet time and open the sac with his nails and fingers, possibly breaking either or both in short time, or he could use the severing charm, possibly damaging the eggs in the process.

'Ah, what the heck,' Phillip said and pointed his wand on the top part of the pink sac, so if the spell was too strong, it would hopefully only damage some of the eggs and not all. 

'Diffindo,' Phillip cast and internally crossed his fingers about it working about getting the necessary ingredient.