Professor Connell
January 21, 2007 12:14 PM
Second and Third years- Lesson 1 by Professor Connell
You like teaching. You like potions. You like your job. You like the kids. Just keep focusing on that Marian Connell repeated to herself, a mantra of exasperation as she finished tidying up after her first years. It wasn’t actually all that much effort, just a few scourgify charms, and she really didn’t mind the task, but her nerves were still a bit strung-out from having to deal with the first years. Perhaps it had been a mistake to start off with the boil-cure potion, simple though it was. The possibility of an explosion never helped her state of mind, even after the fact.Fortunately, now she had her second and third year class. On the whole, they’d always behaved quite reasonably, at least in class. Actually, they were so even outside of class, with a few notable exceptions. So Marian was able to finish checking on things without worry as the students began to enter and take their seats without any major disturbances.
Once it appeared everyone who was supposed to be present was, she closed the door, and then moved to the front of the classroom. It was habit now, even when she didn’t really have much to say. She just didn’t know what else to do with herself when faced with a roomful of students besides to stand at the same point and deliver almost the same speech, year after year.
“Welcome back,” she began, smiling at the twelve- and thirteen-year olds gathered before her. “I’m delighted to see all of you back for another year, and hope all of your summers went well. Now, today’s lesson is going to be more of a practical one than usual, just to let all of you get back into the hang of things.
“The potion you will be making is called the shrinking solution. It can be found on page 35 of your text, and the ingredients are chopped daisy roots, one skinned shrivelfig, 3 sliced caterpillars, one rat spleen, and a dash of leech juice. Obviously, it is used to shrink things in size, but can also be used to reverse the aging process. Therefore, in order for you to test your potions once completed, I have secured a number of toads for you. They will be up at my desk by the time you have finished your potions, so, once you have, I want one member of each group to come up and get one, then return to your seats and feed a few drops of your potion to it.
“If the solution was prepared properly, then it should turn back into a tadpole. If it does so, I want you to bring the tadpole up to my desk to prove you’ve done the assignment, and then feed it another few drops of an antidote, which should turn it back into a toad, which you should return to its cage.
“You all should remember the basic rules, no horseplay, although you’re free to converse among yourselves while working as long as the assignment is completed. You may work by yourself or in pairs, whichever you feel more comfortable in. Extra ingredients are in the cabinet at the back of the classroom. If you have any questions, feel free to ask; otherwise, you may begin.”
She’d been nervous about doing this with her class last year, but, given the relative success (i.e. lack of mutilating amphibians or explosions), she felt more confident in her students’ abilities to conduct themselves in a responsible manner. Yes, last year the students had been slightly older, but that didn’t feel all that important in the scheme of things. All in all, Marian concluded as she retrieved the cage of toads from her supply room, she felt it would be a relatively uneventful class.
OOC: Standard posting rules apply. At least two decent-sized paragraphs, so at a minimum roughly 8 lines of text. House points will be awarded based on post length, detail, etc. Be creative, and have fun.
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Subthreads: Clumsy, clumsy, clumsy. by Eavan Valentine with Caedence, Eavan, Caednce
Picking my partner [tag Gil] by Elly Eriksson
I love this class... by Geoffrey Layne with Morgaine Carey
Re: Second and Third years- Lesson 1 by Adam Brockert with Briony O'Leary
Looking for a partner... by Lila St. Martin with Echo Elms
Lesson closed (nm) by Professor Connell
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Professor Connell
Second and Third years- Lesson 1
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Adam Brockert
February 06, 2007 9:34 PM
Re: Second and Third years- Lesson 1 by Adam Brockert
Adam was really beginning to hate going to class. It wasn't the subject matter, he liked all of that fine. It was the other people that were there. He felt like he didn't have a friend in the world. Ginger probably hated him from last year's Defense lesson. Adam hadn't talked to her at all since then. He hadn't seen Pepper around much either. He assumed she also wanted nothing to do with him. Even Kaylie was too busy for him. The other kids, the year below his especially, had never seemed to like him much.Potions was one of the worst classes too. Oh, Adam could handle dead animal parts with no problems, but they always had to work with others. In fact, often the teachers seemed obsessed with that in most classes.
That's why, as soon as Professor Connell said they could work alone if they wanted, Adam gave an exceptionally rare, relieved smile. He'd have been happier if nobody got to work in groups or pairs because when other people were in groups, he always felt like they were looking at him and laughing at him and mocking him while he worked. However, Adam decided to just be grateful he could work alone and didn't have to go about finding someone who actually liked him. He didn't want to have to work with anyone who didn't, which meant anyone at this point. Adam simply wasn't going to put himself through that kind of rejection and pain. At least being able to work alone was better than nothing at all.
He set about chopping the daisy roots, since Adam didn't have any already chopped. He concentrated solely on getting these just right, even though people would probably being looking at him strange. It was just that if he focused hard on this, Adam's mind would be off of what made him so anxious. Not that it always worked, but this time it seemed to be, because he didn't even notice when someone was standing next to him.\n\n
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Adam Brockert
Re: Second and Third years- Lesson 1
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Briony O'Leary
February 07, 2007 6:11 PM
Is this seat taken? by Briony O'Leary
Normally a well-prepared student, Briony usually didn't forget things. Unfortunately, she hadn't been sleeping well lately and she couldn't figure out why. Yet, the effect was done. The entire day had been awful. She had overslept and missed breakfast, her homework was disorganized, and to top it off, she was out of leech juice. Why hadn't she kept an eye on her potions kit? Her dad wouldn't be happy if he heard her grades were dropping. Maybe she could borrow some from someone else.Looking around, she saw the kid, who she knew by name, but had never really met, aside from a brief interlude in Muggle Studies. She wondered over, but didn't really know how to get his attention. He seemed very focus on his work and with the use of sharp instruments, she didn't want to startle him. She decided to try and get his attention another way.
Moving to in front of him, she leaned slightly, her elbows on the table to wait until he noticed.\n\n
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Briony O'Leary
Is this seat taken?
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Adam B.
February 17, 2007 8:17 PM
Taken? You're kidding, right? by Adam B.
A shadow fell over his desk. The only reason for such a phenomenon was that somebody was standing there. Slowly, Adam raised his head to find himself facing Briony O'Leary. His face flushed. After the incident in Muggle Studies where he'd made an absolute fool of himself, Adam had no idea why she'd come anywhere near him.He mentally checked over what he'd been doing, to see if he'd been doing anything wrong. For the life of him, Adam couldn't figure out what though. He couldn't figure out why she'd come over here otherwise. Certainly he'd never be doing anything right. He was also pretty sure she didn't want to work with him. Why would she? Nobody liked being around Adam.
And of all the people to have be displeased with him, about to criticize him, it was a pretty girl, who was his teacher's daughter no less! Adam really wished he could figure out what he'd done that was unacceptable within the last few moments. All he'd done was chop up roots. Perhaps he'd done so too intently?
"Um," Adam began, not meeting Briony's eyes. "C-can I help you?" He asked. Yes, that seemed like a fairly unobjectionable, neutral thing to say. It sounded normal, not too strange, aside from his voice sounding uncomfortable and having a bit of hitch in it. Plus, he'd stammered awkwardly a little. Adam feverently hoped she hadn't noticed.\n\n
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Adam B.
Taken? You're kidding, right?
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