E.C. EDWARDS - The Mighty Antimagic Spell -
Chapter 35 - Helping Potions May Not Help You If..
Of course others were even more horrible ... or terrible. A little girl remained the same, except for the tongue which was 5 times longer, and Pepplyn Hallow's five fingers had become three hooked anatomical structures, like those of a chameleon.
So this shy little boy, Christoph, was often the fastest and the best at most of those practical tests. But even the second in the class, which was not in line with the tradition of the Soimestis, not even the talkative Alexander did want to enter Professor Harmony's quiz. Because even if you didn't know an answer, Miss Harmony still helped you with clues, so many that she got you close to the answer ... only that it could last an eternity or even two eternities until you found it.
She asked you a lot of questions that you had to answer. And many of them had nothing to do with the subject of the class. They were questions about other elixirs and magic potions, which had only something insignificant in common, the most insignificant connection with what they were discussing.
"Elizabeth, are you helping us?" smiled Mrs. Harmony. "You like to get the answer using the clues."
Alexander had got a sickening smile on his face. He was so happy that he pushed Elizabeth into that trap of questions.
"You know, my dear, I once met a man who was part of the sceptics. Kind of a guide. A man of justice ... just not a judge," Miss Harmony tried to help the girl, with those clues too far from the subject.
What does a guide have to do with a potion against a vampire?
Elizabeth didn’t look for this hint like the other students.
“As far as I know, more powerful than garlic is the potion called ‘burning silver’ or ‘silver flames’, as some call it. Unlike potions that contain garlic and keep the vampire away from the person who got such a potion, ‘silver flames’ can hurt it very badly. They burn the vampire.”
Professor Harmony was delighted by what the child told her. She was proud that she was able to instil in a child so much desire for knowledge. Even though she knew it wasn’t just her merit, she was proud to have participated in this child’s preparation who learned so many lessons and magic secrets, including many details of the subject taught by her.
“As usual, Elizabeth Edwards, you show me you like my subject and you know any answer. You got the two points from me. But, you can still tell us the recipe, if you know it.”
The girl started:
“Eight large doses of clear water from the cold Spring ... 2 pinches of basil.”
“Wait, dear. I’d like you to write down this recipe. Maybe we'll prepare it someday ... and maybe we'll use it.”
“Against a vampire!” said Johnny excitedly.
The children all laughed. Harmony smiled, trying not to make the boy feel offended.
“Johnny, there have been no vampires for centuries. Not even in Western Transylvania. Some say they were exterminated... by werewolves. They also disappeared for more than four hundred years. But let's listen to Miss Edwards's recipe,” said Harmony, with the same beautiful smile.
Elizabeth slightly cleared her throat and then continued:
“The potion ‘burning silver’ contains:
8 large doses of clear water from the cold Spring
2 pinches of basil
1 small dose of pure silver
2 small doses of wormwood
3 seeds from Akebi fruit
3 sprouts of ginseng root ... ”
But the girl was interrupted by the deafening noise of a clock used by all grandmas when they cooked something extremely tasty in the oven.
“Excuse me Elizabeth, Miss Harmony interrupted. I’ll ask you to finish dictating the recipe after we solve the potion. We only have five minutes to put the other ingredients, because otherwise the potion instead of changing the colour will change the texture of the clothes.”
The professor went to prepare a large pile of bottles in which she put exactly the required amount of mixture. After that, she signalled to the children to come and take their share.
“Add the three ingredients and then I want you to sprinkle your colleague coat. Let's see the outcome. But you still have ..., ” she quickly looked at the clock. “Just one minute and 30 seconds.”
All children prepared the ingredients in their bottle. Some trembled and shed some of the potion received, others hurried without reading the book and added as they considered, just looking at what the colleague did next to them, others weighing carefully and gently placing everything it had to be poured into a bottle.
Others, like Johnny and Pepplyn Hallow, weren’t in a hurry and poured the ingredients at the very last moment, even when Miss Harmony got close to them.
“I hope you are ready.”
Johnny and Pepplyn shook hands as they gave up the utensils to put the ingredients in their bottle, sprinkling them by hand.
“Let's see what we did. What you did …”
Miss Harmony had the students in turn spray on their colleague next to them.
Elizabeth sprayed her colleague's blouse, and the blouse turned yellow like a lemon, as opposed to the bright red it was before.
"Very nice," said Professor Harmony excitedly, as if the fact that the girl poured some liqueur on her colleague's blouse was the biggest crime ever committed. “But you put a little more sulphur than you should”
Afterwards she asked other kids too. Most of the clothes were now coloured yellow, a sign that the conscientious students put the ingredients according to the special recipe. But there were also clothes that became somewhat green, blue or slightly multicoloured. Miss Harmony gently told them everything they did wrong.
Eventually she came to Johnny and Pepplyn.
“Johnny…. Let's colour Pepplyn's cape in yellow.”
But when Johnny sprayed the cape, it turned into a thick coat, with woven leaves and twigs.
Pepplyn Hallow was so frightened when he saw he sprayed Johnny with the potion on his hair and his eyebrows. Immediately the hair from Johnny's head and, of course, his eyebrows, grew like the coat of the woolliest sheep that ever lived on Earth.
His hair became finer than silk and longer even than the hair that Merlin was proud of in the paintings in which his portrait was presented. As for the eyebrows, their hair grew so long that it was impossible for Johnny to see anything because of them.
He had to part his eyebrows so he could see the others, which he did, causing loud laughter. Moreover, he ended up with his eyebrows in his mouth, so he couldn't say anything in his defence - because who can talk with a pile of hair in his mouth?
The whole class laughed with tears. Even Miss Harmony had a hard time not letting her usual smile turn into laughter. Eventually, with her wand, she freed poor Johnny from the surplus of hair, so he looked now as before, and gave Pepplyn back the beautiful cape.
“I told you it’s no joke with potions and elixirs. The slightest mistake can cost you dearly. It could be much worse than what Johnny and Pepplyn suffered.”
They laughed so loud that it was impossible to continue that class of Potions and Elixir, as it should be.
“Potions are as difficult as magic. You can you make a mistake when you want to throw a beam of light in the sky and instead of saying Lux Trabem you say Lux Tribem or worse ... One letter and you can be ... lost.”
Professor Harmony looked at the children, but as she saw no reaction from them, she finished the class:
“Come on, today's class is over. We're talking about Elizabeth's recipe next time. See you next time.”
And the students left the classroom one by one, still laughing loud, while Professor Harmony with her wand cleaned the place after them, tidying and placing the bottles cleaned with the help of the "wizard's weapon" back on the shelves.
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