Well, at least he was honest. It was fair if his intentions were just as he said they were and he didn’t have any ulterior motives. Picking up her teacup once more, she sipped on the still-hot liquid, wishing it was the bitterness of coffee instead. She needed something a bit more bracing after this conversation. She nearly snorted into her cup at his comment about charity. Instead she only gave a half sigh and put the cup down. “That tells me you’ve only ever been on the giving side, then.” She held his gaze for a few seconds before settling back again. He’d given her much to think about.

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avery speaks with a mixed south appalachian drawl

"Fair enough," Harry acknowledged. He could hardly argue the point. "Consider it my stance until I have more data, then." His smile then was a little self-deprecating. Well, he was a scientist after all. It wasn't like he was hiding that fact, given that they were having this meeting in his lab. Something was actively bubbling less than thirty feet away from them--out of sight, but still softly audible in the background.

"Is there anything else you'd like to know?" Harry was sure there had to be. He didn't have anything he could think to hide, but he also wasn't sure he had answers to everything, either.

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set by Bee! <3

More data? Who talked like that? She didn’t bother hiding her perplexed expression before picking up her teacup for the umpteenth time to take another sip. She didn’t know what to make of Mr. Harry Berkwood other than it seemed his earlier statement held true: he wasn’t his brother.

And she should have more questions; she actually had a lot of them, but none of them had materialized clearly in front of her when asked. She’d have to take her time with this one. She was about to leave when, in the offered silence, she finally registered the kind of room they actually were in. She’d been so caught up in standing her ground, expecting the worst, that she hadn’t actually paid much attention to the contents of the room past its layout.

“Yes.” Avery looked around. “What exactly is your profession then?”

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avery speaks with a mixed south appalachian drawl

"Potioneer," Harry answered easily. And chemist, technically, but he thought that explanation might confuse things more. And anyway, potions were what made him more money out of the two. "Technically I specialize in healing potions, specifically, but I can make most anything someone asks me to." He gestured behind them--there was an open archway, leading into the lab proper. "Would you like to see?"

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set by Bee! <3

Healing potions. Avery dabbled in potions given her profession but to hear that his expertise expanded far beyond what she’d originally thought, well…it might come in handy down the line. Following his gesture to the laboratory, Avery studied him with a calculating look before rising from her seat. “Might as well.” If we’re going to become better acquainted. She surprised herself with that thought and tucked it away for later that night when she deliberated more on what to do. Brushing off her skirt, Avery closed the distance between them and waited for him to take the lead. In fact, she stood ever so slightly behind him, preferring a hasty retreat if need be.

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avery speaks with a mixed south appalachian drawl

Harry's face transformed into a genuine, broad smile, now, and he stood up. He gestured for Avery to follow, and led the way through the archway. Predictably, there were multiple cauldrons set up, some currently occupied with potions Harry was working on. There was also chemistry lab equipment at the far end of the room, though Harry didn't currently having any long term experiments going at the moment.

"Careful if you touch anything," Harry warned, cheerfully. "A few of these cauldrons are new things I'm trying--I can't guarantee their effects yet." His demeanor in the lab proper was much more relaxed--here he was at ease. Here he knew exactly what he was about, and, at least half the time, exactly what he was doing.

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set by Bee! <3

The transformation was almost startling. Mr. Berkwood’s posture straightened a little, his eyes brightened and he almost had a boyish excitement about him that threw Avery completely off. And once he took off, Avery found herself hurrying after him. It slowly dawned on her that she might not have known what she’d just said yes to. Looking around the lab, she chuckled to herself. For a mother who spent an inordinate amount of time telling her child to not touch anything, she had an odd urge to do exactly that. It was a fascinating set up.

No stranger to potions (though not quite at this caliber, clearly), Avery found herself fascinated by the idea of potion inventing. Soon enough the animosity that had clouded her vision only moments before quickly dissipated and was replaced with a genuine curiosity — mixed with some alarm. “Can’t guarantee?” She looked at him. He didn’t test these potions on himself did he? “You mean you don’t know?”

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avery speaks with a mixed south appalachian drawl

"Not yet," Harry said, with a shrug. It wasn't an unreasonable question. "I like inventing new things--or seeing how I can alter existing potions to get interesting results. I rarely get what I'm looking for on the first try." He pointed at the cauldron closest to them. "This one, for instance, is an experiment with a calming draft I've just started working with. Getting the results I want is much more fiddly than I initially expected it to be." So far, the effects he'd gotten varied wildly between seeming to do barely anything at all and being too calming--if one could call "temporarily catatonic" calm. He thought it might be effective, eventually, for calming extreme anxieties. It was just... very difficult to test it when he was his main test subject and wasn't a particularly anxious person, by nature.

"I don't think anything I have here is dangerous," Harry said. At least, not at the moment. "But it's still the experimental stage. Too many variables still unexplored."

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set by Bee! <3

I don’t think anything I have here is dangerous. Avery could only stare at the man in front of her as multiple questions flew through her mind. It had only been a quarter of an hour or so and she could already tell that his earlier point — that he was not his brother — was very true. Whether that was a good or bad thing remained to be seen.

Never mind the fact that this was likely the most she’d heard him talk unprovoked since they’d sat down. “Yes, I think I understand,” She replied slowly. She did understand his thought process but was still hung up on how God had managed to send her two brothers that were as different as night and day. At best, she’d expected them to be as different as night and later-that-night.

“And people pay you for these concoctions then?” As far as she knew of the British, they didn’t like to talk about money or income too much but Avery felt she at least had the right to ask.

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avery speaks with a mixed south appalachian drawl

"Yes, they do," Harry said. "I am very good." It wasn't bragging if it was honest. And more often than not what Harry got paid for was figuring out solutions to problems people had that couldn't be solved by conventional means, for whatever reason. "Obviously, I make and sell the usual potions for the common complaints but then you get the really unique ailments, or someone who's tried everything else and nothing has worked for them." He gestured at a shelf where he kept finished potions that hadn't been picked up yet--probably the best labelled things in the entirety of Harry's lab, because he really didn't want to accidentally mix up Mrs. Murray's potion for arthritis pain with Mr. Prescott's party drug of choice--though the label on the latter was necessarily discrete.

"Does creature healing require potions?" Harry asked, genuinely curious. "I know I've sold a lot of potions to healers who deal in injuries caused by creatures, and to people like dragonkeepers and the like who deal with dangerous creatures, but I admit I've never given much thought to the other side of it." He couldn't imagine giving a dragon a potion, but what would he know?

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set by Bee! <3

Even with his sudden change in confidence when talking about his profession, Mr. Berkwood didn’t seem to possess much of the bravado that other men his age seemed to don as he answered her questions. Avery thought that a good thing rather than a warning sign, but she still cast her eyes about the laboratory with restrained curiosity. She caught the labels on the finished potions and tilted her head slightly to read them. He wasn’t joking: anything from pain relieving potions to what looked like a recreational potion seemed to be in front of them in bottles waiting to be picked up.

“Oh yes a great deal of potions,” Avery responded, grateful to latch onto a subject that she was familiar with. “Though I enjoy working with potions and can whip up a fair amount of remedies myself, I source most of them from people like you.” It was here that Avery realized there might be a mutually beneficial partnership to be found between her and Mr. Berkwood. “A lot of the potioneers I know back home work exclusively with tinctures and treatments for creatures themselves, though.” She gave a knowing smile. “Easier when you don’t have to worry about keeping track of the difference between concentrations for gigantic beasts and humans.” While one accidentally given to another might not be serious, the other way around certainly would be fatal, and not a mistake any one wanted to make if they cared about their profession.

“But it could be different over here. I’ve heard of some potioneers dabbling in both if they have the space to separate their ingredients and clientele.”

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avery speaks with a mixed south appalachian drawl

Harry tilted his head thoughtfully. "Yes, I imagine it would be very bad to get those mixed up," he said, already considering the possibilities. His lab was already set up to keep different aspects of his work separate. It wouldn't take much effort, he thought, to make space for something else. It was a very practical consideration--Harry could always use more avenues for his potions. And it was in his best interests to ingratiate himself with this woman.

"I think I'd be interested in trying my hand at potions for creatures," Harry said. "Though, I imagine it would take some research, obviously," he added, somewhat wryly. "I didn't study magical creatures at school. I admit my knowledge there might be rusty."

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set by Bee! <3

Avery snorted. “You have no idea,” She drawled, rolling her eyes as she remembered the last time someone she knew had mistaken a vial meant for beast for a regular dose of potion for a human.

She cocked her head, looking at him as if to get the full measure of him. “Shouldn’t be too hard for someone like you.” She ventured as she shifted her gaze back to the potions on the wall. “If you’re as smart as you say you are, at least.”

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avery speaks with a mixed south appalachian drawl

Harry laughed. "That sounds like just the sort of challenge I can't help but take." It was something that would be true, even outside of this situation. "You'll find I'm very good at proving myself when I've a mind to," he said, fully aware that his statement had a double meaning.

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set by Bee! <3