Lesson One for Intermediates (Third-Fifth Years) on Potions

Professor Fawcett

March 05, 2011 9:56 PM

Lesson One for Intermediates (Third-Fifth Years) by Professor Fawcett

John’s normal reaction to the size of the fifth year class, and the upper years in general, was either interest or concern, depending on which of the roles of his life he was closer to fitting into at the time he contemplated it, but today, it was something like relief. The tiny size of that year meant the Intermediate class as a whole was smaller, which meant he could pay more attention to each student, which was very likely going to be necessary.

It was time for antidotes.

Antidotes was one of the most difficult, disliked units in all of Potion-making, and once it was introduced, it didn’t ever quite go away. Even in schools where years were taught individually, rather than collectively, they were a fixture of the curriculum from at least fourth year through seventh, recurring like bad knuts and progressing in difficulty with each recurrence.

They were also considered somewhat controversial to teach in schools. Healers had been managing campaigns since the seventies to persuade the average witch on the street to get her antidotes approved by one of their own before they were put into use, but there were plenty of folk who saw that as a strategy the Healers were using to make themselves more useful, and take the money of Crotalus sorts who were intimidated enough to not even attempt such a thing. There was also the fact that studying poisons backward could allow one to work them out forward – it was an issue with Defense, too – and so they were potentially giving students the means to do extremely unpleasant things to each other.

That last was one John had actually considered himself. The raw materials to become a major criminal were all in the basics of a magical education. Almost anyone who graduated with an A average could, at seventeen, poison someone, poison themselves as well to assist in the cover-up, have an antidote on hand for themselves at the last hour, and probably execute a basic memory charm. Admittedly, they’d be so sloppy on that last that it would likely be noticed, but still. The old functionalist in him had long since gotten together with the inner historian and seen a purpose of the pureblood system, and it was so most were too concerned with manners to think that way and the rest were either too amused by the game of words to bother or, at worst, only killed each other for minor gains instead of trying to take over the world.

Of course, it was his hope that, eventually, they would find something better to replace the function of that system, but it was still better than the alternative, and such things were not really his main concern at work anymore anyway. His job was to teach Potions. Challenging them, from time to time, with the ethics and principles of it was something he considered very important, but just as important was making sure that if any of his students did end up poisoning each other, it was at least deliberately, not through ignorant negligence.

“Good day, everyone,” he said loudly, drawing the class’ attention back to him as the beginning of their session drew close. It was still technically ‘good morning,’ but not by much, and it would be afternoon by the time they left this meeting they’d need every minute of, so he decided not to split hairs over that. “Welcome, welcome,” he added, waving in a few stragglers who’d hesitated outside the door, presumably at his voice. “As I announced last time, you’ll need your Glossary of Potions and Complete Handbook of Herbology today in addition to your Marlow text, so I do hope everyone remembered them.”

He called the roll, put it away, and straightened his glasses. “Today, as I’m sure you’re all aware by now, is the beginning of our unit on antidotes. Can someone give me a basic definition of what an antidote is?” He pointed to a raised hand, then listened to the answer. “Very good, take a House point. I’m sure you can all see the potential uses and importance of this topic, particularly for those of us who may be considering Healing or medimagician training. It is, however, more simple in theory than in practice, and you will, as the fourth and fifth years can attest, be looking at it repeatedly for the remainder of the years you spend as my students, so do not be discouraged if you encounter some difficulties in the beginning.”

He ended the spell covering a series of bottles, sitting in four groups, on the side table. His desk had grown far too chaotic, this far into the term, for putting them on. “These are all poisons, so wear your gloves and take care while handling them. The simplest are basic plant extracts; the most difficult, three-component compound poisons, may present something of a challenge for our fifth years.” More like ‘would,’ but he did like to give them the option of pushing themselves further. “Between these are simpler potion-poisons. You will each take a poison, and your first task – this is where the additional texts I asked you to bring to class will come in – will be to identify it. Once you have done that, you will begin to construct an antidote to it; begin today if you have the time, but we will, as those who attend to their syllabus know, be spending several more days on antidotes, so do not rush. You may assist each other, and I encourage you to do so while it’s an option, but I would like an original antidote from each student. Begin.”

OOC: Standard posting rules apply for point credits. Be creative, and have fun!

Subthreads:

I'll take vegan antidotes for $500, Alex by Jose Hernandez, Pecari

Intoxicating by Samantha Hamilton with Andrew Duell, Samantha

Easy does it. by Nicodemus Sawyer, Crotalus

0 Professor Fawcett Lesson One for Intermediates (Third-Fifth Years) 0 Professor Fawcett 1 5

Jose Hernandez, Pecari

March 07, 2011 10:21 AM

I'll take vegan antidotes for $500, Alex by Jose Hernandez, Pecari

Jose trudged into the potions classroom with a backpack that was almost too heavy to carry. His heavy cauldron was hugged to his chest as much for the counterbalance as because he'd probably need it today. His steps felt ponderous, and he was kind of surprised the floor didn't shake with each one he took. Not for the first time, he cursed his slow-growing genes and wished he were a little bit bigger.

The problem wasn't entirely the fault of the Glossary of Potions and the Complete Handbook of Herbology, though they were part of it. Neither were especially small volumes, but carrying three textbooks to class instead of one wasn't entirely back breaking.

Carrying six textbooks to class instead of one was.

Vegan Alternatives was nearly as large as the Glossary and Herbal Healing (which he'd grabbed largely because the Syllabus warned that today's topic was 'antidotes') was no thin volume either. The last, Organic Ingredients for Vegan Potion-Making was even bigger than the other two put together.

Normally, he left them home and just brought in his pre-approved vegan recipe for the class, but today's lesson wasn't a prearranged cut-and-dry brewing. This was one of those lessons where Fawcett liked to make them think.

So he'd need his supplemental materials in class. In addition to the books he was supposed to bring anyway. Plus the cauldron, and his organic ingredients kit, and his scales, and his mortar and pestle, and his chopping knife, and his gloves, and his notebook, and his normal supply of writing implements.

And, all together, they were heavy.

He dropped down into the first open seat he came to, put the cauldron (filled up with the other potions equipment) on his desk, the book-filled bag on the floor, and collapsed down on the desk himself. Barely able to convince himself to sit up again when Professor Fawcett began the lesson, he certainly didn't have the energy or motivation to raise his hand and answer the preliminary question, though he mentally defined 'antidote' to himself just to prove he could, if he had to.

He wasn't sure his 'stuff to fix you when you're poisoned' was worth the house point awarded to the person who answered for real, but he thought it got the same point across.

Fortunately, he had mostly recovered from the walk from Pecari's Commonroom to the Potions Classroom (not a short walk, given that the Pecari entrance was in the Gardens) by the time they were expected to collect a partner and a poison. Well, the partner was voluntary, but Jose preferred to not work alone whenever possible. Most natural antidotes tended to be plants anyway, so his vegan books might not even be necessary, and it was altogether possible that he wouldn't even need his extra books or to do anything different than anyone else in the class.

As a fifth year, he felt it would be cheating a little to just take a simple plant extract, and the necessity to make a vegan antidote didn't even necessarily add any difficulty, so he figured he probably ought to pick one of the harder poisons. Once he'd started making vegan alternatives to the class assignment instead of taking zeros, he'd actually done very well in Potions.

So he put on his gloves, went up to the front of the classroom, and picked up one of the multiple component vials. Spotting someone else who had also grabbed the same kind, he asked, "Do you want to work as partners? At least to figure out what this is?"

0 Jose Hernandez, Pecari I'll take vegan antidotes for $500, Alex 0 Jose Hernandez, Pecari 0 5

Samantha Hamilton

March 07, 2011 10:29 AM

Intoxicating by Samantha Hamilton

As any diligent Aladren would have done, Samantha had already consulted her potions syllabus at the start of the week, and so knew they would be beginning the topic of antidotes during this class. As such she had of course remembered her textbook, and had done a little bit of pre-reading on the subject, but not a lot because then she wouldn't pay attention properly to Professor fawcett's teaching and might end up missing something important that for some reason wasn't included in the textbook. he always thought it much better to read up on a subject after they had already studied it, rather than beforehand. Looking smart wasn't important to Samantha - as long as she didn't look stupid then she was happy.

As the professor explained the class, Samantha took diligent notes (on a page already titled 'antidotes' and with the date and professor's name, and numbered Page One) and glanced towards the poisons as they were introduced. She already decided on working with the easier group of potion-poisons because plant extracts would look like she was trying to take the easy option, and she'd rather fail at a challenge than pass on the easiest option (or worse; fail on the easiest option). She didn't know much on poisons, they hadn't covered any in great deal during class - and she definitely didn't like the sound of the three-component compounds, whatever they were.

Before she went to select a potion, however, Samantha decided to find a partner. She didn't really have many friends at Sonora, and while there were some people she liked more than others, she supposed that it didn't really matter who she worked with for a short period of classes. Therefore she turned to the the nearest person who looked friendly, and said, "Would you like to work as partners for this class?"

0 Samantha Hamilton Intoxicating 159 Samantha Hamilton 0 5

Nicodemus Sawyer, Crotalus

March 07, 2011 11:29 AM

Easy does it. by Nicodemus Sawyer, Crotalus

What Nic liked best about potions was that he always knew what to expect from it. Fawcett had been teaching the class for as long as Nic had been taking it, and the professor was comfortably reliable in following the syllabus he handed out at the beginning of each year.

Given some of the results his father could create in the family basement when he forgot about a potion he was brewing, Nic was leery about messing up his potions on purpose, so he tended toward working with people who weren't particularly good at the subject, and let them make their mistakes honestly. If that wasn't enough, he did poorly enough on his tests and homeworks to make sure he stayed at a nice unremarkable A average. Where 'A' in the magical world meant a completely average grade in the muggle world. Acceptable, but no better.

Completely not nerdy.

Bringing the two extra books today, however, was nerdy, so he only 'remembered' one of them. The glossary was still on his bed, 'accidentally' left behind on purpose. He thought it was probably the least important of the two, since the potions text overlapped it a little bit.

His partner should have it, anyway, and all the teachers at this school seemed to like having them work in groups, so he felt fairly confident that he'd still have access to the information in the Glossary, even if his copy of it was still in his room.

Arriving in class, Nic took a seat in the back of the classroom as he always did, as much because he didn't want his height to block line of sight to the board for anyone unlucky enough to be behind him, as because he just liked sitting in the back. Even as one of third years in a third to fifth year class, his 5'10" still put him at taller than the vast majority, and he was very glad the third years were with the intermediates this year if only because the height difference was even worse when compared to first and second years.

He raised his hand and winced when roll call came to his own name, but if the rest of the class didn't know by now that his full name was 'Nicodemus', he doubted they'd pick up on it from today's roll.

He took incomplete notes to further the impression that he was merely of average intelligence, and when they were given the option for an easy, medium, or hard poison to find the antidote to, there was really no choice at all. Nic went to the front and collected an easy sample. (He'd genuinely forgotten gloves, so he wrapped it in a handkerchief before picking it up.)

Under ordinary circumstances, he would have just worked alone, since Professor Fawcett made working together optional today, but his decision to leave the Glossary in his room came back to kick him, and he'd probably need it.

So he bit the bullet and made himself ask one of the other people with an easy poison, "Want to work together?"

1 Nicodemus Sawyer, Crotalus Easy does it. 165 Nicodemus Sawyer, Crotalus 0 5

Andrew Duell

March 14, 2011 9:03 PM

...or detoxicating? by Andrew Duell

Andrew was late. Late, late, late. He really hated being late. He couldn't find his Complete Handbook of Herbology, and now he was late. Luckily he had eventually dug it out from the bottom of his trunk, and raced off to class. Now he was here, and Professor Fawcett waved him in with some others that apparently hadn't been able to find their books either. He hastily took a seat and began scribbling down notes as the professor talked. He had read ahead a little bit, but not much. He knew what antidotes were and the very, very basics of making them. Potions was not his greatest class, so this might get interesting. An unpleasant thought ran though his head, proving out that their antidote worked by taking it to neutralize the poison they ingested. Maybe he'd watched to many movies over the summer. He looked over the poison options, he sure wasn't going to take the hardest ones, that would just be crazy. He was, however, a fifth year and really couldn't walk up there and pick up the easy poison. Looks like it would be one of the middle ones.

His thoughts were interrupted when the girl next to him asked if he wanted to be her partner. She was an Aladren, awesome. He didn't know her past that, she was younger than he was. He really should interact with his fellow classmates more... and that was his mother talking right there. He almost rolled his eyes at her voice echoing through his head. Instead he smiled at the girl. "Sure, I warn you though. Potions isn't exactly my strong suit. I was thinking maybe picking one of the middle potions, what do you think?"

2 Andrew Duell ...or detoxicating? 145 Andrew Duell 0 5

Samantha

March 16, 2011 11:47 AM

Either may be appropriate by Samantha

The boy Samantha had asked to be partners was a an older student, and not in her House. In fact the badge and crest on his robes proclaimed him to be prefect of Teppenpaw, which in turn meant he was a fifth year. Now she looked at him, Samantha remembered him from the Quidditch game. It had been raining and snowing and all sorts so it wasn't easiest to recognize people, but she was pretty sure it had been the cpatain who'd gotten the Quaffle past her to score a goal, not this person. So, no hard feelings.

He agreed to work with her with the warning that potions wasn't his best subject. Samantha didn't mind - it wasn't her best subject, either, and if he was a fifth year then he'd at least been doing it for two years longer than she had, and therefore would have to be better by default. She didn't mind working for her grade, but she didn't exactly want to be working with someone who would drag her down - thankfully it seemed as though she'd found the opposite. "I was thinking of a middle one, too," Samantha replied. "I'll just go choose one, if you don't mind. Before all the good ones are gone." Waiting for a moment just in case her partner actually did mind, Samantha then went to the front of the class and selected a potion from their preferred group. She brought back to the desk a large vial that held a blue potion that might have been quite an attractive-looking solution if she hadn't known it was poison.

"I liked the look of this one," she said, sitting back down next to her partner - whose name she still didn't know. "I'm Samantha," she said with a smile, aiming to rectify the stranger status immediately.

0 Samantha Either may be appropriate 0 Samantha 0 5

Andrew Duell

March 16, 2011 6:32 PM

That's true, it all depends on context by Andrew Duell

Andrew shook his head and smiled when the girl asked if he minded her picking a potion. He really didn't, he didn't recognize any of them by sight, so it really made little difference. Something was bugging him though, she looked familiar but couldn't quite place her. He was certain that he'd seen her around the school, but that wasn't it. Where else? He pulled out his text books while he thought about it. She was Aladren, where would he have had some sort of interaction with her before? This was going to drive him crazy. Another class? No... She returned and thankfully interrupted his train of thought.

He agreed, the blue potion was better looking than some of the other ones that had been setting up there. He wondered if that would make it more difficult. Some of the other ones looked like poisons. This one didn't really, it looked pure, and simple, and... insidious. She introduced herself, and he mentally kicked himself for not doing so first. "I'm Andrew. Wait, Samantha?" He very nearly smacked himself upside the head. "You're the Aladren keeper, right?" He continued with a grin, "I might have recognized you faster, but that was some weather, and we didn't get over to your goal as much as I would have liked." He flipped though his book while talking, "You guys did really good out there. Aha! Here we go," He pointed to a section of the book. "First thing we need to do is figure out what we've got here. How far have you gotten in deciphering potion components? What is our first step?" It was something of a test. He couldn't really remember what all they had covered during potions in his third year, so this would hopefully let him know where Samantha was along the curriculum.

2 Andrew Duell That's true, it all depends on context 145 Andrew Duell 0 5

Samantha

March 25, 2011 4:17 PM

True of many things in life by Samantha

Andrew introduced himself, and Samantha's brain finally caught up. Yep, Andrew, that was right. She might have remembered it eventually, but having him there to provide tha answer had moved things along. Hearing her name had obviously cued his memory in, too, as he asked her whether she was Aladren's Keeper. "That's right," Samantha replied, nodding. "The weather was terrible," she agreed with a smile and a roll of her eyes at the memory. "You guys didn't do too bad," she added, considering the game had been close and so many players had been injured that it really was difficult to tell who the better team was. The weather hadn't helped.

Right, to work it was. Andrew asked what the first step would be. Samantha thought he probably knew and was trying to see hw she would approach it, considering this was her first class on antidotes and he was a fifth year. "Well, I haven't done much on antidotes," she said. "But I was thinking the best way to narrow down the search would be to make a list of all the poisons that are bright blue, and that'll give us something to work with." She hoped there weren't too many blue poisons, because that would make her method less plausible. "Then when we've got a short list..." she paused, reflected and said, "actually I'm not sure how I'd go about that." She frowned but didn't look too concerned; she was sure Andrew would help to point her in the right direction. They were working in partners, after all.

"So," she said, pulling out her textbook, a sheaf of parchment and a biro (she still hadn't really gotten the use of quills and only used them for essays and assignments rather than class notes). She wrote the date at the top left of her page, and then Samantha and Andrew underneath that, and in the middle at the top she wrote 'blue poisons' and underlines it neatly. "Let's start listing the blue posions. If you have any suggestions, shout them out." She looked in her textbook and wrote down poisons that claimed to be blue in color, and added any suggestions that Andrew said, too. When she thought she had them all, Samantha laid down her pen and admired the list. It wasn't too long, she thought they could work with it.

"Okay," she said, pleased that one task had gone well, but she wasn't sure where to go from there. "So what would you suggest doing next?" she asked Andrew, hoping it wasn't cheating to ask a fifth year for advice.

0 Samantha True of many things in life 0 Samantha 0 5