MAY BE A PROBLEM - ZELDA/ARCHIE

[ARCHIMEDES ANTON LEROUX]

Archimedes Leroux often liked to think of himself as an innovator of magical sciences, a courageous little Ravenclaw who pushed through the barriers of his limited amount of magical supplies and came out a champ, a victor. He was a part of a scientific ancestry that invented Polyjuice Potion, Wolfsbane Potion . . and most recently, in the hands of Archimedes Leroux, was a potion that would counteract gravity in half the time of it's predecessor: the McDowel concoction that was originally used to try and make flying shoes . . and failed.

But take an incredibly bored Ravenclaw and a Room of Requirement outfitted with supplies most likely stolen (Archie didn't question the magic of the room, just accepted it with graciousness) and you had the ingredients for experiments trying to improve upon said concoction.

He now held a vial with clear liquid, bubbles fizzing within. It made the item that touched it begin to float almost immediately and while it didn't let anyone control where it went, it was still enough of an improvement that it could go on his imaginary potions resume.

It was when he was merrily going about with his prize, ready to show it to his head of house, when he noticed something. The hall wasn't empty. No, there was a conflict between a familiar looking young woman (The name Zella came through his head, but was probably wrong.) and a Slytherin prefect who had a little too much hair gel in his arsenal of beauty supplies, as was shown by the sheen in it.

"Excuse me, is there a problem?" Archie asked from his spot a good seven feet away. Other than the three of them, it was empty. "It looks like there's a problem."

[zelda ellette garrett]

Zelda really had nothing to do this day. She had finally caught up on all of her studies and homework. It was quite easy for her, she just didn't care about it, so she left it to the last minute. Her teachers often reminded her that she wasn't living up to her potential. This didn't really bother her because school was definitely not her top priority. In her opinion, she had much more important things to worry about.

She had a habit of visiting Flourish and Blotts every weekend to see if they had any recent lycanthropy literature. It was a huge passion of her's because her father had been trying to find the cure, but in the process, he was bitten by one of the werewovles. She had 'borrowed' a lot of information from her father's secret experiment journal and copied them into her own journal. She has, since then, been assisting her father in finding a cure to the lycanthropy condition.

This past weekend, she visited Flourish and Blotts and found a new book on werewolves that was hot off the press, so to speak. Zelda had her nose stuck in this book (which she had noticed that quite a few facts were wrong, which highly annoyed her). "Waste of good money..," she said, mumbling to herself.

Zelda just flipped the page, when she ran into what felt like a random wall in the middle of the hallway. "Oh!" she said, falling away from what she thought was the wall, her book snapping shut. She looked up to see that it wasn't a wall, but a very large Slytherin boy, and a prefect, according to the badge he was wearing.

"Well, well, what is this? Little red riding hood on her way to grandma's house?" he asked, poking the red lining on Zelda's hood on her uniform. He continued moving his hand up until he stroked her cheek and he started to move lower, but she quickly smacked his hand away. She glared at him and said,"Most people learn at age three to keep their hands to themselves," she said, The Slytherin was glowering at her, looking more and more threatening when someone spoke up.

Zelda contemplated just saying no and walking away. "Oh, this brute was just abusing his power as a prefect," she said, holding her book on her hip and motioning to the tall Slytherin. "Don't you dare touch me again!" she said, wagging a finger at him, before moving over to the Ravenclaw, still keeping an eye on the Slytherin.

[ARCHIMEDES ANTON LEROUX]

Archie bit his lip, gripping the vial tighter. The small change in temperature made it fizz and he impulsively loosened his grip. It subsided. "That's not polite," he said, going from Amazing Potions Lad to Captain Obvious in several seconds flat. "At all.," Give the boy a prize. He was truly brilliant. Yes, indeed.

Zella, Zendalia, whatever her name was, seemed to consider him to be someone to hide behind. OK. That was just peachy. He could handle that sort of thing. Not like he had other things to do. Not like she had made this a commitment of sorts for him when she didn't even know his name (assumption, but probably true) and he certainly didn't seem know hers. What did he owe her other than to simply break up the little confrontation and walk off? He did not agree to fight anyone! It was not Archie's idea of a good time to go off dueling some punk Slytherin with daddy issues and a true need for dental floss.

And yet he was most probably going to end up with his face punched in. Great. That guy looked pretty beefy. Could Archie actually do a fist fight? No, no, it'd have to be with wands and even that was somewhat tricky. No matter how wonderful he was with potions: he could've brushed up on his DaDA a bit more. Could've hexed him a good deal, but it wasn't polite and he'd get detention again.

He let the potion that his academic future might very well rest upon sit in one hand while his other reached towards his wand. "We'd better get going," he said pointedly. "Let's go." Archie made the vital mistake of turning, his back facing the Slytherin prefect who, if he'd paid attention, Archie would've noticed was muttering a curse under his breath. A curse which hit him seconds later, causing slugs to spew profusely from his mouth.

Archimedes would've said something along the lines of "Forget this, Zella can fight her own battles" . . . if not for the fact that slugs continued to pour from his mouth. Instead, he mused vaguely on whether or not he was going to be forced to clean this up.

He probably was and that fact in itself was very, very disheartening.

[zelda ellette garrett]

Zelda wasn't exactly taking cover with the Ravenclaw, she was just moving away from the large, bulky Slytherin and closer to the other boy, who might be a good back up if things turned ugly. "Indeed," she said, crossing her arms over her chest,"In fact, it was quite rude!." She narrowed her eyes and glared at the large Slytherin, who only laughed at her, which just made her more upset and angry.

She really wasn't too afraid if the Slytherin attacked her with a curse because she was quite good at spells and DADA. What she was worried about was if he attacked her physically because while she was strong at magic, she was very weak at Muggle fighting. And judging by the looks of the huge boy, it could really go either way. He had his wand out, just as he had when he approached her, but he also looked like he was about to pounce.

"Yes, that's probably a good idea," she said, slowly turning along with the Ravenclaw, but still keeping her eye on the massive Slytherin. Zelda saw the curse being fired far before her companion did, as his back was completely turned to the attacked. "Watch out!" she said, in an attempt, but she was too late and he was hit with the curse. She winced as she saw the slugs slowly coming out of the boy's mouth.

Zelda pursed her lips angrily and turned to the Slytherin, crossing her arms over her chest again. "You Slytherins certainly do like that hex, don't you? Can't seem to come up with anything new?" she asked, looking at her nails to bait him. And he did exactly what she expected and what she wanted him to do.

His face flushed red with anger and he cast a spell, firing robes out of his wand at Zelda. She quickly drew her wand out of her sleeve and blocked it, causing it to backfire on him. "Hmph," she said, turning back to the Ravenclaw and muttering the counter curse, so the slugs would stop pouring out of his mouth. "Are you alright?" she asked, resting a comforting hand on his back,"I'm so sorry you got involved in that!"

Zelda looked down to the several slugs that were moving around in front of the Ravenclaw. She muttered a spell and the slugs disappeared, leaving a perfectly clean floor.