Professor Sophie O'Malley

February 18, 2018 10:48 AM
A few weeks of school had passed by now. When her students walked into the classroom, there were usually cauldrons positioned on their tables ready for them, but today, there were no cauldrons. Just cardboard boxes of varying sizes with the lids attached magically. Just to prevent anything from hopping out.

“Alright, everyone, let’s get settled,” she encouraged as the last few stragglers took their seats. “Today, we’re going to be talking about ratios. Yes, now, I know the mathematical aspects of potion-brewing and utilizing are probably everybody’s least favorite, but trust me, it matters.” Sophie produced her wand from her cloak pocket and flicked it once, allowing the boxes to be opened. “If you look inside your boxes, you will find a frog, two corked vials, and some measuring tools. You’ll notice the frog is not the right size. He’s been changed.” Some of the frogs were as big as a cat, and others were as small as an ant. Hopefully the students who had gotten the latter were extra careful, if only for the fact that their frogs would be harder to locate if they escaped. And Sophie didn’t exactly have a plethora of extras lying around. “The vials, you’ll see, have measurements on them, to keep track of how much you use. The goal is to get the frog back to the correct size. Knowing this, can anyone guess what the potions are?”

The correct answers were, of course, that the acid green one was a shrinking solution, while the dark blue one was a growth elixir. Both of these had been covered previously in intermediates, so she thought a fourth or fifth year might be able to guess with fair ease. The third years were welcome to try too, of course, assuming they were overachievers and had read ahead. The small blonde professor awarded House points as appropriate to any ventured guesses. “Fantastic. So your assignment today is to record the current size of your frog, fiddle with the potions until it reaches the correct size, and then record how much of the potions you used. Working in pairs, if you don’t mind. I don’t have enough frogs for everyone.” Stanley had done an excellent job catching frogs from Grandpa’s backyard, with a little help from Tommy since he knew all the best frog hiding places, but the boys’ combined efforts were still not enough to support three grades worth of students.

“From there, I’d like you to compare with another group and see if you can’t develop a mathematical formula to establish the amount the size changes based on how much of each potion you used. If you can only work out one potion and not the other, that’s acceptable, but bonus points if you have a formula for both. When you’re done, your frog should be about six inches in length or so. Go ahead and get started!”
Subthreads:
12 Professor Sophie O'Malley Jeremiah was a bullfrog... [Years III-V] 34 Professor Sophie O'Malley 1 5


Lily Spencer, Pecari

February 22, 2018 7:15 PM
These past few weeks had been nothing but odd. Lily slumped into her seat in Potions and contemplated what had happened. Intermediate courses were getting a bit out of hand. There were strange magical occurrences going on that she couldn't really explain, but she couldn't gauge what the cause was. She didn't want to be on the bad side of any of her professors, but she was quite certain Skies was not a fan of hers. Lily was really surprised none of the other adolescents in her class had laughed with her; was it because they were too afraid or too stuck up?

Then there was CATS this year, which Lily had been trying to study for. She was doing pretty well so far in staying disciplined. She preferred studying in the gardens whilst she could, before the weather got bad. The ball also came to mind here and there. She didn't think she'd made the wrong decision, but she was still scared the ball would muck up their friendship irrevocably. There were so many things to worry about, but in that moment Lily wondered how animals were going to be implemented in their lesson today. Ratios sounded like a nightmare, but Lily tried not to be anxious about it.

It was clear what the potions were if these frogs weren't the correct size. In an effort to be a better student, she raised her hand. "One's a shrinking solution and the other, the blue one I think, is a growth elixir." She knew she wasn't the ideal Prefect like her siblings, but she wanted to rise up to the standard and be more responsible. Even though she wasn't popular with the snottier pure-bloods, she wanted to be liked by the rest of her peers. Gaining house points was an added perk.

The frog she was going to share with her partner was the size of a cat and looked at her with its grotesquely large eyes. Lily shivered a bit in disgust, but tried not to let it get to her. She was a city witch through and through, so interacting with any magical creatures besides pets was not common for her. "Merlin, that frog's big," she commented. "And slimy-looking."

Their assignment was to develop a mathematical formula based on the potions, and that bit gave Lily a load of anxiety. She was not good with maths and had tried to avoid it the best she could. 'Don't think about it,' she told herself, but as she stared at the vials that was all she could think about. "Shall we get started?" she asked her partner instead, trying to distract herself.

Suddenly, both of their vials exploded and Lily gave a little shriek. Most of the liquid splashed onto her and the frog gave a croak as it shrunk exponentially, seemingly without any cause. She was almost afraid it would disappear into nothingness, but luckily it stopped shrinking at the size of her thumb. "I'm so sorry, I don't know what happened. I didn't do anything," said Lily, shocked. It wasn't her fault, but who else could have done it?

OOC: Going off the assumption that potions must be ingested in order to take effect on a human.
40 Lily Spencer, Pecari I didn't do it! 357 Lily Spencer, Pecari 0 5

Winston Pierce, Crotalus

February 27, 2018 4:14 PM
Winston began his potions class today with a dilemma. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. The first few seconds were normal. Go in. Take a free seat somewhere in the middle. It was shortly after he was seated that the dilemma occurred. Lily Spencer took the seat next to his.

Lily was, in technical fact, a pureblood in good standing. She was friendly with Ingrid, who was helping Crotalus be allowed to play Quidditch at all this year, and was currently one of his two co-captains, and Lily herself was probably going to be on his team now (though he didn’t think she had yet formally signed up). He kind of hoped she didn’t.

Partly this was because she was a bit questionable as far as purebloods went, what with her short hair and rough manners and Quidditch playing (though that last bit alone wasn’t enough to get a girl black-listed these days as it used to), but mostly it was because Winston coveted her position as the Pecalus seeker.

So as one of the three co-captains of the team Ingrid said Lily had implied to her she intended to join, he ought to make nice to his teammate. As a seeking rival and someone of better classroom conduct, however, he was sorely tempted to get up and find another seat. Ultimately, however, he decided that would be entirely too rude, and might cause umbrage with the Spencer family, who, other than Lily herself, seemed entirely respectable.

He regretted this politic decision almost immediately, once Professor O’Malley let the start working, as their vials of shrinking solution and growth elixir abruptly exploded for no reason at all. Winston let out a small cry of surprise and jumped back, and was fortunate in his positioning. Very little of the potions got on his clothing, though one sleeve was now hanging much too long off his one arm. The hideous looking giant frog much have gotten a good splash of the shrinking solution because that was nowhere to be seen, so far as Winston could find on his initial glance around.

He gave Lily a sour look as she claimed innocence and bafflement. Of course, he had been right there, so he knew she hadn’t even had her wand drawn, nevermind cast anything. He spread the sour look to include the people sitting nearest to them, whom he hadn’t been watching as closely, and wondered if any of them disliked Lily enough to try to sabotage her. Obviously it couldn’t be him who had been the target. Firstly, he was a good person. Secondly, the explosion had splashed Lily far more than himself so, obviously, it was meant for her. “Have you angered or irritated anyone recently?” he asked logically, deciding to leave off ‘other than me’ because, as he was the beleaguered innocent bystander in this situation, clearly he hadn’t done it.
1 Winston Pierce, Crotalus Beleaguered Innocent Bystander 370 Winston Pierce, Crotalus 0 5


Lily

March 01, 2018 4:04 PM
If this sort of thing had happened to anyone else, she would’ve been shocked first, then amused. However, since she was the victim, she did not find it laughable in the least. With a quick cleaning charm her robes were dry, though stained. There had to be a trouble-maker in their midst, perhaps the same person who’d had the audacity to charm Professor Skies’s hair pink. But why would anyone choose her, a Pecari Prefect, as their target? It wasn’t like she actively caused trouble, though laughing at Skies had been a regrettable moment. Was this someone’s retribution? But she hadn’t seen any spell being cast. Perhaps someone had a problem with Winston? That was doubtful.

“I was just thinking about that. Not to my knowledge,” she replied, irritable. “Well, except for Skies, but I highly doubt she’s behind this. Emerald Brockert and I don’t get along either, but she’s too proper to do something this petty. I think.”

She knew Brockert disliked her strongly, but Lily had never been concerned with her. She and Winston, to Lily’s knowledge, were of the same sort, like Jack and Charlotte—those who stuck their noses up at those who weren’t ‘proper.’ Winston was probably wishing she hadn't sat next to him right about now.

“Other than them, no one else comes to mind.” She had half a mind to return the question to him, but decided against it. He wasn’t quite so interesting to have vengeful enemies.

Lily peered into the box to find their frog and frowned at it. “I don’t see the point of creating a mathematical formula for this damn frog when we can just charm him back to a normal size.” That was, of course, forgetting the reason why they were in Potions class in the first place, which was to learn about potions.

The tiny frog uttered a high-pitched ribbit.

“But duty calls,” she sighed, suppressing her disgust. “I, I suppose I’ll get two more vials from Professor O’Malley.” Lily hurried to retrieve two new vials and returned with both in hand. “Let’s hope that was the last of the mischief,” she muttered as she set them down.

“So, I suppose we’ll have to record his current size rather than what he was before,” she said to Winston. Hopefully that little incident wouldn’t hurt their marks; it wasn’t their fault, after all, and she couldn’t afford a mistake right now. “I can record if you’d like to work with the potions.” Lily usually would’ve enjoyed a lesson like this, but she did not want to be in danger of touching that slimy creature.
40 Lily Let's pretend that never happened. 357 Lily 0 5