Closed Cunning or courage

[Penny Wills]

Penny didn't often come to the library, she didn't like the quiet because it tended to breed more anxiety in her instead of relieve it. She preferred the more chaotic spaces of the castle or outside in the fresh air. But occasionally it was necessary for her to venture into the library, for homework sources and times when she really needed to focus to get her due essay done. Today she was working on History of Magic homework that required some further reading.

She took a heavy book from the shelf that she thought would be of use and looked for a table to sit at. She preferred to sit with others when she could so that the library didn't seem so quiet. On this occasion, Penny approached @Harper Alston, a Gryffindor she knew. "Hey Harper, mind if I join you?"

 

[Harper Alston]

It had become very clear during the first few weeks after the break that Potions would be Harper's hardest class of the semester. She'd barely known any of the review questions posed during the first class, and Professor Mowry had decided to pile on an additional six ingredients for them to learn during the most recent lecture. Harper liked to think she was decent at brewing, but she knew if she wanted to keep her grades up, she needed to start memorizing potions ingredients now.

The problem was that none of it made sense. Harper knew that porcupine quills were used in curative potions, for example, but she didn't know why. What was it about porcupines that made them good for healing? With a sigh, she flipped another page in her textbook and started to read about alihotsy. Her progress was slow and the boring nature of the material combined with the library's quiet atmosphere gave the impression of time standing still.

Thankfully a much-needed distraction arrived in the form of another second year. "Oh hi, Penny." Harper smiled up at the other girl. "Sure, go ahead." She quickly set about condensing the mess of notes, pens, and textbooks surrounding her so that Penny would have more room for her stuff. She eyed the heavy book Penny was holding. "Is that for homework or for fun?"

 

[Penny Wills]

"Thanks!" Penny accepted the space by dropping the textbook on the desk, relieved to put the thing down. "Fun? Do I look like a Ravenclaw? No, I never come to the library for fun." She joked, then pulled out a chair and sat down on the table with Harper.

Penny glanced at Harper's textbook and recognised it as Potions. "I took Potions last term if you need a hand." Offered Penny, neglecting to share that she had received an A grade for her efforts. She'd heard that in muggle education, an A was said to be the best grade you could get but the same could not be said at Hogwarts.

 

[Harper Alston]

Penny's answer made sense since the book looked kind of boring to be something a person would read for fun. Harper grinned. "Shhh, don't let the Ravenclaws hear you," she said taking a quick glance around. Sure enough there was a sour-looking student in blue glaring at them. Though that might be because Harper was speaking kind of loudly.

Harper nodded before lowering her voice. "Oh, that'd be great. We just had that lecture about all the weird potions ingredients, you know, like rat tails and snake fangs and stuff. There's too much stuff to memorize," she said. And it wasn't like her old muggle science classes, which had at least had a logic to them. It was like someone had randomly assigned characteristics to each ingredient. "Please tell me the class gets better." She was hoping for more brewing and fewer lectures.

 

[Penny Wills]

Penny snorted a laugh, "Whoops, sorry." She nodded to the annoyed looking Ravenclaw. She opened her book but wasn't at all invested in it. Instead she listened to Harper, "Oh right, yeah. That lesson." She said, "I only really enjoy the brewing side of Potions, but they say you need context first." Penny thought about sharing her anecdote about the time she and Finn had illegally brewed a Potion but she decided against it. The less people who knew about that, the better. "But yeah, it pretty much stays the same."

 

[Harper Alston]

Harper nodded. "We've only brewed one potion so far, but it was kind of fun." It was cool that all these different plants could be combined to create something that could cause forgetfulness, even if she didn't completely understand how the process worked. "I don't see the point of memorizing all these random facts about ingredients. Shouldn't it be enough to just be able to follow the directions?" She doubted wizards brewed potions from memory. There had to be potion cookbooks.

She gave a little sigh when Penny confirmed that the rest of the semester would be more of the same. The list of ingredients she needed to know was overwhelming, especially since she had forgotten a lot of the stuff she'd learned last year. "At least we get to brew this year, I guess. Last year was kind of pointless." When she and Blake had stared down the violent glittery potion last year, it had been very clear that they'd learned nothing useful during Potions. Maybe if they had, they could have prevented it from exploding.