Slowly but surely, I'm improving. on Potions

Professor Yu

January 27, 2015 4:20 AM

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

While she waited for the Intermediate class to take their seats and settle down, Diana straightened the stack of papers to her right nervously. In a few moments, after she had dismissed the class to begin work on that day's potion she would be handing back their exam from last week, but the reaction of her students was not the reasoning behind her nervous tick. That summer she had met a weird man who lived in her brother's apartment building in London and kept to himself in a very odd way. The others of the building were quite friendly with each other, constantly saying hello and bringing over baked dishes--Diana had needed to work extra hard to rid herself of the extra pounds she had put on from eating Mrs. Craylin's magical lemon tarts, but this wizard in particular was rude, rebuffing and gave her the creeps. She had been glad to escape him when she got to Sonora but to her horror, he had appeared as the gruff substitute teacher for the Beginners Defense Against the Dark Arts class. The entire time he was there had given Diana the nervous habit of checking and rechecking her belongings and around corners and even though he had been replaced when the school had hired a permanent substitute the stay had been long enough to give her some damage.

Once the students were fully seated, she rose, her characteristic dark robes falling off the seat and dragging slightly behind her and she moved to the chalkboard. The dark green fabric that she had chosen, embellished with copper colored Asian roses, matched the potion she had chosen for the day's lesson and she was quite pleased that she'd been able to do so. Matching things as a form of distraction had become a hobby for her in the past weeks, finding it to be the only thing successful at keeping her mind off that insufferable Pye.

"Today we will be studying the calming draught. As you should have read in your homework, this handy potion is used to soothe the nerves of the drinker who has previously suffered from any sort of shock, trauma, or emotional outburst. However, depending on the strength of the potion as well as the enormity of the trauma it can have varying results,” she said as she marked down an outline of what she had just said on the board. “Now, can anyone tell me the ingredients of the calming draught?”

She turned her back to the board, making sure to step far enough away that the back of her robes would not get the chalky dust on it, and her brown eyes scanned while she waited for the students to speak up. Once all the correct ingredients had been named and written down on the board—for any student who hadn’t felt like doing the reading for whatever reason, Diana continued on with the lesson. “Now, while I’m sure most of you did last night’s reading and therefore this isn’t news, but the calming draught has a long waiting period. So, I will allow for you to work on homework or talk quietly once you set your potion up to begin simmering. This class period is only two hours, however it does require five hours of simmering on low heat after the majority of the potion work has been completed, adding the drops of kava oil in just before bottling to keep it potent. Therefore, after dinner, I will open up the classroom for anyone who wants to use it to study or chat while they wait for their potion to finish. I will not require you to be here as the school day will have ended but those who do show up will get extra credit. If you don’t come in or forget to it’s quite alright, I will just bottle a sample of your Potion for grading myself. Because I know some of you will go this route I ask for you to mark the time you put your potion on low heat so that I will know when to take it off.”

Diana walked back to her desk to collect the exams. “You may work by yourself or in pairs but please, no more than two people per cauldron. I will pass out your exams from last week and collect your homework. I would suggest getting straight to work, however, since the sooner the potion is ready to simmer the earlier it will be done.”

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:
Crush lemon balm leaves and let soak in mint oil for 15 minutes.
While crushed leaves are soaking, chop valerian roots. Add to cauldron.
Using a mortar and pestle grind cricket wings with powdered dragon's blood and add to mixture.
Add whole echinacea bulbs.
Mix crushed leaves into a paste of passionflower pollen and vine.
Add paste to potion and let simmer on low heat for five hours.
Add a few drops of kava oil just before bottling.

Subthreads:

Slowly but surely, I'm improving. by Liliana Bannister, Pecari with Jamie Park, Pecari

Remaining calm. by Isaac Douglas, Crotalus with Leo Princeton, Crotalus, Leo Princeton

Alas, valerian. by Lionel Layne, Pecari

On friends, ghosts, and bad smells. by Duncan Brockert, Teppenpaw

Being studious, as usual by Emery Kijewski-Jareau, Aladren

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

Liliana Bannister, Pecari

February 06, 2015 5:23 PM

Slowly but surely, I'm improving. by Liliana Bannister, Pecari

A chance for extra credit in Potions? Despite not liking the idea that she would have to come in after her classes for the day were over, Liliana knew that extra credit in as many classes as she could get would make up for her devastating marks in Transfiguration. As soon as Professor Yu dismissed the class to begin their work, she turned to the person sitting next to her with a smile. “I need all the extra credit I can get,” she said without bothering to introduce herself. She’d had classes with all the students already and was fairly certain that by now she knew all the names of her classmates and that they would know hers as well, especially since she was a Quidditch playing female. “So I’m willing to come in after dinner and add the kava and bottle up the potion for Yu if you don’t want to.”

Of course she was willing to share the extra credit with her partner if they wanted to come in as well, but she just wanted to let the other student know that they wouldn’t have to if they didn’t want to, but she was more focused towards her potion making this year she had found, and she attributed it to her positive experience with Vétil over the summer. Her sort-of summer romance had loved potions a lot and it was his favorite subject at Beauxbatons, so she’d asked him for a few pointers and ideas to help her raise her grade. Volunteering for extra credit points was one of them as was setting everything out ahead of time so as to keep to the exact minutes and seconds required in the book without having to feel rushed.

So far she’d found that being extra precise and measuring everything out before even starting versus measuring as she went was a big help and she was reaping the benefits when it came to her grades too which had so far been improving from a barely A to nearly an E. This pleased her greatly and she opened her potions kit and began to take stock of the ones that she had on her person, ready to start this potion like she had started the other ones of the year. She knew she needed to refill it soon as she was running low on certain items such as snake fangs. Professor Yu’s potions closet was always open to students who needed to borrow some things when their kits were low if they hadn’t the chance to fill them up before coming to class and she began to make a list of ingredients she had noticed she was low on and would have to get replacements soon. “How has the school year going for you so far?” she asked while she jotted down lemon balm leaves, noting that she only had about a handful left which was what she needed for the day’s potion. “And do you have echinacea bulbs? I seem to have used my last one a few classes ago.” Liliana added e. bulbs to her list.

10 Liliana Bannister, Pecari Slowly but surely, I'm improving. 274 Liliana Bannister, Pecari 0 5

Jamie Park, Pecari

February 09, 2015 7:59 AM

Slow and steady wins the boringness trophy by Jamie Park, Pecari

Moving up to Intermediates had its plus points…. Ji-Eun was in his classes now. Whilst most people might have thought that having his perfectionist older sister keeping a beady eye on him was a problem for the more…. free-spirited young Pecari, he just saw it as adding a level of personal satisfaction to any pranks he chose to play. Plus, it was the perfect excuse to ‘study together’ during which he was fairly sure he could manipulate his sister into basically doing his homework for him in all but hand-writing - she was so much older, and therefore knew so much more and he was bound to understand better if she’d explain it to him….. The main downside was not being with Shinohara. He wouldn’t exactly admit that to her, as he expected her head was big enough already, but it had been fun having a partner in crime.

He really needed to make some friends in his own year, so as not to be in that position again, but as he entered the classroom, he noticed a seat free next to Liliana, another of the Pecari Quidditch team. At least that guaranteed her not to be boring, and he took the seat next to her with a smile. The lesson itself also seemed moderately useful, in that he knew a few people who could do with a calming draught slipping into their drinks on a semi-regular basis…. Though he wanted to groan at the idea of having to come back after class. If Professor Yu couldn’t pick something that fitted into the class period, why should they have to suffer? He was relieved when she offered to do it for them, for those who weren’t eager enough little beavers to give up their own time, albeit for extra credit.

“Great,” he nodded, when Liliana offered to come back, though he couldn’t really see the point. Sure, he was expected to get an O in this class but it wasn’t like that was overly challenging. Perhaps the extra credit now would save him a bit of sweating over a final essay or test paper but Jamie had never had a particularly cautious nature, and wasn’t inclined to invest now for potential pay off later. His free evening was much more tangible and was something he wasn’t going to relinquish, or risk looking like a super nerd over.

He kept an eye on what Liliana was taking out of her kit, adding ingredients from his own to the pile in between them. In spite of his casual nature, he had grown up with potions as a way of life, and some habits, like good thorough prepping, were hardwired into him. He also took the liberty of beginning to crush the lemon leaves, seeing as their preparation was the most complicated.

“Largely depends on how the weekend goes,” he commented, when Liliana asked how school was treating him, referring to the Pecari try outs and assuming that she would both have looked at the list and know who he was, partly out of the smallness of the school and partly through the sheer egotism of assuming himself to be particularly noteworthy. “You?” he asked.

“Don’t think so,” he shook his head, checking his potions kit when she asked about echinacea. If it was popular in Asian potion making, he might have it under a different name, as his mother kept him well stocked from their shop with useless trash that he was never likely to need, out of some weird notion of family pride. He mostly used them for throwing into random cauldrons and observing the results, though if Liliana was an ‘extra credit’ kind of girl he doubted she’d be up for this course of action, and he wanted to stay on her good side as they might be playing Quidditch together. “I’ll grab us one in a bit,” he offered. Though Professor Yu didn’t stock anything exotic or dangerous in the classroom, it was always useful to have a skim of the cupboard and check what was on offer.

13 Jamie Park, Pecari Slow and steady wins the boringness trophy 284 Jamie Park, Pecari 0 5

Isaac Douglas, Crotalus

February 11, 2015 11:39 AM

Remaining calm. by Isaac Douglas, Crotalus

Isaac had assumed that, at some point in his education, he would learn to make calming draughts. He was reasonably sure more than one of his fellow students brewed an illicit bottle or two during finals every year and knew for a fact that his older sister had at least occasionally helped her public appearances in November and early December of her seventh year along with a swig, even though officially, the potions stores and supplies had all been locked down. It was possible they had all learned through illicit means, but more likely that it was something which was learned in classes.

His suspicions had been confirmed with the previous night’s assignment, but while the book had explained in great detail how to make himself some sedatives any time he felt the need, it hadn’t answered why they were pretty much teaching them to make addictive drugs. Maybe it was just because he came from a family with a certain tendency toward nervous breakdown - his maternal grandmother had cracked up after Granddad left her and spent the rest of her life in a cult, Granddad himself did not appear totally in touch with reality and seemed to have passed that trait along to Isaac's sister Alicia, Aunt Lavinia had the impulse control of a ten-year-old, and the rest of that side of the family was only just barely any better - but Isaac could not see how that was a good idea. Since they didn't have a village anywhere near them most of the time, money was rare at Sonora and Isaac wasn't risking expulsion just to get people to do his homework for him, but after today, he would still probably have the skills to become Aunt Lavinia in masculine miniature at his leisure if he wanted to. He didn't want to, but that was beside the point.

It never ceased to amaze him what they learned in Potions. Defense and Transfiguration made more grandiose claims in the prologues of their books, but this was really, in his opinion, the most dangerous class at Sonora. On the plus side, that did make it easier to study for than some of the others, as it held his interest more.

He had known about it from the reading, but he still made a face when Professor Yu mentioned coming in late to complete the potion. He’d have to do it, of course; extra credit was always something to seek. Even Momma knew that; she didn't have the technical vocabulary, but she did know folksy sayings about storing some back for a rainy day which expressed pretty much the same thing. When they were released to work, he put his homework on the edge of his desk and began setting up his work station immediately, wanting to move that finishing point up as far as possible.

He crushed his lemon balm leaves with his mortar and pestle and then began measuring out mint oil to soak them in. The strong scent made his nose wrinkle, and he coughed as he poured it into his cauldron. “I wish there was a spell to block smells out,” he observed to his neighbor, then tipped the crushed leaves into the oil to soak while he checked the edge of his knife before he started chopping the valerian roots. If it was dull, he needed to sharpen it before he started; otherwise, the roots might end up ragged and uneven, which would not lead to the best possible results for his potion.

16 Isaac Douglas, Crotalus Remaining calm. 273 Isaac Douglas, Crotalus 0 5

Lionel Layne, Pecari

February 11, 2015 12:03 PM

Alas, valerian. by Lionel Layne, Pecari

When Professor Yu mentioned being sure most of them had done last night’s reading, Lionel looked straight ahead, trying not to look too ashamed of himself. He had completely forgotten about it, and so the news that the potion had a long simmering time really was news to him. His eyes widened a little at the word five hours. Yes, it was just simmering, but still...that was a long time to remember that he had something on. At home, he’d seen Grandmother forget things that had been on the stove for five minutes. Not often, but it happened. How many of the potions they learned in the next three years were going to be like that?

Lionel was so very, very sure he was not going to be a potioneer when he grew up.

He looked over his exam when he exchanged his homework for it. It wasn’t too bad, but in retrospect, he had no idea why he’d missed question 14b. Shaking his head, he put it away and looked up to the board for the potion he hadn’t read about the night before.

Calming draughts. They kept those around the house, and both his grandparents indulged whenever his mother came to visit. Sometimes even before and after. Lionel, though, had never been given any and so didn’t know exactly what they felt like. He didn’t think he’d find out today, either, because he did not trust his own brewing enough to drink it unless he was forced to, which didn’t really happen much. He made a face at the sight of valerian roots on the list of ingredients. They had used that enough over the past two years for Lionel to regard it as one of his least-favorite potion ingredients purely because of how badly it smelled. It wasn’t the strongest odor of any potion component ever, but something about it just made him feel like he was choking whenever he had to use it, and the smell sort of lingered in his mouth for ages after exposure. Its inclusion made sense - it was a mild sedative even taken straight; he’d seen the powdered root sold as a ‘natural’ sleep aid - but he really wished they could have found something that didn’t stink so much. Maybe the mint and lemon balm in the potion would mask it in the brew and cleanse his sinuses as they heated up - if, of course, heating didn’t make the valerian reek even more than it naturally did, to the point where it overwhelmed the vaporizing mint oil.

“Hi. Want to work together?” he offered to one of his neighbors, figuring both of their chances of keeping everything straight and getting into the cauldron in more or less the right order might be increased if two sets of eyes were on both the directions and the cauldron.

16 Lionel Layne, Pecari Alas, valerian. 283 Lionel Layne, Pecari 0 5

Liliana Bannister

February 12, 2015 10:20 PM

I apologize if I bore you—I’m not going to change. by Liliana Bannister

The student next to her, Jamie Park, was new in the Intermediates class, and had been among the students whose first semester was professor-free. She remembered his face from the Pecari common rooms and his name from the sign-up sheet which she had obsessively checked at least four times a day when trying to see if Atlas had taken the time out of his (not at all) busy schedule to put his name down. The class period would be a good time to get to know one of her future teammates—everyone who tried out for Quidditch generally made the team if not as the starting lineup then as a reserve.

Park seemed willing to let Liliana come in and get the extra credit which while that meant she would get the full benefit versus having to split it with her partner, she didn’t know how much that showed for his team playing ability. Even last year when she didn’t leap at such opportunities she would have offered to come to—if only to keep her partner company while they worked. Her face remained placid though and she just smiled at him graciously. “Cool. Shall we start then?”

Despite her earlier reserves, she did note that Park was helping her prepare for the potion and she let herself relax while they got in the motion of things, cracking a smile when he casually brought up the upcoming tryouts. “It’s been alright so far.” It would be better, she thought if a certain someone would actually listen to me as signup for Quidditch, but Liliana knew that at this point, with the tryouts nearly upon them it was getting less and less likely that he would put his name on the list. “Good luck this weekend though,” she said, nodding her head to show sincerity. “You nervous at all?” Park’s nerves or lack of nerves would show Liliana a lot about his personality and she was curious to see what he would be like to work with not only in class but also on the Pitch.

He did offer, however, to go to the storage room to grab an Echinacea bulb, so Liliana smiled at him, before finishing off the rest of her list. “We can go together, I have to grab some more lemon leaves—just to tide myself over until my order comes in.”

Not trusting any of the American potions companies, Liliana had opted to always order new ingredients from England. The only problem with that, though, was that she had to wait longer for her supplies to arrive. As a result, she had spent enough time in Yu’s storage closet to know where the different ingredients were and was impressed with the wide variety of things she had in there. Granted, many of the more exotic items (like bacculum or xiong dan) were in locked vials or cases, Liliana assumed because Yu kept her personal store in the same closet, and she had asked the teacher one afternoon why that was. Yu had explained that she liked to keep her own room clear of Potions and that her personal store was locked through a series of complicated, personal charms which made it impossible for anyone other than herself to get to them. This was followed by a serious look as though Yu almost expected Liliana to try and steal her ingredients. However, she had noticed that certain ingredients (such as zhu sha and long gu, names she had never heard before in the English language) were starting to disappear from the closet as Yu got more and more fidgety and Liliana couldn’t help but wonder why that was.

10 Liliana Bannister I apologize if I bore you—I’m not going to change. 274 Liliana Bannister 0 5

Leo Princeton, Crotalus

February 13, 2015 3:57 AM

A good thing to practise. by Leo Princeton, Crotalus

Last year, Leo had impressed his parents considerably with his high marks. It was rather depressing, it having come about from a lack of a social life, but at least his parents had been happy with him. He slid into his seat in Potions class, feeling another year older and unusually punctual. His first year, Leo had received detention from being tardy all the time; now, he’d rather not have to do time in the classroom when he didn’t have to, though he didn’t really have anything better to do except sleep or play pranks on people.

The Calming Draught was a familiar potion, one his mum had made often for his grandmother’s unstable nerves. He wasn’t certain what sort of trauma his grandmother had gone through, except perhaps her marriage to his equally stiff grandfather, but nevertheless she was not a witch to be trifled with. Or caught without a Calming Draught in hand. She was nosy and irritable on a regular basis, but without a draught she was downright unbearable, moaning and groaning about some ailment or other. It had been torture being at home all alone when his brothers had abandoned him to attend school before him. He and his brothers had a suspicion Grandmother was addicted to the draught, but none of them said anything about it.

All of his thinking had resulted in another doodle and him catching the last bit about the five hours of simmering. He’d have to come back to class after dinner? Leo sighed; he knew he would come back to get another high mark on another dull assignment. It was as if he had nothing else to do but to earn extra credit; it was a bit depressing. Leo yawned as she began handing back their exams and collecting their homework. He left it visible on his desk for her as he set up his cauldron and pulled out his ingredients.

The wizard next to him was crushing leaves at the same time as he was, and Leo looked over at him briefly. He recognised him from previous classes, but they hadn’t had a proper conversation. The smell of mint reminded Leo of someone, but it was on the edge of his brain and wouldn’t reveal itself. “It’s terribly strong,” agreed Leo, his hands currently occupied with crushing the rest of his leaves. He rubbed his nose against his arm instead, taking a breath of his clean uniform instead of the poignant smell of mint. “You’ll have to bear with it just a second more,” he said, measuring out the mint oil as well to soak his crushed leaves in a separate bowl. He looked briefly at the clock and marked the time he would have to remove the leaves. “Professor Yu won’t be able to get the smell out of the classroom for weeks, but then this classroom always smells rather odd, don’t you think?” He looked on curiously as Douglas poured the mixture of leaves and oil into the cauldron, but didn’t say anything.

Leo didn’t do much to care for his Potions kit or any of his school supplies. When he ran out of ink, he usually bothered Rupert to give him more or buy some for him. Luckily over the summer, as a reward for his high marks, his parents had provided brand new school supplies which, in Leo’s opinion, was a rather poor reward. He would have preferred new robes or hair-styling gel, but instead they encouraged his "sudden interest" in learning. There was always an ulterior motive with their gifts, Leo had surmised. It was part of the reason why they gifted Rupert with Quidditch supplies for every birthday and Christmas. As a result, Leo's knife was sharp and sliced easily through the valerian roots as if they were nothing. He finished with the roots and tossed them into the cauldron.

0 Leo Princeton, Crotalus A good thing to practise. 0 Leo Princeton, Crotalus 0 5

Jamie

February 14, 2015 7:23 AM

Well, at least you're sorry by Jamie

“Thanks, you too. Though last I checked, there wasn’t much competition for your spot,” he couldn’t say he was surprised as Keeper had to easily be the most boring job on a Quidditch team and the one with the least glory. The only time anyone noticed a Keeper was when they did their job badly. “Not really,” he shrugged, when she asked if he was nervous. It was true enough - he’d never been very bothered by the idea of performing in front of a crowd. In fact, he relished every chance he was given to show off, though he wouldn’t have recognised that about himself. “Should be good fun, right? What’s Rupert like as a captain?” he queried. The only thing that was nagging at him slightly was whether the seventh year would even let him try out properly, or just give the position back to his yearmate by default.

“Ok,” he shrugged, when she offered to accompany him. He made his way over to the cabinet, his eyes roving over Yu’s personal stores… So tantalisingly close but so very out of reach… He suspected a mere alohomora wasn’t going to do it on those locks, though he had never stuck his head above the parapet by asking. One day, if something was worth it, he might find out by trial and error. He knew many of the ingredients, not by their names but by sight. There was a substantial overlap between Korean and Chinese traditional medicine, and he had grown up passing boxes and barrels of these things daily. And, when he couldn’t get out of it, restocking shelves and weighing out orders. He had, of course, paid special close attention to the ones his mother kept locked behind the counter and didn’t trust him with, many of which were represented here…. He was sure that the supply of dragon bones was looking lighter than last time, and he’d heard enough old Korean witches clammering on about their nerves, and needing a new supply to know what those did. He would have kept his thoughts to himself, Liliana seeming to be slightly more on the good-girl side of things, had he not glanced over and seen her eyes roaming curiously about too. He supposed that she was still a Pecari, in spite of the extra credit seeking behaviours.

“Looks like she’s been practising the same as us,” he commented, with a raise of his eyebrows (the ability to arch one on its own was still a work in progress but would look awesome when he could). “How very diligent of her,” he commented drily.

13 Jamie Well, at least you're sorry 284 Jamie 0 5

Isaac Douglas

February 18, 2015 3:26 PM

Along with attention to detail. by Isaac Douglas

“It does,” agreed Isaac. The smells were one reason he thought his uncle’s working in a potions lab was a manifestation of Geoffrey’s share of the family madness. More evidence for this theory came from the lack of logic in taking up a profession where even small errors could result in scalding hot liquids exploding into one’s face, possibly leading to permanent injury if they hit especially soft bits, like the eyes, or contained enough magical components to make injuries hard to heal, or were just straight-up poisons that killed the poor fool whose upper layer of skin they scalded away before anyone could help it….

He read the next couple of lines of the potion. Was he supposed to leave the valerian out for fifteen minutes or….

Damn, he thought, and caught his bottom lip between his teeth just in time to keep from saying it out loud. His childhood rhetoric tutor - a truly vile individual; while he’d listened to lectures about how speeches could be more powerful than the worst curses and how Isaac and Alicia could make whole crowds theirs as effectively as if they’d Imperiused them if they just learned good speech-making, Isaac had often fantasized about giving speeches someday that would start a crusade against all rhetoric teachers - had always insisted that profanity was the lowest form of speech, suited only to those who could not make their points without it. Self-censorship had become a habit, and at the moment, he did not really want anyone else to see the point anyway.

Unfortunately, he didn’t see a way to correct the problem without anyone who cared to look seeing him do so, and he was not going to get his face melted off because he’d added powdered dragon’s blood to anything in the wrong order just to avoid looking stupid in front of Princeton. “Evanesco,” he said quickly, but he did not have quite enough skill with Vanishing Spells yet to get rid of all of it, necessitating a follow-up with a Scouring Charm. The book should have been clearer about the set aside part with the leaves, he thought sourly.

“You’d think they’d ventilate these rooms a little better,” he said blandly, measuring the leaves back out and picking his bottle of mint oil back up to start over. Surely he hadn’t lost more than two or three minutes; he would still finish the basic preparations by the end of class. “My sisters used to get lightheaded.” Which was just something to say, with the secondary hope that it would distract from his own flash of inadequacy as a potioneer; if it had ever happened, none of them had ever mentioned it to him, and he kind of doubted it had ever happened. His sisters were not exactly built along the ‘delicate little flower’ model for girls; all three were fairly active, one enjoying rock climbing in her spare time, and two were competent enough duelists while the one who was not was studying to be a mediwitch and so wasn’t overly given to fainting either. He was pretty sure that any one of the three of them could knock him out with one punch, take his wand in roughly fifteen seconds, poison him a lot better than he could (deliberately) poison her….

He hated his life sometimes. This seemed especially unfair when, in theory, he was supposed to be the one with all the natural advantages, at least compared to the three of them.

16 Isaac Douglas Along with attention to detail. 273 Isaac Douglas 0 5

Duncan Brockert, Teppenpaw

February 19, 2015 4:22 PM

On friends, ghosts, and bad smells. by Duncan Brockert, Teppenpaw

The pressure was always on Duncan at school. Not his grades, which were really pretty good, even if he wasn't an Aladren, but socially. His parents were pleased enough that he was friends with Liliana and his mother in particular seemed to be getting certain...ideas. Honestly, he didn't really think he had much chance there anyway. Still, Duncan didn't think he would have really minded that much if it came to that.

That said, his family wanted him to spend more time talking to his classmates, but he just...couldn't connect with them very well. Either they weren't friendly or they weren't appropriate and Duncan didn't really care to be around people who were unpleasant. Even dead ones. The make up of the people at Sonora around his age was just not his fault and he couldn't be blamed for it. He just didn't fit in.

So, of course, Duncan tried harder to compensate. For his loneliness anyway. He spent every second he could ghost hunting. Maybe the ghosts had all been taken with the staff by the purple clouds but not returned like they were. After all, the staff were adults and ghosts were technically older usually even if they died when they were younger. Christina, for example, was only ten when she died, but was really older than everyone else, including her younger brother Freddie, who presented as a young man, as he'd been when he died.

Maybe they'd be back eventually too. Or were now but hadn't been. That's why Duncan had to keep looking, for ghosts that possibly had gone to return any day now. Unless it was a charm to make them go on that had misfired. How dreadful that would be!

Apparently, today in Potions, they were going to do Calming Draughts. Something that the Teppenpaw felt could be a good and useful thing if someone had a serious anxiety issue or something. Or was just too intense. Or had....whatever issue it was Tawny seemed to have. She didn't seem very calm. He didn't really think it was something he needed himself but it was certainly something he would be interested in learning to make. It was a potion meant to help, not hurt. Duncan wouldn't be keen on making a poison, or something that caused someone a lot of pain otherwise.

He took out his cauldron and read the list of ingredients on the board. The one really really bad thing about this potion, he thought, was that it included valerian roots-and they smelled absolutely putrid. Unfortunately, this meant they weren't something Duncan liked keeping around. As he was planning to work with a partner anyway, he turned to the person next to him and asked. "Do you have any valerian roots? We could work together and use my cauldron if you'd like."

11 Duncan Brockert, Teppenpaw On friends, ghosts, and bad smells. 271 Duncan Brockert, Teppenpaw 0 5

Emery Kijewski-Jareau, Aladren

February 19, 2015 7:42 PM

Being studious, as usual by Emery Kijewski-Jareau, Aladren

Emery slumped into his seat in Potions class and quietly set up his cauldron and potion-making kit in front of him. He had done the reading for the assignment and knew that they would be working on the calming draught for the lesson. He wasn’t going to deny any facts and say that his potion was not going to be necessary for him to take this year. He probably should have taken it the moment he was off the wagon. This year was going to be an impossible year for him. His mother told him to not sweat it so much. It wasn’t a tragedy that he didn’t get the badge. She said there were so many strange reasons for the staff to choose the Prefect but that didn’t mean he wasn’t perfectly qualified to have the title. Emery was trying to take his parents support to heart, but it had still been a let down to him. What was worse was that he knew Emrys probably felt terrible about taking the badge over him and Emery wanted to support his friend, it was just hard to do when it was something he had worked so hard to obtain.

But more so than that, Emery was in his C.A.T.S year, which meant, an incredible about of work and a lot of studying. CATS matter more to him than the badge did. If he did poorly on the exams, he might not be able to get into the lessons he wanted, which would become problematic for his future college applications. He wanted to become a Veterinarian. He was doing fine in Care of Magical Creatures, but Potions, Charms, and Transfiguration were all very important lessons that he needed to ace too. The calming draught was probably going to be very popular amongst his fellow Fifth years. He doubted his sister or Ava would ever really understand why people were freaking out because they lived in their own bubbles, but everyone else was about to be affected by the stress.

Emery took the required notes for the day’s lesson, listening intently to the professor while she explained what they were doing. His curly brown hair was becoming a menace for him, having grown long enough to fall into his eyes and he found himself constantly running his hands through it to keep it out of his face. He might have to get a haircut over the break, something he loathed to do. Hairdressers talked a lot and made small talk. He didn’t enjoy the small talk.

They were finally sent off to do the potion and Emery set on to the task at hand. He probably could have asked someone if they wanted to partner up, but he figured, it was better to get a start on it right away rather than wander around to see if anyone was interested. If they were, they could just come up and ask him directly. Either way, he was going to do his best with this potions and he would come back after dinner when Professor Yu opened up the classroom again in order to finish it properly. This was probably going to be on his CATS exams anyway. Might as well get as much out of it as he could.

6 Emery Kijewski-Jareau, Aladren Being studious, as usual 0 Emery Kijewski-Jareau, Aladren 0 5

Leo Princeton

February 25, 2015 12:31 PM

Also a good trait to have. by Leo Princeton

There was some silent smugness Leo felt upon seeing Isaac clear out his cauldron. He had come to realise that relaying this smugness to others resulted in enemies, not friends, so he kept silent behind a steady façade. Though Leo enjoyed surprising people with how intelligent he really was behind his exaggerated sensitivity and stupidity, he liked to know when he was the smartest wizard in the room. He was lazy, but he wasn’t stupid. People at Sonora just didn’t appreciate it or care to appreciate him. The only one who had ever showed any interest was Nellie, and she’d moved on to Tristan, the silly witch.

If Leo was being completely honest with himself (which he rarely was), he wanted a companion. If Rupert decided to live in America and Cepheus was married, Leo would be completely alone. He had half a mind to join the Quidditch team just to gain some recognition and make friends. The current state of the Crotalus Quidditch team, however, was a perversion and an insult to his house, a team he’d rather not associate himself with. Those who enjoyed the sport were lucky to play, he supposed, but it wasn’t his cup of tea. It was an interest that Douglas had, however, providing some fodder for conversation other than the aromas of the Potions room.

Douglas didn’t say anything about starting over, and Leo didn’t mention it. He was somewhat surprised to hear that he had sisters, plural: the only one he was aware of was Alicia, and that was because of Cepheus who was currently off spending time and money on frivolous pleasures or sending Lucrezia and his mates gifts from India or France. It was unfair how luxurious his brother’s life was. Leo could only hope to be half as lucky when he returned home after graduation.

“It’s not pleasant, certainly. I’ve never gotten a headache, but witches seem to be more sensitive to that sort of thing,” he said, imagining his delicate cousin Charlotte fainting at the powerful smell of wormwood. He wondered if she’d ever fainted in any class before; whilst he didn’t care to get to know his cousins, Charlotte in particular did intrigue him as he had no sister of his own, only a wily mother who brewed potions as a hobby. “How’s the Quidditch team going?” he asked as he ground the cricket wings with powdered dragon’s blood. In a few minutes he would have to remove the crushed lemon balm leaves and set them aside. “The team’s combined with Teppenpaw this year, isn’t it? Practises must be interesting.”

40 Leo Princeton Also a good trait to have. 263 Leo Princeton 0 5

Isaac Douglas

February 27, 2015 11:04 AM

I'm a shining example of character. by Isaac Douglas

Oh, yes. If word of this conversation ever got back to Alicia, she’d probably make him almost wish she wasn’t too superstitious to kill him. He knew she knew the benefits of being underestimated, but she had developed the one thing a good social climber could never have in recent years: pride. And she held the other Princeton in high esteem for some reason, or at least came as close as she could to esteeming anything other than herself….

Luckily, though, despite Alicia apparently still not seeing any potential for scandal in being openly close to a wizard who was not a close blood relative, Pierce, or even a blood relative of Pierce, he doubted it would make it back to her. For one thing, he didn’t even know that her friends and their associates knew that he was her brother, and for another, who was going to remember a random chat in Potions well enough to pass it along to his brother or his brother’s friend months from now even if they were all somehow on the same continent at the same time? He was pretty sure the only thing that was going to come of his remark was what he’d wanted, which was a distraction from his error with the potion.

“Some, at least,” he agreed.

Unfortunately, the topic moved to something he was about as happy about as he was about how he stacked up beside his three sisters. “I suppose. The others are all first and second years – something I didn’t know when I was convinced to join – " he added, then wished he had not – “but we’ve got a Carey and a Pierce, so it may work out.” He decided not to mention that Andrew and Ginger were not the right kind of Carey and Pierce and that it showed. He had briefly considered asking if Alicia could get Annette Pierce to play badly in their first game as a favor, but had fortunately come to his senses before he put himself into her debt over something as stupid as a Quidditch game. He had some pride, too, he supposed, but he at least realized it was a problem and tried to stomp on it when it threatened to influence his decisions.

Not that things were going that great even when he wasn’t influenced by it. The only thing he gained by joining the team was a certain amount of goodwill from Skies, which he wasn’t sure he even needed. He was almost surely the next prefect by default. He couldn’t help but worry that Skies might try to put a fourth year in his place next year if he annoyed her, but the chance was slim enough that it did not, in hindsight, really seem serious enough to endure the humiliation of being subordinate to a first year and getting soundly thrashed in front of the whole school at the same time over. “The Seeker’s a Crotalus, too, so hopefully it will all reflect better on us than on Teppenpaw if she catches the Snitch,” he added.

16 Isaac Douglas I'm a shining example of character. 273 Isaac Douglas 0 5