Charming

January 8th, 1892 — Hogwarts Potions Laboratory

"Is it supposed to be that sort of...brownish...orange?" Elijah asked skeptically, lip curling in displeasure as he eyed the cauldron. They had hit the ground running in potions after the Christmas holiday, which in theory suited the Slytherin just fine.

In practice, they seemed to have leapt ahead of what he might have expected, and the cauldron he shared with his partner was proof that it was not going particularly well. Unless that smell was normal.

(Merlin's beard, did he hope it wasn't normal.)

Saturdays were supposed to be for pleasure, not whatever this was! And on top of that, he had an alchemy paper to start, and creatures reading... what happened to leisure time?!

— Open to another NEWT-level Potions student! —

Poppy was pleased to have a Saturday to herself. She’d managed to complete (almost) all her classwork during the week, or at least enough of it to not worry about doing anything more until tomorrow. Today her plans included nothing besides curling up in the Ravenclaw common room with a book and gossiping mercilessly with June and Ida. Poppy didn’t know where her dorm-mate had currently wandered off to though, so she was in search of the Slytherin. There were many places around the castle June could have decided to explore since breakfast, but Poppy figured she might as well start with the most obvious.

Walking along the corridor through the dungeons, she was suddenly assaulted with a repugnant smell. Lifting a delicate hand to her nose in disgust, Poppy followed the scent (instead of moving away from it like a normal person). It smelled suspiciously like a potion gone awry. Poppy herself was distinctly familiar with such smells; she was gifted at potions but it took work and a lot of practice to get right. Poking her head around the corner and peeking into the potions lab, she identified the culprit of the smell: Elijah Urquart, a Slytherin sixth year. (Who he was talking to, she wasn’t sure. Maybe his partner had wandered off.)

Poppy deliberated for a moment about stepping in. She was sure she could assist him if she analyzed the intention and his previous actions, but would that be awfully rude and/or forward of her? Moving her hand away from her nose for only a moment to straighten her dress made up Poppy’s mind quite decidedly. She could not let this continue.

“I don’t know what you’ve tried, but I don’t believe any potion assignment so far is supposed to be quite that malodorous.” Poppy entered the room fully and gave Mr. Urquart a smile, hoping he would avoid offense by her having spoken so freely. “Apologies,” she added. “I could smell you from down the corridor and just thought I’d offer assistance if you’d like.”

With the more intimate sizing of NEWT-level courses, even one like potions, it was difficult to ignore students from other houses as one might do in their first five years at Hogwarts. As such, while he was not particularly well-acquainted with the Ravenclaw, Elijah did recognize Miss Dashwood, a year his senior. While typically the wizard was one to rankle at unsolicited advice, his grimace was at the smell, rather than her comment—she was not wrong, which rather made matters worse.

"And here I thought," the Slytherin replied drily, "that Professor Valendurius merely wished to strengthen our constitutions for foul smells."

Poppy laughed delicately at the Slytherin’s comment and decided it was cue enough for her to intervene. She stepped forward to stand beside him and peek in the couldron. “Yes, well,” she replied. “I do suppose he has some penchant at his age for oversight of even the foulest of smells.” She grinned at Mr. Urquart, friendly. Poppy held a deep respect for Professor Valendurius and she admired him a great deal; but then, age made everyone a little less keen, and a lot more wise.

“What is it that you’ve tried to brew here?” She asked, curiously. Taking stock of the ingredients on the table, she ran a quick calculation and tried to reverse engineer his process. She couldn’t quite remember what they’d focused on at the beginning of spring term last year. “Perhaps we can yet right… whatever this is without starting anew.”

Elijah bristled slightly—was she laughing at him?!—but he did his best to maintain his composure.

"...an elixir to induce euphoria," he all but sighed. It had induced nothing of the sort thus far, and neither he nor his partner were particularly inclined to ingest it on the off-chance it might actually work. Even the brewing of it had not elicited so much as a smile from the prefect.

Poppy sobered her countenance, realizing quickly her new companion was not in a pleasant mood. She didn’t know Mr. Urquart well, but she would much rather this exchange end on a positive note than a negative one. Nodding at his response, the brunette made a small gesture of may I? as she pulled out her wand. She eyed the Slytherin beside her carefully before giving her wand a small flick; the potion stirred itself around, making the odor permeate even more strongly throughout the room.

Poppy smelled mostly a bitterness that seemed out of place. She hummed to herself, scrunching her brow as she looked over his ingredients. Salamander blood had a penchant for producing bitterness if the hand slipped. Perhaps that had caused the brew to sour. “If you crush some valerian buds and mix with peppermint, that should even this out.” Poppy turned to look carefully at her companion. She didn’t know if he wanted to know what he did wrong, but gentleman rarely did, so she kept that bit to herself. “If I remember correctly, you can actually enhance the potency of the elixir if you add a touch of flavoring to the taste of the intended. I always added honey and rose water to mine.” She offered him a small smile, hoping it would break the ice a touch.

The Slytherin listened, skeptically, as Miss Dashwood explained. He was not so high in the instep that he thought she couldn't know what she was doing, but was still suitably bristled from not being successful on his own. At least she wasn't an ass about it—if it had been Fraser, or even Crick, nowhere near as much care would have been taken with Elijah's pride.

"You make this potion often, then?" he asked, skepticism shifting to surprise.

Poppy laughed a little at Mr. Urquart’s surprise. “No,” she replied. “Just… a touch over zealous when it comes to studying.” She gave him a little conspiratorial grin, hoping he would sense the joke behind her words. While it was true Poppy did focus a lot of her attention on potions and she was good at it, she hardly spent as much time studying as that statement was wont to imply. “What are you making it for, Mr. Urqhart? Or shouldn’t I like to know?” She asked, still teasing a touch.

"Extra credit work," he answered with a noncommittal shrug of his shoulder. While Miss Dashwood might be happy to admit to going the extra mile with her studies, Elijah was far too Cool™ to care about his studies—or at least, to let it be known that he did. Going above and beyond on a class assignment was not his usual modus opperandi, but the Slytherin was nothing if not ambitious, and he knew that this was the sort of thing that would look good when the time came for faculty to decide on a Head Boy.

"Worry not, Miss Dashwood," he added jokingly, "it is all entirely above-board—or if not entirely, then almost entirely."

Poppy smiled knowingly at Mr. Urquart’s response. She herself was infinitely guilty for taking interesting potions made as assignments and using them to her own advantage. Still, she was pleased to have illicited a joking response from the otherwise quiet-seeming Slytherin.

“Well I wish you best of luck with your extra credit,” she replied, still smiling. “And if you ever do have need of assistance, or just a smiling face, don’t hesitate to ask. Even if it is for below board shenanigans.” Poppy winked at him. Well, that might have been awfully forward and easily misinterpreted, (she was spending too much time with June...), but no matter. With that she turned to go.

Though her words sparked a hint of suspicion, it was the wink that truly convinced Elijah that Miss Dashwood, a year his senior, was flirting with him. The Slytherin found himself flustered, but was fortunately spared the need to respond as his cauldron began to fire multicoloured sparks about the room. Instead, he simply ducked for cover with a garbled Agh!

Elijah Urquart

Poppy Dashwood

Elijah Urquart

Poppy Dashwood

Elijah Urquart

Poppy Dashwood

Elijah Urquart

Poppy Dashwood

Elijah Urquart

Poppy Dashwood

Elijah Urquart