What's this stuff? on Potions

Mary Brooding-Hawthorne

November 17, 2020 3:18 PM

More than Muggles [Beginners, years I-II] by Mary Brooding-Hawthorne

Mary was feeling tired but she was working hard to put that aside. At this point, they were a couple of months into the term and some of the things that had been causing Mary such stress were now just normal for her. If nothing else, she'd learned how to sleep in an empty bed, and Zeus had learned to sleep alone again.

Today's lesson was one that Mary was excited for because it was the start of a new unit. Potions was one of the classes with a longer time slot than others, it met for two hours three times a week, and beginner level students had it in the afternoon. That meant they were sometimes a bit sluggish because they were coming from lunch, but it also meant they may just be in for a new burst of food-fueled energy, and they'd at least had a break in the day. A break, Mary knew, could make a big difference.

As the first and second year students entered the room, Mary changed hats (not literally; her usual oversized witch's hat was in place on her head where it belonged) and let herself get back into the mindset of Professor Brooding-Hawthorne. This was a title most often accompanied in chat by some modifier - the potions one, the short one, the one with the long hair - but she didn't usually introduce herself that way because that was weird. For about half of the students in this class, she was the only Professor Brooding-Hawthorne anyway.

She greeted every student with a smile and some small comment about something or other. It ranged from simple - Hi, nice to see you! - to more individualized - Hi, I love what you've done with your hair today! - and sometimes particularly pointed when she thought a student needed a remainder - Hi, great work on that last paper by the way. I can tell you worked hard. She also made herself available for a moment as students came in because sometimes they had questions to ask before class began, although that was rarely the case.

The potions classroom was set up to be as friendly and warm as possible. At least, warm in the aesthetic sense. Since there were often a number of fires going under bubbling cauldrons, plus the heat that built up with so many bodies packed into one room, Professor Brooding-Hawthorne had been sure to install appropriate cooling charms in the room, keeping it at a good temperature for students to work in their robes without needing either to bundle up or else to start shedding layers as they drenched through in sweat. Her own outfit was a play on Victorian style, as indeed most of her outfits were, and featured lacy navy blue sleeves, a high collar that buttoned with a pearl, and soft embellishments in the brocade bodice and floor length skirt. In honor of her mother, she included a dupatta - a traditional Indian shawl-like scarf - draped over her shoulder and pinned around her waist, interrupting the otherwise flowing garment. At this point in the term, first and second year students alike would recognize this as a pretty normal day in the wardrobe of Professor Brooding-Hawthorne-the-potions-one.

"Good afternoon, class," she smiled when everyone had taken a place at one of the tables around the room. Each was built for two to three students to share comfortably, although the usual cauldrons were absent from tabletops today. "As you know, we recently finished our unit on poisons and antidotes. That's something you will look at further as you advance, so it's not the last you'll hear of those potions, and you'll continue to learn about taking potions and the effects on the body as we go on, but this next unit is a little different. For the next several weeks, we're going to be studying use of potions in conjunction with objects. Can anyone think of any examples?"

The professor called on students who raised their hands and waved her wand to a piece of chalk that transcribed correct answers. She politely explained away some of the incorrect ones and they soon had a substantial list to work from. It included things like thermometers, broom polish, beauty and makeup supplies, cleaning supplies, medical supplies, wood and metal polish, curse-breaking potions, and more.

"Something that many of you will already have started to recognize is that non-magic people - muggles - have non-magic versions of many of these products. In many cases, the muggle versions function nearly as well, and in some cases maybe even better than some of the magical ones. Often, they are essentially the same product, with some magical additions where possible and necessary on our side. One such example is this metal polish. While muggles and magic folks alike use basic chemistry to achieve much of what metal polish does, the wandwork involved with making the magic version also imbibes the mixture with certain other traits, like charming the metal to stay clean longer, be more or less reflective, be impervious to damage from magical means, or even function more effectively for use in scrying."

Mary glanced around the room, hoping to Merlin she was making sense. It was these sorts of lessons that always seemed to lose people, most often the students who were either so entrenched in the magical world that they didn't even know muggles could make such things as metal polish, or so entrenched in the muggle world that they couldn't wrap their head around a familiar substance functioning nearly the same but distinctly different. Or they just didn't care about metal polish.

"Your homework will be to read about the importance of wandwork in potion making, and we'll be looking at that over the next few classes. Today, however, I want you to become familiar with the use of these things yourselves. Working in pairs, you'll each get a pair of, essentially, potions. It will be things like a cleaning solution and--" Mary paused to pick up a spray bottle and read the label again, because she always forgot the name. "Oxyclean. Or magical and muggle metal polish. Some groups will have the same things as others, that's fine. You'll also get an object to test the mixtures on, such as a dirty tile or a metal candlestick. I want you to work together to test both mixtures and compare the results. They should be pretty similar, but feel free to mark down anything you think might be different and we'll talk more about your findings next week. You'll work on this for the rest of the class period. Have fun! And let me know if you have any questions."

OOC: Hello, and welcome to potions class! At this point, your student should be pretty familiar with how things go and has been taking classes for a while at Sonora now. That being said, feel free to tag Professor Brooding-Hawthorne in your title if your student or you have any questions for her or me! Questions from you can go in the OOC box like this, or you can come over and ask in Chatzy!

While most of this lesson's content is based on canonical information about potions in the HP universe, some of it is not, and you are free to make up your own ideas about how these potions may be different or the same as the muggle versions within reason. Nothing should explode or fail to work at all or do something completely random, etc., but your character may notice an extra gleam, that it's harder to get dirty again, etc. Cleaning solution and metal polish are not the only options, and I'd love to see some creativity!

As always, class posts are graded based on creativity and writing skill, not based on how well your student does. Your student could completely blow off the task and be disruptive and still earn points OOC if it's a well-written, thoughtful, creative post that provides ample interactive opportunity for other characters. I'm excited to see what you come up with!

Happy brewing.

Subthreads:

Mwa-ha-ha-ha! [Bonabelle] by Valentine Duell with Bonabelle Row

No crushing takes place in this post. by Philippe Delachene with Quincy Wright

What's this stuff? by Billy Cobb

22 Mary Brooding-Hawthorne More than Muggles [Beginners, years I-II] 1424 1 5

Valentine Duell

November 22, 2020 6:07 PM

Mwa-ha-ha-ha! [Bonabelle] by Valentine Duell

This had gone on long enough. Bonabelle had been acting strange ever since they'd gotten back to school. She was going to sort this out and she was going to sort it out good. If that meant it had to happen during potions class, that was fine. There was usually plenty of time while things were brewing, and they were going to figure this thing out, whatever it was. She walked with Bonabelle from lunch to the potions room, just to make sure. She played it cool, nope, not giving anything away. She had to wait until Bonabelle was trapped with her as a partner, then she wouldn't have a choice! There was nothing unusual about this at all, they partnered up a lot for potions. Everything was going exactly according to plan.

She smiled sweetly at Professor Borrding-Hawthorne as they entered class and greeted her back. She stuck with Bonabelle as they found seats and unpacked for class. Excellent... all according to plan... The class began and at the professor's first question, her mind instantly went to the mirror that Mama, Papa and Aunt Giselle had constructed in their basement. She raised her hand in response, "Creating archaic divination mirrors!" Papa had tried to explain how that process had worked, and it sounded really complicated, but it had involved a few weird potions.

Yes! Valentine cheered to herself, partners! This was working out perfectly. She shot Bonabelle a quick smile. A not at all devious smile. Then the professor described what they would be doing. Comparing potions to muggle stuff? Well, that was fine... but... that wasn't going to involve the long minutes of sitting around while a potion brewed. She'd just have to make it work, it would be fine. She turned to Bonabelle, "Sounds easy enough partner. Ready to get started?"

2 Valentine Duell Mwa-ha-ha-ha! [Bonabelle] 1490 0 5

Bonabelle Row

November 22, 2020 6:50 PM

Ah yes, everything is perfectly normal. by Bonabelle Row

It was not unusual for Valentine to be a big bundle of friendly energy, and it was not unusual for Valentine to seem like she was scheming something, only for that scheme to be a big hug or a sincere compliment. That being said, Bonabelle couldn't help getting a little nervous when her friend seemed up to something, and she definitely seemed up to something today. As they paired up for potions and the first topic out of the Teppenpaw's mouth was related to academics, Bonabelle tried to push the feeling aside. After all, it did seem like a big hug or sincere compliment were around the corner, so it wouldn't do any good to be anxious about it. Although . . . some schemes ended up with birthday parties and although Bonabelle had loved both of the last two she'd had, she wasn't sure she was up for another big hoorah and she had several months until she had to think about such things for Valentine's own birthday. She should probably start scheming on that at some point just to ensure that she didn't disappoint though . . .

"Easy? she confirmed, focusing on the lesson. She supposed Val did at least seem to have some good ideas today, as she'd won an approving nod from the professor on the grounds of giving a good - and apparently pretty unique - answer. "I don't know a thing about Muggle stuff. Although . . . I do know how to compare the results oof . . . hmmm." Her voice trailed off as she begin to think more about the linguistics of the task at hand. "Yes," she agreed, shaking her head to refocus on the fact that she'd been asked a question. "We can get started. What are we working with?"

OOC: Professor Brooding-Hawthorne's nod approved by me because I am Professor Brooding-Hawthorne.

22 Bonabelle Row Ah yes, everything is perfectly normal. 1488 0 5

Valentine Duell

November 23, 2020 6:09 PM

Yes... yes it is. Nothing to worry about here. Nope. by Valentine Duell

Yes... Valentine thought to herself. She's hooked! Bonabelle has officially accepted the position of partner, now there was no escape! Well, unless she actually escaped or ran away or moved to another seat, or.... well anything like that. Hopefully that didn't happen though. Now to... what was the next part of fishing? Turning the handle thing to pull the fish in... reel! Yes, now to reel her in. She had to do it carefully though, was that how actual fishing worked? Doesn't matter. Bonabelle matters. The fishy fishing analogy wasn't. First, class stuff, ease into things.

"Bah," Valentine waved her hand dismissively at Bonabelle's Muggle knowledge comment. "I don't know how important that bit is. We're just going to use two different solutions and see what happens." She took a hold of the candlestick and the cleaning supplies. "Now, you tell me, what's the proper way to go about doing this analysis? Do you want to do the potion and I'll take the Muggle stuff?" Yes, first get her distracted by class stuff. Bonabelle liked class stuff. Then start to ease the conversation to other matters. Sneaky like. Yes.

Her voice was light, trying her best to keep it from giving anything away. "Papa looked into the Muggle cleaning stuff at one point after Mama complained about it. He said it 'breaks down' or something a lot faster around magical people, sort of how Muggle technology doesn't work right. The chemicals just kinda fall apart?" She couldn't quite remember how he had put it, but they had just stopped working as well after a bit. "I don't think that'll factor in here... unless the Professor had them setting around for a few weeks."

She opened the Muggle cleaner container and caught a potent whiff. "Oh yeah... fumes can be fun as well." Ohh... there's a thought. "They can make you feel all strange if you get to big of a dose." Then she gave her friend a quick glance, "How are you feeling?"

2 Valentine Duell Yes... yes it is. Nothing to worry about here. Nope. 1490 0 5

Bonabelle Row

November 23, 2020 9:08 PM

I am soooo convinced. by Bonabelle Row

Bonabelle blinked, unable to help a smile as Valentine dove headfirst into a task she seemed to not really have any ideas about. It hurt Bonabelle's better sensibilities a bit to hear such things as 'bah' and 'I don't know how important that bit is' when it came to specific details of an in-class assignment, but she also appreciated Val's ability to introduce such levity. It was the sort of confidence that Bonabelle herself strove for because it was the best way, nearer her experience so far, to get through things that might otherwise just be too much.

"I think we should do both of them together," Bonabelle decided after a moment's consideration. "That way we know nothing was different because you and I applied the stuff differently or anything like that."

She listened with mild interest as Valentine explained her father's experience with muggle products like these. It wasn't that Bonabelle didn't care but she . . . sort of didn't care. She cared about Valentine and her father, but not much about muggle things. What good were they to her? She'd already known they were basically just less good versions of magical products - at least where some semblance of 'the same thing' was available - but now it sounded like the lesser quality ones wouldn't even last if she got too close with her whimble-whamble magicky fingers.

"Val!" she said, quickly grabbing the bottle away from her friend as the smell of-- WOW that really was strong. She chuckled softly. "Well, I didn't think I'd ever find a potion that smelled worse than potions, but here we are." She took Val's warning seriously and placed the bottle at arm's length away from them both on the desk. "Fine I think," she said. "No weird side effects yet. You?"

22 Bonabelle Row I am soooo convinced. 1488 0 5

Valentine Duell

November 26, 2020 4:54 AM

Then all is going to plan. Mwa-ha-ha. by Valentine Duell

Valentine nodded at Bonabelle's excellent plan of analysis. She was really, really glad to have a good friend by her side to help out with things like this. Now she just hoped she could be just as good of a friend and help out Bonabelle with whatever problem she was having. The Teppenpaw giggled as her Aladren associate snatched the bottle of cleaner away from her. "I'm fine." she responded, just a little disappointed. That plan hadn't worked. Bonabelle hadn't fell for the underlying question and just responded as to the effects of cleaning solution. That wasn't how this was supposed to have gone. It was almost like she wasn't just waiting for the slightest excuse to talk out all of the things that were bothering her and hug and hopefully work to making them better. Strange. She was going to have to rethink this plan a little bit. She would need something to distract Bonabelle for a few minutes while she thought up a new approach.

"I wonder if they smell like that because Muggles don't have as many options to add into their 'potions' to mitigate the smells?" This might work, speculation was usually a good delaying tactic, plus it almost sounded like classwork, so the Professor shouldn't bother them. Hopefully. "From what I've experienced, they usually just try to pile more good smelling things on top that are more potent than the bad smells." she made a little grimace, "It doesn't work great. What do you think?"

Now... what was the next stage of the plan? She could ask directly, but that might put Bonabelle on the defense and she didn't want that. Could she ask some innocent tangentially related question that might lead the right direction? That would of course require her to have some idea what was going on though. Maybe she should just start by example, that had worked last year with Bonabelle. What could she say though? The only problem she was having was the fact that Bonabelle was having... Oooo...

She gave Bonabelle a bit of a sheepish look, "I wasn't entirely honest I guess. I'm not perfectly fine. Although the cleaner didn't have much to do with it." She sighed slightly. "I have a friend who seems to me to be having some problems. I want to help them, but they won't tell me much about it and I don't know how."

2 Valentine Duell Then all is going to plan. Mwa-ha-ha. 1490 0 5

Philippe Delachene

November 30, 2020 10:28 AM

No crushing takes place in this post. by Philippe Delachene

OOC: I am executively deciding that this takes place later the same day after Anya shares her conclusions about Philippe's crush with Theo and Stanley. BIC:

Philippe dropped into an available seat in the potions room without really paying attention to who was already seated nearby. There wasn't anyone in the class that he particularly had any reason to avoid, because all of those people were in the Intermediate class. Well, the one person who he was irritated at right now was there, and so was the person who Anya was annoying him about. Philippe did not have a stupid crush. Anya was being a total pest about the fact that he'd found himself staring over at the Teppenpaw table on more than one occasion during dinner last night instead of listening to her talk about Quidditch.

It was just that Quidditch talk was hard to pay attention to. That was all. It was entirely coincidence that his eyes kept landing on the same person. Anya was reading way too much into that. Philippe just liked their hair. That didn't mean he was making goo-goo eyes or whatever dumb thing Anya thought. A guy was allowed to appreciate another person's hair, wasn't he? That didn't mean he was interested in kissing . . .

Philippe squirmed in his seat as he thought about that. No that was crazy. He didn't have a crush, and certainly not a crush as doomed as that one would be if he had it. This was why it was good his fellow Teppenpaw was not here in Beginners. Or Anya. He'd probably be staring at them again now, and she'd think she was totally right in her wrongheadedness.

He blinked back to the present and realized he'd been staring at Valentine instead, he shook himself and rededicated himself to a life (or at least a potions class) of intellectual pursuit and lack of stupid romantical entanglements. Val was sitting with Bonabelle again this class and that was probably for the best. Had she been sitting closer to him, he might accidentally wonder out loud what she and the person she sat with last night talked about. Val talked to anyone who had ears, so there was no reason to think she was particularly close to their older Housemate, or that the discussion had been any more personal than their thoughts about this year's concert. And whatever they talked about, it wasn't Philippe's business anyway, because he wasn't a stalker and could respect personal boundaries and privacy.

Fortunately, right around then, Professor Brooding-Hawthorne started class, and Philippe got himself focused enough to listen to the lecture. He decided not to offer the observation that potions could be applied to walls to make them shimmer and glow because some people (read: Oz) might read into that that Philippe had shimmery walls and not Jasmine. So instead he raised his hand and noted that potions could be used on wooden stalls to strengthen them so even the biggest Abraxons couldn't just casually walk through them whenever they wanted to get out.

As a half-blood (more or less), he was pretty sure muggles did not have a strengthening solution of equal value to its magical counterpart, but he could readily admit that Mom used Windex almost as often as she used any sort of magic to clean mirrors and windows. He was also pretty sure she used Pledge for the lemon scent as much as she did for its effectiveness. ("It just smells cleaner when we use the Pledge, and Grandma is coming over so use that.")

Philippe looked over at his neighbor then at the items they'd been given to work with. A pair of black leather dress shoes, a shoe shine brush, black shoe cream by Foot Fitter, and a polishing potion. There was a fairly obvious division of labor here, so he put one shoe in front of each of them, then picked up the two 'potions'. "You want to shine your shoe with the muggle cream or the wizard potion?" he asked with no obvious preference for either in his voice.

OOC: I have not checked with Not A Crush's author that they would talk to Valentine at dinner, but figured Valentine doesn't need a lot of encouragement to sit beside any given person in her House and chat with/at them for a whole meal. Val's author did confirm that.

1 Philippe Delachene No crushing takes place in this post. 1489 0 5

Quincy Wright

November 30, 2020 9:49 PM

No crushing takes place in this brain. by Quincy Wright

Quincy liked potions and days like today were a good remainder about why. This was going to be awesome. It combined things he knew stuff about with things he didn't know much about, played on both of his worlds, and it was just friggin cool. And there was some use of scientific method, even if it wasn't called that (Quincy was smart enough to know that's what it was), and he was pretty stoked to get to work with that sort of stuff again, especially when so many classes at Sonora didn't seem to have much use for things like science. Facts? Sure. They abounded. But scientifically based facts? Facts with enough scientifically verifiable evidence so as to be nearly provable (since nothing in science was really provable)? Rarely. It was disappointing really, but what could ya do?

Quincy didn't pay much attention to where he sat, in part because he rarely cared that much about where he sat. It seemed like overly simple logic but it was pretty factual and straightforward. As it turned out, though, they'd be working on this super awesome class with partners, and then Quincy was a little bummed he hadn't taken the time to pick someone on purpose. Still, his fellow classmate was probably nice if nothing else, and that was a good start. There were some Teppenpaws that were just too dang much and some who were more mild. Quincy hoped that this one was the latter. That was true of every House, of course, and he didn't explicitly hold it against Teppenpaw that they had the precise brand of too dang much that made Quincy's skin itch.

"I'm not picky," he agreed with his classmate's tone. His classmate who had a name . . . he'd probably heard it before because there were like seven students in all of Sonora, but he just couldn't remember them that well. Oh well. "I can do the muggle one," he decided, interested to see what kind of product it really was and not quite trusting most of his classmates not to be absolutely stupid when it came to muggle stuff.

22 Quincy Wright No crushing takes place in this brain. 1495 0 5

Bonabelle Row

December 07, 2020 2:55 PM

Good plan, I'll give you that. by Bonabelle Row

Bonabelle considered Valentine's thoughts on why muggle potions smelled like that. She wasn't sure how others smelled - did they all smell like that?? - but she did know what it smelled like to layer good smells on top of bad smells and pretend the bad smells went away. That was basically how she handled life's problems anyway. She was just a bottle of Oxyclean in a big world.

"I wonder if there's like . . . A Smell, yknow?" she asked slowly, thinking about it. "Like there's sort of a medicine smell that makes you feel better because you know you're about to get healing potions, and there's sort of a smell to this classroom. I wonder if Muggles want their cleaning products to have A Smell so they feel clean." She frowned. "But they could've picked a better one."

Val went on to be sad and Bonabelle frowned in sympathy. And also anger. Who was making Valentine sad? Who was being a bad friend? That wasn't any good. But interrogating Valentine wouldn't help at all. Maybe, if Bonabelle was lucky, it would be a crappy admirer boy and then Valentine would hate him and he would go away. Not wanting to scare Valentine off, Bonabelle still let her frown show.

"That sounds like that person is not a very good friend and you deserve better," she said with a shrug, watching Val closely with a look of concern. "They shouldn't let their problems become your problems and they shouldn't make you sad, that's not fair. Are you okay?"

22 Bonabelle Row Good plan, I'll give you that. 1488 0 5

Valentine Duell

December 07, 2020 6:33 PM

Thanks. Wait a sec... by Valentine Duell

Bonabelle was smart, Valentine was so very glad to have her as a friend. Her eyes widened a bit and she nodded along with Bonabelle's train of thought. "Muggles have a term for that sort of thing. It's..." Oh dang it. What was that term? Papa had used it on occasion and explained it to her. "Anyway, the name isn't important. It's when you don't know that something shouldn't have an effect, and because of that you convince yourself that it is working even though it really shouldn't." That sounded like a fairly terrible explanation. Oh well, "It's some sort of psychological thing. But I agree, a better smell would have been much nicer. But, maybe that was some of the point? Maybe if it didn't smell bad enough, people wouldn't think it would work?"

Valentine watched as her friend thought about her response. Was she going to open up? Was she...? Frown? Why was she frowning? She didn't want to make Bonabelle frown. "Not a good friend?" She repeated, half-whispering. Did Bonabelle know who she was talking about? She was really smart... Had something that bad happened that she didn't want to be friends anymore? No... nonononono. What it something she had said or done? Is that why Bonabelle didn't want to tell her? The thought nearly broke her heart.

"They are a very, very, very good friend," She started off slowly, straining to remain steady against the torrent of emotions. "I couldn't ask for better." She tried to make and keep eye contact with her friend. "I want to know what their problems are, I want to help them deal with them." She took a breath, "I want to do whatever I can to make things as good as they can be again. I.. I just don't want to loose them. I want them to know that I am here for them... whatever they need."

2 Valentine Duell Thanks. Wait a sec... 1490 0 5

Bonabelle Row

December 08, 2020 5:07 PM

I just didn't know you had other plans... by Bonabelle Row

Bonabelle smiled, having heard the word before. "Placebo?" she suggested, proud of herself for knowing the word and Valentine for knowing the concept. That was the thing about Valentine; she was way smarter than she gave herself credit for and she had a much higher tolerance for academics than most of the Teppenpaws that came to mind when Bonabelle thought of the House. Sure, she was also a diplomat and a friendly face and all those other things her House supposedly stood for, but she was also kind and brilliant and just an all around good friend.

To everyone apparently.

She tried to stifle a deepening frown by swallowing hard and blinking, glancing down at the stuff that was on their desk that suddenly didn't matter at all. Bonabelle knew it was silly to think that she was special, but she had felt special. Sure, Valentine was friendly and friends with everyone, but Bonabelle had sort of thought that she was at the top of the list. And maybe it was just a turn of phrase, but it made her stomach turn sour. She looked up again, feeling Valentine's gaze on her still.

"They sound very lucky then," she said, her voice thick as she tried to sort through who this friend was that was just so good. She stopped trying when she realized that there were just too many people for her to think of because, at the end of the day, apparently, Bonabelle hadn't been special. Valentine was friends with everyone. And so what if Bonabelle had had things on her mind too? Apparently Val had a friend who was struggling and she couldn't ask for a better friend and she wanted to help them. Bonabelle supposed this was her own fault; she probably had let too much. Her emotions come out and ended up pushing Val away without meaning to. She sighed, not wanting to do the same thing now. If she was going to play second fiddle . . . well, at least she was still in the band. "I'm sure they'd be grateful to know how much you care about them," she said quietly. "Just let them know you want to know about their problems."

22 Bonabelle Row I just didn't know you had other plans... 1488 0 5

Valentine Duell

December 09, 2020 5:43 PM

Me? Other plans? Nope. Nothing strange gong on here. by Valentine Duell

"Yes!" Val cheered at her friend. "Placebo! That was it!" See, Bonabelle was super-smart, she knew it. She took the bottle of cleaner back, doing her best to not inhale the fumes this time. If they didn't do some actual work soon the professor would come over and see if there was a 'problem'. She didn't want that.

Things were not great. What had happened? Bonabelle looked terribly uncomfortable. Was this the end? They had so many fun times together. Bonabelle had been her first friend when she had arrived here all alone. Still... if Bonabelle didn't want to be her friend anymore, it would be wrong to try and force her to still be one. The Aladren's response came back sounding very heavy. It was strange though. She thought she sounded lucky, but still wasn't a very good friend? Valentine deserved better than her, but she would be grateful to know how much Val cares for her? Then sudden realization washed over her. Bonabelle wasn't telling her that she didn't want to be friends anymore, she was saying that she needed help!

The wave of relief that washed over her nearly came out as tears as she smiled wide and threw her arms around her friend and squeezed her tight. Only relaxing the grasp a little, she looked Bonabelle in the eyes with a happy and very relieved smile. "I thought I just did."

2 Valentine Duell Me? Other plans? Nope. Nothing strange gong on here. 1490 0 5

Billy Cobb

December 10, 2020 6:25 PM

What's this stuff? by Billy Cobb

As he usually did, Billy meandered into the classroom as late as he could. This was fairly common practice for him, especially for potions class. For the most part they just wanted him to sit in a chair the entire class period. It was horrible. Potions class was extra long and much worse on that front than the other classes. The creatures class and herbology weren't to bad, but charms? Transfigurations? Ugh. At least the subject matter here in potions was something he could follow. It was almost like Ma's tonics she made, or even Pa's shine. There was also usually time to get up from his seat and wander around a bit while things were cooking. That did make this one of the slightly better classes.

The poisons and antidotes stuff they'd been learning 'bout was actually fairly interesting. Those were good things to know if'n you were planning on going out to explore the world once you were all done learning stuff. Today though, they were learning about using potions on objects? Okay... sure, that could probably be useful, though he didn't know of any examples off-hand what with him not growin' up with potions and such. It seemed like enough of the others knew enough to make the professor happy though.

So... today specifically then, they were cleaning stuff? Fun. That was one of the things he loved to do back home, now he got to do it here as well. Great. Ma usually set him to scrub down the house with a bucket of some diluted stuff that he strongly suspected contained a fair amount of Pa's concoction whenever she thought he was misbehaving. Was the whole class in trouble with the professor? She didn't look mad, but sometimes you just never knew.

Billy sighed as realized that this class may not be one that let him get up and wander about. Even better. Still he accepted the items with the polite smile that Ma had nearly beaten into him. He held the spray bottle in front of him and looked at it quizzically. Ma ain't never used nothing like this before. Oh well. He turned to his partner and displayed the bottle. "Hey, you ever used any of this stuff before? Do ya know how it works?"

2 Billy Cobb What's this stuff? 1519 0 5

Bonabelle Row

December 10, 2020 10:42 PM

I don't understand. by Bonabelle Row

Bonabelle couldn't do much besides stand there in stiff surprise when Valentine suddenly embraced her. Her hands moved instinctively to return the hug - instinctive only with this person and maybe Jean-Loup or family since she was not one to just go around hugging people - and Valentine was still very close when she pulled back some. It was odd, because Valentine was basically the only person who ever got this close to Bonabelle's face and yet, somehow it still felt important. Valentine was a very pretty person and her eyes were big and kind and Bonabelle felt a bit squirmy to be so close to them. Squirmy, she supposed, was a normal reaction to having someone in your face when that was so unusual in most social situations and definitely in most classroom situations.

"You've lost me," Bonabelle admitted with a small frown, not quite pulling away so much as leaning back enough to see all of Valentine's expression. It was ridiculously happy which was great but Bonabelle was mostly just confused. "I thought I was helping you with some great friend of yours?" she confirmed, managing to keep her tone solidly out of sarcastic or bitter, which was a feat she applauded herself for. "What did you just do?" she asked.

22 Bonabelle Row I don't understand. 1488 0 5

Valentine Duell

December 13, 2020 1:12 PM

Where should I begin then? by Valentine Duell

Valentine smiled at Bonabelle's clever turn of phrase. Bonabelle was a smart one like that. She hadn't said it in any sort of angry or mean sort of way, and she was hugging back, so she was just covering herself. That was alright, asking for help could be hard and Val didn't want to discourage her friend. "I was worried for a moment that maybe I had, and that would have been disastrous." She squeezed her friend once more, then noticed that the professor might have been looking their direction and quickly pulled away, still smiling reassuringly.

She nodded happily at Bonabelle's confused sounding question while she took up the polish again and tried to make it at least look like she was doing the classwork. The stuff still smelled terrible. "You are helping me with a great friend of mine silly." She flashed Bonabelle another smile, as she finished up her polishing bit and handed it over to Bonabelle so she could do her part. "I just told my great friend that I care about them and I want to know about their problems and help them in any way I can." She made sure to look solidly into Bonabelle's eyes as she handed over the thing and spoke her words.

Valentine knew that her friend was strong and independent. She was not one for showing weakness, and that was fine. Val loved her for that and everything else about her, she didn't expect Bonabelle to breakdown into tears or anything and gush out her problems. But, Valentine was bound and determined to make sure that Bonabelle knew that she was here for her. She wasn't sure if there was anything she could do... but if there was, she was going to do it! Just to make sure there was no uncertainty, she continued. "I took your advice, and told you my great friend."

2 Valentine Duell Where should I begin then? 1490 0 5

Bonabelle Row

December 13, 2020 4:22 PM

You . . . like me? by Bonabelle Row

Bonabelle was released and still nothing made sense. She was quiet as Valentine went back to tittering happily. They seemed to be doing classwork now, which was supposed to be comfortable and easy because that was the part of this whole thing that Bonabelle understood, but she didn't really know what to do with it now either. There seemed to be a lot happening that she wasn't aware of. Valentine continued talking though and the first thing to dawn on Bonabelle was hope. It was slow, but as Valentine continued, it started to blossom into fully fledged contentedness.

"You meant me all along?" Bonabelle asked, her voice high and hopeful despite her more sad expression. She'd made Val sad. And, from her own third party, unbiased (totally biased but less biased) perspective, she'd been a bad friend. Val was good and kind and Bonabelle was a soggy chip of a friend. She was a bottom of the bag, greasy potato string.

But Val cared about her, and thought she was a great friend, and wanted to hear about her problems. She said so herself just now. But what if Bonabelle did share her problems? Then Valentine's smile would probably go away. And her problems weren't really that important. But if she said they weren't important, then she didn't have any good excuse for not having been a good friend. So she'd have to change something, because that's what you did when your current strategy wasn't working out.

"I didn't realize you felt that way," Bonabelle murmured. She was feeling feelings and she didn't have words for them. She knew words for feelings in books - gratitude, hope, fear, sadness, overwhelmed-ness, love - but she didn't know what those felt like. Was that what she was feeling? She had a hard time believing she could feel all those things at once. "You're a happy person, I don't want to take that away," she said, trying to explain. "If I tell you my problems, then you have more problems, and I don't want you to have more problems." She looked up at Val, having previously avoided eye contact when her friend wasn't looking directly at her, and bit her lip. "I haven't been a very good friend to you."

22 Bonabelle Row You . . . like me? 1488 0 5

Philippe Delachene

December 13, 2020 6:35 PM

Good because crushed brains are bad for you by Philippe Delachene

Ah, excellent, Philippe thought as he took in who his neighbor was. He had scored an Aladren for today's lesson! That should help keep him on task. If he was trying to keep up with a second year Aladren, he wouldn't have time to think about a certain person with really nice color-streaked blond hair. Not that he had any reason to think about any such person anyway, because he was in class and he had self control and a complete lack of crushes.

Quincy was not picky either, but picked the muggle one so Philippe passed that over to him. "Sure." He looked over the potion still in his possession and sniffed it a little, then shrugged in total non-recognition. "I don't think we use either one at our house. Mom buffs her cowboy boots sometimes, but I think she has a charm for that, and so far as I've ever noticed, Papa's dress shoes don't get dirty." Which wasn't to say he didn't somehow shine them before they got bad enough that they ceased being shiny, but it wasn't a process Philippe had ever witnessed.

Or maybe he used this stuff and it had the magical side effect of making them not get dirty. Who knew?

Philippe looked between the potion and shoe, wonder what the proper way to apply it was. Just dump it over the top? Use the brush? He'd guess the brush probably made the most sense, but maybe that his his half-blood side showing. A brush was how they applied the strengthening solution, but that was also how they applied the whitewash, and his father's family didn't use potions like that, being diplomats and ambassadors not ranch owners.

Or wait, as he picked up the brush, he saw there was a rag he hadn't noticed earlier among their items. Maybe the rag. But no, if his education from Underdog cartoons was anything to go by, the Shoe Shine Boy used a rag. Right? Him memory played tricks on him, swapping the item in the Shoe Shine Boy's hands to a rag and then a brush and then back to the rag, and now he couldn't remember which one was right at all. Maybe Quincy would know. He held up the rag and the brush, "Which do you want?"

OOC: I am probably dating myself with Underdog cartoons, but Holly probably has DVDs, right? It might be the token show she bought to entertain the boy in the house.

1 Philippe Delachene Good because crushed brains are bad for you 1489 0 5

Valentine Duell

December 15, 2020 4:10 PM

Yes. by Valentine Duell

Valentine smiled reassuringly at her friend. "Of course I was talking about you." As if you didn't know, she added mentally. If Bonabelle wanted a level of separation, that was fine. Val certainly wasn't going to hold that against her. She still looked and sounded miserable, and Val nearly hugged her again. But, she didn't want to push her luck too much with Professor Brooding-Hawthorne. Instead she tried hugging Bonabelle with words. "Who else could I have been talking about? You've been there for me since the very beginning of this adventure. You've pulled my sorry academics through all these classes, you threw me a birthday party, you travelled across the ocean to visit me over the summer." Valentine paused, just briefly, then resumed quieter than before. "You've always been there for me. Now I want to be there for you as well."

Bonabelle was great, she was trying to protect her. It was a very kind and noble thing, just like Bonabelle. Valentine smiled warmly with just a bit of hesitation at her own shortcomings. With a slight shake of her head, "No, you're not a bad friend. You couldn't have known. I… I wanted to give you a little space, in case it was…" she paused, in case she was the problem. Her smile faded slightly. What if she still was the problem? What if that was what Bonabelle was trying to protect her from? She took a deep breath, well… Bonabelle would just need to tell her, so she could fix it. Val didn't want to be a problem.

"It's okay if I don't smile a for a little," she put on an exaggerated, playful 'grumpy face', "If I can help you, that'll make me even happier." A memory sprung from the back corner of her mind. "Do you remember when we talked about the debate club? Someone in that discussion said something about it being good practice for when arguments inevitably happened in life." Val gave Bonabelle another encouraging smile. "This is almost the same thing, just for life's problems instead of arguments."

2 Valentine Duell Yes. 1490 0 5