Lesson for First and Second Years- by Professor Aylin Morastus
A parchment lay out on her desk, it’s corners bent from being handled time and time again, the writing on it in a large, slanted script, belying the hurried hand with which the first draft had been scribbled. A finger trailed down this parchment, barely making contact with the surface as Aylin scanned over it, silently mouthing the words she read when she noticed the slight tremble in her hand. Sighing, she drew her hand into a tight fist and then stretched it out, to find the tremble still present. Four years and she still had not found a way to avoid the inevitable. No one had ever noticed, save the few that found themselves close enough to her as to rub arms, but the trembling of her hands that matched the nervous energy in her veins annoyed her to no end. Leaning forward in her chair, she lifted the lid on a small ceramic jar sitting on the corner of her desk as the faint sound of footsteps and muffled voices began to fill the corridor outside. Pulling out a cinnamon candy, she popped it in her mouth, replacing the lid just as the door opened.When the last student had taken a seat, she stood, coming out from behind the desk to walk amongst the tables as she spoke. Her light auburn hair was yet again straining to escape the knot pinning it up, several strands already successful as her hazel eyes scanned the room. “Good morning, I’m Professor Morastus, your new Potions teacher.” Most eyes followed her, others didn’t; she knew better than to worry about where their eyes were focused so much as how attentive their ears were. Her hands were often clasped in front of her, tucked tightly against her bronze colored robes, but occasionally they released one another to trace the edge of a shelf or table as she passed by, her eyes shifting from her students momentarily to the jars of ingredients and equipment she had yet to organize.
“I believe you have all found seats you are comfortable with by now, and we shall keep this arrangement unless you give me cause to change it.” A small grin. “So if you would, please use your wand to write your full name on the table in front of you.” As they did, they would find it fade as quickly as it had appeared, their signature transferred to the parchment sitting on the podium next to her own table by the board.
“Good,” Aylin exclaimed with a faint clap, her feet quickly carrying her to the podium where she looked over the seating parchment, pleased to see it filled in completely, for she would record attendance later, and pointed her wand at the board where the name of a potion, a page number, and time frame were now displayed. “Today we will cover the Forgetfulness Potion. Turn to page 32 in your texts for the ingredients and instructions. However, I do recommend you take out a quill to note the following…”
On a table before the board sat several examples, each being picked up in turn as Aylin went over some of the finer points before they began. “When mincing the fluxweed, it’s best to do so very finely, like so.” Taking her own silver knife, she demonstrated the technique. “Be sure to measure the sumac extract in a glass vial, and do not under any circumstances let anything metal touch it. The doxy blood must be added by single droplets every odd stir after it is reduced to a low simmer.” Pausing, she waited until the quills slowed or stopped altogether before finishing. “Alright then, begin. You have 90 minutes to submit your samples in the case next to my desk.”
OOC: There’s many a loophole for creativity here, so surprise me! Though a canon potion for first years, no details are given for it, so I gave you a few to begin with, after that, use your imagination. As for any potential problems.. I’ll leave that to you to. Have fun!
Subthreads: Potioning (and making up new words) by Daniel Nash II with Adelita Garcia (Crotalus), Lita
Why yes, I do pull my ideas from thin air! by Nathaniel Leon with Jose Hernandez, Nathaniel, David Lancaster, Professor Morastus
This can't be that hard, can it? by Andrew Duell with Jethro Smythe, Jethro
250 different species of sumac to choose from; hmm. . . by Euna Song with Quentin Melcher
Excellent: a <i>useful</i> lesson indeed. by Mike Song with Charlotte Abbott
Looking for a partner by Pippa Brockert with Edmond Carey
Late, but I have a goal to meet. by Marissa Stephenson
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Professor Aylin Morastus
Lesson for First and Second Years-
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Professor Aylin Morastus
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5
Daniel Nash II
August 18, 2009 2:50 PM
Potioning (and making up new words) by Daniel Nash II
Though a little surprised to walk into Potions and find someone other than Professor Fawcett at the front of the room, Daniel gave a nod of greeting to the new woman and took his usual seat as though she'd always been the one sitting there. Before turning to a black page, though, he did scratch out Fawcett's name and put in hers on the inside cover of his notebook however.He was even more surprised by her instruction to write on the desk. It wasn't until his neighbor did so and he saw the ink vanish a moment later that he trusted that it wasn't an assault against school property and did so himself. Daniel Nash II, he wrote out in a neat script and held his breath until his name, too, disappeared and left his desk un-defaced.
After that he went back to writing in his notebook, recording the potion name and page name, and taking down her advice about the fluxweed, the sumac extract, and the doxy blood. Once that was properly documented, he hoisted his cauldron up onto the desk between him and the ready-made partner sitting beside him.
Assuming the other student had no objections to working with him (Daniel was, after all, a second year and a Aladren, and potions was his best and favorite subject), he asked, frowning a little in concern as he looked at his cast iron cauldron, "So, when she said no metals should touch the sumac extract, do you think that includes or doesn't include the inside of the cauldron? I'm fairly sure I've never seen a wooden or plastic cauldron."
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Daniel Nash II
Potioning (and making up new words)
130
Daniel Nash II
0
5
Nathaniel Leon
August 18, 2009 3:44 PM
Why yes, I do pull my ideas from thin air! by Nathaniel Leon
He loved coming back to Sonora after Midterm, there was always a grand surprise. A new potions teacher, a new one. Understandably, Nathaniel Leon was excited, understandably because Nathaniel Leon was always excited, especially when something new was going to happen. The twelve-year-old hardly acted twelve-years-old, ever, and each response of his was quite similar to a child tasting something good for the first time. This is the greatest thing to happen, EVER! At least until the next new thing rolled in and captured his interest like a shiny golden ball. But the new Potions teacher, How cool! was his reaction, and also, This is the greatest thing to happen, EVER! For the moment, at least.Nathaniel sat near the front, he was no good student, but he liked to see things. Not the lesson, but the teacher (the new teacher), the way she acted, the expressions her face took on, all of that was what Nathaniel watched for. You couldn’t see that well near the back. Each thing she said, as well, was met with a jumpy happiness from Nathaniel, Oh, she sounds like all the other teachers. But she’s got something new, I know she’s got something, and even though it was same-old-same-old, he treated it like his first time in school as he scribbled his name on the desk as she’d asked.
Nathaniel Leon. Written in childish scrawl. A little heart dotting the “i” in his name, the “t” crossing though everything in a swirl. The baby-blue letters disappeared, and he was left grinning at desk, waiting for something new. The lesson, again, was same-old make-a-potion-kids. But, since the actual potion was new, it was fantastic to Nathaniel, and he nearly giggled thinking of making a forgetfulness potion. Though, that would be sad, forgetting things, he wouldn’t want to forget anything, unless they were very unpleasant.
Across a sheet of paper, he wrote simply, please don’t test this on any animals or unwilling people, thank you Professor! and stuck it on one of the vials he’d brought to class. Hm, he looked to the Professor, catching the last bit of her sentence, realizing he’d missed something (probably important)… “… after its reduced to a low simmer.” Do what? But she didn’t repeat herself, and Nathaniel chose to not look stupid by asking her what was what. Pushing his longish, tangled hair behind his ears, Nathaniel read the book, looking at what he may have missed, but his eyes skimmed, skipped words, it was hard for him to focus on instructions (they really weren’t interesting enough for him). He just saw the ingredients, the basics for what he needed to do.
And humming a happy tune, he went to work, picking the flower from the fresh flux weed (which he did not buy from a potions shop, but rather the herb and plants shop next door) and putting it in the sideways pocket he sewed to the front of his robes, and began to cut the poor plant into large chunks.
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Nathaniel Leon
Why yes, I do pull my ideas from thin air!
133
Nathaniel Leon
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5
Jose Hernandez
August 18, 2009 4:39 PM
I've got mine up my sleeve. by Jose Hernandez
As Jose Hernandez stepped through the door of the classroom, he grinned as he spotted the new professor. As a first year, it was something of a novelty to no longer be among the most recent arrivals to the school. He had half a year on this lady.Unfortunately, it was potions, so that made it bit less exciting, but it would be interesting to see how she reacted to him. Taking a seat toward the front (the better to be seen in civil disobedience, if necessary), he turned open his notebook and brought out his quill for later use.
His potions kit, bought at a stand selling only organically grown ingredients and lacking any animal products, was set carefully in front of him as well. If the day's potion could be made using only his own components, he would do so to the best of his ability, with diligence, discipline, and on his very best behavior, because such potions were to be encouraged. If the day's potion used animal products, or something that could not be harvested in a renewable and earth-friendly manner, however, he'd have to sit out in formal protest and take a failing grade.
As the teacher began, Jose adjusted his rose colored John Lennon glasses and turned to watch her. As a performer himself, he noted that her stage presence was somewhat lacking, as she had a fairly closed posture most of the time, but she didn't do too badly in her diction or projection. That was good. At least she wasn't going to put anybody to sleep just by talking. After all, what was the point of formal protest and almost guaranteed detention if nobody was awake to witness it?
At the instruction to do so, Jose picked up his quill and scribbled his name across the table in front of him, JOSe HeRNANDEz. He'd meant to do it all in capital letters, but his quill got ahead of him three times and printed them out in lower case by mistake. The ink vanished before he could fix it. Frowning slightly, it took him a moment to remember to pay attention and not dwell on how ineptly he'd written his own name.
Keeping to a more normal capitalization scheme, he took down appropriate notes and she described some of the ingredients' preparation in greater detail than the book presumably did.
When she got to the part about the doxy blood, Jose groaned and sat back in his seat, letting the quill fall down in front of him, a sentence only half finish on his notebook page.
As the other students around him began their work, Jose sat in his spot, quite still, arms crossed, and very obviously not doing the assignment.
Glancing to the side of him, however, he watched as his nearest neighbor began to chop up his fluxweed. He couldn't hold his tongue as he offered, "She said mince that into fine bits, with slices like this," he demonstrated the technique with an imaginary knife before returning his arms to their crossed protest position. "You're making the pieces too big."
1
Jose Hernandez
I've got mine up my sleeve.
149
Jose Hernandez
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5
Really!? Wow, thats just like <i>magic</i> by Nathaniel
Still humming as he worked, Nathaniel’s attention was forced away from his fluxweed as his neighbor protested. Again, Nathaniel didn’t catch the first bit, and with wide eyes, asked, “Hm? What was that,” soon catching the boy making motions in the air similar to Nathaniel’s cutting… only thinner. Nathaniel’s hand slipped, as this was a boy whose attention shouldn’t be split. “Oh, ow,” he said, first, noting the bright red gash across his index finger.Dabbing the red on his already fairly stained t-shirt he nodded at the boy. “Yes, I am cutting,” he beamed, “What are you doing?” and after a second, stuck his cut finger in his mouth to stop more blood from getting all over. Apparently, the boy wasn’t just saying that Nathaniel was cutting, he was saying that Nathaniel was cutting too big. His mouth opened in a wide ‘O’, his finger pressing down on his tongue. He then looked at his uneven chunks of freash fluxweed with a frown.
“I don’t think it would matter, do you?” he said, removing his finger first and drying it off. “I mean, its still the same amount of fluxweed, with all the fluxweed magic in it, size shouldn’t matter,” he beamed, throwing the pieces into his cauldron anyway. “I’m Nathaniel Leon,” he said brightly, holding out the hand with the cut, until he saw it had started to slowly grow more blood, he took it back and looked at the red liquid with a distant interest before looking back to the boy.
“Would it be bad if this got in the potion?” he asked, curious for a second before his attention wandered again, and he picked up the little cup of sumac extract, looking around for a spoon or something to measure it with.
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Nathaniel
Really!? Wow, thats just like <i>magic</i>
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Nathaniel
0
5
New words can be quite fun. by Adelita Garcia (Crotalus)
Adelita’s brown eyes widened at the sight of the professor. Had she been introduced at the welcome back to Sonora speech that the Headmistress had given? Lita didn’t think so, but then, she hadn’t really been paying all that much attention. She had been too excited to be back and tell Charlie all about her holiday than to really care for a ‘Hey, Holiday’s over, let’s get back to work’ speech. Well, until she announced another school was joining them, but that was beside the point.Taking a seat next to Daniel and only briefly wondering if Charlie would be mad at her (Lita still couldn’t quite figure out if they were still dating or not) Lita pulled out her book and notes and began doodling on her parchment while waiting for the class to begin.
Once the newest Professor began the lesson, Adelita followed her movements for awhile while the woman spoke. Her name was interesting, but that didn’t much surprise her anymore. Everyone seemed to have an odd name. And, apparently, Adelita was one of them. Shrugging at her own thoughts, Adelita smiled at the request to write on her desk. Using her wand she wrote out her name in the same loopy handwriting that she wrote with her notes Adelita Garcia. But, her smile faded slightly when her name began to fade. Sometimes, magic wasn’t all that fun.
Sighing, Adelita turned to the page that the professor had referenced and wrote down the lesson for the day. She only glanced up from her writing when Daniel spoke. A frown appeared on her lips in thought. He had a habit of making her think and then, ultimately feel foolish. “You know, I really don’t know. I wouldn’t think that it would include our cauldrons. Unless, are we supposed to coat the cauldron in something first in order to prevent the extract from touching it?” Her lips pursed in thought as her eyes dropped back down to the book in hopes that the book would answer this for them.
“It would be silly if it included the cauldron in that notion.” Adelita commented while she read. “Anyway, I can’t believe you even thought of that. I would have just gone on and made the potion not even realizing the cauldron was metal.” She let out a soft giggle at her own asinine tendencies. “And this is why I’m terrible at potions.”
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Adelita Garcia (Crotalus)
New words can be quite fun.
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Adelita Garcia (Crotalus)
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5
That's why I make them up. by Daniel
Daniel laughed a little as Adelita admitted that she wouldn't have even considered that the cauldron was metal. "I wouldn't worry about it too much," he reassured, then added in reminder: "I share a room with Quentin Melcher. I need to think of these things out of self defense or I'd be answering literal questions all day. If I get them in first, he can't ask me."Which still left him with a literal question he didn't have the answer to. He looked over the instructions in the book as well and made an educated assumption. "Well, it doesn't specify that we need to line it or use a glass or other rare type of cauldron, so I'm going to guess a normal one is fine. It just shouldn't touch any metal before it hits the boiling solution. Heat or water might cancel any adverse affect metal has on the extract."
Glancing over the first few steps again, he asked, "So now that we've settled that, do you want to mince the fluxweed or get the water simmering?"
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Daniel
That's why I make them up.
130
Daniel
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5
Yeah, my cousin's a magician...and a wizard, too, I guess. by Jose H
Jose winced and felt bad for distracting Nathaniel and making him cut himself, but the older student disregarded Jose's very sound advice and dumped in the large pieces of fluxweed before he could protest (which seemed the thing to do today) or stop him. Jose grimaced as the leaves sank beyond sight and braced himself for a possible explosion, but none seemed forthcoming yet.It was clearly only a matter of time, though. Maybe he should have sat more toward the back of the room after all. It was probably safer being on the opposite side of the room from Nathaniel Leon.
"Jose," Jose returned the introduction, dubiously looking at the bloody hand on offer. "Jose Hernandez." Despite the name, his accent had as much of an Hispanic influence to it as Nathaniel's did.
Fortunately, before Jose had to decide definitively on rudeness or shaking the injured hand (which had, incidently, just been in the guy's mouth), Nathaniel realized its state and distracted himself. Jose was quickly coming to the conclusion that this didn't take much.
"I'm quite sure that would be bad," Jose confirmed, in answer to question about blood getting into the potion. Then he thought of what blood was supposed to be in it, and qualified, "Unless you're a doxy, then it's probably all right." While it was true that Jose was less than one hundred percent sure what a doxy was, he was pretty sure Nathaniel wasn't one, so the comment was mostly meant to be funny.
Unless, of course, if Nathaniel knew something about doxies and his family tree that Jose didn't.
On the other hand, even if he didn't, Nathaniel's potion was already doomed after that unminced fluxweed, so it probably didn't matter either way. He canted his head and looked at Nathaniel specutively, "You know, you might have one in your line, at that, way back. You might not even need to find your doxy blood vial." He was a trained performer, so he was pretty sure he sounded convincing. And if he could stop someone from using the real doxy blood in a potion, so much the better.
And just to be contrary now, he also added, "Oh, and be sure to use that metal spoon to measure the sumac extract."
He was naturally curious just how wrong a potion had to go before it started making explosive sparks.
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Jose H
Yeah, my cousin's a magician...and a wizard, too, I guess.
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Jose H
0
5
Andrew Duell
August 19, 2009 10:05 PM
This can't be that hard, can it? by Andrew Duell
Andrew lugged his things into the classroom and found his seat somewhere in the middle of the class. Once he finally got settled in, he noticed that there was a new professor standing up front. After her introduction, he scrawled his name on the table as instructed and watched it fade out with mild interest. He had grown used to watching the displays of magic, now it was the purpose and the procedure that intrigued him. It had to be to make a seating chart for the new prof... how? That was the question now. She was speaking again, so he began scribbling down notes.He flipped open his book then to the appropriate page and glanced down over the instructions, along with the additional notes that Professor Morastus gave them. It seemed straightforward enough, a little complicated, but straightforward. He pulled out his cauldron, and only then noticed that he must not have cleaned it properly after he used it the last time. Something coated the inside walls... something that wasn't budging. Apparently he didn't need a forgetfulness potion.
Andrew sighed, clock was ticking, maybe it was dried and would affect today's mixture. Well, one way to find out. He started dicing the fluxweed. On the plus side he thought, the sumac couldn't come into contact with the sides of his cauldron now. Maybe this would work out.
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Andrew Duell
This can't be that hard, can it?
145
Andrew Duell
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5
So I can trust you know what you're doing! by Nathaniel
“Jose Hernandez?” He looked at the boy curiously. Always one for names that fit, he did not think that this name fit. He tried it out in what he thought to be a Spanish accent. “Jooooose Hernandezzzz,” he frowned, that didn’t sound right either. “It doesn’t sound right on you,” he whined for just a second, before throwing the fluxweed in and possibly ruining his potion already.When told that the results of his blood would be bad, Nathaniel nodded carefully and set the wounded hand back on the table with care. “Okay, good, because I don’t want to blow anything up or hurt anyone, who knows what’s in my blood.” He looked at it like it was some kind of monster now, and looked back at what he really would need for this class.
Oh yeah, doxy blood. He knew about doxies, they were scary little things that looked like fairies from far away, but that was just a pretty trick, and then they bit you and it hurt. Or at least, that’s what he expected, getting bit usually hurt.
He laughed and looked at the other boy like he was the silly one. “I’m not a doxy, silly, I’m a boy.”
But then, Jose said something that made sense, and Nathaniel wasn’t so sure anymore. Nathaniel Leon was, in one word, gullible. And despite the fact that it was probably impossible for a doxy and human to go through the process of conceiving a child, let alone having the DNA that made it possible to have a child, Nathaniel Leon thought that it was totally possible.
“You know, you’re right,” he nodded. “I don’t have any magical family members you know, though my mom’s trying out Wicca, Pippa says that she still won’t be magic. Maybe I have doxy in my family! And that’s why I’m magic. Magic is so cool…” he trailed off, thinking why not and squeezed a drew drops of blood from his wound into the metal spoon, which he placed into the potion and began to stir.
“Ow, the metal’s starting to burn and smoke,” he pulled out the spoon, to see that it had in fact, begun smoking. “Should that be happening?” But he continued on, sumac extract with the metal spoon. Beaming at Jose, he told the boy, “Wow, thanks a lot Jose-hay,” he still didn’t think the name sounded right. “I wasn’t really listening you know, you’re big, WOAH!”
At this point in time, Nathaniel had poured way too much of the sumac extract on the metal spoon over his cauldron, and the spoon started to flame. When the flame touched his hand, Nathaniel let go in a rush, letting the spoon and over amount of sumac to fall into the cauldron. Which… also started a huge bonfire like flame at the top. And…
Nathaniel jumped back, knocking his chair back. “Is my cauldron melting?” he asked in a high-pitched, worried voice, looking back at Jose with a panic. “What did I do wrong?” he asked the boy, obviously terrified. “I just did everything you told me to do!”
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Nathaniel
So I can trust you know what you're doing!
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Nathaniel
0
5
Professor! He believed me! Help! by Jose
Jose dismissed the comment about his name not fitting him. It was his name. His dad and mom gave it to him. Besides, it was kind of fun to see how long it took people to figure out he didn't actually speak much Spanish. It occurred to him as he watched the potion steam that he probably liked tricking folks a little too much. He was totally getting at least two detentions for this.Which didn't stop him from watching as Nathaniel poured the sumac extract directly onto the metal spoon over the potion.
He'd been expecting something to go wrong, but not that spectacularly. It took him a moment longer than it probably should have to grab Nathaniel and leap as far away as he could while dragging the other boy. He shouted out "PROFESSOR! HELP!" even though she'd probably already seen the flames and figured out she was needed.
Jose threw up a protego, shielding both himself and Nathaniel from any further fiery potion splatters, and began checking over the other kid's hands and arms, feeling really bad about his part in the mess. The looked unnaturally red and was that burned hair he smelled? "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he said quite a few times. A week, a month of detentions was in his future for this stunt, he was certain.
"My fault, it's my fault," he told Nathaniel, because the other kid just looked so scared. "I told you wrong. My fault." Jose felt even more mean and guilty than he already did. He hadn't wanted anyone, especially Nathaniel who seemed like a really nice if very gullible guy, to get hurt or frightened. "Are you burned bad?" he asked, worried and conscience-stricken.
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Jose
Professor! He believed me! Help!
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Jose
0
5
250 different species of sumac to choose from; hmm. . . by Euna Song
Euna had learned in her year and a half of experience at Sonora that the revolving door of professors was a standard thing in the school's history. She wasn't sure whether this was merely a byproduct of the whimsy of the academically-inclined mind or a trait shared by Wizarding adults in general. Having no directly related (that she knew of at least) witch or wizard adults in her family, she had no real basis of comparison. She figured she'd have to wait until she and her brother grew up to learn that answer. She cupped her chin, her dark eyes intent, as the new potions professor finished her introduction and jumped into the lesson.A forgetfulness potion. . . beyond assisting people dealing with a terrible trauma or something similar, Euna couldn't think of any other particularly beneficial purpose such a potion could have. For all of its somewhat innocuous name, the idea of something stripping away your memory- voluntary or otherwise- left her with a chill. Unbidden, her gaze crossed the classroom to where her brother was bent over his work station, his hands in the processing of folding a sheet of parchment into a giraffe. Her lips frowned in disapproval, and purposely, she corrected her attention and carefully began to remove her potions kit- newly stocked and charmed with at least four different stabilizing spells to prevent any future acts of vandalism from her sibling.
As she always did in potions, Euna copied down the ingredients necessitated in a neat list, specific instructions scripted in tiny print beneath them. She paused midway to remove her school robes and roll up her sleeves, and while in the process of securing her black hair into a practical braid, she noticed that, while not specifically directed to do so, most of her classmates were partnering up for the assignment. After scanning those nearest to her- to her disappointed Adelita was already partnered up with Daniel; Lita was one of the few girls in her year that Euna felt entirely comfortable with- she turned somewhat reluctantly to her right, and with her best attempt at friendliness (it fell somewhat short, landing more at a solid awkward), asked:
"Would you like to partner up?" And to serve as an enticement, she held up a glass vial, "Sumac extract, intact and metal-free. Although," she paused, peering at the vial closely, "I think this might be the poison sumac variety. Do you think it matters? The book doesn't specify."
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Euna Song
250 different species of sumac to choose from; hmm. . .
0
Euna Song
0
5
Excellent: a <i>useful</i> lesson indeed. by Mike Song
Mike Song ran a disgruntled hand over his recently cut hair, the length shortened to a scant step above a buzz cut. He hated the length, but the cut had been necessary. He had it done the day after Euna threw volume VII of her Children's Encyclopedia at his face. He sported the black eye for a week, and the nagging sense of guilt still hadn't let up despite his attempt at making things better. The hair cut had been his apology, but unlike in the past when Euna would have patted his forehead and offered to spend her allowance on otter pops, she had ignored him and his apology cut. The easy dismissal left him frustrated and that vague distress in his stomach wasn't relenting.Okay, so he had gone overboard during the first semester. The pranks had stopped being fun after the first month, and the normal sense of satisfaction he got from seeing his older sister lose her temper had held none of its usual potency. Instead, his hair was now too short and his eye still felt sore, and she still wouldn't talk to him.
A surge of optimism struck him, though, the moment the new potions professor, Professor Morastus announced what their assignment was titled. After duly noting that the new professor wasn't bad to look at for an old(er) lady, he eagerly opened to the stated page. A forgetfulness potion. . . how convenient was that? Maybe if he could just get Euna to forget their argument over break, then she'd stop being mad and things could go back to normal. She'd go back to doing stuff for him, and he'd stop feeling- well, he'd stop feeling whatever this annoying feeling was.
He listened vaguely to the rest of the instructions, his hands busy with folding his paper for note-taking into a giraffe, and once released to action, he twisted around in his chair and addressed the classmate behind him. "Hey, work with me on this, all right? I got the blood and fluxweed covered."
0
Mike Song
Excellent: a <i>useful</i> lesson indeed.
0
Mike Song
0
5
Remind me to change my seat. by David Lancaster
David Lancaster slid into his usual seat in potions, pleased that he had arrived with minutes to spare. Granted, his shirt was once again un-tucked and his robes impossibly wrinkled by the short journey through the hallway. Despite his best efforts, he never could manage to arrive to his classes with the proper appearance. Even his attempts to keep his bed made and his sheets tucked in fell short; somehow, in the process of putting the bed in order, he made it worse than a night of sleeping did. It made for a discouraging start to his mornings, and while it had been pointed out to him that the school's prairie-elves could sort out his bed far more easily and certainly better than he ever could, he couldn't quite get himself to break the habit.He was a creature of process, even if he did have the tendency lose himself into the actions. That probably explained why his end results were so often lackluster.
Kind of the way his fluxweed was looking at the moment.
David had been pleased when Professor Morastus didn't instruct that they work in pairs; he had been equally as pleased when he read over the potion's instructions. Potions was one of two classes in which he managed a level above mediocrity. The class was surprisingly similar to cooking, and he found the repetitiveness of much of the directions soothing. His knife-work, though, still required some improvement. He was fairly certain that mincing ought to create smaller pieces. He glanced over to where his housemate Nathaniel was working with Jose; David winced as Nathaniel dropped strips of fluxweed- strips that were definitely not anywhere close to looking minced- into his cauldron. His expression changed to one of concern, however, when he saw Nathaniel reach for a metal spoon to measure out the sumac extract.
His attempt to prevent the mistake, an abbreviated and clearly not loud enough "Not the metal one-" was promptly overshadowed when their workstation quite literally began raining fire. David stared, not quite comprehending either the sudden surge in heat or the very dangerous gelatinous fire-covered globs that were sputtering from the increasingly misshapen cauldron. And when he did stir into action, he had somehow pulled the large packet of baking soda that was used in their potions' bases and threw the entirety of it toward the cauldron. Half of the baking soda managed to land strategically, coating the flaming remnants on the table top and dousing them. The mess of the cauldron itself continued to sputter, the flaming mixture boiling like a lava pool, but the soda had done the job of weakening it enough so that David could step back and remember to take a breath. The other half of the baking soda flew back into his face and hair and whoever else was behind him.
Belatedly, David would realize that the thought to use his wand never even entered his mind. Somehow, the existence of Professor Morastus and the fact that the assistance of his baking soda was most likely unnecessary also failed to occur to him.
He blinked soda from his eyes and eyelashes, and turned to both Nathaniel and Jose, his voice unnaturally calm despite the fact that the entirety of him was shaking. "I think there's aloe in our kits. For the burns."
0
David Lancaster
Remind me to change my seat.
0
David Lancaster
0
5
Charlotte Abbott
August 20, 2009 5:30 PM
I think classes are supposed to be useful by Charlotte Abbott
Midterm had been both cruel and kind to Charlotte, and to her brother Oliver. They'd both been alone for the holidays - not in the literal sense, as they lived in a hotel. But their oldest brother Julian had been away practically the whole time with his most recent girlfriend, Amy. Oliver had scuffed his heels and puppy-dog-eyed everyone and everything moping that he couldn't be with his girlfriend, and Charlie found herself in the horrific position of being the only dateless Abbott over the holiday period. This had never happened before. Still, the pre-teen found she could bare it better than she'd have thought. That didn't stop her wishes to rectify the situation in time for the next holiday.Lack of love aside, midterm had turned about to be pretty good - Julian had all but deserted his new Xbox, and Charlie and Oliver had taken serious advantage of that fact. Plus Charlotte had persuaded her parents to take her to see Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty, and Charlie had danced as a child in The Nutcracker. Her parents were being totally unreasonable about not letting her learn pointe though, but Charlie had a solution to that problem as well.
Her problem solving would have to wait, though - classes came first. Potions was never all that bad, and for the first time since Charlie was at Sonora they seemed to have a real professor. She was all smiles, which Charlotte felt made up for the fact they had to use doxy blood. "Hey," a voice called. Charlie looked up to catch the rest of the sentance. "Work with me on this, all right? I got the blood and fluxweed covered."
It was Mike Song, that Korean kid who sometimes gave the impression he was really trying for a detention. Charlie thought he was kind of cute. This short hair look - it wasn't as attractive as the look she was used to, but it made him look older. More mature. "Sure," she replied with a customary white-toothed smile (her incisors were a little crooked but only noticeable on close inspection). Gathering her bag and booked, Charlie neglected her seat and moved forward to join Mike at his desk. "I'll get the other ingredients sorted," she told him, and, with another charming smile, she headed for the supply cabinet.
With a vial of sumac extract, beetle eyes and dried nettles, Charlotte returned to the table and laid out the ingredients nicely. She felt that conversation was necessary (it almost always was) and, in avoidance of the typical 'good holidays?' opener, Charlie said, "What crazy person thought of mixing doxy blood with sumac extract in the first place?"
0
Charlotte Abbott
I think classes are supposed to be useful
135
Charlotte Abbott
0
5
Trial by Fire Indeed. by Professor Morastus
She had once heard it said that teachers couldn't have children because not one name could they hear without their blood pressure rising. While a few did a good job of making her cring inwardly, something told her the name Nathaniel was soon going to reach that vaulted status. Regardless of whether he would prove a good kid at heart, it took a lot to screw up such a simple potion so spectacularly, and it was usually something that couldn't be fixed. Either complete ineptitude or the attention span of a fruit fly.After reviewing the seating chart more carefully, names planting themselves in her memory, Aylin had gone to the far side of the classroom. Clarifying one after another of the details she had reviewed, the poor child she was helping seeming more afraid of the process than anything and it was something that had to be addressed before they began lest they make a mistake along the way that wouldn't truly reflect their actual ability. Under normal circumstances, it wouldn't have been that tragic a proposal, assisting a student for a few minutes but Fate had other plans, and while they would prove the bane of her existance, it was Fate's twisted sense of humor that troubled her the most.
Because Fate loved things coming in threes.
Her wand was out before she even got half way across the room, a swift flick and everything on the table froze in a strange form of stasis, flames and all. Another pointed snap, and it the cauldron vanished, where to, no one would honestly know, for she'd not divulge the answer even if they dare ask.
Reaching the young boy, Aylin cast a pointed look over those who were watching with morbid curiosity, causing them to return their much needed focus on their own work, then carefully took hold of the boy's wrist and inspected his hand. The burn wasn't much, and a simple charm set him to rights. Sighing, she released him and crossed her arms, wand still in hand. "Mister Leon," she began, a brow arched. "Were it necessary to demonstrate the outcome of doing everything I specifically warn you against, I would do so myself. As it is, from now on, you will not touch your cauldron until you have repeated and written every detail both I and the book cover in a potion's brewing. Is that clear?"
0
Professor Morastus
Trial by Fire Indeed.
0
Professor Morastus
0
5
Jose Hernandez
August 21, 2009 9:03 AM
Professor, it's my fault. by Jose Hernandez
Jose was surprised. No detentions so far, and what really shocked him was that most of the teacher's focus seemed to be on Nathaniel, not him. "Professor," he put in a little tentatively, because he didn't really want to get in trouble, but it had been his fault more than Nate's and he really should take most of the blame here. That was only right and fair. "Professor, it's my fault. I told him what to do."Sure, Nathaniel probably should have been paying attention to the teacher in the first place, so that he'd have known Jose was giving him the worst advice possible, but he probably wouldn't have gotten everything wrong without Jose's instigation. "He thought he was following your advice, but I was telling him everything exactly wrong."
He looked at Nathaniel again, winced in guilt and shame, and looked away, "I'm really sorry. I didn't think it would flame out like that." He'd hoped for some smoke and sparks and some neat effects to look at, but he hadn't meant for anything to be dangerous. "But I'm the bad guy, Professor, not Nathaniel. I tricked him."
1
Jose Hernandez
Professor, it's my fault.
149
Jose Hernandez
0
5
Now that's not all true D: by Nathaniel
Nathaniel was practically crying at this point. Not because anything hurt, nothing hurt, his hands stung a little, but he had been able to pull them away before the cauldron torched, but because he was scared. Because he had just really messed up, and he was terrified that he was going to get in trouble for this. He wasn’t crying, just shaking, little sobs coming from his throat. Jose called for the professor, and Nathaniel felt even worse.“I’m sorry,” he told Jose, begging forgiveness for the melting cauldron. “I’m so sorry, Jose, I’m so stupid, I did everything… wrong,” despite Jose telling him he had been told wrong. Nathaniel was still shaking. “No, no, I didn’t get much burn,” his hands were red, his fingers a little blistered, but he barely noticed it. He nodded at the other boy next to him, a boy in his house, David. I-I think I’ll be fine. Are you guys okay? I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. Where‘s that aloe? Oh, Merlin, I‘m sorry.” And then, in a higher pitch, “I’m going to get in trouble,” he whimpered.
Sure enough, after the cauldron disappeared, his hands were taken from him by the Professor, and he sniffled, holding back the actual tears as best he could. “I’m sorry, Professor!” he said again, and a split second later he received his verbal lashing. Nathaniel’s appearance could be described close to that of a cowering puppy being smacked on the head. And he nodded, kept nodding dumbly.
His tongue untangled, and he found himself repeating apologies, shaking and looking down at his feet. Jose spoke up and Nathaniel fell silent immediately, long fingers moving up to brush away the tears that may have been there, and looked up at Jose with some shock. His voice came out as a small squeak, “Why did you…?” he was more surprised than angry, and one would find it would take a lot more than a little potions prank and some accidental burns to make Nathaniel Leon truly mad. Nathaniel came to the conclusion that this was still his fault, no matter how Jose was trying to turn it around.
Nathaniel shook his head. “N-no, no, I-I didn’t l-listen. I just, I l-looked up and you were t-talking, but I d-d-didn’t hear all of it,” the shaking disrupting his voice. “I-I would have still, something, still my fault.” He decided, sniffling, and with a small sound, returning his gaze to his feet. He was in so much trouble. So much. “I-I’m not c-cut out for magic,” he whimpered, near blubbering, “I n-never have b-been. C-cos my family h-hasn’t had it, I-I’m just no good. I’m s-sorry.”
0
Nathaniel
Now that's not all true D:
0
Nathaniel
0
5
Did you make up any good ones? by Lita
Adelita’s face went from one of absolute horror to one of complete disgust before returning to her normal content look and hoping that the brief lapse of control had been missed by Daniel as he had mentioned his roommate. Adelita really didn’t know Quentin, but what she did know of him annoyed her to the ends of the Earth. All he did was ask useless questions that really had nothing to do with what they were learning at the time. Or questions that any idiot could answer if they had a brain. She certainly wasn’t a bookworm and could ask some random things, but he was over the top about it. She wondered if his parents had gone completely mad over the last twelve years of his life. She wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if they had.“I’m so sorry.” Adelita replied in all seriousness. She felt completely terrible that Daniel had to subject himself to Quentin and couldn’t blame him at all for being so literal about something she wouldn’t have thought twice about. “I don’t know how you survive. I’d have strangled him by now.” When they had first come to Sonora, Lita had thought Quentin was joking by the questions he had been asking, but that belief soon faded when he never stopped asking those questions.
Adelita nodded when Daniel came to his own conclusion about the cauldron and the extract. “Makes sense.” She commented lightly while she sorted out the rest of the supplies they would need. Lita tried to think of potions like cooking they way that her mother told her she should. Cooking came easily to the women in her family, but Lita was disastrous. “If we fail this, I’m sorry. It’ll be because of me.” Adelita told Daniel bluntly. She might as well get that out now before they actually started the project.
“Um…” Adelita started, looking down at the fluxweed for a moment. Well, at least it wasn’t a bug or a dead animal. “Okay, I’ll do this, but can you do the blood? The whole ‘every odd stir’ will have me all flustered.”
0
Lita
Did you make up any good ones?
0
Lita
0
5
Jethro Smythe
August 22, 2009 6:56 AM
Want a wager on that? by Jethro Smythe
Jethro never worried about potions classes. He could always work with a partner, and even if for some reason he found himself alone, he could follow written out instructions that told him what to do. Yes, he might have let his attention slip from time to time and got things a bit muddled up, but he hadn't caused any real catastrophes. Yet.There was a different professor to teach potions today. It didn't matter - the room was the same and all the students were the same so Jethro assumed he was still in the right class. He wrote down the name of the potion (he was getting good at remembering to do that) and he paused a moment to consider its use: why would anyone need a potion to forget things? Jethro had great trouble remembering anything ever. He forgot things all the time, and it was dreadful. Why would anyone need a potion to make themselves suffer like that? It was crazy talk.
By the time Jethro had decided he needed to do the potion, whatever it was, and maybe that there was some use for it he hadn't thought of, like for government spies, it seemed that everyone else was starting to get to work already. Jethro didn't want to get behind already - he usually managed it by the end of the class but to be behind right at the beginning was bad even for him. So Jethro wandered across the classroom to work with Andrew, who didn't seem to have a partner yet, and with whom Jethro had worked before.
"You're cauldron's all dirty," Jethro pointed out by way of greeting. Then he put his book and potions kit on the desk next to Andrew's, and said, "What would you like me to do first?"
0
Jethro Smythe
Want a wager on that?
146
Jethro Smythe
0
5
Can't say I'm much of a gambler by Andrew
Andrew paused while dicing the fluxweed and glanced up at Jethro with a bit of a smile. When he and Jethro teamed up, they usually got something relatively close to what they needed to produce. Hopefully today would be the same.A chuckle escaped Andrew's smile as Jethro commented on his cauldron. He continued dicing the fluxweed, "Yeah, seems I don't need the potion we're making today. Whatever it is, is stuck in there pretty good. I'm hoping it'll make a good barrier between the metal of the cauldron and the sumac. What do you think?"
"Do you want to make sure we've got everything else we're going to need? I've got the sumac, but I'm not sure about the doxy blood, beetle eyes and dried nettles."
2
Andrew
Can't say I'm much of a gambler
145
Andrew
0
5
Thistle: <i>v.</i> To falsely project oneself as a pureblood by Daniel
Daniel shrugged at Adelita's sympathy over his roommate. In all honesty, Quentin wasn't that bad. You just had to be really careful about what you said around him. Holly was nearly as bad, and he liked Quentin's questions better than her nervous breakdowns when he got it wrong. Quentin at least made him think about language, communication, clarity, and how weird English was. He'd far sooner share a room with Quentin than a mansion with his sister. He rarely felt more than a momentarily impatience with the other Aladren, and perhaps an occasional inclination to hide.But that might just be him. Holly was clearly mentally unbalanced. This was hardly the first time he thought he might be genetically disposed toward insanity himself. If Adelita seemed to think a sane person would have wanted to strangle Quentin by now, he wasn't going to argue it.
As they turned back to the potion at hand, Daniel shook his head at her comment that if they failed, it would be her fault. While that was true, he was far more certain that they just weren't going to fail. He made a mental note to keep a close eye on everything she did, just in case.
"I haven't failed a potion yet, so I think we should be all right," he assured her, then promised, "And don't worry, I'll handle the tricky parts and the blood."
With that he hoisted his cauldron up onto the tabletop between them. Though a year and a half old, and well-used over that time, the cauldron was obviously equally well cared for. Its sturdy highest-quality black body looked exactly as it had when it was brand new. The only difference was that it no longer had that freshly cast smell to it.
Daniel used his wand to fill it three quarters of the way full with water and then set a flame under it to start heating it up. It would take a little while for that to start simmering. In the mean time, he checked on her progress with the fluxweed, frowned slightly, and suggested, "Make the cuts just a little closer, if you can, but you're not doing too bad. There's just no such thing as too thin when you're mincing."
Confident that she had that under control, he went through his potions kit to find his vial of sumac extract. Finding a glass measuring vial and cast a cleaning charm on it to make sure there wasn't any metal traces in there. Then he held his breath, crouched down to eye level with the target measurement line, began the careful process of decanting exactly the right amount into the glass cylinder.
1
Daniel
Thistle: <i>v.</i> To falsely project oneself as a pureblood
130
Daniel
0
5
Quentin Melcher
August 27, 2009 4:10 PM
The instructions should have specified (Professor) by Quentin Melcher
There was a new professor in Potions today, and Quentin was going to do what he always did when there was a new or substitute professor; reserve judgement on whether or not the new professor was an actual professor until he or she had actually taught them something. Quentin had made the mistake of assuming Mr. Flatt was a professor and wasn't going to make the same mistake again.He was a bit disappointed that they wouldn't have Professor Fawcett for this class anymore but at least he'd be teaching them Transfiguration again.
Today they would be covering the forgetfulness potion. Quentin frowned when Ms. Morastus said that the instructions and ingredients were in the book. How did that make her a professor? She wouldn't be teaching them anything at all. Quentin was about to put her in the same category as Mr. Flatt (albeit a bit nicer) when she began going through examples. That...was something.
"Would you like to partner up?"
Quentin blinked when Euna Song spoke to him. "Well, I was planning to partner up." He could do the potion fine on his own really, but really he enjoyed working with someone else and had been actually planning to ask Marissa again, as he'd liked working with her last semester.
But Euna wouldn't have been a bad partner either. She was intelligent enough, or at least school driven. Quentin counted on the latter with her being in Aladren. Aladren's description never did say anything about intelligence, just love of learning and being logical. At the very least though she didn't appear to be the vapid sort that some of the girls in his year were and he rather liked what he knew of both her and Taylor. "Did you want to work with me?"
Euna never had specified that and may very well have been merely inquiring after whether Quentin intended to work alone or with a partner. Which would have seemed a bit odd, as there was a potion to be done, it was hardly the time to conduct a survey on whether or not one wanted to partner or work alone. At least that demonstrated an interest in learning something though...
"I think this might be the poison sumac variety. Do you think it matters? The book doesn't specify."
Quentin's eyes widened in horror. He glanced down at his book. "You're right! It doesn't ." How could the text book company fail to print which version of sumac to use? He was going to have to tell his parents of this oversite so they didn't use this same text book at their school. Or alert the textbook company of their mistake. After all this was Potions . The wrong kind of sumac could mean the difference between the potion working or not, or whether or not there was an accident or life or death.
"I...don't think we should use the poisonous one. I mean, it's poisonous. Poison equals sickness and possible death. Perhaps one of us should ask. Both of us asking together would be silly. It's only necessary that one of us speaks, I'll do that." As questions were sort of his thing, Quentin raised his hand and waited patiently for Professor Morastus to finish with the accident that Nathaniel had caused and come over so he could ask.
11
Quentin Melcher
The instructions should have specified (Professor)
129
Quentin Melcher
0
5
I could say it but it's not true by Jethro
Jethro peered inside Andrew's cauldron again at the substance stuck there. "I'm hoping it'll make a good barrier between the metal of the cauldron and the sumac. What do you think?" Andrew asked. Of course, it didn't occur to Jethro that the question may have been rhetorical, so he answered it."It really depends what's stuck. It doesn't look like metal so it probably won't react with the sumac but it might react with the fluxweed or the blood and things. If it's really stuck on it probably boiled too high so I'd imagine that if we keep the temperature down low nothing will react at all," he said in a detached manner.
"Do you want to make sure we've got everything else we're going to need? I've got the sumac, but I'm not sure about the doxy blood, beetle eyes and dried nettles." Andrew said.
"Okay," Jethro replied, "I'll make sure we've got everything else we need. He then spent the next several minutes going down the list of ingredients in the textbook, and checking the desk, then his own potions kit, and then the store cupboard until he had all the necessary ingredients laid out before them. He noticed that his partner had already accomplished the task of dicing the fluxweed, so Jethro set about finding a task for himself. He decided he would weigh out the beetle eyes. Taking a bag of the tiny, shiny eyes and some old sclaes, Jethro checked the required weight about fifteen times until he was satisfied he had the right amount.
Handing the bowl full of the correct weight of beetle eyes to his partner, Jethro asked cheerfully, "What shall I do next?"
0
Jethro
I could say it but it's not true
0
Jethro
0
5
Oh really? by Andrew
While Jethro was gathering the rest of the ingredients, Andrew paused the dicing long enough to fill up the cauldron with water and get the heat going. He then finished chopping up the fluxweed, and dumped it into the water. A bit of a strange smell wafted out of the water, but it quickly dispersed. Andrew figured it was supposed to happen and turned back to Jethro when he asked his question."Do you want to figure out how that Doxy blood part is supposed to work, the professor's instructions confused me a bit." He accepted the bowl of beetle eyes and started adding them to the mix. That strange odor rose out of the water again.
He glance over at Jethro, "Does this smell alright to you?"
2
Andrew
Oh really?
145
Andrew
0
5
That seems fitting for your sister. by Lita
Adelita grinned in appreciation when Daniel said he’d take on all the hard parts, including the blood. That was more than helpful to Adelita. She could do simple tasks, or so she hoped. She wished everything in life was easy. Even dancing was difficult for her. Well, in general, dancing would be difficult for everyone, but she wanted what she loved to be easy. Playing instruments came easily to her sister. All she really had to do is hear and watch a person play an instrument a few times and she could pick it up with ease. That was one thing Adelita was always jealous of.But more than wanting the things she loved to be easy, she wanted everything to be easy. If school was easy, she wouldn’t be bothered by it so much. She wouldn’t be mad that she was here instead of at a performing arts school. Of course, if it wasn’t difficult, than life would be boring, but that wasn’t the point.
Adelita set herself to cutting up the fluxweed. She wished she knew the charm that just cut things so that she didn’t have to do it manually, but she had yet to learn it and her mother and father weren’t about to teach her anything regarding magic. They felt school was best left to that sort of stuff. Daniel’s input startled Lita as she had let her mind wander slightly while she had been cutting.
“Oh, okay, thanks!” Lita said as she did what he told her. She tried as carefully as she could to cut the fluxweed in even thinner slices. She felt slightly embarrassed that Daniel found something she was doing wrong with simply cutting, but she knew that he was an expert at this, so she couldn’t get upset about it. Still, she felt her cheeks burning slightly.
Out of the corner of her eye, she watched Daniel as he measured the sumac. As she watched him, a realization hit her and without realizing it, a giggle had bubbled out of her throat. Trying to cover it with a cough, Lita tried to focus on her cutting once more. “Daniel, I never realized it until now, but you are a true Aladren.”
0
Lita
That seems fitting for your sister.
0
Lita
0
5
I also use the phrase 'pulled a Holly' to mean 'fainted' by Daniel
Daniel paused in his measuring, going completely still while he decided how to handle Adelita's observation that he was a true Aladren. The fact of the matter was that she was correct. Daniel had never really tried to hide, exactly, that he'd been put in the most appropriate House for him, but Aladren did have certain nerdy stereotypes that he wasn't keen to accept.After a moment, he moved the sumac vial away from the measuring cylinder and tilted his head to look up at her from his crouch, a wry crooked smile touching his mouth, and a genuine amusement dancing in his brown eyes. "Yes, I am, but let's keep that between us, shall we? It'll ruin my cool movie star mystique if that kind of thing gets out." He was, of course, mostly joking.
Mostly.
He glanced back toward the measuring cylinder, still not quite filled to the appropriate line. The incompleteness of it bothered him. It just needed a few more drops. He bit his lip, held his breath again and added them until the meniscus was where it should be. He capped the the sumac vial with an air of accomplishment, straightened up out of his crouch, and put the vial back into his potions kit.
He checked the water - still not simmering - and Adelita's progress of the fluxweed - nearly done - and then double checked the potion instructions. "When you're done there, do you want to measure the dried nettles?" He assumed, perhaps chauvinistically, that she'd rather not mash the beetle eyes into a paste, given a choice. Even Daniel found that to be a little gross.
1
Daniel
I also use the phrase 'pulled a Holly' to mean 'fainted'
130
Daniel
0
5
Pippa Brockert
September 01, 2009 7:03 PMPippa Brockert
AlumnusHouse: Teppenpaw
Written by: Allegra Brockert
Age in Post: 12
Birthday: July 9
Looking for a partner by Pippa Brockert
Potions was hardly Pippa's favorite class. She didn't like that bits of animals were used to make some potions and didn't like that there were potions that were harmful. If she'd been a little less generally naive, the latter would have frightened her, for it was her younger sister's favorite and best subject, but Pippa really was that naive. Especially given that as a pureblood she should have been well aware of both harmful potions and that they contained ingredients that came from animals.At the moment, Pippa was feeling just a bit anxious for a third reason, they were getting a new professor. This was a common enough occurence but that didn't stop her from feeling nervous and intimidated. What if she was like Professor Taylor or the old Professor Flatt?
Fortunately she seemed to be pretty nice. Pippa couldn't figure out why anyone would want to make a forgetfulness potion though. That sounded so cruel. Bad things could happen to someone who had ingested such a potion. Like if someone was under the effects of said potion and forgot to go to class or do their homework or something.
But, she still had to do the lesson, even if she thought it was horrible. If Pippa didn't, she'd get in trouble. She turned to the person nearest her that hadn't partnered up and asked "Will you work with me?"
11
Pippa Brockert
Looking for a partner
132
Pippa Brockert
0
5
Is your sister the source for all new words? by Lita
When she saw Daniel stop working on the sumac out of the corner of her eye, Adelita set her knife down before turning herself ever so slightly so that she had a better look at him. She had never really given the houses much thought last year because everything had been so new for her. But, now that she was half way through her second year at Sonora, Adelita had begun to distinguish the differences that each house had to offer.For instance, her Tio Jose was perfect for the Crotalus House. He was very particular with his work and often spent hours working on some drawing of a house or another. He claimed they were works for his portfolio for university, but sometimes Lita thought he did it to get out of having to be social with everyone. Her Tio Mateo, however, was the opposite and seemed to scream the characteristics that Pecari claimed.
Lita, herself, wasn’t really sure if she belonged in Crotalus. She was only cautious with her dancing and didn’t really care for rules. Perhaps the potion knew more about her own personality than she did or maybe she was still just trying to fit in and not really being herself. Who knew? But, she was still starting to see certain personality traits that went well with the house with whom the student was placed in. Daniel’s behavior in Potions and how logical way of thinking in History had Lita convinced he was an Aladren.
A cheeky grin came across her features at Daniel’s comment. She knew what movies were now. Those stories told on the picture boxes, so she had a vague idea in which he was referring too. “Oh, come now, Danny” Lita said quietly, leaning closer to him and letting his nickname with which she had wanted to call him since he told her not to come out, “Don’t you know that as long as you keep those boyish looks, the world will still love you?” She was partially joking when she said it. She was fairly certain that it didn’t matter what Daniel did with himself, he would still have a crowd of fans.
Sitting up straight again, Lita corrected herself, “Sorry, I meant Daniel. I just like saying Danny.” Returning to the task at hand, Lita finished with the fluxweed just as Daniel gave her the next options for the potions. “Sure. That shouldn’t be so terrible.” Pushing the minced fluxweed in Daniel’s direction, Lita pulled out her own dried nettles, “Are you going to be upset with me if I don’t measure them out exactly to the line?” She was teasing him, but a part of her thought he would be annoyed if she didn’t get it perfect.
0
Lita
Is your sister the source for all new words?
0
Lita
0
5
Edmond Carey
September 19, 2009 12:53 AM
Being seen, I suppose by Edmond Carey
Though it wasn't his best subject, Edmond had come to like Potions very much between September and December. It was much more interesting to actually work in the lab, knowing that the slightest mistake could lead to disaster on any number of scales, than it had been to read all the thick Theory of Potions books he'd been assigned the year before. The family, having been relatively sure he was in full possession of his wits and powers by the time he was seven, had vigorously prepared him for school in the last year before he was accepted to it.He'd been prepared for it, but seeing a woman where, in his mind, Professor Fawcett should have been was still a bit of a surprise. Getting used to the regular shuffle of teachers was, it seemed, not going to be easy for him, but he hadn't really expected it to be. Edmond had often had trouble with new tutors for their first few weeks; it took some time for him to adjust to a new teaching style, and to adjust out of the one he'd gotten used to. Morgaine was the 'flexible and adaptive' one, not him.
As the lesson began, though, he decided he could work with the new teacher. She was not trying to implement what that one tutor, the one he'd asked Robert to fire after a week, had called "new and innovative teaching methods", and he'd taken a liking to her name. It was, perhaps, a bit trivial of him, but there it was: he liked her name. It sounded as if it had come from a history book, since most people were tending toward plainer names these days. Though his mother and father had, admittedly, missed that particular memo in much more spectacular fashion when it came to their girls, he still felt some sympathy with the professor.
They were, as usual, ordered to split into pairs for their actual potion-making. Morgaine told him this wasn't always the case in the upper levels, which made him want to carry on with the subject very much; he was inclined to see what he could do on his own, but while Robert had bent a law or three to teach him to duel before he'd started school, the odds were on that Robert wasn't going to go for allowing a twelve-year-old license to play with fire and things that, under the wrong circumstances, could explode the house. He turned to look at the seat next to him as its occupant, an older girl he didn't know, spoke to him.
"Certainly," he said, bowing slightly to her and having not the faintest inkling of how ridiculous it made him look and sound. "I am Edmond Carey, of Aladren." Being at home for a few weeks had brought his formalities back to him entirely, but he was still sticking by his early-year decision not to introduce himself by branch. Morgaine felt like his sister, now, but he still didn't feel like part of her family.
0
Edmond Carey
Being seen, I suppose
143
Edmond Carey
0
5
Marissa Stephenson
September 20, 2009 10:43 PM
Late, but I have a goal to meet. by Marissa Stephenson
Though it nearly broke her back to carry them and all of her thick textbooks, Marissa’s notebooks were one of her greatest sources of pride. Each binder was a different color depending on what hue she associated most strongly with that class (History of Magic was the same dark red she’d always used for Social Studies in Georgia, and Potions was the dark green of science), and each followed a rigid, inflexible system of organization based on dates and topics.There was also an aesthetic component to her notebooks. If she lost her train of thought and doodled during class, or if she marred the page of notes in any other way, she would recopy it neatly once she returned to the common room and use it to replace the bad copy. The mistakes were distracting when she was trying to study, and she had been raised to appreciate neatness and beauty anyway. This tendency usually came in handy, but at the moment, it was proving itself the slightest bit of a nuisance. Her notebook’s front page declared her teacher to be Professor Fawcett, which had been true and now wasn’t true. Replacing the page entirely wasn’t an option, either, because the new professor hadn’t taught through the first half of the year. These notebooks and her diary were what she would refer to when her family asked about her new life; they couldn’t be imprecise.
She came up with a solution just before the new professor began to talk. Taking great care to stay on-center, she added on And Ms. Aylin Morastus, Potions Professor beneath her original titles. She’d only just decided the ink was dry enough to turn the page as Professor Morastus told them to wand-write their names down on the desks. The task, for her, was a clumsy one; between trying to make ‘r’s stop looking like ‘c’s and spelling out her very long surname legibly, she was one of the last to finish the task.
The topic of the day, as she copied into her notes, was Forgetfulness Potions. Unconsciously, Marissa frowned slightly as she worked. While she could see a fantasy villain use such a thing with ease, she had a little more trouble seeing why they were teaching it to students at a school that, just going by the course descriptions, didn’t seem to be into the Dark Arts.
Perhaps she was starting to be inquisitive rather than obedient. That was a terrifying thought, and she banished it quickly. She was not an overtly brave person who challenged the system; she was a quiet smart girl who flourished within its confines. When, like her, a person was incapable of working without structure, that person learned to accept that he or she was going to have to go along with a few policies that didn’t suit him.
Once they were finished with the lecture and dismissed to work on the potion, Marissa looked at the seat next to hers. She did hope that it wasn’t going to become the rule to keep them on a fixed seating chart with Professor Morastus, because class was one of the best ways to be social here, and Potions was uniquely suited to socialization. It was also true that Care of Magical Creatures was good for meeting people, but she didn’t know how that was going to go once Professor Kijewski, who was more easy-going than most teachers, left. “Would you like for us to work together?” she asked with a friendly smile.
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Pippa
September 26, 2009 6:18 PM
Apparently by Pippa
Pippa gave Edmond a friendly smile. Somehow, the first years were overall less intimidating than her own classmates. Maybe it was because they were younger, maybe it was just something about their general personalities. She wasn't intimidated by the Carey name either as the pureblood families were generally not something that intimidated her. Pippa tended to be more so by those who were extremely confident and sure of themselves or those who were older or male."I'm Pippa Brockert, of Teppenpaw." She introduced herself. Normally, she'd been taught to give where her family was from, particularly if she meant someone from another proper pureblood family but he hadn't and it generally seemed weird to do so at Sonora. "It's nice to meet you, Edmond" Pippa wondered if she should curtsy as he'd sort of bowed. A lot of that had gone by the wayside while she was here even though Pippa was still super polite and respectful on the rare occurrence that she was introduced to someone who was considered important.
"What would you like to do?" Pippa asked. "I mean, on the potion." She thought it would be nice to let him have first pick. She never liked to be the first one to choose what she was going to do. Pippa worried that the other person would resent or be annoyed with her if they got stuck with something they didn't want to do or didn't get to do what they did want to do.
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