Caught Red-Handed [Adair]

“Alohomora.”

As one of Adair's favorite spells, ’the thief’s friend’ never grew old. The lock popped open with a slight click, and he turned the brass doorknob, pushing the door to the potions basement open with a slight creak from the hinges. He briefly wondered why they bothered to lock rooms if they taught the students a spell to unlock locks, but he dismissed the thought as he cast a gaze over the dim, stone walls and the stacks and drawers of ingredients that lay before him.

Ah, the potions room. How familiar it was, and he had it all to himself. No annoying first years snooping around.

Carefully closing the door behind him, he walked across the room to the right supply cabinets and rummaged through them. The room was dark (as usual for the dungeons), but a quick Lumos did the trick to light things up. He pocketed a few sprigs of lavender and picked up some jars of flobborworm mucus, clinking the glass to a light tune before he heard a noise behind him and froze.

"Who's there?" He called out after a few seconds.

When the night was long and sleep was a long ways away, Roshan found it best to take their thoughts and schoolwork to an empty classroom. In their last potions NEWT class, their attempt at the Draught of Living Death had never changed to lilac, which meant that Roshan had failed at some point in the process. The potions professor reassured the class that the Draught was extremely difficult to brew correctly, especially on the first attempt.

Of course, Wes's Draught of Living Death had the telltale shade. He was awarded extra points, and the rest of the class, Roshan included, was assigned to bring a successful brew by the next session.

Suffice it to say, Roshan couldn't sleep that night. The potions classrooms were empty at this time of night, and Roshan had blanket permission to be out at all hours anyways. They turned on the lights with a wordless flick of their wand. The last class had mostly cleaned up after themselves, with only a few odds and ends laying about on the workbenches. A quick banishment cleared out a space for Roshan to set up their goblet at their usual spot, at the front with easy access to the Potions cupboards, and they quickly got to work preparing ingredients.

Roshan was making steady progress when they heard a faint clink, like wineglasses, coming from where the cupboards were. The door was closed, however, so Roshan shrugged and went back to stirring the Draught.

A few seconds later, they definitely couldn’t ignore the situation any longer. Someone was inside the cupboards.

“Who’s there?”

Roshan got up and started to open the door while responding. “It’s Roshan. And it’s way past curfew. Who’s in there? What’re you doing?”

((smh while Roshan can’t rest Wes is prob having a nice deep sleep—))

He turned his wand in the direction of the door, ready to fire off a combat spell if he had to as it slowly opened and a voice rang out.

“It’s Roshan. And it’s way past curfew. Who’s in there? What’re you doing?”

Well. This Roshan person was… certainly lacking in the height department, to say the least. Adair figured he was at least a good several inches taller than them. When he saw the green-and-silver prefect badge though, he paused. Oh boy, just his luck to run into a prefect. And a Slytherin one at that. He lowered his wand, stood straight, put on a sheepish smile, and came up with the best excuse he could at the moment:

“Sorry, I didn’t expect anyone else to be here. My flitterbloom died yesterday, and I’m looking for ingredients to make Rejuicing and Regerminating Potions to revive it. That’s what Toots, Shoots ’n’ Roots says to do, at least. I can’t go out here when everyone else is around because it seems like a stupid reason…”

He had the ingredients for a Sleeping Draught collected and hidden away already, but he was planning on getting the ingredients for those other two potions as well. Of course, the ‘flitterbloom’ was actually a potted devil’s snare, but no one needed to know that.

He craned his head to look past the open door.

“Are you cooking something up too? You can hardly blame me for coming out here at night when you’re here too.”

((except Roshan's the kind of person who unironically says that they can sleep when they're dead--))

The door opened to reveal a student in Gryffindor colors with their wand raised. Roshan narrowed their eyes at the kid, who looked like they were a third or fourth year, aka not old enough to have special permission and old enough to know better than to be sneaking around in the odd hours of the night. The Gryffindor smiled nervously as they explained their intention of reviving their flitterbloom plants with various potions. …Not what Roshan was expecting. Hm. The student then asked what Roshan was doing, which was a fair enough question.

“What’s your name? No matter what the reason, it’s way past midnight, so… let's see, 5 points from Gryffindor. And you need to return any ingredients you took to their proper place before going back to your common room. There’s no excuse really to be rummaging around in locked storerooms. And you should know very well that prefects have permission to be out after curfew… ”

After considering the matter a few moments further, Roshan took sympathy on the student. “Tomorrow you should consult with Professor Oak about your flitterbloom problem. The herbology department keeps some standard potions in stock; one of those might be what you’re looking for. I don’t know about rejuicing potions, but regerminating potions have a long proving time. It’d be a bit tricky to brew those yourself and hope to have it ready in time before your flitterbloom dies entirely.”

5 points from Gryffindor? No matter. He could easily get those back if he just laid low for a while.

“The name’s Adair,” he said, placing the jar in his hand back on the shelf but not returning the other ingredients for a Sleeping Draught that he had collected. It wasn’t fair, really, prefects could do whatever they wanted at whatever times they wanted, whereas what was a poor thief like Adair supposed to do other than hope not to get caught? The thought of crossing wands with Roshan briefly crossed his mind, but he pushed it aside. If there was one thing he was sure of, it was that it wasn’t a good decision to battle a prefect unprepared. He heaved a dramatically deep and weary sigh. “Yes, yes, I know the whole lecture. I was just desperate over my flitterbloom’s death and couldn’t sleep, you know how emotions can be... Poor sweet Bonbon didn’t do a single thing wrong.” He didn’t mention how ‘Bonbon’ had nearly twisted his roommate’s ankle off.

“Although I’m really quite certain I could do it on my own, I’ll try asking Professor Oak tomorrow, thanks for your help.” He walked towards the door and slid past Roshan to take a look at what they were doing at such a late time at night. “You didn’t answer my question though, what’s this? Doesn’t look like the typical after-curfew prefect patrol to me.”

Adair returned the jar (…of flobberworm mucus…?) that he had been holding back to the shelf. He paused for a moment before sighing and talking about how upset he was over his flitterbloom plant (…that he had named Bonbon…?). Honestly, what was it with third years and drama? Roshan was certain that they had been less of a handful when they were younger. And if they had ever been so ridiculous at least it was for more important reasons than a fairly common garden plant…

Either way, Adair slipped past the cupboard door and asked about Roshan’s work. He peered into the cauldron, and Roshan started to worry that he’d touch the carefully laid ingredients that they had already prepared. They were also realizing that the wormwood had steeped too long while they were investigating, and they probably needed to start the infusion of wormwood all over again. Ugh. Needless to say, any sympathy that Roshan had felt for Adair’s plight previously evaporated, though Roshan was professional enough to realize that it wasn’t Adair’s fault, really.

“Hey, wait a second there… Turn out your pockets, too! You need to return everything you took before you can leave. I’m sure it’s very difficult to deal with the loss of your plant, but you need to ask Professor Venim about borrowing ingredients in the future.

“And… I’m working on stuff from my Potions NEWT class. You really don’t want to touch anything—that’s sloth brains you’re eying there. I’m getting pretty close to completing the Draught of Living Death successfully, but it requires absolute concentration. Why don’t you go put everything back and head back to your common room, so I can get back to work?”

Ignoring Roshan's first comments for now, Adair declared, "I see, I see," not really seeing but wanting to continue the conversation nonetheless. "You must be a pretty great and studious student to get in the NEWT class. Just curious! This seems like quite the dangerous potion, do you lot just throw them out after they're brewed? Seems like a bit of a waste if it takes so much effort to prepare it."

His mouth stretched into a wide grin, he laughed, "Well! Regardless of your answer, this has been very fun and all but you're right! I really should be heading back to the Gryffindor common room. Wouldn't want to risk the Fat Lady leaving the painting to pay a midnight visit to some lover, you know how those paintings can be. Good luck with your potion, it looks like you'll need it!"

Reaching into his pockets, he pulled out a few of the sprigs of lavender he had collected, and placed it on the table Roshan was working on. Which was fine, he could always look through the herbology greenhouses for more or come back here another day when there wasn't a prefect to meddle with his plans. The sleeping draught he had planned for a certain someone simply had to wait a little longer, as well as who that certain someone was (although at present he was currently learning towards this Roshan), but if Adair was anything, he was a patient boy. With that, he made his way to the door, opening it and stepping out, dropping the smile on his face in favor of a rather simmering, dangerous expression.

Roshan yawned as Adair pulled out some lavender and laid it on the table while promising to go back to his room. His questions about their potion had them looking up at the Gryffindor student with some interest. They'd never really heard much about Adair, good or bad, but perhaps Adair had a budding interest in Potions? "Thanks, did Professor Venim never explain what she did with all your potions at the end of class? The standard method for disposal of potions is vanishment-- you'll learn it in Transfiguration when studying for your OWLs. Here, watch, this wormwood infusion's no good at all.

"Evanesco." With a light flourish of their wand, the liquid in Roshan's goblet disappeared into non-being.

After the demonstration, Adair left the classroom. Technically, Roshan should have escorted him back to ensure there weren't any more detours on the way to bed, but they really did need to start preparing the wormwood again before the valerian root dried up. It should be alright... why would a student cause more trouble right after getting caught?