January 12th, 1894 - Hogsmeade Apothecary

January felt like a breath of fresh air; December always felt so heavy these days, trying to enjoy the holidays with family when too many of them were missing. Thank Merlin Elsie kept popping out kids, it gave them all something good to focus on. It was hard to be too melancholy when Bentley was running around making everyone laugh and Maisie was being passed around for snuggles.

Getting back into the routine of work was good for him. His ministry career was keeping him busy and sane. Harvey hadn't ever thought he'd be one to take on something so steady after enjoying his position with Pettigrew, but he needed something a bit more predictable. It was a good move, kept him adjacent to the sport, but not solely reliant on it.

Take today for example, somehow he'd been tasked with going to the local apothecary to see about reverse-engineering a potion. What did this have to do with quidditch? Well apparently players were coating their gloves with it to make them extra sticky? Harvey couldn't fathom feeling such a strong need to cheat, and it had taken them a while to figure it out, but once somebody's glove got so stuck to a quaffle that the game had to be stopped, it was pretty obvious.

Potions had never been his strongest subject, but still, he was curious, so didn't think much about taking on the task. Making his way into the shop front, he was immediately overwhelmed by the smell— not bad, but certainly nothing fresh either. It was a little dark, but he supposed ingredients in jars couldn't be exposed to too much light. He didn't see anyone at first glace, so meandered up to the counter to ring the bell. "Hello?" He ventured, thinking somebody had to be around.

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Lorelei Owens c/o Henry Berkwood

  

When the shop was slow, Lorelei got antsy and started organizing. She enjoyed her job, for the most part, but it wasn't what she really wanted to be doing, so sometimes it became a game of finding ways to not go mad. Thankfully, so far her employer seemed to appreciate her organizational decisions and let her be.

She was moving a box that was, in retrospect, really too heavy for her to carry on her own when she heard someone calling from the front of the shop. "One moment, please!" she called out. There was a thump and an unladylike grunt as as Lorelei located a place to place the box in her arms before coming out of the back room. "Sorry about that. Can I help you?"

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Bee is actual magic

Harvey waited a beat, hearing somebody shuffling around the back and some noise of exertion. "Are you alright?" He quirked an eyebrow at the pretty blonde who made her way around to the counter. She looked about his age, but he didn't recognize her, which was curious. Without time to wonder about that though, Harvey produced the quaffle with a glove stuck to it atop the counter.

"I was wondering if I could get some help with this," Harvey chuckled. "I work for the Department of Games and Sports and we have a little cheating predicament." Harvey didn't have much beyond this as evidence. Nobody could produce a vial of the potion used, so this was all they had. "The glove has some sort of sticking agent on it and we aren't really equipped to figure out just how this is working?" It wasn't something he'd dealt with before and he'd been in the sport for a long time.

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"Of course!" Lorelei said--because she was all right, and because she wouldn't complain in front of a customer if she wasn't. Well, not unless she needed desperate help with something, anyway. Independence had a very reasonable limit.

Lorelei lifted up the quaffle and glove, turning it over in her hands to get a close look at it. "Have you tried anything already?" she asked. "Is there anything that's already been ruled out?" Lorelei could think of a few options, but she didn't want to go over something that had already been tried.

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Bee is actual magic

"A whole bunch of counter-charms, which we've agreed means it's not a spell. So it must be some sort of potion residue?" Harvey really was a little out of his depth here. He hadn't worked with things like this since Hogwarts. All of his work experience was more with people than magic and so therefore he was a little out of practice.

"I was tasked with seeing if somebody with better knowhow could figure it out." It made more sense to outsource a potioneer than to bother somebody at the ministry who had other things to work on. Though he was sure she too had other work to do, he was hoping she might be able to figure it out quickly.

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"A potion does seem likely," Lorelei agreed. She set the quaffle down on the counter and disappeared briefly to shuffle through items on a shelf that was hidden from direct view behind the counter. "The good news is this isn't an uncommon problem." She emerged again a second later with a handful of vials of nearly identical--but carefully labeled--solutions. "Well, perhaps not this exactly," she amended with a smile. "But enough people come through here with mysteries for us to solve that there's a procedure for it."

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Bee is actual magic

Pleased he'd managed to at least come to the right place to have this solved, Harvey leaned against the counter opposite the potioneer and watched as she set down some vials. "I imagine you do see some interesting things." Potions was an interesting sort of subject. He'd been passable at it in school, minus some embarrassing potions tournaments, but he was not well-versed in antidotes or reversing them.

"It wasn't my best subject in school," he admitted with a wry smile, watching her process intently. "If you can figure out what it is, do you think the ministry might be able to commission some sort of solvent to prevent this in the future?" Once they figured out who had done it, maybe it wouldn't be necessary, but Harvey had been asked to make sur ethe problem was thoroughly solved.

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"I'm sure we could arrange something," Lorelei said. She selected one of the vials and began carefully unscrewing the top while she talked. "I'm a potioneer myself," she said, partly as explanation, and partly to make conversation while she worked. "Unfortunately, most of my professional contacts are outside of Britain. But between myself and the apothecary, I'm sure we can work something out."

She dropped few drops on the seam at the point where the glove and quaffle were connected before giving the area a good scrub with a gloved hand. "Let's see." Lorelei gave an experimental tug. The quaffle didn't budge. "It never seems to be the first thing I try," she said wryly, already taking up another vial.

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Bee is actual magic

Ah well, if she was a potioneer herself and capable of coming up with some sort of long-term solution, she should certainly get the credit. And the contract. Harvey had enough capable sisters to know anything less would be a out of the question.

"It never is that easy. But if it helps, it's been through quite a lot of trial and failure so far." He hadn't been able to figure out a counter charm, nor any of his colleagues. They hadn't quite branched out to any other departments, as Harvey had suggested the potion route, but he supposed Accidents and Catastrophes might be able to help. They tended to be good at problem solving things like this.

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"That does make logical sense," Lorelei mused. Well, there had to be a solution somewhere, so Lorelei pressed on, trying the next vial and, when that didn't work any better than the first had, she moved on to the next. And the next.

It wasn't until Lorelei tried the fifth--and last--of her vials that the quaffle finally had some give to it when she tugged at it. "Aha!" she said triumphantly. She grinned broadly, adding more of the solution until the quaffle and glove finally came free.

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Bee is actual magic

Harvey could only watch and wait as the woman before him tried vial after vial. Maybe this damn thing would never separate. The quidditch player in question was incredibly lucky that it wasn't his hand attached to the quaffle. That would have been another matter entirely.

"Aha!" Harvey echoed when the fifth vial did the trick. He watched the connection dissolve, fascinated, as the two items came apart. "Does that give you any clue as to what might have caused the stick in the first place?" Harvey was hoping that whatever was in the solvent would give way to whatever was in the original product that caused the problem in the first place.

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"I think it's most likely a particular sticking solution," Lorelei said. And then, realizing that that was both very vague and very obvious, she offered the actual name of the solution. Though she didn't expect him to recognize it--it wasn't the sort of solution the average consumer used themselves. "It's not terribly common, but now that we know what it is, it should be an easy problem to prevent."

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Bee is actual magic

"Great," Harvey was pleased with the outcome here. The potioneer before him seemed to know now what they were dealing with and made it sound like she had a solution for it. "Do you think this is something we could get an antidote? Solvent? For it to keep at the ministry?" Harvey had been tasked with finding the solution and to for the methods to be at his discretion for the final outcome. He rather thought a contract with someone very capable of producing a consistent solvent would be the best course of action.

"Is that something you would be interested in? A contract to produce this for the Department?" Harvey was a little out of his depth here in regards to the methods here, but trusted she knew what she was doing.

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"Absolutely," Lorelei said. She fetched a notepad from behind the counter to take down notes. It wouldn't do anyone any good if she forgot what precisely she'd done to work out the solution to the problem. "We can get something drawn up, and that should be just fine." Honestly, she was pleased as punch to have this to work on. She enjoyed her job, but the last thing she wanted to do was feel like she was stagnating.

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Bee is actual magic

Relieved that this had been a worthwhile endeavor, Harvey got out his card for the department and slid it across the till for her. "If you want to come up with an agreement and forward it to my desk, I'll see it through on my end." Harvey assured her with a smile.

He took out his notebook from the inside of his pocket and the accompanying tiny quill for his notes. "I'll keep an eye out for it specifically. What's your name?" Harv was on the line for this and he didn't want to screw it up.

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"Lorelei Owens," she said. "I will be sure to get that done as soon as possible, Mr...?"

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Bee is actual magic