A Potion Pick-me-Up

Amelia was ready for classes to begin again. As a student, she had always been anxious for winter holiday to end because it would bring her back to Hogwarts and away from the scrutiny on her mother. The holidays were always a chance to see family, but now that Raoul was no longer a part of that holiday equation - though he had sent a very lovely card and gift to her - Amelia wasn't as enraptured with spending an exorbitant amount of time at home.

As she stacked a few books to the far left side of her desk, Amelia realized that she had grown more comfortable in her professorial position than she was last semester. This was natural, of course, because she had been a brand new professor last semester, and now she was beginning to have a better grasp on her responsibilities and how to execute her position. There were still a few students who were continuing to grapple with the idea of having a former peer as their professor, but on the whole, Amelia had managed to shed some of her student identity and put on the cloak of professor in the six months since she started teaching.

Looking up at the clock on the wall, Amelia knew students would be arriving soon. So she brushed an invisible speck of dust off her skirt and moved to lean on the front of her desk while she waited to resume the new year.

Elyse entered the potions classroom and took a seat at the back of the room. "Good morning professor." She quickly took out her quill and some parchment. While she sat there, she thought about how much fun her winter holidays had been and how she was so not looking forward to classes starting up again. She definitely enjoyed all the fun times with her family and friends, especially all the WWW products that her dad had gotten her as a Christmas present. When it came to her sense of humor, she was definitely her father's daughter. If anyone started a fight with her, she had studied up on plenty of jinxes and hexes to defend herself.

For the first time in a while Ryo was actually excited, if you can call it that, to attend his classes. It must have just been the fact that he had missed some because he had been in the Hospital Wing for a while. Being in there was way to boring for him and he was finally happy to get out of there. Even if that meant having to return to classes. At least he would get to interact with others besides Sarah, who was really getting on his nerves. She hadn't left him alone the entire time that he had been in that place.

Even now she was still following him. Literally, she was right behind him as he walked to the Potions Dungeon. He quickened his pace to get there and only glanced back at Sarah to see that she had also quickened het pace to keep up with him. He was tempted to use his vampire speed to get away from her, but sue woupd end up coming with him anyways, since they were in the same classes. Ryo gave a heavy sigh and just continued to walk to the class.

When they arrived at the door to classroom, Ryo pushed the door open and walked in. He noticed that he was one of the first one to arrive and Sarah entered not long after him. He winced slightly and walked to his seat near the back of the room, hearing his and Sarah's footsteps echo slightly. "Good morning Professor Lyons." Ryo said as he passed by her to his seat.

Hm... a New Potions Professor? That meant something fun! Jack grinned as he stormed down the hallway, his books messily dumped in a small bag that hung over his right shoulder. As Jack walked into the classroom, whistling obnoxiously, he froze. The teacher looked dangerously familiar... Oh god. She was that hall monitor girl that had Jack basically trapped the year before when he snuck into the kitchen. Of course, he still did that every once in a while, but that time was probably the closest time he's ever had to actually getting in trouble. He stared for a second, the quickly turned to the side, choosing the seat farthest away from her desk, and raising his collar so it covered half his face, and walked hurriedly to the seat, trying not to get her to see him.

He made it to his seat, and Jack sat down quickly, taking his potions book and propping it up so it covered her view of his face. Not very tactical, but Jack didn't have anything else at the moment to hide his face. He had no idea if she would hold a grudge against him or not, but it was best not to find out. He had his wand in his sleeve, too, just in case. But she was a Professor. He hoped/doubted she would do anything.

Sam entered the potions dungeon and checked his surroundings, frowning for a moment as he thought he'd taken a wrong turn before realising that the classes must have been merged. For a second longer he stood there in the door, half in a mind to leave and drop the subject, surely the workload would be increasing now if he was learning with the NEWTs, but then he made a connection that he would end up having to do the work sooner or later.

"Good morning," he said to Professor Lyons with a smile. "Hope you had a nice break miss," he said, before taking his seat.

Hitame walked into the potions dungeons staring for a moment at everyone there. She wondered what the NEWT students were doing there before assuming that it was a merged class. Didn't really matter to her though, it was the Professor's decision so it wasn't like she could do anything about it anyways. She smiled a bit, seemingly for no reason and she walked toward the seats. "Good morning Professor. Hope you had a good break." she smiled at Professor Lyons as she passed by her desk.

Instead of going to the seat in the back corner of the class as she usually did, Hitame sat down in the seat next to her friend Ryo. She didn't say anything to him but merely gave him a sad-ish smile.

Aleksandra was walking trough the corridor, ready to go to the potion class. It was her father's favourite class, and even if she liked charms more, Leksie found potion really interesting. It was fun to learn how much things you can do with some ingredients, sometimes basic ones. Once will not hurt, she was in time. She entered the classroom, and didn't say "good morning" to the professor. She just sat down, at the end of the classroom. Her dad learned her not to show too much respect to the teachers, unless they show they deserve it. It didn't mean she was a bad student, just like siting in the last row didn't mean she'll be a dunce. It was just a question of attitude. She never was a flatterer, and she'll never be.

It didn't take long before her students, knowing the penalty for being late to her class, came trickling into the room, taking their seats. It was interesting to watch the distribution of students, especially since some people were finding that the seat they normally sat in was taken by someone from the other class and were forced to choose another chair. Amelia had remembered so closely she had guarded her specific seat in each class. She was a creature of habit, down to the very last desk.

Politely, Amelia returned the respective greetings of each of her students, and took care to greet them all equally, though some of them she preferred to others.

"Good morning," she said, inclining her head in their directions. Although he seemed to have wanted differently, Amelia hadn't failed to notice Jack Kubin's entrance either, especially since he was conspicuously hiding behind his textbook. The boy had given her more than his share of trouble when she had been a prefect, and although she would have liked to torture him with their new power dynamic - and the current leaders of the school would certainly have allowed it - Amelia knew it would reflect poorly on her in the eyes of the rest of the students. But she wasn't going to let him think she was stupid, either.

"And good morning to you as well, Mr. Kubin," the young professor said, loud enough that she knew he would hear her, "You needn't have your book out quite yet, but I'll let you know when the time comes."

"As for the rest of you, please take your seats. We'll give your classmates a few more minutes to arrive before we begin."

Sam looked up as some noise at the front of the class caught his attention, this time coming from Amelia Lyons herself. He rummaged through his bag, ready to pull out his textbook before he heard her tell Jack that the textbooks weren't necessary, causing him to quickly drop his own book and pull out his planner instead.

'Smooth,' he thought to himself, looking around the room to ensure that no one would recognise his cover up, noticing as he did so someone he'd not seen before. "You there," he said, looking directly across the room at Aleksandra. "What's your name?" He asked. He'd seen her around an about over the past 5 or so years, but he'd never had a class with her.

Keith took the steps down to the dungeon two, three, five at a time, the wind whipping his hair back and threatening to pull his bag from where it was precariously slung over one shoulder. "Absolute last time I try to take a shortcut," he muttered to himself. "Stupid moving stairs, next time I see them I am going to set them on fire..."

He reached the potions class and pulled on the heavy door, grunting with effort before it finally swung free and Keith was able to enter the classroom. "Sorry I'm late Professor, had to uh...help an old woman across the street?" Keith said, quickly taking a seat in the back of the class. "Wait..." he said, looking around and noticing a lack of anybody doing anything. "Have we not started yet? Excellent. Forget the old woman bit then, I'll use that for transfiguration."