Ready, set, go. on Potions

Professor Fawcett

April 14, 2011 12:39 AM

Lesson Two for Intermediates (3rd-5th Years) by Professor Fawcett

The first classes after midterm were, to John, in some ways more difficult than the first ones after summer vacations. He had occasionally wondered how common that sentiment was, but since he'd deemed a survey inappropriate for several reasons, he had instead taken to alternating which day he went easier on them and which it would be business as usual for.

This year, it was the intermediates' turn to have a full workload in the first lesson after midterm. He felt a bit bad about that since they had wrapped up antidotes just before the holidays, but trusted that his students would be able to handle it. Some with more assistance from him and-or their classmates than others, but handle it they would just the same.

"Good day, class," he said when it was time to begin. "And welcome back to your schedules." Since it might be especially impolitic at the moment to speak of the holidays being enjoyable, he instead said, "I hope you are all ready to resume learning. I have your antidotes exams here with your research papers." John had been pleased by the number who'd used sources well to support their positions, though he still wasn't quite sure how to take Mr. Bradley citing one of John's own books in his paper on the relevance of antidotes in modern society, especially since the underlying assumption of the work seemed to have been that all humans were, when they had the resources, murderous sociopaths. "I'll hand those out while you set up today. If you have any questions about your grades, immediately or once you've had more time to read through my comments, you may, of course, drop by my office or see me after class."

He leaned back against his desk. "For our time today, I'd like you to first try to come up with a list of multiple potions that serve more or less the same purpose, then discuss between yourselves why those variations might exist. Once you've done that, write a conclusion statement and then attempt to brew two. Afterward, consider your statement again and, if you feel the need to change or make alterations to it, rewrite it beneath your original statement. You may begin." As the class began grouping up or flipping through textbooks, John took the stacks of graded exams and papers and began handing them back to their owners.

OOC: Standard posting rules apply. Have fun!

Subthreads:

Sometimes I really like this class. This is not one of them. by Jose Hernandez, Pecari with Jethro Smythe, Jose Hernandez

Busy, busy, busy. by Rachel Bauer with Nicodemus Sawyer, Crotalus

Ready, set, go. by Sam Bauer with Samantha Hamilton

This is a totally awesome, really good day. by Marissa Stephenson with Andrew Duell

0 Professor Fawcett Lesson Two for Intermediates (3rd-5th Years) 0 Professor Fawcett 1 5

Jose Hernandez, Pecari

April 21, 2011 12:53 PM

Sometimes I really like this class. This is not one of them. by Jose Hernandez, Pecari

Over the past few years, Jose had discovered that he was one of the people how found coming back after midterm much harder than coming back after summer. Maybe it was that summer was longer, or maybe it was that he actually worked during the summer (if you could call what he got paid for 'work'), or maybe it was just that midterm was the only time of the year when he got to see the whole of his family - both the Pierces and the Hernandezes - but midterm always seemed harder to come back from.

As a newly minted prefect, he'd contemplated staying at Sonora over break, to prove how responsible he was, but his abuela would have been sad if he didn't come home for Christmas, and it was best not to upset Gramma Hernandez. Now, as he found out potions was getting right back into the swing of things without any consideration for how hard plain English was for Jose at the moment, he almost wished he'd stayed at school.

Maybe it would be different if he and the Pierces were actually fluent in Spanish. It would certainly be different if the Hernandezes were actually fluent in English. But the language of choice over the mixed Pierce-Hernandez holiday was Spanglish, and that was hard to come back from. Listening was unaffected, of course; his ability to understand English hadn't lessened any so his comprehension of what Professor Fawcett expected of them was perfectly fine, but the words coming out of his own mouth didn't always conform to Sonora's standard language, which wasn't going to go well for group discussion.

Fortunately, he didn't know how to say most potions-specific vocabulary in Spanish, so at least there was that. Still, he wondered if maybe it would be wisest to partner up with Dulce Garcia, just in case. But then, assuming 'talk amongst yourselves' meant actual groups rather than partners, even that wasn't good enough.

He started noting down a few ideas onto his list of similar potions, before trying to find said group, mostly because he hoped that doing so would give him time to phrase his thoughts into what he could make sure was English before subjecting them to anyone else. The paper he got back while he did this was marked about where he'd expected it to be - good but not perfect - so he put it away after only a quick glance over the comments.

By that time, he figured he probably ought to find people for his discussion before there weren't any people left, so he turned to the nearest person who didn't look like they were already embroiled in a deep potions debate, and asked, "Hey, want to work together?" Jose was absurdly pleased with himself that every one of those words was in his native language.

0 Jose Hernandez, Pecari Sometimes I really like this class. This is not one of them. 0 Jose Hernandez, Pecari 0 5

Jethro Smythe

April 21, 2011 2:11 PM

I don't ever like this class by Jethro Smythe

Sometimes Jethro felt he was really good at potions, because all he had to do was do exactly as the instructions in the book told him to do, and then learn this by heart so he could do it again in the exam. Then sometimes Jethro felt he was terrible at potions, because it involved knowing what different igredients did, and why variations existed, and what would happen if you mixed this potion with that. These were the bits he struggled with, and his fifth year seemed increasingly composed of the more difficult aspects of options. Today was no exception; the fact that there was no page number given was evidence of it not being a straight book-to-cauldron brewing class. It was easier to pay attention to Fawcett because he rarely strayed from the topic of the lesson, so Jethro understood that the class was about potions with similar uses, and he thought he had the general idea about comparing them, making them, and comparing them again.

He would have been ready to begin had he not been distracted when his antidotes project was returned, though, and the shining red A at the top drew his attention. It had been a partner effort which would explain him not having failed it, and after reading over the comments Professor Fawcett had made, Jethro got the impression he had only just scraped the A, but it was better than the Ps he'd gotten for his previous several pieces of work submitted. He was still certain he would fail the examination at the end of the year, but he might manage to improve in his classwork, which was something, and therefore better than nothing.

Placing his marked work aside, Jethro was preparing to remind himself of the assignment when Jose Hernandez asked if he wanted to work together. "Yes please," Jethro replied, sounding somehow more eager than he really meant to. He liked Jose, and he liked working with him because he didn't seem to get impatient with the way Jethro had a tendency to be useless, which did a lot to improve Jethro's work. He wasn't denying that he was slower than most of his classmates, but if people gave him time to find the right answer he was more likely to find it than if they stopped waiting right after the first few minutes.

0 Jethro Smythe I don't ever like this class 146 Jethro Smythe 0 5

Rachel Bauer

April 23, 2011 1:35 PM

Busy, busy, busy. by Rachel Bauer

Rachel sat examining her fingernails in the minutes before Potions began, imprinting the perfection of her professionally-done manicure on her memory in case it was cruelly destroyed in the early minutes of this class. She enjoyed Potions, and saw that it was a really useful subject even on days when she didn’t, but it was murder on her hands.

When Fawcett began speaking, though, she folded one arm flat across the table in front of her and hid her nails beneath her other elbow while that hand propped up her chin, not so much relaxing her posture as just leaning forward at the waist to listen to what wonderful things the Aladren HoH had in store for them right after midterm.

Fawcett didn’t fail to deliver on the suspicion of the worst she’d had since she read the syllabus description for today. Rachel stifled a groan at hearing that they were going to have to make two potions. She could do it, sure, especially with some help, but she was going to have to work her tail off, and her nails were going to be ancient history.

Maybe she could find a spell that would restore nail polish. That would be a worthwhile investment of some of her time. Merlin knew she’d probably spend more time casting it, over the course of a lifetime, than she did researching it. She scribbled a note to herself on the edge of her syllabus to go do that before the next class.

First came back some paperwork – maybe Professor Fawcett really didn’t have a life outside of the school, but was the last of some kind of previously-unknown species of vampire that would crumble to dust if he engaged in non-academic activity, like normal ones crumbled if they were exposed to sunlight or pointy things in the chest area – and she didn’t quite manage to hide a smile when she saw that her grades were pretty good. Then she turned to find someone who was looking at her.

If they were going to pull this off, there wasn’t any time to sit around and wait. It was going to have to be bam, bam, and bam for the rest of the period, from discussion to potioneering to assignment revision. She expected to feel like she’d had a workout by the final bell. “Hey,” she said with a bright smile. “Want to work together?”

16 Rachel Bauer Busy, busy, busy. 154 Rachel Bauer 0 5

Sam Bauer

April 23, 2011 2:19 PM

Ready, set, go. by Sam Bauer

His first class of the new semester was Potions, on what, according to the syllabus, was bound to be a hard day. Clearly, someone in the scheduling department had it out for him. Sam didn’t know what he’d done to earn that individual’s wrath, but when he’d earned it, he had earned it.

Now, he just had to make the best he could out of it. Starting with trying to get on the good side of the man in charge before anything else could happen. “Hullo, Professor,” he said cheerfully as he walked past Fawcett. The key was to not act like he knew he was probably doomed. Maybe, then, any spectacular mistakes would be read by Fawcett as belonging to a partner who’d been sitting low in a seat and trying to avoid eye contact. “Good to be back, isn’t it?”

Okay, maybe that had been laying it on a little thick. Sam did all right in all of his classes, occasionally, when his mom made him feel guilty enough, put forth one crazy burst of effort that earned him a row of really good grades in a few of his classes, but that was about it. Potions was one of his better classes, just because of the order of the practical section and his developed ability to talk in circles until it sounded like he knew what he was talking about on a variety of topics, but he was still no prodigy, and he was fairly certain that Fawcett knew it. Fawcett did not strike him as a person who missed quite as much as the ink stains on his robes might make him look like he did, at least not about what went down in his classroom. Sam wasn’t in a state of complete despair about being back, but nor was he that happy about it.

What was done was done, though, so he went to his usual seat – near the front, since he was short, but not too near, because the Aladrens had dibs – and got out his stuff. He felt a little awkward about the announcement that their antidotes assignments were coming back, but shrugged it off. It was over and done, and while he hadn’t been in one of those high-energy, put-forth-his-best moods during those assignments, he hadn’t done his worst, either. Of that, he was reasonably sure, and of the need to pay more attention to the lesson happening now anyway, he was absolutely positive. Fawcett wasn’t pulling his punches today.

Still, he could handle it. The first part just required a little memory and being bright enough to think of the index, and the second…that would be hard, what with working fast while still paying enough attention to not blow something up, but whatever. Sam grabbed his text and flipped to the index, finding it just as an assignment was returned to him. He shoved it into his bag without looking and turned to his neighbor. “Got a partner yet?” he asked.

16 Sam Bauer Ready, set, go. 163 Sam Bauer 0 5

Marissa Stephenson

April 23, 2011 2:53 PM

This is a totally awesome, really good day. by Marissa Stephenson

Potions was demanding, but it was still Marissa’s favorite class. The only thing she didn’t like was the irony of the one required class where she thought she could have easily kept up with the sixth years being one of the ones where she wasn’t asked to.

She smiled pleasantly at Professor Fawcett as she entered the classroom, early as always, and took a seat near the front and off to the side closest to the door. She needed to run to the library between this class and her Divinations one, which meant getting out as soon as possible after the bell. Since she would still have to help clean up if it wasn’t a quick potion today and tell multiple people, including the professor, good-bye and to have a good day, the only way to increase her exit speed was to sit close to the door. She just hoped it didn’t make Fawcett think she was eager to leave his class. That would be…not good.

Her hands tightened, one on her pen and the other around the edge of her notebook, at the mention of their projects from before the end of the term. She’d been worrying about that ever since she’d gone home for Christmas, and had to bite her lip to keep from making an annoyed sound when the professor, having told them the stupid things were done, didn’t immediately return them. It was so hard to focus on lessons when she knew a grade was coming back….

At least today didn’t sound so bad. Two potions was a tall order, but if she took one and whoever she worked with took the other, they hit the fine line between picking something too simple – she truly believed, on these days when Professor Fawcett gave them some latitude, that he was judging them based on what they selected – and picking something too complicated to finish in the time they had, and they didn’t spend too long arguing during the discussion part, it would still be a good day for her. She’d get to show her best.

“Hi,” she started to say to another student, but then her papers came back. “Hang on one second,” she added, turning them over to see the grades and then squeaking slightly in excitement, a wide smile spreading across her face,. An E on the exam, and an O on the research paper. The exam was a little disappointing, she’d really expected to do better on that one, but the paper made it all better. She had pushed herself as far as she thought she could have on that one, and it was nice to see all that work pay off like this.

Mindful that she wasn’t being very polite, though, she forced herself to put them away and get back to today. “I’m sorry,” she apologized. “I spent two weeks just obsessing over those, I had to see how I did before my head exploded. Do you want to work together today?”

16 Marissa Stephenson This is a totally awesome, really good day. 147 Marissa Stephenson 0 5

Andrew Duell

April 26, 2011 8:46 PM

It is good that someone is having one by Andrew Duell

Potions. Andrew did not like this class, he just didn't quite 'get it'. Transfigurations and Charms were one thing, they were 'magic'. Potions just didn't quite fit the same niche in his head. It was more like chemistry, but not. He knew that there was magic involved, in some of the same way as his other classes, but it didn't work the same. Oh well, it didn't matter, he was here. He took a seat and got out his things, just as always. Break had been to short as always, and from the sounds of it Professor Fawcett wasn't going to let them ease back into things. Great. He cringed in fear as the professor started handing back the papers. This would not be good.

Andrew got his paper back and eventually looked at it. He pretty much instantly regretted it. How could he have done so poorly? He skimmed over the various comments and notes, none of them made him feel any better. The girl next to him said 'Hi' then was distracted by her paper. It was Marissa, and she looked very happy with her paper. That also did not make him feel better. Although... he whisked his papers away into his bag and smiled at her. "No problem," he responded to her, "Looks like you did pretty well, congratulations. Sure I'm up for working together, how do you think we should tackle this?" He took out his notebook and desperately hoped that she wouldn't ask how he had done on the papers.

2 Andrew Duell It is good that someone is having one 145 Andrew Duell 0 5

Samantha Hamilton

April 27, 2011 7:55 AM

And they're off! by Samantha Hamilton

More often than not these days samantha was pleased that her family had no real part in her life. She guessed a lot of Muggle kids her age would be jealous of her situation. Her mom didn't understand her grades, or know about Quiddith, or have an inlking of what one could do with a wand. So when she informed her family about school, she could say things like 'I'm doing well in classes' and 'I made the sports team' and even 'I sang with a choir in a talent show.' It was sufficient for them all to get along without her nearest and dearest knowing that Samantha regularly was in danger of being knocked several feet to the ground off her flying broomstick by a metal ball, or that sometimes in class she cut up leeches and stewed them, and very occasionally proceeded to drink the final concoction. It was a good thing Muggle families didn't know about all that stuff - they just wouldn't get it.

So unlike her peers, Samantha didn't have any parental pressure to do well in classes. Thet left her pretty much free to enjoy those classes in which she did well, and face the others with reluctance. However, she wasn't completely free, because she was still an Aladren, and that itself held certain connotations. Samantha wasn't as smart as many of her Housemates, but she was logical, and she always understood the theory part of classes. She admittedly had greater difficulty with all the practical aspects, but she wasn't falling behind too badly. She wouldn't have to tell her family she was failing anything, which was just as well, because things were getting messed up at home again, and Samantha didn't want to contribute to that.

Today the class involved equal parts logic and skill, so as long as samantha was lucky enough to find someone who wasn't awful at brewing then this class would hopefully go quite well. She'd taken a seat fairly near the front (she was an Aladren, after all) but not right at the front, because she wasn't a true potions nerd and didn't need people to think that way about her, either. She thought it inevitable that people would think her smart and bookish - part of the package of being sorted into Aladren - but then she'd played soccer and Quidditch, so she was hoping she at least had dimensions in the eyes of her peers. That's if any of them even thought about her, which she doubted most of the time. It hadn't been easy to stand out from the crowd when she'd been unsure of the magic world, and samantha hadn't really ever been one to stand out, anyway - average ought to be her middle name. Maybe it was her mom's second divorce on the horizon, or maybe it was her tendency to be a team player getting stale, but samantha thought she might like to stand out just every once in a while.

As fate in all its irony would have it, Samantha had ended up sitting next to Sam Bauer, the person who was least likely in the entire class to make her feel individual, as he'd had the audacity to steal her name. She grudgingly accepted that it wasn't his fault, so when he asked if she'd got a partner yet, she replied, "Nope. You want to work together on this one?" She noticed he was already at the textbook index, which she saw as a good sign for their project, and then she was distracted momentarily as her last project was returned. She swiftly folded the paper in hlaf so nobody else could see her grade, and then she placed the paper into her bag. She'd waited two weeks already for the grade, she could wait until the end of the day to go over it by herself. It wasn't anyone else's business.

0 Samantha Hamilton And they're off! 159 Samantha Hamilton 0 5

Nicodemus Sawyer, Crotalus

April 27, 2011 7:05 PM

You asked for someone watching you, right? by Nicodemus Sawyer, Crotalus

Nic did not have a good excuse for running late. Well, he did, but it wasn't one he was going to offer if anyone asked because while the call of nature was something everyone had to deal with, it wasn't polite to talk about in public, so if Professor Fawcett asked why he was skidding into the potions room with no time at all to spare, he'd just apologize profusely and leave the cursing of his bladder's poor timing silent.

It did, however, leave him with a serious dilemna. The whole back row was already full. He always sat back there so his tall frame wouldn't be in anybody's way. He decided, in that case, to take one of the seats along the side, so at least he'd be mostly out of the way. This, however, had another problem: the only remaining side chair was next to Rachel Bauer.

He never sat this close to Rachel Bauer. Terror assailed him, but he drew courage from her saying 'hi' to him that one time. He sat. He sat next to Rachel Bauer.

The lesson was seriously overpowered by her proximity, but Nic was able to pay attention for one reason and one reason only: Rachel Bauer was much too close to stare at without it being obvious and, to avoid doing so, Nic made sure his eyes never left the professor. And since it was hard to completely ignore somebody you were fanatically staring at, he caught the gist of what they were supposed to be doing today.

Thankfully.

Because as they were loosed to begin work on the day's assignment, it no longer made sense to stare at Fawcett so Nic's eyes naturally wandered toward Rachel. He briefly succeeded in looking away to check that he'd gotten the expected A on his antidote work. But then he went right back to looking at her. And then she was looking back at him and then, and then she asked him to work together. Him! Work with Rachel!

"Uh, um, yeah," he managed to agree.

What were they supposed to be doing again? His mind went completely blank even though he knew he knew this. A moment ago, he'd been thanking his lucky stars that he'd caught that much.

Okay, this class, and this class only, he would abandon his normal goal of a completely average grade. Completely average would not impress Rachel Bauer. He'd risk being thought a geek for her.

If only he could manage to remember what they were doing and how to speak, that was. "Uh, so, you have any ideas on the assignment?"

1 Nicodemus Sawyer, Crotalus You asked for someone watching you, right? 165 Nicodemus Sawyer, Crotalus 0 5

Marissa

April 28, 2011 2:15 PM

I wish everyone could. by Marissa

Marissa had grown up in the best private schools her parents could locate, get her to every day, and afford, among other high achievers destined, in high school, to become flat-out overachievers. Most of them had also been the daughters and sons of people she and her parents knew socially. Between those two things, a certain code had sprung up when it came to grades, and even though she spent more than half her time here on completely the other end of the spectrum from what she had been in Georgia, she had still never given up on the Golden Rule: Thou Shalt Not Ask Directly About Other People’s Grades.

That was a basic version, anyway. There were always nuances. For instance, it was perfectly acceptable for Andrew to say what he’d said, and it might have been okay under several circumstances for her to ask how he’d done, but since he’d clearly mentioned grades and then failed to offer any information about his own, it would be inexcusably rude, under the code, for her to ask. Either he didn’t want to talk about it, or he didn’t want to talk about it because it was bad. Marissa doubted anything could ever go as poorly as that one Transfiguration practical where she’d been so nervous the night before that she hadn’t slept and had come in with her brain in a fog and her everything else shaking from the overenthusiastic application of coffee to the problem, but everyone had a right to his or her feelings about any given grade. She tried to tone down her smile a little. She liked Andrew pretty well and didn’t want to risk maybe hurting his feelings.

“Thanks,” she said. “It went okay. I’m mostly just glad to have it over with, you know?”

Nuances. And a bit better, maybe. At home, she guessed anyone who knew her would have seen through that, but since she was not known for being a top student here due to her magic problem, there was a chance Andrew would believe her about it going only okay.

Luckily, they were able to shift into work. “Um, okay, I was thinking that we could take a potion apiece during the brewing section,” she said. “I can write out the statements, my handwriting’s okay and I’m pretty good at, you know – “ she glanced toward Professor Fawcett, just to make sure he wasn’t standing right behind her – “making things sound good.” Paige had told her that she’d had a teacher in high school who’d encouraged them to learn the art of talking in circles until it sounded like they knew what they were talking about, but it still wasn’t an area Marissa liked to admit, at least to adults, she had some proficiency in. With other people her own age, it could be good, but not with adults. “Maybe come up with categories of potions, then fill in the specifics? We could make a sort of extended t-chart for that.”

16 Marissa I wish everyone could. 147 Marissa 0 5

Sam Bauer

April 29, 2011 1:57 PM

Go Team Sams! by Sam Bauer

“Works for me,” Sam said when Samantha – who he was always tempted to call ‘Sam Hamilton,’ but didn’t – agreed to work with him. He didn’t think all Aladrens were super geniuses any more than he thought all Crotali were uptight society types, because accepting that House stereotypes worked would be to negate his own existence, but they did usually make good partners, and Sam Hamilton wasn’t even one of the weird ones.

He didn’t miss that she quickly put her paper away, but didn’t comment on it. As long as she wasn’t so bad at the subject that she blew the room up, which past evidence suggested she was not, it was really none of his business how she’d done. Plus, he’d done the same thing about five seconds earlier, so he was really in no position to say anything about it. Plus more, they had a project to beat.

Sam liked that. He enjoyed having a clear goal to focus on and find a straight line to move along. This one wasn’t ideally straight, as ones in Potions almost never were since Fawcett seemed to think they needed to make calls for themselves instead of always having a perfectly clear guideline, but it would do. Might even be fun.

“How big do you think this should be?” he asked, deciding that was a good, solid starting point. “I’ve got the index open to sleeping potions now, there’s plenty there, but there’s some other sections, I guess you’d call ‘em? I’m guessing both the ones we brew should be from the same section, so we can compare ‘em, but I heard the list as being as big as we could get it.” He grimaced slightly. “And most of what I know’s in the book, I don’t see many potions outside.”

16 Sam Bauer Go Team Sams! 163 Sam Bauer 0 5

Rachel

April 29, 2011 2:18 PM

I do seem to remember doing that, yes. by Rachel

“Great,” Rachel said with a smile when Nic agreed to work with her, glad, as always, to have that part of class settled. It was exceedingly rare for anyone to refuse an offer, but she was always half-worried someone would, and for some kind of personal reason. Since Raines had taken a mere aversion to each other and turned it into her doing both of their homeworks for the rest of her school career, she had realized that it was really hard to ever know who, exactly, one had ticked off and what they were prepared to do about it. “We’re gonna ace this,” she added confidently.

Potions, after all, was a very Crotalus subject. Perfectionism and practicality were both needed, and she thought both were present, at least with her and some combinations of the House description. She didn’t know enough about Nic to know how well they applied to him, but he didn’t seem too crazy, and it was always good to be positive. It inspired people or something.

She opened her book up as he asked if she had any ideas for the project. “My main thought has been how much I hate making lists in class,” she admitted. “I never feel like I put down enough, you know?” She saw Sam was at the back of his textbook. “Maybe the index can help us find these synonym potions, because I’m blanking on them.” She bit her bottom lip. “And we should probably settle how we’re going to do the potions. Should we each take one, or do you think it would work better if we split roles but both contributed to both of them?”

She realized she’d been talking an awful lot. “Sorry if I talk too much. That happens when I start feeling really busy.”

16 Rachel I do seem to remember doing that, yes. 154 Rachel 0 5

Andrew

April 29, 2011 8:01 PM

That would be great, maybe someday by Andrew

Andrew definitely knew what it was like to have it over with. Unfortunately, with results like he had gotten, he also knew what it was like to come back and viciously attack him later. He had a bad feeling that this was going to be one of those times. He breathed a huge sigh of relief when she started talking about how to tackle their current assignment. She had either sensed his desire to bury that paper in some very, very deep hole and put every kind of sealing, obscuring and protective charm over it known to man... or she just wasn't that interested. Strangely, he found himself a little saddened by the thought of the second option. Oh well, he shrugged it off as best he could and turned his attention to the task at hand.

He smiled at her, "Sounds like a good plan. I don't have to even see your handwriting to know that it's better than mine." He grinned. "And making things sound good is a great skill." he thought of that stupid paper tucked away, "There are times I wish I had that skill." He opened up his potions book to the index and started scanning down the list. "Okay, let's see what types of potions are there? I guess we're just looking for potions that do similar things to other potions, right? Not potions that do similar things to charms or tranfigurations or anything like that." He looked back up at her, "I wonder how similar in function should they be? Potions that physically alter a person's appearance or is that to broad? Potions that turn your left eyebrow blue?" He sighed quietly, was this fair to her? Maybe he should tell her how his paper went so she could find someone competent to partner with.

2 Andrew That would be great, maybe someday 145 Andrew 0 5

Marissa

April 30, 2011 1:42 PM

We'll have to work on making that happen. by Marissa

Marissa bit her lip around a slight smile, a little embarrassed, when Andrew expressed a desire to share her skill for making things sound good. “I’d tell you how if I knew,” she said. “I swear I’ve spent half my life trying to figure out the rules, but....” She shrugged helplessly. “I really have no idea how it’s done, I don’t even think I do it that well. Professors – “ she spread her hands – “just disagree.”

That was nothing more or less than unvarnished truth. Marissa didn’t know how to be a good suck-up, playing to what teachers wanted in both behavior and writing style. She just did what felt natural, and somehow, it worked. She didn’t regret it or question it too much, because it had served her well for the past fifteen and a half years, but she did feel a little guilty about it, sometimes, around other people who disavowed a similar ability. How had she gotten the luck, anyway? And even disregarding that, did she deserve it?

She didn’t know, and there wasn’t really a good time to wonder too much about it. That kind of worrying just clouded her focus, and for her magical classes, far more than the material her mother had her studying so she could test out of college classes and pass for homeschooled all at once, she had to have all her focus. Now was an especially bad time not to be focused, too, because Andrew had just presented her with a variety of angles that hadn’t crossed her mind. Even as it did, again, make her wonder why people had thought she was smart, when she could see how much sharper everyone around her was despite their apparently lesser ability to spout nonsense in a pleasing manner on a paper.

“Wow,” she said. “I hadn’t thought of half of that.” She bit her bottom lip. “Okay – and this is just me thinking things, I have no idea if I’m right – I think that yes, it’s potions that do things similar to each other, and yes, ‘turns your left eyebrow blue’ is probably too specific.” She finished that with a smile. “Maybe we could do a side bit about potions with relationships to other subjects if we have some time left at the end?” That was one of the rules she had successfully worked out. Teachers appreciated interest and extra effort.

As for what was narrow enough, without being too wide….Argh, she loved Fawcett for not making her do much magic and giving enough writing to balance out the occasional spell or really horrendous math problem, but sometimes she hated him for his ‘learn to think’ strategy. She didn’t want to learn to think, she wanted an O in the one standard, often-considered-academic Sonora class where she had the remotest chance in the deepest circle of Dante’s Inferno of getting one.

“Maybe, like, hair potions?” she suggested, then realized that could sound like she was one of those girls whose knowledge of the craft they were all here to study extended to magic and potions that could be used to make her prettier. “Instead of something as broad as a whole appearance or as narrow as an eyebrow, I mean,” she said. “Just extending your example. So it’s somewhere in the middle.” She looked at Andrew, biting her bottom lip again. “Does that sound right, maybe, or do you think something that makes more sense? Because I’m really not sure at all about this one.” One good thing about Sonora was that she could now utter that sentence more easily.

16 Marissa We'll have to work on making that happen. 147 Marissa 0 5

Andrew

April 30, 2011 6:10 PM

With your help, I'm sure that it could by Andrew

There was no way around it, Andrew had to admit it at least at some level to himself. He liked Marissa. Okay, there he admitted it. Now maybe he could stop trying to hide it from himself and focus on this class so he doesn't destroy her grade as well as finishing off any hope he has in his. Right, work. Work, potions, with Marissa. Dangit! That was supposed to allow him to focus and set it aside, not sink farther into some obsession. He could almost hear his mother, she wouldn't mind if he bombed potions completely if he found a girl in the process. That probably wasn't going to happen though, Marissa had to have far better options than him at her fingertips. So, in light of that... back to work.

To help with his decision, he looked back intently at the index of his book while he responded. "Hair should be a good basis. The professor just said potions that do similar things, right? So we can define out study to 'Potions that change a person's hair'. Maybe we can do some subcategories or something to encompass different aspects; color, length, style, etc. We can then see how many potions fit into each of those categories and see which would be the most viable for study." As he scanned he wrote down a few names and page numbers of possibilities as he came across them. "Do you want to start writing up preliminary ideas for why different potions may exist for doing the same thing while I make this list of potions we could try?" He looked up from the book, turned generally towards her but kept his eyes roving about as though he was thinking. He didn't want to be rude like he was ignoring her, but he wasn't sure if he'd relapse if he'd look directly at her again. This was fairly terrible. "The chief reasons I could see would be availability of ingredients or ease of mixing. Hmm.. we may have to study the histories of these potions, one may be older and someone just figured out an easier way of doing the same thing."

He looked at her, "What do you think?" Well... that was a mistake. What was happening? Where had this infatuation come from all the sudden? He had spent the past few years here focusing on school and not much else. Now that he finally let his mother convince him that more 'social interaction' might not be a bad thing, and that he'd just allowed himself to admit that he liked her... was the past few years of repressed whatever going to come crashing down on poor Marissa? He did like her, but... he realized that he was staring just a bit, and even blushing. He quickly turned back to the index to scribble down more potions.

2 Andrew With your help, I'm sure that it could 145 Andrew 0 5

Marissa

May 02, 2011 5:47 PM

Aw, you're sweet. by Marissa

“Sure,” Marissa said when Andrew suggested she go ahead and start on their preliminary statement about why the basis for their assignment even existed in the first place, glad to be told what to do. The badges indicated someone thought she could function as a leader person, but she really preferred being told what to do. That way, she couldn’t screw it up as easily as she could if she was the one who made a call.

She listened to his quick theories, then jotted them down on her notes page, beside the blank one she planned to use for the actual statements. “Those sound great,” she said, meaning it. Marissa knew that different things grew in different areas, so it made sense that people in those areas, before widespread travel became a big thing, would have to develop different ways of accomplishing the same feat. “I’ll run with those. They can both be right.”

She drummed her fingers on the edge of the table. “I don’t want to write something about people playing around just to make a name for themselves….” That was more or less a joke, though on her more cynical days, she could believe it. “Oh, I know another one. Different levels of doing something – you know?” she knew her statement had not been clear and easy to understand. “This is probably more medical potions, but this section is more general – different strength levels? I know there’s different, like, mood potions, because I was reading about them last week.” There was, she thought, a sort of little club of independent study students focused around Fawcett which did a lot in the social studies, and she wanted in next year, but since she wasn’t an Aladren, she thought she might have to work extra hard to get there.

She realized, too, that she was distracting him from his list when he seemed suddenly uncomfortable, which she interpreted as wanting her to shut up and get to work. “And I’ll do that now and stop distracting you from the list of potions,” she said. “Let me know when you’re done if I’m not done yet.”

16 Marissa Aw, you're sweet. 147 Marissa 0 5

Andrew

May 02, 2011 10:45 PM

Sweet? I've been called many things, but that may be a first by Andrew

Yeah right... like she could possibly not distract him. He kept his eyes on the index as he wrote and replied, "That's another good aspect. I guess it doesn't really apply to our examples... unless we're talking shades of color or something like that." His eyes wandered up off the pages he had been focusing on while his mind similarly wandered trying to think of more possibilities along her theory. He pulled himself back to the task at hand, and decided to lie to her, "Don't worry, you're not distracting me." He continued, "I ruminate out loud a lot, other people doing it is a lot better than them staring at me like I'm crazy." He grinned.

Andrew scribbled down a few more potions, "Okay I think we have enough to work with here." He had managed to find a couple for each of the categories, but there was one clear winner. "Looks like our best bet is going to be color. There are quite a few that seem to do the same thing. I wonder why that is? Anyway, I guess it doesn't really matter." He slid his notebook over to her, "Which one of those do you want to try?" He started flipping through the rest of his book looking for the pages for the potions he had listed. Gotta keep busy, gotta stay focused, mind wandering at this point is dangerous. He glanced at Marissa again, that didn't help, what was he looking for in this book again?

2 Andrew Sweet? I've been called many things, but that may be a first 145 Andrew 0 5

Nic

May 03, 2011 1:00 PM

You may have said 'looking at you' by Nic

Nic shook his head once, in denial that she was talking too much. First of all, her words did manage to jumpstart his brain and he could now remember what they were supposed to be doing. Secondly, the theory went that group communication was a good thing, and since it was unlikely he was going to develop that skill right now, it was a good thing she had it.

"I-it's fine," he forced his mouth to form the words with only one little stutter. "I don't talk enough." Normally, he was perfectly fine with that - he even imagined he was 'the strong and silent type' except not particularly strong yet - but right now it felt like a failing.

He did need to speak enough to at least answer her questions though. The fact that it was potions class and they and a very defined set of tasks ahead of them helped. He didn't need to come up with original answers, just ones that made sense in the context of potions. He thought he could probably handle that. "I guess we each take one; that seems simpler and less prone to mixing up which one the porcupine quills go into."

He gave her an awkward smile, and added, "Though if you'd rather have me do the beetle crushing or whatever, I can do that, too." The one thing he never got wrong in potions was the preparation. He actually enjoyed slicing, dicing, and mashing.

As for the write-up and list, he imagined Rachel would be better at that if only because her handwriting had to be more legible than his own. He flipped to the index of his textbook anyway, because he wasn't going to dump the whole thing in her lap without helping. He glanced over the list of potions and pointed at one of them, "Here. Shrinking. There's the kind that just makes a frog smaller and the one that turns it back into a tadpole. They both make the frog shrink, but one changes its stage of development as well as its size."

1 Nic You may have said 'looking at you' 165 Nic 0 5

Jose Hernandez

May 03, 2011 11:34 PM

That is terribly unfortunate by Jose Hernandez

"Great," Jose said when Jethro agreed to partner him.

Jose liked working with Jethro. Jethro was a good guy, and Jose never felt like he was pressured to work extra hard so they could pull off an O on the day's assignment. (He was perfectly happy with Es, and if he sometimes got an A instead, it wasn't the end of the world.) In potions especially, because of his vegan handicap, Jose usually either didn't partner at all or paired up with Jethro who didn't seem to mind (or possibly notice; it was hard to tell sometimes) that they weren't doing exactly the same potion as everyone else.

Fortunately for today's assignment, one of Jethro's potions strengths was that he could actually follow the instructions printed out in the book. That was a very good thing since they were going to need to make two potions by the end of the class period.

He almost had to laugh, though, at the assignment to list out different potions that had similar effects. Jose could pretty much go down the entire syllabus and name a vegan alternative to every listed potion with animal products in it. "Well, the obvious answer for why two potions might exist that do basically the same thing is that the original might have animal products in it, and a vegan wants to use it, so they alter it a bit so it doesn't. I want to say we could make a potion and a vegan alternative, but that almost feels like cheating since that's what I do every lesson anyway."

1 Jose Hernandez That is terribly unfortunate 149 Jose Hernandez 0 5

Marissa

May 04, 2011 6:03 PM

They say there's a first time for everything. by Marissa

“True,” Marissa said when he pointed out that the strength problem didn’t really apply to hair potions. “I might include that in a general statement, then state the category we’ve narrowed it down to, then state the potions we’ve picked.” She scribbled a note, in her own form of abbreviations and shorthand, to do exactly that on the margin of her ‘loose notes’ page, where she got her thoughts in order before putting them into pretty form for Fawcett.

She smiled back when he disclaimed distraction. He was probably just being polite, but it was nice to be assured anyway. It made her feel less bad. “Oh, good,” she said. “I’ll agree you’re not crazy if you’ll agree I’m not.”

When he finished his list, she looked it over. “Color, or maybe conditioning potions,” Marissa commented. “Different formulas to make things shiny!” She decided to be serious again. “If we go with color, I think we should probably go with two that would turn your hair kind of the same color, but have different ingredients…” she found two reds, then looked them up in the text.

“There’s no way on earth I’m ever going to agree to demonstrate,” she began, “but these seem like they could work.” She checked the pages of her book, open to the pages for the potions, which she was holding open with one hand, then pointed out the two with her other one. “One’s just got a few more steps than the other. You might want to take that one, because it ends with a setting spell, and….” She shrugged, forcing herself to smile. Andrew had worked with her in Charms before, he knew about that meant.

16 Marissa They say there's a first time for everything. 147 Marissa 0 5

Rachel

May 04, 2011 6:05 PM

Precise words, precise words. by Rachel

Rachel had, indeed, noticed that Nic was not a big talker, which was why she knew it was likely that she was going to end up running over him to one degree or another by the end of class. Which would be bad. She did not need a reputation for being aggressive, and Momma and her stepfather were both firmly of the opinion that she was in constant danger of developing one, even after that fiasco at the Quidditch game with Kate. If that didn’t count as aggressive, Rachel didn’t know what short of Beating should, but it seemed that Momma and Jeremy did not include Kate in their definition of keeping up the family appearance.

What there was of it. For gosh sake, Jeremy was married to someone ten years his senior, Momma was a divorcee who’d eloped with her first husband when she was seventeen after quitting school while she was Head Girl and Crotalus Quidditch Captain, and while Rachel, at least, went out of her way not to advertise it, said first husband, the father of most of Emily’s children, was the son of two Muggleborns. But still.

“You should work on that,” she said lightly, with a smile. “Talking’s good for you.”

Then he got to answering her stream of questions, and Rachel became more serious, focusing on the task at hand. “Right,” she agreed about splitting the potions. “That makes sense.” She smiled at his offer to do the prep work for both. “Normally, I’d do my own, but since we have to get all this written stuff done, I’ll take you up on that,” she said. “We can do the list, then I can work on the statement while you prep the ingredients – unless there’s something you want in the statement?” She looked at him. “Don’t let me, you know, run over you too much.”

She made the shrinking things the first items on her list. “Great,” she said. “Okay, I’ve got two different cheering potions here, one’s milder than the other but they still do basically the same thing.” She bit her lip. “Or is that too similar?"

16 Rachel Precise words, precise words. 154 Rachel 0 5

Andrew

May 05, 2011 9:49 PM

Personally, I'm a fan of trying new things. by Andrew

"You? Crazy?" He nearly laughed at the idea, then he made a show of looking around the room at their classmates. He leaned in close and in a playful whisper to her, "Don't tell anyone, but I think you're one of the sanest people in this classroom right now." He gave her an exaggerated wink, then darted his eyes around the room again, pretending to make sure nobody had overhead. He relaxed back in his chair and gave her a grin. Okay, enough goofing off now, he thought to himself. But, it had allowed him to get closer to her than usual. She smelled nice.

"Anyway," he forced his mind back on track. Class. Work. Potions. "Your plan sounds good, except I think you'd look nice with red hair." Wait... how would she take that? Quick, keep going, "Not that you don't look nice now..." umm, that wasn't where he wanted to go. Ummm.... crap... crap.... back to class stuff. Yes, that was safe. "I can do it though, if you don't want to, so no worries there." He buried his nose in the book with the potion she had indicated for him and read, desperately trying to not see whatever strange look she was giving him after that. Maybe if he kept talking, yeah, that would cover it up. Sure, why not? "This potion doesn't look to bad, I should be able to pull it off."

The setting spell at the end didn't scare him to much, he had done them before, once or twice they had even came out right. He knew what that smile he had given meant. She still didn't think she was very good with the actual casting spells. He really wished there was something he could do to help her with that. His charms were not the best though, so offering to help her with those didn't seem like the best idea. Maybe he'd have to team up with her in Transfigurations, he was okay with those. But first she'd have to figure out that she could get better at them with work and practice; the smile also seemed to mean, to him anyway, that she'd nearly given up on them. She'd have to see that she could do them, Hmm... maybe.... "Do you think each doing a potion is best, or do you think we should both work together on them both. If we are comparing the processes, it might be more enlightening if we both saw and experienced the creation of both of the potions."

2 Andrew Personally, I'm a fan of trying new things. 145 Andrew 0 5

Samantha Hamilton

May 06, 2011 5:12 AM

Sams for the win! by Samantha Hamilton

"How big do you think this should be?" Sam Bauer asked, and Samantha didn't really understand what he was asking her. Luckily he continued on, and gave his question context.

"Oh," Samantha replied. She hadn't really thought about their assignment in terms of textbook sections, but she supposed that was a good way to start. "I don't know. I just thought of a few potions that do the same thing - like shrinking solution and anti-aging draught," which both, as she understood it, if swallowed by a person would make them appear younger, "or strength potion and strengthening solution." She wasn't really sure what the difference was between these two because she hadn't actually studied either of them yet, but had come across them both while reading. She'd even checked to make sure they weren't actually just the same potion by different names, but they seemed to have diffferent ingredients, so probably not. "I guess they might be in different sections," she considered, particularly her first example, "so it probably doesn't matter." that was her take on the situation, anyway - Fawcett's assignment had been vague enough as to be open to that sort of interpretation, and from what she'd learned of her potions professor so far, Samantha didn't think he'd mark them down for ingenuity.

"I honestly don't mind which potions we look at," she said, having given her own textbook index a quick glance over. "What are you in the mood for brewing?" she asked Sam Bauer, as they did actually have to make the potion for this class - it would make sense not to pick something too difficult or tedious.

0 Samantha Hamilton Sams for the win! 159 Samantha Hamilton 0 5

Jethro

May 06, 2011 5:35 AM

I seem to be that sort of person by Jethro

Jose interpreted the assignment in the way he usually interpreted potions assignments: by acknowledging that sometimes the same potion could be used without animal parts. For a long time Jethro hadn't understood why someone would want to make the same potion by not using animal parts - unless they were adverse to touching rats' tails like his cousin Cecily and her friends had been, according to Cynthia - but by now he understood that Jose didn't eat meat or cheese or anything from an animal, either. He must just really like animals, Jethro thought, and not the taste of them. He didn't really understand why Jose didn't want to eat eggs or honey or other things that meant an animal was still alive afterwards, but he wasn't curious enough to ask. he simply accepted that Jose didn't put animal ingredients into his potions, and Jethro had no opposition to this.

"I don't think it's cheating," Jethro replied. "It would be two potions with the same effects but different composition," he repeated the assignment (but not word for word, which really demonstrated that he'd actually understood the work this time. perhaps he was making progress after all). "I think it might be a short discussion about why the variations exist, though," he admitted this one short-coming of Jose's plan. "We might not get a very good grade just for saying that they are different because you don't want to cook animal parts." Jethro himself didn't really mind about getting a bad grade, but he thought Jose probably deserved a better grade. "We could try something else just to be certain," he suggested, though he had no idea what else they could try. He didn't want to make Jose do all the work - that wouldn't be fair - so he said, "I could start looking in the textbook, if you like."

0 Jethro I seem to be that sort of person 0 Jethro 0 5

Jose

May 09, 2011 9:19 PM

It's really not too bad by Jose

Jose nodded in agreement that only mentioning the vegan alternatives in their write-up would probably result in a less than favorable grade. As he wanted to continue in this subject next year, that was something he ought to avoid as much as possible. Finding a few more examples and reasons for variations should hardly be difficult given that he'd come up with one immediately without even thinking very hard about it, so he didn't think filling out the rest of essay should be too hard.

"Yeah," he agreed to Jethro's offer to look through the textbook. "You do that, I'll start trying to find which potions we can do." He'd need a vegan one for himself, and something with clear and precise instructions for Jethro. And the two potions had to do pretty much the same thing. Fortunately, he had brought his Vegan Potions book, so he had quite a few to pick from. It would probably be easier to pick Jethro's first and see if had a matching one.

Out of practicality, it seemed best to go with 'vegan alternative' as their brewed potion comparison. Jethro didn't think it was cheating and Jose couldn't brew anything but vegan potions, so there wasn't a lot of other choice.

0 Jose It's really not too bad 0 Jose 0 5

Marissa

May 23, 2011 2:26 PM

It can have its benefits. by Marissa

Marissa laughed at Andrew’s antics. He was funny, she’d give him that. Always a little bigger than life, too.

She couldn’t help but admire people like that, the ones who could just ‘put on a show’ like that and not seem embarrassed or like they could think of nothing but what other people were secretly thinking of it. The psychology text she’d been reading in preparation for a credit exam this summer had indicated that it wasn’t possible, that people under twelve or so didn’t think that way, but she could remember worrying about the inflections of her voice when she said something influencing how it was taken, if not in those exact words, when she was four. By seven, it had been a firmly ingrained habit, to the point where any moment where her inhibitions fell could make her, as soon as she got home, nearly panic and think she could never leave her room and face those people again.

Nothing bad had ever happened to her until she got to Sonora and got a crash course in the difference between just not being quite the best, which had been her childhood, and not even being in the running. That was the strange part. Even her parents said it was weird, and they were generally fond of putting positive spins on their girls’ peculiarities and habits, to make it sound better.

“I’ll do my best to keep it under wraps,” she whispered back, and immediately felt sure she’d done it wrong, somehow, and looked like a fool. Oh, well.

“Oh, thank you,” she said when he first said she’d look good with red hair, then immediately turned around and verified that she looked nice now. “But it was sort of, um, a joke. I’m not very good at them, sorry. I don’t think Professor Fawcett is actually going to make us dye our hair.” It just seemed so far out of character that she had trouble imagining it. Fawcett could be…whimsical, in a very academic way, sometimes, but not like that. She thought. Who knew? People did things that were out of character all the time.

“That makes sense,” she said when he suggested they should both work on both the potions. It would at least make her feel less guilty about being sure she’d somehow gotten the easy one, and if it did involve extra keeping up with things to make sure they didn’t get something mixed up, she could do that. Organization was one of the things she was good at. She was actually pretty proud of that. Not a glamorous skill, but most people weren’t going to have glamorous lives. Organized people, though, got through their plain ones much better than the disorganized. At least in her opinion. “What parts do you prefer?”

16 Marissa It can have its benefits. 147 Marissa 0 5

Samuel Bauer

May 23, 2011 2:36 PM

We shall be the champions! by Samuel Bauer

Sam was no expert on the fine details of all the known and common potions, either, and Samantha’s second set of examples were also not things he was familiar with. “Do you think they do exactly the same thing, though?” he asked. “I mean, no difference. And, er, more generally. Not those specific potions, just any two that kind of work the same. Is it like name-brand versus generic or something?”

And, more importantly, did that transfer over to the magical world? He thought it did, but since he had started at Sonora, Sam had noticed that he blended the magical and Muggle worlds together in his head, and sometimes he thought a detail that really went with one went with the other. Nothing huge, he didn’t think that kids in his old public school were studying Transfig and being startled to not find computers in his Charms classroom, but little things. The kind of things that would get you pegged as Muggleborn here – which he wasn’t, even; there was plenty of Muggle in the side of the family he knew about, but his mother was second generation magical on both sides, and his dad had definitely been a wizard, unless there was something about the Aurors that the general public didn’t know – or as a crazy person in the Muggle world.

Or maybe worse than a crazy person. Most Muggles didn’t bother seeing things, there were whole theories about it, but some of them…some of them did. And that was where trouble came in. Sam was paranoid for a reason. His mom didn’t fit in very well with the local magical community anyway, single mother and the daughter of Muggleborns and still okay with the Muggle world, and he knew they’d just love an excuse to slap some stupid fine on her because he messed up and let something slip and attention got drawn to it.

But anyway. Potions. Different sections. That worked.

And whatever he was in the mood for brewing…Wow, that was a harder question than it was supposed to be. “No idea,” he admitted candidly. “My usual answer is ‘whatever I have to for a grade.’ I like Potions, don’t get me wrong, but I just don’t think about them…you know, recreationally. Shrinking and anti-aging are okay, I guess.” He thought he’d done the shrinking solution before, and anti-aging was challenging enough to score decent marks, assuming he was right about how smart they were. Well, how smart she was, and how good he was at following directions and asking for help if things got dicey. “Are you good with spinning things up for the written? I’m thinking we should say the word ‘biological’ somewhere in there, and maybe ‘regression.’”

16 Samuel Bauer We shall be the champions! 163 Samuel Bauer 0 5