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

[chanuphis]

"Yeah, we could coast on just following the recipes but the principles are pretty interesting and not that hard to memorize."

[mrwoods]

"Yeah. Guess I have an actual reason to study during the year now. I wonder what Slughorn will think of me if I'm simultaneously one of his best students and also one of the largest causes for grief amongst the Slytherins."

[chanuphis]

"No idea. He didn't actually promise to do the tutorial, you know, he said he'd consider it, if he can't stand the idea of dealing with you for another couple hours a week..."

[mrwoods]

He blinks. "Nnnnnooooooooooooooooooooo!" he wails. "...maybe Professor Robledo would be more help, he likes me, and there's some stuff related to Transfiguration in Alchemy, right? I mean, the Stone turns stuff into gold and stuff..."

[chanuphis]

"Professor Slughorn teaches the actual NEWT-level Alchemy course," Miranda says. "I imagine this is because he's best suited to it."

[mrwoods]

He puts his face on his hands and whimpers softly.

Then he straightens up abruptly and beams at Miranda. "I know! You could teach me!"

[chanuphis]

"What makes you think I'd be any good at teaching you things I was only just learning myself? Or that you'd be allowed the materials and equipment you'd need to do anything if you weren't supervised by a teacher?"

[mrwoods]

His face falls again. "Whyyyyyy is everyone trying to make me behaaaaave," he moans.

[msmaxwell]

Willow giggles and pats Sadde's back in a 'there, there' fashion.

[pleating]

"As long as you only get into trouble that doesn't look like your fault, and never with Miranda - or me, I want to do alchemy too - and never in class, Slughorn won't necessarily care."

[mrwoods]

He blinks, and beams again. "Karen, I could just kiss you! You're a genius!" That first part probably means little and less, given the whole 'pre-pubescent kid' thing.

[pleating]

Karen doesn't read into it. "You're welcome."

[mrwoods]

He grins, and starts concocting nefarious plans. Because nefarious plans concocted at breakfast are clearly the best nefarious plans.

[chanuphis]

"There goes my attempt to reform you."

[mrwoods]

"Blame Karen, she's the one who corrupted me all over again."

He smiles at her again.

"Although I'd probably have come up with something like that eventually anyway so I guess I can take all the blame if you want."

[chanuphis]

"Why do you like getting into trouble so much anyway?"

[mrwoods]

"I'm sure there's some Freudian explanation but I have no idea what it is. Hm, well, thinking about it it may have something to do with the years of bullying and the defence mechanisms created, where I'd become scarier than the bullies were and more frustrating than their other targets until they either gave up or something bad like the Hulk incident happened. I mean, I don't want to cause trouble per se, I just think it's funny to be a wild card and I really really dislike bullies."

[pleating]

"Hulk incident?"

[mrwoods]

"There was this one time this bully was, well, bullying me, calling me freak and he-she and other worse stuff, but he pushed some very specific buttons he was not supposed to know about, and I was not quite able to not, erm, morph into something very scary and then hit him a lot." He doesn't blush, but he looks suitably embarrassed. "That's the one time I'm very certain the Ministry actually erased a lot of time from the minds of a lot of people. And, er, that won't happen again, promise. I don't, er, have temper problems anymore."

[pleating]

"That's... good..."

[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."