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Chapter 30: Rainbow Soup
"Finally! What took you so long?" Sirius scolded him as he sat down at the Gryffindor table.
"You just got here too, Sirius," Peter pointed out as the plates of food began to appear in front of them.
Remus had his usual worried expression. "I know I should be the last one to complain, but that lab is keeping you too busy… I hope you aren't overworking yourself, James."
His three friends were the only ones he had told about his secret laboratory on the sixth floor… at least willingly.
They also knew he was making money by selling some of the potions he created, and for the most part, they didn't have issues with that, although Sirius sometimes complained that they no longer spent as much time together as before.
Remus was only worried because he thought that James was working too much in order to acquire the ingredients for his Wolfsbane potion, since James never revealed to him just how expensive the materials were.
His friend wasn't completely wrong… that potion was expensive to make. But luckily, his business was picking up, and he was starting to make good money...more than enough to pay for that and some of the things he required for his experiments.
"Sorry about that, I had a bit of 'extra work' today," James responded before turning to look at Sirius, who was sitting at his right.
The satisfied smile on his face was already telling him what he needed to know, but he still had to ask. "Did you set it up?"
Sirius chuckled. "I did. It's going to be hilarious."
As he had promised, James had made a special potion for Sirius, one that could change the shape and color of people's hair in random and crazy ways.
Also, the potion didn't even need to be drunk. It would be set in a container with some water, and this would turn into a mist.
Anyone in close proximity to this mist would suffer its effects.
The original formula for this potion was actually a lot deadlier and had been declared illegal to brew and use under the I.C.W. The sentence for this crime was a lifetime in prison.
Of course, the modified version that James had concocted was completely harmless and would only affect the hair for an hour or so, with no permanent repercussions.
Still… there was something that worried him. "Sirius, how many drops did you put in the container?"
For the plan to work, the potion had to be set up in a special container with the function of self-dissolving after a few minutes of being placed into a liquid.
In this case, Sirius had sneaked into the kitchens as the elves were preparing their dinner and dropped the container inside the clam soup that was always served at the Slytherin table. The potion would then mix with the water of the soup and become active, releasing the magical mist into the air.
Sirius brushed off his question. "I don't know, I put quite a few. There was no time to measure them."
James frowned. He could tell that his friend was hiding something from him. "Sirius… show me the vial I gave you."
Sirius made a troubled expression. "Well…" He pulled a vial from his robes and handed it to James.
James's expression grew grave… the vial was completely empty. "You put the whole thing?!"
"What's going on?" Peter glanced at them when he heard James raise his voice—something that was a very rare occurrence nowadays.
"What did Sirius do?" Remus was aware of the prank that Sirius and James had planned, but since his help wasn't needed, he had mostly stayed out of it.
"I gave him a very concentrated concoction and instructed him to only use a few drops of it...four or five at most, and he used it all," James whispered to Remus before hiding away the empty vial.
"How bad is it going to be?" Remus asked.
James glanced over at the Slytherin table. "I… have no idea." Sirius had used well over ten times the recommended dosage. Now he was regretting giving him so much, thinking that he could use it sparingly for several pranks.
But it was too late to stop it now. Blue smoke began to emerge from the bowl of soup at the Slytherin table.
The senior students were the closest ones to the soup and realized that something was very much wrong.
"Wait… what is that smoke?"
More colors appeared in the smoke. Greens, reds, pinks, purples… in a moment, it looked like a rainbow was coming out of the bowl.
The professors stood up from the table and glanced over at the event.
The column of smoke had now risen high enough to reach the chandeliers.
"It's so pretty!" Some of the students began to point at it.
This was as far as things should have gone, but… it was far from over. The amount of smoke coming out of the bowl grew in size and intensity, and it began to cover the entire table.
"Students! Stay away from the Slytherin table!" Dumbledore's voice rose over the commotion in the hall.
People began to jump from their seats and scramble to get away. The smoke had made it almost impossible to see anything, so they all began to trip over each other and fall to the ground. It was chaos.
"Uh-oh…" Sirius was now looking concerned.
"This is bad…" Remus said.
"So bad!" Peter exclaimed.
"And there's more…" James said.
Unable to contain it any longer, the bowl of soup exploded loudly. The multicolored smoke spread over the entire Great Hall, covering everything and everyone within its walls…
The professors tried their best to help as children screamed in panic and everyone tried to get to the exits.
This event was going to be remembered for decades to come… as "The Rainbow Soup Disaster."
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