Potions: Lesson 1 (Years 1-4)

Dominique walks into the potions classroom. Looking around, she seen that she was the first one in the class. Hopefully she would see Mimosa in the class. She took a seat in the second row as she got herself settled in. She then pulled out her notebook and quill, just so she could be ready to take notes. Looking up at the chalkboard and seen what potion that they were going to be working on. It was the forgetfulness potion. Dominique then pulled out Magical Drafts and Potions.  She was trying to make sure that she was ready. As she knew that only looked good on her part.

Looking around, she was wondering when someone else would come to the class. Right now she was starting to get in the grove of  homework and classes. As she knew that it was just going to get harder. But it was something that she could handle. And she knew that if she need help she could also ask Mimosa. Because Dominique knew that she was going to need help.

Mercy practically skipped down the hall to the dungeons, knowing that she would finally have a class with Mimosa. They'd barely seen each other since school started, much less had a proper conversation, and Mercy was starting to get a little frustrated. It didn't help that Bushrah, the little first year who'd sat next to her at the feast, kept talking about the Slytherin's exploits whenever they happened to sit down together in the common room. Apparently Bushrah followed Mimosa everywhere. It wasn't fair! Mimosa was her best friend, but it seemed like everyone else got to spend more time with her than she did.

Shaking her head to clear out the negative emotion (she wasn't even sure what it was. Anger? Envy?), Mercy focused on the present. She'd get to see Mimosa right now, and she was going to make the most of it.

As she approached the potions classroom, she laid eyes on her friend coming from the other direction, and her face lit up.

"Mimosa!" she beamed, running the last few steps to close the distance between them. Reflexively, she linked arms with the younger girl so they stepped into the classroom together. When they walked inside, she waved at Dia, who was already there, and picked two adjacent seats so the three friends could all sit in a row. She barely even noticed the lesson plan, forgetting to pull out her textbook until the very last moment, when she glanced at the board and remembered they were still in class.

Potions was another class that came highly recommended, not least because it was taught by the head of Slytherin House. In the first week, the younger students had fallen into a pattern, choosing to go to class in groups rather than one by one. Or at least that was what Mimosa had thought because she was never alone, always finding herself amidst at least half a dozen people vying for her attention or doling out advice. Sometimes the group shrank to three or four and sometimes it swelled to eight but Bushrah remains a constant, slinking quietly behind the young brunette.

Today was no different, Mimosa entered the dungeon classroom alongside Ji Hyun, Emily, Squid Boy and Constance. Behind the group of Slytherin walked Seema, Jia En and Bushrah and Mimosa couldn't help but think she really needed to find a way out of this predicament. Everyone was nice but she hadn't gotten any time with Mercy in a week, and it was bothering ehr for some unknown reason.

Mercy's bright exclamation permeated through her thoughts and her face glowed at the sight of the short haired Gryffindor. As Mercy automatically moved to get the chairs together for herself, Mimosa and Dia, the brunette quickly scanned her own group, blue eyes narrowed in concentration as she tried to work out how to best orchestrate her next move because Bushrah too was pulling chairs and motioning to her while Ji Hyun and Squid boy were getting comfortable at their own station with Ji Hyun offering her a seat.

"Hey Bushrah, could you save me a seat with Ji Hyun and Nikolai," the child whispered. Fortunately, Bushrah never questioned, quietly slipping between the two boys as Mimosa entered deeper into the classroom only to be pleasantly surprised at the sight of the teacher. Of course she remembered Mycroft, he had come to tea at he palace.

In Mimosa's mind, there was only one way to greet Mycroft, so instead of taking a seat, the ten year old witch made straight for the front of the class where he stood, greeting him with an excited "Hello Professor," before reaching out to give him a full on hug, her thin arms wrapped around his middle. The man smelled like coffee, it reminded her of her Grandpa and for a moment, the child missed home.

But only for a moment, after hugging him, she made her way back to the work stations, making a beeline for the spot between Mercy and Dia before anyone had a chance to say anything else. Sitting comfortably between the two Gryffindors, Mimosa grinned at them at a job well done. Reaching for Mercy's hand under the table, the young Slytherin squeezed it warmly.

Now things were starting to feel right.

As the class filled in and students took their seats, Mimosa was quickly reaching the understanding that Professor Holmes' classroom would not be one for idle chatter. The older students already knew to wait expectantly, books open and minds focused and the younger ones new to this class were quickly following their example. Mimosa, squeezed in between Dia and Mercy, did her very best to focus, even if concentrating so hard was difficult for her sometimes.

There were words on the board again, words that looked like squiggles to the ten year old.The witch stared at the lines hard, trying to work out at least a few of the letters. There was an "F" and an "R" and and "E" but they were all jumbled up so the young Slytherin gave up, choosing instead to listen to Mycroft's words.

When he asked the class if anyone could tell him something about the potion they would be trying today, the young brunette brightened up. It was a potion on the board. It made sense, this was the potions classroom. Assuming the second, smaller word was "Potion", she only had one big word to work through.

Of course, there wasn't enough time, and Mimosa really wanted to try and answer a question in class. She hadn't yet mostly because students like Seema Biswas entered classrooms with their hands raised in the air. Or at least that's what it looked like to an annoyed Mimosa. Raising her own tiny hand, the girl took a deep breathe. He had said anything, so technically there were no wrong answers.

Her eyes lingering on the pictures of ingredients on Dia's textbook, the child spoke up. "It involves a mistletoe somehow?" That was the only familiar picture that had jumped out at her, the Christmas plant that made people kiss other people. Maybe this was a kissing potion? Though she doubted they would have to kiss anyone in class, at least she hoped they wouldn't.

Dominique listened as Mimosa gave her answer. As it was a good one she thought that she would give it a try. Hoping that she wasn’t going to be horrible at potions. She always knew that she had friends that she could ask, if she needed help. Dominique really didn’t know anything about the potion. But she was just going to guess just from the name. As sometimes it was all in the name. And she was hoping that she was right.

She then waited till Mimosa was giving her answer. Dominqiue then raised her hand and was going to give it a try. “ Well the potion is forgetfulness, so is it supposed to make you forget something?” That was making some sense to her. And was hoping that she gave the right one. If not, at least she tried.

She then waited for the Professor to tell her if she was right or wrong. Either way, she was  still learning and wouldn’t matter if she got it wrong.

It was starting to dawn on the young Slytherin that not being able to read the words as fast as they appeared on the board was going to be a bit of a problem. Dia, Mercy and the rest of the class could immediately raise their hands to answer questions just by seeing the squiggles on the board or in their books but Mimosa had to wait for the Professor to speak, or catch a glimpse of a drawing somewhere to try and interpret the question.

She should have brought her phone to class, it could read things for her. Who knew classes required so much reading and writing? The list of ingredients was once again no use to her, but then thankfully her Head of House spoke, asking for a fun fact about the Lethe River. A small smile grew on her face.

Mimosa had been to Northern Portugal a few years ago on a shoot alongside several other child models. The theme had been Greek Mythology and while the children were told the most tame version of the supposed properties of the river where they would be conducting the shoot, Mimosa still remembered it very well.

Raising her hand once more, she tried again, this time with more confidence. "It's supposed to be a storybook river," she began, recalling the tale from when she was seven and completely enraptured by the spot boy who was in charge of entertaining a bunch of brats until the camera people set up their equipment. "It's supposed to one of the rivers of the underworld place. And drinking it's water is supposed to make you forget things." Maybe that's why it was an ingredient in this potion? Because it helped with forgetting?

"Even though it's make belief, some people say it's real and located in Northern Portugal. I went there once but I never drank from it so I don't know if it really works," she finished a bit sheepishly.