Worries on Potions

Professor John Fawcett

September 02, 2012 7:27 PM

Lesson I for Beginners (1st and 2nd years) by Professor John Fawcett

Between the higher classes there was, of course, some movement – second years becoming third years and joining the Intermediates, fifth years becoming sixth years and either dropping his class or joining the Advanced class, seventh years graduating from the school and not returning to this lab at all – but it was in the beginners’ class where John saw the most dramatic changes almost every year, due entirely to the influx of new first years that every September brought. The mix always included almost as many skill levels and degrees of affinity for his subject as it did personalities, and it was often anyone’s guess, in the first weeks, which would ultimately affect the quality of their first two years of Potions more.

More than he would have liked, though, came down to how well the first year group got along with itself, and to a lesser extent how well it meshed with the second years, which was something the staff had relatively little control over. Often it did not go badly, no more than one or two murderous rivalries or overly-intense friendships in any given age group, but John was feeling a little nervous about how this year was going to go. There were too many names with the same background for him to think that politics, at some point, weren’t going to interfere with the normal functioning of the classroom.

None of this, however, was on his face as he stood before the newly-formed Beginner’s class of the year. “Everyone,” he said once the bell had rung, “get in your seats now so we can begin, thank you…” Once the last few had done so, he smiled at the group. “Good afternoon, and welcome – or welcome back – to Potions. I am, for those who have not met me before, Professor Fawcett, your instructor.”

He lifted a packet off a stack of identical ones, and the others flew out, one landing in front of each student. “This is your syllabus until midterm. I may give smaller homework or in-class assignments which are not on your syllabus, but in general, what you see is what you can expect, so I hope you will all come to each class prepared.” In truth, he usually ended up off by a day or two every semester, rather than being able to rigidly follow the syllabus, but that was why he’d incorporated review days before midterm. That gave him some flexibility. “You will also find outlined your major essays – “ much milder for the first and second years than for the older groups, though the second year version of the document was a bit heavier than the first year one, too – “and projects, the grading scale, and the code of conduct for my class.”

Here he paused to give the class a stern look. “Pay particularly close attention to that,” he told them. “I will not have fighting in my classroom any more than I will have dangerous or reckless behavior in my classroom. You are all here to learn safely, and anyone who prevents someone else from doing so will be punished appropriately. I hope, though, not to have to.” He meant that; John disliked that aspect of his job more than any other. There were, though, times when it was simply the only way to maintain order. “So long as you try to the best of your ability to do what is asked of you, we can get along very well, accommodations may be made for students who need them, but I will not tolerate any of you being deliberately disruptive.”

His annual warning delivered, John relaxed. “Now, to more pleasant business. I assume most of you are eager to begin brewing, so you may now open your textbooks to page 13.” He picked up a piece of paper off his desk with one hand while pointing his wand at the board with the other so ‘Page 13’ appeared there, looking over the page to ensure that it was, in fact, the alternative he had come up with for Miss Yale, if she objected to the salamander scales, and any other students who wished to focus on vegan potioneering, as he had finally decided to include a note in the syllabus about how this would be permitted. He had come to almost enjoy these assignments; sometimes, particularly at the more advanced levels, they required a bit more charmswork or worked a bit more slowly, but it was still an interesting challenge. “Here you have a basic confidence draught.

“To make this, you will need freshly-chopped daisy roots, three drops of an infusion of lemon balm and lovage, two thoroughly dried leaves of yaupon, the shell of a single sopophorous bean, and a sprinkling of salamander scales. You will find how well you handle those affects the color of the final potion, which should ideally be about the same shade of red your new classmates in Crotalus turned during the Opening Feast, but which should never be any color close to pink or black.”

He looked at them over his glasses. “Do your best, and follow the directions carefully. I will call time ten minutes before the end of the period, and then you will bottle samples – make sure to carefully label yours, so I will know who it belongs to – and write me a few sentences – something you learned today, other than how to make this potion, or something you have questions about.” He had decided on this, after seeing it in a magazine for primary educators, as an alternative to calling out a lengthy roll, as the class could become restless during that time and he needed to be sure they had internalized the rules and routines of the class before putting that kind of downtime in their hands. Later, he would know them all by sight and check them off as they entered, but the first years prevented that for now. “You may talk as you work, if you are not disruptive and stay on-task. I will be walking around the room as you work to ensure you do not get too distracted, and to help with any problems you may run into in your brewing. You may begin.”

OOC: Welcome to Potions! In order to get House points, all posting rules (good spelling and grammar, a minimum of two hundred words, realism for your character's level, and no controlling of other people's characters especially) must be followed, and the more creative and detailed your posts are, the better. Also, Fawcett will notice and intervene before any potions go badly enough wrong to do anyone serious harm, though minor accidents are allowed. Tag Fawcett if you need him, and have fun!

Subthreads:

Easy as pie! Right? by Wendy Canterbury - Pecari with Carrie O'Malley, Crotalus, Wendy

Worries by Melanie Lennox, Teppenpaw with Lucille Carey, Lucille

Off to a good start by Alan Raines, Teppenpaw with Amity Brockert, Aladren, Alan, Alan Raines

It's been two minutes, and already I have a problem by Isabel Raines with Rupert Princet, Pecari, Isabel

I suppose it's an improvement on flying... by Effie Arbon with Alexandra D'Alesandro, Crotalus, Alex, Crotalus

Do potions ever use two peas in a pod? by Annabelle and Annette Pierce with Anthony Carey VIII, Anthony Carey

Making a mess of things (Tag: Heaven) by Lucian D'Alesandro, Aladren with Heaven Baird, Crotalus, Lucian

Chitchatting away. by Aria Yale, Teppenpaw with Jay Carey, Aladren, Liam Ammon, Pecari, Aria

...I like this by Henry Carey, Crotalus with Honey Baird, Pecari, Henry

Feeling pretty confident already by Clara Abernathy, Pecari

My first school potion...cool by Carter Browning, Teppenpaw

0 Professor John Fawcett Lesson I for Beginners (1st and 2nd years) 19 Professor John Fawcett 1 5

Wendy Canterbury - Pecari

September 02, 2012 10:10 PM

Easy as pie! Right? by Wendy Canterbury - Pecari

When Wendy had first heard about Potions class from her older sister, she hadn't known what to think. She had always heard of newt's eyes or frog legs being used in the potions of fairy tale witches, but this was no fairy tale. Who actually drank these things? Surely witches and wizards in today's society didn't really drink things made of unsanitary animal parts! The thought that she might've unknowingly drunk such a potion at the Opening Feast made Wendy put her hand to her pale throat.

Wendy came from a family that owned a bakery. Well, her mother did, anyway, but Mrs. Canterbury had instilled in her daughters a love of baking and cleanliness. Usually having hairs or sweat and blood fall into the mix was bad news. Was it the same in Potions? She knew her mother would have a fit if she ever learned what went on at this school.

The classroom seemed normal enough. It seemed to be the standard look from what she'd seen so far, anyway. The school supplies list was very strange. It was like she was doing chemistry or something, except this was mixing things together and making liquid concoctions. Strange. The syllabus was kind of new. Having only gone to elementary school all her life, her teachers had usually just told her what to do. There seemed to be way more responsibility on the students at this school. And more homework!

One thing Wendy was worried about was the essay part. She had no idea how to write an essay. All she had ever written in elementary school were papers or book projects where she wrote a few paragraphs. She wasn't sure if that was the kind of "essay" the professor was looking for, but that was all she knew. Oh well.

As the professor talked on, she wondered if there had been any violence in the magical classrooms before. She put her chin in her hand and tried to imagine what a fight at a magical school would entail. She had never heard of fights going on at her elementary school. There would be a wand drawn in a wizard's battle, of course, and Wendy tried to think of what kind of spells they'd use. Not harmful ones because Wendy didn't want to see any blood in her imaginary fight. The spells that were currently unnamed made lots of color in her imagination. Colors always made things look prettier and safer even in times of adversity.

She was startled back to reality when Professor Fawcett said "page 13". Wendy quickly opened her textbook to the page and read about the potion she would be making. A Confidence Draught. Well, Waverly could definitely use it when she was talking to Brandon. Wendy giggled to herself. It would have been funny if Waverly had had a crush on any boy, but it made it funnier that it was on a family friend. Wendy thought boys were silly, but Waverly didn't seem to think so. She smiled to herself as she read her textbook.

Well, these ingredients seemed really, really weird, but hopefully she wouldn't have too much trouble with it. Wendy had never baked anything on her own before, much less cooked, but this would be an adventure. She had stopped by a potions shop during her school supply shopping and Waverly had told her she needed to have a kit of potion ingredients. It would come in handy now since Wendy had everything she needed.

Now it was time to find a partner. Wendy had a small cauldron which seemed perfect, and a little silly, to carry in her bag, but Wendy pretended she was a witch. Wait, she really was! She still had to get used to that. She brushed a hand through her blonde hair and heaved a quick, short sigh, signaling that she was ready. She turned to her desk partner and asked, "Have you ever made a potion before? And do you want to be partners?

0 Wendy Canterbury - Pecari Easy as pie! Right? 0 Wendy Canterbury - Pecari 0 5

Carrie O'Malley, Crotalus

September 03, 2012 8:02 AM

More so for those of us raised properly. by Carrie O'Malley, Crotalus

Carrie's summer had not gone the best. For starters, that dreadful woman her father had married was having a baby . The idea disgusted her. Babies were gross smelly little things and worse, would take the attention from where it belonged-on her. Ivy was bad enough but now this revolting creature would be around her house.

Plus, Carrie had had to look at her step-mother's bulging stomach all summer and that had positively sickened her. Much like ugly people, fat people-even if it was from pregnancy-should not be allowed to be around others where they could offend their eyes. They should be shut away and forced to lose weight, and if it was the result of pregnancy, shut away until they gave birth.

Then there was that other revolting addition to her household. Ryan's blasted mutt. Seriously, the hairy beast wasn't even from a proper breeder, her idiot brother had gotten it from an animal shelter, a place for defective animals, not that Carrie liked any animals at all. It was actually rather fitting that Ryan would have a defective pet but it would be better if he had no pet at all.

Besides, the creature was always growling at her whenever she was near. If it wasn't for the fact that Carrie would likely contract some dreadful disease from it, she'd almost want it to bite her just so it could be put down. Not only would the flea bitten mongrel not be polluting her home, but it would make Ryan miserable too.

And anything that made him miserable made the second year happy. The two bright spots in her summer had been when that ill-mannered ruffian Sophie had had a party and Ryan had not been invited and when the sixth year had gotten his CATS results and only got a P in DADA. Carrie had enjoyed taunting him without the slightest bit of mercy. Of course, she had gotten in trouble for it. Her father was completely unreasonable and didn't love her as much as he should. Quite clearly that vile woman's influence-and naturally, all Father could do was exclaim over Ryan's O in Transfiguration.

It irked her a little when Professor Fawcett failed to call roll. How in Merlin's name was Carrie to know who was worthy of associating with if she didn't know who was who? Just because she'd heard that there were at least somewhat worthy people in this year group didn't mean she knew who they were by sight. If she got stuck talking to a mudblood again, it would be all Professor Fawcett's fault.

Before she could seek proper company, she was approached by one of the first years. "Of course I have." Carrie replied. "I was in this class last year." She stated condescendingly. Honestly, what a stupid question. The Crotalus was a second year, did this girl not realize that?

Now, though, was a true test of the other girl's worthiness. "I am Carrie O'Malley, of the Colorado O'Malleys." If the girl was acceptable to breathe the same air that the Crotalus was breathing, she would respond correctly. She might try to pass herself as a pureblood even if she wasn't as Solomon Bensalem had last year at the Opening Feast, but Carrie would know the difference.

11 Carrie O'Malley, Crotalus More so for those of us raised properly. 230 Carrie O'Malley, Crotalus 0 5

Melanie Lennox, Teppenpaw

September 03, 2012 11:28 AM

Worries by Melanie Lennox, Teppenpaw

It the beginning of the year, but Melanie already felt a bit weary. The Teppenpaw had a lot on her mind. First of all, as usual, there was her sister's health. Valerie had been sick all summer and spent the trip to Sonora coughing violently. Even though she should have been used to it and she tried hard to put up a strong front so as not to get anyone else down, especially her sister, it was still pretty difficult for Melanie to handle.

It was harder too, at school, with roommates. At home, if she couldn't take it anymore and felt like breaking down and crying, she could go off to her room alone and nobody would bother her. Or indeed, really notice at all that Melanie was upset. Mother was too self-absorbed and Father was busy throwing himself into work. Most of the attention he gave them was spent on Valerie, which the second year really didn't mind much. Her sister needed it more and it wasn't as if he actually ignored her either.

Here, though, if Melanie started crying, her roommates would see. Not only would it totally break the facade she felt she needed to maintain, they might think she was a downer and not like her. Not that she was really supposed to be friends with Aria or Brielle anyway. They weren't proper and her parents didn't approve. Valerie had friends that weren't proper either but that was different. Father just wanted the Crotalus to be happy and Mother didn't seem to expect anything of Valerie due to her being ill. She seemed to have written her elder daughter off completely.

That was another thing on her mind. Melanie didn't have any real close friends at Sonora. Even though her sister was always the person she'd be closest too, the Teppenpaw wanted other friends too. Someone to confide in when things got bad. Someone who would still like her if she let that mask slip.

Plus, Mother had drilled Melanie, whom she had placed all her expectations on, on her classmates. Who would be deemed necessary for the second year to make friends with. Mother had seemed to settle on Lucille to start with, because she was a pureblood that was Melanie's roommate. She also wanted the Teppenpaw to cultivate friendships with Lucrezia Renaldi and Heaven Baird if possible. She'd flat out refused to have anything to do with Carrie O'Malley though, distant cousin or not.

Lucille's cousin Jay and Marcus were also people on the approved list, as they were potential betrothals, and Mother had been quite pleased about her speaking with Marcus last term. For once, the second year agreed with her. She had rather enjoyed being around her fellow Teppenpaw. Just being around her housemate seemed to lift her spirits. It seemed it would be a lot easier for him to bring Melanie up than her to bring him down when he always let his happiness show and she tried not to let her sadness to do the same.

She didn't object to the idea of befriending Lucille either, she felt that her roommate could use a friend as much as she could. Why was something that Melanie couldn't quite put her finger on but it was there. Still, she would feel guilty for ignoring Brielle and Aria and was absolutely not going to. She didn't want to hurt their feelings or have them think that she was stuck-up. Purebloods had a bad reputation for that, and she sure wasn't going to make it worse.

Melanie turned her attention toward Professor Fawcett as he began to speak. One thing she wasn't worried about was her grades. She had done extremely well last year, somehow school just came pretty natural for her. She wasn't perfect but there was no subject that she truly struggled in.

As she listened to the lesson, she began wondering how this could be used. Even though Melanie would have preferred to do some sort of healing potion, maybe one that helped a minor ailment, she could definitely see the need for a confidence draught. Though there were many potions that her sister needed far more, Valerie didn't have much confidence, viewing herself as weak and useless. That was Mother's fault too, the useless part.

Putting on a friendly smile,Melanie turned to the person next to her and asked, "Would you like to work with me?"

11 Melanie Lennox, Teppenpaw Worries 226 Melanie Lennox, Teppenpaw 0 5

Lucille Carey

September 03, 2012 12:57 PM

We all have them by Lucille Carey

Lucille was thrilled to be back at school, but she knew she had to be careful not to let herself get carried away. Just because Mother wasn’t here to watch her didn’t mean she could lower her standards of behavior, as she almost had last year, because in the winter, she would almost certainly be allowed to go home this year, and Mother would see then if she hadn’t been good. If she wasn’t good this year, then Mother would be very upset with her.

As, of course, was proper. Mother was only trying to look out for her. If she didn’t watch her so closely, demand so much of her, then she would end up like her father, or worse, like his family from Georgia. Dying would be awful, she didn’t want to do that at all, but being disowned, or at best living on sufferance as a minor scandal, would be even worse. Dying at worst meant that she was as weak and cowardly as a man, as she suspected she was anyway, and Mother had presented a few better-sounding reasons for that over the years, when she was in charitable moods; being disowned was just being disowned, so you were shamed and humiliated and had to live like a wild Muggle in the woods until you, in the end, died anyway, most of the time. Many people here at Sonora seemed to be different, not to fall into the categories Mother had explained as all there was in the world, but Lucille assumed that was because they were not Careys.

Still, some of them did, somehow, seem to be happy. Aria’s life sounded as hard and painful as a disowned person’s, just to listen to it, but she always seemed so calm and content. Had she just accepted her situation? Lucille wanted very much to ask her sometime, but she knew that it would be improper to do so.

In Potions, she took a seat beside her roommate Melanie and tried hard not to fidget, to seem disrespectfully inattentive, during Professor Fawcett’s speech. It made her anxious, sure she couldn’t live up to his expectations, but not as badly as it had the year before, since she had already passed the first half of this class and thought she was really only nervous out of habit, sort of, almost like it was a habit to smile and curtsy when she met a new person, whether they were the kind of person she had to curtsy to and she felt like smiling or not. It seemed a little shorter than it had been, but she wasn’t sure, and enough of it was about what they were doing for her to know she shouldn’t think of anything else, too. She had to pay attention, write down what he was saying, just in case he said something that wasn’t on page 13 of the book.

When she was finished and they had been told they could begin, Lucille opened her ingredients set, looking over it and pushing down the feeling that the task in front of her was overwhelming out of habit, too. She smiled when Melanie smiled. As interesting as other people were, there was something to be said – other than that Mother would approve – to working with other people like her, who knew the forms and she didn’t have to worry…much about offending by mistake because she didn’t know what they expected.

“Of course,” she said. “Where would you like to start?” Lucille had learned to always hand the decision-making over to someone if there was any way to. That way, it was easier to avoid the blame if anything went wrong.

0 Lucille Carey We all have them 224 Lucille Carey 0 5

Wendy

September 03, 2012 2:52 PM

Great! You can do all the work by Wendy

It was hard for the first-year to tell who was new and who wasn't in the class. There wasn't much difference between the looks of an eleven-year-old and a twelve-year-old. Wendy's seat partner was pretty, even if she did seem kind of snobby. But Wendy didn't like to judge people merely on first impressions.

As a kid, Wendy hadn't exactly had a whole lot of friends, but she had a lot of close ones. Usually she was too busy in her own world to bother with friends at all, but in fifth and sixth grade, Wendy had started to make more friends. And now that she was in the world she had always imagined and dreamed about, she didn't have to pretend that there were unicorns and elves and stuff hanging around on the streets. They could actually be here! Wendy was hoping to see one during the COMC classes.

The way the girl had introduced herself was kind of funny, but Wendy thought it would be rude if she laughed out loud at it. So Wendy decided to do it herself. She straightened her back and looked down her nose at Carrie, pretending to be just as snobby as she. "I am Wendy Canterbury, of the Arizona Canterburys." Afterwards, she broke character and giggled.

"It's nice to meet you, Carrie. You have pretty eyes. I wish I had blue eyes, but mine are just hazel. But they can change color in different lights which I guess is kind of cool." Her eyes were a mix of brown and mostly green. Her mom had always told her it made her kind of unique, though she thought Clarissa, with two different colored eyes, was more unique than her. Plus she was British!

Wendy smiled at a hopefully new friend and turned to her cauldron. "Okay, how do you light a fire under this thing?" she asked, looking back at her partner. "I've never made a potion before in my life. I think it's kind of weird that salamandar scales and plants are going to be used in something people drink. Isn't it unsanitary?" She shook her head, but guessed that the scales had to be disinfected and cleaned somehow. Her mom would have a field day if she ever found out her daughters were making drinks made out of scales and dandelion roots or something.

0 Wendy Great! You can do all the work 0 Wendy 0 5

Alan Raines, Teppenpaw

September 03, 2012 9:25 PM

Off to a good start by Alan Raines, Teppenpaw

Because his sister had always spoken highly of the man, Alan thought he could reasonably expect a certain amount of things of Professor Fawcett. He didn’t think he could get into details without going wrong somewhere, but he didn’t think it was going too far to anticipate someone who knew his subject, was not ridiculously or at least not ridiculously openly opposed to the politics of his family, ran an orderly classroom, and most likely had decent manners if you had to talk to him directly. If any of those characteristics were completely missing, Alan didn’t think that Sara would like him, because that was what they had been taught to expect and respect in a tutor or teacher.

With that thought in mind, he stopped in the boys’ bathroom before class to make sure his clothes and person were neat, arrived to class early even in spite of that, got a seat where he was sure he would be able to see the board clearly unless a very unlikely giant decided to wander in and obscure his vision, and had his ingredient set, his textbook, and his quill set up in front of him before the professor called the class to order, sitting up straight and trying to look attentive for his first real class. Later, maybe, he could be a little lazy, but he had to make a good impression first. If he didn’t, he suspected Sara would write their parents – all because she was genuinely concerned, of course.

Sometimes his sister nearly made him sick, because it was like she never did or thought anything she wasn’t supposed to, never even thought about doing anything she hadn’t been told to, or at least had approved before she thought of doing it. He had no idea how she had gotten into Pecari. Maybe she could only show those colors in a time of adversity such as they had never known, but Alan thought it was more likely that she had just been in a strange mood when she drank the Sorting Potion or something like that, if not that the potion itself had been defective that year.

She wasn’t here right now, of course, but Alan couldn’t shake the sense that she was somehow aware of what he did anyway, and would just Know if he did something unbecoming, and he didn’t want to make a bad impression anyway just for his own benefit, so he went to all those pains and was glad when he heard Professor Fawcett’s welcoming speech and looked over the thick syllabus he received. The syllabus was one of the things Sara had specifically mentioned to him, so he knew it was a very important document to keep up with if he wanted to get by in the class, since asking for another one, though possible, would be embarrassing. He didn’t want to look like a disorganized first year who didn’t know how to keep up with things for his own benefit as much as for his family’s, too. He raised his eyebrows when he saw the note about vegan potions, wondering what that meant, but he decided that was something to look up later instead of asking about during the class, since it didn’t sound like it was something he had to know about on the first day.

He didn’t actually take any notes, since everything was covered in either the syllabus or the book, but he felt proud of himself for having prepared to do so as he put his parchment away and set up his cauldron to work on the potion. He smiled genially at the person next to him as he did so, feeling buoyed by how nothing surprising had happened and how that meant that he was most likely going to continue to move easily through his first days of school. “This doesn’t sound too bad so far, does it?” he asked, making a gesture which could be interpreted as specifically being toward his book and cauldron or could sum up the class, what they had seen of it so far, in general.

0 Alan Raines, Teppenpaw Off to a good start 0 Alan Raines, Teppenpaw 0 5

Amity Brockert, Aladren

September 04, 2012 2:59 AM

Sounds promising. by Amity Brockert, Aladren

She would never admit it to her mother, but Amity was rather interested in Potions. It wasn't the most feminine subject in the world, but if she continued to like it after CATS-and there was a definite possibility that she wouldn't, as that seemed to be the case with so many different things that the Aladren had been forced to do-it wasn't unheard of.

The one worry that Amity had about this class was that there would be a lot of homework. Arabella thought there was too much, but then, the Pecari thought any homework was too much. She was already complaining about weekly essays in Charms. Not that Amity entirely blamed her. That would cut into the leisure time that the first year sought so desperately. Less homework meant more of it.

On the other hand, more homework gave her an excuse not to practice any of the skills her mother wanted her to practice. The thing to do, Amity thought, was to tell her mother that she had more homework than she really had so she wouldn't be on the Aladren's case about the extracurricular activities that Amity was now refusing to do. Meanwhile, she would be doing whatever it was she wanted to do.

Not that she was entirely sure what that was. She'd been doing structured activities for so long that she wasn't sure what others did in their free time. A lot of them took up hobbies...that were basically the things Amity was regularly forced to do. Arabella fenced and possibly plotted against Carrie, the latter of which the Aladren understood and the former of which she had taken too. That was where the third year had gotten the idea of taking it up in the first place and Amity supposed she would actually continue to do it if and only if Arabella needed a sparring partner.

That would please Mother and while the first year wasn't crazy about that idea she did care about her older cousin. She was closer to the Pecari than she was to any of her other ones, being that Arabella was closest to her in age, aside from Carrie, whom they'd all decided didn't count. Amity supposed there was the same age difference between her and Tristan but he was a boy so despite neither being the girliest of girls, she had more in common with the third year. Besides, Tristan was a bit spoiled.

Professor Fawcett began the lecture with the typical rules and expectations portion and a syllabus. Amity briefly wondered if the 'no fighting' part had come about due to Carrie's row with another girl last term. Something about the other girl throwing bugs. Which was definitely not proper behavior but that was expected in non-purebloods. Plus, the Aladren wouldn't have minded throwing bugs at her cousin herself if had been at all appropriate.

So, they were going to brew a confidence draught. That could be interesting. Amity didn't feel she personally needed it. If she had more confidence than she already did, she'd become downright arrogant, more like Carrie, who seemed to be at the maximum level of it. Ryan could have used it though, maybe he'd finally ask Sophie out then. She liked her cousin the way he was just fine, but having confidence might have made things easier for him.

The boy next to her spoke, Amity thought it was Alan Raines. "Not bad at all." The Aladren replied. Was it proper to admit that she was interested in the subject? Potions was full of things that most girls would consider icky but Amity wasn't all that bothered by them. After all, they drank them, so what was so bad about touching them? One could always wash their hands afterwards.

"I'm Amity Brockert, of the Colorado Brockerts." She introduced herself, just in case he didn't remember her name from the role call in Flying. She wasn't one hundred percent on his either so that was entirely possible. "Would you like to work together?" It was best to meet as many people as possible, make the proper connections and even better, actual friends. With friends, one could drop the formalities, and have real discussions, something more interesting than just polite small talk.

11 Amity Brockert, Aladren Sounds promising. 233 Amity Brockert, Aladren 0 5

Isabel Raines

September 04, 2012 12:36 PM

It's been two minutes, and already I have a problem by Isabel Raines

The first thing Isabel noticed about the Potions classroom, really noticed, was how tall the stools they had to sit on seemed to be. Once she was on one, she was lifted up high enough to see everything, but she still felt very small, dwarfed by it all, almost the way she did on the rare occasions when she came out of her room during one of her parents’ parties but not quite as much as she had during breakfast, when she had for the first time really taken in how big the Cascade Hall was. It had, of course, been the same size during the Opening Feast, but then she had been too excited and busy to really notice it the way she had today.

She swung her feet back and forth in the gaps between two of the stool’s legs a few times before she remembered her manners and made herself stop and fold her hands in her lap instead, like a lady, while she waited for the people who came in after her to arrive and looked around at what she guessed were the second years, since some of them she was sure she hadn’t seen during the Sorting the night before. What she thought of having all of her classes except flying with the older students, she didn’t know yet; it was a little frightening, and it made her imagine that her work would have to be much more difficult so they didn’t lose interest, but at the same time, it did mean she had more opportunities to meet people. That was why she was here, after all, since Mamma was sure she could have learned magic just as well from tutors at home.

On Sara’s advice, she had tied her brown hair back into a low ponytail with a length of ribbon the same color as her robes, and now she found herself playing with the end of the ponytail as Professor Fawcett began to talk to them. All the talk about the code of conduct made her a little nervous, but she looked over it on the syllabus and it didn’t look completely unreasonable, so she was determined to live up to it, to do it right. Catherine had gotten through school, years and years ago, and Sara nearly had now; Isabel knew she could at least do somewhere in between as well as they each had.

She wrote down what Professor Fawcett said on her own parchment before realizing it was all in her book, blushed, and then turned to the actual making of a potion. Alan had sounded like he was looking forward to this class in spite of Sara’s warnings about its difficulty, but Isabel hadn’t been at all for completely different reasons. She had done things she wasn’t supposed to, things that were maybe even a little dangerous, all before, but she had never done either kind of thing in front of a bunch of people, and she had never done anything at all, that she could avoid, with knives. She had been taught to use one at the dinner table, but even then, she was very careful with it, and used it as little as possible.

Knives, for some reason, scared her. Isabel had never been able to figure out exactly why. She had never seen anyone cut himself, or anything like that; she could remember her nurse, Maria Teresa, telling her to be very careful when she was first learning to use one, but then, Maria Teresa had always told her to be very careful about everything, so there was no reason why she should have become afraid of this one particular thing. She was, though, and that was a problem when she had to use a very sharp one to chop up daisy roots.

Tentatively, she laid out a daisy root and pressed the knife down into it, holding the root down with her other hand. When the blade finally went all the way through it and clicked against the cutting surface beneath it, Isabel jumped, then blushed, realizing she looked stupid. She smiled awkwardly at the person seated next to her. “Do you think he'd notice if I sent home for some pre-chopped ones after this?” she asked lightly, as though it were a little funny.

0 Isabel Raines It's been two minutes, and already I have a problem 241 Isabel Raines 0 5

Rupert Princet, Pecari

September 04, 2012 1:15 PM

Here to Solve Your Problems. by Rupert Princet, Pecari

Ah, Potions. The class where magical things happened. A subject that his mother had excelled in, his father had abhorred. A subject which Cepheus excelled in, and Rupert abhorred. Well, it wasn't that potions had actually done anything to him in particular. It was just the idea of mixing neatly crushed ingredients and double-checking lightly simmering cauldrons that made Rup feel slightly uncomfortable. It was too...formal, too organised. What Rupert wanted was spontaneity and loads of it. Of course, he highly doubted magical institutions thought much of spontaneity, but he could always try it out.

Rupert had a penchant for getting into mischief, a trait he had inherited from...well, one of his ancestors had to have been mischievous. It wasn't like he was always seeking it, either. Sometimes mischief sought him out and caused havoc. Not that Rupert minded too much. It was just the consequences that he didn't really enjoy.

The Potions professor didn't seem like the sort to enjoy too much mischief, and Rupert thought he ought to avoid it. Professor Fawcett wasn't the type of professor he wanted to get into trouble with. The syllabus was thick and long and what Rupert deemed "too long to read". It wasn't like there was anything important in it, anyway. Essays would be a breeze. Rupert attracted trouble, but he wasn't stupid. Not completely stupid, anyway.

Rupert turned to the page the confidence potion was on and scanned through it. It seemed basic enough. He shrugged and wrote something down in the corner of the page. Vegan ingredients. Whatever the heck that means.

It was finally time to begin and Rupert appreciated the fact that his neighbour had her ingredients ready and all. She didn’t seem very comfortable with the knife, and Rupert knew he’d be glad to help her out with it. To her comment, Rup shrugged. "Most likely. Unless, of course, you sent for it by Floo and there was a conveniently placed fireplace in this vicinity. Or if your cauldron was connected to the Floo network, that would be very convenient.” He peered into the empty cauldron, and then gave her a teasing little grin.

"I'm just joking. Back home in Surrey, me mum—sorry, my mum—always complains about how long it takes to chop the ingredients and such." He leant forward then as if he were telling a big secret. "Surrey; that's in England, if you didn't know." He leant back and stuck out his hand. "Rupert Princeton, of the Surrey Princetons. But you can call me Rup. I think 'Rupert' is the sort of name an old man would have, you know. I suppose I'll start having people call me that when I'm thirty."

Rup clapped his hands together and rubbed them. "Now then, would you like some help with that? There’s a bean that needs to be de-shelled, if that’s even a word, and you can do that if you'd like. Sorry, how rude of me. I didn’t ask your name." Rupert wasn’t exactly the most polite boy in the world, and he was certainly the least polite in his household, but he tried not to make social gaffes in public. Well, too many, anyway.

0 Rupert Princet, Pecari Here to Solve Your Problems. 0 Rupert Princet, Pecari 0 5

Effie Arbon

September 04, 2012 2:11 PM

I suppose it's an improvement on flying... by Effie Arbon

To say that Effie was enthused about Potions would not have been a particularly truthful statement. Potions, in her world, fell into two categories; the simple, everyday variety, which were easy enough that even the help could brew them, and the complex, which required the specialist attention of a potioneer. There was little middle ground, save perhaps a few beauty potions which she was desirous of keeping entirely to herself, and thus she could see limited use for the class. A basic knowledge of Potions was a necessity in managing a household, so as to be able to identify the quality of a product or to know what to commission. However, that knowledge could be gleaned from rote learning. The necessity of bringing a cauldron to this class suggested a somewhat more practical focus. Whilst it would give her the requisite knowledge, it was rather a long-winded way of going about it and she couldn't help but feel this was one of the many concessions the school made to the learning needs of the more common students, who would not be able to afford servants or commissioned draughts. She took care to avoid such people as she chose her seat, placing herself amongst faces that she had already been able to match to respectable names.

She skimmed the syllabus and class rules, which talked about respecting fellow students. She was pleased to see the continuation of this theme, which had initially come up during their welcome to Crotalus. For all the school's faults and all its pandering to the Muggleborn population, at least it was at pains to instil in them proper notions of respect for their social betters, which had been beyond what she had hoped for from this school. The lesson almost interested her too. A confidence draught. She could see the use in that, especially here, where she was finding social interaction so much more overwhelming than she had anticipated – really, it had all sounded so simple in the textbooks and she had learnt it thoroughly and performed well in her lessons, yet putting it into practice was quite a different matter. However, with such a potion, the need for discretion was also paramount. It would not do for it to be known that one suffered from nerves in social situations. Much as she assumed these jitters would pass, it might be useful for a frailer lady, and it did fit into her very narrow category of potions that might be useful to such a person but best brewed by, and thus kept to, oneself.

She took the instruction sheet and began to assemble the ingredients from her kit, being sure to check how each should be prepared so that she would have it to hand. The first task seemed to be slicing the daisy roots, as neatly and evenly as possible. She chopped a small piece from one and then placed it at the top of her board, lining the remaining roots up underneath it, so that she could both measure them accurately yet cut multiple stems at once. She had not done anything much comparable to this in her lessons at home but it seemed simple enough thus far, presuming one could read and was not stupid. Between cuts, she glanced around, curious to see what those around her were doing, an action which stemmed more from genuine interest in observing other people than from self-doubt at her own attempt. As she looked up, her eye caught that of one of her carefully selected neighbours. She smiled and gave them a little dip – there was no need for a full curtsey, especially as she was not making an introduction at this stage, but it was polite to acknowledge those people who deserved acknowledgement.

13 Effie Arbon I suppose it's an improvement on flying... 238 Effie Arbon 0 5

Alan

September 04, 2012 2:49 PM

Hopefully it is as good as it sounds by Alan

Amity Brockert, Colorado Brockerts. Alan added that to his growing list of names. So far, it seemed that a surprising number of them belonged to exactly the kind of people he and Isabel had been sent to school to meet – in fact, he was pretty sure Isabel had also met this girl; he thought he had seen them talking during the first flying lesson – but he guessed that could just be a coincidence. There were, after all, going to be a certain number of society and non-society people in any year, or so he had heard. It was just who had children at what time.

Though, there had been a lot of familiar last names on the flying lesson roll call. He didn’t know them personally because he had never attended many parties or anything, but he had heard them – heard at least one of them far more times than he’d ever really wanted to, since it belonged to Sara’s boyfriend as well as a girl in his class. That girl, he’d made sure to look at and remember, because she would either be a great ally against the collective stupidity of their older siblings or be his worst nightmare, but she was very unlikely to ever plan to marry him. Alan, remembering how his mother and sister had talked about boys in school with the latter for as long as he could remember, appreciated that in a person; the conversations he remembered from the era Before Preston had him worried that every girl from a good family in the school might seriously already be thinking that way.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Alan said, pausing in the laying out of his ingredients to bow to her. “I am Alan Raines, of the Illinois Raines’.”

He succeeded in saying “Raines’” without tripping over the ‘s’es at the end, a feat which always made him happy when he managed it. Sometimes he didn’t. He was convinced that whoever had made up their last name had done so before the standard introduction came into use, because otherwise, they never would have picked a name that ended in ‘s.’ It was just too difficult to say.

“Don’t mind if we do,” he said when Miss Brockert suggested that they work together. “We can split the ingredients down the middle, that way neither of us uses too much of one thing during the first lesson.” He assumed she could write home for refills as easily as he could, but it would be better to make what they had last, he thought. That way, if it came up during a lesson, they wouldn't be waiting for a refill to arrive in the mail and have to go begging for enough to complete a potion with. "I can do the chopping, if you like," he offered, since Isabel had proven strangely reluctant to chop things in their few experiments after they'd gotten their hands on their school supplies and she was his main source about how girls behaved.

0 Alan Hopefully it is as good as it sounds 0 Alan 0 5

Isabel

September 04, 2012 6:51 PM

Why, thank you! by Isabel

Isabel looked into her cauldron, too, when her neighbor did and giggled at the idea of it being hooked up to the Floo network. “Even that would work if I didn’t use it in class, though,” she pointed out, since she doubted that Professor Fawcett was somehow monitoring their cauldrons outside of class. At least, she hoped he wasn’t, for his sake as much as everyone else’s, since she imagined that he would stay very busy if he did. Maybe she would be kept on the straight and narrow by having Effie and her other proper roommates around, but she thought it was very unlikely that no one in the whole school ever performed unauthorized potions experiments.

He talked very fast about his mother, where he was from, and when he thought he would use his full name; Isabel had to bite the inside of her mouth not to giggle at the sound of his preferred nickname as she very gently took his hand, having not very often ever shaken hands. On the occasions when she had met important people, through her father or her sister and brother-in-law or such, they had mostly bowed over her hand, and of course she curtsied to other girls. Once they had shaken, she made a little bob to him, too, in case one of her roommates was watching, and he kept going about helping her, which she appreciated even if it did take an effort to keep up with what he said to her.

“It’s okay,” she said when he caught up to having not given her time to introduce herself yet. “I’m Isabel Raines, of the Illinois Raines’.” She lowered her voice in imitation of his. “Illinois is further east here in America. If you didn’t know.” She straightened up again and moved the end of her hair back over her shoulder, so it hung down her back and wasn’t in the way. “I guess I can handle the bean.” Maybe she could get it out of its shell with her fingernails instead of having to use a knife. “Thank you for offering to help me,” she added, since he really hadn’t had to.

She picked up a sopophorous bean and began to examine it for any seams, anything she might use to get it open. “So, you said you’re from England,” she said. “Why are you at school here at Sonora?” Immediately, Isabel realized how that could sound rude. "Not that we're not glad to have you," she added. "I'm just curious. People moving around - that interests me." Even things like Papa and Mamma marrying when they hadn't been in school together and had been from states so far apart was sort of interesting, but how people came to have international ties was even moreso. She always liked hearing about how Milton and Caroline had met, and Aunt Margaret and Uncle Antonio, and about Sara's travels. She had never been anywhere herself, but sometimes she almost felt like she had.

0 Isabel Why, thank you! 0 Isabel 0 5

Melanie

September 05, 2012 10:58 AM

Sad but true by Melanie

Her smile became more genuine when she realized it was Lucille that she was talking to. Melanie didn't really think she was up to dealing with someone new right at the moment, when she was so concerned about her sister-who seemed to be really sick at the moment-and was having a really difficult time thinking about much else. It wasn't always that way, but it was at the moment.

It was comforting to be with someone familiar, Marcus with his unending happiness would have been ideal, but Melanie didn't mind working with Lucille either. She genuinely liked the other Teppenpaw from what she knew of her and wanted to be closer friends. It wasn't because it was what Mother wanted. The second year usually didn't do stuff just to please her mother. Oh, sure, Melanie would act polite and proper and whatnot, it was just the right way to behave but that didn't mean she didn't have a problem with her mother in general.

She couldn't stand the woman's selfish shallow ways. She never spent any time with Valerie at all, even when the Crotalus was at her worst. As for Melanie, her mother seemed to push at her to be an exemplary lady to compensate for what her older sister couldn't do. The twelve year old bore these expectations well and that wasn't what she didn't like, it was simply the reasons why the expectations were in place than angered her.

Most of what Mother wanted Melanie to do seemed very trivial to her anyway. Things about shopping for clothing and getting their hair done and lunchons with other prominent women in the area and their daughters and whatnot. Mother wanted a doll, it felt, not a daughter. The thing that truly got to Melanie about all that was that it was only her, never Valerie. The older girl couldn't and the Teppenpaw felt awful doing something when her sister was unable to have these opportunities.

She considered Lucille's question. There were no bugs involved and even if there had been, she had less problem with dead ones than live ones. Living bugs could get into your hair and stuff. They were gross and the Teppenpaw might not have wanted to do activities if her sister couldn't, but that didn't mean she wasn't a lady.

"I'd kind of like to do the infusions." Melanie replied. Somehow they'd always seemed neat to her. So many things contained them from potions like this one to things that flavored food to sweet smelling bath oils. The second year loved to take long bathes, relaxing in the tub with fragrant (but not overpowering) bath salt crystals dissolving and scenting the air, making Melanie smell nice too. Her troubles seemed to melt away when she was in the tub.

She added graciously, though. "Unless it's something you'd really like to do too." The Teppenpaw didn't want to appear bossy, the way some people in their class seemed to be. That was no way to win friends and it wouldn't do well to treat someone poorly, especially someone that you had to share a room with.

11 Melanie Sad but true 226 Melanie 0 5

Rupert

September 05, 2012 6:52 PM

Not to worry; it's my calling by Rupert

At the moment, Rupert’s partner was turning out to be wonderful. She was receptive to his remarks and seemed to be able to keep up as he spoke at a rapid pace. The true necessities of a good partner. Isabel was from Illinois, and Rup was at a blank until she leant in and explained to him where exactly Illinois was. However, Rupert’s knowledge of geography was limited and, therefore, her explanation meant almost nothing to him except that her state was further east. However much further, he had no idea and didn’t care to ask.

Rupert was glad that Isabel opted to take the sopophorous bean. He was more than glad to take the knife out of her hands. “It was my pleasure, Miss Raines,” he said, nodding his head. It was more fun to pretend that he was proper here than it was at home where everyone was proper all the time. Sometimes Rupert felt suppressed there, at the manor, because there was so much space, and yet he couldn’t go into certain rooms, he wasn’t allowed to see any of his acquaintances nor invite them over for tea, and he was stuck in lessons all day. If not lessons, then wand exercises. His existence up to this point had been totally, bloody awful.

And yet, there was a reason why he was so limited back home. “Limited” meant no sharp objects, no sweets, no chewing gum, no going off the grounds, and absolutely no trips to London. The last time he’d been to the city was when he was a wee boy, around seven. He’d gone with his older brother, his cousin Dorian, and his other cousin Cornelius. The latter two lived in London and the Princeton brothers were going to visit. Rupert had separated from the group early on at a department store in Muggle London and, after hours of searching, they had found him talking to a homeless Muggle. Their trip had ended very quickly, much to his older brother’s disdain. If Rupert had known that was the last trip he was ever going to make to the city, he would’ve made more of an effort to stay lost longer. There were so many interesting people in England, Muggle or not.

Isabel seemed like the “right sort,” but so far she wasn’t boring like the other awful pure-bloods that came up around the manor. Perhaps the sort in the States weren’t so stuffy like the English. Her question, however, was one that he was supposed to expect. Cepheus had told him that loads of Americans asked stupid questions like that. Sometimes his brother judged people and their questions really quickly. It was a trait the males of the household most definitely had. One that Rupert had tried not to inherit.

His partner seemed to realise it was a strangely accusatory question, but Rup brushed it off. “Well, if you want me to be honest: world domination.” He sighed as if it were tedious work. “The Princetons have conquered Western and most of Northern Europe. Nobody wants to go East; no idea why, but I suppose they want to stick close to home. And Merlin-forbid anyone musters up enough courage to go across the ocean. So Grandfather sent his grand-kids. Lucky us, huh?”

In Rupert’s opinion, it was most certainly lucky. He wouldn’t have been trusted out of the house if not for school, whether it was Hogwarts, Durmstrang or Sonora. He would have excelled in any case, but he was especially excited to be in America. Everyone he’d met so far had an accent and were so different than, well, the menagerie he hung out with at home. Humans were far more interesting than peacocks, crups, cats and owls.

“My brother’s here too,” he continued as he haphazardly cut up the daisy roots. “His name’s Cepheus. In Crotalus, I think. And I’ve got a little brother who’s going to come here too when he gets his letter. His name’s Leo.” As soon as he uttered his younger brother’s name, he sliced his index finger. “Ouch!” His finger went into his mouth as he sucked on it to keep the blood from getting anywhere. He looked down at the desk and was relieved to see that none of it had gotten on the roots. “I always knew my brother was bad luck,” he joked as he took his finger out of his mouth and inspected it. He’d live. “Well, I think the daisy roots are completely mutilated. I mean, ‘chopped.’” He scooped them up and dumped them into the cauldron. “What’s next? Lemon-something, right?” He frowned at the textbook. “What does ‘infusion’ mean?”

0 Rupert Not to worry; it's my calling 0 Rupert 0 5

Annabelle and Annette Pierce

September 06, 2012 1:07 PM

Do potions ever use two peas in a pod? by Annabelle and Annette Pierce

While potions was not the class the twins were looking forward to the most - Derry said there were a lot of essays and Thad spoke very highly of it which meant it was perhaps a little too challenging for normal people - but it would still be an exiting new experience. Thad had been allowed to get a potions tutor before starting at Sonora, but Mother had not deemed it appropriate for young ladies to have any special head start in the subject. Today would be their first chance to actually stand in front of a cauldron and brew something.

With Annabelle wearing a light blue ribbon in her hair to keep it held out of the way, she differed in appearance from her sister who was wearing a dark blue ribbon. It was the one concession the made to helping people tell them apart: they almost always wore at least one accessory or article of clothing that was a different color to what the other wore. Today, their blouses were also of differing colors, to match their respective hair ribbons, but under the uniform school robes, only the matching white collars were easily visible.

They sat together in the middle of the room, and were mildly disappointed when there was no rollcall. They had planned to switch names for the class, for no better reason than because it was fun. They did it often enough that Thad call Annette by Annabelle's name more often than he used it for Annabelle.

Teachers didn't really need to be able to tell them apart anyway. Their tutors had always given them the same marks for everything, and they saw no reason why that should change now. When the syllabi were handed out, Annette ignored her own and shared Annabelle's as they looked over it, reading upside down after her sister placed it between them with the pages oriented toward Annabelle. In truth, they did this often enough that Annette had a little difficulty reading the board, where all the letters were rightside up.

Annette took out her textbook when they told to turn to page thirteen. Annabelle put away their syllabus - the one given to Annette stayed out, and would remain there even after the class was over and they had left - and didn't bother taking out her book as Annette placed hers between them, again orienting it so Annabelle was seeing it rightside up while Annette could read it upside down. This was, absolutely, the surest way of telling them apart, and the only method by which their mother could consistently identify them by full name. Annabelle could not read upside down; it was a failing that she was secretly but deeply ashamed of.

The listened to the lecture and Annabelle took down the notes about what it was supposed to look like when it was done. They didn't bother asking if they would work together: that was a given, and they never so much as cosidered the possibility that the Professor might want them to brew seperately. He had not specifically stated that group work was not allowed, so they assumed it was.

"You chop," Annabelle directed and Annette nodded, already getting out the requisite amount of daisy roots from her ingredient kit.

"You get the water boiling and shell the bean," Annette returned, even as Annabelle was already struggling to lift her cauldron onto the lab table.

1 Annabelle and Annette Pierce Do potions ever use two peas in a pod? 246 Annabelle and Annette Pierce 0 5

Carrie

September 07, 2012 10:41 AM

Uh, no. I'll simply tell you what to do. by Carrie

Carrie raised her perfect blonde eyebrow. Was this first year mocking her? How dare she! It obviously showed a lack of good breeding and made it clearly obvious that this girl was a mudblood. A proper pureblood would not make fun of her because they would know that was the appropriate greeting. Besides, Carrie had not heard of the Arizona Canterburys. There had been one in the Beginner group last year, but that was it. At best this girl was a halfblood or a poor pureblood like James Owen,whom Carrie disliked on principle because he was friends with Ryan besides not being well off financially.

Plus, it infuriated the Crotalus to be laughed at by an inferior. Well, everyone was inferior to her besides her mother, but that was besides the point. This girl wasn't even at the acceptable level that Cepheus or her roommates were at, the latter of which were only flawed in that they happened to be her roommates when Carrie deserved to have her own.

Cepheus, however, was someone she would have thought of as the ideal betrothed. However, the second year had heard he that he already was, to that disgusting Megan Brownbriar of all people! She was from what was apparently a decent enough family but she was a defective like Ryan and Coach Pierce-both of which names were thought of in the most derogatory of terms inside her own head. The Teppenpaw had flown in the concert last year.

Miss Brownbriar deserved to be disowned, not rewarded with someone so respectable. Plus, she probably liked girls, because that sort was attracted to flying and Quidditch and other manly pursuits-it was pleasing to Carrie that Sophie Jamison was probably into girls too and Ryan would end up alone because nobody else would want him either-and to have her betrothed to Cepheus was just unfair to both him and to Carrie who was far more worthy. The second year was going to do her best to make the older girl miserable the first chance she got. Miss Brownbriar deserved nothing. She was garbage and reflected poorly on her family, who should just throw her away.

"I know." The Crotalus replied to Wendy's comments about how pretty she was. At least this inferior being had good eye sight and a modicum of taste for someone of her breeding. Which meant she should have no trouble being able to see what she was doing because Carrie certainly wasn't going to do all the work. Hopefully, Wendy was also of the bare minimum of intelligence-which was the maximum level of intellect that the Pecari could possibly have-and be able to follow Carrie's simple instructions.

Apparently though, she was not off to a very good start. The girl didn't even know how to light a fire! What an idiot, she was going to have to learn because it would be her lot in life to do menial work for her betters. Carrie sighed and explained it to the moron. "Well, I'm sure it's better than what you're used to." The Crotalus replied to Wendy's comments about potions being unsanitary. She didn't like touching these things but she was rather used to drinking them. "Besides, haven't you ever eaten a vegetable? Those are plants and potions ingredients are sanitized before they ever are used."

11 Carrie Uh, no. I'll simply tell you what to do. 230 Carrie 0 5

Isabel

September 07, 2012 2:00 PM

I may call you often in this class... by Isabel

Isabel smiled when Rupert said it was his pleasure to chop the roots – if he liked sharp objects, then that was good for them both – and then jumped as her thumbnail got some purchase on the bean and nearly broke as she tried to take advantage of that. “Oh!” she said, shaking her hand as she dropped the bean, which skittered a few inches away from her on her work surface. “I’m so sorry, the bean didn’t like me,” she added to Rupert, hoping she hadn’t startled him into cutting himself with her exclamation. Knives were dangerous, she didn’t know why they had to use them at all in school. Couldn’t things just come cut into pieces?

It seemed not, and obviously, the way she had tried of opening the shriveled-looking sopophorous bean wasn’t going to work, either. That meant she had to figure out another way to open it. After a moment’s thought, she took out her mortar and pestle and began trying, with all of her limited arm strength, to crush it instead. Professor Fawcett hadn’t, as far as she could remember, said that the bean’s shell had to be whole at the end of the process, just that it had to be off. She could sort out the bits from the rest once she was done.

She blinked, caught off guard for one second, when Rupert said he was here because his family wanted to take over the world, but then she caught on and laughed. How silly; no one, or even one family, could take over the whole world, not even the very big families. Why, there were some very big families here in the United States, and they didn’t even manage to rule it, never mind the whole continent of North America, and even if they could somehow do that, there would still be five more continents to go even if they decided Antarctica didn’t count. “Of course,” she said about him and his fellow grandchildren. “They sent you to the best place.”

He had two brothers, one in school with him – she realized with a little start that his brother was the same one she and Effie had talked to at the Feast, who had mentioned Rupert. She was so unused to the idea of siblings as people who were around, who people saw often – even Alan’s sister was much older than they were, and had been at school for almost as long as Isabel could remember, and Isabel’s own sister was an adult, she couldn’t even remember the time when she and Catherine had lived under the same roof – that she hadn’t made the connection before. Before she could comment, though, he mentioned his other brother and cut his finger.

“Oh, no,” she said, stopping what she was doing to look. She laughed uncertainly when he made a joke about it, but was still concerned. “I hope not – is it all right, do you think you should wrap it up?” Mamma, or her nurse, or anyone, really, could have just tapped it with a wand and made it better, but she couldn’t do that, and she knew you were supposed to wrap things up until an adult was there to fix it.

When he asked what an infusion was, she didn’t know, either, and opened her textbook to the glossary to see if it could help. “Here,” she said, finding, to her relief, an entry titled ‘infusion.’ “It’s – “ she read over the first line of it, her mouth moving a little with some of the words. “You soak the herb in water, then the water is the infusion after, I think is what it means,” she concluded. “So we put those things, the lemon balm and the lovage, in some water and let them soak.” It had also mentioned steeping as another way this might be done, but that sounded much more complicated to her. She got a bowl. “I’ll go fill this with some water,” she said, “so we can soak that – oh, I forgot the bean.” She looked at him. “Do you want to get some water or take a turn trying to crush the shell off the bean?” she asked. “I think I've nearly got it, it's cracked all over already.”

0 Isabel I may call you often in this class... 0 Isabel 0 5

Amity

September 07, 2012 3:45 PM

That would be ideal. by Amity

"Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Raines." Amity responded. It seemed near impossible to meet the wrong people in this year group and she was glad that she'd remembered Alan's name correctly. Knowing who was who was a good idea when Amity was dealing with so many that she was supposed to meet.

Fortunately, doing so wasn't a thing that she especially minded. It was something that the Aladren was trained to do and was accustomed to. The many lessons that she'd had were not usually taken privately. Of course, Amity had been supposed to also consider those children to be competition, in some cases. That idea, however, had never really took and therefore, she found herself being inadvertently better liked because she was not viewed as a threat.

Mother, naturally, failed to notice this as she wanted Amity to be the best at everything. She wanted her daughters to make acquaintances and connections but she still wanted them to remain superior to others because apparently, just being a Brockert in a western state wasn't enough for the woman. Mother not only wanted Amity to be prefect and Head Girl, but ranked first in grades and make the best possible marriage too. Not to mention join every extracurricular the school had aside from Quidditch.

None of which was happening. She supposed that prefect and Head Girl were possible-though Amity was more likely to get the latter if people liked her whether than viewed her as a threat-but she wasn't going near even the clubs that weren't the sort wielded by Beaters. That would cut into her preciously sought free time. Even the book club was something that Amity didn't care to do. She would prefer to read on her own terms.

"Splitting them does seem like the most reasonable option." The Aladren could see no issue with Mr. Raines doing the chopping either. If that was what he wanted to do, that was fine with her. "All right." Amity agreed. "So, how are you enjoying Sonora so far?" Small talk could get so repetitive but it wouldn't be proper to just go right into more interesting topics. One had to get their organically or so she'd always been taught.

11 Amity That would be ideal. 233 Amity 0 5

Wendy

September 07, 2012 5:18 PM

I'll just mess it up. You should totally do it by Wendy

Wendy didn’t think it was a bad thing that Carrie knew that she had pretty eyes. She also took Carrie’s simple response as an agreement that Wendy did have cool eyes too. It was a start, though she could tell that Carrie wasn’t really the kind of girl who would give compliments that easily. Or talk much.

It was a good thing Carrie knew what to do, but Wendy still didn’t have a clue. She was supposed to light it with her wand? But she was a first-year. She wasn’t sure she even knew the spell yet. “I don’t know how to do that yet. Can you show me?” Wendy wasn’t the kind of girl who was shy of asking for help when she needed it, although in her imaginary world she liked to pretend she knew everything. Unfortunately, that wouldn’t help her here. If Carrie didn’t know it either, then she’d have to ask Professor Fawcett.

At Carrie’s first comment about unsanitary potion ingredients, she didn’t get it. Better than what she was used to? Her first thought went to the juices that she drank at home, like orange juice. In her opinion, that was a lot more sanitary than mixing in animal parts and the ends of weeds. But Carrie went on before Wendy could ask her about what she meant. The second part, however, she definitely knew what Carrie was saying.

“Of course I’ve eaten a vegetable,” she said. “I don’t drink vegetables though. My grandma made tomato juice once and it was disgusting. Ugh. And can you imagine cauliflower juice? Yuck.” A sudden thought came to her and she paused. Did that mean these were the kinds of things magical people considered vegetables? “You don’t eat daisy roots, do you? I don’t consider daisies a vegetable, but if you do, I guess that’s…cool.” If that’s what magical people ate, then Wendy would either have to get used to it or avoid the vegetable platter for good.

“I’m glad the ingredients are sanitized. I wouldn’t want to eat dirt or grass. That’s just gross.” She paled. “Unless you put dirt and grass into potions.” She shook her head, trying not to think about it. “I’ll start chopping up the roots.” Wendy wasn’t too sure if she could really handle a knife herself, but she had a small one. Her mom would never trust her with a big old chef knife or something. She took it out of her kit along with the daisy roots necessary and she began chopping them on a cutting board. It was actually pretty easy since these daisy roots weren’t tough at all. Still, she was not going to be drinking this any time soon. It was like putting eggshells into a cake mix. That just grossed her out.

0 Wendy I'll just mess it up. You should totally do it 0 Wendy 0 5

Lucille

September 07, 2012 6:57 PM

We just have to try our best anyway by Lucille

“Oh, no,” Lucille said with another smile when Melanie offered to give up the infusions if Lucille felt strongly about them. “You can do those.”

She had no more desire to work on those than on anything else they had to do for the potion, but she thought she would have yielded precedence anyway. She didn’t know which of them, technically, had greater status even after all the drills her mother had made her do over the past year, but even if she did have an edge – which she doubted, considering how scandal-haunted her immediate family was – she couldn’t remember a single time when refusing to go along with anyone other than her brothers had ended well. Obedience was easy; arguing only caused everyone to be unhappy, and the one person who might not be completely happy anyway to be worse off than they had to be. In this case, she got to be as content as she would have been otherwise, so that was just so much to the better.

Lucille picked up her knife. “I’ll chop our daisy roots, and shell the sopophorous bean, while you do that,” she added, and began to do exactly that. She did know she could say that without too much worry, instead of asking. Feeling unsure of herself, like she might do it wrong just because she hadn’t asked permission to do it, was something she expected and something that happened, but it wasn’t as bad as it might have been with an older student, or a boy, or even another girl she hadn’t had much of an opportunity to interact with. Melanie, though, was relatively safe. Relatively.

“Did you – did you have a pleasant summer?” she asked, since they hadn’t really had a chance to catch up yet. Being in a room with so many girls tended to make it hard for Lucille to talk to any of them; she interacted more with all her roommates in the Hall, if they sat with her, and in classes, when it was one-on-one, than she did with anyone in the room, where she felt that she would just be getting in the way most of the time if she tried to initiate or join a conversation. It was easier to just do her studying somewhere else and then come into the room just before it was time for bed, when everyone was busy.

0 Lucille We just have to try our best anyway 0 Lucille 0 5

Lucian D'Alesandro, Aladren

September 07, 2012 11:44 PM

Making a mess of things (Tag: Heaven) by Lucian D'Alesandro, Aladren

Lucian was running late to his potions class, which was quite a first for him. It was his favorite class, and he was always eager to get there. He was more than halfway there when he remembered that his potions journal was on his bed. His thoughts had been wandering a lot lately since he returned to school for another year, which often caused him to forget things. While literally running to get back to his room and grab the book, Lucian ended up almost tripping and falling flat on his face. He decided it would be better to pace himself, even though it made him late to class.

He walked into Potions and scanned the room. Pretty much all of the seats were taken by students except for one. As he walked quietly to the seat, so he didn’t disturb the other students or draw too much attention to his tardiness, Lucian stopped dead in his tracks when he realized who was sitting next to the empty seat. He would recognize the back of her head anywhere, since that is what he saw when they first met in the music room. It was Heaven Baird, and she hated his guts. Great. He still didn’t understand what he did to offend her, but she still continued to scowl and roll her eyes in his general direction every chance she got.

As he got closer to the seat, he could see that she had everything neatly situated on the table. She had a small pile of papers next to her book, which she seemed to be scanning intensely. Lucian decided it was best to set his things down quietly and take his seat without disturbing her. This, however, did not go as planned. As he began setting his books and journal down on the table, somehow one seemed to slip out of his hand and fall loudly to the table below. This in turn caused Heaven’s papers to fly in different directions, landing mostly on the floor around them.

Afraid to see and hear her reaction, Lucian quickly bent down and started picking up all of the papers. “Sorry, he began nervously, “I, uh, didn’t mean to…”

OOC: I had permission from Heaven's author to write the things I did pertaining to her character :)

0 Lucian D'Alesandro, Aladren Making a mess of things (Tag: Heaven) 0 Lucian D'Alesandro, Aladren 0 5

Alexandra D'Alesandro, Crotalus

September 08, 2012 12:16 AM

I hope so. by Alexandra D'Alesandro, Crotalus

Potion making should have been like second nature to Alexandra, but she walked into the class filled with a sense of dread. She sort of wanted to kick herself for not paying as much attention as her brother Lucian did when they made potions at home. He was always making them better than her, which was unacceptable, so she lost interest in making them at all. It was sort of a trend with her. Whenever Alex felt that someone was performing a task better than her, she simply decided the task wasn’t worth her precious effort and moved on to something new.

Choosing a seat was also becoming a difficult task for Alex. She knew she should be sitting near those of her kind, which would be purebloods, but watching how some of them acted towards other people made Alex wonder if that was what she looked like as well. Before she came to school she could care less about what other people thought about her, as long as they respected her. Now, she felt a little confused. She didn’t want to be considered an outcast by the purebloods, for that is where she belonged. However, she also didn’t want to be too judgmental of those who actually showed her kindness. At least with those people who didn’t try to be snobs you knew where you stood. At least they were honest and didn’t just pretend to like you because of your status.

For this class, however, Alex didn’t have to think about her seating options too much. An open seat was available near purebloods she had heard about, but wasn’t really formally introduced to. After sitting down and listening to the instructions, she began to sort through her ingredients with the hope of making this potion correctly. Alex did not enjoy the part where she had to cut the daisy roots, for she felt that young ladies should not have to do such potentially dangerous tasks, but she slowly and carefully began chopping. She soon noticed a girl nearby looking up every so often out of the corner of her eye. Alex looked up once and caught the girl glancing at her work. The girl made a dip of acknowledgement in her direction. Alex returned the small dip and smiled. She recognized this girl as one of her housemates, but they didn’t engage in conversation yet. Alex decided to change this.

“Hello,” she began, “I believe we have not been formally introduced. I am Alexandra D’Alesandro of Boston. My family is not as well known in the states. We only moved here a few years ago. May I ask what your name is?”

0 Alexandra D'Alesandro, Crotalus I hope so. 0 Alexandra D'Alesandro, Crotalus 0 5

Aria Yale, Teppenpaw

September 08, 2012 2:02 AM

Chitchatting away. by Aria Yale, Teppenpaw

Aria would not say that she was the best at potions because she really had no idea who was good at it and who wasn’t, but she could say that she at least knew the basics of it at the very least. Her mother was the ‘Medicine Woman’ in their community. She used herbs and potions to heal those in need. Most of the ailments were simple, every day cuts and bruises. But sometimes they were terrible things. A heart attack, a stroke, heat exhaustion, anaphylactic shock due to an allergic reaction, and a whole bunch of other stuff. Her mother had been a Potioneer with a medical background, which is how she became the ‘Medicine Woman’ and due to her racks in the community, one of the reasons why Aria’s father had become an Elder when he wasn’t, well, an Elder.

Aria and some of the other children would go and collect the ingredients for her mother. It was a chore, but none of them felt like it was. They made a game out of it. It was something fun that they all did together and it was helping the community. Afterwards, they always ran through the fields pretending to catch butterflies or pick flowers to put in their hair. The boys didn’t really care about that part, they went off and did their own thing, but that was her life before Sonora. And it will be her life after Sonora. Although, instead of finding the ingredients, she’ll be brewing the potions and healing the community. Perhaps she ought to question why she was being forced into this position as there was no guarantee she’d be any good at it, but the truth was, she really wanted to do it. She really wanted to be the person they all needed. So she was going to do her best and make sure she was always on top of her potions while at Sonora.

Taking a seat, Aria pulled her enormous amount of rambunctious blonde curls into a makeshift ponytail and waited happily for the lesson to begin. Last year had been difficult but only because neither she nor Professor Fawcett could say for certain if she was allowed to use insects into the potions. She had discussed it with her parents and they felt that if it were possible to avoid using them, than she should do her best to do that. Professor Fawcett was kind enough to assist her in that and seeing the vegan potion list next to the regular one on the board just made her so happy because she knew that it was something he did for her (and maybe anyone else who shared similar beliefs).

“You know, I’m not sure if my mother makes this sort of potion.” Aria said conversationally to the person beside her. “She sticks to healing things, but a confidence potion seems like it could cause some major problems if it’s not taken as directed.” Aria had read in books about people who used things in a selfish way or became addicted to the effects of the potion/drug and thus had their world spiral out of control. As far as she knew, no one in the community had that issue because they already had a sense of purpose. But, the community was around far longer than she knew, so anything was possible.

0 Aria Yale, Teppenpaw Chitchatting away. 0 Aria Yale, Teppenpaw 0 5

Heaven Baird, Crotalus

September 08, 2012 1:36 PM

As usual. by Heaven Baird, Crotalus

Potions was one of Heaven’s favorite classes, partly due to the fact that the professor was very orderly. However, this year, she already knew was going to be horrible, because her younger sister, Honey, would be in most, if not all, of her classes. It wasn’t that she disliked her sister so much as it seemed Honey’s life mission was to annoy her. She didn’t really know why. But then, she didn’t really understand why Honey did any of the things she did like dressing in such outrageous outfits. Heaven would never be caught in such clothing. They were utterly embarrassing and completely unladylike. No, clothing was to be of a more proper nature.

For instance, today, she was wearing a black peasant puff sleeve dress with tiny roses of pink and white all over it. She loved the dress and was glad that it worked well enough with the green robes, which were hard to match. She hated that she had to design her entire wardrobe to go with green robes, but she knew it could always be worse. At least, she had a complexion that didn’t look washed out or sickly with the color. That would have been a far worse fate. With the outfit, she had paired black ballet flats and pulled her dark hair into a French braid. After all, loose hair and potions weren’t a very good mix.

Once she was seated, Heaven placed her kit on the table and pulled her textbook out of her bag. With her quill in hand, she was ready when the professor handed out the syllabus. As he talked, she added a few things here and there, such as additional homework assignments could be assigned that were not listed along with some notes on the rules. She knew the quickest way to a failing grade was by not being prepared. It led to all sorts of awful things like late homework assignments, forgetting about tests, and the like. No, she was determined to get an E, if not an O, in Potions and this was just the first step.

After all instructions were given, Heaven organized herself and was just looking over her notes when a sudden noise sounded and caused her to jerk. “Oh, no!” Heaven cried. All her papers were now on the floor. Her blue eyes searched out the cause of all the trouble. Finding it, she internally groaned. Why? Of all the people that could possibly sit next to her, why him? Lucian was a forever pest. Sighing, she bent down to get her papers. “Of course, you didn’t,” she snapped, as she grabbed what he had. She wished she could have stormed off with them, but it didn’t seem like anyone else was available to work with. “I suppose we should try and work as together as civilly as possible.”

0 Heaven Baird, Crotalus As usual. 0 Heaven Baird, Crotalus 0 5

Rupert

September 08, 2012 1:59 PM

I am at your beck and call, m'lady by Rupert

Rupert hardly believed that the bean didn't like her, though he did have some plants around his house that didn't particularly like him. Isabel didn't seem to like the bean all that much either because she started to smash it. He was curious as to what exactly she was doing, and then realised that she was not crushing it, but trying to crack the shell off. Brilliant.

Being sent to the best place, according to Isabel, may not have been completely true, but Rupert liked to think so. It wasn't England, but then again that country didn't hold much for him since he was hardly allowed out of the house. Besides, of course, the family name, gold, free things, etc.

His cut finger throbbed only a bit after dumping the chopped roots into the cauldron, but it was bearable. He still examined it like it was a piece of meat instead of his finger. Growing up in a family who owned a hospital with several of his relatives being healers and all, Rup had grown accustomed to the look a healer or mediwizard had when examining an injury. Of course, his cut finger which wasn't even bleeding any more was hardly the same as the injuries the healers looked at. He pretended it was anyway. "I think I'll live," he said gravely. "Although I may never be able to use my finger again." He paused dramatically, dark eyes staring at his finger before looking over at Isabel and grinning. "I can do the bean."

Peeling shells off the bean wouldn't have been too difficult, except this was a sopophorous bean and Isabel had already cracked its shell into pieces. Hopefully none of the pieces would be lost. They didn't seem to be too small yet. Rupert was able to peel the rest of the difficult bean with his fingernails, injured finger forgotten.

Once that was done, he looked at the ingredient list. Salamander scales were the next thing that needed to be crushed. When Isabel came back, Rupert was happily crushing the salamander scales in his mortar, imagining crushing his imaginary foes. He stopped before the thing turned into a complete powder, though, and looked over at Isabel as if suddenly remembering that she was there. "Got the shell off," he told her as if she couldn't see it herself. "I'm just crushing the salamander scales to a sprinkle." He grinned and then peered over to look at what Isabel was doing. "Is the infusion done yet?"

0 Rupert I am at your beck and call, m'lady 0 Rupert 0 5

Henry Carey, Crotalus

September 08, 2012 9:15 PM

...I like this by Henry Carey, Crotalus

The hallways, Henry had rapidly discovered, were an unpleasant experience, but to him, the Potions room was anything but. It was neat, confined, neither too large nor too small, with a ceiling neither too low nor too high and a professor he had been reliably informed was the kind of teacher he would like. Stepping into the room, he felt his shoulders relax and he stood a bit straighter as he went to look for a seat.

Still, though, he looked until he found one on the end of a row, so he had the next to smallest number of people possible around him. The true smallest, of course, would have been in a seat on one end of the first row, but Henry found the thought of being that much into the spotlight, on the first day, a little unpleasant, too, so he chose what at the moment felt like the lesser of two evils. If it turned out that being more visible was actually a lesser evil than having someone in the seat in front of his, then the next time this class met, he’d move. A simple problem, a simple solution – ideal, really. He liked that, too.

He sat very still while he waited for class to start, and through most of the opening remarks, making a few small notes – on a separate piece of parchment, of course; he wouldn’t write on the syllabus itself, it was wrong to mark up books and documents, very unsightly, Mother didn’t approve of that at all – on a few points and listening to the rest carefully, ending up a little disappointed. He had expected much more, not just to be told that the syllabus really had everything he needed to know in it and that he wasn’t allowed to hit the other students, a rule he was already far more used to than he thought he might have otherwise been if not for his family. It hadn’t taken him long to figure out, after Theresa and Brandon got annoying, that getting in trouble with them was pointless, since they didn’t remember what it was about soon enough and Mother remembered for much longer that they had been bad.

“Huh,” he remarked to himself, very quietly, when he read the header for the page they were told to turn to. Confidence. Interesting. Some – most – of his family needed to be kept far from it, but he could see uses. He’d take some before he had to play Quidditch, so he wouldn’t notice how far it was to the ground. Maybe – maybe he would do that, maybe it would work. Or maybe he would just be ridiculously sure they would win and not notice right before a Bludger knocked him unconscious, and then he fell –

His feet were under him now, though. He could feel where the bar between legs of the stool was pressing against the bottoms of his shoes. That was all right.

When they were told to work, Henry waited for a few seconds more, making sure there weren’t going to be any sudden changes of direction or additional instructions added on the way there were so often at home, and then he opened his carefully-arranged – and several times rearranged since he had gotten it; Henry enjoyed this thing as much as he did any piece of equipment he had gotten while shopping with Mother and Anthony and Aunt Lorraine, and more than a few – set of ingredients and started humming to himself slightly as he began measuring out the exact amounts of everything the book said he would need.

0 Henry Carey, Crotalus ...I like this 0 Henry Carey, Crotalus 0 5

Anthony Carey VIII

September 08, 2012 11:45 PM

Somewhere, I'm sure one does by Anthony Carey VIII

For as long as he could remember, Anthony had been given lessons – the first memory he had that he could definitely place chronologically was of Mother leading him by the hand into the schoolroom she’d had set up in the east wing for the twins a few years before and introducing him to Miss Stella, who’d led him and Jay and Henry through the rocky early stages of reading, reading comprehension, writing, and basic arithmetic – but last year, for the first time, he had seen a big shift in the kind of lessons he had happening all at once. None of them had vanished from his schedule entirely, of course, but suddenly, the amount of time he spent on etiquette and dancing and music had been reduced in favor of giving him a lot of lessons on magical theory, lessons designed to make sure he was as well-prepared as possible for the lessons his professors would give him at Sonora. It had really been a little terrifying, and Anthony had no idea how anyone who hadn’t had the same training was going to ever catch up, much less succeed at making anything work right in class.

On the bright side, though, he thought he had a feel for which subjects he was going to like most even before he got to school, and he thought Potions would be one of them, even though the reports he had gotten from his brothers about the professor were a little muddled and he wasn’t sure what, then, exactly to expect. The part about high standards for written work, he was fairly sure of, but he had yet to get exactly what the story about Arnold, the former Pierce heir, and a stork even was, never mind what it meant. That, too, though, was interesting, so he didn’t mind it very much as he walked into the Potions classroom and, after only a moment’s hesitation over the presence of second years, climbed onto a stool to get his practical lessons in the subject started.

His first impression of Professor Fawcett, he decided after the part of the speech about rules, was that he was most likely sort of like his Spanish tutor – pleasant enough, but not someone he wanted to step too far out of line with. He still did want to figure out what his eldest brother and Derwent the Fourth had done with a bird during a class about dead potioneers so he knew what the line was, just as a matter of reference, but Anthony didn’t think he was likely to get into fights or anything like that. Not in class, anyway; somehow, arguments in his head always happened outside, not in the classroom.

Opening his book to page thirteen, Anthony looked at the potion with interest, his thoughts distracting him from what Professor Fawcett was saying. A confidence draught. He couldn’t help but picture people he had previously assumed were just doing things – the Fourth, or the Headmistress at the Feast, or Arnold, before one of the Quidditch games they had all read very detailed summaries of in letters for the past four years – taking this before they did them, and then, of course, he wondered if they really did. With his great-great-grandfather, he almost immediately thought not – the Fourth did not feel unsure about anything; he was the Fourth, he was in charge of everything and that was just the nature of the universe as Anthony knew it – and he dismissed the idea about Arnold almost as quickly, but the Headmistress, that was a possibility. He didn’t really know her well enough to tell.

Nor did he know, he realized a second later, if any special directions had been given in the speech about the potion, but he bit his lip and then decided to just trust in his textbook and year of theoretical lessons and his neighbor’s word for it if necessary and to hope for the best.

He started to get out daisy roots when he saw one of the Pierce twins having trouble lifting her cauldron. He had been unnerved, the first time he'd noticed them, by the way they had both answered to the same name during flying lessons, but at least five or six, if not seven or eight, he didn’t even really remember, years of etiquette lessons informed him in no uncertain terms that this was no excuse for him not to be a gentleman.

“Excuse me,” he said politely. “Do you need help with that?”

0 Anthony Carey VIII Somewhere, I'm sure one does 234 Anthony Carey VIII 0 5

Effie Arbon

September 09, 2012 11:36 AM

Although there is fire involved... by Effie Arbon

The girl had curtseyed. Effie recognised her as a fellow Crotalus. She had introduced herself properly and provided a good excuse as to why Effie had never heard of her family. Effie also believed the girl had behaved appropriately during flying. These things worked in her favour. The fact that Effie had not of heard of the family, that one reason for moving countries was to escape scandal back home and that, although her behaviour had been appropriate in flying, she had been talking to a girl in rather strange attire were the things currently working against Alexandra. Effie made a note to investigate scandals pertaining to wherever this girl had come from and keep on eye on those with whom she associated. She supposed Alexandra couldn't really help it if the strange girl had pestered her.

“My name is Effie Arbon. My family resides in Maine,” she greeted, taking care to make her inclusion of her family's location distinct in style from those who had a branch to give. She normally did not state it but Alexandra had stated where she resided, in a non-branch-affiliated sense, and potentially needed education as to where families in America had their estates.

“From where do you originate, as you declare yourself to be newly arrived?” she enquired. She would guess Europe, as the name sounded Spanish, although that could mean any number of former colonies, including the South Americas. She tried to listen for an accent in the girl's response, although she wasn't sure that she should be able to distinguish between different Spanish accents if the girl had one. “And what prompted your move to America?” she enquired. It was a reasonable enough question, not like she was prying or accusing Alexandra of anything. It was scarcely as if the other girl was going to declare them to have been fleeing in shame so, even if that was the case, there would be a well-rehearsed family lie that she could be given.

She added the daisy roots to the cauldron as she spoke, before mixing two parts lemon balm to one part lovage and adding this. The potion was then required to simmer on a moderate heat until 'thickened to a lightly gelatinous consistency'. That was a little vague for Effie's taste, as she was quite sure she had never described nor heard anything described as 'lightly gelatinous' before.

“Do you think a honey consistency is appropriate or should it perhaps be a little thicker?” she enquired of her companion, deciding that a good potion with a little help was better than a poor potion done independently, so long as the help was from someone appropriate. Not that she thought there was anything a Muggleborn would be able to advise her on, unless, of course, the Muggle world was awash with lightly gelatinous fluids. It sounded unpleasant enough that she suspected it might be.

13 Effie Arbon Although there is fire involved... 238 Effie Arbon 0 5

Jay Carey, Aladren

September 09, 2012 6:25 PM

Chitchatting back by Jay Carey, Aladren

Potions, to Jay’s surprise, had not been one of his best classes in his first year. He had done well enough, of course – he didn’t get as many letters of a certain nature from home as the twins did, but he got enough to not forget very often that his grades were under scrutiny even if it was from afar, and lessons came easily enough to him most of the time anyway – but he had gotten higher marks in Charms and Transfiguration, with only Defense coming in a hair lower than Potions on his final report for last year. He had seen it coming, but had been surprised to do so, because he had thought coming in that Potions would be one of his better subjects and he had always enjoyed it.

His mother hadn’t been terribly happy about it, and had remarked that Potions and Defense were the two subjects he most needed to do well in, but the rest of the family had seemed content enough with his marks. It might, he thought, have something to do with how Mother seemed to think sometimes that her sons, like her four brothers – only one of whom had survived the experience long enough for Jay to remember meeting him – and her father before them, should become Aurors, which was something Jay didn’t really see happening. For one thing, he, personally, was not inclined toward dying before he was thirty, and for another, he somehow imagined that the family would disapprove even if he was.

In spite of that, though, he was hoping to get his grades up a little this year, if only because he had a feeling that if Arthur had brought them home, the family would have anxiously inquired about his health, and that from Anthony, the exact same scores would have been seen as simply unacceptable. Jay had put together, from listening to them and others talk, that he was just above Arnold and below Theresa in terms of academics, and he was comfortable with that in itself, but it would be nice to at least match his sister, even though he thought that she lived enough in the realm of House stereotypes that she hadn’t put it together that her grades were a little better than his.

The opening speech wasn’t, from a second year’s perspective, very interesting, so Jay only listened to it with half an ear as he looked through the new year’s syllabus, mentally comparing how it sounded to how last year’s had at the same time, until the page number for the day was announced. He opened up to page thirteen and nodded to himself as he read along with what Professor Fawcett was saying. This didn’t look too bad; his version was very likely to be weaker than intended, but it would most likely at least work, which was as much as he was going to demand of himself on the first day back.

He looked up from his book, and then Aria Yale – Lucille’s also-blonde roommate, though there was no chance of mistaking one for the other even at a distance – spoke about her mother making potions. “I imagine it could,” he said about how unauthorized use of the potion could be a very bad thing. “But that’s true for a lot of the things we study in our classes, don’t you think?” He thought Potions might be the worst offender, but he didn’t, now that he thought about it, think any of the others were completely innocent of the charge, either, especially when he thought about things he'd just heard of instead of just those he'd already been taught to do.

0 Jay Carey, Aladren Chitchatting back 0 Jay Carey, Aladren 0 5

Liam Ammon, Pecari

September 09, 2012 10:43 PM

Hanging from the eaves by Liam Ammon, Pecari

Liam’s first year of Sonora had been a rather trying one. Not because he was having difficulty in his courses, however. In fact, all things considered, he’d managed to do alright. Liam passed all of his classes, some by a larger margin than others, but he passed none the less. His biggest issue had been the culture shock—half the time Liam had no idea what people were talking about. One thing he had caught on to was the fact that most people in his school were from Pure Blooded wizarding families which meant they had all sorts of odd rules. This made making friends a little difficult.

Usually a social and fun loving kid, the first year became somewhat of a recluse, immersing himself in his text books. Liam hated studying, but it was a necessary evil in this case. He wanted to be able to have a coherent conversation with his classmates without needing a translator, so he needed to learn as much as he could. All of this research into bloodlines and wizarding history left little time for socializing. He wanted to seem informed, but not ignorant to the ways of the wizarding world, so when he did ask questions they were few and far between. After all, he already had a disadvantage by being born a muggle, and he didn’t think being an annoying one would win him any friends.

The summer had passed all too quickly, and soon they were back at Sonora. Liam still didn’t quite love the desert climate, but part of him had missed the opportunity to practice magic and he was actually glad to be back. “This year is going to be different. “ Liam silently promised himself. He was going to make friends, or at least friendly acquaintances, and what better way to start than by talking to people in his favorite class—Potions.
He picked a seat and vaguely listened as the professor gave his opening speech as he settled himself. He opened his book to page 13, and let his icy blue eyes settle on the directions to the confidence draught. Liam began digging through his potions kit, carefully extracting the ingredients he’d need when he overheard the conversation of the blonde girl (Aria, was it?), and an Aladren boy who he couldn’t name.

Liam’s first instinct was to refer to quote from Spiderman, but he refrained and instead began chopping up his daisy root. He didn’t want to be awkward and simply eavesdrop, but at the same time, he needed to break the ice if he had a chance at making friends with these people. He could definitely use some of that confidence draught about now.

5 Liam Ammon, Pecari Hanging from the eaves 37 Liam Ammon, Pecari 0 5

Lucian

September 10, 2012 1:13 AM

You should probably just get used to it. by Lucian

Lucian was usually a calm laid-back individual with a very easy going demeanor, but that seemed to change in a matter of seconds when Heaven snatched her papers out of his hand and snapped that “of course he didn’t” mean to make her papers fall. What was that supposed to mean? Much like his father’s, Lucian’s Italian temper began to rise and he could feel his cheeks turning a shade of red. What she had said to him just then was not anything to really get upset about, but over time her scowls, huffs, scoffs, and holier-than-thou attitude towards him built up a sort of annoyance inside him. He didn’t even do anything to her, besides try to show her how to play a piano properly. He had enough of it, and finally lost his temper.

“Why, Heaven Baird,” he began in mocking tone, “Do you treat everyone so pleasantly, or do I receive special treatment?” He had observed enough exchanges of snobby female purebloods to know how to talk like one. “Clearly, we have to work together since there doesn’t seem to be anyone else without a partner in the room. I have no problem with behaving civilly. I am not the one getting my overpriced panties in a twist about papers accidently falling. Now, if you would please let me start my work without you huffing and puffing everywhere then maybe I could get us both an O in this class, since it is my best class after all. And, if you make your potions anything like how you play piano, then you are going to need my help.”

He realized he probably sounded a bit harsh, but at this point his annoyance overruled his rationality. She didn’t care how she treated him, so why should he care what she thought about him anymore. He wanted to focus on the class, so he began gathering his ingredients.

0 Lucian You should probably just get used to it. 0 Lucian 0 5

Aria

September 10, 2012 4:40 PM

Is it fun there? by Aria

Aria’s blue eyes turned to face the boy next to her. She found herself looking Lucy’s… brother? No, cousin. Yes, cousin, she was certain of it. Since starting here, Aria had come to discover that there are quite a few large families at this school. Her roommates were parts of those. Lucille was a Carey and a Carey had lots of relatives in all years. Melanie only had a sister, but she was somehow related to the Brockerts and they were a prominent family at Sonora. And then there was Brielle who seemed to have a million siblings. Aria was an outcast among her roommates in more ways than one. In this way, it was because she was an only child and had no idea about any family outside of the community. She was okay with this difference though because her parents doted on her and she had them all to herself. She couldn’t imagine having to share them with another. Not in the same way of sharing within the community of course.

She looked at him carefully, Jay was his name, she remembered. Tilting her head as she gave thought to what he had said to her. She supposed it was true. People could manipulate any sort of charm or spell to their advantage if they really took the time for it. “I suppose that’s true.” She said after a moment. She was still too young to really know spells that people would want to do bad things with, but she could imagine there would be some. “We tend not to use magic as much back home, although I’m sure there are some in the community who will use it to their advantage. My mom says that she has to be careful about the pain reliever potions she prescribes to her clients because sometimes they like to say it’s not enough.” Aria commented with a shake of her head.

She started chopping up the daisies as she was talking and in her excitement for conversation, knocked over some of the daisies having them spill on the floor. “Whoops!” She exclaimed, neither embarrassed or upset by her dilemma. “Mama says I need to concentrate better when I’m working on things, otherwise, this happens.” Aria leaned down and began picking up her roots, but noticed some underneath the desk behind her where… Liam sat. Ha, her observing last year was helping her really well. “Hi Liam.” She greeted with a smile. “I dropped my roots and some of them are under your desk, can I have them?”

0 Aria Is it fun there? 0 Aria 0 5

Melanie

September 10, 2012 9:37 PM

That's all we can do. by Melanie

Melanie returned her roommate's smile. "I guess I can do the salamander sprinkles." She offered graciously. The Teppenpaw didn't really want to stick Lucille with them when the other girl had given her first pick of what to do. Fortunately, she didn't have to take them off the poor salamander or anything. Melanie would never have been able to gather the animal ingredients even though she was okay with using them in potions and eating meat.

She just couldn't hurt anything or anyone. Unless they hurt Valerie first maybe. That was a different story, though Melanie didn't quite know what she would do if that happened. She'd have to get back at the person without being unladylike and furthermore, the second year just plain wasn't a mean person. Luckily, everyone seemed to have been nice to Valerie aside from one boy who wasn't even at school anymore whom the Crotalus said seemed to dislike her. Melanie had never met the boy but she wasn't a fan.

The only creatures harming Valerie now were germs. Those would never leave the fourth year alone and it upset the Teppenpaw a great deal that she could do nothing about it. Melanie would never be a healer or develop a potion that would fix her sister's immune system completely. Even though the second year was a proper lady, did well in school, and was above all healthy, she felt like the useless one in this respect. The best that the second year would ever be able to do would be to maybe make a minor potion to help Valerie be in less pain.

Melanie paused and tried to think of how to reply to Lucille's question. It was a pretty standard one that was a typical conversation starter this time of the year. However, she didn't want to tell the other Teppenpaw exactly how things in her life were, even though people probably knew about her sister. Valerie's condition was often apparent but it wasn't as if she and Lucille were close enough for Melanie to confide in. Not yet, though it would certainly be nice though the second year wouldn't talk about it in class anyway. "I guess it could have been worse." She replied diplomatically.

11 Melanie That's all we can do. 226 Melanie 0 5

Carrie

September 12, 2012 5:37 PM

Why, aren't you smart enough? by Carrie

Carrie rolled her pretty eyes. Honestly, she knew that muggleborns were mentally deficient, but this was ridiculous. Aside from Ryan, of course, and perhaps her step-brother Jake, she'd never met anyone so stupid in her entire life. Wendy was going to have to learn quick or she was going to be doomed in life, more so even then someone with her blood status would normally be. Not that the Crotalus actually cared.

"It's exceedingly simple." Carrie replied, as she lit the fire. Honestly, was she going to have to do everything ? She'd already explained how to Wendy once in the least complex way that she could, given the girl's inherent lack of intelligence. The second year was a firm believer that the purer the blood, the smarter the person though there just happened to be aberrations once in awhile, like Ryan.

As for her step-mother's youngest spawn, well, Carrie wouldn't put it past that dreadful woman to have cheated on her pureblood husband with a muggle. That was likely she'd been divorced in the first place. Because Jamie-a name as inappropriate for a woman as Aunt Lilac's was stupid in general-was having affairs with muggles. Perhaps the baby didn't belong to her father after all, that would be found out and they would get divorced too. Then he could get back together with her mother and they could pretend this whole thing never happened.

"Fruits and vegetables are plants." The Crotalus stated. "Therefore, you have eaten plants. Furthermore, it is also likely that you eat meat, unless you happen to be a vegetarian. Therefore, you have also eaten animals." Honestly, what a simple minded creature this girl was. It was astonishing, even though Carrie should have expected it. She supposed there was a difference between knowing about the stupidity of muggles and muggleborns and seeing it firsthand.

The Crotalus went on in the most condescending tone that one could imagine. "There is little difference between eating these things and drinking them. Either way you are still ingesting them and no, of course, people do not eat daisy roots. Though either way, it's still much healthier than the poisons muggles put in their bodies." Carrie didn't know specifically what they ate but she'd always been taught that it wasn't healthy, had been raised with a knowledge of what was good for a person to eat and what was not. It was always best to eat gourmet foods and nothing too fatty so one wouldn't become overweight, and therefore, disgusting. It was permitted for her to have deserts once in awhile when she was younger,especially if the rest of the meal was smaller and healthy. Ryan, however, was never to get desert and it was well worth eating a smaller main course to rub getting sweets in his face. Especially as her mother would often make him watch her eat them.

"Speaking of daisy roots,do you think you can handle chopping them?" Carrie asked. "It's very easy. All you do is take the knife and well, chop. I mean, even the most moronic of people can manage to do that." She'd already had to light the fire, surely she couldn't be bothered to do more than that.

11 Carrie Why, aren't you smart enough? 230 Carrie 0 5

Jay

September 14, 2012 7:26 PM

It sounds like it would be hard to work there by Jay

The idea of not using magic at home was one that made Jay stop what he was doing to look straight at Aria, visibly surprised. He had gathered that she came from an unusual background, but he would not have guessed there could be one strange enough to have magic and not use it. He couldn’t imagine being without magic;

Obviously, some people were, and obviously they somehow got by. The Muggleborns, from what he had seen, didn’t know about a lot of things, and he had heard their culture was very different, but it was clear enough that they were civilized, not living in caves or anything like that, and that meant their parents were in the same condition. How they did it, though, he just couldn’t begin to think. It wasn’t even big things that caught his attention, but rather, how his mother had the ability to shut down any really big fights before they started by Freezing either Brandon or Henry or both with her wand and leaving them to think about that for a bit. He couldn’t imagine how they could maintain any order at all without that kind of thing, unless they just always had very quiet children.

“Yes,” he said a second later, remembering his manners, that it was rude to stare. “Potions are easy to misuse.” Jay had always suspected his father was somehow involved in potions that the law might take a dim view of, just based on a few things he’d overheard, but the worst he’d actually seen around the house was Mother slipping sleeping draughts into cakes.

He finished chopping his roots finely – his mother, a good potioneer herself, which she grumbled about no one recognizing just because Aunt Lorraine was a certified mediwitch, had taught him that about almost every case of roots in potions – as Aria dropped some of hers by mistake. He stopped to help her out, but some of the roots had gone under the next table, occupied by Liam, who Jay didn’t think he had ever really talked to last year. They had a lot of classes, but people seemed to work within the same groups a lot; he guessed it was inevitable. He gave the other second year a friendly smile and picked up his knife to start trying to deal with the tough, shriveled-looking shell of the sopophorous bean in front of him.

0 Jay It sounds like it would be hard to work there 0 Jay 0 5

Lucille

September 14, 2012 7:49 PM

Do you think it'll be enough? by Lucille

“If you like,” Lucille said when Melanie said she could also handle sprinkling the salamander scales into the cauldron. It wasn’t that bad of a task, really, but Lucille didn’t really like the instructions like that; she always either had too heavy or too light a hand with the ingredient, and then the potion either didn’t work or it was too weak. She didn’t know if Melanie, or anyone who didn’t have either years of experience or a natural affinity for potion-making, could do any better, but it would at least take the responsibility off her shoulders.

When Melanie said her summer could have been worse, Lucille bit the end of her tongue a little. Of course it could have been worse. One of the first pieces of advice about life she could remember her mother giving her was that no matter how bad something was, it could always be worse, there was always some little thing that could be made the tiniest bit more unbearable even when things seemed like they were already so bad that no one could ever survive them. Even if it was going to kill you no matter what, the amount you suffered before it did could always be greater. That, Mother said, was how the world worked, and from what Lucille had seen, her mother was completely right about that.

She had never said so aloud, but privately, she thought that even what had happened to Mother could have been worse. Her father could have gotten the divorce before they had Mal, instead of waiting until he was two months old, and that would have left Lucille without a full brother who made her a more valuable asset and the both of them without any claim to the roof over their head after Dad died. Almost everything would have gone to Stepmother and Baby, and the family might not have taken pity on them the way it had when they were the mother and sister of an heir.

“That’s always good,” she said. “My mother used to say that nothing could ever be ‘the worst’ until it made you lose your powers.” A strange idea, but it would be very close to the worst thing that could happen; without power, it seemed impossible that things could ever get better. She had been warned since her father died that if she ever did anything wrong, she’d have to starve to death in the Muggle streets after she was disowned, and she would still have her wand even if the family did throw her out, so she didn’t even know what would happen if she was expelled, her wand snapped, and then she was disowned. “Is your family well?” she asked, though she knew that Valerie Lennox was never really well. Subjectively, though, they could have all been better or worse than usual, and of course Melanie could always lie. Lucille would never dream of telling anyone the truth about what and how she felt at home.

0 Lucille Do you think it'll be enough? 0 Lucille 0 5

Isabel

September 14, 2012 8:09 PM

You're quite the gentleman, good sir by Isabel

It only took Isabel a moment to realize that Rupert wasn’t really hurt and it hadn’t been a bad cut. She put both her hands over her heart. “Such a sacrifice for potions,” she said solemnly, holding her face straight for a few seconds before she, too, broke into a smile. She liked Rupert, she decided; he was fun.

When she got back with the water, she began soaking the lovage and lemon balm, stirring them a little after she remembered her father poking tea bags around in his cup with a spoon because he said it made them steep more quickly. The sopophorous bean, she was happy to see, had finally fallen before her and Rupert’s combined attacks and was lying, meek and defeated, in the bowl, its shrivelly shell in lots of pieces they could add into their potion.

Hopefully, that wouldn’t affect it or anything; she had read in the introduction of the textbook about how Potions was a very subtle art and everything had to be very exact, but that a lot of work was often needed to become proficient because how to do parts of it properly was just known “by feel.” She had assumed some of it was exaggerating, though, like her second etiquette tutor had always exaggerated the terrible consequences of the slightest faux pas. If it was as bad as it sounded in that introduction, no one would ever pass their CATS in it, never mind go on to have a living in it and be able to make potions at home for things that didn’t kill people.

Rupert seemed very focused on what he was doing with the salamander scales, so Isabel left him alone, stirring her infusion to strengthen it and alternating between clockwise and counter-clockwise movements to get it done. She nodded when her partner suddenly noticed her again and began pointing out what he had done. “I’m not sure,” she said about the infusion, giving it another clockwise stir and looking down into it. The water didn’t look all that tinged with anything to her, and she had the feeling she should be able to see a difference in it. “Do you think it should look…greener? I’ve been stirring it in since I got back.” Some of the plants had come apart a little; it was going to be hard to get them all the pieces out of it before they added it to the cauldron.

0 Isabel You're quite the gentleman, good sir 0 Isabel 0 5

Alan Raines

September 14, 2012 8:38 PM

Let's keep going by Alan Raines

Miss Brockert didn’t object to splitting the ingredients or to him doing the chopping, so Alan found the correct knife to get to work on the daisy roots with. He tried to make the pieces as fine and uniform as possible, remembering his theory lessons and just liking for things to be exact when he could make them that way. Alan liked to do things right; his parents had always demanded that, of him and his sister and themselves, and he supposed he had just gotten into the habit of granting it to them.

He smiled at the predictable question. Had she had a special tutor for a few weeks before school, too, just for the niceties of meeting people at school? Alan had been given a list of questions he might use to get to know people and then been made to memorize it; Sara had taken the time to add her suggestions and annotations afterward, though he was still not sure whether or not to accept those. His sister was a social success, of course, everyone knew that, he would not be surprised at this point if people who were not even related to them or who did not even know them were instructed to look up to Sara Raines as a role model, but she was also a girl, so what worked so very well for her might not for him. Everyone knew that guys and girls were different, and a guy who acted too much like a girl would be lucky to get more than a hair more respect than a girl who acted like a boy would.

“I’m liking it very well so far,” he said, truthfully enough. The worst thing that had happened so far was his sister making him wear a tie to their flying lessons, and he had taken it off before anyone had seen him, so there was no harm done there. “Now that the Sorting’s over, I don’t think I have anything to worry about all year,” he added lightly, since he wasn’t that interested in how his House team did. For one thing, Quidditch wasn’t really his thing, and for another, Sara had told them that her friend Fae’s fiancé was the Aladren Seeker and had only once, in four years, failed to win his team a match, and that Crotalus was always in the final against them anyway, so Teppenpaw was doomed even if Fae did use her feminine wiles to try to distract Mr. Carey from practicing as much as he would have.

That, he thought, was what made it such a ridiculous thing to be obsessed with. It didn’t matter how good you were, or your team was; all that was necessary, most of the time, for a complete upset was for one member of the opposite team to be just a little bit better, or luckier, than one of yours, and that was all. Years and years could go by before that changed, so why get so attached to one team and start rivalries with another? The players weren’t going to stay consistent for very long, so what was the point?

“Are you having a nice time?” he asked curiously, since she was both a girl and in Aladren, which meant she was quite a bit different than he was and might be having a completely different experience of school even if she also had a tolerable roommate and had spent months looking forward to the day when she could use magic as often as she wanted, with her own wand. Isabel had thought he was crazy when he talked about some things he was looking forward to, so he thought other people's experience of the actual event might seem unfathomable to him, too.

0 Alan Raines Let's keep going 237 Alan Raines 0 5

Annabelle and Annette Pierce

September 14, 2012 10:00 PM

We're not sure if we should avoid it or seek it out by Annabelle and Annette Pierce

Annabelle was a little surprised by the offer made by the boy sitting beside them. It wasn't that she expected him to ignore a damsel in distress, she just hadn't thought her trouble lifting the cauldron qualified as distress. In truth, she had kind of expected the help to come from her sister's side rather than the Aladren's. They only had the one cauldron between them precisely because they could not easily lift it by themselves. It had taken the both of them to carry it down to the classroom.

This was also the reason why their requested Quidditch position on the sign up sheet had specifically excluded Beater.

"Yes, thank you," she answered gratefully, shifting around to the other side of the cast iron cauldron so he could grab part of it while she helped hoist it onto the desk from the other side. As much as she appreciated the assistance, she did not want to be or appear helpless. She might not be able to lift it up entirely unassisted yet, but she wasn't just going to sit aside and let a boy do it for her.

No matter what her mother might prefer, she would be part of everything she could be a part of.

"I don't know if three person groups are allowed or not," she added, "but if they are, you are welcome to join us. I'm Annabelle, and my sister is Annette."

"Pierce," Annette concluded, even as she continued to chop the daisy roots, proving that she hadn't completely stopped paying attention to what Annabelle was doing, "of the New Hampshire Pierces."

1 Annabelle and Annette Pierce We're not sure if we should avoid it or seek it out 246 Annabelle and Annette Pierce 0 5

Anthony Carey

September 15, 2012 8:21 PM

Maybe just read the recipe but not make it? by Anthony Carey

He would have denied it, he was sure, under torture, but he was glad when whichever Miss Pierce he was talking to helped him help her with her – their, he corrected himself, noticing the absence of a second one around the two girls – cauldron. Cauldrons, it was obvious, had not been designed with first years in mind, or at least not with him in mind, since he thought Henry had had less trouble with it than he did. The one physical trait Anthony thought he might have inherited from his father, rather than his much more sturdily-built mother, was the sort of frame that occasionally caused him trouble in strong winds.

Finally, though, the pot was on the table, and Anthony felt very slightly accomplished, even though he knew it hadn’t been that big a deal. A moment later, though, he forgot all about that when the one he had helped – Light Blue Ribbon, he noticed – introduced herself as Annabelle, and her sister as Annette.

It was stupid, he knew, but he was very relieved to know for sure that they did have different names. He could have written home, or, honestly, probably just asked Arthur, who he was sometimes convinced had performed some obscure Dark ritual, something out of those books they weren’t allowed to see at Grandfather’s house, to transfer the contents of every genealogy book they were ever supposed to have studied directly into his brain, and found out, but asking would have felt even stupider than wondering, so he hadn’t. He bowed quickly, hoping that would hide it if he looked relieved.

“Pleased to meet you,” he said. “I’m Anthony Carey, of the South Carolina Careys.”

Not entirely sure if he was working with them or not, Anthony began looking through his things for a sopophorous bean. They were, he knew, stubborn, because one time, he had learned quite a few interesting words listening to his mother wrestle with one while she already wasn’t feeling well. “This is going to be hard,” he said, not really a complaint, just a statement. “I wonder what we’re supposed to do with the rest of it, and with the juice.” He knew the juice was used in a few things, including very small amounts in a few of the sleeping potions Arthur had already used until they stopped working for him altogether. From what he had heard, Arthur had never slept well; Arnold joked about it, said that of course Arthur didn't sleep, that was time away from making grand plans. Anthony just knew it was far safer not to speak to Arthur at any time before ten in the morning, and it was probably better, if possible, to wait until noon just to be sure.

0 Anthony Carey Maybe just read the recipe but not make it? 0 Anthony Carey 0 5

Liam Ammon

September 16, 2012 12:42 AM

It'd be better with friends... by Liam Ammon

The young Pecari proceeded to chop up his roots, keeping the pieces as uniform in size as possible. He imagined potion making to be somewhat like cooking, and if he remembered properly, same sized pieces made the final product more appealing—according to the chefs on Food Network anyway. Liam carefully scooped up the daisy roots and plopped them into his cauldron, before moving on to the next ingredient. He continued to listen to the conversation between his classmates. He knew very little about Aria’s community, but what he did know intrigued him. It seemed as though she was from somewhere in between the muggle and wizarding communities, and since he’d been doing a lot of research into the latter, he couldn’t help but wonder about her.

He agreed with both of his classmates though, he knew of people becoming addicted to pain medication—he couldn’t imagine it to be much different in the wizarding world. He glanced over at Jay’s roots and saw how thinly he was slicing them compared to his. He frowned slightly, considering there wasn’t much he could to about it, since his were already bubbling away.

Liam had a pipette of the lovage-lemon balm infusion poised over his cauldron, and was about to add three drops to the concoction when Aria actually spoke to him. He paused for a moment, as if he was unsure of what to do or say.

Drop….drop….drop….drop….

“Oh no…” Liam said as he quickly set his pipette full of the infusion on his table top and all but dove underneath it to retrieve Aria’s roots. He scooped them up in his hand, silently cursing himself for the mistake he’d just made in his own potion. He wasn’t sure what an extra drop of the infusion would do exactly, but he hoped it wouldn’t be completely ruined. The boy righted himself, narrowly avoiding smacking his head on the table as he did so.

“Obviously I need to concentrate a little harder myself...” He said with a crooked smile as he passed the Teppenpaw student her potion ingredients. “I think that’s all of them. Your mom sounds like a wise and interesting lady.” He added, brushing his hands on the front of his robes as his gaze turned to Jay and his sopophorous bean.

Liam had never dealt with this ingredient before—he hadn’t even heard of it. It reminded him a bit of a petrified prune, and he was glad to see that he wasn’t the only one puzzled by it. He imagined that if he’d had a nutcracker handy he’d be able to take care of it…but all he had was a knife.

“Any idea on how to open this thing?” He asked, examining his own bean, and hoping that the Aladren boy might catch that his question was directed at him.

5 Liam Ammon It'd be better with friends... 37 Liam Ammon 0 5

Aria

September 16, 2012 9:57 PM

I'm not sure I have those. by Aria

Jay was staring at her and she knew she had said something strange again. She always received that look at Sonora whenever she said something that wasn’t quite up to Par for everyone else. She knew her community was different, her lifestyle was different, even her looks were different. Having wild curls that seemed untamable and weird clothes had her standing out, but adding in the fact that she grew up in a spiritual community, didn’t eat meat, and rarely used magic, made her a complete crazy person. She didn’t know how else to be or if she wanted to even be something else, but she was at least trying to understand everyone else and it didn’t seem like they were trying with her. They just gave her that look and then moved on. She wondered if they would ever stop looking at her like this.

At least he was talking to her. Sometimes, she was afraid that they would just stare and that she would be too weird for them to even consider having a chat with. Her life would be far lonelier if everyone started to do only that.

When she addressed Liam, she had expected him to say something polite or help her collect her roots, she had not expected someone else to stare at her. What had she said that was so strange this time? She didn’t think anything she had said was completely out of line or deserving of a look, right? Unless her being clumsy was something to stare at. Maybe it was?

And then, quite suddenly, he was down under his table collecting her roots. He had them collected so quickly that Aria didn’t have time to get on the floor to help him. It was almost as if he had been the one to knock them over. How strange. Holding out her hands, Aria took the roots from him with another smile. “Thank you very much.” She stated and meaning it. The help reminded her of home. “My mother is very wise. She’s been the Medicine Woman for many years. The community trusts her.” She turned again so that she was facing her cauldron and started to chop up her roots again. She only glanced back at him when he asked about something, but since it was the beans, she figured it was safer to let Jay answer considering that was what he was currently working on.

0 Aria I'm not sure I have those. 0 Aria 0 5

Rupert

September 18, 2012 12:33 PM

Just call me Gentle Man. by Rupert

Rupert had no idea what an infusion was supposed to look like, so he shrugged uselessly when Isabel asked whether or not the infusion looked right. He regarded his textbook and looked to see if there was any detail on the infusion. It wasn't very specific with colour, so Rupert turned to his partner and shrugged. "Looks fine to me," he told her. "I say it's done." He wanted to start putting all of the ingredients into their cauldron and watch the magic happen.

He filled Isabel's cauldron with water and set a fire under it. Once it was burning hot enough in Rupert's opinion, he gathered the mutilated daisy roots and dumped them into the cauldron. It steamed and Rup began to stir it twice clock-wise. He turned to Isabel as he began stirring. "Can you do the three drops of the infusion? Was it three or two?" Rupert had a great memory when it came to people, but he had a horrible one when it came to academics. Most of the time he just didn't care enough. It didn't prove to be too difficult to shake himself out of that anti-academia stupor so far, but it didn't make memorising potion directions any easier. "You can do the two dried leaves too."

After stirring the mixture the correct amount of times, he waited for Isabel to put in the ingredients he'd asked her to while he scooped up the broken pieces of the bean. He felt like he was on a time restraint, that there was a deadline to meet, and Rupert didn't like that feeling. He hated being rushed. As he knew from lots of exposure to brewing before, potions were quite sensitive. He didn't know how his mother could enjoy the task so much.

With the pieces of the shell mostly scooped up in his hands, he waited for Isabel to move before dumping in the pieces and brushing his hands clean over it to get any remainders to fall in. He picked up the bowl of crushed salamander scales and held it out to Isabel with a shallow bow. "After your sprinkle, milady," he said in faux formality. "Unless you'd rather stir it." Their potion so far was looking promising, but then again he didn't know what colour it was supposed to be till the end. He certainly hoped he didn't botch it up.

0 Rupert Just call me Gentle Man. 0 Rupert 0 5

Amity

September 18, 2012 11:16 PM

All right by Amity

Amity returned Alan's smile. Maybe he too noticed how repetitive all these introductory conversations got. She quite frankly craved a real one, on something far more interesting than small talk. It was getting a bit dull, but Amity wasn't sure how to make things more interesting without being improper. She didn't really care what her mother thought but she did not want to reflect poorly on her family as a whole or be a pariah.

Honestly, it seemed like there were an awful lot of expectations placed on those in pureblood society and the Aladren wasn't always that crazy about it. Sometimes it was awfully boring and she didn't get to see how really interesting people could be. All these mundane conversations didn't allow Amity to really get to know someone.

Which was something that the first year would have liked. She would have liked to make some friends that she wasn't supposed to be viewing as competition. As far as Amity was concerned that whole mindset just drove people apart. All it did was create enemies and conceit. That was no atmosphere to make valuable connections in, though hopefully nobody would make something huge, like a blood feud over something as trivial as a dance competition or something. Not only that, but it took the fun out of things when you were too worried about doing well or someone yelling at you if you didn't.

Of course, the Aladren typically didn't care enough to try that hard. The best she'd ever done on anything was a bronze metal on the beam in a gymnastics competition. Because others had fallen off and Amity had been sorry that her success had been built on the mistakes of others. Especially when winning a metal hadn't mattered to her. Besides, Mother hadn't even let her enjoy it. She'd just told Amity that she needed to aim for the gold and of course, that she was sloppy and lazy and others had simply been sloppier-and then sent her off to study Latin.

"Oh, yes." Amity replied. "I'm so happy to be finally attending Sonora. I've looked forward to it my whole life." Okay, so her reasons for feeling that way were probably different from others. Of course, she was thrilled to be learning magic but she was also happy not to be forced to learn anything else anymore either. Who needed to know how to paint or play the violin or whatnot if they never had any real passion for it in the first place?

Magic on the other hand was something Amity couldn't live without. Muggles had to work too hard because they didn't have it. They spent hours doing things that a wizard could do with an easy spell. Of course, the first year had house elves for most unpleasant chores anyway. Still,life without magic sounded unbearable.

"Were you worried about going into a particular house?" She saw an opportunity to talk about something potentially more interesting and she was going to take it. Personally, Amity hadn't really wanted Crotalus or Pecari, though she would have dealt with it. The latter was thought to be improper and Carrie was in the former, though so was Ryan and Arabella was in Pecari. Still, it would have been a strike against Amity had she gotten in there, whether or not Alan's relative was in the house and an example of a perfect pureblood lady.

11 Amity All right 233 Amity 0 5

Alex, Crotalus

September 19, 2012 12:36 AM

...and salamander scales. by Alex, Crotalus

Alex raised her eyebrows a bit at Effie’s questions. She didn’t expect anything less, she was a pureblood after all, but she was oddly getting used to mingling with those who either didn’t care about statuses or were muggle born. It was more relaxing, but also seemed unnatural. Plus, a girl like Effie would most likely notice whom Alex was spending her time talking to. Since her family was not as well known as others in the United States, Alex decided first impressions are always crucial. She sat up straighter and moved her hands along her robe to make sure there weren’t any wrinkles in it.

“It is nice to meet you Effie. My family is from France and Italy,” Alex began, “but we lived in Paris, for most of my life near my mother’s side of the family; the Chevals. They ran an Equestrian center and owned many horses. My father is a prestigious business owner in Italy. My parents decided to move us here after the suggestion from a family friend to expand their businesses to the States. We also have cousins here; the Duprees. I spent the summer with them last year. I assume they well known here. Since moving here my parents have opened many various small shops and are doing quite well in expanding.”

Alex sat back a bit, hoping Effie was satisfied with her answer. It wasn’t a lie at all, though she was never entirely aware of what it was exactly that her parents did and why they were so successful from owning things like pizza shops and small bars. Alex never really asked them about it however. It was no concern to her as long as her father bought her whatever she wanted.

Watching as Effie added ingredients to the cauldron, Alex quickly pulled her hair back into a butterfly clip. The fact that they had to use fire made her a little cautious. Her long hair could easily find itself near a flame, and that would be just terrible. “It is so hard to look pretty when we are expected to make things with daisy roots and fire.” Alex said when she had finished.

After a moment Alex looked at the consistency of the potion. “I think a honey consistency is more appropriate. Any thicker would probably be a little too gelatin-like.” She read the rest of the steps of the potion and turned up her nose. “We have to add salamander scales? Ugh. This is definitely not for people with class.”

0 Alex, Crotalus ...and salamander scales. 0 Alex, Crotalus 0 5

Melanie

September 19, 2012 1:51 AM

I sure hope so. by Melanie

Melanie glanced up at her roommate. "That...does sound pretty awful." It wasn't a thought that had ever occurred to her. Powers were something one was born with so technically one couldn't lose them, but they could have their wand snapped. Still, the Teppenpaw had never even considered that happening to her, as someone would have to do something pretty horrible to be expelled and she wasn't inclined to do so.

Still, what was a witch if she couldn't do magic? Even as sick as Valerie was, she would be even more helpless if she didn't. Melanie had never thought about it that way and it really did help to make her feel a little better. At least neither of them was a Squib. That would have been a disaster, especially with Mother. Having a daughter who was ill was unfortunate, but at least it wasn't shameful.

"I've never thought of it that way." Melanie replied. "It's not something I'm especially worried about. I mean, I don't really plan to break any rules, especially major ones that would get me in so much trouble that I'd be unable to ever do magic and powers just don't up and leave. Trying to survive without them would be dreadful though." She could barely imagine such a thing. Even though she was healthy, Melanie wouldn't survive that way. Maybe being sick wasn't as bad as that, Valerie was still alive after all.

Not that it made her any less worried about her sister, but still, she appreciated the fact that Lucille had made her think of how bad it could be and never would. Both the second year and her sister were at Sonora which meant they had their magic. Neither was going to do anything terrible that would prevent them from being able to use it. Neither would do anything shameful. Neither had the inclination and Valerie wasn't well enough to do so even if she had.

The Teppenpaw got out the salamander scales and began to shake, just as Lucille inquired about the health of her family and a little too much got into the potion. "They're fine." Melanie said, perhaps a little too quickly. She just hoped her roommate would take her tone as anxiety over the probably ruined potion. "I am so sorry, I mean, that I messed up here." She nodded at the concoction, genuinely feeling guilty about it. They'd get a poor grade now because of her and she didn't really want Lucille to be angry with her.

11 Melanie I sure hope so. 226 Melanie 0 5

Jay

September 19, 2012 8:49 PM

We're the Group of Misfit Beginners by Jay

The Pecari, Liam, returned Aria’s roots and proved he’d been listening to their conversation by mentioning her mother. Jay didn’t mind; it was hard to avoid hearing bits of other people’s conversations in classrooms sometimes, especially if you were working on your own, which the other boy seemed to have been doing. “That sounds almost like my great-uncle Adam,” he remarked when she said that her mother was the medicine woman and trusted by the community. “He’s the family Healer. He travels around the whole family.” He realized that might sound like more than it was. Uncle Adam was very important and respected, but it wouldn’t do to exaggerate. “Of course, if all you have is a cold, then there’s usually someone in your branch who can make Pepperup Potion, but for big things, people call Uncle Adam.”

He turned the sopophorous bean between his fingers, thinking he might have said too much. He could just imagine how the family would like being compared to anyone in a community that didn’t regularly use magic, which meant they might feel the same way about being compared to the Careys. He was glad when Liam asked about the bean.

“I think I’m going to try cutting it,” he said. “Then maybe I can get the knife blade under the – er, halves of the shell and then maybe it’ll pop off.” He made an arc with his hand to demonstrate what he meant, then smiled and shrugged. “Or it won’t,” he added, “but I think it might work.”

Of course, the actual cutting was the hard part. The shriveled shell did not want to give up easily, and Jay found himself sawing away quickly, then having the problem of powdery bits detaching themselves and getting down into the gap. Then there was how it was hard to keep his grip on the bean and keep it from slipping away from his fingers. Once, it shot forward, and he only narrowly missed stabbing himself in the finger.

“Are you having any luck with yours?” he asked Liam, shaking his hand, even though it hadn’t come to actual harm. “These things are evil. The first years are going to hate Potions forever.” He could see, several rows away, Henry’s lips moving as he bent low over a bowl; it wouldn’t surprise him at all if his brother was cursing over another bean, one which would have been very hard to tell from the one causing him problems over here. He knew Henry well enough, though, to know that didn’t necessarily mean Henry wasn’t enjoying himself, in a way, as Jay hoped he was. He was hoping that school would be good for his brother in a lot of ways, since he didn’t think Henry had ever been really happy at home even before…everything. Only time would tell, though. For both of them, he guessed; it wasn’t like he didn’t have a long time left to go before he could say Sonora was all over and done.

0 Jay We're the Group of Misfit Beginners 0 Jay 0 5

Lucille

September 19, 2012 11:00 PM

There's not much we can do about it now by Lucille

Lucille smiled as Melanie talked about how she didn’t plan to do anything wrong, looking back down at her ingredients as quickly as she felt she could without looking suspicious. She didn’t plan to go wrong, but…Bad blood, Mother always said. Bad blood would come out, unless she was very careful. It wasn’t enough to just try to be her best; she had to actually be the best, all the time, every moment. If she didn’t….

She closed her eyes. No. No. It wasn’t going to happen. She wasn’t going to go bad. She wasn’t going to disgrace her family. She was going to be perfect. She was going to do what she had to do, and she was going to do it perfectly. She would not be driven out in disgrace, any more than she would be expelled. No.

Her hands were steady as she kept chopping the daisy roots. “We can only imagine,” she said solemnly when Melanie agreed that it would be awful to try to survive without magic. “I don’t see how anyone could, unless…” She wished she hadn’t added that ‘unless,’ but it was too late now. She had already said it, already gone too far. And not a minute after she had thought about how she could never make mistakes. That always happened to her. “Unless someone took pity on them, I suppose.”

She thought they had probably better change the topic. People could be listening, and there were things that just weren’t supposed to be discussed. This was one of them, she was sure of it. She chopped the rest of the daisy roots a little haphazardly, not taking as much time or putting as much attention to it, and then feeling worse when her question about Melanie’s family seemed to be why she shook too much of the salamander scale into their potion.

“It’s all right,” she said, looking at the potion and trying not to look very concerned. “I’m sure it’ll still be…something we can work with, anyway.” Vaguely, she thought that if they increased everything else…but she knew nothing about proportions, and the cauldron wasn’t big enough to just double it. “I’m sorry I distracted you when you were putting them in,” she added, since she did feel bad about it. It was her fault if the potion did fail. It should still work a little, but if it didn’t….

0 Lucille There's not much we can do about it now 0 Lucille 0 5

Effie Arbon

September 22, 2012 5:32 PM

Grin and bear it. by Effie Arbon

“How lovely,” Effie commented, as Alexandra said her family owned a horse ranch in France, though also originated in Italy. Practically every European country except for Spain, apparently. She was interested to know that the girl's family were in trade but, by 'opening shops,' Effie assumed that to be managing other people opening them, rather than working in it themselves. Being a businessman was a perfectly respectable occupation. “I have, of course, heard of them,” she acknowledged, when the girl mentioned that her cousins were the Duprees. That increased the probability that they were not no-one and were not running from scandal. It would be an easily exposed lie if they claimed to be related to a prominent family, and it would be unlikely that the cousins would welcome them and revel in their arrival if unpleasant rumours were likely to follow them.

“It is,” she sympathised, as Alexandra bemoaned the difficulty of looking attractive during lessons. At home, appearance during lessons – aside from looking attentive – had not been a pressing issue. However, part of the purpose of lessons at home had not been expanding her social network and attempting to subtly flaunt herself at potential suitors. “I confess, I am not terribly used to styling my hair myself. How is holding up?” she queried, turning for Alexandra to see. She had taken time to learn a few charms before leaving home including how to style her hair into a French plait. A plain plait would have been easier but not so pretty. The strands were not quite so tight as she would have liked but it was holding its form and position well enough and it was tidy, if a little loose.

“I would prefer to study the theory only,” she stated, whilst not overtly agreeing or disagreeing, as Alex showed her distaste for the raw ingredients. Effie was not especially squeamish. Her school robes did not matter – the point of them was to collect the dirt and protect her from it – and her hands could be washed. However, it was a little needless and she certainly didn't revel in getting unnecessarily dirty. “Hopefully if none of the gentlemen will need to shake hands before having a chance to wash up we shall all be unscathed,” she smiled, adding her leaves. The bean shell would go in with the scales once the potion had a shimmering vapour and needed to be added with a delicate touch.

“How do you find life here, as compared to Europe?” she enquired.

13 Effie Arbon Grin and bear it. 238 Effie Arbon 0 5

Liam

September 23, 2012 1:53 PM

It's better than going it alone by Liam

“You are most welcome.” Liam replied, with a smile.
As he listened to Aria and Jay talk about the healing abilities of their family members, he couldn’t help but feel somewhat inadequate. Not that this was a new feeling for the muggleborn; but if his mom had magical abilities, or if he had an Uncle Adam, maybe—just maybe—his dad wouldn’t have gotten so sick. Liam didn’t blame anyone for his father’s death; he knew the doctors had done everything they could to save him, but as Liam discovered more and more about magic and his own abilities, he wondered if things would have turned out differently had magic been involved in his father’s treatments.

The Pecari student knew his thoughts were selfish, and he hadn’t had them in a while. While the pain of losing his father so young was ever present, Liam managed to channel it and use it as motivation. Maybe that was why he was so interested in potions; he considered them the magical equivalent to medicine. If he studied hard enough, and got good grades, he could be a doctor like his favorite X-Men character Hank McCoy. For now though, he truly was glad people like Aria’s mom and Jay’s uncle existed—without them, he was sure there would be many other people in their respective communities with dead dads.

Liam was glad that Jay started talking about the mystery bean. It took his thoughts away from his father and pulled his attention back to the task at hand. He stirred his potion three times, clockwise, and noticed that the vapors coming off of his potion were a little duller than they should be. Maybe that was a side effect of the extra lovage/lemon balm? He turned his attention to Jay, and watched as he tried to saw the shell open. Liam winced as Jay nearly stabbed himself, and looked away in case there was blood.

So stabbing the bean wasn’t going to work, and sawing it open was a bust. Maybe if they tried crushing it with the flat side of the blade? He’d seen his mother do that with garlic in order to peel the skin off more easily; maybe they could crack the shell with enough pressure.

“Maybe we can crush them? I mean, we’d have to sort out the shell from the meat of the bean…but it’s worth a shot.” Liam said with a shrug. He laughed at Jay’s comment about the first years, knowing he was probably right. Difficult ingredients could lead to failed potions. Failure leads to anger. Anger leads to hate, and hate leads to…less potioneers in the world, Liam reckoned.

“Any ideas, Aria?” Liam asked, his gaze shifting to the blonde girl beside him. Liam thought that maybe Aria would have seen her mother use the ingredient, or maybe something similar, and decided that it might be best to ask her first, before smashing his bean into oblivion and potentially destroying his draught.

5 Liam It's better than going it alone 37 Liam 0 5

Clara Abernathy, Pecari

September 23, 2012 7:43 PM

Feeling pretty confident already by Clara Abernathy, Pecari

Clara headed over to Potions class after her Transfiguration class and wondered if it was going to be as easy as it was the last time. She seemed to be doing a little better with the whole Potions thing. She hadn’t had one blow up on her since the one that had turned her green when she was nine years old. While it wasn’t the best experience of her life it did teach her something very important: NEVER mix mandrake root with any other potion than the Petrification Potion that helps people who have been petrified. That little boo-boo almost blew up both her and her kitchen if her dad hadn’t stopped her from putting in more than a few drops. The drops were enough to turn the potion she was working on to goo and caused it to blow up primarily in her face. It was what turned her green in the first place.

She entered the classroom and walked towards a table with her potion supplies. She waved pleasantly at the professor as she took her seat. She waited for Professor Fawcett to finish introducing himself to the new students and took notes while he spoke. She listened to his instructions for the new lesson and wondered slightly why he would have them making confidence draughts. She shrugged as she set up her potion stuff and made a note of the ingredients. “Here you have a basic confidence draught.

“To make this, you will need freshly-chopped daisy roots, three drops of an infusion of lemon balm and lovage, two thoroughly dried leaves of yaupon, the shell of a single sopophorous bean, and a sprinkling of salamander scales. You will find how well you handle those affects the color of the final potion, which should ideally be about the same shade of red your new classmates in Crotalus turned during the Opening Feast, but which should never be any color close to pink or black.”

She left her table to go gather the items she would need off the list. She grabbed the daisy roots, lemon balm and lovage, she found the dried yampon leaves and extracted to from the jar. She then rummaged around a little but managed to find the sopohourous bean shell and the salamander scales. She took everything back to her table and carefully chopped the daisy roots. Since she wasn’t sure how small she was supposed to chop the roots up she just did a basic chop. She pushed those aside and dropped them into the cauldren that was warming over the fire she had under it. She then mixed together the lemon balm and lovage and dropped the three drops of the mixture in with the roots. She made sure that the leaves she picked out were completely dried before dropping them into the cauldren. She then dropped in the shell and then after stirring the mixture a bit, she added the sprinkling of salamander scales. She left it to simmer over the fire while she took out a piece of parchment and quill pen and began the written part of the assignment.

I’ve learned that thanks to Professor Fawcett’s instructions I’ve actually been able to do the potions he’s assigned without blowing them up which is a huge deal for me, secondly I found myself wondering why we would be working on a confidence draught at this point in time. I figured it would make more sense for us to be making them around the time of our CATS or RATS tests for added confidence. The last thing I was curious about was whether or not we should automatically add water to our potions if the instructions doesn’t actually call for it? If we do does it change the nature of the potion or does it make any difference? She put aside her paper after checking it for any errors and checked her potion. By just looking at it, it was hard to tell what color the potion was turning. It looked too dark to Clara…like it was more of a burgundy red instead of Crotalus’ color red. Professor Fawcett called the ten minute mark and Clara bottled some of her potion to turn in. She watched as the potion lightened slightly, turning a brighter shade of burgundy instead of red. It wasn’t pink or black so Clara figured it couldn’t be that bad.

She walked towards the front of the class and turned in her potion samples along with her written paper. She smiled brightly at Professor Fawcett as she exited the classroom. She was pretty confident that her potion had turned out at least halfway decent. She was sure she’d find out soon enough when the Professor opened the stopper and tested it. She shrugged. I did my best she told herself as she headed out the door. She just hoped she was right about that.

0 Clara Abernathy, Pecari Feeling pretty confident already 232 Clara Abernathy, Pecari 0 5

Carter Browning, Teppenpaw

September 23, 2012 8:44 PM

My first school potion...cool by Carter Browning, Teppenpaw

Carter made his way to his next class wondering what they might be making in the Potions class. He had never been really good at mixing potions together, but he figured if he was going to bomb it at least there would be a professor there to keep him from bombing it too badly. He sighed slightly as he walked through the door and headed for a seat at one of the tables. He glanced over at the Professor’s table and waved a couple of fingers in his direction as a hello. He politely took his seat and looked around the room. He couldn’t help noticing that the red-haired girl from flying class was also in this class along with his Transfiguration class and possibly COMC. He didn’t really see her there, but he wasn’t really paying much attention. He pulled out a piece of parchment and quill, putting his bag on the floor by where he was seated. He listened as the Professor introduced himself to the new students and welcomed back the previous ones. Carter glanced around the room taking in where the ingredients were kept and where the textbooks sat. He took a few notes on the assignment for the day.

“To make this, you will need freshly-chopped daisy roots, three drops of an infusion of lemon balm and lovage, two thoroughly dried leaves of yaupon, the shell of a single sopophorous bean, and a sprinkling of salamander scales. You will find how well you handle those affects the color of the final potion, which should ideally be about the same shade of red your new classmates in Crotalus turned during the Opening Feast, but which should never be any color close to pink or black.”

He stared at the list of potion ingredients and the empty cauldren in front of him. He wasn’t sure exactly what he was supposed to do with these ingredients, but he was definitely going to try. He took the list with him over to the cabinet and pulled out the stuff on the list. He still wasn’t really sure what to do with it when he put the items down on his table. He pulled out the textbook and went over the potion instructions. He read over everything and debated whether or not he should try to partner up with someone to do the potion. He decided he’d give it a try on his own. He set up the cauldren and began setting up his potion ingredients. He wasn’t sure if he should add water to it or not. He dropped the ingredients into the pot and let them simmer. He grimaced at the contents of his cauldren as it slowly cooked in the pot. He picked up his quill and stared at the blank piece of parchment in front of him. He wasn’t really sure what he should write as his few sentences. He had a lot of questions, but none of them having anything to do with Potions class.

Without really knowing what he was doing he began writing on the parchment. What exactly do these ingredients do on their own if not added to this particular potion? Are we actually planning on using any of the potions we’re going to make in this class or are they just being made for practice? How exactly are we being graded on these potions? Is it based on the effort being put in or whether or not it might actually work if used? He glanced over what he had written and seemed pretty content with it. He had no idea that he felt like that towards the subject. He had always wondered how teachers had graded stuff like that anyway. Maybe Professor Fawcett would be the first teacher ever to actually answer that question for him.

When Professor Fawcett called the ten minute mark he pulled out his little bottles and dipped them into the reddish- pink liquid. It wasn’t exactly the color the professor was looking for, but it wasn’t one of the colors he said to watch out for either. He wasn’t sure what to call it as he popped the stopper into place. He stared at it through the glass and shrugged frowning slightly. Oh well….either Professor Fawcett will grade me on the effort or he’ll take one look at the color and fail me on the spot he told himself as he walked from the potions table, having put out the fire under his cauldren and packing up his stuff. He was still looking at the potion in the vial when he reached Professor Fawcett’s desk. He gingerly placed the potion samples and the parchment on the teacher’s desk before walking out of the room. “If he’s gonna fail me I guess he’ll tell me tomorrow won’t he?” He half asked, half told himself as he walked off down the hall.

0 Carter Browning, Teppenpaw My first school potion...cool 0 Carter Browning, Teppenpaw 0 5

Honey Baird, Pecari

September 24, 2012 8:00 PM

Me too! by Honey Baird, Pecari

Honey bounced (yes, bounced, because, well, it was just necessary) into Potions. Looking around, her gloved hands clapped in anticipation and came to cover her mouth from the squeak of happiness that nearly slipped out. The room looked like a real laboratory like something that an evil hag might make her love potion for some poor unsuspecting fellow. Of course, she knew that actual love spells were forbidden, but still, how cool was it that they would be brewing potions that could do real things? Plus, even if one couldn’t use a potion for love or whatever, there were plenty she was sure of that could cause mischief of some sort!

After finding a seat, Honey took out two notebooks. One was for notes and the other was for drawing. She had just started sketching out the back of someone’s head when a stack of papers flew in front of her. Slightly startled, she glanced down at the pile. There were an awful lot of papers. She wondered just how hard this class was going to actually be. Heaven was always telling her that it was, but when did she ever believe her neurotic sister? All Heaven ever did was steal away their parents’ attentions.

Oh, well, she couldn’t really focus on that right now when she had to try and pay attention to the professor. There were going to be assignments that weren’t listed? Her lips turned down into a small pout. Geez. This class sounded like it left time for nothing else. It was nothing like she had pictured in her head. She hoped that it would get better, because it was going to be a long year if it didn’t. It was already a long class, as the professor went over the rules about not fighting and such. She tapped her foot along the edge of the stool in an effort to expend some energy. Why was a lecture on that necessary? It should just be like ‘No fighting. The end.’

Then, finally came the moment that Honey had been waiting for. Brewing. Actual brewing. She would get to use her new cauldron and pretend to be some old hag making some evil potion like in a story. Yes! She couldn’t wait! Quickly, she thumbed to page 13. Her mind twirled around all of the ingredients that had been purchased in her kit and made the matches to what was listed. She calculated what should be done in what order to maximize her time. Yes, yes, yes, this was definitely going to be tons of fun! Best yet was that they could work with someone.

Spotting a boy working alone, she took her book and kit and plopped down beside him. “Hi! I’m Honey,” she said to the boy, peering through her black-rimmed glasses and held out her hand. “What’s your name?” She didn’t give him much chance to answer before she continued with, “So, I was thinking if we split everything up we could get it done more efficiently. Then, maybe we’ll have some extra time to look over the potions we’ll be doing in the future. Doesn’t that sound like fun?” Her hands came together in excitement, assuming he would share her nerdy passion.

0 Honey Baird, Pecari Me too! 0 Honey Baird, Pecari 0 5

Heaven

September 25, 2012 12:57 AM

Why is that? by Heaven

How dare he! His arrogance was absolutely appalling! Where did he get off treating her as though she were someone less than worthy of a bit of respect? Her face was flushed with embarrassment. Despite that, her mouth went off on its own before her brain could stop it. “Yes, you are certainly special, Lucian D’Alesandro. I can think of no other that I should bestow such pleasantries to than you.” Her voice mimicked his perfectly. “No one else I know encompasses quite the same blend of conceitedness, shallowness, and self promotion. I really don’t know what I ever did with myself before you came along.”

Even as she heard herself say the things that she was saying, Heaven wished that she could stop. This wasn’t proper ladylike behavior, but another part of her frankly didn’t care. “As for my panties, first, you don’t know a thing about my panties, and second, even if they are overpriced, I can afford them. I’m not some rich boy pretending not to be rich by wearing off brand clothing. Do you think that makes people like you any better? Here’s a clue – no, because you act like you’re better than other people.”

“If you bothered to let anyone else do anything, then maybe you would know that I am capable of getting an O. I did very well in this class last year. But you don’t think anyone else can do anything. Maybe I’m not great at the piano, but I’m not going to play better by showing me how well you can play.” She turned away from him and straightened her papers. It also gave her an opportunity to take a breath. “I am capable of many things including being civil and brewing a potion.” The last part was said more calmly.

0 Heaven Why is that? 0 Heaven 0 5

Melanie

September 25, 2012 4:33 AM

Aside from keep trying. by Melanie

"I guess Muggles live without magic, but it can't possibly be much of a life." Melanie mused. "It must be so difficult." Muggleborns were lucky, in a way, to escape that by having powers. As far as she was concerned it was one of the greatest gifts that they could have been given. There were a lot of different talents a person could have, in music or art or whatnot, but nothing would take a person further than having magic. For example, Melanie was an all right piano player, nothing special, ultimately though, she wouldn't need it when she was just going to be a proper pureblood lady but she would always need her magic.

It was one thing though, that the Teppenpaw didn't feel she needed to worry about though. There was absolutely no way that she would screw up and get disowned or expelled. Of course, if the latter happened, the former most surely would too. Not only that, but the scandal would likely cost her family too, and Melanie didn't want that. She didn't want to hurt them, not even Mother.

Honestly, she really couldn't understand why someone would misbehave and end up harming themselves and their family's reputation. Especially if it led to a difficult, magic free existence. Certainly, some families were unreasonably harsh, but why would anyone go out of their way to make mischief that might cost them everything? Nothing was worth that and despite her problems with her mother, there was nothing Melanie would find worse than being cast out. Not only would being so lead to rotten life, but she didn't want to leave her sister either. She doubted Valerie would handle it well at all, and it would likely lead to the older girl being upset to the point where it, of course, made her sick. The Teppenpaw didn't want to be the cause of that obviously.

Melanie replied. "I can't imagine anyone doing that." It was true. Maybe pitying a Squib-they were the ultimate objects of pity, after all-but someone who recklessly disregarded the rules knowing what would happen to them? Furthermore, if one was disowned, nobody in their family would ever associate with them or risk being in the same position themselves. Another reason that Melanie would never let it happen to her. Valerie would still want to associate with her and get thrown out too-and she absolutely wouldn't survive, not without the potions she was dependent upon.

"Oh, no, it's all my fault." The second year assured her roommate. She had been the one to sprinkle in too many salamander scales and needed to practice more self-control. Lucille's question about her family was a reasonable, normal one, everyday conversation. It wasn't the other Teppenpaw's fault that the health of Melanie's family-her sister in particular but she didn't want the rest of them to be sick either-was her weak spot.

11 Melanie Aside from keep trying. 226 Melanie 0 5

Henry

September 25, 2012 7:40 PM

I can see that by Henry

The sound of things touching the tabletop beside him gave Henry all the warning he got before, quite abruptly, his peaceful work space was invaded by a girl, one of at least two people besides him he’d noticed wore glasses in his year. Curious, he thought – the only other people he’d ever met before who had to wear glasses were Grandfather Macomber and the Fourth, and they only did because they were old, not because they were like him and had just never been able to see very well – but not enough of a common bond for him to not mind how the surprise sent a small shower of beetle eyes over his painstakingly shined shoes even though his hand had been nowhere near that box.

Doing his best to ignore this, as was his habit when it was feasible, he wrapped his fingers awkwardly around hers when she wanted to shake hands, but had gotten no further in his introduction than “I am Henr – “ before she was talking away again, making him frown. A Pecari, he noticed, like the Miss Pierce who didn’t behave; that House was clearly no good. The Miss Pierce who did behave would do well to ask her parents to homeschool her and her sister after Christmas, for the good of them both.

However, her suggestion was not a bad one. Henry mulled it over for a few seconds, but could see no obvious downside to doing as she wanted. She didn’t even, now that he thought about it, really want to talk to him; almost everything she had said had been strictly business. So that would do. “That’s a good idea,” he said. “I was just about to begin work on the infusion.” He thought that would take the most time to prepare and so had water heating up already for it. “Perhaps you could chop the daisy roots.” He bit his tongue rather than remind her ahead of time to cut the roots finely. If she got it wrong, he could point it out then. He knew his siblings had no right to be as annoyed as he was when people reminded him to do things properly ahead of time, since he did things right all the time and they didn’t, but they got angry, so that could be a general rule, that people felt that way.

He considered just leaving it at that, but then paused in measuring out lovage, deciding that this would not push the limits of being a gentleman unless she was completely unreasonable and of no consequence anyway. “And to answer your first question, my name is Henry,” he added before looking back at his ingredients, trying to make sure he had the exact measurements and that none of the individual bits looked like they had gone bad. Uniform products would produce uniform results, and that was what he wanted in his potions. He wanted them to be as smooth and effective as a really good apothecary’s.

0 Henry I can see that 0 Henry 0 5

Lucian

September 25, 2012 11:52 PM

Well, you are stuck with me for another five years. by Lucian

Lucian was usually very good at blocking out the babbling of annoying girls, for he got a lot of practice when he sister was around. Heaven’s response caught him a bit off guard though. He wasn’t quite sure what he was expecting, but perhaps he did not expect her to bicker with him so well. He just simply titled his head and stared at her the entire time, at first with furrowed eyebrows, and then with a more amused facial expression. He opened his mouth to speak when she was finished, but then closed it again to search for words. He was pretty much over arguing because he had his say.

“I don’t know what you did with yourself either before I came along,” he began with a cheesy smile, “your life must have been quite dull.” Lucian then looked at what he was wearing. Under his robe he had his basic jeans and hoodie, along with his black Converses. “As for my clothes,” he started once more, “I am not trying to impress or get anyone to like me. They are just more comfortable, and more me. Why worry about it? Clothes are just things that cover us. No big deal.” He thought about what direction to take the conversation in and decided it would be best to apologize and try to salvage whatever time was left in the class. Maybe she would stop glaring at him at least.

“I am sorry for what I said about you playing piano. You play well. You must like playing if you take the time to try to perfect it. I was just trying to show you that you need to relax more, which honestly isn’t a bad suggestion. Not everything has to be perfect.” Lucian handed her a stray paper he found under his things on the table and smirked. “So, do you want to go ahead and wow me with your potion making capability?”

0 Lucian Well, you are stuck with me for another five years. 0 Lucian 0 5

Aria

September 26, 2012 10:49 PM

That is very true. by Aria

“Oh, you have your own family Healer?” Aria asked, surprised and intrigued by such a thing. Was it just convenient for them that they had a member of their family who was a Healer so they used that to their advantage or did they purposely send a member of their family to Healing school just so that they could have their own private Healer. If the latter was the case, they either were injured or sick quite often or they had too many secrets to allow someone from outside their family to know what was happening. She wasn’t sure if she really wanted to know. “I suppose I could say that for my mother, but she tends to the community and not just me.” After saying it, Aria realized that might have sounded rude. “That is to say, it’s just my parents and myself, so it would be a waste of her abilities if she were only for us.”

Aria finished chopping up her daisy roots and set them aside. Looking at the directions, Aria placed three drops of the infusion into the potion and stirred slowly for a brief moment before pulling out her bottle of dried yaupon leaves. Her mother said fresh everything was best… even if they were meant to be dried. Drying them for days yourself still meant fresh instead of bottled stuff from store shelves, but Aria didn’t have days and so, she had to use store brand. She dropped the two leaves in and let them soak.

She realized then that the boys were having trouble with the beans. If they had some time, they could soak the beans in vegetable oil, which would soften the shell, allowing them easier ways of de-shelling the beans, but since they were working with only the time allowed for potions, their creativity was somewhat limited. Aria smiled at the two of them and pulled out what looked to be a nut cracker. “Mother says to always be prepared.” Aria picked up one of her beans and stuck it into the small device. It shaped itself to the item magically to allow for a quick and easy slice. Squeezing the handles and hearing the crack, Aria opened it to show to neatly sliced halves of a bean. She plopped the meet part out and used a rag from her kit to rid of the excess juice.

“I sometimes help my mother prepare potions. She says that in a quick fix, sometimes using tricks are all you have time for. Would you like to use these?” She asked the two of them. She never really thought too deeply about the things that her mother did when it came to her love of potions, but thinking about it now, she probably had neat little ideas that were uniquely her own. Aria loved that about her.

0 Aria That is very true. 0 Aria 0 5

Alex

September 27, 2012 1:11 AM

Seems to be all we can do. by Alex

“Your hair looks good. It is still holding.” Alex answered after looking at her desk-mates hair. “Much better than what mine is doing. Sometimes it has a mind of its own.” Alex thought for a moment about Effie’s remark about studying the theory of potions rather than actually making them. “Theory would be great. However, my parents tend to emphasize the importance of learning and mastering potion making. They would not be pleased if I didn’t get at least an E in this class. I should have paid more attention when they made my brother and I practice at home, but working with him usually annoyed me.”

Alex thought about her life in Europe and realized how much she missed it. Things were a lot more leisurely. She missed shopping at the stores in town with her nanny. She missed playing in the park with her father when she was little. The first time she saw the Eiffel Tower she thought it was an amazing sight. She missed her horses. “I miss life in Europe,” she began, “I miss the culture and the pace. Americans seem to move way too quickly and do not stop to enjoy things. However, I am making friends here, which is something that I lacked in France. People are more private with their lives there. Here, people are more open and sometimes more friendly. So, it’s not all bad here. Just takes some getting used to.”

She stopped for a moment and watched Effie continue to add ingredients to the potion. “Have you lived in the states all your life?” she asked curiously, “If you have never been to a different country you should try to get your parents to let you go sometime.”

0 Alex Seems to be all we can do. 0 Alex 0 5

Effie Arbon

September 27, 2012 1:49 PM

Whistling a spirited tune would be unladylike. by Effie Arbon

“It looks perfectly fine,” Effie returned, when her partner reassured her about her hair and then fretted over her own. It did not really matter whether it was true or not – it simply would not have been polite to take the compliment from Alexandra and not return it when the other girl expressed her concern.

“Really? I loved having my sister's company during classes,” she said, when Alexandra said how much working with her brother had irked her. She and Delphine had not been allowed to chatter away in class but just having someone working steadily beside her was a comfort. The only time it had been a disadvantage had been when they had given each other the giggles during an etiquette lesson and had been unable to stop. Their tutor had been most displeased and had made them stand in opposite corners holding out their arms out straight with a heavy book in each hand. However, even being punished had not been so bad as they had committed the crime and served the punishment together. “But I do hear that older brothers can be dreadfully teasing creatures,” she sympathised, not wanting to seem like she was contradicting the other girl. She had no experience of having an older brother. No Arbon girl did. She did not have any experience to compare to but she could not imagine having class without Delphine and wondered how her sister was finding them now, without her. A pang of sadness over being away from home hit her. This had not been uncommon since she had arrived at school but this time it was for someone other than herself. Poor Delphine, stuck in rooms alone with their tutors. Socialising was a more difficult and disorienting experience than Effie had suspected but at least she had company. Her remaining sisters had each other, of course, but Araceli was so much younger. They would probably be taking classes separately and, whilst playing with her littlest sister was fun, it wasn't the same as her and Delphine's relationship. She and Delphine were at a similar level. They could simply be companionable. They could confide in one another. “Is it just the two of you and does he attend here too?” she asked, bringing herself back to the conversation at hand. The Potion would need to simmer for quite a few minutes and the instructions specifically said not to stir it during this time and thus she was at liberty to make conversation for the time being. She reduced the heat on her Potion to ensure that it would not burn.

She was a little surprised by Alexandra's suggestion that she should try to get her parents to take her places. It was not up to her. Her parents would provide the experiences for her that they thought fitting. The idea of suggesting to one's parents was not a concept that was familiar to her. She supposed, if she really wanted something, she might express to her mother that she had a wish or a desire for it but very much in the abstract. Perhaps, whilst looking over a dresses she might exclaim something such as 'I should love to go to Paris one day and see the dresses there. Perhaps that was what Alexandra had meant to imply. After all, English was possibly not her first language. It might be that she did not quite have the capabilities to express ideas in a suitably subtle fashion.

“I do hear that Europe has a great many beautiful sights,” she smiled. “We have our ancestral home here, and thus I have not only been in the United States but in the same home all my life,” she answered. People tended to say that sort of thing, meaning that their address had always been the same, but the degree to which that statement was true in Effie's case was possibly slightly alarming. There was enough space in the grounds for the Arbons to take their exercise and all in the perfect safety of their shielding charms, merchants could be summoned or elves sent out for shopping, and Effie was not yet old enough to attend parties with her parents. Coming to Sonora had been the first time she had set foot off their island.

13 Effie Arbon Whistling a spirited tune would be unladylike. 238 Effie Arbon 0 5

Heaven

September 27, 2012 8:51 PM

Is there another option? by Heaven

His response made her turn to look at him. Was he being serious? Her eyes narrowed in suspicion. Why was he trying to be nice all of a sudden? There had to be an angle, didn’t there? Everyone had one. No one did anything without some form of motivation. She knew this, because everyone in her family screamed of it. Her mother had feigned a sprained ankle from the walkway when her father had said no to having it redone, but in the end she had gotten exactly what she had wanted. She had to wonder if that was how she was destined to end up. Would she be exactly like her mother? Oh, she hoped not!

And now he was apologizing? She had the urge to pretend to faint. Lucian was apologizing? She didn’t think he was capable of such a thing. She really didn’t know what to think of him anymore and decided it was best to take him at face value. Besides, she didn’t think the professor would appreciate it if they blew up the school, because of their bickering. “I suppose that I could do that.” A smile tugged on the corner of her lips. “But I doubt that much could impress you, Potions Master.”

“All right. Where do you want to start? I can start measuring out the ingredients if you want to start chopping the daisy roots,” she offered. Actually, it was a fitting punishment for making her angry with him that day in the piano room. If he had just told her that he was trying to help her instead of trying to take over, then things would have gone much more smoothly. Besides, she hated chopping things for fear of cutting off her fingers. It would be horrendous if she couldn’t play piano anymore. It was the only thing her mother made her do that she truly enjoyed.

0 Heaven Is there another option? 0 Heaven 0 5

Jay

September 27, 2012 8:56 PM

Without a doubt by Jay

“We do,” Jay said. He hadn’t thought it was very unusual – wouldn’t most families, sooner or later, have a second or third son with the necessary talents? Aria, though, seemed to be using a different definition of ‘family’ than he one he did, which cleared up the confusion once he understood what she was saying.

“That makes sense,” he said. “I’m the second of six, so we could probably keep our own mediwitch, anyway, but Uncle Adam’s not just for us – there’s the other four branches of the family, too, in the other states. Though I think the Virginia Careys might have one of their own, too,” he admitted. Virginia was the largest branch; they had one of everything, it seemed. Right now, South Carolina was first among the branches, but Virginia still had the numbers. When the family broke, Thomas had maintained control over the two brothers he and Great-Great-Grandfather had shared, and had then had six children himself, only one of whom was much like Grandfather’s sisters had been, so the branch had grown very rapidly even after his cousins and twin left the state.

Jay raised his eyebrows slightly, impressed, when Aria came up with the solution to the problem of the sopophorous beans. “She’s right,” he said, wondering if he could persuade Mother to get him one of those. It could be handy in this class, at least until he could figure out how to split the bean magically without exploding it, too, and then he could hand it down to his younger siblings. Any piece of equipment which went from him down to Cecilia would more than have paid for itself by then, he was sure….

“Thank you,” he said when the use of Aria’s nutcracker was offered. He copied what she had done, wondering if he could somehow collect the juice in the bowl and store it in one of his phials, since he knew it was sometimes used, too, and it might be handy to have some on hand if they used it again this year, or if he knew Theresa had something coming up that would require it, since she wouldn’t have access to Aria’s nutcracker. He added the shells to his cauldron, then asked “Liam?” before wondering if he should have left that to Aria, even though the original offer had been to them both. It was, after all, her equipment.

0 Jay Without a doubt 0 Jay 0 5

Honey

September 28, 2012 1:54 PM

Is that a good thing? by Honey

“Yay!” Honey stated with enthusiasm when the boy agreed to work with her. “I promise I will chop them to absolute perfection.” Her fingers rubbed together in the air above the daisy roots, as she quickly looked over which ones she felt were best to use. Picking a few, she straightened them out so they were lined fairly evenly. Before she could start though, the boy stated his name. She turned her head so she was looking directly at him and blinked a couple of times. Had she not discovered his name prior? No, she supposed she hadn’t. Wow. She hadn’t meant to be so rude. She had been trying to be friendly, but her enthusiasm for the subject had overshadowed that.

Ah, well. She could make amends. “Henry.” Honey smiled, before returning to her work. Henry was a very nice name. Maybe she was just biased, because it had the same amount of letters as her name and four of those letters were the same. Plus, three of the letters were in the same location as the letters in her name and were the same exact letters. It was amazingly awesome. Okay, so she was a little strange, but what was the fun in being normal? Far too many people were normal and she found it to be boring. She wanted to stand out, have people notice her. If she didn’t, she would just get lost in the crowd, much like she got lost at home.

For the next few minutes, Honey concentrated on cutting the daisy roots as thinly as possible without shredding them. This potion had to be absolutely perfect. It was almost an obsession. She had to get an O in this class. Heaven had gotten an O, so that meant she had to get one too. Honey wasn’t really competitive about too many things. She really didn’t care if anyone else did better than her, except her sister. When it came to Heaven, it was like some force took over. She didn’t remember always being that way. When they were younger, she used to follow her sister around. She wanted to be just like her. They were best friends. They used to have sleepovers in each other’s rooms. They were sisters. But then everything had started to change.

No, she refused to think about that. Instead, finished with her task, she asked Henry, “The daisy root is done. How far did you get? Do you want me to start measuring out anything?” She looked over to what Henry had done. He was certainly effective. Perhaps, he would be willing to partner with her for the rest of their potions classes. She was sure together they would be very successful in the class.

0 Honey Is that a good thing? 0 Honey 0 5

Henry

September 28, 2012 9:47 PM

I'm beginning to think so by Henry

“I would appreciate that,” Henry said solemnly when Honey promised to cut the roots perfectly. He did not expect that she would, but he would appreciate it very much if she did. Potions was a subject which depended on precision, on discipline and control – on perfection. The smallest mistake might not lead to an explosion, it could but it might not, but it could make something kill instead of heal, or simply not work, or not work in time…He had been afraid, sometimes, taking potions after the accident, because he had worried that they might try to poison him. After he got well enough to argue, he had refused to take anything from anyone other than Aunt Lorraine, solely on the basis of knowing from Mother that the family usually disapproved of her, too. It had seemed at least a little safer.

He nodded when she repeated his name. “Henry,” he confirmed. “Henry Carey, of the South Carolina Careys, to be more precise. There are lots of Henrys.” He didn’t think there was another Henry Luther, but there were several other Henry Careys in the family, all in Virginia. He had never been sure how to feel about that, even knowing that he had been named for his mother’s brother, not for another Henry Carey.

The lovage deemed acceptable, Henry added it to the slowly heating water he had prepared, then turned his attention to doing the same to the lemon balm. Once it was in, he began stirring it, first clockwise and then counterclockwise, to help the process along. He was prodding the herbs with the end of his spoon, moving them up and down through the water, when Honey finished with the roots. He smiled slightly, thinly, and very briefly, pleased, as he looked over them.

“This is nearly done,” he said. “Those are well-done,” he added, pointing to the roots. “Would you like to start working on the sopophorous bean, or setting aside salamander scales?” He thought they could most likely work together on that part at the end, to get the color just right; he did remember pretty clearly what color Crotalus red was, after the time he’d spent looking at it and hoping it would go away, like one of Brandon’s bad jokes. There had only been a few Crotali in his family in years, and of the ones named Carey, not one had fared well in life or come to a good end. Alexandra seemed to be fine so far, but she was really a Devereux, with her father’s blood – and, more relevantly, since half his blood was his mother’s as well, her father’s family’s ways – to balance things out for her, so being a Crotalus wasn’t the same thing for her that it was for someone who was more part of the family, he thought. Seeing himself turn the color the potion was supposed to be in the end had been a nasty shock for him, not something he’d forget any time soon. Still, at least it was proving useful now.

0 Henry I'm beginning to think so 0 Henry 0 5

Lucille

September 28, 2012 10:47 PM

Yes, we do always have that option by Lucille

“No, I can’t imagine it would,” Lucille said quietly, her eyes still on her work. She knew, from the wife they didn’t talk about, that Muggles could look normal enough, but she couldn’t imagine that they had much of a life if they weren’t like that woman, wards of a wizard.

That woman, her half-sister’s mother, was a Muggle, but they were never supposed to talk about that. Officially, they didn’t talk about Amber at all if they could avoid it, but if they had to, then she thought the thing they tried to imply was that her sister was a pureblood bastard, rather than a technically legitimate true half-blood, though ideally they avoided mentioning Amber’s mother and her relationship to their father even if they did have to talk about Amber herself for some reason. Lucille only knew the truth because her mother considered it a cautionary tale, something to frighten her and her brother with: if they were like their father, and mixed with Muggles, then they would die like he had, just as they would if they did…more things than she could count, really, except for the times when whatever it was they might do would ultimately mean a death even worse than Dad’s.

Some people, Lucille was very sure, could do everything she wasn’t permitted to and never have any problems at all. She was just as sure that if she did, she would get the fates worse than her father’s. Lucille did not think she had good luck, or anything even remotely resembling it. The only thing she had going for her was caution…on the days when it didn’t turn into enough fear to keep her from doing things, anyway.

When Melanie insisted that it was all her fault that the potion was a little off, Lucille thought that was going to happen. She didn’t know what to say. She had been trying to be diplomatic, share the blame so they could move past the moment, that she knew how to do, but she didn’t know how to let someone else take all the blame without it being awkward and horrible. She supposed this was what she got for having a habit of wanting to do the same thing when something went wrong; from the inside, it felt like it would make things better, to just take the blame, but when it was actually playing out, it just made things more difficult….

“I’m sure it’ll be all right,” she said, looking at the potion, which she hoped was either supposed to make the most onomatopoeic noises she'd heard one make or that she was only imagining was noisy from nerves, seeking to move the topic so they could just not acknowledge the issue of guilt anymore. “I know I never get potions exactly right no matter what, but, well, I haven’t failed yet.” Potions just wasn’t her forte, not at all, but she did well enough to pass. Enough that the censure for her grades last year had been comparatively mild, not even as bad as what she had been expecting so much that she had spent the whole last week of school feeling sick to her stomach every so often, usually unexpectedly, when the thought of going home with her grades had hit her without warning. She was hoping to avoid repeating the experience this year.

0 Lucille Yes, we do always have that option 0 Lucille 0 5

Liam

September 30, 2012 8:01 PM

I'm having a few of those right now by Liam

“Um, yeah, thanks.” Liam said, crushing his dried yaupon leaves in his fist and resigning from his previous idea. He sprinkled his leaves into his cauldron and flashed his classmate a quick smile before taking Aria’s bean-splitter-opener from Jay.

His family was definitely different from both of his classmates. He didn’t have a huge family tree or a community surrounding them. It was just mom, his older brothers, and two little sisters. There was a time when the doctors and hospital staff felt a bit like a community, but after dad died, they never saw those people again. Liam inserted his bean into Aria’s device and shelled it, plopping the outer layer into the cauldron.

“Thanks, Aria.” He said, as he handed the Teppenpaw girl back her equipment. He couldn’t help but notice how she made potioneering look like the most natural thing ever, and was slightly jealous of her abilities.

“My mom makes a mean chicken noodle soup. I know she’s a Muggle and all, but it’s pretty good at making you feel better when you’re sick.” Liam said, not having much else to add to the conversation, but feeling like he needed to say something anyway. He wasn’t sure how Jay would respond to that, being a Carey and all, but he seemed nice enough. Maybe they could be friends, or at least be somewhat cool with each other, like Cyclops and Wolverine, as long as Liam got to be Wolverine.

The Pecari student turned his attention back to his potion, and discarded the remains of his bean. Liam set about stirring his potion clockwise, watching the color anxiously. All he had left were the salamander scales, and his potion was looking a little dark. Not black exactly, but dark blood red.

"We're going for Crotali red, right?" He asked peering into his cauldron.

5 Liam I'm having a few of those right now 37 Liam 0 5

Lucian

October 01, 2012 1:01 AM

Nope! You should feel lucky. by Lucian

He smiled smugly, knowing that he had caught her by surprise with his apology. Her face had hints of confusion, agitation, and another emotion he couldn’t quite make out. Something about keeping an air of suspicion appealed to him. It certainly kept things interesting. Being predictable in social settings was entirely overrated. He was sure he used to embarrass his mother and sister at function and gatherings, but he didn’t care much. He always insisted on acting like himself, even though his lessons on how to behave like a proper pureblood gentleman encouraged otherwise.

“Potion Master,” he said with a smirk, “ I like the sound of that. I will start cutting these roots.” He lined them all evenly on the table and began chopping them with ease. It didn’t take much effort since he had cut many different ingredients during his lessons at home. Lucian watched as Heaven began sorting out the rest of the ingredients and decided to try to start a more pleasant conversation. “So, what kind of things do you like to do for fun? You know, when you aren’t playing piano or scowling at me?” He laughed at the last part to try to ease any tension between them. “Seriously though, what kind of things do you enjoy doing?”

0 Lucian Nope! You should feel lucky. 0 Lucian 0 5

Aria

October 01, 2012 7:48 PM

Doubts? Why? by Aria

Aria could not fathom having a family as large as Jay’s. Well, she supposed she could if she included the community. As secluded as they were from the world, there was probably over a thousand members with more joining them each year. They did eventually lose people to work outside the walls as well as to school and love, but they gained other members just as often. Aria knew most people by face or name, so it was still small enough for everyone to know everyone else, but large enough to not be some weird incest thing too. She only knew of incest because of the times when they would put up a stand for organic fruit and vegetables and sometimes they would attract the mean ones who liked to tell them they were disgusting incest-filled cult. Aria’s father had to explain what it meant and it was rather disturbing to her. She was not related to anyone other than her parents and as far as she knew, anyone who was married were not related nor did their children marry people they were related too. The people of this world were ignorant and judgemental.

“You have a very impressive family, Jay.” Aria commented, genuinely feeling this. The size of each family was probably why the community never worried about related people marrying. She never met a family with more than three children. And three was rare.

Aria grinned happily when both boys wanted to use her nut cracker. She enjoyed being useful in this school when for a long time she just felt like the stranger looking through the window at everyone else. At least Jay and Liam were being nice to her. “You’re welcome. I’m glad to have helped.” She stated, taking her nut cracker back.

“Does she?” Aria asked, curious. “We don’t eat meat of any kind in my home, but even if we did, I wouldn’t trust anything my mom makes.” Aria commented. She didn’t really understand the Muggle part of his comment. She didn’t think that mattered what his mother was and her community had Muggleborns within it, so she felt they contributed just as much as the next one. “She great at potions, not so much as cooking.”

Aria dropped in the daisy roots and stirred counter-clockwise for five stirs and then added in the shell. “Yes, Crotalus red.” Aria confirmed, although she did not have that color burned into her head to know exactly how red that was. Shame it wasn’t Teppenpaw Yellow. Waiting for the bean to soak in, Aria took out her grater out and began to rub her ginger root to it to grind it into powder quickly. Since she was using the Vegan form of the potion, she would not be putting in salamander scales, but, instead, ginger. “Is yours not looking too good?” She asked. Her’s was a healthy pink color, but she knew it would darken once the ginger was in it.

0 Aria Doubts? Why? 0 Aria 0 5

Alan

October 01, 2012 9:59 PM

Where next? by Alan

“Doesn’t everyone,” said Alan when Amity confirmed that she had been looking forward to coming to school all her life. “I think our parents were about two hours from forbidding me and my cousin from talking about school any more when we got on the wagon. Neither of us had thought about anything else for six months.” He was exaggerating slightly – things hadn’t gotten really bad until he had turned eleven, back in March – but not by much. Most of their family had enjoyed school an awful lot even though none of them were really known for their academic prowess, and he and Isabel had grown up with that in their ears all the time. Going to school was a huge deal in the Raines family; it was where you made your real friends, and those were what would carry you through life.

He smiled when asked about his House, though the expression was not a very deep one. Alan had yet to really sort out how he felt about going into Teppenpaw, and what he thought people might think of him, based on Sara’s and Catherine’s comments for the most part, because he had. He kept, then, trying to find a line between risking disloyalty – or worse, offense, since he had no idea who had what relatives in which Houses – and flat-out lying. He wasn’t sure how he was doing so far, but it was all he could do, so he did it.

“I wasn’t worried about it,” he said. ‘Worry,’ to him, was what you did if you thought you might not get a letter, and he hadn’t done that, either. Talking about Houses and wondering which one he might get into had just been fun, at least to him. “But I thought I might go into Pecari, since my sister is there.” It never occurred to him that this could be seen as a bad thing, if someone didn’t know who Sara was; he’d had his sister’s perfections drilled into him too many times. If Sara was involved in something, it was, by definition, something it was acceptable to be involved in, even if it was also mind-numbingly stupid or even, when thought about for a few seconds, mind-bendingly illogical.

“What about you?” he asked. “Did you expect Aladren?” Alan wouldn’t have minded being Sorted there, of course, there were a great many proper people in that House and its traits were ones he thought were valuable, but he had the strangest feeling that if he had been placed there somehow, he wouldn’t have exactly fitted in with everyone else. Crotalus seemed like it would have been a better fit, even, and he didn’t think that would have been ideal, either. One of the things he had noticed as he and Isabel talked over the Houses was that he didn’t feel like he quite fit both the parameters and the reputation of any of them, though he hadn’t mentioned that thought to his cousin. It didn’t matter much, after all.

0 Alan Where next? 0 Alan 0 5

Melanie

October 02, 2012 11:29 PM

Let's take it. by Melanie

Melanie gave her roommate a grateful smile when Lucille tried to assure her that it would be all right. She wasn't especially used to being comforted, the things that usually upset her were ones that she didn't let on to, even though it was something everyone obviously knew about. It was quite clear to everyone at school probably that Valerie wasn't well.

However, because of this the Teppenpaw was often the one doing the comforting and it felt extremely odd to be on the receiving end of it. That didn't mean, however, that she didn't appreciate it and that she wasn't glad that Lucille didn't seem to be mad at her, though she might have just not wanted to make a scene. Doing so was generally not considered to be a good thing and reflected poorly on oneself and their family.

She didn't really think that was what Lucille was doing though. There was something about her roommate that seemed...genuinely nice to Melanie. Like she wouldn't want to hurt someone's feelings, which she supposed was a Teppenpaw thing in general but still. Perhaps it was a step to becoming friends.Kindness was something she really valued in people.

It was one reason she was actually glad to be Sorted where she was even though Melanie had initially wanted to go into Crotalus with Valerie. She supposed it was good though for them to meet other people and have other friends. It didn't mean she couldn't be there for her sister if they did. In fact, Melanie needed the support, as much as she didn't like to admit it and she was glad that there were other people who liked and cared about Valerie.

Besides, if she'd been in the same House as her sister, she would have had to share a room with Carrie O'Malley. Ugh.

"You're right." The second year replied. She didn't want to dwell on the potion. People made mistakes. Melanie wasn't perfect and she never would be. Besides, it wasn't as if she wouldn't make up for this error later and Lucille at the very least didn't seem angry with her. That was the important thing.

11 Melanie Let's take it. 226 Melanie 0 5

Jay

October 03, 2012 11:47 PM

And are they serious? by Jay

Jay was a little surprised to have his family called impressive, but that was, paradoxically, something he was used to. He spent too much time with the family trees, where his family’s size was more or less normal, as long as he ignored the dates on them, which indicated that the children in those families were usually much further apart than he and his siblings were. The Fourth and his five siblings had all been close together, but Grandfather had been seventeen when Uncle Adam was born.

“Thank you,” he said, since that seemed safe enough. She was a Teppenpaw, so if she had meant it in a negative sense, maybe she would decide not to explain that for him. “It was sort of inevitable, though, with everyone having three or four sons…” Their family, he thought from those same genealogy studies, did have more boys in it than most did; Uncle Anthony and Aunt Lorraine had managed to have nothing but boys, and the Fourth, also from a family of six, had only had two sisters. “Eventually, we just ran out of room in one state.”

As they would again, he was guessing. Theresa and Diana and Cecilia would, in theory, marry people who weren’t from South Carolina, but that still left six boys hanging around, and that was assuming that Mother and Father didn’t have another two or three sons before they were done. The real reason, he thought, that most people even in the family seemed to do a double take when they saw him and his siblings wasn’t because there were six of them, but because Theresa was only just barely eleven years older than Cecilia while Mother was not yet forty. He found the idea of betting on it completely tasteless, but if he’d had to, Jay would’ve thought it smartest to put his money on ending as the second-eldest of eight. Ten was extreme, he didn’t expect Mother and Father to have ten, especially since there were longer gaps between them after Henry, but the story ending with six didn’t seem likely to him.

Jay was a little surprised when Liam mentioned that his mother was a Muggle and busied himself with his cauldron for a second as Aria talked about her mother. “My mother used to cook,” he offered when she finished, deciding it was safe, “but the family sent her an elf after my second brother was born, so she hasn’t done it in years. I don’t really remember if she cooked well.”

He nodded when Liam asked about the color the potion was supposed to turn. “Yes,” he said. “It’s luckier for my brother than for us, he just got Sorted there.” He was sure Henry would have no trouble with remembering the exact color anyway, but having turned it not long ago, and to everyone’s surprise, could hardly hurt with recall. “I think it was a little lighter than that,” he added apologetically to Liam, glancing at the other boy’s cauldron.

0 Jay And are they serious? 0 Jay 0 5

Amity

October 04, 2012 4:42 PM

To an excellent finish? by Amity

"I suppose so." Amity replied. "My cousins have either already been to Sonora or are too young so I didn't really have anyone to share the excitement with, though I did ask them some things of course. I take it that Isabel is your cousin?" That was not hard to deduce from what Alan had just said though it was entirely possible that they were distantly related like Hope and Evan were for her and he had another cousin in their year with a different last name. Amity was hardly an expert on the genealogy of others, she hadn't had the time or inclination to be so. "I met her in Flying."

Fortunately, her experience in the class had been a lot more like Arabella's than Ryan's or Carrie's. Isabel, Effie and whichever of the Pierce twins that she'd been talking to seemed like people that she could be friends with, she'd not completely failed at even getting her broom up and she hadn't created a scene and ended up being hexed by Coach Pierce. It had been a major success.

Speaking of relatives, Amity was admittedly curious about how exactly Alan was related to the famous Sara Raines, who seemed to be held up as an example of the perfect pureblood lady, the one girls like the Aladren were supposed to emulate even though she didn't think the sixth year was probably involved in half the things Amity had been. Still, she didn't really want to ask Alan about her. Even though she wasn't all that bothered by being compared to Chaslyn unfavorably, beyond being slightly embarrassed due to the fact that her sister was younger than her, she figured it was hard to be compared to someone considered so perfect and Alan might not want to think about it or have her brought up, the way Amity would not want to have Carrie brought up and only did so herself when she felt a moral obligation to warn the other person. She probably should have warned Effie and Isabel come to think of it, but it had seemed more necessary and on topic to warn the latter about Abigail Thornton and her creepy sisters instead.

Amity considered Alan's question. "Well, I guess not." She could be nice but she wasn't always, she was proper but not always rule driven and while she could certainly be bold, she wasn't what one would call adventurous. Going on an adventure was too much work."Aladren probably does fit the best, but not perfectly." Aladrens were supposed to be scholastically driven and she wasn't really driven at all. She was certainly strong willed though, Mother was always complaining about that.

"How's Teppenpaw?" Amity asked. "That was my father's House." Only someone that nice would be willing to put up with her mother so knowing that Father was Sorted there explained an awful lot. "My aunt was the Head last year but she left to have a baby. Do you have any family here besides Isabel and the Miss Raines that's the Pecari prefect." She had permission to use Isabel's name but not Sara's. Which reminded her. "Oh, you may call me Amity, by the way."

11 Amity To an excellent finish? 233 Amity 0 5

Honey

October 05, 2012 1:05 AM

This is going rather smoothly. by Honey

“Thank you, sir,” Honey stated in response, pleased that Henry had found the roots sufficiently cut. Having each ingredient at the peak of perfection meant being that much closer to having a better potion than her sister. Though, part of her was delighted to know that she had just done a good job and that her partner approved. She wasn’t normally the type to care what others thought, but deep down, in her secret heart of hearts, she did care.

It was the very force that drove her to be different, because then she knew that those that did like her would like her for her and not because she was a Baird and not because she was like Heaven and not for a million other reasons she could name. The only problem was that in the end it didn’t matter, because she knew it wouldn’t make a difference to those she needed it to make a difference to. She only hoped this would make them see.

“Um, I guess I could work on the sopophorous bean.” The brunette didn’t really mind which one she did, but she figured that the bean was slightly more interesting. She had read about it in the guide and how difficult it was to work with. It sounded like a challenge and she was eager to try. Since they would be using the shell rather than the actual bean, she only needed to figure out how to get it off. Of course, sopophorous beans had very hard shells so it would prove interesting. Doing damage to the shell could potentially change the potion. But there was the possibility it wouldn’t matter at all. Should she risk it?

Subconsciously, she toyed with her fingers before glancing over to Henry and then to Heaven. No, she shouldn’t. If she messed up this potion, she would not only allow Heaven to win this round, but all rounds, because Henry would never want to work with her again. No, no, it just couldn’t be risked. Picking a tool that looked more like a dentist’s tool than a potioneer tool, she took to slowly prying the shell open along an etching that was slightly open, much like a pistachio. It took the good part of five minutes, but it had definitely been worth it, as she looked with pride at the fully in tact shell.

“So, Henry Carey, of the South Carolina Careys. Why are there so many Henrys?” She thought it was sort of nice that there were so many. Her mother had chosen their names so that they would stand out. She wasn’t sure if that was a blessing or a curse. Her cousins sometimes made fun of her name saying that she didn’t have a real name or that Honey is for tea. The worst is when her cousin, Blake, said that her sister was named Heaven cause they got it right the first time. That had stung a bit, but she pretended like it didn’t bother her. “There is only one Honey of the Connecticut Bairds, but I suspect that there is only one Honey of any Bairds.”

0 Honey This is going rather smoothly. 0 Honey 0 5

Alan

October 05, 2012 9:03 PM

That's my plan, anyway by Alan

Alan nodded. “Yes,” he agreed about Isabel being his cousin. “Our fathers are first cousins, and live in the same area, so we’ve always seen a lot of each other.”

More than either of them had ever seen of their older sisters, anyway. Catherine was fifteen years older than them, she’d been married and had kids for as long as Alan could remember, and though Sara wasn’t that much older than him, she had been traveling to Europe every summer since he was born and in school for the past five years, so they had never been close. He thought Isabel and her niece were probably closer than he and Sara were, though there were no bad feelings between him and his sister – not really. He thought it would have been worse if they were brothers or sisters, rather than brother and sister, and she had still been everyone’s darling, but as it was, they only had a problem when she thought that him coming to school meant she should boss him around the time all the time.

Luckily, Sara was taking a lot of Advanced classes, so they didn’t run into each other very often. Once him being around was normal and neither of them felt a little awkward about it anymore, Alan thought they’d get along as well as they always had, which was to say they were polite when they were together but didn’t really ever do the same thing.

“I’d be surprised if anyone is a perfect match,” he commented when she said she didn’t fit into Aladren perfectly. He was very sure that he wasn’t a perfect Teppenpaw, anyway – or at least not a typical one. He was far more ambitious than Sara had made his Housemates out to be. “It’s fine so far,” he said about Teppenpaw. “I’m still taking it all in.” He then listened to Amity talk about her Teppenpaw relatives, wondering if there was any way to look them – and other Teppenpaw alumni – up. That would help him get a better picture of the House than anything, he thought, though it was an honor to be in the same House as the Head Girl anyway.

“Not that I know of,” he said when asked about relatives. “The Miss Raines in Pecari is my older sister. One of my distant cousins was Head Boy last year, but I don’t know him very well.” Just enough to know that he didn’t want to know Raines any better, anyway. “Most of my family has been in Crotalus – my father was, and Isabel’s father and sister, too. I think one of her aunts was a Pecari, though.” He didn’t think there were any Teppenpaws in the family, though he hadn’t learned the Houses of the whole family before coming to school. He wondered now if he should have, for conversations like this; if he could bluff until Christmas, maybe he would learn them all then and not have to worry about that coming up again. "You may use my first name as well."

0 Alan That's my plan, anyway 0 Alan 0 5

Isabel

October 05, 2012 9:32 PM

Which would you prefer for short? by Isabel

Isabel was still not sure at all about the infusion, but she decided to follow Rupert’s lead. “Okay,” she said, and began fishing bits of lemon balm and lovage out of it. She had just finished when he asked about getting the drops of it into the cauldron.

“Three,” she said firmly, though his questioning it made her nervous and unsure. She checked her book. “Yes, it’s three. I think I have a dropper somewhere in here – “ she looked through her potions kit until she found what she thought was the dropper. She felt hurried and not as sure of herself as usual, but sure enough to go forward. She drew a little of the infusion into it – not much, since she didn’t need much – and inexpertly put three drops into the cauldron, which hissed in a way she tried to tell herself wasn’t at all menacing. The drops hadn’t been very uniform in size; she had hit the plunger a little too hard the second time, after barely hitting it at all the first. She hoped it equaled out in the end.

She watched as Rupert stirred it and added the sopophorous bean shell, picking up an extra bit he had missed and adding it to the cauldron for good measure, even though it felt slimy and unpleasant against her finger, which she had to shake to get it off. “I’ll sprinkle it,” she said when offered the choice. “It’s supposed to be red – the same red I was at the Feast,” she recalled. It did not look to her like a color that could be made to go from what it was to anything even vaguely red, but they would see.

She began to gradually add salamander scales, sometimes more heavily than others as she moved her hand in circles over the cauldron and Rupert stirred. It got darker and began to bubble thickly, and she paused, looking down at it and then up at her partner. “Do you think it looks dark red, anyway?” she asked. There was a glimmer of red, she thought, in some of the bubbles. Maybe it was dark red. It wasn’t the forbidden black, anyway. “Maybe stirring it the other way for a while would make it lighter,” she suggested, since obviously something wasn’t going right with it but it looked close enough that she thought maybe it could be fixed.

OOC: Sorry for the long wait!

0 Isabel Which would you prefer for short? 0 Isabel 0 5

Heaven

October 07, 2012 1:43 AM

Maybe you are the lucky one. by Heaven

“Is that something you actually see yourself doing?” Heaven asked with genuine curiosity. She had just assumed that everyone did exactly what her family did. Her father owned a bank branch along the east coast. Of course, it was run by goblins as most wizard banks were, but they were his buildings, his name on them, and they were what kept the family fortune…a well…fortune. Her mother had a job as well, but it was more of the volunteer variety. She was on a number of committees and functions. None of which, Heaven thought did very much aside from throw parties, though, they preferred to call them events or fundraisers or whatever was popular for the moment.

The other thing her mother did was to run the household. She was very good at bossing others around so that the lawn was perfectly manicured, the furniture always looked polished, and not a speck of lint could ever be found on the throw rugs. Dinner was always served at a particular time in the dining room. They were expected to have gotten ready for the occasion and to be seated for when their father came to the table. It was like clockwork. Her entire life was like clockwork and she simply assumed that every family was just like hers. It was a silly assumption, but one of a child.

“Scowling at you is one of my favorite activities,” she jested. “I suppose aside from that and piano, I like what most others like. Sometimes, I go horseback riding and to teas.” Heaven didn’t actually enjoy those. They were mostly with a couple of local purebloods that she didn’t like very much, but her mother thought it was good practice for when she was introduced to those that truly mattered. “Reading is also a favorite pastime,” she admitted. She wasn’t sure what else she should add. She didn’t really think about what she liked that much. It was more of a in-the-moment sort of thing.

0 Heaven Maybe you are the lucky one. 0 Heaven 0 5

Liam

October 07, 2012 8:58 AM

I guess we'll just see how it goes. by Liam

As a student at Sonora, it was inevitable to hear about the Carey family. Large families, in general, seemed to be rather common at the school, but Liam was still rather surprised as Jay went into detail about just how large his actually was. Liam had four siblings at home, so he never really considered his small, but he only had a handful of cousins on his father’s side, and his mother had been an only child. Jay’s extended family managed to fill an entire state. Aria was right—it was impressive.

“Wow…” Was the only word Liam could muster.

Liam found it a little curious that Aria’s mom was so skilled at potions, but couldn’t cook very well. He’d always figured the two were similar in a lot of ways, but he’d been corrected. He wasn’t terribly put off by the fact that they didn’t eat meat; he was from Oregon, after all, and people had a tendency to be a little—different—there.

He’d thrown out the ‘M’ word just to see what kind of reaction he’d get. Maybe more from Jay than Aria, but Liam was a little surprised when the other boy mentioned his own mothers cooking as opposed to gathering his things and avoiding him like the plague.

Maybe Liam had misjudged quite a few of his peers last year.

He’d read about house elves and envisioned how much easier his own mothers life would be if she had one. There were a lot of aspects of magic that the Pecari imaged out be particularly useful to his mother—and the fact that he couldn’t really share what he was learning with her depressed him ever so slightly. It really must be nice to come from magical families.

“Yeah, it’s some secret family recipe that has been passed down for generations. I always thought it was magic growing up—little did I know.” Liam said with a smile, stirring his potion some more, silently praying that it would lighten.
“I’m really not sure what went wrong. I haven’t added the scales yet, but…it’s looking a bit grim.” He said with a shrug, tapping his spoon on the edge of the cauldron so it didn’t drip everywhere as he removed it.

“Here goes nothing.” Liam said, somewhat glumly as he sprinkled the salamander scales over the top of his bubbling concoction. The potion smoked and hissed as the new ingredient was added, and Liam decided to let it simmer for a few moments before stirring again.

“Anyone want to place bets on whether or not this gets any lighter?” He said, mostly in jest as he waved smoke from his face with his hand.

5 Liam I guess we'll just see how it goes. 37 Liam 0 5

Amity

October 08, 2012 3:02 AM

It's a good one. by Amity

"I haven't really spent much time with my father's cousins' children. They're mostly older than me and don't live anywhere close." Only Valerie and Melanie Lennox were around her age, but they lived in Missouri while Amity lived in Seattle, though Ryan had become friends with the fourth year after Charles Lennox had asked Uncle Seth to watch out for his elder daughter and Uncle Seth did one of the things he did best and delegated the task to Ryan upon her being sorted into Crotalus. Now Amity's cousin seemed to see Valerie as something of a little sister figure, probably because his actual sister was so terrible. Plus, it seemed to help his self-esteem just slightly to have someone he could sort of take care of.

The Aladren added. "I have my own first cousins here though. One is only a year older than me but we're not close." That was a diplomatic way to put it. They disliked each other immensely. "My other cousin Arabella is a third year and we get along better. And I think Ryan is in Miss Raines' class." He really hadn't ever said much about Sara though, other than she was a very proper lady. Amity didn't think they knew each other that well and the Crotalus seemed a little intimidated by her, but then he often was by people. Helping Valerie had not improved Ryan's self image that much.

She nodded at his comment that nobody fit a house perfectly. "I suppose the definitions are a bit narrow and there are way more than four types of people in the world. Of course, there are House stereotypes and those affect what people think too." Amity felt rather lucky to be subject to Aladren's. People would assume she was smart and that wasn't the worst thing to be considered. She didn't really see anything wrong with having people think that she was kind and friendly either, but people also seemed to not respect Teppenpaw's much. Plus, there was such a thing as being too nice, like Aunt Lilac. When you were too nice, creepy irritating people constantly bugged you and you didn't have it in you to tell them to go away.

Pecari and Crotalus had terrible ones though. People assumed the former were these loud obnoxious Quidditch freaks and that was not Arabella. Nor was it Alan's sister or Ryan's friend Sophie, beyond that the latter did play Quidditch. Crotalus' was even worse. People always assumed that they were...like Carrie and the second year actually being in that house didn't really help it's image. Of course, that would have been true if she'd been sorted into Aladren or Pecari as well, but neither of those Houses had that awful unfair reputation. Arabella and Sophie were closer to their House's than Ryan was to that . Effie and Isabel were also perfectly nice girls.

"I have a lot of other family here." Amity went on. "People in every year group, I don't know all that many of them very well either." She didn't think any of her relatives had been Head student in about twenty years. It was a little depressing actually. She didn't really care much about the badge herself, the effort was probably not worth it, but she wasn't exactly sure how well it reflected on them either. Amity was just glad her family was indisputably powerful and prominent on this half of the country. Badges shouldn't matter and certain people needed to learn that. "I have a sister too, she's only seven though. Almost eight. Any other relatives you expect to come to school?"

11 Amity It's a good one. 233 Amity 0 5

Aria

October 08, 2012 3:44 PM

Just stay positive! by Aria

Aria listened with interest. She always found people outside of the community so fascinating. It was one of the reasons why she had felt so compelled to leave and come to school at Sonora in the first place. She wanted a better understanding of how everyone worked. “Father says that boys are important to some families because they carry on the family name.” When her parents had been explaining things to her, he had told her the importance that some families have on having males. She had originally been concerned that he had been disappointed in having a girl, but he had reassured her that she was all he ever needed. That had made her feel better. But she did not understand the desire for males and not so for females. Having their name continue, she could grasp, but her Father said that these types of families often used their daughters as possessions that could be bought and sold for the sake of their name.

“I may have extended family, but I am not sure.” Aria commented. “Mother and Father said that when they decided to join the community, their families stopped talking to them. I do not understand why.” That was an understatement for Aria. She really couldn’t understand. The community was a place where good happened. There was a sense of belonging, of warmth, and of love. Everyone was there for everyone else. If someone was lost, the community would try to help them find their way again. Aria didn’t understand why her parents’ families would find this to be so awful that they stopped communicating with them altogether.

Aria smiled pleasantly to Liam. “It must be lovely to have a cooked meal by your mother. Especially a meal that was passed through the family.” She commented. She remained mum on the elf talk though because Aria did not believe that the elves should be servants to magical beings. They were wonderful and rather powerful in their own magic. “We usually eat in the Hall. The members of the community who work well in the kitchen create our daily foods. It’s delicious, but not family oriented like yours.” Usually, she ate with her friends and not her parents. It was how it was for most of the members.

Aria dropped the powdered ginger root into her potion and stirred it counter-clockwise, watching as it darkened. Her potion had come out looking relatively good. At least it was a deep red, which she hoped was the correct color. She felt bad for Liam though since his potion was looking less hopeful. “I’ll keep my faith that it’ll lighten.” Aria commented, looking over at him. “You can see if the book has a remedy for when the potion is too dark? I’m sure there has to be something somewhere to rectify it, right?” Her potion was done, so she placed a test sample into the vial and placed a stopper in it. She would hand this in along with the essay. In the meantime, she turned to help Liam. “Sometimes, if you put too much of one ingredient in, you can balance it out by adding a bit more of another ingredient.”

0 Aria Just stay positive! 0 Aria 0 5

Henry

October 08, 2012 7:35 PM

We're blending our skills rather well so far by Henry

Henry glanced, feeling a little suspicious, at Honey when she called him ‘sir,’ wondering if she was mocking him somehow for the compliment on the roots, but she didn’t look as though she were making fun. He knew that look very well, he thought, after years of dealing with his younger brother. Brandon made no attempt to act innocent when making…remarks. “You’re welcome,” he said.

He nodded when she said she’d work on shelling the sopophorous bean. “All right,” he said, once again refraining from adding any additional suggestions, though it was easier this time, now that she had prove herself in the matter of the roots. So far, this partnership thing was not going as poorly as he might have feared, so it seemed safe and reasonable enough to let it continue the way it had been going until – unless, he corrected himself – she messed something up. He needed his mind to stay on making the perfect infusion anyway, so that his part of the potion could not be blamed for anything that went wrong.

He had just deemed it done when she finished the bean, and he looked over the intact shell with appropriate respect. Being asked about his name immediately after that was a surprise, but he had been the one who brought the subject up. “I wouldn’t bet against you,” Henry said neutrally to her thought that she might be the only Honey Baird. He could imagine mishearing it as honey-bird and thinking it was an endearment, or else literally honey put in a little bird-shaped mold as a fancy way to sweeten hot tea. Grandmother might do something like that. He liked his better cold with sugar.

“Most of the Henrys are from Virginia,” he said. “Named after one Henry – their patriarch’s brother. He’s very respected.” Or something like that. Henry wasn’t completely clear on why, but he had gotten the impression that the oldest Virginia Henry was not someone that anyone wanted to be on the wrong side of. Henry could respect that. It would be pleasant to be someone that no one else dared to cross, he thought. A far cry from the half-Squib second son of a second son….”I wasn’t named after him. My mother had a brother named Henry. He died.” He looked up from measuring out salamander scales long enough to jerk his chin toward his older brother, who was chatting with two other second years. Henry approved of that; it meant Jay wasn’t spying on him. “My brother’s name is James, that’s even more common. There’s one of them in every branch of my family, but only in ours because my mother had a brother named that, too. He also died.”

He finished measuring out scales. “I suppose we can begin combining ingredients now,” he said. “Er – how did you get your name?” He was supposed to make conversation, and the answer couldn’t be much worse than two dead uncles, he guessed, unless it was a dead mother, but that wasn’t too likely.

0 Henry We're blending our skills rather well so far 0 Henry 0 5

Jay

October 09, 2012 7:57 PM

That's the spirit! by Jay

“That’s true,” Jay said, not seeing anything wrong with it, when Aria commented that her father had said some families liked having sons to carry on the family name. “Ours…should be safe, though, my parents had three boys, and so did my uncle, and Father says no one has sons if someone doesn’t have a few daughters. Girls are important, too. To our family, anyway. My great-great-grandmother and my aunt are both highly respected.” Aunt Lorraine probably more than Uncle Anthony, if the truth was told. And Jay would hate to be the person who tried to tell Theresa that she wasn’t important, or Diana that she couldn’t do something Brandon did. Someone would have to explain that to Di, sooner or later, at least, but he was glad that it would not be him. “There’s a saying, my sister likes it – everyone has something to contribute, each in his – or her – own way.”

He had modified it a little, of course, and changed the language, since Anthony the Second’s first language had been French, but his tone was still almost recitational. It had always seemed to just make sense, on an intrinsic level, to Theresa more than it had to him, but that was one of the things he’d been taught along with his letters and basic numbers. Everyone was supposed to be good at something, and to use being good at that something to serve the family. That was as basic as not disrespecting his mother at the table.

Jay winced when Aria said that her family had cut her parents off when they joined her community. “I’m so sorry,” he said. As chaotic as his house could get, he wouldn’t want to be rejected by it, or to see that happen to any of his brothers and sisters. Not that he thought it would ever happen – even Brandon and Diana, at their worst, didn’t go so far that removing them from the family tree was necessary for the good of everyone else – but still, it wasn’t a good thought.

When she said that meals weren’t family-oriented in her community, Jay wondered if it was a place for disowned people. He guessed it was good that they had a place, and could find support from each other, especially since some families were supposed to be much hastier about sending people away than his was, instead of it being supposedly only for the very worst cases who would not respond to correction.

He was distracted, though, by what was going on with Liam’s cauldron. He was pretty sure it wasn’t supposed to smoke and hiss like that. Finishing his up and seeing that it did not do that, but did turn…a shade of red, anyway, though he thought it wasn’t really the one he’d seen on Crotali during the Opening Feast, made him think it even more. “That makes sense,” he agreed when Aria said that balancing the ingredients might work. “It’s probably worth a try, anyway.”

0 Jay That's the spirit! 0 Jay 0 5

Liam

October 10, 2012 10:25 AM

I get by with a little help from my friends by Liam

Liam flipped through the pages of his potions text book to see if there was any way to salvage his potion. He wasn’t entirely sure what had gone wrong, but it was looking pretty grim. The Pecari was mostly disappointed because this had been one of his better classes last year, and if this was an omen for how the rest of his courses were going to go, maybe he’d be better of dropping out of wizard school. He managed to pay attention to Jay and Aria’s conversation, and agreed with both of them. He and his brothers would carry on their father’s name, but his little sisters were equally as important.

He was a little thrown by Aria’s comment about her parents and what happened when they decided to join her community. His gaze shifted over to the girl briefly, and while he felt bad about her extended family’s decision, he couldn’t help but wonder why. Liam had seen similar stories on the news about fanatical religious cults that drew people in, and cut them off from the rest of their families and brainwashed them. Aria didn’t seem like a cult member…but Liam guess that if she were, they wouldn’t let her go to a school away from their influence where she was at risk of having her mind opened. Plus, whenever she spoke about her community, it was usually about the group as a whole—and not some crazy overbearing leader who was trying to marry her or anything.

It was probably more likely that she was part of one of those Commune things that were so popular in Oregon. A group of people, living together in self-sufficient, eco-friendly villages to minimize their carbon footprint and bring them closer to nature…or something. Aria seemed to fit that bill—with her non meat eating and respect for all creatures thing. Liam couldn’t quite piece together why someone would be disowned for that though, unless of course the girls grandparents thought that communes were cults in a way. Or they really enjoyed bacon and couldn’t fathom someone walking away from that. Liam felt really sad for Aria in that moment—he couldn’t possibly imagine life without bacon.

“That must be tough.” He replied, tucking his feelings aside to echo Jay’s sentiment about Ari being detached from her extended family.

“We used to have family dinners more often, but it’s different now.” He said, trying to avoid talking about his dad and how mom had to work two jobs and all that sad emotional stuff that no one wanted to hear about during class. “But eating with your friends all the time is fun, is the Hall back home like the one here?” He asked, his stomach grumbling slightly at his continued thoughts about food. Jay hadn’t commented on it, but in Liam’s head the Carey’s ate at a really long, massive table, and they probably had a diamond chandelier and drank from crystal goblets that were thousands of years old. That was a far way off from the paper plates and Solo cups used in the Ammon household, but it seemed appropriate for Jay’s family.

Liam really appreciate that Aria and Jay were trying to help him with his disastrous potion, and figured he’d give it a try. After some not-so-quick math, Liam began to add additional amounts of the ingredients to his potion.

“Who would have thought a tiny drop of that infusion could kill my potion.” He said, somewhat rhetorically as he fished out the bits of yaupon leaves floating atop his potion. It wasn’t smoking as much, and as he added more daisy roots and stirred, it took on the hue of a dark brick. So this wasn’t his best potion. At least it was red now, instead of reddish black.

“Thanks guys.” Liam replied with a small smile as he filled his phial and stoppered it. Eventually, he hoped to be able to brew potions, and talk with his classmates at the same time. Multitasking obviously wasn’t the second year’s strong suit, but he was glad that his peers at least helped him to mostly correct his potion. Liam labeled his sample, and tidied up his work area so he could proceed with the essay portion of the lesson.

“I guess I know what I’ll be writing about: The horrors or sopophorous beans and how to correct a floundering potion—by Liam Ammon.”

5 Liam I get by with a little help from my friends 37 Liam 0 5

Aria

October 13, 2012 2:06 AM

Am I your friend? by Aria

“That’s good that the girls in your family are important.” Aria commented lightly. “My parents said that sometimes girls are used as leverage for families. Sometimes they are nothing more than property that they buy and sell to other families.” Aria had no hint of judgement in her words, just facts to what her parents had told her. “But, this was the world they knew long before the community. I do not know how accurate it may still be.” Aria had no problem with admitting any flaws in her thoughts. Her word was the word of her parents and they had been living in the community since their early twenties. They were now nearing their fifties (they were much older when they decided to start a family). Who was to say what really went on in the world outside of the walls?

Aria blinked at the two of them when they both agreed that her family being cut off from their relatives was something to feel bad about. Aria did not think this was the case. If her parents families really loved them, they would have supported their choice to remove themselves from the material world. There were ways of communicating and they weren’t completely cut-off from society. They just secluded themselves from it. “Not really.” She replied to Liam’s comment. “I have never met them. My parents had been living in the community for nearly twenty years by the time they had me. They are nothing more than stories.” Aria shrugged. She didn’t know how she felt about her parents’ extended families other than mistrust and detachment. She knew that her mother missed them, but her father never really talked about them. Maybe it was still hard for them, she wasn’t sure.

“Different?” Aria asked, unsure if she was supposed to. “Because you are a Wizard?” He had mentioned that his mother was a Muggle, so if he were Muggleborn, that would be a huge change in the family. “Eating with friends is nice. Sometimes we’ll eat as a family, but usually the kids eat together and the adults have their own meal time. Except for holidays. At holidays we have festivities and everyone eats together.” Aria commented with a smile. She loved holidays. The festivals were always so much fun.

Aria felt bad about Liam’s potion, so she really hoped that it started to perk up. It wouldn’t feel right if he received an awful grade when he had worked so hard at it. At his question, Aria answered it as simply as she could, “The Potion Maker.” He would have been the one to clearly know that more than three drops would have ruined the potion. Aria was oblivious to the fact that Liam was asking a rhetorical question to make a joke out of the situation.

She giggled at the title of his essay, “Do you think the Professor would find that funny?” Aria asked. “It is very cheeky.”

0 Aria Am I your friend? 0 Aria 0 5

Jay

October 15, 2012 6:57 PM

Re: Am I your friend? by Jay

“I suppose that might be true in some places,” Jay said after a pause, uncomfortable with Aria’s terminology. It was very…stark. He didn’t necessarily agree with Mother saying that they should always say things were prettier than they really were, but there was no doubt that it did make some things more comfortable, such as being pretty sure that his great-great-grandfather saw them all, girls and boys alike, exactly the way Aria had said some families saw girls. Everyone knew it – that they were all tools for the family to use as it would was one of the things Mother had always especially loved giving them long lectures on; it was the one thing she and Grandmother had in common – but the Fourth was usually kind on the rare occasions family members as unimportant as Jay spoke to him directly, and that was enough. “I, er, don't think my sisters would take it well, though.”

He guessed that was being uncharitable – they had, after a lot of extra lessons which had typically left his sister either white- or red-faced and furious and half the time in tears, but which she would say nothing about except that she hated them and anything else it occurred to her to name just then, made Theresa a lot more ladylike – but he didn’t think it was completely impossible, either. Girls in his family, he thought, with a few exceptions like poor Lucille, weren’t usually too good at being meek and demure. Aunt Catherine came a lot closer to the mark than Theresa or Diana ever had, and she could, as she’d demonstrated a few times during birthday parties and other occasions when his father’s siblings all came together, outduel Uncle Anthony any day of the week if she put her glasses on. Though Mother did say that girls hadn’t been held to standards as high as they were now in the old days.

He couldn’t imagine having grandparents who were just stories. The family disapproved of his maternal grandparents very much, but they still saw them, just not as much as they did – or had, he thought, glancing at Henry again – Grandmother and Grandfather Carey. They had even let Mother name all three of her sons after people from her family; Brandon’s was just a middle name, but he and Henry had been named after her brothers, and it was hard to mistake him, at least, for anything else, since Mother had tacked her maiden name on as his second name. Family was everything; he didn’t know how his immediate family would even get by without Uncle Anthony and Aunt Lorraine, and he almost viewed his cousins just as extra, if more important, brothers. The only visions of the future he had, the only things he was almost sure would happen, involved them all regularly getting together and trying to manage the twenty or thirty-something kids they were sure to have between the nine of them. Thinking of being just one child with some parents and a social circle was…weird.

He didn’t say anything else about it, though, and found her descriptions of mealtimes more familiar. “We used to eat separately – the kids, I mean,” he said. “My cousins usually eat with their parents now, when they’re home, but we don’t, not always. Everyone but my littlest sister gets to eat at the big table at Great-Great-Grandfather’s on special occasions now, though.”

Jay chuckled at Aria’s deadpan answer about who’d know that such a small error could affect the potion. “Professor Fawcett probably would, too, but he probably thought we needed to learn it ourselves,” he said. “Adults. But now we know.”

He laughed, too, at the proposed essay title. “I like it,” he said, then lowered his voice. “I don’t know about Fawcett, though. My cousin Arnold swears he has a sense of humor, but putting up with Arnold could just mean he really likes Quidditch.” Jay didn’t see his Head of House as unapproachable, just as someone he had never had much of a reason to approach except for an explanation of something about his first essay, so he wasn’t sure about it.

0 Jay Re: Am I your friend? 0 Jay 0 5

Liam

October 17, 2012 12:12 AM

I'd like to think so. by Liam

Liam winced at Aria’s comment about girls being used as leverage to gain a high standing within some families. He knew that would never happen in his family, at least not if he had anything to say about it. Maybe it was due to all of the comics he read, but Liam definitely had a hero complex when it came to the girls in his family. He knew that what Aria was saying was true, but the thought of sending Ramona or Alexis off to some family they hardly knew for wealth or any other sort of profit made his stomach hurt. He was glad when Jay essential denied that his family took part in that kind of behavior. Maybe pure bloods weren’t so bad after all—Jay’s family anyway.

The Pecari was a little surprised when Aria shrugged off her extended family. Liam guessed that if they weren’t in your life that it wouldn’t make that much of a difference in the long run, but he would have been a little curious. Oh well, as long as she wasn’t worried about it, he didn’t really have a reason to be either.

He felt a lump of emotion in his throat as Aria asked for clarification on why things were different at his house. He wondered if he should take the easy route, and say it was because he was a wizard, but that wasn’t entirely true. He’d been skirting the issue for so long that it seemed to be weighing him down; maybe it’d be nice to talk to someone about his dad.

“Mom has been really busy the past few years, so we started eating a lot of take out, and pizza and stuff. I’m not great at it, but I used to watch the cooking channel so I could try and learn new things to make for my sisters, and sometimes we’d still eat together, but it wasn’t really the same as when everyone was there. That stopped, obviously when I came here, so I don’t know what they do now.” He said with a shrug hoping that would be an acceptable answer. Liam was surprised that the concept of the kids table seemed to span all three lifestyles. Liam realized that maybe he’d been looking at everyone all wrong—and focusing on the differences rather than the similarities. No wonder he’d had so much trouble in transfiguration.

Liam laughed along with Jay as Aria answered his question—not that he was looking for one, but he appreciated it none the less. He somehow doubted that she knew what sarcasm was, which made it even funnier.

“Live and learn!” He said with a smile as he made the title official on his parchment. “Cheeky yes, and while I don’t know how well it’s going to go over, I imagine anyone who has encountered that bean must have felt the same way. Besides, it’s the content of the essay that matters, not the title.” He said, taking his own words to heart.

5 Liam I'd like to think so. 37 Liam 0 5