Potions are satisfying to make but woof, they can really stink. Not a little stink either, but a proper stink, the kind that makes your head spin and your face hurt and your toes curl. It passes, but many potions have that stage in their brewing where you just want to stop.

It’s true of many things, I’ve heard. Part of a meal feels boring on its own, but with the whole dish, it’s great. Random pages of a book may read as nonsense, but as a whole, it’s a classic. Paintings look bad at the beginning but if you keep going, that bad bit is soon forgotten. All creative things must enter a moment of muddy confusion, where the initial idea is lost or unclear, and it is through persistence that we come back to our original ideas. This potion was meant to lift moods and brighten minds, but at the moment it makes me want to hide under the table and snarl. That’s okay, I can snarl, but I must remember that it will pass.