Substitute Nathan Xavier
July 25, 2015 10:26 PM
Beginner Potions: Forget me not by Substitute Nathan Xavier
Nathan was not used to this. He did not technically have a teaching degree. But over lunch, Isis had begun to feel quite terrible - and she'd looked pretty awful, too, though Nathan knew better than to say such a thing to a woman - and there hadn't really been time to call in for a formal substitute (Isis was Sonora's on-call substitute, after all) before the beginner potions lesson, so Nathan had offered to cover for her. For just one day, he figured could handle her afternoon classes (fortunately just Beginner and Intermediate, which he felt he was at least moderately qualified to handle, since a lot of his required coursework for his herbology degree had overlapped with the potions department), and tomorrow, if she was still feeling bad, they could bring in a real sub.This afternoon, though, it was him in front of the classroom as the beginners began to file in for their Wednesday lesson, and he tried not to look too nervous as they filed into the room, sometimes alone, sometimes in groups. Once it seemed they were all there, he wiped sweaty palms on his robes (the best ones he had that weren't meant for a formal occasion, which mostly meant the holes weren't visible and it didn't have any obvious stains on it - working in the Gardens wasn't exactly good for his wardrobe).
"Um," he said, to get the kids' attention. "We're about ready to begin. I'm going to take roll." He wasn't sure if Isis still did that now that they were in early November, but Nathan, for one, did not know most of the names of the non-Teppenpaws (Laila Kennedy being a unique exception thanks to a random encounter in the Gardens).
When he finished going through the roster of first and second year students, he put aside the attendance sheet where he could find it later and give it to Isis so she would know who might need to do some make-up work. "As is fairly obvious, Professor Carter could not teach today, so I will be standing in for her. For those of you who don't remember, I'm Mr. Xavier," he waved his wand and the chalk wrote his name up on the top right corner of the board. "Today, we will be covering the Forgetfulness Potion." Another swipe of the wand and the chalk wrote the potion name more prominently than his own, placing it in the center and using larger letters.
"The three key ingredients to this potion are Lethe River Water, mistletoe berries, and Valerian sprigs." The chalk recorded the names of the three ingredients beneath the potion name. "If you don't have any Lethe River Water - or any of the other ingredients we're using - in your kit, please come to the front to get what you need for today. According to mythology, the Lethe River is the River of Forgetfulness in the Greek underworld. Wizards and Witches also know it as an underground river in Greece protected from muggles by Muggle-Repelling Charms. Its waters have strong magical properties for forgetfulness, which is why it's an important active ingredient for this potion, even if we're only using two drops."
"The steps for this potion can be found in your books on page 152. Take note that the mistletoe berries should be stirred in counter clockwise and if you know your measuring skill still needs some work, I'd recommend erring on the side of too little rather than too much for those, since it can cause stomach upset in higher quantities, but the two pinches the instructions call for will be safe."
The chalk continued to write on the board, providing the requisite steps to anyone who may have forgotten their book or had an edition different to the standard one and couldn't find the potion instructions*.
1. Add two drops of Lethe River Water to the cauldron.
2. Heat gently for twenty seconds.
3. Add two Valerian Sprigs and stir 3 times clockwise.
4. Allow to brew until bright green, approximately four minutes.
5. Crush seven dried nettles and four dried mistletoe berries together in a mortar to a medium fine powder.
6. Add two pinches of the crushed mistletoe mixture to the cauldron and stir 5 times counter-clockwise.
7. Allow to brew until deep blue, approximately two minutes.
As the chalk continued to scratch out the instructions, Nathan concluded his lesson and allowed the students to get to the task at hand. "When you finish, please collect a sample vial and turn it in at the front of the room with your name on it. You may work with partners if you like, just put both of your names on the sample vial."
*OOC: Potion steps were modified from the instructions for this potion on Pottermore.
Subthreads: Genus <i>Myosotis</i> by Arne Reinhardt, Crotalus
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Substitute Nathan Xavier
Beginner Potions: Forget me not
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Substitute Nathan Xavier
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Arne Reinhardt, Crotalus
July 28, 2015 2:02 PM
Genus <i>Myosotis</i> by Arne Reinhardt, Crotalus
Arne stared at the Teppenpaw head of house with suspicion. Being the head of that house was enough on it’s own for Arne to already decide that he didn’t like the teacher. But on top of that, Laila had arrived to dinner one night waxing poetic about the man and how nice and sweet he was that Arne’d had an inherent dislike of him before he put together his Teppenpaw position. He wasn’t upset over the act of kindness—after all he would rather have someone be nice to Laila than mean to her, but he also wished that people would just stop being so helpful. First it had been Tobi, then Mr. Xavier, and now one of the second years. There was a part of Arne that didn’t realize that other people being helpful to Laila made him upset because it lessened his role in her life—for once he had a job unique only to himself, but now it was being ripped away from him just like metal charming was.As Mr. Xavier gave the introductory lecture and magically wrote the ingredients they would need on the board, Arne doodled designs on his note paper. All of his notes were a scribbling mess that really did not add to his learning at all and were written in between detailed sketches of products he would never get to create since he would be expected to either work under Tobi when they got older or go off and find something else to do, and also the neat handwriting of Laila who frequently added a couple extra notes to his poor notes when he showed up uninvited to her library study sessions.
He didn’t really think anyone would want to work with him since he had the reputation of being kind of dismal in Potions even though in most of his other classes he had the ability to just wing it, so he set about starting the potion on his own. If no one wanted to work with him then that was their loss, he didn’t really mind either way (or so he said, because really, Arne was a much more social person than Tobi was and really did love to talk to people). Arne ran his finger down the list of ingredients in the book and looked through his potions kit. He had a little bit of lethe river water, but he pushed it under some other vials in his disorganized kit so that it was hidden and went up to the front of the room to collect some more.
After adding the two drops (which was really two drops and a sputter since Arne had taken a little too much in his pipette), he turned up the heat and counted to twenty, his mind wandering to baseball which was one of his favorite things to do, and he turned the heat down when he came to, not really sure how long it had been on for but certain it had been at least twenty seconds since he had spaced out for what had seemed like a long time (in reality he had only heated the cauldron for seventeen seconds, but the heat was temperature had been high enough the the residual heat evened out the balance). Since he wasn’t really the kind of person who kept his kit up to date like Laila, Arne took out one and a half Valarian Sprigs which was really all he had left and then dumped the crumbly bits of the plant that remained in that vial into the cauldron since it likely evened out to two.
It was while he was waiting for it to turn bright green (after he had stirred the potion once counter-clockwise and then twice clockwise since he had temporarily forgotten which was way which and had needed to switch directions after the first time) that he realized someone was talking to him. “Sorry,” he said with a lopsided grin, pleased someone was addressing him. “What was that? I was just too into the mojo of this potion!” Though his interactions with his brother and with his Quidditch captain erred on the side of hostile, he really only reserved his disparaging attitude for them and spoke to pretty much everyone else with a friendly tone.
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Arne Reinhardt, Crotalus
Genus <i>Myosotis</i>
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Arne Reinhardt, Crotalus
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