I come bearing fic (twice over)

I've decided to participate in rt_challenge this month, although I don't know how active I'll have time to be; however, it was hard to resist when the first two prompts were Shakespeare and Anne Bradstreet. So here's my first effort: Present Mirth.

Also, the next installment of Correspondence Course, with links to parts One, Two, Three, and Four

( It would be a happy day for the science of potion-making if you had blown up yourself and everything in the immediate vicinity, but I suppose I can hardly be so lucky )