Beginner Potions (1st and 2nd Years!) on Potions

Professor Fawcett

June 12, 2013 12:21 PM

Beginner Potions (1st and 2nd Years!) by Professor Fawcett

It was difficult to tell from a Sorting and what he had observed during an opening speech, but John thought they had a fairly interesting group of first years this time around. He had not noticed or heard of any immediate rivalries beginning to play out, which offered some hope that they might be a reasonably peaceful year group, too. It was a good situation, a very good situation so far, and only one thing remained to determine the character of this year’s beginner class: their aptitude for academics.

“Welcome,” he said loudly when it was time to begin class. “Welcome, welcome. Welcome, students.”

He looked around the room, and some of it looked back at him: a tall, thin man of indeterminate (he had, he had always taken a certain amount of irrational pride in thinking, very good genes) but clearly beginning-to-advance age, in square, wire-rimmed bifocal glasses and dark robes which would hide ink stains on his sleeves well enough. His once-dark hair was graying, but was still all originally his, and his expression was purposefully mild. His Muggleborn wife’s nieces had once concluded that Uncle Professor, as they called him, did not really look like a grandfather, but that he could have, if his accent had been English rather than vague and slightly southeastern, almost passed for an Inkling. Their aunt, Allison, had not told them his own father had named him for John Milton; John supposed he must have looked more serious than he had really meant to when he threated to divorce her if she did. They were not, he knew, a conventional married couple – for one thing, they hardly saw each other nine months out of the year – but they were very fond of each other in their own way, he and Allison, and each knew the other sometimes had found their fathers’ excesses a bit much. John had been nearly forty before he had ever read a word of Paradise Lost.

“For those who I have not had the pleasure of meeting,” he said, “I am Professor Fawcett, your instructor in Potions. I welcome you to Potions as well as to the school and hope we shall have a very productive five to seven years together.

“This is much more likely if you each carefully read and take note of the contents of your syllabus,” he said, waving his wand and sending a document to each student’s desk. “Here you will find a copy of the rules of this classroom – simply put, you are to arrive on time, hand in your work on time as a general rule, treat me and your classmates with respect, and do not endanger your own safety or anyone else’s.” Here his expression turned sterner. “That last point is particularly important. I may, depending on the circumstances, be prepared to offer extensions on work if there is a good reason for me to do so, just as I will make every effort to accommodate any learning or ethical difficulties you experience in this class, but there is no reason for you to deliberately take foolish chances. If you wish to run around, do it in the Gardens, and if you wish to experiment with Potions beyond what we do in class, you may speak to me about setting up controlled situations for that, but you will not risk the lives and limbs of every student in here by deliberately failing to follow directions or misbehaving.”

He allowed his expression to become milder again as he went on. “You will also find in the syllabus descriptions of the planned topics for each week and descriptions and due dates for major assignments,” he said. “I reserve the right, of course, to change this schedule at any time, and we will discuss the major assignments and how to complete them more as they draw closer.” He spent most of a class period each year just taking the students through the writing procedures, but it was necessary information for them to know and he found it quicker to teach them than to let them fumble through it on their own. A holdover from his days in the social sciences, he supposed.

“For now, we will begin our class with what we must begin all potions with: our ingredients.” He flicked his wand again, this time sending only a single sheet of parchment to each student. A line of pictures with the names of common ingredients marched down each of these sheets. “By the time you take your CATS, at the end of your fifth year, a knowledge of how certain common potion items work and work together is expected of you. Many of these would not, in nature, grow well at Sonora, but happily, we have resources beyond the grounds. If everyone would get out a writing instrument and follow me….” He had done this lesson before, but had changed the method a bit, making it simpler for them to complete and him to grade, and thought they should enjoy it. If nothing else, it would be a break from the string of desks which could be overwhelming.

OOC: Welcome to Potions! Part two of this lesson can be found here in the Mirage Chamber. You may respond to this post if you want (following all the standard posting rules!) but do not need to if you do not want to.

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