⫶ potions basement

@－ ❛ ɢ ❜：everett seong。⁰⁵ "Never?" His dark eyes glanced over at the other again, curiously. He couldn't exactly state that he was surprised by the connection the other had, he too had a /singular/ sibling that would never dream of fighting with him. But three others thought he was the bane of their existence. "Must be nice, then." The comment came out sounding as though he was bored but also laced with underlying jealousy. Although, Liandro will not ever admit that he desired some sort of positive acknowledgment from his own siblings.

Nodding along to the ingredients, the Slytherin put to the side what was read to him. It was perfect...almost perfect. The only problem was that Everett hadn't read off the measurements at all, the one thing that Liandro had absolute trouble with. That was the sole reason the prefect wanted him to read aloud for him, as he could read the ingredients with little issue. But instead of saying anything to the other, he decided to just try and continue to read the measurements himself, having to take a wild guess as to what they were. Typically, Liandro would have just told him to do what he was told to in the first place, but for some reason, he felt that being a bit of a prick towards the other once was enough.

He did everything right, the potion looked as it should have. Relief washed over Liandro as they put the finishing touches on the potion, putting it to a simmer as the other said. "That wasn't too bad, right?" As if on queue, a strange smell began to emit from the cauldron, causing him to suddenly look down at it. The potion looked fine, perfect actually, however, the odor was something that he could not ignore.

@－ ❛ s ❜：liandro kang。⁰⁵ [] http://wandw.wikidot.com/potion:dreamless-sleep-potion this is the potion btw, but I’ve ignored a specific part for you know why

He could almost say that it was nice to meet Liandro.

Key word being could. Not that the other man had been particularly unpleasant but Everett could sense a particular vibe from Liandro that he wouldn’t appreciate unnecessary niceties. So he simply hummed in response, eyes flicking up to meet Liandro’s before returning back to the book in front of him

“No, we never fight.” He said “Well, almost never fight.” Everett added, after considering it for a second. They’d probably fought before, even if he didn’t remember what it was about in this very moment.

“Oh! Uh, yeah sure, sorry” Everett felt his face flush, awkwardly flattening the book in his hands to neaten them up before he started reading out the list of ingredients to Liandro. “We need Honeywater, Sopophorous Bean, Moly, and uncut pieces of Chamomile and Lavender.” A quick survey of the table in front of them showed Everett that they were only missing the flowers, which he volunteered to get. He managed to get into the storage cupboard before the onslaught of fellow students, using his nose to pick out the freshest bundles of flowers.

The potion itself was a quick brew, it was the cooling down process that would really make or break the final results, Everett came to find as he skimmed the instructional part of the page. “Bring the honeywater to a simmer in a cauldron and place the Sopo bean whole, and we need to let it simmer for a few minutes.” Everett read from the book, placing it down in front of him. There was one part of the method that he could probably do, which was tying the flowers together with silk.

So far so good, no explosions as was prone to happen to Everett and nobody had lost a finger yet. Maybe he and Liandro would be able to pull off a passable potion.

Or maybe he was speaking too soon.

@－ ❛ ɢ ❜：sapphire elysia young。⁰¹ Emilia thought her ears merely misheard the other girl's words, not thinking anything of it. Well that is, until Elysia started adding an excessive amount fo each ingredient. "Eh? Eeeeehhhh????" Was Emilia's intial response, too frantic to put into words that Elysia /should not/ be adding six of /each/ ingredient into the cauldron. They could have saved it by adding a little extra of each other ingredient, just making a larger potion batch. But now? The whole potion was a monstrosity, and Emilia's mouth could not do anything but fall wide open.

"I...oh gosh. Of course it was a different color! Oh no oh no we messed up horribly." Emilia frantically counted on her fingers how many more snake fangs and billywig stings they needed in order to make up for the fact that Elysia added way too much of each ingredient. But by the time she could even do anything, their cauldron had exploded, it's contents leaking from its bottom. The smoke that emitted from it made Emilia's hair curl unpleasantly and caused her to have a coughing fit. Oh it was foul smelling, everything about the potion was wrong. "I, we, what, oh noo, Elysia what do we do?! Oh goodness the whole classroom will be filled with smoke!" The cauldron sputtered and another pop sounded from it, causing the elder girl to jump. "Should we try to dump it in the sink?"

@－ ❛ ɢ ❜：everett seong。⁰⁵ Things seemed like they would go smoothly, hopefully. Reading instructions may also lead for his partner to avoid any sort of conversation, something that Liandro tended to dislike. He wasn't one that had much going on in his life to make small talk. And even then, he knew, if someone did get him talking, he wasn't one that could stop. Possibly it was due to his rarity of having a full on conversation.

He nodded in response to the Gryffindor's quiet comment regarding the fanon potion, waiting for him to read off just what needed to be done right now. The male looked over his own potions supplies, making not of what he did recall would be in the potion, but still uncertain of how much and when it all should be placed into the cauldron. Not only that, he needed to know what was missing. Yet, the other seemed to read the text quietly, as if reading the information to himself would help them in any way. "We really will be ed if you don't learn how to read those ingredients out loud," he said gruffly as he tried to look over his own text, his dark eyes squinting in order to read just what he needed. "I'm not a mind-reader, you know."

Liandro gave up, looking from his book to stare at the Gryffindor square in the face. He took in the sight of the others pale skin and thin features. He didn't exactly /look/ like an Everett to Liandro, but he didn't say it out loud. "I'm not one that people like to talk with, nor am I one to remember people easily. So I don't have an inkling as to who your brother is." He wasn't speaking an untruth. Liandro had always been someone that spoke so bluntly and in a way that others found as a aggressive, that people tended to avoid him. Whether it was because they found him dislikable on their own or it was due to their friends stating he was nobody to get close to. Thus, he had a hard time remembering faces, that is, unless they were someone like Emerald who he had to be in her presence for duties, or if it was because someone peaked his interest due to their response to him.

"...I'm Liandro. If your brother is in my house he may know me, but I don't know him. It's always funny when I see family members be in both Slytherin and Gryffindor. Don't your personalities clash?" He decided to try to continue the conversation, trying his best to draw back any sort of aggression he may have presented previously. But as he did so, his eyes fell back to his supplies. "Read off what needs to be done today for me."

@－ ❛ ɢ ❜：emilia seong。⁰² Elysia lifted her head slowly, confused eyes gazing at the equally lost older girl who was now adding ingredients to the continuously boiling cauldron. Having only taken the same class a year ago, in Elysia's eyes, Emilia was the seasoned professional, "nine... not six" the younger muttered to herself trying to get the gears in her brain to churn in the right direction, "ooohhh..." thinking she finally understood her friend's genius she followed along blindly, frantically adding six more of each ingredient to the cauldron, not noticing it only continuing to get angrier with each new addition from the girls.

A moment later, Elysia peered at the mixture stirring gingerly, "I'm not sure that looks right either," The cauldron was now near overflowing with a goopy violet mixture, "I swear the Professor's was green," Before the first year could get another word in, the room echoed with a loud bang, and smoke emitted from the now black charred cauldron

@－ ❛ s ❜：liandro kang。⁰⁵ [] I’ve used a Fanon potion btw cause I feel like most canon potions are either too easy or they would have learnt during their high school years!!

“O-oh..” Well, that was something. Not getting immediately snubbed by a Slytherin was certainly a new experience. Everett watched his table partner for a moment, racking his brains for any sort of familiarity; honestly, he tended to ignore more Slytherins except for Emerald and Emrys out of self-preservation so he wasn’t really all that surprised that he didn’t recognise the man next to him, even after so many years. The silver prefect badge glinting on the Slytherins chest made him mentally go “uh-huh”, realising that it wasn’t in the other guys best interest to be antagonistic. That gave him a small sense of security but Everett still planned on keeping his distance(both physically and emotionally).

“I can do that.” Yes, reading measurements was something that he could do. Everett turned his attention to the front of the class, Slughorn using his wand in a maestro fashion, white chalk appearing on the blackboard with each swish and flick. He took out his copy of Potions and Poisons: An (in)complete guide to the world of potion-making(why did university textbooks insist on long titles?) And flipped to the page prescribed on the blackboard.

“Dreamless Sleeping Potion..” Everett read out quietly, reading the list of ingredients to himself silently. Nothing on the list seemed particularly potent, he was relieved to find, and the potion itself was marked as beginner to intermediate. Well, while others might like the challenge that came with advanced potion making, Everett was glad that they were given a somewhat simple start. The time duration was about one week, something that he mentioned to his partner as they set out the required tools.

“I’m, um, I’m pretty bad at remembering faces and names. If we haven’t met, I’m Everett. You might know my brother, Emrys? He’s in your year level.”

@－ ❛ ɢ ❜：everett seong。⁰⁵ It was of no surprise of Liandro that nobody wanted to stand beside him at his table for potions. Honestly, it was pretty often that he was stuck alone. The male was typically cold and crabby, someone that often kept his mind on the subject at hand. Unlike others, small talk with the Slytherin was something that was rare, especially in a course like this. One where Liandro had absolutely no idea what he was doing. Well, not entirely, he had realized his problem last year and did fairly well after obtaining a pair of glasses. But over the summer, they had broken, and with his sheer stupidity and his pride overtaking him at the moment, he had tossed the spectacles into a river. Thus, he was back to square one.

Not being able to read the pages of his books.

Honestly, it was better for him to work by himself. If he weren't to do well, it would be his own fault. But he couldn't think about it too long before a Gryffindor approached his table. If it weren't for their already speaking to him upon their approach, he would have pretended that they weren't there. "Well, ," the prefect said under his breath. His dark eyes shifted to look over at the other, giving him a brief once-over before continuing. "We're both going to fail, then. I'm also at potions." He let out a heavy sigh, his eyes turning to his cauldron, as if in defeat. Who'd have thunk that he would need potions for his future career? He looked up towards Slughorn, catching the sight of some eyes turned in their direction, making him wonder if he had spoken too loud. "We will do fine as long as you read the measurements for everything to me. Think you can do that, at least? I tend to screw up the numbers."

@－ ❛ s ❜：liandro kang。⁰⁵ Everett did not miss the damp heaviness of the potions classroom.

The smell of stagnant lake water and particularly pungent potion remnants made his head ache, a dull throbbing somewhere behind his left eye. He stood a little ways off from the rest of his year level, a mixture of red and green milling around until Slughorn unlocked the door, rubbing his eye and trying not to inhale too deeply. Shallow breathing was the only thing keeping his headache from turning into a migraine. However, his wandering mind was brought back to reality when a quiet throat clearing sounded, and he turned to see that everyone had already entered the dungeon. Slughorn was looking at him with a pointed look.

Everett's cheeks burned as he rushed into the potions room, mumbling a quiet apology, and he made his way to the nearest empty seat. A Slytherin, who he probably should know the name of but didn't, sat next to him. Great. By this point, his Gryffindor classmates already knew that partnering up with Everett meant a low- average at best- grade but a Slytherin? ing hell, Everett was going to go through hell this year. Unfortunately, it looked as though there were no other available seats.

"Um," He started, quietly as to not interrupt Slughorns customary start of year lecture, "I'm probably going to cause you to fail potions this year. Sorry in advance. I can, uh, just sit everything out and take notes for you, so our grade isn't awful."

@－ ❛ ɢ ❜：sapphire elysia young。⁰¹ ( hhhh good luckk)

@－ ❛ ɢ ❜：emilia seong。⁰² (yes! i’m just being ambushed at school rn ;;;;)

@－ ❛ ɢ ❜：sapphire elysia young。⁰¹ (Is this being continued?)

@－ ❛ ɢ ❜：sapphire elysia young。⁰¹ Why Emilia had agreed to help the younger girl was a mystery in itself. Emilia Seong was not the kind of girl people asked for help of, whether it was with moving something or with studying. Her clumsiness and stupidity were at an extreme in which many possibly just felt bad for the poor girl. Yet, she always did seem to just get by in her classes, even if it meant receiving merely an Acceptable on her exams, but often receiving Poor. Thankfully, Emilia, despite her airheadedness, studied hard enough to never have received a Dreadful or Troll for her grades. If she had, she would've had utterly died.

Her quizzical look matched that of the first year's, her brows furrowed as she tried to concentrate on the measurements before her. "I could have sworn we got everything right! Everything, every measurement, every stir, ev-," she paused when she noticed the mistake that was made. Her hair curled in response to the steam that the potion emitted and her cheeks turned a bright red. Their Wide Eye potion was only to have 6 snake fangs and 6 dried billywig stings, but her foolish self put 9 each. "Ahah," she laughed nervously as she started to add a little extra of their ingredients to the side in hopes of saving it. "I may have messed up...only six, should have only been six. Oh no," she mumbled under her breath, impatiently searching around the book to figure out how to fix her mistake.

@－ ❛ ɢ ❜：emilia seong。⁰² Elysia had never considered school to be among her strengths and preferred to put her efforts elsewhere. This left her grades usually in a sad dumpster fire she only ever managed to put out at the last possible second. She hadn’t initially planned in returning to hogwarts after the summer, but even though her parents continued to dote on her like they had in the past, she couldnt shake the sense of alienation that had settled in the day the owl came with her first letter from hogwarts when she was 11. And thus, the first year came running back to the place that always welcomed her with open arms.
Confusion was written clearly across her features as she stared at her potions textbook, her cauldron was boiling some kind of goop, with her mixer in one hand and all the ingredients laid out infront of her. She’d asked one of her second year friends to help her with the potion but decided to give it one last try on her own. So far, it was turning out worse than ever before and the smell was putrid “I swear, I’m reading words,” the first year muttered to herself, “But i’m not understanding a single thing.” She dropped her forehead to the textbook letting out a loud frustrated groan what turned to a cough from the previously inhaled fumes

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