The colors they are a-changing (1st and 2nd Years) on Potions

Professor Fawcett

January 05, 2014 10:54 PM

The colors they are a-changing (1st and 2nd Years) by Professor Fawcett

"Hello, everyone," John said to the beginners' class. "I hope you had a pleasant weekend without homework from me and are well-rested and ready to get back to work.

"Today, we'll look at how picking time - specifically, the picking of fluxweed during different phases of the moon - can affect an ingredient's usefulness in potion-making," he told them. "Each of you, I'm sure, has noticed that you and a seatmate have three small cauldrons in front of you, which have been stewing over the weekend. It's a simple color-changing potion, currently composed of lacewing flies, achiote seeds, and a touch of powdered moonstone. Your tasks are to add slips of fluxweed from the labeled packets also at your stations to each cauldron, stir, and observe the effects."

There were also three packets, labeled Full Moon, New Moon, and Half Moon. "One to each cauldron, stir three times, and observe and record," he said. "You want to see a deep red dye, which should occur with the slips picked at New Moon. Observe the shades - " a muddy, sickly orangish-green and something like purple, respectively - "which occur with the full and half moon-picked weeds, think of reasons why they might not have given you what you want.

"Once you've done that, turn to chapter eight in your texts and study the first five pages together, then write up a simple explanation, perhaps a foot, of how the phases of the moon affects the use of fluxweed in potion-making," he concluded. These assignments tended to be tedious, both for students not very interested in even the basic descriptions of chemical levels rising and falling in different moon phases and points in the plant life cycle provided in their texts to write and for him to read, but they were important; writing it down themselves would, his theory books assured him, increase the amount of material retained, and this was important. Fluxweed, with its changeability-inducing properties, was a common ingredient in potions and one the students would need a good grip on before their CATS. "As usual, if anyone has any questions and your partner is also stumped, raise your hand and I'll come to you," he said. This potion was not particularly combustible, so he did not feel the need to reiterate the emergency protocol, which was, essentially, to move in the opposite direction quite quickly.

OOC: Welcome back to Potions! As usual, all posting rules apply: at least 200 words, good spelling and grammar, realism, and creativity earns your House more points! Tag Fawcett if you need him and have fun!

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Leo Princeton, Crotalus

January 11, 2014 5:13 PM

Are they now? by Leo Princeton, Crotalus

Homework. Oh, how Leo loathed homework. The mere mention of it was enough to give him chills. And yet, there was so blooming much of it; he was up to his ears in it and it certainly wasn’t going anywhere. Leo had been skipping Quidditch practises lately and refused to hear Cepheus lecture him about it. His marks were in dire need of that extra attention, not to mention extra sleep, and Leo wasn’t about to fail his courses for a stupid sport he didn’t even enjoy anymore.

Professor Fawcett was currently his favourite professor for not assigning homework over the weekend. It would have been very pleasant if he hadn’t had work for his other classes. If only these professors could coordinate in giving their students no homework on the same weekend and give their poor brains a break. Young lads like him needed time to recuperate.

The lack of homework, however, did not mean there was no class on Monday. He trudged down the corridor to the classroom that always struck his olfactory senses in not such a pleasant way. He took a seat towards the back, finding himself earlier than usual. Most days he would be racing against the clock to make it on time and a little more than a quarter of the time he was tardy. As a subconscious reward to his professor, Leo had started a little earlier to class and so graced his professor with his presence early on. There were many more seat choices at this time of the day.

Leo looked into the three cauldrons curiously. All three looked the same and as he listened to what they were doing, he appreciated Fawcett even more. It was going to be an easy lesson today, though the whole idea of writing essays still wasn’t a big favourite of Leo’s. He had relied very heavily on his brother his first year to receive the passing marks that he had. Leo looked at his seat-mate once group work started and smiled. He was a charming manipulator if he didn’t necessarily have the brains for academics or ambition for anything but his own gain. “Would you prefer to add the fluxweed or record our observations?”

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