Chapter 24 - Colors

"Is this supposed to be the new potion we're going to sell?"

Fred asked, looking into the cauldron with disgust.

"It's just a few tests. Nothing's ready yet. I need to take some more notes."

Ron replied, picking up the notebook papers he had dropped on the floor when the explosion happened.

"But how do you know the combinations you need to make? Is someone teaching you in secret?"

Percy asked curiously, but chuckled at the end of the line, lightening the situation.

"I'm learning on my own. I've been learning from the simple potions Mum makes. Testing the ingredients, that kind of thing."

Ron hesitated for a moment, but managed to extricate himself from the conversation.

"Hm? Interesting…"

Percy said suspiciously.

"Well, if you need help, you can call me. I'm great at that subject."

Percy completed, sitting down on Ron's bed.

"WAIT, IS IT US? CAN WE BE THE GUINEA PIGS?"

George held up his hand so he could speak.

"I want to become a super handsome man who gets all the women in the neighborhood."

Fred said, putting his hands on his hips.

"And me, the sexiest casanova who conquers all the women in the neighborhood."

George said, placing the body in front of Fred.

"Make up your OWN story, George."

Fred said, pushing George away from him.

"I already made it up! Now can't I be better looking than the man who conquers all the women in the neighborhood? You're just jealous, aren't you?"

George said, pushing Fred.

"JEALOUS? YOU'RE THE ONE COPYING ME!"

Fred said, pushing Fred harder.

"I'M NOT COPYING YOU. I'M JUST MORE HANDSOME THAN YOU. DID YOU NOT HEAR ME?"

George pushed Fred harder.

"Both of you will be handsome men. Now quiet down!"

Percy said, scolding them both. The twins looked at each other sullenly, poked each other in the arm one last time, and sat back, paying attention to Ron.

"I don't see a problem with that, but know that you won't look pretty the first time."

Ron warned.

"B-but are we going to get ugly?"

Fred stuttered.

"Maybe."

Ron answered.

The twin brothers looked at each other in astonishment.

"I mean, I don't know. You might get ugly, you might get pretty, or it might not change your appearances that much."

Ron corrected himself, trying to convince the brothers.

"It's not like the both of you aren't ugly already, right? It wouldn't change much."

Percy said looking at the brothers. Ron let out a low chuckle.

"We are not ugly!"

The two spoke together.

"Have you forgotten that we all look similar? You're calling yourselves ugly too.

Fred said, crossing his arms sullenly.

"Similar does not mean equal."

Ron corrected.

"Exactly. I, for one, am the brother that luckily drew the winning genetic lottery ticket."

Percy said, with a huge smile on his face.

"So it's Mum's fault for only making you the pretty one."

George said, intrigued.

"Or it's your fault you didn't pick the right genes."

Percy replied.

"It's your fault too, you donkey."

George responded aggressively.

"Anyway, the potion is temporary. I'm not changing the duration of it yet. So, if you gain a trait you don't like, it won't last longer than 30 minutes, which is the standard effect of all potions with no duration change."

Ron explained as he started to brew another potion for testing.

"Isn't it dangerous? You never know if it might cause a fever."

Percy questioned.

"I think it's unlikely. The ingredients I chose are mainly used for appearance change potions. I think it could, at best, destroy their self-esteem."

Ron replied, chopping one of the ingredients onto a wooden board he had taken from the kitchen and stashed in his room.

"How far have you progressed with the potion?"

Percy asked, getting up and walking over to observe the ingredients Ron was stirring.

"I've already found that mixing 'Fairy Dust' with 'Chameleon Gem' highlights some characteristics of the wizard. BUT, it removes what would be people's imperfections and I don't want that."

Ron replied, dropping some chopped 'Zoo Root' into the cauldron.

"And why not?"

Percy asked, the color that was forming as Ron stirred the cauldron.

"I didn't want to change people's DNA."

Ron said to Percy, trying to show that he means well...

'I still want people to dispute who is more beautiful. That can get me more sales.'

He thought, leaving his true intentions to himself.

"Hmm. Surprisingly thoughtful of you, Ron."

Percy replied, patting Ron on the head like a proud parent.

"Can we go out?"

Fred said, yawning with boredom at not understanding the subject.

"I'm thinking the same. When you're done with the boring part, we'll come back."

George said, already walking towards the door.

"You can go"

Ron replied, wishing they would stop making noise.

Quickly, the brothers ran out of the room to do something else.

"Can I see this over here?"

Percy said, pointing to Ron's notes.

Ron nodded as he finished grinding silver beetle wings in a small stone grinder.

Percy began to go through Ron's notes carefully. He noticed a few mistakes, so he picked up a pencil and started making notes around it.

"What are you doing?"

Ron looked at him, confused by Percy's action.

Percy didn't answer, he continued writing. Then Ron carefully picked up some of the ground up silver beetle wings and began to carry them over to the cauldron.

"WAIT!"

Percy shouted, before Ron opened his hand to place the silver beetles.

"Don't put that on. It will explode if you put it on!"

Percy said, pulling Ron's hand away from the cauldron.

"This time, I'll put the right amount. It won't explode, rest assured."

Ron said, trying to bring his hand towards the cauldron again.

"That was not the problem!"

Percy said, convincing Ron to put down the ground up silver beetle wings and wipe his hand on a nearby cloth.

"I'll explain it to you better. Do you see the color the potion is turning into?"

Percy said, pointing to the liquid in the cauldron.

"Yes. It's brown. What's your point? It always changes color afterwards."

Ron said, confused.

"It is brown. Correct. When this happens, it means that the potion is entering an explosive state, that is, any ingredient you add that leaves the wrong color will cause the potion to explode. Do you remember what color exploded last time?"

Percy asked, already knowing the answer.

"It was a grayish brown, I think."

Ron replied, trying to remember the dirt on the walls.

"Exactly! That color means it's going to explode. You need to get colors that come out of that hue before you can add the gray and blue ingredients."

Percy explained, showing the substitutions he was making in Ron's notes.

"What about white and black?"

Ron questioned.

"It depends on the amount and tone of black and white. If they are pure, you cannot add them, but it is very difficult to find ingredients with pure white or pure black. So, if any of them have a little bit of another color and they are in small quantities, that's okay."

Percy replied, picking up the ground up silver beetle wings and placing them away from the recipe.

"But why does this color explode?"

Ron asked, curious.

"I don't know. All I know is that they explode. It's like a warning that it's about to go wrong."

Percy explained, as he threw out Ron's potion mixture, as he knew it wasn't working.

"I recommend you study a little about the color wheel, because one minute you just have beautiful, bold colors, and the next hour, everything turns grayish brown and explodes."

Percy said, widening his eyes.

"Is this based on your own experience?"

Ron asked, with a small laugh.

"Yes. It's been a tough few weeks."

Percy replied, shaking himself.

"And how are we going to do it, then? I can't put the silver beetle wings in another order. They'll fail to produce an effect."

Ron said, looking at the dust sitting on the corner of the table.

"Silver beetle wings are really tricky to move. These are too fragile and anything makes the atoms of it die. What you can do is add the silver beetle wings first…"

Percy said, adding the silver beetle wings with just the boiled water.

"Wait one moment!"

Percy left the room and returned with one of last year's high school textbooks that he had used. It opened to a page where there was an example of a color wheel in the 'alchemy' section. What he said was really true. Potion colors mattered significantly.

"…And now, let's focus on the shade of purple."

Percy completed, looking around for the ingredients.

"So it would be 'Fairy Dust'?"

Ron asked, holding up a bag of glittering violet powder.

"None of that!"

Percy replied, smacking Ron's hand lightly, causing him to drop the bag.

"If we are going to go purple, we need to go through orange, red, pink and then purple."

Percy explained, sliding his finger across the color circle image in the book, showing the color route they would take.

[ AU Notes

The colors of the potions directly interfere with their result. They are not just aesthetic, but help witches to identify if the recipe is working or not (whether from explosions or losing effect). ]

"Now, let's add some Hufflepuff dust to pull it up to orange. This will help the person appear more friendly and confident."

Percy said, carefully pouring in a small dose of the powder.

"Since this powder is light, silver beetle wings will have no difficulty absorbing the ingredient substance. That way, they won't lose the effect.

Percy completed. The potion, which before had only been bubbling a bright gray, almost white, began to take on a deep orange color.

"Now we can go to red. Veela blood would be essential here, but since we're not crazy about messing with these critters, we'll have to opt for something else for now."

Percy said, looking at the notes again.

"We have… Red Berries."

Ron picked up another bag and handed it to Percy.

"Yes… Let's use the Red Berries. It's the only red thing we have and at least it'll make it sweeter."

Ron began chopping up the Red Berries and carefully placed them inside the cauldron, with the help of the wooden spoon they were using to stir the potion.

"Now the pink…"

Percy said, looking at the chromatic circle.

"We have two options: We can use Pansy Root, which is used in love potions; and Essences of Roses, which is used in potions of beauty and aromas…"

Ron said, showing the vials to Percy.

"I would say we use Pansy Root, but I feel a little insecure about using it and we end up changing the main effect of the potion."

Percy said, examining the vials closely.

Ron opened the bottle of Rose essences and added a drop every 1 minute, waiting for the color to change before proceeding.

"It's good."

Percy said, watching the potion turn a rosy red color.

"You can add 'Fairy Dust' now."

Percy said, picking up the bag from the floor that Ron had dropped after receiving Percy's slap.

Ron took small grams of the powder and carefully added it, making sure not to overdo it and spoil the potion.

"Now, we have to stir this for a few minutes. I guess we do it for around 20 minutes. That needs to start shining a little brighter."

Percy said, scraping the edge of the cauldron with his wooden spoon, as if he were making candy.

Ron took that moment to write down all the ingredients they had used.

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[ Toru's notes ]

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