i'm gonna make it better

[Gabriella Rivera]

Doing unnecessary work outside of the classroom was not on the list of Top Ten Things Gabriella wanted to do during her weekend. As a matter of fact, it wasn't even close to the Top Ten. Or Top Twenty. Probably not even the Top Fifty list, if she had one. Point being, she really wasn't the type to go around doing extra work. Unless, of course, it was for someone else. That was an exception to every single one of her rules, wasn't it? So instead of being curled up in an arm chair with one of the novels Aunt Inez had bought her for Christmas (she had blushed furiously when her Aunt had winked at her and had hastened to hide the title and cover from her father. She wasn't surprised that her Aunt knew about her reading preferences; she'd found Gabby's stash last summer when she'd been cleaning her room. She was blessedly understanding about it, though, and had promised not to tell her father a word about it, so that was a definite plus). But sometimes you had to make sacrifices, so to speak, and Gabby had made her fair share of sacrifices. This one was hardly worth acknowledging since in comparison to, say, wasting away her weekends in the library doing the homework of a sixth year who turned out to be a completely abominable jerk. No, this time she was using her weekend to help someone who was an honest-to-Dios friend of hers. Best friend, even. More specifically, Lyle Malarkey who, out of all her friends, was, perhaps, the one who needed help the most, considering recent events in his life. The idea to help him out had come to her while she was working on her Potions project. She and Daciana had managed to - somewhat successfully - brew a potion that gave you semi-good dreams. And while he hadn't exactly told her, Gabby knew that Lyle was having trouble sleeping. She knew that sometimes sleep completely eluded her, and her experience hadn't been nearly as traumatizing as his. So, needless to say, Gabby decided that she needed to help any way she can, because seeing her best friend in such a terrible state was not something she could simply stand by and continue watching without taking action.

At first, Gabby had considered making the potion she and Daciana had created for Lyle, too. But then she realised that it probably wasn't a good idea, because it wasn't quite perfect and what if he got some weird allergic reaction to one of the extra ingredients they had used? So the second - and safer - option was then obvious: She'd brew the dreamless draught, instead. It was slightly trickier since Gabby couldn't make it up as she went along, but she had confidence in her potions skills. And besides, she was definitely going to try it on herself first before she gave it to Lyle, lest she mess it up and end up putting him in a coma. She'd much rather harm herself than her best friend. Granted, Gideon would throw a fit if he knew. But that was why she kept these little, unimportant things to herself. Until she actually did them. And then he sort of had to found out. And then he got mad and told her off. But hey, she was sure there would be some sort of magical concoction to wake her up! And what he didn't know, couldn't hurt him. Then again, the last time she had not told him something, she'd ended up almost getting raped and killed, and almost getting him murdered in the process. And with that in mind, she told him she was going to go make a potion for Lyle to help him sleep. Of course, she conveniently left out the part of using herself as a guinea pig, but she doubted he would've told her it was a good idea if she confessed that part. At least now she had somewhat of his blessing, and if something were to happen she could totally point out that she did ask his permission. Somehow, that helped ease her conscience a little bit.

As she descended into the dungeons, Gabriella pulled her jacket around her body unconsciously. It was always chilly in this part of the castle, and she wished that the classroom to her favourite lesson wasn't so poorly stationed. She just hoped she didn't end up running into any Slytherins, like Paris Parkinson or Daciana Gamp or, worse, Severus Snape, because she was pretty sure that none of those three could stand to be around her. Except for maybe Paris, but, to be honest, she didn't want to cross paths with him ever again, and not just because of her promise to Gideon and her father, but also because, whenever they saw each other, he tried to intimidate her (and, more often than not, it worked). Once, he'd popped out of no where when she was walking down the hallway and caused her to drop all her books. As much as she'd like to think that he hadn't done it on purpose, there was a distinct footprint on the essay she was supposed to hand in that day that implied otherwise. Even she couldn't excuse him out of that. Besides, she didn't particularly want to. She'd finally come to realise that Paris really wasn't a good person. Thankfully, the corridors were fairly empty, and the few wandering about wasn't anyone she recognised, so she managed to duck into the Potions classroom undetected. Once within the safety of her fifth favourite place at Hogwarts. Bouncing towards the ingredients cabinet, she produced the list of components she needed from her bag and began collecting them in her arms, taking several trips between the closest table and the cabinet. Once she'd set up her station, Gabby began by chopping the wormwood. She was about to start the fire for her Potion when the door opened and she jumped, letting out a started squeak and turning around on her heel, automatically feeling guilty, even though she'd asked Professor Slughorn if she could be here. But then she immediately relaxed when she saw it was just- "Imogen! What're you doing here?"

The question came out before she could stop it, and Gabby immediately blushed afterwards, because she hadn't meant to sound so accusatory. It was a free classroom, after all, so it wasn't like Imogen wasn't allowed to be there. She had as much right to be here as Gabby did, if not more because she was a Prefect and all. And, with that in mind, Gabriella hastened to fix her error. "Sorry, I wasn't expecting anyone to come here during the weekend. Um. Are you here to make a potion, too?"

[/color] There. That sounded better. And then, because she was paranoid: "I have permission from Professor Slughorn to be here."[/color]

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[Imogen Sauveterre]

[/color]

Being someone’s best friend meant more than just knowing someone’s birthday or middle name or knowing how many siblings they did or did not have. It was knowing more than their past or what they wanted in their future. Anyone could know those things without even talking to the person himself; all that took was a little bit of research. Being someone’s best friend meant trying to understand what they weren’t saying, and from that, figuring out what they needed.
What Stefan needed, Imogen couldn’t really give to him. He needed his family back. He needed his mum and his dad to have met him after Christmas, instead of him going to meet them in a funeral home. It wasn’t fair that they’d been taken from him. But it was never really fair when a kid was orphaned, whether they were six or sixteen. Losing parents was never easy. It never would be.

The only thing Imogen couldn’t fully understand was Stefan’s focus on his relationship with Lyle. Before, she’d thought that maybe he was zeroing in on that aspect of his life because it was familiar, and had been good (to him), and because maybe he was desperate to keep something like that in his life. But after talking to Lyle herself after speaking with Stefan, Imogen wasn’t so sure his approach was the best way to go about his loss. In fact, she was pretty sure it was causing more problems – but how do you tell someone who just lost his parents that he had to let go of something else important in his life? Stefan loved Lyle, and Imogen knew that Lyle cared deeply for Stefan as well. For him, it wasn’t a matter of feelings simply disappearing or fading. Lyle had been through trauma too, and never got a chance to recover from it, and now was expected to coddle and comfort Stefan. What mattered more: loss of innocence or loss of parents?

Imogen shook her head and scolded herself. It wasn’t as black-and-white as choosing which loss was more important. Both would be gone someday, but neither should have been stolen in violent and grotesque ways the way they had been in Lyle and Stefan’s cases. She couldn’t give Lyle his innocence, and she couldn’t give Stefan his parents. And she didn’t know Lyle well enough to know how to help him. And Stefan… Stefan, she was ashamed to admit, she hadn’t fully figured out how to help yet. But in the meantime, she’d try a potion. Imogen had first heard about the Draught for a Dreamless Sleep years ago, before she even started at Hogwarts, when Florence read a letter from Simon and he mentioned that he’d made the best one in the class. He’d been a fifth year then, so even though they hadn’t covered the potion in class yet, Imogen knew it would be in her textbook. Sleeping Draughts were covered in second year, but the Draught for a Dreamless Sleep was a bit more tricky; Imogen was sure she could handle it. Even though she could master spells and charms after a bit of research and practice, Potions was a class she seemed to get almost immediately. It would be a breeze, which was good, because Stefan needed it.

Okay, she’d never actually asked Stefan if he was having trouble sleeping. But he had seemed tired when they talked, and after everything that had happened and what was going on right now, Imogen couldn’t imagine he was sleeping very well anyway. A few nights of dreamless sleeping never hurt anybody. Nodding to herself, Imogen descended into the dungeons and made her way toward the Potions classroom. Down the hall, she spotted Vivi chatting with an older boy, and resisted the urge to flash her Prefect badge and tell her to get to bed. Fun as it would be, it was an abuse of power, and Vivi was the sort who’d find some way to get revenge in a way ten times as humiliating. Instead, Imogen made to duck into the dark shadows of the wall, but scuffed her toe on a loose stone and stumbled, swearing slightly as Vivi glanced her way and laughed. Imogen shot her a glare, but reached the door to the classroom and went inside, trying to ignore how red her face had gotten.

She hadn’t even had a chance to look around before she heard her name being called. Jumping slightly, Imogen whipped around and saw Gabriella Rivera setting up a cauldron at one of the tables. “Um…” she said a little stupidly, not sure how to tell Gabby she was here to make a potion to help a friend sleep. It wasn’t really Gabby’s business, and was sort-of invading Stefan’s privacy, wasn’t it? Fortunately Gabby went on, and Imogen let out a little laugh, relieved that she was caught off-guard, too. “You’ve got one up on me, then,” she said with a small smile. “I sort-of forgot to ask permission. That’ll be our secret though, yeah?” For a very weird second, Fabian Prewett’s face flashed in her mind, raising a finger to his lips in a way he’d done over Christmas to show that he was keeping a secret. It was funny, she thought without amusement, that she only needed to think about him doing that and she’d get flutterbies in her tummy all over again.

“You’re not here for remedial potions,” she said, furrowing her brow. Gabby was good at potion-making, she recalled from lessons with Hufflepuffs. She glanced at her ingredients on the table and blinked, wondering why they seemed so famil—

“Dreamless Sleep. You’re making the Draught for Dreamless Sleep.” Coincidences – not fate, she decided, because she didn’t believe in fate – never failed to amaze her. For some reason or another, Gabriella was making the exact same potion Imogen intended, and on the same night, too. She chuckled to herself and approached the desk. “I mean, it’s just… funny. I came here to make it too.” Dropping her bags, Imogen pulled out her textbook and flipped it open to the page with the instructions and sat down next to Gabby. “What d’you say to making it together? It’d be easier, since we’re both capable of handling tricky potions.”

[Gabriella Rivera]

When it became apparent to Gabby that Imogen wasn't here to take points off her or give her detention or something for being here out of class hours, the Hufflepuff relaxed and smiled softly at the other girl, sitting down on the stool next to her and swinging her legs idly. "Yep! It'll be our little secret. I won't tell anyone, I swear," she added, even going as far as making a zipping-and-throwing-away-the-key motion over her mouth before grinning at Imogen again. When she stated that Gabby wasn't here for remedial potions, she shifted a little in her seat and then nodded, not too sure whether she should tell her what she was actually here for or not. She didn't know if she was allowed to make a Dreamless Draught outside of the classroom or not. She didn't think it was in the school rules, but then again she'd honestly never read all the rules. Skimmed them, mostly, but there were just so many. And she was generally a good girl and didn't do anything too troublesome or crazy, so she had simply assumed she wouldn't go around breaking any. Which was probably a poor assumption to make, but she'd gotten through five years of school without getting into too much trouble, so she figured she could hold out for two more without getting expelled or otherwise punished for her behavior. Besides, she supposed not a lot of people had read them, either. There were a lot, okay? Like. Over a hundred. And she liked reading steamy novels and potions books, not boring rules that were mostly common sense anyway. And if there were any new ones, or any particularly important ones, like staying out of the Forbidden Forest (which she had, ironically, broken herself), Professor Dumbledore made sure to mention it during the welcoming feast, so she was fine.

"I am!"

[/color] she confirmed, surprised that Imogen had been able to correctly guess what Gabby was here for. She knew the ingredients to the Potion were unique, but she hadn't thought Imogen would have them memorised. The reason was quickly given, though, when Imogen admitted that she was here to make the same potion. Her surprise grew, and so did her eyes, because really, what were the odds? Unlike Imogen, Gabby did believe in Fate, but even so it seemed entirely too coincidental that two girls would come to the same classroom at the same time to make the exact same potion. Fate could be very funny like that, she supposed. Her startled expression quickly melted into a grin when the Ravenclaw went on to suggest that they do it together. She knew Imogen was excellent at Potions, probably even better than Gabby herself, so working together was probably a very good idea and the brunette found herself nodding eagerly, bouncing a little on her stool and then leaning over to look at the instructions. "Yeah, that sounds great! I don't have much practice with it at all, so I think two heads are better than one! I looked at the instructions and I don't remember it being this complicated, so I was a little worried that I was going to do it wrong. I was going to test it on myself before I gave it to..."[/color] She trailed off and bit her lip, realising that she might have said too much and hastily tried to fix it by adding, "...Madam Pomfrey,"[/color] it was a horrible lie and she felt bad for lying to Imogen because she really liked the Ravenclaw, but she didn't think Lyle wanted the fact that he can't sleep being advertised. Shifting uncomfortably, Gabby changed the subject by reaching for the first ingredient and starting to chop it up. "Can you start the fire while I chop?"[/color] she suggested without looking up from her meticulous work.

ooc: wow this is really short AND late *hides in a corner* but it's over 500 words so

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[Imogen Sauveterre]

[/color]

Even though Imogen had completely expected to be alone down here, it was kind-of nice to see a friendly face. Now, she and Gabby weren’t friends, per se, but they were certainly civil to each other, and found no reason to dislike each other at all. Besides, she had to admit that she liked the idea of someone helping her with the potion, especially someone good at the subject. Imogen wasn’t bad, not at all, but she did feel better when she was partnered with someone who was capable of handling tricky and temperamental potions. As far as she knew, Gabby was perfect. Imogen even considered the Hufflepuff to be better than she was at the subject. Sure, Imogen was academic and could recite properties and ingredients by heart, but to truly make a potion good, you had to have a certain touch. And Imogen was sure that was something she didn’t have, but maybe Gabby did.

They’d just have to wait and see, though.

At Gabby’s suggestion, Imogen took out her wand and carefully aimed it at the burner. “Incendio,” she cast softly, lighting the burner beneath the cauldron. Gabby had already started chopping up the quills, so Imogen set about crushing the dried nettles into a fine powder. According to the textbook, the quills had to be added first – precisely three – followed by a teaspoon of finely-crushed nettles, and stirred clockwise three times. Imogen waited until Gabby had deposited her ingredients before adding her own. The ladle was on Gabby’s side, so Imogen let her stir it while she tried to look for the five brightest stalks of goosegrass. Thinking she found them, she showed them to Gabby. “What do you think? The book says it needs the brightest ones. I dunno, they all just look yellow to me.”

Whatever Gabby thought, Imogen didn’t have a chance to find out. A shadow passed over the doorway, then doubled back and stopped outside. Imogen looked up, sighing when she noticed the figure of her sister standing there. “What?” she asked, a little snappily, and her patience waned when Vivi raised her eyebrows and snorted. “We’re busy, Vivi.”

“Oh, of course,” Vivi replied, stepping into the classroom and coming over to them. Imogen straightened up, wishing she could shield the book from Vivi’s sight but knowing that it would only cause more trouble. “Just wanted to say hello, of course. What are you up to?” She peered down at the book before looking back up at them, eyebrows raised into her fringe. “Dreamless Sleep? What’s wrong, Immi? Trouble sleeping? What about you?” She turned to Gabby, her big eyes wide as though trying to look concerned. She leaned over the cauldron, placing her hands on the table (in the middle of Imogen’s ingredients, she noticed with disdain) and seemed to be attempting to stare the smaller girl down. All right, that was enough.

“Okay,” Imogen interjected, getting to her feet, “we’re really busy here, so I think you should go. And you can’t ‘bust us’, either, we have permission from Slughorn to be here. So get.” She motioned her head toward the door. Vivi straightened up, and Imogen noticed that her little sister had grown a few inches since the summer: they were nearly the same height now. For a while, Vivi didn’t move. Finally, she seemed to make up her mind to leave, brushing her hand along the rim of the cauldron as she turned around and left without a word. Funny, Imogen had been expecting her to put up more of a fight.

“Sorry about that,” she said to Gabby, sitting back down beside her. “That was my sister. She can be… intrusive. Destructive. Et cetera.” She waved her hand as if swatting a fly and looked back at the book. “Okay, so we did the stirring, and I was… oh, right. Do these look like the brightest stalks to you?”

[Gabriella Rivera]

While Gabby stirred the potion cautiously into a counter-clockwise motion (she couldn't remembered exactly, but some potions had a tendency to bubble over or even explode if you stirred them too fast and, although there was no warning against that in the book, she didn't want to take her chances), she watched Imogen try to pick out the next ingredient. Frowning at her question, Gabriella paused her stirring to lean on her tip toes, trying to see the goosegrass better. However, she didn't have a chance to voice her opinion, because the next thing she knew, they were being interrupted. At first, Gabby immediately jumped to the worst case scenario - that they'd been caught by a professor or, worse, Filch. Filch was worse because at least a professor would listen to their explanation and agree to see her note from Professor Slughorn, while Filch would simply give them detention on the spot, and she'd heard that Filch's detentions were usually in the forest, and her experience with the werewolf in the forest was enough to scar Gabby for life, so she wasn't exactly excited about the prospect of going back in there again.

Thankfully, she didn't have to, because it appeared that they had been interrupted by another student. And not just any student, either, but Imogen's sister, Genevieve. Unfortunately, she'd heard - and witnessed - that Vivi wasn't exactly nice, and, admittedly, Gabby was a little (okay, a lot) intimidated (terrified) by her and tried her very best to avoid her as much as possible. Thankfully, she had never been on Vivi's radar, and hoped she never would be. When the Slytherin leaned over the desk, her stance clearly meant to intimidate, Gabby shrank back a little in surprise; obviously, the younger girl's technique was working. Or Gabby was just a coward. Probably, it was the latter. "Umm..." Thankfully, she didn't get a chance to stammer out a response that would have been riddled with uncertainty, since Imogen cleared up that they were allowed to be here and told her (albeit a little rudely) to leave. For whatever reason, Genevieve actually listened and Gabby felt as if she could breathe a bit better, although she hadn't realised she'd been sort of holding her breath since Vivi had gotten here. Waving her hand a little over her face, she managed a small smile in Imogen's direction. "Your sister scares me a little," she admitted as she swallowed and then returned to stirring the potion after she'd pointed out which of the goosegrass stalks looked the brightest to her.

It took a half hour for the potion to brew, but finally Gabby thought it was done and she leaned over the cauldron to inspect their hard work. When she saw it, she immediately felt a little crestfallen, looking at the book again to see it's appearance. "Does the colour look a little...off to you?"

[/color] she asked uncertainly, looking at the contents of the cauldron again. "I mean. It almost looked right. And I suppose the book can sometimes be misleading. Like, in the lessons with Severus -- um, Mister Snape,"[/color] she felt herself blush at the little hiccup and hastily moved on before Imogen could comment on it, "--he always said that the book never gave you exactly the right ingredients. He always made additions himself. So maybe this book doesn't give the ingredients or the method perfectly? I mean, we did everything right, I know we did." There were very few things Gabriella was exceptionally confident about, and Potions was definitely one of them.

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[Imogen Sauveterre]

[/color]

Vivi’s interruption aside, Imogen and Gabby returned to the potion. She tried to smile at the smaller girl when she confessed to being a little afraid of her sister, but the truth was, Gabby wasn’t the only one. Imogen knew she was supposed to love her family, but Vivi… well… she gave her ‘the creeps’, to be honest. That was the only way to describe it. Imogen was glad she left when she did, though to be honest, she was a little worried by how easy it was to get her to leave. Part of her wanted to hope that Vivi actually decided to respect her older sister, for once, but her more logical and realistic side told her to be wary. When Vivi cooperated, it generally tended to mean that she had something else up her sleeve – something not good.

She’d just have to keep an eye on her, she silently decided, then helped Gabby choose the brightest stalks of goosegrass.

They continued to brew the potion in relative silence, their focus on it solely now as it drew closer to being completed. It seemed to smell all right, but the whole time, all Imogen could think was that the colour somehow looked off. She kept glancing from the book to the potion, and checked with Gabby from time to time to make sure they were on the right track. Gabby seemed sure that they were, but by the time the potion finished brewing, she seemed to have the same concerns as Imogen. “No, you’re right,” she said with a heavy sigh, noting that Gabby had been spending extra time with that Snape fellow. Apparently he was a better potions master than Slughorn, or so Imogen had heard. Maybe he could give them a hand, but he didn’t seem like a charitable sort of bloke. Oh well, she’d remember him if she did need to contact him for something.

“I don’t really get it.” She shrugged her shoulders and peered over the cauldron. “Maybe… I mean, it’s an old textbook, maybe the potion’s been updated – but that kinda – I dunno. Why would they make us get out-dated textbooks? It’s stupid.” She sat down, disappointed, and slumped her shoulders. This was rather distressing, really; she definitely didn’t want to spend another hour trying to brew it again, and she was positive Gabby didn’t want to either.

“We did everything right, I’m positive. Anyway, you and I are good at potions, there’s no way both of us could screw up.” She scrunched up her face in frustration, giving the table leg a small kick for good measure. Well, fuck. There was absolutely no way she was giving this potion to Stefan, not when it looked so funky. At least…

“Listen, uh… I can’t give this to… Don’t tell anyone, but… I gotta test this before I do anything else with it, all right? I gotta make sure it’s safe. I’m pretty sure it’s not gonna kill me, haha. But uh, just in case…” She went over to Slughorn’s storage chest, where several ingredients and other materials were kept, and searched through drawers before she found what she was looking for. Pulling out two stone-like objects, she brought them over to the table and set them down. “They’re bezoars,” she said to Gabby, positive that the Hufflepuff knew what they were and how to use them. “Preparing for the worst case scenario, right? Anyway, uhh…” She grabbed a small vial from her back, carefully pouring some of the potion into it. It was a small amount, enough to knock her out for maybe an hour of dreamless sleep, if the potion actually worked the way it was supposed to.

There was only one way to find out, after all.

[Gabriella Rivera]

Gabby wasn't sure whether to be relieved or anxious that Imogen agreed about the potion not being quite right. She settled on the latter. Even though she was secretly pleased that she had correctly deducted what the potion should be (or should not be) and that Imogen Sauveterre actually agreed with her, because Gabby had always been equal parts intimidated by and admirable of Imogen. The former were for reasons unknown even to Gabby herself, but the latter was obvious. Imogen was extremely clever, she was a Prefect, she worked for The Hogwarts Herald, she seemed to be perfectly comfortable talking to guys, she was incredibly pretty without being snooty about it (as a matter of fact, Imogen seemed modest about her looks) and, finally, she was a Slug Club Member. Which, naturally, Gabriella wasn't at all envious of that last one, not at all - okay, she was a little, because Potions was her favourite and she obviously excelled in it, but she understood why Professor Slughorn would have never invited to the club because, well, she was a muggleborn and hardly had any money to her name, but it didn't stop her from wishing that, just once, Professor Slughorn would do more than give her a "good job, Miss...?" and look at her expectantly until she told him her name for what felt like the hundredth time. And, okay, so it wasn't the hundredth time since she'd only really started to blatantly excel in his class this year, because previously she'd been a fan of staying under the radar and, although that hadn't exactly changed, it was her OWL year and...well, this year was the year where Gabby sort of wanted to feel noticed.

"I don't think it's outdated," Gabby said, chewing on her bottom lip. "Maybe the person who wrote this just doesn't know how to brew the potion perfectly? Or maybe because it's not a potion that should be brewed by just anyone, this method just made a milder version? Like, maybe this helps you fall asleep, but doesn't make your dreams completely...well, dreamless?"

[/color] Not sure that she's making sense anymore, Gabriella shrugged and shifted her weight from one foot to the other, continuing to stare down at the cauldron with a frown, as if she was trying to puzzle an answer out of the contents. She was a bit startled when Imogen kicked the table out of frustration, worrying her bottom lip again and reaching out to pat her arm cautiously. "It's okay, Imogen. If it doesn't work, we can always start over."[/color] She supposed Lyle could go another night without it, since he didn't even know she was doing this for him so it wasn't like he was anticipating it or anything. Pulling her hand away, Gabby sat back on her stool, her legs swaying a little. It was frustrating that they'd worked so hard and put so much effort into the Potion only to come out with a less-than-satisfactory result, but that was sort of how it went in Potions. You make one tiny error and, more often than not, the entire thing was botched and you had to start from scratch. Gabby had embraced that; maybe Imogen hadn't done the same? Or maybe whoever she wanted this potion for really needed it. It made Gabriella very curious as to her reasoning, but she knew it wasn't her place to ask, so she didn't. Instead, she waited for Imogen to tell them what to do.

But then Imogen went ahead and told her anyway - well, sort of. She told her it was for someone, and Gabby frowned and nodded, because of course she understood. She would never give Lyle a Potion that she wasn't sure was one hundred effective. She'd planned to test the Potion on herself anyway. Gabby watched Imogen go over to the storage cupboard, tilting her head when she saw that she had taken out two objects, instantly recognising them as bezoars. She hopped off the stool, her frown deepening at Imogen's words, and then her eyes widening a little when Imogen took out a vial and poured some of the potion into it. She instantly reached out and wrapped her fingers around Imogen's wrist, shaking her head fiercely. "Wait, wait! How come we're going to test it on you? I don't think that's fair at all! What if something goes wrong? I'll probably panic, I'm really bad at situations like these. I think, of the two of us, you're the more level-headed one, so if either of us is going to be the guinea pig, it's me. You're the one who can act fast and fix anything that goes wrong. Which, hopefully, it won't."[/color] She couldn't help but glance at the bezoar nervously out of the corner of her eye before she let go of Imogen's wrist to wrap her fingers around the filled vial instead. While all of that was true - that Gabby thought Imogen was more capable of handling a situation turned bad - Gabby just didn't want her getting hurt. And even though she was positive they'd gotten all the ingredients right, she really didn't want to risk Imogen getting hurt while she was perfectly capable of doing it herself. "Trust me, it's better if I do it."[/color]

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[Imogen Sauveterre]

[/color]

What Gabby was saying would have made sense were it not for the fact that the title of the potion on the very top of the page was Draught for Dreamless Sleep. It was a little misleading for it to say that if that wasn’t something it did. Imogen raked her nails across her arm as she tried to consider the possibilities, but nothing was coming to her. Unless Vivi… nah, even Vivi wouldn’t do that. She was smart enough to know that messing with a potion could be potentially fatal. Vivi might have been weird and cold and a little scary sometimes, but she was no killer. There was no way she messed with the potion; Imogen and Gabby must have gone wrong somewhere.

And anyway, she really didn’t want to start over. Maybe it was a pride thing, but Imogen had never started over on a potion in her life. Not every potion turned out perfect, because sometimes it was hard to add exactly four drops of something, but they’d always been close enough that Slughorn was pleased with them (even if she wasn’t). This time was just… bad. They’d definitely taken a wrong turn somewhere, but Imogen was a little too proud to admit it. Besides, it had taken over an hour to brew the potion. It was getting late, and she was tired, and she didn’t want to risk getting caught by being down here anymore than she had to be.

Well, the only way to see if they had done it right and it just looked weird was to test it herself. She was just lifting the vial to her lips when Gabby’s hand reached out and seized her wrist. The poor girl looked a little frantic – not that Imogen could blame her. What she’d been about to do was extremely stupid, especially if they did need a bezoar. Professor Slughorn really ought to have been there, or that Snape fellow. Two fifteen-year-old witches really should not have been brewing such an advanced potion on their own, regardless of their capabilities in potions class. Maybe this was a sign that Imogen wasn’t ready to take care of herself yet; she could do things just fine under adult supervision, but actually striking out on her own was something she had to wait for. Technically she knew she had to wait until she was of age anyway, but what then? What if she still wasn’t capable of making her own potions or performing her own spells or…

“Wait, no, stop,” she said quickly before Gabby could drink. She rubbed her temples, trying to think of the right thing to do, which was more difficult than she thought. Gabby probably wasn’t going to back down from this, but Imogen wasn’t either. But they shouldn’t test the potion on both of them, just in case. They probably both knew that, but Imogen seriously wasn’t about to let Gabby test it on her own. She was ready to pull the ‘I’m a prefect’ card before she sighed, deciding that she really didn’t want to argue anymore anyway. “All right, fine. Here, take one of these.” She grabbed a bezoar for herself. “After you take the potion, hold it in front of your mouth. That way, if I panic, you can drop it in yourself. All right?” Lying wasn’t something Imogen was used to, or very good at, but sometimes it was a necessity. Sometimes. Convincing Gabby that she was the only one who was going to take the potion was one of those times, she figured.

She waited until Gabby tilted her head back to drink the potion before downing her own vial. The taste wasn’t terrible, which was a surprise, but the texture was very, very weird – it was too thick, and had almost a dry taste, if that was possible. “Sorry, I had to,” she apologised as she set the vial down, lifting the bezoar to her lips in case she had to use it. But she didn’t… feel… poisoned. She didn’t feel sick, or hot all over, or cold, or any of the common symptoms of poisoning. No sweating, no hallucinations, no –

Oh. She might have wanted to rethink the ‘no hallucinations’ part, because Gabby wasn’t blue a minute ago.

“What the fu—” she began, standing up, then dropping the bezoar in surprise at the sound of her own voice. It was not supposed to be high-pitched and… and squeaky! She looked down at her hands, which were now also tinged with blue. Looking back at Gabby, she saw that her hair was lightening rapidly; shocked, Imogen checked her own and saw the same. “Holy shit,” she squeaked. This potion wasn’t poison.

It was worse, and she had no idea how to fix it.

[Gabriella Rivera]

Personally, Gabby was grateful Imogen didn't seem eager about restarting their potion, either. It wasn't so much that Gabby was too proud to admit that she'd completely botched up a potion - well, okay, maybe she did feel a bit of resentment because Potions was supposed to be the one thing that Gabby really excelled at and the knowledge that she'd ruined a potion, albeit a more advanced one, did nothing for the little ego Gabby still had. But still, it wasn't just that. Gabby could feel her eyes begin to itch, a clear sign that she was growing exhausted. Plus, cheerleading practice had been extra trying today and all she really wanted to do as soon as they finished this up was crawl into bed, curl up into a tiny ball and try to go to sleep, hopefully a dreamless one if the potion actually works. And if it didn't, she at least hoped she wouldn't be plagued with nightmares because she missed the days when she could have a good nights sleep without worrying about getting attacked again, or waking up bathed in cold sweat while the back of her legs, where the jagged scars remained as a permanent reminder of her stupidity, burned. She knew the latter reaction was just psychological, that the scars didn't actually hurt anymore. Or they shouldn't. But it was funny how thoroughly your own mind could play tricks on you. No, not funny - terrifying.

When Imogen stopped her, Gabriella frowned, fully-prepared to argue with her on this. If there was one thing that Gabby would be uncharacteristically stubborn and confrontational about, it was this - her friend trying to sacrifice herself when Gabby was perfectly capable of being the guinea pig in this situation. But then, to her surprise, Imogen actually relented and the Hufflepuff nodded and picked up the bezoar with her free hand, the hand holding the vial trembling a little. Admittedly, she was quite nervous about doing this. She didn't normally go around drinking potions she didn't know for sure looked right. As much as some of her friends might disagree, she actually didn't have a death wish and could kind of take care of herself. Everyone knew drinking a potion that wasn't perfectly brewed was one of the most dangerous things a witch or wizard could do, not to mention stupidest, and even Gabby knew that.

Nodding, Gabby quickly downed the vial before she could second-guess herself, holding the bezoar ready. She was distracted when she noted Imogen doing the same and she frowned again, clearly upset that Imogen had tricked her. But at least they were both in this now. She blinked a few times, waiting for any sort of strange sensations, like hot flashes or suddenly feeling cold or - well, she didn't know how you were supposed to feel if you got poisoned except from what she'd read in some books, but she certainly felt completely normal. Or, at least, that's what she thought until she looked at Imogen and noticed she was blue. Gabby blinked a few more times, wondering if she was really that sleep deprived or if Imogen really had turned a very, very vibrant shade of blue. And then she looked down at her hands and let out a loud gasp, dropping the bezoar on the floor in shock because she was blue too. And then she heard Imogen's voice, only it wasn't quite Imogen's voice because the Ravenclaw had never sounded this high pitched and squeaky and oh God what was happening? Looking up with saucer-wide eyes, Gabriella noted that Imogen's hair had also turned an almost white-blonde yellow and she was afraid to look at her own, but picked up a couple of strands anyway and forced herself to look, her eyes widening further when her own locks had turned a similar shade. "Ay dios mio," she murmured, and then jumped and clapped a hand over her mouth when it came out all high-pitched and squeaky, too.

"What - what is this?!" she exclaimed, wincing at the pitch of her voice and forcing herself to lower it. "I - how did we mess it up so badly?!"

[/color] She rubbed at the skin of her arm, as if hoping she could get it off that way, but no such look. "Oh Dios, Imogen, you don't think this is - is this - is this permanent?"[/color] she asked fearfully. God. She had a hard enough time getting a boyfriend when she looked halfway normal, not she had to add blue skin, an incredibly high voice and Lucius-Malfoy-esque blonde hair?! Someone hex her now.

[/blockquote][/blockquote][/color]

[Imogen Sauveterre]

[/color]

This was not good. This. Was. Not. Good.

In fact, this was probably the worst thing that could happen. At least for poison she had the bezoar. This was… what even was this? How had they managed to screw up the potion so badly that instead of putting them to sleep, it turned them blue? With white hair? She was like some strange creature from another planet and oh god, Gabby just asked the question she’d been trying to avoid, but… but what if it was permanent? What if her skin never went back to normal? Or worse, what if her appearance returned to how it should be, but her voice was high and squeaky forever?

“I… I don’t know,” she admitted, covering her mouth to stifle the terrible sound of her voice. “No potion is permanent, you have to keep taking it to make it last, so I think it’ll… we didn’t take too much, so maybe… an hour? Hopefully? And we’ll be back to normal. I think. I just—It must have been Vivi, she must have put something in the potion, an extra ingredient or something, remember when she touched the cauldron when she was leaving? Maybe she dropped it in, her hands were all over the table and ingredients and stuff—I’m sorry, Gabby, I’m so, so sorry about this!” She stood quickly and began to pace around the table, staring at her hands and scratching at them, as if she could rid herself of the blue skin that way. It didn’t; it wasn’t like the blue was just paint or something. It was actually her skin colour. And her hair – god, she was tempted to just rip it out, but if her skin was actually blue, then her hair was actually white, and she wasn’t going to find her natural dark hair underneath.

The door to Slughorn’s office was slightly ajar, and Imogen strode toward it, pushing it open without even knocking to make sure he wasn’t there. Then again, given their loud reactions to the effects of the potion, for him to just stay in there was a bit of an asshole move. Fortunately (for him), he wasn’t there; Imogen scanned the room and found a bookshelf to her left, immediately going for it and hoping the answer was somewhere in one of his books. It looked like the bookshelf was more for photos and keepsakes and other memorabilia, though, rather than books: photographs of previous Slug Clubs, autographed trinkets and pictures from now-famous students he’d once taught… Had he not taught Imogen in Potions for the last six years, she never would have known he was a professor from his office. Even his books didn’t look useful; some were biographies, others were fiction, and any books looking like they were about potions didn’t look exactly useful. Imogen let out a squeaky whimper and sauntered back into the classroom, dejected, and slumped against the wall. “I tried to see if he had any books that could help us, but looks like we’re out of luck.” She sighed and shrugged her shoulders. “Nothing to do but wait till it wears off, I guess.”

Noticing that the door to the class was open, Imogen went over and pushed so that it was almost shut, but open enough for them to hear any approaching footsteps or voices. That done, and with nothing else to do, she went and sat back down, crossing her arms over her chest and staring angrily at the cauldron. The fact that Vivi tampered with a potion was not only stupid, but extremely dangerous – she could have killed them. Something like that needed to be reported, Imogen knew, because it was aggressive and violent behaviour towards other students – but what if Vivi got expelled because of it? That couldn’t happen. Florence already hated Imogen; if she got Vivi expelled, her life would be made a living hell, she was sure. Well... this time, Imogen would keep it to herself, and talk to Vivi about it personally. Hopefully Gabby kept it to herself too, but Imogen knew she couldn’t ask her to do that.

“Well… at least it’s not poison.”