Black Magic

*This is from the world of the Black Fox, but like, a thousand years later*

I scrolled down, not finding the crystal jars I was looking for. I had already checked my “last bought” list but couldn’t find them. So I was scrolling through PotionBay trying to find those stupid jars at a reasonable price. I had to have a specific crystal grade for the new line of potions I was doing, but they were all really expensive. And there were only like, three jars in each pack I had found so far. Ugh, this is going to take a lot longer than I thought.

I could hear a slight whistle coming from the direction of my potion-making station, and I quickly put my phone down and turned the mini burner down so my potion didn’t boil over. I added a generous squeeze of honey and then stirred the pot of red liquid. It soon became a see-through water-like substance and I knew it was ready. I poured it into the last two of my crystal jars. I sighed as I put the rest of the mixture into a plastic container, and put it into the mini fridge next to the tabletop I had my potion stuff set up on. I flicked my shoulder-length pencil-straight black hair out of my face as I InstaMailed the next two people on my waiting list to tell them their potions were ready to collect.

It was only a local business that I ran, so most of the people I sold my potions to were from my school or lived within a ten-minute walk. The next two people who were on my list for the love potion I had just finished happened to be in my class, so I would give it to them on Monday.

I got the ingredients out for the healing potions I had started my business with and poured the required amounts into a beaker I had recently cleaned. All I had to do was stir it every ten minutes for two minutes, one clockwise, one ani-clockwise. The last part was actually quite fun. Right before I poured the concoction into the vials I had set up, I had to blast it with my small flame thrower. Once, I had almost set my curtains on fire, but thankfully, I had a little water left over from the last potion I had made, so the fire was out before anyone was the wiser. Although, my mum did comment on the slight discolouration of my curtains.

As I was stirring the potion, my phone rang. I had to reach very slowly over to where I had dropped it, making sure I never stopped stirring. Once I finally grabbed my phone, I saw it was my best friend, Layla.

“Hi,” I said as I tucked the phone between my shoulder and my cheek.

“Hey! You know that potion you gave me for Luke? Well, it worked! I’m telling you, Sasha, you are an AMAZING potion-maker! Forget not being able to shift, you must’ve gotten that power back in your potion skills! You are truly awesome.” I laughed and switched the direction of my stirring.

“Thanks, Layla, I love you too. I still think having regular magic and being able to shift is better than being able to predict the exact time a potion will wear off.” Layla made a scoffing sound on the other end of the line.

“Pu-lease,” She said dramatically, “I can’t even shift into something fun. Just a stupid dog. And regular magic is boring. There are only four types, and frankly, I think only two of them are any help whatsoever. Water is boring but flashy, and utterly useless, and fire is just destructive. Wind is cool because you can fly and control the weather and stuff, and with earth, you can grow stuff, and you can bury people who annoy you. But with potions! Oh, you could do soooo much!” I smiled to myself as I wiped the spoon off, and put it to the side.

“Layla, don’t put yourself down like that; water is such a cool power! And especially since you can change the temperature of it! You can make ice instantly, and if your bath gets cold, you can warm it up. I think that’s super cool.”

“Right, well, we can agree to disagree. Anyway, you should’ve seen the way Luke fell all over me! Ha! It was hilarious! Did you know, he asked me out right after school? That’s got to be some sort of world record for love potions!”

“Lay, you asked for a potent love potion, you shouldn’t expect anything less from me. Although, with its strong potency-” Layla cut me off and finished my warning.

“It won’t last as long, yes, yes, I know. Oh, how’s it going with You-know-who?” I started to blush, although I don’t know why.

“Um, well, I’m…working on it.” I said, not wanting to admit my relationship (or lack thereof) with Ryan wasn’t going anywhere.

“Sasha. You run a love potion business. Why do you feel so guilty using it on your own crush, when you sell it to girls and boys who use it willy-nilly? I know you won’t be silly with it! You know you won’t be silly with it, so why don’t you trust yourself?” I took a breath to speak, but Layla beat me to it.

“Look, I know what you’re going to say; “I just want him to love me on his own”. Sash, you put it on the labels, ‘This potion only enhances the existing, positive feeling toward the potion-giver.’ Come on, you can’t get a more authentic love potion!”

“Layla. You know how I feel about it, and nothing you say is going to change it.” Layla sighed on her side of the phone.

“Fine. I’ll see you at school, right?”

“Yeah, see you, Layla.”

“Bye!” And with that, she ended the call.

Monday, at school…

“So, Miss Flanagan assigned us some potion theory stuff, and something got me thinking about a hypothetical scenario,” Layla said, walking next to me on our way to lunch. We had our afternoon classes together, so we usually walked to lunch together.

“If, I don’t know, your love potion for example, well…. If I were to use my magic to mix the potion with water and if I were to give the potion to someone else, would it count as me giving them the potion, or would it count as whoever’s water it was?” I looked at Layla, but she was looking at the ground in front of her like she usually did whenever she was walking.

“Uh, I guess it would count as the person whose water it was. I mean, it would depend on if they had taken a drink already because otherwise, I don’t think anything would happen.” We lined up at the cafeteria window, getting here earlier than usual. Once we had our food we sat down at our usual table.

“Right, ok, thanks. I was just wondering. So, how has your morning been?”

“Not too bad, but we did have a pop quiz.”

“Oh, that’s the worst. What was it in?”

“History of Magic,” I said, taking a sip of my strawberry-flavoured drink. “But I think I did ok.”

“Oh, well, that’s good.” By this time, the cafeteria had almost filled up, and over Layla’s shoulder, I could see Rayn sitting with his friends. 

Suddenly, I saw a flash of something out of the corner of my eye. When I looked over to where the flash had come from, I saw a trail of water with something sparkly in it flying over the heads of Ryan’s friends, one of whom was Luke, Layla’s new boyfriend. When I looked at Layla, she was grinning at me cheekily, moving her hands discreetly under the table. I glared at her, now knowing why she had asked me that weird question.

“Layla!” I growled, “That better not be my water!” She glanced at my bottle, which was now only half full. A little giggle was her only reply. Over at Ryan’s table, the water was doing a little dance, shaped like a hand. Then, the hand waved at Luke and jumped into Ryan’s drink. I was about to call out to Ryan to not drink it, but he had already taken a sip.

“Uech, this is gross. Lemonade does not go with whatever is in here.” He and his friends laughed, and I glared at Layla some more.

“Why did you do that?” I hissed when she turned back from watching the spectacle behind her.

“Because someone needed to, otherwise you were going to stay in the friend zone forever. Actually, you weren’t even in the friend zone, you were just in the… watch-from-afar zone.”

“That’s still no reason to do something like that! Now I’ve got to make an antidote.” I got up, almost done my lunch anyway, and decided I wouldn’t speak to Layla for the rest of the day. Unfortunately for me, Ryan was in my next class, and based on the empty love potion jar that Layla had in her bag, I was in for a very different Ryan than the one at lunch.

I got to my next class, Potions, early and made sure everything was set up properly. When Ryan walked in, he immediately walked over to me.

“Hey, you’re Layla’s friend, right?” He said, looking straight into my eyes.

“Uh, yeah. And you’re Luke’s friend. Are you any good at potions?” I said, trying to keep the conversation on fairly easy, common topics.

“Nah, I’m quite clumsy, and I can never get the exact measurements right.”

“Really? They give you the measurements and the tools to mix them with, how do you mess that up?”

“Eh, I don’t know, I’m not much of a magic guy.” I frowned, thinking he must not have very many magical talents in his family.

“Oh, well, I think Mr. Jones wants us to work with someone for this next project, so maybe we could work together?” No! Why did I say that!? This wasn’t helping him or me! Ugh.

“Sure, I’d love that.” He sat down next to me and when Mr. Jones walked in and gave us the assignment, Ryan winked at me. Ugh.

After school, outside the gates…

Ryan had passed by me pretty much every chance he got after our Potion class together. I thought I had finally lost him, but he was waiting by the gates for me. Thankfully, he hadn’t seen me yet. I thought for a moment and then decided. I would invite him over to my house because Mum’s pretty relaxed about guests, and while pretending to help him make one of the potions for class, I would actually make the antidote for the love potion, and then once we were done, I would pour it into his drink while he wasn’t looking.

“Hey, Ryan, would you like to come over to my house? We can work on those potions Mr. Jones was talking about.” I pretended to smile hopefully, wishing his reaction wasn’t because of the love potion. He grinned at me.

“Yeah, sure, that sounds fun. Maybe you can help me not be totally useless at magic.” I tried to hide the real smile that was trying to explode across my face.

I led the way to my house, but I could feel Ryan’s eyes on me the whole way there. When we got in, I yelled up to Mum that I had a friend over to study and she yelled back that it was fine, as long as they didn’t want to stay for dinner. I replied that he did not, in fact, want to stay for dinner, and then I took Ryan up to my room.

“Woah, you take Potions seriously then.” Ryan said, looking around my room.

“Well, I actually run a small business. I’m quite good at making potions. Some of the kids in our school buy them.” I sat at my potion station and started getting the ingredients out for the potion we were making for Potions, while discreetly getting out the antidote ingredients as well. I pulled a stool from under my desk for Ryan and he sat down next to me, and my stomach gave a little flutter despite my better judgement.

“Right, so what do you think we do first?” I asked, setting all the ingredients in front of Ryan.

“Uhhhh, didn’t Mr. Jones say we needed to put all the dry ingredients in first?” I sighed.

“No, the very first thing Mr. Jones told us to do was to warm up the burner, so we can put the ingredients into a hot pot straight away. Otherwise, the carrot and the basil won’t bond properly. Then, you need to make sure the fennel is superfinely chopped, otherwise, the apple root won’t melt properly.” Ryan nodded and reached for the hemlock which looked a lot like the fennel.

“NO! No, no, no, no, that’s the hemlock, you’re never supposed to cut that, it’s only supposed to be dried, or boiled. Never cut or snapped, because it’s super poisonous and you only need the flavour. Not the juices. Here,” I said, handing him the fennel, "You cut this, and I’ll prepare the second potion. This bit needs to sit before we can make it properly.” I hated lying to him, but it was the only way I was going to be able to make the love potion antidote. Thankfully, the antidote was pretty easy compared to some of the other potions I sell, and there was no heating involved, which meant I could occasionally lean over and help Ryan finish his potion without blowing us all up. Once his potion was done, I could tell he was ready for a break.

“Do you want something to drink?” I looked out of my bedroom window and saw the heavy clouds outside. “Maybe something like hot chocolate?” Ryan smiled at me gratefully and nodded.

As we made our way downstairs, I could hear someone in the kitchen. When Ryan and I turned the corner, we saw Mum and Dad making some tea. 

“Hi,” I said, as I led Ryan to a high stool next to the kitchen island. “We were just thinking of grabbing some hot chocolate.” I poured two cups of milk, making sure Ryan was ok with the milk we used, and put them in the microwave for a minute.

“So,” Mum said, sipping her steaming tea, “What sort of studying are you two doing?”

“Potions,” I answered, getting two coasters out for Ryan and me, “He’s not very good with them, so I figured I’d show him some tips.” My dad waggled his eyebrows, and I knew what followed that look wasn’t going to be good.

“So you could say you two have ‘chemistry’?” My dad burst into laughter, and I glared at him. Mum chuckled discreetly into her cup.

“Dad, you know there’s nothing the same about potion making and chemistry experiments. Potion making is an art as much as a science, whereas chemistry is thoroughly science.” When the timer on the microwave beeped, Mum and Dad decided to leave us alone and got on with their work. They both worked at home and sometimes I wished I could be here with them instead of in school.

Anyway, as I heaped the cocoa powder into our cups of freshly warmed milk, I quickly slipped the love potion antidote into Rayn’s cup. I placed his mug in front of him, and I sat down with mine. After a slightly awkward silence, Rayn spoke up.

“This is really good, where do you get it?” He said, swirling what was left of his drink around the mug.

“Oh, um, I sorta made the mixture myself. I didn’t like any of the shop ones, because they all had too much sugar in them or too much cacao.” Ryan looked at me with a funny look on his face.

“You know, you’re the most talented person I know. You’re so good at potion making, it’s a wonder they don’t hire you instead of Mr. Jones.” The funny look had faded into something close to awe and pride. Although I have no idea why he would be proud of me.

“Thanks…” I said uncertainly, not sure if the antidote had taken effect on him, or if he had to drink the whole thing because I had diluted it with the hot chocolate. I took another sip of my own drink, trying to silently encourage him to finish his off. He did finish it and placed it on the coaster carefully.

“You know, I’ve always been sort of a disappointment to my family. Because my mother is this great shifter and my dad’s this magical wonder with both water and wind powers, everyone’s always expected me to be this great magician, either with magic, shifting or potion making. But I’ve never really been good at anything magical. I’d much rather do fun things like running and track stuff. And you’re not allowed to use magic for any of those anyway, so it’s not much use to me.” As he was talking, Ryan had put his mug by the sink, where a collection of dirty dishes had piled up. I thought I had made the correct potency for the antidote, but it looks like I miscalculated. I sighed, knowing there was only one thing I could do.

“Look, Ryan, I think your story’s very, um, heartfelt, but I need to tell you. You’re under a love potion. Layla snuck it into your drink this afternoon.” I looked down, not wanting to see the hurt on his face. Instead, he laughed.

“Oh, Sasha, I know I was under a love spell of some kind, I just felt it leave after I had the first sip of my drink. The truth is, I already love you before the potion. I just didn’t know how to approach you. The potion only made me more confident. That’s why I finally talked to you today in Potions.” I blinked a couple of times, making sure I had heard right.

“Wait, so you had a crush on me too?” I asked, unsure of what to do.

“Yeah, but I sorta guess you don’t feel the same way.”

“What?! Why? No, I’ve had a crush on you since the beginning of the year! I just thought you never noticed me.”

“No, I’ve noticed you since I first moved in. I just hadn’t had a crush on you until this year as well. I’d really like to get to know you more, but if you’re not ready for a boyfriend, I’m willing to wait a bit.” He looked at me with so much hope in hie eyes, it was hard to refuse.

“Of course I’d like you to be my boyfriend! I’ve always wanted it, I’ve just never known how to ask.” He grinned, his smile making me smile as well.

“Then I guess we both needed a little push.”