Mary Brooding-Hawthorne
March 20, 2021 9:28 PM
The antidote to summer break [Intermedites] by Mary Brooding-Hawthorne
Mary greeted her intermediate class for their first class of the new year with her signature beaming smile. Intermediates were always fun (although Mary liked something about each of her classes) because the students who were no longer present weren't all the way gone yet and the students who were joining weren't quite new. Everyone was settled and everyone was familiar with how things worked for the most part. Of course, they were also young teenagers and puberty made everything unsettled and unfamiliar, but that was part of the nature of growing up and Mary loved to watch her sweet students grow up. It made her have way too many emotions though, so she tried not to think too much about it and instead focused on how proud she was of all of them as she greeted them all, exchanging brief pleasantries as they took their seats around the room. Desks were set up for two to three students to comfortably share and although there were tall stools set at each one, they were a reasonable height for most students to stand if they preferred and some students had historically preferred to sit on the desk. That was fine with Mary so long as they took precautions against catching fire or knocking anything over and understood that safety was necessarily the priority."Hello," Mary said simply, beaming at her students when they'd taken their places. She rocked up on her toes, bringing her to almost average height for a moment before she returned to a regular standing position. The whole time, of course, her feet were hidden beneath the hems of her long skirts which were today the color of soft lavender skies. "It is absolutely wonderful to see you all again and I'm excited to get started! As those of you who are returning to intermediate lessons know, these years focus primarily on two things: preparing you to make the decision to pursue potions into your advanced years and possibly your careers, if you want, and preparing you for life after Sonora if you don't continue potions into your advanced years. Beginner years focus on the nature of potions, what potions are, and how they are used. Now, we'll start looking more deeply at their practical application and a more in depth look at the theory behind them."
With that, she waved her wand, floating a recipe page to each student. Each was in English, but additional copies in other languages were available in books around the room, with that information available at the bottom of the page. Students in potions classes kept binders - which were occasionally graded on proper organization - and the recipe pages were punched to allow easy insertion into the binders. At the top of this particular page, the words Antidote to Common Poisons were written in neat lettering. Neatness was, after all, important for the safety and accuracy of potion-making.
"Those of you who were in intermediates last year will be familiar with this potion but there is benefit to starting with a quick refresher and getting us back in the habit of best practice potion-making. Additionally, this is one potion you may find you need to know for domestic and professional life after graduation." Hopefully no one would ever be poisoned or need to save a friend or family member from poisoning, but there was always the possibility. Most people tended to just purchase such remedies but that wasn't always possible either.
Waving her wand again, Mary then floated process sheets to each student, one blank one for each third year and a blank one and used ones for the older students. "Third years, you'll be filling this out the same as you've done in beginner classes, simply taking notes and answering the lab questions as you go so you can do a proper write up for me for next class. Fourth and fifth years, you'll be doing the same thing but part of your homework will also include an analysis of how your work and process has changed or remained the same based on your notes from previous years. You can put those in your bags for now to review later, you won't need them during class. Please note that they are copies so you can keep them for your own learning if you'd like and there's no point in trying to change them; I'll know what your previous work looked like."
Satisfied that she'd laid the groundwork for class, Mary took a breath and smiled at the room again. "Any questions?" she offered, ready to answer any that applied to the class as a whole and letting students know she'd come by their desk or they should come visit her at the front of the room if the question was more individual. "Go ahead and get started! Although your work is individual, I encourage you to talk with whomever is at your desk with you so that you can compare notes and brainstorm ideas together."
Subthreads: Hi, new Intermediate here (tag Freddie) by Philippe Delachene with Freddie Zauberhexen
This seems like a good thing to know [Alexander & Mab] by Valentine Duell with Mab, Alexander Pierce-Beales
A scientific approach by Bertie Jackson with Mara Morales
Hey, stupid. [Stanley] by Bonabelle Row with Stanley O'Malley
Here I am, responsibly sitting on my table. by Anya Delachene with Theo Spurn
22
Mary Brooding-Hawthorne
The antidote to summer break [Intermedites]
1424
1
5
Philippe Delachene
March 21, 2021 9:27 AM
Hi, new Intermediate here (tag Freddie) by Philippe Delachene
For most of his early childhood, Philippe had considered himself and Anya to be basically the same age. Sure, she was taller than him, but not by a lot. Anya had never been particularly tall for her age (the opposite, in fact, was more true) and Philippe had never been particularly short for his (though he wouldn't call himself tall either) so their height difference had always seemed negligible compared to how much bigger than them Jasmine was. There were barely more than two years between Anya and Phillippe, while Jasmine had twice that between herself and Anya. Jasmine had been a seventh year to Phillippe's first year. He'd been all of five years old when she left for Sonora. He'd never had any trouble thinking of Jasmine as much older. Anya had only been seven then and by the time he was seven, he and Anya were doing basically the same work with their tutors, and he was doing it better.He'd been angry when she got to go off to Sonora and he had to wait, not just one year but two. He'd always been able to keep up with Anya in school work and he hadn't thought that was fair, that she could start learning magic before he could, just because she was eleven and he was still nine. (Newly nine, too. He was really glad he hadn't been born two weeks later or he'd have needed to wait a whole year more than he already did.) They were peers. They were on the same reading and math grade level. He was the one Mom told to look after his sibling when they went outside together. It had really messed with his perception of how old he was compared to how old she was.
When he started at Sonora, Anya had been in her third year, an Intermediate, while he'd been a mere first year Beginner. She had a two year head start.
This year, he'd finally caught up again. He entered the potions classroom and would have grinned at finally being in the same class as his sister if she wasn't sitting on the desk next to her cauldron, looking for all the world like she intended to stay there and Professor Brooding-Hawthorne didn't seem to be making any moves to stop her either.
Philippe decided Potions maybe wasn't the Intermediate class he was going to spend working with Anya after all, and took a seat closer to the front so he would need to turn around to find out if Anya was actually going to spend the whole class period like that. If he didn't see it, it didn't happen, right?
He tried to put Anya and her desk-sitting out of his mind and managed it by seeing Freddie walk into the class. Oh, right, Anya wasn't the only fifth year he was going to be sharing classes with now. His heart fluttered a little and he waved a little shyly at the older Teppenpaw, hoping he'd come sit next to him.
During the lecture he did peek back once at his sister and immediately regretted it. Anya really was That Guy. Dear Merlin. How hard was it to use a chair? They weren't even the boring chairs most classes had. They were nice high stools. Anya usually liked high stools.
He made himself focus on the lecture. Between his sister being a Desk-Sitter and Freddie in such close proximity, it wasn't easy, but he did it. He was the mature and responsible Delachene, after all.
So he took notes. He learned about antidotes. He looked over the recipe they was supposed to brew. He looked over the familiar process sheet, and started filling it out, using his neatest handwriting because this was going to go into his binder and apparently come back to haunt him for years to come.
When he finished filling in the preliminary steps, he smiled at Freddie, and kind of wished they were brewing together instead of individually. He set up his cauldron and began filling it with water.
"Too bad we each need to make our own," he commented as he worked. "I prefer teamwork brewing, but at least we get to talk. I'm happy doing anything with you."
Wait. What? He hadn't meant to say that like that!
"For the class, I mean," he added lamely, but the redness on his cheeks probably gave him away.
1
Philippe Delachene
Hi, new Intermediate here (tag Freddie)
1489
0
5
Freddie Zauberhexen
March 26, 2021 11:37 AM
Does that make me an old intermediate? by Freddie Zauberhexen
Freddie had not gotten prefect and he was honestly more than a little relieved. Truth be told, he hadn't even considered the fact that he was up for consideration for the position (assuming he was actually considered at all, even if by default) until they'd gotten to school and he'd heard the announcements begin. Hana had been a little tense but had wished him good luck before they'd taken their seats at the Teppenpaw table and it had only struck him a few minutes later why she might do that. Since she hadn't gotten the position in her year either, Freddie was glad not to get the position himself now. The only bummer was that Ellie and Anya had both gotten it and so he'd miss them sometimes because they'd be busy and he'd be alone, but they wouldn't usually be busy at the same time probably They'd also both been the only choice for their House and it was nice knowing that he hadn't gotten it as a preferred choice when they hadn't (even though they were obviously both great choices too) because then that might've made them sad. Freddie would rather be a friend than a prefect, especially if it made other people maybe a little sad.The whole thing had almost entirely served to take Philippe off his mind at the feast, although he hadn't been able to help a few glances towards the younger boy. The younger boy. The one who was too young to know for sure what he wanted, even though he seemed perfectly well adjusted and thought out to Freddie. The one Anya thought was maybe having crushes but didn't want to say for sure and didn't seem to be too confident about whether it was a good thing or not if he did. The fact that Freddie had seen Philippe's memory - for that's what it had been - was knowledge to them both now and that made everything seem a whole lot more difficult than he thought it really needed to be. Now everyone knew stuff except that none of them really knew anything.
Except he knew that a friendly wave made him feel a lot happier about everything than he had a moment before he'd walked into the potions classroom and he took a leap hoping that that little wave was an invitation, taking a seat next to Philippe instead of Anya or Ellie. Of course, sitting next to Anya wouldn't have been an option anyway, but sitting near her would have been. His neck bristled as he wondered how many times the older Delachene's eyes landed on the back of his head, and whether they were friendly or not as they did so.
Philippe was a good student, so Freddie tried to be as well. He took notes, and only a few of them were questions about English words, and he considered his papers from previous years with a practiced eye, one used to such activities in this class. The lecture finished and Freddie felt much less practiced with basically everything else, despite the fact that he'd both made this potion before and talked to humans before. He'd even talked to Philippe himself before.
Freddie grinned, happy that his company was wanted around, and nodded, wholeheartedly agreeing that team brewing was easier. There was something about the way that Philippe finished his thought that sounded like it meant something but Freddie wasn't the master of picking out nuances in English sentences, and all he had to go on was Philippe's
"I like doing stuffs with you too," Freddie said simply, thinking of when they'd dyed Philippe's hair. His German accent was undeniably heavier after having spent the summer at home but his vocabulary and grammar had been under ongoing practice so he hoped that at least made sense. "And talk is nice," he smiled. "You are good student," he added with a nod both at Philippe's process sheet and cauldron, both demonstrating more progress than Freddie's. He quickly started adding water to his own cauldron to catch up.
22
Freddie Zauberhexen
Does that make me an old intermediate?
1452
0
5
Philippe Delachene
March 27, 2021 6:09 PM
I think you need to be more than 15 to be old. Like, maybe 16? by Philippe Delachene
Philippe fairly glowed under Freddie's praise. Freddie liked doing stuff with him, too. Freddie thought talking to Philippe was nice. Freddie said he was smart (or at least good at school, but that usually meant smart and/or responsible and/or competent so he'd definitely take it as high praise). "Thanks," he said, still flushing a bit, but more with pleased happiness than embarrassment now. In some ways, he was kind of worried about whether he and Freddie might have a lot of misunderstandings with the language barrier being what it was, but right now, he was just kind of relieved that the older boy seemed to have missed significance of his oversharing.He'd just have to remember that subtleties were lost on Freddie and make sure he was always very clear whenever he had anything really important to say.
While Freddie worked on getting his cauldron set up and filled, Philippe began to sort out his ingredients, making sure he had everything and in sufficient quantities. This was only the first day of class, so his ingredient kit was still freshly restocked, and therefore he unsurprisingly did not need to go up to the potions cabinet to get anything this time, but it was always best practice to check.
"What is your favorite class?" Philippe asked curiously after a short while of working silently on their own potions. This was an opportunity to get to know Freddie better, to find out if Freddie was as attractive on the inside as he was on the outside (which he had no reason to doubt, but it was still always best practice to check), and Philippe wasn't planning to waste it. "I think I like Creatures best, but potions is good, too." They were rather different skills sets, but he found each was enjoyable in its own way.
1
Philippe Delachene
I think you need to be more than 15 to be old. Like, maybe 16?
1489
0
5
Freddie Zauberhexen
March 30, 2021 1:12 PM
Hana is old for sure. by Freddie Zauberhexen
So far, things seemed to be going well. They were working on the task assigned to them, which was good, and they were talking, which was even better. Freddie definitely would rather chat than make a potion but he didn't mind making potions either. It was nice to have something to do with his hands and with his eyes to avoid them wandering all over Philippe. No wait no no not his hands. He was nice and would keep those to himself. Also, he wasn't even really sure what he'd do with his hands if he wasn't keeping them to himself. He'd thought about asking Hana but he wasn't sure that she knew any more than he did and it seemed best to just keep himself to himself and use his words, for what good they were, to interact with other people. Unless people wanted hugs, and then they could have those too because hugs were great.In any case, he had something to do with his hands and eyes, namely getting his cauldron ready and then copying Philippe in checking his ingredients. He wasn't the most organized student himself but his parents had made sure that his kit was refreshed so he was pleasantly surprised to find everything he needed inside already. It took him several glances back and forth between the recipe and the box of ingredients to make sure he had the right ones since he was working from the English recipe, something he tried to do unless he was very stuck. His kit was labeled in English and German both but some of the words just looked too stinking similar. It helped to be able to glance over at Philippe's own arrangement to make sure they had the same things, and he made a quick scrawled note about this part of the process on the sheet they'd been given.
He considered Philippe's question for a moment, wanting to give an honest answer. "I like Herbology," he decided eventually, giving into a grin as he thought about the class. "It is nice playing in dirt and being friends with plant. I like Creatures too," he added, both because it was true and because he wanted to relate. He thought that sitting with Philippe and petting a soft little animal would be a great way to spend a class period. "Mine sister like potions much. But I am ascared to . . . to . . . " He made explosion sounds with his mouth and gestured to show what he meant. "I don't want that."
22
Freddie Zauberhexen
Hana is old for sure.
1452
0
5
