Leave me alone.

As Alex stepped into place to begin following the instructions for the potion, he eagerly reached out to light the fire, his eyes alight with excitement. The older girl by his side sighed, musing about the monotony and structure of potion making. "It can be a bit tedious at times," she commented, stirring the mixture until the timer ran out of sand.

"The structure is nice, though," Alex replied with a grin. "It gives you a sense of order and control. But what I really love are the reactions. There's nothing quite like the thrill of watching someone's potion blow up in their face." He chuckled at the thought, imagining the chaos and surprise that such a mishap would cause.

Despite the risks involved, there was something undeniably exhilarating about potion making. As the two continued their work, carefully measuring out ingredients and monitoring the mixture's progress, Alex felt a sense of satisfaction and pride in his skills. And he knew that no matter how many potions he made, he would always be drawn to the excitement and unpredictability of the reactions that could result.

Speaking of rhythms, it was comfortable how quickly they fell into one. It was the type of back-and-forth two Potioneers who truly respected the craft could easily take on, a balance of timing and precision. A dance around the workspace and the cauldron. Neither required much of her, neither the work nor the company. Which was something she grew to appreciate every year that life got harder.

"The tedium is good for young minds," she said, a silly quip in the voice of their incredibly boring magical theory professor. She rolled her eyes at the joke (of course it was a joke) about potions exploding. "I never relish in quality ingredients going to waste," she said, her voice still light.

The two students continued their work, pausing to make Potion puns, light references to the chaos one could only find in this castle, and comments on the color and smell of their creation. Lily would later lookback, both surprised at how much the change in the boomslang skin process did effect the potency, and a bit dismayed at how much more awful the thing tasted.

But she did find... it had been not a terrible time to waste away an afternoon.