Concocted Chaos PV Gabriele Ricci-Armani Finished

Date. March 21st, 2025 Tag. @Avis Greymond
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It was Friday and another Potions class, which, in Gabriele’s opinion, was just Hogwarts’ way of making sure your week ended on a miserable note. Sure, he could have skipped this class - like he did with most, anyway - but there was only so many classes he could skip before it become a serious problem. His goal wasn't to get expelled - fuck his life if he had to redo a year - but get away with doing the bare possible minimum without getting bit in his ass later. It meant showing up just the right amount of times without requiring an intervention from the professors. Gabriele had currently filled his quota of skippable classes this month (he had a spreadsheet). Alas, here he was. Like a boy who rather be anywhere else, he trudged down the steps to the dungeons.

He hated the dungeons. It was cold. Smelled like moldy socks and other things involving a traumatic walk-in on his parents during his Christmas visit that he rather not dwell on. Inappropriate, anyway. The only upside was that he was decent at Potions. Annoyingly decent. Which pissed him off more than anything, because it meant people expected him to try. And trying was exhausting.

Late, but not late late, Gabriele swung inside with his usual fuck-all attitude. Everything — from his unruly curls to the tie he was forced to wear — was out of place. Even his shoes were probably unlaced, though he hadn’t bothered to look. He didn’t give a fuck, as long as he hadn’t tripped and made a fool of himself. The Italian slumped into the most convenient chair that happened to be next to some Ravenclaw girl, and sank into an almost horizontal position immediately. People would wonder if he was taking a nap. If he had his way, he would be. Within the first few minutes — neckline of his robe pulled over his mouth and his head bobbing to the professors every third word — Gabi was already half way to making this a snooze-fest.

When the rest of the class had started to prepare their cauldrons for today's lesson, he was elbowed awake. Blinking, he murmured, "what are we doing?" Clearly not bothering to make it seem like he cared about brewing the Confusing Concoction. Sighing with great inconvenience, Gabi forced himself up from his laying position and stepped up towards the empty cauldron. For a moment he just stared at it dully. With a sigh, he opened the book and flipped to the familiar page. As he half-heartedly read through the list of ingredients, Gabriele’s eyes wandered lazily to the girl by the desk next to him. He hadn’t paid her much attention at first, but now—with sleep still in one eye and petty boredom blooming in the other—he gave her and her cauldron a once-over.

Gabi rolled his eyes when he realized he'd taken the spot next to one of those nerds. Ah. It was her, of course. He didn’t know her name—maybe Ava? Avis? What he did know was that she always acted like she was brewing for the British Potion-Off or something, if something like that ever existed. One of those Ravenclaws who probably did extra credit for fun and cried when they got an E instead of an O. It clearly paid off, though. He was pretty sure she got top marks in this class. But she also put in the work for it. Couldn't be him.

Nothing seemed different this time. He let out a low whistle, not at her, just… into the air. “Someone’s taking this seriously,” he muttered, mostly to himself. Maybe he could convince her to make his potion too? Wishful thinking.

Skurvy grass, sneezewort, fluxweed... Avis went through the list, keeping in mind just how much of each she needed so she could make the trip to the ingredient cabinet quick.

The Ravenclaw began to stand, repeating the ingredients over and over again in her head, when she realized that there was an obstacle blocking the aisle: a very tired-looking male obstacle. Avis narrowed her eyes, her nostrils flaring of their own accord. The boy's head of dark curls actively drooped lower as she watched so the girl decided to take matters into her own hands. After all, the ingredients were already fading from her mind and she hated bringing the entire textbook over to the cabinet, for fear of looking like an absolute dunce.

Reaching down, Avis jabbed him sharply with one of her elbows and after a moment, he blinked blearily. She pursed her lips at his muttered question, taking in his loose tie and disinterested expression. Of course, she couldn't say much about what he was wearing, seeing as she'd shown up to the notoriously cold dungeons with a rumpled oversized hoodie over her pleated gray school skirt, but for Merlin's sake, at least her shoes were tied. The girl cleared her throat.

"You're in potions class, remember?" she replied dryly. She waited, anger and impatience flaring slightly in her chest, but the boy finally got up with an exaggerated sigh and Avis pushed her way past. "Skurvy grass, sneezewort, fluxweed," she muttered to herself as she paced across the classroom.

Once she'd successfully retrieved the ingredients she was missing, she skirted back around her desk neighbor (who seemed to have surprisingly picked up the textbook) and got to work chopping up the skurvy grass, desperately trying to cut up the pieces evenly but failing miserably. The Ravenclaw paid no mind. She doubted her brother had very much skill with a knife either.

It was when she was measuring the grass into her cauldron that she felt eyes on her. Avis turned her head and met the Hufflepuff's bored expression. Weren't they supposed to be unbearably bubbly and social or something? His eyes drifted over to her cauldron for a moment before he proceeded to roll them. At her?? Avis pulled back her head in light disbelief and returned his eye roll with what she hoped was a scathing glare, but alas the boy just let out a low whistle, remaining, unfortunately, entirely unscathed.

She returned to her potion, cheeks heating in annoyance, but her head snapped back up when she heard another muttered phrase from his direction. Oh that was it. The all too familiar feeling of fiery anger rose into her throat, uncontrollable and unfortunately most of the time, misdirected.

"And someone obviously isn't," she drawled trying to maintain an uncaring facade while her Irish accent gradually thickened with annoyance. She turned back to her workstation and began furiously grinding her lovage sprigs into a pulp. "Why don't you go back to your nap and let me focus?"

Avis gritted her teeth, trying to return her full attention to the recipe in front of her but potions (and apparently this idiot) seemed to have a way of putting her on edge. It seemed this situation was only proving that theory.

Date. March 21st, 2025 Tag. @Avis Greymond Note. I felt good about that one lmaooo
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He was in potions, remember? The nerdy Ravenclaw had answered him when he was woken from his his snoozing, like he was some fucking idiot. Obviously he remembered that much. He just wanted to know what fucking potion they were brewing. "No fucking way. You don't say," Gabriele answered incredulously to that, staring up at the girl in blue in feigned stupidity, but she was soon gone. With an annoyed groan, he reluctantly starting to (slowly) put his cauldron to use.

He was supposed to get several ingredients for the potion; Skurvy grass, sneezewort, fluxweed... Ugh. The italian frankly felt too lazy to go all the way to the inventory shelf to get it all. The Ravenclaw girl obviously knew nothing of being lazy, or at least she was too concerned with her grades to allow herself to be. Before he'd barely finished reading the page, she was back with all her supplies.

His eyeroll earned him a glare that could have killed. Nothing that bothered him, of course. If anything, it made it so much more fun - if anyone could live up this shit hole, that was. Debatable. Avis told him to go back to his nap already, so she could focus on her shit, irish accent unmistakably coming through. Why she couldn't do that with him awake - it wasn't like he was that chatty - was beyond him. The perfect opportunity to annoy her some more, however. Leaning a hip against the desk and turned to flash her a provocative, some may say shit-eating, smirk in her direction. "Shouldn't have fucking woken me up then." Technically, that was all her fault.

"Besides, if I did, then you'd miss me too much." Obviously, no one believed that to be true. Not even Gabi. He was just fucking with her. Or, did he? If there was one thing Gabriele had learned, it was this: the ones who pretended not to give a shit were always the most obsessed. Just looking at Gabriele and his unhealthy obsession with his brother that he bullied relentlessly, was enough proof. And he had a feeling Avis gave just enough of a shit to make this interesting. If not about him: about that potion.

Gabriele couldn't believe how serious some people were about potions. Well, she was clearly serious about her grades in general. That gave him an idea... Like most of his ideas, it was nothing good. But if it was pulled off correctly, it would be hilarious. He just needed a moment of distraction for him to make his move. Avis would be horrified and hate him probably. Join the fucking club.

Knowing she'd helped him with absolutely jackshit, his voice turned deceptively smooth and sweet. "Hey, thanks for getting all this stuff for me." He didn’t wait for a reply—because he knew it would piss her off, and because, frankly, he didn’t give a shit. With zero hesitation, Gabriele reached over, snatched the leftover ingredients off her desk, and casually dumped them into his own cauldron like they were his all along.

Mam always told Avis to count backwards from 10 when she would get so angry she couldn't breathe as a kid, which was a concerning amount to be completely honest. And no matter how many times she tried it, it only seemed to make her angrier.

Sometimes, her rage really just wasn't something she could control, making her an easy target for someone who just wanted a laugh. And Avis knew that that was exactly was this infuriating piece of troll dung was doing. Yet she couldn't help but feel the fury rise in her throat, her cheeks slowly heating at that goddamn smirk.

10...9...8

"Shouldn't have fucking woken me up then."

7...6...5

"Besides, if I did, then you'd miss me too much."

She snapped. The audacity was appalling to say the least. Avis suddenly forgot all about her meticulous potion-making and slammed the knife she had been using into the table, point down.

"The only thing I miss is my life before I woke you up," she hissed, fists clenching and unclenching at her sides. She hated being so vulnerable and easy to anger and she hated that he knew it. The Ravenclaw didn't even care about her potion anymore, although she turned with a huff to pour her standard ingredient and lovage-paste into the cauldron in an attempt to calm herself down before she used the knife for other purposes. She began to stir 5 times but lost count and almost threw her wooden spoon across the room. Avis took a breath, trying to ignore the smirking Italian next to her.

4...3...2

"Hey, thanks for getting all this stuff for me."

She turned sharply but it was too late, he was already dumping her leftover ingredients into his cauldron. Merlin's beard, at this point he was begging for a Troll grade, paired with Avis' knuckles squarely in his annoyingly perfect jaw. Of all the lazy, idiotic motherf-

"I hope that cauldron blows up in your face," she muttered, attempting to continue counting slowly in her head. At the very least, he would get what he deserved and fail the test today. That thought seemed to soothe her over a bit, although she doubted he would care.

Date. March 21st, 2025 | Dialogue. #1E361C | Tag. @Avis Greymond
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His eyes widened, darting down to the table where she slammed her potions knife against the table dangerously. Yet, the amused smirk didn't leave his face. If anything, his smile widened, glinting with thrill. Stupidly, instead of being wary of an angry girl with a knife, Gabi thought it was exciting. It wasn't exactly a machete, but probably sharp enough to be lethal with enough force. Painful, no doubt, if Avis lost it and decided to attack him. And why was that kind of hot? The bite back, too. He liked a girl with sting. It made teasing them so much more fun.

When he decided to test her non-existent patience by stealing all her ingredient and dumping it into his own, Gabriele hadn't considered that it was her leftovers. Avis had already used everything she needed. Instead of sabotaging her potion, it would only mess up his own concoction. Unfortunately, he’d been too caught up in his own mischief to even think that far.

Not until she sourly commented that she hoped it blew up in his face — with zero concern for her own work — did he realize his fuckup. "Umm... Well, shit... That's not what I had in mind..." He murmured to himself. Gabi stared at his bubbling cauldron, which had shifted to a suspicious looking green color, looking every amount of dumb as he was currently feeling. Well, ooops... This, folks, was the reason he was not a Ravenclaw.

What annoyed him the most wasn't the failed potion, though. It was that the Ravenclaw girl was acting all high and mighty - just because she was in the smart house. More accurately: the house of nerds. Gabriele shot Avis a side-eyed glare. If he was screwed for the rest of the class, he was taking her with him.

Under pretense of going to clean out his potion, now when it was beyond saving, Gabriele grabbed the cauldron with both hands. He leaned sideways, bumping Avis out of the way with his hip. Just enough to make it look like a potential accident.

"You know, you should probably work on your anger issues. Could get dangerous, on of these days." He aimed to pour just a bit of his shitty potion into Avis’s perfectly brewing concoction — just enough to wreck her grade, not blow up the table. He'd completely overestimated his own strength, however. The weight shifted suddenly in his grip. The entire contents sloshed forward, some of it spilled into her cauldron by sheer luck, but most missed it entirely, and splashed all over the floor between them with a loud, sizzling splatter.

There was a moment of silence. There was green potion everywhere. Gabi froze, wide-eyed. "... Fuck."

"Umm... Well, shit... That's not what I had in mind..."

Avis couldn't help the smirk of triumph creep up onto her face when Gabriele's ominous bubbling concoction slowly took on an alarming shade of green, which was definitely not the correct color no matter what angle one tried to look at it.

She glanced away from the potion to study the boy's face for any sign of helplessness only to find him giving her a rather lethal side-eye glare that made her stomach flip about in what she desperately hoped was all hatred. It was the type of look that told her he wasn't finished and no matter how confident she'd been trying to act, it made her wary. The Slytherin obviously had no boundaries as to what might not be acceptable in class, as opposed to herself.

She thought back to his crazed, alarmingly excited expression when she'd impulsively slammed the knife into the table. Avis' mouth creased into a straight line. She was most definitely screwed.

The Ravenclaw watched with suspicious narrowed eyes as he grasped his still-bubbling cauldron with two hands and lifted it off the table, letting out a squeak of alarm as his hip hit hers. She was about to snatch the cauldron from his hands and thump it back onto the table to avoid any "accidents" when his comment ignited the anger inside her once again.

"I don't have anger-" she began indignantly but never got to finish. A sloppy wave of green mess splashed into her cauldron as she watched the concoction slip out of his grasp. It splattered onto the floor and onto her brown converse and she gasped in horror as whatever had been in that damned mixture began eating away at her left shoe.

"Merlin's Great Bollocksing Beard," she hissed in response to Gabi's expletive after a short awkward moment of staring at the mess between them.

Once the potion had eaten away at her shoe, it started right onto her sock. Avis began hopping about on one foot, desperately tugging at the string of her converse.

"You absolute ninny!" she shot at the Italian, hoping the professor was busy with someone else. She most definitely needed his help with this disaster but couldn't afford him seeing her ruined potion. She needed that perfect grade!

Speaking of her potion, as Avis wrestled with her laces, she glanced over at her own cauldron and swore. The pewter container was overflowing with the same green stuff that Gabriele had so geniusely created. She began awkwardly hopping towards the table, degrading shoe in one hand, but she unfortunately didn't get very far as she slipped directly on the puddle of green and crashed into her fury-inducing classmate. She tumbled to the floor in a flurry of flaming cheeks, half a shoe (and sock) and a string of creative swear words.

The Ravenclaw had no time to pause as she desperately and foolishly wiped the acidic potion off of her foot with her sweatshirt sleeve and pointed at the pot with her other hand.

"Make yourself useful and figure out a way to get that cauldron to stop bubbling over," she ordered the troublemaker, venom lacing its way into her tone. Said cauldron was now currently engulfed in the green stuff and the worktable was being slowly eaten away as well.

The Ravenclaw groaned. All she could think about was her perfect potion record being completely ruined by a boy of all things, especially one that could so easily get under her skin and look maddeningly good while doing it.

Bollocks.

Date. March 21st, 2025 | Dialogue. #1E361C | Tag. @Avis Greymond
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The shitty potion was everywhere—on the floor, the table, and Avis’ shoes—and it kept bubbling over like it was alive. Whatever was in it must have been straight-up poison, the way it ate through fabric and rubber. Even for Gabriele, master of chaos (even when he didn’t mean to be), this was a disaster.

Though, watching Avis hop around on one foot and swear like an idiot was funnier than it should be. Forgetting all about his epic fail, Gabi laughed at her instead, though was careful to not step in that shit himself. Imagine the dissappointed horror on his parents faces if they realized he'd ruined a pair of designer shoes. Still ugly in their standard, but expensive nonetheless.

Easier said than done, when she slipped on a puddle and fell straight into him. The Ravenclaw tumbled to the floor and Gabi followed soon after, belly-landing on top of her and grunted as the air was knocked out of him.

Still with an out of control potion to deal with, things happened so fast that he barely had the time to register how damn close they were in that moment. Just enough for his eyes to widen and awkward (and kind of amused) flush to tint his face. Avis scrambled to wipe potion off of her, and something hit him in the already sore spot in his middle.

"Ugh," he cupped around his stomach as he rolled over onto a clean patch on the floor. A miracle really, seeing the girl was covered in green, slimy shit now. Gabi hadn't even had the chance to recover before she demanded him to fix the cauldron. Like he could do anything about it! Gabi pushed himself up from the floor, staring at the overflowing cauldron with a blank expression. Not a single spell came to mind. Sleeping through classes and making other people do his homework might not have been the smartest move in this moment.

"What the fuck do you suggest I do? Drink it?" He hissed, throwing a glance towards the professor who miraculously hadn't stormed over to scream at them yet. Gabi looked back down at the potion, his stomach churning at the mere thought. Yeah, he'd probably be dead. There probably was a spell for this- but in lack of better options, Gabi reached for some old rag laying about and began wiping green grime off the table.

Only a few wipes in, the potion had already desinegrated half of the rag. “Shit—shitshitshit,” he hissed, flinging the half-melted rag away like it was a cursed object before it could reach his fingers. It barely missed his shoe. He glared at Avis. "Maybe if you hadn't been acting like such a know-it-all bitch, this wouldn't have happened." But then he also wouldn't have had this much fun teasing her. It was a double edged sword.

Unless she knew a spell, they'd just have to wait and hope it didn't burn the whole fucking room down in the process.

tag: @Gabriele Ricci-Armani| date: 21-03-2025 | fit: x

It was clear that the boy had no clue what to do judging by the blank stare and the suggestion that he drink it—which in Avis' opinion was one of the better options on the board. She rolled her eyes and tried to ignore the now-eaten away cuff of her sweatshirt.

"I wish you would drink it," she muttered. The Ravenclaw now stood on both feet, one in a threadbare sock which was still smoking slightly, and was doing her best to assess the situation. Gabriele had started to wipe at the disaster with a rag which soon turned into a tattered square of useless fabric, idiot.

She had begun to go through the list of spells she knew in her head when his wild accusation raised her surface temperature by about 30 degrees. Her eyebrows flew upwards in incredulous disbelief. Avis sputtered for a moment, hardly able to get the words out.

"Acting like a—you're blaming this on me??" she finally got out, turning on him and chucking her ruined converse violently in his general direction. She marched forward, word enunciated with each step. "You were the one that had to go and start this all in the first place!" Avis squeaked angrily. They were starting to get stares from the far reaches of the classroom. Everyone close to them had already been openly staring at the green, frothing mess on the floor. Avis shot them all a look that had many scrambling to get back to their workstations. She turned and stabbed a finger at the Hufflepuff's chest. "I'll hex your ears off for this. And your stupid fucking smirk. Not to mention your entire bloodline!" she hissed in a low menacing tone. She gave him a pointed stare, eyes wild with fury and whirled around, whipping her wand out to face the green volcano that had now reached the stone floor from the table.

Calm down and think, Avis. Her breathing slowed as she went through spells, angrily pushing down the sudden image of their accidental proximity on the floor moments before, his lightly rose-tinged nose nearly touching hers. She squeezed her eyes shut. Gah! Focus.

Finally, a spell popped into her head and without a moment to waste, she pointed her wand at the nearest puddle. "Scourgify!" she cried desperately and the puddle disappeared in a satisfied puff of acid smoke.

She repeated the spell a few more times to finish clearing the area of disaster puke and finally dropped her wand arm to her side when it was all gone.

The only things left in their work area were two empty and thoroughly chewed-through cauldrons, the still-smoking worktable and two students who looked as though they'd just fought in the third wizarding war. It was a wonder they hadn't been caught, but a cloud of smoke on the other side of the room seemed to be occupying the unwanted attention for now. It seemed as though they hadn't been the only ones to screw up their potions, thank Merlin.

Not that Avis had ruined hers on purpose. Clenching her jaw, she shoved her wand back into its usual place in her waistband and made her way back to the remnants of her cauldron. There was no helping it now. Class was almost over and every student in the room would have to present whatever they had to the professor. She stared in despair at the ruins of her potion. This would be the first Troll grade she'd ever gotten. It was a very disheartening fact, considering that her older sister Prim had never even gotten near to a Troll and Will had only ever gotten one in his entire life (he'd accidentally turned in a discarded love note from some random girl rather than his paper.) She sighed when the time came to present and picked up the disaster that was her assignment: an empty half of a cauldron speckled with green sizzling spots of ruined potion.

She turned to glare at Gabriele and motioned for him to go first with a sharp jerk of her head. If anything, Avis wasn't going to take the blame for this and she sure as hell wasn't going to face the professor alone.

Date. March 21st, 2025 | Dialogue. #1E361C | Tag. @Avis Greymond
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Despite all the shit going on, Gabriele still found it funny how much his comment pissed Avis off. In one way she was right; she hadn’t been the one to actually spill the potion everywhere - but she had been the catalyst for why he’d done it! If the professor would give a fuck about his reasoning as long as their work station was a mess- doubtful. Even when she came stomping towards him, expression and words livid, he didn’t back down.

“Only because you were giving me attitude,” Gabi countered, rolling his eyes. Completely unprovoked attitude, in his opinion. His gaze dropped to the finger stabbing his bony chest. That kind of hurt, he thought and rubbed the sore spot she’d left behind with the palm of his hand. Not bothering to mention it, he glared at her with a mocking tilt of his head. “Yeah, I’m sure my family would be deathly afraid of a whiny eleven year old girl.” The thought caused him to scoff. “I’d like to see you try, though.” She’d be kept busy if there had been any credit to her threats. Whatever a kid her age could do towards grown wizards with body guards, and an arsenal of more spells than either of them.

Avis knew a spell. Of course she knew a spell. Watching the bench clean itself after a few flicks with her wand, Gabriele made a mental note to practice scourgify until next time when something like this happened. Trust Gabriele Ricci-Armani that this would not be the last time he fucked up a potion. Not because he was bad at potions, but because there surely would be another stuck-up student that deserved to be knocked down a peg or two, in the near future. Probably not the last time he got into a fight with Avis, either.

With the help of that spell, the majority of the mess was cleaned up and at no more risk of eating them all up. They’d probably ruled out the possibility of detention now, but their potions were still a mess - far from whatever the confusing concoction should look like. That was definitely a Troll. Class was about to wrap up, with the other students presenting their concoctions to the professor. They didn’t have the time to fix their potions even if they wanted to.

The Ravenclaw girl jerked her head towards the professor, urging him to go up there first. Sighing - like, suppose I can - he grabbed his, pretty much empty, cauldron with both hands and walked up towards the professors desk. Gabriele didn’t really care that he failed this class. That he managed to take Avis down the drain with him, was a small condolence. Things had not turned out exactly how he’d planned; wrong solution that somehow still got the right answer.

With more confidence than anyone else who had caused such an epic potion fail, Gabriele handed over the empty cauldron. Since most of the potion had ended up on the floor, only a small puddle of green sludge remained at the bottom. It was difficult to tell what he was thinking beyond the usual unreadable (in his mind: critical) once-over you get at presentation. Maybe he made mental notes to shred him to pieces later, perhaps he didn't care. Regardless, Gabriele wasn’t hopeful it was any good. The professor didn’t need to say a word — the result was obvious: it wasn’t going to get him a good grade.