alchemical blurb

[mswoods]

The following day, Sadde has Transfiguration in the morning.

She is all over it at lunch.

"Okay, so, Transfig is just about the coolest thing," she says first thing to the Ravenclaws as soon as she sits at the table.

Comments

[mrwoods]

He purses his lips. "It's true!" he says, for what it's worth.

[msmaxwell]

Willow pats his back again. "I believe you," she says, kindly.

[chanuphis]

"I'm not sure why this all adds up to deliberately making room in your schedule to provoke people."

[mrwoods]

He shrugs. "I'm not sure it does. I just find it really funny to throw other people for a loop? Except not really really, most of my 'provoking' takes the form of that tongue-flick thing: mostly punctual mostly harmless things that cause people to make faces and noises that I find funny." Shrug again. "It's only people I dislike that I actively make room in your schedule to provoke. Like Arens."

He happens to catch said Slytherin's eye just then and waves at the boy, who scowls and returns to his conversation.

[chanuphis]

"If you say so."

[mrwoods]

"Yeah, I do. And I usually try to offset that by being extra-nice to other random people. This has helped before! Not as much as I'd like, but yeah."

[chanuphis]

"I think this might just make you seem weird and inconsistent and constantly up to something."

[mrwoods]

"Mmm, I don't think I'm inconsistent. I can consistently predict the kinds of stuff I'm going to do, usually! Like, I think if someone had told me beforehand that Rufus would mention my parents' situation to me I would probably have noticed this would make me unreasonably angry and then taken steps to prevent myself from being angry. The surprise was a decisive factor, there. And I can totally predict that I will sometimes tongue-flick at random people just to watch them go 'eep.'"

[chanuphis]

"I said seem."

[mrwoods]

"Hmm. I'm not entirely sure that's an outcome I dislike."

[chanuphis]

"I didn't think it was, but it sounds inconvenient to me, especially if you ever want to have more friends than the three of us."

[mrwoods]

"Why would I need more, you three are awesome," he giggles.

[chanuphis]

"Sounds like you know what you're doing, I guess."

[mrwoods]

He laughs. "Besides, I can totally get more friends. I predict Jacob and I will become friends byyyyyy the end of the year. Jacob's another firstie Slytherin, by the way."

[chanuphis]

"Is he the one who came and told us you were jinxed?"

[mrwoods]

"Ooh he might just be! I was wondering how you'd found out. Oh man he is in so much trouble, I'd better help him out. Tentative prediction change: friends before the winter holidays."

[chanuphis]

"He said they told him not to get a professor, but he didn't, he got us. I feel like Slytherins ought to appreciate that logic."

[mrwoods]

"Hmmm yesss they might, how did he find you guys?"

[chanuphis]

"He just walked over to us shortly before we came and fetched you and asked if we were your friends."

[mrwoods]

He scratches his head. "Hmmm. He might not be in too much trouble. Did any other Slytherins see him? If they find out he technically-didn't-break-the-rules they will probably try to teach him a lesson about not being found technically-not-breaking-the-rules."

[chanuphis]

"I don't know if they saw him but they weren't in earshot."

[pleating]

"If they find out what?"

[mrwoods]

"Well, they told Jacob not to tell a Professor, so he went and told you guys, which technically isn't telling a Professor but accomplishes the same goal, which is good Slytherin behaviour, go around the system instead of against it, except a much better Slytherin behaviour is doing that and not getting caught. There was a whole speech about Proper Slytherin Behaviour by one of the older students the other day."

[chanuphis]

"There was? What else constitutes proper Slytherin behavior?"

[mrwoods]

He starts making a list. "It's good Slytherin behaviour to have inscrutable goals; it's Proper Slytherin Behaviour to have very clear and obviously correct public goals that are not in fact your real goals. It's good Slytherin behaviour to technically-not-break-rules; it's Proper Slytherin Behaviour to not be found out while doing that; it's Extra Proper Slytherin Behaviour to be the one making the rules. It's good Slytherin behaviour to know your enemies better than your friends; it's Proper Slytherin Behaviour to never let other people think of you as their enemy no matter what you think of them." He shrugs. "There was more, but at some point I had to pay more attention to holding my giggles than to listening because this is the House that supported a Dark Lord and thinks muggles aren't people. Most of them couldn't recognise a cunning plot if it danced on the table and threw its bra at them."