Nettles and Snake Fangs and Slugs, oh my [Tag Pecari boy] on Potions

Professor Connell

June 04, 2008 9:34 PM

First Years Lesson One by Professor Connell

The first thing one would usually notice when entering the potions classroom was how dark it was. While there were several lamps throughout the room, there were no windows, and the lack of natural light, combined with a few jars of pickled frog eyes or alligator hearts scattered on shelves, created a distinctly gloomy feeling if one wasn’t prepared. Unfortunately, few first years were.

Still, once the initial shock was over and done with, it could be a warm and friendly place. Well, once one managed to ignore certain preserved body parts, since those were always a little off-putting. Marian had insisted for years when the scheduling came out that the first years were never scheduled immediately after a meal, and so far she’d managed to get her way. This year the lessons were midmorning, scheduling she approved of, as she got her youngest class when they had had the chance to awaken fully but not too tired from too many previous classes to pay attention. At least, that’s how it worked in her nice, hypothetical world were nothing went wrong.

She didn’t find room particularly ominous, but, then again, she was the one who had spent her summer elbow-deep in potions ingredients, so hers wasn’t the most reliable opinion. However, with any luck this year’s batch wouldn’t be too caught up in their milieu to lose sight of the most important thing—their academics.

The students arrived in the standard bell-curve manner, one to three far before the officially beginning, the vast majority in a few minute interval, and then a few latecomers. Marian ignored those who hadn’t managed to make it on time this once. After all, the students were new, and couldn’t be expected to have their routes memorized yet. Instead, she studied those who had arrived, attempting to match the faces she knew with those on the roll sheet, then checked the attendance after her three minute grace period was up, writing down the names on a piece of parchment she taken to keeping in her grading book. After that was completed, and the names of the majority of the new pupils memorized (she had always been good at that) she stood, waving her wand at a piece of chalk so that it would write some of the most important themes of her first little spiel.

“Hello, my name is Professor Connell, as I hope at least some of you have figured out, and I will be your potions professor this year. For those of you who know little of this class, it will be almost exactly what it sounds like- you will be learning the art of making various potions, as well as the uses and properties of various ingredients. Eventually, you will learn more advanced skills, of course, but for this first year at least the focus is on the basics. However, there are a few things I’d like to go over before we begin.

“First and foremost, take the utmost care when preparing your ingredients and adding them to your potion. Even an ounce too much of a substance can cause catastrophic results, as has been shown before in this classroom. Also, there is to be no horseplay of any sort. When you are working, and you will more often than not be working with partners or in groups of three, the ways you chose to spend your time is your own decision, as long as the work is done, and no one is faced with potential harm. However, if that line is crossed, I will not hesitate to make the consequences as severe as it is in my power to do so. Remember, there are potentially dangerous solutions in those cauldrons, in addition to the simple threats posed by the fire or the scalpels. While there is a direct path from this room to the infirmary, since the medic and I share so many of the same ingredients, I would prefer not to have to trouble him because someone behaved stupidly. He’s not the most pleasant person to deal with in such situations, nor am I.”

That last part was actually less true than she’d have liked. While Marian couldn’t tolerate any sort of life or limb endangering foolishness in her classroom, she still had yet to accomplish the art of not being a complete pushover with regards to students. Honestly, as the Pecari head of house she should be better at this, but somehow she’d missed the strong-willed gene entirely. Oh, well. As long as there wasn’t a situation that necessitated strong action, there wouldn’t be a problem, and she continued to think that, when necessary, she could be as strict a disciplinarian as necessary. It just wasn’t particularly likely.

“There will be weekly homework, generally dealing with the subject of the most previous or the next lesson, which is to be turned in at the beginning of class. Late assignments will not be accepted and, since homework constitutes a fair amount of your final average, I’d take care to get it done, and get it done well.

“Today, to start off things easily, you will be making a boil-cure potion. It will be found on page fifteen of your textbooks, and you should have the ingredients, dried nettles, crushed snake fangs, stewed horned slugs, porcupine quills, in your potions supplies, although there is a supply of most common ingredients in the black cabinet in the back of the classroom. You will work with a partner, and once you’ve finished, put a vial of your finished product on my desk, with the names of both partners written on it. Also, while there should be a warning in the instructions, be sure not to add the porcupine until after the potion is taken off the fire, or it will melt your cauldron and likely your and your neighbor’s shoes, which I can say from experience, though from very very distant experience, is not pleasant.”

Pausing to allow the students to laugh, if they so desired, she turned and waved her wand once more to wipe the board clean of writing, then to inscribe the directions once more, as well as the homework. “If you have any questions or concerns at any time during this or another class period, please come and ask me. Believe me; it’s far better to ask early on than to not ask and then have your potion go completely awry. There are no stupid questions in the potions classroom. If you don’t have any, though, feel free to begin.”

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 (my classroom is perfectly lovely the way it is, and prairie elves coming in here to clean might be disastrous).

Subthreads:

my favorite class at last by Mollie Buchanan with Krisalyn Koli, Mollie

Well, I guess I'll find a partner. by Delany

One boy required by Amelia Smythe with Seamus McFarlan, Amelia

Nettles and Snake Fangs and Slugs, oh my [Tag Pecari boy] by Joey Phillips with Kyler Kent, Joey

0 Professor Connell First Years Lesson One 0 Professor Connell 1 5

Mollie Buchanan

June 05, 2008 7:35 PM

my favorite class at last by Mollie Buchanan

This was the class Mollie had been looking forward to most. She had always had a natural knack for cooking and baking, so she hoped this class would follow the same pattern. She had eagerly arrived early to the class, totally prepared and ready to go. Her second-hand cauldron sat dull on the table in front of her; her sleeves were rolled up; her hair was pulled back into short, spikey little pigtails, even her fringe was pinned back; she was ready to go. Beneath her school robes she had one some of her more grubby jeans and an old t-shirt just in case of a mess, though she wasn't sure the mess in this classroom would be quite the same.

When she had entered the potions classroom, the look matched exactly what she had envisioned. Jars of eyes and tongues and hearts and anything else creepy you could imagine stared at the students, daring them to stare back. Mollie looked around, taking in everything about the room, the dim light, the cuppords of ingredients, the professor as she waited for the other students to arrive. Mol knew that potions, by far, would be the best class she'd ever take.

As the rest of the room filled up and the Professor Connell began her lecture and instructions, Mollie soaked it all up, laughing at her joke, noting that the medic probably didn't want any stupid accidents to take care of, memorizing the rules as simple as they were. Mol wanted this class to be perfect. She felt like this class wouldn't be something she would feel behind in. She was still adjusting to the whole magic thing, but this, this was something she basically already knew how to do.

Sure there would be new ingredients, new techniques to learn, but that was exactly what she wanted to do; learn it all. Potions interested her the most and even at 11 she knew that she wanted to take it farther than just regular school. Potions were needed for all kinds of things in the magical world and since she was now a part of that world she wanted to have an important place in it.

When she realized it was time to get started, she immediately looked around for a partner. She wondered where Krisalyn or Ian were, even Kaden, somebody she knew. She didn't want to turn anybody down, but she really wanted to do well and work with somebody who at least shared part of her enthusiasm. Shrugging to herself, she turned to the person next to her, without even looking at them really before offering to be partners. "Hey, I'm Mollie, wanna get this thing started?" She smiled wide to show her excitement, hoping they felt partially the same; though nobody could ruin this class for her. She started lighting the fire under her caudron to bring the water to a boil before checking her ingredients; ready to go.

0 Mollie Buchanan my favorite class at last 0 Mollie Buchanan 0 5

Krisalyn Koli

June 07, 2008 1:36 AM

Sounds like a dandy time to me! by Krisalyn Koli

Krisalyn skipped down the stairs to the potions classroom, pushed open the door (precisely) six minutes early to class. Looking around at all of the crazy and slightly creepy ingredients all around, the witch smiled slightly, wondering if there was anything else you could expect from a Potions classroom. She cursed herself when she saw that there was only one other person in the room besides the adult who was presumably the teacher. It seemed, though, that it was Mollie who was also in potions sooner than all the others, and the auburn-haired girl visibly relaxed. At moments when there are few others around, who can hear whatever you say, introductions can be quite painful and/or embarrassing. Also, shyness did not help in the least bit. And, unfortunately, shy was a pretty main ingredient in the concoction that was Krisalyn. Smiling when she thought of what class she was in, the young witch hesitantly took a few steps towards the seat next to Mollie, her new friend.

She sat down, and muttered a bright, "Hello!" but couldn't be sure that her companion heard it, as many students came stomping through the door right after she sat down. She looked for any faces she knew, and saw Andrew come in as well. Turning back towards the front, Krisalyn watched as Professor Connell (as she had learned from other students) seemed to survey the children piling into her classroom.

Abruptly, the professor began her lecture, and Krisalyn listened eagerly, taking special note of the 'no horsing around' precaution, imagining all of the injuries that one could suffer of because of a spilled cauldron. She shuddered. The girl smiled at the joke her teacher made, and wrote down all of the ingredients that Professor Connell mentioned. She also wondered just how many times she'd see the nurse this year. It wasn't that Krisalyn was a troublemaker (in fact, quite the opposite), she was actually just plain clumsy. She took out her textbook, just to be prepared, and quietly turned it to page fifteen, without beginning to read, as the teacher was still talking. Krisalyn hoped for Mollie to be her partner, as she looked bright and eager to start on the potion.

Turning towards her friend, Krisalyn was surprised, and a bit disappointed, to see Mollie seemingly searching the room for someone else. But she felt relieved and almost laughed when her fellow witch didn't even look at her and said, "I'm Mollie, wanna get started?"

Deciding to be bold and make a joke, Krisalyn said, in a mockingly hurt voice, "What, you forgot me already?" She watched Mollie light the fire, and began to read through the instructions in her textbook. She then tied her long, auburn hair back into a ponytail, and put some gloves on. 'No point in risking injury because of mishandling an ingredient,' she thought, smirking, as that would be the exact thing to happen to Krisalyn. "It says here to bring the water to a boil, then add the dried nettles, crushed snake fangs, and stewed horned slugs. Mix them all together, for at least ten minutes before removing heat source. Sounds easy enough, huh?" She got all of the supplies from her unsurprisingly organized bag, and set them on a cloth on the table, before turning to Mollie and asking, "You seem pretty eager to make this, so do you want to add the beginning ingredients?"

0 Krisalyn Koli Sounds like a dandy time to me! 0 Krisalyn Koli 0 5

Mollie

June 07, 2008 1:17 PM

SWEET! by Mollie

Turning at the joke from her friend, Mollie smacked her forehead lightly, not embarassed in the least and glad it was Krisalyn she had accidentally re-introduced herself to. "Oh hye, you're the one that sleeps a couple of beds away, yeah?" She laughed, playing along. She watched as Krisalyn opened her book and read the ingredients and first directions aloud. Following her roommate's initiative to put on her protective gloves, Mollie pulled her rather ratty-looking, second-hand gloves out and pulled them on. At least they didn't smell.

Mollie glanced down the directions, skimming the list of ingriedents and the directions following the ones Krisalyn had already read. It was something she always did when baking and cooking, so she supposed potions wouldn't be any different. Smiling at Krisalyn's offer to let her put the first ingredients in, she declined. "Why don't you put the nettles in, they have to sit for a couple of minutes and stew, I'll crush the snake fangs and you can cut the slugs. We'll add those and go from there."

Relieved that her roomie seemed to be just as excited about potions as she was, Mollie set about with her mini mortar and pestle to crushing the snake fangs. "I was so excited for this class." She admitted. "Sorry about my little re-introduction, I was so into everything that I didn't even see you!" She grinned, laughing slightly.

0 Mollie SWEET! 0 Mollie 0 5

Delany

June 10, 2008 1:29 PM

Well, I guess I'll find a partner. by Delany

Delany walked into the shadowy room and did a double take. The contents of the room were drastically different than the rest of the school. There were no windows and disembodied limbs of animals and plants were floating in glowing jars around the room. Compared to the bright outdoors of the Care of Magical Creatures class she had last been in, she thought the room to be very...dark.

Delany quickly walked over to an almost full table. She sat down in one of the chairs and pulled out her new potions book. She loved it. It smelt like new parchment and...Sorta like moth balls. But that must have been from her trunk. She set it down in front of her and looked up to the front of the classroom. The teacher was watching as the rest of the class filed in and took their seats.

The teacher introduced herself as Professor Connell. She went through the safety procedures and something about how the medic didn't like seeing hurt children. She went through the extremity of making sure you don't add to much of one ingredient. Or else. She then continued onto the lesson.

"She said we needed partners." Delany mumbled to herself as she quickly turned to the page in her textbook. After settign everything up she turned to the student next to her and smiled. She quickly pulled her hair behind her shoulders. Gosh darn it! Stop doing that!, she thought to herself. It was a nervous habbit.

"Hey. Do you want ot partner up for this?" She asked the person next to her. She might as well try to make some new friends.

0 Delany Well, I guess I'll find a partner. 0 Delany 0 5

Amelia Smythe

June 11, 2008 8:06 AM

One boy required by Amelia Smythe

Amelia arrived on time to her first lesson more by luck than judgement - she'd taken a wrong tun and somehow ended up in the right place. Well, at least she assumed it was the right place, judging both by the presence of ther first years, and the disgusting state of the classroom. that wasn't to say the room was untidy. Far from it, it was one of the cleanest and most organised rooms in the school. Rather its contents were foul and repulsive; pickled bits of this and that in jars around the lcassroom walls were nearly enough to make Amelia squirm. True enough, she had used to drop worms down her cousin Lucas' shirt collar, and she'd once put frogs in Cecily's bed, but this was something different.

Keeping her eyes down, Amelia found a seat near the middle of the classroom, and sat playing with the end of her long blonde ponytail while she idly waited for the class to begin. Professor Connell went over the rules: be good, be safe, yada yada yada. Boil cure potion? Ew, so gross! Hopfully they wouldn't have to test it; Amelia really didn't need to see any boils. Oh, and one of the ingredients was slugs. Fantastic. Amelia flicked open her book to the right page and skimmed ovr the instructions. It didn't sound too hard, but there was no way she was touching some of this stuff. She needed to work with a boy, that's what she needed. They could do all the gross stuff - that's what boys did. Standing abruptly, Amelia grasped the next passing boy by his elbow. "Hey," she smiled her best at him, "would you like to be partners with me?"

0 Amelia Smythe One boy required 121 Amelia Smythe 0 5

Joey Phillips

June 13, 2008 7:47 PM

Nettles and Snake Fangs and Slugs, oh my [Tag Pecari boy] by Joey Phillips

All it took was one encounter, but Joey Phillips had developed a potentially fully-fledge aversion to potions in all varieties. For one of the first times, it wasn’t because of the potential for geekiness; he was slowly growing away from that fear, though he still wouldn’t talk about his second-oldest brother to his roommates. Sonora was starting to seem somewhat legit, though it would definitely take a few more months at the very least to make certain that he wasn’t surrounded by psychotic weirdoes hiding under a façade of relative coolness.

No, the problem with potions stemmed from his first night at the campus when all of the first years had been given that weird drink that changed the colors of their skin. Admittedly, that had been kinda cool once he’d gotten over the shock, but…he was not a fan of the whole ‘let’s slip them something in their drinks that could cause potential harm while they’re completely unaware to the diabolical plot afoot’ thing didn’t sit so well with him. Sure the potions teacher might look innocent enough, but you could never tell.

The ‘decorations’ of the classroom weren’t bad though, all things considered. They were the first thing he’d noticed when he’d walked in. While the eyeballs and junk were a bit creepy and potentially freaky, he was also an eleven year old boy, and thus a lot of the items were still cool beyond belief, even if they were being used in a nefarious plot by the staff members.

He didn’t pay much attention to Professor Connell’s speech, and definitely didn’t do anything girly like take notes. There were some lows that he would never let himself reach. To tell the truth, he barely heard what page number the potion was on, and definitely missed any details about the ingredients. His ears did, however, unmistakably perk up at the mention of partners. Joey hadn’t had a chance to really talk with any of the roommates, and this was definitely the class to do start that in, since a) they were allowed to talk and b) one definitely didn’t want to work with a girl when some slimy body part was called for. So, glancing around, he waved down the nearest fellow Pecari. “Hey, dude, work with me?”

0 Joey Phillips Nettles and Snake Fangs and Slugs, oh my [Tag Pecari boy] 0 Joey Phillips 0 5

Seamus McFarlan

June 22, 2008 11:04 AM

One boy here by Seamus McFarlan

Seamus entered Potions with high hopes. He could put down his wand and get his hands dirty. No more complicated spells, no more wrist movements, just his books and his brains. The longer he was at Sonora, the more he liked that.

Okay Boil Cure Potion… snake fangs, check. Porcupine quills ..check. Slugs? Well, he didn’t have slugs. They needed to be fresh, didn’t they? There was nothing to do but to get them from the professor. He had no problem with the slimy things. He’d work with him mam before on several household potions. At least he’d worked with her on several potions and herbal infusions that didn’t cause explosions. He could handle a few slugs. The main thing was to find some one he liked to work with.

Delany was already forehead to forehead with some one else. Much to his disappointment, he hadn’t truly made friends with a lot of the guys. Having five older sisters and three aunts had a tendency to draw a boy toward women when it came to teamwork. Still Seamus was determined to seek out a male counterpart for a partner. It would make things more fun if he could latch on to someone with the same views as he.

He spotted a guy that looked like a second year. Surely he would help a struggling firsty. The only problem was some one stopped him. Feeling the tug on his robes, he turned and saw a rather distressed Amelia, practically begging him to partner with her. He truly didn’t really like her. In History of Magic, she’d seemed vapid and bigoted. Seamus couldn’t stand the ignorant things she said or the “dumb blonde” act, but it would hurt to at least help her through things.

“No worries.” Seamus said in mock cheeriness. “I’m sure we can work this out.”
\n

0 Seamus McFarlan One boy here 111 Seamus McFarlan 0 5

Amelia

June 22, 2008 12:00 PM

Just what I needed by Amelia

Seamus agreed to be Amelia's partner, and she smiled winningly at him. Although he'd been nice enough during their history classes together, Amelia was starting to get the impression that Seamus didn't like her very much. She really couldn't fathom why - he was polite, and his accent was sort of charming, so Amelia had been especially nice to him.

"Oh thanks," she said, sounding a little relieved. "I'm going to get in a complete mess otherwise. Where are you working?" Amelia closed her book and scooped it, and her other belongings, into her arms with one fluid movement. "I'll follow you to your desk, okay?"

Once she'd relocated and set back down all of her belongings again, Amelia re-read the instructions and looked at the ingredients Seamus had already laid out. "Do we have everything?" she asked him. "I suppose I may as well tell you now, I'm really opposed to cutting up slugs. I don't mind the rest of it, but unless you want to see what I had for breakfast, you're on slug cutting duty." That was fair enough, Milly thought. She had just practically volunteered to do all the rest of the work - Seamus would be a complete waste of space if he didn't cut up the slugs.

0 Amelia Just what I needed 0 Amelia 0 5

Kyler Kent

June 23, 2008 11:05 PM

You rang? by Kyler Kent

Kyler could not find the room. He turned the corner, knowing he had seen that same plant at least twice before. This was starting to get frustrating... It couldn't be that hard to find one room in this place-- Oh. Kyler halted in front of a room that held the unmistakable view of a potions class. Even if he was a muggleborn, he could tell a Potions class when he saw one. Kyler crept in, his tardiness thankfully overlooked by the professor, and took the nearest open seat. He tried to tune in as Professor Connell introduced herself. She seemed cool enough, for a Professor. She was his Head of House, right? Hey, what d'you know? She even cracked a few jokes which Kyler let a small laugh at. The students were told to split into groups and begin working on the boil-cure (Boil cure?) potion. Alrighty then.

Kyler rose from his chair to retrieve some of the ingredients. This should be cool... What kid didn't make strange mixtures as a kid, hoping to create some sort of potion? Okay, at least he had. Kyler picked up the dried nettles, crushed snake fangs, stewed horned slugs, and porcupine quills (stuff he never thought he would have touched in his lifetime) and made his way back to his table. One his way, though, he spotted one of his roommates waving him down. Kyler sent him a friendly smile as he approached.

“Hey, dude, work with me?”

"Sure thing," he said, setting his stuff down on his table, "Kyler Kent. We're roommates right? I'm the fourth bed, the one by the window."

0 Kyler Kent You rang? 0 Kyler Kent 0 5

Joey

June 27, 2008 11:36 PM

Glad you could make it by Joey

Joey was a bit concerned that his roommate apparently didn’t recognize him, but didn’t really take it personally. After all, it did take him a second to remember Kyler’s name, though he would insist that it was remembered before the other boy reiterated it. And, in any case, they’d only been there for a couple of days, days filled with lots of things that had to be remembered.

“Joey Phillips,” came the instantaneous reply, but not a handshake, because those were lame. “Yeah, I remembered you. I’ve got the second bed, the one with the Cowboy and Rangers posters on the wall next to it.” Glancing down at his book, he glanced through the instructions. “Hey, it says that it should be stirred constantly once you begin adding ingredients, so one of us should probably do that while the other cuts, mangles, or whatever. Which one do you want? I’m not picky.”

After scooting over to give Kyler more room, double-checking that the cauldron was correctly aligned and the fire set up to be started at a medium-low temperature (he’d been camping enough times to know how to set up proper fires, even though he’d never done it in a building before) and placing the book out of the way so it wouldn’t get anything on it, he decided to give conversation another go. “So, where’re you from, anyway? I’m from Texas myself, if the posters didn’t give it away, so there are some things here, like the weather, that are pretty close to home. On the other hand,” he glanced around the classroom, eyes lingering on a few of the more exotic looking body parts, “there are definitely some that aren’t.”

0 Joey Glad you could make it 0 Joey 0 5

Kyler

July 02, 2008 11:31 PM

Sorry it took me a bit. Traffic was <i>terrible!</i> by Kyler

Kyler nodded in reccognition as Joey reiterated his location in the dorm. For some reason, that helped him remember. He remembered the cowboy posters that adorned the wall. Those had made him smile when he walked in. At least his roommates weren't insane. Cowboys were actually alright. He grew up in Colorado. Rodeos were everywhere. He might not be into participating, but he didn't mind watching for a while.

In response to Joey's class-related question, Kyler shrugged and raised a hand. "I'll do the slicing and dicing," he said, "Just keep your fingers away." Kyler sent him a I'm-just-kidding grin and pulled the ingredients towards him and chopping the dried nettles into small pieces. Kyler hadn't gotten the chance to talk to many of his roommates, besides Arc, but he was looking forward to getting to know them. He was here to make friends, regardless of what the teachers said they were here for. School, in his opinion, was just social training. Yeah, he'd learn a few things on the way, but if you're good enough with people, it doesn't matter what you know.

“So, where’re you from, anyway? I’m from Texas myself, if the posters didn’t give it away, so there are some things here, like the weather, that are pretty close to home. On the other hand there are definitely some that aren’t.”

Kyler grinned and continued to slice the nettles as he spoke to Joey, "Yeah, I know what you mean! This stuff is so weirdly cool!" He added the nettles and pulled the snake fangs over to begin crushing. This wasn't so bad... Potions he could do! "I'm from Durango, Colorado, but I've been to Texas a few times! Visited the Alamo with my Mom. So you have any brothers or sisters that go here?"

0 Kyler Sorry it took me a bit. Traffic was <i>terrible!</i> 0 Kyler 0 5