Pocket full of Potions

Chloe shuffled her way into her potions class, this had actually always been one of her favorite classes, but she had been up late the evening before and had been woken up by her dorm mate only 20 minutes earlier because she was going to be late. She had tried to make herself look as presentable as possible, but it was difficult to completely remove the sleep deprived marks around her eyes. She smiled as always towards the professor, "good morning Professor" she stated, trying to sound as friendly as she could, moving towards her usual table in the very front. She set her cauldron up in silence before taking her seat as the rest of the class filed in. Most of them were already there, talking amongst each other while they waited for class to begin. She pulled out her potions book from her bag and began flipping through the pages, she went to a page she had bookmarked from a homework assignment they had just done, sure that it would be this potion they'd be working on today. It was this Professor that she asked for help with any healing spells that she may be curious on and found herself getting better all the time. She covered her mouth as a huge yawn escaped her.

(okay I'll be honest, I have NO idea if I'm supposed to wait for somebody to come in and play the teacher, or if I'm supposed to NPC the teacher or what lol)

Ava walked in late to the potions classroom, it wasn't like her to lag behind, not for this class anyway, but time had slipped away from her. Nevertheless she strolled in nonchalantly and made her stood at the doorway, a slight ghost of a smile on her face as she scanned the room for a spare seat. She strode purposefully up to the most appealing one, finding herself beside a Hufflepuff girl.

"Don't mind if I sit here do you?" Ava asked, all smiles as her London accent played out through her lips. She dropped her bag onto the floor beside the chair, clearly already having decided to take the seat, no matter what answer she was given. "Best spare seat and all, don't want to be left at the back with the brain deads, do I?" Ava's tone was as usual, indeciferable and purposely so. She knew that it was rare for anybody to work out whether her up and down tibre and cheery smile were almost clueless friendliness, cheekily flirtatious or sarcastically patronising. And that was the way Ava liked it, after all, she was playing the long game.

Giving a pouting smile with one eyebrow raised, she took the seat, leaning with both forearms onto the desk in front of her.

"Of course sitting up front here is pretty much declaring yourself an insufferable know it all." She laughed, her eyes fixed onto the Hufflepuff, she vaguely recognised the girl, enough to know her name at least. She leant in almost conspiratorially and lowering her voice said, "So, which kind are you then? One of the little teachers' pets, or one who couldn't give a toss?" She giggled and bit her lip, giving only a few moments and certainly not long enough for Chloe to give an answer. "I'm kidding," she laughed, leaning in towards Chloe and placing her hand atop the Hufflepuff's. "If only it was that easy, eh?" She gave a last piercing glance, her smile still as cheekily placed on her face before turning to retrieve her parchment from her bag.

Chloe had already read the chapter the previous night and was reviewing it when she felt somebody standing beside her. She glanced up towards the girl and offered her a friendly smile, she recognized the girl as a Gryffindor, but didn't really know her name. "Of course" she replied in a perfectly friendly mannor when she asked if she could sit beside her. She stole a glance towards the back of the classroom at the mention of them but only smiled in response. She wasn't the type that liked talking about others whether it was by name or just association. She glanced back down to her book, although she had just about memorized this potion by now when the girl continued on about sitting in the front row, her eyes widened slightly and she could feel her cheeks flushing a pink color, she ignored the comment though until the girl asked her the question about whether or not she was a teachers pet.

"I wouldn't say I'm either extreme, but I do happen to like this class.." she was trying not to sound offensive at all, and gave kind of a weak smile at the mention of her only kidding.. "heh.. yeah sorry, I'm a little on edge today.. didn't get much sleep.." she mumbled to herself. She hadn't meant to stay up so late the night before, but she was being plagued by nightmares and so she had attempted putting off going to bed as late as she possibly could. She stood to go and get the ingredients they would be needing for the potion they'd be working on, as a way of trying to clear the air with her table partner she got enough for the two of them, placing it all on the table.

Ava watched from the corner of her eye as Chloe went to collect the potion ingredients. She hadn't had any interaction with the girl before, she was pretty sure she was in the year below Ava but apart from that, she knew very little. Ava twirled her hair around her finger as she sat considering and calculating the girl, trying to decifer her personality and morals. She seemed fairly shy, but friendly, but she really wasn't giving much away. That fact in itself both annoyed and intruiged Ava, she felt a slight respect for how well the girl guarded herself, she was very diplomatic. Ava couldn't decide whether she wanted to dig deeper into the girl, to see how far she could push Chloe before she garnered a reaction or whether to just get on with the lesson in a friendly way.

Before she could make much headway in her decision Chloe had returned with potion ingredients for them both. Ava smiled at her,

"Thank you." She said, her accent somehow seeming thicker around the words. "So you're Chloe, right? Fifth year?" Ava took some of the ingredients from Chloe and began to set up their apparatus. She lit the fire beneath their cauldron with her wand, with a clear incantation, but a flick of the wrist that almost seemed lazy, she didn't even look directly at the flame, choosing instead to keep her gaze lingering between the cauldron and Chloe. She was confident in potions. Of all the subjects at Hogwarts, this was the one she excelled at. After all, her grandfather had been training her in the art of potion making, particularly darker potions, since she showed her first signs of magic. She knew that she would never be the top student in the school, many of her other subjects were merely acceptable, at a push, but potions, those she knew, those were effortless.

"I'm Ava, sixth year," Ava continued flawlessly, barely even pausing for breath. "So, how are you at potions then Chloe?" She raised her eyebrows and grinned. She waited briefly for the response whilst she began to line up the potion ingredients in a perfect line, arranged in their jars and bottles in order of size. There were still a few students straggling behind who had just entered the classroom, out of breath and rushing to their seats before their Professor officially began the class. Ava didn't even bother to turn her head as she heard them enter. They were of no interest to her.

"It'll be nice working with someone good at potions and who likes them too. It's the best part of magic." Ava's attention didn't leave her meticulous setting up of their equipment as she spoke. "And we're finally getting to the good stuff now. None of that simple shrinking potion stuff, no, now we get to actually make things that are worthwhile. Got to love that haven't you? What other subjects are you doing? My day's packed today, herbology, transfiguration, charms, care of magical creatures. And you just know it's going to be pitch dark by the time we get to that and with feet of snow they're still doing it outside by the forest." Ava spoke with an increasing speed and the tone of her voice rose higher, "I'm surprised half the hospital wing isn't full of students freezing to death out there." She paused and let her eyes leave their apparatus to look at Chloe and smile widely before furrowing her eyebrows. "Sorry, am I babbling?" She laughed to herself, her head dropping to look briefly at the floor as she laughed.

It was interesting how things were moving along between the two of them, it took Chloe only the slightest offer of friendship before something bubbled, she wasn't sure whether this was a good thing or not.. but didn't take the time to over analyze it like she may have wanted to if she were alone. She had become much more careful than usual, although she was often the more quiet type of student, especially when it came to classes, she was never the type to be by herself all the time, and yet lately.. she couldn't be found amongst groups of girls giggling over boys.. or even talking one on one to a good friend, like you would have the year before, she kept to herself mostly, which wasn't like her and it wasn't likely that anybody would know the true reason.

She felt a strange surge of interest towards the girl as she spoke though, she kind of liked that she took the lead on the conversation, all that time Chloe was spending alone was beginning to wear on her and she found herself a little more out of touch in conversations than was normal. She found herself keeping up much more easily than she would with most others, even found herself replying as if prodding for the conversation to continue, she merely nodded at the question of her being a fifth year. She smiled slightly as the conversation turned to Potions "it's one of my favorite classes.. I know most people don't appreciate it, but I know how important the art can be.." it was quite possable that there was a double meaning in there somewhere, but she tried to ignore it as the girl continued. While she spoke, Chloe started arranging her own things in the order she would need them as she listened, before naturally turning and setting her potions book between them to share, another small offer of friendship, even if it was unintentional.

Chloe was much better at keeping the amount of interest on her face at a mild setting, even though she found herself quite eager for conversation, she hadn't realized how starving she was for socialization. She found herself forgetting her troubles and focussing on the enjoyment instead. She started light prep work on her things as she continued to listen "I have Care of Magical Creatures, Charms, and Defense Against the Dark Arts.." she smiled again as Ava started on about the cold, finding that she liked that odd bit of information mostly because she absolutely hated the freezing weather. "I much prefer the Spring months.." she allowed as a form of agreement "although Care of Magical Creatures is one of my favorite classes too" it was actually the only class on her list that didn't do her any good what-so-ever other than just being something for her to enjoy. She had picked other classes that would help her be able to defend herself or others.. and of course classes that would help in any way of her healing abilities.

Ava was about to respond to Chloe when the potions Professor started the class. Everyone settled into relative silence. The professor went about explaining the potion that they would be making, the various ingredients and instructions and proceedures. Notes were being made as the professor pointed his wand towards the board, the chalk rising up to write out their directions.

Ava watched other students making notes. She half heartedly put down the basic points on some parchment, she'd already made copious notes the night before, so the action was fairly futile and primarily for show. She used the time instead to once again mull over Chloe. The girl seemed eager for friendship and yet, she was purposely keeping fairly stoic. There was something else there, as though she were concealing something. Ava felt herself itching to uncover whatever it was that Chloe was so determined to keep hidden. She doubted it would be of much interest to her, but it was there, like a splinter under the skin, there but unreachable. It was almost a challenge, as though the gaunlet had been laid down the minute the pair had spoken. Both girls ruled by secrets, putting on a mask, keeping a distance. Ava couldn't help but respect that similarity, but nevertheless, it didn't stop her from wanting to dig, to goad and build upon the cat and mouse game she had played so many times before.

As the professor began to come to the end of his instruction, Ava was still lost in thought. She actually felt some affection for the giril, it was a thought she didn't quite want to admit to herself. Ava spent her time at Hogwarts being liked or at least respected by most people. She chatted to anyone, made people laugh, there was nobody in her year she wasn't known by and yet it was all superficial, nobody got beyond the mask. Ava had an air of confidence and over the younger years a certain intimidation. She was never afraid to show her displeasure at something, though usually chose to do so in an underhanded fashion, she had an image to keep up. Nobody saw darkness, there was no way she would let them. Arguments were passive aggressive, covert, rarely even tracable back to her. So why, when things had worked so well for six years, were things seeming to break down in the space of five minutes? Ava began to wonder, if she could see that Chloe was concealing something, did that mean that Chloe could see the same in her?

Ava was snapped from her silent reverie by the clattering echoing around the room as all the students began to prepare their ingredients. They had a tricky potion to prepare, the draught of peace. Laid out on the table was powdered moonstone, syrup of hellbore, powdered porcupine quills, valerian root and powdered unicorn horn. For this particular potion ingredients had to be added in exactly the right order and amounts or the results could prove highly dangerous. Ava set to work chopping her valerian root with excrutiating accuracy into perfectly equal pieces.

"You know, if you're having trouble sleeping, you can easily make a potion for that, like this one," Ava broke the silence that had fallen between the pair as they worked, she knew the comment was unexpected, but throwing Chloe off balance was part of the aim. "Sorry, that's none of my business," she added, feigning a guiltily apologetic expression. "I'd love to have this potion on hand though, would help before exams!" Ava carefully moved quickly on to a joke to lighten the mood. It may have been calculated, but the words were genuine. "I'm starting to wish I hadn't taken so many subjects. I should have dropped more after my OWLs." Ava gave a self depricating laugh before adding sarcastically. "But always wanted to spend every second of my spare time in the library."

Chloe found herself not wanting to be pulled out of the conversation, but she turned to face the professor with a respectful look on her face. She listened as the professor began to speak and then dug into her bag for parchment and a quill. She scribbled the notes from the bored, noticing a few subtle changes from the notes on the board and the book, making sure to over ink those so they stood out looking bolder than the others. Once the notes were finished there was a collected sound of scraping chair legs against the floor as all the students, except for the two of them got up and went over to the cabinet to get the items they would need for this potion. Chloe had already started on preparing her things and was now working on finishing all of her prepping while Ava lit a fire under the cauldron.

Stealing a glance over in her direction, she watched as the girl started prep on her own things. She found herself fascinated by Ava, but she couldn't exactly say why. She wasn't the type of person that Chloe would normally spend time with, at least not in previous years.. but then this year wasn't like most, and what's more is that Chloe found she kind of like Ava's off beat attitude. She felt like there was more to her than just a shell, the thing was that Ava seemed very good at making sure that nobody saw anything but that shell. Chloe wanted to know more though, not because she wanted in on some secret she thought she was missing out on, but because there was something about Ava that seemed genuine in some way, but like she might be trying to hide it away.. Chloe wondered if it could be a defense mechanism before realizing that it was probably something she wasn't supposed to be seeing in the first place. She couldn't even explain how she did know this about this girl, perhaps it was her imagination acting up from the lack of socialization over the past couple of months. She turned back to her ingrediants and then turned to the book looking at the first step and then reading her notes, noting that they were the same.

Chloe bit her lip slightly at the comment about sleeping, she hadn't known how obvious it was that she was missing her sleep. The bags under her eyes must have accounted for something though, and she gave a shrug. Smiling, she chose her words very carefully, she would never lie if she could help it.. and she wasn't going to start now "I don't have problems falling asleep.." she stated, and it was true, falling asleep wasn't the problem.. it was the waking up drenched in sweat, or screaming and crying because of the nightmares that were constantly swimming in and out of focus. It was hard enough to try and explain to her room mates that she was fine, when she had woken them up with a scream of bloody murder at 2 in the morning, but she had a feeling that Ava could see right through her in quite the same way Chloe could see there was more to her. Chloe couldn't explain why she was so keen on keeping it to herself, partially out of embarrasment, but mostly.. she realized, was out of mistrust. She didn't want to trust anyone with the information in case they decided to use it against her. That's where most of her problems stemmed from anymore, trust.. or lack there of. She used to be so naive to the ways that people could just use you for information, pretending to be your friend. She smiled again, but this time she was having a harder time hiding her coolness like she had before. She let out a soft laugh at the mention of spending all their time in the library "yeah, that's what it was like for me last year.. this year I stuck with classes that would be the most useful to me" she paused, realizing that she may have said too much, turning back to the potion that they had been working on. She stirred a couple of times and looked at the book and then the notes. It looked like it was supposed to.. but it was just the tinyest bit runny.

Ava weighed out her moonstone carefully, correcting the weight to the infintesemally small degree before adding it carefully to her cauldron. The potion was looking exactly as the directions stated. She allowed herself a proud, private smirk, for a mere millisecond before changing her expression to unreadable once again.

"Well at least you're not in NEWT years yet," Ava said with a breath of laughter, "count yourself lucky." She peered absently over at chloe's cauldron as she stirred her own, exactly three times, clockwise.

"You need a touch more valerian root," Ava voiced in a slight drawl, her attention firmly on her own potion, turning it down to simmer and marking the time. "About two slices, one milimetre thick ought to sort it." She turned an almost sickeningly sweet smile on Chloe before going back to her timings.

"So why aren't you with the other Hufflepuffs then?" Ava asked, she was sure this question would get some emotional response, though probably not an outward one and most likely not a very positive one. It was prying, but she was growing tired of the conversation being of her own making, though granted, she did like to talk. But now it was long past time for her to find out more about Chloe. "Has something happened?" She tried to show some worry and concern in her voice, it sounded genuine enough to be passable. She focused herself to put more effort into it, "It's just, it isn't like most Hufflepuffs, or most students for that matter." She was content that she sounded genuine and gave what she hoped would look like a genuine, if weak, smile to Chloe.