VIOLET (A Harry Potter Universe Fanfiction)

24.

Marlowe had training on Tuesdays, and naturally that was the day Caiti felt like the little write-up she'd been working on with her recipe and questions was ready to send out to other potion makers to test.

She wanted to show it to him first. She knew she had been sort of vague in answer to his questions, and she really hadn't tried to be. She just hadn't known exactly how to describe what she was doing. This document didn't really answer his questions either, to be honest, but it was something. She just didn't feel like she could send it out without letting him read it first.

After being so busy for weeks now, it felt strange not to have something to do. She kept picking up her quill, thinking she might go in and make a few more changes, but each time, she set it back down untouched. She had messed it with it so much the past few days, there really wasn't much left to adjust.

Eventually, she just went home.

At four o'clock, when she knew Marlowe was off, she picked up the roll of parchment and disapparated to Marlowe's house. It was unlikely he was even back yet, but she just couldn't wait anymore.

He was not home, but his mum was.

"Caiti," she said brightly, opening the door to let her inside. "Marlowe should be back any minute."

"Okay," Caiti said, surprised at how nervous she sounded. "Sorry for intruding."

"Don't be silly. Come in the kitchen. I'll get you a cup of tea."

Caiti followed her through the living room and into the kitchen, taking a seat at the table where she thumbed the edges of the scroll only semi-conscious of what she was doing.

"You seem a bit anxious," his mum commented, filling the kettle with water from the sink.

Caiti nodded. "I've been making some progress, I think," she said. "But I'm scared it's not going to be what I think it is. I don't want to—"

She didn't finish this thought. There were so many things that could have ended that sentence.

She didn't want to get Marlowe's hopes up for nothing. She didn't want to send this first attempt out to the world only for it to come back unsuccessful. She didn't want people to get the idea that she was rushing what she had expected to be a very slow process. She didn't want people to think she was naive or going about this all too simplistically.

Most of all, she didn't want to do anything that might hurt Marlowe.

That was what scared her most of all.

"Marlowe told me you'd had a bit of a breakthrough."

"It's... I hope it's a breakthrough. I don't really know what it is right now. I don't know if it'll work at all. Something just sort of clicked and I've been following my gut, but I have no actual idea what's going to happen if I test it."

Marlowe arrived home just then. Caiti heard the crack outside the door and then the sound of him stepping in, door clicking shut behind him.

"Oh," he said in surprise when he spotted Caiti in the kitchen. "Hi. You're not at the greenhouse?"

She shook her head.

"A rare sighting," Marlowe teased. He leaned down to kiss her.

"I'm just going to shower real quick," he said. "I'll be back in a minute."

"Okay," Caiti said. Her heart had started beating a little quicker than was comfortable.

As he left the kitchen again, Mrs. Finnegan set a steaming mug in front of her, tea bag steeping inside.