Whoops!! ((Katrina Becket))

[illiya]

The common room had been all but deserted for the day as most of the rambunctious Gryffindors had rushed outside to enjoy a chilly fall day in the sun. All of the heavy drapes that gathered around the room’s windows had been pulled to the sides and neatly pinned in place with tasseled ropes, their thick folds neatly arrayed by the busy hands of house elves long before the students began to rise from bed. The sun poured into the room, illuminating the various chairs and random suits of armor that made up the decor. All was fairly quiet and several pigeons had settled on the ledge just outside the windows to enjoy the warmth radiating from the stone. Suddenly the quiet was shattered (though luckily not the windows) by a loud explosion that sent the birds flying in terror and left the room thick with smoke.

Illiya coughed loudly and rushed to the windows one by one, throwing them open to air out the thick haze and, hopefully, clear the unpleasant smell that came with it. After a few moments, most of the smoke had fled, leaving Illiya crouched in front of the small table before the fireplace, desperately trying to scrub the charred ashroot off of its surface. Her eyes watered heavily from the smoke that she had been subjected too and most of her face was coated in thick black soot. Her hair was thrown about in all directions and a few singed strands fell away making a small sizzling noise as they succumbed. Illiya’s glasses were almost entirely opaque with ash and she gave up cleaning for a moment to pull out her wand and try to fix the problem. “Scourgify” she muttered as she pointed her wand at her glasses. The ash slid away into nothingness and Illiya smirked a little as she held her glasses up to inspect them. She was getting much better at that spell, mind you, she’d had plenty of practice casting it. Illiya turned back to the blackened remnants of what had once been the beginning attempts at a healing potion. She had tried to get some extra Potions practice in by setting up a small chemistry set on the low table when no one else was around.

Illiya looked back over at her notes from class and was grateful that she had just recently learned how to remove one type of substance from another in her last Transfiguration class. With a flick of her wand and the incantation “Evanesco Difusto”, Illiya had regained a perfectly neat set of pages which showed only the slightest signs of soot around the edges. She frowned at the notes and reviewed what she’d just done, trying to figure out where she’d gone wrong. Had she not powdered the ingredients just right? Perhaps there was a little too much ashroot in the mix, it had certainly produced enough ash when it exploded. Figuring this as a good an explanation as any, Illiya resolutely turned back to her chemistry set and whipped off a few more spells to clean the table and repair her broken vial. It was time to try again. She just hoped that if she failed this time, it wouldn’t bring down the ceiling.

[joanrabbit]

Katrina walked back from the library with her books tightly in her hands as she she answered the password to the fat lady, thick smoke poured out.
"What the hell?" she said, coughing loudly and dropping her books by the cloak hanger. She walked further in as the smoke seemingly cleared.

As she walked in she looked at a girl sitting by her notes. She had never spoke to her but she knew her name to be called Illiya. She raised an eyebrow at her but couldn't help smiling. Illiya did a spell to clean her notes which were not the worst of her troubles. The top of the common room was full of smoke.

"Unless you can convince McGonagall that Peeves did this then I suggest you get ride of the rest of the smoke," she suggested, walking closer to the desk and swinging her bag from her shoulder to the floor.

[illiya]

((My apologies for the lateness of this. ))

The sudden arrival of another Gryffindor into the common room startled Illiya so bad, she dropped the newly re-formed vial and it shattered, once again, into a thousand pieces on the table. Illiya turned her soot blackened face towards the voice, the source of which was barely visible through the smoke. A small cough escaped her and a few more particles of ash fell from her hair. “oh, uh…sorry. I’m sorry. I’ll clear it out.” Illiya jumped to her feet and tried to use a book to wave most of the smoke outside. She had yet to learn any helpful charms to clear smoke out of a room but the fall wind was helping nicely and after a few minutes with the windows open, most of the smoke was gone, leaving only a heavy scent lingering around her chemistry set and the table it sat on. Burnt ashroot was NOT a pleasant smell and Illiya could only relate it to an animal farm or singed dog hair.

The acrid smell burned her nostrils and Illiya frowned at the table. It was no longer blackened by soot and she figured with the windows open, the smell would soon pass. Illiya turned back to her new guest, whose face was finally visible and offered the girl a shy smile. Katrina was a year younger than her and Illiya recognized the girl from a few classes they shared. “Sorry ‘bout that.” She muttered again, “I wasn’t really intending to blow up the room.” Illiya let out a little chuckle and then moved back over to her Potions set. She sank down in front of the table and pulled out her wand once more. “Reparo!” The damaged vial snapped back together and lay whole on the table, an inanimate glutton for punishment. Illiya scooped it up and set it gently back onto the little wire holder that was keeping it aloft before it erupted during her last experiment. “Any good with Potions?” Illiya asked half-heartedly. She cast a small smile at Katrina. “If you have anything worth much, I’d move it upstairs before I start on this again.” Illiya’s smile quickly became a grin.

[joanrabbit]

Katrina looked down at Illiya, she had been expecting much more from someone older than her. The question if she was good at potions surprised her as most people knew she was good and didn't need to ask. Katrina's eyebrow raised at her.

"I can help if you wish?" she suggested putting her bag somehwere safe and closing some windows and she didn't want to freeze.

She picked out a book on the gryffindor bookshelf and sat down. She didn't want to be rude so she smiled gently at her.

[illiya]

Illiya let the grin fall from her face at the sound in the girl’s voice. Obviously, she wasn’t making a very good impression. Illiya had never been much good at making new friends and she supposed filling the common room with smoke and then laughing about it like some kind of idiot wasn’t helping the matter any. Illiya turned back to her set and blew a few stray tendrils of hair out of her face. Even around the younger students, Illiya had always felt a little out of place. She always seemed to be scrambling to keep up in most of her classes and being muggle born meant that a lot of the things other students took for granted, Illiya had never even heard of. Illiya measured out just a little more ash root into a small tarnished spoon. She ever so gently tapped the soft grey power into the vial and tried not to spill any over the sides again.

“I’m just not very good at this subject,” she said half-heartedly. It was true enough though Illiya was sure she’d be able to pay attention in class more if Professor Snape didn’t always sweep around the room like some huge vulture. She was certain he was just waiting for her to mess up so he could deduct points and almost without fail, he would make her so nervous that she would indeed make a mistake. Illiya was practicing now in hopes of being able to show him that she could finish a potion correctly without singeing off her own eyebrows. Illiya didn’t know the younger girl very well but hated to sit there in silence. “So, do you like quidditch?” Illiya asked as her slightly trembling hand measured out three drops of diluted unicorn tears. Quidditch was usually a safe enough subject around most Gryffindors, and almost anyone else for that matter, so she resorted to a neutral ground she figured would put the other girl at ease.

Illiya herself had never much cared for any sport but it was almost sacrilege not to attend the quidditch games if you were a Gryffindor, and thus she had spent many an afternoon pretending to be interested in the various people flying around on their brooms. Her only consolation was that she got to watch the famous Harry Potter play. He was in her house but a higher year and she’d never actually met him face to face. She’d seen him, of course, in the common room but being a much younger year, she had never even dared to think of saying hello. Illiya’s thoughts returned to the work at hand, determined not to ruin anymore of her potion attempts as she was running low on ingredients. She would not be able to purchase more for a while as her family simply didn’t have the money to spend.