I will almost definitely not set you on fire on Labyrinth Gardens

Professor Sophie O'Malley

September 02, 2017 4:34 PM

Adventure! [Beginners Potions - Years I and II] by Professor Sophie O'Malley

If she had twins again, she was gonna kill somebody.

All of the medical professionals Sophie had seen thus far in her pregnancy assured her that this was going to be a singleton, but she just felt so huge. As a rather tiny person in general, pregnancy exaggerated her body significantly, and while she was just now cusping on her third trimester, she already felt ginormous. Rolling might have been more effective than walking.

It was more of a waddle, really, with which moved, noting with some distress each time she entered her classroom that she had to keep her chair scooted much farther from her desk now and hoping no one noticed how difficult it was for her short arms to accomplish much. But they were not in her classroom today. It was the first lesson of the year, but she had sent notices to all her beginners that they would be meeting in the Gardens. Just in case anyone forgot - which was inevitable - she had signs posted on the locked classroom door, too, to direct them.

She waited in a clearing at the edge of the Gardens, checking her numbers after every few arrivals. “No worries,” she smiled to the last of the stragglers patiently. “We waited for you.” When she was certain she had as many Beginners as she was likely to get, she offered her introductions. “Welcome once again to Sonora, first years, and to my second years, welcome back. To those of you who don’t know, my name is Sophie O’Malley, and I’m your Potions professor.’ Even now, it felt weird to be on this side of the speech. She remembered her own first year at Sonora so freshly.

“I’m going to take attendance, so please answer when I call you. We’ll have to do this for the first few weeks while I get used to the new names and faces, so bear with me. Loren Aalto?” She proceeded alphabetically, all the way to Jennifer White, before she could continue. “Great. So what we’re here to do today is to talk about ingredients. Lots of the things you will be using in your potions can be found growing here, so we’re going to do a scavenger hunt to find them. First years, use your textbook as a resource on what things look like if you brought them, or else buddy up with a second year - I’d like you in pairs, anyway.” It was possible for them to have a faint familiarity with them anyway, if they had done the suggested reading that went out with their material supplies list, but it wasn’t explicitly mandatory. Likewise, she had recommended them not to bring their books with them because lugging them around was likely to be a chore.

“I have worksheets for you all up here. When you find one of the items on the list, I’d like you to try it in the box to the best of your ability. You don’t have to be a great artist, as long as I can tell what you were going for. Peyton, would you pass these out, please?” Sophie didn’t do it consciously, but there was a good chance the first year Crotalus would get volunteered quite a bit in this class. After all, that was her husband’s baby sister. It was crazy that she was old enough for school now, let alone that she was in Sophie’s own class, but she supposed that must’ve been how Alfie Pye had felt about his brother Barnaby when he was teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts.

“Take note that none of these things should be too far into the Labyrinth,” she added once the papers were out. “I know you’ve had some tours, but I really don’t want anyone to get lost. Bring me back your papers when you’ve finished, and come find me if you need anything. I will be…” she glanced around and, happily, found a nearby park bench. “Sitting out here. Or trying to, anyway. Go ahead and partner up, guys, and good luck!”

OOC: Welcome! Please be sure to follow all site rules in your posts, including standards on length (200 words at least), and to be as creative as possible. First years should know the OOC rules by now, but as a refresher, make sure you don’t godmod anyone else’s character (writing for them without their consent).

Your student is looking for:
Moly
Wiggentree (for the bark)
Dittany
Puffapod
Asphodel
And Moondew

Happy posting, everyone!

Subthreads:

I will almost definitely not set you on fire by Cleo James, Crotalus with Parker Fitzgerald, Pecari

But not the kind I spent half of this post thinking of. by Tatiana Vorontsova, Pecari with Madison Leifsson

Looking for a partner by Peyton O'Malley, Crotalus with Jennifer White, Aladren

Beginning the Hunt! by Gary Harper with Connor Priory,Crotalus

12 Professor Sophie O'Malley Adventure! [Beginners Potions - Years I and II] 34 Professor Sophie O'Malley 1 5

Cleo James, Crotalus

September 03, 2017 10:29 AM

I will almost definitely not set you on fire by Cleo James, Crotalus

Cleo wasn't sure what her professors had made of her during her first year. She wasn't a bad student by any means, and was certainly not intentionally disruptive. She did try hard with her spells, really, it was just she had this tendency to...well, make fire. Or make other things be on it.She really didn't mean to and honestly wished it would stop. A lot of her accidental magic as a younger child had involved setting things alight and it really scared her because she knew that it could seriously hurt someone, or worse. She had hoped that learning to get her magic under control would reduce her accidental arson. And, to a degree, it had. Now that she was using her magic on a daily basis she was less likely to have fits of accidental magic, but she was also sure that she held some kind of record for the number of times the staff had had to extinguish the projects of a first year student. This problem had contributed even further to herbology being her favourite subject, as she didn't have this problem there, in addition to the fact that it built on her love of gardening. Potions was Cleo's second best subject, as she was much less likely to set herself, her schoolwork or her classmates on fire, and her good knowledge of plants often came in handy. Today looked like one of the lessons where it would be very useful, as their class would be taking place in the gardens.

She listened carefully to Professor O'Malley directions. The only tricky bit was going to be drawing the plants well enough to earn the credit, but the professor assured them artistic ability was not key. It seemed like the plants all looked pretty different from each other, as she could mentally picture most things on the list, and there was always labelling if she couldn't make it super clear. On the whole, Cleo was optimistic about this class... She would actually be good at it, and a useful partner, and very unlikely to set anything alight.

Happily, she was also able to avoid Jen when it came to choosing partners. Jen had knocked Cleo over during their first flying class - an accident that would have easily been forgiven if Jen had apologised but she had only tried to make excuses instead, and the two of them had steadily rubbed each other up the wrong way ever since. It was a new thing for Cleo, being disliked.Between her halo of short blonde hair and her sweet facial features, Cleo was rather an angelic looking child. She was neither a social butterfly nor a wall flower but, whatever people said, they did tend to be swayed by a pretty face, meaning that most people tended to regard her favourably, even if their interactions were more or less neutral.

"Hi there," she addressed the nearest non-Jen shaped person. "Would you like to work together? I think I know most of these," she added, a warm smile reducing any boastfulness that that comment might have seemed to contain. She just wanted to mention it in case the person in question regarded competency as an important factor in partner selection.

13 Cleo James, Crotalus I will almost definitely not set you on fire 389 Cleo James, Crotalus 0 5

Parker Fitzgerald, Pecari

September 04, 2017 7:50 AM

Thats...comforting. by Parker Fitzgerald, Pecari

Parker was still a bit confused about classes. What would he actually be learning? He understood the words for the classes, but was unsure of what they entailed. Would they just be teachers speaking at him like in his last school? And how would these classes help him channel his magic so he wouldn't blow out lights again.
When he saw that the first class for potions was in the Gardens and that he wouldn't have to drag that big book with him, Parker let out a whoop.

Anything done outside has got to be good. Parker thought. Plus, from the bits of the book he had skimmed through, it seemed like Potions might actually be something he'd enjoy, using plants to make things.

Though some plants seemed... odd, even from someone who grew up outside like him. There was something in a book he found in the library called Devil's Snare which seemed to attack people, and in one of his text books there was talk of a plant that cried so loud to had to wear earmuffs. To say he was interested and a bit worried in seeing what was going to happen in this Potions class was an understatement.

Upon hearing Professors O'Malley's directions Parker's heart sank a bit. He hadn't brought his book with him, so he wasn't sure what he would be looking for. He also wasn't sure if he was going to be a good partner to someone who was a second year and more experienced in all of this magic school stuff. He looked down at the sheet when it was handed to him and seeing if he recognized any of the names.

When a young woman, who was most definitely not at the first year gathering, asked if he wanted to be partners he looked around behind him to make sure she wasn't talking to someone else. Upon realizing she as talking to him he stood up a bit straighter and instinctively ran his hand through his hair, even though it would never tidy it up.

"Umm sure. That sounds great. I'll do my best to help you," Parker said. Parker thought of how he could help for a second, "If you give me descriptions I'll help you find what we're looking for. I was pretty good at finding plants back home from just the stories I was told about em."

This wasn't untrue.

Often William would tell him a story about a certain plant and ask Parker to bring it with him when he came around next. More often than not, Parker would find the plant and bring a leaf or berry from it for William the next time he went with his mom on her rounds. Parker remembered the reactions of others he had already talked to here though and decided he didn't need to bring up his lack of experience with the magical variety of plants as many seemed to think that changed him in some way.

He held out the hand that didn't have the paper in it.
"My name's Parker by the way, it's nice to meet you."

41 Parker Fitzgerald, Pecari Thats...comforting. 1402 Parker Fitzgerald, Pecari 0 5

Tatiana Vorontsova, Pecari

September 05, 2017 10:02 PM

But not the kind I spent half of this post thinking of. by Tatiana Vorontsova, Pecari

Tatiana loved being outdoors. At home, she could climb higher in the trees than anyone but Grisha, enjoyed long walks more than anyone did, and could play tennis even with Papa. She couldn’t win yet, of course, unless he let her do so, but she could play. She had been thrilled to hear that Sonora had a herbology class, as this meant she wouldn’t have to spend all of the horribly long class hours (why did they need so many hours for a few lessons? She had much more freedom at home, and Anton Petrovich was hardly an easy teacher) cooped up indoors. Therefore, the Potions teacher’s message, when Tatiana finished deciphering it, was most welcome and she donned her hat and gloves (dragonskin rather than the dainty cotton ones she’d wear just to go outside, but made to look as elegant as Mama’s glovemaker could manage) with good cheer even though the very nature of Potions meant leaving all her rings and bracelets locked up tight inside her jewelry box and only wearing earrings and a necklace.

She selected her Byzantine chain again for the latter - it was a thin, light one, and only gilded silver, but nobody could tell it wasn’t solid gold at a glance and it therefore made a good impression and wasn’t quite as boring as a simple strand of pearls - but passed up her diamond everyday earrings. Those were also usually good for making the right impression, but with her hat - and she wouldn’t think of going outdoors without a hat, Mama insisted it would ruin their complexions and would listen to nothing Sofiya had to say about how sunbathing was all the rage among her friends at school - she was afraid they would quite vanish into the shadows of her brown hair and make no impression at all. To avoid that, she replaced them with her square dark blue topazes, each surrounded in a tiny, wavy-edged frame of accent diamonds, figuring these stood the best chance of her earrings of standing out even if they were not her most valuable pair.

Papa and Mama could not understand Tatiana’s taste in stones. Papa even chided her sometimes, saying that people would think he was in financial distress if they saw his daughter wearing blue topazes for sapphires and pale aquamarines for diamonds. The problem - besides the fact that Mama wouldn’t hear of her bringing all the jewelry with her and had specifically excluded the most valuable pieces - was, Tatiana just found the most valuable stones, with the exception of the very good sort of diamonds she would probably never own until she was married and her husband gave them to her, a bit...boring. The topazes in her earrings were simultaneously darker and yet more clearly blue than her blue sapphires, with hints of interesting sorts of grey and green to them that she thought brought out the color of her eyes, and she had others that were in two other shades of blue, and she adored aquamarines because of how the light could play with them - at first glance they could be mistaken for diamonds, but then they radiated all sorts of pretty colors from the inside while glowing that pale blue-green color around the edges. She did, admittedly, love her set of yellow sapphires, but that was just because she loved the color yellow in general. Mama often commented how Tatiana would look pretty in rubies when she was old enough for them, but Tatiana did not like them - or red stones in general, really - very much, though Anya had given her a pair of garnet earrings that one of their aunts had given Anya because Tatiana had loved them while Anya had thought they were a bit gaudy.

Today, though, she was wearing her dark blue topazes, and she made sure to pin the front of her hair back quite tightly and tuck it all behind her ears to make sure they had the best chance of being seen despite her thick, slightly curling hair and green hat as she joined the rest of the class in the gardens. She bowed slightly to the professor once she found her, trying to hide her surprise that a woman so obviously in the family way was out in public and standing up (when Mama had been very big with Alexei, she had stopped having social engagements with anyone but close family and had spent almost all her time lying down on sofas because she was exhausted all the time and the doctor had said her blood had gone thin, so Tatiana assumed this was what all pregnant ladies did), and then walked over to stand near her classmates, though she still did not really feel as though she was with them.

She made a slight face when she heard her name called Tatiana Vorontsov - it just sounded so peculiar! And it was instinctual to regard it as rude that she was not called ‘Tatiana Andreyevna’, but she had to remind herself that the professors here did not know the right way to do things, and then her head was tired - but replied “Here am I!” when Professor O’Malley said it. Then came the really tricky part: listening to the lecture. Most of it was simple enough, but she had no idea what a scavenger hunt was. Hunting was going out and killing things, or catching them somehow, but generally killing them. Were they going to kill things in the gardens to make ingredients? Tatiana wished Professor O’Malley had said so beforehand, because she was not really dressed for that - she’d need riding boots, and she did not want to get blood on her gloves or her necklace. Blood made horrible stains that were hard to get out and she was afraid it might eat away at the gilt on her necklace. Maybe they would learn a spell to kill things without much of a mess? Tatiana supposed that would make hunting a little better; she loved all the excitement when Papa and whatever company of other grown-ups he was in at that time went out hunting, but didn’t much like seeing things all dead and bloody when they came back. Though there really wasn’t anything to be done for the ‘dead’ bit, she supposed. And what was ‘buddy up’ - was that a verb….?

Now the professor was talking about not being an artist, and a worksheet. So they were to draw the things after they killed them? Why would they not just send out servants, or elves, or whatever to bring them back in game bags? This would be simpler, though Anton Petrovich did say it was important to learn to draw very precisely so she could study runes when she was older. Maybe that was why they had to draw the things after they killed them, and then servants would attend to the carcasses later.

Once she had a sheet, she thought her way through the sounds the English letters on the page made silently and then frowned at the sheet. Why, they weren’t hunting at all, they were going out on what Anton Petrovich called a horticultural expedition, at least unless she was reading this all wrong. She turned to another student to see if they could make this clear for her.

“Hello,” she said. “These - all they are plants, yes?” she asked, pointing to the sheet. “We are not hunting?”

OOC: For those who have not spent a lot of time poring over information about things that sparkle and shine, Tatiana's earrings feature London Blue topazes and her necklace is a thin Byzantine chain and you may see descriptions of those things at the links embedded there.

16 Tatiana Vorontsova, Pecari But not the kind I spent half of this post thinking of. 1396 Tatiana Vorontsova, Pecari 0 5

Madison Leifsson

September 08, 2017 3:58 PM

There are many kinds. by Madison Leifsson

Madison absolutely loathed classes. She didn’t really see the point of having to attend any when she already knew what she planned on being. She was going to be a world class soccer star, even better than Alex. However, there were small moments, like when they got to have class outdoors, that Madison was willing to forgive her parents for having made her come here. She took in a deep breath of the air, smelling of fresh cut grass and fragrant flowers. If she could have all of her classes outdoors, then she really wouldn’t have minded at all. It was like a surge of energy when she was outside, awakening each of her senses. Indoors just served to make her simultaneously tired and restless.

Joining her fellow classmates, Madison shifted from foot to foot, waiting for her name to be called. “Here!” She exclaimed when she heard her name. Once they were allowed to break off into groups, Madison looked around for her sister, Alex. It was always easiest to look for her twin when it came to group work. It was like having a built in partner. She didn’t have to question whether or not Alex would work with her and for another Alex usually got the answers right. Madison probably wouldn’t have to really do anything more than draw the plants that they were finding. It wasn’t that Madison couldn’t have done well in school, but a large issue was that she didn’t apply herself, a constant fact that her parents argued. She would never admit so, but why should she? Alex always did everything better so what was the point? The only thing she had a real chance in was soccer.

Spotting Alex, Madison frowned. She was already working with someone else. What was she going to do now? She had been counting on working with her sister. She hated when she had to try and find someone to work with. She always felt like no one liked her. She wasn’t the ‘bubbly one,’ the one that had been sorted into Teppenpaw. No, she had ended up in Pecari, a house known for being adventurous. She would hardly call herself adventurous. Perhaps, fearless was a better term. She wasn’t afraid of anything, never had been. When they were younger, Madison had climbed the tallest tree in their yard while all of other kids had watched in awe. It had been amazing when she had made it nearly to the top, but not so much so when she had fallen and broken her left leg, which had resulted in an unsightly scar. It was the reason that anytime that she wore shorts, skirts, or dresses, anything that showed off her legs, she made sure to wear socks that reached her knees, better if they went higher.

Not wanting to end up as the last picked student as usually that was the student that ended up with the kid that no one wanted to work with, Madison was relieved when the girl next to her turned and asked a question. She wasn’t Madison’s first pick as she seemed to be one of those girls, the kind that seemed to care more about being proper. After all, who wore such earrings to a class? However, she was a better option than some and she was in Madison’s House, so she couldn’t be all that horrific, could she? Deciding to brave it, she replied, slightly confused, “We’re hunting plants. The ones that are on the list?”

“We better get started.” Madison started walking towards the trees, hoping to find some of the plants. She wasn’t too bad at finding things. She probably would have made a decent seeker. She looked around a bit, studying each before she was confident to say, “I think we found a Wiggentree.” She drew a sketch of the bark onto her sheet. “I don’t really know much about it other than what it looks like.”

0 Madison Leifsson There are many kinds. 390 Madison Leifsson 0 5

Tatiana

September 12, 2017 11:17 PM

You have a point there. by Tatiana

Of course. Tatiana knew that expression. The girl thought Tatiana was stupid. Tatiana could feel herself flushing just a bit.

“I apologize,” said Tatiana stiffly. “I thought – animals were - for hunt. Not – these.” Her embarrassment deprived her of her vocabulary; she knew more words, more precise ones, but they were slipping from her grasp like water between her fingers, hovering at the edge of her mind and dancing about just to mock her, calling a syllable out here and there but never enough for her to try to say anything – she knew she’d end up spouting nonsense instead of the words she thought she was saying. Speaking was the hardest skill, harder even than remembering the sounds each letter made to write in English. Teachers were easy enough to understand, as they were speaking specifically to communicate things to people who knew less than they did, and she had learned enough formal phrases for communicating with teachers in dealing with Anton Petrovich that she imagined she could carry on most necessary conversations with the professors, but conversing with other children was more difficult.

We better get started. Better. It was better to acquire a beginning. That seemed like a peculiar construction of language to Tatiana, but it was understandable enough, and beginning this task was something she thought she could do. Sounding out words in her head, she thought she might know a few items. Their names were different in Russian, but she and Anton Petrovich had spent the whole last month poring over her new textbooks, the tutor cramming as many technical terms into her head as he could and explaining some concepts in Russian for her and compiling a file of references to help her later. He was still in the family's service, of course, teaching Katya now, and so she could write to him at need, but it would take a day or so for information to get back to her and it was better to have as much as she could at her fingertips ahead of time.

“They has - khraniteli,” warned Tatiana when the other girl said she did not know about the tree. “Don’t touch without – windows over your eyes.” She didn’t know how to describe the sort of protective equipment their old gardener Fyedka wore to collect from trees guardians lived in, but she knew it was important. She and the other children weren’t allowed near those trees and knew well to heed the warning; Tatiana had ignored it once and had a mark on her arm to show for it to this day, and Fyedka and Mama, far from showing her any sympathy, had both scolded her as roughly as she had ever been scolded in her life for her stupidity, telling her how it could have been her eye had she not had the luck to have still had a tennis racket in her hand when she decided to prove she was the bravest of her siblings even while doctoring the numerous scratches she’d acquired.

16 Tatiana You have a point there. 1396 Tatiana 0 5

Cleo

September 15, 2017 12:31 AM

It's what people look for in a partner, right? by Cleo

"Sounds good," Cleo smiled, as Parker tried to think of how he could help. She was glad to pair up with a first year. After all, Professor O'Malley had expressed a preference for them doing that, and it didn't hurt to be in a teacher's good books in case she forgot her homework or caused an explosion. Plus he didn't know her as an accidental pyromaniac. It was good to have a fresh chance at first impressions. "Two pairs of eyes are better than one, right?" Even though she knew the gardens well, and knew her potions plants, she didn't tend to keep her eyes open for them when walking around. She liked gardening, rather than plant spotting, and tended to spend her free time in the vegetable patch or the green houses.

"I'm Cleo," she replied, "Nice to meet you too.

"Ok..." she ran her eyes over the list again, trying to think how to describe things or break down the task to include Parker. It wasn't a position she was used to being in - the older role model. Cleo was an only child of an only child. There were no siblings or cousins for her to play with at home, and even at school, it wasn't a role she'd adopted frequently. People had tended to baby her a little, either pandering to her choices or wanting to pet and look after her. When they played house, she was always the little one, or the baby. The mummies in class would brush her pretty blonde hair, or cuddle and shh her. "So... Moly is a flower, and so are asphodel and moondew," she explained, deciding to break the plants down into their broader groups first. "Dittany is a herb, Puffapods are the seeds of a flowering plant, and Wiggentree is actually, like it sounds, a tree. Moly is white, or can be blue... Wait, so is asphodel - white, I mean. And Moondew," she frowned, trying to decide whether it was mean of Professor O'Malley to give them such similar looking plants, or whether it made things easier in a way. "So, I guess, step one is keep your eyes open for white flowers... Puffapods have seeds inside that flower when they're touched, so I would guess that they're the most likely to grow by the edges of the path, or even out onto it - if they dispel their seeds into areas where they're likely to get touched, it speeds up their growth cycle," she explained. "The pods are pink. I reckon dittany will be in the herb garden, so you don't need to worry about that, any maybe we can do the wiggentree after as well, because we'll be having to keep our eyes to the ground for all the flowering plants?" she suggested, not wanting to overload Parker with too many descriptions all at once.

"You spent a lot of time outside back home?" she asked, in reference to his comment about finding plants.

OOC - sorry this took me so long! I needed to look up all the plants on the wiki, so I wasn't able to write it whilst offline, and didn't have much other types of writing time.

13 Cleo It's what people look for in a partner, right? 389 Cleo 0 5

Parker

September 15, 2017 10:04 AM

Very true...partner by Parker

Cleo seemed nice enough and whenever she smiled Parker became a bit heated.

It could just be this cloak I have to wear. Parker thought, knowing it wasn't, or at least not entirely.

Cleo listed off a bunch of information about the different flowers and pods and trees. She even gave him a game plan, which was comforting as he had no idea if some of these were in a specific place in the garden. Oh My O'Malley seemed not too concerned so Parker was sure their wandering would be safe.

Following Cleo's game plan they would have to look for two possibly three white flowers and something that was a Puffapod first. A pink pod. Cleo also seemed to know where to find one of the plants for sure. The other was a tree, which made sense due to it's name. Though it could have just as easily not been a tree for all Parker knew, so he was glad that Cleo didn't seem condescending when she mentioned the fact.

"Got it, white flowers first. I am assume they are with different petal formations, possibly different stems as well as stamen and pistol positions? Actually, I don't know if that's how magical flowers reproduce. So just look for white flowers with different petals and steams. Got it." Parker said more to himself than to Cleo. He found that he often talked through his thoughts. Sometimes when he was talking, he wasn't quite sure where he was going till he got there, and often had to look back over his comments to see where he'd been too. But thinking back over these comments, it all made sense.

Parker started looking around them for white flowers of any sort.

"I did," Parker responded to Cleo keeping his eyes on the ground. He wanted to add something to their team of two, and it obviously wasn't going to be the brains, so he might as well give them the eyes.

"It helped me in keeping away from my older brother. That and I enjoyed climbing trees, picking plants, tracking animals till I lost their tracks." Parker paused to examine something on the ground, but ignored it as it seemed to move, and kept talking.

"Plus, this old Indian man used to give me tasks to find different plants in the mountains near where I lived. The kind of plants that didn't grow in my mother's garden. Did you spend a lot of time outside before...?" Parker looked up briefly and waved his hands around in circles. He hoped Cleo would understand he meant the school, but he had forgotten it's name suddenly.

He wasn't a good student per say, but when his mind was focused on one task, it sometimes was difficult to remember other things for him. Especially newer things like names.

He turned his eyes back to the path and stopped. Parker pointed to something white. Well to be honest it was black and white. White petals with a black stem. It looked a bit scary to him. Something he might see in a comic book being held by a villain.

"Is that one of the white flowers we need?"

OOC - No worries, I'd have no idea where to even begin to look. So I guess this is a good character for me to use as I learn these things.

41 Parker Very true...partner 1402 Parker 0 5

Cleo

September 18, 2017 3:48 AM

Off we go! by Cleo

“Wow, you really know your stuff,” she grinned, when Parker talked about how they might be able to differentiate the white flowers. Some of the terms he rattled off she had struggled with a little in her first year. Cleo was a very practical gardener - she knew what was a weed, and how to pull it out, she knew what vegetables they should plant at each time of the year, and how to check they were ready. The Latin names and biological workings of plants were things she was getting to grips with via classes. “You’ll be great at Herbology - it’s all about plants. That’s my favourite class. Professor Xavier, who takes it, is super nice too. He lets me help out with things in the gardens, and he’s helping me to plan my gardening club. Oh, I guess you met him at orientation?” she added.

“That sounds cool,” she nodded, when he talked about climbing trees and tracking and his Indian friend. “Why did you need to keep away from your brother? Is he not very nice?” she asked.

“Yes,” she nodded, when he asked if she’d spent a lot of time outside before, “Daddy and me have an allotment where we grow lots of vegetables. We’re up there every Sunday, and sometimes evenings in summer when they’re nice and long.

“That’s Moondew. Well spotted!” she grinned, when he pointed out the small white flowers. As for how it differed to the others on the list, she thought that would become more apparent as they looked for the different flowers, and Parker could compare for himself, and put it into his notes. He seemed to be doing ok so far from the directions given.

OOC - there were links from Professor O’Malley’s post to each plant’s entry on the HP wiki. Often staff will link resources if there are any that go with the lesson, or the HP wiki is a good place to start searching.

13 Cleo Off we go! 389 Cleo 0 5

Peyton O'Malley, Crotalus

September 20, 2017 5:09 PM

Looking for a partner by Peyton O'Malley, Crotalus

Potions was a class that Peyton was sort of looking forward to, because her sister-in-law Sophie was the teacher. Having a familiar face around was tremendously comforting. Okay, though the Crotalus decidedly hated change, she'd never been particularly bothered about going to Sonora, knowing full well that going off to boarding school was a normal milestone in the life of any young witch or wizard but she was still glad to have Sophie, Ivy and Vlad with her. And to have made friends with Jasmine right off the bat.

Besides, she was going to be able to help Sophie with anything she needed with the new baby coming soon.The farther along her sister-in-law got, the more Peyton marveled at her ability to stand upright. She couldn't help but be kind of concerned even though she knew Sophie was tough and as far as she knew, the baby was perfectly healthy and normal.

She stood and listened to her sister-in-law give the instructions. They sounded...all right. Well, the scavenger hunt did, it could be fun. Though it was implied she should work with a second year which left out Vlad or Jasmine, she could obviously pair with Ivy.

Apparently, Sophie also had the idea of having Peyton help her though. The first year moved to take the worksheets and passed them out to all her classmates. Of course, this left her standing in a different place when she was done instead of next to Ivy as she had been initially.

She started over towards her cousin but before she could, the Crotalus noted that the older girl had found another partner. Her face fell, disappointed as Ivy sent her an apologetic look.

Now she was stuck. At least, though there were more second years than first years. Just so long as she didn't end up the one left over!

Peyton was looking around for a second year, when someone approached her.

11 Peyton O'Malley, Crotalus Looking for a partner 1403 Peyton O'Malley, Crotalus 0 5

Parker

September 24, 2017 11:59 AM

Indeed! by Parker

"So that's what Professor X teaches," Parker responded to Cleo before he realized he was using the nickname in his head. He'd have to watch that in the future, especially in the Herbology class. "Gardening Club sounds interesting. I'm sure it would be a bit different with magical gardens", Parker said before thinking of something else. "If there are already gardens here on campus, why hasn't there been a Gardening Club before?"

When Cleo asked about his brother he hesitated. "My brother can be," Parker paused trying think of the best way to say it without being mean cause it was still his brother. "My brother can be moody at times, and very pushy at others." Parker didn't want to talk about his brother, so he tried to change the subject.
"Do you have any brothers or sisters?"

The way Cleo talked about the allotment it sounded quite nice, he wanted to picture it in his minds eye better.
"That sounds nice. Where is the allotment?" Parker asked, immediately realizing his question might be misinterpreted. "I mean, where does your dad live?"

Parker saw her grin as he pointed to what was Moondew, and immediately moved his eyes away. He could feel his cheeks getting a bit red. Instead he pulled out his worksheet.

"You don't happen to be starting an Art Club too would you?" He asked smiling and looking at his paper, knowing that drawing was not in his list of talents, but also hoping that he might be able to at least make her laugh.

41 Parker Indeed! 1402 Parker 0 5

Cleo

September 24, 2017 9:59 PM

One down... by Cleo

Although Cleo had grown up with one foot in the Muggle world, she wasn’t much of a comics girl, so Parker’s nickname for their professor didn’t strike her as humorous. She simply assumed he was shortening it, which seemed fair to her given the number of new names he was having to deal with, and the fact that sticking ‘Professor’ on the front of everything made it a right mouthful. At her old school, she’d been used to calling teachers ‘Ms’ or ‘Sir’ and it had been hard to break that habit and swap it for a three syllable effort when she’d first arrived.

“Clubs are just set up and run by the students. So, it just depends what the current students are interested in,” she answered, regarding why there wasn’t already a gardening club.

“That doesn’t sound like fun,” she sympathised, when he spoke about his brother. He didn’t seem to want to go into detail though, which she could understand if his brother wasn’t very nice. “No. It’s just me and my daddy,” she answered, when he asked about her siblings. She didn’t always feel like explaining her lack of a mother with new people, especially as it was hard for them to understand. People were more used to fathers being the absent parent. But Parker had shared, and he seemed like he wasn’t going to judge. “My parents weren’t together when my mom had me, and then she couldn’t look after me,” she explained, giving the situation to the best of her knowledge. That was what her dad had always implied, anyway. The truthful version was perhaps closer to ‘decided she didn’t want to,’ but Cleo’s father had always felt that was too hurtful a thing to tell her. No one wanted to be unwanted, especially by their own mother. “I don’t know much about her.

“We live in Colorado. A small town, no one’s ever heard of it. You?

“I would so not be qualified,” Cleo laughed when he joked her about running an art club. "And actually, there is one already," she added. She knew he'd been joking, but he was probably interested to know what extra activities there were too. "But we can totally crack this. How about we think of it as a diagram instead of a drawing? You’re super observant about plants. Look… there’s pointed petals, in clusters of three…” she began slowly and carefully to draw them on her own sheet. “Even if it doesn’t look artistic or realistic, you’ll get all the key features down, Professor O’Malley will know what it is… It’s more important that it’s accurate than pretty for this task, right?”

13 Cleo One down... 389 Cleo 0 5

Jennifer White, Aladren

September 26, 2017 3:05 PM

Sure, I guess by Jennifer White, Aladren

Second year was so far only better than first year in that Jen had her board with her at school. She hadn’t used it yet because they’d barely been back, but she had it, and that was the main thing. Also she wasn’t the youngest any more, which she guessed was kind of something, but nobody seemed to expect the second years to know a great deal more than the first years - they even had classes together, so really even the staff thought that, apparently. Okay, the classes would be teeny if they didn’t combine yeargroups, so it was probably just a logistics thing, but her point was still valid.

Last year Jen had learned to like Professor O’Malley, by which she meant that she found the professor tolerable. She always began school with an automatic dislike and mistrust of all the staff members, that way they didn’t disappoint her. She had similar expectations of her classmates. At Sonora, however, Jen would confess to being, for the most part, pleasantly surprised on both counts. She didn’t hate any of her professors, and she only really hated Cleo, and that was just because the other girl was determined to be a pain in Jen’s ass. Whatever, O’Malley was cool, most of the time, but she was, right now, alarmingly pregnant. Like drop a baby any second pregnant, and okay Jen didn’t think it literally worked like that, but she was not okay with finding out. A scavenger hunt where she could legitimately scarper sounded like the best plan anyone’d had all day.

Unfortunately she had been called ‘Jennifer’ at the start of the class, which wasn’t going to improve her mood any, and she was expected to partner up with a first year, which was so unjust. She didn’t support partner work at the best of times, but when she had to carry the weight of some tiny brand new first year, too, it was severely unpalatable. She hung back a bit, partly out of habit, partly because she didn’t even know any of the first years, but she could bet the first ones to partner up would be the over-eager, annoyingly enthusiastic types. Within moments groups seemed to be forming as Jen watched with mild disinterest.

From behind black, rectangular-framed lenses, Jen spotted the girl who had handed out the sheets. The Professor had asked for her by name, and there was definitely another 'O'Malley' read out on the register just now. It didn't take a genius to add those details up and conclude there was some kind of relationship there. Jen understood that there was a reasonable amount of family and student loyalty to the school, so previous students sent their kids there, or some came back to teach, and stuff like that, so it happened a fair amount that staff knew the students even when they’d just started. Whatever, the other kids was currently partnerless, so even though she was reluctant to be pairing up with the obvious choice for teacher's pet, Jen slunk over, the torn hems of her wide-legged jeans scuffing along the ground.

“Hey, I’m Jen, I’m in second year,” she sighed resignedly. “We can work together on this if you want?”

0 Jennifer White, Aladren Sure, I guess 388 Jennifer White, Aladren 0 5

Parker

September 27, 2017 5:44 AM

A hundreds of plants to go by Parker

Clubs are set up and run by the students. This sentence made Parker think of all the things that interested him and what kind of club he would make.

“Well it sounds like your dad’s a great guy,” Parker responded after she briefly talk about her mother. He never knew how to respond to friends who didn't have a parent in their life, so he had begun to try to focus on the parent most in the picture. Parker decided this might be a good course of action as she was starting a club based off a father-daughter activity, and especially because she seemed to not want to talk about her mother much. Parker hadn’t wanted to talk much about his brother, so it seemed like a fair trade.

When she mentioned she lived in Colorado Parker’s ears perked up. “Colorado? In the mountains or flatter area?” he asked a bit too excitedly. “I’ve heard Colorado is beautiful and seen it on TV, but I’d love to hear more about it.”

Parker had been told about Colorado from both his parents, and always thought of it as similar to where he lived in Nevada, but cooler, and more fun.

Parker nodded to Cleo’s comment about more accurate than pretty, and followed Cleo’s lead and began to draw the flower that he saw. Pointed petals, clusters of three. Black steam. He looked in to see what the inside parts of the flower might look like.

“It kind of looks like a daisy in the center there. I wonder if those turn into seeds…” Parker trailed off continuing to draw as best he could what he was seeing. He even tried to add a bit of dirt at the bottom of the stem going into the ground then stopped.

“We don’t need to draw the roots as well do we? I don’t remember any instructions about them, but you have more experience with how the teachers might want it done," he paused a bit and then added slowly, "Or we could try to find the next white flower on our list."

41 Parker A hundreds of plants to go 1402 Parker 0 5

Gary Harper

October 10, 2017 8:56 PM

Beginning the Hunt! by Gary Harper

Gary eyed up the labyrinth, as he arrived to the garden for class. He still wasn't sure about this place, there had to be more to the Labyrinth then the wizards were letting on. Sometime he'd get the time to explore it fully, but today he had Potions class. Despite what the professor had recommended, he had brought his books and notebooks with him. You should never be unprepared. They were going to be learning how to mix potions, at least that is what he assumed based on the information he could get about the class, and he would most likely need to take copious notes.

Initially he had wondered what potion they would be starting with. The standard Cure Light Wounds would make sense, it's a good one to have around in case of trouble. There was sure to be all sorts of trouble with a bunch of kids trying to learn how to throw magic around. Having everyone knowledgeable about making a cure potion would just be common sense, right? According to most of the source books he'd read however, knowing how to cast any given spell is a prerequisite to being able to make a potion out of it. However, he was well aware that the real world may not actually work like his books. There was always a chance though, that the game writers had some actual wizards giving some level of input. If the magical world ever needed to be revealed to the world as a whole, it wouldn't be a bad start to indoctrinate the non-wizards to the idea. After all, he and Dad had accepted the idea easily enough.

Gary's thoughts about actually learning how to mix potions today dwindled after he had found the professor and looked around the garden a bit. There was nothing else here. It wasn't long before the last of the students had arrived and Professor O'Malley began speaking. He answered when his name was called, and almost smacked himself in the forehead. Of course, you can't mix potions without ingredients. That oversight was going to cost him, he'd have to step up his game a bit to make up for lost ground. He took a worksheet when Peyton handed it to him and glanced over it. He recognized a few of the names from the textbook, but couldn't recall any details. Good thing he had brought his book along. Professor O'Malley had said she'd like everyone to work in pairs though, so he'd better find someone to work with. Ugh... social stuff.

The other students were beginning to mill about, and he'd only talked to two or three of them so far. Those had all been first years, now he was supposed to find a second year to team up with. Again, that made sense, they probably already knew all about these plants and would make finding them much easier. They also might know more about the Labyrinth... How to choose one though? Randomly pick one and say, 'Hi I'm Gary, wanna find some plants together?' Eh, why not? He took a quick head count of slightly older looking students that he didn't know and weren't already teamed up with someone. Then he took an appropriately size die from his pocket and shook it in his hand. When revealed, it showed the number 3. So he gathered up what reserves of social courage he could muster, walked over to Student #3, tapped them on the shoulder and said "Hi, I'm Gary, wanna find some plants together?"

2 Gary Harper Beginning the Hunt! 1404 Gary Harper 0 5

Peyton

October 11, 2017 6:45 PM

Your enthusiasm is overwhelming by Peyton

Although the second year girl had addressed Peyton, she didn't seem too enthusiastic to work with her. The Crotalus hoped it wasn't a bad sign. She really didn't want to meet anyone mean or make any enemies. She was off to a rather decent start at Sonora and wanted to keep it that way.

And on the plus side, it wasn't Eden who'd approached her. Not that the first year thought her cousin's roommate-at the moment, she preferred to think of the other girl as Ivy's roommate and not the other things she was-would be mean as Ivy would have said so and Eden was a Teppenpaw anyway which meant she wasn't mean, but Peyton was nervous about it and wanted at the very least her cousin there as a buffer. Possibly with Vlad or Jasmine too. Meeting her in class like this would have been akin to throwing someone in the deep end of a pool when teaching them to swim.

Still, she didn't have to do that right now." Um,okay. Nice to meet you Jen." Peyton replied. "I'm Peyton." She added, just in case the older girl had missed that on both the roll call and when Sophie had explicity addressed her by name. She decided to forgo the formal introduction as Jen hadn't used it. That probably meant she wasn't the society type and might think Peyton odd for using it, even though Jen was a second year and had probably heard people using it last year regardless of her own background.

"So, which way should we go?" The Crotalus asked. Just because she had ties to the school didn't mean she knew the paths very well and she didn't especially want to get lost. Maybe that was why they were supposed to work with older students. Then again, she also didn't know for sure that Jen was the type to go explore the paths. Peyton really wasn't herself, not even so much because it was something she hated, but because she was just more inclined towards other things. Maybe if she could go with her cousins or Jasmine. Her friend had after said she wanted to go sit out in the gardens.

11 Peyton Your enthusiasm is overwhelming 1403 Peyton 0 5

Connor Priory,Crotalus

October 17, 2017 7:07 PM

Joining you. by Connor Priory,Crotalus

Connor was really excited to be back at school. He felt a lot more...relaxed about it this year if being both excited and relaxed at the same time made any sense. Which he wasn't sure it did. However, the fact that he had gone to school last year without any catastrophe befalling his family in his absence made him feel like he could worry less now. In turn that meant he could go and focus better on things at school with regards to making friends and stuff.

Of course, now that he was in Potions class, Connor was looking at Professor O'Malley's very pregnant form and worrying that she was going to tip over. His mom hadn't looked like that when she was pregnant but it had been hard on her because she had terrible back problems normally. He couldn't imagine that his professor wasn't having them now though. She looked kind of uncomfortable.

If there was any way he could help her, he would, but she asked a girl named Peyton who was apparently some kind of relative judging by the fact that they had the same last name to hand out the sheets instead. Connor accepted one from the first year and thanked her.

The lesson sounded really fun though drawing wasn't his best skill. Actually, truth be told, Connor wasn't all that artistically talented. Still,when one of the first years approached him, he gave the younger boy a big friendly smile. The Crotalus really did want to help the new first years to feel comfortable and welcome at Sonora. "Sure." Connor agreed. "I'm Connor Priory, of the Wisconsin Priorys. Nice to meet you, Gary."

11 Connor Priory,Crotalus Joining you. 395 Connor Priory,Crotalus 0 5

Jen

October 23, 2017 5:55 AM

You noticed, huh by Jen

Peyton agreed to work together and even said it was nice to meet Jen, which was definitely one of those polite platitudes you were supposed to offer. It didn’t make much sense, because unless you just wanted to meet everyone then you couldn’t possibly asses how nice it was to meet a person just when you met them. Like, if ‘nice to meet you’ if the first sentence that passes between you, there is obviously no truth in it. But Jen knew that wasn’t Peyton’s fault. She was just trying to be friendly or whatever. So Jen just nodded to acknowledge the younger girl’s name, and peered down at their worksheet.

Peyton asked which way to go, reminding Jen why she didn’t like partner work - all her decisions and thoughts and ideas had to be laid out for someone else’s scrutiny and approval. Luckily, she did have an idea about where to find one item on the list. “We can head that way to find Wiggentrees,” she nodded her head in the direction of the path, as well as pointing with her left hand, holding the worksheet out as a directional flag. “Maybe asphodel as well,” she thought aloud, then shrugged, slightly displacing her backpack, which was slung over one shoulder. She pulled on the other shoulder, too, balancing the weight of her dusty, purple-and-black check bag evenly over her back.

“You know what these things all look like?” she asked Peyton, brushing some of her short, mousey-brown hair behind her ear, circumnavigating the black frames of her rectangular glasses. Peyton’s level of knowledge didn’t matter for the assignment, because Jen thought she could find all the things on their worksheet - she liked herbology, as well as recognising the ingredients from her potions supplies last year, and she’d spent a reasonable amount of time in the labyrinth, borrowing Ryder’s board or grumpily walking alone because she didn’t have her own board to use - but it would give her an indication of whether she needed to show her partner all the plants or if she’d have some help finding them.

0 Jen You noticed, huh 388 Jen 0 5

Gary

November 10, 2017 8:03 PM

Good to have you aboard by Gary

'Of the Wisconsin Priorys' the phrase stuck for a moment in Gary's head. There was a group, of Connor's family dedicated to the state of Wisconsin. Did each state have a section of Priory family? Were there any other differences between the groups other than the state in which they lived? How was the clan structured, and was this type of arrangement typical of magical families? He was naturally assuming that Connor was from a magical family, just based on the way the boy had rattled off the introduction. That also led him to believe that this location based clan system was fairly standard, and that it meant something to be a Priory from Wisconsin rather than say a Smith from Rhode Island. He wondered what that something was exactly. He'd have to put 'large wizard clan family structure' on his list of things to look into sometime.

In the meantime, he smiled back at Conner. "Nice to meet you as well Connor. I'm from just outside of Chicago. Shall we get started?" He paused just a moment, "How well do you know the labyrinth?" He eyed the maze with a bit of suspicion, still not entirely convinced that it wasn't full of strange things, or would change randomly as they traveled through it. "I've heard that magical labyrinths can hold some... interesting surprises." He had naturally been planning to do a thorough investigation of the maze since the welcoming ceremony had been held here. This probably wasn't the best time, when they had an assignment to do, but some preliminary scouting and information gathering wouldn't hurt at all.

2 Gary Good to have you aboard 1404 Gary 0 5