CLASS: Fall Term -- Potions (Mimosa & Nikolai)

Subject: CLASS: Fall Term -- Potions (Mimosa & Nikolai) Thu Jul 30, 2020 7:17 pm

The trip back to school was one that Nikolai was eager for. With the end of the holidays came the retrieval of his phone -- Marie Kessler did not mess about when she handed out groundings -- and the freedom of not having his parents around. Mostly... His dad was still Headmaster and Ancient Runes professor, but the slowness of his father had only been more emphasised over the summer, making Hogwarts the perfect get away.

But, of course, everything that happened over the summer had not been so easily forgotten. Even when the boy had laughed off the tribulations with his friends on the way to Hogwarts, the reminder that he wouldn't like to see Helen treated in the same way had stuck.

The first few days back at Hogwarts had been uneventful, the teachers were in their usual excitement for the new year, and the emphasis was, as usual, on the fifth years to do well this year because of their impending O.W.L. examinations.

It had been the first weekend, though, that Nikolai had finally set about the task he'd been set by Maria. Pulling Mimosa aside from the group had not been the easiest feat in the world, but after a few lucky attempts, he'd gotten the witch on her own in the common room after everyone had gone to bed. Mimosa had tried to leave, but the boy had said he needed to talk to her about something important. It had piqued the younger witch's curiosity enough to keep her with him, and after a slow, painfully staged conversation about the captaincy of the Quidditch team, Nikolai had finally made it through with the witch on his seventh attempt.

The privileged witch had given in to the idea of captaincy when he'd point out that the kit -- dirty, stinking kit -- that they wore for training and matches didn't just wash itself. That the broom maintenance wasn't something that just happened magically. And that someone had to clean out the locker rooms after each match. Had Mimosa ever done that ("No!"), then who did? The witch had told him quite firmly that she would not be doing any of those things, and that he could keep the captains badge, and it had been hard to keep the amusement from Nikolai's lips as he wished Mimosa a good night before heading off to his dorms.

The next 'fun' part had been the switch up from Beater to Seeker.

Mimosa had not been so easy to move on that one, because 'her Jacques had told her that she was the best Beater in the whole school!'. The patience had worn thinner and thinner throughout the tryouts until Nikolai had been hit by a stroke of genius.

"Mimosa... nobody has a broom as fast as yours... how are we ever going to win? I bet the Ravenclaws have bought the new Cleansweep model this summer... We're never going to win if your broom isn't the one chasing them..."

A swift nudge in Karan's side.

"Yeah... mine will never keep up!"

Mimosa had reluctantly agreed to switching. But only because her broom was the fastest, and she was being nice about the whole situation.

It had been easy from that point, to immerse himself in the new members of the team, Mimosa off in her own little world talking to anyone who would listen about her stay in China over the summer.

From there, school was pretty plain sailing. Mimosa had eased back in to their friendship with the loss of Mercy at her side, which meant Nikolai had found his way back in to her good books. Her hand could be found in his most days on the way to classes, which was increasingly feeling normal again.

That morning for Potions was no different, either, Nikolai followed Mimosa's group to their class without paying attention to the conversation, instead looking forward to another class with Professor Harrington. "Morning Professor," Nikolai greeted the witch in question as they entered the classroom. The usually relaxed professor, though, seemed somewhat tense as Nikolai and Mimosa moved to their station. Nikolai couldn't quite place his finger on it, but there was something different about the witch...

His attention was drawn away from the professor, though as he turned to collect his things from his bag for the lesson instead, shaking off the thought of worry that was lingering.

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The end of summer had been full of celebrations for Mimosa, celebration for her birthday, being back tot eh palace, her Jacques' birthday, her making prefect and her making Quidditch Captain. Sure, the letter had to arrive for the last one but everywhere knew anyway. Who else were they going to pick? Squid Boy?

Still, despite the good cheer, something was missing. And the witch was starting to feel that something was distinctly Mercy shaped.

Mimosa hadn't told anyone what she had seen last term. She wasn't even sure what she had seen and sometimes, when she woke up in a sweat in the middle of the night, it felt so dreamlike that she was certain it hadn't been real. Perhaps she had fallen asleep at the Hospital Wing and dreamed the whole thing? But the persistent lack of any letters, texts, emails or cards spoke volumes otherwise.

Mercy was not talking to her because the Gryffindor didn't want Mimosa to know the secret. And Mimosa didn't know how to unknow something she already knew.

Add to that, her Jacques had decided to go to America the weekend before start of term, leaving Mimosa even more disheartened. The gifts and clothes had helped to soothe her pain at not spending the last few days with her Jacques and the final treat of Grandmere and Grandpere dropping her off to King Cross had finally put the young witch back in her usual, cheery spirits.

But the train ride came and went - Mimosa safely tucked in between Karan and Gaspard in the Slytherin compartments - without Mercy making an appearance. At one point, Charles even made a rude comment about where the Gryffindor was lurking these days but no one seemed to know. Mimosa couldn't find the older witch at the Sorting ceremony either and then she was whisked away to the Prefect meeting with Squid Boy, making her tiny attention span finally relent.

Squid Boy, at the very least, seem to be trying to make up for his behavior last term. Not only was he being polite and attentive and offering her help with things but he also wasn't pushing to hold her hand on pin her by his side. He hadn't tried to kiss her at all and for that, Mimosa was immeasurably glad. She wasn't sure she wanted to be kissed by anyone right now, or even in the near future.

The mystery of why her Captaincy letter hand't arrived was solved within the first week. Headmaster Kessler had messed up and sent it to Squid Boy instead. Mimosa was about to correct him when Squid Boy pulled her aside and mentioned what being captain entailed, and being the intelligent teen that she was, the brunette decided to let the Headmaster's error carry out. Squid Boy could clean lockers, he was probably more used to that anyway. And this way, if she found her own locker in a less than desirable state, she could always tell him to hop to it and do his job right.

Classes had begun anew and were even more boring than last year. Without Mercy in DADA and Charles being endlessly insufferable about finally making the Quidditch team, Mimosa seriously considered what the point of studying at Hogwarts was. didn't Charles realize not everyone wanted to hear about him and his achievements all the time? How rude and unperceptive could one be? After all, Mimosa had now landed on the most important position in the entire game. A match was Quidditch wasn't over until the Snitch was caught and she was now in charge of that. Yet she wasn't going around telling people of her great achievement. Everyone knew she had the fastest broom, bestest talent and shiniest hair in the school, it didn't merit saying out loud.

Still, some things in school were cool, like the current potion class Mimosa was in. Having walked in with Squid Boy and the rest of her squad, the young witch had taken her seat whit the lanky beater when Miss Azalea announced that today they would be playing wack a mole instead of doing proper potions. The idea was to use the mallet on their stations to wack at ingredients that would make good subtitles in a potion. The more correct ingredients "wacked" and collected, the more points each team would earn.

"Alright guys lets start. your first potion is... Pepperup Solution. find and collect as many substituent ingredients for the potion as you can. Ready, set go!"

As Mimosa and Squid Boy readied their mallets, a tray of ingredients appeared on their station. Two stations away, Seema Biswas and Han Jia En were equally ready, a steely competitive grin on their faces.

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CLASS: Fall Term -- Potions (Mimosa & Nikolai) Rsz_mi10

CLASS: Fall Term -- Potions (Mimosa & Nikolai) Rsz_ja12

CLASS: Fall Term -- Potions (Mimosa & Nikolai) Rsz_rs13

As always, Professor Harrington's class was an odd one. Never before had Nikolai been presented with such an out there class experiment, but it would make them think on their feet. Something Nikolai knew was not going to be the easiest of tasks when his partner was not the brightest to begin with. Still, with their mallets ready, Nikolai watched the board before him in anticipation.

Truthfully, the boy should probably have known better than to rely on Mimosa to think before she acted.

As the first ingredient bobbed up in to view, Mimosa's mallet came down upon it without even looking to see what it was. The African Red Pepper vanished from view, and instead rested on their tray of ingredients beside them.

"Only hit the ones that will be useful, Mimosa!" Nikolai scolded the younger witch as the next ingredient popped up. "Get it!" Nikolai insisted, bringing his hammer down upon the second ingredient -- Dittany -- without waiting for Mimosa to intervene.

That was how the two progressed through the timed event, their tray slowly filling with (mostly) useful ingredients that had healing properties, and would hopefully become good substitutes for the actual ingredients. They would have to wait for the professor's verdict, though, and Nikolai would eagerly explain on their professor's inspection that the African Red Pepper had been a mistake, and they didn't actually think it would make a good substitute in the Pepperup Potion.

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"Only hit the ones that will be useful, Mimosa!"

"All of them can be useful if you're clever," the teen witch reasoned, bringing her mallet down on a pod of bulbatuber pus. While Squid Boy judged ingredients carefully, Mimosa simply kept wacking whatever came her way, and with great results. By the end of the round, they were one of the few teams that had gotten all the ingredients, plus a few extras.

"Very good, the teams moving on to the second round are... Gaspard and Karan, Charles and Constance, Mimosa and Nikolai, Lilac and Jurian, Seema and Jia En and Dominique and Bushrah. our next potion is... Polyjuice." With a flick of the teacher's wrist, the list of ingredients appeared on the board, ingredients which would once again need substitution.

The second round commenced much like the first with Mimosa once again ensuring the progressed tot eh next round, and then the next, and then the next.

"Alright guys, final round," Miss Azalea announced. By this point, most of the class was out, the only two teams left Chrysler and Squid Boy and Seema and Jia En. "Whoever wins this one gets exempt from cleaning up the mess we've made today! Your final potions for the day is... Amortentia!"

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Mimosa's lack of understanding -- or perhaps unwillingness to understand -- the object of their task continued on through the next couple of rounds. Whether Professor Harrington truly believed they could make the potion with the ingredients Mimosa had plucked out, or whether she just felt sorry for the older Slytherin and kept them in play was not something he was going to question.

As Mimosa and he were in the last two groups competing, the boy felt a nervous bubble in his stomach as he eyed up their competition. Jia En and Seema were no pushovers, and now they were so close to winning the class competition, Nikolai didn't wish to let it slip between his fingers so easily.

"Your final potions for the day is... Amortentia!"

Mimosa's excitement had come to the forefront anew as the first ingredient showed. Perfume being the first item to appear. Nikolai conceded on that one, knowing that Amortentia smelled of things people liked, it wasn't exactly a bad choice, albeit not the best as the smell was not supposed to be present, but... present itself to the individaul.

That said, the two continued on, trying their best to pick out ingredients that would work well. Nikolai's own hammer had intercepted Mimosa's a couple of times in the process, avoiding mud being added to their list of ingredients. Their tray of ingredients was mounting up, though, and looking relatively reasonable for the potion set. Seema and Jia En looked to be doing equally as well, though, and with the last few moments creeping past, the duos worked tirelessly to get ingredients well suited to the potion set.

As the ingredients finally stopped appearing, and Nikolai's tension from his shoulders slowly ebbed, he realised the event was finished, and now, all that was left, was to wait for Professor Harrington to announce the winner.

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Mimosa wasn't exactly sure what "Amortentia" was but it sounded like a french word she should know, which was pretty much the same thing. Her confidence not at all deterred, the witch got her mallet ready for the next round.

Only to have Squid Boy immediately block her.

"What are you dong," she mouthed as the ingredient disappeared, her mallet moving over the bottle of perfume that popped up next. The older Slytherin was so confused throughout the final round it almost cost them the victory. Especially seeing as Seema and Jia En were laser focused despite only smashing half the ingredients that popped up on their station. Squid Boy didn't wack more than three ingredients, the majority of his time spent accidentally blocking her.

Still, she was good enough to carry them both over the finish line, a fact undisputed proven when the bell rang and Miss Azalea declared the winners.

"Well guys, a very close final round, but we ave a winner - by only two ingredients," the new Potion Mistress praised, walking over to Mimosa and Squid Boy. "Seema, Jia En, you did very well so you're exempted form clean up too, but the Slytherin team will be receiving tickets to the London cinema of their choice. As for the rest of you, I hope we've learned something today as well as had fun."

Homework was issued an the class dismissed after, leaving Mimosa in a good enough mood that she found herself reaching for Squid Boy's hand as they walked to the Great Hall for lunch.

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» CLASS: Fall Term -- Flying (Mimosa & Dominique)
» CLASS: Fall Term: Potions (Neri & Dimitri)
» CLASS: Spring Term -- Herbology (Mimosa & Squid Boy)
» CLASS: Winter Term -- Muggle Studies (Mimosa & Squid Boy)
» CLASS: Spring Term -- History of Magic (Mimosa & Dominique)