#22 - a gift of ingredients

It took Thorne a good hour to scrub all the mud off himself. His shoes were sopping, so he'd left them in front of the fire in Hufflepuff's common room to dry, padding out once he felt actually human again. His hair was a bit of a mess still, strands and locks sticking up this way and that, and he finger combed it with one hand as he hurried towards the dungeon.

In his other hand he clutched the box he'd neatly placed his ingredients into, all wiped clean and free of mud or debris and wrapped in parchment to keep them from bumping into one another too much.

There was an older boy already there, waiting in the hall, and Thorne gave him a small wave.

"Hi, Arthur!"

'Enter,' Professor Snape said.

With a swish of his wand, the door suddenly swung open - yet was magically prevented from banging against the wall. The doorway clear, Snape awaited his company to make an entrance and explain why his peace was being intruded upon yet again. He glanced up just enough to see who it was, then resumed his task at hand.

Most notable was a decent stack of leather-bound books on one side of his desk. There were titles such as Unbinding Binding Curses, An Intricate Comparison of Werewolves and Wuffsnouts, The Most Advanced Study of Counter-Poisons, Lost and Forgotten Counter-Curses, and An Ancient Guide to Forbidden Magical Practices.

'So you did,' Professor Snape said, inspecting them -- all of them, including the Higgus Spores.

He retrieved the ingredients, then gestured for Arthur to follow him out of the office -- Thorne as well, as he apparently had a reason for being there and Snape was yet to hear it.

He led them to an empty classroom, and motion for Thorne to remain by the doorway as to not be a part of this. Five cauldrons were set up nearby, each containing a differently-coloured potion left to cool. A ladle sat on the counter, along with several empty vials waiting to be used.

'Fill a vial each of every potion,' Professor Snape instructed Arthur, busy putting the ingredients he'd collected to use in another batch of cauldrons. 'Then deliver them to the Hospital Wing. If you wish to continue furthering your studies, you may return to assist with a final potion.'

He turned his attention to Thorne, raising a critical eyebrow as questioning as to why the 1st year was there and what he could possibly want from him this afternoon.

Arthur looked at the many different potions. Filling a vial full of each of them shouldn't be too difficult. He nodded and got to work, already focusing on the next task. The Hospital Wing should be easy enough to get to, even with five vials of potions. He hoped that Madam Pomfrey would be appreciative.

With the one vial filled with each of the five potions, Arthur set off to the Hospital Wing. Hopefully Thorne had some luck with whatever it was that he needed from Professor Snape. It sounded like he had some ingredients. Arthur hoped that they were the right kind. It wasn't really any of his business, though, so he got moving a little faster.

Thorne did his best not to shift nervously from foot to foot as Professor Snape painstakingly inspected his potions ingredients. He’d gone through everything he collected, making sure to only include the highest quality items. He’d even made sure to remove the squishiest of the berries!

But the professor didn’t comment on anything. Thorne was left to the conclusion that this was one of those adult-ish “no news is good news” situations, especially when Snape summoned a variety of containers. Thorne set them gingerly in his ingredients box, and followed Snape into the classroom.

“Yes, professor, sir!” he agreed, thought he didn’t have that much experience with scrubbing things before. His mum usually just magicked them clean…

He eyed the collection of cauldrons, looking for the one that looked the freshest- just because, in theory, the less time whatever scum and muck had managed to accumulate on the pewter bottoms wouldn’t have had time to really fuse to them. Unfortunately they all looked rather gunky. So Thorne just selected one, hefting it to a sink so he could reach it better.

He dumped soap into the bottom, filled the cauldron about halfway with warm water and - picking up a scrub brush from the cleaning supplies for the table- rolled up his sleeves, setting to work.

Maybe it was too much soap though. It foamed out of the top of the pewter cauldron, making the brush slippery, but Thorne was determined. Each time the brush escaped his hands he caught it again, firmly scrubbing at the gunky mess. He made sure to focus on any spot where the muck seemed particularly caked on, until his water was cloudy and full of chunks he preferred not to focus on.

He rinsed the cauldron, added the soap (much more carefully this time) and immediately started working off the second layer of former potion. The water was far less murky this time when he poured it out.

He ran his fingers over the whole inside of the cauldron, scraping off bits that the brush had missed the first few times, and really polishing it to a shine where he could. This time, when he rinsed it lit, the water stayed clear.

He tried not to smile too big when he called out to Professor Snape-

“I think I’m done, sir!”