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All the lights are off in the Potions classroom this morning. The room is illuminated only by an enchanted projector, which is playing a loop of clips from famous films on the front wall. You may recognize scenes from legendary movies such as Singin' In The Rain (Don singing in the rain), Star Wars ("I Am Your Father"), The Sound of Music (Maria frolicking on the hills), The Wizard of Oz ("There's no place like home"), and The Breakfast Club (the library dance scene), just to name a few.
Each lab station has two chairs and two cauldrons, both of which are bubbling merrily with the Polyjuice potions your students brewed a month ago. Professor Varma stands by the door to greet you, dressed in a pair of dark, emerald robes—though there is a slight glumness (or perhaps nervousness) to her usually-confident aura today. Her eyes stay glued to the door, trying her best to avoid looking at the movie screen. There would be no emotional tears from her today, thank you very much.
Do come in and take a seat! Class will begin momentarily.
OOC: Welcome, everyone! Please remember that if you are playing a student in the Room, they would be escorted to and from the lesson. Class will begin in approximately 24 hours. Class has now begun! If you're just joining us, please play as if you've been here all along.
Lesson Progression: Q1: If you could be anyone in the world for a day, who would you be and why? Q2: What are some potential dangers of the Polyjuice Potion? Mini-Activity: Pair up and interview your partner about their unique mannerisms, movements, voice inflections, and behaviors. Main Activity: Take the Polyjuice Potion, find a new partner, and try to find out their true identity.
~ Mrs. Steve Harrington ~ It be like that sometimes.
SPOILER!!: Fellow artist! <3
Quote:
Originally Posted by MadAlice
Violet noticed how Claudine's gaze initially strayed over to Bernadette Grantham--who was actually partnering up with Nemesis Upstead, for Merlin's sake!!! Had she been Claudine's friend or something? If so, that would explain the look of disappointment--or was it disapproval--Violet thought she saw for a minute in the other girl's eyes.
And then she was talking, thankfully--Violet had been afraid for a minute that her overtures had been rejected. Violet jotted down notes as Claudine talked, as much for the pleasure of having quill, ink, and parchment to write with as anything else. Animals, that was interesting, Violet wouldn't have thought of that. And she had helped Williamson--so she knew the professor pretty well, then. And wasn't scared of creatures, apparently. The being alone part Violet had already figured out.
And suddenly--quicker than she'd anticipated--it was Violet's turn to answer. Her routine? Did she even have one anymore? She could hardly remember what real life had been like. "Um...well, I guess I like to be alone a lot, too. Or rather, I'm used to it--I don't have brothers or sisters and I live alone with my grandfather and three uncles, and my governess--well, I don't have her anymore. I think I'd like to have more friends, but I don't really know how to be around people very well." And this was supposed to be the year Violet was going to really try to make friends and be a normal person. Didn't look like that was going to happen any time soon, though.
"Likes--well, I love to write. Just sketches and descriptions and observations now, but I want to try writing stories eventually. I keep---er, I mean, I used to keep, a journal where I wrote down what I saw and what I thought about everything. But I don't have it anymore." Because you burned it, because you were afraid of getting into trouble. And you got in trouble anyway, for nothing, so you might as well have kept it, Violet. "So I also love reading, all kinds of things. I really like brewing potions--my governess showed me how to do a lot of potions before I even came to school." Violet thought for a moment, wondering how much to reveal. "I kind of like having a routine, keeping things orderly and under control. Not rigid, you know, but it's just--the fewer minor things you have to worry about, the more you can concentrate on what's really important to you." Violet took a deep breath--she hadn't talked so much all year, and had never talked that much about herself. ".And I hate getting up early in the morning!" she finished with a bit of a laugh.
Not paying attention to anyone in the classroom but Violet, Claudine grabbed her quill, all set to make notes about the younger Slytherin. This was more than just an activity for the lesson; it was also an opportunity to get to know her partner. Despite them being friends, they didn’t know everything about each other. She doubted anyone knew everything about everyone they cared about.
As the words came tumbling out of Violet’s mouth, Claudine began to write. She hadn’t known of Violet’s living arrangements and was genuinely interested. “Um. Do you mind me asking what happened to your parents?’’ The fifth year hoped she wasn’t prying. “I understand. I’m like that too. It’s easier to be alone than to try fitting in with others.”
Writing and sketching. Yes. Claudine remembered giving Violet some sketching tips sometime last term. An apt for Potions? The need to be in control? That was nice. Claudine chuckled. “On mornings that you do rise early, take a book since you don’t have your journal anymore, and find a place around the Grounds. You’ll do some of your best writing then.’’ There was just something about early mornings that got the creative juices flowing.
Otter This World ♡ Catpurrccino ♡ Slotherin ♡ Pandamonium
Quote:
Originally Posted by Granger Danger
It was clear that he was beyond angry about the situation that was set before them, all this stunk and he hated every minute of it. They didn't deserve this fate they gotten, it wasn't fair that half the school was in the room. He was trying his best to stay calm, but you can clearly see that it was hard for him. He wasn't known for keeping quiet by any means, but a promise is a promise to Lia.
He let out a small gasps seeing Kale, Ash and them gone in black smoke. Where did they go, were they going to be okay? So many questions he had running in his mind. Ash was a good friend, he hated that she was no longer here and Kale was cool doing his best to keep their spirits up in the room. He didn't know the others but he knew that they didn't deserve this at all.
Hearing Verma would join them in the room, he frowned and sighed softly to himself. More and more people were joining them on a daily basic now, it wouldn't be long until the whole school was in there besides the people like Nem was who were backstabbing traitors trying to save their own skin. Looking over at Lia he squeezed her hand to calm her down. He knew this whole situation was a bit too much, it was enough for anyone right now.
Right the lesson... what were they supposed to be doing? He clearly forgotten with Kale and them disappearing and Nem squealing on them. It was something like interview each other or so? Well... that was going to be a easy one Tad was a open book to Lia.
Dahlia did calm down but only a tiny bit when he squeezed her hand. The small action was enough to somewhat get her focus on what she needed to be doing. There was an assignment to work on, even if she didn't want to at all.
Reaching for her bag, Lia pulled out some clean parchment and her quill. Unfortunately Tadhg didn't say anything at all about what they were meant to be doing but some silent listening to those around her helped. All she had to do was get to know her partner. Easy. She knew him like she knew her own siblings.
"Uhh... umm.." the Ravenclaw began. "Just list some of your favorites and some stuff you don't like." Random easy question that she was sure she already knew. "Like my favorite flower is the Dahlia, I love dragons and cats and pygmy puffs and well all of them. I like the spring and camping and climbing trees."
__________________
Days of Potter 2023:___________________________ Which Bertie Botts Flavour Are You?
Professor Pink | Mrs. Bruce Wayne | I'm on a Goat | Glitterpuff | Dumbledore's Defense Squad | BHB
SPOILER!!: nem&nem
Quote:
Originally Posted by Felixir
Three tiny lines of waves drawn, Nem looked up long enough to watch the Big Man take his leave, then set their quill down and turned slightly, all the better to see Bernadette Grantham. Once again their elbow was on the desk, head propped in hand, the whole bit, as they watched her... get into character.
"It's new," they remarked simply, regarding the pin that glinted from the front of their robes when it caught the light in just the right way. Bernadette had hit the nail on the head with the rest of it too; interesting to see just how much she had already noticed. Then again, some of it was a given.
Nem remained quiet and watchful as Bernadette rambled on, and then trailed off, and matched her expression with a mirrored version of their own. "Totally hypothetical, but an interesting one. And as for my wand," For a split second, they considered claiming silver lime and unicorn hair, like both their brother and sister had, but decided against it. "It's elder." True. "And thestral tail hair." Lie. An obvious one, told with a hint of a smile.
This approach to the activity was one Nem could get on board with. "If I were to be you, I suppose I would wear a lot of cardigans, and boots, for the stomping around. I should probably know how to crochet, at least in theory, and I'd spend a fair amount of time visiting Schmoe, circumstances permitting." That part was Ezra's intel, not that he'd been there for that purpose. "Getting more creative with answers in class would be necessary, but also following my heart more often than my head. Or, rather, your heart." They drummed their fingers on the desktop, considering things a moment longer. "And I'd let my body language do all the talking, regardless of what my mouth is saying. What's your wand made of, then." That was something Nem's brother might have been better at predicting, had he been remotely skilled at actually reading a person, but the ins and outs of the topic were nothing they themselves had ever found any real interest in. "Hey, you ever think about how something as simple as a boggart could potentially ruin everything for someone who's taking this stuff."
Bernadette returned the favor of watching and listening and staring, and obviously caught the lie. "You nearly made it without diricawling," she pointed out mildly, the corners of her mouth practically twitching into a smile of her own. "What is it though? Kna--- no, kneazle?" Yeah, right, like it was kneazle hair. Knarl quill though? That would be the sort of unusual thing Nem would get.
And of course they had an Elder wand. Of course.
She kept her eyes on Nem as they described her, said blue eyes twinkling slightly at the bit about stomping around and visiting Schmoe, on account of how true that was. She broke eye contact only at the end to pick up her quill, and to sigh audibly at Nem's jab regarding how she followed her heart. "You do have a heart of your own, though, don't you, Nem?"
Who was diricawling now? She didn't say a word about her wand, choosing instead to doodle a wardrobe with a bit of a skeleton hand poking out of it threateningly. "I hadn't thought of that, but how likely are you or your imposter to encounter a boggart on a daily basis?" She'd be more likely to run into that waterfall at Gringott's during her impostering, wouldn't she. Berns drew an aaaaabsolutely massive acromantula on her paper next, with hairy legs and teeth bared at the wardrobe. "Though now that you say that, I knew Trent didn't like spiders, and yet I followed Fake Trent into the Forest anyway. Last year. When he had Trent's face on." She applied her quill to the parchment with more force now, scribbling all over the spider with a furious tornado of ink, until the quill broke through the paper and she tossed it down in self-disgust.
"What does that say about me, Nem."
__________________
yeah, there's one thing about me that you should know________________________________
__________________________________________that I can't help from speaking my mind
Bernadette returned the favor of watching and listening and staring, and obviously caught the lie. "You nearly made it without diricawling," she pointed out mildly, the corners of her mouth practically twitching into a smile of her own. "What is it though? Kna--- no, kneazle?" Yeah, right, like it was kneazle hair. Knarl quill though? That would be the sort of unusual thing Nem would get.
And of course they had an Elder wand. Of course.
She kept her eyes on Nem as they described her, said blue eyes twinkling slightly at the bit about stomping around and visiting Schmoe, on account of how true that was. She broke eye contact only at the end to pick up her quill, and to sigh audibly at Nem's jab regarding how she followed her heart. "You do have a heart of your own, though, don't you, Nem?"
Who was diricawling now? She didn't say a word about her wand, choosing instead to doodle a wardrobe with a bit of a skeleton hand poking out of it threateningly. "I hadn't thought of that, but how likely are you or your imposter to encounter a boggart on a daily basis?" She'd be more likely to run into that waterfall at Gringott's during her impostering, wouldn't she. Berns drew an aaaaabsolutely massive acromantula on her paper next, with hairy legs and teeth bared at the wardrobe. "Though now that you say that, I knew Trent didn't like spiders, and yet I followed Fake Trent into the Forest anyway. Last year. When he had Trent's face on." She applied her quill to the parchment with more force now, scribbling all over the spider with a furious tornado of ink, until the quill broke through the paper and she tossed it down in self-disgust.
"What does that say about me, Nem."
If there were still glares or whatever being directed this way, Nem was doing a fine job of ignoring them. They had eyes on their parchment now, etching out tiny triangle-circle-line symbols in little clusters. Diricawling, yes. Nem shrugged, and let that next question go unanswered; old habits die hard. They flicked their eyes up briefly at Bernadette at the sound of that sigh, though. Merlin, not another one taking things personally; it had ben a factual observation. Nem inked in another cluster of symbols. "I have a pulse, at least. That would suggest so." Not the kind of heart she was talking about. Also not inaccurate.
Setting their own quill back down again, Nem folded their arms on the desk instead, and stared into the dull pewter of the cauldron in front of them, slowly drumming their fingers and glancing at Bernadette's parchment only once, and just for a moment, to see the acromantula drawn there. "No idea." They lapsed into silence, staring at the cauldron again without really seeing it, thinking, listening, and also aware of Bernadette's increasingly frenetic movements in whatever it was she was doing now. Ultimately, the answer to her question was exactly the same as Nem's last comment. They didn't know what that said about her, or, more specifically, they didn't know why that should be so important.
So, "Careful," was all Nem finished with, still staring straight ahead, rather than at the ruined parchment beside them.
__________________
Days of Potter 2023:___________________________ Which Bertie Botts Flavour Are You?
"Ah, sorry. Margaret, it is then," Fiona said as she jotted that nugget of info in her notebook. "I like to eat poultry especially roast chicken, roasted potatoes, raw green beans, any kind of chocolate, pancakes with syrup and red apples. Not at the same time of course." At Mamie's question about allergies, Fiona shook her head to indicate that she had no allergies.
"Now, do you have any favourite festive foods? Umm... what allergies do you have?" Fiona asked drumming her fingers on her notebook.
Mamie noted down all of Fiona's favorite foods, and also a little note for just herself that it was really easy to tell people to call her by her ~fancy~ name. It did not occur to her that telling Fiona her full name instead of her nickname might be a problem for Fiona, if the older ever did take a dose of Mamie Turov Polyjuice Potion.
Luckily they weren't doing that.
"I like soup," she said, with a wistful smile. "Even in summer, my Babulya, that's my grandmother, she makes cucumber soup or cold beet soup. It's nice." House elves made decent soup, but it wasn't the same. It didn't have her Babulya's secret ingredient love. "I'm allergic to cashews."
She tapped her quill against the notebook while she tried to think of another question. "Who's your best friend at Hogwarts?" she asked. That was important, for impersonating someone, she thought. Well. Maybe not for impersonating her, since all her friends had just disappeared in front of them, but anyone with living friends. Probably would need to keep up appearances.
apologies for shreya's verbosity, pls skip to ooc for the tl;dr
SPOILER!!: Replies
Text Cut: Violet and Claudine
Quote:
Originally Posted by MadAlice
Violet had just opened her mouth to answer the last question: "One big danger with Polyjuice Potion is that you're assuming someone else's identity, and if you don't know enough about that person, you may be putting yourself into a tricky situation, facing the consequences of another person's actions, stuck with the problems of another person's..." But she suddenly broke off as chaos slowly erupted in the room--spells being fired, Nemesis (who apparently really had gone over to the dark side in a big way) defying the teacher, the Inquisitorial Squad making an appearance (of course), and to top it all off, the so-called Headmaster showing up. Now Professor Varma was banished to the Room with the rest of the misfits (Violet tried to feel bad for her, but was not completely successful, because she was just a bit glad that the potions teacher would be down there with them--maybe they could talk about potions to pass the time?).
But the climax was the disappearance of a number of students as the result of some sort of spell cast by Rosier. What had happened to them? Were they dead? Or just....gone?
And now apparently they were supposed to go on with a class activity? How could anyone do anything after witnessing a scene like that? Violet was too numb to even feel her usual anxiety about trying to find a partner, though she did look around to see who was left.
Boy, you miss ONE day and all kinds of craziness happens!
Quote:
Originally Posted by FearlessLeader19
SPOILER!!: Hi, Vi! <3
Claudine’s eyes snapped to Nem, her expression changing from astonishment to disbelief and eventually to disgust as he spoke to Varma. They had turned on the students?! Claudine was too angry to say anything, which was probably a good thing given how things unfolded afterwards. She was still sitting here, angry and with her fists gripping the workstation so tightly that her knuckles were white when he showed up.
The fifth year winced as Nem called out the names which included Ashley and Minjae. And to think she had actually liked Nem! And even considered them a friend. Well, not anymore. They could drop dead this instant for all she cared. Claudine winced again, this time for Varma.
As for the vanishing classmates? Claudine’s mouth was legit left hanging open in shock. One second Minjae was beside her, but the next he was gone. This left her shaken. She eventually closed her mouth and returned her gaze to Varma, even though she wanted nothing more than a comforting hug from Heath. She also wanted to cry but naturally was not going to do that where everyone could see her.
And… and how could they just continue the lesson after what just happened? Still… Claudine knew that if the remaining students didn’t want Varma to get into any more trouble, they needed to go on.
“Vi?” she whispered to the third year. “Want to partner with me? If you do, you can ask the questions first.” Shaky. Claudine was still shaky. And anxious.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MadAlice
Violet was still lost in thought and Claudine's voice was so soft that she almost didn't hear her. But after a minute or so, Violet began to feel that unmistakable feeling you get when someone else is looking at you and she turned around to find the older girl talking to her. And she almost looked shakier than Violet felt herself. So--were they going ahead with this? Apparently so, and looking up at the equally shaken Varma, Violet suddenly realized that they needed to play the game for her sake as much as their own.
"Uh, yes, sure, let's partner, thanks for asking," Violet rattled on, hating herself for the way she rambled when she got nervous but unable to stop. "So, uh...questions," she went on, buying time while she tried to remember what the assignment was. Gathering info, yes, that was it--routines, habits, favorite things, right.
"Well, I think I already know one of your favorite things--as I remember, you like to draw, right?" Violet thought she remembered that from last year, although the fact that she was possessed by a ghost during the conversation made it hard to recall it clearly. "What other things do you like?"
Quote:
Originally Posted by FearlessLeader19
Oookay.
Perhaps Violet didn’t want to be her partner, which would totally be cool. It took her a couple of seconds to realise that the third year was actually still shaken by the recent events. Could she be blamed? No. Claudine shot a glare at Nem, only then realising that Grantham had partnered with them. Both of Claudine’s eyebrows shot up. Wow. Grantham still wanted to be their friend? To think that Claudine had actually felt sorry for the Gryffindor throughout the year and had actually considered trying to make up with her. Not anymore. For all she knew, Grantham might want to join The Hoods soon too.
Oh. Violet was going to be her partner. Great.“No problem,’’ the fifth year said without any enthusiasm, which was no fault of her partner’s. “Yes. You remembered.” She sent Vi a small smile. “I like animals. I help…helped Professor Williamson take care of the Hogwarts creatures after lessons each school day and on the weekends.’’ Um… what else? Suddenly Claudine was blanking on everything about herself. “Uh, I like spending time by myself.” That was about as much as she could manage for now; she couldn’t think straight. “What about your likes and your daily routine?’’
Quote:
Originally Posted by MadAlice
Violet noticed how Claudine's gaze initially strayed over to Bernadette Grantham--who was actually partnering up with Nemesis Upstead, for Merlin's sake!!! Had she been Claudine's friend or something? If so, that would explain the look of disappointment--or was it disapproval--Violet thought she saw for a minute in the other girl's eyes.
And then she was talking, thankfully--Violet had been afraid for a minute that her overtures had been rejected. Violet jotted down notes as Claudine talked, as much for the pleasure of having quill, ink, and parchment to write with as anything else. Animals, that was interesting, Violet wouldn't have thought of that. And she had helped Williamson--so she knew the professor pretty well, then. And wasn't scared of creatures, apparently. The being alone part Violet had already figured out.
And suddenly--quicker than she'd anticipated--it was Violet's turn to answer. Her routine? Did she even have one anymore? She could hardly remember what real life had been like. "Um...well, I guess I like to be alone a lot, too. Or rather, I'm used to it--I don't have brothers or sisters and I live alone with my grandfather and three uncles, and my governess--well, I don't have her anymore. I think I'd like to have more friends, but I don't really know how to be around people very well." And this was supposed to be the year Violet was going to really try to make friends and be a normal person. Didn't look like that was going to happen any time soon, though.
"Likes--well, I love to write. Just sketches and descriptions and observations now, but I want to try writing stories eventually. I keep---er, I mean, I used to keep, a journal where I wrote down what I saw and what I thought about everything. But I don't have it anymore." Because you burned it, because you were afraid of getting into trouble. And you got in trouble anyway, for nothing, so you might as well have kept it, Violet. "So I also love reading, all kinds of things. I really like brewing potions--my governess showed me how to do a lot of potions before I even came to school." Violet thought for a moment, wondering how much to reveal. "I kind of like having a routine, keeping things orderly and under control. Not rigid, you know, but it's just--the fewer minor things you have to worry about, the more you can concentrate on what's really important to you." Violet took a deep breath--she hadn't talked so much all year, and had never talked that much about herself. ".And I hate getting up early in the morning!" she finished with a bit of a laugh.
Quote:
Originally Posted by FearlessLeader19
Not paying attention to anyone in the classroom but Violet, Claudine grabbed her quill, all set to make notes about the younger Slytherin. This was more than just an activity for the lesson; it was also an opportunity to get to know her partner. Despite them being friends, they didn’t know everything about each other. She doubted anyone knew everything about everyone they cared about.
As the words came tumbling out of Violet’s mouth, Claudine began to write. She hadn’t known of Violet’s living arrangements and was genuinely interested. “Um. Do you mind me asking what happened to your parents?’’ The fifth year hoped she wasn’t prying. “I understand. I’m like that too. It’s easier to be alone than to try fitting in with others.”
Writing and sketching. Yes. Claudine remembered giving Violet some sketching tips sometime last term. An apt for Potions? The need to be in control? That was nice. Claudine chuckled. “On mornings that you do rise early, take a book since you don’t have your journal anymore, and find a place around the Grounds. You’ll do some of your best writing then.’’ There was just something about early mornings that got the creative juices flowing.
Shreya stayed seated at her desk for the first several minutes of the activity, too drained to even move. Her head was swirling, and to be perfectly honest, she felt like crying. Taking a moment to regroup was all she could do to keep from breaking down.
But the students needed her to stay strong. So after a few deep breaths, she forced herself to get up and float around the room, listening in here and there on the interviews. It seemed that Violet and Claudine were getting along nicely. She was glad to see that Claudine had a piece of parchment handy. This was the most Shreya had ever hear Violet talk in a lesson. "Very good to point out your propensity for routine, Ms. Blackthorne. Whether you realize it or not, traits like that impact the way you carry yourself." She gave the two girls an encouraging nod, happy to hear that the two Slytherins were finding some common ground.
Text Cut: Tadhg and Dahlia
Quote:
Originally Posted by Granger Danger
Looking at Nem Tadhg rolled his eyes at his pin, and to think he thought he was cool and was going to look up to him. Looking at Nem he looked disgusted, seriously he joined these hooded creeps. He bit his tongue to keep himself from saying anything, boy did he want to say something so badly. Although Tadhg was guessing he probably joined to save his own snake skin, which was stupid in his opinion.
It was clear that he wasn't happy and he was beyond mad seeing his friends disappear. He was shaking in anger trying to stay calm and collected. Looking at Dahila he started to slowly calm down. "Shall we be partners?" He asked her still looking at her.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kolyander
In the time it had taken Dahlia to blink the situation in the room went from crazy to pure insanity. The extremely horrific things she had seen already during this term didn't prepare her for what was about to happen.
The very quick and sudden arrival of the Evil Impostor Headmaster guy was enough to strike fear into any of their hearts. Yet it was the way that Nem spoke with such ease about what had went on so far in the classroom. How they had no trouble giving up names of those they said had done wrong. She couldn't help but wonder why Nem would do this, why they had chosen to join the other side. Did they believe in all that garbage about the Greater Good or was it something else?
Dahlia couldn't focus on that however. Where students had been sitting seconds earlier, they were now gone and all that remained in their place was black smoke. Ashley, Moose, Minjae and Kale. Gone. Just like that. Ash was a housemate. Moose she didn't really know but it didn't matter he didn't deserve whatever this was. Minjae was a friend and.. he had helped her before. Kale... the one with the gorgeous hair that was trying so hard to keep spirits up in The Room and had saved her from that cockatrice. Gone. Where did they go? What happened to them?
Tears were pooling in the corner of her eyes but she forced herself not to allow any to fall. It wasn't the time nor the place for it. Sad blue eyes turned to Varma as she heard she would be joining them in The Room. And yet the women did her best to remain strong and continued on with the lesson. A lesson that Lia couldn't even remember what it was about.
Someone was speaking to her. Partners. Tadhg. Looking over at him sat beside her she could see the angry within his eyes that seemed to be ever present lately. Exhaling slowly she gave a small nod of her head. Whatever they were meant to be doing during this lesson they could figure it out together.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Granger Danger
It was clear that he was beyond angry about the situation that was set before them, all this stunk and he hated every minute of it. They didn't deserve this fate they gotten, it wasn't fair that half the school was in the room. He was trying his best to stay calm, but you can clearly see that it was hard for him. He wasn't known for keeping quiet by any means, but a promise is a promise to Lia.
He let out a small gasps seeing Kale, Ash and them gone in black smoke. Where did they go, were they going to be okay? So many questions he had running in his mind. Ash was a good friend, he hated that she was no longer here and Kale was cool doing his best to keep their spirits up in the room. He didn't know the others but he knew that they didn't deserve this at all.
Hearing Verma would join them in the room, he frowned and sighed softly to himself. More and more people were joining them on a daily basic now, it wouldn't be long until the whole school was in there besides the people like Nem was who were backstabbing traitors trying to save their own skin. Looking over at Lia he squeezed her hand to calm her down. He knew this whole situation was a bit too much, it was enough for anyone right now.
Right the lesson... what were they supposed to be doing? He clearly forgotten with Kale and them disappearing and Nem squealing on them. It was something like interview each other or so? Well... that was going to be a easy one Tad was a open book to Lia.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kolyander
Dahlia did calm down but only a tiny bit when he squeezed her hand. The small action was enough to somewhat get her focus on what she needed to be doing. There was an assignment to work on, even if she didn't want to at all.
Reaching for her bag, Lia pulled out some clean parchment and her quill. Unfortunately Tadhg didn't say anything at all about what they were meant to be doing but some silent listening to those around her helped. All she had to do was get to know her partner. Easy. She knew him like she knew her own siblings.
"Uhh... umm.." the Ravenclaw began. "Just list some of your favorites and some stuff you don't like." Random easy question that she was sure she already knew. "Like my favorite flower is the Dahlia, I love dragons and cats and pygmy puffs and well all of them. I like the spring and camping and climbing trees."
These two seemed to be having a bit of trouble getting started. Shreya didn't blame them. Normally, she would have dropped some hints to move them along, but given what had just occurred, she wasn't going to press her students for anything else today. "Very good, Dahlia. Tadhg, you can think about how Dahlia's love for animals might impact the way she carries herself. For example, if you were portraying Ms. Donovan and were walking in Diagon Alley, you may stop at Eeylops Owl Emporium to gaze at the creatures in the window." A small thing, but something that could make the difference between a suspicious and a believable performance.
Text Cut: Atlas and Phoebe
Quote:
Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie
Atlas had been stewing over which answer he could provide that would be the safest but also insightful...or whether or not to simply continue to remain silent beside Bernie and with Nemesis Upstead still in their line of vision, safe in their shadow so to speak. And then...Nemesis Upstead happened and the first year could hardly process what all had unfolded. It was almost as though he had Obliviated himself from seeing four of his classmates vanish right before his eyes so soon after the arrival of Rosier. Only the visions were all their, seared into his memory, but entirely void of all feeling. The way the smoke tendrils had coiled and suffocated the bodies of his peers, creeping along like a black plague, and then dissipated like an angry storm...in some ways it was worse than seeing a Killing Curse.
Worse because...it made him think. Worse because now he was thinking about dad.
He had not thoroughly processed nor seen all of Rosier's movements...save for the flicks that then caused his classmates to vanish in black smoke...and the Gryffindor could only assume it was a hex of some kind. A very...very Dark hex... Had that it been the same sort of magic used on dad while the Neo Alliance kept him prisoner as one of their own masqueraded around as the man for ... who even knew how long? The thought provided Atlas with a small comfort in assuming that none of the four were dead. If Rosier had wanted that...everyone knew of the most efficient way to do so. A flash of green almost shot across his own blue eyes at the memory. So...not dead...but something else. Somewhere else. And that then got the Gryffindor spiraling in all kinds of directions he had not allowed himself to delve into. It may be selfish to think about himself and his dad at a time like this, right after seeing FOUR of his peers become The Poofed™, but he couldn't help himself. Had he just witnessed...what had once been the fate of his own dad?
...and where was he now?
He couldn't even bring himself to be mad at Nemesis Upstead, though he really really REALLY wanted to, because...in some grotesque way he could almost ... well... that was another spiral for another time. Why...why couldn't his peers have just...not...why had they ...
Somehow, class resumed, but Atlas felt his limbs turn to complete jelly and it was a true miracle he had not melted to the floor in a puddle as all the tension suddenly left his body. Dizzy and withered, his face completely pale, he wondered how it was that he had not hurled into his cauldron to contaminate what he was already certain was an inefficient brew to begin with. Instead he calmly raised his hand to draw the professor's attention and spoke in a meek whisper. "....p-p-professor? May...may I go to the hospital wing? I...am not feeling well..."
He didn't want to turn into anyone else. He didn't want anyone else turning into himself. Atlas just wanting Toby, his Pluto plushie, and to disappear beneath his duvet for the rest of the day. Or week. Or month. Or maybe a year.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cassirin
This whole term was so conceal-don't-feel, and Phoebe was a lioness queen who was always strong for the little ones around her. Always always. But it wasn't really fair to expect a 16-year-old to be forever stoic, to always make the right decision when it went against her instincts. Especially not when one of her best friends just disappeared right in front of her eyes.
She felt totally numb, bloodless to the tips of her fingertips, and even when Rosier threatened them and snarled at them, she couldn't rouse herself enough to respond. Find a partner? How? How were they supposed to do anything? Everything was dangerous, action and inaction. Caring and not caring enough. Sincerity. Insincerity. Everything felt like too much, and it took every inch of her will to keep from crying.
She managed to curl a finger around the sleeve of Atlas' robes, giving him just the slightest tug. That was all she could manage, but hopefully it was enough to settle him. They were all unsettled, so that was a lot to expect. "Sit here and talk to me. Tell me anything you can before I come totally undone. Please?"
Poor Atlas Flamsteed. Shreya had a soft spot for the Gryffindor, and her heart ached at the sight of his shock. Something about him was endearing to her, and now the boy looked as if he might faint. She briefly wondered what terrors he may have experienced in his past to react so strongly, but she pushed the thought away. She couldn't handle any more dreadful thoughts, lest she wanted to burst out in tears. Shreya was about to send a Patronus to alert Healer Recard that Atlas would be coming (she just didn't feel comfortable sending a student alone in the corridors without someone looking out for them) when Rosier interrupted her. She lowered her head, making a mental note to check on Atlas later on. Once Rosier left them alone. For now, she was glad that Phoebe had joined him. At least he wouldn't be alone.
Text Cut: Nem and Bernie
Quote:
Originally Posted by Felixir
There was surely not a soul in this classroom who could possibly be taken aback by what had just transpired.
Well, sure, the method itself, Nem would allow for a little surprise over that, but the actual removal of students should not have been a shock, unless they simply hadn't been taking the Big Man seriously all year; a couple of those students could have been turned into corpses at least a dozen times over by now. There was also the fact that Nem was a 'traitor'. They could allow for that too, even in spite of all the side-eyeing and attempts that some of the other students had been making to avoid their presence, which had grown steadily more frequent and less subtle as the term had crawled along. Some of these kids had still believed them, believed in them, which was whatever. It had served, until it hadn't.
Ill-fitting as the concept of betrayal actually was, hearing this situation described in such a way told them a lot.
Really, the only thing Nem hadn't expected - they had been tempted to laugh, actually - throughout the entire debacle of this lesson, was Trent the Second's claim that his father had liked them. Then again, he could easily have been trying to provoke feelings of guilt with a false claim, or was simply proving he was even worse at assessing the world around him than was already evident. Or maybe he'd just been bitter about having been so easily taken for a fool himself. Projecting, or something.
Didn't matter. Gone now. And beside his empty place, McCarthy, sending Nem a tearful glare. Really. No need to cry about it.
With the show over, Nem looked back at the Big Man - best thing that had ever happened to this place - then Varma, then back to the Headmaster again. After a pause, they turned their attention to their parchment as the professor went on with her shaky lecture - and what was even supposed to be so upsetting? Going to that room? Plenty of people there already, and they were doing just fine.
While they listened, Nem doodled idly in the top corner of their parchment, on the side same that Bernadette Grantham was sitting. She, of course, would be their partner. She, of course, would understand this activity would be pointless, but no reason they couldn't have a little fun with it, especially as Nem had no intention of being involved in any sort of actual transformation.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BanaBatGirl
Well well well. Was Bernadette surprised by anything that went down once Nem stood up?
Sadly, she was not. For the record, they weren't a traitor. Nemesis was perhaps the most consistent person she'd ever encountered. And that said a lot about the people Bernie knew.
Was she disappointed in the professor, upset by her classmates, terrified of the Headmaster, and then amazed by the poofing spell?
Yes, yes she was. There were a lot of feelings sparking in Bernadette's heart, all bursting like little fireworks that sparked and then put themselves out, sparked and fizzled again.
She found herself gripping the edge of her desk the entire time the Imposter-in-Charge was in the room. She was having trouble just breathing around him these days. It felt like even having Bad Thoughts about the man might set him off, and she was desperate not to attract more attention than necessary until she could come up with a solid plan to run away from this place and to escape Room forever. But thankfully.... he left, and she was able to audibly exhale and slump back in her seat, her arms crossed and her small shoulders shivering slightly.
She caught Nem's doodling out of the corner of her eye and felt another pang, a longing for simpler times gone by when making waves didn't result in instanteous.... death. Er? No, that wasn't a killing spell he'd used on the kids with a death wish; the killing curse was green, and THAT was something else, some kind of Dark Magic she didn't even know was possible. Poor Flamsteed had probably peed his pants by now, witnessing all this. Was that why he was asking to go to the hospital wing?
Bernie had a million thoughts running through her mind but she did her best to push them aside, choosing instead to stare at Nem's face, much in the way they liked to stare back at her. Bernie adjusted her posture to imitate Nem's, though she certainly lacked the long legs and cool head they had, amongst other notable features. She then made certain her parchment and quill were just so, like her classmate's, and added the same oceanic doodle to her paper.
"So if I were to be you," she spoke barely above a whisper, as finding her voice was suddenly an arduous task, "I'd need a duplicate of that pin; that's new, isn't it? I'd need to be more proficient at nonverbals, I'd need a crocheted hat and half-gloves I suppose, maybe some.... grass-stained trainers, I think. I always see you outside in those." She didn't need to look, though; she already knew what Nem's shoes were like. "I'd have to work on controlling my temper... for the Greater Good, of course, and perhaps... what's your wand made of? What's the core? I think there's a way to check that, to check out imposters...."
Bernadette trailed off, her expression suddenly dead serious as she considered everything she'd said. "This is all hypothetical, of course. There can't be two Nemesis Upsteads in the world." Or... could there?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Felixir
Three tiny lines of waves drawn, Nem looked up long enough to watch the Big Man take his leave, then set their quill down and turned slightly, all the better to see Bernadette Grantham. Once again their elbow was on the desk, head propped in hand, the whole bit, as they watched her... get into character.
"It's new," they remarked simply, regarding the pin that glinted from the front of their robes when it caught the light in just the right way. Bernadette had hit the nail on the head with the rest of it too; interesting to see just how much she had already noticed. Then again, some of it was a given.
Nem remained quiet and watchful as Bernadette rambled on, and then trailed off, and matched her expression with a mirrored version of their own. "Totally hypothetical, but an interesting one. And as for my wand," For a split second, they considered claiming silver lime and unicorn hair, like both their brother and sister had, but decided against it. "It's elder." True. "And thestral tail hair." Lie. An obvious one, told with a hint of a smile.
This approach to the activity was one Nem could get on board with. "If I were to be you, I suppose I would wear a lot of cardigans, and boots, for the stomping around. I should probably know how to crochet, at least in theory, and I'd spend a fair amount of time visiting Schmoe, circumstances permitting." That part was Ezra's intel, not that he'd been there for that purpose. "Getting more creative with answers in class would be necessary, but also following my heart more often than my head. Or, rather, your heart." They drummed their fingers on the desktop, considering things a moment longer. "And I'd let my body language do all the talking, regardless of what my mouth is saying. What's your wand made of, then." That was something Nem's brother might have been better at predicting, had he been remotely skilled at actually reading a person, but the ins and outs of the topic were nothing they themselves had ever found any real interest in. "Hey, you ever think about how something as simple as a boggart could potentially ruin everything for someone who's taking this stuff."
Quote:
Originally Posted by BanaBatGirl
Bernadette returned the favor of watching and listening and staring, and obviously caught the lie. "You nearly made it without diricawling," she pointed out mildly, the corners of her mouth practically twitching into a smile of her own. "What is it though? Kna--- no, kneazle?" Yeah, right, like it was kneazle hair. Knarl quill though? That would be the sort of unusual thing Nem would get.
And of course they had an Elder wand. Of course.
She kept her eyes on Nem as they described her, said blue eyes twinkling slightly at the bit about stomping around and visiting Schmoe, on account of how true that was. She broke eye contact only at the end to pick up her quill, and to sigh audibly at Nem's jab regarding how she followed her heart. "You do have a heart of your own, though, don't you, Nem?"
Who was diricawling now? She didn't say a word about her wand, choosing instead to doodle a wardrobe with a bit of a skeleton hand poking out of it threateningly. "I hadn't thought of that, but how likely are you or your imposter to encounter a boggart on a daily basis?" She'd be more likely to run into that waterfall at Gringott's during her impostering, wouldn't she. Berns drew an aaaaabsolutely massive acromantula on her paper next, with hairy legs and teeth bared at the wardrobe. "Though now that you say that, I knew Trent didn't like spiders, and yet I followed Fake Trent into the Forest anyway. Last year. When he had Trent's face on." She applied her quill to the parchment with more force now, scribbling all over the spider with a furious tornado of ink, until the quill broke through the paper and she tossed it down in self-disgust.
"What does that say about me, Nem."
Quote:
Originally Posted by Felixir
If there were still glares or whatever being directed this way, Nem was doing a fine job of ignoring them. They had eyes on their parchment now, etching out tiny triangle-circle-line symbols in little clusters. Diricawling, yes. Nem shrugged, and let that next question go unanswered; old habits die hard. They flicked their eyes up briefly at Bernadette at the sound of that sigh, though. Merlin, not another one taking things personally; it had ben a factual observation. Nem inked in another cluster of symbols. "I have a pulse, at least. That would suggest so." Not the kind of heart she was talking about. Also not inaccurate.
Setting their own quill back down again, Nem folded their arms on the desk instead, and stared into the dull pewter of the cauldron in front of them, slowly drumming their fingers and glancing at Bernadette's parchment only once, and just for a moment, to see the acromantula drawn there. "No idea." They lapsed into silence, staring at the cauldron again without really seeing it, thinking, listening, and also aware of Bernadette's increasingly frenetic movements in whatever it was she was doing now. Ultimately, the answer to her question was exactly the same as Nem's last comment. They didn't know what that said about her, or, more specifically, they didn't know why that should be so important.
So, "Careful," was all Nem finished with, still staring straight ahead, rather than at the ruined parchment beside them.
The last thing Shreya wanted to do was speak to Nemesis, or even look at them. She was humiliated, not to mention enraged at their audacity and betrayal. But she couldn't ignore them now. Not unless she wanted to be turned over to Rosier. Or trapped in that mirror.
She wondered why Bernadette was still associating with them. Were they blackmailing her? If Shreya wasn't being sent to that awful room, she would have made it her goal to get to the bottom of it.
"Good point about body language, Nemesis," she said reluctantly, not quite meeting the Slytherin's eye as she passed along the compliment. Was she brown-nosing? Not exactly. But she wasn't going to totally ignore them either. She didn't want to give them the satisfaction. "We often overlook the little mannerisms, like the way people carry themselves and talk in normal conversations." Her eyes lingered for a moment on Bernadette, trying one final to time to figure this little friendship out, before moving on to the next group.
Text Cut: Mamie and Fiona
Quote:
Originally Posted by Waddles
Mamie was not sure how she was just supposed to find a new partner and continue class like three of her friends hadn't just disappeared. Poof. Gone. Dead. That was three premature funerals Mamie would have to attend, if they were even allowed to have funerals for Muggle-borns nowadays.
But she still wasn't crying.
She was determined not to be next, because, she'd tried imagining her own funeral, and her family would not understand. She had to survive, then explain to them they needed to disown her and stay far far away from the wizarding world. So she looked around for a partner for this polyjuice practice, or whatever they were meant to be doing. Her eyes landed on that Gryffindor, Morgan, she thought, who was friends with Kale Trent...she remembered he had not been a good teammate in Muggle Studies. She did not want to be his partner.
And he was looking at...oh, Nemesis. Mamie looked solemnly at the Slytherin for a moment. No, she did not particularly want to partner with them, and have to tell things about herself, either. Though it would be fascinating to hear what they had to say after all this. And she was definitely not partnering with Bernadette. Not after the Gryffindor had almost gotten her the same fate as Moose, Ashley, and Minjae! And Kale. Twice!!
She heard one of the Flamsteed twins asking to go to the hospital wing. That...no, she did not want to leave the safety of the classroom. If he was going to stay, sure, she'd partner with him. But this Hufflepuff was not going to the Hospital Wing today.
She looked around some more. Did anybody need an almost thirteen-year-old for a partner?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ginevra
Fiona really wasn't surprised at what had just occurred considering how things had been these past few months. In her mind, Nem had his new job to do and it was best to toe the line, which was Rosier and the Inquisitorial Squad's line. In her eyes was an expression of pure delight that she flashed in the direction of her fellow Slytherin. However, nobody else saw it.
Now was the task of finding a partner and in all honesty, Fiona was struggling. She then spotted Mamie and headed over. "Do you want to be partners with me?" she asked in a disguised sweet tone.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Waddles
Mamie was relieved someone found her to partner up. A Slytherin...Fiona, she thought the girl's name was. Mamie nodded at the girl's request, then gestered to Moose's former seat in case she wanted to sit down. "You're Fiona, right?"
"What's your morning routine?" Mamie asked quietly. Did she brush her hair, then teeth? Teeth, then hair? It did not really matter to her, but it's what her friends would have wanted. Well, no, they'd probably want her to take down the Neo-Alliance and get revenge, but she was twelve. Playing along was the best she could do.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ginevra
Fiona sat down and nodded when Mamie asked her name. "And you're Mamie, correct?" Morning routine? It was an automatic thing that she really didn't think about. After a few seconds, she gave her answer. "I get dressed and then brush my teeth and hair."
She then decided to ask the Hufflepuff a question of her own. "What do you eat for breakfast?" It was a very basic question but food-related questions could be quite revealing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Waddles
Mamie heaved a sigh of relief when the headmaster finally left. She was still upset (obviously, three of her friends just died! (she thought)) but at least she wasn't worried about her own impending doom. "Or Margaret," she somewhat corrected Fiona. It did not feel right letting strangers, or the Neo-Alliance, call her by her family nickname. Her Muggle family nickname.
She noted down the order in which the older girl got ready for the day, pausing a moment to mentally compare it to her own routine. Mamie always brushed her hair first, before getting dressed, to minimize how much she shed on her clothes. She supposed not everyone had that problem.
"I just eat whatever they bring us in The Room," Mamie muttered, diverting her eyes to her notebook. "What do you eat?" And could Mamie pose as Fiona to sleep in a bed for once. Was that Varma's plan, to have all The Room students switch with purebloods to get a day of true freedom? A sudden thought occurred to Mamie. If she took polyjuice potion and became Fiona, would she have her own allergies, or Fiona's? Or both? "Are you allergic to anything?"
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ginevra
"Ah, sorry. Margaret, it is then," Fiona said as she jotted that nugget of info in her notebook. "I like to eat poultry especially roast chicken, roasted potatoes, raw green beans, any kind of chocolate, pancakes with syrup and red apples. Not at the same time of course." At Mamie's question about allergies, Fiona shook her head to indicate that she had no allergies.
"Now, do you have any favourite festive foods? Umm... what allergies do you have?" Fiona asked drumming her fingers on her notebook.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Waddles
Mamie noted down all of Fiona's favorite foods, and also a little note for just herself that it was really easy to tell people to call her by her ~fancy~ name. It did not occur to her that telling Fiona her full name instead of her nickname might be a problem for Fiona, if the older ever did take a dose of Mamie Turov Polyjuice Potion.
Luckily they weren't doing that.
"I like soup," she said, with a wistful smile. "Even in summer, my Babulya, that's my grandmother, she makes cucumber soup or cold beet soup. It's nice." House elves made decent soup, but it wasn't the same. It didn't have her Babulya's secret ingredient love. "I'm allergic to cashews."
She tapped her quill against the notebook while she tried to think of another question. "Who's your best friend at Hogwarts?" she asked. That was important, for impersonating someone, she thought. Well. Maybe not for impersonating her, since all her friends had just disappeared in front of them, but anyone with living friends. Probably would need to keep up appearances.
Food, huh? An interesting topic to interview your partner about. Not necessarily the most important thing to know when Polyjuicing, but Shreya supposed it could be useful if one were to attend a dinner party. She gave the girls an encouraging nod as she passed, particularly as she overheard Mamie's next question. "Good idea to ask about friends, Ms. Turov. It's important to prepare yourself for the company you'll be surrounded with if you were to impersonate someone."
Text Cut: Morgan and Ivy
Quote:
Originally Posted by emjay
Moving on? MOVING ON? Was Varma serious right now? Morgan couldn't believe what he was hearing and he tore his glaring eyes from Nemesis (who he'd no longer to refer to as Nem by the way, because nicknames were reserved for friends) and stared a moment in disbelief at their professor. Four students were just vanished into black smoke and were probably gone forever, as far as he knew. And now they were just having class as usual? Morgan could not.
But he did know better than to speak out in this moment. He wiped at his eye with the back of his hand and glowered down at his workstation, trying to process what just happened. He vaguely heard instructions that filtered in through one ear and back out the other without really listening. His own thoughts right now were filled with loss and grief and anger and revenge. No room for polyjuice questions.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AlwaysSnapesGirl
Ivy couldn't tear her eyes away from the spot where Kale had been and now...wasn't. Maybe a small part of her hope that this was just another nightmare, and she'd wake up any second and find herself back in the Room.
But she didn't.
This had...happened. And Professor Varma had to continue the lesson, but Ivy's mind only registered bits and pieces of it. She just kept staring at that one spot, her heart roiling with too many feelings to name. So many that soon her insides just grew...numb. Feeling everything and nothing all at once.
When he spoke again, it finally jolted her back to the present, and she quickly brushed her fingers under her eyes, wiping away the wetness there. No tears. Not here. Not now.
Finally her mind was processing the pieces of information it had pulled from Varma. Polyjuice Potion. Partners.
...Okay.
She spotted someone who looked like they needed a partner. So...
Ivy got out of her seat and moved over to them. "...Partner?" Her voice was quieter than she intended, but she also wasn't sure she could be any louder in this moment. It didn't...feel right to talk normally, not after what had just happened.
Quote:
Originally Posted by emjay
Morgan couldn't tell you how much time had passed as he sat glaring at his parchment. All at one it felt like a mere instant and also a couple hours passed, almost like time in a dream that made no sense and too much sense at the same time. Because that's what this was - a nightmare that he couldn't wake up from.
He was unconcerned with people pairing up or not all around him, in fact he couldn't care less about that. But he eventually noticed someone sitting next to him and he thought she whispered something to him. Morgan looked up at her, his eyes slowly focusing on a familiar sort of girl. He recognized her, but didn't really know her. Had she asked him to be her partner? It took him a minute to realize this, but he found himself nodding almost imperceptibly. "Uh, yeah.. sure." But she would have to do most of the work here probably, because he seemed to have forgotten how to function.
Another group seeming to struggle with get started. Shreya gave the Gryffindor and the Ravenclaw a reassuring nod as she passed by. "It's okay. You can take as long as you need," she whispered, pretending not to notice the tears pricking at both of their eyelids. The professor could certainly relate to the feeling.
Text Cut: Heath
Quote:
Originally Posted by MadMadamMalfoy
Text Cut: pre-Rosier catchup
Heath didn’t expect Professor Varma to reassure him, and even if she did, he wouldn’t have believed it. Every word he said was true. He was a nerdy halfblood, and no matter how hard he tried to act otherwise, that was all he could ever be. He’d known that for quite some time now (however long it had been since he was locked away in The Room); all the professor’s comments did was drive the point home.
He kept his eyes down, only forcing himself to look up when the professor spoke again, and he caught the angry look Claudine sent him. He didn’t know what he did wrong, but he still gave an apologetic look in return. Knowing he upset her made him feel even worse than ever! With his emotions running high, it was nearly impossible to concentrate on the question, but he tried to block out everything around him. Dangers of using Polyjuice Potion… his thoughts immediately went to accidental animal transformations, but that was already said. Then another idea occurred to him. What if the specimen added to the potion wasn’t a hair at all? What if someone added a synthetic fiber that looked like a hair by mistake? Would the potion not work at all, or would it transform the drinker into that material?
Before Heath could raise his hand to speak, all Hades broke loose. He wasn’t the slightest bit shocked to learn that Upstead had joined the Inquisitorial Squad; they were way too eager to embrace Rosier’s ruthless ways, even before anyone knew that was Rosier and not Headmaster Trent! Nor did he feel betrayed, In order to be betrayed, he would’ve had to have trusted the person in question at some point. Part of him wanted to laugh at the utter ridiculousness of their statement - in all his time at Hogwarts, the only thing he’d ever seen Upstead maintain was chaos - but he didn’t. Not out of fear but all-consuming hate, hate so strong that even acknowledging their existence was too good for them. As of now, That was dead to him.
That hate was joined with worry… worry for Minjae and that other injured guy (Moose) and worry in general as Rosier appeared. It was too much emotion for Heath to process all at once, so he just sort of shut down. His entire body stiffened, as if frozen in place, and all he could do was watch with blank, unblinking eyes as four of his classmates (Ashley, Minjae, Kale, and Moose) vanished in a cloud of black smoke. Although his body remained motionless, his heart and mind were going a million miles an hour. What just happened? Were they dead? Probably not… if Rosier had killed them, he probably would’ve left the bodies as a reminder. Maybe they were vanished out of existence instead?
Whatever it was, Heath had a feeling they were gone forever. That thought broke his heart, but he was too numb to react. Ashley was his friend, and he liked Minjae well enough. He didn’t know Kale and that other kid (Moose) well, but neither of them deserved that and Varma… It was only hearing how small and quiet the professor’s voice sounded that jerked him out of his near-catatonic state. Every day of his imprisonment, he wished that all of the professors who left him to his fate would know his pain, but now that it happened, he didn’t feel vindicated, just more sad.
Then just like that, they were moving on. Now on top of everything else he felt, Heath was confused. Inhabit their persona? Successful Polyjuice performance? That sounded exactly like acting! So what was the point of Varma’s earlier comments? If acting was such an inferior art form, why was this activity acceptable? Whatever, he didn’t care anymore. He supposed he didn’t have to make sense of it, just go with it.
He got up from his seat, grabbing a quill and parchment. “Does anyone need a partner?” he asked, his dark eyes scanning the room in search of a person not already paired up. So far, it looked like everyone was already taken, and panic set in. He didn’t want to get into trouble for not completing the activity! While he waited for someone to take him up on his offer, he quietly observed all of his classmates’ mannerisms, just in case he could find a partner in time.
Shreya had been worried about Heath all class, but now, she was even more concerned. The poor Ravenclaw looked absolutely shell-shocked. And angry. "I'll be your partner, if you want," Shreya said gently as she passed by. She didn't expect him to agree. Some students would be embarrassed to work with the professor, and Heath seemed particularly on edge today. But she would surely work with him if he was up for it. "Tell me, what are some phrases or words that you tend to say a lot?" she asked, just in case he was up for proceeding. If not, at least it was worth a shot. Shreya never wanted a student to feel left out or alone, especially now.
Shreya did feel bad about making the students continue with the lesson after what had just occurred. For Merlin's sake, they just witnessed their own classmates being vanished by their Headmaster. No wonder they looked so shell-shocked. Had Shreya had it her way, she would have ended the lesson then and there. But Rosier wouldn't have stood for that. So she pushed through, forcing herself to make the rounds around the lab. At least listening in to the students' conversations distracted her from what was going on.
A glance at her watch showed that the end of class was getting closer (and so was her impending imprisonment). She reluctantly figured that they needed to move on, so she called the class back to order. "I heard some wonderful conversations. It seems that you are picking up on some very important qualities. It may sound silly to ask about their morning routine or their favorite dinner food. And it may seem pointless to observe how they walk and carry themselves. But if you are to impersonate someone successfully with the Polyjuice potion, you must be knowledgeable about such things. The Polyjuice potion only changes your physical appearance. It does not alter your personality, voice, or mannerisms. That is up to you to portray." Was she getting the point across that the Polyjuice Potion was extremely complicated? Complicated to the point that it wasn't even worth trying to brew or use at their age and skill level? She hoped so.
"Well, I hope that you all took some copious notes. Because now it's time to put your knowledge to the test. You're going to Polyjuice into your partner." Shreya waved her wand, causing all of the cauldrons in the room to start bubbling even more enthusiastically than they had been before. "Your Potions are all ready and safe to use—they were inspected before class. Please add a specimen of yourself to your partner's cauldron. A hair is usually the easiest, and most painless, to retrieve. Wait for a few seconds for the bubbling to subside, and then your partner can drink it up."
She paused, waiting for any questionable reactions, before continuing. "One fun fact is that the look and taste of the Polyjuice Potion varies depending on the specimen you add to it. If you add the essence of a good-hearted, noble person, your potion will likely look and taste satisfactory. But if you add the essence of someone evil, your potion's look and taste will have the opposite effect." It was a side note, and not a very important part of the lesson, but Shreya was interested to see their reactions to the potion tastes and colors. She had sampled her fair share of both good and bad ones over the years.
"We're going to play a little game, in order to demonstrate 'reversing' the Polyjuice Potion. Once you have transformed into your interview partner, you will find a new partner. Your task is to ask them three questions to try and find out who they really are, underneath that Polyjuice exterior. For example, if I drank a potion and turned into Heath, and my new partner was Dahlia, Dahlia would ask me (even though I look like Heath) some questions about my true identity as Shreya. Maybe she'd ask my place of birth, to which I'd reply Jaipur. Or my favorite beverage, to which I'd answer a chai latte. Dahlia's task would be to guess that I am actually Professor Varma under Heath's exterior." It was bound to get a little confusing, with all these impostors, so Shreya gave the students a few moments to understand before continuing with her explanation. "Your goal is to ask interesting, specific questions that will help you figure out the person's identity. You can ask any questions, but you cannot ask any simple yes or no questions. You also cannot ask the person's real name, school year, or house. That would just make it too easy."
"These Potions have been charmed to only last for a few minutes. But the quicker you and your new partner figure out each other's true identities, the quicker you can reverse back into yourself." From what Shreya had observed in previous studies, people were quite uncomfortable in someone else's body. The students would likely be eager to transform back into themselves. Not to mention competitive to see who could figure it out first.
OOC: Time for the main activity! This one might get a little confusing, but I'm hoping you can bear with me. To get full credit, RP your student:
1. Adding a piece of their hair to their partner's cauldron
2. Taking the potion (assuming that their partner added their hair to the cauldron) and turning into their partner from the interview (If you are unsure if the character you are RPing with would be okay with adding their specimen/taking a potion, best to VM them about it first to avoid godmodding for them—or wait for them to respond first before continuing. While Shreya hopes every student participates, it's ultimately up to them if they want to transform or not.)
3. Asking a new partner 3 questions to find their true identity (just go with the person that posts directly above/below you to make it easier)
For example, if Avalon Sinclair turned into Cecelia Summers, Aboli Song might ask Cecelia (who's really Avalon) questions to determine her true identity (Avalon).
Of course, OOC, you know the imposter's true identity, but your character wouldn't know. So play along and have fun! To keep things more organized OOC, please put who you are polyjuiced as in your post title. So if I was playing Avalon, who polyjuiced into Cecelia, I'd make my post title "Avalon portraying Cecelia" or something like that.
You have until March 14 to complete the activity! Shreya will be around occasionally for questions and to observe.
astronomizzle ♧ gryffinDORK | & the rest is drag ♣ #badluckDerf
His heart sunk into his stomach and then his stomach twisted into knots and squished his head when Rosier condemned the first year's request to leave. The Gryffindor did not want to be here anymore. He didn't want to see the empty stools and unattended cauldrons that had once belonged to his four peers who were now missing...and how much that thought alone continued to push him towards the spiral about his dad. His dad and now...how many others? The real Headmaster Trent too?
He had nodded dutifully at the man's stern command, there was little else that could be done and he knew not to ask again nor consider any other option. He would...maybe just swallow down the vomit that was fighting to push itself u----
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cassirin
This whole term was so conceal-don't-feel, and Phoebe was a lioness queen who was always strong for the little ones around her. Always always. But it wasn't really fair to expect a 16-year-old to be forever stoic, to always make the right decision when it went against her instincts. Especially not when one of her best friends just disappeared right in front of her eyes.
She felt totally numb, bloodless to the tips of her fingertips, and even when Rosier threatened them and snarled at them, she couldn't rouse herself enough to respond. Find a partner? How? How were they supposed to do anything? Everything was dangerous, action and inaction. Caring and not caring enough. Sincerity. Insincerity. Everything felt like too much, and it took every inch of her will to keep from crying.
She managed to curl a finger around the sleeve of Atlas' robes, giving him just the slightest tug. That was all she could manage, but hopefully it was enough to settle him. They were all unsettled, so that was a lot to expect. "Sit here and talk to me. Tell me anything you can before I come totally undone. Please?"
Oh no. Oh no. Oh no no no no no.
His former unrequited crush was asking to be his partner and all he felt would happen if he opened his mouth was that he would literally vomit on her. Which is why he ended up sucking his upper lip in with his lower and just sort of stared at her all wide eyed. While he wanted to shake his head to say no, because she deserved a better partner than he, he ended up nodding his head rapidly a few times. Because...how did someone say no to someone like her?! Especially when she was so polite and said please?
"Okaaaaaaaay," he BURPED, that stench of bile seeming to escape his mouth like a thick cloud right into the older beautiful blonde's face. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no no no no no. Part two. "I...I'm sorry. I'm just...really nervous with...everything...talking to you too because you're like this ethereal sort of being and you're giving me attention."
His blonde head snapped around as the professor moved things along to the activity...and then his stomach was back to churning and sick to his stomach.
So...all in all...she had only learned about how much a nervous wreck he was and that she thought of her like some goddess. So...that was just greaaaaaaaaaaat.
"I...I'm sorry...I...I don't...want...anyone changing into me..." he stumbled over his words while looking down at his hands in his lap rather than as the veela also known as Phoebe James. "...I don't...want anything to do with the actual use of Polyjuice...you...you should maybe find another person to partner with but...I-I can help you play detective if you like..."
__________________
When you’re stuck in a moment and your spark has been stolen .................................................. ........... this is our time to own it, so own it..................................... baby we were born withfire and gold in our eyes
~ Mrs. Steve Harrington ~ It be like that sometimes.
Claudine gave Varma a small smile. The poor woman. All of this definitely has to be difficult on her. At least Rosier was gone for now and the remaining students were cooperating to finish the activity. Still… she wished the other four were here especially Minjae and Ashley.
Okay, they were moving on. It came as no surprise that they were going to turn into their partners. Claudine tried to focus on the other information Varma was providing but it was sort of hard; her thoughts kept drifting to Minjae, whom she’d gotten closer with, as she wondered where he was. And how he was. Please let him be alive.
The fifth year turned back to the third year.
“I’ll give you a strand of my hair, Violet.’’ Already she was reaching her hands up to her head to remove a long, dark strand. “Here you go.’’ With the strand held out, the girl wondered what colour the potion would turn once her hair was added. She hoped it would be a bright, pleasant colour. As for the taste? Was it possible to have mint? Or honey?
Exchanging hairs with Claudine, and taking the potion
Quote:
Originally Posted by FearlessLeader19
“I’ll give you a strand of my hair, Violet.’’ Already she was reaching her hands up to her head to remove a long, dark strand. “Here you go.’’ With the strand held out, the girl wondered what colour the potion would turn once her hair was added. She hoped it would be a bright, pleasant colour. As for the taste? Was it possible to have mint? Or honey?
Violet had been thinking about how much she wanted to say about her parents to Claudine, not so much because she didn't trust the other girl, but because you never knew who was listening to you here this year, and there were things Violet thought best not to say outloud around the Neo-Alliance and their supporters. But before she could speak, Professor Varma was moving along with the lesson. After Violet heard the instructions, she was thinking she should probably have gotten a bit more information about Claudine, But--too late now.
Violet was already pulling out one of her hairs--ouch! that hurt!!--when her partner was already handing Violet her own hair. Violet took it carefully with two fingers and handed over her own hair to Claudine, hoping very much that her own hair wouldn't turn into a really nasty-tasting potion and reveal some unknown wickedness within herself.
Carefully dropping Claudine's hair into her potion, Violet watched with interest as it began to bubble. When it had finally subsided, Violet tipped the liquid into a smaller vial and looked at it in the light. The potion had turned into a deep, bright yellow, sort of the color of a daffodil. Violet was sure that it would taste just as nice, though she was a little nervous about whether it would hurt to have your body changed around by magic.
Oh, well. Only one way to find out. "Cheers!" Violet said, raising the vial slightly, then downed it at a single gulp--it tasted like warm butterscotch. But Violet only had a minute or two to enjoy this, because the next thing she knew, she felt like squirrels were playing tag under her skin...
Potion time - Fiona's exchanged hairs with Mamie (sorry if I make errors)
Oh, how we drift away from our friends. And the ones back home play remember when
Quote:
Originally Posted by Waddles
Mamie noted down all of Fiona's favorite foods, and also a little note for just herself that it was really easy to tell people to call her by her ~fancy~ name. It did not occur to her that telling Fiona her full name instead of her nickname might be a problem for Fiona, if the older ever did take a dose of Mamie Turov Polyjuice Potion.
Luckily they weren't doing that.
"I like soup," she said, with a wistful smile. "Even in summer, my Babulya, that's my grandmother, she makes cucumber soup or cold beet soup. It's nice." House elves made decent soup, but it wasn't the same. It didn't have her Babulya's secret ingredient love. "I'm allergic to cashews."
She tapped her quill against the notebook while she tried to think of another question. "Who's your best friend at Hogwarts?" she asked. That was important, for impersonating someone, she thought. Well. Maybe not for impersonating her, since all her friends had just disappeared in front of them, but anyone with living friends. Probably would need to keep up appearances.
When Mamie mentioned her Babulya making soup, Fiona couldn't help but smile a genuine smile as she wrote down her notes. "Borscht is a really nice soup," she replied as she also jotted down Mamie's allergy to cashews. At the question of best friends, Fiona bit her lip before answering. "I have a close friend in Claudine but I don't have a best friend."
Once armed with info, Fiona plucked a large strand of her coppery hair and carefully dropped it in Mamie's cauldron. The Snakette didn't want to look at how her own specimen affected the potion so she watched as her own potion that had just had Mamie's hair added to it, bubble and turn into a beautiful shade of lilac.
Letting out a breath that she didn't even know she had held in, Fiona downed the bit of potion and within a few moments of swallowing the last drop which tasted really nice, her face felt as if unseemly creatures were playing chasing games beneath the surface of her skin.
Made of Awesome | Ern-la the Best-wa | TZ's Apogee
SPOILER!!: Atlas
Quote:
Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie
His heart sunk into his stomach and then his stomach twisted into knots and squished his head when Rosier condemned the first year's request to leave. The Gryffindor did not want to be here anymore. He didn't want to see the empty stools and unattended cauldrons that had once belonged to his four peers who were now missing...and how much that thought alone continued to push him towards the spiral about his dad. His dad and now...how many others? The real Headmaster Trent too?
He had nodded dutifully at the man's stern command, there was little else that could be done and he knew not to ask again nor consider any other option. He would...maybe just swallow down the vomit that was fighting to push itself u----
Oh no. Oh no. Oh no no no no no.
His former unrequited crush was asking to be his partner and all he felt would happen if he opened his mouth was that he would literally vomit on her. Which is why he ended up sucking his upper lip in with his lower and just sort of stared at her all wide eyed. While he wanted to shake his head to say no, because she deserved a better partner than he, he ended up nodding his head rapidly a few times. Because...how did someone say no to someone like her?! Especially when she was so polite and said please?
"Okaaaaaaaay," he BURPED, that stench of bile seeming to escape his mouth like a thick cloud right into the older beautiful blonde's face. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no no no no no. Part two. "I...I'm sorry. I'm just...really nervous with...everything...talking to you too because you're like this ethereal sort of being and you're giving me attention."
His blonde head snapped around as the professor moved things along to the activity...and then his stomach was back to churning and sick to his stomach.
So...all in all...she had only learned about how much a nervous wreck he was and that she thought of her like some goddess. So...that was just greaaaaaaaaaaat.
"I...I'm sorry...I...I don't...want...anyone changing into me..." he stumbled over his words while looking down at his hands in his lap rather than as the veela also known as Phoebe James. "...I don't...want anything to do with the actual use of Polyjuice...you...you should maybe find another person to partner with but...I-I can help you play detective if you like..."
Whew. Whatever else Phoebe was feeling, she'd also just had a first year belch in her face. It was hard to go through any stages of grief following something like that, and she actually cracked the smallest of smiles and rubbed the bridge of her nose.
That smile didn't last, though. "You don't want to take the potion and you don't want me to take the potion?" She considered that with a little tilt of her head. Her voice dropped. "No one wants to be here, Atlas. No one feels good. No one is happy right now. Not even... not anyone. But you can't just give up or they'll make you disappear too. So if you could just..." Like, seriously, she wasn't going to make the kid pretend to be here, although she thought any one would be lucky to spend some time as Phoebe James. "Just go out there and pretend to be me pretending to be you. If they ask you questions, you just answer as weirdly as you can."
When Mamie mentioned her Babulya making soup, Fiona couldn't help but smile a genuine smile as she wrote down her notes. "Borscht is a really nice soup," she replied as she also jotted down Mamie's allergy to cashews. At the question of best friends, Fiona bit her lip before answering. "I have a close friend in Claudine but I don't have a best friend."
Once armed with info, Fiona plucked a large strand of her coppery hair and carefully dropped it in Mamie's cauldron. The Snakette didn't want to look at how her own specimen affected the potion so she watched as her own potion that had just had Mamie's hair added to it, bubble and turn into a beautiful shade of lilac.
Letting out a breath that she didn't even know she had held in, Fiona downed the bit of potion and within a few moments of swallowing the last drop which tasted really nice, her face felt as if unseemly creatures were playing chasing games beneath the surface of her skin.
Mamie nodded, too, as she noted down Fiona was friends with Claudine. Claudine was in The Room with her. She fidgeted as Varma explained that they were actually going to take the polyjuice potion. While imagining being in someone else's skin seemed like a grand idea, especially if she could be someone with relative freedom, actually doing so was a different matter. Still, she supplied a long brown strand of hair for Fiona's potion, then focused on her own.
She watched, fascinated, as the polyjuice potion with Fiona's hair turned a nice, deep forest green. This reassured Mamie, as many foods were green. Plus, forests. Trees were nice, she wished they could see trees from the Room. She scooped up a bit of the potion in a phial and sniffed, then took a big gulp. Not too bad, she though. Definitely tastier than a Headmaster Rosier polyjuice would be, she thought.
And then, she felt very...wibbly, if that was the right word or even a word at all. She glanced down and saw her hair was red now, instead of its usual brown. Did that mean the rest of her looked like Fiona too? Mamie looked at the other girl. "Is this right??" she asked. It didn't feel right. Her shoes were pinching her toes.
Claudine's really Violet; snagging Mamie as Fiona for the questioning ^_^
~ Mrs. Steve Harrington ~ It be like that sometimes.
Claudine took Violet’s hair and now added it to her measured out potion. She then eyed Violet’s own. Okay, so Claudine’s essence wasn’t gold but yellow was quite nice. It was bright yellow, sort of like the Hufflepuff colour. By now, the contents of Claudine’s glass bubbled and changed colour. Right. It was ready to be consumed!
“Cheers,’’ she echoed softly and downed the contents. Yes, Vi’s essence was nice to the taste. Why wouldn’t it be? Vi was one of those nice humans.
Immediately she could feel the effects beginning to take place. Her skin seemed to be bubbling and Claudine, looking down at her hands, felt sick to see this. She barely registered adjusting to Vi’s height but the length of her hair receding was noticed. Naturally, she didn’t see the colour change.
It seemed like minutes later she stood there, in slightly bigger and longer robes because of the difference between hers and Vi’s physical appearance. And how weird it was to see herself from a different perspective?!
“Good luck with the activity,’’ clonedViolet said and moved off to find a partner. The fifth year snagged the closest person, who happened to look like Fiona. “You’re definitely not the real Fiona,’’ she greeted with a small smile to the disguised Mamie.
Otter This World ♡ Catpurrccino ♡ Slotherin ♡ Pandamonium
Dahlia smiled up at Varma when she gave both Tadgh and herself some suggestions about how they could better portray one another. The women was more right in her suggestion than she knew, Lia was well known for always gravitating towards anywhere creatures were as well as plants. If there was an ice cream shop close by that was also a very good spot to find her. These were all things Tad knew about her though, she had dragged him around Diagon Alley a couple of times when their families had run into one another while shopping.
For the next couple of minutes all Lia did was write down everything she knew about her non-sibling bestie. Which... was a LOT. Knowing him since they were around five or six really helped with all of that. How he talked, walked and would likely react to many things was all stuff she knew. It didn't stop her though from asking completely random questions and expecting answers for them, as she did the same for him until their time was up.
Lots of talking was happening in which she was being used as an example. So they were going to be taking the polyjuice potions after all. The first year wasn't entirely sure how she felt about someone else posing as her. She already had an identical lookalike (Lily), she didn't need another one. However... this was for a lesson and it would only last a couple of minutes at best. Plus there was no one else she trusted more than the boy sat beside her to pretend to be her, other than her siblings.
Casting a glance at Tad, she nodded her head to receive a head nod from him as well. Silent permission for them to do this. Without much thought, Lia plucked one single strand of her long light brown hair from her head and dropped it into Tadhg's cauldron while he did the same for her. "This is it." A quick grin was sent at her friend before her attention return to the contents of her own cauldron.
Right away the potion began to bubble and the color began to change right before her eyes. A few different colors seemed to swirl before it all merged into several shades of the same color. It was rather mesmerizing to watch. When the bubbling stopped and all of the colors meshed together as one, she was left with an absolutely beautiful vibrant sapphire blue potion. The eleven year old was so transfixed on simply the color alone she completely forget what it was she was meant to be doing next.
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Days of Potter 2023:___________________________ Which Bertie Botts Flavour Are You?
Yes, those little mannerisms were significant. As they'd more or less suggested to Bernadette, they were often more significant than the actual words a person said, and the two had to be considered together; with her, Nem had always found those observations particularly telling. They looked up as Varma passed by, in time to see her lingering look at Bernadette, and kept their own eyes riveted to the professor until she'd moved along.
When it came to the activity itself, Nem had been ready to refuse on both counts, willing neither to let Bernadette take on their appearance, nor to take on hers. Plus the vegan thing, of course. Of course. Just before speaking up to say just this, however, they had a sudden change of heart mind.
Taking their pin from the front of their robes with one hand, Nem reached over to Bernadette's cauldron and ladled out a phial of the potion for her, because they were just so helpful. "I don't need anything from you," they said simply, and let her make her own deductions from that. In any case, with all the glares that had been sent this way, simply switching faces would have been a waste of time; people had seen them working together. With their Inquisitorial Squad pin palmed away out of sight, Nem plucked a single one of their eyelashes, dropped it into the phial - not the entire cauldron - and watched as it started to change colour. "I'll vanish what's left as soon as you're done."
They held the phial out for Bernadette to take, eyeing its contents with vague interest. Nem had been very tempted to zero in on that comment Varma had made, and which they had seen in their reading plenty of times in the past, about the fact that this potion could apparently make a moral judgement about who was 'good' and who was 'evil'. Maybe the inventor of the potion was another of those who liked to oversimplify these things, and had somehow imbued the brewing process with more of the same, or maybe it depended entirely on the mindset of the person who'd personally brewed it. Nem had never bought into the concept, either way, but couldn't deny a little curiosity about this particular sample.
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Days of Potter 2023:___________________________ Which Bertie Botts Flavour Are You?
astronomizzle ♧ gryffinDORK | & the rest is drag ♣ #badluckDerf
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cassirin
Whew. Whatever else Phoebe was feeling, she'd also just had a first year belch in her face. It was hard to go through any stages of grief following something like that, and she actually cracked the smallest of smiles and rubbed the bridge of her nose.
That smile didn't last, though. "You don't want to take the potion and you don't want me to take the potion?" She considered that with a little tilt of her head. Her voice dropped. "No one wants to be here, Atlas. No one feels good. No one is happy right now. Not even... not anyone. But you can't just give up or they'll make you disappear too. So if you could just..." Like, seriously, she wasn't going to make the kid pretend to be here, although she thought any one would be lucky to spend some time as Phoebe James. "Just go out there and pretend to be me pretending to be you. If they ask you questions, you just answer as weirdly as you can."
He had made her smile! HE had made HER smile. By burping? Should he burp in people's faces more often? It was an innocent and completely misguided revelation that would likely be the only thing that Atlas 'learned' this lesson.
But then in the next breath he had robbed of that same smile. But being honest and expressing his feelings. It was not lost on the first year how often this seemed to happen at times, especially this term, by his peers. "I'm NOT giving UP!" he found himself snapping at the older girl, a bit louder than he had wanted to. "Never give up, never surrender. Dad used to say that...when he was around." Now...now Atlas didn't know where he was. And suddenly the space was filled with swirling black smoke that was creeping across the floor and pooling at his feet. "I don't think it is unreasonable to not want anything to do with the very thing that allowed those people to masquerade around as your dad...they have my dad...they...have...."
He looked at his cauldron again and sighed. He KNEW it was brewed in correctly and so... if he drank from it then there was just no way anything good would come from it. But then the older Gryffindor spoke and his eyes widened and he leaned in a little wo whisper to her. Only now really remembering that The Hoods™ were still here. "You...you mean...pretend we each took the potion and pretend to be the other person pretending to be the other person?" It was like...one of those Russian doll toys, they had an actual name but he couldn't remember that name right now. "So...I would be me...pretending to be you...pretending to be me?" And yes, he held up a finger for each of these steps.
But also, technically, wasn't that still on task? Technically.
"F I N E," he huffed, puffing out his chest and making a grand display of it since he had, er, been kind of vocal earlier. He pretended to pull some hair from on top of his head with one hand while the other pulled a bit of fur from someone's kneazle in the common room who had rubbed up against his pant leg. He couldn't use a lint roller to get it all off before class and he had only administered a cleaning spell to the front of his trousers so it was still there on the back. The Gryffindor then dropped these furs into his cauldron and stirred a bit until it turned a sort of...putrid pink color. Though he supposed that was a shade better than the poop brown it had been before.
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When you’re stuck in a moment and your spark has been stolen .................................................. ........... this is our time to own it, so own it..................................... baby we were born withfire and gold in our eyes
Shreya had been observing carefully from behind her desk, just in case anything went awry. She had personally inspected all of the potions before class to make sure they were safe to consume, but Polyjuice often had a mind of its own. A small part of her was worried that something would go wrong.
Luckily, by the looks of the first students transforming, things were going just fine. Shreya waved her wand, causing the house emblems and colors on the students' uniforms to disappear. "Didn't think I'd make it that easy on you, did you?" she said with a sly smile. She waved her wand again. "I'm also placing a temporary charm on your uniforms. They should now extend or shrink to fit your new...physique." Because it would be far too obvious if someone's robes were three sizes too big or too small. And Shreya didn't want anyone's clothes ripping today.
She was very much looking forward to seeing the question game play out. It'd be interesting to see which students wanted to hone their acting skills and which students simply wanted to turn back into themselves as soon as possible. Would they make it easy for their classmates to discover their true identity, or would they try to fool their peers with false answers?
OOC: The lesson will remain open until March 14 around 9 PM EST.
Professor Pink | Mrs. Bruce Wayne | I'm on a Goat | Glitterpuff | Dumbledore's Defense Squad | BHB
Quote:
Originally Posted by Felixir
Yes, those little mannerisms were significant. As they'd more or less suggested to Bernadette, they were often more significant than the actual words a person said, and the two had to be considered together; with her, Nem had always found those observations particularly telling. They looked up as Varma passed by, in time to see her lingering look at Bernadette, and kept their own eyes riveted to the professor until she'd moved along.
When it came to the activity itself, Nem had been ready to refuse on both counts, willing neither to let Bernadette take on their appearance, nor to take on hers. Plus the vegan thing, of course. Of course. Just before speaking up to say just this, however, they had a sudden change of heart mind.
Taking their pin from the front of their robes with one hand, Nem reached over to Bernadette's cauldron and ladled out a phial of the potion for her, because they were just so helpful. "I don't need anything from you," they said simply, and let her make her own deductions from that. In any case, with all the glares that had been sent this way, simply switching faces would have been a waste of time; people had seen them working together. With their Inquisitorial Squad pin palmed away out of sight, Nem plucked a single one of their eyelashes, dropped it into the phial - not the entire cauldron - and watched as it started to change colour. "I'll vanish what's left as soon as you're done."
They held the phial out for Bernadette to take, eyeing its contents with vague interest. Nem had been very tempted to zero in on that comment Varma had made, and which they had seen in their reading plenty of times in the past, about the fact that this potion could apparently make a moral judgement about who was 'good' and who was 'evil'. Maybe the inventor of the potion was another of those who liked to oversimplify these things, and had somehow imbued the brewing process with more of the same, or maybe it depended entirely on the mindset of the person who'd personally brewed it. Nem had never bought into the concept, either way, but couldn't deny a little curiosity about this particular sample.
The pulse... pleeeeeeeease. Bernadette had been shut down by Nem's unsatisfactory answer to her, and then the stupid patronizing cAuTioN that followed. Really, Nem? Warning HER to be careful? She had rarely acted as a provocateur this term, unlike THEY were allowed to do. Wearing that pin. Slamming kids' heads into desks. To say she was jealous was an understatement.
She sank lower in her seat as Varma went on about the polyjuice potions, already knowing that her partner of choice would refuse to cooperate with her. So why bother? Nem had a thing about transformative magic, she'd noticed this already, which just confirmed her suspicions, first in Charms, and then in Transfiguration, and aNyW---
Wait, what? She blinked a few times as Upstead began ladling the potion into the phial and then--- and put the EyELaSH in?!? She tried hard not to let her mouth fall open in wonder, but all things considered, she caught on rather quickly. For a Gryffindor.
"Look at that," Bernie commented idly, almost hopefully, as she accepted the silvery-grey phial. It was like... unicorn hair. Yes. Or maybe the phial of Nem now had a kind of shimmery merperson quality. She was fascinated by the way the potion caught the light, and quickly chugged the entire dose in one gulp before Upstead could change their mind.
She didn't really notice a taste, though was that because she drank it so fast or because now she was busy focusing on the strange bubbly changes happening to her face and body. This was an uncomfortable sensation, this stretching and pulling and growing effect. Uncomfortable, but not unbearable, and besides, Bernadette was so eager to be someone else for a change that she merely squinted at the strangeness of it all, and then cracked her neck to the side as she shot up like a honking daffodil.
And then, suddenly, there were two Nems. One which smiled, pleasantly, and tilted their head slightly at the other.
"How do I look?" the newest Nemesis inquired to the original version. "Devastatingly handsome?" Ha. Bernadette simply couldn't control herself.
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yeah, there's one thing about me that you should know________________________________
__________________________________________that I can't help from speaking my mind
Made of Awesome | Ern-la the Best-wa | TZ's Apogee
Quote:
Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie
He had made her smile! HE had made HER smile. By burping? Should he burp in people's faces more often? It was an innocent and completely misguided revelation that would likely be the only thing that Atlas 'learned' this lesson.
But then in the next breath he had robbed of that same smile. But being honest and expressing his feelings. It was not lost on the first year how often this seemed to happen at times, especially this term, by his peers. "I'm NOT giving UP!" he found himself snapping at the older girl, a bit louder than he had wanted to. "Never give up, never surrender. Dad used to say that...when he was around." Now...now Atlas didn't know where he was. And suddenly the space was filled with swirling black smoke that was creeping across the floor and pooling at his feet. "I don't think it is unreasonable to not want anything to do with the very thing that allowed those people to masquerade around as your dad...they have my dad...they...have...."
He looked at his cauldron again and sighed. He KNEW it was brewed in correctly and so... if he drank from it then there was just no way anything good would come from it. But then the older Gryffindor spoke and his eyes widened and he leaned in a little wo whisper to her. Only now really remembering that The Hoods™ were still here. "You...you mean...pretend we each took the potion and pretend to be the other person pretending to be the other person?" It was like...one of those Russian doll toys, they had an actual name but he couldn't remember that name right now. "So...I would be me...pretending to be you...pretending to be me?" And yes, he held up a finger for each of these steps.
But also, technically, wasn't that still on task? Technically.
"F I N E," he huffed, puffing out his chest and making a grand display of it since he had, er, been kind of vocal earlier. He pretended to pull some hair from on top of his head with one hand while the other pulled a bit of fur from someone's kneazle in the common room who had rubbed up against his pant leg. He couldn't use a lint roller to get it all off before class and he had only administered a cleaning spell to the front of his trousers so it was still there on the back. The Gryffindor then dropped these furs into his cauldron and stirred a bit until it turned a sort of...putrid pink color. Though he supposed that was a shade better than the poop brown it had been before.
Phoebe gave a dramatic sigh, since Atlas was being pretty drama himself. "I'm not saying you're giving up. I'm saying you can't leave class, okay? Just... we're doing this." Phoebe watched him fuss with his phial of potion while she pulled the braid out of her hair and shook her long blond locks into a passable bird's nest. A strand of her hair went into the phial, and it turned a muddled gold. Pretty! Was that how she looked in potion form?
"Fake bottom's up," she stoppered her phial and tipped it against her bottom lip before dropping it into her pocket. Still full. She didn't really want to go handing out her essence to anyone if she could help it. "I'm Phoebe but really I'm Atlas but really I'm Phoebe. See you in a bit, okay?"
She ruffled his hair and popped to her feet. "Who wants to ask me a question? I'm ready for my close up."
Baguette | there is no D in my name | TRAITORclaw | Queenie of Narnia
Text Cut: Morgan & Professor Varma
Quote:
Originally Posted by emjay
Morgan couldn't tell you how much time had passed as he sat glaring at his parchment. All at one it felt like a mere instant and also a couple hours passed, almost like time in a dream that made no sense and too much sense at the same time. Because that's what this was - a nightmare that he couldn't wake up from.
He was unconcerned with people pairing up or not all around him, in fact he couldn't care less about that. But he eventually noticed someone sitting next to him and he thought she whispered something to him. Morgan looked up at her, his eyes slowly focusing on a familiar sort of girl. He recognized her, but didn't really know her. Had she asked him to be her partner? It took him a minute to realize this, but he found himself nodding almost imperceptibly. "Uh, yeah.. sure." But she would have to do most of the work here probably, because he seemed to have forgotten how to function.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fireheart
Text Cut: Morgan and Ivy
Another group seeming to struggle with get started. Shreya gave the Gryffindor and the Ravenclaw a reassuring nod as she passed by. "It's okay. You can take as long as you need," she whispered, pretending not to notice the tears pricking at both of their eyelids. The professor could certainly relate to the feeling.
Shreya did feel bad about making the students continue with the lesson after what had just occurred. For Merlin's sake, they just witnessed their own classmates being vanished by their Headmaster. No wonder they looked so shell-shocked. Had Shreya had it her way, she would have ended the lesson then and there. But Rosier wouldn't have stood for that. So she pushed through, forcing herself to make the rounds around the lab. At least listening in to the students' conversations distracted her from what was going on.
A glance at her watch showed that the end of class was getting closer (and so was her impending imprisonment). She reluctantly figured that they needed to move on, so she called the class back to order. "I heard some wonderful conversations. It seems that you are picking up on some very important qualities. It may sound silly to ask about their morning routine or their favorite dinner food. And it may seem pointless to observe how they walk and carry themselves. But if you are to impersonate someone successfully with the Polyjuice potion, you must be knowledgeable about such things. The Polyjuice potion only changes your physical appearance. It does not alter your personality, voice, or mannerisms. That is up to you to portray." Was she getting the point across that the Polyjuice Potion was extremely complicated? Complicated to the point that it wasn't even worth trying to brew or use at their age and skill level? She hoped so.
"Well, I hope that you all took some copious notes. Because now it's time to put your knowledge to the test. You're going to Polyjuice into your partner." Shreya waved her wand, causing all of the cauldrons in the room to start bubbling even more enthusiastically than they had been before. "Your Potions are all ready and safe to use—they were inspected before class. Please add a specimen of yourself to your partner's cauldron. A hair is usually the easiest, and most painless, to retrieve. Wait for a few seconds for the bubbling to subside, and then your partner can drink it up."
She paused, waiting for any questionable reactions, before continuing. "One fun fact is that the look and taste of the Polyjuice Potion varies depending on the specimen you add to it. If you add the essence of a good-hearted, noble person, your potion will likely look and taste satisfactory. But if you add the essence of someone evil, your potion's look and taste will have the opposite effect." It was a side note, and not a very important part of the lesson, but Shreya was interested to see their reactions to the potion tastes and colors. She had sampled her fair share of both good and bad ones over the years.
"We're going to play a little game, in order to demonstrate 'reversing' the Polyjuice Potion. Once you have transformed into your interview partner, you will find a new partner. Your task is to ask them three questions to try and find out who they really are, underneath that Polyjuice exterior. For example, if I drank a potion and turned into Heath, and my new partner was Dahlia, Dahlia would ask me (even though I look like Heath) some questions about my true identity as Shreya. Maybe she'd ask my place of birth, to which I'd reply Jaipur. Or my favorite beverage, to which I'd answer a chai latte. Dahlia's task would be to guess that I am actually Professor Varma under Heath's exterior." It was bound to get a little confusing, with all these impostors, so Shreya gave the students a few moments to understand before continuing with her explanation. "Your goal is to ask interesting, specific questions that will help you figure out the person's identity. You can ask any questions, but you cannot ask any simple yes or no questions. You also cannot ask the person's real name, school year, or house. That would just make it too easy."
"These Potions have been charmed to only last for a few minutes. But the quicker you and your new partner figure out each other's true identities, the quicker you can reverse back into yourself." From what Shreya had observed in previous studies, people were quite uncomfortable in someone else's body. The students would likely be eager to transform back into themselves. Not to mention competitive to see who could figure it out first.
OOC: Time for the main activity! This one might get a little confusing, but I'm hoping you can bear with me. To get full credit, RP your student:
1. Adding a piece of their hair to their partner's cauldron
2. Taking the potion (assuming that their partner added their hair to the cauldron) and turning into their partner from the interview (If you are unsure if the character you are RPing with would be okay with adding their specimen/taking a potion, best to VM them about it first to avoid godmodding for them—or wait for them to respond first before continuing. While Shreya hopes every student participates, it's ultimately up to them if they want to transform or not.)
3. Asking a new partner 3 questions to find their true identity (just go with the person that posts directly above/below you to make it easier)
For example, if Avalon Sinclair turned into Cecelia Summers, Aboli Song might ask Cecelia (who's really Avalon) questions to determine her true identity (Avalon).
Of course, OOC, you know the imposter's true identity, but your character wouldn't know. So play along and have fun! To keep things more organized OOC, please put who you are polyjuiced as in your post title. So if I was playing Avalon, who polyjuiced into Cecelia, I'd make my post title "Avalon portraying Cecelia" or something like that.
You have until March 14 to complete the activity! Shreya will be around occasionally for questions and to observe.
Ivy didn't mind the silence after she had spoken. It was possible that he hadn't heard her, but she could still say she'd tried. And if he also wanted to sit here in silence then...well, silence was what she wanted right now honestly, not continuing on with this lesson as if...
But then he did answer her, so...they could be partners then. Right, okay, so...um, now what? She hadn't been fully listening. Had he? Maybe they were both in the same boat of struggling with this activity.
Then Professor Varma came by to reassure them, and some part of Ivy did appreciate that. At least she was understanding, unlike certain cold-hearted evil-
The lesson was continuing on even still, and they were at the potion taking part. Guessing who someone else was. Which probably would have been an interesting activity to her before...well, everything happened, but now, she was struggling to find the desire to participate or to find the point of it. Or of anything really. What was the point when her eyes kept being drawn to spot Kale had disappeared from, as if he might reappear at any moment? What was the point when everything just seemed to get worse no matter what?
But she ought to do...something, and somehow she found her voice enough to glance over at Morgan and ask, "Are you...okay with taking the potion or...?" She wasn't sure of her own answer to that question, but...if he wanted to, she supposed she would try.
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if we fall, we will fall together; and when we rise, we will rise together__________________♥♥♥♥
together we are dangerous; together with our differences; together we are bolder, braver, stronger
Fiona disguised as Mamie (posting in dark orange) and waiting to be questioned
Oh, how we drift away from our friends. And the ones back home play remember when
The fake Mamie gave a small smile at the fake Fiona to indicate the potion had indeed worked. "Mamie" was glad that Professor Varma had made some magical adjustments on the uniforms. She noticed that there wasn't much of a difference in height between her usual form and her new one. The chipped nail polish was something.
"Mamie" looked around as she waited to be questioned. She also began trying to rehearse her accent along with remembering the nuggets of info that had been revealed by the real Mamie.
Claudine took Violet’s hair and now added it to her measured out potion. She then eyed Violet’s own. Okay, so Claudine’s essence wasn’t gold but yellow was quite nice. It was bright yellow, sort of like the Hufflepuff colour. By now, the contents of Claudine’s glass bubbled and changed colour. Right. It was ready to be consumed!
“Cheers,’’ she echoed softly and downed the contents. Yes, Vi’s essence was nice to the taste. Why wouldn’t it be? Vi was one of those nice humans.
Immediately she could feel the effects beginning to take place. Her skin seemed to be bubbling and Claudine, looking down at her hands, felt sick to see this. She barely registered adjusting to Vi’s height but the length of her hair receding was noticed. Naturally, she didn’t see the colour change.
It seemed like minutes later she stood there, in slightly bigger and longer robes because of the difference between hers and Vi’s physical appearance. And how weird it was to see herself from a different perspective?!
“Good luck with the activity,’’ clonedViolet said and moved off to find a partner. The fifth year snagged the closest person, who happened to look like Fiona. “You’re definitely not the real Fiona,’’ she greeted with a small smile to the disguised Mamie.
Mamie--er, Faux Fiona--moved away from the real Fiona, who now looked like she had previously looked. And, oops, was quickly partnered with Violet, who she had no clue was actually Claudine.
"N-nobody is real, th-that doesn't take a Ravenclaw to figure out," Faux Fiona told clonedViolet in an accident that was neither her own nor Real Fiona's. She was trying, okay. How was she supposed to figure out who this Violet really was? Especially now that their house colors were gone, and everyone's clothes fit correctly? Luckily Faux Fiona's robes had only really needed to adjust because they'd been too small to begin with, but the shoes being comfortable again was nice. Professor Varma had such good ideas sometimes.
Right. Asking questions.
"What...is your favorite class?"Mamie Fiona asked, still struggling with the accent. Not that she really knew anyone's favorite class. But she had to start somewhere.
Violet as 'Claudine' questioning Phoebe as Phoebe (not Atlas)
Violet's transformation into Claudine had finally stopped and her body settled down into its new shape--wow, Claudine was so slim and delicate! Violet felt a little ashamed at the thought of the other girl finding out what an awkward body Violet had. Violet wondered it she was pretty now as well?
But, enough of that--on to being "Claudine." She glanced around to see who was free, but hesitated to be too forward, because Claudine was usually quiet and reserved.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cassirin
"Who wants to ask me a question? I'm ready for my close up."
Oh, good, there was someone making the first move, that spared Violet/"Claudine" the trouble of approaching someone herself. "I guess I will." Violet said to the other--girl? It looked like Phoebe James, but it could really be anybody.
"What do you like to do in your free time?" Violet began, severely stopping herself from saying "um" all the time.
The pulse... pleeeeeeeease. Bernadette had been shut down by Nem's unsatisfactory answer to her, and then the stupid patronizing cAuTioN that followed. Really, Nem? Warning HER to be careful? She had rarely acted as a provocateur this term, unlike THEY were allowed to do. Wearing that pin. Slamming kids' heads into desks. To say she was jealous was an understatement.
She sank lower in her seat as Varma went on about the polyjuice potions, already knowing that her partner of choice would refuse to cooperate with her. So why bother? Nem had a thing about transformative magic, she'd noticed this already, which just confirmed her suspicions, first in Charms, and then in Transfiguration, and aNyW---
Wait, what? She blinked a few times as Upstead began ladling the potion into the phial and then--- and put the EyELaSH in?!? She tried hard not to let her mouth fall open in wonder, but all things considered, she caught on rather quickly. For a Gryffindor.
"Look at that," Bernie commented idly, almost hopefully, as she accepted the silvery-grey phial. It was like... unicorn hair. Yes. Or maybe the phial of Nem now had a kind of shimmery merperson quality. She was fascinated by the way the potion caught the light, and quickly chugged the entire dose in one gulp before Upstead could change their mind.
She didn't really notice a taste, though was that because she drank it so fast or because now she was busy focusing on the strange bubbly changes happening to her face and body. This was an uncomfortable sensation, this stretching and pulling and growing effect. Uncomfortable, but not unbearable, and besides, Bernadette was so eager to be someone else for a change that she merely squinted at the strangeness of it all, and then cracked her neck to the side as she shot up like a honking daffodil.
And then, suddenly, there were two Nems. One which smiled, pleasantly, and tilted their head slightly at the other.
"How do I look?" the newest Nemesis inquired to the original version. "Devastatingly handsome?" Ha. Bernadette simply couldn't control herself.
'Look at that' was right. Maybe Nem qualified as having a scintillating personality. Who knew.
While they waited for the potion to take effect, Nem drew their wand again and reached it across to do a simple scourgify on the inside of the phial, to clean it out completely, so that not a trace remained, then fixed a stare Bernadette yet again. Only this time the signs they were looking for were fairly standard ones, signs of the potion transforming her appearance. Of all the events Nem had witnessed this year, this had probably been one of the most engaging. Even with that muggle dying, it had been over in the blink of an eye, but the show lasted at least a few moments this time.
Now staring at a carbon copy of themselves, Nem drank in the sight. Having only ever seen themselves in the mirror or photographs, or flashes of their own features - more and more different by the day - in Pax, this was definitely an interesting experience, but not actually all that strange. While Nem knew Bernadette now bore their appearance, they didn't recognise their own self there without making a conscious effort to do so, and so it wasn't difficult to keep thinking of that person as Bernadette Grantham. Condolences.
Nem's lips twitched into a blink-and-you'll-miss-it almost-smile. "I'm convinced," they remarked, slipping their wand away into its holster again. Dead giveaway, having that in sight, at least if anyone here paid any attention to that sort of thing. "Didn't take you long to get into character. Should I be flattered or concerned?" Nem drummed their fingers on the desk, and looked from Bernadette to Varma, where they let their stare linger for a moment, before turning their attention back again. "Time to double-team someone?"
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Days of Potter 2023:___________________________ Which Bertie Botts Flavour Are You?
Professor Pink | Mrs. Bruce Wayne | I'm on a Goat | Glitterpuff | Dumbledore's Defense Squad | BHB
Quote:
Originally Posted by Felixir
'Look at that' was right. Maybe Nem qualified as having a scintillating personality. Who knew.
While they waited for the potion to take effect, Nem drew their wand again and reached it across to do a simple scourgify on the inside of the phial, to clean it out completely, so that not a trace remained, then fixed a stare Bernadette yet again. Only this time the signs they were looking for were fairly standard ones, signs of the potion transforming her appearance. Of all the events Nem had witnessed this year, this had probably been one of the most engaging. Even with that muggle dying, it had been over in the blink of an eye, but the show lasted at least a few moments this time.
Now staring at a carbon copy of themselves, Nem drank in the sight. Having only ever seen themselves in the mirror or photographs, or flashes of their own features - more and more different by the day - in Pax, this was definitely an interesting experience, but not actually all that strange. While Nem knew Bernadette now bore their appearance, they didn't recognise their own self there without making a conscious effort to do so, and so it wasn't difficult to keep thinking of that person as Bernadette Grantham. Condolences.
Nem's lips twitched into a blink-and-you'll-miss-it almost-smile. "I'm convinced," they remarked, slipping their wand away into its holster again. Dead giveaway, having that in sight, at least if anyone here paid any attention to that sort of thing. "Didn't take you long to get into character. Should I be flattered or concerned?" Nem drummed their fingers on the desk, and looked from Bernadette to Varma, where they let their stare linger for a moment, before turning their attention back again. "Time to double-team someone?"
"Flattered, of course," Bernadette 'Nemesis Upstead' replied smoothly in the same tone, blue eyes following the original's to Varma and back. As though the real Nem were even capable of feeling concern; vanish the thought, along with any traces of residual potion.
It was very difficult not to touch this face though, as she kept watching the original and wondering if the real Nem was thinking the same thoughts. Bernadette desperately wanted to touch her new face and hair and then walk around a bit to see what it was like to be this tall and thin and vegan or whatever. Did anyone have a mirror handy? Perhaps she could sneak a peek in a potion as she walked by it, to get a sense of what Nem must feel when they cooly wandered by anyone, just drifting around all the time and doing Nem things. Or whatever.
Back to the source of her spawning. She copied the bored finger tapping with just a twitch of her hand, as though she were flexing her new fingers. How fascinating. Again, Bernadette just wanted to stare at herself for a while longer, yet something told her that wouldn't be very Nem-like behaviour. Or...would it? She had always thought her friend had an inflated sense of self-importance. But according to Varma, the potion was only to last for so long and she knew they would both find more joy in messing with the professor in the little time they had left. So, yes, to Varma.
"Shall we link arms, then?" Bernadette sidled up to the real Nem and slid her arm around theirs, then began tugging them toward the professor. Because she could, and because she had, in fact, seen Nem behave this way once before.
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yeah, there's one thing about me that you should know________________________________
__________________________________________that I can't help from speaking my mind