GROUP ONE Euphemia Grissom-Dolohov Mairead ó Fearghail Pax Wintergreen Phillipa Purdue	GROUP TWO Hannah Harper Erik Collins Harper O'Malley Serenity Lee Thornton
GROUP THREE Noriko Wakahisa Tynan MacFusty Dahlia Collins Aglaia Knight	GROUP FOUR Eirene Antonopoulos Keegan Kearney Charles Harcroft Cyhirae Trishna Xander Perdue

The class hour having begun, Juliette waved her wand at the board, where a clear, concise list of groups suddenly scrawled itself in her neat hand. "Rearrange yourselves," she said promptly, leaning into her desk, waiting casually for the students to do just that; she might have saved them the trouble, left the instructions up before they filtered into the room, but it was good practice to pull them out of their comfort zones. Besides, the last time she'd tried leaving instructions for the hoard of tiny troublemakers, she had not liked the outcome.

The stools around the high, laboratory-style desks had hardly waited for the students to do just that: with some still full of the weight of eleven and twelve-year-olds, they scooted themselves across the stone floor as desks pushed together to form four neat tables, each properly labeled with a chalky sign levitating overhead.

"Now," Juliette clarified.

"You will need your books, two sheets of parchment, a quill and ink each. Don't forget gloves." She waited for them to take out the necessities once they'd seemed more or less settled at their tables (and ignored any grunts of distaste or sour faces), and then waved her wand again. Schoolbags and other such object rose in mass and zoomed to the cabinets at the very back of the room. From others came the rattling of cauldrons and sharp knives and fresh stock. The gear arranged itself before the students, and Juliette counted upon their previous two instructors' gifts of knowledge to warn the children to sit back and keep their hands to themselves.

"Please turn to page 84. I'll need a volunteer to read aloud to the class..."

Eirene was not very pleased about being in a group with Keegan and Cyhirae, for different reasons. Keegan would likely play a prank and Cyhirae would likely be bossy (or, Merlin forbid, do better than her). As the desks and stools arranged themselves, Eirene sent pouty glances at Pax (who was stuck with Mairead, yuck!) and Noriko (who was stuck with Tynan, blech!), and finally composed herself to stare intently at the professor so the woman knew she was paying attention.

She hurried to set out her supplies, shifting the parchment so that it was aligned properly on the desk, and opening her book to the last chapter they'd covered. When the professor asked for a volunteer, Eirene flung her hand in the air, hoping she'd be picked!

Tynan avoided a sigh - somehow. Grouping with girls? At least Dahlia was  competent and smart, but he was expecting to get splashed with whatever they had to make today the moment he moved too quickly around Wakahisa. As for Knight....at least she wasn't Euphemia.

He glanced over at Group One's set of tables and was glad he was almost on the other side of the dungeon. Euphie and Mairead in the same group? Was the teacher mental?

Pulling his book - battered, patched and dirty as it was - and flipping to the indicated page was a bit harder than expected because the pages were stuck together. He'd much rather be watching the Potions Mistress speak, anyway. The woman made him happy to sit there and listen for some reason; maybe it was her voice, or her lips -

Suddenly aware he was drifting off, he snapped his attention back to the book. When that didn't work, he glanced at Eirene and rolled his eyes at Dahlia. "Bloody fykie," he said, with feeling.

The new teacher was pretty. That was the first thing that came to Serenity's mind when she walked into the classroom and did as instructed. Her bag zoomed through the air to be replaced with cauldrons, blades, and ingredients. She kept her hands in her lap and waited, glancing at the room at large. Cyhirae, Pippa, and Dahlia had all been placed in other groups. She wasn't in a group with any of her friends except Erik, but he and her didn't talk as much as her and Dahlia did. Her eyes scanned the rest of her group: a Hufflepuff girl that rarely talked (something O' Malley?) and Hannah Harper, a Gryffindor that was only an acquaintance.

Her hazel eyes nervously flickered to Erik. With him in her group, it would be a wonder if they survived this potions lesson. Still, she would help him the best she could although Serenity wasn't very good at potions. Propping her elbow up on the desk with her cheek resting in her palm, the Ravenclaw flipped through the book until she got to the right page. When the class was asked for a volunteer to read, she sat up and looked around to find the expected Eirene's hand jump into the air. Poor Keegan, poor Cyhirae, poor Xander... They were stuck with Eirene in class. She frowned at the other two groups and pitied Pippa for being in the same group with Euphemia. That Slytherin was just creepy! She threw Dahlia a look of apology: she was with Aglaia. That had to be the worst thing of all.

Pax returned Eirene's glance with a sympathetic look. He couldn't imagine she was over the moon about being in a group with Keegan, who seemed to like antagonising her, or for that matter Cyhirae, who didn't seem to get along with her particularly well either. Still, on a positive note, at least Eirene wasn't in a group with Mairead... On a more negative note, Euphemia Grissom-Dolohov was. Pax glanced between the two of them, trying not to look nervous. They can probably smell fear... Pax was fairly certain that neither Mairead or Euphemia thought particularly well of him. But neither of the girls saw him as an enemy (as far as he knew). Each other, however... This was going to make for an interesting group.

Pax glanced wistfully around the dungeon, catching sight of his housemates Dahlia and Harper in separate groups as well. But, at least Pippa was in his group. She was a little eccentric, but she was nice, and Pax found her easy to get along with. He offered the Ravenclaw a small grin before flipping his textbook to the page Professor Vaillancourt had instructed them to. He didn't bother raising his hand; he knew without looking that Eirene would volunteer to read the passage, and he didn't want to steal her thunder. Instead, he gazed longingly at the potion ingredients on their table, twitching fingers making it plain he was eager to get started.

Potions were very important to Pippa. It went along with her love for alliterations. Also, truth be told, Professor Vaillancourt inspired a wistful sort of feeling in Pip. She reminded her of the queen in The Accolade by Edmund Blair Leighton. There were lots of other Princesses and Queens Juliette reminded the young Ravenclaw of - but it wouldn't due to get caught up in that now would it? She had to pay attention because Potions were important. She had come to accept (after much research) that she probably wouldn't be able to fulfill her dream of her Animagus being an Octopus - and thus there had to be a potion to provide a solution to that cruel twist of fate.

She seemed blissfully unaware that Mai and Effie were in any kind of conflict. She didn't tend to pay attention to those sorts of things (she had stories to write and adventures to plan). She did give Pax a bright sort of dreamy smile as she rested her chin in her hand. McFussy was across the way; looking all one-eyed. She found herself a bit sad they wouldn't be working together. It was that she liked him or anything, half the time she couldn't understand a bloody thing he was saying - but poking him in the eye had been the highlight of her week in DADA when they had the smoke bomb go off. She really was a wicked little pincher - and not even very deep down!

It should come as no surprise to anyone who'd been monitoring the first year dynamics but Mairead was not one of the students who was found perched in class displaying rapt focus and attention.  No, her mind usually drifted off to some other topic of importance within a few seconds of entering a classroom.  The topics of distraction varied considerably.  Yesterday, Mairead had pondered the way sparkling candle light reflected on the dust lining the candle holders.  Today, shortly after taking her seat, she'd started muttering the words to her favorite tune under her breath. 

It wasn't until one of her fellow Gryffindors nudged her in the shoulder that she realized things were happening and students were moving.  The Gryffindor nodded in the board's direction and Mairead looked up at it.  Her name wasn't hard to find.  It was the second one on the board.  Right after...

"Ifrinn leat!"  Mairead cast a dark scowl in the Professor's direction but when the evil eye proved ineffective, she gathered her things and moved towards Group One's table.  As she neared it, though, she considered the options at the different tables.  Dahlia and Knight weren't that bad and Mairead would take Tynan over anyone at her table any day.  Wakahisa was as twitched as a door mouse in a cattery.  The solution seemed obvious. 

She walked up behind Wakahisa at Group 3 and tossed her book on the table, letting it hit the table top with a loud thud.  "Ye've been switched to Group 1.  Move."  She said, hooking a thumb in the direction of what was supposed to be her seat while, not surprisingly, Miss Rene danced in her seat for the opportunity to hog the spotlight. 

As she watched the text scrawl across the board Cyhirae groaned under her breath. Professor Vaillancourt usually seemed to  know about the dynamics of the first year class, but some match ups were particularly spectacularly bad. Putting Mairead and Euphemia in a group together and you'd get an instant butting of heads and a high chance of nothing getting done. And her and Eirene, in the same group? At least if an argument started up, Keegan would most likely take her side out of the principle of not being on Eirene's.


Cyhirae let out a small sigh and moved herself over to where her group was gathering. 'It's like someone put these groups together to create conflict instead of good teamwork.' As she pulled out her supplies she resisted the urge to make a face. She would be poilite, she would be calm and she would ignore Eirene entirely, 'There's three other people in my group, it shouldn't be too hard, right?'

"Ye've been switched to Group 1.  Move."

Cyhirae glanced at Mairead in surprise, 'Well, that's certainly one way to fix things.' Her eye's flickered over to Eirene and then to the teacher. 'If she lets Mairead, then maybe I can switch as well.'

Mairead's decision was both welcome, and not too surprising to Tynan. He gave her a curt nod and cast an almost apologetic glance to Noriko - it wasn't like Group 1 would be that bad for her, really.  Though this kind of left Group 3 with two people likely to ignore their textbooks, but whatever; potions weren't that difficult, so who cared?

Well, the teacher might. He looked her way and became aware he was blushing slightly. Blushing in shock, he quickly looked back to the group of girls.

"Gae on, Wakahisa," he said, his voice somewhat nicely toned. "Wintergreen'll be gud tae ye, better than -" he glanced at the younger Knight and shrugged. "Better than here, I'd wager. An' when Mai's made her mind up - what can ye do?"

"Very well, Miss Ant-- Miss ó Fearghail," the Professor's voice took a sharp turn, her eyes darting from Eirene, whom she regarded with a pleasant enough, albeit teacherly nod, to Mairead, who was destined to earn her scorn before Spring was in full bloom. She'd given the girl a detention after their first meeting, but it didn't seem to curb any desire to disrupt class.

"Miss ó Fearghail," she repeated. "Go back to your assigned table, or you can do the work of four people yourself. Mr. MacFusty, do not tempt her. I know neither of you want to fail your first year at Hogwarts, lest you be held back and have to watch as your classmates move on to more interesting and rewarding lessons. You don't want to be stuck with the-- mmm-- how would you put it? Babies crossing the lake come September, do you?"

Her eyes found Noriko, who was, Juliette though (and most ironically, given Mairead's unspoken evaluation of the timid girl) every bit the harmless mouse. But a good student, and an honest one, too. The woman's voice softened. "Miss Wakahisa, pay them no mind. Stay where you are. I've designed these groups this way for a reason. As painful as you all might find them, they will help you learn. Or are you all too cowardly to work alongside people you don't like?" She looked between Mairead and Tynan again, wondering if this new challenge might push them toward their proper assigned seats. "Because if you think this unpleasant, the real world will be quite the treat."

Of all the students in the class, she'd pegged Mairead to be the one most accustomed to the real world. But perhaps she'd judged wrong, or not considered the weariness with which the child regarded such hurtles, time and time again. "Five points from each of you. Miss ó Fearghail, you will see me after class," she added curtly. The girl might not want to help herself, but Juliette would put that fiery attitude to good use; for all their differences, the Potions Mistress saw a dose of her young self in the girl, and she wasn't going to let Mairead fail the course, even if she fancied to. The child was too wickedly involved in  (disrupting) the goings-on of the class to be a lost cause.

"Now, Miss Antonopoulos, please read the passage about the Forgetfulness Potion[1]."

1.	Obviously, you can paraphrase this. Don't worry about coming up with an actual text.

(Eeek!  You guys are way too fast for me!)

Noriko sat with her hands folded at her desk as she read over the names on the board, mouthing them silently.  Dahlia and Aglaia...she stole a shy glance at the Hufflepuff girl that she was now partnered with.  She didn't mind Dahlia, who was much nicer than her twin brother and had deflated Noriko's bum that one time in Defense class, although Noriko still loyally thought that she wasn't quite as smart as Eirene.  Aglaia was very nice too; exactly the sort of girl that Noriko wished she could be friends with. 

But Tynan...Noriko gave the one-eyed Gryffindor a doubtful look.  He wasn't a Muggleborn, but he spent a lot of time hanging out with the cannibals in his house.  And what was a fykie?!  Noriko had no idea what it meant, save for the fact that it didn't sound very nice and he had used it after the b-word.

She had just shifted over to her book, and was just about to say a shy hellow to the other girls when Mairead stormed over and threw her book down.  Noriko jumped, looking terrified as first Mairead and then Tynan (she thought - she still couldn't understand what he said, other than the b-word) pressured her to move.  Doubtfully, she looked up at the board.  She really wouldn't mind being in Group 1 - then she'd be with Euphemia and Pax - but her name had been written under Group 3 -

"Miss Wakahisa, pay them no mind. Stay where you are. I've designed these groups this way for a reason. As painful as you all might find them, they will help you learn. Or are you all too cowardly to work alongside people you don't like?" She looked between Mairead and Tynan again, wondering if this new challenge might push them toward their proper assigned seats. "Because if you think this unpleasant, the real world will be quite the treat."

Noriko went white at the teacher's scolding, and she slunk down very low in her seat.  Mairead and Tynan had gotten her into trouble!  And now Professor Vallaincourt thought she was a coward.  She hoped that she hadn't just lost points for Slytherin.  What would Professor Storm think, if he found out that she was losing points for being afraid?

Taking a deep breath, Noriko thought of Professor Storm and summoned up her courage.  "I wouldn't have moved anyway," she whispered at Tynan, not looking at the other boy as Professor Vaillancourt asked Eirene to read from the book.  "And you shouldn't call people mean names like that.  It isn't nice."

Hand still in the air, Eirene frowned disapprovingly at Mairead for whatever trouble she was stirring up, especially when the professor couldn't give Eirene her full attention because of it. However, her face brightened when Professor Vaillancourt took away points from the offenders. She shot Mairead and Tynan a smug, victorious look (serves them right for picking on Noriko!), and looked down at the page.

Eirene folded her hands on her desk, straightened up, and cleared her throat primly. "The Forgetfulness Potion causes forgetfulness and absentmindedness in those who imbibe it. The duration of the potion's effects may last for a few minutes up to a few hours, depending on how strongly it is brewed. One under the influence of the potion may expect to feel disoriented and to forget simple things like where they placed an object or the time of an appointment. It affects short-term memory. It is not strong enough to affect a person's major memories or to make them question who they are."[1]

She took a breath, "If brewed properly, the potion will turn red in colour. The three major ingredients are as follows..."

At that, Eirene paused and looked at the professor, curious if she should read on.

1.	I looked at this page to get an idea of the spell. Please let me know if I should change anything!

Pax had almost hoped that Professor Vaillancourt would allow Mairead to switch with Noriko. Pax felt guilty to admit to it, but he would have rather worked with the Slytherin girl than Mairead. It wasn't that Pax didn't like the Gryffindor, after all Pax made a concerted effort not to dislike anyone, but Noriko had rather been growing on Pax lately, while Mairead was a bit of a... well, a maverick, as cliched as that sounded. Which wasn't necessarily a bad thing, but in a class setting, it had a tendency to put Pax, who liked to make sure things went smoothly, somewhat on edge.

Pax shook his head a little, and reminded himself that life wasn't predictable. Having to deal with that, to figure out how to work around it, or with it, was better done sooner than later. And anyway, Mairead wasn't always disruptive. She sometimes had her own way of doing things, and that tended to make her stand out, that was all. Mental chiding for his gut reaction to Mairead complete, he pulled an apologetic sort of face at her and whispered, 'Hard luck. M'sure if we just get on with it the time'll pass quick though.' Or so he hoped. Regardless of how he felt about Mairead, there was still the matter of Euphemia and the fact that the less time those two spent together, the better. There was only some much real world preparation Pax could take in one class!

Hearing Eirene start to read out the passage, Pax dutifully turned his attention to the book, following along as his friend read out loud. Professor Vaillancourt was still relatively new, and Pax wanted to ensure he was making a good impression. He'd hate for the potions teacher (or Eirene, for that matter!) to think he wasn't paying attention right now.

Mairead flashed Tynan a grin which faded when she turned back toward Wakahisa.  Between the two of them, they were sure to get the Slytherin to move. 

If it hadn't been for professorly intervention. 

That sharp tone had become quite familiar.  Nine times out of ten, if Mairead's name was said during class, it was in that tone.  She turned back towards the professor and seemed to give the proposed offer due consideration.  Do the work of four or work with Ewfie.  Really, it was a no brainer.  She'd take the work of four over having to converse with Ewfie any day.  Professor Vaillancourt's admonishment didn't help much.  Mairead bristled and opened her mouth to bark back that she was well aware of the real world but closed it again and plopped back in her seat. 

But, so help her - if Ewfie made one comment about her clothes or her accent or ... anything ... the Slytherin would be leaving class with a black eye. 

She fixed her attention firmly on the textbook even though Rene had spared them all the need to actually read it. Mairead leaned against the table on one elbow so she hunched over her page with her back turned, decidedly, towards Ewfie.  With her quill, she tapped out series of small, black dots on her scrap of parchment.

"Thank you, Eirene, well read," the professor acknowledged, nodding a fiery head and milk-pale face made only whiter by the dungeon's gloomy lighting. She'd been seeing to that, though; she liked the shadows at night well enough, and for Juliette, who often worked blindly from memory, it served... but the woman knew that the students would benefit from a light that shed more truth on the raw ingredients with which they worked, and which allowed them to compare the contents of their cauldrons more closely to what was written or illustrated in their texts. She'd added several new sconces, brightened the flames, and had the elves scour the tiny porthole windows which had been full of grass and dust. Still, she rather wished for a ceiling like the Great Hall's, or tower windows like Tapendra's. Perhaps a few more charms...

"That will be plenty. Let us save the rest for your group work. Five points for Ravenclaw's swift following of directions and helpful recitation. Now, all of you, please work cordially amongst your assigned groups, and see if you can't brew the beginnings of something appropriately red and tempered." She gestured again to Eirene, and then to the book in her own hand, where a black and white illustration of a cauldron fizzled with smoke, its liquid contents painted over with red and boiling mildly like a particularly sluggish Hogwarts portrait.

She'd left it unsaid, but she'd arranged the groups so that they'd be inclined to fall into a natural, efficient working order. (Babyish squabbles aside.) There were those who were better at scanning and reciting instructions, those who could get their hands dirty and slice the more unpleasant ingredients without an eye's blink, and those with the rough voice and brisk hand to keep everyone moving. And then there were a few students who excelled at everything, and a few who... were rebels at heart. It would take years yet to brew it out of them, Juliette knew, but she has as much determination as a Slytherin alumnus, and all the pride that came with Beauxbatons' airy palace halls. If these groups did not serve, she would rework them for the next assignment.