Depths of Despair ✶ Theodore Nott

two. odd interactions

Valerie Leclere decided halfway into her second week of her third year in Hogwarts, that the year would be dreadful — not for the level of difficulty being too drastically increasing; no, it was rather the opposite way around.

Quickly when arriving at school had she discovered remembering every single segment of text she had read was no ordinary thing — when Snape called for her to answer a question in her first potions class, and she successfully quoted every single word of relevance from her potions book although only half-heartedly reading it once, her classmates had turned around in curiosity; their professor as well taking an interest in her display of potential.

A photographic memory was both a blessing and a curse — however when professor Snape blabbered on about the upcoming year and his expectations of them, she registered what was ahead of her and sighed in boredom. Not a single recipe did she not know by heart, her mind recalling the brewing process as well as every single pro and con, every side effect.

Grabbing a hold of her quill, she unfolded a disregarded piece of parchment and began drawing random shapes while attempting at making time pass by faster.

Beside her, Kieran was taking notes and listened intently on the instructions given. When plopping his cauldron down before himself, he after a while turned to Valerie — rolling his eyes when spotting her lack of attention — and tapped her shoulder. "Val."

Looking up, the young girl's hazel tinted eyes scanned over the cauldron, her classmates bouncing into action, and then last of all the recipe her best friend had flipped open in his potions book; the title 'Antidote to common poisons' enough for her to nod her head and stand from her chair. "Right. Have you collected the ingredients?" she questioned; exhilarated at the task of actively brewing the simple potion Snape had spent the last twenty minutes informing his class about.

Kieran shook his head no, and both of the friends walked to do so — returning to their shared desk only minutes later. One glance into the ingredients dumped by her best friend onto the wooden surface, and Valerie slightly frowned. "You forgot a bezoar", she informed; Kieran cursing once before taking off and quickly returning once more and taking it upon himself to crush the ingredient into fine powder while Valerie began meddling with the cauldron, making sure it would heat up to the correct temperature once they began the brewing process. "Thank you", she mumbled when he gave her the readied powder.

Grabbing a measurement, she filled it four times; adding it into the cauldron. Simultaneously, Kieran moved on to the next step of the recipe before they both joined forces to finish — Valerie having the entirety of the recipe memorized, Kieran listening closely to every helpful direction of hers, waving his wand and then checking the time. "So", he began while they sat back in their seat. The lesson was still not even halfway finished, and their potion was to brew for half an hour before ready for the next couple of steps. "What did Dumbledore tell you yesterday?"

Automatically did her mind recall previous night's hourlong conversation with the Headmaster; sighing and brushing strands of dark hair away from her face, questioning how it even was possible they had broken loose from her ponytail. "Just the usual", she answered. "Told me not to hesitate asking for help if anything gets difficult, that he'll try and help me gain control, blah, blah, blah.."

"Come on, now", Kieran replied, sending a pointed look in his friend's direction. "You know those meetings are important."