Professor Fawcett
April 07, 2012 12:39 AM
Lesson I for Beginners (1st and 2nd Years) by Professor Fawcett
In his former career, as a professor of modern magisociology, John Fawcett had been considered, if he thought he did remember it right himself, an impressive figure among the small group of figures who populated his world: analytic, brilliant, possibly capable of recognition, after his death, in fields other than his own. It had been years since he more or less left that world due to the vagaries of university politics, but he still remembered it fondly. His hair had been darker then, and he thought he had been a better conversationalist, too, before he spent ten years sunk a bit too far into his books and papers, his mind all on his books and papers and without much attention to what was going on outside his window.Now, as a professor of Potions for a small but often remarkable segment of the eleven-to-eighteen year old population of the magical world, he was different, at least on this particular day, meeting the first years for their first lesson. The older students would know he could be sharp at times with those he did not feel were trying their best, and the oldest might even see him demonstrate signs of a sense of humor from time to time, but for the new ones, he looked more like someone’s kindly, if rather tall, grandfather.
Well, that was his intention, anyway. His hair was still perhaps a bit dark for the role to stick quite well, and his eyes behind his wire-rimmed glasses a bit sharp, but at any rate, he thought he did not look intimidating as the children came in and he greeted them, and that would do.
“Welcome, everyone,” he said once the bell rang and he’d given them a moment to get in their seats. “Welcome to Potions. I am, for those who have not me before, Professor Fawcett.” He straightened his glasses. “Now, everyone get out something to write with and make me a list, or a paragraph if you prefer, about what you believe you know about this subject – second years, give me a summary of what you believe you’ve retained – and what you hope to get out of this class this year while I call the roll.”
He ticked off each name as it answered and the rest stayed busy, and then he gave them another minute before he took up the papers and handed out syllabi in their places. He would look at the papers and perhaps make some adjustments as he saw more of how reliable their self-assessments were, but the syllabus gave the general outline of the course, along with all the major assignments for the first half of the year. For now, though, they had to go over the procedures, for both the first years and to review for the older ones. “Very good. Now, we will work on potions today, but first of all, a few basic rules.”
He changed his expression, now at his sternest as he looked around, as though he were looking directly at each student individually. “This is a dangerous subject,” he told them seriously. “We work with volatile ingredients here. We work with fire. Any misbehavior in this room will be punished severely. You have been warned.”
He relaxed slightly. “Now. We will begin with a simple potion to heal cuts and burns.”
He tapped the board, and a list of ingredients appeared there: jewelweed flowers, prickly pear (pad and spines), powdered joint fir seed, green lacewings, sennae sulphurs
“These are the ingredients you will need and will, if you do not have them, find in the supply cabinet. They are also mainly items which can be found in the deserts of Arizona, where we now are.
“Your first step – “ each step appeared on the board as John said it; that had been an amusing little trick to discover while fiddling with charms over the summer – “will be to crush five jewelweed flowers, then boil them in two cups of water. Be sure to strain that well so the flowers are out of the tea when you add it to the cauldron. From there, slice the prickly pear pads – those I will distribute to you, with the spines removed – “ he might have made the upper years de-spine their own, but not the first years – “in half and squeeze the juice from one half into the cauldron, then mix it with the jewelweed liquid by stirring it clockwise three times. Add four cups of water, then the packet of lacewings, and allow it to stew for four minutes before stirring it first nine times clockwise, then nine counter-clockwise. Add the packet of sennae sulphurs then, and stir three times counter-clockwise, then once clockwise. Grind the prickly pear spines, powder the joint fir seed, and combine them before adding about three tablespoons to thicken the mixture, stirring each one in as it’s added. Your potion should be a clear, light green when the potion is complete.”
He paused, then added, “These directions are also on page 223 of your textbook, if you would prefer not to read them from the board or remember them. Work in pairs, and raise your hand if you have a question. I will move around the room to monitor your progress. You may begin.”
He began to move around the room as they got started, looking for hands or signs of trouble and planning the timing and route of his next turn around the room already. He’d had few problems with students wanting to test the strict Potions professor, but there was always a first time, and moving in different patterns around the room on his rounds made it less likely that, if this was the year, someone could think they could pass something off as an accident because they would be able to predict he wouldn’t be able to see them at such-and-such a moment.
It was possible, too, that working with adolescents, despite his tendency to become fond of all of them over a little time, had made him a bit paranoid, but John thought paranoia was a perfectly defensible position when they were adolescents and therefore there was an even chance some of them might one day decide, completely at random, to really be out to get you.
OOC: Welcome to classes at Sonora! To earn points for your House, follow all site posting rules – at least two hundred words per post, good spelling and grammar, and controlling only your own character in particular – when writing your character for the lesson. Keep in mind, too, that your character is eleven or twelve years old; accidents and mistakes can happen, and there aren’t going to be many perfect potioneers. Keep it realistic and in character, and be creative and have fun!
Subthreads: My second first potion lesson. by Thad Pierce, Aladren with Elijah Errant {Pecari}, Thad Pierce
A Prodigy in the Making. by Cepheus Princeton, Crotalus with Ephanie Lucore, Aladren, Cepheus
Not so perfect potions... by Waverly Canterbury - Pecari with Jorge Garcia, Pecari, Waverly
Adventures in Potions by Clara Abernathy, Pecari with Angel Shield - Teppenpaw
Fire. And volatile substances. This is gonna be a blast by Sairahiniel Light, Pecari (Elijah Errant) with Carrie O'Malley, Crotalus, Sayre Light, Professor Fawcett
Trying to figure out if I can (Professor Fawcett) by Aria Yale, Teppenpaw with Professor Fawcett, Aria, Evan Brockert, Aladren
Starting easy by Gareth Whitebriar - Crotalus with Melanie Lennox, Teppenpaw, Gareth
This should be easy by Theresa Carey, Pecari
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Professor Fawcett
Lesson I for Beginners (1st and 2nd Years)
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Professor Fawcett
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Clara Abernathy, Pecari
April 11, 2012 6:24 PM
Adventures in Potions by Clara Abernathy, Pecari
Clara greeted Professor Fawcett with a bright smile and a "Hello sir" as she entered the potions class and found herself a seat. She listened intently as he introduced himself and asked them to do their very first assignment. Clara rummaged through her bag and pulled out a piece of paper and a pen and wrote out her paragraph. "I'm fairly certain that I know that potions can be used to do a variety of things for the person who made them and to the person who made them," she began writing. "They can be used to make people prettier, uglier, smellier, have the hiccups, get warts, remove warts, petrify people, unpetrify people, make people tell the truth, make them tell a lie, heal wounds, make people remember things, make people forget things, kill things and make people turn into other people or things." She signed her name and then turned in the paper when it was collected.Clara looked on a little amazed as she watched Professor Fawcett make words appear on the board behind him. She dutily wrote down the instructions for their first potion and proceeded to go fetch the items needed to complete the potion. Once she had everything gathered up and back to her table, she half contemplated working on the potion herself and then remembered how disasterous that had worked out the first time she had done it. She had been learning to work potions with her father over the summer and had been doing alright with a simple sneezing draught. Her father had let her do about 90% of the work and had been very pleased with her progress. After they completed the sneezing potion she wanted to another simple one. As they got ready to begin her father had to leave the room to take a call.
Clara thought that since she had done so well with the first one that she could start the next one on her own. She began adding ingredients to the cauldon and watched with facination as it began to boil a darkish green color. She was about to add the final ingredient when her father returned to the kitchen still holding their cordless phone. He found it useful to have at home for his "non magic" clients. He caught her just before she added the mandrake root to the boiling pot and called out "Clara, stop!" He startled her just enough that only a drop from the root fell into the pot before she could put in the rest. The drop of juice was enough to make the contents of the pot slightly explode into a green gooey mess. It hit Clara directly in her face.
Her father helped her clean up and tried not to laugh as she scrubbed the goo from her face. Unfortunately it had not all come off and she found herself looking at a very green complexion. "I look like a giant blue eyed booger!" she whined and complained to her dad. He smiled gently and kindly reminded her that the outcome could have been far worse. "You might have blown up the house with that little stunt," he reprimanded gently. "Be thankful the worst that might happen is you have to wait for the green to wear off", he half chuckled. "How long will that take?" she complained. He shrugged helplessly. "I don't know peanut," he admitted. She frowned at his response. It took three days for the green to wear off. Clara looked at the ingredients before her on the table and decided finally that she was not working alone on this potion. Gathering up her courage she tapped the nearest fellow student to her on the shoulder and inquired politely, "Excuse me, but would you mind terribly being my partner?" She smiled encouragingly.
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Clara Abernathy, Pecari
Adventures in Potions
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Clara Abernathy, Pecari
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Angel Shield - Teppenpaw
April 18, 2012 12:29 AM
... by Angel Shield - Teppenpaw
It didn’t take too long to settle back in to the hectic schedule of life at school, but Angel still felt exhausted with the fast pace of classes by the time each day ended. He knew from last term that it would take a while before his body fully adjusted. Until then, he would simply have to cope as best he could with the depleted energy that trying to keep up with so many classes brought. Angel walked sluggishly into the classroom and found a seat.Biting his pale lower lip, Angel took out a quill and a scrap of parchment and wrote down a hand full of half remembered potions that he’d learned from last year. Potions was an odd subject for the albino, his grade was often all over the place in that particular class depending on who his partner was. Most of the work was hands on, and as long as his partner was good at potions, Angel usually did well on the assignment, but if he got a bad partner, his grade equally suffered. He was best at taking direction from someone who knew what they were doing.
Angel had gathered the ingredients, and was slowly mouthing the words as he carefully read over the instructions again when the girl next to him spoke. “Excuse me, but would you mind terribly being my partner?” she asked. Ruby colored eyes glanced though his ash white bangs as Angel looked sideways at her. He wanted to make sure she was speaking to him and not someone else even though he was fairly sure she’d been the one that tapped him on the shoulder.
“Yes.” He whispered softly, the word seemed to drift listlessly in the air like a discarded feather.
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Angel Shield - Teppenpaw
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Angel Shield - Teppenpaw
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Clara Abernathy
April 20, 2012 8:13 PM
Time to get started :) by Clara Abernathy
Clara was incredibly relieved when the boy seated by her replied "Yes" to her inquiry on being partners. She found herself gazing at his eyes for a moment which were a strange shade of ruby. She had never before seen anyone with that color for eyes and found herself incredibly intrigued. The only person she had ever known with eyes a completely different color than anything she had ever seen was one of her cousins. One of three triplets, she was born blind so her eyes are a very pale blue color, like somebody mixed white and blue together only they added more white than blue. Clara politely introduced herself to her classmate."Thank you soo much," she told him smiling. "I'm Clara Abernathy," she introduced herself. "I don't mean to be rude, but has anyone ever told you how cool your eyes are. They are the prettiest shade of red I have ever seen. My cousin has eyes kind-of like yours only her eyes are a milky pale blue and not red. Her eyes are like that because she's blind..." she caught herself rambling again. She grinned guiltily. "Sorry about that," she apologized. "Bad habit of mine...I've been known to ramble from time to time." She offered him an apologetic smile and straightened up. "What do you say we get started?" Suddenly the 11 year old was all business. "Would you be kind enough to boil the water while I crush up the flowers?" she asked him politely.
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Clara Abernathy
Time to get started :)
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Clara Abernathy
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Angel
April 21, 2012 7:48 PM
... by Angel
The look of curiosity on the girl’s face when his gaze happened to catch on hers kept his eyes up for an instant before they dropped again to the table in front of him. He found it nearly impossible to maintain eye contact after years of living with his mad mother. She despised their unique color and would rage at him if she happened to catch sight of them. It was always strange for the young albino when someone showed an interest in them that wasn’t negative in nature.A blush tinged his paper white cheeks when he picked out the compliment in her rambling words. Angel’s pale skin was stretched taunt over his blade like cheek bones showing that perhaps there was more wrong with him than a lack of melanin. “Angel Shield.” He replied in his soft tone, the name Shield was one that existed mostly in the history books. The Shield’s were a distinguished family that had flourished in Europe nearly half a century ago before madness and inbreeding lead to the powerful family’s decline. Angel was the last living descendent of the doomed line.
The pale Teppenpaw relaxed as Clara easily took charge of the assignment. This was the type of partnership situation that Angel did best with. He was good at following orders, and having clear direction was the best way for him to work. “Aquamenti” Angel murmured as he held his Ebony wand over the measuring cup. The night dark wood was a startling contrast against his snow white skin. When the cup was full, he cancelled the spell and carefully dumped the water into the caldron before repeating the process. A second spell applied steady heat on the bottom of the caldron to bring the water to a boil. His task finished Angel cast a quick glance at Clara to see what she wanted him to do next.
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Angel
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Angel
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Clara Abernathy
April 28, 2012 1:57 AM
On to step two by Clara Abernathy
Clara smiled slightly when she caught his name said over an audible whisper. "Thank you Angel," she said cheerily as she glanced over the parchment before her for their next step. "Okay, so it says here that after we boil the flowers we're supposed to strain them and remove all of the seeds and keep the juice," she read to him. "Then we're supposed to return the juice back into the cauldron of boiling water." Clara threw the crushed flowers into the boilng pot and stirred them around. Oncew the flowers were ready she pulled them out and strained them as instructed. Once she had the juice ready to put back in she moved to their next step.A thought crossed Clara's mind as she read the parchment and she smiled slightly. Wow this is going way better than my first potion, the 11 year old congradulated herself. She sincerely hoped that this one didn't blow up in her face like her first one had. At least there's no mandrake root nearby she thought cheerfully to herself and continued with her work.
"Slice the prickly pear pads – those I will distribute to you, with the spines removed – “in half and squeeze the juice from one half into the cauldron, then mix it with the jewelweed liquid by stirring it clockwise three times" the instructions read.
"Okay, will you please stir the cauldron while I get the juice from the prickly pads ready?" she asked Angel politely, getting to work on the pads. She didn't want him to think she was all boss and no work. She poured the juice from the flowers into the pot and set about slicing the prickly pear pads as they had been instructed. She then squeezed the juice from one half of them as it said to in the instructions. "Angel, could you please stir those together three times clockwise?" she asked him as she glanced over the sheet for the next step.
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Clara Abernathy
On to step two
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Clara Abernathy
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Angel
April 28, 2012 8:00 PM
... by Angel
Attentive crimson eyes watched as Clara took care of the flowers. She was perhaps one of the best partners the young albino had experienced in his schooling experience. Her voice shaped the words of the lesson with an ease that Angel could only envy, and she appeared to be perfectly content taking charge and giving him his tasks in a clear easy to understand way. The first step went smoothly as the flowers were boiled, strained, and the liquid returned to the caldron.Angel gently stirred the liquid as Clara began working with the prickly pad. A soft hum of happiness escaped the albino’s soft pink lips in place of a smile as he worked. The sound was the one his old house elf, the creature who’d been tasked with his care for the first nine years of his life, would make whenever Angel did something properly. The old elf treated the pale boy more like a mother would treat an unwanted pet their beloved child had dragged home, making sure he was fed, clothed, and that he took all his numerous potions, but aside from that the child had been left in his crib, denied all the social interactions most growing children received. When he was finally old enough, and strong enough to escape the confines of the crib the damage had been done. The next few years spent avoiding his mad mother, who some days thought Angel was nothing more than the ghost of children long dead, hadn’t helped matters.
As a result of his unusual upbringing, Angel didn’t really understand smiling. He saw the other students do it, but when he tried it always looked wrong, mechanical and coming too soon or too late. So though his lips remained un-curved, the soft hum was his expression of contentment. “Yes.” He said softly in agreement as she squeezed the prickly pad juice into the caldron. Carefully, Angel stirred three times in the proper direction. Last term it had taken a few errors to figure out the difference between clockwise and counter clockwise.
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Angel
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Angel
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Clara
April 29, 2012 1:13 AM
Next step by Clara
Clara looked over the next set of instructions and was momentarily distracted by the soft humming sound she heard coming from Angel. The ruby eyed boy with the ash white hair and the pale skin facinated Clara. She had never before met anyone like him and wondered if she looked funny to him with her outrageously curly red hair, pale-ish skin that wouldn't tan even if she begged it to, dark blue eyes and little brown spots that seemed to cover most all of her body. At least most days it felt like they did anyway. Clara shrugged, enjoying the sound of his humming as she read the next step to both him and herself. ”Add four cups of water, then the packet of lacewings, and allow it to stew for four minutes before stirring it first nine times clockwise, then nine counter-clockwise,” she read clearly.Before Clara could stop herself she laughed aloud softly as an image of herself green as grass crossed through her mind. “Ya know, I kinda wish my first attempt at potions had had instructions this precise,” she said sounding amused with herself. “If it had I might not have accidentally turned myself green for three days,” she confided to Angel. She laughed a little more at her next thought. “I had actually told my dad I looked like a walking, talking booger,” she rambled slightly, still chuckling. She coughed slightly into her closed fist and got back to business. “Okay, so if you could please add the four cups of water, I'll get the lacewing packet ready. Once they're in we let it stew for four minutes before stirring it first nine times clockwise and then nine times counter-clockwise,” she instructed, looking up at him from her notes. Mental note, must ask Angel to teach me that awesomely cool trick I saw him do with the water Clara told herself as readied their next step.
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Clara
Next step
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Clara
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Angel
May 03, 2012 6:49 PM
... by Angel
Curious red eyes stole another glance at his lab partner as she started to laugh. It was a pleasant sound, one that he enjoyed watching others enjoy, though he didn’t really understand why they did it. His mother use to laugh for no reason at all, sometimes even when she was crying. But, her laugh was different, it was a shrill sound that was almost like screaming. When Angel had first heard children laughing last term, he’d watched the worriedly for other signs of the manic mood swings that marked dangerous times around his mom, where he should hide out until the laughter stopped. Instead the laughter was…different, bell like and nothing bad happened. Though it took nearly half the term, he learned to enjoy the sound as a mark of good things, instead of bad.Green, green, green, Angel’s fingers picked at his quill, the poor thing looked like it had been half eaten by a hungry kitten as he tried to place the shade. They all looked so similar to him that sometimes he forgot which was supposed to be which. Green…leaves, green was the color of growing things he remembered vaguely, not the color of people. Though the two dark boys named Solomon might be green, or blue, or red, or maybe purple. He’d never seen people who were darkly shaded before and no one told him what name the shade should be. Colors were tricky things that Angel wished he could differentiate as well as everyone else. He didn’t know how they could all tell so easily, when the darks all just looked dark, and the lights light. “Turn green?” Angel asked as he glanced at the potion. His skin had always been white, even when he took the potion that said he was Teppenpaw, it remained the same, not shading to the darker colors of the other houses.
It didn’t take long for Angel to refill the measuring cup four times and gently pour the water into the caldron. He waited for the minutes to pass and for her to add the contents of the packet, his pale fingers strayed back to the frazzled quill and began plucking at the poor feather, fraying it further.
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Angel
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Angel
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Clara
May 03, 2012 11:35 PM
Almost done...I think by Clara
Clara poured in the packet of Lacewings and let them stew for four minutes before stirring them nine times clockwise and then nine times counter clockwise. She saw the curious glance from Angel when she laughed and kept quiet about it. There was something about the boy that told Clara she shouldn't ask too many questions too soon else she might scare him. She had a tendency to ask too many questions sometimes...her natural curiousity sometimes getting the better of her. She tried very hard not to do that with Angel for fear of chasing him away.She heard Angel's soft question of "Turn green?" as she read over their next step and sheepishly nooded her head, grinning awkwardly. "Yeah...I somehow managed to turn myself the same color as grass once for three days," she confessed sheepishly. "It had been my very first attempt at doing potions by myself and the one I was working on sort-of blew up in my face. It was a weird green gooey mess," she recalled, chuckling. "My dad wigged out over the whole thing, but it was pretty funny. I've gotten better at doing them, but there are the occational hiccups," she told him.
She smiled at Angel, glancing down at the instructions and reading the last bit aloud. "Add the packet of sennae sulphurs then, and stir three times counter-clockwise, then once clockwise. Grind the prickly pear spines, powder the joint fir seed, and combine them before adding about three tablespoons to thicken the mixture, stirring each one in as it’s added. Your potion should be a clear, light green when the potion is complete.” Clara got to work grinding up the prickly pear spines and powdering the joint fir seed. As she mashed them up she hoped that she had done it right before combining them together. "Okay...lets add the sennae sulphur packet and finish up this potion shall we?" she inquired as she poured in the packet to the cauldren.
Clara then stirred the mixture the three times counter-clockwise and the one time clockwise. She handed the mixture of ground prickly pear spines and joint fur seeds to Angel. "What do you say we finish up this potion? Why don't you do the last part? Make sure to add them in one at a time and stir them in as you add them," she instructed him encouragingly. "According to the instructions it should be a clear, light green if we've done it right."
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Clara
Almost done...I think
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Clara
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Angel
May 06, 2012 5:16 PM
... by Angel
Angel’s eyes widened slightly as Clara told her tale. Last term none of the potions he’d worked on had failed in such a spectacular way, and he was glad of it. Having a potion explode in his face sounded rather dangerous and he again gave her a careful look. It didn’t appear that the mishap had left any lasting mark on the girl and Angel gave a soft sigh of relief. Still he gave the potion a slightly worried look. Would this one explode as well? The softly bubbling liquid didn’t appear to be inclined to doing such a thing, so Angel relaxed a bit.While the art of making potions wasn’t Angel’s strong suite, potions themselves played a crucial role in the young albino’s life. Numerous potions were needed to keep Angel alive, and he’d been on them for as long as he could remember. Because his digestive system was so weak and often rejected the food he tried to eat, Angel had to take two potent nutrient potions a day just to get the vital nutrients he needed to keep from dying of starvation. There was a bone strengthening potion he had to take once a month to combat the brittle bones his lack of proper nutrition gave him, and another that was taken twice a month to replenish the enamel on his teeth that was lost due to not being able to keep two out of five meals down. He had to take a sun protection potion anytime he went outside so that he wouldn’t get burned, and the last one was a digestive regeneration potion that he had to take once a year.
The last one was his least favorite, it was a very painful process that left him feeling half dead for over a week and he was glad he only had to do it once a year. The potion repaired the lining of his digestive organs and it wasn’t a pleasant process at all. He’d never really thought about the people who made those potions, and now he wondered how complex they might be to create.
Quietly, Angel reached out and accepted the packet from Clara. His pale fingers added each of the seeds one at a time while he stirred with his other hand. It didn’t take long for him to add the last ingredients and when he was done, Angel gave the brew a long studying look. It appeared to be a pale shade, but he didn’t know if it was green or not. “Good?” He asked softly.
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Angel
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Angel
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Clara
May 07, 2012 12:24 AM
I think we're done...YAY! by Clara
Clara watched Angel take the packet and the ingredient bowl from her and worried slightly if she may have asked too much of the softspoken boy. He appeared to be a little worried when she described her first potion experience to him, but worried less when he appeared to sigh slightly with relief. She wasn't sure if it was from the fact that they were almost finished with their potion or if it stemmed from something else. She decided to leave it alone for the moment.She watched Angel intently as he did as she instructed, adding the ingredients as their instruction sheet said to add them. She watched him stir everything in as he worked and wondered if they had done the potion at least somewhat correctly. As it continued to bubble she couldn't help wondering if it might blow up like her first one did. She held her breath slightly as she waited for him to finish stirring their bubbly concoction. She let out her breath slowly and glanced over at Angel and the cauldron. She was about to ask if he was finished when she heard him ask, "Good?
Clara looked over their potion as they watched it continue to slightly boil and was pretty sure they were done. It was a pale shade of green-ish liquid as far as she could tell, but she wasn't certain if the concoction passed for what the instruction sheet had called "Clear, pale green." Since she was certain they had followed the instructions as well as possible she nodded. "I think it looks very good," she told him cheerfully. "I think we've done it Angel." She beamed at the pale boy happily. "I am soo proud of us! I am especially proud of you...you are an awesome partner!" she told him encouragingly. "I hope we get to work together again...in the meantime...why don't we ask the professor how our potion looks, hmm?" she smiled at him.
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Clara
I think we're done...YAY!
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Clara
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Angel
May 09, 2012 11:27 AM
…Yay? by Angel
A soft blush painted his alabaster cheeks at her praise. Working with Dulce last term had taught him that he would be praised for doing a good job, but it was still something he wasn’t accustomed to outside of a tutoring situation. It was nice to know that he’d done a good job and hadn’t messed anything up. Should tell Dulce Angel thought as he gave Clara a small glance when she said they should have the professor check their work. The thought was a new one, and Angel wasn’t sure what to make of it. Usually he simply answered Dulce’s patient questions and was silent the rest of the time. This was the first time he looked forward to tutoring so he could share something with her without prompting.“You good too.” Angel murmured. It was true, he hadn’t had a partner before who’d made things go so smoothly and he was grateful to her for it. Just as he was unused to receiving praise, Angel was equally unaccustomed to giving it. The three small words were an awkward attempt to convey his joy in working with her, but it was the best he could do. There were many words, but those ones seemed to fit well with the situation.
A sudden shrill shriek caused Angel to jump and stare wide eyed at the girl who was now shouting at the girl sitting next to her. The harsh words and sharp tone caused the young Teppenpaw to cringe in his chair. His head bowed submissively as if he was the one being yelled at and he stared fixedly at the table, long ash white bangs hid his ruby eyes as he silently cowered away from the angry words.
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Angel
…Yay?
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Angel
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Clara
May 11, 2012 10:55 PM
Its okay Angel :) by Clara
Clara smiled as she heard Angel murmur that she did good too. It made Clara happy to know that she could get that kind of response out of Angel. She had the distinct feeling that Angel probably wasn't used to receiving such praise much less giving it out. The soft blush in his pale cheeks told her she was probably right about that one. She hoped that by giving Angel the praise he deserved the he would be at least a little more comfortable with her. She had never really been around anyone who was as quiet as Angel. Thats probably because I have like 20 cousins she grinned at the thought. If Angel reminded Clara of anyone it was her cousin Addison. Addy was very muchly the quiet type. Clara smiled as she thought of one of her many, many cousins.Clara had heard the commotion beginning between the two girls who were seated near herself and Angel, but chose to ignore them since she needed to concentrate on their potion. She had hoped that as the class progressed that the two girls would come to some kind of understanding. It would appear she was mistaken as one of the girls began shrieking at the other. Clara saw Angel's eyes go incredibly wide as he heard the girls' exchange as well. She felt herself becoming angry at the way it had caused Angel to cringe in his seat across from her and it appeared as though he might be cowering as well.
"Angel? Are you alright?" Clara asked, her voice soft and laced with concern for the pale skinned boy. She had almost reached out to take his hand, but feared that it might upset him more. "That was just plain rude," she murmured to herself angrilly, trying to decide how best to soothe Angel. Clara had thought about maybe trying to get him to talk again, but had another idea come to mind. She gave Angel her most serene smile and began to softly sing the only song she could think of at the time.
"Twinkle, twinkle little star
how I wonder what you are,
Up above the world so high,
like a diamond in the sky,
twinkle, twinkle friend of mine,
I just love to see you shine."
Clara hoped that the song her mother used to sing to her would do the same thing for Angel that it used to do for her.
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Clara
Its okay Angel :)
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Clara
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Angel
May 16, 2012 11:39 AM
...oh by Angel
Surprise at the softly sung words distracted Angel from his fear. The shouting girl seemed content to heap insults on her fellow student and didn’t appear to be interested in turning her wrath upon him, so he was willing to risk a tiny glance to the side even though most of his attention was still fixated an the angry one. Such fury usually contained a command at some point, and though he didn’t think it would apply to him, he didn’t want to risk missing it should he be mistaken. Lady Cynthia often gave long speeches laced with such cruel words but he’d learned how to listen and ignore the meaningless ones and only focus on the ones that would tell him what she wanted of him to help defuse her anger.There were times when she didn’t want anything, so he would stand with his head bowed and listen to her rage, waiting quietly for it to run its course before accepting her curt dismissal. Clara’s voice was nothing like the knife edged tones the angry girl thrust furiously at the other, tones that so easily echoed the Lady’s that it was difficult not to think of them as the same person. No, Clara’s was soft, the delicate brush of silk that whispered underneath the yelling and captured his wary attention.
As the soft singing continued something unusual happened. With his red gaze still down, Angel watched in quiet shock from under his pale lashes as the Professor intervened. His words were not shouted, instead they were softly spoken but hard as stone as he addressed her. The weight of them seemed to press down on the room. Angel didn’t understand why the Professor stopped the flow of angry words or why the now revealed Miss O’Malley would need to apologize. Even though last term no one had acted as the Lady did he still believed that such actions were common and acceptable. That it was just how things were, and his duty was to obey to try and do what she wished so that he wouldn’t cause her to be so angry.
The fault was always with him, and surly it was the same with the other girl? That if she had done better, or tried harder, or was just more, then Miss O’Malley wouldn’t be angry and wouldn’t have to yell. But, why was the Professor demanding she now apologize for that anger?
As Clara’s song came to an end, Angel glanced at her again, his red gaze cloudy with confusion. He didn’t have the words to properly frame the question, to convey what he wished to know, but still he tried. Voice so soft that it would go unnoticed by the rest of the class, Angel asked “Why? Why he stop her?”
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Angel
...oh
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Angel
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Clara
May 17, 2012 1:45 AM
How to explain.... by Clara
“Why? Why he stop her?”Clara heard Angel's softly asked question and seeing the confusion on the poor boy's face wondered how best to answer him. Clara had never in her life heard such vile things being said to anyone and wondered herself how this Miss O'Malley was allowed to conduct herself in such an manner. If Clara had ever tried to say the types of things she heard from this girl's mouth, her father would have tanned her hide. Never mind what her aunt Alora would have done. Aunt Alora never allowed such talk in her house.
Clara kept her voice low and soft so as not to alarm Angel. "He stopped her Angel, because no one deserves to have such things said to them. Even if you don't like something about someone or you don't like that person themselves, its still not a kind or polite way to behave. Miss O'Malley had no right to say such things to the other girl and because she was soo rude, the Professor is making her apologize for such impolite behavior," she explained gently hoping that he understood what she meant. She reached tentitively towards him and put her hand what she hoped was reassuringly on his arm. She offered him a light smile to show him that everything would be okay despite the girl's outburst.
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Clara
How to explain....
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Clara
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Angel
May 21, 2012 7:12 PM
... by Angel
“Oh.” Angel said as he gave the Professor a thoughtful look. Lady Cynthia often said such things to him, and worse. After summer was finished and the new school term started the Headmistress invited him to her office to talk about his life in the Lady’s house. Back then, he hadn’t understood the point of the questions, how his life was at home was different from at school but the albino assumed that was normal for everyone. Or if not for everyone, then it was normal for a freak like him. After all, he was lesser than the other students and the Lady had to spend a lot of money just to keep him alive. He was nothing more than a burden to be tolerated at best.But maybe…maybe it wasn’t okay for her to say such horrible things to him. Now that the Headmistress knew about them, perhaps she would make the Lady apologize, like how Professor Fawcett was making Miss O’Malley apologize now. The Lady wouldn’t like that, Angel knew and he felt worry flare in his chest at the thought of returning to her home this summer if they did make her apologize. His fretful thoughts were broken by a light touch on his arm. Bright red eyes darted up briefly to Clara’s face in question before shyly dropping again.
People rarely touched him, the Lady only did so if he was gravely ill or injured and then it was only to heal him. There were times when Solomon Asa let the pale boy lightly touch his hair as he slept in the Hall, but mostly people seemed to avoid touching him. Carefully, the pale boy reached out and lightly ran a fingertip along the back of her hand. The whisper soft touch was a fleeting, testing sort of thing, to see how she would react to him trying to touch her in return. He could feel the warmth of her hand where it rested on his arm and the sensation was pleasant. Due to his low weight and the fact that his stores of energy were always precarious at best, his body was usually cooler to the touch that other people’s. He was more susceptible to cold than most seems he didn’t have any fat to insulate him or help him maintain a proper temperature.
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Angel
...
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Angel
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Clara
May 22, 2012 11:19 PM
Soft touches are good by Clara
Clara kept her hand on Angel' arm and wondered if he would touch her back. She was pretty sure that she got the vibe off of him that Angel was not used to being touched. She saw Angel's questioning expression as she touched him which confirmed her suspicions. Still it didn't really stop her from trying. She got a very unexpected surprise when she felt a very soft touch on the back of her hand. She looked down gingerly and smiled when she caught sight of Angel's fingertip tracing along the back of her hand. The lightness of the touch made her feel slightly as if she were being tested, like he was trying to feel out her reaction to him. She held very still while he touched her not wanting to break the spell.She had a feeling that if she didn't respond soon he was going to pull away and she didn't want him to do that. She felt as if she were making some good progress with Angel and didn't want to ruin it. She gave him a brilliant smile and although his fingers felt a little colder than most people's she ignored the chill and gently took his hand, placing it over the one on his arm. She then covered his hand gently with her other one and held it there. She wanted Angel to know that it was okay to touch people and want to be touched in return. She continued to hold onto his hand and smile at him. She hoped that by doing so she could show him that not everyone was like Miss O'Malley.
"I hope that you're okay with my touching you, Angel. I should have asked first," she apologized lightly. "I can stop if you want me to." She continued to smile at the pale boy as she waited for his response.
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Clara
Soft touches are good
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Clara
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