bubble bubble

[metamorphmaga]

Jenny has nightmares all night. Everything from she vanished all of her clothing by accident to she can't do anything except change form and everyone laughs at the stupid Muggle, and every other version of mucking up her first class that her sleepy brain can manufacture. She wakes up looking like she's been run over by a very sleep-deprived train, and her hair is curling in panicked ringlets of pure white.

But now she has Potions class to go to. She should probably get up and do that. Not going to class counts as mucking up, so she makes herself get up and get dressed. Can't muck up. If you do, you can't be a witch.

That thought turns the rest of her hair white.

Comments

[parental_guidance]

Emma has not known Jenny very long, it is true. But she hasn't ever seen Jenny's hair change color unintentionally, and this- doesn't look all that intentional. Not to mention the "I slept on a bed made of nails, nettles and hot coals" look she is currently sporting.

"Jenny. Jenny? Jenny. Hey. Um. You okay...? Breathe? Please?"

Emma is not very good at hugs, but she attempts an awkward one anyway.

[metamorphmaga]

Jenny breathes. And leans into the hug. After a minute, she smiles weakly at Emma and, slowly, fixes her hair. "Sorry. Sorry, just sorta stressed. I promise! First day, so on, so forth." She sighs at herself. "I have been dealing with first-day-of-school sibling stress for years, now I get it?"

She is very good at being organized while stressed, apparently; she's already ready to go.

[parental_guidance]

"Maybe you caught it from them, then," Emma teases gently. "But, um, seriously, please don't worry? Everyone will do something stupid at least once today. I promise. Magic is cool and all, but it's hard."

She is not quite as organized as Jenny, but she manages to catch up reasonably quickly. Potions?

[metamorphmaga]

"Ugh, ugh ugh ugh I feel so silly and whingy. Okay, okay, I'll try not to worry. Try! I make no promises!"

But she's smiling a little now, at least. Off to Potions they go.





The Hufflepuffs are the first ones there. Jenny's looking forward to the others arriving- the schedule said they share this class with Ravenclaw- but seeing Miranda will have to wait at least a little bit longer. So instead she drags Emma to the middle of the room; the Hufflepuffs are congregating towards the back (partially out of shyness and partially in the expectation that the Ravenclaws will want the front) so hopefully the middle will be near Miranda. Table located, she plops into her seat and starts spreading out ingredients in piles next to her cauldron.

(Focus on your hair, don't let it turn white again, it will be okay Emma said it would.)

[chanuphis]

Here is Miranda! She has apparently made a Ravenclaw friend.

"Hi, Emma, hi, Jenny, this is Karen! Karen, that one's Emma and that one's Jenny."

[pleating]

"Hi, Emma and Jenny, I'm guaranteed to mix you up at least once!"

[metamorphmaga]

"Hi Karen," Jenny says with a smile. She is not as bubbly as usual still, but she managed the smile! And her hair is not white! Baby steps.

[parental_guidance]

"Uh, hi, nice to meet you," Emma says. "Don't worry, I'll forget your name at least twice. So, um. Call it even?"

[pleating]

"Sure, that's fair," agrees Karen. "What kind of wands do you have? I got a book on wandlore for my birthday and I'm trying to ask everybody. Mine is walnut and unicorn hair."

[chanuphis]

"Karen doesn't believe me about the chimera wand, but that's fair since I only have the shop lady to go by," says Miranda.

[metamorphmaga]

"I- er. Is it weird that I have trouble remembering? It seems like I'm not supposed to," Jenny sighs. "Rowan and dragon something, I think? Twelve inches, I know that one."

[parental_guidance]

"Willow and unicorn hair, ten inches," Emma provides. "Um, I can vouch that she said chimera? Not that it makes her more reliable, but."

[metamorphmaga]

"...isn't there a way to test? It seems like there should be a way to tell!"

[pleating]

"If there's a way to test I don't know it," says Karen, shaking her head. "But chimaeras are really dangerous, and they're less common and less well understood than dragons, so I don't think it would really be a chimaera hair. It's probably just unicorn."

[chanuphis]

"Maybe. My other one has a phoenix feather core. Pine and phoenix, eleven inches, hazel and who knows what, eleven and a quarter."

[metamorphmaga]

"Soooo, what do they mean?"

[pleating]

"The woods or the cores?"

[metamorphmaga]

"Either? Both?"

[pleating]

"Um, walnut is supposed to mean intelligence and innovation - I'm not just complimenting myself, they all mean things like that - and hazel means self-control and understanding your own feelings, and pine means independence and introversion and being going to live a really long time, and rowan is for being pure of heart and supposedly rowan wand owners never go Dark, and willow means potential. And I don't know what chimaera or whatever Miranda has would mean, but unicorn hair is supposed to be consistent and hard to turn Dark and doesn't like to change owners, and phoenix feather is the least common of the Ollivander kinds and it sometimes does useful things on its own, and dragon heartstring is powerful and quick to learn how you do magic and of the Ollivander kinds it's easiest to turn Dark."

[metamorphmaga]

"So I'll never go Dark, but I'm also the easiest to turn Dark!"

[parental_guidance]

"Potential and reliability, I guess? Huh. I'll take it," she says with a smile. "Do wand lengths mean anything?"

[pleating]

"People think longer wands might mean stronger personalities? I'm not sure if there's anything to it and anyway it's not consistent, if you break a wand you can get one of a really different length that likes you just fine. I think it's a coincidence Miranda's are both almost the same."

[metamorphmaga]

"I have more personality than yooooou," Jenny beams at Emma.

[parental_guidance]

"Uh. You spontaneously grow glittery pink unicorn horns. I lose by default."

[chanuphis]

"Potions is the weirdest class to be having this conversation in," observes Miranda. "How do we want to pair? I think we're supposed to pair. I wonder where Professor Slughorn is."