Down in the Dungeons

Nessarose was having a very boring day so far, and the Slytherin wanted a break from the normal, slow nature of her class day. Rather than heading directly to the dungeons after her final class for the day, Nessa instead turned and pushed the door to the Potions room open. The thing about Potions was that, though it was her favorite subject, it wasn't the one that came the easiest for her.

Nessa made her way over to the storage compartment in the far corner of the room and pulled out a spare Potions textbook - she hadn't brought hers to her last class, after all. Deciding to just go over what they had discussed in class once more, she flipped through the pages of the textbook and came upon the potion they had worked on for House Points the day before. Nessa had done fairly well, but hers had not been the best.

She sort of wished she knew what potion she would need to be brewing in the next class, so she could look it over and prepare herself, but she didn't think her Professor was likely to tell her, even if she asked. What was the good in giving away House Points to someone for completing something they already knew?

A quiet sigh left her lips as she seated herself in front of one of the tables and read through the potion once more. It wasn't that she was some Ravenclaw who was in it because she wanted to know everything and be smarter than everyone else - it was rather that she didn't like failing at her favorite subject. She had that Slytherin ambition after all.

While her drive to succeed had started as a need to impress her adoptive parents, it had quickly turned into a need to know everything in order to do be able to do whatever it takes to find out about both her parents and the daughter whose place she took unknowingly.

Delving into the potion, she quickly started ignoring her surroundings with a preference of focusing on her work.

Vivianna stood in the doorway of her preferred potions lab, shocked. Someone else was in the room. There was someone else using the potions lab! The Slytherin had never walked in on another student brewing in their spare time before. Sure, she'd walked into the lab only to find another student there whom had been attempting to find her- apparently it was generally believed that if one waited in the potion labs, she'd always appear sooner or later.

But now there was someone brewing. A younger Slytherin, Nessarose Bridgewood. Vivianna didn't know the other witch personally, but she certainly knew of her. The redhead had long ago started keeping an eye out for people who could be useful, trouble, powerful, or a decent acquaintance. The Bridgewood girl had certainly made that list.

Carefully padding into the room without disturbing the girl, Vivianna took note of the ingredients set out, and quickly deduced that the other teenager was brewing a Shrinking Solution. She must've been working for at least a few minutes already, considering that the fifth year was currently concentrating on chopping her daisy roots.

"I know the instructions always say to chop finely, but I've always gotten better results from more of a mince," the witch informed her housemate, just as the brunette was about to set down her knife. It was only after speaking that Vivianna remembered how bad of an idea surprising someone whilst they were brewing a potion could be. The other girl was a Slytherin though, so the redhead wasn't all too worried.

Nessarose probably should have been more easily surprised, but she had long since taught herself to keep calm in the face of such things as surprises. After the issue her father had let loose, few things could bother her to the same extent. That said, when the door opened Nessa hardly paid it any attention.

However, when the female voice behind her was directed at the work she was doing, Nessa looked up with a question in her eyes. After a few words, however, she realized that the elder Slytherin - Vivianna if Nessa was right about her name - was talking about the current step in her potion-making process. What surprised her, really, was that this girl knew without asking or looking at the book what she was making. That was impressive and Nessa found herself openly admitting this in her mind.

"Oh," She began, looking down at the roots before glancing up once more. "I'll try that, thanks." Nessa passed a small smile in Vivianna's direction before going back to her work. After a few moments of silence, however, she felt awkward for not continuing the conversation. A few years ago she wouldn't have cared, but Nessa had become more and more social as of late. Noting that this girl was someone Nessa could see around the school and in her dormitory, she decided that it was probably best to be friendly.

"So, safe bet you're in here often?" She offered by way of conversation, glancing at Vivianna once more.

Vivianna allowed a small smile to grace her face as the other female accepted her words without question. It was rather nice to meet someone, especially a fellow Slytherin, who didn't question her potions abilities. More than once had a fellow student simply ignored her, and then thrown some sort of brainless insult towards her when their completed brew left much to be desired.

At the girl's question, Vivianna allowed a bubbly chuckle, almost a giggle, to escape from between her pink lips. "Often might be a bit of an understatement," the redhead admitted with ease. Her love of potions was far from a secret, only what she did with them was.

Dropping her bag down onto the floor, the witch strode a few steps further into the room and swung herself up onto the desk next to Nessarose. Feet swinging, not quite able to touch the floor from her perch, Vivianna let out a satisfied sigh. She had always been far more comfortable on top of desks than sitting on a chair behind one. It was possible that this feeling had been born from her love of heights, but the redhead never had been certain.

"So, Shrinking Solution," Vivianna stated while she eyed the gently bubbling caldron, "have you been taught that yet, or are you attempting to get ahead? I forget exactly when we covered that last year; I'm pretty bad when it comes to paying attention in Potions." Well, she was even worse in Transfiguration, but she wasn't about to admit to that particular weakness.

Nessa gave a small smile at Vivianna's reaction to her question; the girl clearly enjoyed knowing all she could about potions. It wasn't often that Nessa came across someone so at ease with meeting new people. Perhaps Vivianna was just curious about why someone else would be spending time in what Nessa took to be a second home to the girl. It was probably about the same as the Quidditch field was to Nessa. If she was stressed or just needed a break, she would go flying – games feeling much the same way, as she was a Chaser on the Slytherin team and rather loved the idea of being better than the other House Teams.

Vivianna moved to sit on a desk nearby and started asking questions of the younger Slytherin. “Well, we went over this in class yesterday,” Nessa answered as she worked, glancing up now and again to gauge her new acquaintance's reaction, “but I didn't win the points for completing the best potion. It drove me mad, since Potions is my favorite. It just.. takes more work than the others, I'm afraid.”

Strange, Nessa thought, that she could openly admit her relatively lacking skills in front of this girl who seemed to know everything about the subject Nessarose just wanted to succeed in. If someone had given Nessa the choice, she would have jumped at a chance to work with potions as a career – though that was a long way off, of course.

“I pay far more attention in Potions than anything else. Take Charms, for example. It's not the subject that comes easiest to me – that would be Transfiguration – but I rarely focus too very much on the lecture because I can find the exact same thing in my book.” Nessa shrugged and tossed a look over her shoulder at Vivianna.

She couldn't understand exactly why she felt so able to talk to other people this year. Something about her drive to discover what happened to the old (for lack of a better word) Bridgewood daughter – the one that came before her – seemed to also drive her to make more connections, find those who could provide her advantages and power. Nessa wasn't sure if Vivianna was one of those people, but the fifth year figured her elder could be.

"Fair enough," the witch admitted with a shrug. She didn't know what she would do if someone else bested her in Potions. Hex them at the very least, not that such a situation was something she really needed to worry about. No-one in her year was about to be getting better than her with potions anytime soon.

"Potions are extraordinarily useful, I'm glad you like them," Vivianna admitted smoothly, "and you're right of course, brewing a potion correctly takes a lot more time and effort than flicking a wand." Not that the redhead had anything against spell casing, but the average wizard was under the impression that for every potion, there was a spell that could do the exact same thing. Those particular idiots couldn't be more wrong.

When the other student admitted that her best subject was Transfigurations, the redhead froze for a moment. Well, that was quite the fortunate coincidence. Of course, Vivianana wouldn't say anything yet. She would say something after Nessarose realized how much she could gain from her tutelage. Then, the other girl would be at least twice as likely to agree to an exchanging of knowledge.

Eyes falling on the neglected potion, Vivianna's sharp eyes observed the slight simmering happening along the outside rim of the caldron. "You need to stir that," the redhead stated, eyes glued to the caldron as if she couldn't bare to look away, "and add an extra clockwise stir, it'll break down the root further so that the solution doesn't become too potent."

Realizing that she was practically telling the other Slytherin how to brew her potion, Vivianna winced internally. Hopefully the brunette would take the advice for what it was; an automatic reaction from a talented brewer. If Nessarose took it the wrong way like so many others did, well, it wasn't like Vivianna didn't have plenty of housemates who disliked her.