potions class#2

Vivianna squeezed her eyes shut tightly in a combination of irritation and exasperation when she heard a caldron explode. Why were so may students complete idiots? Slowly turning to face the direction of the sound, not at all surprised by the spattered blue gunk everywhere, the witch's eyes widened when they landed on Erika. That didn't make sense at all, the Slytherin had pegged Erika as someone who would be good a potions. Glancing around at the consistency of the gunk, Vivianna quickly deduced that the Ravenclaw had forgotten to add knotgrass.

Now that really didn't make sense. The two girls had collected knotgrass together on Erika's first night at the school! The new girl had known what it looked like, and was likely aware of the plants properties as well. In other words, there was only one explanation for this. The redhead felt her eyes flicker to Henri. It had definitely been Henri. Merlin, what did a girl have to do these days to brew in peace?

Licking her lips quickly, Vivianna's eyes flickered to Bertie. He was in the same house as Henri, and only a year under her. The teenager had always fretted that the boy's nature would get him used or hurt one day. As much as Vivianna liked Henri, in her own odd twisted way, the redhead didn't want her anywhere near Bertie. Swiftly adding two stirs to her potion, the girl leaned in close to Bertie, to whisper in his ear, "you'll want to keep your distance from Henri." After a moment of indecision, the girl added, "Erika's usually good at potions." The boy was smart, he would understand what she was implying there. It would've been quite difficult to miss the mutual dislike between the Ravenclaw girls, and that perhaps Erika's explosion had little to do with Erika herself.

Knowing that things were about to get ugly if no-one stepped in, the Slytherin stood and walked over to the blue-covered Ravenclaw. "Ouch Erika, that was quite an explosion. Odd that you forgot the knotgrass of all things, when we spent so much time discussing that very ingredient just the other night," Vivianna said, playing dumb. There were two reasons for saying that, to let Henri know that she was onto her but not about to give her up, and to come to the new girl's aid. Of course, the girls hadn't spent time discussing knotgrass, rather collecting it, but she would hardly admit that with a Professor in the room. The teenager eyed Erika for a moment, attempting to assess how much a scorgify charm would help the mess.

Bertie learnt closer to Vivianna as she was about to whisper to him. You'll want to keep your distance from Henri. Vivianna spoke rather seriously, and it didn't take Bertie two guessed to realize that Henri must have been behind the explosion, especially seeing as earlier the lesson Henri had called Erika tragic.

Bertie watched as the older Gryffindor walked across the room and handed Erika her knotgrass and watched as Vivianna headed over there too. It was nice to see there were some helpful people in the world even if Henri wasn't one of them.

Bertie eyed Henri: she didn't seem to be doing any work, her cauldron wasn't even on and she had no ingredients on the desk before her. Why is she not working? Bertie thought anxiously to himself. It was unlike a Ravenclaw not to pay attention in classes, most of them spent their time in the common room pouring over books and discussing different theories about uses of troll bogies, yet here Henri was, a Ravenclaw, doing nothing - except cause chaos.

I really don't get girls The thirteen year old thought to himself before turning back to his calming draught. All that was left was for the cauldron to boil for fifteen minutes. He took a small hourglass from the potions kit and turned the dials at the top to read 001500. The pink sand slowly fell into the lower chamber. This was Bertie's best part about potions, watching his hourglass that one of his cousins had gotten him for Christmas. It was therapeutic watching the grains flutter down through the glass. It allowed him to enter a daydream, explore his imagination.

Henri reveled in the chaos that sprung from the simple spell she had cast. Hallie played it beautifully - she even apologized! But it was enough to assure Erika that the girl had somehow been involved and, sorry or not, should be enough to imply that Hallie did not like her. A real bully did not bully, but made her target feel as though everyone looked down on them. And it was already working.

And then Vivianna. Henri's eyes narrowed on her, as though to tell her to be cool, but her words alone could have been helpful, as much as she thought they hurt Henri's cause. Such words may be enough to convince Erika that others truly did believe she could forget one of the key ingredients. She just had to hope Erika was either very gullible, or so shaken that she wouldn't be thinking properly.

Hallie had made her way back and was attempting to tell Henri what to do. She shook her head, "Nah, I was thinking I'd snag a vial of someone else's. I know how to do the potion, and I don't need practice." Two lies. Lovely. The girl dropped her voice and Henri feigned ignorance. "Whatever are you talking about?"

She was first accosted by a fellow Raven. "You forgot the knotgrass."

"I did not bloody forget the knotgrass." She whispered through gritted teeth, not because she feared being heard, but because she wasn't quite sure she could stop from shrieking if she really let her pin-perfect control crack. It was brittle enough as it was. Her hands flexed, back and forth, as she vainly tried to regain her composure. Breathe in. Breathe out. In. Out.

Vivianna was next. She motioned to how they were ah....discussing knotgrass that day, and Rika bit her lip, hard. Her voice was still very, very soft, but simmering with something that was best held back. "Precisely. I did not forget.. Someone fu-" A deep breath in. "Somone friggin' summoned it away."

And 'it' was dropped on her table by a recalcitrant, blond Gryffindor. The word sorry echoed through Rika's skull. Sorry.....sorry....what a simple word to say to make amends for Rika's humiliation in her first class. She walked, slowly, to the Gryffindor's desk. She began shakily, "You think you can just-" Then her eyes flitted to the girl seated behind the same table, and met grinning black eyes.

Of course. Why would the Gryffindor apologise two seconds after her prank? Of course.. Who bloody else could it be?

It took two bare seconds for the battle to be fought. Fear, or rage. Humiliation won out in the end.

Thank goodness they were required to wear dragon-hide gloves in Potions. Rika drew her fist back, and punched Henrietta Finch straight on the nose.

Henri was very, very pleased with herself. She had caused a major disruption, people were now flocking around Erika, and no one was any the wiser to her intervention - well, maybe Hallie was, but the girl did not seem clever enough to know how to respond to the act. Henri leaned back in her chair, pretty damn proud of herself.

Suddenly, Erika was stalking over. She did not seem to have spotted Henri yet, causing the short-haired haired girl's mouth to briefly twitch into a smirk.

And then Erika saw her. Henri sat up, quickly putting on a concerned expression. "Oh, poor thing, I saw-"

Blood.

She saw a flash of light and fell back, the chair falling beneath her, her head hitting the floor. Her hand went up to her nose which was bleeding freely, her eyes watering madly. She gasped for breath.

Erika had just dug her own grave. Henri was not disliked in the castle. People liked her - she was fun, seemingly helpful, and (yes, she was going to say it) she had one hell of an ass. And now, Erika was attacking her, seemingly for no reason. No one in the castle would have a good opinion of Erika Dixon this time tomorrow.

"Oh, God! Professor! She's broken my nose! My nose!"

The girl had the bloody nerve to smile at her.

Her black eyes were still twinkling in vicious amusement, and now with the blood streaks across her face, she looked like a deranged witch. If only, if only Rika could summon up some fear for her now, when it was most required, then she could stop from digging a deeper hole for herself. Alas, prudence and fear had been all-too quickly replaced by mind-numbing rage.

As difficult as it was to believe, somewhere behind the red, Erika Dixon's logical mind still dwelt, confused over the fact that why breaking someone's nose would cause them to grin further. That mind drew up diagrams of Finch's equally deranged mind- Finch hated her because apparently Rika had 'stolen' Finch's popularity, her place as the 'hot wierdo'. Right. Right. Now that Rika had punched her.....Rika could pose no more 'threats' to her.

Rika laughed. It was almost cackling, an enraged, amused, frustrated sound that probably had people shying back from her ten feet. "You-...you think-..I actually give a bloody damn..." One week. One week of scuttling here and there like a frightened insect, of tension, of being unable to sleep at night, of pranks and spiteful whispers, of magic, and Rika had finally cracked. She pinned Finch under her gaze, recklessly, uncaringly, "You know, you will regret this. And you will apologise within a week. I promise you that."

Vivianna dropped back into her seat, scooped up some pre-chopped ingredients, and added them to her brew. Taking a deep breath and not finding the situation any better, the girl allowed her head to bang against her desk.

She'd tried, she had really tried. The witch had attempted to defuse the situation, at least a little. Of course, her words had done absolutely nothing to help. Not only had Erika been completely oblivious to the fact that Vivianna was on her side, but she'd also just made the situation worse. By Erika breaking Henri's nose, with a pretty bloody good punch, Erika would shortly have a really bad reputation amongst the students. Henri would make sure of it. Then, Erika had gone and threatened the other Ravenclaw.

Truthfully, if Henri had done that do her, the Slytherin would have done something much worse than Erika had in return. However, Vivianna would have been smart enough to be quiet about it. Bloody hell, this was going to be a mess! The witch had enough going on in her life right now, she really didn't need to be stuck in the middle of this too.

The boomslang skin that Hallie was tending to was flung across the room at the sudden commotion that had sparked between Erika and Henri. Hadn't she just apologised hoping that it would stop the situation from getting out of hand? Although Hallie secretly was enjoying the drama that began to play out she did really want to concentrate on the potion in order to get her target of an E in potions, and unless she pushed herself these remaining months that wouldn't be happening.

Instinctively Hallie withdrew her wand, casting it between the two girls. Protego! Hallie thought in her head. Instantly a shield charm was produced between the Ravenclaws. She was excellent when it came to the practical and her shield charm was her best magic in defence against the dark arts, with it growing stronger each time she cast it. 

If only my potion was as good as this shield charm Hallie thought as the charm separated the two girls. 'This is just complete lunacy!' She couldn't help herself, all the keeping her head down that past months was about to be unleashed. 'I'm not one for studying but come on, some of us actually have important exams that affect our life! In five years you'll have forgotten why you were behaving like this in the first place. Just grow up![/I] Hallie wasn't usually a disciplinarian, in fact she felt rather teacher like chastising the two girls but the amount of stress she was under had reached boiling point and at last Hallie had released it. 

Bertie who had returned to his work, ignoring the chaos and not wanting to get into trouble couldn't resist any longer. The sound of Henri falling to the floor and another third year somewhere on the other side of the room scream was enough to make the whole castle come to watch the drama unfold.

'Oh no.' Bertie groaned as he watched the two Ravenclaws engaging in a face to face confrontation. Ravenclaw were bound to lose potions and if the Professor asked him he couldn't say he didn't see anything, it didn't take a genius to figure out Henri was at fault and that Erika had took the bait. Erika wasn't doing herself any favours, already Henri had began to make out she was slightly odd and now the fact that Erika had attacked her for, what most people would know to be, no reason would only distance her from the rest of the school community.

Bertie wanted to go and help Erika, take her to one side, maybe escort her to The Great Hall for a refreshing goblet of pumpkin juice. If only his calming draught was ready! In ten minutes it would have finished brewing and, thanks to Vivianna's help, would complete the job it was designed to do. If only this outbreak had occured ten minutes later!

He glanced around the room. Nobody else had finished their potion and the Professor didn't seem fully aware what had just happened. To be fair it was on the other side of the classpon From her and had all happened rather swiftly.

Brian was awoken from a sudden commotion that was going on in his dorm room. Nope, wait, he was in class. He was disoriented at first, he had no clue where he was, but the foul aroma of the room spread to his nose and he knew he was in bloody potions class. Ugh, he wished he had never woken up in the first place, but it was no use now. People were screaming and spells were being cast. Then Henri was punched in the nose.

Brian shot up from his chair, lifted his arms into the air, a huge smile on his face. "CAT FIGHT!!!" He had not seen a good girl fight, well, ever in his tenure at Hogwarts. Honestly, it was on his bucket list, so seeing Henri get socked right in the nose was pretty rad. Even though he felt kind of bad for her, he knew deep down, she probably deserved it.

Everyone else decided they wanted to jump in and help, but Brian was fine just watching, he wished they would all mind their own damn business. Brian snicked and then he turned to the student next to him "So what am I supposed to be doing anyways?"