To Potions and Bickering PV Lindsay Springhall Closed

interacts @Autumn Ivy

april 30th, 2021

Merlin, PARTNER UP?

She had to blink and stare at the professor hollowly, chocolate brown gaze landing on her dear - yes, dear potions professor. Lindsey knew that she could work very well only by herself - and that would be quicker. She wasn’t someone that preferred solitude or being alone, though, and would love working with somebody new or nice, but -

just no Autumn Ivy.

Alright, alright, it wasn’t the first time that she had seen this certain Autumn, a lovely housemate. The first time, if she hadn’t mistaken, was when Leonard - oh gosh Leonard - attempted to ask her out. And there was also Marshal, who clearly helped a lot made the situation even worse during the embarrassing event. But her Marsh was just like that, she knew it, and how could you blame this baby lion that was so close to her heart? The second time, she was talking with - coughs, sorry, Wyatt. And was Wyatt having a good time with her? Nope, clearly. And that was it, not to mention that they had briefly worked in an errand together.

What a long history.

Under the professor’s stern gaze, she moved unwillingly towards Autumn, the latter grimaced at her. “Hi - ” she managed to squeeze an unwilling smile out (but still the smile achieved her usual standards, wide and welcoming), but was suddenly cut off. Quickly drawing a small step back as if being attacked, her eyes blinked. Oh dear. This would be embarrassing. Almost decidedly so. Partnering up today was -

A small, apologetic smile appeared on her fair face, as the badger went quickly back to her normal self and took a seat beside Autumn. And then she heard those words, those so called “warnings”. Ugh. They were haughty, indeed.

“Well, in my opinion -” she started, not in a very loud voice, rolling her eyes to a side. But that was when Autumn got up and went to collect the equipments. Lindsey nearly jumped out and attempted to follow the other girl in order to finish her words. Although prudence told her not to do so, she still jumped up, and gathered some essential equipments. Only, she did not start her speech before getting back to the seat.

“I doubt, that if I don’t touch the things, we’ll almost definitely fail this class.” she told Autumn, while starting to cut some ingredients. “It seems that if you could mind your own business, we’d finish this well together. Or, if you keep trying to disturb me while I’m cutting these ingredients - we’ll see.” a small threaten. It’s not that bad. Not that bad for - for a Springhall.

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Mentioning/Interacting With: @Lindsay Springhall

English: #6B5076
Welsh: #9E8FB9
Uzbek: #874343

Autumn jumped as Lindsay appeared at her side, then recovered quickly and rolled her eyes. The girl was really putting on a show with the whole "yeah, I'm one hundred percent definitely going to help you" thing, wasn't she?

Still, Autumn begrudgingly let Lindsay help carry the ingredients and studied her movement as she cut through an ingredient. The cuts were a bit thicker than she would have liked, but she had to admit, she was impressed. None of her previous classmates had gone this far to help before.

And her words. She sounded stubborn, but sincere. Condescending, but like she actually wanted to say. Autumn wasn't sure if the last part was intimidation, but she appreciated the effort. Autumn's attempt at intimidation in this scenario would have probably gone more like "I would hate to get blood on my clothes, but that's never stopped me before". Kind of on the nose, she knew, but she had enough of the specific demeanour necessary to make it work.

She had to remind herself, though. No matter how sincere she sounded, people just didn't do stuff like this. People didn't want to help unless they knew it would help themselves in the long run.

But here Lindsay was, offering her help, even at the face of a guaranteed O. Did she not trust Autumn to get them an O? Was that it? Was it just that she didn't think Autumn was smart enough to do the work?

Yes, that had to be it. It made the most sense.

It felt wrong to say that Lindsay was doing this out of selfishness, because she didn't seem the type, but she was a person, and people just didn't do this sort of thing. They didn't.

Autumn just turned her face away, ash in her eyes, and shrugged. She played her words off in sarcasm, hiding the feeling of betrayal that panged at her chest as she came into terms with the fact that Lindsay didn't find her- her, who had gotten nothing less than an O in potions before- competent enough to mix a few ingredients together.

"Well, no better way to convince me to let you help out than to threaten to complete disregard classroom safety by stabbing me. Very well, if you really want to help, I suppose it would be counter productive for me to stop you. Carry on."

There was an insincere half-smile on her face, slowly turning bitter.

"Since clearly I am so incompetent," she muttered under her breath in Uzbek.

interacts @Autumn Ivy

april 30th, 2021

She wasn’t in a very good mood today - or, she had been in a good mood, but it had gone some minutes earlier, possibly forever today. Seeing Autumn Ivy was indeed very intriguing. A long history, plus a few sarcastic words, that was enough. Lindsey wasn’t one of those who could easily find pleasure in bickering - but today, bickering seemed just the right thing to do.

Her eyes widened a little bit. Ivy was giving in - or at least she seemed so. She had decided to step back and simply told Lindsey to carry on performing her own little amusing show. Huh. This seemed exactly the same trick she played with Mister Knight months ago - softened on the outside to keep a positive acquaintance, but never in the inside. Rivalry was always there, you couldn’t deny it. Intriguing, intriguing. Ivy’s mind seemed just like hers, and Lindsey highly doubted if the other badger had stolen this diplomacy from her. If not, then the one she’s going to deal with was not an easy one - at least not as easy as Knight. Strategic as she was, Lynn knew that she had to take action - after meeting the real Springhall family, she had learnt that you should never let your opponent be faster than you. This was their motto, and, no matter how much she disliked them, she was one after all. The motto should be hers as well.

Autumn muttered something in a language she was ignorant of. It sounded like an eastern one, didn’t it? With curiosity she peeked at her partner, and soon decided that, like herself, Ivy indeed had an Asian bloodline in her vessels. Being 1/4 Chinese, those Asian features weren’t that distinguishing on Lindsey’s own face, but the genes were undeniable. Well, maybe Autumn had an alike family background - maybe. Her delicate fingers chopped the ingredients quickly, put them aside and started to grind some sorts of roots. Her thoughts went fast while she was whizzing through her work - she had to get an O as she had “promised”.

“We’ll soon learn that.” she sneered, while continuing her work. “Though, guess I should thank you for being benevolent and letting me touch these things?” - pointing at the cauldron - “Carry on, yeah, but it does not mean that you could just sit aside and watch. Show me some of your skills, partner.” the last word was emphasized with bitterness, with an insincere small sarcastic smile. She finished her grinding - oui, almost perfect grinding - soon after uttering these words out, and, put them aside triumphantly like what she did when she finished her chopping. Then, the golden brown haired girl crossed her arms, leant back, and examined the other girl with critical eyes - the game had officially begun.

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Mentioning/Interacting With: @Lindsay Springhall

English: #6B5076
Welsh: #9E8FB9
Uzbek: #874343

Autumn rolled her eyes. How obnoxious.

But Springhall had offered Autumn something she was too prideful to refuse; a challenge.

She grabbed one of the ingredients and got to cutting. A few too thin, a few too thick, but generally good. It didn't matter anyway. Autumn knew from her research that the way she chopped this ingredient wouldn't affect the end result all that much. The important step was the stirring. That was also, coincidentally, the part she expected most to struggle with.

It was probably her constant strive for perfection, and generally anxious mind, but whenever she did something that she knew was important, she had a habit of either completely focusing and becoming immune to distractions and unmoved by her own fears, or she froze up, arms shaky. It was basically a 50/50, and not a chance Autumn wanted to take.

She thought about letting Lindsay do it, but quickly convinced herself not to. Asking Lindsay to do so would be an admitting of defeat, and her pride could not afford to take that. Besides, the girl might mess it up, and Autumn had no idea or control over how Springhall would stir. Maybe she would be too rough, spilling the potion contents to the floor. Maybe she would be too delicate and slow, and they wouldn't be finished in time. Maybe-

The point was that Springhall might mess it up, and then they would both receive a bad grade, and Autumn was not, under any circumstances, open to that possibility. She sighed. The chopping was done. They only needed to boil water before the stirring stage began. She moved quickly to set up the water and fire. With the intensity of the fire, the water would only take a few minutes to reach boiling point.

She breathed in and out a few times, and looked to the product of Lindsay's chopping. Honestly, it was pretty good. Maybe she could stir well too, unplagued by anxiety unlike Autumn, and Autumn wouldn't even know for sure if she didn't ask. But no. Her pride and possibly her grade was riding on this. She saw the bubbles fizzing in the water, a sure sign that the water had boiled. The line of sweat forming on her forehead was not fully a result of the vapour of the boiled water, but hopefully Springhall wouldn't notice that.

interacts @Autumn Ivy

april 30th, 2021

Lindsey wasn’t feeling that well. She kept convincing herself that getting partnered with Miss Autumn Ivy was just a small trifle in life that she shouldn’t pay any attention to and would almost definitely be able to get through, but she failed. She couldn’t forget the fact of who was sitting beside her. Quickly going through the process of making this certain kind of potion in her head, Lindsey couldn’t help sweating a little bit. Potions was not her biggest strength. Maybe Transfiguration or Herbology would be better, really, for at least Lynn was confident that she wouldn’t be beaten when being challenged by those two subjects.

Grinding done. Chopping done. Boiling…it seemed that Ivy had finished that as well. Putting her roots aside, Lindsey kept staring at the bubbles coming up in the cauldron, causing a hot steam around. Somehow it had blurred her vision, making her unable to see clearly. Hoping that Ivy wasn’t looking at her, she quickly drew out her left hand and rubbed her eyes, and then fleetly put her hand back under the table as if nothing had happened. She felt water on her fingers. Thankfully it wasn’t tears - she thought, and almost immediately became scared of her own thought. Tears? Seriously, why would she think that she might cry? Because Ivy was…was actually intimidating? For her could-be-perceived intelligence? That may rival (or even better than) her own? Lindsey shook her left hand under the table rather violently, as if trying to get rid of the small drop of water. Hopefully Ivy hadn’t noticed. She thought, while making an effort to focus on the bubbles again. This time she succeeded, and turned to Autumn like nothing had happened.

Straightening herself up from leaning back, her chocolate brown eyes glanced at Ivy. Autumn seemed perfectly well - at least she thought so. Maybe she was enjoying this…unlike Lindsey herself. However, Lindsey would never wish to get defeated. A flash of competitive light flashed through her iris. And then haughtily, she started, rather slowly, stressing on almost every syllable. “Well? I think we may proceed to the next step now, Miss Ivy?”

Reducio

apologize for this late late reply and how short it is. have to squeeze time out from my busy schedule and thus it’s written in a rush
also, you might have to spell “Lindsey” with an “e” rather than an “a” (I know the a version is more common tho XD) so that I may get notification when you mention me in a post

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INTERACTING WITH | @Lindsey Springhall

ENGLISH | #6B5076
WELSH | #9E8FB9
UZBEK | #874343

Autumn just... kept on staring at the boiled water. What was the next step here? Shut off her own pride or risk failure? She doubted she would be able of either. For her, it was a choice of two evils, a Sophie's choice, a choice between letting go of something she had held close to her for so long that it had become a part of her, or carelessly risking losing she had gotten too used to quantifiably measuring her value by.

She could maybe suck it up, since although Springhall was clearly obnoxious and insincere, she was doing well with her current tasks, more so than Autumn would have liked to admit. She clearly was competent. Autumn didn't like admitting it, but who was she not to give credit where credit was due?

Autumn turned to Springhall, ready to check on her progress, only to find that Springhall had begun staring at the cauldron while Autumn had zoned out, and- was she crying? Oh Merlin, Autumn could deal with obnoxious, could deal with insincere, could deal with a potions partner who didn't think she was competent, but how on Earth was she meant to deal with tears? This was bad, this was very, very ba- oh, no, the water had simply been condensation. And if Lindsey was looking at the cauldron, it meant that she was done.

However hard the decision, it was one she had to make, and it was one she had to make now. It would be stupid to avoid. If she kept on procrastinating on the decision, Lindsey could become suspicious- or worse, smug-, and with an unfinished piece of classwork, there would be a guarantee of failure. At least if she went for it herself, there was a chance of success.

Okay. Okay, she could do this. This was not a big deal. Nope. It was just easy-peasy, no trouble. It was just simple stirring, and she was a straight-O potions student. She sighed.

"Yes, yes we may. Could you please hand me your part of the ingredients? I can handle the stirring."

And, there it was. Yet another piece of evidence that her pride was the most valuable thing Autumn had to her name apart from her grades, and she knew as much.

Stirring shouldn't have been hard, technically. It was an intricate process for this potion specifically, but theoretically it still shouldn't have been too difficult. All she needed was a calm hand, and the movement was consistent and fairly simple. No weird stirring technique or movement, no strange speed, nothing. But of course she still couldn't do it, because she still needed a calm hand, and apparently this was one time where the stress of it all wouldn't let her hand stay still for the shortest of moments.

She sighed. "Uh, actually, maybe you-" No, she didn't have to ask for help. She just had to calm down and do better. It wasn't meant to be hard, she just wasn't trying enough. Autumn took a deep breath. "Never mind."

Reducio

NOTE | *shows up three months late with no starbucks* In all seriousness though, my country had spent like over half a year with zero COVID cases and the delta variant kind of took the entire place by surprise, so I've spent those three months in lockdown doing online education. But my school reopened super recently and I just finished all my exams, so replies should definitely become more regular. I'm so sorry about the big gap, though!! Also sorry for misspelling Lindsey's name, will hopefully remember the correct version from now on.

interacts @Autumn Ivy

april 30th, 2021

Lindsey was - actually - finding it not so agreeable to choose to place herself against the one and only obnoxious Autumn Ivy. Granted, she often found pleasure in competitions and successes, but today was…weird. Ivy was a terrifying opponent. Her face was cold. Her voice was icy. And her aura made Lindsey feel rather uncomfortable. She didn’t know why, but she actually wanted to escape. Potions was not her strongest subject. What if she mistook a step and ruined the potion? Ivy would most certainly laugh at her and tell everyone that Lindsey Springhall was not even capable of brewing a basic potion. And that made things worse.

She secretly clenched her fist under the table. Oh well, she wasn’t going to punch Ivy right in the face or physically force her to do something, but that’s the only way to make herself feel secured. Wisdom - oh, she had realised that she was no better than Autumn on that. But what about fighting physically? This dangerous idea made her startled. The young miss Springhall starting a fight? Oh dear, what would the duke say about this?

Scarcely listening to Autumn and pretty much in her own thoughts, Lindsey only caught half of her partner’s words. “-stirring? Oh, alright.” she answered indifferently, and then reached for the ingredients. Silently she pushed them towards Ivy, without a word - she didn’t want to speak much. Especially to Autumn. Rolling her eyes, she stared at the cauldron they shared, motionless.

Ivy attempted to start a talk - that might not her original intention, but Lindsey comprehended it as that she wanted to give in. She was feeling low and helpless, huh? But then she stopped, cutting it straight from there, stopping her words and ending it with a plain “never mind”. From what she had seen, Autumn Ivy was, just like Lindsey Springhall, not the sort of person to surrender easily. She was rather sure that Ivy would fight to the very end and was not very into the idea of accepting aids from others. Different, they were, and yet so similar.

Maybe what? A taunt smile formed on Lindsey’s lips. She crossed her arms, sat back, and continued her observation. She wasn’t going to interfere Ivy’s excellent assignment today, like Ivy might have said - though she really didn’t - Lindsey would ruin everything if she did put her hands on the ingredients.

And there it came, bluntly, without any explanation beforehand or afterwards. She was just staring blankly at their textbooks, at the bubbling liquid, at Autumn’s raven-coloured hair - and the words suddenly appeared in her mind. She did not keep them there for long, as almost immediately they bumped out.

“What do you think of it?”

That’s all she wanted to say. Nothing more. Even no explanations on the what the “it” in the sentence was referring to. Was she talking about the potion they were brewing? Or was she talking about potions classes in general? The partnership during the courses? The silent competition between them? Maybe none, or maybe all.

Yes. What do you think of it?

Lindsey became silent again, even herself unknown about her purpose of directing the question. Ah, wrong narration, for these blunt words might not be a question at all. It was meaningless. Yet it can mean everything. She glanced at some nearby students in pairs chatting merrily while brewing their own potions, and blinked. Chocolate brown gaze fell on the bubbling liquid again.

She then threw herself into a more comfortable posture, still arm-crossed, and waited silently for Autumn’s reaction.

Reducio

a tremendous apology for how long this took, but yeah, it’s finally here so << my RL is starting to become better and more organised, so I think the next reply will be much much quicker as always, thanks for bearing my inconsistency

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