First Potion Class Abandoned

@Lizzie Bendy

Christine was half an hour early to her potions class, and she knew it. She was eager to be prepared for her first class on the first day of her first week of her first month of her first semester of her first year at Hogwarts. She had gotten over the previous night's disappointment regarding her house placement and was ready to begin.

She peeked her head in and saw another girl, also early. The girl appeared to be in Christine's year and house, so maybe she should talk to her. But, Christine wasn't the social type. She would prefer to be the one getting approached to talk to, not the one doing the approaching or the talking.

As Christine entered the potions class, she heard the girl in the room whisper some words of encouragement to herself. Christine took a deep breath and said something similar in her mind. "You can do this, Christine. It's not all that different from when you were six and in the bathtub mixing all your various colored shampoos and soaps together." Then, the other half of her brain countered that. "Actually, it is very different. It is the first class of your first year and you don't want to fail it, now do you?" Christine slapped herself, but a bit too hard, so she winced and hoped the other girl didn't see.

Christine took a seat next to the blonde girl just as a few more students entered the room. "Hello," she said quietly.

Elspeth walked into the Potions classroom with her books clung to her chest and a bag filled with all of her tools clattering about. She wasn't sure if she was supposed to bring them and store them somewhere in the classroom, or if it was an expectation that she lug them around every time she had class here. Looking about she realized that a gaggle of first years were also probably as clueless as she was. Perhaps she should have owled the professor ahead of time to ask...

As much as Care of Magical Creatures was her real forte, Elspeth was also really excited to get to work on potions. She'd never seen her mother make one before (she'd always been more partial to charms and just bought any potions they needed from a local shop) and didn't exactly know how the process worked. When she stood behind the counter at the apothecary she could only barely make out what was happening in the back room where the brewers were. But it looked fascinating. All of the glass bottles glittering with their myriad contents. A seemingly endless number of possibilities.

Speaking of endless possibilities, she realized that she would have to choose somewhere to sit. Her friend Carolyn wasn't anywhere to be found, so she looked around at what all of the tables were offering. There was a group of Slytherins at a far table laughing loudly at some joke one of them had just told, and a table of Gryffindor and Ravenclaw students who looked deep in a conversation that she din't feel confident she could broach easily.

Then she saw a table that appeared to be mostly empty. Her favorite kind of table. Elspeth walked over and slid into a seat, placing her book down on the table before swinging around her incredibly heavy sack filled with supplies which - CLANG -hit the table instead of swinging gracefully onto it. Elspeth flinched a little, feeling guilty for possibly interrupting what folks at the table were up to.

"Ugh, I'm sorry. Bit clumsy," she grimaced a little, her cheeks pink with embarrassment. Well... the ice is already broken I guess.... She cleared her throat lightly, as she began setting her things out in front of her. "Um, I'm Elspeth. I don't think we've met before. You're a Gryffindor, yeah?" She nodded to the other students' robes.

Interacting with @Christine Garner

Emilia entered the potions classroom with a rare smile on her face, she was excited for her first lesson. As she took an empty seat (not many people had arrived yet, so she was alone for the meantime), she took out her potions books and put them on the table. Once again, she was a little confused, it was her first ever lesson and previously she knew little to none about the whole wizarding world, and Emilia was glad to see others feeling the same way as her.

Potions were something Emilia had always being excited to try, since receiving her letter. She had researched the whole idea of it, and the whole magic of it. Of course it was magic, it was a wizarding school, but something about the concept of potions seemed magical to Emilia in a way, and even more magical than any other forms of magic she'd heard about.

She began to look around the classroom, as it was really intriguing and each jar held something new. Emilia was excited to learn new things, and to learn about this whole art, and daydreamed for a little while, without realising, until someone tapped her on the shoulder.

"Hi, there's nowhere left to sit so I'm just going to take this seat, if you don't mind." an unfamiliar voice rang in Emilia's ear. "I'm Emilia. I don't mind at all, it's nice to meet you." Emilia responded, as she looked up at the unfamiliar student, excited to work with someone new.

Interacting with @Elspeth Gollens; Mentioning @Lizzie Bendy; @Emilia Lawler

Christine was worried that the girl hadn't heard her, but she didn't repeat herself. She opened her notebook and prepared to write as soon as the professor would start talking. She doodled some borders with her quill and smiled.

As she doodled, some more students filed into the classroom. Four boys who appeared to be Slytherins and another group of four, two of which appeared to be Gryffindor and two who appeared to be Ravenclaw. The Slytherins were laughing loudly at a bad joke, which made Christine cringe and the other table appeared to be deep in conversation.

She saw another girl, who appeared to also be a Ravenclaw, enter the room and look around. "So many people," Christine thought to herself. "I wonder if I'll get to meet them all."

The girl looked around at the other tables and seemed to have about the same reaction as Christine at the Slytherins. The Ravenclaw's eyes fell on the table where Christine and her fellow Gryffindor sat and she smiled. The girl walked to the table and took a seat by Christine. She placed her book on the table and then grabbed her bag to put it on the table. Unfortunately, the bag made a loud BANG! sound upon contact with the hard wooden table.

The Ravenclaw flinched a bit at the noise and then blushed and apologized for being clumsy. Christine smiled. "It's fine. I can be clumsy too sometimes. The Ravenclaw introduced herself as Elspeth as she set her things out in front of her. Elspeth gestured to the patch on Christine's robe and asked if she was a Gryffindor. "Sure am," Christine said. "I'm Christine Garner.

Elspeth watched at another student joined their table and introduced herself, offering a smile. This was one of the first times that she'd been in a space without any other Ravenclaws, having spent most of the first few days of school either up in their tower or by herself in the library. She didn't know much about the other houses outside of the usual short hand. Brave, kind, etc. Sitting at the table wasn't the way to exactly figure out how her peers matched up with those standards, though.

The more she'd been around the school, the more she'd wondered about how, exactly, the hat knows where to put people. There were smart kids in Gryffindor and kind kids in Slytherin and brave kids in Hufflepuff. She tapped her quill on her paper. Maybe she hadn't been placed in Ravenclaw because she was smart, maybe it was something else. She'd never felt especially bright or clever. Everyone seemed to have that expectation for her, now, and it was a bit overwhelming. And now that she was in her first class of the school year she felt like there was this huge rock sitting on top of her chest. Like she had to perform well or she'd be shunned by her housemates. But, then, she also didn't know her housemates so well yet. Everything was so new and unpredictable here.

"Nice to meet you Christine," Elspeth looked at her but then quickly looked back at her things, moving them about to organize them in a way that wasn't entirely productive. If she could futz around with them enough she would haven't to look at anyone directly, which might help keep her feeling less nervous. She began to wipe down her scales as she asked, "So have you all been... well I guess none of us has been making potions but, um, have any of you guys ever helped your parents make potions before?"

Small talk was a new skill for her. Knowing what to ask other people to start a conversation rather than end it was tricky.

Interacting with @Christine Garner and @Emilia Lawler