Sugar and Spice: Complications

Keith sat alone in the old abandon classroom, which had become something of an unofficial headquarters for his most recent operations. Several piles of potions ingredients were laid out in front of him - belladonna leaves, pixie blood, crushed snake scales, and peppermint leaves being the most prominent. He wast stirring a small cauldron carefully, keeping an eye on a small red stone sitting next to him.

The stone acted as an alarm system - another nifty invention Keith had snatched from the older boy in his dorm. All he had to do was set up a few stones in the hallway, and when anyone passed them, the stone began to glow. It had worked great so far, allowing Keith to hide himself and his ingredients before anyone walked in on him. He would use the Room of Requirement eventually, but he was still scouting that place out - he was sure the teachers had bugged it somehow, and he didn't enjoy the thought of getting caught brewing up illegal potions.

Simon was striding down a corridor pompously, his homework settled nicely in his bag and finally making its way out of his mind. He had woken up early to work on it and had been distracted by Quidditch practice and other such things. By the time he had finally gotten around to homework, he had been fretting he would not finish it all.

Now that he had he was hurrying off to celebrate his freedom by either chatting it up with some girl or playing a game of Exploding Snap or perhaps just enjoying his delusions of popularity. His foot scudded against a strange stone but he thought nothing of it.

He turned his head and saw a door that was cracked open a bit. The usually thick, unobservant Ravenclaw would not have noticed, but he happened to see something shining red. Hm... Pretty... He turned and opened the door with one hand. "What's going on here?" he asked pompously.

"Oh son of a B****..." Keith muttered as the stone began to light up. He was in the most difficult stage of the potion making right now, he literally could not move it for fear of upsetting the very delicate balance that had to be achieved for the stuff to turn out just right. And of course right now was when someone had to stumble in.

Keith really had no choice. He rolled up most of his materials, stuffing them into his pack and scurried off to the side of the room. Nestling into the corner, he raised his wand and pointed it at the door. Hopefully the cauldron would distract whoever it was long enough to hit them...

The door opened, revealing some older kid from his house that Keith barely recognized. He didn't give the guy a chance to react.

"Percificus totalus!"