Lending Hand PV Aly S. Closed

March 20th, 2022
Hex Colour:#38b6ff
Relevant Abilities: Charmer
|| Interacting with @Percival Rainwood ||

There were very few things that Aly Salinger could say she well and truly hated. Sudden cold snaps in April or May when the Hogwarts grounds' wildflowers had already begun to bloom, for example. Bullies, or really just anyone who treated anyone else with a manner with which they wouldn't want to be treated themselves. (Snotty purebloods who downed on Muggles also fell into that list.) Bugs, though she was starting to get over that one. And, of course, when people didn't like her, especially for no reason.

If Potions didn't shape up and watch its behavior, the class would soon be a part of that list.

Aly never struggled in classes. She'd prided herself as being in the top percentages of her year every year so far at Hogwarts, pulling nearly perfect Outstanding grades on almost every assignment and exam. It was what made her mother proud of her, after all, and sometimes the only way the two Salinger women could stand each other was when Aly brought home another list of Outstanding exam scores. It had all been going just swell with her grades thus far. Until this year. Until Potions class. Until the two Acceptables that were stinking up her record like a Dungbomb at a tea party. If she didn't learn how to brew potions better, and quickly, she'd end up with an Exceeds Expectations - or worse - as her final exam score in this class, and Merlin only knew how that would go over with Hesper Livingston-Salinger.

Prob'ly not very well, if I had to take a gander, Aly mused to herself one day in late March during the aforementioned class, a lesson specifically about the Revive Potion, some draught that could be used to pull someone from unconciousness. It seemed simple enough, but the Ravenclaw girl was quickly learning that "simple" wasn't a concept in Potions class. Jotting down the ingredients in messy script handwriting - she could clean her notes up later, when she didn't have a potion to brew - Aly pulled a face at the instructions on her parchment, careful to hide her expression from the professor. Merlin, this is a lot of steps. Why can't potioneers just throw some things in a cauldron and call it a day?

Still, she begrudgingly stood with the rest of her class and went to gather the ingredients needed - rock-hard salt that took forever to break up into tiny white crystals as the ingredient line grew longer behind her, a little vial of Essence of Wormwood, slimy bluish Murtlap tentacles, spiky and sharp lionfish spines, and finally her favourite, a single sprig of dark green dittany. Aly had always gotten along better with plants than with potions, and it was a shame this beautiful stalk would have to be thrown in a boiling cauldron, but such were the responsibilities of a Hogwarts student.

Returning to her desk, Aly peered down at her notes, up at the board, then down at her notes again to check that everything was written down correctly; then she began to follow the instructions, lugging her cauldron off to fill it with water and then placing the heavy pot on the heat. Reading the first instruction on her list, she took her small paring knife and began to chop the Murtlap tentacles, grimacing at the slimy texture as she did so. Minging stuff. Whoever chose to work with rubbish like this was clearly off their rocker.

As she chopped away, Aly quickly realised that she had no idea how big her pieces of tentacle were supposed to be. She glanced around for the help of the professor, but they were nowhere to be found; instead, the Ravenclaw's desperate gaze sought out her deskmate, a Slytherin boy with whom she'd never spoken. But he always brewed his potions well, right? She'd never seen his cauldron light itself on fire, explode, or start making odd musical noises. So... that meant that he had to be good at this stuff. Or, at the very least, good enough to know how big the Murtlap tentacle pieces were supposed to be.

"Psst," she hissed softly, leaning over to him. "Hi! I'm Aly - Alyssa, really - nice to meet you - but not important. Er, quick question. How big are we supposed to chop these things? Do you know?"

Percival frowned as he placed the parchment back down on the table after he reread it. The potion did not seem to be too difficult to do. Potions had always come easier to him than most things. All it really was was following directions as closely as possible. Percival filled up his cauldron with the purified water before moving on to the first ingredient. Murtlap Tentacles. The pickled smell of the marine beast was definitely not one of the most pleasant smells. His nose wrinkled slightly as he lined the three tentacles up so that he could cut the three tentacles at the same time. The boy began to chop the tentacles up trying to make the pieces as uniform as possible. It definitely was not easy as the slimy texture made it hard to cut the tentacles without them trying to roll out of the way. If he had half a mind he would think the tentacles were still sentient.

So engrossed in his work the boy missed the curly-haired girl's first try at gaining his attention. The boy glanced up from his workstation to look towards the girl as he noticed she had leaned in towards him. Percival was torn between being annoyed with Alyssa for interrupting him or introducing himself. He decided to choose the latter. "It's nice to meet you. My name is Percival Rainwood." he said. He would have offered his hand but thought a handshake including slime would not be a rather good one. The boy glanced towards the girl's pile of pickled murtlap tentacles with a small frown. "I was trying to go for small and uniformed in look." he offered to gesture to his own workstation. "That way it can absorb into the potion a little easier." he offered.

Interacting with: @Aly Salinger

March 20th, 2022
Hex Colour:#38b6ff
Relevant Abilities: Charmer
|| Interacting with @Percival Rainwood ||

Yeah, if there was one thing for sure, it was that Aly Salinger did not comprehend potions. This Slytherin bloke was telling her that she would need to chop her slimy tentacle pieces into small, uniform bits so that they would... what had he said? Absorb into the potion? Now, the world in which that made sense was clearly not the world in which Aly was living. The tentacles were solid - slimy, sure, and leaving Aly's fingers covered in gross, sticky substance that she didn't even want to think about, but definitively solid. Liquids could absorb into other liquids. Solids could not. And yet, somehow, potions always turned out fairly smooth, didn't they? Or, at least, Aly had not yet encountered a potion with chunks in it. Perhaps they existed, somewhere out there, but if they did, she had no idea.

What was the boy's name? Percy? No, Percival - full name, then, and not a nickname person like herself. Wonder if he ever goes by Percy; Percival seems too stuffy for someone our age, like a forty-year-old man, really. But that was not important. What was important was the pile of Murtlap tentacles in front of her. Aly looked at her own, a messy... well, mess... and then at Percival's, only to find his tentacles neatly lined up next to each other and all in the process of being chopped with even cuts. How he was doing that when the slimy tentacles kept slipping and flopping about all over the place, Aly had absolutely zero clue, but it was impressive in and of itself. "Guess there's no harm in making them little," she mumbled to herself as she turned back to her own desk to continue working on the tentacles. "Goodness, it's like Becca's kitchen! Except... doesn't smell quite as good. Smells rather fishy, actually."

Of course, this wouldn't really have made any sense to anyone listening in, but Aly wasn't speaking to anyone in particular anymore.

As the curly-haired Ravenclaw tried to make her cuts smaller, more even, and overall more like the Slytherin's beside her, it occurred to her that Percival Rainwood sounded like a very familiar name. And, as she snuck a glance to the boy next to her as well, she also realised that the boy sporting the very familiar name also sported a very familiar face. She had definitely at least seen him around, but then again, she had seen everyone around, and this was more than that. Had they interacted at some point? Aly wracked her brain trying to think of it, but couldn't come up with anything in particular. In the end, she settled on two options: either they had been partnered together in class before, or this Rainwood boy was on the Slytherin Quidditch team, against which she and her own team had played - and won - the previous October, nearly six months before.

She turned back to Percival and cocked her head to the side, offering a friendly grin. Talking was more fun than cutting Murtlap tentacles, and it wasn't like she was going to be able to brew this potion, anyhow. Aly was beginning to face the facts: she was rubbish at Potions. But figuring out how to get the expected O in this class could wait. Instead, she asked of the Slytherin beside her: "Are you on the Quidditch team? Er, for Slytherin, I mean? I can't quite place your face or name, but you seem familiar..."

Percival took the girl's silence as a signal that she was done with the conversation. The boy maneuvered himself to face back towards his own work area, facing away from the girl once more. He picked his knife back up and continued to carefully chop the tentacles to small uniformed sizes. The boy's mind drifted away as he thought about more pressing manners at hand. It made working on the tentacles much easier. He'd focus more when he had to actually begin brewing the darn thing. Percival's ears perked slightly as he heard the girl start talking next to him once more. Turning his head ever so slightly to look at the other he concluded that the other was merely talking to herself.

A smirk wormed its way across his face as he listened to the other complaints about the smell. "You know if you breathe through your mouth it isn't as bad." he stated. Offering the information up for the girl to decide what to do with it. If she wanted to keep sniffing the meat then by all means he would let her.

Percival blinked slowly as the girl turned back to him with an overt smile across her face. The boy's brows instantly furrowed at the girl's question before nodding. "Yes I am, I play as a beater." he said as he picked up his tentacles. Adding them to the water in order to allow them to simmer for a bit. Percival turned fully towards the girl studying her slightly, and he would not lie that she didn't also look familiar, but it wasn't like they didn't know each other. They had been taking potions together for the better part of the year, of course, she looked familiar.

Interacting with: @Aly Salinger