Best of Both Worlds [Intermediates] on Potions

Mary Brooding-Hawthorne

June 27, 2023 12:18 AM

Best of Both Worlds [Intermediates] by Mary Brooding-Hawthorne

Always one to subvert gender and racial norms wherever she could in her practice (her own appearance was exactly how she'd like it, whether or not it suited her gender's norms), Professor Brooding-Hawthorne had had some fun with today's intermediate lesson. As the students made their way into the classroom, they reacted in a whole host of ways and the professor grinned at them, giddy at their expressions. Instead of the usual sultry stucco-walled room with drapey decor, cauldrons, drying herbs, and other such potion-y things, Professor Brooding-Hawthorne's classroom had been transfigured into something like a Macy's makeup counter. Of course, the professor herself had been part of the magic world as long as she'd been alive and hadn't spent any significant time in any muggle department stores, but a combination of witchy boutique and muggle display made it a clearly non-academic space.

A brightly lit showcase featured a wide selection of beauty products in neat black and gold boxes, red bottles, silver tubes, and every other sort of flashy packaging. On top of the glass cases were tubes marked 'tester' and bottles of lotion with 'try it!' underneath them. It was clear where Maybelline and Cover Girl gave way to Magically Made and Ashenly; the color-changing, self-applying, and all-in-one products were kept with the other magical products.

"Welcome," Professor Brooding-Hawthorne cooed when all of the students had arrived. "Please feel free to set your bags down behind the counter or wherever there's a good place. You'll need your quills, ink, and parchment though. Today you'll be pairing up and choosing a product together." She gestured at a rack off to the side, slightly away from the display case, which featured products wrapped in ribbon to hold two of each together. Lotion, lipstick, mascara, moisturizer, pomade, nail polish, and a host of other products were displayed in pairs. "Working together, you'll both try the magical and muggle version of the same product. These magical items were chosen because they lack additional charms that usually cost extra anyway, so don't expect anything self-applying or anything like that today. You can find those in Tumbleweed though!

"No, today you'll be comparing the feel and quality of both products to see whether you can identify which is the magic and which is the muggle, or whether they truly are equivalent. We'll discuss your findings next class, after I've had a chance to look them over." She loved that part because they always got it wrong; the muggle and magical products were completely equal, as these didn't feature magical additives and were thus, functionally, all muggle products. Only the method - a cauldron versus a large kitchen pot in most cases, and a magical flame versus an electric or gas one to heat it - differed. "Make sure you keep in mind the goal of the product. None of you should be wasting time assessing whether a mascara is especially moisturizing, but that's a very important criteria for hand lotions. And do help each other; if you're trying a lipstick or eyeshadow or something, it helps to have the other person take a look at how well it stays on your skin. Everyone should try both products and you can compare notes as you work."

The professor glanced around, ready to answer any questions should they arise. When she was confident everyone was as ready to begin as they could be, she told them to begin and started her rounds of the group.

Subthreads:

Nope (Tag-a girl) by Olaf Brockert with Nausicaa Scapetello

This is the literal worst of everything by Yaniel Ayala Velez

Yes, yes, YES! by Leviosa Scurlock

22 Mary Brooding-Hawthorne Best of Both Worlds [Intermediates] 1424 1 5

Olaf Brockert

July 04, 2023 11:44 AM

Nope (Tag-a girl) by Olaf Brockert

Olaf was pleased to now be in Intermediate classes now. Beginners was just so basic and was full of things that he already knew-in terms of theory-and things that were not especially useful or that were ridiculously easy. He still remembered how unchallenging the first Challenge had been being that he was first semester first year at the time, and they had to dumb it down for those with pretty much no magical experience whatsoever. Same with the Potions lesson last year with the worksheet where Leo had dumped the frogs on everyone. As obnoxious as the Teppenpaw had been to do so, Olaf could not blame him for being bored with it, just for how he had dealt with that boredom.

Intermediate classes, so far, were much better and more interesting. Even a bit challenging. Of course, if they split up tasks by years-a necessity, since he was sure that when he was a fifth year, he would be utterly bored by the simplicity of what the third years did-sometimes when he finished the third year task, he went on to the next level. Olaf was someone who basically needed to be challenged academically.

So when he entered the Potions classroom, and saw how it was set up, he was still slightly optimistic. The third year was disappointed that the lesson looked to be cosmetic related, since that was an area that he had zero interest in whatsoever but making them would still be challenging enough. He also didn’t quite get why Professor Brooding-Hawthorne had changed the way her classroom looked just so they could brew them. Olaf could understand having samples but this looked like a lot of effort for one lesson.

The lesson began…and, to what would likely be the surprise of absolutely nobody, he began to scowl. It had nothing to do with challenging assumptions about whether magical or muggle products were superior, even though half the time Olaf suspected that Professor Brooding-Hawthorne wanted to push the agenda that Muggle products were either the same or better. Arguably, this time them being the same functionally was probably accurate since, while Olaf obviously knew very little about cosmetics, the advantage of magical products in general tended to be in the spells added to them. That said, people tended to have brand preferences regardless. Those who grew up in a magical environment would likely be biased towards the magical brands and the Muggleborns would be biased towards the Muggle ones.

Olaf’s issue with the lesson was more the fact that he didn’t want to put on make-up regardless of whether it was magical or muggle. Now, he wasn’t completely into super over the top masculinity, which in his mind, thanks to Uncle Eustace, was all about Quidditch and being athletic and rugged and what not. That was not him. Olaf was a nerd and fully embraced his identity as such. However, that did not mean he wanted to put on make-up .

And he was not going to either. Of course, Professor Brooding-Hawthorne would probably think he was buying into gender stereotypes or that he suffered from fragile masculinity or something. However, this was about choice and he could do the assignment without putting that crap on his face and forfeiting his dignity.

So, he was going to have to work with a girl. Okay, not all girls were into make-up, Isla wasn’t, but they were more likely to be willing to try it out. Olaf figured that the only boy who would be at all enthused about this was Lenny, who was a little too…exuberant for the Aladren’s taste. He didn’t care if the Teppenpaw wore make-up but he did care about being with someone who was so…peppy.

He scanned the room for a girl who didn’t have a partner. Spotting someone, Olaf approached. “Will you work with me? I am not putting on make-up. At all. So you will be doing that and I will observe and take notes. Okay?”

11 Olaf Brockert Nope (Tag-a girl) 1564 0 5

Yaniel Ayala Velez

July 07, 2023 4:01 AM

This is the literal worst of everything by Yaniel Ayala Velez

OOC: CW - gender dysphoria BIC:

Yaniel probably wasn’t the only one who stopped to do a double take on the way into the potions room. He suspected he was the only one whose palms started sweating though. He’d done a reasonable job of dodging make-up so far, more by luck than anything else. He’d been terrified that during the bonfire camping, Piper and Levi would get all girly and want to do make-overs, but that hadn’t happened. Over summer, Mama had wanted to do pamper days, but given how much they worked with their hands, they’d done pedicures instead, and he’d been able to hide his feet in socks most of the time, so he didn’t have to look at them. The idea of the ball was already stressing him out on the make-up front—and every other aspect—even though it was months away.

But this was Potions. It was a class. They would be looking at the composition or making it or something. Dress up was not a class. And whilst he’d have rather learnt something useful to him, like bruise balm or magical cake glazes, he could suck up an afternoon of mixing up goop. In the cauldron, it was all much the same…

When Professor Brooding-Hawthorne started talking, it quickly became clear he was not going to be that lucky.

He tried to listen to her actual instructions but at the point at which she’d put the expectation out about wearing make-up, his heart had started hammering so fiercely that he couldn’t hear—he couldn’t think about anything except trying to remember how to breathe normally, because his breathing suddenly seemed either non-existent or really loud and if he didn’t breathe or slow his heart down he might just drop dead in the middle of class and while it wasn’t rational that actually sounded better than having make-up on his face.

He should have known better than to think the universe would ever let him just be a boy. Whatever Cole and Lenny said about that, it wasn’t something you could just be because you wanted it.

The class started moving, and he heard Olaf Brockert barking at some girl that she had to be the one to wear stuff. And that was how everyone was going to treat him because they all thought he was a girl and that girls wore make-up. He was supposed to like this stuff, and if he didn’t then everyone would Know, and he wanted them to know but he also didn’t and it was the assignment and even if he hated it he had to follow the teacher’s instructions and—someone was coming up to him. Someone was about to tell him to go put lipstick on cos he was the girl and he was going to have to unless—-

“I’m allergic to a lot of cosmetics,” he said. Crud. Why had he said that? That was a lie. Lying was bad. But lipstick was worse… “I can try the lotions or something. Or maybe put a bit on my hand.” His hands got dry enough during winter Quidditch training that he’d accepted lotion was necessary, and it was usually horribly floral given that he went with whatever Mama gave him, and he’d also seen people try out lipsticks on the back of their hands. He still didn’t want to do that, but it was bearable. “But I don’t want it on my face.”

13 Yaniel Ayala Velez This is the literal worst of everything 1554 0 5

Nausicaa Scapetello

July 07, 2023 10:31 PM

I concur by Nausicaa Scapetello

Nausicaa was so glad to be out of the remedial... beginners classes. The intermediate ones were better, although she still thought the tasks that were assigned to the third years were very relatively simplistic. As such, she usually tried to do what the fourth or even fifth years were assigned to do, after she had completed her assigned task. There was no way she would let anyone here think she wasn't capable of keeping up with this school's curriculum by not getting her assigned work done because she was to busy trying to emulate the fifth years. Not that she often had much success, but the challenge was the point of it. If she wasn't ahead of he curve, she was failing.

As such, she wasn't quite sure what to make of the potions classroom when she entered. Something told her that it was going to be another ridiculous lesson that wouldn't actually help her become the most powerful witch in existence. Her fears were quickly realized when the professor began talking. They were going to be comparing shoddy makeup to whatever it was that muggles smeared on themselves? In an attempt to see which was better? That was ridiculous, who in their right mind would even consider something muggles mashed together to be in any way close to something a witch crafted? Even a poorly crafted something.

Nausicaa assumed that all of the products here were shoddy, commonplace ones. She was sure the school would not get proper brands like she used. Mother had made sure she had the finest European products, which were without compare. Nothing but the best would do. As she began to peruse the items they had to select from, she noted that these were most certainly not up to her standards.

Before she could get to much farther than that assessment and decide what to do, Olaf approached her. He did so in his normal brusque manner, and did not seem open to debate on the subject. Now she had no qualms about putting on proper make-up. This, however, was not it. She gave Olaf a look for a moment or two with her one eyebrow purposefully raised in a questioning or perhaps amused manner. Olaf had his good points, more so than most of the other students, but that didn't mean she was going to give him the impression that he could actually order her around.

"Will I now?" She asked coolly once that moment or two of silence had taken it's toll. "You think me some commoner eager to do your bidding?" She dropped the mascara she had been inspected back into it's place. "I will admit, you are ordinarily a better partner than most for classes, and if we must have partners I'm inclined to use you." She arched her eyebrow, her face plainly already enhanced by lipstick, mascara, and any number of other products, "However, if you think I am going to put on this low-class paint for your studying pleasure, you can guess again." No one ever got anywhere by pointing out a problem without also offering a solution though, "I suggest we find the moisturizer the professor was talking about. That seems the best solution to this problem that won't drop our grades."

2 Nausicaa Scapetello I concur 1561 0 5

Leviosa Scurlock

July 10, 2023 3:50 AM

Yes, yes, YES! by Leviosa Scurlock

Levi’s eyes widened in surprise as she entered the Potions room. Professor Brooding-Hawthorne was always one for classroom transformations and fun surprises, and Levi couldn’t wait to see what she had in store for them today. Clearly it was something to do with makeup, possibly with brewing their own? Whatever it was, it presumably meant makeup and some element of creativity and control over that process. Even without consciously articulating that thought, it stoked a fire in Levi’s chest.

Levi didn’t have much experience with makeup. Mother didn’t think a girl her age should be wearing a lot of it. She had a horribly sinking feeling that, even once she was old enough, mother would think that beige eyeshadow and neutral lipsticks were the height of excitement. Or rather, of sophistication, which was something mother ranked far above excitement… Levi’s eyes roved over the bright shades and sparkly products in front of her which were much more what she wanted to play with. What was the point in wearing makeup in such a way as to not really look like you were wearing it? Surely it should stand out?

As the lesson got started, Levi sat a little straighter in her seat. They really were going to get to put it on? And some of it was Muggle makeup? This lesson kept getting better and better, and more and more full of forbidden things! And she couldn’t refuse because mother would absolutely want her to do what her teachers told her. It was also a lesson that sounded more fun than hard work, and whilst Levi wanted to improve, she couldn’t say she was sorry to give her brain a break.

She glanced around, mostly looking for Piper or Lenny, as they seemed the most likely of her friends to really get into a makeup lesson, though she would happily partner with Cole too, or anyone really, so long as they could have fun with it.

“I have so many things I want to try!” she smiled, when someone approached, eyes sparkling almost as much as the glittery eyeshadows they kept darting to.

13 Leviosa Scurlock Yes, yes, YES! 1545 0 5