| Details for A Balmy Conversation |
| Summary: | Gabriel gets work on a task from Madam Spleen and a personal project before being joined by Madeline and Angelus for a kinda, sort of, fence mending session |
| Date: | 1939-10-28 |
| Location: | Potion's Classroom, Hogwarts Castle |
| Related: | — |
| Characters |
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Potion's Classroom, Hogwarts Castle
The Potions classroom is a windowless classroom with stone arches running along its walls holding up a low ceiling. Within each arch are shelves that hold glass jars with pickled animal remains, both mundane and magical. Under the shelves are cabinets that stand open during class times to give students access to all of the potion making materials they might need. The room itself is a big square filled with a double row of long tables with enough space for four or five students to have a cauldron set up and books open at each one. At the end of the room is a stone dais with a desk set upon it from which the Potions Master can survey the entirety of the room. Behind the desk is a doorway that leads to the Professor's Office. During classes the entire room is illuminated by guttering torches and the burners underneath the students cauldron making for a rather gloomy atmosphere. Through a trapdoor in the floor by the Professor's Desk is a large storage basement that is used to store the necessary potion supplies.
Immediately after dinner Gabriel disappeared without nary a word to anyone. If someone were to search him out they would find him, sooner or later, in the potions classroom. On the table in front of him are not one but two cauldrons. One of them emits the smell of what some would be reconizable as Bruisewort Potion by anyone that's been to the Infirmary to get treated for small injuries that might include bruises. The other cauldron emits a slightly sweet smell with strong hints of herbs.
Madeline hasn't come looking for Gabriel - she's come looking for a chance to practice her potions. But when she sees that Gabriel is there, she smiles and flounces over to his table, cauldron in hand, to pull up a stool. She settles her cauldron and book bag onto the table and climbs up onto a seat, digging out her book as she greets him with a cheery, "Hello."
Gabriel turns his head for a very quick second to look at Madeline and offer an absentminded "Hello" before going to back to hopping between his two cauldron, consulting his potion's book sometimes then consulting a handwritten recipe at other times. Sprinkling ingredients here, adding a dash there, stirring and swirling the liquids in both cauldron from time to time he's kept hopping juggling both potions at once.
"…shouldn't you do them one at a time? You'll mess them both up!" Madeline protests as she watches Gabriel switching back and forth between potions. With her book out, she opens it to the correct page, and starts pulling out various ingredients, and her scales.
Gabriel waves a hand distractedly in the air as he measures out the primary ingredient for the Bruisewort Balm, appropriately, bruisewort extract. "Three teaspoons of bruisewort extract… Not if I'm paying enough attention I won't…"
And clearly he's /not/ paying enough attention now. Because while distracted by talking with Madeline he picks up a tablespoon and pours three of the much bigger measures of the extract into his potion.
"Oh, well, if you say so," Madeline answers - though she doesn't sound convinced. Leaving Gabriel to his work, she moves to the shelves to retrieve a cutting board, knife, and burner for her cauldron. She starts setting up her station, everything neatly and meticulously in its place, and starts reading her way through the instructions for the potion she wants to prepare - glancing up only periodically at Gabriel. It's important to remind yourself of what you're doing before you start, she finds.
Gabriel sprinkles the last few ingredients into his second potion then folds up the recipe and sticks it in his pocket. "There. Now to let it cook for another hour." Then he turns to his Bruisewort Balm and uncovers the cauldron just to really back away from it as a smell so astringent that it can almost seal nostrils shut comes out along with a puff of sickly yellow smoke. "Augh! Too much extract!" he notices his mistake when he takes a quick look over his work space and sees the wet tablespoon and the dry teaspoon. "Well, I'll have to start that one over again. What are you working on?"
"Calming drought," Madeline responds, with her eyes on the instructions. Because it's part of the second year curriculum. Not at all because she woke up out of another bad dream, recently. "I tried it with Rena and my uncle two Hogsmeade weekends back, and it's pretty easy, so I should be alright," she adds. She finishes with the short list of instructions, then glances up at Gabriel. "Hey, Gunny?" she says, lowering her voice. "If I, umm. If I told ya something, you'd promise not to tell anyone, right? Pinky promise?"
When Madeline asks her question Gabriel is in the process of rinsing out his second cauldron after having properly disposed of the botched potion. Looking over his shoulder he smiles at his fellow Pirate, "Pirate's honor, of course. What's on your mind?" Once the cauldron is properly rinsed out he returns to the table he's been working at and starts preparing the ingredients for his Bruisewort Balm again.
Madeline looks around to see if anyone is close enough to hear them, then holds out her pinky for Gabriel to formally lock fingers with. It's an unbreakable promise! …by Muggle kids standards, at least.
Her voice lowers as she confides in her friend, "I didn't really earn my Junior Auror's badge from what happened at Sweet Temptations. I got it because last year Rena asked me to spy on the Magijugend."
Gabriel chuckles a bit at Maddie's use of the Muggle convention before going back to cutting and grinding ingredients, "And a bang up job you did at it too. Even more reason to have a Junior Auror badge." He pours some water into his cauldron, then puts the flame back under it to start heating the new batch of balm.
Madeline nods, then beams with satisfaction. "I've been just dying to tell everyone, only Rena said I couldn't, but not that it's all over… well. I suppose there isn't any harm." She lets out a sigh before adding, "I felt awful when things went so bad this year, though. Like… I shouldda done better last year. But I don't know how I coulda."
Madeline and Gabriel are sharing a table together - Gabriel working on a pair of potions, while Madeline has her book open to the calming drought. She turns the flame on, on her burner, and starts measuring water into her cauldron.
Gabriel shakes his head rather adamantly, stopping all his work to look intently at Madeline, "Don't even think about it, Maddie. If you need to talk about it with someone else other than me, tell the rest of the Pirates. But if it gets out that that was what you were doing you're going to be a target for everything nasty the Magidunderheads can think about doing to you without getting expelled!" He keeps his gaze on her, making sure she's listening.
"I know," Madeline answers Gabriel, her expression deadly serious, her voice still low. "Why do you think it's such an important secret? Why do you think I didn't tell anyone - not even my friends? It's all done with now, but if they knew just how much I did… Rena even said she couldn't have done none of it without my help." Yeah - there's some pride there, on that last bit.
From outside in the dungeons there's a triple knock. Angelus is holding onto his book strap, and a bag over his shoulder, leaning a little closer to the door as he waits to see if anyone answers.
Gabriel is in the process of slowly counting drops of one of the liquid ingredients of the balm, rather delicately making sure that he doesn't go over the proper count. To make sure he doesn't he ignores the door, instead asking Madeline to get it, "Can you please get the door?"
"Sure," Madeline agrees. All she really needs to do right now is bring her cauldron to a simmer, anyways. She moves across the room towards the door, opening it - and finding herself faced with Angelus. "…oh. Hi. I don't think you need to knock, you know. It's not class time or anything." That said, she moves out of the doorway so Angelus can come in, moving back towards her cauldron.
The door opens to Madeline and Angelus lets out a disappointed sigh. "Evans," he murmurs out, lightly dipping his chin in a nod. "I didn't realize the room was in use." He only really steps just past the threshold to glance around, his stare suddenly icing over when it lands on Gabriel. "No one else is in here with you?" he asks, looking back to Madeline.
Gabriel barely looks back as Angelus speaks. He doesn't need to, he recognizes the voice just fine. "Hello; Angelus." While he slowly stirs his bubbling potion he uses his free hand to nudge a sheet of parchment that's half covered by the book open next to his cauldrons, "Permission from Madam Spleen to work on some Bruisewort Balm. What are you doing here?"
Madeline simply gestures towards a corner of the room - where one of the prefects is working on a written assignment for a NEWTs course. She perches herself on the stool in front of her cauldron - glancing at the water, which is starting to steam. She starts splitting her bloodroot stems, and scraping out their innards.
Angelus' gaze trails after Madeline's gesture, and he nods simply. He shifts the handles of the bag against his shoulder and tilts his head as he glances to Gabriel again. His lips curl lightly. "My business," is his simple answer to Gabriel. "I'll come back later," he says as he glances to Madeline. He offers her a nod and then turns to step out of the classroom, closing the door behind him.
A shaky hand moves in front of her slowly with hesitation, on the way to her robes. But she never does reach for her wand, instead pressing her fingers lightly to the side of her head as she closes her eyes. A soft, murmuring noise escapes her as she soothes, or tries to, delicately laying her head against her hand. The voice starts drawing her away from those thoughts. Her pale blue eyes open to focus on the wizard, a smile fluttering across her face even as she looks, for a moment, confused. But then recognition flashes in her eyes as she's softly nodding her head. "No," she says smoothly and just above a whisper, "I know you. I…" She presses the heel of her hand to her head briefly before she curtsies, her fingers pulling out her robes. "Good evening." She offers out a hand for his.
Gabriel barely bothers to look up from his work. Offhandedly he says, "Good night, Fall." while he puts more ingredients into his cauldron. Once Angelus has closed the door behind himself Gabriel sighs and says,"Well, that was awkward. I don't understand how he can be mad at me for giving him a bunch of chances then finally giving up when he even turns down the Oreos I offered him, /knowing/ he loves them, as my little thank you for doing the right thing with the boxes. Prat…"
"I've always said he makes no sense and can't anybody trust him or rely on him," Madeline answers. "Some people didn't believe me." She sticks her tongue out at Gabriel, before returning her attention to scraping out her stems. "He came back from buying his new wand and wanted to apologize for hurting me while the Magijugend were in power. Brought me candy and a bracelet." She lets out a frustrated sigh. "I don't know what what to do about the bracelet. My parents taught me to never be rude, and Rena wants me to forgive him, and it is pretty… but I don't think I want to wear it. Maybe I can sell it? But that's a dreadfully rude thing to do, isn't it?"
The door barely closes when Angelus hesitates. He turns back to the door, but barely pushes it open when he freezes, a spark flickering in his eyes. He's about to push open the door, too, when Madeline speaks and instead starts to draw his hand away from the knob. But taking his hand away from the door causes it to open a little further, bringing out a sigh from the youth. So he peeks back into the classroom. "I was going to ask something," Gel explains, but his cold eyes shift back to Gabriel and he snorts. "Right, because you had to insult Flint when she was doing nothing wrong."
Gabriel finally bothers to look up from his cauldron, since it needs some time to simmer before the bruisewort extract is added. Arching an eyebrow at Angelus he says, "what? Evil Princess #1? She earned that. Playing little Miss Hitler to her uncle's version of Hitler proper. She's abused plenty of us plenty of times to deserve it. And besides, if she can't take it she shouldn't dish it out." Tilting his head a bit to the side he says, "At least you're showing glimmers of goodness again. It was nice of you to apologize to Madeline. She deserves it too." Then he turns back to his cauldron, examining the color and thickness of the liquid in it.
As Angelus steps back in, Madeline freezes in place, looking absolutely stricken. He hadn't left? Was he listening at the door? How loud had her voice been? Had he heard her? Oh, gosh, what she'd said was definitely more terribly rude and would upset her mother and Rena! She stares in mute horror for the moment.
The spark burns in Angelus' eyes, regarding Gabriel. He turns to glance towards Madeline, toward the prefect in the room, and releases a sigh. He returns his gaze onto Gabriel, frowning at the younger boy. "You give titles and talk like that without thinking," says Gel, tilting his head a little. "When someone feels oppressed you must know it's not easy not to retaliate. I don't know, Ward, maybe you should try acting respectfully towards the seventh." A smirk flicks against the youth's lips as he glances at Madeline at Gabe's comment. "I thought it might have been the kind thing to do," he responds with a mere shrug. He turns briefly to the wall the door is connected to, setting down his bag and books, and steps further into the room as he sets his jaw. "Do you need help with that?" he asks, nodding at the simmering potion. Pausing by the table, he turns his gaze. "Also, Evans, how exactly did you help Auror Odori with Flint?"
Gabriel takes a moment to think about Angelus' offer before saying, "I'm working on some Bruisewort Balm for Madam Spleen. Do you know how to make it?" The fact that he addressed the offer first doesn't mean he's forgotten the rest of his statement, "As for respect, respect is earned. I don't care if she's a 7th year or not. She treats me and the rest of the Muggle born worse than the dirt under her shoes. She's actually getting more respect from me than she deserves."
Angelus's question doesn't help with the surprised and still somewhat stricken expression on Madeline's face. "W-what?" she asks. She hasn't told anyone apart from Gabriel just now! How could he know?! "W-why would you say I did something like that? I mean - she's my friend, sure…"
Angelus smirks as he cocks his head proudly. "If you remember to turn down the temperature so it isn't as hot it should turn out better," Gel informs helpfully. But the smile which twitches at his lips fades as he frowns. "Well, if you feel like treating her like that, she's definitely not going to start treating you better." A laugh escapes the boy, but it's dry and humorless. "Believe me, I know." He snorts. Looking to Madeline, his brow arches at her as he tips his head lightly back. "I've got ways of hearing things. In any case, you did good work. You helped get the school back to normal."
Gabriel only hesitates a moment before turning the heat down on his balm's cauldron. His other cauldron he knows exactly what he's doing with and he would rather not bring any undue attention to it anyway. He also decides to ignore Angelus' newest comment about Calista and instead focuses on his last statement, "Getting the school back to normal deserves a commendation of some kind. Too bad it was /secret/ work." He stresses the word 'secret' very markedly.
"I didn't do anything," Madeline tries to protest, but then Gabriel speaks up, and earns himself a slightly exasperated look. "I just… I need to work on this potion," she mutters. She's starting to think she's really going to need a calming draught! With the water in her cauldron simmering, she starts adding the six drops of fluxweed oil.
Angelus tilts his head lightly as he flicks his gaze between Gabriel and Madeline. A smirk touches his lips. "Yes, it would be a secret, wouldn't it?" He cocks his head a little further as he lifts a shoulder. "It's a shame that no one can trust me," he murmurs out as he glances towards Madeline. A brow rises and he lifts a hand in front of him, palm upward. "Oh, but Evans says she did nothing. I don't know what you're talking about, Ward," he says with a quick glance at the boy, "clearly Evans knows what she didn't do." He takes a step back as he dips his head. "Go ahead, work on your potion." He offers out a smile before he turns, heading towards where he left his belongings.
Gabriel simply arches an eyebrow at Angelus. After all, what is there to say to that. Other than, "I guess we will see if you can be trusted, won't we? I hope so." There isn't really anything overt about it but his tone does carry a subtle menace to anyone listening carefully to it. Or for someone that knows him well. "Thank you for the suggestion for the potion."
Madeline has her attention firmly one her work - where she's grinding the pulp and the juice from her stems, and trying not to look like she feels the urge to cry. Do all the Magijugend know? Did Angelus find out from them? But they haven't done anything to her yet - and would they tell Angelus anything, when most are so mad at him?
…if they don't know, would he use that to get his friends back? Oh, this is not going to go well. Her anxiety can likely be seen in the unnecessary force she uses while grinding.
When Angelus looks back to give Gabriel a glance, he arches a brow at Madeline. A smile slides along his lips as he tosses his head up. "Or it could be a repeat with the secret you didn't want to tell your uncle." The curl to his lips increases as he starts to step back to the table. "Would I do that to you, Evans?" An amusement flickers in his eyes and the chuckle that escapes him is sincere. "Stop, stop, stop," he says as he reaches out to try and lay a hand over top of Madeline's. "You'll get average results if you don't take care on preparing the ingredients. I've known since Sunday, Evans, and I've told no one." He smirks as shrugs. "No one needs to know as far as I'm concerned."
Gabriel extinguishes the flames under both his cauldrons, setting them aside on one of the shelves specifically set aside for the potions that need to rest before being considered complete. Then he starts putting his things away, "Well, that is good to hear." The look he tosses Madeline promises more questions later about his secret she was trying to keep from her uncle but for the moment all he says, "I have a lot of catch up homework to do. I'll see you tomorrow, Copper?"
Madeline pulls her hand abruptly away from Angelus' - and the look she gives the boy is one close to tears. She's scared, and having a hard time hiding it. "There's nothing for them to know," she insists in a quiet, almost pleading voice, before flicking her gaze to Gabriel. She doesn't say it - but she wishes he'd stay.
Still. At least there's the prefect still in the room…
Gabriel catches Madeline's look and turns around, "Well, I do have my Transfiguration book with me. Maybe I can keep you company until your potion is finished. But I do need to focus…" Taking a seat next to Madeline he pulls out his book doing the Ravenclaw thing where they all but tune out the world around them when they really start focusing.
"Look, take the scalpel and slice it in sizes about this big," says Angelus, bringing his hand up with his thumb and finger pretty much touching. So small, obviously. "But don't just grind it." How can he not give direction when it comes to potions? His tone is proud as he explains, a smug smile resting on his lips. His blue eyes flick between Madeline and Gabriel, but he disregards Gabe and makes no comment about him departing or staying. He nods his head once to Madeline. "Nothing to tell. Well, I've told you that you've done a grand job, and that's all I really stepped back in to say. So slice small, not grind." He walks backwards across the room before he spins, and finishes his approach to pick up his book strap and bag.
"The book says… to grind," Madeline says uncertainly, looking between Angelus and her work, and trying to get her emotions back under control. She wishes the drought was already finished.
"I'll… I'll make two batches and try it both ways," she concludes, her eyes back on her work. "Thank you." With the stems already ground, she starts scraping it all into her cauldron.