Comm-on, everybody! [Years I and II] on Potions

Professor Sophie O'Malley

December 23, 2016 4:36 PM

Comm-on, everybody! [Years I and II] by Professor Sophie O'Malley

Getting back to school was always a bit rough. Sophie herself remembered dreading the return to classes, even the ones she liked, after a holiday at home. Even with friends and extracurriculars to get back to, it could be difficult to leave one’s family behind. Most years for her, returning to Sonora meant leaving her father alone again, isolated in a giant, empty house. Serapes had to return to his workplace, and while Ileum would be around, it was not the same.

She couldn’t help but look around the classroom and wonder how many of her students experienced something similar, how many of them went home and had to fight to leave because of who or what they left behind? However, the former Pecari quickly rationalized that this was a productive line of thought for neither her mood nor her teaching, so she pushed it away for now, put on a smile, and cheerfully greeted her beginners. “Welcome back!”

“Hopefully everyone had a pleasant break,” she said. “But now it’s time to get back to work, yeah? So let me take a quick attendance and then we’ll get started.” The small blonde didn’t bother to call out names anymore, as she was easily familiarized with everyone by now, but she did scan over the room and quickly dash checkmarks into the appropriate boxes on her clipboard.

“Right, now then,” began Sophie, sitting the attendance sheet down on her desk and moving forward around it. “I thought we’d get right back into things with a good brew. Sound good?” She paused, glancing around the room for obvious dissent. Of course, she wasn’t going to change her lesson plan to please a sourpuss, but she liked to keep tabs on where the kids stood as far as favorability on the subject. Kids did a lot better in classes they liked. “We’re going to work on the Antidote for Common Poisons.” She waved a hand, and the title of the potion appeared on the blackboard. “Now, can anyone tell me what a poison is?” Sophie didn’t expect a word-for-word dictionary definition, but the glossary in the back of their textbooks would define it as “a substance that is capable of causing the illness or death of a living organism when introduced or absorbed.” Anything close to that was granted five House points.

“Great answers, everybody. So as you’ve gathered, a poison is basically anything that can hurt or kill you when it gets inside you. There’s an unpleasantly vast variety of poisons in both the magical and Muggle worlds, but one potion was developed to cure - hence the title - some of the more common ones.”

“You will find instructions on page 230 of your textbook. Accompanying that, you’ll find a couple pages on different poisons and the origin of this potion, which I’d like you to read up on as your homework or whenever you finish brewing. As always, feel free to work in pairs and talk quietly among yourselves as long as the work still gets done and the noise stays manageable.”

OOC: Welcome back, everybody. Instead of lengthening this post with the instructions, I’ll just direct you to the HP wiki from whence it came, which can be found here. Obviously mind the rules, and keep in mind that I will award an OOC point boost to account for IC correct answers to in class questions. As a reminder, your student would be using a pewter cauldron. Have fun, and happy holidays!

Subthreads:

I'm here, I'm here. by Farrah Welsh, Aladren with Jozua Sparks

Comm-unication by Winston Pierce, Crotalus with Arianna Tate, Crotalus

Tagging Finn by Juniper Brockert, Teppenpaw with Finn Scott, Teppenpaw

I foresee this coming in handy... by Madeleine Dautin, Aladren with Natalie Atwater, Pecari

Focused. by Kit Reid, Aladren with Gwen Fintoc, Teppenpaw

12 Professor Sophie O'Malley Comm-on, everybody! [Years I and II] 34 Professor Sophie O'Malley 1 5

Farrah Welsh, Aladren

December 24, 2016 4:09 PM

I'm here, I'm here. by Farrah Welsh, Aladren

Farrah took her seat in one of the middle spots in the classroom. She didn’t know why she favored the middle so much, but she thought it was because she could blend in better. She had heard once that teachers tended to pick on students in the back of the room or chose people to answer questions in the front, which left the middle seats alone for the most part. Farrah tried to be as inconspicuous as she could possibly be at this school. Her previous school had her picked on and ridiculed. Other than Arianna being a total B, Farrah was so far lucky to have escaped that same sort of ridicule here and she was doing all she could to keep it that way.

She listened to Professor O’Malley discuss what the lesson was and her hand shot up rather surprisingly even for her. “A poison is something that is ingested and can cause a living creature to become ill or even die.” Farrah said, feeling a little pleased. Her dad had to save a dog that accidentally ate some grapes. Her dad told her that grapes were like poison for a dog, they could shut down their kidneys and kill them. He said that like chocolate, dogs should never be allowed to eat grapes. Farrah had no idea and so she sat with the dog for some of the evening while he was kept in observation so that he didn’t feel lonely and scared. After two days of observation and no signs that the dog was having any issues, is family could take him home. Farrah had been so scared for the dog, but it had been a happy ending.

Farrah liked the idea of a potion that could solve a bit of common poisons and wondered if there was an equivalent of it for animals. She’d have to ask her dad. He had to keep the magical vet work he did as a secret since for a long time Farrah’s mom hadn’t known he was a Wizard, but now that Farrah was part of all of that, he was more open to discussing his treatments and things. Her mom was still hesitant to a lot of the Magical world, but she was slowly gaining trust with it, especially since Farrah was doing so well and had made some close friends.

She flipped open her book and found the potion that they would be doing that day. Farrah made a face when she read the first ingredient. She was not a Vegan or a Vegetarian, but it was super gross to use some of the ingredients that they did. Why weren’t there other ways of going about it than using eyeballs or, in this case, something that is taken from a goat’s stomach? Was the goat killed for it? Or were they sedated and then it’s exacted from them? Do goat’s need them at all? She had so many questions to how things were taken and whether or not animals were harmed in the process. She didn’t like it at all.

As she started to grind up her Bezoar, she looked into her kit to see what else she had that she could prepare. Realizing that she was low on her herb bag and forgot to tell her dad about it (she’d have to put that in her letter home tonight), she turned to the person sitting next to her. “Hey, do you mind sharing your standard ingredient; I forgot to have my dad buy me more when I was home. I can share something else with you, if you like a trade?”

6 Farrah Welsh, Aladren I'm here, I'm here. 344 Farrah Welsh, Aladren 0 5

Jozua Sparks

December 28, 2016 11:12 AM

Don't worry, I'll get all the attention in about 40 minutes by Jozua Sparks

Jozua enjoyed potions. He hated taking them, and now knowing first hand the kinds of things that went into potions, they seemed to taste even worse when he had to ingest one, but fortunately there wasn't really a lot of using potions in the beginner class, and making them was actually kind of enjoyable. Plus, if he was lucky, he could try to find opportunities to re-earn his explosive reputation for the yearbook. That was even more fun. He was actually doing really well in his understanding of how potions worked and how their ingredients interacted thanks to his extra research in trying to discover how to make his cauldron smoke ominously.

He snickered in eager anticipation to himself as he saw today's potion involved unicorn horn. Bezoars were pretty inert, sadly, and adding that first would likely negate the potential for the unicorn horn to react spectacularly to anything else, but he just... he studied the instructions thoughtfully and formulated his plan.

Yes, that would work very nicely, he thought, as he began to grind down his bezoar in his mortar. Just one missing step ought to do it. Without the bezoar there to mitigate it, adding the mistletoe to the unicorn horn ought to create some sparks as the horn reacted to the mild toxicity in the berries. Best not to be too obvious in his 'mistake' or a neighbor might try to correct him.

He was just putting it aside to 'forget' to add it to the potion when his neighbor did interfere. Jozua jumped a little guiltily, but Farrah was just asking to borrow standard stock. Relieved, he nodded and agreed, "No problem, let me just measure some out first then you can have my jar." He hurried to weigh out two measures, then passed Farrah the jar, glad for the seeming distraction that might let him reasonably explain how the bezoar had been forgotten.

He added the measured stock to his cauldron, and raised the temperature a bit higher than the medium that was instructed because higher temperatures always increased volatility. As he let that brew, he inspected his potions kit, intentionally not noticing that his powdered bezoar was still in the semi-hidden mortar behind his cauldron.

"Looks like I'm getting low on fire seed and salamander tails," he remarked casually, trying not to let anything slip into his tone that it was two of the most flammable ingredients that were the ones he was rather suspiciously missing. "If you're willing to trade either of those?"

This long brewing period was going to be the most nerve wracking part of the lesson. Forty minutes of just hoping nobody noticed his potion wasn't the same color as everyone else's and that his bezoar was just sitting right there "forgotten", out of the way but still visible to anyone looking for it.

1 Jozua Sparks Don't worry, I'll get all the attention in about 40 minutes 348 Jozua Sparks 0 5

Winston Pierce, Crotalus

December 28, 2016 11:59 AM

Comm-unication by Winston Pierce, Crotalus

Winston was a meticulous person. He liked his hair and his clothing clean and pressed. His notes were color coded. His daily schedule was clearly defined. Potions felt very natural to him. You did these steps in this precise way for exactly this long and at the end of it, you had a very predictable result. The quantitative nature of it was very satisfying and reliable. He was doing very well in this class.

Honestly, he was doing well in most of his classes, and he felt he was keeping up very nicely with the Aladrens of his year. Of course, the fact that he cared that he was keeping up, rather than being pleased at his progress for its own sake, probably spoke to why his badge was red rather than blue. He didn't necessarily need to be smart. He just needed to appear smart. Of course, in this instance, being smart was the simplest and most straightforward route to appearing smart, so he was quite pleased with his own progress, too. His parents were likewise pleased which also pleased Winston, so it was a whole wonderful feedback loop of everyone being happy about his grades, and he had every intention of keeping it going that way.

He raised his hand to define what a poison was, but an older Aladren girl got it first, so his best way to continue to prove his competence today was to brew a flawless Antidote to Common Poisons.

He didn't let himself think too closely about what exactly a bezoar was and where it came from as he placed one in his mortar and began grinding it down to a fine powder. Most potion ingredients were, almost by definition, distasteful, but he found a surprising enjoyment in pounding, pasting, powdering, and slicing them and then brewing them into potions that had purpose and sometimes even beauty (though, admittedly, almost never a pleasant smell or taste).

Powdering was one of the hardest procedures, though, requiring strength, endurance, and patience to bring a solid thing down to a fine powder, and he turned to conversation to relieve the tedium of the process. "Did you have an enjoyable holiday?"

1 Winston Pierce, Crotalus Comm-unication 370 Winston Pierce, Crotalus 0 5

Farrah

January 01, 2017 7:29 PM

I'm not sure if I'm safe sitting here... by Farrah

Jozua was her table partner for the day. He was one of those people that she knew because of classes and clubs but never really had much communication with. She considered him one of those popular people and she believed that he was also Pureblood (sometimes that mattered as to whether or not they cared to talk to someone like her). She had seen him a lot with Lily Spencer (another person that Farrah considered popular because of her Quidditch playing and the fact that Madeleine seemed to like her), so she guessed that Jozua also probably hung around Madeleine.

Farrah didn’t think he was a mean person because of his popularity but that was because of his house. She didn’t think any Teppenpaw had it in them to be mean at all. But she was wary of him all the same. It seemed silly, she knew that. It wasn’t like anyone other than Arianna V had ever been rude to her, but after all the things that happened to her prior to Sonora, she couldn’t help herself but remain guarded. Somehow, Kellen and Georgia never seemed put off by her anxieties and she loved them greatly for that.

She smiled when Jozua agreed to let her use some of his standard stock. “Thank you!” She said gratefully as she took the jar when he finished measuring out what he needed. She measured out the necessarily amount and set his jar next to the rest of his ingredients. She returned to grinding up the bezoar so that she could measure out the powdered amount of it and move on with the potion. She was just finishing up putting the powdered bezoar into the cauldron when Jozua piped up with what he’d like a trade him.

Farrah looked down into her kit for his requested items. Her stock was nearly full with both of those a she briefly wondered what he had used his on, but then shrugged it off. He was probably practicing brewing things outside of class. She had seen some Aladrens do that in the common room, so it wouldn’t surprise her if people in other houses did that too. “Sure.” She said and gave him some of each.

She added in the standard stock, heated the cauldron and waved her wand like the directions said to before lowering the heat, setting her timer, and letting it brew. She looked over at Jozua again, “The sitting and waiting is probably the most intense and boring part about potions, don’t you think?” She asked. She had to wait forever because she could do the second part of the potion. If she did the first part wrong, she wouldn’t know until the end of the time and she couldn’t really fix it. So she was anxious during all that time, but it was still a boring time to get through.

6 Farrah I'm not sure if I'm safe sitting here... 344 Farrah 0 5

Arianna Tate, Crotalus

January 06, 2017 1:06 PM

A good thing by Arianna Tate, Crotalus

Arianna didn't exactly love potions. Not exactly good for her nails and there were ingredients that she didn't really want to touch even if she did readily drink them in finished products. In fact, she wasn't all that excited to be back at school period. Attending social engagements was far superior to studying and Potions was one of the drearier classes.Something about toiling away over a cauldron compared to the visual effects of charms and transfiguration wasn't exactly appealing to her.

Still, Arianna supposed it was better than Herbology. She didn't need to garden and cultivate plants-she had elves for that! Furthermore, it was dirty-admittedly that was the one upside of wearing a uniform, her pretty and expensive clothing wouldn't get ruined, but she still liked for it to be clean-and worse, Professor Xavier had had them fertilizing and it smelled . It had been really difficult to keep an expression of total disgust off her face. Arianna was usually pretty good at hiding her emotions so nobody could get the upper hand over her or think of her as anything less than a perfect lady but that...had been a challenge. She supposed it was fairly proper to be disgusted by bad smells but she still didn't ever want to let a weakness of any sort show. The second year had been born with a need to dominate and one couldn't do that if they appeared weak somehow.

She perked up slightly at the word poison. Arianna didn't know that she'd ever quite have it in her to use a poison, she wasn't a complete sociopath after all and killing someone was rather beyond how far she was willing to go to achieve her ends, but it was still somewhat interesting.

Of course, they weren't actually brewing a poison. Which she supposed made sense. Professor O'Malley would have to be really stupid to let a bunch of eleven to thirteen year olds do that. Besides, what some people made was bound to be toxic enough. Or explode.

Arianna withdrew a bezoar from her well-stocked potions kit. She might not have been all that into schoolwork but it was a point of pride to not be lacking anything as her family had money. She began to crush it as Winston Pierce spoke up next to her. He was someone she held in fairly good regard. He was from a good family and sort of related to her by marriage. His mother's half sister was married to her mother's first cousin. And he'd given her cookies and she appreciated being thought of. Arianna liked getting attention. "It was pretty good. I went to lots of parties and received many fabulous presents. How was yours?"

11 Arianna Tate, Crotalus A good thing 353 Arianna Tate, Crotalus 0 5

Juniper Brockert, Teppenpaw

January 07, 2017 4:49 PM

Tagging Finn by Juniper Brockert, Teppenpaw

As much as Juniper didn't want to be back at school, midterm had been awful for her too. Mother had made her attend all sorts of parties that others around her age were invited to in a further attempt to socialize her and Tasha hadn't been there with her, having gone to Ethiopia instead.

At least though, at Angelique Brockert's party, Finn had been there too, which was even better. Plus, Juniper was eager to see him for his own sake and not just to keep herself from freaking out being around so many people. At the rest of the parties she'd been forced to attend she'd spent a good amount of time hiding out in corners and in the restroom and hoping to be left alone.

One thing to be said about school though-other than Finn being there with her-at least the focus was not supposed to be on socializing, it was supposed to be on learning. Even though Mother stressed the social aspect for her much more than academics because she was a girl and would never need to go on to school or have a career. Juniper couldn't help but be a little happy about that as she couldn't imagine having to go into a job where she had to deal with other people. If she had her way, she'd just live with Finn and a bunch of animals away from almost everyone else. Plus, her grades were pretty average, with consistent Os only in COMC and Transfig. Juniper didn't have a problem with the work itself, but being in the classroom with other students made her so anxious that it distracted her. She usually did okay on homework so long as she could work either all by herself or with Finn and nobody else was around.

Now, if only Mother would stress the social aspect less too! After all, without it, Juniper would do so much better on academics.

It seemed a lot of times the teachers seemed to stress it too though. They were always being required to work in pairs, though it looked like on this Potions lesson it was optional. That was generally a good thing but still that didn't mean there wasn't someone that the Teppenpaw wanted to work with. Juniper turned to Finn, whom she tried to sit next to if at all possible. "Would you like to work together?" She asked.

11 Juniper Brockert, Teppenpaw Tagging Finn 345 Juniper Brockert, Teppenpaw 0 5

Finn Scott, Teppenpaw

January 09, 2017 3:01 PM

Replying to Juniper by Finn Scott, Teppenpaw

Even though he kept up with his holiday work, Finn always found it a bit of a struggle to get back into the swing of classes after the break. It was as if his brain had forgotten that he was meant to concentrate on what he was being taught, and he always had to concentrate a little harder for the first few days. However, Professor O’Malley said they were going to brew, which was always more interesting for Finn, as it meant you were more active and had to think about different things.

Finn didn’t really like the idea of poisons. He was a gentle, friendly boy, and he’d never had the urge to hurt anybody, even by the subtle means of slipping a vile liquid into someone’s pumpkin juice. The idea of hurting someone else was rather repellent to him, but Finn wasn’t naïve enough to believe that everyone else felt the same way. For that reason, it was probably quite useful that someone had invented a basic antidote. He could get behind the idea of brewing this much more happily.

He thought about putting his hand up to answer the question, as he was fairly confident he could answer it (defining a potion wasn’t the hardest of questions), but Farrah got there first, not that Finn was particularly bothered. He didn’t feel the need to answer every question, and wasn’t concerned by knowing there were people more academic than him. He did well enough, and his parents and grandparents were happy with his grades. That was enough for him.

Finn jotted down the homework, not wanting to forget it (and knowing that he ran the risk of doing so if he didn’t write it down). He turned to the correct page in his textbook, and then to Juniper, who was sitting next to him. He was just about to check that she wanted to work with him, when she got there first.

“Ooh, I’m not sure,” he replied, obviously teasing her, before laughing. Whilst he was quiet, and sometimes came across as a little shy, he was confident enough with Juniper that his more playful side came across more often. “Of course, I’d love to,” he said with a smile. He was always happy to work with Juniper. He enjoyed the company of one of his closest friends, and definitely didn’t want to work alone on a potion when they had to wait for it to brew. That was just boring.

“I’ll start crushing the bezoar, if you measure out the standard ingredient?” he suggested, adding said bezoar to his mortar and setting to work.

“So how are things with you and Georgia?” he asked, breaking the monotony of crushing, which was beginning to wear on him after a few seconds of work. He was intrigued as to how Juniper was getting along with her roommate, now that they'd been sharing a room for a year and a half. As far as he knew, there were no problems, but he didn’t see them spending lots of time together, so they presumably weren't as close as he and Jozua were.

9 Finn Scott, Teppenpaw Replying to Juniper 347 Finn Scott, Teppenpaw 0 5

Madeleine Dautin, Aladren

January 10, 2017 2:44 AM

I foresee this coming in handy... by Madeleine Dautin, Aladren

Even if Madeleine didn't spend the majority of her days running around as Flora Deschamps, international super-spy bringing down the hammer of justice on evil, she still would have been happy to learn the antidote to common poisons because as any good French witch or wizard knew, crimes of passion were not meant to be taken lightly. The French wizarding culture turned a blind eye to cheating and being from a family where neither of her parents were sleeping with the other, Madeleine lived in fear of someone or other becoming jealous and Doing Something About It.

So, perhaps a little too enthusiastically, Madeleine brought out her potions kit and began to prepare for the day's lesson. Arguments over love were not just something that ran in the adult circles. No, her sister was bitter towards the former Pecari prefect and Quidditch Captain over a long-old tryst Liliana Bannister had shared with Myrtille's betrothed, and just that past winter break Louis Valois had been shamed by Sébastien Évreux over Ingrid Wolseithcrafte (something which had caused Madeleine to laugh for a good while at Bastien when they returned because of the way it had all blown up in his face).

"You know," she commented to the other student at her desk. "This is really going to come in handy later on. It's definitely one I'm going to have to make carefully and memorize because one never knows when they'll need to use a poison antidote!"

She went back to setting up her workstation, placing the bezoar in the mortar and setting out her standard ingredient and measuring spoon so that she could quickly put the correct amount in her cauldron after crushing her bezoar as finely as possible. Madeleine knew that she took her time when crushing things if asked to make a fine powder because she liked to brew as thorough as possible--after all, Dautins made beyond passing marks!, and she didn't want to have to wait too long after everyone else's forty minutes were up to continue on with her potion.

10 Madeleine Dautin, Aladren I foresee this coming in handy... 340 Madeleine Dautin, Aladren 0 5

Kit Reid, Aladren

January 11, 2017 1:18 AM

Focused. by Kit Reid, Aladren

Potions was her second or third or second favorite class? Kit really couldn’t decide. Her absolute favorite class was easily Defense Against the Dark Arts, but after that it was hard to pick one. Potions was definitely up there though, but she couldn’t decide if she liked Potions better than she liked Transfiguration. But then there was Charms too and Care of Magical Creatures. All were equally useful in their own ways. The only class that didn’t really appeal to her was Herbology, which was clearly at the bottom of her list. But the others were such fun. Potions was amazing, because it was almost an art in the precision it took to create something so elaborate. Just the wrong bit of something could end up creating something entirely different with results that could be catastrophic. It was thrilling! She was also begin to suspect that she liked a bit of suspense and danger in her life. But was finding an outlet in her classes.

With today being no exception. They would be learning a general antidote to poisons. It was definitely exciting. One small mistake in brewing could mean literal death. Of course, there was no way that a beginner potion would actually be used for someone that had been poisoned, but this was the step to actually one day potentially creating it for someone that had. Oh, she was so eager to get started, but first things first. She had to open her book up to the appropriate potion to see what all the steps were. She quickly flipped to page 230 and scanned over the ingredients. Did she have all of them? Bezoar, which she imagined was the most important one since the very definition of one including being able to save one from most poisons. Check. Standard Ingredient. Check. Unicorn Horns. Check. Mistletoe Berries. Check. Okay, she had all of her items in order.

Kit started by measuring all of her ingredients. She had already measured out the Standard Ingredient, put the Unicorn Horns on standby, and placed two berries to the side. She was about to start crushing the Bezoar into a fine powder when she heard a voice near to her. She hadn’t been paying much attention since she was focused on her work. It was only when she heard it again that she shifted her attention. “Sorry, what did you say?”

0 Kit Reid, Aladren Focused. 363 Kit Reid, Aladren 0 5

Natalie Atwater, Pecari

January 12, 2017 1:31 AM

Well that's a bit disturbing... by Natalie Atwater, Pecari

As usual, Natalie was running late. She didn't know why this happened nearly everyday but it did. It was always one thing or another, today she had forgotten her potions kit and didn't realize it until she was halfway there and had to go back and get it. Maybe it was some subconscious desire not to go to class. She wished she could blame an active social life and while she still had a chance for one, she didn't have one yet. She supposed it might have to do with her liking to sit on the beach in the water room after she ate. And that was hard to pull herself away from that.

Especially to goto a class like potions. No disrespect towards Sophie, whom she loved very much for being so good to Ryan and just being all around cool even if they didn't have the bond Sophie and Kira did. In fact, Natalie felt terribly guilty about not liking this class better because her cousin's wife was teaching it but she really didn't have much patience for the brewing process. . She honestly wished she could have the Intermediates' silencing charm lesson instead. That sounded useful and fun.

Still she got there on time, even if she was one of the last ones there and when she heard the lesson, at the very least it sounded like it could be useful. Though Natalie was going to be a grand society lady like all Atwater and Brockert girls were groomed to be. Not only that, but she couldn't imagine anyone disliking her enough to want to kill or seriously harm her. Even with her basic black sheep status, her family didn't want her to die , just be more like Kelsey.

Of course, in a way, that would be kind of a death. A death of whom she, Natalie Cornelia Atwater, truly was inside. While being the perfect pureblood lady was who her sister was, it wasn't her. And truth be told, her paternal family was being quite unfair. While Natalie was going to talk to whomever she pleased-after all, it would be rude to just ignore her roommate for example-it wasn't like she wanted to marry a non-pureblood or denounce magic and live a Muggle life-she couldn't imagine why anyone with a choice would-or even play Quidditch. She just wasn't some perfect lady who barely seemed human like her sister was.

Still, a literal death from poisoning was unlikely to befall her. So she sort of blinked when Madeleine Dautin whom she was sitting next to said.

"This is really going to come in handy later on. It's definitely one I'm going to have to make carefully and memorize because one never knows when they'll need to use a poison antidote!"

Natalie was not sure how to exactly reply to that. What kind of family did Madeleine come from? She'd heard of "dark families" out there but she didn't realize the Dautins were such. Or that poisoning regularly occurred amongst the French. "Do you expect to be poisoned?"The Pecari asked incredulously. If someone was so sure they were going to be poisoned it either meant they were an awful person and knew it or that they knew a bunch of awful people. If it was the former, maybe Natalie should stay far away from Miss Dautin after this lesson. If it was the latter, than Natalie felt very sorry for her.

And the other girl was only a year older than Natalie, how could she have accrued so many enemies already that she was expecting to be poisoned.

Another thought occurred to her though " I mean, for me I suppose like, when I have kids and they might accidentally ingest something, a remedy would be useful." Hopefully Madeleine meant something along those lines. Not that having kids was everything, but considering the alternatives Natalie had been imagining, this seemed far more sensible and something most pureblood women would likely have happen to them. The having kids part that was, not the kids being accidentally poisoned

11 Natalie Atwater, Pecari Well that's a bit disturbing... 371 Natalie Atwater, Pecari 0 5

Madeleine

January 18, 2017 1:23 PM

Is it? I just want to stay alive... by Madeleine

This was an instance in which Myrtille’s advice for Madeleine to think a bit before she spoke would have really come in handy, the Aladren thought as she saw the look on her classmate’s face. It was a reasonable question, she supposed, for someone who didn’t have quite the imagination as she herself did—or who hadn’t grown up knowing all kinds of loose love. Yet loose love while accepted as a universal truth was also not discussed in polite company with those outside of la noblesse although the adult witches did titter behind cups of punch about the latest gossip at parties and balls.

Did she expect to be poisoned? Madeleine couldn’t really say. Louis Valois had not opted to get back at Sébastien Évreux in a violent way, and both her parents were turning blind eyes to the other’s extramarital affairs even though Papa was indulging a parade of burgeoisie witches and Maman was in an six year long affair with Papa’s brother, Oncle Thierry. However, her parents did still love each other on some level, Madeleine knew that—they had to or else they wouldn’t be so lovey dovey at parties or when talking to their friends. Madeleine was rather observant but even she could tell that the way their eyes sparkled when talking about each other was real.

“It’s to be prepared,” Madeleine settled on, hoping that her word choice made sense. She didn’t want to marry because she didn’t want to end up like her parents in a loving-loveless marriage and so therefore she logically couldn’t have any children. She wasn’t about to have kids out of wedlock! She wasn’t some burgoise witch, after all! “Besides, you never know who might be jealous with whom and if you might be the person to accidentally stumble in the middle of someone doing something about it!”

She had been careful to use general terms so as not to implicate any of her French brethren in her statement, and she was also rather proud of her use of ‘whom,’ since the French ‘qui’ and ‘que’ oftentimes muddled in her head as they could also be used as question words and also stand-ins for people-nouns and thing-nouns respectively.

10 Madeleine Is it? I just want to stay alive... 340 Madeleine 0 5

Gwen Fintoc, Teppenpaw

January 18, 2017 2:00 PM

Enrapt. by Gwen Fintoc, Teppenpaw

So far Gwen had found that Potions was among her preferred classes. The teacher was nice for starters and she didn’t struggle to understand the concepts. Not every potion went to plan of course, but Gwen thought that her prior experience with cooking and baking had probably contributed to her affinity for this particular subject. The basic concepts of these things were similar, she believed.

The practical side of the lessons was far more enjoyable than the theory but Gwen knew that the latter was also an important part of the subject and she should pay just as much attention to it. The first year thought she knew the answer to Professor O’Malley’s question but she didn’t share it with the class. Gwen knew she should contribute but perhaps in the back of her mind she felt shy about speaking up in front of the rest of the class, particularly the second years. Logically that was silly because everyone she’d met so far seemed nice and unlikely to laugh at her if she were wrong.

Gwen turned to page 230 of her textbook, eager to get started with brewing. She checked that she had all her ingredients ready and her work station neatly arranged before getting on with the task. It was good to be organised as it made the whole process so much smoother and reduced the chance of mistakes.

She was stationed next to Kit Reid, a nice girl in her year who she definitely wished to get to know better. Ayla already seemed to be quite good friends with her. “Isn’t it great that we’ll be able to make a poison antidote by the end of this lesson?” Gwen remarked to Kit, still rather amazed by some of the things that they got to learn, despite having been at Sonora for half a term now. It was a definite step up from the Aunt Karen’s tuition, as great as that had been, and it took some getting used to.

Kit didn’t seem to catch what she said though so Gwen smiled and repeated herself. “I said, isn’t it great that we’ll know how to make a poison antidote by the end of this lesson? Imagine having to use this one day - it could save someone’s life.”

There was a part of her that obviously never wanted to have to use the antidote because she didn’t like the idea of anyone being poisoned, but having the ability to potentially save someone’s life like that was a truly amazing gift. This education was a gift, that was for sure.

8 Gwen Fintoc, Teppenpaw Enrapt. 364 Gwen Fintoc, Teppenpaw 0 5

Jozua, Teppenpaw

January 20, 2017 9:57 AM

Don't worry, I will give enough warning to get away safely by Jozua, Teppenpaw

"Thanks," Jozua said, accepting her exchange of ingredients and putting them away in his kit. That would probably give him another few weeks before he had to write home to request more. The less he had to do that the less chance his folks would catch on to what he was doing. On the other hand, the more he did that, the more his vials of those ingredients would match his classmates' and any investigations Professor O'Malley might feel were necessary into Jozua's stock would come back inconclusive. It was a delicate balancing act.

"Absolutely," Jozua agreed whole heartedly when Farrah remarked upon how the wait was the worst part. "I just gives you so much time to worry that you already messed something up but won't know about it until later, and then after you get over that, the boredom sets in and your mind starts wandering and then you're at risk on missing the mark when you need to do the next step!"

He sat back in his seat with enough force to make it skid back an inch and sighed heavily. "Potions," he declared, with just a touch of dramatics, "is not the future field for me." He paused a moment, then added, with a faked air of chagrin, like his penchant for blowing things up was just bad luck instead of intentional, "But that was probably already obvious."

He glanced over sideways at Farrah, putting on a self deprecating grin, "You seem to handle it better than me. Are you interested in potions past Sonora?"

1 Jozua, Teppenpaw Don't worry, I will give enough warning to get away safely 348 Jozua, Teppenpaw 0 5

Farrah

January 26, 2017 8:49 PM

I appreciate that by Farrah

Farrah was relieved a little when Jozua also agreed about how the time between instructions brought about anxieties. Farrah was aware that her anxieties were sometimes overbearing and when that happened she didn't know if she was being normal or completely ridiculous. Knowing that Jozua felt somewhat similar meant that she wasn't completely out there.

"Exactly!" Farrah replied with a grin. "I now have to sit here for the next forty minutes trying to remember his much I put of each ingredient and if I had stirred it in the correct directions and if I set the timer correctly and wondering if the color that its turning is the correct color..." Farrah chatted on for a moment, feeling more comfortable now than when she initially sat next to him.

She knew that Jozua had a couple of rather memorable moments with potions, but she sort of felt that that was all part of the process. "I don't know, all mad scientists have to experiment in order to find the cure to life's many ailments." Farrah said, playing along but meaning it a bit. "It would be a fun job for you though, having to test ingredients to figure out if they mix well together or not." She meant that jokingly but wouldn't be surprised if he did end up in such a career.

Farrah looked at her potion and then at his and frowned. His color was different than hers. "How come they aren't the same?" She asked curiously.

6 Farrah I appreciate that 344 Farrah 0 5

Juniper

February 06, 2017 4:04 PM

Finally replying to Finn by Juniper

Juniper managed a smile when Finn agreed to work with her. She was still super anxious about being in a room full of people. Even if they weren't actually paying attention to her,she was always worried that she'd do something to attract attention and then everyone would laugh at her. Still, Juniper naturally was very happy about Finn wanting to work with her. If there was a lesson where he and Jozua worked together and she had to work with someone else, or if the instructions were to work with someone with qualifications Finn didn't meet such as being in a different year or house, she became incredibly anxious as literally the only other person in school she wasn't utterly terrified of was Tasha. Maybe her roomate just a little, maybe.

"All right." She set out on the task. Juniper didn't mind the actual subject of Potions, though of course it couldn't compare to COMC. Nothing could, even Transfig where she had natural talent. Animals were the best. She really wanted a pet she could bring to school as Butterscotch couldn't come with her obviously. Having one here might help make her feel more at ease. At the same time though, she was afraid Butterscotch might feel replaced. Did horses feel jealousy? Juniper was certain animals had emotions like fear and loneliness. She wondered if legilimency worked on animals. That would be amazing.

The Teppenpaw also wished her horse could read. She missed Butterscotch so much every single day and was worried her horse would miss her too. If horses could read, Juniper could write to her. If Duncan was home and not in school learning how to be basically a therapist for ghosts, she could send a seperate letter for Butterscotch when she wrote to him and have him read it to the horse.

Unfortunately, her parents would think it was silly, especially Mother. Mother didn't think her preference for animals over people was healthy or normal. She thought the same thing about Duncan and ghosts, but Duncan had gone on to make friends, become prefect and Head Boy and even find a....well, Juniper didn't know exactly what to call Araceli Arbon as she wasn't exactly Duncan's girlfriend-purebloods really didn't do that much-but they weren't betrothed yet. However, they seemed to be more than friends. He didn't seem to think about her the same way he did Liliana Bannister.

Mother's feelings about Juniper and animals were another thing that kept her from asking for another pet that she could take to school. She was afraid her mother wouldn't just say no, but lecture her on spending more time with people instead. Plus, she also needed to be considerate of Georgia and what if Georgia didn't want a cat or puffskien around? Still, she was afraid to ask her roommate too. The second year was someone who didn't like asking for things.

As if he was reading her thoughts, Finn asked about Georgia. "It's all right I guess." Juniper replied. "I mean, she's nice enough and I guess I like her okay but we're not really close. I mean, though, if I have to have a roommate, she's a good one. " The other girl had never really been nasty to her but then they were Teppenpaws.

OOC-Sorry it took so long to reply

11 Juniper Finally replying to Finn 345 Juniper 0 5