Prepare for an identity crisis [Years VI-VII] on Potions

Professor Sophie O'Malley

February 07, 2016 4:13 AM

Prepare for an identity crisis [Years VI-VII] by Professor Sophie O'Malley

“Good morning!” Sophie beamed eagerly to her class of sixteen, seventeen, and eighteen year olds, a bit too eager for what was really appropriate given the time. It was the first class of a Wednesday morning, not a particularly exciting or enthusing time of day, especially to have Potions class. I was probably none too safe having it at 8:00am, actually, but then again, in the magical world, half of the stuff wanted to kill you, and the other half might do it accidentally anyway, so really, there was no good class to have first up. So she hoped everyone was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, although she normally wasn’t, at least not to this extent. She was just quite happy this morning, because her classroom already smelled like brewing.

“I have great news!” she announced. “Your Polyjuice potions are ready!” They’d been brewing under her supervision for a month, since there was a long, long pause in the middle of brewing. So they had been here, just bubbling away, filling the air with a scent that the small blonde professor simply adored.

Sophie had not given a complete instruction at the prior class, giving only her usual background information on the potion and its function, with instructions to be found on a given page of their textbooks, in this case 643. But now she could elaborate. “Before each of you is a small flask containing a sample of your brew, including a hair of whomever you partnered with a month ago. You may want to check the label, though, to make sure I correctly remembered who sits where.” Regardless it would turn them into someone else, but she wanted to be certain to give them the correct potions so they could at least know who they would turn into and prepare accordingly mentally.

“You don’t have to drink the whole thing--because if nothing else, I must warn you, it tastes dreadful--but you will each take a sip from your flask, which, if you’ve done everything correctly, will turn you into your partner. Ideally you’ll be back to yourselves by the time this class ends, but just in case it doesn’t, I’ve warned your other professors that taking attendance may be a bit screwy.” Potions was followed immediately by Defense Against the Dark Arts, so she’d been the most concerned about informing Alfie Pye, a man who was apparently not above passing time by casually flirting with a married woman like herself. Not that she was special in that regard, as he seemed to hit on his coworkers with little exception. Sophie didn’t know him well, but he did generally seem nice enough, even with his uncontainable flirtatious nature.

“Once you’ve become each other,” she went on, “I’d like two things to happen. One, have your partner look you over to confirm the results. It should feel like looking into a mirror, but depending on the strength and quality of your brew, some of your own traits may poke through. Two, get out a pen and parchment and write a little about the experience. How does it feel? What are your thoughts? How did you do? How did your partner do? That type of thing. I don’t need an essay; bullet points are fine.” Sophie glanced about the room, her crooked smile unaffected by the nervous and/or resistant expressions she anticipated seeing. “That’s all I got for you. Bottoms up!”

OOC: Because it’s a human-human change, there should be no dramatic side-effects. As mentioned, if your potion is somehow flawed, the worst that should happen is an incomplete transformation. This is a very likely possibility, as polyjuice can be challenging for even adult witches and wizards to brew. Keep that in mind. Further information about the potion can be found here. Do your best to be creative, follow the rules, and above all else, have fun!

12 Professor Sophie O'Malley Prepare for an identity crisis [Years VI-VII] 34 Professor Sophie O'Malley 1 5

Leo Princeton, Crotalus

February 10, 2016 2:45 PM

Drink up, partner. by Leo Princeton, Crotalus

Potions was the best class even though these Advanced courses had continued to be incredibly challenging. It was lucky Leo enjoyed his mornings and didn't find it too difficult to have class at 8 a.m., otherwise he would have loathed this course.

For the past month they had been brewing the Polyjuice Potion, a potion he was not very eager to test. It would be thrilling to see someone else try it and turn into him, but on the other side he would have to drink theirs. And what if he didn't turn out well? Merlin, that would be a terrifying predicament.

Leo didn't know how things were going to turn out for him after graduation. He was thinking of moving to Dorset to be near Rupert, but the comfort his own home provided and his family's immense estate was too good to leave for a dingy flat. And with Nellie, Leo didn't know where to begin with her. If they parted ways without promises for the future, Leo didn't know what he would do. There was a good possibility he might never see her again even if her parents worked for his family's hospital. The thought twisted his insides terribly. Was it worth seeking after her again and confessing his feelings? He finally recognised what he was feeling and thinking; he couldn't avoid the truth anymore, but it didn't make any difference at the moment. Eleanor was still with Tristan and Leo was still drowning alone.

His mind turned back to the class at hand where Professor O'Malley was instructing them on their activity for today. Even though Leo had been very quiet this year, he knew his potion was close to perfect. He didn't always come off as the intelligent, witty type, but with this especially he had taken his work very seriously. Leo had worked hard on it with the knowledge that his partner was going to have to drink it. It wasn't that he was trying to save his partner's dignity, but an incomplete transformation would make him look bad in return.

After Prof. O'Malley's enthusiastic, "Bottoms up!", Leo turned to his partner. "Shall we drink up at the same time?" he asked, offering his labelled flask. "I hope you worked hard on this just as I did." The good thing about Advanced classes was that only the competent students were still in it. There was some hope that Leo wouldn't be stuck as a hybrid after drinking his partner's potion. He wondered what it would feel like, the transformation, and how he would feel seeing his body in the flesh. It was a little exciting.

0 Leo Princeton, Crotalus Drink up, partner. 0 Leo Princeton, Crotalus 0 5

Liliana Bannister, Pecari

February 12, 2016 8:12 AM

Hopefully we won't need therapy after this. by Liliana Bannister, Pecari

Liliana was nervous. Potions was not necessarily her best subject, but she had been working really hard all semester to stay on top of her studies. She wasn’t necessarily lacking in magical ability, but rather the ability to stay completely focused. She had recently, over the break, discovered a handy little potion with the aid of her cousin Isaac and had desperately begged her parents (to no avail) to allow her to try it so, she was reduced (once more) to sit in class, tapping her fingers against her leg or scratching perfect curlicues into the edge of her parchment with her quill in order to stay focused. These little, repetitive tasks helped her, she’d found. And, when coupled with the tiny pinches she’d taken to giving herself when she realized her mind was wandering, she’ almost managed to keep her distracted mind in check.

It was all leading up to this day, after all. The polyjuice potion was one of the hardest potions out there, Liliana was sure. It was also something necessary for anyone who wanted to do what she wanted to do when she graduated Sonora and so she had made sure to spend extra time reading about the potion outside of class in a totally uncharacteristic manner. It helped that she was still trying to avoid having deep, personal conversations with Atlas who made her heart twist every time he gave her one of those ridiculously pathetic grins that she loved so much. Making the excuse that she had to study was the perfect way to get out of a conversation like that and, since studying wasn’t necessarily a completely solitary experience she could invite him along and still enjoy his company.

The day they exchanged potions, she was partnered with Leo Princeton, a seventh year Crotalus who Liliana had never really made much observation of before but was also not someone she particularly had strong feelings towards or against. To morph into him would be interesting as growing up she had often wondered what it would like to be a wizard, if their bodies felt different when one actually was one versus when one was simply snogging one. “No promises,” she said with a twinkle in her eye, simply because she could, as she raised the flask containing Leo Princeton in a sort of mock toast.

In reality, she thought she had probably spent more time on that dastardly potion than any of her other assignments that year (working to understand Transfiguration theory aside). Every step she had carefully measured out, every instruction carefully followed. She had dotted all of her i’s, crossed all of her t’s, she was not going to let someone else be stuck in her body for over an hour, she just absolutely refused! How humiliating it would be, she thought, for one of her classmates to be stuck in some sort of predicament because of her?

After she swallowed the last bit of potion, the taste not completely horrid but also, strangely, foreign and not at all like tasting someone else whilst snogging, she looked down at herself to see if she would be able to watch the transformation. She had purposely worn larger clothes that day, asking to borrow one of Atlas’ sweaters and pairing it with her track pants from Quidditch, since there wouldn’t have been any way of knowing whether she’d get paired with someone larger or smaller than her and that way she would be prepared for any situation.

Sure enough, she felt something bubbling beneath her skin, before her eyes she watched as her small calloused hands with their Pecari gold fingernail polish became more manly, she felt a loss of pressure in her chest region and in reflex, reached up to grab her breasts where she found empty bra cups but a tightening sensation around her ribcage where she was sure the bra strap was cutting into her new body. Liliana flushed, having grabbed at herself in front of the class and tried to pass it off as smoothing out Atlas’ sweater. “This is so weird,” she said, her voice not her own and it startled her so that her eyes grew wide and she began to laugh.

“How’s that one coming along?” she tried, also simultaneously attempting to slyly get out of the bra that was uncomfortably pinching her skin. Dratted lacy thing, she thought to herself, happy that at least that day she hadn’t worn one of the more constricting American undergarments but instead gone with the slightly looser French lace.

10 Liliana Bannister, Pecari Hopefully we won't need therapy after this. 274 Liliana Bannister, Pecari 0 5

Leo Princeton...?

February 13, 2016 3:23 AM

I think I like what I see. by Leo Princeton...?

Leo didn’t know why on heaven and earth he had partnered with a witch, but he wasn’t going to back out now. Never in his life had he wondered what it would feel like to be a witch with all of their physical attributes. The closest female relative that he actually liked was his mother, and even she had her days of unpredictable emotional rage. Merlin, and turning into a witch in front of the entire class… it wasn’t as though anyone really cared or noticed him in any case, but Liliana Bannister was popular. Why she had agreed to partner with him in the first place was a mystery, but he didn’t know her well enough to judge her motives.

He hesitated once before drinking up. The taste was awful, worse than the medicine his father used to feed him when he was ill. Leo closed his eyes to keep from vomiting and embarrassing himself, but with his eyes closed he could feel the changes happening from within. His frame shrank in his uniform, his chest grew outward, his hair sprouted from his head and fell down darker around his face and he felt a sudden loss down south. Good God, why had he agreed to this? Leo opened his eyes in time to see Bannister grab at her chest – his chest – to find nothing there. He stifled a laugh and instead turned to look at his – her – own body. God, it felt wrong. Even though he had a hold of his consciousness, physically he was borrowing someone else’s body. This was so wrong, all of it. There was no safe place to put his hands.

Hearing her say just a short phrase in his voice was completely bizarre. He had never heard himself from this perspective, obviously, and with an American accent as well. Leo paused before answering her question, waiting to see if anything else would happen. He didn’t feel any more changes taking place. He put his hands on his hips and then on his foreign face, but he felt awkward doing so.

“I think it’s about finished,” he replied. His voice was higher and girly despite his British intonations. “I can see why women wear bras,” he added dryly, trying very hard not to think too much about it. Even if he wasn’t the nicest lad in the entire magical world, he still tried to be gentleman-like. He reached down to fasten his belt tighter, feeling it balance precariously around his hips.

Instead of focusing on the female body he was currently in, Leo studied himself in the flesh. It felt surreal, seeing himself like this, and he tried to find any flaws in his work. His eyes were the same colour, his hair short and very blond and his hands looked about the right size. He was tall too, taller than Bannister anyhow, and he grinned, pleased. “Damn, so this is what I look like to everyone else.” It was no wonder finding Italian witches to snog had come relatively easy for him during the summer. He almost wanted to snog himself. Leo wanted to ask her to take a spin and walk around just to check himself out, but it would look too strange for Bannister to be checking Leo Princeton out even though the entire class knew everyone was switching bodies today.

“What do you think? Do I look acceptable?” Leo looked down at his – her – hands and rubbed his fingers together. “Your hands are really calloused. You must play Quidditch incessantly.” Leo knew his hands were soft, much softer than either of his brothers who had both been avid Quidditch players during their years here.

OOC: Wasn’t sure if accents transferred, but I’m going with no here for the entertaining aspect.

0 Leo Princeton...? I think I like what I see. 0 Leo Princeton...? 0 5

"Leo Princeton"

February 18, 2016 4:29 AM

You've got to be the vainest boy on the planet. by "Leo Princeton"

Seeing someone else in her body made her slightly uncomfortable, but having grown up without the Puritan aspersions about the human body she didn't particularly care that there was a wizard in her body, nor that this wizard-Liliana was not wearing a bra since it was she who now held the little thing in a tightly fisted hand. She was, however, slightly creeped out to see herself checking out her-as-Leo Princeton.

Liliana-as-Leo waved her hand to dismiss Leo-as-Liliana's assertions about bra wearing. "Don't worry about it, it's not as though they're particularly large anyway." And she was fine with that. She didn't want large breasts--it would make playing Quidditch less fun and she wouldn't have been able to get away with wearing the comfortable, practically support-less garments that she preferred in the summer.

She did, however, quirk an eyebrow as Leo-as-Liliana commented on Liliana-as-Leo's appearance. She was used to compliments, having found quite a few holiday-courtships in France as did all the young noblesse, but it was weird to receive them as somebody else. Had Leo Princeton always been this vain? She was ashamed to say she didn't know, having never before really cared about him other than knowing that he was a Princeton.

When he asked her about how he looked, Liliana-as-Leo gave him a cursory examination. "It seems to be fine," she said. "Although, your clothes are too big. You could use a size-altering charm to fix that, you know. And don't even think about telling anyone back home about my hands. If my parents find out, I'm done for." The Princetons and Bannisters didn't really associate back in England, as far as Liliana knew, but it also worried her that it could somehow get back to her family since if one went deep enough one was always likely to find a some sort of social connection.

Since that year Quidditch had been canceled in order to have the challenges, Liliana had told her parents (who'd asked her to quit Quidditch, not because of W.A.I.L. associations, but because Grandmère didn't think it ladylike to be on a team of mixed genders) that she was not captaining Quidditch but rather leading a challenge team which the whole family found to be much more appropriate for a Bannister-Rosenthal as this seemed to be at least somewhat academic related. But even though the games had been canceled for that year, she still got in time to practice and, of course, to train with Ginger Pierce.

"They don't care about W.A.I.L. politics or anything like that," Liliana continued, clarifying. She didn't want Leo-as-Liliana to think that her family was of that ridiculous political notion. "But my grandmother doesn't like the idea of me playing with wizards." She gave a 'what-can-you-do' shrug. "And they're all so far away, like all the way over in Europe, so the way I see it, it's not big deal if I play a few matches a year in Arizona." She left out the part where her dad was in Connecticut and her mum was in France, since it was a bit complicated to explain it wasn't actually a divorce or separation, just Maman wanting help with le petit imbécile* and seeking out that help from her family.

OOC: Well, seeing as Liliana is (kind of) from England, accent transfer shouldn't be an issue :) at least, I don't think it would... I don't actually know what accent she has haha if French was her first language but she grew up in England and then spent the last 6 years in the US at Sonora, what would that make her accent be?

*le petit imbécile = the little imbecile, AKA Liliana's baby brother.

10 "Leo Princeton" You've got to be the vainest boy on the planet. 0 "Leo Princeton" 0 5

"Liliana Bannister"

February 22, 2016 4:41 PM

<i>You</i> would be the vainest boy now. by "Liliana Bannister"

Being in someone else’s body took a bit of getting used to. His body was engulfed in his clothes and he buttoned up his shirt completely to keep from exposing any more skin than necessary. When Liliana commented on her chest size, he didn’t bother responding. He wouldn’t know what to say that wasn’t offensive, and, having grown up surrounded by only wizards, talking to a witch about her body made him feel uncomfortable. It was something he would have to overcome eventually. In comparison to his brothers, Leo was a bit behind in the girlfriend department.

“I don’t know when exactly I’ll change back and I wouldn’t want to rip through my clothes,” replied Leo when she told him to use a size-altering charm. Though the feeling of ripping through his clothes would make him feel rather buff, it wouldn’t be very pleasant for the rest of the day. Evidently her family - or her grandmother, rather - wasn’t keen on Liliana playing Quidditch, and he could understand why. A witch’s hands weren’t supposed to be this callused, especially a pure-blood. He wasn’t the sort to go tattle to another’s family - at least not anymore - unless she double-crossed him in some way, which he highly doubted she would. Though he didn’t know Liliana well enough to assume anything about her, Rupert liked her and she was his team-mate.

“Right, I’ll stay mum about it,” he replied, not particularly interested in her excuses for playing Quidditch without her family’s knowledge. “I’ve never understood the appeal of playing Quidditch though my brothers adore the sport.” Leo had never been for or against witches playing Quidditch; it was never a topic that came up during family dinners as the witches in his household didn’t play and his brothers didn’t have girlfriends who played either. Leo wondered what dating a Quidditch player would be like. His brother was always living and breathing Quidditch even if he was only on the reserve team and Rupert hardly had the time to see him except at after-parties. Moving to be with his brother in Dorset was going to be a big change, but as Rup was his favourite relative that seemed like the happiest alternative to living with his parents.

Leo stretched out his unfamiliar arms. “Now what? I suppose we ought to write down whatever it is O’Malley wants.” He dug into his book bag for a quill and some parchment, but in the effort to search for a quill he brought out his notes scribbled in French, Italian and some Spanish. Practising his writing in different languages was the only way to keep himself engaged in class during lectures. Whilst Lucrezia spoke Italian and his mum was French, he hadn’t yet found anyone to chat with in Spanish, but he was planning to ask his parents to send him to Spain for the summer as a graduation gift or, better yet, Mexico since he most likely wouldn’t be returning to the North American continent for a long time.

As he packed up his notes again, he looked over at himself. A slow grin creeped up on one side of his face. “I know we hardly know each other, but d’you think you could pass for Leo Princeton for an hour? I suppose it would be a test of one’s observation skills how well they could mimic one’s idiosyncrasies.”

OOC: I think if she grew up in England then French being her first language wouldn't matter unless she didn't interact with her English neighbours (or solely spoke French). It's up to you, really, but an American-tinted English accent sounds about right.

10 "Liliana Bannister" <i>You</i> would be the vainest boy now. 274 "Liliana Bannister" 0 5