I think I'd rather keep mine in my head. on Potions

Professor Sophie O'Malley

January 22, 2016 10:51 PM

Memory / All alone in the moonlight... [Years I-II] by Professor Sophie O'Malley

Midterm was a strange time as a teacher, Sophie had found. During her apprenticeship, she had never had that much time off. And while there had been a decent gap between it and her job here, the first semester had already gotten her quite used to working again. Having that much time to ~~herself~~ her family (mothers of two young boys like her hardly got much alone time) had felt a bit odd. She’d kept busy, but it was different.

And despite her Christmas birthday, she had gotten rather complacent with the holidays prior to having children. It was much more fun seeing them open their presents on Christmas morning than the later festivities in her own interest. But it was the week after Christmas that had particularly held her attention, when her godfather had been hospitalized. His stroke had left him a bit troubled in his speech and with a pronounced limp, and since he could not return to work--a Potions professor at a boarding school; he was her inspiration--and Sophie refused to let him live alone, he was currently staying with her and her family.

It was the first time in well over twenty years, nearly all of her lifetime, that he was not at the school. So while her break had felt odd, she was certain his extended vacation felt even odder.

The advantage, at least, was having a live-in babysitter. She came back to Sonora everyday knowing that Stanley and Wally were taken care of, and in the comfort of their own home. She was rather jealous, really, but she loved her job and was glad to see her first and second years beginning to file in after lunch. Before having her own, Sophie had never been super fond of kids, but here, she had found the beginners class to be her favorite. Not only did they include Kira, a first-cousin of Sophie’s husband with whom she spent quite a bit of time, but they were all-around more pleasant. Generally less angsty and hormonal, and now that she was an adult, she found herself having less and less patience for grumpy teenagers. A sure sign she was getting old, she assumed.

“Welcome back, everyone,” Sophie greeted brightly when it seemed all who were coming had found seats, although a few stragglers were always possible. She eyeballed those who were here, taking a tentative mental attendance. “Hope you’re all ready to get back into things. Today, we’re working on the Forgetfulness Potion.” As always, the title of the potion scribbled itself onto the board behind her, along with all pertinent information she provided. “As its name suggests, it causes memory loss in the drinker. For bonus points, can anyone tell me one of the main ingredients? I’m looking for three answers.” They were, if anyone had checked their textbooks in the memorable past, Lethe River Water, mistletoe berries, and Valerian sprigs. Sophie always did her best to call on those who raised their hands less often.

Once the three answers were all separately acquired, however painful the process might have been, and she had awarded five points to the three respective answerers Houses, she went on. “Second years, I’m told that you learned this potion last year. However, this is a slightly different version of the instructions. You see, a lot of potions can be brewed in multiple ways. I find it important as a Potioneer to learn all ways a potion can be brewed; that way, you can see which way is quicker or easier for you personally.”

With that, Sophie wrapped things up. “You’ll find these instructions on page 182 of your textbooks. As always, any ingredients your supplies lack will be available on the counter over there, and if you need me, be sure to give a yell. Feel free to work in pairs or small groups, just keep the noise level manageable. You may begin.”

The only trouble with Potions, especially as a class, was the often-required sit-and-wait period in the midst of brewing. This one, for example, had a decent wait-time between parts. But it was the first day back, so Sophie hardly minded a bit of chatter time. The kids surely would not either. Or if they did not feel chatty, it would be a great time to work on homework. Either way, they would surely keep busy somehow.

OOC: Hope everyone had a refreshing break. You should all know the rules, but to reiterate, posts will be scored based on creativity, length, and an adherence to the rules, including those regarding godmodding and word count. Here are your instructions:

Part 1
Add 2 drops of Lethe River Water to your cauldron
Gently heat for 20 seconds
Add 2 Valerian sprigs to your cauldron
Stir 3 times, clockwise
Wave your wand
Leave to brew and return in 15-30* minutes

Part 2
Add 2 measures of Standard Ingredient to the mortar
Add 4 mistletoe berries to the mortar
Crush into a medium-fine powder using the pestle
Add 2 pinches of the crushed mixture to your cauldron
Stir 5 times, anti-clockwise
Wave your wand to complete the potion

*Please note that the HP wiki actually states 45-60 minutes, but I’ve modified it for our purposes to better befit a class period. Happy posting!

Subthreads:

Don't need a potion for this one by Gabe Valenti [Teppenpaw] with Laila Kennedy, Crotalus

I think I'd rather keep mine in my head. by Joseph Umland, Teppenpaw with Artemis Leithan, Crotalus

ready for the new term by Arthur Leithan, Teppenpaw with Daniel Fintoc, Crotalus

12 Professor Sophie O'Malley Memory / All alone in the moonlight... [Years I-II] 34 Professor Sophie O'Malley 1 5

Gabe Valenti [Teppenpaw]

January 24, 2016 1:24 PM

Don't need a potion for this one by Gabe Valenti [Teppenpaw]

“Sorry” Gabe muttered, with a big sheepish grin, as he closed the door behind him quietly as he could. His face was red - he was late, he’d had to run the whole way here just to be five minutes late. Quickly he found a seat towards the back and set down his things, rummaging through his backpack to find a quill and his notebook.

Gabe had been at the Pitch again, breaking in the new broom his parents had gotten him for Christmas. The woman who had been assigned as their liaison with the magical world, who had informed Gabe of his powers in the first place, a Ms. Howard, had helped them do the research and acquire the gift and everything. It was a Starsweeper XXI, excellent acceleration, made with the best technology to be highly aerodynamic. Riding it was a whole new ballgame, compared to some of the used broomsticks he was used to from school. The difference was like skiing on the fresh powder of the Rockies for the first time, when you had only skied on small, icy hills. It was incredible. Time truly had flied while he had practiced some basic stunts he was trying to master.

The Teppenpaw had been practising Spiral Dives when he realized that he needed to go. He’d half considered just flying through the halls to get there in time, maybe early even. But it was probably a bad idea to bring his new broom to a class filled with first years attempting to brew potions. So he’d dismounted, dropped his broom off at his room in Teppenpaw, and ran back down with his things to Potions.

The boy had arrived just in time to learn that everything he would need to know was on page 182. Of his textbook. Which… was currently in Teppenpaw, with his broom. Darn it! He was barely passing his wand-based classes, his wand had a tendency to be over-enthusiastic about, well, everything. Small explosions were becoming commonplace. Care of Magical Creatures was fun, because you got to learn about awesome monsters and stuff, so he did well there. Potions was his only other hope to keep his grades up. Not that he was searching to be top of the class or anything like that. But he did want to make sure he was academically eligible for Quidditch tryouts next year.

“Hey, would ya mind if I shared your textbook?” he asked the person next to him, with a slightly embarrassed smile. He hated to be a mooch, but what else could he do?

0 Gabe Valenti [Teppenpaw] Don't need a potion for this one 330 Gabe Valenti [Teppenpaw] 0 5

Laila Kennedy, Crotalus

January 25, 2016 8:10 AM

Don't worry, your fellow Muggleborn's got your back! by Laila Kennedy, Crotalus

Laila had passed a relatively calm winter break, considering. The soon to be thirteen year old had discovered that in her absence, her friends had all developed a sudden interest in boys which, didn’t not appeal to the muggleborn since she had spent most of the previous summer mooning over Conner Mills and his dangerous motorbike. But this break was different. They had spent much of church whispering together in the back pew, keeping an eye on their now attractive male classmates and lamenting that Laila didn’t go to the same school as them. They’d asked her, of course, if there were any cute boys at her mysterious boarding school, but Laila had blushed and said she didn’t know because she was in love with Conner, of course, and really couldn’t be bothered to look at her classmates in that way since she’d already found the love of her life. The other girls had nodded sagely at that piece of insightful information and sighed that they wished to have their lives as together as Laila Kennedy did, knowing who she was going to marry already and at only twelve, too.

This dream had come crashing down, however, when she and Jillian Chong had been elected to go to the corner store for more popcorn at one of Maxine Donovan’s sleepovers and they had witnessed one of the Hardy girls, she thought it was Tenea but Jillian swore it was Megan, though in the end it hadn’t mattered anyway because whoever it was had been wrapped so tightly around Conner against the side of the building that the two pre-teens had not really been able to see where one ended and the other began. So that night, instead of playing with Katy Lomer’s ouija board, they played MASH with different combinations of all the boys in town in order to quite accurately predict who each of them would get married to. Conner Mills was specifically not allowed on the list though they had exacted revenge by playing for him and discovering that he was meant to be a taxi driver for life and have no kids and live alone in a shack.

Now that she was back at school, however, Laila was feeling the lack of bubbly friends around her slightly disconcerting. She liked the friends she had made here, but one really couldn’t compare the three third years to Jillian Chong or Katy Lomer swearing to never speak to Harvey Mills again even though he had gotten quite cute, because his older brother had broken Laila’s heart, or her having gone straight up and asking out Freddie Burke for Marisa Haas who had fancied him since kindergarten but didn’t have the guts to do it herself. It was just...different. But classes still held Laila’s attention. She liked how her coursework at Sonora was so different from that of her friend’s, though she had asked Gabe to nick her copies of the seventh grade reading list so that if her friends asked her about what she was learning in class she could throw out a few titles.

Today, though, she didn’t have the energy to pretend that she was reading The Clay Marble because she had potions class and they were learning the same potion as they had last year, but with different ingredients. The idea that potions could be brewed in a variety of ways interested Laila. It was kind of like Mamma’s chocolate cake, even if the elder Kennedy didn’t want to admit it. So, even though they had already done the potion the previous year, Laila was anxious to see how it worked. She was still semi-new to the whole magic thing, but more adjusted than the muggleborn first years and so was feeling pretty confident when one of the Teppenpaw firsties asked to share her textbook. Previously she would have acquiesced without much comment and then spent the rest of the class period trying to act like she knew what she was doing without so as not to embarrass herself. However now she had the advantage and so instead of only saying yes, she added her signature large smile (a smile that while at Sonora she was sometimes hesitant to give out considering how much more repressed wizarding society was in comparison to the easy time she had in Turner’s Point, but a smile that lit up her whole face nonetheless).

“Of course!” Laila replied as she pushed her textbook over so that the younger boy could see the pages. “Would you like to work in a pair too?” She had made herself a promise when she’d returned to Sonora earlier that fall that she would try to make more friends and she had been trying to be as friendly as possible with all of her classmates. It was getting easier, she realized, and even if she didn’t feel completely at home yet like how she did back in Turner’s Point where there were friends and family all around, she was starting to feel more comfortable with the quieter life she was leading at Sonora and, she found, she was okay with that.

“I’m Laila,” she said in greeting even though she was pretty sure Gabe Valenti knew her name from roll call by now. She had remembered his name from day one because he had the same first name as her little brother and his last name was distinctly Italian, which always cheered the half-Italian muggleborn up when she heard it since it reminded her of warm afternoons by the stove, watching her mother cook or better yet, sitting on the floor next to Nonno’s chair listening to his wild tall-tales when he came to visit. “And you’re Gabriel Valenti, right? Only, you have the same first name as my little brother.”

Her easy smile punctuated the last remark as she flipped forward to page 182 in the Potions textbook. “How are you getting on in Potions?” She asked as she reached back to tie her dark brown hair which she’d styled in defined curls that morning, out of the way. Perhaps one day she would cut it shorter so that it would not be as problematic when she brewed, but she knew that as long as she was living under her mother’s roof she wouldn’t dare. “You’d look like a boy then,” the rather strict matriarch would scold her. “*Basta! Now give your brother a hand with the dusting.”

*Basta! = That’s enough

10 Laila Kennedy, Crotalus Don't worry, your fellow Muggleborn's got your back! 318 Laila Kennedy, Crotalus 0 5

Gabe [Teppenpaw]

January 26, 2016 11:03 PM

Teamwork makes the dream work by Gabe [Teppenpaw]

Gabe grinned with relief - he’d lucked out and sat next to an empathetic second year. In addition to her textbook, she’d offered her teamwork, something Gabe particularly appreciated. Playing sports all of his life - and taking them seriously - meant plenty of constructive criticism from coaches. He loved sports, but he knew he was no natural. Hard work and enthusiasm was what had always pulled him through. Making class like a team sport encouraged Gabe; he would try his best, if only to do his teammate proud.

“Thanks!” he exclaimed, appreciative that she reminded him of her name. Midterm had been busy - filled with holiday parties, family gatherings, and secretly going off to fly on his new broom any chance he got. It was almost weird to come back to all the wizard stuff, and realize that the classes he took and the people around him were really real.

“Cool name,” he nodded, “And I have a sister in your year - I mean, your age. Emma’s not here.” Dark eyes blinked away any disappointment, to the casual observer he was all smiles. Strange to think, only a few months ago he would have thought it impossible to spend such a long amount of time without his big sister. Of course he was close with his brother, Mattie, too, but Ems was less than a year older than Gabe. They were practically twins. They played every sport and shared every secret together. Well, they used to share. Now Ems was captain of her middle school soccer team, and learning new seventh grade things, like Spanish. And Gabe was here.

Unearthing his collapsible pewter cauldron from his backpack with pride, he grinned in answer to her question, “Only two burn marks!” Dad had intentionally only purchased the pewter cauldron, and nothing fancier. Sure, it brewed slowly, but there was no reason to purchase a fancier one, what with Gabe being a complete novice to wizard stuff. Eventually, if Gabe became dedicated to the subject, his dad’s decision might change. As for the Teppenpaw, he was just impressed that the thing had held up so well so far.

His eyes scanned page 182 of the textbook, trying to get up to speed. Making a mental list of the ingredients, he turned to his backpack. His magical, blue backpack. Man, he really didn’t have an excuse to not have his Potions textbook did he? Not with a backpack that was bigger on the inside. The bag was big enough to house all of his notebooks, his quills, even his potion kit at once. Shoving crumpled bits of papers and stray quills to the bottom of the bag, he unearthed the ink green dragon leather case. Ceremoniously he set the potion kit on his desk, and opened the box. Luckily, Mom had gone through everything with him and labeled all the ingredients before he left for his first year. Otherwise, he’d probably cause accidental explosions everyday.

“We oughtta use my ingredients, since we’re using your book,” he explained, “Let’s see, I’ve got Lethe Water,” he picked out a small royal blue vial, “some sprigs,” he pulled out a small jar of those, before scanning the rest of the case and frowning, turning to Laila, “Out of mistletoe berries though. You got any?” The gap in his potions kit was likely due to the other uses of mistletoe berries - they were found in many common antidotes. Gabe had already gone through plenty of those in just the first half of first year.

0 Gabe [Teppenpaw] Teamwork makes the dream work 330 Gabe [Teppenpaw] 0 5

Joseph Umland, Teppenpaw

January 29, 2016 1:59 PM

I think I'd rather keep mine in my head. by Joseph Umland, Teppenpaw

Once all the initial excitement – the cake when he’d first received a letter, the presents from his grandparents, the trip to Mr. Chenar’s cheery, buttercup-yellow shop in Edmonton to buy his wand, even being scolded for trying to quietly try his wand out while the older people were talking and instead drawing the attention of the whole room to himself when he accidentally made John’s jacket sprout green fur – had worn off, Joe had been forced to deal with one, to his mind incontrovertible, fact: learning magic was really, in and of itself, kind of boring. Doing magic was fun, but the learning process, the hours spent memorizing complex formulae and carefully enunciating syllables in not-quite-Latin and repeating wand movements over and over before he even attempted to do anything with them, that was boring. It was enough to make one sympathize with old Brutus of the rhyme, though if Joe got sick in a hat, it was going to be John’s, because his brother’s enthusiasm for school was positively grating when Joe was having a bad day.

John was extra-annoying when the subject was Potions. It was one of his brother’s two favorite subjects (Joe had been surprised at first to learn that the other was Transfiguration, not Care of Magical Creatures, but then had realized that Tallec probably didn’t let him perform experiments on the class specimens) and while he seemed to understand why Joe might not like all the precise measurements and step-by-step directions and fiddly processes and data tables and frog guts, he was utterly bewildered by why Joe didn’t just, at the very least, breeze through them without thought and at best acquire a Clark of his own to pass the time with. He’d even offered to set Joe up with one of the first or second year Aladrens, an offer Joe had hastily refused. That it might take Joe real effort, more effort than it took to just read something over a few times or copy it out twice, to remember and understand all the rote answers John just rattled off when he was bored and needed to make an adult asking him about the boring topic go away was not, Joe thought, something which had ever occurred to his brother. He guessed he should take that as a compliment.

Compared to the difficulties he saw Gabe and Nat have sometimes, though, he knew he really had nothing to complain about, and whenever he was tempted to shirk his work anyway, he thought about two things. The first was how disappointed his parents would be if they thought he had not given his work his very best effort. Mom, at least, though that not doing so was literally a sin, and Dad just expected better. The second was that while learning magic might not be too fun, all his reading indicated that anyone who was ever going to accomplish anything (and wasn’t a villain, an heiress, or both) had to be good with a wand. If he wanted adventure and status and social change later in life, he had to write the key words over and over again until his hand ached, practice the common categories of wand motion until his shoulder and hand ached, chant nonsense syllables to improve his pronunciation until his mouth was dry, and, alas, cut up the frog guts while ignoring the occasional pang of nausea right now.

The components of the Forgetfulness Potion did not include frog guts, but Joe still shifted a little uncomfortably on his stool at the idea of it while raising his hand to mention the valerian sprigs. That was one of the ingredients that stood out to him because it seemed weird to him that the plant’s root was something that could be bought at almost any Muggle grocer’s and overlap between his two world always threw him a little. His guess was that the valerian root relaxed the drinker and prevented any anxiety about the memory loss inspired by the imported water, though he assumed he was off on the details because he didn’t remember all of the uses of mistletoe in potion-making off the top of his head.

He looked a little glumly over the instructions when they were released to work, but resolutely removed a tiny flask of Lethe water from his potions kit. “I hope this doesn’t evaporate too quickly,” he remarked to his neighbor. “My watch has a second hand if you want to use it to time this part, too.” Some in his family liked stretchy metal watches and some liked leather bands, but they all had second hands. It was useful to have a precise way to count things sometimes, though Joe’s concerns about accidentally inhaling the Lethe river water still existed because he wasn’t sure he could heat it for exactly twenty seconds and no more. The bottom of the cauldron would surely keep it going a little longer, or it would take a few seconds to get the valerian sprigs into the cauldron – maybe some people could achieve that exact twenty-second level of precision, but Joe honestly didn’t see how.

16 Joseph Umland, Teppenpaw I think I'd rather keep mine in my head. 329 Joseph Umland, Teppenpaw 0 5

Artemis Leithan, Crotalus

February 24, 2016 12:04 AM

I'll keep my own, too! by Artemis Leithan, Crotalus

Artemis liked potions. It was as close to womanly arts as was taught at Sonora. House elves did all the cooking at society dinners, and witches who could oversee the house elves best made the best hostesses. Of course, house elves who were well-treated were less likely to deliberately disrupt a meal with a poorly done dish, but Artemis planned to add knowledge of their arts to her natural kindness to those who served her.

Artemis enjoyed creativity, and potions were something in which even the most proper pureblood witch could continue to excel long after she had left school. It had a natural precision that Artemis positively inhaled, and she amused herself with making little alterations of the potions she learned in class back in her dorm room, when her roommates were out. This had led to a few improved potions, lots of smelly accidents, and Artemis mastering a spell to transform foul odors out of necessity. She spent at least one evening per week ensconced in the library, learning a few alternatives to each potion mastered in class. The results in her classes were good, especially when she prepared in advance for each class she could. She was naturally intelligent and applied a focused curiosity to her studies. It was working well for her so far. She hoped her classmates would respect her intelligence and seek her out more, as she was somewhat more shy than she liked to admit.

She appreciated the teacher's view of the desirability of learning multiple means of mixing potions. She was sure she would understand Artemis' practicing alone in her room. Being flexible was important if you ever ran short of ingredients for your favorite mixtures, and anyway, it gave her a sense of discovery that simply copying others' works lacked. She was an inventive witch, and someday she would want recognition from her peers for that, if only at her own society parties. She had no desire to continue forgetting things, so this potion was one she intended to do only for class. There was no good way of experimenting on it, since if it worked you wouldn't remember doing it. Memory, and the ability to recall even slightly important information almost forever, was one of her best attributes, and she had no real use for forgetfulness.

Artemis read through the list of ingredients carefully. She had all of them except the Lethe River water, and wondered what version of the potion the older students had learned last year. The student seated next to her was a fellow first-year, and a roommate of her twin's. They had not yet been introduced, Arthur often neglecting to introduce his sister to his own acquaintances. She decided on a direct approach, and gave him her best smile.

“I'm Artemis Leithan, of the Maryland Leithans. I'm a first year too, in Crotalus. You must be one of my brother, Arthur's, roommates” she opened their conversation. “I'm sure we'll manage this one. I'm glad your watch has a second hand. Mine doesn't. Nice to meet you.”

0 Artemis Leithan, Crotalus I'll keep my own, too! 0 Artemis Leithan, Crotalus 0 5

Arthur Leithan, Teppenpaw

February 24, 2016 12:27 AM

ready for the new term by Arthur Leithan, Teppenpaw

Arthur listened quietly to the professor's description of their task, and reviewed the potion on page 182 carefully. He had all of the ingredients, but he definitely wanted a partner to work with. Artemis was already talking to his roommate, and Arthur had no desire to tag along. He and his twin had agreed to try to separate their worlds at school, and he had kept up his part of the bargain. He did hope Artemis would come to like his new friends, and as a member of the friendly house, he felt sure they would like her. She was a real standout in potions, and he knew she secretly experimented with new variations in her dorm room. He felt secure letting her make her mark in the class, while he aspired only to do well in general, not in comparison to her. She needed to be better than him at something, and he appreciated that it wasn't just in flying, where she surpassed his abilities easily, despite having a much less sensitive broom. Or perhaps because her broom wasn't overly responsive, giving her fewer lurches in response to only slight variations in her touch. In any case, he was content to let his sister shine at potions, while reflecting back only a weaker volume of light.

Arthur carefully removed all of the ingredients from his bag, and set them next to his little cauldron. His cauldron had been selected by his parents with much less care then his broom. They considered a cauldron suitable for a first-year student acceptable, while they had given him an appropriate broom for a gentleman wizard as a beginner. Arthur would have preferred it the other way around, but his parents expected him to make an utter mess of his first cauldron, and had come up with a generic version that was destined to be replaced when he was old enough to do more advanced potions. They were convinced first-year wizarding students would never master getting all the ingredients out, and some residue would make a good cauldron much less useful. Arthur lived down to their expectations in that regard, and his messy cleanups seemed to be compromising his results already.

Arthur finished arranging the ingredients in order of their use, leaving the ones to be mixed in later to one side. He glanced at the student next to him in anticipation. “Would you prefer to use your cauldron?” He inquired casually. “Mine is a little the worse for wear, I'm afraid. I do happen to have all the ingredients, though.”

0 Arthur Leithan, Teppenpaw ready for the new term 0 Arthur Leithan, Teppenpaw 0 5

Joe Umland

February 24, 2016 2:44 PM

Glad you agree. by Joe Umland

“That’s me,” said Joe when he was correctly identified as one of Artemis’ brother’s roommates. “The one who’s called Joe. Joe Umland.”

He had already known who she was, partially because her name would have stood out even if she hadn’t shared half of it with one of his roommates (funny, he thought, that purebloods would name their daughter after a goddess best known for being a hunter and wanting absolutely nothing to do with men; between that and the name Arthur and even the historical half of its most famous bearer's family troubles, he had to wonder if one or both of their parents secretly lacked affection for the whole dynasty-building thing Joe had gathered much of their social class was fixated on) and partially because he’d noticed her in flying lessons. Her broom looked old, probably not as fast as her brother’s – Arthur had a nice broom, as did Gabe; Joe, who used a school one, sometimes felt more than a touch inadequate around them in flying lessons – but she was good with it, even flying sidesaddle. He wondered if they'd let her play Quidditch that way next year if Teppenpaw and Crotalus either formed another joint team or pulled together teams of their own. It wasn't likely that any of them could beat the Aladrens, but Joe thought it would be fun if the younger years at least had some good competition between themselves.

“You, too,” he replied.

He took off his watch and laid it between the two cauldrons so they could both see it. It was a fairly large-faced watch, but a glance proved that it still wasn’t really meant for distance viewing. Joe bit his lip. “Here,” he said. “Let me try something….” He took out his wand and drew the circle as he cast an Engorgement Charm on the watch face, concentrating on increasing its size to about that of the palm of his hand – he didn’t want his watch to become so large it toppled their cauldrons or, well, exploded. He liked this watch, didn’t like the thought of what Professor O’Malley might do to him if he sent gears and shards of glass and metal shooting around the room, and also thought the world was probably better off if it remained a world where he didn’t somehow end up giving John the pieces of a watch broken in that manner to play with later.

Luckily, none of those undesirable outcomes came to pass. “There,” he said when it stopped growing, nodding his head in satisfaction. “Now we can both see it better.”

He put his burner to medium heat to warm up while he prepared everything else, laid out two valerian sprigs, the better to pick them up at about second fifteen so he could get them in the cauldron within the vicinity of second twenty-one, and then took out a set of measuring spoons, the cheapest six-piece set he’d been able to find at the supermarket back home. John had invested in a lot of little glass things for measuring, good glass being the substance least likely to react with anything, but his brother had both completely different aims for his brewing most of the time and the money to spend on what Joe saw as – for a student, anyway, not a professional who had a chance of publishing something – slightly frivolous levels of variable control, as John had been both old enough and well-connected enough to land a part-time job over the summer. “My brother would kill me if I just dropped something into a cauldron,” he said, feeling the need to explain the extra equipment. “He uses fourth-teaspoons as his measure for ‘a drop,’ so I’ve been going with that, too.” John had really wanted to use eighth-teaspoons, not least to stretch more expensive components, but he said his experiments had found that doing this both a) typically didn’t produce results quite as good as using fourth-teaspoons and b) typically resulted in some waste anyway, as it was hard to get out exactly an eighth-teaspoon of anything without spilling some.

He slowly measured out the two drops into the half-teaspoon, trying to be as precise as possible, lowered the heat on his cauldron, added the water, and started counting seconds on his enlarged watch face with the valerian sprigs already between his fingers. He wanted to blink almost at once, but kept his eyes open until he had lifted the sprigs over the cauldron and dropped them at second nineteen. The brew sparkled and shimmered as Joe stirred it three times with his right hand, his left already on his wand handle so he could wave it as soon as he finished stirring. That done, he sat back on his stool, feeling vaguely as though he had just won a race with a clock.

“That part’s pretty intense, isn’t it?” he remarked to Artemis. He scribbled down the time on his watch and the precise time that fifteen, twenty, twenty-five, and thirty minutes from that moment would be. Fifteen to thirty minutes was a really broad direction. At least the second part of the potion, once he decided to proceed, looked less intense than the first part.

16 Joe Umland Glad you agree. 329 Joe Umland 0 5

Daniel Fintoc, Crotalus

February 24, 2016 4:18 PM

I'm not sure your cauldron agrees. by Daniel Fintoc, Crotalus

Potions was not exactly Daniel’s forte, so he had found during the first half of term, but he wasn’t completely abominable at it either. Although if it weren’t polite to maintain a certain level of modesty, he would be quite willing to state that he wasn’t abominable at anything. School work wasn’t as much a breeze as he had expected it to be, given how superior his intelligence appeared when compared with the rest of his family, but he was naturally a studious boy and would put in the hard work to keep his grades from being anything less than satisfactory. If he wanted to be anything more than a cattle rancher when he was older (which he most certainly did), Daniel had come to understand that there would be a good degree of academic toil involved, even for him.

Daniel had found that he rather liked Professor O’Malley and the structure of Potions lessons often suited him as there were sometimes opportunities to talk amongst his classmates and extend his social circle or complete homework and read ahead on topics when waiting for a potion to brew. Apparently today was such a potion and Dan was quite relieved that they were being eased back into work slowly after the midterm break, during which Dan had hardly had the chance to use his brain properly it seemed.

Before starting to gather his ingredients and set up his workstation in an organised manner, Daniel turned to page 182 and read through the full instructions thoroughly so he could reduce the potential for making mistakes.

“Let’s use my cauldron,” Daniel nodded to his partner after a quick glance at the mentioned ‘worse for wear’ cauldron. Whilst the Fintoc family didn’t have the greatest knowledge when it came to school-related things, the women at least knew what a good cauldron looked like. Today he was working with Arthur Leithan, a boy he didn’t know very well but whose twin sister was in Dan’s house, which he was rather pleased about. Arthur seemed like the kind of person he could benefit from being around, from a good family and apparently nice with that. “That’s good,” Daniel cast his eyes over the Teppenpaw’s ingredients just to double-check that they weren’t miss anything before things got under way. “Shall we begin then?” he selected the Lethe River Water and, carefully checking the textbook again, added two drops to his cauldron. “It says here to gently heat for 20 seconds…”

Daniel took the opportunity to make small-talk whilst the pair got on with the potion-making. “Are you any good at Potions, Arthur? Personally my favourite class is Charms but all of them can be interesting.” Since it wasn’t his best subject, Dan thought perhaps Arthur might prefer to take more of a lead. That being said, Dan definitely wasn’t the sort to take a back-seat in class, whatever the class.

8 Daniel Fintoc, Crotalus I'm not sure your cauldron agrees. 333 Daniel Fintoc, Crotalus 0 5

Laila

February 25, 2016 12:57 PM

Hey! I love Dreamworks! by Laila

It must have been hard for Gabe to be there without his siblings. Her own Gabe was one of the people who Laila missed the most when she was at Sonora. His curly hair, his bright freckled face, his continuous smiles, these were all things that made her heart pang a little when she thought of her mischievous sibling. She didn’t miss the ridiculous fights they got into at all—in fact, she hardly remembered them, but she did desperately miss her little brother.

Laila laughed as Gabe showed her his pewter cauldron, similar to the one that Laila had purchased when she’d been first starting Sonora though midway through her second year she still didn’t have even one burn mark on it. “Are you close with your sister?” Laila asked, wanting to know more about this Gabe and wondering if the similarities stopped at the name and the smiling personality. It was a very Gabe (Kennedy) thing to pull a cauldron from a backpack and be proud that it had only been burned twice, and it sort of made Laila feel even more homesick than she had felt in the past. But she swallowed the feeling because she was supposed to be the older, responsible party in this Potions partnership, the Jax to Gabe’s Laila, so there was no time for being weepy.

It was very kind of Gabe to offer to use his ingredients in a trade for Laila’s book, something that was also a Gabe Kennedy thing, something that Mamma would definitely have approved of, and Gabe served to further emulate her little brother as he noticed there were some ingredients missing from his case. “Of course,” she replied and counted out four berries onto the table beside the rest of the ingredients. “Do you ever wish we could leave the school grounds?” she asked, as she placed the cauldron on the burner and uncorked the vial of Lethe Water. “I was in the library, and I read that there’s a school in England that lets third years and up leave the school grounds every now and then to go to a nearby wizarding village. I’ve never really been to a real wizarding village before, aside from buying my school supplies, but that’s different.”

Was there a town close by to the school? Laila didn’t really know, but she wanted to find out. Turner’s Point was a lovely town, but aside from the Reinhardts and the Chinooks who lived just past them, it wasn’t really magical, and it thrived off gossip more than money. Would a magical city be the same? She decided to ask Jax or Gia the next time she saw them, or she could ask Mr. Xavier when she saw him after class—the good weather outside meant that she would be able to join him unless it suddenly began pouring. Even though she didn’t mind the rain, having grown up in the Pacific Northwest did acclimate one to such things, she had to have some sort of rule to keep her indoors during some of her free time or she likely wouldn’t have ever gotten any studying done.

OOC: Please ignore my email…the challenges kind of threw me off time-wise haha :)

10 Laila Hey! I love Dreamworks! 318 Laila 0 5