Author note: Going to try out shorter chapters for a bit and see how that works out. Again, wherever you see -italics- , the words are meant to be in Irish Gaelic.
CHAPTER FIVE
Pink Potions and Pink-Haired Idiots
-Sink with me, my love. Down with me, my love. To the sea, the loving sea.-
Juvia stirred in her sleep, the remnants of a dream slipping through her grasp.
-There's no more pain, my love. No more rain, my love. Trust the sea, the loving sea.-
Her eyes fluttered open, greeted for the day by the lake's gentle song as it floated in from the window beside her bed. She laid still, curled beneath the covers, listening to the song while she waited for her dorm mates to stir from their own sleep.
One by one, they rose from their beds, sometimes bidding a good morning to one another. Never to her. Not that it mattered. Not that she expected them to. Just as it had been in the abbey.
Well, almost.
When she arrived at the Common Room, Gajeel was waiting for her. He grunted a response to her quiet "Good morning." It was the closest to a Good morning greeting that she'd ever known. Smiling, she followed the Redfox boy out the Commons to the Great Hall to grab some breakfast.
"Man, I hate Potions," Natsu groaned as he, Gray and the other Gryffindors started their way down to the dungeons to attend their first class of the school year.
"You can't hate it. We haven't taken it yet," Lucy replied with a roll of her eyes.
"It's not real magic!" Natsu protested. "It's like cooking, but without getting anything to eat out of it! So it's worse!" Gray just groaned. "And we have to spend it with the Slytherins!"
"Think of it as an opportunity to show up Dreyar," Loke chimed in.
Natsu seemed to consider the idea but just ended up settling back into his griping about the class. Their little group meandered their way to the dungeons, Natsu and Lucy doing the bulk of the bickering as they went with Loke egging one or both of them on when he could.
Gray hardly heard them, a talent he developed when they all lived at St. Rowena's. Their arguments just faded into the back like white noise. He was surprised, though, how easily he heard another voice rise over the din.
"Juvia can't wait! Her first class in magic! Aren't you excited, Gajeel?" The girl's voice flitted in from behind. Gray unconsciously slowed his gait, lagging behind his friends.
"It's Potions, Raindrop," he heard the Redfox boy say.
Raindrop?
"Not like it's real magic."
"It is so! And Juvia's going to study hard and show she's every bit a witch as the rest of them." The pale blunette girl and the taller boy came into view, the girl's mouth set in a little determined line. The Slytherin girl seemed so focused in her little world that she swept by Gray without even raising her eyes.
Gray opened his mouth to say something but closed it as she kept walking towards the classroom door. The other Gryffindors waited just outside the room for him, Lucy and Loke less than subtly peering after the blunette girl as she passed them by to enter the classroom. The Redfox boy, however, stopped to glower at them.
"What are ya looking at, Gryffindorks?"
"Your face," retorted Natsu. "Wondering what curse managed to make you so ugly."
Redfox growled but then glanced inside the classroom and seemed to find something else to be irritated at instead. "Goddammit, Raindrop, we ain't sitting up front!" He disappeared into the room as Gray reached the others.
The group entered and split off into pairs, Gray going with Natsu and taking a seat a few rows from the front. Juvia, much to Redfox's apparent displeasure, had remained in her choice of a desk at the front of the room. He could see her profile from where he sat, see the glowing smile on her face and the way she played with the quill in her hands in nervous anticipation. A moment later, she seemed to sense his eyes on her. The smile faded as she looked over her shoulder towards him. Their eyes met for only a moment. She turned away, eyes on the Potions book on her desk while Gray frowned.
"What's with you?" Natsu asked, chewing on a piece of something he had taken with him at breakfast.
"Nothing. Shut up and get your book out."
"Why? Seriously, this is like the most useless class," Natsu complained. Far too loudly.
"Is it indeed, Mister Dragneel?" a cold and deep voice asked as Professor Precht entered the room. Tall and thin with a beard that stretched down well past his waist and an eyepatch over his right eye, Professor Precht was a somewhat imposing figure and, as the Slytherin Head of House, was not overly fond of Gryffindors to begin with. He glared at the pink-haired boy. "A master of Potions already, are you?"
"What's there to know? Put things in a pot, stir it a bit and done," the boy replied.
Gray groaned and cradled his face in his hand, wondering if it was too late to swap partners with Lucy. At least Erza wasn't going to get him poisoned by Precht.
"Shall we put that to a test, Mister Dragneel? I've never been one for teaching through lectures. One learns magic from doing magic, not by reading about it, so we'll do a hands on demonstration. We'll start with an easy potion. The Cure for Boils. A simple potion that even the greenest of wizards can accomplish given the right focus. But I'm not so cruel as to set you on your task without the least bit of instruction. Can someone tell Mister Dragneel what happens if you just throw in porcupine quills with the other ingredients when still over the fire?"
Surprised, Gray watched Juvia's hand shoot up.
"Miss Lockser?"
"The potion will melt the cauldron."
"Very good, Miss Lockser. Ten points to Slytherin," Professor Precht said with a nod to the girl.
A smile tugged at his lips as Juvia practically beamed at Precht, but it quickly soured when he heard Minerva Orland from a seat behind him.
"How cute. The mudblood thinks she's a real witch."
He turned to glare at the Slytherin girl before looking back to Juvia, hoping she hadn't heard it. By her sagging shoulders and downward stare, she obviously had. Redfox was growling, glaring behind him.
Professor Precht continued on. "Who can tell the class what happens if you stir counter-clockwise instead of clockwise?"
Juvia didn't move, her eyes still cast down to the desk, and the rest of the class remained still as well.
Professor Precht looked at the blunette girl, frowning. "Miss Lockser?"
She raised her head briefly when he called her. Then, her head bowing again, quietly answered, "The potion causes boils rather than cures them."
"Very good, Miss Lockser. Five points from Slytherin."
Juvia's head snapped back up. "But Juvia answered correctly," the girl protested.
"Next time you know an answer, you will raise your hand. Understood?"
Gray scarcely heard the girl's, "Yes, sir," over Orland's snickering.
"And finally, how do you know when you've brewed the potion successfully?"
Juvia's hand rose slowly, the girl still looking to the table.
"Miss Lockser?"
"Pink smoke pours out from the potion."
"Correct again, Miss Lockser. Five points to Slytherin. Now, Miss Lockser has told you what happens when you brew the potion incorrectly and when you brew it correctly. Let's see how many of you can reach the right result. Page nine. Get to it."
A little of Juvia's previous enthusiasm returned. He watched as she flipped her book open and moved to the appropriate page long before Precht had even finished speaking.
"Better get going, droopy eyes," Natsu hissed at him from his right. "Precht's looking your way."
Gray glanced at the professor, getting a glare back in response, before hurriedly getting his book out. With one last glance at the blunette softly smiling as she grounded snake fangs in her mortar and pestle, Gray set to work.
"Don't look right," Gajeel muttered, tapping his cauldron with his wand. His potion was barely emitting smoke, and the smoke that it did let out was a little off in color, more purple than pink.
"Juvia thinks you might not have ground up your snake fangs fine enough," Juvia said, peering into the cauldron.
"A good assessment, Miss Lockser," Professor Precht said as he hovered over them. Juvia instinctively shrank down. "Still, a fair effort for your first potion, Mister Redfox. And very well done on yours, Miss Lockser."
"Thank you," she said softly.
"You're from St. Brigid's, yes?" She nodded. "I imagine Josephine taught you some of this." She nodded again, straightening a little. "She always was a good student. Keep her lessons in mind and you'll do well this year." Juvia smiled at him, though he merely nodded at her and moved on. He paused a short space later. "Mister Dragneel…," he sighed. He stepped back to their desk. "Miss Lockser, if I may." He took the cauldron from her desk without waiting for a reply and carried it back to the desk behind her.
Juvia and Gajeel turned back to see the pink-haired boy's cauldron melted and the boy's hand covered in boils, Gray shifted as far from the mess as he could at the table. "Giihii. Idiot," Gajeel laughed beside her. Precht poured some of the potion she had brewed onto the boy's hand, and the boils disappeared. With a wave of his wand, the remnants of Dragneel's potion vanished and his cauldron returned to normal. Once the scene had been set right again, Precht returned her potion back to her desk.
Dragneel examined his hand, sighed in relief and grinned at her. "Thanks, Blue!" he called out.
Juvia blinked. "Blue?"
"Shaddup, flame breath," Gajeel growled back.
"Make me, metal face!"
Precht sighed as a bell sounded. "Read chapters two and three before Wednesday. Miss Lockser, a word if you would," he said as he returned to his desk.
Gajeel frowned and glanced at her. She merely shrugged in response. "I'll wait outside," he muttered as the rest of the class moved for the door. She saw Gray glance her way, but she quickly turned her gaze back to her desk.
When everyone was gone, she approached Precht's desk where he sat, his hands folded together. "You would do well, Miss Lockser, to remember that you are a Slytherin. Slytherins do not let themselves be cowered by the tongues of the inferior, even if those inferior tongues are Slytherin themselves. Do not embarrass our House again, is that clear?"
"Yes, sir."
"Good." He waved his hand to dismiss her, and she quickly darted out of the room. Gajeel waited by the door.
"You in one piece?"
She nodded but didn't say more.
"Good. Charms is next. Now we get to do some real magic. Giihii."
Smiling up at him, she followed him out of the dungeons.
Charms proved to be a far better subject for Gajeel than Juvia. Three weeks into the school year, and he seemed a natural when it came to wand work. No charm seemed to stump him. That day, he was one of the first to get his levitation charm to work, beaten only by a small blunette from Ravenclaw. He did his best not to look proud, but when Professor Gildarts commended him on his wand work, Juvia giggled at the smile on his face.
"Shaddup, Raindrop," he snapped, going slightly red.
"Can't help it. It's cute." She grinned before going back to her task. She flicked the wand again. "Wingardium Leviosa." Nothing. She frowned.
"It's yer accent. Yer drawing out the gar part too much," he said. He did the charm again, enunciating far too well for someone whose English could be described as haphazard at best.
She tried again, and though the feather twitched, it failed to rise up. "Can Juvia go back to Potions?" she frowned.
"Giihii! Raindrop struggling? My day's complete!" His laugh was quickly cut short by a small elbow jabbed into his side. "Watch it, Raindrop, or I'll forget my rule about hitting girls."
"You've already kicked Juvia before."
"Huh. Yer right." He hit her in the arm back, though it was far softer than the kick on the train.
"Meanie," she pouted.
"Don't start fights ya can't win," he said. "Try again."
It took ten more minutes, but with Gajeel's guidance, she managed to get her feather to dance around her. A number of the Ravenclaws had been able to do the same by that point, as had Laxus Dreyar and Freed Justine from Slytherin, but Juvia didn't mind. She was beaming, watching the feather twirl about.
"Good job, Raindrop. Ya may not be hopeless after all."
"You'd kick her again if Juvia tried to hug you, wouldn't you?"
"Yes. Hands t'yerself," he growled, but he did indulge her in a feather fencing match, Gajeel winning handedly with his far greater control over his feather.
They were still refining the rules of feather fencing when the tall pink-haired Madame Porlyusica swept into the room. Professor Gildarts looked up. "Madame Porlyusica, can I help you?"
"I'm here for the Lockser girl. The Headmaster wants a word," she replied.
Juvia's feather fell as she tensed. Professor Gildarts turned to her. "Miss Lockser?"
"Can you take Juvia's books back?" she asked Gajeel. He nodded with a frown. After giving him a small smile that she hoped was reassuring, she joined the pink-haired woman. The woman nodded at her and swept back out the room, Juvia following mutely behind.
When they were some distance from the room, climbing a set of stairs upward, Juvia asked the woman. "Is-is Juvia in trouble?"
"Haven't the slightest idea," came the reply as she paused in front of a grotesque gargoyle statue. "Butterbeer bubblegum," she said with a roll of her eyes. The gargoyle shifted to the side to reveal another stairwell. "Makarov and his absurd passwords," she muttered as she started ascending, Juvia right behind.
Chewing on her lip mercilessly, Juvia lapsed into silence as the stairs wound ever upwards. By the time they reached another stone door, Juvia was starting to get dizzy from the height and endless turning staircase.
"In you go," said the woman before turning and descending down the stone staircase.
Juvia gulped before opening the door, immediately greeted by a cheery, "Good morning, Miss Lockser!"
When she opened the door fully, Professor Makarov was seated on his desk, cross-legged, a wide bright smile on his face. Feeling herself relax a little, Juvia entered and closed the door behind her. "Good morning, Professor Makarov."
"How have your classes been treating you?" the man asked.
"Good, Professor. Thank you," she replied stiffly, trying to read something in the man's demeanor or questions.
"Relax, Miss Lockser. You're not in any trouble. I merely had some time and wanted to see if I could help with that," he said, gesturing to the window where her rain pounded against the glass, stirred into a new frenzy by her nerves.
She paled a little and winced. "Juvia's sorry," she whispered.
Professor Makarov merely waved her off. "My dear, that is what Hogwarts is here for. We teach you how to use your magic. If you had full control, you wouldn't need us. Now, take a seat," he said as he hopped off the desk and motioned to a chair in the center of the chamber. She quickly climbed onto it, nervously clutching her robes. "It's fairly obvious that the rain is tied to your emotions. Unfortunately, your emotions tend to be negative in nature, hence the storms."
"Juvia's sorry," she said again.
"It's not your fault, child. The world's rarely kind to those that are unique. That it taught you grief before joy is its shame, not yours. But, it does lead to a bit of a challenge here. Still, Jose tells me the rain parted briefly when you received your wand at Diagon Alley, which is a good sign." He patted her hand and smiled at her. "A wand is used to focus your magic. It can help you do what you can't do on your own, so we'll use it to help control your magic now. Let's start with the incantation, and once we have that down, we'll move to the next step. Like this," he said, taking out his own wand and quickly flicking it in the air.
She mirrored his movements with her wand, and after some adjustments, he seemed satisfied.
"Good. Now, repeat after me: Meteolojinx Recanto."
She waved her wand. "Meteolojinx Recanto."
"Close, but a little too much emphasis on the last syllable. Like this."
Fifteen minutes later, most of which Juvia spent wishing that Gajeel were there instead, Makarov nodded. "Good, good. Time for the last step. What we need is to focus your emotions on something other than the ones that brought the storms. I want you to close your eyes, hold your wand close to your chest and focus on the happiest memory you can think of. The stronger the memory, the better."
The blunette girl thought on it a moment, closing her eyes. Tried to remember when she was happiest, not that she had many candidates to choose from. She thought of the sky. The beautiful sky. The way her heart soared as she looked at the endless blue.
"Good. Hold on to that memory and open your eyes."
When she did, she saw her wand glowing with a gentle blue-almost-white light.
"Now, come here," he said, leading her to the window, opening it so that the rain made its way into the chamber. "Point it up to the clouds and just as we practiced: Meteolojinx Recanto."
Taking a deep breath, she flicked the wand, pointing it towards the clouds and said, "Meteolojinx Recanto."
The light blue glow shot from the wand into the gray clouds above. The sky rippled from the point that the light struck it and for the briefest of moments, the gray peeled back to reveal a glimpse of blue sky. Her heart clenched, but no sooner had it appeared, the storm swirled and drowned it away again.
A strangled cry left her lips as her heart fell, but the diminutive Headmaster merely patted her hand, unconcerned. "There now, child. Don't despair."
"Juvia will never be free of it," she muttered, feeling tears welling in her eyes.
"Child, if you had managed to succeed on your first try, I would have had to tell Gildarts I was replacing him with you. Which I may still do, just to see his reaction," he said with a smirk, Juvia feeling her own lips threatening to twitch into a smile. "This is not a single fight. These storms did not stay with you for eleven years for nothing. There is no wizard that can change the core of their nature in a single half-hour."
"We will continue lessons until you're ready. I'll have Madame Porlyusica fetch you as I have time. Don't you worry. This was a good first step, but it's just one of many. We'll take them together, you and I."
Juvia clutched the teru teru bozo around her neck and forced a smile for him, desperate to believe what he said. "Thank you."