Advancing, too on Potions

Professor Fawcett

August 23, 2011 12:40 AM

Advanced Lesson II (6th and 7th Years) by Professor Fawcett

John had a certain aesthetic appreciation for winter, but to the best of his knowledge, he had never liked the part that involved actually being cold. Being cold was far better than being hot, he was firmly convinced of that, but given the choice, he would have just as soon been neither.

With that thought in mind, he had put more care into preparing his classroom for a lesson before the first lesson he taught after midterm than he had since he finished sorting the bookshelves back out after their summer in the chaos of his home back in September. Coming in early, and being glad that they, in such close proximity to the hospital wing, were neither underground nor in one of the upper levels that would never be quite cool enough in summer or warm enough in winter no matter what spells one cadt, he took out his wand and began working on a series of charms. By the time his Advanced students arrived, the room was neither cool nor the kind of initially pleasant warm which would soon lull them to sleep, but instead a medium he thought would be comfortable for most.

"Welcome," he greeted the first in the door, smiling. "If you could go ahead and get set up...." He wanted that done now so they didn't have to waste any time once the bell rang. He generally trusted his older students not to be late without a pressing reason, but many of them had numerous obligations, so arriving just on time did happen, and the delay of setting up was one they could scarcely afford this close to the RATS.

Once everyone was assembled, he began promptly. "It's good to see you all safely returned from your midterm adventures," he said. "And while I'm sure we'll all be glad to hear about them later, it's back to work for now." He did not mention the RATS directly; he had more respect for their intelligence than to point out the very obvious. "You'll be happy to see on the new syllabus that your first paper will be due in the second week of February, after we discuss the topic of why we teach potentially dangerous or crime-assisting potions and potions theory in class, since your opinion - " with acknowledgment and proper refutation of other points of view, of course, and evidence of research, but all that was in the assignment sheet and rubric - "on that matter is at the heart of the assignment. I encourage you to begin reading up on it and discussing it between yourselves, or even with non-Potions classmates if you like, outside of class sooner rather than later."

He waved his wand at the board, revealing the lines in his handwriting he'd put up and concealed before class. "Since I imagine you want to warm your hands today, though, we'll start with a practical day. You see on the board the major categories of potions covered on the RATS - those that affect the body positively, those that affect it negatively, those which change it without relation to health, those which affect the mind, and the oft-neglected group of those which are not injested. You have examples of each beneath their classifications, tjough note that the negative affect section is here covered by asking you to use Golpalott's Third Law to create an antidote rather than brewing something foul yourselves." He said that lightly, but supposed it would be his luck that if he had let them do so, someone would have used it to disable another Quidditch team, or perhaps let it fall into Miss Bennett's hands by mistake and the error not be discovered until she'd used it on Miss Errant.

Not that there was anything the Advanced students studied which he wanted getting out into the school. The restorative drafts might be all right, though it wouldn't surprise him if modern Sonorans were as apt to use the version which allowed them to stay up later to study as his year had been at seventeen, and perhaps no one would go wild on one of the two cheering potions up there or be poisoned by excessive calming draughts, but truth potions, even the comparatively mild ones? Polyjuice? Things which involved enough dragon's blood that they could etch improperly prepared metal? He could only cling to his faith that his students had more sense than that.

"Some of these cannot be prepared in a class period, but I'd like a sample of where you got to by the end of class anyway. You may work in pairs or alone, as you like, so long as everyone is working. I suggest focusing on something from the area you feel weakest in instead of going for an easy first day back, but it is, of course, up to you. I am available if you need me, and you may begin."

OOC: You all know the drill, standard posting rules apply and etc. Have fun!

Subthreads:

Advancing, too by Daniel Nash, Aladren with Charlotte Abbott

Thinking too much.... by Marissa Stephenson

Questions. by Alison Sinclair

0 Professor Fawcett Advanced Lesson II (6th and 7th Years) 0 Professor Fawcett 1 5

Daniel Nash, Aladren

August 23, 2011 11:33 PM

Advancing, too by Daniel Nash, Aladren

Daniel's midterm had been . . . better than his summer. There had been no Street Beat, no wedding, and no frantic calls from his sister demanding immediate advice. Neither had there been any Quidditch practices and without anything better to do, he'd managed to finish most of his midterm homework in the first few days. After that, the break had been strangely boring.

Well, obviously, Christmas had been a big deal. The Greers had hosted the usual party, and Daniel had noticed that Molly wasn't a little kid anymore but a real person (even if she was still only thirteen), and Holly brought Raoul, and Luke stopped in briefly with a girlfriend in tow, and it was generally complete chaos. Plus, there had been presents, which were always great. So Christmas itself wasn't boring.

The days around it kind of were, though, and Daniel was kind of glad to get back to Sonora where his schedule was so packed he simply didn't have time to just sit there and worry about gigantic and disturbingly imminent things like the upcoming RATS exams and, even worse, The Future.

So far, two of the schools he'd sent applications to had accepted him, but he was still waiting on one more before making his final decision. He was also waiting on Financial Aid information for one of the accepted schools, but he doubted that would make a large impact. Affording college wasn't going to be a problem. Granted, it was going to make a giant hole in his savings by the end of four years, but he wouldn't need a loan even if he didn't get a penny of Aid (his parents would cover anything he couldn't himself), so the financial package was pretty much just icing.

Still, a merit scholarship would would look good and he didn't want to shell out eight years worth of earnings if he didn't have to.

But he didn't have to think about that right now. Now - his very full and color-coded schedule told him - it was time for potions. He arrived with mere seconds to spare and hurried to set up at his usual desk near the middle of the room. He made a mental note to adjust his schedule to account for the February paper but he'd do that later, when he had allotted time to 'amend schedule based on assigned projects.' In the mean time, he jotted down the basics of said assignment then copied the notes revealed on the board.

As they were invited to begin brewing after only a short lecture, Daniel first glanced over the listed potions in each category, then turned to the person seated beside him. "Partners?" he asked, using the safe shorthand that was neither too formal for normal people nor pedantically inaccurate for his intended request. He'd been trying to explore a more friendly persona lately.

1 Daniel Nash, Aladren Advancing, too 130 Daniel Nash, Aladren 0 5

Charlotte Abbott

August 24, 2011 9:31 AM

Progressing in a similar direction by Charlotte Abbott

Midterm had been, on the whole, a lot better than Charlie had been anticipating. She'd returned home with no plans of seeing friends, fully expecting to be bored senseless for the duration, living under her parents' regime. In hindsight, she had perhaps been foolish to expect it to be so wholly awful. As she had no intention of going out late or breaking any other ancient rules her parents enforced, they didn't clash and had very little cause for argument. They were pleased that she had applied to colleges (the only one of their three children to have done so), and further dleighted to learn she was going to be going to a Muggle college with magic courses only available to a small portion of the population. It meant they could visit (she hoped they wouldn't), and could tell people they had a daughter at wherever it was she ended up. She was keeping her options wide open until she actually had an acceptance letter in hand.

So her applying to college had made her folks happy, and her behaving herself had kept them quiet, and over dinner one night they'd gotten all emotional and said they were so proud of her - typical that they didn't care about the three shiny badges she wore pinned to her uniform robes everyday but the moment she went to a Muggle college she almost brought them to tears - that it had actually been nice in a sort of warm and fuzzy way. Her mom had gone out and bought tickets to the Nutcracker the next day. Then on Christmas Day Julian, Oliver and Lutece had all been around all day and Charlie was still the baby of the family and had drawn a substantial amount of attention. It defintiely could have been worse.

Returning to classes somehow felt easier after a relaxing break, even if Charlie did have to wear loose black clothes to hide the extra few pounds she'd gained while allowing herself to eat carbs over midterm. She didn't mind too much, she still felt calm and relaxed, despite Fawcett's apparent attempts to terrifying them into learning so they'd all pass their RATS with flying colors. Luckily, potions was the one subject where Charlie didn't think she'd have any trouble. It very possibly ran in the family; Oliver lived and breathed potions, as did her Uncle Raymond, and even Lutece was starting to show dangerous signs of struggling to find other topics to discuss. She had room for improvement, of course, but enough of her assignments were being returned with Outstanding grades that she felt safe enough.

"Partners?" - a predictable enough first communication from a person at the adjacent desk in any class, but somewhat less formal than Charlie had usually come to expect from Daniel. Her own response of a smile, shrugged shoulders and the word 'sure' was potentially the epitome of predictability.

"And I'm easy," she said looking at the list of potions. Then, when her brain caught up with her mouth, she laughed, and added, "About which potion we brew, I mean. I don't mind what we do together." Oops, there she went again. "Which! I don't mind which potion we brew together." For Merlin's sake, she really ought to stop laughing any second now.

"Sorry," she said, surpressing the worst of her giggles and really trying hard to focus on her textbook, even though the words were blurry with her laugh-moistened eyes. "I'm putting it down to excessive sugar intake over the holiday," she said with a shameless grin. "So, are you more partial to potions that affect the mind, or those that have a positive effect on your body?"

0 Charlotte Abbott Progressing in a similar direction 135 Charlotte Abbott 0 5

Marissa Stephenson

August 24, 2011 6:31 PM

Thinking too much.... by Marissa Stephenson

When Marissa had first come into the Potions classroom, she had hoped that Fawcett’s apparent good mood would translate into a good day and good assignments and her leaving the room with a feeling of not being overwhelmed on her first day back, but that hope was dashed within minutes of him opening his mouth to address the full group. As the paper was described to them, Marissa had a hollow feeling, and a sensation of something tightening up around her eyes, though she was reasonably sure her small, affable smile held. That didn’t change, though, that this was going to be a horrible experience. She hated having to tell her opinion about things, and no one had ever been able to suggest a solution that helped.

Mama always insisted she should just lie, but for one thing, it was really hard to write that way, and for another, she had trouble, on controversial issues, figuring out what it was that teachers liked to hear. She’d joked with friends at home about writing a self-help book for high schoolers about how to win over teachers, but she actually had no idea what it was done; if she ever said the right thing, it was by instinct, not a conscious process, and that didn’t work for controversial topics. No matter what she wrote down, a professor could read something into it, and if it was just the wrong thing, or went against the professor’s own beliefs….

She pushed her back teeth together, grinding them just enough to feel the pressure, but not enough to make much of a distracting noise unless someone was listening for it. Going into all this wouldn’t help. It was going to be fine. Somehow, it always was.

Pushing that aside, burying it so it was only a vague anxiety in the back of her mind, she focused on the lesson. They had to pick a potion and work on it, preferably from their weak area. In this, Marissa felt comfortable making a choice. Going for the most difficult thing on the board, working twice as hard and twice as long as was required, was almost always smiled on by professors. There wasn’t an area, except potions that required a charm to set, she was truly weak in, and she’d prefer to distract Fawcett from that point of her being bad at that one thing if she could. As she thought she had so far. Though who knew how much professors talked about their charges? They were like a separate species from the rest of them.

The problem with her plan was that it would require the cooperation of someone else. Teachers might feel sympathy for the student who was always working and taking the hardest things whether anyone else wanted to or not, but it was bad for business with the other students. They wouldn’t like that, and the teachers here weren’t really the type who took pets, so she was on her own without the other students. So she smiled as she turned to the person next to her. “Do you know what you want to work on?” she asked. They might not even want to work together, in which case the problem would be solved, though she thought she might have to work thrice as hard as usual if she was alone on something really difficult. She’d manage, she always did, but…it would be harder.

Of course, that would just make the accomplishment all the more, but…she thought maybe she should see what someone else said before thinking through all of that.

16 Marissa Stephenson Thinking too much.... 147 Marissa Stephenson 0 5

Alison Sinclair

August 29, 2011 11:43 AM

Questions. by Alison Sinclair

As class began, Alison found herself wondering, not for the first time, about Fawcett. Not whether or not he was sane. He was an Aladren. She thought they had to sign some kind of agreement to be wacko before they were admitted into the facility. But whether or not he was Muggleborn.

She…was, as a matter of technicality, neither of her parents could so much as light a candle without matches and neither could either of her two brothers, but she hadn’t been raised as one, and a lot of thoughts didn’t really occur to her, like why they learned some of the things they did in school. It was what it was; everyone had a wand, and a wand was really versatile, so…Yeah. It could be a weapon or it could be used to make the sauce. It was only since she’d started spending a greater than usual amount of time around her parents that she realized how weird it was that yes, they fiddled around with belladonna and aconite and other such charming things on a daily basis here. Her mother had been shocked at the tenth part of what she’d conjectured that, with the skills she’d learned from Greta and from Sonora, Alison could potentially do. And now the assignment was to really look at whether or not they should be learning some of this….

…Well, it could just be a valid point. Alison had never claimed any great degree of introspection or knowledge of ethical theory, so it could just be that Fawcett was smarter than her. But the similarity to her mother pointing out that teaching seventeen-year-olds Polyjuice Potion was not completely dissimilar to teaching them to be spies and bank robbers made her think of it. She stopped thinking of it as soon as warming their hands was suggested.

Having someone to talk to was a distraction, but it did make the work go quicker if she could make herself concentrate. And she could do that, if she really wanted to. So she turned to the person next to her with a smile and asked, “So, first question: work together or not, and second question: easy or hard?” She’d take either, she guessed. It wasn’t as if anything they did in this class was really easy. Fawcett, it seemed, was a person of the opinion that hard work built character or something like that.

16 Alison Sinclair Questions. 140 Alison Sinclair 0 5