CLASS: Fall Term: Potions (Neri & Dimitri)

Potions had always been Nerisei's favorite subject. She had devoted so much time into reading and practising, striving endlessly to become one of the best there is. This was her goal, after graduation anyway. Which is why Nerisei had attempted to write a couple of letter to James Balan, asking for an apprenticeship. And had been turned down but the Potions Master again, and again... and again. But one thing James Balan did not know, was that Nerisei's passion for Potions was unrivaled, and her stubborness and determination did not allow her to forfeit her dream. Especially because of a man. The young Ravenclaw knew very well what she wanted, at least in that department, and would stop at nowhere to get it.

Which was why the Ravenclaw witch was found descending the stairs with a determined look on her face. Potions would start in less that ten minutes and Nerisei knew very well that if she didn't hurry, she would be late. "Damn you, James Balan!" Neri muttered under her breath, pushing the door open and entering the classroom. Azalea Murray, her Potions Professor, stood there, beautiful and elegant as always, but this time something was off. Her mind seemed to be elsewhere most of the time, and every sound made her jump, as if she expected something, or someone to hurt her.

That was far from her Professor's usual behaviour, and it made Nerisei frown a little, but she paid no more thought to it. Adults had enough problems to deal with, that was a fact. Hell, even teens had enough problems to deal with. But for now, all Nerisei had to do was pay attention to class, then run back to the Owlery to send another letter to James Balan.

When Potions had come up on his schedule, Dimitri had, as always, felt rather unenthused for the class. Not because he disliked the professor, far from it, Professor Harrington almost made Potions enjoyable for the boy who held no interest in the subject. But, it was simply because he had to try so much harder for this subject than anyone else seemed to, just to keep his grade in the Exceeds Expectations area. Anything below that and his father would make him resit his entire final year, Dimitri was sure of that.

The walk down from the fifth floor had been a slow one on the boy's behalf, attempting to keep himself from the lesson just a little longer than necessary. It meant, as always, that Dimitri Moreau would enter the class just as the bell would go off throughout Hogwarts. Today left him looking for the last seat available in the room, and finding it beside Nerisei. Stealing himself slightly for the luck, Dimitri moved to the seat beside Nerisei, and quietly pulled out his stool as Professor Harrington took to introducing the class for the day.

A class that came in the form of a whack-a-mole style learning. Dimitri looked at their desk almost confused as the professor continued on with her explanation of how the class would work. They would have to first take in the potion of choice, find the missing ingredient from the potion list provided, and instead of finding the actual ingredient to finish the potion, they would have to find a suitable substitution for it.

The nightmare of the lesson was real to Dimitri in that moment. Not being good at the subject to start with was bad enough, but trying to decipher substitutes to each of the ingredients was going to be even worse.

"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!"

"I'm sorry, ahead of time!" Dimitri told his partner in that moment, taking up the rubber mallet they'd been provided with. Reading through the list of ingredients on their sheet, the boy tried to recall the full list from memory, but was already struggling with just that much as he looked instead across at Nerisei for a clue as to what they should be looking for.




For reference, this is how Azalea and I did our thread: https://hogwartsandbeyond.forumotion.co.uk/t2603-class-fall-term-potions-mimosa-nikolai

As the bell rang, announcing the the lesson could officially begin, Nerisei felt the chair next to her getting occupied. Nerisei turned her head towards the intruder, already prepared to kindly ask him to move, when she noticed that it was none other than Dimitri. Her lips parted slightly in surprise, whilst her eyes quickly scanned the rest of the room, only to find that the whole class was occupied, leaving no other seat available for him to move to. Meaning that she would have to put up with him for the rest of this class, during a time when her hormones and nerves were not particularly balanced.

But before she could say anything, her attention was once again moved from the young wizard next to her to their Professor. Her explanation was quick and to the point, but it left Nerisei terrified and with a million questions unanswered. How was she going to make Dimitri fast and efficient in two milliseconds? Today's lesson required good Potions skills and a very good memory. Substituting ingredients meant they had to be very careful with their choices, else the whole brewing process would turn into a messy nightmare. One Nerisei was not prepared to clean up, especially because of Dimitri's idiotic choices.

Turning back to the wizard, Neri wanted to warn him about how this would go down, only to be cut off by Dimitri's apology, as he grabbed his mallet. The Professor started the lesson immediately after than, causing Nerisei to curse under her breath and pick up her own mallet. "Don't mess this up!" Nerisei whispered rather harshly, not ready to fail, especially during Potions.

But as the first ingredient came up, Beetle Eyes, Nerisei had to watch in horror as Dimitri slammed his mallet at it, earning a glare from the witch. "Where in Merlin's name have you seen Beetle Eyes in a Pepper-Up Potion, Moreau?!" But the Head Girl did not wait for an answer as another wrong ingredient popped up. Dimitri was ready to aim for it too, but Nerisei hit his hand with her mallet, not to hard, but enough to stop him. "You need to start focusing Moreau, or I swear to God, I will kick your ass!"

No matter how much Dimitri tried, or how many times he apologised, the result always came back the same. He failed. He failed to make the right choice, adding to Nerisei's anger more and more and making it extremely hard for the witch not to hex him right then and there. For the most part, she had managed to use her body to block him from the table, giving her the advantage of picking the correct substitute ingredients for the potion, and giving them a fighting chance. But by the time the first round ended, the Ravenclaw witch was already feeling as if she had been running a marathon. Dimitri on the other hand, looked incredibly guilty, and even though Nerisei sort of understood that he had been trying his best, her current state of emotions did not allow her the time to justify him. She was pissed. Pissed at him, pissed at James Balan, and pissed at the fact she was losing to the one subject she was the best at.

"Nerisei, let Dimitri try too!" Their Professor encouraged as the second round started, earning a small groan from the witch. Now she had to let him make choices as well, and that was a very, very big mistake. But she could not go against their Professor. And so, Nerisei reluctantly moved to the side, allowing Dimitri to once again have full access to the table. "Please, try your best. Please." But Neri knew that no matter how hard she tried, Dimitri wouldn't be able to live up to her expectations.

And so the next round started, with Nerisei managing to hit two of the ingredients needed, earning them an advantage, and giving Dimitri the confidence he needed, it seems, to finally make a choice. But his choice had not been the right one...


The Professor ended the round, announcing the names of the ones who passed on successfully, and to Nerisei's ultimate dismay, their names were not mentioned. The Head Girl had to take a minute to close her eyes and calm down. Thankfully, Dimitri did not try to talk to her. Without another word, Nerisei immediately started cleaning up the mess Dimitri had caused on their desk, before grabbing her thing and storming out of the class angrily. She just couldn't deal with this right now. She couldn't deal with him.