The young girl recognized the voice of her Head of House immediately and she felt her stomach drop a little as she saw the pattern of where this was going. Her face turned indifferent. It wasn’t that she despised her mentor, in fact she rather liked the oddly cosy man, but in a way he was her guard in this curse that was her prison and his job was to make sure she didn’t misbehave and do something, rebellious. She couldn’t help but to have mixed feelings of gratitude and strong dislike towards him. Jessica kept her deep brown eyes upon the man as he walked towards her and came to a halt. She felt herself unable to look away. She held her gaze, almost hungrily. Once she had him in her sight it was hard to let go. It was always hard to resist the immediate instincts of hunting that she felt so intensely around this time.

The smell of the potion broke the trance. Even before he produced it in her view she could smell it and it sickened her even further. She felt her face turn paler, like she really was going to be sick. However, she was a stubborn fighter and silently, and with a stern hand, she took the potion. She held it between her fingers for a moment, contemplating the taste and the mixture. She really did appreciate what the school was doing for her, she really did. Professor Porter was skilled beyond belief and she had complete trust in his abilities to produce such fine potions for her, and yet she could not shake off the feeling of being subdued and confined. Jessica looked up for a brief moment, meeting the eyes of the professor again. She held the gaze for a second before she opened the vial and brought it to her lips. She tipped her head back and downed it. “Like a shot of tequila,” she thought momentarily to herself, remembering about her past endeavours. However the taste immediately brought her back and she felt her stomach turn. It was absolutely repulsive. Not an emotion passed over her features though. Even though the taste was not something you got used to she still, stubbornly, refused to let it faze her. She had tackled worse things.

Jessica leaned her head against the window again and closed her eyes for a brief moment. She was tired. In the background Professor Lovelace made tea. She knew he was making it solely for her for she had never seen him drink any himself. It was a quirky thing to do, but she supposed, it was also a rather considerate thing to do. He talked while he worked and it made her smile a little. Although she wasn’t very talkative herself she felt comfort in the fact that he always seemed to have something on his mind. She opened her eyes and watched him carefully. As he gestures towards the armchair she grudgingly agreed to leave her cool spot. Sitting close to the fire was not exactly what she wanted, as she felt like she was burning up, but she had never refused the man anything and good manners dictated that she was to sit down and enjoy this hot beverage.

Then, came the chitchat. Jessica brought her feet up and sat with them crossed to one side. “It was…” she hesitated for a moment while her brown eyes drifted towards the fire. “Just fine,” she finished. “How was yours?” she replied back. There was no rudeness or sarcasm in her voice. Although she wasn’t genuinely interested in how this or that day had been she had gotten used to his little small talk after the intake of the potion that it all came natural to her, this dance that they had waltzed so many times.

It had been an easy lie, a very convenient lie, and one that did not encourage further investigation. So, how had her day been? It had been, just fine. Just like any other day, really. She had started the day bright and early, as always, and hurried to eat breakfast. During breakfast someone had throw a toast with jam in her hair, which would make her smell sweetly, sickly, of strawberries all day. In fact if you securitized you could still see some of her hair sticking to each other with a sugary kind of glue. Then she made her way to class where a Slytherin boy tried to trip her. Because of her heightened senses she swiftly evaded his lame attempts and just as swiftly she’d flipped him off. Discretely. Then she had gone the whole day avoiding the revenge that would surely follow her cheeky action. Eventually she had been cornered but for some reason all the spells had missed her today and she sucker punched a guy in the face to make her exit. She had ended up hiding here, in this empty classroom. Yes, it had been a fine day.

The brunette nodded slightly at his remark about the flowers. She knew very well that he was the groundkeeper, but she also knew that the Professor Dunham was nuts about nature, and if memory served right she also remembered having seen Professor Ambrosia tend to the flowers in the gardens a few times. Jessica didn’t really have an opinion on flowers in that regard. They were pretty and all, and she understood that they needed to be cared for, but aside from that she had never really considered them. They were just a part of the background. She wasn’t quite sure what all the fuzz was about flowers. She had witnessed other girls who went crazy over just a rose. Her inability to understand this notion though might be because she had never experienced the gesture herself. Make no mistake, Jessica was rather romantic at heart, but she was also very pragmatic and realistically she saw no scenario where someone would give her flowers.

Jessica was brought back to the topic at hand and nodded again when he asked her about her classes. “Yes, Professor,” she said, almost mechanically. She didn’t have the energy or the desire to talk about just how hard she had to work in order to maintain an average grade. Potion making was the only subject she felt she thoroughly excelled in, and of course Care of Magical Creatures. That particular class seemed to come natural to her.

Jessica let her eyes wander about the room as the professor tended to the tea. Her thoughts returned to her dilemma and her lycanthropy. Where to start on such a delicate subject? Should she address it at all? Yes, she shouldn’t give up without a through try, and although she didn’t expect it to be ruled in her favour she knew she would still not take it lightly.

The sweet smell of tea brought her attention to the professor and she took the cup. It smelled very good. Her favourite had always been the classical Earl Grey but she did not have anything against trying something new. She was just about to take a sip when the sweet scent of honey connected with something in her brain. She quickly pulled her head back, as if the smell had repulsed her. She blinked a few times before the first genuine smile of the day cracked on her lips. “Professor, I can’t have anything sweet in this tea this time of the month. Sugar might, uhm, mess with the Wolfsbane,” she said as she handed him back the cup. She wasn’t angry at this little mistake; in fact it kind of amused her. He was always so ready to make it comfortable for her that he sometimes forgot the littlest of things. Like sugar. “I'll gladly take an unsweetened cup though,” she added tentatively as to not hurt the professor’s feelings.