Alexius writes his down. The ice spike is in English, the shield and antitoxin in Latin. "Ice spike takes a chunk of water, freezes and flings it, fast and sharp. I can't cast much more than a cupful but in theory it could scale up, I think. I have a bunch of common poisons memorized for the poison spell, it's not necessary but it does help and it's generically good to know what might kill you in the Scholomance. The library probably has books on different compounds or I could trade you some tutoring later. The way you work the knowledge in is to focus on the specific thing you want to neutralize when you're casting the spell, and it'll hone in on that particular molecule. If you don't do that it'll just use some combination of 'stuff that you don't want in your system' and known poisons the spell's already primed to look for." In fact, a number of those toxins are part of the Latin chant: finitum solanum, etc. 

"I don't actually... have spell competence in Latin yet, it's going to be my first one to pick up here. I guess having something concrete in mind to figure out is a good way to start."

"It is! Do you want help with Latin?" It's one of the few Alexius learned pre-memory-potion, so he even knows how to teach it to those without one! 

"I could sure use it!"

"I can trade tutoring for mana - or homework help, later, once we know more about what our classes send our way." 

"I'm a little worried Paige will get on my case about using mana for that. It's just really embarrassing to ask other Manchester kids - we mostly had one on one tutoring, see, they don't know yet how bad I am at things."

"We can deal in amounts a freshman can generate on their own. Or figure something else out. Lab buddying maybe, it's hard for me to watch for mals and brew at the same time." It's even harder to try to artifice but he's not sure he wants to expose that weakness to all of Manchester just yet. 

"Oh, lab buddying would be good."

"So, we set aside some work period or free time next week, lesson one is the Latin spells and branching out from there. Then we lab buddy later in the week...I have lab Tuesday morning and presumably will know what sort of assignments and materials to expect, maybe we meet Tuesday afternoon for languages and figure out lab plans from there? Trade hour-for-hour?"

"Sure, that sounds like a plan."

They've mostly been talking fairly quietly but Ennis looks up at the phrase "lab buddy". "What are you brewing?" he asks.

"Well, that depends! I'm going to need to do some testing because my affinity is wonky with potions - it actively fights me unless I plan to immediately drink and benefit from the potion as soon as I've finished, and in that case it helps a lot. It's easy to tailor potions to me but they don't always work well for others." Learned that the hard way, didn't we. "I'll probably try some basic dyes or cosmetics recipes first, they seem easiest to measure and least likely to cause harm if they don't work." He's not going to give anyone else a potion until he's damn sure how his affinity is affecting his craft. 

"You have to drink it? - Ennis Reilley, cosmetics."

"Huh, that's neat. Maybe you can recommend me some recipes? My affinity is myself. I can do just about anything efficiently as long as I'm the only target, kinda bad at anything else. Alchemy," when I can get it to work, "is something of an edge case because I can brew larger batches than I need." 

"Interesting. I have recipes for various things, yes, tentative early takers on alertness eyeshadow."

"Maybe you could lab buddy with us?"

"Sure. I have a Monday lab slot, so I expect to have more ingredients than class time."

"Yikes, I heard Monday's rough. Morning or afternoon?" 

"Morning, but before lunch, not first thing."

"Not terrible. Yeah, I'd be happy to group up for lab work, curricular or otherwise. And I'll trade spells or recipes if you've got 'em. I can probably do a decent job at cosmetics if I wear them myself." His affinity would probably even make them look good on him, not that he minds looking silly in exchange for superpowers. "I'm happy to take an occasional guard shift, too, I have some good defensive options." 

"If you aren't used to wearing makeup I also know how to put it on people."

"You know, I'm honestly not sure if my affinity would help me there? It might, for magic makeup. But yes, that'd be appreciated. What else could we make? Mal-repelling perfume? Stealth cream? Eau de mundane? Healing balm?" 

"I have an in-progress recipe for injury concealer - it does painkilling; I want it to also make the injury less conspicuous to mals - and chapstick that makes you less thirsty. I'm not actually sure if I can do perfume particularly well; I've stuck to visible applications so far."

"Huh. Well, once we start getting into major projects we might want to collaborate. Could be productive." 

"I'll look forward to it. Sean, is there anything you're going to want to brew or are you just trading your lookout services for something -"