A potion worth learning on Potions

Professor Connell

January 02, 2008 1:49 PM

Lesson--Fourth and Fifth Years by Professor Connell

Marian Connell had known that allowing the beast to roam free had been a bad idea. It wasn’t really like she’d been given a choice, as the thing had taken the opportunity for its freedom when she’d been in the supply room, and found the closest sympathetic faces among the first and second years. However, he was being peaceful enough and the girls seemed to be working, so Marian merely sighed when reentering the room, and informed the three to make sure their potion got done. If she tried to remove the thing masquerading as a kitten, it would only fight her, and she could just imagine the spectacle and disruption that would cause. Much better to wait.

As soon as the period ended, though, she grabbed the now-abandoned kitten (gently, of course, since its physical manifestation was supposedly small and fragile even if it was pure evil on the inside) and took it back to her office, muttering threats at it the entire time. Normally she didn’t leave her classroom between periods she taught, since there always seemed to be students that arrived early and Marian liked to be able to supervise her classroom whenever anyone who could potentially cause a problem (ie students and prairie elves) were in the vicinity. However, this was an extenuating circumstance and she imagined she would be back well before she was supposed to begin class.

Unfortunately, the devious one hadn’t taken being locked away well after spending much of a period being fawned over, and had made its displeasure known in the most painful way possible; therefore, Marian had to spend extra time that she didn’t have to search for and then apply a healing potion to the scraps on her arm, all the while cursing whatever temporary insanity convinced her to get it in the first place. When she finally got back to her classroom in one piece, it was ten minutes after the scheduled start.

“Dreadfully sorry to keep you all waiting,” she began immediately. “There was an…unforeseen problem. I appreciate the lack of destruction in my classroom despite my absence more than you can imagine.” She gave the students time to laugh, though she had been partially serious, and then continued on. “Because we now have a shorter time-frame, I’ll attempt to cut my lecture to as little as possible.

“Today you will be making the Draught of Peace, a standard CAT-level potion which, as the name suggests, is used to induce peace and tranquility. The instructions for the potion are on page 142 of the text, and the ingredients, powdered moonstone, syrup of hellebore, essence of Belladona, ginger roots, scurvy grass, and unicorn hair, can be found in the back, as always, should anyone be lacking in any of them. You may partner with anyone you wish, or not at all. Once you have finished, please label a bottle of your sample and put it on my desk. Fifth years—should you wish for CATS review, I also have copies of review sheets and lists of the potions that have shown up for the last several years, so just tell me what you want. Have at it.”

The potion was a challenging one, but Marian felt there was no reason that the students shouldn’t be able to create an adequate one, at the very least. And, even better, it was not a particularly volatile potion, nor where any of the ingredients susceptible to spontaneous combustion or something ridiculous like that. Unless something drastic and unexpected happened, the rest of the class should be nice and simple.

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 as creative as you like; feel free to have things like explosions, spills, whatever, though if the destructive levels could be kept to a minimum, that would be lovely (prairie elves and delicate potions ingredients do not mix, and I would not be above making whoever caused the elves to be necessary fix whatever broke through multiple detentions—you have been warned).

Subthreads:

A potion worth learning by Dalila Bastet with Gwen Carey, Dalila

Oh, yeah, this includes me. by Saul Pierce

I need this... by Adam Brockert

Lesson closed (nm) by Professor Connell

0 Professor Connell Lesson--Fourth and Fifth Years 0 Professor Connell 1 5

Dalila Bastet

January 03, 2008 3:30 AM

A potion worth learning by Dalila Bastet

As CATs got closer and closer, Dalila started realizing that that she was nowhere near learning everything she needed. She hated studying and tried to put it off as long as possible, but now she was staying up late every night, rereading old transfiguration notes and memorizing moves for Defense and trying to remember what to do with a stubborn Bowtruckle.

Luckily one of the spells she learned early on was a wakefulness charm, that Dalila has been using to great effect. She took out her wand and muttered the incantation. Her brown eyes opened wide and a small smile crept onto her face. She felt much better. But it didn't last long.

She glanced at Adam sitting a few rows away and suddenly felt bad because all her studying had taken away time that she could've been spending with him. But Adam was going through the same thing she was. At least she knew that he wasn't sitting alone, bored and annoyed while she practiced spells in her common room.

She pulled her potions book and kit from her bag intending to read more from it but instead she dipped her quill into her pot of signature deep orange ink and began doodling in the margins, sneaking glances at her boyfriend and giving him a smile the one time she caught his eyes.

By the time Professor Connell showed up, the page on the various types of memory potions was covered in orange stars, frogs and birds. Dalila sighed and flipped through her book to page 142, staring blankly at the ingredients list. This seemed like a really useful potion. Especially with CATs coming up soon. Any day now, she was afraid that she was going to be sent to the hospital wing, hyperventilating badly and be forced to drink the potion she was about to make.

The wakefulness spell was still working well and as soon as Professor Connell let them start, she eagerly began measuring out her ingredients until she realized she didn't have enough powdered moonstone. She hopped out of her chair and made her way to the back of the room. Dalila reached for the powdered moonstone, but someone had grabbed the bag first. She turned to find the person with the moonstone.

"Oh hey! Could I have that when you're done?"

0 Dalila Bastet A potion worth learning 60 Dalila Bastet 0 5

Gwen Carey

January 06, 2008 12:08 AM

You've got that right! by Gwen Carey

The late bell rang to announce Gwen's entrance to the room, starting up just as she drifted through the door in a state of advanced disorganization. Her long hair was sliding from its ponytail, her papers were sliding from her bag, and her robes were slightly twisted around her. She tried to send a very apologetic look Connell's way, but failed, largely due to Connell's absence. Giving up that plan, she instead went to find a seat and set up as though she had arrived minutes earlier. That attempt to mitigate her near-tardiness worked a lot better.

It worked so well, in fact, that she had time to redo her hair, straighten out her clothes, and at least find which bits of the mess in her bag were associated with Potions. She was usually fairly organized, but times of stress had an irritating habit of altering that. Just before and for the first week or two after midterm, she had been worried about being disowned. After that, CATs stress had set in, wreaking havoc on her rest and study patterns. The bright side was that everyone was starting to look like her on a bad day, but that wasn't, all things considered, all that great.

She had finally gotten her notes sorted out when Connell made her entrance, excusing her lateness, expressing her gratitude for the lack of damage to the room, and giving the lecture. Gwen's mouth twitched, almost into a smile, when she heard which potion they were doing and imagined the confusion it would generate if someone convinced the members of her year to all attend a party and spiked the drinks with it. There were times she thought she and her yearmates actually thrived in atmospheres of tension and drama. Once she had her book open, she opened her supply kit working under the assumption she'd need something.

She did. She had actually managed outdo herself and need three things, today. Standing up, she decided to abandon her usual vacant, drifting walk and move quickly towards the back to get what she needed so she could get started faster. The potion, like most things involving magic and the mind, appeared delicate and fiddly and generally the sort of thing she didn't want to rush on. Explosions and the like were bad. Failing grades were also bad, even if one never planned to have a career. Things happened, and there was always her pride to be considered anyway.

She got the unicorn hair and scurvy grass without incident, but saw another hand reaching for the powdered moonstone at the same time as her own. Her hand closed on the bag before her brain could kick in and have her step back to prevent a slightly awkward position. "Sure," she said when Person Two asked if she could have the bag once Gwen was finished with it. "I'm sorry, I'm always running out of something..." She measured out the powder, sure she was going to spill it all over the place. She didn't. "There you are..." She knew the name... "Delphine."

0 Gwen Carey You've got that right! 63 Gwen Carey 0 5

Dalila

January 06, 2008 12:57 AM

It was bound to happen sometime :P by Dalila

Dalila took the proffered bag of powdered moonstone and stared at the blonde, wondering whether to laugh or feel offended. Dalila was bad with names, but living with her fellow year-mates for five years had gotten Dalila fairly familiar with at least their names if not getting to know some of them quite well.

Opting for a happy medium, Dalila gave the offender a quick smile. "It's Dalila...and thanks." She began measuring out the moonstone. "It's Gwen, right?" Dalila asked pouring the shiny powder into the jar that came from her potion kit. She gave Gwen another smile and turned to go back to her desk, but stopped for reasons unbeknown to her.

"Hey, do you wanna be partners? I was checking out the directions for this potion and it's really difficult. As they say, two heads are better than one."

0 Dalila It was bound to happen sometime :P 0 Dalila 0 5

Gwen

January 06, 2008 8:09 PM

Everyone gets a moment in the sun. by Gwen

Apparently she didn't know the name. "Dalila," she amended, blushing. It was rather embarrassing to get a name wrong at this stage in the game. "Sorry. My cousin Delphine's really a Potions whiz, and I was thinking about her." People, Gwen knew, did that; her stepcousin Lydia had almost hurt her on one memorable occasion when, annoyed with both of them, she had called the youngest St. Martin girl 'Morgaine'. It was, of course, completely irrelevant that Delphine Robinond was her great-grandmother and had died a couple of years before Gwen started school.

"Gwen," she confirmed, trying to balance the things in her hands for the trip back to her cauldron. A third hand was, for aesthetic reasons, undesirable, but Gwen couldn't find a problem with having four. The body would still be lovely and symmetrical and would attain the ability to carry more things without dropping them. She smiled back when Dalila, only needing one ingredient, turned and offered her thanks to any supernatural agents involved in preventing her from further embarrassing herself during the conversation.

She never saw the offer of partnerhood coming. There hadn't been a reason for Dalila to make it even before Gwen messed up her name, much less after Dalila confirmed that Gwen was who she was. Teppenpaws had a reputation for being the nice ones, but she had always assumed her House's reputation was stronger than any altruistic impulses, and that wasn't even counting her personal reputation for wackiness. Apparently, once again, not. At this rate, she would stop believing she knew anything before long. "Sounds good," she said, smiling to keep from looking too surprised. "Do you want to work at my table or yours?"

0 Gwen Everyone gets a moment in the sun. 63 Gwen 0 5

Dalila

January 07, 2008 9:14 PM

And I'm basking by Dalila

Dalila tried to suppress a giggle. So, that's where Delphine came from? That girl sure had funny names in her family. Gwenhiffy...Gwenfairy...something like that. Either way it was weird, which was why Dalila stuck with the shorter version.

Dalila smiled when Gwen smiled. She was afraid that Gwen might have said no. They didn't know each other well and most people preferred to partner up with their friends. But Dalila's could see her friends any time she wanted. It was a rare thing to actually get to know someone new in this school and huddling together over a cauldron was generally a good way to do it.

"Can we use my desk? I already have everything set up." She moved toward her own desk, expecting Gwen to follow her there.

"So," Dalila said when she settled back into her seat. "First things first: light the fire." She took out her wand and began to poke around beneath her cauldron and after a moment pulled away to reveal a crackling fire.

"Okay, now for the first ingredient." Dalila ran her finger down the list of directions. "First we need minced ginger root. Could you do that?" Dalila asked, showing Gwen the ginger root as she checked the temperature of the fire.

"So," Dalila began as she checked the book again. "You going to the dance with anyone?" Dalila asked, knowing that at this point in the year there were only the things on everyone's mind: CATs and the Dance, and CATs were a boring topic of conversation.

0 Dalila And I'm basking 0 Dalila 0 5

Gwen

January 09, 2008 5:38 PM

Just make sure you don't forget your sunscreen. by Gwen

Because she was in a cooperative mood, Gwen agreed to using Dalila's desk, but didn't join the other girl until a quick stop by her own restored her bag to her. Nothing important, however vaguely, was in it, but she didn't want to leave it closer to Cate's person than to hers. Catherine Raines was, without exception, the dumbest girl she'd ever met, but she was also underhanded enough to survive as a fairly socially elevated pureblood and a fifth-year Crotalus. If Gwen could think of planting something incriminating on her, she could do the same thing.

She met up with Dalila again as her partner started a fire beneath her cauldron, a task Gwen was more than glad to be freed from. Fire spells were a weak point of hers and held a high place on the list of reasons why the greater number of her potions turned out almost correctly. She did as she was told regarding the ginger root, taking care not to amputate any of her fingers. Gwen had always considered them very nice fingers and had no desire to part ways with any parts of them.

Gwen blinked at the ginger roots, her hand pausing, when the subject of the Ball came up. It was, oddly enough, a topic she hadn't really thought much about. Whatever her looks might have done for her when it came to attracting shallow males had been effectively cancelled out by both her reputation and her House's, and going to an event of any significance with Connor was out of the question; it was a given that her sister would do things of violence, spontaneous combustion, and reporting to Daddy. As going alone would just be pathetic, she'd lost interest in the Ball almost as soon as she'd heard about it.

"Nope," she said casually, resuming what she had been doing to the ginger roots. One of the most useful skills Gwen had learned at Sonora was how normal people spoke. It would, if she was lucky, do her absolutely no good in later life, but it was essential to communicating at Sonora. Talking like a pureblood broke The Rules of amiable exchange in an average case. "Haven't had any offers." Finishing the ginger roots, she pushed them toward Dalila and took the initiative to go ahead and measure out syrup of hellebore. "What about you?"

0 Gwen Just make sure you don't forget your sunscreen. 63 Gwen 0 5

Dalila

January 11, 2008 3:26 PM

Don't wanna look like a lobster! by Dalila

"Nope?" Dalila repeated, incredulously. All anyone has been able to talk about was the ball, but this was the first time Dalila had heard that anyone didn't want to go. And the fact that she hadn't any offers was confusing. Even though she didn't know Gwen that well, she had always thought the blonde was one of the prettier people in the school.

Maybe it was because of those rumors about her being crazy. In first or maybe even in second year, Dalila might have actually asked that question, but her verbal diarrhea had dissipated since then. So she could only speculate, but Gwen seemed perfectly normal.

Dalila took the ginger roots and after checking the temperature, she added the roots and began stirring clockwise. There was so much to remember for this potion that she was beginning to get nervous about getting it completely wrong and having the entire thing explode in their faces. Luckily, they were doing okay. It was more of a purple than the midnight blue it was supposed to be at this stage, but not bad.

"Um...we need the moonstone now." Dalila began reading the directions aloud. "...add powdered moonstone, stir three times counter clockwise; allow to simmer for seven minutes, then add two drops of syrup of hellebore." Dalila glanced around at the table and, spotting the the moonstone she had measured out, poured it carefully into the cauldron. She stirred it counterclockwise three times and then glanced at her watched to make sure it was seven minutes until the syrup of hellebore.

Instead, Dalila turned her attention back to her partner. "Me? I'm going with my boyfriend. You know, Adam in Pecari?" Dalila grinned, at the thought of Adam.

"There's still time until the dance. I'm sure someone's going to ask you."

0 Dalila Don't wanna look like a lobster! 0 Dalila 0 5

Gwen

January 14, 2008 8:50 PM

That wouldn't be fun. by Gwen

"Nope," Gwen confirmed, privately wondering when Narcissus was going to make his appearance...and who he would be. It would be hilarious if it was that boy with the bad luck to be named Echo, but she was confident there was no possible combination of circumstances that would make her fall head over heels for him, or he for himself. Cate's mirror thing would have made her fit the part, but she was both another girl and an idiot - neither of which Gwen found attractive as a rule.

Actually, now that she thought of it, there wasn't really anyone she found attractive in what she believed was that way. She wasn't, for that matter, even entirely sure what that way was, though she was fairly certain it had something to do with babies and scandals. Gwen had put it all together to mean "wanting an unarranged marriage", as babies were a constant of all proper marriages. The other half of marrying was status, which was where scandal came in with unarranged unions.

The potion, she noticed, wasn't the right color. One of the most frustrating things about Potions was just how easy the subject should have been. The books never mentioned how the potioneer was supposed to tell how hot the flames under the cauldron were, or how to keep them going. Since putting the Draught of Peace to rights probably wasn't a possibility at this point, Gwen was focusing her hoping on it remaining in Dalila's cauldron until the class was over.

Dalila had a boyfriend, who she was going to the Ball with. That was nice. "We're not acquainted, but I know who you're talking about." She also knew he was the reason Nicks was a little lower on the social ladder than she had been, though she wasn't going to mention that to Adam's girl. "My sister Morgaine might know him - she's a Pecari." Gwen doubted the other fifth year needed that addition to know who Mora was, but it amused her to act as if her sister was just one more anonymous nobody in the school. It was probably around time to start reopening channels of communication with Morgaine.

That was, however, subject to change. By tomorrow, making things up with her baby sister might seem like a terrible idea. She could never make up her mind about Morgaine. It was just too complicated.

"Maybe," she said when Dalila said she was sure Gwen would be asked to the dance, more to avoid contradicting her new acquaintance than because she believed it true. "I'll wind up dropping in even if they don't. I want to see if Sonora has better catering than Father." She smiled as though she had made a joke - which, she supposed, she half-had - and, not really wanting to discuss her marriage prospects, went on to the next logical place in the conversation.

"Have you picked out your dress robes yet?"

0 Gwen That wouldn't be fun. 63 Gwen 0 5

Dalila

January 16, 2008 4:32 PM

Unless you make fun shapes with the sunblock by Dalila

However apathetic Gwen was to the dance, Dalila felt sure that there must be someone who wanted to go with her, but she didn't seem open to it, so Dalila didn't want to push it.

"Your sister?" Dalila asked, forgetting that Gwen had one, but the name Morgaine sounded familiar. She just never put it together that Gwen and the girl named Morgaine, were related. "I sometimes forget who's related to whom. It goes with being an only child." Dalila grinned and checked her watch. Still five minutes to go.

"Even if you don't get a date, it's good to go. How many times has Sonora had a dance in the entire time we've been here? Zero. And we'll be gone before they have another one. It's a once in a lifetime chance."

Dalila grinned happily when Gwen asked about her robes. She had spent most of her life never thinking there would be any reason to wear anything fancy and then this dance shows up. Luckily she had been with her mom at the time. If she had been in LA, it would have been either her father or grandmother shopping with her and Dalila would have shown up to the dance in a nun's habit.

"I picked them out over break, while I was in Egypt with my mom. It's this pretty shade of green with beading all around here," Dalila said, running her hands over an imaginary neckline a few inches lower than the t-shirt she was currently wearing beneath her open robes.

"What about you? Do you have your robes yet?" Dalila asked though she probably knew the answer, since the dance was coming up quickly.

0 Dalila Unless you make fun shapes with the sunblock 0 Dalila 0 5

Gwen

January 20, 2008 3:00 PM

The simplest things really can be the most amusing. by Gwen

Gwen chuckled dryly when Dalila blamed not knowing who was kin to who on being an only child, though a small fragment of the back of her mind still found it surprising that not everyone was made to start memorizing family trees as soon as they learned how to read. It had continued, on and off, until she came to Sonora; after the Carey, St. Martin, and Robinond lines were committed to memory, there had been no telling which families her father would, on any given day, decide were important enough for his daughters to memorize the membership of.

"I sort of know what you mean," she half-lied. "Though my problem is remembering how everyone's connected. I have so many cross-cousins and step-relatives and seventh cousins I have to remember because we all share a surname that it gets impossible." Gwen remembered how pleased she had been when she worked out that she and Amber were both fifth and seventh cousins, only to realize later that her mother and Amber's great-great-grandmother were distantly related, adding a third variable she had yet to work out.

She had already made up her mind to refuse to have a child over three - there had to be some way to ensure one of the brats was a boy, and if there wasn't, she would invent one and become a millionaire - and to enter any marriage after her first. Apart from finding thinking about producing ten children by two husbands distasteful, adding fewer members to the family tree would make her much favored by Eddie's, Mora's, and her own children, not to mention all the other unborn Careys of the next generation. Favor was favor.

Dalila's comments about her mother and her robes were filed away as they were given, as Gwen was in the mood to play at being a proper Crotalus pureblood. Making such observations was typical of the kind. "They're supposed to arrive by the end of this week," she said when asked about her own robes. Andrew and Meredith had been put in charge of dressing her, which had apparently lead to a few more tensions than usual between them. "I'm not sure about this - the letters're all sort of vague - but I think they're beige and floaty, maybe with flowers."

Her eyes settled on the small, dark head of her sister as Morgaine bent to examine something. Who was looking after Mora's arrangements? Surely not their father. Nothing she had heard suggested Morgaine had been removed or sent out of his keeping, but there had never been communication on any level between her sister and her father. Gwen thought it was hard to imagine Morgaine successfully selecting an appropriate set of dress robes; it was flat impossible to see Alasdair doing so. One of their step-aunts could have been put in charge of Morgaine's attire, she supposed...

That was it. She was talking to Morgaine. It was her sacred duty as the eldest sibling to be nosy, and if Morie got too mouthy, Gwen would lose no sleep over jinxing her. She had, after all, only been wanting to since Morgaine began school and snubbed her.

"Your robes sound very pretty. I've always thought green suited dark-haired girls best - it's almost all Mora can wear, though that's more to do with her looks." Morgaine was, Gwen supposed, objectively pretty when made to stop scowling like a murderer, but her odd eyes and miniscule features made matching clothes to her a thirteenth labor for Hercules. "I can't wear light greens to save my life and look right." That was the truth. Even the dark green school robes didn't really, in her opinion, suit her too well, but the only color she thought looked worse on her than light green was orange.

0 Gwen The simplest things really can be the most amusing. 63 Gwen 0 5

Dalila

January 24, 2008 5:14 PM

Like when people run into things! by Dalila

"I don't have that problem at all with my family," Dalila said thoughtfully. "My mom's an only child too and my dad only has a brother somewhere that we never see. Most of my grandparents died before I was even born, so it's just me, both my parents and my Nana." She found it hard to believe there could be so many people to learn in one's own family. She had trouble remembering people who weren't in her family.

"Thanks," Dalila said when Gwen said her robes sounded pretty. "I really wanted orange, but we couldn't find a nice one..." Dalila recalled dragging her mother to at least six different stores looking for an cute orange dress and had turned up with nothing but what looked like a neon orange nun's habit, which came in every color manageable. Apparently, orange wasn't a huge color in Northern Africa.

Dalila couldn't really comment on how Gwen would look in light green. She wasn't one to moon over fashion magazines and therefore had no idea about most fashion. She still wore a Rainbow Bright shirt from fourth grade, though it's considerably tighter on her now. So instead of agreeing, Dalila just gave a hesitant smile.

"I think you'd probably look good in anything, if you set your mind to it."

0 Dalila Like when people run into things! 0 Dalila 0 5

Gwen

February 03, 2008 12:23 AM

Re: Like when people run into things! by Gwen

Gwen tried not to show how pleased she was by the assertion that she could make herself look good in anything. That the statement was truer of Dalila than herself didn't matter at all; that she was still pretty enough for it to warrant the comment, however polite it had been, was more important. In a family where girls generally inherited nothing, the girls who couldn't make political matches had to make their faces their fortunes or hope their brothers both liked them a lot and didn't have too many kids. Given the state the Savannah Careys tended to stay in, Gwen was quite proud of how alike she and the only really pretty woman in the family looked.

"Thanks," she said, smiling back warmly and taking care to sound modest. She did, however, think it was safer to move away from the topic of looks. It was a prominent reason on the mile-long list of reasons people reacted negatively to the realization that they were addressing Crotali, and her year was especially notorious. The current first years had the potential to match the fifth years in a few years, but she, the Triumvirate, and Earl were still Sonora's symbols of everything the new order seemed to think was wrong with the Wizarding World.

She supposed she could carry on in the Ball-y line of chat, but she had no idea what else to say about it. She'd gotten the impression it wouldn't be much like the rigidly proper, formal events she'd attended as a Carey, but she wasn't too inclined to admit that; it didn't feel like a correct thing to confess. "So, have you decided which classes you want to carry on with next year?"

OOC: Sorry for the delay! My schedule has been cruel and unusual in its treatment of me lately.

0 Gwen Re: Like when people run into things! 63 Gwen 0 5

Saul Pierce

February 08, 2008 1:21 PM

Oh, yeah, this includes me. by Saul Pierce

Saul arrived at the potions classroom four minutes late and was surprised to find that he'd still beat the teacher. His Head of House was usually already there even on the rare occasions that he got there early. Aside from a few moments of relief when he realized he wasn't going to get into trouble for tardiness, however, Saul just picked a seat and started talking to his nearest classmates (Saul could carry on a conversation with a bedpost, so it hadn't matter who happened to be sitting there).

Once the teacher did return, Saul did his best to pay attention to the short lecture, and he turned immediately to page 242 so he wouldn't forget the page number. Except, hadn't she said something about Peace, not Wart Removal? No matter.

By then, she was inviting them to form groups. Unfortunately, Potions was with the year above him this year, which meant Echo wasn't available to be his partner like he had been the last two years. Of course, not having a partner was just inviting trouble, so he turned to the person he'd been talking to before class began and asked, "So, partners?"

The page his book was open to would have to serve as the other student's warning that Saul was perhaps not the most attentive of people (thus making potions a subject he was particularly untalented at) because Saul didn't think to offer one. Echo and his other partners over the first half of the year had done a decent job of keeping him on track, so he hadn't actually blown anything up in years and he hadn't brewed the wrong potion more than three or four times since second year.

1 Saul Pierce Oh, yeah, this includes me. 82 Saul Pierce 0 5

Adam Brockert

February 08, 2008 5:43 PM

I need this... by Adam Brockert

As usual when he had a class, Adam was nervous. He sat down in his regular spot, in the back corner of the room and tried to ignore the students entering. Truthfully, nobody really ever did anything to him and he knew that intellectually, but it didn't make Adam any less anxious. Besides, he could always screw up and they'd start. Plus, he didn't know if they were laughing at him behind his back.

Fortunately, Potions was something Adam was fairly good at. He was very meticulous when it came to such things so explosions and disasters were minimal for him. They were more likely to occur when he worked with someone else in class. Not because the other person was necessarily less attentive, but he just got so nervous personally that he was more likely to screw up.

When the lesson was announced, Adam's eyes grew wide. What a wonderful potion. Not that he'd never heard of it between a magical upbringing and a ton of reading, it was just that he was thrilled to be able to make it. This was one he just had to learn and get perfectly right. He needed this one. Adam was rarely ever at peace. If he could make the Draught of Peace, maybe he could handle classes better and not be nervous about the ball or CATS next term. Perhaps he could even function like a normal human being.

Adam checked his supplies and was relieved to see he had everything. That meant he didn't have to get up and risk anyone noticing him and worry about doing anything wrong. He could put his full effort into getting this completely necessary potion perfectly right.

11 Adam Brockert I need this... 78 Adam Brockert 0 5

Dalila

February 13, 2008 2:22 AM

Re: Re: etc... by Dalila

(OOC: It's okay. Trust me, I know what you mean)

IC:
Sometimes Dalila would end up working with someone in class and seriously wonder why they hadn't become better friends since the start of their time at Sonora. She got the feeling while talking to Gwen at that very moment. Despite the rumors she'd heard, Gwen seemed smart and nice. If Dalila had known this at the very beginning, she had no doubt that they would have become fast friends.

However much Dalila was enjoying their talk, she was glad when Gwen changed the subject from the ball. Dalila was as excited as most everyone else, but she wasn't girlie. Beyond a quick chat, she was lost in conversations about make-up, hair, the perfect dress and the perfect date.

"Next year? Yeah. My dad made me think about it over break, so I have everything planned out. Or I did until they said that Astronomy might not be available next year." Dalila scoffed at the very idea of it not being there. It had been her favorite class for all of Sonora despite the variation in professors.

"So besides Astronomy, I wanna take Charms and Care of Magical Creatures for sure. If there's no Astronomy, then I think I'm taking Defense." Dalila stared up at the ceiling in thought. That sounded about right.

"So, what classes were you thinking of?"

0 Dalila Re: Re: etc... 0 Dalila 0 5

Professor Connell

February 21, 2008 12:15 AM

Lesson closed (nm) by Professor Connell

0 Professor Connell Lesson closed (nm) 0 Professor Connell 0 5