Screwing up. on Potions

Professor Fawcett

February 19, 2012 2:23 PM

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

The midpoint of the semester had rolled around once more, and John was entering his Intermediate class the first time it met after that day with a stack of graded exams to pass out. It had been a challenge to get all the papers marked for all of his classes, but he was not yet so old that a few late nights would hurt him, and he prided himself on returning graded work in a timely manner. Besides, this class and the Advanced group particularly needed them back.

“Good day, everyone,” he greeted his students cheerfully. “You’ll be pleased to know that I have your quarterly exams graded.”

The third years, in particular, were probably still reeling a little. In the Beginner class, he gave out a test at the end of each of the four quarters, but they were only cumulative for that quarter. In the Intermediate class, he began making them cumulative for the year after the first. He did not like to do it, having hated such exams himself when he was in school, but it was necessary when they were preparing for the CATS, which would cover everything they had learned since they were first years. It was not the best way to teach, but it was the best way to prepare them for the tests they had, whether they or he liked it or not, to take.

“I will hand them back to you now. While I am doing that, go ahead and get out your textbooks and open them to page 287.”

He went around the room putting papers face-down in front of their owners. Some of the students were going to be very pleased, some very displeased, and some might come by his office for tutoring; there would, he knew, most likely be some who did not much mind one way or the other. There was not much to be done about that, unfortunately, though he would do all he could. Keeping the students at their best was his job.

John gave them a moment to groan or celebrate their marks, then called the group back together. “If you could put those away now, we’ll begin. Please feel free to come discuss any concerns you have about your test with me after class. Now, page 287. The Draught of Peace. Regardless of how you may feel in the aftermath of your exam, I must ask that you do not drink what you produce today.

“To prepare it, you’ll require essence of belladona, ginger roots and unicorn tail hair, powdered moonstone, syrup of hellebore and scurvygrass. Slice the ginger into equally-sized pieces, and I’d advise using your pestle on the powdered moonstone before putting it in the potion, since the finer the powder, the more effective the ingredient generally is. Take care with your portioning and good luck.” With that, he sat on his stool, watching for any signs of trouble as he double-checked the attendance sheet.

OOC: Standard posting rules apply. Have fun!

Subthreads:

I really hate potions... by Fae Sinclair (Crotalus) with Hope Brockert, Teppenpaw

Screwing up. by Autumn Collins, Crotalus with Jane Carey, Teppenpaw

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

Fae Sinclair (Crotalus)

February 24, 2012 9:28 PM

I really hate potions... by Fae Sinclair (Crotalus)

Fae couldn’t believe that the year was slowly coming to an end. The Fair would be upon them soon and then she would be home. She wasn’t sure how she would feel about it all. It meant that she would be a year older and a year closer to her siblings’ marriages and possibly a marriage of her own. It also meant a year closer to CATS. After having spent the entire year with the Fifth years, Fae was more aware now of how crazy the examinations really truly were.

Of course, getting her test back with an average score didn’t help Fae’s feelings on the matter at all. She still felt the need to cram it all in because she was afraid of another test just like this. Having studied for this one had stressed her out so much to the point that she had hardly slept. The day of the test, Fae nearly fell asleep during it. She was aware that she was rubbish at Potions, but that didn’t stop her from at least trying. Her parents would be sending her back to the tutor over the summer with scores like this. Just the thought of her summer being in the stuffy library put Fae in a sour mood that only worsened when Professor Fawcett started the lesson.

Draught of Peace?

That was such a difficult potion to create! What if she did it wrong? What if someone had to test it and her potion was so mucked up that she ended up putting them to sleep forever? That was far too scary for her to even think about. She would just have to read the directions very carefully and hope that someone took pity on her and helped her out. Not that she really expected anyone to do that, except for maybe Alice, but Fae wasn’t sure she could handle how perfect Alice really was with everything.

Fae sighed and flipped open her book. Taking a second to look through her supplies, Fae grumbled. She didn’t have her pestle with her. What had she done with it? She must have left it in her dorm room. Turning to the person beside her, Fae gave a pitiful look to her neighbor, “I’ve seem to have forgotten my pestle, do you mind if we share?” Okay, so she might look pathetic and it was probably rude of her to ask at all, but what else could she do?

0 Fae Sinclair (Crotalus) I really hate potions... 0 Fae Sinclair (Crotalus) 0 5

Autumn Collins, Crotalus

February 26, 2012 9:50 PM

Screwing up. by Autumn Collins, Crotalus

Autumn was shaking, seriously shaking. First of all, she was utterly freezing. Everywhere she went it was so cold that she was still wearing sweaters even though it was towards the end of the year and she was in Arizona-and as a Wisconsin native, she should be boiling and unable to handle the heat, but here she was, all bundled up as if it were the middle of winter at home. Seriously, Autumn couldn't remember the last time she'd been warm. At night she wore her winter pajamas and piled on the blankets. The advantage was that at least her sweaters covered up all her hideous bulging rolls of fat.

Secondly, she'd ran into Hope in the hall after stuffing down a quarter of a piece of whole wheat bread and her cousin had commented about her weight loss and how much Autumn was eating, asking if the older girl was sick. The Crotalus had snapped at the younger girl to leave her alone about it, that she wasn't hungry. Couldn't Hope see how overweight the fifth year was? The last thing Autumn needed was to eat and she'd had to eat like ten of those little oyster crackers just to shut the Teppenpaw up. That was way too many. Food tomorrow was completely out of the question.

Now, Autumn was sitting in Potions, shivering out of control like she had the chills and pointedly ignoring her cousin, who kept throwing glances her way every now and then. Really, she felt a bit bad for snapping at the younger girl, but couldn't Hope just leave things alone? Worry about someone who needed to be worried about like Harmony? Autumn was fine,she just needed to lose weight and she'd be all right. It wasn't as if she were the one who was deathly ill all the time or an alcoholic or hiding out in the Caribbean for stealing someone's fiance.

No, it was just that Autumn was overweight and if she didn't lose at least ten more pounds, nobody would ever marry her. Getting betrothed and then married was an important part of any pureblood girl's life and fat girls didn't get married. Or they lost their fiances to their cousins. Chelsea had always called her cousin Fallon names like Fatlyn behind her back and generally compared her looks to that of a pig. She'd never said anything like that to Autumn, but she hadn't needed to. The fifth year could see it for herself every time she looked in the mirror.

Oh, great, and now Professor Fawcett was handing back their exams. Suddenly the Crotalus felt sick to her stomach, like there were a million butterflies beating her bloated insides with their wings. Getting tests back always caused her nothing but anxiety and this time Autumn was certain she'd failed even though she'd never failed anything in her life.

The paper was returned and Autumn turned it over with her pale shaking hands. There, staring up at her, was the number 96. It seemed to taunt her, leaping off the page, like something painful and as ugly as her gigantic thighs. What had she done wrong? It might not have been a failing grade, but in the fifth year's eyes, she still felt like a failure. She wanted to cry now but she couldn't. Not now. Autumn had to be a perfect pureblood lady and not show emotion in public. She had to behave perfectly, get perfect grades and have a perfect figure. Be perfect in every way. There was no room for mistakes.

And looking over the test, she'd made stupid ones. Autumn had gotten question 17 wrong, even though it was so easy but somehow, she'd marked B instead of C and it was such an obvious question too. She hated herself for getting it wrong, and even more so for, apparently, just plain skipping number 30. How could she be so stupid ?

Autumn looked wearily at Professor Fawcett. Questions about her exam? No, she was just dumb. She couldn't believe she'd made these mistakes. How in Merlin's name was she ever going to get through doing a complex potion like the Draught of Peace when she could barely concentrate? She was so cold and upset and tired. Autumn would probably fail at this too and kill them all. Maybe she would be better off but she didn't want to hurt anyone else.

Someone was standing at her side. The Crotalus looked up, glad that the person wasn't Hope. "Can I help you?" Autumn asked, trying to pull herself together. She could not let anyone see how miserable she was.

11 Autumn Collins, Crotalus Screwing up. 164 Autumn Collins, Crotalus 0 5

Jane Carey, Teppenpaw

February 27, 2012 9:28 PM

You look more like you're burning up by Jane Carey, Teppenpaw

Over the past two years, Jane had learned that part of the character of the family nightmare was that there was no way, that she knew of, to know what was going to bring it to mind for her. Unlike, at times, her brother, though, she had learned to very quickly block out anything that did. The Draught of Peace would for her always bring to mind Edmond’s crack up after that day, but she slammed a vast weight down on the association just as soon as it floated up into her head, refusing, even in the absence of anything better to do, to dwell on that.

Instead, she first thought about how to make essays about various elements of the potion more interesting, occasionally making a note of one or another if it sounded particularly promising in her head. One, she crossed out after writing it down, reading it, and deciding it sounded ridiculous once it was on paper, but the rest were at least good enough to get to stay on her notes page.

It would be something to do, and something she could do in the library, or at least on her bed with a lot of books around, so she didn’t spend so much time in the art room that the paint fumes began to cause brain damage and did look like a fifth year of some kind. She was her most moody when she was bored, and since she’d noticed that, she’d been trying very hard not to let herself get bored. It wasn’t, after all, the rest of the world’s fault she was going through…whatever it was she was going through, and the less moody she was, the less she could take it out on everyone else.

At least Potions was engaging enough to keep that from being likely in the class. Looking around for someone to work with on the Draught of Peace, she spotted Autumn, who seemed a little distracted herself, and felt a twinge of something like guilt. She hadn’t seen much of her friend lately, somehow – just the busy nature of their lives at the moment, of course, but she felt bad about it just the same. She should have done better.

Her sense of that increased as she moved over next to Autumn and really got a good look at her. She had, she thought, noticed that the other girl had lost some weight lately, but she had chalked it up to just being something that went along with CATS stress, which most of the year seemed to be feeling and feeling greatly. Up close, though, she thought it looked more than that for Autumn. It looked more like she was sick…somehow or another.

“I thought you might want to work together,” she said when Autumn asked if she could help her. She noticed that the other fifth year seemed to be shivering. “Are you feeling well, Autumn? You almost look like you have a fever.” Those sweaters alone seemed excessive for the weather.

0 Jane Carey, Teppenpaw You look more like you're burning up 0 Jane Carey, Teppenpaw 0 5

Autumn

February 28, 2012 11:27 PM

Actually, I'm freezing. by Autumn

As she looked up at her best friend, Autumn forced a smile and willed herself to stop shivering so bad, but to no avail. She was just so... cold . "I-I'm fine." She lied. She didn't want to snap at Jane like she had at Hope. The other fifth year hadn't said anything about her weight or eating, just asked if she were ill. The Crotalus rather appreciated the concern, as she hadn't talked to Jane much lately and had been worried that the Teppenpaw was mad at her or didn't like her anymore.

"Just tired and disappointed in my grade and kind of cold." Autumn added. Though that was a massive understatement. She was exhausted and felt like a major failure and like she was freezing to death. "And worried about CATS." Though maybe she had been running a fever on and off. That would explain the chills. Plus, she'd been awfully dizzy lately. The Crotalus kept passing out too, but fortunately not in public. Autumn never really left her room much now except to go to class or those rare occasions she went to the Hall to eat. Now she was going to have to take things back to her room. Eating in the hall was too dangerous. The fact that Hope had seen her eat was unbearable to her, almost as much so as eating the extra food itself.

Still, she really didn't want to go to the medic. First of all, he might ask her about eating. Or weigh her, and she didn't want anyone else to see how much she weighed. Or worse, what if he decided to examine her more thoroughly and saw all her disgusting fat! The idea of anyone seeing her body made Autumn feel ill for real.

All right,she wasn't overly comfortable with the idea anyway, being raised to be but how repulsively huge she was made the thought even more frightening. Her body was revolting and nobody should ever have to see it. She didn't even like to see it, even though she had to admit it was better then at the beginning of the year. Autumn had lost plenty of weight but she still didn't think it was enough. She just needed to get rid of ten more pounds, or maybe even fifteen. Then she'd look even better. But right now, all she saw when she looked in the mirror was fat.

"So, how have you been?" Autumn asked, trying to change the subject away from herself and get her mind of how cold and tired she was. "I heard you got betrothed,congratulations." Okay, so she felt a little bad that she wasn't yet. She was getting to that age, but she didn't think her chances were so good if she didn't get thinner.

Fortunately, Autumn had two more years of school before she'd get married. That was plenty of time to lose fifteen pounds. She'd lost plenty this year alone. Right now, Autumn would like horrid in a wedding dress. What had Chelsea said about Fallon? Something like you could dress up a pig but it was still a pig. The Crotalus did not want to be that pig anymore.

She looked down at her potions text and remembered Professor Fawcett's instructions. How could Autumn slice anything when she was shaking this badly? She'd end up cutting herself for sure. That was why she couldn't eat grapes or celery earlier, because she'd been shivering too much to split them into smaller pieces. Autumn had never been fond of pain and the only way she wanted to slice anything off was if she could slice off all her extra fat.

"Um, what should I do with the potion? Should I grind up the powdered moonstone or just stir everything up?" Autumn asked. She didn't want to stick her best friend with all the work. Jane might really start to dislike her then and it could affect her grade too. Her exam had been bad enough, she didn't want to make things worse.

11 Autumn Actually, I'm freezing. 164 Autumn 0 5

Jane

February 29, 2012 7:45 PM

That's not good by Jane

The more closely she looked at Autumn, the more concerned Jane started to feel for her. She really did look terrible; the sweaters covered it up to some extent, which was why she thought she hadn’t really noticed before, but her face looked far too thin, and why on earth was she cold? Jane was from a warmer place, she was reasonably sure, than Autumn and she still knew it was not cold. The fatigue and cold both fit, she supposed, with her original speculation about a fever, but she thought Autumn would have needed to have a high fever, most likely one too high to come to class with, for a few days to look this frail.

“I’m sure you’ll do well on the CATS,” she said when the part about being worried about them was tacked on at the end. “You’ve never seemed to have trouble in school, Autumn.”

Of course, Autumn might not really be worried about the CATS any more than Jane was. It was just something to say, just as assuring the other person you were sure they would do fine was. She did, though, think it was true in this case. Autumn was a good student, at least according to everything Jane had ever seen from her, and she thought she had been more observant before this year. This year was…this year was strange, distracting, and she didn’t like it, though she knew it was silly and would pass. Moods always did; everything had to end eventually, and then something else would take its place.

Rather like their current states of being, which came to mind when Autumn changed the subject. “I’ve been well, thank you,” she said, and was then congratulated on her engagement. “And thank you for that, too,” she added. “I think I’m pleased with how it worked out. We should be able to find an amicable arrangement.” Though exactly what that was, she wasn’t yet sure, and she thought part of it would hinge entirely on how things worked out with the sister. There was nothing that thinking about it here could help, though, so she tried to ignore it, especially when she really did have something she could do about to think about and handle. Marriage was still at least two years away, so she knew there was really no reason to dwell on it.

“So, the potion,” she said. “I don’t think we’ll have much trouble.” She smiled, hoping it was encouragingly, at Autumn, who’d asked what Jane wanted her to do. “Whatever you prefer,” she said, hoping Autumn wouldn’t try too hard to exert herself when she was so clearly so far under the weather that she probably, if Jane’s judgment was any good, should have been in the hospital wing that very moment. “I’ll start with the slicing, if one of those is what you’d rather begin with.” It did not really matter to her what she did, so she tried to keep her partners comfortable.

0 Jane That's not good 0 Jane 0 5

Hope Brockert, Teppenpaw

March 04, 2012 5:39 AM

Distracted by Hope Brockert, Teppenpaw

Even though the Teppenpaw knew how important it was to pay attention in Potions, she couldn't keep her eyes from straying. And they weren't even straying to the two places they usually strayed to either! Hope normally had the irresistible urge to look at either her friend Russell-whom she still found to be cute and enjoyed being around more than just about anyone at Sonora and would normally prefer to work with on things-or the oddly magnetic Phoenix Lucore.

Today though, her mind was not being ruled by her hormones or her desire to spend time with the (non-related) person that she felt was her closest friend. Unfortunately for Professor Fawcett, it wasn't ruled by his riveting lecture either. Instead Hope was distracted by her cousin Autumn.

It wasn't as if the older girl was being noisy or even speaking to Hope or trying to get attention from the third year in anyway. In fact, the Crotalus seemed to be flat out ignoring her after the lunch time incident. Hope had been quite taken aback. Autumn have never snapped at her, she was usually very sweet to everyone, afraid they'd get mad at her. The third year wasn't though, she was just worried.

Part of it might have been that Autumn was stressed about CATS which was perfectly reasonable. Hope hadn't really started worrying about them yet. She was only a third year and had other things on her mind. Right now, however, that thing was concern for her cousin.

Hope looked over at the other girl. She looked so... thin . Way too much so. The third year was used to seeing someone like pale and weak and unhealthily skinny. Harmony often seemed to be at death's door. In fact, Hope had gotten a letter just a few days ago saying that Harmony was in the hospital yet, though she did seem to be getting a little better. Harmony had been there quite some time.

The thing was, Autumn actually looked worse than Harmony had the last time Hope had seen her. Thinner and more frail than the other girl ever had. It really scared the Teppenpaw. She usually worried about Harmony and Autumn seemed to be doing much much worse than she was. The Crotalus was practically skeletal. Autumn's face was completely gaunt and pale with dark circles under her eyes and even from here, Hope could tell that she was shivering like crazy under her bulky sweaters. She was pretty sure that the fifth year ought to be in the Hospital Wing.

The Teppenpaw noticed then that they were doing the Draught of Peace today. Hope knew the value of said potion. Her brother took it all the time when he had to do deal with difficult social situations. Knowing how to make it though, was quite a different story. It was difficult to make, and the whole reason Adam knew it so well was that he'd deemed it something important to do so for practical reasons.

But Hope was not her brother. He was much smarter than her. Nor did it help that the Teppenpaw was rather distracted. She snuck a look over at Autumn, noticing that Jane Carey had joined her. Oh good, the two were friends. Maybe the elder Teppenpaw could convince Autumn to see the medic.

“I’ve seem to have forgotten my pestle, do you mind if we share?”

Her neighbor's voice brought Hope back to attention. "Of course we can." The Teppenpaw assured Fae with a friendly smile. This difficult potion and speaking with Fae, maybe getting to know the Crotalus better would hopefully distract the third year from her worries and two heads were better than one of course. She had gotten an 86 on the test so she wasn't doing too badly in this class. Still the Draught of Peace was difficult and she could use all the help she could get.

11 Hope Brockert, Teppenpaw Distracted 186 Hope Brockert, Teppenpaw 0 5