Fruit, Lung, or Dung? ((OPEN))

The boy bounced on the balls of his feet as his head swiveled back and forth, eyes searching. He'd been in here a few times to get potions ingredients during class, but he'd never been able to peruse at his leisure. There was always something rather fascinating in the jars that spiked curiosity. Well, not so much on some of the grosser things, but even on some of the 'nasty' contents were kind of interesting. He blinked, and started down an aisle, looking at the labels, or those that were. Pausing he stared at one jar whose contents he wasn't quite sure about. It looked like a cross between a piece of dried fruit and a turd. Or was it a petrified organ?

Jurian knew that they worked with bits of animal innards and such for potions, dung for herbology, but he wasn't sure if they ever used dried fruit. They'd used roots and greens and such, but as far as he knew, nothing else. Then again, who knew if their professor didn't stash his snacks back here in the storage cupboard disguised as potions ingredients to keep unwanted hands off them?

"Excuse me," he said poking his head out of the aisle spotting someone in the classroom. "Is this petrified fruit, a lung, or ancient poo?"

Professor Harrington was nowhere to be found. Mariah had tried her office first, but it was empty, so she'd taken to perusing the potions classrooms in search of the missing teacher. It had been nearly thirty minutes now with no sign of her, and each passing moment served to heighten her own anxiety, irrational as she knew it to be.

Mariah hated bothering the professors outside of class, even though they always said they were happy to help. She was afraid of wasting their time by asking stupid questions. But it didn't seem like she could get out of this one - she simply didn't understand the homework assignment, and nobody she'd asked had been able to explain it to her. Technically, it had been Professor Blackwood who'd assigned it, but if Mariah was nervous about talking to Professor Harrington, she was positively terrified of bothering Professor Blackwood. At least Professor Harrington always seemed understanding. Professor Blackwood acted liked she was annoyed by all of her students, even the ones that were smarter than Mariah, so she could only imagine how poorly her asking for clarification might go over. No, that was out of the question. She'd just have to hope Professor Harrington could interpret the other teacher's instructions.

If she could find her, anyway. Mariah poked her head into yet another empty classroom, looked around, then sighed and turned to go. A sudden voice made her jump. She stuttered a little, caught off guard as she turned toward the boy who had spoken, appearing out of one of the stock rooms branching off of the classroom. She glanced at the jar in his hands.

"Uh, I'm not sure," she responded, regarding him with some confusion. "Are you looking for something?"

She glanced around but didn't see anyone else in the area. She frowned. "Are you supposed to be in here?"

"Awwww," he replied with disappointment when she said she wasn't sure but tjen he brightened. "You're not sure? Does that mean you have a guess?"

Blinking innocently at the older student he gave her a shrug the smile never leaving his face. He was genuinley happy to see her and get help with the whatever this was in the jar. Unable to stop himself he had to return her question with own brand of humor. "Aren't we all looking for something?"

Honestly, if they wanted the students to stay away from someplace or out of something there would be signs and locks. Then again with a school full of magical children they probably would have warded the cupboards and doors or something. Since they hadn't it was begging to be explored and/or looked at. And Jurian most definitely loved to poke about. You never knew what you would find. And he'd found the questionable thing in the jar.

Staring wide eyed he stated being deliberately obtuse, "Of course I'm supposed to be here. I got my letter same as you. The big question is, what is this thing? Maybe a dragon dung bean?"

Oh wouldn't that be something if something like that was hidden down here! Tilting the jar this way and that as he stared almost crosseyed at the object. That would be nasty if it was, but a lot of fun. Even if one would have to apologize afterwards.

The boy certainly had a unique perspective on the world, one which continued to catch Mariah off guard even after she got over the initial shock of seeing him. She blinked as he interpreted her words in a way she hadn't considered. Perhaps she'd have to be more careful in how she phrased things.

"Um, well, no. But if you don't know what it is, you probably shouldn't be messing with it. What if it's poisonous?"

She had no idea what was in the jar, but she tended to be cautious when it came to potion ingredients - a fair few concoctions had blown up in her face, after all. Learning magic came with some inherent risks, making this school quite a bit more dangerous than her old one.

Once again, the boy put an unexpected spin on her words, this time making her laugh a little. "I guess so," she replied. He was odd, but she found it endearing. She moved a little closer, inspecting the jar more thoroughly. She didn't want to leave this kid to his own devices, considering how he apparently decided to spend his free time. She would feel better if she was watching to make sure he didn't get into any trouble.

When he once again evaded her questioning, Mariah began to suspect he was doing it deliberately. That told her, with reasonable certainty, that he really wasn't supposed to be here - otherwise, why would he redirect the question? She looked over her shoulder again, but there were no authority figures around. Should she tell him off? Should she suggest they go somewhere else before he got in trouble?

"I think the real question is, what are you planning to do with it once you find out what it is?" she countered, in good humor, though not without a hint of genuine nervousness.

The twelve year old ahrugged carelessly not perturbed in the slightest that he could be holding something poisonous. "Tea's poisonous too if not diluted properly and consumed in great quantities." Hadn't that been intersting when he found out. It had also put him off tea and drove his mum sparae when he shouted she was trying to poison him. He'd gotten a right talking to from his dad for that one. That reminded him, he still owed Jasper a kick for laughing and not helping.

When asked about what he planned on doing with it, he shrugged again. "I dunno. Depends on what it is." He grinned. If it was the professor's snack he would apologize he supposed. If an organ, he didn't want to know where it came from and hoped not to see it again until it was time to use it in class. If dung, he really would want to know why it was being kept in a jar. He'd never thought poo would be put in a potion. Then again, ignorance was bliss when it came to that!

"If it really is a dragon dung bean..." then he was most assuredly going to pocket it. Even if it would be like he was playing evil geni.

"Here," he said holding the jar out to her expectantly. "One of us needs to open it. You hold and I open, or I hold and you open."

Her reasoning was clearly not getting her anywhere. "Well, I suppose it's lucky we don't have great quantities of this stuff then," she replied, gesturing to the jar. To be honest, she had no idea about the tea thing. She filed it away to look up later. "But in any case, I'd strongly advise against consuming it, diluted or not."

Mariah sighed as the boy kept circling back to the same question. She suspected he would never be satisfied until he finally figured out what was in the jar, but...

"How exactly are you planning to determine what it is?" Please don't suggest ingesting it. Or licking it. Or even sniffing it might be dangerous. Or if you touch it with your fingers and then accidentally lick your fingers or eat without washing your hands, I think that's just as bad.

At this point, she felt personally responsible for whatever fate befell him.

Her eyes widened as he held the jar out to her. She held her hands up. "Whoa, hold on. I definitely never agreed to be complicit in this. I don't even want to know what's inside."

A grin spread across the boy's face, his eyes lightening up as he stared at the girl as if he could guess what she was thinking. After all, his cousin Roberta had that same expression when she found the boys hovering over something and then just to gross her out, Jurian and Jasper would take turns doing the unthinkable. It wasn't as if their mother didn't have the poison control people on speed dial. She had learned after Jurian had talked Jasper into taking a bite out of some concoction or another.

"Well, if it's a dragon dung bean you have to consume it," Jurian replied as if it was supposed to be common knowledge as he peered eagerly at the thing in the jar. He was nearly giddy. At this point he didn't think he would be disappointed at whatever he found as his curiosity was heightening the longer he was denied access to the jar's contents. He shrugged, "After you get what you want then yeah, it comes back up when you cough it up. It doesn't hurt you at all."

Sighing, Jurian gave the girl a pleading look. "That's why we have to open it! We don't know what's in here. There's no label or anything!"

And if she wasn't going to help him that just meant he'd have to try and get it open himself. Shoving the jar between his legs, gripping it as tightly with his thighs as he could, his hands went to the lid. He grunted as he tried to twist it off. "Urgh. Stupid vacuum sealing!"

"Well, if it's a dragon dung bean you have to consume it."

"What? Why?" Mariah had never heard anything of the sort. She suspected the boy was probably just having her on. "That sounds like a tremendously bad idea."

The boy kept rambling. She couldn't keep up with his twisted logic.

"After you- what? What could you possibly want from dragon dung?"

She watched him struggle with the lid some more, hoping against hope that some sort of authority figure would come around the corner right now and take charge. When no one did, she ran a hand through her hair and sighed. She had to get the jar away from him somehow. Maybe she could try and distract him with something more interesting? But she didn't have anything more interesting on her. What could she do?

He really seemed to be having trouble with the jar.

"Maybe it's childproof," she suggested. She finally approached him, holding her hand out. "Here, let me see it."

Jurian couldn't help but let out a giggle (yes, he'd admit that he giggled!) when the girl stated it sounded like a bad idea. Well, wasn't that what most people said when it came to inventions or even ideas that went against the norm? That was why he had to do it. Everyone thought people's strange ideas were crazy or bad until something amazing came out of it. Most discoveries were accidents anyway weren't they?

Grunting as he gave a shrug at her question about what he'd want with dragon dung. Didn't she take Herbology? He was sure they had used it at some point for fertilizer or something. Even if they hadn't, Jurian didn't much care about telling her all the things he could do with it. A mischievous glint entered his eyes as his mind wandered to the trouble that he could cause. If he saved it and took it home...Roberta [i]was[i] due sometime this summer.

At the suggestion the jar was childproofed, stuck his tongue out at her in bit of childish fit before he pouted. "Well, that's just not fair," he complained. Why put something so tempting down here and then make it hard to open?! That was like going to the zoo and waving a steak in front of a tiger or something! It just wasn't done! Eyeing the girl he debated giving the jar to her. She didn't seem nearly as curious as he was about finding out for sure what the treasure was. Deciding that she wouldn't take it and run off with it or put it up where he couldn't get to it, he slapped the jar into her hand. "Here."

Immediately he regretted it.