hatchery

[chanuphis]

The next alchemy class of their second year, they arrive to the lab to discover that each of them has an ordinary chicken's egg (brown) and another box of miscellanea.

Slughorn explains, when everyone is assembled, that alchemy with an egg is actually where phoenixes are speculated to originate; but no one has the recipe any more and there haven't been new phoenixes for centuries. They will not be making living things today. But the eggshell is a good base from which to appear lots of possible objects; alchemy doesn't like to conjure things into existence in plain sight but is quite willing that new things appear inside eggshells, cocoons, geodes, and similar. Their eggs have been pre-drained of their interiors for this purpose, although some recipes use full eggs.

As last week, they are invited to come up with recipes on paper for review by the professor before trying anything. Known possible results available with this set of ingredients include wooden, decorated eggs nested inside the shell; a shellful of small sharp teeth (the commonest source of hens' teeth, as they have encountered once or twice in potions); successively smaller eggshells the smallest of which holds a blob of mercury; and a perfectly hardboiled egg which can be arbitrarily flavored by exact details of the process. But they are welcome to aim at another result as long as their procedure looks safe.

Comments

[msmaxwell]

"Well, he says that the only difference between being a 'real scientist' and not is that real scientists need peer review."

[chanuphis]

"My point is he has practice."

[msmaxwell]

"Yeah, I'll ask."

[chanuphis]

"Thanks!"

[mswoods]

"Tell him to include different types of gadgets. Like, calculators and electronic watches and torches and stuff."

[msmaxwell]

"Mmhm. A mobile phone, too."

[mswoods]

"Er, yes, sure."

[chanuphis]

"Maybe with the batteries sent separately in case that helps, so we can watch the whole fizzling process."

[msmaxwell]

"Mmhm."

[chanuphis]

"Anyway," says Miranda to Sadde, "Patronuses?"

[mswoods]

"Yeah!"

[chanuphis]

So off they go to produce...

...mist!

"Ugh."

[mswoods]

Sadde produces:

fog! Bright fog, with a sort of almost-shape, small and longish.

"Ooh!"

[chanuphis]

"Ooh, you got not a blob quite!"

[mswoods]

"Okay, lemme see, if I do concentrated stuff like last time... Expecto Patronum!" Now the shape is significantly more identifiable, and the blob is almost solid. Sadde squints at it. "Is that a weasel...?"

[chanuphis]

"Maybe! Or an otter or a lizard or something." Miranda tries again.

Mist.

[mswoods]

"Okay, this time it'll work." She stretches, cracks her knuckles, closes her eyes, does circles with the tip of her wand, and then: "Expecto Patronum!" And from the tip of her wand the light leaps in the form of a ferret, trotting in the air until it reaches the floor. It looks up at them and its nose twitches. "Omigod I have the cutest Patronus!"

[chanuphis]

"Awwwww."

[mswoods]

"Okay, how do I- find Willow and Karen and tell them I have the cutest Patronus!" she giggles, and the ferret dips its head in a nod and disappears into the distance.

[chanuphis]

"I wonder if that only works if they happen to be together."

[msmaxwell]

The ferret reaches them, startling Willow, and relays its message. "Awwwww! You're adorable! I want one!"

[pleating]

"I wonder if I can pet it -" Karen reaches for the Patronus.

[peterxy]

It allows itself to be "petted," but being insubstantial, that doesn't amount to a whole lot.

[pleating]

"It's not very soft. Or like it's so soft that it stops being soft? Oh well."

[mswoods]

The ferret dips its head again and disappears.

"I have no idea," Sadde answers Miranda. "We should test it some time."

And presently the ferret is back! It reports on what it heard, mimicking Willow and Karen's voices with perfect fidelity. Sadde giggles.