Bubbling and brewing. (tag: Neal) on Potions

Professor Fawcett

July 03, 2010 11:03 PM

Beginner Potions II (1st and 2nd Years) by Professor Fawcett

As much as it irritated his wife that a domestic life could not have the same effect, John found that there was nothing quite like the day-to-day madness of running a classroom to keep his brain operational. He still winced at the memories of his "retirement," a ten-year period marked by, he was on the brink of being sure, permanent damage to his intellect. Sitting around playing at writing a book without some other commitments to distract him was no good for keeping on top.

If he sometimes wondered if mental function was worth the occasional near miss with an explosion, well, no one ever said that there was a perfect job, and quick reflexes had been noted as useful by several trusted sources.

Still blinking a little at the now-vanished aftermath of that incident, John adjusted his glasses and attempted to brush off a dark spot on his sleeve that turned out to be ink before he turned his full attention to the beginners. Lovely group, the beginners. A bit dull, since the nature of the class was to give them the least dangerous work to do, but there were times when that was a welcome evil.

Today was such a time, which was why he was changing the schedule a little. They were supposed to be working on a Forgetfulness Potion, but he had decided to put that off until next lesson. Boil cures could have complications - John himself had melted a cauldron when his roommate Ben had been foolish enough to talk about how his father had sent the new Peavler biography through the post that day when it was John's afternoon to contribute and therefore handle most of their supplies - but the one in the books this class used was relatively safe.

"Good afternoon, everyone," he said as the last of the ones he expected for this class settled in. "Good day...Time for roll call, you all know the drill..."

Once he had the attendance properly marked, he put away the sheet. "As I'm sure you're all aware, we've been moving far more quickly since midterm than we did before it. Today's lesson will be a little simpler, though, to compensate, I will be requiring you to write in much more detail about the theory involved in this potion for your homework essay. If you will refer to next time's entry on your syllabus - we will come back to the Forgetfulness Potion later - you will find the pages of your text containing the ingredients and instructions for your potion today."

He gave them time to flip through the pages, then, once the sound died away, recalled their attention. "Take care not to add the porcupine quills until after you have removed the potion from the flame, or you will melt your cauldron and likely draw the ire of your classmates when your potion burns holes in their shoes. You will also, if it splashes you, suffer unpleasant blisters that will require medical attention. Far from the worst thing that can happen to you inside this lab, but painful enough to be avoided. Due to the simplicity of the potion, you may work together or separately, and may spend any leftover class time discussing your homework. Begin."

OOC: Just a reminder of the standard posting rules - at least two paragraphs, averaging five sentences each, around 200 words in length. Have fun!

Subthreads:

Oh no... by Dorian Talsky with Brad Hayman [Aladren]

Bubbling and brewing. (tag: Neal) by Mariana with Neal Padrig, Pecari

*sigh* by Kirstenna Melcher with Jane Carey, Jane

Getting to work. by Raines Bradley with Sam Bauer, Raines

Conspiracy theories. by Rachel Bauer

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

Dorian Talsky

July 05, 2010 2:01 PM

Oh no... by Dorian Talsky

Dorian wasn’t horrid at Potions he just wasn’t great at them. It must be a Talsky thing, Papa couldn’t brew a potion to save his life and Dimity had always struggled with them, even his Aunts and Uncles were bad at them. The only person in the whole family that was able to brew them was Mama, and she had married into the Talskys. Of course Dorian had hoped that he would inherit her skill at potions, but it was just his luck he hadn’t.

He sighed as he sat down at the table and ran a hand through his brown hair. A habit he had had picked up from Papa and even Dmitry. He had to face it he was more Talsky then Bradbury. He sighed and shook his head slowly. Once he heard what they would be doing he groaned. That’s not the type of spell he wanted to be doing. He just knew he was going to get splashed by it and sent to the Hospital Wing. He bit his lip wondering if he should just focus on the homework, but then he would get a failing grade and Papa would be highly upset.

Finally he turned to the person next to him. “Would like to be my partner?” He asked in his crisp English accent.

0 Dorian Talsky Oh no... 0 Dorian Talsky 0 5

Brad Hayman [Aladren]

July 06, 2010 12:49 PM

My thoughts exactly by Brad Hayman [Aladren]

Brad had to stop himself from rolling his eyes as he entered the Potions classroom. Professor Fawcett was quite possibly the most boring teacher to walk the earth, and the first-year had fallen asleep in his class on multiple occasions. Brad tried to make lessons interesting even when they weren’t too fascinating at face value, but there were certain things like crossword puzzles, essays, and potions that simply bored the kid to death.

At the professor’s instructions, Brad’s ears perked up. Whoa, was there danger involved in today’s lesson? Was there the possibility that he’d need to swoop in and save someone if they got burned? That was exciting—it was the first time anything he’d heard in this class had made his heart pump slightly faster than normal in anticipation.

Unfortunately, his hopes were dashed when he quickly turned to the textbook pages on the syllabus. “Boil cures!?” he exclaimed incredulously. “Come on!” He frowned in annoyance. Couldn’t they learn about more interesting cures, like how to heal broken bones and head injuries? Those were the kinds of things that would actually come in handy when Brad became a superhero. Boils were hardly an emergency situation…

He turned to the boy next to him when he asked to be partners. “Sure,” Brad replied reluctantly. The potential dangers of the potion were awesome, but the potion itself was just so lame. The Aladren stroked his chin in thought. “Hey, you wanna look for a more interesting potion in here,” he indicated his textbook, “And work on that instead of this? I don’t know about you, but I couldn’t care less about curing boils…” He shook his head.

“I’m Brad Hayman, by the way,” he said, extending his hand and giving the boy a smile.

0 Brad Hayman [Aladren] My thoughts exactly 0 Brad Hayman [Aladren] 0 5

Mariana

July 09, 2010 2:14 AM

Bubbling and brewing. (tag: Neal) by Mariana

Mariana had everything set up by the time the Professor had finished speaking, but the entire time she hadn't really payed attention to him. She wanted to talk to Neal. She had written a, well, hopefully happy story that he might like. She had gotten an idea after he suggested going on an adventure with him after they graduated, and though she was unsure if that would actually happen, she was happy to entertain the thought of remaining friends with Neal for that long.

The thing was that she didn't know if she would remain at Sonora. Her parents often moved around for changes in scenery, and if they took her with her or not was up to them. She certainly hoped not. Mariana sighed, pushing the sad thoughts aside before looking around at the other students, recognizing the ingredients before even asking. The Forgetfulness potion. Oh, that was simple! In her comfort zone, she prepared the ingredients, for now the porcupine quills, and then the hellbore, she did not notice her partner trying to get her attention.

"Oh! I'm sorry," she said a bit sheepishly. "What were you saying?"

0 Mariana Bubbling and brewing. (tag: Neal) 0 Mariana 0 5

Kirstenna Melcher

July 09, 2010 6:26 PM

sigh by Kirstenna Melcher

Generally speaking, Kirstenna was not all that fond of Potions. It was just so boring and required more attention to detail than she could stand. Kirstenna much preferred the visual displays provided by Charms and Transfiguration. Even the spell work in DADA was generally more impressive looking than a well done potion-not that most of hers were well done.

She groaned inwardly as she heard Professor Fawcett mention they would have to write in much more detail on their homework. That was likely something Kirstenna was going to have to find help with. Kirstenna might have had a pretty good imagination, which may have worked well with creative writing but she thought Potions would be the last place it would be appreciated and that meant the writing was boring and difficult for her.

At least the lesson wasn't being turned into a competition though, Kirstenna was happy about that. Still, she would rather not be doing this. She had never known anyone who'd had a boil. In fact, Kirstenna was not even entirely sure what a boil was , as she was pretty sure Professor Fawcett did not mean that the potion cured water of heating up to a certain temperature.

And she didn't want to take a chance and ask anyone either in case they thought she was stupid. Kirstenna was a little bit sensitive about people insinuating she was less intelligent due to the way her grandparents treated her, talking to her as if she had the IQ of a pile of elephant droppings.

Admittedly, her pre-Sonora education had not been the greatest. Kirstenna had been previously homeschooled with other circus children, who had had to practice most of the time as they were already starting to perform. None of them were exactly being groomed for careers in rocket science or anything. They were groomed to be circus performers like their parents before them.

Kirstenna turned to the person next to her. "Will you work with me on this?" She asked. There was no way she wanted to work by herself in Potions. It would get way too boring and odds were this would go easier with another person.

11 Kirstenna Melcher *sigh* 161 Kirstenna Melcher 0 5

Neal Padrig, Pecari

July 11, 2010 12:42 PM

Stirring and simmering by Neal Padrig, Pecari

Nothing was going on in Neal’s life, and he was absolutely bored out of his mind over the fact. The most excitement he’d had recently came in the form practicing interesting spells he picked up from books. It was sort of fun and would prove to be useful he was sure, but it was too much like work to really get into. At least with Quidditch done he could get into football soccer, which seemed like it would be fun.

But until any sort of ‘fun’ started, he had to get through these classes without going stir-crazy. Neal entered the Potions room looking as if he just rolled out of bed; the lack of concern he had for his appearance since day one made it seem like it was too late to care about the wrinkles in his robes or the messy style his mahogany hair stuck up at. He smiled to himself when he saw Mariana and wasted no time walking over and sitting next to her, giving her a short hello before getting his Potions kit and book out.

Potions met his expectations of being about as action-packed as staring at a wall, but at least he got to sit next to someone he liked to work with. Hopefully for whatever the assignment would be, Mariana would make it more fun than Proffessor Fawcett was making it sound.

“Hey, Mariana, want to work together on this one?” Neal asked as soon as the professor had let them get started. He figured Mariana would probably know what she was doing and he hoped he caught her in time before she started to do anything on her own. If he had to do this tedious project by himself, he just might leave the room too taciturn for anyone to put up with.

She seemed to be focused on the materials and he feared the worst. She stopped for a moment when he spoke though."Oh! I'm sorry. What were you saying?"

“I asked if you wanted to work together on the potion,” Neal repeated patiently. “I’d rather work with you than by myself, if that’s alright.”

0 Neal Padrig, Pecari Stirring and simmering 0 Neal Padrig, Pecari 0 5

Jane Carey

July 13, 2010 9:11 PM

Oh, it's not that bad by Jane Carey

By some miracle, Jane had actually managed to make her dark hair hang in neat waves without a single easily-felt tangle anywhere. She decided it meant that she was going to have a good day. Mother and most of her tutors would call that the most irrational kind of thinking, or maybe even say she was being superstitious, but Jane liked seeing little things to feel better about the big ones.

She was disappointed to hear that they would be working on a simpler potion in exchange for more homework, but it was more out of laziness than anything. Laziness was among the faults she needed to work on correcting in herself, though it was slightly mitigated in this case by her knowing that she could prepare much more complex potions and finish the essay without a lot of trouble. Professor Fawcett was most likely his best, but he didn't push nearly as hard as some of the tutors she and Edmond had shared before Sonora. The family had always expected him to take over young, so they had insisted he - and, by extension, Jane - develop all of the skills and abilities he could before he was of age.

It had been a more severe life than the ones she read about in her novels, but Jane had liked it. She missed it now. It was strange to think that she might spend the entire summer at home and not learn anything because there were no tutors if Edmond wasn't returned to them.

As she began looking over her ingredients, searching for an area where something she needed should have been and wasn't in case she needed to make a run to the supply closet, Jane heard her neighbor speak. Looking up to see her roommate in the chair, she smiled and nodded. "Of course," she said. "I don't mind at all." It wasn't really polite to express real desires. "Whose cauldron would you like to use?"

0 Jane Carey Oh, it's not that bad 160 Jane Carey 0 5

Raines Bradley

July 13, 2010 10:08 PM

Getting to work. by Raines Bradley

Professor Fawcett was not, as far as Raines or his mother could determine, a pureblood, but he was punctual, and it had never been the Raines Family way to advocate the eradication of the lower orders. Someone had to do the low work of the society, and so long as he continued to show up on time (and, in doing so, giving Raines an excuse to put off working on yet another grammar exercise for a while) and did not try to turn pureblood children into Muggle-lovers, Fawcett and people like him had Raines' blessing to continue on doing things like teaching the general population enough to get by on. In fact, he would not have minded if they had taught a little more; if he had all of Uncle Charles' money, the first thing he would do would be to pay the school off to institute mandatory training in modern languages, to spare the heirs among them the mess of learning them sporadically and largely on their own. Raines couldn't imagine anyone else liked it any more than he did.

The only lesson he was going to get this hour, though, was that everything had a price. An easy potion meant a really long essay. A longer-than-usual essay, when he had always had to struggle to write well. Not that he couldn't - with enough discipline, anyone could learn the right way, and Raines had spent most of his life developing that sort of discipline - but it took more effort than most of the magic in his classes did. He was actually fairly good at magic, by normal standards, and while his father would say those were no standards at all, it was better than nothing.

Once the lecture was over, he very precisely laid out all of his knives, his ingredients, his stirring and cutting and measuring implements, his textbook, and his cauldron, half hoping the time he took to do this would make the class uneven so he could get on with it in peace. He was not innovative in his approach to Potions, so he would never do well in the professions associated with it, but he was perfectly capable of following the directions given to the letter, giving him a consistently high grade. Most of his classmates, on the other hand, were sloppy. Imprecise. Inattentive. They would let the world burn while they chatted about their little interests and what was for lunch and....

....And someone was beside him. Oh, well. It had always been a forlorn hope. He looked up to check that it was no one he wanted to hex and then, cheering himself slightly with the thought that at least it might not be a complete disaster, asked, as politely as possible, "Would you like to work with me?"

0 Raines Bradley Getting to work. 155 Raines Bradley 0 5

Mariana

July 16, 2010 5:41 PM

Patiently waiting by Mariana

Mariana nodded eagerly. "We can just use my cauldron, if you'd like. I've already started." She turned to her book, which she had opened up for added feedback, and then to her friend.

"If you could get started on the flitterbloom, it would be great," she asked, treating her quills nicely. She glanced at him, noticing his slightly messy looked and giggled to herself. She could appreciate the fact that he didnt much care for his appearance. Personally, she cared for herself and had to make herself look near perfect merely out of habit. It was another thing her parents were strict on.

When she was done with the porcupine quills she set them aside before slicing up the hellbore. She was eager to show Neal her story, but she needed to finish the potion first, and it would take some time.

"Anything exciting happen recently?" she asked. She wouldnt really know, considering the fact she was more interested in books than quidditch, or gossip for that matter. But maybe Neal had some interesting input on something?

0 Mariana Patiently waiting 0 Mariana 0 5

Neal

July 17, 2010 12:19 AM

What are you waiting for? by Neal

Of course Mariana had already started, but she hadn’t gotten far enough to want to stick it out on her own. Neal internally sighed as he got out his potion kit and set to work on fixing up the flitterbloom. He wasn’t awful at potions, so at least he didn’t have to worry about not holding his weight. It really did help to have someone to work with he liked. It was sort of like having the motivation to actually to stay focused.

Neal thought he heard a giggle and tried to sneak a glance at Mariana. She was finishing up on the quills and moving on to the hellbore when he took a second to try and figure out what she might have found funny. Did someone just really screw up their work? He looked around and didn’t notice anything, so he just shrugged it off and kept working.

When he got done, he carefully brought his work up next to Mariana’s. He thought he did pretty well, but considering how perfect the quills looked he didn’t know if Mariana would think the same. Hoping to be more of an active partner, he started to look through the textbook to figure out what he needed to do next. He got a bit sidetracked when Mariana asked him if he’d done anything ‘exciting’ recently.

He looked up from his book and slightly titled his head at her, a small smile on his face. That question wouldn’t amuse him if anyone else asked it, but he always sort of thought of Mariana as being indifferent to things going on around the school. He didn’t mind, he sort of like how she did her own thing and let everyone else do theirs. But maybe he only thought that because the only time he ever talked to her was in class. Though he heard she was doing things in the library now, he never seemed to catch up with her there.

“Well, Quidditch is over,” he shrugged. “And football – er, soccer is starting up. We’re playing RMI, which should be pretty cool. I mean I’ve never been to another magic school before, so I’m pretty excited to see what it’s like.” Then he sighed. “Other than that, absolutely nothing, I guess. I don’t really know, besides the sports here I don’t do that much besides hang out in my dorm room.” Really, what else was there to do? “And I don’t really gossip or anything, so I think it’s safe to say I’m far out of the social loop.”

“But what about you? I heard you’re doing stuff in the library now?”

0 Neal What are you waiting for? 0 Neal 0 5

Mariana

July 17, 2010 2:01 AM

Something to explode. Might provide entertainment? by Mariana

Mariana watched him carefully, her head tilted to the side and her brown hair brushed against to her shoulders as she watched him prepare the flitterbloom. She nodded approvingly. Not perfect, but they would do. She moved onto the next potion ingredient, adding and stirring as needed, while listening to Neal speak about soccer. To be honest, she had no idea what it was. She had noticed the sign up sheet in the common room, but considering she didn't know what it was, didn't bother signing up.

She supposed it was a muggle sport, if she remembered previous conversations correctly. None of them hers, but of others. Listening and observing people was easily done when hidden behind a large book. No one really noticed you there. She smiled at Neal when she noticed him looking at her, perfectly content for once.

“But what about you? I heard you’re doing stuff in the library now?”

"Oh! Yes, I'm a library assistant. I help Daniel Nash with things in the library when the librarian isn't around.There are others, but I never see them." She shrugged. "I enjoy working in the Library, though it saddens me to see people disregard books as they do."

She paused, wondering what to say next. She had never really made friends before, and was unsure what to do. She suddenly felt very awkward, but ignored it and continued with the potion. Noticing he was done with the Flitterbloom, Mariana gathered it in her hands and stirred it in, waiting fifteen seconds until the potion turned a pale green. She nodded to herself, turning it down to a low simmer. They had to wait twenty minutes before removing it from the flame, stirring it clockwise for a minute every five.

She turned to Neal kindly and asked, thinking it was a safe question, "Is soccer a muggle game? I've never heard of it, aside from the excited chatter around school." Mariana tilted her head in a questioning manner, waiting patiently for his answer.

0 Mariana Something to explode. Might provide entertainment? 0 Mariana 0 5

Neal

July 17, 2010 3:55 PM

Hm, you didn’t strike me as the ‘let’s blow things up’ type by Neal

The potion was turning out well, more thanks to Mariana than anything else, and Neal paid her mind when she told him about being a library assistant. Then she brought up Daniel Nash – that guy was seemed to be everywhere these days – and how she liked her work. He could see her doing that well. Probably he could see her doing anything well since she seemed to just get everything (a trait he found many Aladren had in common).

Neal watched curiously as she stirred the potion and wondered if he could do anything else to help out when she brought football/soccer/whatever-he-was-supposed-to-call-it up. For some reason he just assumed everyone knew what it was since it seemed to be coming up a lot more recently, but that was his fault.

“Soccer is a Muggle game, yeah,” he affirmed, looking up from the cauldron at her. He tried to think quick on a good way to explain it without making it sound confusing. Having to describe sports was always sort of tricky as he found out with Quidditch. He hadn’t really gotten it until he read up on it, and it helped that all his roommates were on the team (two of them being experienced purebloods). “It’s a lot different than Quidditch, but the concepts of the games are the same. There are two teams who try to get the ball, which is like a quaffle, into the other team’s goals. The goals are protected by goalies, and there are nine other people on the team who try to get the ball in the other goal.”

He wasn’t completely sure how much sense he was making, but hopefully she could get the gist at least. He also wasn’t thrilled with how flat his voice was – sheesh, memo to self to never become a teacher or he’d probably he boring to listen to everyday. “Anyways, I’m sure more people are excited about seeing RMI than the game. I mean, I know I am. I think it’d be cool to see another magic school, I never really considered the fact their might be others.” Besides Durmstrang, but he only knew about that because of Dorian and his aristocratic looking older brother, Dmitry. Dmitry seemed softer now that he had a girlfriend though, which hopefully meant he was nicer to Dorian then too.

But Mariana was a pureblood. Maybe she knew more about things like that. “Do you know anything about RMI? Or any other magic schools?” He wondered if she did if she’d still be excited about going to see it. He wasn’t so sure if a field trip to another school while he was in elementary school would be that neat to do.

0 Neal Hm, you didn’t strike me as the ‘let’s blow things up’ type 0 Neal 0 5

Kirstenna

July 17, 2010 8:00 PM

I suppose not by Kirstenna

Kirstenna brightened as she realized it was her roommate whom she had spoken to. She hadn't really got to know either Jane or Ellie that well and maybe this would be her chance to do so with the former. The blonde haired girl really wanted to be friends with them and for some reason, it had not yet happened. Kirstenna didn't know why they had never really spoken. Perhaps her roommates were very reserved people (because she sure wasn't) or perhaps it had been that Quidditch had taken up so much of Kirstenna's time.

However, Quidditch was over now and she had more time. Perhaps they would become close friends now. Kirstenna would love that. The more friends someone had, the better.

In response to Jane's question, Kirstenna shrugged. "It doesn't really matter to me." It didn't. While she might not have always had the best of everything, she did have a nice cauldron. It was brand new, the one her dad had had was rather...banged up and it been decided that it was better if Kirstenna had her own. Also, in a stroke of luck, she had not yet managed to destroy it.

Okay, so maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration, but Kirstenna had a tendency to do so. She really wasn't that horrible at Potions, but it definitely not her best subject and definitely not one of her favorites.

"We can share ingredients. I have nearly everything." Kirstenna added, looking from her potions kit to the list of ingredients. That was a way to do things fairly, use her ingredients for some things and Jane's for others.

11 Kirstenna I suppose not 161 Kirstenna 0 5

Jane

July 19, 2010 9:13 PM

It's all a matter of perspective by Jane

Jane continued to smile as her roommate’s response made her want to sigh a little. This was a problem that she ran into, sometimes, with her foster-brother: in the interests of not seeming bossy, or like one thought they were superior in some way to the other, they would both keep insisting that an issue really did not matter to them, and so it would never be decided. It was worse when, as at present, it really didn’t matter, though Jane could usually hold out long enough for the tutor to point out that Edmond was supposed to be bossy, superior, and all-around the one who took charge.

Of course, Professor Fawcett wasn’t a tutor, and Kirstenna Melcher wasn’t Edmond. In fact, according to her mother, Kirstenna Melcher was no one despite her surname and visible appearance of a relationship with Quentin Melcher, who was enough of someone that, even now, her sibling the patriarch had to be polite to him whether he felt like it or not. Since the Careys had their own shames to deal with in the form of a half-blood from North Carolina and Edmond’s biological sisters, though, she had been firmly informed that she had to be civil to Kirstenna as long as Kirstenna was civil to her.

This had not previously been a problem, and wasn’t even really one now; she hated having to make the long exchanges before they settled on a cauldron, but would have likely said the same thing in Kirstenna’s shoes, so she couldn’t be angry with her for that. Jane had never fallen into the school of thought that felt it was improper to be civil to Muggleborns and half-bloods, more because she disliked any kind of conflict than because of any deep theoretical feeling; she wasn’t sure, if someone was unpleasant to her, if she could even really bring herself to be unpleasant in return instead of just extracting herself and not speaking to them again unless they spoke to her no matter what their social situation. It was true, though, that she didn’t feel she had really bonded with her roommates – or, really, anyone, though she had hopes that she and Autumn might become real friends before this time next year. It was something that troubled her, since making friends seemed to happen automatically and after one conversation in all of her novels about starting school, but the only idea she had been able to come up with for rectifying it was to throw herself a birthday party, which seemed like it might backfire for seeming a little egotistical.

“So do I,” she said in regards to ingredients, glad that was one thing settled. “Shall we each contribute every other ingredient?” That seemed like the fairest way to do it to her. “And we can use my cauldron.” Risky, really, but she was a Carey and Kirstenna was only a half-Melcher. That seemed like it would work out in the same way that her being a Virginia Carey girl while Edmond was the heir of the Savannah Careys did, so that – despite the Melchers being in a slightly better social situation than the Careys, much as the Virginia Careys were doing a great deal better than the Savannah Careys – it was her duty to take the lead when it was obvious that they were going to be overly polite about it for so long that it hindered productivity.

0 Jane It's all a matter of perspective 0 Jane 0 5

Sam Bauer

July 21, 2010 5:57 PM

But we both seem so unenthusiastic. by Sam Bauer

Normally, Sam arrived a few minutes early to class. Not too many, like some of the kids did, because he was too easily distracted and bored by a long wait, but never pushing the bell so closely that he didn’t have time to get his textbook out before Professor Fawcett called roll. That meant having to hurry to get set up, which frazzled his nerves just enough that it threw him off for the lesson, and that was a dangerous thing in Potions especially. They quite literally played with fire in Potions.

Maybe it was different for others – he wouldn’t know – but Sam had grown up living in small apartments, where fire was something to be deeply concerned about. Or at least something he was deeply concerned about. His mother could put out a small stove fire herself, if she was there and had her wand, but if the building went up, the only advantage they’d have over anyone else would be her ability to Apparate and bring him along. Everything they had, though, would be a lost cause, and that would suck. He liked his stuff.

He also liked being on time, because it made it safer to work with fire, but it didn’t always happen. Today was a time when it didn’t, and he had to rush to make it to the room before the bell, and feeling jumpier than usually wasn’t the only consequence. The only seat available was next to a red-haired second year who Sam didn’t know, but understood to be one of the least palatable individuals in the Beginner class. Dude had a funny name, too, like his parents were meteorologists with a sense of humor, though Sam doubted that was actually the case. No child of meteorologists could pull off that look of consummate arrogance.

When the time came to split into partners, Sam briefly considered splitting away from his seatmate and seeking out someone less likely to be hostile, but Fawcett seemed to like the room to remain as orderly and movement-free as possible. Drawing the teacher’s attention to himself a second time was not something he wanted to do. So he fiddled with his ingredients in concert with his apparent partner, half-hoping they’d just get by and ignore each other for the rest of the lesson and that Fawcett would understand the reluctance of a Sam Bauer to knowingly engage with a snotty pureblood.

Nothing doing, though; he was noticed. “Sure,” he said, deciding to be gracious about it. “I’m Sam. First year.” He decided, considering Weather Boy’s situation relative to his cousin’s, to leave his surname and House out of it. Rachel was kind of…uncool now, but she was still family, and they had been friends once. He owed her something, and it wasn’t like he couldn’t understand the appeal of being someone else sometimes. Being a half-blood wasn’t as bad as being Muggleborn, but nor was it a condition he saw anyone ever jumping for joy to be in. He looked self-consciously over his own secondhand materials. “If we use your cauldron, we can use my ingredients.”

16 Sam Bauer But we both seem so unenthusiastic. 163 Sam Bauer 0 5

Rachel Bauer

July 21, 2010 5:59 PM

Conspiracy theories. by Rachel Bauer

As usual, Rachel spent the time between when she arrived in her Potions lesson and when it began affecting boredom, strictly for the benefit of the people who agreed with her mother that it wasn’t proper for a girl to show enthusiasm for Potions, Transfiguration, Defense, or anything else that Rachel found remotely entertaining on most days. Charms was all well and good, if there were other things to go with it, but she shuddered to think about having to take up Divination next year. Silly fluff, at least for those without an inborn gift Rachel was pretty sure she didn’t have. She was still trying to wheedle her way into being allowed to add Astronomy on as well.

Unusually, her boredom became less affected and more genuine with each syllable that Professor Fawcett uttered once he revealed the nature of the assignment to her. Normally she liked Fawcett, but right now, he was disappointing her.

There had been a drop in standards just because of the way the classes had been reformatted – last year, as a first year, she had been in a room with the third years and felt like she had to keep up with them – but a first year potion this late in the year? She could do this in her sleep, or at least could probably keep up her bored act while producing a perfect potion, and could do it alone. What was going on?

Rachel admitted she was paranoid. It came with her lifestyle. Just because she was paranoid, though, didn’t mean something strange wasn’t going on, and she thought that was what was happening now. It just didn’t make sense, and Rachel didn’t trust things that didn’t make sense. Everything had a reason, and all she could conclude from her life was that things that fell outside the norm were done for special reasons, because deviation seldom led to good things.

But it couldn’t affect her. She was a second year – a really smart, pretty, well-off second year, but still. She was a second year. Nothing going on with Professor Fawcett could possibly affect her. Right. So on with the bright smile, because that felt right for today, and turn to the neighbor.

“So,” she said, knowing she looked perfect in her eye-matching blue turtleneck and sleek blonde ponytail and carefully applied make-up. “Wanna work with me?”

16 Rachel Bauer Conspiracy theories. 154 Rachel Bauer 0 5

Raines

July 24, 2010 9:00 PM

Our childhood traumas make us incompatible. by Raines

He wasn’t quite sure why – a combination of factors, he supposed, was the most likely answer for the irregularity – but Raines felt something snap inside him at the casual introduction he was offered from someone he, if only vaguely, recognized as a fellow Crotalus and thus someone who should have learned better by now no matter where he came from.

“Is it utterly beyond,” he snapped, “the capabilities of every person here to offer a proper introduction? Are you so monumentally stupid that, even if your mother was too much of an ill-bred nobody to teach you proper manners, you can’t learn from the bare handful of respectable individuals at this school?”

Somewhere, in the back of his mind, it registered with him that insulting a new person’s mother and intelligence and social standing in one sentence might not have been the wisest course of action he could have taken. Mostly, though, he was preoccupied with his own irritation. “It is not a difficult formula,” he ranted. “My name is Raines Bradley, of the Louisiana Bradleys. You’re a Crotalus. You had to have heard the formula. Is it so very difficult to imitate a formula? Observe my – alleged – housemate Miss Bauer. If she can observe a minimum of proprieties, then I feel it safe to assume that anyone can. Well? What’s your surname?”

0 Raines Our childhood traumas make us incompatible. 0 Raines 0 5

Sam

July 25, 2010 7:09 PM

They surely do. by Sam

To say that Sam hadn’t expected to be embraced as a brother by Weather Boy was to make an understatement. He had foreseen a lot of looks down an aristocratic, if not actually that high off the ground, nose. Snide comments on his wardrobe and secondhand supplies. Maybe even a few references to how his year, in more polite terms, made him a moron by default.

He did not, however, expect it to get personal. Twice. He had only just processed the insult to his mother and gone very still when Weather Boy – excuse him, Raines Bradley of the Louisiana Bradleys - decided to bring Rachel into it, too, implying that she either wasn’t a lady – which she wasn’t, in the way he meant it, but that didn’t matter – or that she was really stupid.

He didn’t know, given how small and interconnected the school was, if the dude knew she was his cousin or not. Nor did he care. Bringing his mother’s parenting skills into this discussion with no provocation whatsoever had been enough to make it personal.

Weather Boy was going down.

“It’s Bauer,” Sam said flatly when he was asked for his surname. He could not try to hit him. That would be stupid. As short and scrawny as Weather Boy was, Sam was still shorter and scrawnier. Plus, there was the Fawcett factor, and the ‘pureblood families have lots of thugs to hire’ factor. He could, however, dump in the porcupine quills before Weather Boy had a chance to get their potion off the fire. Teach the guy to watch his mouth. “You going to put water in your cauldron or not?”

16 Sam They surely do. 163 Sam 0 5

Kirstenna

July 26, 2010 9:35 PM

Indeed by Kirstenna

Kirstenna nodded. "Sounds like a plan." It honestly didn't matter to her. She knew she should at least somewhat care about Potions, about her grade, about knowing the subject well enough to not be a laughingstock at it but she just couldn't get excited about something that took that long and had that many steps. She usually got bored part way through.

She tended to try harder when she didn't get a Charm or Transfiguration right off but those had more visual effects and Kirstenna needed that to remain interested in a subject. When there was a visual effect in Potions, it tended to not be a good thing, as it meant things had gone horribly, horribly wrong.

"I suppose I could start crushing the snake fangs." Kirstenna offered. Even though she had pretty much no interest in the subject of Potions, and only somewhat cared about her grade, it motivated her to work with someone else and take their feelings about their grades and whatnot into account and did her own share of the work. It often made Kirstenna do better on it as well.

She withdrew her own snake fangs from her potions kit and set to work on them. Kirstenna couldn't imaging Jane had a burning desire to crush them and if she really did, she could always tell Kirstenna she wanted to, and Kirstenna would hand them over.

"So," she started out. The blonde was never quite sure what to say to Jane. Kirstenna knew her roommate was from one of those old pureblood families, the kind that didn't like people like her. On the other hand, Jane was a Teppenpaw so she couldn't have been too stuck-up and never had really seemed so. "Are you looking forward to visiting RMI? I don't really know much about magical schools aside from Sonora. My grandparents and uncle run one but I don't even know too much about that one. Quentin was the one who grew up there, not me."

11 Kirstenna Indeed 161 Kirstenna 0 5