Professor Fawcett

April 28, 2010 12:06 PM
In some ways, the lack of a fifth year was actually a good thing. While John was concerned for how the transplanted sixth years, who had been fourth years a few months ago, would do in the Advanced classes, everyone else had become significantly easier to organize. He had always thought it was a shame that they had an uneven number of years anyway, though he would have preferred eight over six. Very few seventh years seemed to him to be remotely prepared for life on the outside, and extra time wouldn’t hurt those who were any.

He was, however, no more than a fringe figure in education, and certainly no politician, so John generally kept his thoughts about the matter to himself and confined his public statements to matters of magisociology. In that world, despite the widespread confusion among his colleagues about why he was teaching children basic potions theory and practice and his last book having been a straight rebuttal of another sociologist instead of anything especially original, he was still a respected figure. To be such in multiple fields would have pleased his ingrained ambition, but he had learned to be content with being such in one.

If, of course, being able to manage a room full of eleven and twelve year olds effectively did not qualify him for expert status all by itself. If it did, John thought he was doing all right.

“Good morning,” he told the class. “Attention, please…Thank you. I am Professor Fawcett, your Potions instructor. Welcome, or as the case may be, welcome back to this class. If you will please respond as I call the roll…”

Once that was done, he put away the paper and switched from his reading glasses to his regulars. He really was going to have to consider bifocals soon, but he intended to put that off as long as possible. It made him feel…old, and not in the sense of a wise professor. “This is a potentially dangerous class, and I expect a high standard of behavior from each of you. I would like Beginner Potions to be a pleasant experience for us all, but rest assured – any disorderly behavior, any deliberate failure to follow directions, any deliberate attempts at pranks or destructive actions will be punished as severely as I can manage.” It took effort for John, who more frequently sounded slightly out of touch with the present, to sound stern and like what he could manage was something quite severe indeed, but he managed it. “An imperfect potion is, if your best effort went into it, allowable; deliberately creating chaos in my classroom is not.”

That important bit out of the way, he went back to sounding deliberately pleasant. “Now, to begin, we’ll work on a simple cheering potion – something our first years can manage, but which I believe I didn’t cover last year with our second years. It's not nearly as powerful as a good number of the mood-altering potions you'll study for RATS, but still not something to indulge in frequently. The side effects can be…unpleasant.

"The ingredients are asphodel root, daisy root, fluxweed, and ginger. All of these should be in a standard potions-making kit, but if you are for some reason running low on an item, there are reserve supplies in the cupboard." For clarity, he used his pointed to indicate where it was.. "Separate into partners, be sensible, and begin."

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0 Professor Fawcett Beginner Potions (1st and 2nd years) 0 Professor Fawcett 1 5


Rachel Bauer

April 29, 2010 6:35 PM
For Rachel, Potions was a lot like Defense Against the Dark Arts. Both were classes which she very much liked, and both were classes she had to pretend to dislike because it would be less than proper for a lady to express interest in them. Potions, after all, involved dead bugs and the insides of a variety of things, and Defense was about doing a thing that she was supposed to let men do for her. Ladies weren't able to have strong stomachs or take care of themselves, or they lost their right to call themselves ladies.

So she pasted on a look of boredom as she sat on her stool in Professor Fawcett's lab, paying close attention to each word he said in secret. Her theory was that if she acted a part, no one - well, no one important; Raines was a bit of a problem, but she could only hope he was too busy mooning over Veronica to pay attention to her - would realize that she actually did well in her classes. It was, as the issue with Raines illustrated, not a perfect solution to the big problem of balancing all the things she needed, but it was the best Rachel could do.

She normally liked Fawcett, but couldn't help an irritated grimace when, once again, they were basically put to doing a review. Sure, they hadn't covered this one potion during her first year, but they had included the third years in a class with the beginners back then. Rachel had, before the end, been working on a level with those students. Doing an assignment designed for first years was like slow torture. She didn't feel like she was really learning anything, and what was the point of playing this part of the game if she never got anything out of it?

Of course, there was a bright side. If she got so bored and frustrated that her grades started to slip, she'd have that much that she didn't have to lie about anymore. She'd get a potential lecture from Dad, but given how little she got to see him, it wouldn't really matter. As long as Momma, whose company she spent much more time in, didn't see it having a negative impact on Rachel's social life, she wouldn't care, and might not even notice.

When they were put to work, she turned to the person in the next seat. She hadn't even bothered to put up her hair, and it was hanging straight down just past her shoulders. She'd over-dressed for the class, too; beneath her tailored robes was a very nice blue dress. Momma didn't believe in wearing casual clothes in public while there was money for anything nice, and Rachel couldn't say she cared much anymore. Every item of clothing that Emily Douglas had to replace would be a little revenge for all of this. "Shall we work together?" she asked, already setting her cauldron up. The answer was, usually, inevitable, and she didn't like it when she had to use other people's equipment.
16 Rachel Bauer Here we go again. 154 Rachel Bauer 0 5

Marian Parker, Aladren

May 03, 2010 8:32 PM
Potions class was bound to be exciting, Marian thought to herself. She’d been looking forward to it since she first got her kit for the course. After reading up on it, she was one hundred percent positive she’d enjoy the course. It seemed just like cooking, and she’d always been good at that. It had to be the closest thing to a muggle class that she’d ever find at Sonora, considering how different than expected all her other courses had been so far.

She came in on time and sat beside an bored looking girl. Shy as ever, Marian kept to herself and didn’t say a word, too afraid of making a fool of herself somehow. Instead she focused on taking accurate, detailed notes of everything that Professor Fawcett was saying. She shook her head at the fact the professor had to emphasis that people should treat this class seriously. Why people wouldn’t was beyond her. Didn’t they care about their grades?

Marian wasn’t happy to hear that they had to work in partners. This meant she had to talk. She reluctantly looked to the girl beside her and swallowed. The girl looked older, so she was probably a second year. She was already busy setting her caldron up as she half-heartedly asked Marian to be her partner. Obviously the girl was not very excited about the partnership at all.

Marian blushed. “Um… y-yes, that’d be n-nice,” she said quietly, taking out her ingredients. She started to cut the daisy root the way the text books in the library had said one should when working on potions that effected emotions. She wanted to do well so this girl wouldn’t look so upset with her. Marian never liked disappointing people.
41 Marian Parker, Aladren Actually, this is a first for me 1402 Marian Parker, Aladren 0 5


Rachel

May 09, 2010 10:13 PM
The face of the girl beside her was new, which meant she'd either landed a transfer or a first year. Rachel found she had no preference for which, since both involved having to be extra-careful about her manners and credentials. It was not a thought she relished.

"Fabulous," she said when the new girl agreed to work with her, and frowned slightly in annoyance as her partner just went to town on the daisy roots without so much as telling her name. She wasn't sure if the fact that the daisy roots were looking lovely post-cutting helped or not. She wanted someone who could keep up, but not someone who didn't hold up her end of the social conventions bargain. "I am Rachel Bauer, of the Arizona Bauers. Crotalus, second year. It is a great pleasure to meet you."

There. She hadn't even used contractions. That part wasn't strictly necessary, but it did serve to make her sound the tiniest bit more like the sort of person who'd grown up in a super-strict society family. Little bits and pieces were what made up the puzzle picture. She started work on their ginger. "I see that you're new here. How do you like it so far?"
16 Rachel You should catch up fast enough. 154 Rachel 0 5