Professor Fawcett
September 30, 2009 4:29 PM
Advanced Potions (6th and 7th Years) by Professor Fawcett
It had required a bit of schedule-shuffling to manage it - and a delay in grading and returning assignments, which he wasn't happy about but could find no way around - but John had found that it was quite possible to teach two subjects at once. The main thing was to keep his notes straight and not start lecturing first-year Potions students on Gamp or giving Advanced Transfig the steps of a Swelling Solution, and his class notes were perhaps the only area of his life John had never allowed to become disorganized. Besides, he had taken a liking to the Potions lessons.Of course, having extra classes meant having that many more sets of exams to get students through, which was stressful. John had found, somewhat to his displeasure, that it was an effort to thrive as much on stress as he had when he'd been young and stupid and addicted to coffee. It did not help at all that he was writing again, either, but it would be much easier to give up subbing than that; he had a rival to show up. Melinda Hayes was going to rue the first day she'd ever seen his office, he was going to make sure of that...
...After he made sure the seventh years passed their RATS, of course. Wouldn't do to let them down just to speed up a petty revenge on an old colleague.
"Everlasting Elixirs," he informed the class, "are potions which, as far as researchers can tell, do exactly what the bottle says: they endure in perpetuity. This is useful for preservation purposes; depending on the exact brew, a well-done Everlasting Elixir can suspend anything from physical objects to intangibles in time."
He rapped the board with his wand, and a list of directions appeared. "This is a relatively simple example, intended to preserve objects. It is frequently used by researchers, for the purpose of preventing specimens from rotting. You have, I think, enough time in the period to make a decent attempt at it; if done well, your final product will be thick - almost a gel - and bright green. We will work our way up into more complex potions over the next few weeks.
"And since our seventh years will soon be leaving us for, I hope, bigger and better things, my suggestion for the sixth years is to take this final opportunity to work with them - this is our final unit, and will count as twenty percent of your grade for this semester." He gave them a slight smile, as if to take the edge off that. "I will periodically make my way around the room to see how you are doing. You will find those supplies not in your standard kits in the back cupboard. Carry on."
He sat down with a stack of essays, clearing the way for the students to see the board, which read:
*Begin with seven (7) cups water. Heat to a simmer.
*Add two (2) ounces of powdered horn of a unicorn and allow to dissolve completely.
*Slice four (4) sopophorous beans and add their juice to the cauldron. Stir six (6) times counterclockwise.
*Crush eight (8) scarab beetles into a fine powder and add to the cauldron. Stir eight (8) times clockwise.
*Finely dice five (5) ounces of valerian roots and add to the cauldron. Stir five (5) times counterclockwise and then once clockwise, repeating until the potion is a deep blue.
*Crush two (2) ounces of wormwood leaves and add to cauldron. Stir four (4) times clockwise.
*Add four (4) jobberknoll feathers, whole. Stir counterclockwise until the potion is a bright green.
*Add five (5) ounces of flobberworm secretion to thicken. Stir counterclockwise eleven (11) times.
OOC: All right, you lot know the rules. Feel free to say John walked by, stood behind you and watched what you were doing for a moment, or whatever. Also feel free to have things go wrong. Have fun!
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