Potions 4.

[Cavan Mikal Weiss]

(re:I don't know where my inspiration went for so long... but I think it might be back... I hope)

Cavan looked at the bottle that had been given to her, it read the letter B on it and looked interesting. He quickly set it aside before moving across the classroom for his safety gear. He put it on immediately, then he was opening the stopper, trying to carefully wafting the scent. He coughed, having not been very successful with the task of wafting with the safety gloves on. He'd leaned too far in and was choking on the awkward scent. He quickly poured a bit much into his cauldron and set it to boil while he wrote his notes. He then checked the homework he'd done and his text book in search of the type of potion.

He didn't want to mess up like he had done last class, so he was putting extra effort into his work. Watching the potion boil didn't help much so he killed the flame and was about to ask for a rat when a chair hit the wall across the room. He turned first to look at the chair, then to where it had come from. He lifted a brow and crossed off two possibilities for his potion before ignoring the ruckus and continuing as best he could with the Professor occupied.

[Tommy Bryce]

Tommy continued to skim through his textbook, looking up every now and then to cautiously glance around the classroom to see if anyone else was paying any attention to him. A few of the other students seemed to be having trouble with the vials of potion they’d been given, so apparently he’d been handed one of the easiest. After all, if fifth and sixth years couldn’t handle their own potions, then his must be far below their standard.

He heard one of the older boys, another Gryffindor, ask Professor Sparrow for a spider and watched as she handed him one. Tentatively, raising his courage, he put his hand in the air and waited for her to approach. “C-can I have a spider please, professor?” he asked quietly, waiting to be handed one. Applying the potion to it via a pipette, just as Jason had done, he watched in confusion and disappointment as it scuttled away. He twisted his body around to watch where it went. Straight onto the floor, up another table leg and towards the other spider on the desk, belonging to the older Gryffindor. A thought came to Tommy and he coiled back around, flicking through his textbook to the correct page. Amortentia. That was it! Leaving his spider on Jason’s desk, he hurriedly scrawled down the notes, not noticing the disruption across the room as it escalated. The first sign he heard of it was when the shouting began.

He jumped out of his seat in fright, and had already taken several stumbling backwards steps away from the noise before he realised it was another student. Not that that reassured him much. The chair flew across the room and he ducked instinctively, despite the fact it was heading in the opposite direction to where he was. He stayed crouched down, shaking a little and ready to move quickly should the need arise to get to safety, eyes peeled on what was happening across the room. When Zee wrapped his arms around Keaira at the professor’s orders, he feared the worst and flinched subconsciously, squeezing his eyes shut so he wouldn’t have to watch what he was sure was coming.

[Zane Lucifer Bishop]

Showing his typical arrogance, Zee had not expected to have any difficulty restraining Keaira. He was notably bigger and stronger and besides, why would she fight against him? She had to know he cared more for her well being than any of the others did. Or did she? Regardless, both the elbow and the stomp on his foot caught him by surprise and he gasped and wheezed as the pain swept up his leg and the air flew from his lungs.

"These are desperate times, Mrs. Lovett and desperate measures are called for . . ."

The words were nearly voiceless as Zee tried to force the oxygen back down his throat. Through it all he stubbornly refused to release her, and a second later his grip tightened further, holding her tight against him. Clenching his teeth in response to the pain in his foot, he shifted his grip slightly lower, being even more careful to keep her arms securely locked at her sides. His arms now wrapped around her waist, Zee straightened, lifting Keaira clean off the floor. She would be unable to achieve any leverage this way and his feet would be safe. Much to his own surprise, his next words came out in song., his lips close to Keaira's ear, or as close as they could come given her thrashing.

"You there my friend, come let me hold you. I know, I know you've been locked out of sight all these years, like me my friend."

Giving up on the bizarre words coming from his mouth, Zee shifted to thoughts, though he somewhat doubted Keaira's rational mind would hear him through the screaming rage that swirled about her head. His own thoughts were quite forceful as he tried to break through.

"Alecto! Relax! I'm trying to help you!"

[Caitlin Collins]

Caitlin watched, her eyes dull, as the potion she’d been given began to boil. The tiredness seemed to hit her again and again in spurts. This is what happens when I don’t get enough sleep,[/color] she thought miserably to herself, not really comprehending what she herself was thinking. Her eyes sank lower as it bubbled higher, and higher, until –

“Ow!” she exclaimed again, drawing back her right arm quickly to her body when hot sparks hit it and grabbing her wand out of her pocket with her left hand. She gestured at the flames, the frustration apparent on her face, and they flared up massively once before dying down to nothing. As they had flared up, the heat had gone out in waves and Caity had put her left arm up higher to protect her face. Lowering it now, she stared in dismay at what remained of the potion – and more specifically, the condition of her cauldron. It had boiled so much in the sudden heat that it was no more of a molten material, with a glow that sputtered for a few seconds then died. Now it was a sticky mess that was sticking to the side of her blackened cauldron, and becoming more and more solid by the moment. She reached out a hand to the edge of the mass but quickly withdrew it again; she could feel heat even through the glove. This was hopeless. Even more so than before – her entire potion sample was stuck to the bottom of her cauldron.

Staring at the mess for a few long seconds, she finally glanced around to see how everyone else was doing. Zee had disappeared from his place next to her without her noticing, and was now across the other side of the room, attempting to restrain Keaira who appeared to have gotten a little angry about something or other. She watched, ignoring the remains on her own desk to see how the situation would play out, having totally given up on even receiving a grade for this lesson. Even getting a 'D' would be a surprise. She had done nothing successfully, and now just felt the weariness overtaking her.

[Evelyn Sparrow]

Evelyn watched as Zane approached Keaira. As the boy wrapped his arms around the girl, Evelyn waved her hand, and a small spray bottle appeared out of thin air. Quickly opening the top she poured the antidote in the spray bottle, and then resealed it. During the short moments that Evelyn took to transfer the antidote into an easier to apply bottle, she saw from the corner of her eye that Keaira had struggled enough to slam her body into Zane’s. It took a bit of her will power to hold back the small gasp in response to her actions. That had to hurt a touch.

After a second of waiting it seemed that Zane had gotten Keaira under control once more. Although how long that would last was up to debate. Knowing that it would take about an hour for the effects to wear off on their own, Evelyn knew that administering the antidote to Keaira was high importance. Seeing the opportunity to ensure Keaira’s condition was remedied, Evelyn stepped forward to the struggling girl, and sprayed the antidote in her face.

Seeing the effects of the antidote working nearly immediately, Evelyn relaxed as Keaira’s struggling ended and she slumped in to Zane’s arms. One crisis averted, Evelyn summoned the antidote for Zane and quickly passed it off to him. Allowing her eyes to drift from one student to another Evelyn pursed her lips together. Perhaps this was a step beyond what they should have attempted quite so soon.

“Alright students. Anyone who feels disorientated, or in any way not themselves should see me before leaving, those of you who feel fine class is dismissed. Homework will be a 2 foot paper on the importance of following instructions, and using safety equipment during class. In addition, those of you who discovered the nature of their sample are to take the time to familiarize themselves with it. If you do not have a clue as to what you had please sign up for a 10 minute meeting with me tomorrow afternoon. My open times are posted on the board; simply sign your name next to the time you wish. Class dismissed.”

[Tommy Bryce]

Crouching down on the floor, one hand clutching the nearest table leg and his nails digging into it – not that he realised that – Tommy kept his eyes closed, waiting. Waiting. He heard Zee’s gasp and that only served to confirm his suspicions as to what was happening on the other side of the classroom. It wasn’t any different here, whatever he’d thought. He’d still get hurt, and he couldn’t stop anyone else getting hurt either like he could his brothers. But he couldn’t do that because he was here, not at home where they were. He waited again, for the cry of pain that was sure to come soon; the cry of hurt, and shock – shock, every time, even though he knew it was coming – and all those other emotions that accompanied being hit. He knew what it sounded like, had experienced it himself so many times that he would recognise it the instant Keaira, or Zane, or whoever else opened their mouth to let the sound escape. But, it wasn’t coming. Shouldn’t it have happened by now? His dad never hesitated... He opened his eyes by a bare millimetre to see what was happening, the anticipation getting too much for him.

The sight that met his eyes was not what he expected; Keaira was slumped in Zee’s arms and the professor was handing something to him – an antidote, by the looks of it. As her arms drifted across the classroom, he hurriedly stood, straightening his face and hoping no one had noticed his reaction to the violence. That might cause questions to be asked, questions he couldn’t afford to answer truthfully without risking his brothers.

She spoke and Tommy made his way back to his seat, picking up the spider as he did so to make it seem as if that had been his purpose for moving all along. He scribbled down the homework on the bottom of his parchment, folding it and stuffing it into his bag while avoiding looking at anyone else in the room. Picking it up, he left the room quickly, eyes fixed on the floor as he walked up to the owlery. It had reminded him that he still hadn’t received any letters, or correspondence of any sort from Nick and Shane since starting. That was months without hearing from them, and he had no idea what was happening at home. His dad had made it very clear that he wasn’t welcome unless with an invitation – one that hadn’t yet arrived. Maybe it was time to just make a visit by himself, check up on them from a distance... There were probably plenty of places he could escape the school grounds and return without being noticed. And he didn’t have a lesson next, so he could send another letter anyway, just in case all the others had somehow gone astray. Yes, he’d do that.

[Caitlin Collins]

Caitlin watched disinterestedly, but nevertheless with a small frown on her face, as Keaira struggled against Zee. What were they doing? It was a potions classroom, this was no time for horseplay... He was singing, too. Why was he singing? Anything that Zane did seemed to make no sense; she could make neither heads nor tails or him or his actions. The potion’s effects began to reassert themselves as, unknown to Caity, the now odourless vapours wafted around her face from the cauldron she was sitting behind. Really, the smoke should have been an obvious sign but that didn’t occur to her. Professor Sparrow suddenly sprayed something in Keaira’s face without warning and the Slytherin prefect slumped in her male counterpart’s arms, all the fight gone out of her. But she wasn’t fighting, how could the fight go out of her? Well, she was a lightfighter, but... although... being a lightfighter, didn’t that mean she was always fighting? But Caity herself wasn’t always fighting. Should she be? Should she go around fighting people? The others didn’t, but maybe she should. Show that she was worthy of being a Shadow Warrior. Not that she was worthy, she was a pacifist. But then she couldn’t go around fighting if she was a pacifist. So maybe she wasn’t a proper lightfighter? But no, D’rorah had said she definitely was. So she must be, even though it made no sense. Nothing made any sense any more, not since arriving at Hogwarts. But this lesson, she surely wasn’t this bad normally? Was it lack of sleep or the potion? Or something else, or something...

The spiel of thoughts twisting itself into one big knot in Caity’s head prevented her from registering what was being said by the Professor until after she’d started speaking, and then only a few bits actually processed. “...who feels disorientated, or in any way not themselves should see me before leaving... follow instructions... If you do not... what you had, please sign up for a 10 minute meeting... sign your name next to the time...”

...What? was her initial thought, slowly coming to the conclusion that “disorientated” was a word that very much applied to her right now, so she stood and walked slowly over to the professor. As she did so she tried to clear her mind of all the stray thoughts running about in her head, and succeeded at least to some degree. She could walk across the classroom without getting so distracted that she tripped over anything.

“Professor Sparrow,” she began. Funny name. Like a bird. A bird, funny. We could test the potion on birds instead of spiders. But I didn’t get a spider. Oh well. We’ve got birds. No we haven’t. Sparrow... we can test it on Sparrow![/color] “I – uh,” she tried, her brain not succeeding in sending the correct words to her mouth. “I think... that?” She gestured back at her desk where the smouldering cauldron still sat, looking charred and with the sort-of-liquid dripping onto the table. “It’s all... in a muddle, all mixed up in my head,”she attempted to explain.