Intermediate Potions (Years III, IV, & V) on Potions

Professor Yu

November 15, 2014 10:39 PM

Intermediate Potions (Years III, IV, & V) by Professor Yu

Now that they were just over mid-way through the term, Diana was slightly concerned about her Intermediate and Advanced level students. The end of the year was approaching and the stress from CATS and RATS was sure to be taking a toll on them. She was sure that worrying about finding a date to the Midsummer Ball was somewhere in the mix of it all but the level of which it stressed her students, Diana didn’t know. To be perfectly honest, she’d never really needed to worry about it as she’d been homeschooled up until Wizarding College at which point there was honestly no need to worry about that sort of thing. Any balls that her family had been invited to she had attended with them, as a family, and it was there that she had been permitted to accept dance invitations from appropriate young wizards if her parents deemed them to be so. As it was, the only thing she knew about that was hearing her cousins complain about the need for dates or reading about that sort of thing in magazines that she sometimes bought with leftover change from doing the grocery shopping and then sneaked home from the store. She did, however, understand the stress of studying for large exams and preparing oneself to go out into the world and so had extra sympathy for the fifth and seventh years.

She had already been assigning separate homework for the CATS and RATS students in order to prepare them for the exam and had offered advice or extra office hours to any student whose essays fell short. If her students passed these tests then it would reflect well not only on them but also their families and the school. It was only a bonus that her family name would also be well reflected by her working at a school with good students and according to her parents, upholding the Yu name following the “disaster” they had termed that winter holiday with Stephen and Henry was quite necessary.

“Good afternoon, class,” Diana said once all her Intermediate students had settled in. Having her class in a two hour block right before dinner wasn’t necessarily her favorite as sometimes she worried her students would be thinking more about the approaching meal than the actual assignment at hand, but Diana had learned to make do with it by trying to keep her Intermediate class engaged with spontaneous, oral quizzes towards the end of the class that could result in extra credit points if they chose to participate. “This week, as you all know, we have been learning the Invigoration Draught. Today we will be putting our knowledge to practical use. Now, as it is considered to be a CATS level potion, third and fourth years are permitted to partner up and in fact I advise you do some inter year mixing. However, I would like the fifth years to try their best to do it on their own. Of course, if you need any help I will be here to answer any questions.”

Diana reached over to the chalk board and flipped it around to reveal where she had detailed out the lesson plan for that day including the ingredients list as well which ingredients could be substituted out if absolutely necessary. “Now,” she said. “Obviously, since we are in a classroom with an extensive storage for Potions in the back I don’t want anyone making any of these substitutions for today. But I included this up here mainly for the fifth years who should take note of these ingredients for studying for their CATS. Third and fourth years I advise you to also write these down but it is not completely necessary.”

Since they had come back from the winter holiday, Diana had been making note of which ingredients were allowed to be substituted for the benefit of her fifth year students and by now she was certain that those who liked to keep their notes organized and up to date would have a pretty well put together list of ingredients that had substitutes. “While this particular potion calls for essence of pine and wormwood, you can generally substitute either out for one of the other five essential oils which are?”

She waited for a student to finish her sentence-- the answer* wasn’t too hard, she had a “5 Essential Oil” poster on her classroom wall more because she thought it had pretty artwork than because she was too committed to those particular oils. “But keep in mind that most potions will lose a considerable amount of its effectiveness when substitutions are made. In general it is not advisable to substitute more than one ingredient because then the potion will become a whole new one. I would also discourage experimenting at this level without a parent’s approval and supervision.”

As she set them to work, Diana reminded them to bottle a sample for grading and that their final product should be “colorless but slightly cloudy with light purple smoke and a salty smell to it.”

OOC: Creative, realistic posts are worth more points. If Diana is needed, please tag Professor Yu in the subject line. Posting rules apply. Please remember to add your house after your name so your points can go to the right place :) Have fun!

Ingredient list in order of use:
-Ginger root; boiled in a mixture of armadillo bile and essence of pine
-Next slice some dandelion root and squeeze a few drops of essence of wormwood onto them; set aside and let soak
-Meanwhile, grind dried flying seahorses until a fine powder
-Once the potion is a light blue, add the dandelion root & wormwood mixture
-Add a few more drops of essence of pine
-When the potion becomes green, stir in the seahorses.
-Keep stirring until potion is colorless and slightly cloudy with light purple smoke. There should be a slight salty smell to it.

*The answer she is looking for is orange, mine and rosemary.

Subthreads:

A wandering mind by Duncan Brockert, Teppenpaw

10 Professor Yu Intermediate Potions (Years III, IV, & V) 0 Professor Yu 1 5

Duncan Brockert, Teppenpaw

November 23, 2014 1:58 AM

A wandering mind by Duncan Brockert, Teppenpaw

More than halfway into his third year and Duncan still had yet to make contact with any spirits here at Sonora. He couldn't believe it. There was no way a place this big and old didn't have any. His own house was large, but of course not as large as the school and it had several. Therefore, the Teppenpaw refused to accept that Sonora wasn't haunted.

But it felt like he'd checked everywhere. Multiple times, in fact, while trying not to attract attention or get in trouble. Of course, Duncan could have probably done more if it wasn't for things like classes and homework. Not that classes were boring or anything necessarily, it was just that, well,he felt kind of lonely a lot. For whatever reason, he just hadn't been able to connect with his classmates. He supposed he'd gotten on with Lilianna all right but she seemed to have lots of other friends, especially Atlas.

Maybe Mother was right and he was completely socially maladjusted. Him and his sister both. Duncan didn't think their mother was very happy about Juniper becoming a vegetarian, though he couldn't see what the problem was. It seemed like Mother just didn't want them to be seen as odd in some way. Like she thought it reflected poorly on her or something.

Perhaps there actually was something wrong with him after all. That he was weird or even creepy. Merlin, he hoped people didn't think he was creepy. Duncan really did want people to like him. He just....didn't really know how. Of course, he'd learned the rules of etiquette but they just didn't seem to apply in everyday life. They worked at dinners and parties but not so much in the classroom. Nor was even dining in the Hall as formal as he'd been taught.

This was what was going through his head during Potions. In fact, he hadn't been really paying attention to the lesson and truthfully, he felt kind of embarrassed. He had to cover. Duncan put on a pleasant smile and turned to his neighbor "Would you like to work with me?" He asked, hoping he'd catch on to what they were doing. They'd been learning about the Invigoration Draught, so perhaps they were making one?

11 Duncan Brockert, Teppenpaw A wandering mind 271 Duncan Brockert, Teppenpaw 0 5

Liliana Bannister, Pecari

November 23, 2014 2:25 AM

A tardy witch. by Liliana Bannister, Pecari

Liliana had been running late all day. She’d been so close to being late in Defense which was odd because it was her favorite subject and she’d missed breakfast. But as of late she had just been in a funk. As it was, instead of going to the library in between Care of Magical Creatures and Potions, she decided to go back up to the Pecari dorms and take a quick nap. However, what Liliana didn’t count on was her alarm clock’s failure to work. She was the only witch in their year that was in Pecari too, so she didn’t have a roommate to wake her and instead Liliana woke only a few minutes before she realized she was supposed to be in the Potions classroom.

It was with a look of horror at the time that she grabbed her bag-- notes flying everywhere as she’d forgotten to properly close it when tossing it onto her desk chair and it had tipped a few of the contents out onto the space. Liliana let out a groan because it seemed that anytime she was in a hurry everything just happened to go wrong. She absentmindedly grabbed a couple pieces of parchment and a quill, tossing them into her bag with one hand and grabbing her Potions kit with the other. She let her dorm room door bang shut, and as she raced off to the Potions classroom, she heard the echoes of it down the hallway.

A clock on the wall indicated that she was no more than two and a half minutes late and she smiled sheepishly at Professor Yu as she slid into the first seat she saw and tipped the parchment and quill out onto her desk. Perfect. She’d left her textbook behind and about half of the parchment was unusable. At least she’d had the luck to grab a self-inking quill, Liliana thought to herself glumly as she tried her best to scribble down notes into the margins of her Transfiguration notes.

Once Yu set them to work, however, Liliana puckered her forehead and turned to the person sitting next to her hoping that they weren’t a fifth year since the fifth years had been instructed to work alone and as she didn’t have a text book she was desperately in need of a partner. However, before she could ask, Duncan Brockert opened his mouth.

"Would you like to work with me?" he asked with a smile and Liliana returned it. She liked Duncan. He was interesting and they’d had an adventure sometime the year before, looking for ghosts. Other than that, she really hadn’t had much of a chance to talk to him but she figured that was because she spent most of her free time hanging out with Atlas in the Pecari common room or else, practicing Quidditch. And, as Duncan was neither a Pecari nor on the Pecari Quidditch Team, she just never really ran into him enough to strike up another conversation.

“Of course!” She said happily, flicking her braid over her shoulder. “I’m in desperate need of a partner was just about to ask you myself-- I seem to have forgotten my Potions book in my room.”

10 Liliana Bannister, Pecari A tardy witch. 274 Liliana Bannister, Pecari 0 5

Duncan

December 03, 2014 5:15 PM

We're certainly a pair. by Duncan

As it turned out, Duncan had asked Liliana and he couldn't help but be happy about this. She was most likely his best shot at a friend and she was even from a good family which would please his parents. His father didn't seem as disappointed in him as his mother was in him and Juniper both but he too firmly believed in Duncan making the right connections. It was just part of being a member of pureblood society. Albeit an occasionally difficult one. Like the year below his didn't have well...many people at all. Aside from Liliana, the only girls from good families near his age were related to him.

"Of course." Just because his mind had been wandering and he hadn't paid attention to the beginning of class didn't mean he'd totally forgotten everything. Duncan knew to make sure he had the supplies needed. It was just that once he'd gotten to class, he'd gotten distracted. His bag had already been packed when he'd previously been actually thinking about doing so.

Not that he was judging Liliana for not having her book. People made mistakes, including himself right now. In fact, that she hadn't brought her book actually made him feel a little better. Hopefully, she'd be understanding of the fact that he didn't entirely know what was going on. Granted, as she'd been late, she most likely didn't either.

Of course, now Duncan had to come clean with her on this. "Um, I have to admit, I wasn't paying particular attention during the lecture." He braced himself, hoping she wouldn't get angry. If nothing else, he'd like for them to be friends and he didn't want to mess that up at all. "But we were working with Invigoration Draughts before so I think it's something on that. Did you catch any of it?" He had taken notes on the subject earlier which he had with him so there was at least that.

11 Duncan We're certainly a pair. 271 Duncan 0 5

Liliana

December 04, 2014 2:12 AM

A pair of proper scatterbrains. by Liliana

That Duncan wasn’t particularly prepared was quite nice-- it made her feel less bad for not having it all together that day. Although it meant that they probably at a disadvantage to the rest of the class, Liliana didn’t think it would be too difficult since Professor Yu always seemed to write the day’s lesson plan on the board almost as if she expected students to not pay attention during her lectures. Privately, Liliana thought that was the reason why she was doing well in Potions. Both Potions and Transfiguration required a certain amount of concentration and both she struggled with. The difference being that she was able to get by with As and Es with the aide of Yu’s study guides and she had to go to outside resources like Atlas for help with Transfiguration.

“Awesome!” She said smiling and flattening out her Transfiguration/Potions notes out on the table in front of her. She squinted so she could read her handwriting. “I’m sorry, my notes aren’t too good.” She shrugged. “It was a bad morning. And I overslept during our break just now. So this was all I managed to grab before getting back to class. Yu did write out the lesson plan on the board though, I suppose we could just follow along up there, right?”

Liliana started to use the last little bit of unwritten space on her pieces of paper when she realized that Duncan probably had some of his own paper. “Would you mind if I borrowed a couple pieces of parchment for the lesson? I promise to give you some of mine after dinner if you like.” Since Intermediate Potions was the time block right before dinner and Liliana didn’t like carrying around anything extra that she didn’t need, she had been planning on returning to the Pecari dorms to put away her school bag at which point it would be quite easy to pick up a few sheets of parchment to return Duncan’s favor.

“So,” Liliana continued after Duncan replied, opening her potions kit to see what sorts of ingredients she already had for the potion. “What sorts of things do you like to do? Other than-- do you have any dried seahorses? I seem to be one short for the potion.” She puckered her forehead for a moment and carefully counted out the correct amount of dandelion root before placing it on the table space between them and finishing the question she was going to ask him. “Sorry, what was I saying? Oh yes, what do you like to do in your spare time besides looking for ghosts?” Her tone of voice was friendly and she was genuinely curious. Her time that day with Duncan had been fun and she thought it would be interesting to ghost hunt with him again, but she also had other interests such as dance, Quidditch, and getting up to no good with her cousins. However, since she was the only of the Rosenthals out in America her mischief skills had somewhat diminished and she’d become more of a rule abider than a rule breaker.

10 Liliana A pair of proper scatterbrains. 274 Liliana 0 5