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.
"Jenny. Jenny? Jenny. Hey. Um. You okay...? Breathe? Please?"
Emma is not very good at hugs, but she attempts an awkward one anyway.
She is very good at being organized while stressed, apparently; she's already ready to go.
She is not quite as organized as Jenny, but she manages to catch up reasonably quickly. Potions?
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.)
"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."
"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."
Jenny seems to have perked up while talking, and Emma's hoping having a new person to chat with will distract her, but she's hardly going to say that out loud, in front of Jenny.
(Why no, Emma's shyness around New Person is not at all a factor. Nope.)
And with that, Professor Slughorn appears with a sunny smile on his walrusy face. They will be making a simple potion today, which does nothing but smell very different from any of its ingredients, as an introduction to some basic potions principles. He makes no issue about inter-House pairing.
"You're not a Muggle," corrects Karen. "Just your parents, so you're Muggleborn. Or if you want to be very polite to yourself you can say you're a first-generation witch. And we're still magic, even if we aren't poking our wands at things. So we can make potions, but we couldn't teach Muggles how to do it, it wouldn't work."
"I mean, it's suppose to smell nice if you do it right. I guess you could dunk sachets in it?" says Miranda dubiously.
"Professor Slughorn would probably have told us off for talking about things beside the potion eventually anyway," says Miranda, though Slughorn is across the room helping a pair of Hufflepuffs understand the book's described difference between chopping and mincing. Miranda minces the things that need mincing.
Dumping the last pile of powder into the cauldron yields a puff of purple smoke and a charming lavender smell. "Oooh, oooh, we did it!" Jenny says excitedly.
(So much for mucking up. Lavender happened!)
Schedule.
"Nooo, no, we don't." Sigh. "I thought we had Charms together. Ours is today but not next. You probably have it with Gryffindor or Slytherin. Sorry, I'm dumb, don't mind me. Um, I guess we'll see you tomorrow at flying?"