Who: Caz Rosier and Adrian Pucey. When: August 5th. Evening. Where: Caz’s Potion Shop, Knockturn Alley. What: Adrian comes to ‘assist’ for the first time. Caz uses him as a guinea pig. Poor Adrian. Rating: Low.
Since the fateful encounter that he had had with Adrian Pucey - that single slip of the tongue that had bought him a puppet to play with - Caz Rosier had been pondering how best to use his new ‘acquisition’. There were any number of ways that he could use a young man who could not breathe a word of what Caz was doing - not without risking the ruin of his career by doing so, at least.
He decided that today - for Adrian was due to arrive after he finished work at the Ministry - he would use the former Slytherin to test out some potions. His collection of lab rats were all well and good, and he always ran tests on them first, but it was convenient to have human subjects as well. And this saved him having to go out in the night and test on unsuspecting homeless individuals who he then had to Obliviate.
Caz had selected a few of the potions he had been working on - things he was creating wholly from scratch, or potions that he was modifying to make better - and had them at hand. They were tucked away just under the counter. Caz stood behind, leaning against the counter and writing a few things down on parchment as he worked on a recipe for a floating potion that he was in the beginning stages of formulating. It was only when he heard the door open that he looked up - and when he saw who it was, it wasn’t his usual put-upon polite expression that formed, but a dark cat-that-caught-the-canary smirk.
“Adrian. Hello.”
This sinking feeling, a pit of dread, had been growing in his stomach since he'd woken up that morning. Adrian knew he had to go back to the potion shop, to follow through on this blackmail thing. He'd been kicking himself, for the past two days, for what he'd done. What he'd told Caz. Merlin, he was such an idiot sometimes. If he could just find a Time Turner somewhere... or if he was any good at Obliviating... but Adrian was stuck in this situation and he didn't know what was going to happen.
He felt more and more anxious as work drew on, and it seemed like he was counting the minutes until he had to go - not in the good way, either. Like counting down the time until his execution or something, but that was overly dramatic. It wasn't like Caz was going to hurt him or anything. At least that was what Adrian told himself as he left the office. He got to Knockturn Alley by Floo, stepping out and walking quickly in the direction of that potion shop, his head down.
When he stepped in, his gaze immediately went to the man behind the counter. The look on his face was truly unnerving, and it stopped him in his tracks. He gulped, steeling himself, and then he took another step in. "Hello," he greeted him cautiously. Adrian's heart was racing as he moved further into the shop, letting the door close behind him.
Caz could practically smell the nervousness coming off of Adrian. He liked it, he wanted to bottle it and keep it on the shelf. While Caz did not feel emotions in the same manner as other people, he took great pleasure in pulling them from others. Especially eliciting emotions such as fear, anxiety, nervousness, and other such things.
He was very good at it as well.
“Do come in,” he murmured, and he lifted a hand, crooking one slender, pale finger to indicate that Adrian should come closer. Like a panther luring prey into his lair.
“You are going to assist me with some of the potions that I am working on,” he informed the younger man. It was something that could sound innocent enough - of course, the way that Adrian would be assisting him would not be taking notes or helping measure things. Oh no.
Adrian took another deep breath and moved in further. He set his satchel down on the counter as he moved up to it, his fingers tense against the fabric, tracing a line along the seam. "I did tell you I haven't brewed many potions in the past few years, right?" he checked, leaning against the counter a bit.
His hair was the same slightly-messy as it had been the other day when he'd come in but he was in robes that day. They were black, with silver lining and details; even though he was two years out of school, it was still hard to shake the habit of wearing green and silver.
He watched Caz, curiously. "But I can stir or measure ingredients, I'm sure. I was good at it in school," he added, not wanting Caz to think he was an idiot. He wasn't, but he certainly didn't want to make a mistake brewing some complex potion either. Adrian wasn't a fan of making mistakes. He preferred to be confident that he could do something before he tried doing it.
“You did,” Caz agreed, and he had not forgotten that fact. His mind was like a steel trap when it came to facts and bits of information, and he was not planning to let Adrian near one of his cauldrons. At least, not to brew anything he would sell. If he thought Adrian particularly useful, well, perhaps he would teach him a few things. But not now.
“Come behind the counter,” he instructed. He waited for Adrian to do just that, and then pointed to a stool that was there, heavy and wooden. “Sit.” Caz did not ask politely or make requests. Not when he was showing some of his true colours, at any rate.
“I am not looking for you to help me create the potions,” he clarified. “I need someone to test a few things on.” Many of the potions Caz brewed were well known potions - or lesser known ones that he had brewed many times. However the ones he came up with on his own, or modified, those needed to be tested.
“Consider yourself my guinea pig for the day.” His smirk was not at all pleasant.
Adrian left his bag on the counter, moving around it to the other side. He couldn't help but eye Caz when he ordered him to sit - like he was some kind of dog or something - and it took him a second to swallow down his pride before he moved around to the stool and sat. And there he was, thinking he'd have to stir or measure out ingredients or even just read the recipes to Caz, he would've been fine with that.
But then Caz said 'guinea pig' and Adrian's eyes went wide in an instant. He looked as though he was ready to bolt out of there in a flash, his hands clutching the seat of the stool beside his legs. "What? That's," he started, but he couldn't even think of what it was. "No!" he blurted out finally. He didn't even know what was in any of those potions! What if one of them was poisonous? Especially if they weren't tested!
"There's no way I'm doing that," he added, desperately, his head shaking quickly.
Caz had expected that Adrian would protest when he heard what was in store for him. Not many people would just roll over and bare their bellies, as it were. He had counted on the protestation, in fact - it was so much more enjoyable to make someone do something that they did not actually want to do.
“Are you sure about that?” he asked, his voice impossibly calm. Too calm. There was something eerie in that calmness, like the eye of a storm.
“I do believe we had an agreement,” Caz pointed out as he stepped closer to the stool and to Adrian. “Or have you decided that you want me to contact your superiors at the Ministry after all?” His dark brows arched at that, a challenging slant with a promise that said he would owl the Ministry, the Aurors, whoever it took. If Adrian decided to go against his wishes.
“It is, of course, your call.”
Adrian felt his breath catch in his throat for a moment as Caz drew closer, his voice so calm and cold. Calculating. It made a shiver go right up his spine. It was incredibly threatening and there was really nothing he could do. He did not want Caz to send any of those owls. It would ruin him. At the same time, he didn't trust this man any farther than he could throw him. Definitely didn't trust him with his life.
His knuckles were going white, he was gripping onto the edge of the stool so hard. Adrian took another breath and gave a slight shake of his head. "No," he answered. "Don't." It was like he was speaking through his teeth, every word a fight to get out.
He had no choice.
Adrian willed himself to stay calm and his voice to stay level. "What kind of potion?"
“A very good choice,” Caz murmured. He reached under the counter and his fingers closed around a small bottle that he pulled out. The glass was a dark grey colour, and the symbol etched into the glass was an eye over a crescent moon.
“This is a night vision potion,” he said. It would be useful in the night and dark places, without the need for a lumos spell, which could be seen, detected.
“I need to ensure that there are no... unwanted side effects.” He knew it worked - the lab rats he had tested the potion on had been able to easily run their mazes in pitch darkness. However he wanted to make sure it didn’t do anything particularly bad to a witch or a wizard. Especially if he would want to use it himself.
“Drink it, and then we will go into the back room where there is no light.” Caz uncapped the bottle and held it out to Adrian.
Adrian stared at the bottle that Caz produced, his brow furrowed with worry. Unwanted side effects, he said. It almost sounded like the potion was brand new and no wizards had ever tried it. But that would be crazy. But, as he was starting to realize, maybe Caz wasn't exactly the epitome of sanity. He swallowed back a wave of nausea and took the bottle as it was held out to him.
His hands were actually trembling. Not shaking hard, but it was a definitely noticeable tremble. He looked at the bottle for a second, studying the engraving, before he returned his gaze up to Caz.
"What do you mean, side effects?" he asked. "It's been... it's been tested before, right?" his voice was starting to shake a little too. Caz wanted him to just swallow whatever potions he told him to. Adrian didn't even know what was in it! It could kill him, or give him gills or an extra limb or strike him blind.
Perhaps the most disturbing thing about Caz Rosier was that he was sane. Completely sane. As sane as any sociopath could be. He lacked morals and the desire to follow the ethics that society had set in place. Mercurial in his behaviour he did what he wanted and what suited him.
“I’ve tested it on lab rats,” he replied blandly. Not exactly a comfort, but at least Adrian was not the first living creature to try the potion. “As for side effects, I am not sure. There should not be any, but one cannot be sure until it is tested.” Caz had gone through the possibilities in his mind, and there were one or two side effects that might show up - given the way that the potion would interact with the human body. But it remained to be seen.
“Nothing fatal,” he added, as if that would be all Adrian needed to know. Caz was fairly certain that it wouldn’t be painful or make anything horrific happen to the young man either. If all went well, Adrian would simply have excellent night vision for a short period of time and nothing more.
“Drink it,” he ordered.
Somehow, hearing that the potion had been tested by lab rats was not a big comfort to Adrian. He tried to stop the trembling in his hands, but it was not getting better. In fact, that completely blase 'nothing fatal' made him feel another wave of nausea sweep over him. The order made him wince a little and he just kept staring at the bottle, as though he was trying to figure out what was in it and what it was going to do to him just by the way it looked.
He wanted to cry. He didn't, because that would be mortifying, but there was definitely a lump in his throat that he had to swallow back. Adrian had his pride. This was unfair and terrifying. Adrian gave another uncertain look up at Caz - stalling for time, mainly - before he lifted the bottle to his lips. Then he lowered it again without drinking it. "You'll call the Healers if it does something bad, right?" He hated how vulnerable, how openly scared his voice sounded right then. He barely knew Caz, and now he had to trust him.
Adrian drank the potion down suddenly, before he could have any more time to talk himself out of it. He winced at the taste, nose wrinkling as the liquid went down his throat.
“Nothing bad is going to happen,” Caz replied, without actually answering the question. Because if something bad happened he would not be calling the Healers. That would only bring a world of questions. If something bad happened he would solve the problem himself - one way or another.
It was probably best that he didn’t mention all of that.
He gave a brief nod of approval when Adrian finally swallowed the potion. He knew it did not taste overly pleasant, but nor was it as horrible as some potions were. There were no obvious effects right off the bat - but that was good. Adrian didn’t turn green or have steam coming out of his ears or anything unwanted.
“Come,” he said, and he gestured sharply before leading Adrian into the back room, closing the door once they were inside and killing the lights. “Tell me what you see.”
Somehow, that was not reassuring to Adrian. He halfway expected to fall over dead as soon as the potion went down his throat, but as he was still standing and still feeling just fine - apart from a little itch in his eyes, sort of like he had some of that sleep-gunk in them that he wanted to wipe out - he figured it wasn't that bad. He still had the empty bottle cradled between his fingers as Caz led him to the back room.
It was such a strange feeling, to be following commands like this. His feet seemed aboard, though, following behind Caz even as his head was reeling. He didn't even notice that Caz flipped the lights off; nothing changed for him, when the room went dark. "A stock room?" he said, questioningly, with a glance in Caz's direction. He looked back at the shelves again, reading off the labels of ingredients. "Aconite, armadillo bile, boomslang skin, bubotuber pus..." he trailed off. "Ingredients. Cauldrons. Bottles," he gave another look over at Caz. That was when he noticed the switch - it was definitely off. "It's totally dark in here?" he asked Caz.
Okay, that was pretty neat. Maybe not that useful for him, right now, other than that he could stare at Caz and the other man would have no idea.
“Yes,” Caz confirmed when Adrian asked if it was a stock room. It was where he kept many of his supplies, although not all. Anything that was illegal or completely illicit he kept elsewhere, in a location outside of his shop. Caz had become quite good at keeping the dark and illegal side of his life and his business separate from the above the board part.
He nodded his head, because the things that Adrian was listing off was precisely what he should have been seeing. Caz could not see any of it - there was not a lick of light in the store room and so all he could see were shadows - but he knew the contents of the room by heart.
“There is no light at all,” he murmured. The store room had no windows, and the door was tight fitting, so no light crept under or around. It was dark as pitch, and the fact that Adrian could still see everything was very satisfying. The fact that he could see everything and wasn’t vomiting or turning blue was also a plus.
“With this potion, a Lumos spell would not be needed, thus minimizing the risk of detection.” For whatever reason. If a person was tracking another - he was sure Aurors would find it useful was he to tell it about them. If a person was hunting something at night. There were many reasons why a person might not want a lit wand to give them away. And of course there were other less nice reasons it could be used.
“How do you feel?”
Once Caz confirmed that they were in total darkness, it was much more obvious to him. The way Caz's eyes looked, pupils wide as though trying to find any shred of light, was pretty interesting. He curled his arms around his middle, half crossing them and half hugging himself. "Well, it works," he said which was probably stating the obvious, but he didn't know what else to say. He could definitely see in the dark.
Adrian nodded slightly, glancing back out into the stock room for a moment before looking back to Caz. For all of his anxiety, that hadn't been so bad. He could feel his heart slowing down and it was so much easier to breathe now. "My eyes are just a little itchy. Like when you wake up and there's that gunk in them from sleeping and you want to rub them," he said. His observations weren't exactly scientific, but he answered Caz's question. What he felt.
Caz had really interesting cheekbones. Adrian found it a lot easier to look at him when no one could know. His face looked so sharp, his skin so pale in contrast to his dark hair. He wasn't classically handsome but definitely attractive. Adrian didn't want to be thinking that, though, so he forced himself to stop and to look over at the cauldrons collected in a corner of the room.
“That should not last for long,” Caz murmured. He had half suspected as much - the lab rats had blinked a lot after he had administered the potion to them in the original trials. Lab rats, however, could not communicate the specifics with him, which was why human trials were so useful.
Drawing his wand out, Caz lit up the room again. The light in the storeroom was dim, because some of his ingredients were photosensitive and he did not want to spoil anything. Once his wand was tucked away, he stalked towards Adrian, until he was standing right before him.
“Look at me,” he said, and he took hold of his chin, tugging his face into position so that Caz could examine his eyes. He wanted to see if he could observe any changes in the eyes. A bit of a temporary change would not be a major issue, but the very best potions left no traces at all. A soft humming noise of thought escaped him as he studied Adrian from close proximity. His pupils were a bit larger than they would have been in full light, but not so large as most peoples’ would be in full dark.
When the lights came back on, Adrian winced just a little. His eyes were getting used to no light, so when that dim light came back at first it was a bit like a camera flash. He got used to it fairly quickly, though his eyes were still narrowed when Caz came so close to him. Adrian made a sound of complaint as he took his chin, positioning his face. Looking at him so closely. His lips parted, this complaint soundless, as he listened to Caz hum and watched him study him.
So much for his pulse slowing down again.
Adrian wanted to pull away. It was kind of humiliating, being moved and stared at and told to swallow strange potions. He still had his arms curled around himself, protectively. "What?" he finally had to ask, his voice quiet because Caz was about two inches from his face. His cheeks were going pink. The last time he'd been this close to another man's face, he'd been in a Muggle bar and there'd been kissing involved. His eyes were wide but it wasn't entirely from the potion.
“I am checking your eyes,” Caz replied briskly. “To make sure they haven’t changed in any way.” Lab rats had red eyes, so he wanted to make sure there was no red after effects that he would not have noticed in an rat. There was not. Adrian’s eyes were precisely the colour they had been before.
“They’re fine,” he added for Adrian’s benefit, before the younger man could worry too much about what might be happening to his eyeballs.
As he examined Adrian’s eyes, he noticed something entirely unrelated to sight. Caz’s slender fingers slid away from Adrian’s jaw and moved down along his throat until they came to rest over his pulse. “Your heart rate is accelerated,” he noted. His head tilted to the side, gaze consideration. “Because you are nervous?” he guessed. Adrian would be smart to be nervous.
Adrian hadn't even been worried about his eyes until Caz went and said that. What if they turned black or red or started oozing or something? That wouldn't be good. Adrian liked his eyes just the way they were. His mother used to say he had kind eyes, whatever on earth that meant. Adrian would've been relieved when Caz said they were fine, but the other man's hand moved then and Adrian felt no sense of relief at all. Especially when he realized that Caz was taking his pulse.
It was like there was no part of him that was private. He felt exposed. He couldn't even be nervous, afraid, or whatever strange combination of those and, what, attraction?, that he felt without Caz knowing all about it. Adrian felt like a big part of him was laid bare in front of Caz. "Yes," he said, even though it was so much more than just nerves. "Of course I am. You're making me take weird potions that you've only fed to lab rats. And you're about three inches from my face right now," he added. Adrian couldn't put his finger on it, what else was making his heart race. The touching was making him blush; Caz's touch was gentle, the brush from his chin down his throat.
“Does it bother you, having someone in such close proximity?” Caz was fairly certain he knew the answer to that question. Most people did not like people in their personal space. It was always interesting how much you could unnerve a person just by standing too close to them - and by looking at them eye-to-eye with a completely steady gaze.
“What do you think I could do to you that I could not do from a distance?” he asked, his voice calm as ever. The calm he could exude was downright eerie at times, when he didn’t make an effort to moderate it. Which he was not right then.
All of the things Adrian rattled off could explain the nervousness. He was right to be nervous. However it did not explain the pink colour that rose into his cheeks. It wasn’t a flush of anger, as there was no expression to match it. “You’re blushing,” he stated bluntly, and his thumb brushed over his pulse point again. It was still fluttering - even faster than before, he thought. If this kept up he was going to have to dose him with a Calming Draught.
“Why are you blushing?”
Adrian was more flustered than he'd ever felt, just then, and a big part of it was because Caz seemed so damn calm. He didn't like it. The way Caz was staring at him, it made him feel like he was under a magnifying glass, just another lab rat to study. No matter how much he told himself to calm down, his pulse was still racing and it was getting weirdly hard to breathe. Every time he took a breath in, it smelled like Caz - this combination of Potion smells, like the rest of the shop - and Adrian felt so confused. Normally the confusion wouldn't have been so bad, but Caz was right in his face with his finger literally on Adrian's pulse, and the questioning was going to make him come apart.
"Yes, it bothers me," he answered the first question. It was the second and third that sent him for a loop; his gaze was quick to flicker around, down at the floor and then over to the side, anywhere but at Caz. "I-I just don't like you so close," he told him. Why was Caz so calm? Adrian was sure that if he had his finger on the other man's pulse, it'd be going steady as a clock. Adrian was sure that his own was all over the place, and the fact that Caz knew every wayward beat was not helping.
"Look, I don't know - can you just back off?" he asked him, desperately, pointedly not looking at him. Adrian's face was feeling hotter and hotter, so he knew his blush had to be spreading. It was being so close to another man, being touched by one... it stirred up everything he made himself ignore that he wanted. It was easy to ignore things when they weren't so close to him. "Maybe the blushing's a side effect from the potion," he stammered out finally.
“I could,” Caz replied, but he didn’t step away. Just because he could didn’t mean he was going to. His presence and physical proximity were bothering Adrian, and so he was going to keep on doing it, of course. With his thumb still on Adrian’s pulse, his other fingers curled around his throat, as if to hold him in place.
“No,” he murmured, his gaze darkening. “It’s not a side-effect of the potion.” Caz did not see how any of the ingredients of the potion would lead to blushing, of all things. Especially since Adrian was stammering as well - it was all over awkwardness, and he was quite certain that it was not a result of the potion, but rather, a result of him.
He was going to be enjoyable to play with, Caz was even more sure of it.
Finally, after a long and drawn out moment, Caz released his hold and took a step back, reaching for the door to open it. “Sit on the stool again,” he commanded, before he stepped back into the shop proper. He reached for one of his large, leather bound books so that he could take notes on the trial.
Caz could step away, but it was clear that he wouldn't. Adrian's lips parted in a protest, this one silent, as those long fingers curled around his throat. He swallowed hard, Adam's apple bobbing against that soft part of Caz's hand between his thumb and his forefinger. Caz could choke him right now if he wanted to and Adrian was mostly helpless. Under his control. The thought should've made him angry, it should've made him want to shove Caz away and curse him, rather than all of these other feelings and urges that he didn't understand.
Of course it wasn't a side-effect. Adrian hadn't even believed his own lie, so he couldn't blame Caz for not believing it too. His eyes met Caz's again, and he was thrown off even more by the darkness in his gaze. It was so hard, almost inhuman.
Then Caz released him and moved away and Adrian was mostly relieved with just a hint of, what was that, disappointment? File that under 'things Adrian can't explain'. He brought his own hand up to his throat, touching where Caz's hand had just been as he followed him back into the shop. Why was it so easy to follow commands? It was almost liberating; he didn't have to think about what he was doing, which was good because his head was a jumble. "Do I have to take another potion?" he asked Caz, fear evident in his voice. He sat on the stool, looking up at the other.
Once Adrian was seated, Caz withdraw his wand and murmured the words for a life signs monitoring spell. He released his wand and left it to hover in the air. The spell was such that it caused a quill to start writing in his book, making notes on all the particulars of what was going on in Adrian’s body - heart rate, blood pressure, respiration and all of the other information he required.
“Not now - two potions could interact and skew the results.” Caz did have a number of other potions that he wanted to test on his human guinea pig - but he had plenty of time for that. Adrian was at his beck and call for the foreseeable future. For potion testing, and drug testing and spell testing and anything else he wanted. More ideas were curling through his brain with every moment that passed.
“You are going to sit there until I have all of the date I require.” Picking up another quill, he jotted a few things down. “I will have something else for you to try when I see you next.”
Adrian didn't know what spell Caz had cast; he watched him cautiously, especially when he drew his wand. His hands tensed a little, as though he was thinking about taking his own wand out - it was stowed safely in the front pocket of his robes - but he decided against it. Whatever Caz had done, Adrian didn't feel anything. The quill was writing something in the book, and he tried to figure out what it was but from where he was sitting, he couldn't make out any of the words.
He frowned at what Caz said, his body relaxing the longer he was sitting there. Heart slowed a bit, back toward normal. He had a moment to breathe, thankfully. And hearing that he wouldn't have to take any more potion was definitely a relief, even if that relief was only short-lived. He'd have to try another one next time. "What data do you require?" he asked right away. "Do you mean until the night vision potion wears off?"
That had to be it, right? Caz didn't need any other information, just about the potion. Maybe they'd sit here for a little while and then go in the back to see if he could see in the dark still. Yeah. That had to be it. His blush faded and pulse slowed as he convinced himself of that. And there would be no more uncomfortable closeness or touching, and everything would be fine.
“Heart rate, blood pressure, respiratory rate and other such data,” Caz replied, sliding a dark eyed look Adrian’s way. And of course he would be taking notes on his own observations - the way that Adrian was behaving, some of the things that the other man said - anything that caught his attention, that he found interesting or potentially useful.
“The potions will wear off in an hour.” He had given Adrian a partial dose - stronger doses would extend the effect for longer stretches of time. Two hours, four hours, eight hours, an entire day if the potion was at its strongest.
“I will not require you to stay for the entire hour,” he added. He looked down at what the quill was writing, and nodded his approval. Adrian’s vital signs were returning to normal, which meant the heightened heart rate was likely due to nerves and not to the potion. That matched with what he had found in the lab rats.
“I will contact you to let you know about our next meeting.”
"Oh," Adrian said. He did not like the sound of that. He stared up at Caz while he spoke. Why did he need to know all of that? He took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, his hands relaxing to his sides, fingers curled against the seat of the stool. He watched Caz for a few moments, trying to guess at what he was thinking but it was nearly impossible.
"But why are you interested in my heart rate and blood pressure?" he had to ask finally, his voice smaller than he normally liked to sound. He did not sound like a politician or a Quidditch player right then. If anything he sounded younger than he was, maybe even a little bit lost. It was exactly what he'd been afraid of before. Nothing his body was doing was private. It was all on display for Caz to see.
It made him want to hold on even more tightly to his secrets. He worked hard on keeping his breathing even, concentrating on anything that was steady and calm. He wouldn't look at Caz or let any of the inexplicable things in his head bubble up to the surface. While he was sitting in that stool he would just be normal.
Another dark glance. “To ensure that the potion has not adversely affected them,” he replied. It was actually more information than Caz would normally give a person. Of course his test subjects were usually homeless Muggles or unfortunate witches and wizards who he Obliviated afterwards, so conversation wasn’t really necessary.
“But your health is good.” Which did make him a rather ideal test subject. When he had the data that he required, he retrieved his wand from where it hovered in the air, and tucked it into his pocket again.
“You may go,” he informed Adrian then. He pinned him with a steady, unwavering gaze. “I will contact you very soon about when I require you next.” Which would undoubtedly be very soon. Now that he had such an ideal and interesting subject in his clutches, he was going to take full advantage of that. Full advantage of him.