Nighttime Wanderings

"Um, yah," Vivianna responded swiftly, "I mean, it really isn't as uncommon as people think it is." That was a general enough statement, the teenager figured. The Slytherin would get to know the new student, and hopefully the girl would let slip more information about this Bren.

Erika was a Ravenclaw, and once she got over her shock, would probably carry decent enough conversation. Besides, for now having Bren around would hardly be too bad. Vivianna was rather curious what the unknown invisible being was saying. That was a thought, she might have to ask Dixon next time.

Glancing towards the brunette, Vivianna said, "I was about to go get some ingredients for my potions, care to come with?"

It isn't uncommon, apparently. Rika absently wondered if she had found one reason for staying in the magical world.

"Oh. Well...in the normal world, people don't usually deal very well with-" Rika snapped her mouth shut midway, again. Normal world. Did she have to mention that? Rika had read about its magical counterpart, and apparently witches and wizards didn't like people like her -Muggleborns- very much. Especially blood purists, who tended to hail from Slytherin. Rika's eyes darted to the girl's green-and-silver tie.

Rika cleared her throat, rapidly. "So um...anyway, yes, I'd like to come." Good call, you should find out more about this girl. I don't trust her. Rika inwardly rolled her eyes, Brenda didn't trust anyone. Not without reason though. The affirmative response had shot out as a reflex, in order to turn attention away from her Muggleborn confession. But she couldn't go back on her word now. And potions was....not so freaky. It was a bit like cooking. And searching for ingredients sounded temptingly mysterious and interesting.

Rika started walking. Her hands were swinging by her sides a bit awkwardly, her footsteps a bit jerky, showing the underlying nervousness. "So.....I didn't quite catch your name."

When Erika slipped up, Vivianna was on it in a heartbeat. So the new girl was a muggleborn, or at the very least muggle-raised. She didn't care, her mother had been a half-blood. Besides, blood purity was a bit of rot anyway. The teenager had never seen or heard anything that proved purebloods to be more powerful than others. And really, the girl would bet upon half the purebloods she met not being as pure as they bragged to being.

"Don't worry, I'm not a blood purist. That's what we call people who think witch and wizard blood is better. I'd be careful about letting that slip around the school though, especially to other Slytherins," Vivianna was quick to re-assure, not wanting to scare the skittish girl off. She'd noticed when the new girl had glanced down at her tie, worryingly.

"I'm Vivianna Varnes, fifth year," the witch introduced herself, inwardly cursing for not having done so sooner. "I'll be searching along the forest edge primarily, knotgrass and nettle if you know what they look like," the Slytherin told to the other student. She really wouldn't be surprised if Erika didn't know what they looked like. Half the people in her year wouldn't be able to identify the plants, and they dealt with them in class on a regular basis.

This girl -Vivianna- was getting a bit too good to be true.

Teenaged girl. But not freaked out by her. Slytherin. But not blood purist. Rika let out a breath strangled in her chest for a long time.

Don't be too sure. I still don't trust her.

Rika heard Brenda's words with half a ear. She was too preoccupied listening to Vivianna's descriptions of the ingredients she required. Rika's eyebrows furrowed, her memory sped back to her twenty-second reading of a A Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi. "Knotgrass.....uh....lacewing flies, leeches, fluxweed and knotgrass: ingredients for Polyjuice. Knotgrass...small, green, symmetrical leaves. Nettle......fern-like. Longer, pointy leaves." She realised she was murmuring out loud, then flushed lightly.

"I mean..um....I know what they look like. How many bundles will you be requiring?" Her eyes automatically began flitting left and right. There, that closeted, sheltered spot under that oak looked like a good spot to start searching. Her next words came out arbitrarily, "So what do you require knotgrass and nettle for? Planning to brew Knotgrass Mead?" The words filtered into her ear late, and a flush crawled up the back of Rika's neck again. God, was she actually joking around with the girl now? They had just met! And such a pathetic joke too.......Rika averted her eyes to the spot beneath the oak tree, internally vowing to keep her mouth shut for the rest of the night.

"Nice," Vivianna said with a nod, when the new girl actually knew what the plants looked like. Well then, perhaps this new girl was even more than she seemed after all. The Slytherin would definitely be keeping an eye on her.

The teenager allowed herself a little chuckle at Erika's pathetic joke. She usually would be annoyed by such a thing, but in this case it meant that the other girl was starting to relax. Since that was exactly what the witch had been hoping for, she couldn't bring herself to be anything but mildly pleased.

"Naw, no Mead," Vivianna told the girl, "I muck around with potions in my spare time sometimes, and there's no point in going out and buying some of the ingredients when I can get them fresher right here." The teenager had totally understated her own potions expertise, and the amount of time she spent brewing. But she hardly knew Erika, and a Slytherin wasn't one to spill secrets to strangers.

"Just a bundle of the knotgrass, and three or four of the nettle if we can get that much," Vivianna answered the brunette, already leaning down at the edge of the forest to search for her needed plants.

Don't you get the feeling that she's somehow.....putting up with you?

Rika opened her mouth to argue, then closed it. She didn't try to delude herself, the joke would probably rank somewhere on the World's Worst Jokes list. Yet Vivianna had uttered a polite chuckle all the same. She seemed almost cautious in her words, and ........looking to please? To relax, maybe? Almost like how a stranger was with a skittish kitten, cautious not to drive it away. But...why?

"That's uh...fascinating." Rika wasn't lying, it was interesting, but her thoughts disturbed her. "I myself haven't brewed too many, but I do like the theory behind the different ingredients, how they react and mingle and coordinate to produce one potion with a single effect. Especially if you take potions like Felix Felicis...." That potion was...remarkable. Rika could probably write a thesis on it. "The potion actually interferes with fate itse- AH!"

Crap. Ouch. Blood flowed freely from the gash on her knee, which she had landed on as she tripped over an underlying root in her attempt to make for the oak tree. Rika bit the inside of her cheek to numb the pain, her right hand feeling for the wand in her pocket. She withdrew it...then hesitated.

As soon as Erika started talked potions, a proper smile broke out on Vivianna's face. Yes, there was a reason why the Slytherin had liked this girl, she might finally have someone who would understand half of what she talked when it came to potions! When the Ravenclaw mentioned luck potion, the redhead almost wanted to shout with joy. The teenager had done a bit of messing around with theory, and thought she might be have found a way to cut down on the ridiculously long brewing time of Felix Felicis with a few exchanging of ingredients.

Then the other girl fell, and Vivianna winced slightly in sympathy. The girl herself wasn't always the most coordinated person, and had taken to carrying around a self-made all-potions medical kit for such instances. In her house, being clumsy was something that could be exploited as a weakness, so the girl had learnt to hide it quickly enough.

Completely without thinking, the Slytherin had pulled out her wand and cast a cleansing charm on Erika's knee. One hand reaching inside her bag, the girl pulled out a large vial of healing paste. The paste was one of the potions that the teenager herself had illegally invented. Applying the paste the wound, Vivianna froze as she realized exactly what she was doing. Placing the vial into the Ravenclaw's hand, the witch stood from her crouched position at Erika's side and walked a few meters away to lean against a tree trunk.

Banging her head against the tree, the Slytherin started to mentally berate herself. Bloody Merlin, what had she been thinking? The teenager only ever took care of people she really cared about like that. Truthfully, there were only three people in the world she would do that for without at least some hesitation or permission first. So what the f-ck was that?

She had just been hesitating, the incantation for the cleansing charm on the tip of her tongue, still too reluctant to use her wand, when someone else did it for her.

Rika gawked as Vivianna took out a vial full of some thickened liquid, uncorked it and dipped her fingers in it. Those potioneer-hands stretched out towards her, and Rika understood too late: Vivianna meant to apply it herself.

The fingers skimmed on her wound, and Rika executed a full-body flinch. To anyone else it would appear as if the paste had stung and Rika simply had a low pain threshold. But her calf muscles clenched and unclenched, her legs were quivering, and she had to curl her fingers into the earth to prevent herself from slapping off Vivianna's hands. A witch like Henri Finch already knew how much she loathed, no feared touch.....a Slytherin didn't need to know it too.

Hold on. I know you can do it.

The scream that had been swirling in her throat, barely held back, died when those hands suddenly withdrew, and she let her legs collapse, fall flat on the ground. Her mind had already started spinning excuses for her behaviour, when she realised that no questions were hitting her eardrums. She raised her head, and gawked again at Vivianna, who appeared to be banging her head against a tree. It was a rather refreshing experience, to be able to stare at others and contemplate their weirdness for a change.

"What on earth are you doing?"

Deciding to go for the I'm-A-Slytherin response, instead of the I-Just-Shared-My-Illegal-Potion-With-A-Stranger one, Vivianna banged her head against the rough bark of the tree once more. Turing around to face the other girl, the redhead reminded herself that her paste looked almost exactly like the classic recipe, and therefore it was incredibly unlikely that Erika would notice. Especially in the dark.

"I'm a Slytherin, Erika. You haven't been at this school long. You may have heard whispers, rumors, what the other houses think of us, but we're a lot more complicated. I'm proud of my house, I truly am, I hate when people stereotype someone in a green tie before even learning their name. But Slytherin is different from the other houses. It can get rough in the dungeons, you've got be to aware and looking over your shoulder constantly so you're ready when someone goes to stab you in the back. Not all of us are manipulative or cruel, but you're looking at the majority. What I just did, helping you automatically, that's something that could easily be used against me by the right person. Not to scare you away from us or anything," Vivianna informed the Ravenclaw frankly.

Noticing something out of the corner of her eye, the witch took two steps into the forest and began to harvest some nettle. After hearing all of that, the brunette deserved some time to think.

Rika's mouth resembled a perfect 'o' as Vivianna finished talking.

Of course she had heard about Slytherin's reputation, who hadn't? But she had thought it was mostly rumours concocted by bored teenagers shut up in one filthy big castle. Maybe they might have had some foundation in the truth some years ago, she had the impression that all this had come to an end after the war. According to Vivianna.....apparently she was mistaken.

Rika spoke to Vivianna's stooped back, "Well then....feel free to indulge your Slytherin principles as much as possible. I can help myself."

That was a close call.

Rika tried to get up, then paused and sniffed the air. A faint smell was striking her nose, one that had definitely not been in the forest air before. Her eyebrows furrowed, before lighting up in comprehension. She sniffed her knee. Yes, it was the healing paste, emanating a soft, sweetish aroma, with a tang of zesty freshness. Rika inhaled it for a few more seconds, before frowning.

"Say Vivianna...." She began slowly, cautiously. "This paste hasn't uh.....expired or something, has it?" Rika smacked herself mentally, it wasn't a Muggle medicine that it would get expired. But they were of the same kindred......"I mean, I'm not insulting your potion-making abilities or anything....but this paste smells strange....I don't remember recalling healing salves having any kind of smell..."