One door closes, another window... is created on Potions

Professor Pamela Hallmond

September 17, 2008 6:53 PM

Oi! Third and Fourth Years! Here's Your Lesson! by Professor Pamela Hallmond

“Gah, what a dismal place.”

And with a clunk that didn’t even bother to echo off the potions’ classroom’s windowless walls, Pamela Hallmond dropped her carpet bag and nearly sighed. It had been through family insistence—gotta keep Pamie out of trouble, that was the Hallmond clan saying—that had led to Pamie’s taking the year-long position. And it would be family insistence that Pamie would fight every step of the way.

She just wished that battle weren’t taking place in a room without windows.

“Well, Pamie, are you a witch, or aren’t you?” She ignored the fact that some days, that very question was debatable, and aimed her wand at the wall. A quick muttered word had light rocketing from the wand’s tip and shattering against the bricks. The floor beneath Pamie’s sensible Hush Puppies didn’t quiver as the explosion punched its fist through the wall—and straight into the classroom adjacent. Pamie only had a glimpse of shellshocked students and some sort of lesson taking place on the other side of the hole before she rolled her eyes and Reparo’d the damage.

And turning, spotted the first of her students.

“Apparently,” she addressed them with a shrug, “there’s no outside access from this room. Well, go on. Take your seats. We don’t have all day.”

She waited while the students trickled in, as students do. If they’d paid any attention to her, they would have seen a woman just this side of tall, with red-brown hair pulled back from an averagely-pretty face by a clip. Ignoring its contents, she kicked the carpet bag behind the room’s main desk, patting down her light pink robes. And with a final, almost-furtive glance over at the walls and their lack of windows, she cleared her throat to begin class.

“So I’m Professor Hallmond, and I’ll be teaching your classes this year. Congratulations. This is my first time teaching, which actually works out well for you.” Ignoring the jars of dead things and pickled eyes all over the front desk, Pamie hoisted herself onto and sat facing her students, feet crossed at the ankles. “Because I’m never sure how much homework to give, which probably means I won’t ever give enough. So enjoy that vacation while you can. And don’t tell the other professors.”

Some of the students might have been cheered up by this. She couldn’t tell, as she wasn’t particularly watching any faces.

“Now, I’ve been told—my husband went here, I should say. He was a Pecari, I think, or something else that began with P.” Pamie had gone to Salem during her time, so she’d never paid much attention to Sonora. “That there are four houses, and a point system. I imagine we’ll have a fun time of that. But—first things first. Some rules.”

She swept her gaze over the students now. “If you have something funny to share, you must do so with the entire class. Be careful when you’re chopping because human blood always makes potions a bit more interesting than I want to deal with while teaching you. I’ll grade you on how well you follow directions, so on and so forth.”

Now she hopped off the desk and waved her wand at the board. When that failed to work, she smacked it against her palm and tried again. A list of instructions appeared there in cursive, joined quickly by a list of ingredients. “Now, it’s a little dismal in here, windows or no, so we’ll be working on this potion today. Two to a cauldron—teamwork, people! Everything you need is in the back cabinets. Please just make the potion and we’ll go from there.”

She clapped her hands, startling perhaps one or two students. “What are you waiting for? Get on with it. Best potion wins my respect. And once we’re done, we’ll compare the colors—er, I mean potions--and decide which to use. Doesn’t that sound fun?”

OOC – Yeah, so Pamie follows the Mr. Miyagi school of teaching, which means you’ll be making paint. That's right. Paint. She’ll stop by randomly. Work in partners to make it more interesting.

I’ll assign points accordingly. Or I’ll just forget and the head of Sonora will chase me down with threats of reading the entire LOTR—oh wait, she already did that. You know the drill – don’t write for others, eight lines, at least two paragraphs, and get creative. Chop-chop, people!

Subthreads:

This could be very bad... by Josh Santoro with Irene Liddowe

One door closes, another window... is created by Elly Eriksson with Helena Layne, Elly

0 Professor Pamela Hallmond Oi! Third and Fourth Years! Here's Your Lesson! 0 Professor Pamela Hallmond 1 5

Josh Santoro

September 19, 2008 7:18 PM

This could be very bad... by Josh Santoro

Potions class was usually most students most dreaded of classes. They hated how technical it was, how mundane. But Josh truly enjoyed being behind a cauldron and making something from practically nothing. Yes, some potions took months to complete. Others nothing more than a few stirs. Chopping, powder, measuring, they all had to be precise. And that was exactly why Josh loved it so much.

Josh wasn’t very good at using his wand for the most part. He knew the theory behind the spells, read up on the history of it all, but it was the practical use of it that he had a hard time getting down. So, any class that meant his wand use was practically non-existent, the better. Potions were something that he had the patience for. He could spend long hours patiently waiting for a potion to mature, endless hours chopping his ingredients into perfection. His family never could understand how he had such passion for things like potions or his architecture drawings.

Entering the classroom, Josh caught the end of the clean up to repair the hole in the wall. For a moment, he had thought he’d gone mad as he saw a group of facing staring back at him, but found out that the new sub had wanted some windows. Josh took a seat warily as he eyed the woman in front of him. He wondered what happened to Professor Connell, but figured she had moved on to bigger and better things. After all, the Pecaris were likely to run off the best of the best and she had lasted for a good few years.

The professor started right into the rules and the lesson. It seemed pretty standard, minus the funny part, but Josh supposed all professors had to make their rules known so that the students knew they existed within the classroom. He wrote down what he could of the potion they were going to make, being sure to add in all the details that he could, and locating the potion within his textbook to use a guide if he needed.

He never really thought about making paint by potion before. What a cool idea. And helpful. Although, glancing at his brother, Josh knew that he wasn’t going to want to be anywhere near Matt after he got the hang of this potion down. It was only going to lead to bad things. Josh winced when the word ‘partners’ was brought up. He didn’t have a problem working with other people so much when it came to learning spells, but no one ever seemed to have patience when it came to this sort of work. And, without patience, the potions always turned up wrong.

Ignoring that part of the assignment for now, Josh moved to the cabinet where everything was waiting and selecting the necessary ingredients to make the potion. Once he had everything he needed, Josh headed back to his table and set them down in order of what needed to go into the potion first. When he knew he had everything in the right spot, Josh glanced up and discovered someone watching him. Smiling a bit in embarrassment for his obsessive compulsion for having things in order, Josh asked politely, “Would you like to be partners?”

0 Josh Santoro This could be very bad... 0 Josh Santoro 0 5

Irene Liddowe

September 21, 2008 12:20 PM

Could it? How so? by Irene Liddowe

Irene was never the most precise at potions. She always found a way to mix up a word, insert the wrong ingredient, turn up the flame at the wrong time... There was so much that could go wrong and it wasn't one of those Let's-try-again things. Potions was a one shot deal. Irene liked potions, which was weird considering she was no good at it. She would like to be good at it, but she just couldn't concentrate enough. The brown haired girl entered the Potions classroom feeling like she needed to do something exciting today. The weeks had just been dragging by with not too much to spice it up. She wanted something to happen just to catch her interest. So when she entered the room and her blue-green eyes landed on a substitute teacher she found herself letting out a happy sigh.

Irene took a seat away from her usual, smiling at those familiar faces around her. She drew her attention to the front as the sub began to speak. Professor Hallmond began to speak and Irene could help but let out a breath that could have been a laugh. She was funny. And not a lot of homework? Beautiful. The class began to partner up as the time came and Irene, by habit, looked around for anyone that wouldn't make being partners awkward. Pausing for a moment, considering her options, she decided it was time for someone new. There. Just a few desks over, she spotted a boy, she thought he was a year above her, organizing his Potions stuff. Irene collected her supplies and made her way towards him, watching him set his station with mild amusement.

"Hi," she said, feeling she shouldn't just stand in the shadows. Creepy. "Do you--"

“Would you like to be partners?” Irene grinned and let out a light laugh and set her supplies down. "Sure, why not? Are you any good at Potions? I try to get this stuff right, but it just doesn't agree with me..." Irene pulled her hair up into a ponytail and smiled. "I'm Irene, by the way."

0 Irene Liddowe Could it? How so? 106 Irene Liddowe 0 5

Elly Eriksson

September 21, 2008 5:56 PM

One door closes, another window... is created by Elly Eriksson

Ever since her first year at Sonora, Elly's favourite subject had been potions, and her favourite teacher had been Professor Connell. To have lost her Head of House had been devestating (especially as O'Leary was now Head of Pecari, and, despite him being Briony's dad, Elly still found him creepy), but she was thoroughly miserable to have lost her much-loved potions professor. Still, Elly wasn't one to be disheartened for long, and she could at least view the positive side that potions hadn't been cancelled entirely; they merely had a sub teacher.

She thought she had been prepared for anything as she entered the classroom, but the sight of a witch blasting a hole through the wall into the next class took her somewhat by surprise. With a stiffled giggle, Elly took a seat near the front of the class, better to judge the replacement professor. It wasn't long at all before Elly was suitably impressed. A teacher with no appetite for giving homework and a sense of humour was a rarity indeed, and not one to be ignored. Eyes dancing with enjoyment, Elly listened gleefully to the rest of the rules. She knew better than to play around during a potions lesson, but if Professor Hallmond wanted a joke shared, then Elly was certainly not going to object.

Still bemused by the entire experience, it wasn't until they were told to get to work that Elly discovered she hadn't yet unpacked her bag. Dutifully, she hastened to bring forth her textbook, quill and ink, and her potions kit, consisiting mostly of assorted knives and a few key ingredients. It wasn't unitl she had placed the last of these items on her desk that Elly noticed someone standing over her. "Oh, hi," she said brightly, and with a wide smile.

0 Elly Eriksson One door closes, another window... is created 92 Elly Eriksson 0 5

Helena Layne

October 14, 2008 9:46 PM

You saw the light! by Helena Layne

Settling into her accustomed seat in the front of the room, Helena gave the substitute professor a small smile and what she hoped wasn't an overly obvious once-over. As the witch seemed to notice neither, it was a draw as to whether she had succeeded or the professor was just a witch who did not pay much attention to her surroundings. Helena hoped it was the first, and not just from vanity; failures to notice what was going on somehow seemed even more dangerous in the lab than they did elsewhere. She suspected it was the fires in the room.

Nothing in the introductory speech really stood out to her as special, though something about Professor Hallmond made Helena mentally Sort her into Aladren. She wasn't sure why she did this - most, she knew, would have attributed humor of any sort, a brief manner, and the possibility of little homework as Pecarish - but her family was so chock-full of Aladrens that she felt qualified to say someone would have been one.

No one ever said it, but she'd gotten the impression that the only person who'd been remotely pleased to hear she'd landed in Crotalus was her father, and he'd also been one in his day. For a crowd of intelligent, logical people by definition, they bought into a lot of the not-so-pleasant stereotypes of her House. She'd tried defending it to her family in her first year, but had since given up. None of them took her too much to task for feeling loyal to it or playing Quidditch for it, and that was as much as she was able to reasonably expect.

She listened to the instructions carefully, trying to work out what the connection was between the room being dismal, the room lacking windows, and a potion. The 'colors' slip, however, made it clear, and her crinkled eyebrows went up. Her contact with him was nonexistent, but Helena had never seen Headmaster Bulla as the type to like having the walls of a classroom splashed with something colorful, which was the implication she read. Still, all of the teacher lesson plans had to be approved, didn't they?

She shook her head slightly. There was a reason her contact with the Headmaster was nonexistent, and it was that he had much more important things to do than deal with students. A student did as she was told and let the professors speak to the Headmaster about any issues that arose, within slightly blurry limits. There were times it might be appropriate for a student to approach Bulla, but this wasn't one. Finding a partner was the only appropriate thing for her to do.

Standing, she walked over to the nearest person - this time it was Elly Eriksson - and held her book to her chest. This was how she found partners, by approaching the next seat. A majority of people would say yes, and the worst thing she'd get out of it was rejection, so she had no problem with her system. She waited until Elly looked up and spoke to her to say anything.

"Hi," she said, smiling back. "Want to work together?"

16 Helena Layne You saw the light! 88 Helena Layne 0 5

Elly

October 16, 2008 4:58 PM

Hallelujah! by Elly

Elly's smile widened as she perceived Helena and her partner request. "Yes, of course," she replied, moving her books out of the way so they had plenty of room to work on the potion together. "I had a quick look at the ingredients list," she said, a smile still lingering on her lips. "This class is going to be a riot, huh," Elly laughed.

Some of the ingredients were part of Elly's usual potions kit. She began fishing through the items, placing the requisite packets of the desk and dumped those not needed unceremoniously back in her bag. She liked working with partners in potions, not least because chatting during was pratically expected. She couldn't recall ever having worked with Helena before though. In fact, despite them having spoken several times of the past four years, Elly really didn't know Helena all that well.

"So, do you like potions?" Elly asked, setting up the cauldron and adjusting the heat as per the instructions on the board. "It's my favourite class," she said. "Mostly because I'm awful at the practical part of all the other classes," she laughed. It wasn't exactly a secret anymore that it took Elly almost twice as long to pick up a spell as it took everyone else. She'd even been fairly bad at divinations, too, but that wasn't a class now, anyway. Potions didn't require any wandwork. In fact, as long as a person followed instructions and avoided working with Saul they simply couldn't go too far wrong.

0 Elly Hallelujah! 0 Elly 0 5

Helena

October 25, 2008 10:01 PM

...And I forget how the rest of it goes. by Helena

"Thanks," Helena said, smiling gratefully as she settled in and laid her book out. If they ended up working on separate bits of the potion, as seemed inevitable, they wouldn't end up bumping heads and getting cross with each other over who got to look at the instructions.

"Just so long as it doesn't turn into a real one," she said with a hint of a laugh at Elly's riot comment. "I think we might get worse than detention for that." It might be awful for Bulla's image to expel the entire class, and being head of a school seemed very like being a politician to her, but that didn't mean he wouldn't do it if they became a mob and jeopardized the prospects of enrollment for the next decade or so, and her father would kill her if she got thrown out. He wanted her to be Head Girl.

Elly took over arranging the ingredients and setting up the cauldron while Helena took time to read over the procedure. Professor Hallmond's comment about the best potion had made her stomach clench with performance anxiety, but an out-of-the-way corner of her brain stopped her short of an all-out panic attack by reminding her that, in four years at Sonora Academy, she had never once failed to perform acceptably at any task that was set for her. She might not win Hallmond's respect, but she wouldn't embarrass herself, either.

She looked up when Elly asked if she liked Potions and told her it was her favorite class. "I...don't really think much one way or the other about any of my classes," she admitted after a moment's reflection. "I'm equally mediocre over the board." Not something she liked admitting, but there it was and always had been. "Short of a career change, though, I'm going to keep taking this one after next year." It was just not right of CATS to make her feel uneasy a year before the proctor called her name. "Want me to grind the cochineals?"

16 Helena ...And I forget how the rest of it goes. 88 Helena 0 5

Elly

October 27, 2008 3:55 PM

You could whistle a happy tune by Elly

Elly laughed in response to Helena's comments about a real riot. She still couldn't fathom how she'd managed to avoid detention at Sonora thus far. Until she was eleven she probably had at least three detentions every year. Her teachers could never prove it was her, of course, but their suspiscions were strong and their morals week enough that Elly had frequently found herself in detention, anyway. Not that it had been an especially severe punishment; during the winter months it was far more comfortable to sit indoors during break than to have to suffer the bitter North London chill at any rate. True enough, when the weather was warmer Elly had occasionally regretted being caught, but she passed the time well enough making origami frogs from scrap paper.

From what she'd heard, the detentions at Sonora were a little more unpleasant, depending on the professor who'd issued the punishment. Josiah had certainly had his fair share of detentions, and had whined about it enough for Elly to have a fair idea. All in all, avoiding detention seemed like a good plan, and starting an actual riot in the potions lesson wasn't near the top of her list, anyway.

Helena admitted that she didn't have a real preference for any of the classes. Her self-confessed average ability across the board was almost enviable to Elly. "Better to be good enough at everything that to completely suck at some things," she said with a lopsided smile. Unless she worked super hard over the next year, she was failing transfiguration for sure. She'd already given up hope on passing History of Magic.

"Want me to grind the cochineals?" Helena suggested.

"Sure," Elly replied. Glancing at the ingredients list once more, she raised her wand and summoned the insects and other ingredients not common in a fourth year's potions kit from the store cupboard not far from where they were seated. It had taken her ages to get the spell right, and even now the ingredients landed far more heavily on the desk than they should have done. "Oops," she said with a giggle as she surveyed the ingredients, hoping none of them were now unuseable.

"Here," Elly pushed the bugs across the desk to Helena. "And thanks, I'm never good at working with living creatures... or those that lived at one point, anyway. I'll slice the foxglove perianth, okay?"

As she set to work, Elly desperately fought for some knowledge about her partner. Helena was in Crotalus, on the Quidditch team. Chaser. She had a brother - one of the more attractive fifth years. He played Quiddtch too, Elly was fairly sure. For Aladren. Elly vaguely wondered whether they ever played mini games at home, or if, like her, they lived in a Muggle area (with no space for games of any sort, anyway). Unsure how to phrase the question, she went for the more generic, "So, got any fun plans for the summer?" Then almost instantly she laughed. "Sorry," Elly apologised with a grin, "that has to be the most cliched conversation opener ever."

0 Elly You could whistle a happy tune 0 Elly 0 5

Helena

November 03, 2008 10:56 PM

Or play the bells. by Helena

Jumping slightly at the force with which the Summoned items hit the table, Helena covered with a smile and took the dry insects when Elly pushed them over to her. The book ordered her to grind them with a counterclockwise motion until they became a fine powder. She hoped they'd prove easily ground, because she was rubbishy enough at the latest wand movement in her next class without adding a sore wrist into the mix.

"That's fine," she said, counting cochineals to pulverize, when Elly offered to slice the foxglove perianth. Crushing bugs brought no moral issues to mind for her, but she knew there were some people it did. The problem - according, at least, to Geoff, who she supposed ought to know - was that many important things couldn't be done without adding some animal parts to a potion. Her brother belonged, or thought of himself as belonging, to the school of potioneers where there were some things left to be discovered, but far more where there were really just a few loose ends left to tuck in before present knowledge became definitive knowledge.

"So, got any fun plans for the summer?" Then, almost before she processed what Elly said, "Sorry, that has to be the most cliched conversation opener ever."

"Effective, though," she pointed out, with a faint smile at the cochineals. "But the only thing that's really happening that I know of is my brother getting his CATS scores. We're fairly boring." That was one way to put it. "Anne may swoop in for a while." She saw no need to explain who Anne was to a Quidditch player; what Anne lacked in actual talent, Anne made up for in reputation. She looked up at the other girl, who towered over her, with a half-smile. "And you?"

16 Helena Or play the bells. 88 Helena 0 5