Magical or not? [Intermediates.] on Potions

Professor Mary Brooding

May 05, 2019 3:20 PM

Magical or not? [Intermediates.] by Professor Mary Brooding

Professor Brooding was particularly excited for the lesson today, as it would be almost impossibly easy to do. That wasn't to say that students couldn't get it wrong, but at least they could do it. Some of her students were less inclined to even complete their work in this class, inevitably resulting in failing grades. She hated failing students . . . .

When her students took their seats, Mary did the same as always, and made a point of taking them all in. She made eye contact with each and every face, trying to make her best guesses about their moods and feelings. Some happy faces made her relax, while others were less happy and she was concerned for them. She took attendance, as usual, and added her usual notation of a star next to the names of students she thought she needed to check in with. It was a system that had only worked halfway well, as she'd been caught off guard by more than a few of her students' problems in the year so far.

"Welcome to potions," she said happily, folding her hands in front of her emerald green skirts. Today's dress was unique, in that it wasn't a dress at all. It was a skirt and shirt, and her crisp cream colored blouse was lighter than most of her dresses were, evidence of the springtime sunshine that had taken over. Arizona really was quite hot, and even the charm over the school couldn't quite disguise that. Or perhaps it wasn't mean to.

"You've all been working very hard to focus on the ingredients of various potions since the start of the year, and you've been especially looking at how each ingredient influences different potions that it's in, and what you can learn about an ingredient from the potions it's included in. Today, we're going to shift gears a little bit and do something nearly impossible!" Professor Brooding beamed at her students. The impossible was her favorite thing to do when it was a nice impossible thing and not a sad one.

She gestured to eight cauldrons set up on a long table at the side of the classroom, out of her way at the front, but easily accessible for everyone. There were a number of vials in front of each one as well.

"Working in pairs or trios . . ." She counted the students in the room and then nodded, confirming that pairs and trios would be fine. "Your job today is to sort out which of these concoctions are Muggle brews and which are magical ones. I will warn you that it is nearly impossible in some cases, which is an important point on the equality of muggle and magical technology. It is very different, but not better or worse." She looked sternly around the room, daring anyone to challenge her assertion.

"You'll take notes on the color, smell, etc., and on the effects. I've put notes out with each concoction to tell you what they should theoretically do," she gestured at the cauldrons, where things like "fertiliser," "slow-healing serum," and others were written out in her simple scrawl. One obvious factor with some of these was that muggle brews tended to work slower than magical ones. However, she'd intentionally chosen magical concoctions that were slower working as well, and this wouldn't necessarily be a deciding factor for students.

"Take what notes you'd like from the main table and then take a vial of each back to your work stations to do further analysis. Please do not drink any of these, although you may apply them to your skin if you'd like to. None of these are dangerous to handle, but they can be dangerous to ingest." She sincerely hoped she wouldn't always need to tell them that, but it would be the day she didn't that someone decided drinking one would be a good test. It wasn't.

"You'll have essays due on this exercise one week from today. That's still a few weeks before the concert, so I expect that that should be plenty of time. Please note that the point of this activity, and your grade, is not about whether you successfully identify a muggle versus a magical concoction," she told them. "No, I want you to be able to explain why you think so, in your own words. An essay that reflects clear reasoning and a strong scholarly foundation but doesn't identify one source from the other will receive a higher grade than one that can separate the muggle and magical brews but can't tell me why. Guessing," she emphasized, looking closely at her students, "will not do in potions."

Subthreads:

Taking advantage of nice boys (tag Parker) by Dorian Montoir, Teppenpaw with Parker Fitzgerald, Pecari

I am....and proud of it. by Caitlin Pierce, Crotalus

22 Professor Mary Brooding Magical or not? [Intermediates.] 1424 Professor Mary Brooding 1 5

Dorian Montoir, Teppenpaw

May 07, 2019 2:58 AM

Taking advantage of nice boys (tag Parker) by Dorian Montoir, Teppenpaw

Dorian displayed a pleasant, cheerful attitude as Professor Brooding started the lesson, although inside he had to admit to being a little wary and suspicious. He loved and trusted Professor Brooding very much. In terms of dealing with personal problems, there was no one better. He also thought her to be an excellent teacher. But sometimes, just sometimes, she threw things at them that he found unsettling - the confusing and confunding experiment from last year sprung to mind, and he recalled the cheerfulness with which she had introduced that. To be fair, she was uniformly cheery, and so it was not particularly indicative of disaster, but a cheerful smile about giving them an impossible task made him concerned. He was pretty sure he had a limited capacity for Herculian feats, and a very low threshhold for what he regarded as being humiliated in front of his peers.

The exercise she presented sounded deeply interesting though, and it appeared to be an intellectual challenge wherein they were rewarded for the depth of their thoughts rather than whether they actually solved the puzzle. He liked the sound of that, pretty sure that overanalysing things and taking every possible angle was his forte, and pleased to find that his tendency to overthink might actually come in useful for once instead of just keeping him up at night or stressing him out. He found himself repressing a much more genuine smile as he made his way to the front. He eyed the contents of the cauldrons curiously. Natually, from here, he could not spot the difference. Liquids were just liquids. Unless it was something like Felix Felicis which jumped, or Amortensia which gave off its spiral steam and differing aromas - in short, there were a few potions that clearly marked themselves out as magical just on sight, but obviously Professor Brooding hadn't chosen any of those. What normally marked a liquid out as a potion was, in a sense, context. Being here, being in a cauldron, for example, was usually a pretty big clue, but today all the Muggle liquids were masquerading and getting to wear those too. If potions were things you studied in potions class then all these Muggle concotions were potions too. It was a silly and reductive definition, much like 'being in a cauldron' but if the liquids were all here and they really couldn't tell them apart, then what did that mean? He still half believed that it would be easy. Or that it should be. And it was only his faith in Professor Brooding, whom he was sure would not promise them the treat of a challenging puzzle only to disappoint, that checked this assumption. He did not know enough about Muggle liquids to have many expectations about their properties. Mostly, he was surprised to learn that there were liquids that might be comparable to potions in some way. All he knew about the Muggle world was that it was slow and ineffective. That it used "technology" and "electricity" to muddle on as best it could without magic, but he had never gained the impression that these came in liquid form. There was science too. Maybe the liquids were science. Maybe the liquids were potions. If the differences were not going to be that obvious, then what was the difference? In the sense of the dividing line between what made something a potion versus... not. On a philosophical level, what was a thing? Did there have to be some inherent, agreed upon property - potions were magical. But if that ability was beyond their detection, did the concept still exist? Could something exist, in a fundamental sense, outside of their minds, or did it only exist by their mental constructions of it? Therefore, if they could not agree or detect the limits of a property in order to properly define it, did it cease to exist? This was going to be fun.

He needed a partner, and he had a fairly good idea of who he wanted to work with. The notion that two heads were better than one was almost always correct in his experience, whether that was bringing an outside perspective to his problems, or agreeing with him wholeheartedly about a particular poem and bouncing off each other's ideas and enthusiasm. There were also times like this, where he simply had missing information, and needed someone who knew things he didn't. Dorian hesitated slightly before approaching Parker. It had taken three years of flighty, more or less accidental encounters for him to conclude that Parker wasn't going to push him into the mud or snatch his books or call him names. Beyond that, Parker seemed both somewhat interesting and somewhat interested in him. Still, nothing had quite prompted Dorian to seek Parker's company. He sort of wanted to but he was never sure enough of himself, that he would say the right things, or know how to get on with someone so different to him without it being awkward. He offered him a friendly 'hello' if their eyes met or exchanged polite small talk of they crossed paths, which was substantial progress from hoping that the other boy hadn't noticed him, but that was sort of as far as it had got. And that made him hesitate now, because if Dorian asked Parker to partner up for this task, having never really made the effort to be his friend, was Parker going to think he was taking advantage of him? Also, if he did think that, was he right? Dorian supposed, in a sense, he was. He had liked the thought of talking to Parker more but admittedly lacked either the motivation or the guts to do it until he needed something from the other boy. Still, he didn't think he was being overly selfish - it felt more like being pleased at being given a reason to spend time with Parker, and at having an easier way to break the ice. It wasn't like he was going to Jehan's roommate for help, whom he'd never had a real conversation with and who, even though obviously he was aware he was called Gary, he had trouble of thinking as anything beyond 'Jehan's roommate.'

"Hello," he smiled shyly at Parker. "Do you mind working with me?" he asked, and it was clear this was a genuine question which might receive either a positive or a negative reply. "I think you will be helpful," he acknowledged. It felt disingenuous to act like it was just perfectly normal for him and Parker to pair up - if he wanted a favour, he needed to acknowledge that was what he was asking for, and give Parker space to graciously deny that, if he so chose, and as he was perfectly entitled to do. "And that maybe it will be fun to work together," he added, because it did not feel true that he only wanted Parker for the help he could offer, and he didn't want Parker to think that.

13 Dorian Montoir, Teppenpaw Taking advantage of nice boys (tag Parker) 1401 Dorian Montoir, Teppenpaw 0 5

Parker Fitzgerald, Pecari

May 15, 2019 2:12 PM

I don't feel nice. I feel tired and groggy. by Parker Fitzgerald, Pecari

Sore. Sore everywhere. Parker was used to soreness having run around playing sports most of his life, but these days he felt sore in a new and painful way. He no longer felt the soreness as a comfort, more like a dull ache. He hadn’t gone to the hospital wing because he didn’t want to seem to be complaining, but last night a pain in his leg awoke him at a late, or possibly early hour, and he couldn’t go back to sleep and instead massaged the lower leg and thought about how it would feel to remove the offending appendage.

He’d been slow and groggy all morning and so when he got to Potions class and the impossibly cheerful Professor Brooding, he groaned inwardly took a deep breath and walked to the nearest table, not paying attention to who he was sitting next to. Parker felt, not himself, but he was too tired and sore to do much about it. He folded his arms in front of him and laid his head down on them keeping one ear up to hear what the professor was saying and making sure his eyes stayed open, though possibly not alert.

As the professor started chipperly talking Parker began to tune her out until she uttered the word muggle. His ears perked up. Her end comment that magic and science “were not better or worse, just different” made Parker smile as he rolled his head around to be facing the front. His knowledge of Muggle world would finally be of some help in this class. Usually he felt a bit useless as he was still learning all the potions that were possible having never used them before coming to the school. He was still finding that there were things he didn’t know, and possibly might never know, about the wizarding world. But he also knew a lot about the Muggle world, or at least a lot more than many in the room.

Parker chuckled as the Professor talked about not drinking things. He was sure that would have been something he would have tried. He looked up to the front at the cauldrons and he saw something that said “fertilizer”. On second thought he’d probably not try to drink or eat any of them.

“Guessing will not do in potions.”
Parker raised his eyebrows. That had kind of been his go to up to know and it had worked fairly well, though he supposed that had been a matter of luck instead of actual aptitude.

He reached into his bag and began pulling out his notebook and potions book. He was getting ready to head up to the front of the classroom when Dorian walked up to him. In his memory, the only other time Dorian had walked up to him was before the dance when he was trying to get away from someone or something. Parker had been an escape plan at that point. Parker had approached Dorian a few times, but he always felt as if Dorian was afraid of him. Though the way Parker felt, he might be afraid of himself today. Still, maybe Dorian was going towards someone else. Parker looked back behind him assuming Dorian was walking up to one of the other students, someone like Jehan or Tatya who were better students.

Parker’s mouth kind of opened up as Dorian asked if Parker wanted to be his partner. Open and close like a fish of some sort. Parker’s mind went blank for a moment. He wasn’t sure he’d ever been asked because he was helpful in any kind of school before.

“Umm… yes. Ya,” he responded trying to be more awake.

“Sorry. I didn’t sleep well. Yes. I’d love to work with you. Though I don’t know how well I’ll be able to help,” Parker wasn’t being disingenuous. He’d not even thought about how you could scholastically tell things apart. If something smelled like coffee or Monster drink, it might be coffee or it might be some potion he’d never seen that made you into a monster. If there were clues he might just fake it in a way, or if he could tell the plants that went into the potions or medicines he might have a good guess, or as his mom said an educated guess.

“I guess a lot,” Parker said bashfully alluding to the Professor’s last comment. He moved over in his seat so Dorian could sit down next to him.

"Guess we should get started?" he said before opening his mouth in a yawn.

41 Parker Fitzgerald, Pecari I don't feel nice. I feel tired and groggy. 1402 Parker Fitzgerald, Pecari 0 5

Dorian

May 16, 2019 12:36 AM

Hmm, perhaps I should look after you instead then by Dorian

Parker seemed... perplexed. Dorian felt his stomach twist anxiously as Parker stumbled through accepting him as a partner. The word 'reluctantly' sprung to mind and Dorian was about to stammer out something to the effect that he didn't have to if he didn't want to when Parker seemed to shake off the underwhelming reaction, declaring it to be sleepiness, and come back round to his usual, more enthusiastic self.

"Ah. Bad sleep is not fun," he offered a sympathetic smile but did not inquire further. Sometimes, he didn't sleep well either. He knew it sucked. He knew it left you feeling rubbish and brain-foggy. He also knew that all the reasons he slept badly were things he very much did not want to share with most other people. He and Parker were definitely not close enough for 'what keeps you up at night...' to be a subject of conversation. "I think you will help. You will know more than you realise," Dorian reassured him. His own smile was still more a half smile, a little anxious, but needing to reassure Parker somehow made him feel more relaxed. He was good at looking after people, even if Parker had never struck him as someone who might need that from him. "Mmm. She means no guesses without reasons. We will make plenty of reasons, and can also answer that we do not know and still get good marks," he offered, when Parker admitted to guessing a lot. If asked, Dorian supposed he would say that he did not guess a lot. He either just knew things, or he did his best to work them out before committing to a thought or a course of action. He was not a big fan of trying his luck, or just seeing what happened. He tended to find other people's willingness to do that vaguely incomprehensible, so perhaps Parker was equally struggling to see that it could be a positive thing if they ended up rambling on and having a lot of thoughts and no definite answer.

"I can go and collect," he offered, when Parker suggested they should get started. It really only took one person to get samples, and the front of the room would get rather busy if they all went trooping up there.

He went up, scooping a small sample from each cauldron, and labelling each with a wave of his wand - much easier than juggling a quill along with the vials, or writing on their sloping surfaces.

Returning to their desk, he lined them up where they could both see them. He had sort of been expecting Parker to take the lead because he had the Muggle knowledge and... well, because Dorian did not regard himself as much of a leader. But he recalled their previous class together, and how much of the planning and execution had been down to him, so that combined with the fact that Parker was feeling off-colour maybe made it his responsibility to organise the task...

"We can start with this one?" he suggested, reaching for a vial which contained a bright pink mixture and from which he had noticed a distinctly minty aroma when he was bottling it, which meant there was plenty to say about its obervable properties. "And I will share first?" he added, figuring providing an example might be useful, although his tone remained polite and hesitant, inviting interruption and correction at every opportunity.

"So, it is indigestion relieving. I notice that it is pink but has a mint smell," he offered, unstoppering the vial for Parker's benefit, and opening his ingredient index to mint, "I do not know a particular potion that looks this way, but I know that mint is used many times for indigestion." Mint was also used a lot outside of potions. It was a flavour for sweets, and a herb to season lamb. He wondered whether its use outside of potions indicated that it was not inherently magical. Did Muggles enjoy mint flavoured things too? He had never throught much about the plants which did or did not overlap between worlds, as he had never really had any cause to. He supposed he had mentally tagged everything he came into contact with as being part of the magical world, seeing as it demonstrably was. Deciding he felt a bit silly asking whether Parker had known about mint before coming to Sonora, he decided to simply continue his own observations, and then allow Parker to follow up with his own. "Also, the colour... I know many potions can end with a colour that is strong, and is not like the ingredients," he paused, considering for a moment whether he had anything else to add. Deciding that he did not, he decided to pass things over to Parker, "The thing I do not know, is whether all this can also be true with the non-magic world," he added, sliding the vial slightly towards his partner and waiting expectantly.

13 Dorian Hmm, perhaps I should look after you instead then 1401 Dorian 0 5

Parker

May 20, 2019 4:30 PM

Has anyone ever told you that you were kind? Thank you. by Parker

Parker began to feel more himself as Dorian kept talking. The other boy was always so polite and helpful, but comforting too. That and Parker was actually waking up, though his left leg was still tight.
He liked Dorian’s perspective too. We will make plenty of reasons, and can also answer that we do not know . It sounded almost like something Parker had learned in Muggle school. Something about guessing and then testing. His mom had talked about it too.

“We’ll get good marks,” Parker agreed. Dorian was counting on him to help, and so Parker would try to help. Parker’s first instinct was to get up and get the potions in front of the classroom as this might be the only thing he’d actually be able to do but his leg still hurt from last night. He paused momentarily, and in that moment Dorian stepped up. Parker felt useless. He was just sitting at his desk drumming a pencil on the desk while he watch Dorian get the potions and have his quill fill in information as he went. It was actually quite impressive to watch. Parker would have probably tired to write information on each bottle by hand, even though he knew how to do it with magic, it still sometimes felt odd to use.

Parker stared down at his notebook. He remembered an earlier task. The one he’d done when he had met Cleo. Or maybe it was another class? For some reason he thought it was with Cleo, but now that he thought about it, maybe it was a Transfig class. Man he must be tired if he was putting Cleo into his past memories. He looked around to make sure Cleo wasn’t affecting him. He wasn’t sure how he’d react if he was tired. No. He was pretty sure he was safely away from her at the moment. Still, he remembered there was grid to help describe properties, so Parker began making a grid.

After Dorian came back he took charge of the situation. Parker smiled. He enjoyed this confident Dorian. The first sample Dorian chose made Parker smile and started him humming the Pepto Bismol song from the TV ad. Parker was pretty sure if he sang it outloud Dorian might be a bit horrified by the words used.

It did make Parker laugh inside that his other classmates would not know what they were looking at. Still Parker noted down the pink and mint observations. After Dorian finished describing things Parker brought the sample to his eyes. He took a whiff. Yep, sweet and minty. He tilted the bottle and saw that it moved slowly, coating the side of the container.

“I don’t have to guess. I know what this is if you don’t have any potion that comes to mind. It’s Pepto Bismol. It’s a muggle…” Nausea, Heartburn, Indigestion, Upset Stomach, Diarrhea came to singingly into Parkers mind “stomach medicine.”

Parker made a note about the sweet smell behind the minty smell and the slow coating the liquid did, and that his partner had not recognized anything like it.

“That sweet smell behind the minty? That’s how most muggle medicines smell actually. We like to make everything that we need to consume to make us healthy taste like candy so we actually take it. And mint helps settle stomachs, similar to ginger. I think the medicine kind of coats the stomach.” Parker tilted the bottle with his hand again to show how viscus the liquid was. “Like painting the inside and calming it down. This is actually a pretty fast working medicine though not instantaneous. At least according to the advertisements.” For a moment Parker began to wonder how Professor Brooding came into possession of the muggle “potions” that were being used.

Parker was writing down a few more points that occurred to him when a question occurred to him. Looking up at Dorian Parker tried to figure out a way to ask the question without saying the word explosive or diarrhea.

“What would one do in the wizarding world if you had...indigestion problems anyways?”

41 Parker Has anyone ever told you that you were kind? Thank you. 1402 Parker 0 5

Dorian

May 22, 2019 7:19 AM

Probably, but I don't mind hearing it again by Dorian

"You prepared for notes," Dorian observed with a smile as he returned to the bench to find Parker with a table all drawn up. That showed definite improvement in Parker's study skills from their last encounter. Dorian didn't go so far as to say so, because it didn't seem like his job to appraise Parker's study skills, and he thought it might come off as vaguely patronising if he tried, but he looked very pleased about this development. He jotted things down himself as well as Parker spoke, because it was all useful to know, and he wanted to make sure he had a copy. Words or ideas that Parker didn't think were revolutionary might be completely new to him, and two sets of notes were always better than one.

It was one of the few ways the universe seemed to be on his side that Dorian did not blush easily. He felt embarrassed easily, that was different, and usually readable on his face, but he didn't do much turning red. A brief flicker of embarassment crossed his features as, after all his careful analysis, Parker simply knew what it was, and it was therefore almost definitely Muggle. Still, the point of the exercise was to show their thought processes, so what he'd said was still valuable, and this was why his embarassment was brief, and probably dispersed before Parker even looked back up.

"I think of medicine as being very... warm tasting? Herbal and spiced things. But I think this is very specific to my mother, not really all magic. That is another thing... If I recognise, or you recognise it is good evidence. But either person not recognising... By itself, it does not mean much. If I don't recognise, it doesn't not mean- it still may come from a magical culture, just not from here," he rephrased. Double negatives still always confused him and made him worry he was saying the opposite of what he meant. "It would be exactly like Professor Brooding to include things from elsewhere. I wonder... is psychology of the professor a valid argument for our paper?" he joked with a smile.

"You would take a potion," he answered Parker's query, "There are many. They will work fast if the reason for sickness is non-magical. If magic makes you ill, it is more complicated and will take longer. How quickly does it work?" he asked curiously, pointing at the pink liquid, "I thought Muggles did not have fast medicine," he admitted, "Someone told me that if Muggle people break bones there's nothing to make it better. You just have to wait. That is not true?" he questioned.

13 Dorian Probably, but I don't mind hearing it again 1401 Dorian 0 5

Caitlin Pierce, Crotalus

May 29, 2019 5:31 PM

I am....and proud of it. by Caitlin Pierce, Crotalus

As far as Caitlin was concerned, the best thing about Professor Brooding was the chance to critique her outfits, even though the third year liked Potions well enough as a subject. A lot of the time, she thought the professor's clothing was rather pretty but wildly inappropriate and unprofessional. And way too outrageous for her ever to consider wearing herself. It was as if Professor Brooding was wearing costumes, even though they were attractive ones. There was a time and place for that and it wasn't here.

Today, however, her outfit seemed more reasonable. More work appropriate and less costume ball. Caitlin even thought the skirt was a pretty color.

As the professor began to speak, more pressing, more offensive concerns came to mind. The Crotalus hated when professors brought up Muggle things. They were unnecessary and irrelevant for one thing. For another, well, people like her should not be exposed to things like that. So many people in her family had gone wrong, some of whom had been disowned and sent to Boston-and she still did not understand why Thaddeus had not been- something Caitlin considered a fate worse than death. Did Professor Brooding not understand this? Did she not understand that the third year had a duty to her family to be the perfect pureblood lady for not only her own good but that of the people she loved most in the world? Caitlin could not be a blight on them.

However, she guessed the answer was no, Professor Brooding did not realize that and probably didn't care. Still, the third year's opinion on the professor-which wasn't all that high before-plummeted.

Caitlin looked around for a suitable partner, by which she meant someone of her own blood status. While a non-pureblood might be more useful on this assignment, she really wanted to commiserate with someone who'd understand. Plus, she didn't want to associate with them.

Finding someone appropriate, Caitlin approached. "Would you like to work together?" She asked.

11 Caitlin Pierce, Crotalus I am....and proud of it. 1415 Caitlin Pierce, Crotalus 0 5