Professor Fawcett
September 25, 2010 3:04 PM
Beginners Potions I (1st and 2nd Years) by Professor Fawcett
The early afternoon wasn't, as far as such things went, a bad time for first years. They'd had enough time to wake up fully, had eaten lunch already, and still had a few classes after his, which kept them from being too restless as they thought of their evening leisure time. Or, as most of them were likely beginning to discover, evening homework time. John had found working in the company of his classmates to be a perfectly acceptable and enjoyable form of socialization when he was a child, but he had learned over the years that most people did not look at it from that angle.If they remained in his class beyond the required five years, they would learn, though, to at least appreciate such activity. Somewhere between growing up as the eldest child of a literature professor, being named after Milton, spending seven years as an Aladren, and having a career, for some years, as the sort of behavioral scientist who spent most of his time analyzing numbers and lecturing to students, John had become an academic through and through, and that was reflected in his classes. He kept it within a Potions framework, making sure it helped teach or reinforce things they were required to know by the CATS or RATS standards, but it was not really a secret that he was also dedicated to the goal of ensuring they could all speak and compose fluently before they entered either college or the real world.
"Good day, everyone," he said once the students had all come in. He noted, between chagrin and amusement, that he had grown so accustomed to large beginner classes that he was still taking a moment each class to realize that this was all they had this time. He had expected that to wear off after the first week. "Time for roll call, you all know the drill by now I hope..."
Once he had verified attendance and put the page into its red folder, he rapped the board with his wand, revealing a list of ingredients and instructions. “And now we’ll get started. Today we’ll be working on a Deflating Draught; it may be somewhat challenging for those of you in first year, but I expect you should find it manageable. It is used primarily as an antidote to the Swelling Solution, though there are several other applications you may research at your leisure.
“The ingredients are, as you can see on the board and page 112 of your textbook, chopped daisy roots, armadillo bile, a runespoor egg, porcupine quills, and an eye of newt. You may work in pairs, and you have the remainder of the class period to complete this potion. Take care with the armadillo bile and the porcupine quills; if you’re too heavy-handed with them, or add them at the wrong points, you may well cause disaster. Begin, and good luck.” He paused, sure he had forgotten something. "Oh, yes. Also remember to hand in your essays over last week's discussion before you leave."
OOC: Standard posting rules apply: 200 word minimums, good spelling and grammar, and keeping your part in the story believable. That said, get posting and have fun!
Subthreads: Worried by Ryan O'Malley,Crotalus with Sophie Jamison [Pecari]
Here for some learning by Sophia Randolph [Pecari] with Autumn Collins, Sophia
I actually came up with a theory about Professor Fawcett! by Kirstenna Melcher, Teppenpaw with Neal Padrig, Pecari
Trying Not to Yawn - A Losing Battle by Renée Errant with Valentina Bentancourt [Teppenpaw]
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Professor Fawcett
Beginners Potions I (1st and 2nd Years)
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Professor Fawcett
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Sophia Randolph [Pecari]
October 01, 2010 4:45 PM
Here for some learning by Sophia Randolph [Pecari]
As far as it went, Sophia was having a pretty good term. She had friends, had more or less good grades, and her parents had already sent her a few care packages filled with awesome stuff. The second-year was content with how her life was going, she would not change a thing about it. Well, maybe she would change one thing, but that was out of her reach. She would have to win the lottery to have some extra galleons to spend on things she wanted, but couldn’t have. The lack of money in her family was something that the Pecari had learned to live with, it would be close to a miracle the day her parents had money to spend on luxuries, and Sophia was used to that reality of her life. It really didn’t bother her that much, she had seen families torn apart for money, and her family was the thing that she loved above everything else. Her parents were everything to her.The dark-haired girl was ready for her Potions class, it wasn’t one of her favourite subjects, but she didn’t dislike it. It was still early to decide whether she would pursue the class after the required five years. She would have to see how everything went, she couldn’t make rash decisions without more knowledge, CoMC was another story, she would drop that class as soon as possible.
She entered the classroom, sat down, and waited for the thing to begin. As she did so, she took out the material she would need for it. Her book, parchment, ink, quills and potions kit were neatly organized on her desk. The Professor started speaking, and Sophia began taking notes. Potions, was kind of a dangerous subject and she didn’t want to cause havoc by having her potion explode or something like that. Sophia grabbed the required ingredients from her kit, and opened her book to page 112. So far, so good. Excellent. Now, she just had to find a partner to work with. In her opinion, that was the easy part, the second-year Pecari had always been good in the friends department, she liked socializing.
Before starting on her potion, she looked over the person next to her. She smiled brightly, “Would you like to work with me?” Her green eyes shining with friendliness, working with someone was usually better than working alone. It was true what people said, two heads were better than one. She just hoped the person next to her was friendly and a good student. Sophia didn’t want to do all the work alone.
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Sophia Randolph [Pecari]
Here for some learning
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Sophia Randolph [Pecari]
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Autumn Collins
October 03, 2010 4:09 AM
Me too by Autumn Collins
Like most things, Potions made Autumn slightly nervous. It could be quite a dangerous subject and the last thing the curly haired second year wanted to do was cause a castastrophe. She could get in trouble or hurt someone and Autumn didn't want to do either.However, Autumn's naturally cautious behavior worked to her advantage in this class. Potions was a subject that favored those who were more careful, not those who took chances like in DADA. In fact, most subjects seemed to work in Autumn's favor which was why she tended to do very well in school.
Well, that and the fact that she had a tendency to be sort of a perfectionist. She didn't know why, but Autumn was very driven to get everything right. It wasn't as if she was under any sort of pressure from her family, beyond the fact that Lily had done well in school and Autumn wanted to be like her older sister-aside from more artistic and less violent-and the fact that Autumn was representing the Collins family here at Sonora and she wanted to be a credit to her family name.
Not that her parents ever put such pressures on her. Autumn knew that her parents would love her and be proud of her as long as she tried her best. However, she didn't feel she was doing her best if she didn't do everything right. Autumn had a tendency to be harder on herself than anyone else was on her.
As soon as Professor Fawcett finished the lecture, Autumn looked around for one of her friends. However, before she could find one of them, the girl next to her asked to be her partner. "Sure." Autumn agreed. The girl, whose name was Sophia had always seemed nice and a good student so Autumn was happy to work with her.
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Autumn Collins
Me too
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Autumn Collins
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Sophia
October 05, 2010 2:54 AM
Then we can learn together! by Sophia
“Awesome,” Sophia responded in excitement to the girl she recognized as Autumn. The Pecari second-year had never worked with her before, it had to be the first time they even talked, which was weird because they were on the same year, and had every class together. No matter, Sophia was always up to make new friends! Kirstenna was awesome and all, but it never hurt to have more friends she could hang out with. The green-eyed girl was of the idea that more the merrier. Sophia was an only child, so she liked having friends, it was sort of like having extended siblings or something. She briefly wondered why her parents had just had her. Then again, she had come late in life.She got out the ingredients they would need, and lit the fire underneath the cauldron. She looked at her book to see what ingredient went first. Sophia began evenly chopping the daisy roots, “I think we haven’t been properly introduced,” she smiled at the other girl. “I am Sophia Randolph. You are Autumn right?” it was better to have some basic information about the girl she was working with. It would make the whole making-a-friend process easier. Finishing with the daisy roots, she left them in a neat pile alongside the other ingredients, the water needed to be the right temperature for the potion to work. It said so in her book. In classes like this one, it was better to follow instructions.
The dark-haired girl smiled at her working partner, “which house are you in? I feel awful about not knowing anything about you. We are in the same year after all, how about we share some basics?” she hoped she hadn’t come to strong, some people were uncomfortable with forwardness, but at this point it was better to do things quickly. No need for slow processes. Sophia was already excited about the prospect of having a new friend. Friends were awesome, and Autumn seemed to be nice enough. Thankfully she hadn’t encountered someone that was bad or horrible to her, and she hoped it stayed that way. “I’ll start. Like I said, my name is Sophia, I am in Pecari, and an only child!”
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Sophia
Then we can learn together!
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Sophia
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Autumn
October 07, 2010 9:56 AM
Sounds good by Autumn
Autumn smiled nervously back at Sophia. She seemed really nice, and Autumn didn't want to do anything to screw it up.It would be worse to be rejected by someone who was nice because that meant there was something truly awful about her. Mean people tended to be mean to almost everyone, like Chelsea-who mostly ignored Autumn, actually-or Clarette.Furthermore, Autumn didn't want to really be rejected by anyone. It was not a nice feeling and unlike in her art class, she couldn't leave Sonora. It was her duty to attend and become a good witch and manage her powers like generations of her family before her.
"It's nice to meet you, Sophia." Autumn replied. "I'm Autumn Collins." She didn't add her family branch as it always sounded so stuck-up to do so. She'd do it if she had to, like with people like Raines Bradley, but with she didn't recognize the Randolph name off the bat and Sophia hadn't given a family branch either so Autumn figured she was safe.
She smiled again, less anxiously this time. "I'm in Crotalus, and I have two sisters, one younger, one older." Normally Autumn didn't like to share personal stuff about herself but her house and siblings were basic information, it wasn't as if she were bearing her soul-which she wasn't even ready to do with Jane who was her best friend.
Besides, giving one's name, house and siblings was hardly anything one was going to judge someone on. Well, Autumn could see maybe house. Each house had stereotyps both positive and negative but they were easy to figure out, as their house was designated on their robes. Hopefully, Sophia had no prejudices against Crotali.
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Autumn
Sounds good
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Autumn
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Sophia
October 13, 2010 8:49 PM
Yes, it does by Sophia
“Nice to meet you, Autumn. Well, to formally meet you, anyway!” she laughed. Autumn, seemed to be shy, but super nice. It was good to find nice people, Sophia was kind of scared about meeting snobby people that would look down on her because she didn’t have money. Her family had enough to live decently but without luxuries, and it was fine by her. Her parents were very good people, and she had learned a lot from them. She didn’t need anything else, the love of her parents was more than enough. This was going quite well. She checked the water, it still needed to get hotter for the potion to work.“Two sisters? Nice! It has to be awesome to have sisters. I always wanted one.” She smiled again. It was the truth. Sophia always wanted someone she could play with. The village where she lived was full of old people, she had been the youngest. So, she had no one to play with, just an old dog and a cat, it sometimes got boring. She smiled encouragingly at her potions partner, it was sometimes difficult to share things about oneself to a complete stranger, even when it was some basic info.
Checking the water again, she realized it was time to add some of the ingredients, so Sophia dropped the daisy roots. The water changed color. Awesome. Potions was fun! “What are your hobbies?” she liked this sharing information thing, it was always nice to converse with someone new, especially since Autumn was willing to share with her. “Is Crotalus a nice?” Sophia didn’t care much about the stereotypes that came with the houses, she always gave people the benefit of the doubt. It was not fair to judge someone on their house, or their background, or anything else. She preferred to get to know them first, and then pass judgment. It was only fair.
“Hmm. I think it’s time to add the other ingredients.” She added as an afterthought. They were in class, after all, and Sophia liked doing well in class.
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Sophia
Yes, it does
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Autumn
October 21, 2010 4:48 PM
I like agreeing. by Autumn
"It's nice to meet you too, Sophia." Autumn responded. The Pecari seemed less...restrained than Autumn was. Which actually was very much like their house stereotypes. Still, it didn't really bother her, as Sophia still seemed nice. Actually, aside from Tristan, who didn't seem to be around anymore, the Pecaris in Autumn's year mostly seemed to be pretty nice and not all like the arrogant creatures Lily had described.She didn't know about the first years yet though. Autumn had a tendency to be cautious, and actually that applied to the first years from all houses, including her own. Though so far, the one person who seemed kind of creepy in the first year class was an Aladren girl.
Here, Autumn smiled. "Yeah, I love my sisters." She hardly ever even fought with them. But then the Crotalus hated fighting or arguing. She would do anything to keep the peace and besides, she looked up to Lily. Sometimes, Autumn wished she could be like her big sister. Lily was tough, strong and brave yet still had a softer side that she tended to display towards her sisters, her best friend Harmony and Kaylie. Lily was protective of them.
And Willow was cute too. Autumn wanted to be a role model for her, someone she could look up to, though Autumn knew she couldn't be the way Lily was. The second year was just not brave enough. "So do you have brothers or are you an only child?" Autumn inquired. She had no idea what it was like to have either.
"Oh, I like art. Painting and drawing mostly." said the Crotalus. She sincerely hoped Sophia would not judge her for this, though she wasn't that worried. Autumn had never really been made fun of for being artistic. Her family was actually quite proud of her art.
Whether or not she was sensitive about actually showing it was another subject. For Autumn, her artwork was like baring her heart and soul, expressing what she normally couldn't in words because of her shyness.
"Crotalus is all right. We have an overall good group in our year. In pretty much all houses, actually." There were very few snobby people in Autumn's class for which she was incredibly grateful. She didn't care much for people who would judge her for things, she especially worried about the type who would look down their noses at her for not being into playing Quidditch, or for not being very outgoing, the way Lily and Nina said Nina's brother Adam had been.
"What about Pecari? Do you like it?" Autumn asked. She hoped Sophia wouldn't brag about what a great house it was or say it was better than Crotalus (or the other two houses for that matter.) All houses had their good and bad points, their students who were nice or not.
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Autumn
I like agreeing.
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Autumn
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