September 15th, 1890 — Gryffindor Common Room

"Round one, the Sloane Bixby vs. Alice Dawson," he said, unable to contain his laugh as he held up the poorly-written cards he'd made for studying purposes. He'd somehow managed to con Alice into letting him host that round (because, let's be real, it was him that needed the practice, not her) and he was more than ready to be as dramatic with it as possible. "The subject is Transfiguration. The winner gets the copy of Ned's Defence Against the Dark Arts notes I stole from him last class. Ready?"

He flashed a teasing smile at both girls and began reading from the first card.

"Food is one of the exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration. What is one of the other four?" he asked, grimacing as he realized he could only name three—including food.

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Sloane Bixby Alice Dawson

  

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Alice cast a skeptic glance in Cameron's direction as he read out the card. Neither she nor Sloane required assistance with Transfiguration and yet here they were being pitted against one another. Merlin, now Alice was going to have to explain to Edison why Cameron was failing already. They had such high hopes of managing the slackers of the group this year, if only to save them the embarrassment of losing all their house points.

"Money," Alice answered easily. Nearly all her family's problems would be solved if a single galleon could be replicated.

  

"Ah rats!" Sloane was quick on the pitch, but not so slick in the classroom. Even though they were nowhere near a classroom at the moment. Why she and Alice were the ones going up against each other at this very moment, getting quizzed on Transfiguration of all classes, she couldn't begin to know, but here she was. Transfiguration was easily her best class, aside from Care of Magical Creatures, which were the only two she felt confident helping people in, and not being the one who needed help.

"My recall is terrible, this is going to be a blowout." She scowled as she put her arms down on the table and her head down atop them.

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"A point for the fearsome Miss Dawson," he said, marking it down in ink on his forearm. "Another appropriate answer would have been... uh..." He squinted at the handwriting on the cards (which only existed because he'd been forced to), and found that he could only make out one of the other answers. "Life. No bringing back dead people, alright?" he joked.

Sloane looked dejected already, and he felt a little bad. If he'd been up against her, she would be able to score every point. He leaned forward and patted her elbow comfortingly. "This time we'll do a more practical one, alright?" He shuffled through the cards, looking for any writing that would indicate a practical test.

"Ha!" he exclaimed after a good twenty seconds. "Turn a candlestick into a vase," he instructed, and pointed towards the two candles that were at each end of the table they sat in front of.

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"Too easy! Sloane was quick with this, she aimed her new wand at the nearest candle and with a quick whip of her wrist and the right incantation and they were looking at a pretty, translucent vase, complete with flowers. That she could handle in her sleep!

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The casual, reassuring touch he offered Sloane was too reminiscent of the guiding hand he'd given her this summer for her liking. Alice always knew in the back of her head that there was no coming between Cameron and Sloane, but the reminder still stung. "You'll get there," she offered weakly instead of her normal confident reply. Alice had to get over herself, and fast.

She was too distracted to beat Sloane, but her vase was equally as beautiful. Although not translucent, the gold of the candlestick shone brightly against the red roses. "A first year could do that, Cameron." Really, it was his abilities that should be being tested.

The following 2 users Like Alice Dawson's post:2 users Like Alice Dawson's post
   Cameron Gillenwater, Sloane Bixby

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Amazing set by Bee!

Cameron looked back and forth between the two vases before nodding. "Impressive," he said, marking down a point for each of them on his arm. He prepared to go onto the next question, but then Alice had to go and say that.

"Ouch," he said, his brows furrowing and lips slipping into a small frown. "I know you're smart and all, but not everyone's good at everything." Transfiguration was one of Cameron's best classes, and that was saying something; he regularly strayed behind his classmates in practical lessons, and could only dream of understanding the formulas they were presented with the first time.

"But fine, we'll go onto the next subject," he grumbled, and began shifting through his other stack of poorly-organized cards.

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Oh. She hadn't meant to hurt his feelings, but saw in hindsight the comment was offensive to those less book smart. "You just have to study, is all. Here, I'll moderate this round," she offered. He wasn't going to get better if he didn't put in the effort. Besides, she could use a minute to reign in her mounting jealousy.

Where was Sisse when she needed her?

  

"Don't let him fool you," Sloane snatched the cards away from Alice as she reached for them. "This is not the class we need help in." Cam was having too much fun with it and now sweet Alice was backpedaling from her comment, which was accurate.

With a flick of her wand, Sloane transfigured her vase back to a candlestick. "You do it." It was a dare, but not serious as she smiled the whole way through it. Alice could be the softy but Sloane wasn't going to let him slack.

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This was becoming much less fun than he'd anticipated. His face slipped into a pout when Sloane, not Alice, grabbed the card, intent on being hard on him. It was the ultimate betrayal.

"Remember how we talked about being honest with our feelings, dear Sloane?" he said sarcastically as he pulled his wand out. He looked at the candlestick, which he knew was bound to remain a candlestick. "Well, right now I'm feeling very resentful towards all this," he explained, motioning to the candlestick wit his hand. He stared at the object from all angles, only passing a glance to both girls once. It was better not to watch them laugh at him. He could only stand so many hits to his pride per day.

He finally attempted to cast the spell, and watched as the gold candlestick turned to a glass vase that was similar to Sloane's—temporarily. A smile began to spread on his face, because though it was misshapen it was a vase... but then it had to go and shatter, of course.

Scowling, he leaned back on the couch and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Sisse would never do this to me," he complained.

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"I'll give you feelings," She laughed, thinking nothing of it, but she should. Things were a little too familiar these days with their no fighting agreement. "Just remember you started it and I'm the mean one." Sisse was the nicest one out of all of them, of course she wouldn't do that.

His attempt wasn't bad, but it didn't last long either and then it shattered. Wincing, Sloane quietly fixed the vase and turned it back into a candlestick. Her tone softened just a little bit. "Try again, keep it simple, don't change the colors, just she shape." Just because she and Alice had been able to also change the look didn't mean he couldn't do it, he just needed to change less and focus on the important parts.

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The following 2 users Like Sloane Bixby's post:2 users Like Sloane Bixby's post
   Alice Dawson, Cameron Gillenwater

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Their banter further unsettled her. Where normally Alice could laugh and follow along, today she felt off-kilter and green with envy. Something was changing between them — something determined to shift the group's energy. She ought to leave, give them the privacy to banter and argue at will. But, leaving would only cast curious eyes in her direction. No, Alice had to stay put for the time being, even if it meant being desperately uncomfortable.

The first vase shattered, and, again, before Alice could react Sloane had reverted the shards back to their original state. "You can do it, Cameron," she said encouragingly.

  

”Hey now,” he said with a mock scowl, “I was just trying to help you practice. Besides, I read the questions, you give the answers, I learn then answers—it’s a better strategy than watching me fail.” What he didn’t (and wouldn’t) say was that he was appreciative of their kindness; he was embarrassed enough of his failures as it was, and he’d hate to let them know that.

He eyed the reformed candlestick with suspicion and held his wand carefully. He glanced up between the girls, too focused on getting it right to be aware of the shift in their demeanors, and then cast the spell.

There appeared a vase—one that looked bumpy and sculpted by a ten-year-old, but a vase nonetheless.

He looked up at Sloane and Alice with a bright, proud smile. “See? Not totally useless.”

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"Of course not," she replied brightly. The vase was hideous in comparison to the one she and Sloane created, but it was a vase nevertheless. Progress was progress, as Mum would say. "We knew you could do it." Alice looked towards Sloane for confirmation, hoping her friend wouldn't demean Cameron in an effort to further their banter.

Though, perhaps if Sloane made some teasing comment the strange tension between the trio would ease. Either that or Alice could use the success as a way to leave the study session.

  

Giving him a skeptical look, she was about to comment on it, but decided against it. Sloane wasn't exactly one to talk about not being good at certain subjects, so she wasn't going to poke the bear either. She'd already been a giant hypocrite once this week, a second time wouldn't be great.

Sloane raised her eyebrows at his second attempt however, briefly making them orange, before shrugging. "It wasn't terrible." She acquiesced with a smile. The look Alice passed her hadn't gone unnoticed and she didn't feel like arguing with either one of them about it.

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Cameron pouted at Sloane, half because he needed to make a point that she was being petulant but also because he'd done a darn good job on that vase and she ought to be more proud of him. In contrast, he gave Alice a warm smile and a dramatic, "Thank you, Alice." He eyed Sloane out of the corner of his eye, long enough so she would notice, before turning to look back at her.

"I may not be the world's greatest transfiguration...er, but I could beat either of you in a duel. I swear it." He'd never done particularly well in Defence Against the Dark Arts where book work was concerned, but he was impulsive enough with his spell-casting to avoid getting hit. Most of the time.

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