Who: Lily Snape and Open What: Brewing, waiting, frustration? All of the above. When: After the second round of trials, trying to keep it together pre-Execution Where: Jones House. Why: Because you can only work with the time you have, and sitting around is the worst thing in the universe in the face of unsurity.
Improvisation and potions were two words that weren't supposed to go in the same sentence. Like baking, potions was an exact science. Too much of one thing, to little of another and whatever you were trying to make would come out wrong. You'd find your pimples growing larger instead of disappearing, and the side effects, there were reasons that potions went through exhaustive trials before getting approvals and finally being released to the public. There was only one problem with that, and that was the fact that that took time.
Time. It was usually something that Lily could deal with. It was part of the brewing process. Set up your cauldron, add the right ingredients, wait for the next step, add the next items, wait, and repeat until the concoction was ready. But here time was the last thing they had. Today time was the enemy. Beyond the locals who had held the trials, beyond the scientists who had brought them there. Today it was time. Specifically the 'Time Until'. The people currently awaiting execution had a finite amount of time left and every second that was allowed to tick away was one less second they had. And yet the potion just kept brewing. The time it took was the time it took, and it was driving her crazy.
After getting the ingredients yesterday it had been a rush to try and figure out what they could do with what they had. No cauldron, no base potion, herbal remedies and a few worms and slugs that had been picked up while two people that Lily had yet to meet - Charlus and a girl who had introduced herself as Lily Luna (which had caused Lily surprise) - had finally dropped off. And now the main room of the house was a mess. Disgarded plant pieces were on the floor, and on the table and on the chairs, cut up remains of plants were sitting on the table, waiting to be used. Two of the slugs had been cut open and its insides used, the outer skin lying on a piece of paper waiting to be disposed of. She hadn't had a cauldron so one of the big pots had had to do. The pot was over the fire in the fireplace and that had to be seen to, so there were pieces of firewood scattered about as well and ash.
And then there was the knife...
The cutting knife that this morning after the verdicts had been read out, Lily had lodged into the table in frustration. She had tried to keep her cool, standing tall and keeping her mind on the work. She's used it as a crutch, something to keep her calm and focused, trying to hold down the panic (among other things) that she was welling up. And it had worked, to an extent, up to that point.
After that point however there was a giant knife sticking out of her table at attention. One that she couldn't get out. And she knew she was not anywhere near calm. She was this close to losing it like everyone else... She could still see Sirius swinging in her head.
The house was a mess. Three members of this Jones household, her fake household had been taken in and there hadn't been anything she or anyone else had been able to do to stop it! If anyone came in and asked she would claim dinner and cleansing of evil spirits. It was also a show of where her mind was. If these people hanged and they didn't do something to try and stop it she would never forgive herself. Being told to sit back and wait was not in her nature, it hadn't been when she'd been strong-armed into taking the Potions Professorship back in 1981 and it certainly wasn't now. But as things stood, there was nothing they could do but prepare for the plan and hope that it worked. Time was not on their side here, and as she gave the concoction a stir, the one she and Ginny had worked on yesterday.