Beetle Eyes Conquest

Sunny pouted. "I go to a school called St. Genevieve's Primary Institution and all we learn is shapes, the alphabet, and to wash our hands after we use the bathroom. It's so boring. I wish I could go to Hogwarts and learn about unicorns." She let out the heavy sigh of a greatly-suffering child.

She looked about the shop, suddenly mystified by the very idea of potions. Potions were always in child fairy tales of evil witches but she had learned from Jack that those fairy tales were all made up because normal people were scared of magic. "How do potions work?" she vaguely queried.

Vivianna really couldn't help but wonder if she'd been like this as a child. The though kept re-occurring and no matter how many times she shoved it away it just kept coming back. Finally settling on that she'd been nothing like this as a youth, the Hogwarts student thought about how to answer Sunny's question. Any answer she gave would probably be far too complex for the little girl to understand, so the teenager took a minute to translate the terminology into something that would be comprehended.

"Well, potions are pretty complicated. But basically, when you add magical ingredients into a caldron in a very specific way, doing very specific things to them, there will be a magical reaction and together all the ingredients will form something else entirely," Vivianna said slowly, finding the simplicity challenging.

Sunny's eyes widened. The idea of potions reminded her of the cheesy television shows she watched - the one with the guy Gilly Frye the Science Guy. He always mixed glass beakers of different colored liquids and then it would change color, fizz, make noise, smoke, or something crazy and unexpected, before saying, 'See! It's science!' The concept of potions sounded just like that.

She nodded like a scholar. "Oh. It's like science. Do you know what science is?" Before Vivi could answer, Sunny said, "Science is making crazy stuff happen because that's the way the world works. It's very hard. But if I can do science, can I make potions?"

((Total knock off of Bill Nye. XD

I love writing her weird sentences. "I can do science." XD))

Vivianna was a little bit confused, she knew roughly what science was. What she confused her was how Sunny's explanation didn't correlate very well with her own definition of science. Shrugging if off as a little girl's ramblings, or perhaps as muggles having their own special definition, the teenager just nodded along seriously as the young girl spoke.

"Well, sort of," was the best response Vivianna could immediately come up with. "There are certain parts of potions were magic isn't needed. Like, adding thing, cutting things, stirring, but sometimes there are a few steps in potions where magic is needed. So, if you ever wanted to make a potion, you could probably do most of it on your own, and then just get the Aunt you told me about to do the magic bits," the teenager said, hoping that Sunny would be able to understand her odd explanation. Truly, there was very little magic involved in potions, discounting the magical properties of the ingredients, but things like the flame did need to be controlled by a wand. Since magic and muggle technology didn't mix, using any sort of muggle flame-creating device wouldn't turn out well.

Sunny listened with interest, her mind reeling at the idea of potentially being able to concoct potions of her own. It was hard for the little girl, being surrounded by something as intriguing as magic and being unable to interact with it in any significant way. It was a constant, repeating disappointment for the little redhead. But this sudden glimmer of hope was possibly more than she could handle.

"So..." she said, her mind racing as she tried piece her fragmented thoughts together as carefully as she could. "I could make potions. What would I need for that? I probably don't have enough money, but I could steal some more!"

"Yes Sunny, you could make potions, as long as you had someone magical with you to do the magic bits," the teenager explained patently, wondering if informing the young girl of this had been a bad idea after all. "Every potion needs different ingredients, but they all need a caldron, stirring rod, usually a blade of some sort, the usual potions tools," Vivianna continued, automatically answering questions about her beloved subject that one wouldn't usually tell a child.

Glancing at the watch on her wrist, checking that she didn't need to be back at school anytime soon, the teenager looked back to the little redhead that was practically vibrating in excitement. Biting her lip in indecision for a moment, the Slytherin internally cursed Sunny for being so bloody adorable.

"How about this," Vivianna started to suggest, "we pick up a few more ingredients, go back to wherever your Aunt is, and I'll brew a potion with you." If Sunny was up for it, Vivianna figured the two of them could brew the Wiggenweld Potion. It was pretty basic, and none of the ingredients were too expensive. It was also a healing or awakening potions of sorts, meaning that it was far less dangerous in the hands of a child than many the Slytherin could think of.

With every word the redheaded teenager uttered about potions, the redheaded child looked more and more excited to actually take the girl up on her unintended offer. This was a way for Sunny to actually be connected to this strange world of magic she had so suddenly been thrust into. Though Jack and Max had made her feel right at home, as had all of the other magical acquaintances she had made since she had entered this new world.

But it was different, being the outsider. Though they had all been so kind, she could not help but feel as though she were missing out on something. Jack had told her a bit about Hogwarts, and how children received their letters at age eleven and then headed off to pursue a magical career. Sunny had already begun to make magical friends her age. What happened when they all turned eleven and they headed off to Hogwarts, leaving her behind?

This simple way of connecting herself to the magical world meant a lot for the little girl.

Sunny thought it over. “I don’t have any more money, but I KNOW my aunt would pay you back! I pinky-promise with a cherry on top. If you could help me pick out the ingredients and buy them, my aunt would let us make it at our house – or maybe even her shop – and she would pay you back!”

"Alright Sunny, looks like we're going ingredient shopping," Vivianna said, grabbing the little girl's free hand. Really, the teenager didn't care too much about getting paid back, she'd been planning upon spending a decent amount in the Apothecary. But if the young girl's aunt insisted, the Slytherin would hardly refuse. It wasn't like whatever was left over wouldn't go to good use.

"We're going to need horklump juice, flobberworm mucus, chizpurfle fangs, billywig sting slime, mint, boom berries, stewed mandrake, honeywater, sloth brain mucus, moondew, salamander blood, lionfish spines, and wolfsbane," the teenager rattled off from memory. It sounded like a complicated list, but the preparation of the potion was pretty simple. There was also fairly little in the brewing that could go wrong, an important thing when brewing with a child.

Grabbing a wicker basket from the front of the store to put their ingredients in, the teenager began to drag the child around in search of what they needed. "And this here," the Slytherin said picking up a vial, "is salamander blood, salamanders are fire lizards that quite literally live inside fires and die without them." Vivianna was in her element, explaining potion ingredients, what they were, and what they did, to the most attentive audience she'd ever had. In truth, the witch was starting to look forward to making a potion with the little girl attached to her hand.

Sunny could have kicked out in excitement when Vivi agreed to buy the ingredients and help her prepare the potion - though kicking would have been very unwise, for her kneecaps were level with the bottom shelves, and the storekeeper was still eyeing her suspiciously, as though he had let a baby bull enter a china shop. She grabbed Vivi's hand immediately and smiled up at her. "Thank you! So much! Really!"

Vivi lead her through the shop and named off the ingredients, each one causing Sunny to giggle. They all sounded so strange and ridiculous! She laughed the word, "Ew-w-w-w!" though her mirth was apparent from the huge grin unfurled on her face. She tightened her grip on the girl's hand, leaning her head against her wrist.

The older girl described one of the ingredients, causing the younger girl's eyes to widen. "Wow! How many magical creatures are there!? There seems like there are a lot. Do you know a lot about them? Do YOU have any magical creatures?" Now that she had started asking questions, she was liable to never stop.

"There are a lot of magical creatures," Vivianna laughed out, finding herself giggling along with the energetic child attached to her hand. One of the reasons so few people truly loved potions, was due to the ingredients involved. The teenager supposed that made sense, but with her it had always been different. As soon as she pulled out a caldron, there was something in her mind that forget everything about the ingredients she was handling but their properties. She wasn't handling frog livers, she was handling the final ingredient of a stain-removing potion. It might've been odd, but it worked.

"I'm not a creature expert, but I know a fair amount," the Slytherin told the young girl. She did take Care of Magical Creatures at Hogwarts, that had to count for something. "No Sunny, I don't have any magical creatures. I have a pet cat, and he might be a bit more violent than your average feline, but the only thing magical about him is his collar," Vivianna said with a wry smile, "there is a creature called a kneazle, which is basically the equivalent of a magical cat, and some of my schoolmates swear up and down that my cat's a kneazle, but I doubt it."

"Now these here, are the spines from a lionfish. They're really pointy, so we'll need to be careful with them later when we're brewing. There're used a lot in all different sorts of healing potions," the Hogwarts student explained. Vivianna never got to talk potions with anyone, due to the fact she was far more advanced than anyone she could find who was willing, and that lingering fear that she'd let something about her illegal activities slip to someone untrustworthy. But right then, as she explained the basics of ingredients to a young child who was completely absorbed in her every word, Vivianna found herself beaming.