Closed Alchemy 3: A Plantiful Fieldtrip PV Alchemy Club

OPEN TO INTERACTION

───Interactions─── Reducio @Kim Sato

OUTFIT Reducio Eudon Choi Spring 2022 Collection

────Mentions──── Reducio n/a

There was something to be said about those who could pick up on a lead and follow. It seemed to be so rare a trait among the students of Hogwarts. Perhaps it was the times. Perhaps it was poor rearing. In Evelynn's experience, at the very least, so many of her peers seemed to thrive on a sense of counter-culture. The professors could not be trusted. The senior students were not to be respected. The rules were merely guidelines. And absolutely, no research or questioning was necessary when faced with an uncertain situation. Simply cast a flaming blaze and watch the world decent into chaos in every direction.

And yet, here was—at least for now—a boy who was willing to walk to another's tune. She had spoken the suggestions, and he had done as was expected. It was a breath of fresh air in an otherwise dark and dank dungeon overgrown with sodden minds. To top it off, he even seemed to pick up on her correction of her name. No query, no complaint. Merely a sound of affirmation and repetition that he'd heard it correctly. Perhaps there was yet hope that this errand wouldn't, after all, be a complete headache inducing experience.

As the two worked in tandem, she adjusted the speed of decapsulating to the boy's rate of grinding. There was no use overloading the pestle as that would only make the task more difficult for him. Not to mention the sense of urgency might instil stress or impede his desire to put in the manual effort. And as he spoke, she listened attentively.

"Well, in your defence, Transfiguration is a rather challenging subject," she chimed, shrugging a brow for good measure.

Like him, it was one of the only classes with which she had struggled. Granted, her struggles had largely to do with the professor who had previously presided over the class. Ever since Professor Wade had arrived to take her place, the coursework had become a great deal more lenient. Which, in fact, was something with which she was not necessarily pleased. Higher expectation had a tendency to pull talent from depths where it stubbornly hid.

"Did your tutors no prepare you ahead of time?" she wondered, turning a curious glance to the boy. His comment of prior parental education with regards to the first History lesson had not been lost on her. It meant that he had been raised in a magical house, and of those whose parents tended to impart any prior education, they seemed often to be pureblood. She would roll with that assumption until proven otherwise. "Although I suppose the theory of the classes does often seem to be heavily related to muggle notions of chemistry and physics. Never had I thought I would have to contend with that here."

Of course, Transfiguration was, well... perhaps not the least of her problems, but certainly the lesser. Ever since starting third year, Divinations had quickly risen to its perpetual regency as the hallmark antagonist of her academic pursuits. If she had anything to say about it, it wouldn't be considered an academic study at all, so much as a vague and aggravating artform with variable rules and a professor who was even worse.

"As for your questions..." She had put them off initially in favour of reflecting and commenting on his own responses. "I cannot say exactly how I feel about being a higher year. Third year does not seem to qualify as such. I am still two years away from my OWLs, and next year, I will be but halfway through my tenure." Goodness. Already halfway. She hadn't really thought of it before, but that thought hit her more heavily than she might have been prepared for. "And I would think nobody feels quite the same about Hogwarts as they did when they first arrived. It was new and unknown at the start. Now it is more familiar, though not without its fair share of secrets still, I am sure. I suppose I could say I have learned a healthy dose of respect," she answered tactfully.

It was always a bit of a dance with newer students as far as how much to share, and how much to hold back. Once you were in the world, there was no way to leave it. Not without risking dangerous side effects of suppressing one's innate magical powers. But knowing too much about the castle and what could and had transpired there over the years would make any sane child want to abandon all pursuits of learning here and run for home.

"And no.." she replied, an airy laugh escaping through her nose as she thought back on and addressed his question of annoying first years. "Some," she admitted, the corner of her mouth tugging into a smirk, "but hardly on a regular basis. After all, there are very few situations where our paths might cross. The only time I interact with first years regularly, I suppose, would be during quidditch practice. And there, my disdain is reserved for those members on my team with negative attitudes and lack of effort."

ACTION: Chattering away pleasantly

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Kim continued to grind the Star Grass capsules.

Once there was a lot of the powder, he tipped it out into a side dish and then continued on.

As soon as Evelynn put more capsules into the mortar, Kim started to grind at a rather fast pace. Perhaps not as fast as Evelynn's speed but definitely faster than the average person might do. He worked in silence for a few minutes and then responded to her previous words. "Mm. It's not so much the spells that give me trouble, it's the theory behind them. As in trying to describe it in words." Kim tried to explain to his current partner.

"I don't tend to have any trouble casting the spells." He glanced over at Evelynn as she spoke, questioning whether his tutors had prepared him beforehand. "Yes, they did. But I tend to have trouble putting muggle chemistry and physics into words for some reason. I don't know why, I've always been like that I guess." Kim said with a shrug of his shoulders. The boy raised a brow at Evelynn's words about Hogwarts's secrets.

"Secrets? What are you referring to?" Kim asked, curious.

More powder was placed into the small dish beside the mortar and pestle he was using.

And he waited for more capsules to drop into the mortar. Once they had, Kim started grinding again, not wanting to fall behind the others. But he still wanted to know the answer.

Regarding the annoying first years, Evelynn seemed to think there weren't that many of that particular kind of breed. But then, she went on to explain more about her feelings on the matter. Kim nodded. It made perfect sense, for the most part that is. "You say there are few situations where you could run into first years, except for quidditch practice. I would have thought you'd interact with them a lot on a regular basis."

"Doesn't being a prefect make you need to do so?" He said, curious.

OPEN TO INTERACTION

───Interactions─── Reducio @Kim Sato

OUTFIT Reducio Eudon Choi Spring 2022 Collection

────Mentions──── Reducio n/a

There were times—although few, admittedly—where Evelynn regretted what she said. The mention of secrets was one such example. This was neither the time nor the place to air the castle's dirty laundry, and she hadn't the vaguest idea of who her fellow Gryffindor was. Not really. Not beyond the mention of a name and a face that could find itself the muse for poets and artists of old. But the seal had been broken, so to speak, and she wouldn't so easily be able to contain the leak.

"Have you found none yet yourself?" She heard herself say, flashing a loft of a brow in his direction coupled with a coy smirk. "I should think that any arriving already half familiar with the history of the castle would know well enough of the secret passages and rooms it holds within its expanse." Her focus pulled itself back to the pods as she pulled them from the stems and prepared them for the mortar. "Not everything within these walls are all that they seem."

An innocent comment on false walls and trick steps, or a weighted sentiment that spoke as an example of its own sentiments, perhaps? In a way, it was a test in and of itself. There were those who attended Hogwarts who were keen to live in ignorance. Others whose eagerness for knowledge led them to fly too close to the sun. And few who could walk the line of caution and curiosity while keeping to mind that which was truly important. She wondered what sort this one was.

"As for first years... I would not exactly say I interact on a regular basis. Not quite," the conversation was redirected as she poured some capsules in for his waiting expertise. "I see many of you at the hall for meals, and pass by in the corridors coming and going to class, and there is plenty that I observe during my patrols, certainly... But few approach to interact. Many find prefects rather frightening, if truth be told.

"The only occurrence where being prefects necessitates my interaction on a more personal level would be if I have caught you breaking the rules. And then I rather relish the fact that it was I who had caught them and not another. Some prefects are less strict, I find. But the reality is that the rules are in place for good reasons, and breaking them—depending on what was done—could have some rather dire consequences. Finding them means I got there in time before something terrible might have happened."

A brief lull would follow that overly cheery notion. It wasn't exactly a direction of conversation that the prefect had meant to take. A subconscious reflection of the previous topic of conversation, perhaps. Or maybe a slip of having to rein in the actual frustrations she would feel. Far from first years, it was those of her own and more senior years that annoyed her most. It hadn't taken her long to gain an understanding of their situation and how helpless it could feel. To see those who would flounder caution or act as though nothing were amiss.. She always did struggle to reconcile with the illogical.

In search for a lighter subject, her mind started wandering back on the nature of his previously raised difficulties. That it wasn't so much the casting itself, but rather the theory, that gave him troubles in the more challenging courses. She couldn't blame him. It wasn't as though she'd breezed through it either, and she'd had something of a leg up over others in a sense. That was one advantage of coming from the muggle realm—physics, chemistry, biology... they weren't novel concepts. The sciences were introduced at a relatively young age for all school-bound children; and with a mother making a career out of them, she especially so.

"Have you a tutor here?" She wondered, picking up the pace again so as not to hold the boy up. He was rather quick on the grind, it seemed. "I only know you would not be the first student to seek the assistance of a more senior student to manage your way through the curriculum. It may be something to consider, at the very least, since the professors are often quite busy.."

ACTION: Chattering away pleasantly

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It was a lazy Sunday afternoon, and Mireia was lounging on her top bunk in her Ravenclaw dorm room. When, to her great shock, and owl slammed into the window next to her. Turning her head quickly to the side to take a look she saw that the owl had a letter in its beak. She quickly leaned over and let the owl in by opening the window just a bit and to her even more surprised that I will landed on her bed rail next to her. It would appear the letter and it speak was addressed to herself.

She took it gingerly from its beak and as soon as she did that I will swooped back up into the air and out the window, with Miriea's hand following closely behind to once again secure the window tightly closed. Then she turned her attention to the letter flipping it over she broke the wax seal and slipped the letter out of its envelope.

She read quickly through the writing comment with some excitement realized that this was an acceptance letter. She had been accepted into the alchemy club, a club she, regrettably, only very recently realized existed. She had gone most of her entire first year at Hogwarts without the knowledge that clubs even existed at the school. Once she did realize, she signed up for several other ones. This was the first one that had replied. And not only had she simply been accepted but apparently, as she read on the letter, there was an event happening within the club. And according to this letter it was happening today, it was happening right now.

She jumped from her bed, forgetting that she was on the 3rd and top bunk, and nearly broke her ankles falling to the floor. Thankfully she was uninjured as this was not the first time she had performed such a feat. But then she flew in a flurry to get herself ready because she was already late.

She pulled on her shoes, the black boots she wore nearly every day, over her ragged yet fuzzy black socks that she wore normally to only lay in bed and keep her feet warm, but there was no time to change her socks. She looped and tied the boots up hastily and then grabbed the nearest jacket she could find. The jacket she grabbed was a windbreaker material, thin in every other respect, and a deep dark navy blue. Underneath she wore a long sleeved, loosely fitting, cotton, burgundy red shirt with a rounded neckline. Again a material that was comfy for bed. Realizing too late, she was wearing pajama pants, she pulled them off over her shoes, thankfully they were bagging enough to fit over them and then grabbed and pulled on the only pair of pants she owned that could fit over shoes. These were simple black pants that went down to her ankle, had no patterns or designs, and the waste was a simple elastic with no drawstring. Thankfully these did have pockets, and so she slid her wand into one of them.

Has ready as she could be, she was about to run out the door when she realized she wasn't sure where the event was taking place. She grabbed the letter once more to reread and check the location and found that it was at the greenhouses, where she would normally have her herbology class. With that piece of information she grabbed her herbology gloves, just in case she would need them, not that she knew what exactly was going on at this meeting today. Then she ran out the door of the Ravenclaw dorm room into the direction of the greenhouses.

Sprinting her way across campus she quickly became out of breath but pursued on to the best of her ability. As she rounded the corner to the greenhouses she picked up her pace for that last bit of distance and then slammed her left hand on the thick window pane of the greenhouse that was next to the door. Her other hand went to the handle as she prepared to open it. In the brief hesitation that was caused by the sound of her hand hitting the window pain and her internal flinching at how bad that sounded and how likely anyone inside would have heard that she noticed a note on the door of the greenhouse.

Mireia quickly realized it was a note to the alchemy club members who would be arriving for the meeting. And so she paused to read it before entering. Before joining this club she, honestly, didn't really know anything about alchemy. But the club description sounded interesting and she figured she might as well try it out. Some of it sounded a bit like potions and she did like potions very much. According to this note alchemy was a lot about prolonging one's life. She wasn't entirely sure what that meant, did it mean immortality? Or did it simply mean healing? She was not sure. According to this note as well alchemy was apparently a mixture between Transfiguration and potions. She did enjoy her Transfiguration class, not as much as her potions class but still.

Has she read on she gathered that this meeting, or event, today was about harvesting plants needed for some sort of alchemical purpose. She did like the sound of that, she was fond of gathering materials, as she often tried to do that for potion making.

The letter even mentioned which plants they would be working with today. And it was with that listing that she realized she had forgotten her notebook and quill, and so could not write these names and explanations down as she normally would have liked to. She scolded herself internally, but hoped that they would learn more about these in the meeting today and she would remember them for long enough to write down notes when she returned to her dorm.

At the end of the letter the writer mentions working in groups, and she internally sighed as she realized she was likely the last to arrive, and therefore she was unlikely to get a partner. Hopefully one group would be willing to include her. With a quick audible breath and following sigh, she opened the door and entered the greenhouse.

Upon her entering she saw a solid group of students already in the greenhouse and already elbow deep in some sort of activity that involved a molcajete, or a mortar and pestle as most people called them, as well as a plant that she did not recognize. She was indeed very late, and was upset at herself even though it was not her fault. She recognized some faces because they were clearly First years some of them were in her classes but she didn't know the names of any of them, as she had not never spoken to face to face with them. She was bad at names, so even if they had introduced themselves to the class at some point, she had most certainly forgotten by now. A couple faces she did not recognize, and they appeared a little older so they are possibly in higher years than her. However there was a name and a face that she did recognize and that was the herbology professor. She liked him pretty well and was glad that he was around.

As she suspected it seemed everyone already had a partner a group and so she did not entirely know what to do with this point. This was her first alchemy club meeting and she had never met any of these students before and she didn't know what plant they were working with so she was completely in the dark.

"Uh, hi! Hello, sorry I just got the owl that I was accepted into the club. Literally just now," she began, even waving her hand behind her to symbolize the 'just now' statement she was using as her excuse. "I'm sorry I'm late, I just didn't know this was happening until just now. Uhm. What are we doing? May I help?" Her eyes darted between the students that were present but ended on Professor Irons as he was truly the only person she recognized in the room and also he was a Professor, and therefore a person of authority, and so maybe he could give her some direction.

Evelynn's response made him smirk.

Ah, so that's how she was going to play things? Alright, then! He could work with that!

"Of course not, I'm a good student who follows all the rules. You won't ever find me in trouble!" Kim said with a nod, as a few strands of dark hair fell into his eyes.

He tossed his head back, to make the unruly strands get out of his face. Evelynn's words only served to confirm that there were many secrets that lay hidden within the walls of the castle. Kim had already uncovered quite a few 'secrets' but whether they were ones he'd uncovered or they both had uncovered remained to be seen. He idly wondered if Evelynn would be up for exploring the castle sometime together to find out more kinds of secrets. Perhaps later on.

They could share their knowledge of secrets and go on the hunt for more. Because like she'd stated before, not everything within the walls were all that they seemed to be. Perhaps even things she'd considered being secret, weren't the real secret, and were only masquerading as a 'secret'. But Kim kept his thoughts to himself for now, he could always reach out to her later. Evelynn poured more capsules into his mortar and Kim quickly ground them up again.

As Evelynn went on to explain more about her feelings of being a prefect, Kim nodded.

He was learning a lot about this one.

"You seem as if you care a lot for the first years. And those beneath you too."

Kim remarked. "It's actually a nice quality to see in a person. Not many seem to possess what you have." He added and turned his attention briefly to grinding again.

When Evelynn asked if he had a tutor here, Kim let a faint smile come to his lips. "You know, that's funny you ask. I don't have one for Transfiguration but I do actually hold short tutoring sessions myself for others. But just not for Transfiguration." He said with a shrug of his shoulders. "If you know anyone who is skilled enough to tutor Transfiguration to others, please let me know!" Kim added as he looked over.

After all, Kim would love any extra help anyone could offer him when it came to that particular subject. As long as they knew what they were talking about and could get him better grades when it came to doing the homework, that was all that mattered to him. It was around this time that the door to the greenhouse opened and someone entered the place. If Kim had been a friendly person, he might have welcomed the girl with open arms so to speak.

But as it was, he was wary about new people.

He'd gotten burned multiple times in the past and now was jaded when it came to strangers.

So, Kim simply glanced over at the entrance, let his eyes flicker over the new girl and returned to his work again. The capsules inside his mortar were a fine powder now and he tipped the powder out again into the small dish beside the mortar. Ready for more. "Have you always had an interest in herbs and plants, Decipio? Or do you just like helping out?" Kim asked, curious. He couldn't tell which one as he didn't know her well yet.

Hunter still felt rather nervous upon his request to team up with Cade, but a sudden shock overcame him as another student entered the scenery of the greenhouse. Another young Ravenclaw in an attire of clothing that certainly matched her house colors. Almost an entire full black attire, but with shades of navy blue and red in some locations; Hunter was thankful another student had arrived to attend the meeting for the alchemy club. Hunter looked toward Cade and stated, "I suppose we s-should h-help out our f-fellow b-b-birds," still had a nervous stutter in his speech. Even within a small grouping of his own club, Hunter couldn't quite contain the amount of anxiety within himself.

Originally the idea of forming groups was for group members to understand and get to know each other, but it seemed to result in everyone grouping themselves with those they were most familiar with. It seemed the groups being formed were of each house, but a team was still a team. Hunter approached the other housemate who appeared to have entered late within the greenhouse. Even if Hunter wanted to keep his role as the club's leader a secret, he was still required to fulfill the mandatory requirements of helping out those in need. The alchemy club is meant to help students understand concepts better and not leave anyone behind. It sounded like a sort of tutoring club, yet it sort of was. The club had a goal of understanding the complexity and fundamentals of magic, and typically included difficult concepts found in subjects such as transfiguration and potions. The club was open to all, and thus it shouldn't allow anyone to feel left out.

The thought gave Hunter a slight confidence boost, but he overall still didn't have the strongest communication skills. Some found his meekness to be either adorable or shameful, but he always took the effort of exiting his comfort zone. However, the surprising factor was Hunter's facial expression in almost any situation. He almost looked calm, quiet, and meek no matter what he felt. It was typically his voice that betrayed his facade of keeping a cool head. He approached the late student and gestured towards one of the desks, "You're n-not too l-late. We're a-all j-just crushing up some stargrass c-capsules to create an easy b-balm. It-it's a mug-gle re-remedy and the easiest one we-we're starting w-w-with. Y-your a Ravenc-claw, right? C-care to h-help u-us?" Again, Hunter's voice was quiet and quivered more than it should have. Part of it is strongly because of the number of people in the room. He could barely speak normally in a small classroom of students during normal school hours, but he also felt apologetic and responsible for the late owl the girl must have received. Hunter could have sworn he sent all the Owls out at appropriate times but assumed an owl drunk on seeds or something must have gotten lost or mixed up when sending its message.

Hunter turned and walked towards a desk containing a mortar, pestle, and a lot of stargrass with capsules ready to be plucked. He gestured for the girl to come to follow him, "Are you more familiar with decapsulating or using a mortar and pestle?" He finally asked with a more solidified feel to it. He also raised his voice, " Mr. Darkbound! My offer still stands if you'd like to work as a group of three." Hunter didn't want to be rude to Cade, and even though he raised his voice it was typical that of a normal inside voice volume. So far, Hunter was actually proud of the slight improvements he was making socially. Turning back towards the girl, "We'll be working with the harder plants after we make some paste. Are you familiar with Bubotuber or Chinese chomping cabbage?"

@Cade Darkbound @Mireia Sangre-Tenebri

Interacting with @Hunter Argentum, @Mireia Sangre-Tenebri | Picking stargrass

"That's right. You can call me Cade though, Mr. Darkbound's my dad." The older Ravenclaw would bob his head politely in Hunter's direction. Cade was pleasantly delighted that someone asked to be his partner. He wasn't fond of a mortar and pestle ever since Peggy added almond cake to the bakeshop menu. It was his job to manually ground up the almonds into flour and Cade was quite fatigued from all that business. So Hunter's suggestion of divvying up jobs was most welcome. Cade didn't mind picking the bulbs from the stargrass at all. In fact, it felt like a meditative process. And he would focus on that as Hunter introduced himself. "It's nice to meet you, Hunter. How long have you been into Alchemy?" Cade attempted to start a bit of small talk as they worked together. He dropped a handful of decapsulated stargrass into the bowl.

At that moment, another student arrived late at the club and Cade would lift his dark brown gaze towards the door. "Right..." He agreed under his breath watching Hunter approach the new arrival presumably to invite her to their station. Hunter was an interesting fellow in Cade's opinion. He seemed quite shy but the nerves did not overshadow his sense of leadership. "I don't mind working in threes. What's your name, by the way?" Cade asked the witch among them. He noticed her fingers first, blackened to the second knuckle. He found that a bit odd and striking, but didn't question it. Instead, he returned his attention to the task at hand. Continuing with the stargrass, but attempting to still be at least a bit amicable. Half of the club was about meeting other wizard folks with like interests. He would do well not to forget that in a hurry.

Looking around the greenhouse Mireia noticed the groups working with a plant she did not recognize, but could only assume was one of the plants listed on the note on the door. She scoled herself once again for forgetting her notebook as the plants names from the note had already slipped her mind.

Her anxiety was rising as she stood in the center of the greenhouse while the students looked at her after her entrance. She was sure it was less than a few second, but it felt like so much longer as time moved slower. Thankfully, someone piped up. It was a boy, young looking, maybe a first year, but he was also a Ravenclaw, based on his attire. She thanked the Ravenclaw house inwardly. Houses really did help with a sense of comradary that she did not feel in her muggle schooling.

The boy, however, seemed even more nervous than her. He was stuttering all about. Although, Mireia thought, maybe he just had a stutter. She shouldn't judge before knowing. He was helpful enough and gave a brief overview of what the students were currently doing. Stargrass capsules, so stargrass must be this plant she was seeing being handled. And a muggle balm? So the grass, also, must not be a magical plant. She wondered where it grew naturally, as Mireia herself often made muggle remedies, but has not heard of this one. It likely did not grow naturally in her home area.

"Yeah! Thanks!" She replied enthusiastically to the boy, glad to have a group. She noticed, though, as the boy turned to the other, seemingly also a Ravenclaw, that he was standing with when she came in, that his stutter disappeared. So maybe he was just nervous when speaking to new people? Interesting, then, that he would even take the initiative to talk to her at all.

He was very formal, as well, when talking to the other boy, calling his Mr. Darkbound. It was a neat last name, she though, but why was he so cordial?

She gave a quick sweep of the greenhouse with her eyes before awkwardly following the boy that greeted her back to his area. He spoke to her again. "Besides that note on the door I don't know anything about any of the these plants. So I'm pretty excited to learn! I love plants." She started, her mouth begining to pick up speed. "You said this was a muggle plant? That's cool that we even learn about muggle plants. I didn't know they had any use in the wizarding world." She continued, her naturally ability to talk overtaking her nervousness, "Oh, my name is Mireia, first year - obviously," she chuckled at her clear youngness, "What's your names again?" She said again, even though they didn't say them to her in the first place. As she said this she made a mental note to focus on their answers. She did not want to have to ask their names a second time. That was always embarrassing.

"Uh, so what exactly are we doing with this stargrass? I'd love to help if I can, if you need it." She offered, eager to get hands on. "I'm pretty good with a mortar and pestle, if you guys don't want to do the grinding." She found, mostly in potions class, that people were generally pretty willing to give up the grinding task so Mireia had gotten even better at it than she was before coming to Hogwarts.


@Cade Darkbound
@Hunter Argentum

"Well, if you're fine with it, Avery," Vale said, somewhat begrudgingly as Avery agreed to be her partner for the event. Something about Vale told him that she was a little upset; what it was, he couldn't imagine. However, if timelines were to be any indication, she seemed to be a little more withdrawn with him during mid-February. The small boy racked his brain but couldn't come up with a reason. Did she not like the sweets he sent her? Did she not like the note he wrote? She didn't seem to respond at all to his suggestion that they go to another ball together in the future.

Avery shrugged it off. That's the most he could do, right? Instead of nit-picking with Vale? Little did he know, that the more mature thing to do would be to talk to Vale about it, as there was certainly some misunderstanding after the Valentine's Tea Party. However, the boy decided to remain quiet, for once.

Vale seemed to all but ignore him as she greeted Kim cheerily in her own unique way, and then grabbed Hunter by the arm to drag him into the greenhouse. Avery pursed his lips; how was Vale so friendly with Hunter when she was so cold towards him these days?

He listened intently to the instructions, and then sidled up to Vale with a mortar and pestle. "Vale, want to hand me some decapsulated thinga-mabobbers for me to crush? I think we'd be a great team," he suggested optimistically, as if a little encouragement could clear the heavy air between them. The smile he gave her was a little forced, a little hesitant, and he looked at her carefully for a response, as if he was standing on thin ice, which he felt he was, considering how Vale seemed to drift from him recently, all the while getting closer to Hunter.

He was soon distracted by the late appearance of a girl with short dark hair, who burst through the door haphazardly. Before Avery could help explain what they were doing (probably with broken words -- he didn't quite understand what they were working with, to be honest), Hunter helpfully stepped in, fighting through his nerves. He had noticed that about Hunter -- even though he was hardly shy around those he knew, Avery himself included, speaking with new people was a different story for the boy.

As he listened in, the girl seemed to recover quickly from her earlier fluster, chatting away in a friendly manner to Hunter and his partner, Cade. Avery, ever eager to socialize, did not hesitate to join in. "Hi Cade and Mireia, nice to meet you! I'm Avery, by the way, and this is Vale. We're both first-years, too," he greeted them cheerily. "So, why did you both want to join the Alchemy Club? Is it the lure of longevity? The cool plants and potions we get to work with? Mireia, you seem to like plants a lot," he observed, thinking back to what she said earlier. It was always interesting to learn about people through their interests, wasn't it? In his jabbering, he forgot that people would normally ask him why he joined the club in return.

"Ah apologies, M - Cade," Hunter always had the habit of speaking to people in formal matters. It was a habit that some students took advantage of, or either disliked. It sometimes took a lot more effort than needed for Hunter to recall who did and didn't like to be called by their last names.

Hunter was happy to be of help and was interested in the amount of enthusiasm everyone had. He took note that Mireia seemed to be one of the more hyped-up students when dealing with or learning about the plants that they were all dealing with. He gladly offered the mortar and pestle to her and handed some stargrass to Cade while Hunter decapsulated some on his own as well: "Anything a muggle can use, so can a wizard. Ah, and I-I'm Hunter" That was Hunter's response to Mireia and he was glad to be working with a group of students who showed great interest in the task like Cade and Mireia. It allowed his anxiety to deplete much more than expected, and his stuttering had begun to fade.

He did feel slightly surprised when Avery showed up and came to speak with their group. Hunter took notice and looked around to see if his cousin, Vale, wasn't just left to do the task all on her own. It seemed like Avery brought her over, so Hunter gave a slight sigh of relief. Knowing Vale, she'd probably cast a charm to make things "exciting" if she had been left all on her own without close supervision. Hunter kept quiet and decided not to say anything since Avery was addressing Cade and Mireia. Hunter decided to take the opportunity and slip away and head towards both Professor Irons and Nurse Brumby: "Apologies professors, but I believe some of us are done, and some of us will be done with the stargrass in a moment. Could we possibly move on towards the bubotuber?" Indeed starting with the boring muggle stargrass was the best choice, but Hunter did think back to what Mireia said. This certainly was a good way to learn and understand that even in the secret world of wizards and witches, muggle applications and knowledge can be just as useful.

Reducio

@Kelsey Brumby
@Tuesday Jeremiah Irons
@Cade Darkbound
@Avery Chen
@Vale Ashwood
@Mireia Sangre-Tenebri