Professor Yu

September 21, 2014 9:16 PM
As the winter holidays grew nearer and nearer, Diana was becoming more and more anxious. She knew that the family reunion this year would be more tense than usual as Stephen had announced his plans to bring his special friend, Henry, home with him and Diana knew for a fact that her parents would not be pleased with it. The stress was beginning to show on her face-- she was beginning to get less and less sleep and as a result dark bags were forming under her brown eyes. She hadn’t noticed them forming at first but that morning when she looked in the mirror after washing her face she nearly started. Diana wondered how long she had looked like this and was embarrassed to think her students had seen her look so unraveled. She applied concealer as best she could but never having been one for much make-up other than a light lipstick and mascara the bags were still somewhat visible.

She put her head into her hands and massaged her temples while waiting for the beginning students to take their seats. She felt a headache coming on. Once everyone was seated, she stood up and smiled brightly. “Today we will be working on the potion commonly known as the Swelling Solution,” she announced, writing the name on the board. “You should be able to find all the ingredients you need in your potions kits but if you run out please come to me and I will get you some from the stock closet.” Diana trusted the Advanced students and most of the Intermediate students to get their own ingredients from the closet if they needed but the majority of the beginning students still would have difficulty in discerning between certain ingredients and she wanted to keep the Potions classroom a safe place for all. “The instructions can be found on page 214 of your textbooks if you have the third edition--” Diana had chosen this particular one because its organization of potions in alphabetical order had made it easier for her to plan lessons. “If you are using the second or first edition, however, the page number can be found in the index.” She was fairly certain it was the same page for all three editions but she didn’t want to give them the wrong page number just in case.

“There is a sixty minute time period in which the potion must simmer,” Diana said after going over the instructions for brewing the potion. “During this time you may begin your Potions homework or study for another class. If you have nothing else to do then please keep the chattering to a minimum and for the love of Merlin I don’t want to see any horseplay as this potion is a little bit more difficult than ones we have tried in the past,” Diana paused to pass out vials for the students to bottle their finished results with.

“That being said, I would prefer for the more experienced students to pair with the less experienced students.” Diana knew there were more first years than second years but was hoping that some of the first year purebloods would be like the two Parks who had come in with some background knowledge of Potions due to their parents’ business.

“If this potion spills do not attempt to clean it up on your own instead, call me over immediately.” As swelling solution caused enlargement upon contact with skin, Diana wanted to minimize trips to the Hospital Wing. “Should it get on your skin I will dismiss you and your partner to the Hospital Wing immediately after cleaning any residual potion off you so as not to contaminate the rest of the school.”

Though Diana didn’t believe there would be many accidents as there hadn’t been any so far, she didn’t want to take any chances of stray swelling potion getting on a door handle and causing all who touched it to wind up with swollen hands, certain the other professors wouldn't appreciate it. With that she dismissed them to work.

OOC: Please remember posts must be kept as realistic as possible and be a minimum of 200 words. Feel free to tag Professor Yu if assistance is needed. Otherwise have fun— points are awarded for creativity and grammar.
Subthreads:
10 Professor Yu Beginner Potions (Years I & II) 0 Professor Yu 1 5

Joella Curtis, Pecari

October 05, 2014 3:52 PM
It was now too many weeks into the school term for Joella to bother counting (as if she would anyway) and the novelty of the Sonora classes was already beginning to wear off. Joella was picking favourites and she didn't have many. Potions had started out interesting enough. With that slight element of danger how could it not be fun? As it turned out, trips to the Hospital Wing were not particularly common and neither were hilarious accidents. But it wasn't really this that had led the young Pecari to imagine that Potions would be a good class. She could quite happily deal without drama and disasters. However, what she couldn't deal with was that she never managed to get her so desired result. Ever. As yet she had not managed to make her bunch of ingredients turn into amazing potions for all kinds of purposes. She felt that she was failing, and it wasn't fun. Joella knew it was foolish to think that she would uncover some great potion-brewing skills in her first year, let alone ever, but she couldn't help feeling disappointed every time the lesson ended with her getting something completely wrong.

On entering the classroom Joella resolved to actually get the set task right this time. Her jaw set in determination, the first year flicked through her textbook to the given page number and looked at the instructions. The Swelling Solution. It looked simple. It was simple. First year potions weren't exactly difficult - they were beginners after all. But for some reason they always ended up being difficult for Joella.

The first year tied her light brown hair back in a ponytail, keeping it off her face in the hope that this action could somehow help her to concentrate.

Today, Joella made sure to stick to the instructions closely. She focussed herself and forced her eyes not to wander around the classroom to see how everyone else was getting on. With her pestle and mortar she carefully crushed the puffer-fish eyes and dried nettles. Medium-fine powder? Had she already crushed the ingredients a bit too much?

The heating was always the hardest part. Twenty seconds. Nothing more, nothing less. Joella ran through this process rather swiftly and was proud to find nothing burnt after the twenty seconds were up. A bit of wand waving ensued. Too much? Too little? Was Joella's determination to succeed making her over think things? She decided that doubting herself wouldn't help her in anyway so continued swiftly.

Professor Yu had said that it must "simmer" for sixty minutes. Joella had always struggled with the word simmer. Even before Potions class. Those rare moments of her childhood when she would help in the kitchen and overestimate the term simmer to mean bubble furiously. The first year ploughed on anyhow in the hope that Professor Yu would notice if her potion was doing rather more than simmering.

The first year sat back. Her hair had long ago rebelled against the binding that had fastened it back in a scruffy ponytail and her face was a little flushed from the heat. Joella genuinely felt exhausted. It was only now that she allowed herself to compare her (what she hoped was) simmering potion with that of the other pupils nearest her. This was always destined to be disheartening...
8 Joella Curtis, Pecari Determination. 295 Joella Curtis, Pecari 0 5