Mañana Será Bonito (Shiloh)

[reina watanabe nakamura]

March 20, 2028

From the way things were sounding, getting through her OWLs with a passing mark in Potions was going to require Reina to enlist some extra help. Having to get an older student from LIFE to tutor her was sort of embarrassing, but it would be even more embarrassing to fail her examination. Besides, getting a LIFE student to be her Potions tutor didn't require anything from her in terms of payment, unless her pride counted in that regard.

All she could do was hope that her assigned tutor was nice and actually good at Potions, Reina thought as she made her way from the Great Hall to the MAGIC Potions classroom. It was after dinner, but she had been given permission by the professor to be there. After all, trying to brew a potion without the necessary supplies would be more of a disaster than her current academic standing where Potions was concerned, and she didn't think that anyone would appreciate it if she were to end up exploding a cauldron in the library.

After checking in with her Potions professor in the classroom, they mentioned that they would be leaving her in the capable hands of her tutor shortly. Reina tried to seem enthusiastic about that, but she couldn't help feeling as though she had been given detention. If things went really wrong, she thought, then she would just have to beg for additional help from the professor themselves—or anyone in her year in the dormitories, if it came to that.

Shortly thereafter, Reina could hear the sound of footsteps echoing down the corridor, though her Potions professor had left her on her own already by that point. Textbook and wand in hand, Reina glanced over at the door. It was just one tutoring session, she reminded herself; she hadn't committed to it for life.

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[shiloh elspeth fleming]

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"It will be good for you. Take your mind off of everything that's happened. Then the rest of the school year will fly right by." Shiloh had heard almost every iteration of those comments over the last few days, having forgotten that during the fall term, she'd put her name down to help tutor MAGIC students in Potions. No one had reached out until now, and of course she barely felt like herself still. She had only been dropped back off at Hogwarts the previous Friday, and promptly spent the weekend in bed and not wanting to 'get back into the swing of things'. The worst part about all of this was that she'd finally given up on her mom ever coming back too. How stupid of her to ever think that was possible after all these years? So she was mourning both parents at the same time. Only her siblings could really understand that and she was doing her best not to unload it all onto her friends, who were rightfully worried about her. The school seemed to think having her go ahead with the tutoring she'd signed up for was the best way to snap her sadness. Maybe it would for an hour or so, though she was positive it would come back the second she walked out of the classroom.

Dinner had been mediocre at best, and Shiloh sat silently with her friends as they chatted around like nothing had even happened. That was easily one of the worst parts about this. They got to keep living unaffected and happy while she fought back the flood of agony that had been trying to break through since getting back to school. If it hadn't been March, she probably would have contemplated taking the semester off. Her grades were going to suffer from this.

Collecting her Potions equipment and quietly excusing herself from her friends, she headed towards the MAGIC Potions classroom to meet the fifth year that needed help. The empty corridors to get there were nice - she didn't have to worry about anyone, aside from the ghosts, seeing her if she suddenly broke down then and there. If she managed to hold on through the tutoring lesson, she decided she'd maybe reward herself with an empty classroom to let it all out in. That sounded therapeutic and totally healthy.

"Hi Reina," she said half-heartedly as she entered the classroom, not even trying to hide her exhaustion. Shiloh sort of knew the other girl. Despite being in different houses and years, they were the same age. That pesky September deadline always seemed to do that. Being one of the youngest first year LIFE students, she'd often found that she fit better with the current fifth years than her own class. "So what potion is giving you trouble?" She at least tried to sound engaged this time, though the way she tossed her bag onto the counter with a thud definitely screamed that she wasn't completely there yet.

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[reina watanabe nakamura]

March 20, 2028

The student who must have been her tutor entered the classroom and addressed her by name, which surprised Reina for a moment until she realized that the LIFE student—an older girl who didn't actually seem much older than she was—must have been given her name in advance. What was more, the older girl who would be tutoring her sounded like she was from the United States.

Reina knew that she wasn't the only foreign student in attendance at the schools that made up Hogwarts. There were a lot of students with connections to Ilvermorny, in particular, because of what had happened years before, but it was still a little bit strange not to be able to anticipate what someone would sound like when they spoke. Thinking about it a bit longer, however, Reina knew that some people had had that reaction to her, expecting her to be a transfer student from Mahoutokoro and not Castelobruxo.

Her tutor sounded about as excited to be there as she was, Reina thought, though she asked what potion had been giving her trouble. That felt like a trick question.

"Hi," she greeted her tutor. As for the question about which potion was the source of her trouble, meanwhile, Reina hesitated. She didn't think that her struggles with Potions class were going to be resolved in one tutoring session. Brewing one potion and being done with it sounded like a fantastic idea, but the more realistic part of Reina's brain knew that it probably wouldn't happen that way. "…All of them?" she replied.

She wasn't trying to be difficult or to talk back to the older girl who was supposed to be helping her out; she meant it. Every potion Reina attempted seemed to take her more tries to get it as it should have been after the first time around. She could handle the easy stuff because she'd had plenty of practice with it, but she wasn't performing at the level that she should have been. As she saw it, ingredients combined safely with other ingredients because that was what was written in her textbook. How was she supposed to keep track of the properties of each one to know what could be mixed together and what couldn't?

"Sorry," Reina added, not wanting to start off on the wrong foot with her tutor. "I don't know your name."

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[shiloh elspeth fleming]

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"Oh...okay. That's fine," Shiloh responded with equal amounts of shock and awe. Was it possible to be that bad at Potions as a fifth year? From the list she had been given concerning the curriculum, it wasn't that difficult. Ilvermorny the year prior had been more of a headache than what was being studied for the OWLs this year. Regardless, she knew she shouldn't be judging poor Reina because not everyone excelled in every subject. Shiloh had never struggled in anything except maybe Arithmancy, her grades even across the board but also not exceptional. There was definitely going to be a bit of a dip for the end of her term, but that was to be expected.

Before she could crack open the work that she thought would be best for Reina, the girl asked her what her name was. They didn't tell her? "Sorry...I thought you would have been told. The professor gave me...well I guess that doesn't matter..." her voice became quiet. She closed the book she had half opened. "Shiloh Fleming. I'm a sixth year, err, first year LIFE. This whole tutoring program thing is kind of a mess isn't it?"

It was sort of frustrating to be given all this information on the student, just for her own to not be exchanged. Now it made some sense that she hadn't been told that the issue was with Potions. Overall, it was a poorly executed program. She hoped she could assist Reina in some way. "So potions," she started from the beginning again. "Is it the actual process of brewing them or the practical uses of ingredients? I feel like getting a baseline might be the best way to approach where you're struggling the most, and then we can work from there?" Reviewing the entire year only months away from exams was definitely cutting it close, but Shiloh was pretty sure they could get it done.

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[reina watanabe nakamura]

March 20, 2028

Her tutor wasn't impolite, but she seemed flustered by the fact that she hadn't been given her name in advance. Reina thought that it probably would have been nice to have that information, but she hadn't gotten it and didn't feel the need to push for it in advance. She didn't know how it had been set up. Maybe it had been completely random.

It turned out that her tutor's name was Shiloh Fleming, and she explained that she was only actually in the school year above her. That wasn't a bad thing, though; she would probably be relatively familiar with the material, Reina guessed, instead of being so advanced that she hadn't touched anything to do with it in years. Reina wasn't expecting Shiloh to be a genius, but anyone who could make it to studying Potions at NEWT level was already in a better position than she was.

Shiloh brought up that the "whole tutoring program thing" was "kind of a mess", and Reina gave her a small smile as she agreed, "Yeah." She had assumed that it was just on her end because she was a new transfer student from Castelobruxo, but it was actually confusing. That was reassuring, mostly because it was clear that Shiloh wasn't blaming her.

With that out of the way, Shiloh started to discuss the topic of potion-making again, asking her if it was the process of making the potions or the uses of the potion ingredients that gave her more trouble. "I feel like getting a baseline might be the best way to approach where you're struggling the most," Shiloh continued, "and then we can work from there?"

If she had to choose one, Reina thought, she knew what her answer would be. "The ingredients," she told Shiloh, setting her textbook and wand atop the nearest table. "If I have the instructions, it's easy… easier." It was harder to remember what all the different ingredients did in isolation and in combination with other ingredients and all the tiny details.

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[shiloh elspeth fleming]

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At least it sounded like they were both in the same boat here, with the school omitting fairly important information between the two of them. Shiloh wished she had known what she was getting into from the beginning. Adapting was an important part of growth though, and she was already thinking about the next time she tutored someone knew, to ask different questions at the beginning. This really was on the professors though.

Reina clarified that the difficulty in Potions mainly came from the ingredients though, which helped Shiloh immensely. She could definitely see how that was difficult for some. With hundreds of possible ingredients that all relied on different combinations, sometimes down to individual scrapings, was honestly confusing at times. Somehow it all made sense in her head when she sat down to do her own work.

”Not a problem at all,” she said as she tried to think of the best possible route to proceed. Remembering entire potions was important for class exams, but it was also a sort of unreasonable ask too. Outside of school, if someone didn’t know what to do, they grabbed a potions book or ingredients list to help. Rote memorization really only mattered to potioneers and those that were constantly brewing. The average witch or wizard was not doing that on a daily basis. Sort of like math. ”With your OWLs coming up, it should be pretty easy just to memorize what potions could pop up on the exam. I know mine weren’t the difficult potions at all, which was sort of lucky.”

Realizing she was bragging about her own exams, Shiloh leaned back in her chair and stared at the pile of work and books in front of them. There had to be a way to help Reina simply remember what could pop up, on top of basic help with ingredients. ”What are you doing in class right now? That might be a better start.”

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[reina watanabe nakamura]

March 20, 2028

As Reina conversed with Shiloh some more, she could tell that the older girl probably wasn't going to be a bad tutor. Once she told her that her biggest issue was related to the ingredients, she said that that wouldn't be a problem, which gave her some more confidence in her. That lasted all of a few moments, though, because Shiloh soon suggested, "With your OWLs coming up, it should be pretty easy just to memorize what potions could pop up on the exam. I know mine weren't the difficult potions at all, which was sort of lucky."

There was no way of covering years of basic potions in even a handful of tutoring sessions, so Reina knew that she could forget about that. If the OWLs had covered the "easy" potions the previous year, then it didn't seem very likely that it would happen two years in a row. Plus, Reina thought to herself, it was possible that the previous year's OWL examinations had been made easier intentionally because of how many students had been forced to attend other schools. Failing students on one of the most important examinations of their lives because their school had gone up in flames didn't seem fair to Reina, but what did she know?

"What are you doing in class right now? That might be a better start."

Shiloh had seated herself by that time, so Reina did the same. "Well," she replied, "we brewed Wit-Sharpening Potions in our last lesson." It wasn't lost on her that she probably needed a Wit-Sharpening Potion in order to achieve a decent mark on her Potions OWL. (She could, however, brew a Befuddlement Draught successfully.) With the Wit-Sharpening Potion, the ingredients alone weren't the complex part of the process; rather, it was remembering what went in when, what had to be stirred when, and what color it was supposed to be at each step of the way.

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[shiloh elspeth fleming]

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The problem with the OWLs was that there really wasn’t a proper way to prepare for them. Apparently, there were years where the exams were virtually the same and others that ended up being extremely difficult. Shiloh supposed that hers was one of the easier years in recent history and maybe even far easier than what MACUSA would have put her class through. Treating potions like she was carefully mixing paints was what helped her the most. A strange way to do so according to her some of her classmates and professors. But it worked for her. Because what was potions aside from magical art that had different side effects?

Reina explained that her class had recently brewed the Wit-Sharpening potion, and Shiloh nodded her head as she flipped open her notebook open to it. The different colors of what the potion was supposed to turn after each ingredient was added were written in similar ink. Lime green for the ginger root, blue (and subsequently yellow and then purple) for the armadillo bile, and red for the ground up scarab beetles. The color coordination between her notes and brewing was all part of the art example she gave others. Having black ink across pages only made it blend altogether.

”Have you done any of the venom antidotes yet?” Shiloh inquired as she flipped past the section on the Wit-Sharpening potion and to the various antidotes that followed. That had been a tricky one considering how many variations of venom were out there. Some had similar fixes, others required one small change to differentiate between two, and getting them mixed up could be lethal. If she had to guess, that was where most of her class had become stumped. ”Because those were unbelievably confusing for me too. They’re sort of not important if you aren’t in a field where you’ll be dealing with venomous creatures…I don’t really understand why they need to be known as fifth years.” Unless there was a clear line to an extremely useful anti-venom potion down the line. Which so far, there wasn’t. ”Anyways, did you have any problems with the Wit-Sharpening one? Since that’s the most recent I guess.”

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[reina watanabe nakamura]

March 20, 2028

Shiloh was obviously familiar with the Wit-Sharpening Potion, turning to a page in her own notebook about the same. It was totally color-coordinated, Reina noticed, and she wondered how anyone had the time to do all that in the middle of a Potions lesson. That wasn't to say that Shiloh's notes were unimpressive; on the contrary, Reina found herself feeling a little jealous of the older girl's ability to stay so organized. With notes that looked like that, it was no wonder that she was good at Potions. (That felt to Reina like an understatement, actually. Shiloh must have been one of the best students in her year!)

As much as she wanted to beg Shiloh for even an ounce of her note-taking skills, Reina didn't think that it would be as simple as just dropping them into her head. If that were the case, then she probably wouldn't have needed a Potions tutor in the first place. In reality, the easiest thing to do would be to learn from what Shiloh was doing right and apply as much of it as she could to her own work in Potions so that she would at least pass the subject. Reina understood perfectly what she needed to do in principle; it was everything else that messed her up.

"Have you done any of the venom antidotes yet?"

At that question, Reina was once again hopelessly lost. What did antidotes have to do with a Wit-Sharpening Potion? Maybe she was doing worse in Potions than she thought, and she knew that she wasn't doing well.

"Because those were unbelievably confusing for me too. They're sort of not important if you aren't in a field where you’ll be dealing with venomous creatures… I don't really understand why they need to be known as fifth-years."

Well, that made two of them. Reina wanted to work with dragons, and unfortunately some of those were venomous… the Peruvian Vipertooth, as one very obvious example.

Shiloh then brought the subject back to the Wit-Sharpening Potion, which only added to Reina's confusion, and she was sure that it showed on her face. Luckily, her question was about what she found difficult about the potion, and she could actually answer that.

"The ingredients are okay, but the steps and colors…" Reina gritted her teeth briefly. "How did you do that? In your notes?" she asked. Was there some sort of spell for it?

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[shiloh elspeth fleming]

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For a moment, Shiloh thought that she may have lost Reina. Everything she had said so far hadn’t seemed too complicated, but not everyone could grasp certain concepts in the first go. But if Reina wasn’t worried about her learning, she wouldn’t have been here right now. That was the first, and quite frankly most important, step in all of this. She wanted to do better. And that was why Shiloh was here to help facilitate that. Hopefully.

”I use different colored ink,” she answered simply, pulling out one of the pens she used for notes. Almost exclusively for potions, as it was the one that really required it the most. ”This one only has four, but it definitely helps a lot,” Shiloh added as she showed Reina. Scribbling on a corner of her notebook, she switched it between black, red, blue, and green. ”I have another that has about…twenty colors, I think? And if I don’t have a specific one, a color changing charm almost always works on it since it’s a no-maj object.” There were so many easier ways to do this, like simply casting the color changing charm while reviewing her notes, but it worked best this way for her. The funniest part about it was that she was quite proficient in the spell, using it on her hair constantly. Sometimes she just liked doing things the mundane way.

”You can have this one, if you want?” Shiloh offered the other girl her pen. ”I’ve got loads of them, since I tend to run out of ink a lot.” She frequently used the black ink for drawings too, which meant she needed to carry at least two of these at a time. It was almost silly to do it this way, but it was what it was. There was no changing it at this point in time.

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[reina watanabe nakamura]

March 20, 2028

At first, when Shiloh explained that she used different colors of ink to achieve what she had in her Potions notes, Reina was expecting more confusion. How was she carrying so much ink with her everywhere without getting it all over everything? Did she carry an entire bag full of inkpots with all the different colors she might want or need? If she had to do that to be successful in Potions class, thought Reina, she would, but it seemed excessive.

As soon as Shiloh showed her the pen that she had and how it could write with four different colors of ink without magic, Reina's eyes widened. She had come across non-magical pens on occasion, but she had never seen anything like the one that Shiloh had. Though the pen was slightly thicker than seemed practical in comparison to a quill, it made up for it. Like a self-inking quill, it didn't require the use of an inkpot, but the difference was that there were multiple color options—without needing to use any spells.

Hearing Shiloh say that she had a pen that could write with twenty different colors was a little overwhelming for Reina, who was more than happy to use even just two or three to aid in taking better notes. As a plus, Shiloh added that she could use a Color-Changing Charm if needed, since it was a non-magical item.

"You can have this one, if you want?" Shiloh told her, offering her the four-color pen. "I've got loads of them, since I tend to run out of ink a lot."

Reina grinned. "Thank you," she responded as she took the pen from Shiloh. "It's so cute!" Maybe "cute" wasn't the most common word to use in describing a pen, but it was awesome. She clicked down the piece of plastic that moved the blue ink cartridge and resisted the urge to keep clicking the colors around instead of focusing. "Are you Muggle-born?" Reina asked. She didn't have any problem with that, but she was curious about how Shiloh had come upon her non-magical (but still undoubtedly cool) pens.

shiloh elspeth fleming

[shiloh elspeth fleming]

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Reina took the pen, which brought a smile to Shiloh. These multi-color pens were literally the best. Obviously, they were mainly used for her notetaking. She had found uses for them elsewhere, like with her drawing. The only issue she found, aside from the separate pen inks inside the case jamming together occasionally, was that they tended to have weak lines. She was pretty sure that was because they were thinner tips in order to fit all of the different ones in the same housing. The red, blue, and green were fine for notes, but nothing past that. Plus, she had better pens for drawing. When she had the time to do that. Ever since the funeral, she’d had very little passion towards any of that…

Shiloh was asked if she was no-maj born, and she shook her head side to side. ”Nope! My mom was an Auror, and my dad played Quidditch, believe it or not.” She thought answering the question would sound somber, but it somehow came out a lot prouder than she originally imagined it would. Even though they were now both gone. ”I’ve always liked drawing with ink, so that’s why I have a big collection,” Shiloh went on to explain. ”These aren’t very good for that sort of thing…but I still like having them for notes. Ilvermorny was a lot less formal when it came to using pens or quills, or whatever.” She shrugged. Hogwarts wasn’t exactly strict on it either, though she’d heard stories about how rolls of parchment and tons of ink and quills used to be required every year. That sounded horrible to her, especially because pens were so much more versatile and easier to carry around. Who wanted to have a bag full of ink that was ready to spill at a moment’s notice?

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[reina watanabe nakamura]

March 20, 2028

Shiloh clarified that her parents weren't Muggles by giving their past jobs. Reina, more interested in the fact that her mother had been an Auror and her father had played Quidditch, didn't really pay attention to Shiloh's speaking of her parents in the past tense. "Cool!" she exclaimed. "My parents are dragonologists, both of them."

"I've always liked drawing with ink, so that's why I have a big collection," Shiloh went on. If she was half as good at drawing as she was at Potions, then she had to be seriously good. Reina preferred photography herself; it was easier to get a good photograph of a dragon from a distance than it was to try to draw one. "These aren't very good for that sort of thing…but I still like having them for notes," Shiloh said about her pens. "Ilvermorny was a lot less formal when it came to using pens or quills, or whatever."

From what Reina had heard, Castelobruxo wasn't as strict in a lot of senses as some of the other wizarding schools around the world, but she didn't see a big difference between there and Hogwarts in terms of having rules. The differences were more cultural—and in the subjects emphasized. "Castelobruxo has more Herbology and Magizoology. And Libatius Borage was a student there," she said, referring to the famous potioneer, "so maybe I should be better at Potions? But I want to be a dragonologist like my parents, so…" She didn't want to say that the other subjects at Hogwarts were impractical because it wasn't as though they were sitting around learning Mermish all day, but they weren't as exciting. If she stayed at Hogwarts for the long haul, she wasn't sure what she would do.

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[shiloh elspeth fleming]

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”Ahhh…that’s amazing. Dragons scare the heck out of me because of how big they are,” Shiloh admitted with an awkward laugh. ”Professor Weasley, when he was still teaching all of the students a few years back, tried to get us to see a baby dragon over at the rescue center place in Hogsmeade. I only managed to see the egg before it hatched. Everyone was crowding the viewing window.” Shiloh knew that she could have pulled some strings and had Elijah help her out. Now that she thought about it, maybe she would do that the next chance she got to talk to him. He definitely would if she asked.

The conversation had naturally shifted towards Castelobruxo, and Reina brought up Libatius Borage. Shiloh’s eyes lit up. She had known that already, but it was always cool to hear it from someone who also went to the same school. ”His books are the best,” she said excitedly. That was probably why they were the basis for all of the high-level courses at Hogwarts. Shiloh even had a copy of Have Yourself a Fiesta in a Bottle!, which a lot of serious potioneers considered to be a nonsense book. Which was ridiculous, because Borage was still the pinnacle of potioneering a century later. Why wouldn’t they consider all of his work together? ”I mean, I’ve always been told to do what I think I’ll be the best at and what I want to do. Obviously that means having to pass courses I’m not good at to get there…but being a dragonologist is still cool.” Super dangerous though. There was no way she would ever step foot anywhere near a dragon that was even half her size. She’d keep it to unhatched eggs and newborn dragons and that was it. That way all of her fingers would remain where they were supposed to be: on her hands.

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[reina watanabe nakamura]

March 20, 2028

Reina listened as Shiloh expressed her interest in what her parents did as dragonologists; however, she mentioned that dragons scared her because of their size. "Professor Weasley, when he was still teaching all of the students a few years back, tried to get us to see a baby dragon over at the rescue center place in Hogsmeade. I only managed to see the egg before it hatched. Everyone was crowding the viewing window."

"Aw…" It was disappointing for Shiloh that she hadn't actually been able to see the hatchling. "Maybe you could visit one of the dragon reserves?" Reina suggested, though she knew that wasn't exactly the same. She missed having classes that actually focused on magical creatures besides the ones that got included in the Defence Against the Dark Arts curriculum at MAGIC.

Shiloh was obviously familiar with the work of Libatius Borage, though Reina wasn't really sure how his books differed from any other on the subject. If there was some sort of art to writing about potions, she couldn't identify it and definitely didn't possess it.

"I mean," Shiloh continued on in relation to Potions as a class, "I've always been told to do what I think I'll be the best at and what I want to do. Obviously that means having to pass courses I'm not good at to get there… but being a dragonologist is still cool."

Reina understood Shiloh's point. Sometimes, there wasn't any real way around subjects that weren't fun. That was life, she guessed. She was good enough at most other subjects, even though she found Transfiguration cruel whenever they had to turn an animal into something. She understood the importance of being able to transfigure animals before moving on to, say, herself, but she didn't plan to become an Animagus.

"If I could cast a spell and be good at Potions, I would," Reina laughed, "but this is why we need potioneers."

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