potions class#2

Hallie walked to the storage cupboard and got herself some boomslang skin to shred. As she walked back to the desk she noticed a group of giggling girls had entered, one of which had waltzed to a bench where Vivianna Varnes and the little Ravenclaw that had sped past her on the way to class.

Hallie had met Vivianna in detention, although she never really served the detention instead she conversed with Viv and Viola. It had seemed rather odd speaking to a Slytheirn. In fact it was the first proper conversation she'd had with a Slytherin in seven years.

Hallie ignored what the rest of the room was doing and simply shredded her boomslang, thinking about a kiss she'd shared with the Gryffindor seeker. She'd called the kiss off halfway through and fled, she hadn't seen Brian since and wasn't sure if she wanted to. Something had come over her, like a lioness in side roaring to be unleashed.

Hallie looked up as the Ravenclaw bounced over towards her and said hello. Henri Finch. So this was the famous Henri? Hallie had heard she was a popular girl with those in the lower years but being a seventh year she rarely talked to anyone below the fifth year. 'Oh.. Hi.' Hallie replied before returning to shred her boomslang skin. Usually the Gryffindor would have burst into conversation but she really wanted to perfect the polyjuice potion - it could come in handy in her later career as an auror.

Bertie watched Henri walk over to a girl with blonde hair who he was sure he may have zoomed pass in order to be on time. The room was beginning to fill with a variety of scents and coloured smoke. A fellow third years cauldron across the room had started to fizz and erupt red sparks... at least Bertie's wasn't that bad. It wasn't the sky blue that the book described the potion to be at this stage, more of a royal blue.

Should I ask Viv? Bertie debated in his head. He wanted to get his liquid a more sky blue, but at the end of the day they were both blue and Bertie could tell that Vivianna was brewing a complex potion simply by how much she was concentration to achieve perfect marks. He turned his head, staring at Viv as she tended to her cauldron.

'Vivian-never mind.' Bertie murmured before turning the page to continue the instructions on the overleaf.

Vivianna's eyes flicked to the side when Bertie stated to call her name, and then cut himself off. She'd see what he wanted in just a moment, as soon as she was finished with this round of stirring. Henri had flounced off to the other side of the room to where the older Gryffindor was sitting. It was Hallie Cooper, the girl from that detention, but Vivianna wasn't stupid enough to think that the two girls were friends now or anything of the sort.

Pulling the stirring rod form her potion, the Slytherin was quite pleased to note that her caldron looked exactly how it was supposed to. Knowing that her potion would need to sit for at least two minutes, the teenager turned to Bertie. The boy seemed mildly troubled as he went about his brewing, so the girl leant over to glance at the instructions in his open book. Eyes flickering back and forth a few times between the book and the potion, the potions prodigy quickly figured out what the Ravenclaw had done wrong.

"You added a tad too much of the valerian sprigs," Vivianna stated softly, "an easy enough mistake considering how powerful they are." Without asking the younger student if she could fix his potion, she reached over into her own ingredients and measured out some ground scarab beetles, dumping it into his caldron. After a moment of hesitation, the redhead also added a pinch of peppermint. Realizing that the witch should probably explain what she'd just done, the Slytherin said, "valerian springs work as a relaxant, and can sometimes be a sedative or sleep-aid. To balance out the over-use of that, I added scarab beetles, which is used in wit-sharpening potions. However, the beetles could conceivably create some unwelcome side effects, counteracted by the peppermint I threw in." Nodding to herself as the Calming Draught began to darken, Vivianna returned to her own potion.

Henri plopped down into the seat and began searching through her bag, pulling out a compact mirror and opening it, beginning to examine herself in the mirror. She prodded her eyelid and pouted, for her new eyeliner was beginning to flake on the lower lid. She would have to ask Zanna to send more.

"You're Hallie, right?" Truthfully, Henri had heard nothing of the girl, but had heard her name called once by a professor and it had somehow stuck in her head. She would let Hallie think it was her reputation that had proceeded her though.

"Is that your natural hair color? It's gorgeous! I tried dying my hair blonde once and it failed. Wrong color eyebrows, I suppose."

This was ridiculous.

She had expected Finch to react. Whatever she had supposedly 'muttered' to Bren, had been a stage-mutter, she wouldn't be surprised if the whole class had heard it. And those insults would definitely have stung deep, if she had read Finch correctly. But no, Finch merely continued flouncing her way from one student to the other, babbling her usual nonsense in that oh-I'm-so-sweet-and-amazing tone. It made Rika want to grab good, big clumps of her hair, and rip it out.

Which in itself, was ridiculous again. Hadn't she wanted Finch to ignore her?

Loneliness can be a powerful motivator.

Rika scowled. No no, that wasn't it at all. She had invested herself in this fight, and she had merely gotten annoyed when Finch chose to back out without even trying. Yes, that was it.

Of course, as preoccupied as she was in her thoughts, she didn't quite realise when her cauldron began bubbling, and spitting blue sparks. Damn, she needed to drop the knotgrass now! Where....where...she got a glimpse of pale green, symmetrical leaves under her desk, and ducked down to retrieve it.

Though Henri had now engaged the pretty little blonde in conversation - not to say the other girl seemed pleased about it - she had not forgotten her purpose in coming over. It was all to try and find another accomplice that would allow her to drag the new girl's name and reputation through the mud. And hopefully, the Gryffindor would be obliging enough to spread the word too.

Still, she kept her eyes on Erika's back, her irises gleaming maliciously as she tried to think of new cruel and unusual punishment for the girl. She felt a smile unfurl on her face as the girl's potion began to act up and, when she dived for an ingredient, Henri didn't even think, only hissed.

"Accio knotgrass!"

The spell landed and, a moment later, the ingredients landed in her hands. She immediately plopped them in front of Hallie and began giggling. "Good one, Hallie!"

Be careful what you ask for. Rika had never appreciated the saying more.

It happened almost in slow-motion. Rika felt around for the knotgrass, felt exasperated when she couldn't grasp it, poked her head beneath the desk and gasped out loud as the knotgrass literally smacked her face and zoomed out.

Rika remained blinking for two odd seconds. Then she realised her desk was trembling. Probably by the force of her cauldron, which was now spitting sparks upto two feet, and vibrating.

Crap

It exploded.

Blue gunk. On her clothes, in her hair, in every crevice of the body which she didn't even know existed. Probably on other people too. Her hair. God, her hair.

Rika stood up slowly, probably looking like one of the Pandora-inhabitants from 'Avatar.' Her wand was vibrating. Madly.

Someone was going to die.

Wally was nearly finished with her potion, honestly. She was just going through the motions, trying to get it over with so she could take a nap, or go raid the pantry, or do something more deserving of her time. She had mastered this potion last year, and had no intentions of really investing any real effort in the class anymore. She was good at potions, and she liked them - but it didn't mean she gave a rat's ass about the class.

So, when something exciting happened, she was glad to be apart of it. Even if that meant that blue slime had fallen on her too.

Luckily, it was only one, thick tendril and it had landed on her shoulder. She picked it up and slammed it down on the table, looking around. She spotted the perpetrator of the mess and approached. She looked into the cauldron curiously and then looked the girl square in the face.

"You forgot the knotgrass," she said blandly.

Bertie watched in awe as Vivianna rescued his potion. It was like watching a machine the way she knew which ingredients to use and how much. 'Thank you!' He blinked, astonishment spread from eye to eye. Whilst he let his cauldron simmer at the perfect shade he began to scribble on a spare piece of parchment what to do if you add too many valerian springs and the explanation why. Bertie had to admit, it was rather impressive how all the igredients interacted to create the final product.

He spent the next five minutes concentrating hard on his potion, eventually watching as it turned the desired Amber shade. It's a good job Vivianna had helped him out otherwise, even if he had done this stage correctly, the potion wouldn't have been Amber, perhaps more yellow or brown?

BOOM!! From somewhere behind he heard an explosion, as usual, someones cauldron always went kaboom and today it was Erika's. Bertie wanted to go and help her correct it but it looked beyond repair seeing as the contents has erupted from the cauldron. If only Erika had someone like Vivianna to coach him, he now felt like a bit of a cheat.

'Yes it's natural.' Hallie replied, smiling as she began to slice the lacewing flies that would be ready to go in the cauldron. 'Although it's naturally wavy. I have to massage Sleakeazy's Hair Straightening Potion into it every morning to get it straight.' This wasn't a necessary procedure for Hallie, her hair looked fine wavy, but she had a slight preference to the sleek golden locks as opposed to her wavy blonde style.

Hallie added the lacewing flies and let them stew, meanwhile she attended to the fluxweed, only half listening to Henri who didn't seem to even have a cauldron in front of her. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed the Ravenclaw withdraw her wand then before she knew it a lump of knottgrass had landed in front of her when: BOOM!

A younger students cauldron had exploded. Hallie twizzled around to see another Ravenclaw plastered in blue gunk. You forgot the knottgrassShe heard a Ravenclaw say. Knottgrass, which so happened to had landed in front of her. Hallie could see what was going on: Henri had framed her. Just what she needed when brewing such an important potion.

The Gryffindor hopped off her chair and handed Erika the knottgrass. 'I am terribly sorry!' She said, taking care not to land Henri in bother. Hallie did love a bit of drama from time to time but not when her NEWT's were so close. Not when she would soon be sitting exams that could determine if she were to become an auror or not!

'I think you best start your own potion.' Hallie whispered into Henri's ear as she returned to her table. 'Why did you do that?' She asked Henri in a hushed voice.