Chapter 54
Chapter 54
Angel and Mrs. Ellison adored the scarves and gloves Suer had given them.
They loved them even more after learning that the garments had been woven primarily from unicorn hair.
In Mrs. Ellison’s words, meeting a unicorn was the dream of every woman, no matter her age. Her precious son had finally made that dream come true, even if she had already found her knight.
Although the transformed “unicorn” vanished on the day after Christmas, Angel did not appear terribly upset. She had found a “new favourite”.
She wore her three-piece unicorn-hair set every day to build snowmen and wage snowball fights.
Inevitably, a few days before Suer’s Christmas holiday ended, she fell ill with a high fever.
It was the first time Angel had been ill since birth. Perhaps God wanted the experience to teach her a proper lesson. Whatever the reason, Mr. and Mrs. Ellison and Suer took her to several hospitals and consulted a number of celebrated doctors. She swallowed plenty of medicine, but the fever always returned once its effects wore off.
“Why don’t we try a potion?” Hermione suggested when she came to visit Angel.
“Right…” Suer was almost frantic. “Right, right–we still have potions!”
“Which potion could make Angel better?”
“Do you remember the one Professor Snape taught us before the holiday?” Hermione prompted.
“Cicada slough, dittany, daffodil, liquorice…”
“That’s it!” Suer’s face brightened. “Pepperup Potion. Pepperup Potion will definitely cure Angel!”
“We don’t have any brewing equipment or ingredients here. We must go to Diagon Alley at once.”
Mrs. Ellison, who had listened to the two children, hesitated. “Suer…” Her brows were drawn tight and her eyes red. “Will this… potion… truly help?”
“We haven’t a better choice, Suli.” Mr. Ellison enclosed his wife’s hand in his own.
“I’ll drive. It’s the same address as last time, yes?”
“Yes, Dad.”
The car raced along the roads outside London, leaving clouds of dust in its wake. Suer and Hermione sat in the back, quietly checking the amount of every ingredient. They disagreed, however, over whether the cicada slough should be added whole or ground into powder and weighed.
They finally decided to test both methods. Just then, the car screeched to a halt outside the record shop.
They had reached the Leaky Cauldron.
The two young wizards ran all the way to the apothecary, where they spent two Galleons on several sets of Pepperup Potion ingredients. Another three Galleons at Potage’s Cauldron Shop bought them a complete set of brewing equipment: a cauldron, scales, mortar, pestle and more.
Fortunately, Hermione carried her little purse everywhere, and she still had plenty of Galleons inside.
“Wait, Suer.” As they passed Flourish and Blotts, Hermione caught hold of him. “I think we ought to confirm that our formula is correct.”
“We certainly should.” Suer thought it an excellent suggestion.
The bookseller’s smile froze upon his face.
Two young wizards had just swept into the shop like a gust of wind, frantically leafed through a book while muttering under their breath, and then rushed away again just as he prepared to take it to the till.
Softly, softly they came. Softly, softly they went–and carried off his Galleons with them.
The two children ran on, the wind in their wake ruffling old Tom’s hair.
Bang.
Vroom…
The car sped away, its engine rumbling low. For all his anxiety, Mr. Ellison kept his foot steady and displayed every ounce of his driving skill.
Screech…
Before the car had fully stopped, Suer flung open the door. Laden with ingredients and equipment from Diagon Alley, he charged straight upstairs.
Bang. The bedroom door shut. Panting hard, Hermione slipped into Suer’s room a second before it closed.
“Let’s begin.” Suer picked up the wand on his desk and gave it a light flick. A cluster of blue flames sprang to life.
“You’ll receive a warning from the Ministry of Magic,” Hermione said anxiously, glancing at the fire.
“This isn’t the time to worry about that.” Suer hurriedly threw the cicada slough into the mortar and ground it fiercely with the pestle. “Weigh the other ingredients for me.”
Basic Potion-Making had settled their disagreement from the journey. Provided the amount was measured accurately, it did not matter whether the cicada slough was whole or broken. For small batches, however, powder was more convenient than an intact shell.
One ingredient after another entered the cauldron in order. Purple vapour rose from the boiling liquid, carrying a foul odour.
“It failed. The colour is wrong.” Hermione sniffed. “So is the smell.”
“A proper Pepperup Potion should be pale green and smell of grass after rain.”
“Then we’ll start again.” Suer’s voice rose slightly, making Hermione frown.
“You’re too agitated, Suer.” Hermione raised her own voice over his. “Remember what Professor Snape told us. Potion-making is a precise discipline. It permits no error from the wizard brewing it. Too much or too little of any ingredient will result in failure and may very well have serious consequences!”
“You have to calm down.”
“We only have one cauldron!”
Hermione’s barrage left Suer dazed, but it did calm him somewhat. Then he thought of Angel lying unconscious on the bed, her face burning red. Anxiety seized him again. His hand shook, spilling a little too much powdered cicada slough into the cauldron, and the potion’s colour changed immediately.
They had failed again.
“Move!” Hermione glared at him crossly and nudged him aside with her hip. “I’ll do it.”
“Give me the dittany.”
“Why are you standing there? Do you want Angel to get better or not?”
…
Hermione carefully stirred the boiling potion two and a half turns clockwise with a glass rod. Wearing heatproof gloves, she gripped the cauldron’s handle and moved it away from the flame. Then she picked up the measured cicada powder and decisively poured in every grain.
As the powder dissolved, the potion slowly changed from brown to pale green. A pleasant scent of fresh grass drifted from the cauldron.
“We did it.” Suer drew a deep breath. “Thank goodness.”
He opened the window. The December wind swept through the room, dropping the temperature by several degrees and quickly cooling the scalding potion.
Suer carefully divided it among slender glass vials and swiftly sealed each with an oak stopper.
Soon afterwards, Mrs. Ellison reluctantly fed Angel a dose of Pepperup Potion. Suer, Hermione and Mr. Ellison stood beside the bed, anxiously waiting for it to take effect.
The potion worked astonishingly well, but its side effect gave Mrs. Ellison a terrible fright.
Suer and Hermione repeatedly assured her that the medicine was working by turning the heat inside Angel’s body into steam and expelling it.
Angel’s steam engine ran for a full three hours. It did not stop until darkness had fallen.
“Mummy, Daddy, Bwother, Big Sister Hermione… why are you all in my room?” Angel’s weak voice sounded at last. All four people released the breath of tension and fear that had been trapped in their chests.
“Extraordinary.” Mr. Ellison turned one of the small vials in his hand and gazed at the pale-green potion within, clicking his tongue in admiration.
“Thank you, Suer.” After coaxing Angel back to sleep, Mrs. Ellison spoke to the two young wizards with reddened eyes. “And thank you, little Hermione.”
“There’s no need to thank me, Mum. We’re family, aren’t we?” Suer embraced Mrs. Ellison and spoke softly.