Brewed Tension

interaction: @Aiden Sinclair

Victoria lifted her head and glanced at the table, realizing that all the materials were ready to use. She let out a relieved sigh— the boy was nowhere to be seen, but at least she was genuinely comforted by the fact that they had managed to work together.

She tried to tuck the strands of hair falling over her face behind her ear. Just as she was about to refocus on the potion, the boy appeared and spoke, breaking the tense silence, and she looked up again. Her blue, distant doe eyes studied him for a few seconds.

Even though Victoria didn’t want to admit it, seeing him apply the cream had made her feel somewhat relieved. She smiled without thinking; a dimple appeared on her right cheek, and her eyes sparkled slightly.

“I hope it feels better now—” she began, but quickly composed herself, realizing how she sounded.

She hated how easily her guard slipped right now. It wasn’t like her to smile without meaning to. That dimple was supposed to stay hidden, like everything else she kept under control. But it was harder to keep herself calm when she was stressed and feeling guilty.

“…I'm not sulking,” she muttered, her gaze falling back to the boy’s hand.

She examined it—without touching it this time, of course. There wasn’t any remarkable difference, at least not visibly, but still, she hoped the cream had soothed the burn.

“…If it hurts during night and you don’t have any cream, you can try toothpaste,” she said calmly. “It might sound silly, but it works.”

Then, Victoria tilted her head slightly. She watched him for a few more seconds. It was clear she didn’t have any bad intentions.

“Do you feel any better?” she asked, trying to sound less hopeful.

interaction: @Aiden Sinclair dialogue thoughts

It was clear that the boy wanted to finish the potion business as quickly as possible. His movements were sharp, almost impatient. Victoria noticed the way he avoided eye contact, his brows slightly furrowed in silent frustration.

“...Okay. I’ll stop asking if you’re okay then,” Victoria mumbled gently, her voice barely above a whisper. She didn’t want to push him. The last thing she wanted was to make him feel even more uncomfortable. There was a quiet sincerity in her words, an unspoken understanding that she would give him space.

She gave a slight nod to herself and turned her attention back to the textbook lying open in front of them. The classroom buzzed faintly with the sounds of bubbling cauldrons and the occasional muttered incantation. There wasn’t much time left until the end of the lesson—but somehow, their potion was going surprisingly well.

“Can you keep an eye on the temperature?” she asked softly as she reached for the next set of ingredients, her fingers steady and precise. She glanced at him for a brief moment, just to make sure he had heard her.

Once everything had been added and the stirring was complete, Victoria leaned slightly forward, peering into the cauldron with cautious hope. The potion shimmered faintly, settling into a color that matched the textbook illustration almost perfectly. Her breath caught for a moment.

It was... right.

Surprisingly—perhaps even against previous tension—she and this boy had actually managed to complete the potion successfully. And to be honest, this was the first time Victoria had been able to stay completely focused during a Potions lesson and get everything just right. Usually, something distracted her or she second-guessed her measurements. But not today.

A flicker of pride stirred in her chest, uninvited but not unwelcome. She didn’t say anything, didn’t smile or gloat—but there was a quiet sense of accomplishment in the way she stood up a little straighter. It wasn’t just that the potion was correct. It was that she had done something well with someone else. That, in itself, felt like a small kind of magic. Even though she hadn’t attended many Potions classes yet, it could be her first succesful partnership at potions.

─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

STEALING BAD

─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Samuel had observed the pair from the beginning of his class; two students indulging themselves in idle chatter while others around kept working. Their whispers no longer bled into the quiet hum of the potions class but instead began to stir an irritation that the blonde professor stored away neatly. A classroom was no place for drama, something that seemed to be in huge amounts between the two of those. Children seemed intent on dragging their adolescent miseries into every corner they touched.

Samuel Did not waste his energy focusing solely on them; he did have a room full of naïve potion students to oversee after all. Still, the matter pressed itself forward when the boy, in his infantile brilliance, decided to slip burn-healing paste into his pocket as if Samuel's stores were communal trinkets.

It wasn't the theft that rankled him, foolish children often believed themselves self-sufficient while leaning entirely upon the unseen labors of others. No, the insult was far sharper: to steal from one's own classroom. This space was meant for learning and discipline, desecrated by equal parts arrogance and ignorance.

When the lecture reached its end and the rest of students filed out, Samuel's voice cut through the scrape of benches and the barely present shuffle of parchment.

"Miss Blythe, Mister Sinclair. You will clear your schedules for eleven o'clock tomorrow. Detention." His tone was even, precise, announcing a decision and not a choice. "Your crimes are threefold: theft from my classroom, of my work, without explicit permission, a pitiful lack of concentration in brewing and being a constant disruption to your peers with your endless muttering, sentimental drivel, soap opera and constant blabbering. Consider yourselves fortunate I still intend to teach you."

─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

@Victoria Blythe @Aiden Sinclair

You have been caught.

You guys aren't in trouble OOC, just IC. I'll have a detention thread up shortly and will owl you both once I get it posted. Once it is posted, you won't be able to join/create new RP threads until its requirements have been fulfilled, but you will still be able to respond to old ones.

Rolls for catching you guys are in Discord!