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
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Professor Sophie O'Malley
Comm-on, everybody! [Years I and II]
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Professor Sophie O'Malley
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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?”
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Farrah Welsh, Aladren
I'm here, I'm here.
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Farrah Welsh, Aladren
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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.
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Jozua Sparks
Don't worry, I'll get all the attention in about 40 minutes
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Jozua Sparks
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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.
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Farrah
I'm not sure if I'm safe sitting here...
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Farrah
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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?"
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Jozua, Teppenpaw
Don't worry, I will give enough warning to get away safely
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Jozua, Teppenpaw
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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.
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Farrah
I appreciate that
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Farrah
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