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
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Professor John Fawcett
Lesson I for Beginners (1st and 2nd years)
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Professor John Fawcett
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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.
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Aria Yale, Teppenpaw
Chitchatting away.
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Aria Yale, Teppenpaw
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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.
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Jay Carey, Aladren
Chitchatting back
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Jay Carey, Aladren
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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.
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Liam Ammon, Pecari
Hanging from the eaves
37
Liam Ammon, Pecari
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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?”
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Aria
Is it fun there?
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Aria
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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.
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Jay
It sounds like it would be hard to work there
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Jay
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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.
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Liam Ammon
It'd be better with friends...
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Liam Ammon
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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.
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Aria
I'm not sure I have those.
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Aria
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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.
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Jay
We're the Group of Misfit Beginners
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Jay
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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.
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Liam
It's better than going it alone
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Liam
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.
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Aria
That is very true.
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Aria
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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
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Jay
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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.
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Liam
I'm having a few of those right now
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Liam
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.
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Aria
Doubts? Why?
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Aria
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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?
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Jay
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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
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.”
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Aria
Just stay positive!
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Aria
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.”
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Jay
That's the spirit!
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Jay
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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.”
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Liam
I get by with a little help from my friends
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Liam
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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.”
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Aria
Am I your friend?
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Aria
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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.
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Jay
Re: Am I your friend?
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Jay
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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.
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Liam
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5