Better As Two PV w/Angela Silverberry Finished

When Clarisse approached her, Angela looked around. Was there noone else to choose? Why did she decide to pair up with Angela specifically? No, there was plenty of people. The straightforwardness of this choice immediately aroused her interest. Clarisse looked really clever and actually got Angela's attention during another lesson. She thinks I'm interesting too, she thought.

Great to meet you too, she smiled to her, but before she could say anything else, an avalanche of questions interrupted her. She paused, a bit confused.

Hmm... I'll measure lethe river water, you should start boiling mistletoe berries. It was better to talk with hands busy. There was not much time to finish the potion before the lesson ends. Apparently the boiling step was supposed to take fifteen minutes, so there'll be more time to talk comfortably.

The professor looks more like a fan of different dimensions. I mean, just look at him.

Her hand trembled when the professor suddenly turned in her direction. Did he hear that?! She said it really quietly! No... he was really far away, it's pretty much impossible to hear one person through this much blabbering students.

Sh*t, sorry, I just added too much of this water. But only like two drops too much. Maybe we should add a bit more of everything and it'll turn out all right? She started to panic a little. Oh, and it's supposed to be a forgetfulness potion. I hope he won't make us test it on ourselves. It would be kinda counterproductive, wouldn't it?, she added with a grin.

She seemed to have confused Angela a bit. Perhaps Clarisse would have to tone down the questions. Maybe that would stop her from being too confusing. But at the same time, Clarisse wasn't known for her self-control, especially when she had some question to ask. At least she had Angela here to keep her focus on what they were doing - boiling mistletoe berries. She could do that.

Setting the cauldron up over a small fire, Clarisse began counting the mistletoe berries, dropping them in one by one. "Whole, right?" she asked, gesturing towards the berries, "I'm not meant to crush them or anything?" Better not - she had just about added them all - if she hadn't messed up with the counting.

Lowering her voice to a whisper, she added, "Do you know why he looks so... weird? I mean... he is human, isn't he? Does he choose to look like that or..." Spotting the professor turn back in their direction, she stopped, not wanting to get in trouble for gossiping about the professor. As weird as he looked, it wasn't worth it.

"If it's two drops, it doesn't matter, right? I'm sure it'll be close enough." She glanced up towards the board, "What's Lethe? Is that a river? Or a type or river? Or a type of water? I've never heard of it." Lethe river water most likely had some sort of magical qualities. At the very least, it didn't look as rank as some river water she had seen.

"I hope not! Surely us testing it would be dangerous too - what if we mess up and it becomes poisonous?" She shuddered visibly, pulling a face. "Valerian sprigs in next, right? I can go grab us some."

Was the professor human? Probably not. But noone informed them what he was really. Maybe it would be good to figure that out. Just to know what not to irritate him with. But where to read up on this?

Uh... I think lethe is a type of river. Isn't it somewhere in the handbook? She took her copy of Magical Drafts and Potions and started turning pages, looking for detailed ingredient description. Nah.. it's not there. They only say that in high concentration it can cause amnesia. Why does it matter to you anyway? She surely was really curious. But why? Angela preferred to take things as they are. Unless they were useful. This water surely wasn't, rather the opposite.

Now was the moment to focus. Okay, we should slowly drop the sprigs in, one by one... Stir with your wand three times clockwise... Wave your wand? What does that even mean? Suddenly cauldron's smooth content turned dark blue and started going upwards, looking like it's about to boil over. Oh no... What now? That shouldn't happen! Quick, do something!


[OOC] It seems I messed up the recipe by the way, I didn't know it's publicly available so I made it up, hope it's all right anyway.

"It might be in the handbook," Clarisse shrugged, watching as Angela searched, with no luck. "Maybe I can ask the professor. On second thoughts, I might just wait to look it up at the end of the lesson." She glanced back from where he stood, clearly busy trying to deal with a spilt potion. It wasn't hard to guess that it wasn't the right time to ask irrelevant questions.

Clarisse wasn't sure how to take Angela's next question. Why did it matter? Why did it matter to Angela why it mattered? It didn't matter - if Clarisse didn't find out, no one would die, the world wouldn't end, nothing bad would happen. But that didn't mean she couldn't know, right?

"I was just curious. Maybe it'll come in useful one day, on a test, or maybe I'll need some so I'd know where to look. Or maybe I just wanted to find out. Have you never wondered about something like that?"

She warned herself to focus and let herself reread the potion recipe, following it as Angela spoke. "What do you mean, what does it mean? Just wave the wand right? Unless you think that the way you wave your wand has an effect on it.." She was about to launch into another set of questions when the cauldron started bubbling. Violently.

"It's not meant to do that, is it?" she gasped, finding herself entering panic mode. She flapped around hopelessly, searching the room, before panicking and dumping an almost entirely full cauldron of water all over the cauldron. Some contributed to extinguishing the flames, so there was no longer any heat to the potion. But with all the water, pale blue liquid (watered down at this point) was seeping everywhere.

Clarisse gave an awkward squeak and hoped Angela wouldn't hate her for ruining it so quickly.

All this stupid wand stirring and waving, and now in an instant the potion was ruined.

Seeing the entire table dripping with water, Angela rushed to save precious books from getting wet. Books, clean phials, wand, ahh, there's too many things! Finally she got most of her stuff away from the growing puddle. Her entire robe was wet now.

Miraculously some other students had even bigger issues at the moment. Overhearing the disturbed voices, it sounded like someone decided to taste lethe river water and now people tried to remind him his name and why is he in elixirs classroom. Professor Valtome only glanced in their direction and turned his attention to the confounded student on the opposite side of the chamber.

Angela was pretty pissed. Are elixirs all about weird things happening at random? Why wasn't any of this in the handbook? What were they even supposed to do anyway?

Great. We don't have the time to do it again now. This potion shouldn't behave like that. And look at my clothes. This class is a joke. After venting for a short while, she gave Clarisse an upset look. I'm sorry. It's not your fault. I probably messed something up. Maybe this lethe water stuff. Or stupid waving. We will do better next time. I'll try harder, I promise.

Angela was busy rescuing her things, while Clarisse could just stand there, a little shell-shocked. What had she done? What had she done? The desk was dripping now. A river was flowing off and seeping into her shoes. Angela's clothes were all wet. Her own clothes had the resemblance of her going swimming. Somehow, it had gone so wrong in a split second.

And half the people were too distracted by the student dumb enough to try drink the water of Lethe (thinking back to her previous thoughts, could you call it that? Or would it not make sense, given whatever lethe meant?). Which meant they had the chance to clean this up. Or had the task. Gruelling task. She didn't like the sound of that.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," she began mumbling, especially when Angela started to complain. About the potion, about the class, the time, her robes. And all Clarisse could do was whisper apologies. How pathetic.

Finally, Angela gave Clarisse a look that made her want to shrivel up and give her a million galleons in apology. Until she apologised too. That made the girl feel a little better.

"It was me," Clarisse stated quickly, not wanting to push all the blame - but also grateful that someone else was taking it - "But who cares. Let's clean this up. We can do better next time - but only if we're allowed a next time"

She glanced around, grabbing some paper towels from the side of the room. "Can we mop some up with this?" she asked, dabbing against the water. With the sheer amounts, it didn't seem likely, but she could always give it a try. "Unless you've got something better to use?"

Angela was stunned, hearing this suggestion.

Shouldn't we... you know... deal with that... using magic? I mean... This is what my parents always did! She realized that she didn't know any spell that could help in this situation. To be honest she barely knew ANY spell. She looked skeptically at towels Clarisse pointed at. Or I guess we could use this... The idea sounded just degrading. The towels surely were to be used only in special and dangerous circumstances. This was clearly not the case!

...Or we could just leave? She looked eagerly at the door. This situation was embarrassing and just unbearable, and her wet clothes started to get cold and feel really uncomfortable. Think about it. Probably way worse things happen in this chamber, I'm sure professor won't mind if we leave a little mess. She wasn't sure at all. But on the other hand, wasn't he an adult here? Some water puddle is a flick of a wand for him anyway. Probably it would be best for them to leave. The lesson ends really soon, they only waste their time here, and might even get sick if they stay cold like this any longer. Yup, let's freaking get out of here! Go to the safe, warm common room, far from this disaster. She started hastily packing.

Using magic? It was an idea - and a good one, only there were some obvious problems to go with it. "Um... I don't know any spells. I don't know if there are any spells to do this. And I can't cast them... I guess we could just use this then... If you don't know anything."

She was panicking. Maybe it wasn't obvious in her voice (although it was close), but she was definitely panicking. Oh, how easy it would be to whip out her wand, say a quick incantation and get rid of it. But she was stuck now, trying to clean it up with these towels, that Angela clearly didn't think would work.

"Leave?" Clarisse didn't realise how high pitched her voice would go. "We can't just leave... Can we?"

Thinking about it, the idea seemed better and better. They could only make this worse, after all, and considering how wet they were, especially Angela, they did need to get dry and clean themselves up, too. The professor could sort it out quickly and it would all be alright.

Angela was already packing. Clarisse's eyes widened. The idea did seem like a good one, she agreed with that, but there was something glaringly wrong with it too. They were in the middle of a lesson. They couldn't just leave.

"But won't we get detention for this? If we don't get it for messing up. We'll get a detention for leaving before the lesson's over, for leaving without permission. Or lose house points. Or something." She reached out, trying to stop Angela from going. "I think we should stay. Just a little bit longer, right?"

Well that was getting annoying. There's no need to panic like that over a silly accident, thought Angela, seeing Clarisse all concerned. I don't know any relevant spell too, if I knew one, I'd clean that up five minutes ago. I have to learn as many spells as possible, decided Angela. Any of them can become useful in some unexpected situation.

Hearing Clarisse's suggestion, Angela rolled her eyes. Listen, there's maybe few minutes left, see, people finished their potions a good while ago. She pointed at a big clock hanging in the classroom, that allowed students accurately time the steps in their potion recipes.

Come on, he's distracted, he won't even notice. I'm leaving. She packed the last scale and looked at Clarisse. Do whatever you want. Having said that, she turned her back to Clarisse and started walking towards the door. She'll probably need to find some other pair for this class. Don't want to have someone panic like this over simple problems. After all potions needed especially high level of composure in case something goes wrong. Ruining a potion isn't the biggest threat, they can actually get poisoned or killed during that class...

Then she realized: it was her cauldron. It was her cauldron! They used her cauldron, for whatever reason, she thought it doesn't matter. She certainly can't show up without a cauldron next time, the professor would kill her. Oh no, she thought, I actually need to come back.

She immediately turned right around and walked towards their desk. Well... This is my cauldron. I have to stay, she explained bluntly and fixed her eyes on the clock, counting seconds and minutes to freedom. Even if she now regretted her behavior, it was too late to fix it.