Potions and Cooking are the Same... Right? PV Closed

Outfit/Physical Characteristics Reducio Loose Black button up shirt, with elegant neck line, with Slytherin school robes on.	Languages English Parseltongue French Hebrew Spanish German Russian Thoughts	Age 16
Mentioning/Interacting @Rachel Greenford	Location Library	IC Date September 6th, 2024

The Grand Feast

xxxxx It was a few days into his sixth year, and Tristan was pleased at how it was turning out. He had mastered his nonverbal casting and his pet snake, Saverin was growing quite well. In fact, it might be prudent to test Saverin in his spying and stealth skills. However, now was not the time. Now was the time to enter the library and enjoy reading some books on magical theory, potions, and astronomy. Academics always thrilled Tristan in the present day, far more than when he pursued it in his grief. Tristan was intelligent, but now his intelligence was tempered by emotional knowledge.

xxxxxThere was a motherly nature to him more so than ever before, having taken to bringing young first years under his wing, and guiding them through Hogwarts. There was a sense of urgency in his care for the first years as well. Tristan desired above all to create a world where Muggleborns were treated equally, although his strange far off dream was to take down the Statute of Secrecy. He knew first that he must create a world within the bounds of the Statute that agreed upon the fact that Muggleborns were just as equal as Purebloods. Having finished his first Potions class, touching upon advanced potions, his mind was stimulated and a smile was upon his face.

xxxxx He entered the library with a ongoing meditation upon the dream world where the Wiggenweld potion, could be sold as pills to the muggle world, perhaps disguised as muggle medicine, and used for good in the medical field. There were many potions in fact that would prove miraculous to the muggles if they could just convince muggles that they were well researched and tested medicines following their methods and theories of scientific research. It was all a fantasy at the moment, but he imagined a future where it was possible to save muggles using magic, possible to cause rain to fall in places with drought, or even to cast Aguamenti for people lacking drinking water. Wizards had such power that could be used for good for Muggles who were suffering the lack of resources. Houses that could expand were normal in the Wizarding World and they could be so helpful for the increasing homeless population that he had learned about over the summer.

xxxxx It was then that he noticed that a younger girl was sitting in the library with a potions book open. His very observant nature caught that it was very likely that the young girl was a first year as she was open to the page for Cure for boils, although Tristan could be wrong. He looked again and saw that there increasing frustration upon the young student’s face, suggesting that she was struggling with her potion studies.

xxxxx Tristan was filled once again with the desire to help, just as he had with many young students throughout last year and over the summer. He approached the young student and smiled warmly, asking, “Hello, it looks like you need some help with that potion. My name is Tristan, but you can call me anything you’d like. I’d love to help you. What about it is confusing you?” Tristan sat next to her, continuing the conversation, “Is it alright if I sit here?” He hoped that he was not intimidating the younger student. He was a tall sixteen year old after all, and she looked to be around eleven or twelve. He also had his Slytherin robes on, and he was sure that Slytherin did have a negative reputation. He was ambitious and cunning, but he did act more like a Hufflepuff these days, with all this warmth and care oozing from him. He hopefully would not scare the younger student, but instead would be able to show her that as a sixth year, he did care for each and every younger student here. He was fighting for equality for muggleborns and purebloods after all. If he had partiality to youth or house, then he would be hypocritical.

xxxxx He asked the younger girl, “What is your name? It is wonderful to meet you.” There was a calm nature to Tristan, but also a sharpness that comes from experiencing hard grief in his short life. He had experienced far more pain then most children, and he had grown much as a person through that pain. He had overcome his grief, and taken a hold of his lasting love for the people who passed away, and was using the passion that arose from them to honour them, and to change the world in their honour.

xxxxx Tristan cared for these young students because he wanted them to be loved and cared for, to succeed, and to have their own chance to change the world, just as his squib tutor had believed in. They also remind him of course of his best friend who had passed away at age nine. These new students that came each year were two years older than Edward would ever be, but he poured his care for Edward into these children that he met because he hoped it would commemorate the friendship and love he had for Edward, and honour his friend that would never have his chance to change the world himself. Tristan was sixteen, but his grief had matured him quickly, and he was far more of an adult that most others, ready for becoming of age, unlike others. His experience with the world was deeper than most, in sadness and in happiness, and he hoped with his entire heart that he would be able to pour this wisdom into new generations, hoped to change the world vicariously, so that no muggleborn had to worry about inferiority, no pureblood had to put up farces to convince others that they were superior, no he wanted to create an environment at Hogwarts, where everyone was equal. Perhaps this was manipulation, perhaps Tristan should not be influencing young children with an agenda, but he was fighting for equality for these muggleborn students, and if it could be created through love and care for every younger student that he met whether pureblood or muggleborn, then why not?

September 6, 2024 || Library
Interactions: @Tristan Theramin

wc: 578/200

Rachel continued to look at her potion book, and her fingers traced the edges of the book that was open in front of her. Her bright blue eyes were fixed on the page but not moving, and the words kept swimming off the page.

She sighed deeply and slumped in her seat. Maybe she would never get a grip on this magic stuff. Potions seemed like a wall that she would never be able to climb. The process was so intricate and detailed, and one little mistake could lead everything to go wrong. It requires so much attention to detail, and you have to be okay with making a mistake and learning from it. She just didn’t have that kind of bravery in her.

It wasn’t just Potions that seemed to stump her; Charms and Transfiguration seemed so out of reach. She often wondered if she would ever stop feeling like a muggle who’s accidentally wandered into the wizarding world.

She heard a voice next to her as she fell further into a hole of self-doubt and worry. Looking over, Rachel’s heart skipped a beat. A tall, kind-looking boy with the sort of easy confidence that made her stomach do flips was smiling down at her. Why does he have to be so cute? she thought, feeling warmth creep up her cheeks.

Rachel blinked at his words; his presence comforted her even more nervously. He was much older than her, a sixth or seventh year if she had to guess, which meant he was a proper wizard who knew what he was doing in the wizarding world, opposite of her. She was a bumbling first-year who couldn’t brew even the simplest potion without it exploding.

Rachel nervously bit her lip, trying to focus on his question. What was confusing her? Honestly, the entire thing. The entire school. She knew that she was going to sound pathetic and helpless. “There’s just so much to remember,” she shrugged, her voice sounding small. “There are so many different ingredients; I must remember them all and put them in order. Even when I have the directions in front of me, it still doesn’t work half the time.”

She looked back down at her book, embarrassed by her confession. Why am I telling this to him? He is a total stranger and probably thinks I’m ridiculous she thought to herself. She looked back up at him, nervously playing with the corner of the page she was trying to read. “I’m worried I’ll never get the hang of it… I come from a muggle family, and there is much to learn here. I have to learn how an entirely new world operates while coming to terms with needing to learn about all new subjects that I didn’t even know existed.” It was oddly comforting to admit this to someone, even if it was a total stranger.

She shook her head, trying to dismiss what she had just admitted to Tristan, “I’m sorry, I’m just being dramatic. I’m Rachel, by the way; it’s nice to meet you,” she smiled at him. It was nice of an older student to offer to help her, especially someone who wasn’t even in her own house. She hadn’t met many Slytherins yet and had heard rumors about students in the house, but she was starting to think that the rumors weren’t true. Some of the students in the Slytherin house were genuinely kind people like Tristan seemed to be.

Outfit/Physical Characteristics Reducio Loose Black button up shirt, with elegant neck line, with Slytherin school robes on.	Languages English Parseltongue French Hebrew Spanish German Russian Thoughts	Age 16
Mentioning/Interacting @Rachel Greenford	Location Library	IC Date September 6th, 2024

The Grand Feast

xxxxxThe young girl seemed quite nervous at Tristan’s presence, biting her lip and blinking rapidly. He sat down quickly next to her, hoping perhaps that the eye to eye level would calm the young girl. She confessed in a small voice “There’s just so much to remember. There are so many different ingredients; I must remember them all and put them in order. Even when I have the directions in front of me, it still doesn’t work half the time.” That was quite an understandable struggle that everyone felt once in a while. Magical education seemed to always involve some memorising task that seemed to grow ever larger each year. Tristan himself was blessed to have a tutor over the summer who trained him extensively on naming the plants and animals of the magical world and their properties, as well as the differing muggle aspects his Squib tutor knew of. His grief had also been a far better motivator than the motivations most students had as well. Academics had been his coping mechanism for so long that he had learned quickly. It was easier to consider the history of the world rather than his friend. Tristan replied with a smile, “That is completely understandable. Nobody can memorise in one attempt, but if you have good memorising techniques you might be able to remember them all by the end of term. I take a parchment, write the names on one side, and their characteristics on the other side. Then I repeat one plant and its characteristics for the whole day. Then the next day, I do the same thing for the next one. If you are artistic, try drawing a picture of the ingredient itself, that may jog your memory next time.” Tristan began to take out a parchment and quill from his bag, then started to make a sheet of ingredients for her. She introduced herself as Rachel and Tristan, not remembering if he’d introduced himself already, introduced himself again, “Tristan the Heir of the Noble House of Theramin though I am called any variety of Tristan by friends and you are my friend.” Tristan continued to make the list of ingredients as he started to explain another memorising technique. “You could also make a fun story of the name of the ingredient and its characteristics. For example, A goat ate a plant and some hair, who knows why about the hair. Out popped a Bezoar out of the Tobago of the goat. It’s waste but it’s good for us, because it’s an antidote to poisons galore.”