But black is so gloomy. (Tag Ayla Tremaine) on Potions

Professor Sophie O'Malley

October 29, 2016 3:40 PM

I see a cauldron and I wanted painted black~ [Years I-II] by Professor Sophie O'Malley

Sophie was at her very best for today’s lesson, although what she considered her best was a far cry from most people’s standards. She had made an attempt to push up her sleeves, but her thin little arms could not support the bunches properly, so, though hastily rerolled now, their edges were lined with messiness that rose from brewing potions. Her blonde ponytail, notable for its relatively impressive length, was a haphazard mess. A splash of something green stained her left cheek. And she was grinning ear-to-ear. Sophie loved brewing potions.

“I have been very busy today,” she announced merrily to her first and second years. “As you see, each pair of desks has three cauldrons currently brewing over small flames. To that end,” she added, “you’ll have to forgive me for being a little out of sorts. I filled those all this morning.”

“You’ll note,” the small woman went on, “that each cauldron is black. That, my dears, is a delicate little illusion. They’ve been painted that way. In truth, one of them is gold, one of them is silver, and one is pewter. Your job for today’s exercise will be to determine which is which based on the progress of the potion simmering within them.”

“Each is brewing a Girding Potion. Can anyone tell me what that particular potion does?” It wasn’t one that they had personally brewed, as it was technically at the third year level, but it was, however, included in their latest reading chapter of their textbook. When the correct answer was procured, Sophie continued. “Great! Now, as I said, these samples were brewed just today by yours truly, which means the one in the greatest quality cauldron should be just about done. The other two will be at varying stages of simmering. “Would you please take this stack of worksheets and pass one to everyone?” she asked the student seated nearest to her desk. “They just have a few questions for you to answer about the cauldrons. Basically just ‘which is which?’ and ‘Justify your answer’.”

“I encourage you to partner up so that you can discuss this, and also because there’s only a set of cauldrons per two people.” She was not going to brew three potions per student. That was way too much work when she believed the kids worked better in pairs anyway. “Also, one last thing,” she added quickly. “I shouldn’t have to say this, but don’t touch the cauldrons. It’s kinda cheating to try to figure out the metal texture beneath the paint anyway, but as you can imagine, they are very hot.” Sophie paused, checking the progress of her worksheet-provider. “Okay, I think everyone’s got a worksheet. Go ahead and get discussing, my little cauldron detectives!”

OOC: Relevant information regarding the Girding Potion: the most complete one (gold) should be decidedly green, and as quality of the cauldron drops and therefore time required increases (silver, then pewter), it will be more blue. So gold cauldron: green potion, silver potion: blue-green, and pewter cauldron: mostly blue. The order they sit across is, left to right, pewter, gold, silver. Be good, follow the rules, and have fun!

Subthreads:

Which one is which? by Kit Reid, Aladren with Victor Callahan, Crotalus

But black is so gloomy. (Tag Ayla Tremaine) by Simon Mordue, Crotalus with Ayla Tremaine, Teppenpaw, Professor O'Malley

I'd rather it painted red. by Farrah Welsh (Aladren) with Amelia Layne, Aladren

Here we go again... by Kellen Mormont, Aladren with Jozua Sparks, Teppenpaw

12 Professor Sophie O'Malley I see a cauldron and I wanted painted black~ [Years I-II] 34 Professor Sophie O'Malley 1 5

Kit Reid, Aladren

October 31, 2016 8:32 PM

Which one is which? by Kit Reid, Aladren

Entering the room, Kit noticed that there were three cauldrons brewing at every set of desks. She raised an eyebrow out of curiosity before heading to her desk at the front of the room. After placing her bag on the floor, Kit pulled out a compact mirror. She checked her hair to make sure her blonde bun was still neat and there were no stray hairs. Satisfied, she closed her compact and put it away.

The Aladren didn’t have long to wait before finding out what the lesson of the day was. She leaned forward to peer at the cauldrons. They all looked black to her, but the professor said that was just an illusion. She thought it was a pretty good illusion.

When asked what the Girding Potion did, Kit’s hand shot up in the air. “The Girding Potion is used to increase endurance,” she answered. She had done all of the required reading, which had also stated that the potion had a tendency toward foul odor. It certainly did have that. She wrinkled her nose in distaste. She didn’t think that she would ever use the potion simply for the fact that she didn’t want to swallow something that smelled.

Receiving her sheet of questions, Kit looked over them with interest. Knowing what the questions were before going further was always a good idea, because then she would know what to look for when examining the potions. Turning to the person next to her, she assumed they were partners since they were sitting together. It might have been silly to do so, but it seemed just as silly to play musical chairs. “The first question seems pretty easy. It’s just asking about which potion is different from the others. The middle one looks more blue than the others. Do you want to take the second question?”

0 Kit Reid, Aladren Which one is which? 363 Kit Reid, Aladren 0 5

Simon Mordue, Crotalus

November 01, 2016 4:49 PM

But black is so gloomy. (Tag Ayla Tremaine) by Simon Mordue, Crotalus

Simon had quickly realized that a lot of people in the outside world cared much less about cleanliness than he thought was appropriate, but he was still shocked to see a professor as one of them. Professor O’Malley looked as though she had not washed her face or combed her hair all day, and her sleeves were a mess, too. Potions was a messy subject (though that didn’t, he thought, explain her hair), but why had she not washed before class?

The world, he thought, was much more complicated than it had seemed in his lessons at home. Professor O’Malley did not inspire the same intense desire to return to the neat confines of his schoolroom at home that some things did, but he was still distracted by the green splotch on her cheek and the disorder of her hair as he sat down and looked between her and the cauldron already set up in front of him.

He wasn’t sure whether or not he should be relieved to find a potion already done on the table in front of him. On one hand, he found brewing potions in the room, where everyone would notice if he didn’t chop his ginger root finely enough and it caused a problem, stressful. On the other, what if Professor O’Malley wanted them to fix errors in other people’s potions? If that was it, Simon suspected his problem was not going to be making sure he followed directions well enough. If that was it, he would have to demonstrate comprehension of concepts, possibly with another person on one of them since there were two desks and three cauldrons. He thought he understood the concepts well enough, but somehow it was just…easier to think of writing it down for Professor O’Malley than discussing it with one of his classmates. Irrational, he knew – Professor O’Malley was a person and therefore just as capable of judging him as his classmates, and since his father had said she was a Mrs. O’Malley on top of being a professor, maybe even capable of causing him more problems than his classmates ever could – but even so….

Reluctantly, Simon added discuss magical concepts I think I understand with Victor and Winston to his mental to-do list. His father and tutors, with the partial exception of his favorite, were in agreement than he needed to force himself to do things he found nerve-wracking, and also get other pureblood boys to respect him now so they could respect him when they were all adults. The actual assignment, when Professor O’Malley explained it, did not involve a practice run for having those talks with his roommate, but Simon wasn’t sure if he liked it better or worse than he would have such a practice run. He knew the book usually said what color or texture a potion should have at given stages, but he was pretty sure it was going to be a bit more complex than just finding the right page in the book, some kind of guide to which metal affected the same potion how. They were going to have to think. In pairs.

Simon perked up a bit when Professor O’Malley told them how to cheat and he saw an easy solution to the problem with doing so that she mentioned. There were charms, he knew, to make it possible to handle very hot objects without burning oneself. He deflated again quickly, though, as he realized that unfortunately, he didn’t know it, or even how difficult it was. It was just one of those things he’d taken for granted until suddenly, there wasn’t someone there to do them for him anymore. Trying not to feel too badly about this, he looked to see his partner of the day and found, to his relief, a somewhat familiar face. It was mild relief, as he didn’t think he had yet made the acquaintance of the face’s owner – indeed, the reason it was familiar was because he’d seen it on the wagon to Sonora – but he was sure she was a fellow first year, which was enough for some relief to his way of thinking.

“Hello,” he said with a small smile. He was not really a grinner, not like his father’s brother. He had inherited more of his looks, he thought, from his mother than anyone. “I don’t think we’ve met yet, but we were on the same wagon. I’m Simon Mordue, of the Oregon Mordues.” Not that there were any others that he knew of, but the form of introduction was just a way, he had learned, of letting others know he was from society. If they responded in kind, he could safely assume they were, too. If not, then it was less likely. This was an important thing to know.

16 Simon Mordue, Crotalus But black is so gloomy. (Tag Ayla Tremaine) 369 Simon Mordue, Crotalus 0 5

Farrah Welsh (Aladren)

November 01, 2016 7:06 PM

I'd rather it painted red. by Farrah Welsh (Aladren)

Farrah entered the classroom and took her usually seat at one of the middles desks in the room. She frowned at the three cauldrons that were currently residing on her desk and her neighbor’s desk and looked up at the professor to see if there was any indication as to why these objects filled with some sort of bubbling potions were sitting in her notebook space. Instead, Farrah was surprised to see a rather disheveled looking Professor O’Malley standing in front of the room. Farrah’s frown deepened. She liked Professor O’Malley and generally liked Potions because it was somewhat familiar to her, but sometimes she questioned the woman’s professionalism. Her mother would have a cow if she knew this was how the school was presenting themselves to her (her mom was anal about that sort of thing).

Farrah was not necessarily a neat freak as her loose ponytail and flyaway hair could attest to, but she felt like there was some sort of line for adults that they weren’t supposed to cross. Not that Farrah would say anything about it, but it did sometimes make her uncomfortable with how informal her professor (and some other staff too for that matter) could be since she wasn’t used to it coming from a strict private school prior to Sonora.

She was writing out what the potion in the cauldrons was when she jumped slightly in her seat as the girl in front of her answered the question rather suddenly. Farrah recognized her as a house member of hers but couldn’t recall her name at the moment. It was something similar to someone’s else’s though. Kat or Kim or something like that. She’d have to make a note of it at some point. But her answer was correct, so Farrah wrote it down and then made notes as Professor O’Malley went over what their lesson was about that day. The lesson itself was interesting. It was like a puzzle that Farrah had to solve. Farrah was pretty good with puzzles (actual puzzles, and word searches, picture puzzles, things of that nature, this would be her first potions puzzle).

As they were set to task, Farrah took to looking at each potion carefully, making notes of the differences (mostly just in color, she couldn’t really tell much else by just looking), but she also noticed a faint foul smell and wrinkled her nose at it. “Don’t get too close.” Farrah said to her neighbor. “It has a wicked smell to it.” She commented, looking over at the person who’s potions she was sharing with.

6 Farrah Welsh (Aladren) I'd rather it painted red. 344 Farrah Welsh (Aladren) 0 5

Victor Callahan, Crotalus

November 02, 2016 2:08 PM

I'm sure you know better than I do! by Victor Callahan, Crotalus

Potions was a lesson that was pretty cool by Victor’s standards. Okay, there was little wand-waving and you didn’t actually get to fight anything, but there were some pretty icky ingredients and you often ended up making some pretty awesome things! Today’s Girding Potion was a good example, even if he didn’t know what it was until Kit gave the answer to Professor O’Malley. Perhaps he should have done the set reading, but there were so many things that were more interesting to do than read a textbook! Luckily he seemed to have got away with it, at least for now.

However, his optimism didn’t hold for very long. As Professor O’Malley started to explain today’s task, Victor began to realise that doing the reading would probably have been a good idea. Still, there was nothing wrong with ‘consulting’ the textbook whilst working, so he wasn’t overly concerned about his ability to participate. Victor did have a tendency to be a little lazy when it came to homework, and Potions was no exception.

Now that he knew what the Girding Potion actually did, he vaguely recognised the name. He was pretty sure there’d been a small scandal surrounding its use in the broom racing world a few years back. It was definitely one of the banned substances. Remembering its existence in relation to broom racing quickly increased Victor’s interest in today’s lesson. Anything that could be linked to broom racing immediately became a lot cooler in his eyes, as the sport was one he followed avidly!

The lesson didn’t sound like it was going to be really easy, but hopefully the textbook would give him more of an idea of how to actually answer the questions. He wasn’t stupid enough to go ahead and touch the cauldrons, not that he thought he’d manage to tell the cauldrons apart by feel anyway. He wasn’t some kind of metal-whisperer, and anyway he much preferred his hands unburned. Burnt hands weren’t very useful for eating or flying or doing anything, really.

Luckily for Victor, the girl-who-had-answered-the-question was sitting next to him, and had obviously decided that he wasn’t repulsive enough for her to feel the need to move. This non-burnt look was evidently working for him. He recognised Kit from other lessons, enough to be fairly sure that she was a fellow pureblood which, combined with her being clever and not bad looking, meant that she was a pretty perfect partner. Until, that was, she took the easy question and suggested he did a potentially harder one.

“Don’t you mean green?” he asked, peering into the middle cauldron. Unless he’d suddenly become colour blind, the middle cauldron wasn’t really blue at all, a fact that was confirmed when Kit realised her mistake.

“Well,” replied Victor, drawing out the syllables as he quickly searched for and scanned the relevant page in his textbook before giving Kit an answer for the second question. The level of blueness seemed to be an important thing, so he decided to continue along those lines. “I reckon this one looks the most blue,” he suggested, pointing at the left-hand cauldron and smiling hopefully at Ayla. If he was in luck, his comment would vaguely answer the question, or at least give the impression that he knew what he was on about. He wasn’t fussed about being the best, but he didn’t want Kit to regret staying and working with him. Victor was not the sort of boy who liked to feel unwanted.

OOC: Kit’s reaction to the Wrong Colour confirmed by her author!

9 Victor Callahan, Crotalus I'm sure you know better than I do! 368 Victor Callahan, Crotalus 0 5

Ayla Tremaine, Teppenpaw

November 02, 2016 2:20 PM

I agree, pink is the new black! by Ayla Tremaine, Teppenpaw

Ayla hadn’t slept very well. Albus insisted on kneading any bit of skin she didn’t have covered up, including her face, so she had to create a cocoon with her blankets. That created an entirely different problem, as she didn’t feel like she could breathe with her face covered. She eventually managed to fall asleep, but when she woke up and looked in the mirror, she realized she had her work cut out for her. It took time, and a lot of skin care products, but Ayla managed to make herself look refreshed and put together. She chose a black chiffon knee length dress with ruffled trim, short sleeves and a white collar over nude tights with little black cats on them. All under her forest green school robes, of course. Her long blonde hair was pulled back into a sleek high ponytail and today’s accessories included black ballet flats and, as usual, her locket.

The Teppenpaw first year wasn’t as big into academics as most of her peers, but she figured that potions was going to be one of the classes that would be useful to her in the future, so she probably needed to pay attention. She’d much rather talk and get to know people better, but she was at school after all. Learning was kind of required. She noticed an empty spot next to one of Victor’s roommates, and decided that this was the perfect opportunity to really meet him. She recognized him from the wagon ride too, so that was even more incentive to get to know him better. She smoothed out her robes and sat down, instantly wrinkling her nose as the scent of the potions brewing in front of them.

She was a little surprised when the professor started the lesson. Ayla cocked her head to the side slightly, as she curiously looked over the small woman. She looked very...put out? Didn’t they have elves or helpers or something that could have helped get the lesson ready? She appreciated that Professor O’Malley felt passionate about the class to the point where she’d sacrifice her image, but surely whatever it was on her face couldn’t be good for her skin. She wanted to raise her hand and let the professor know, but she’d already started the lecture, and Kit was already answering a question that Ayla didn’t know the answer to. So Kit really did fit into Aladren after all.

The young blonde took a worksheet, and pulled her quill out of her bag as she scanned the questions. This appeared to be more about cauldrons that the actual potion, but she wasn’t going to argue the point. She was glad when Professor O’Malley gave them the go ahead to talk, and even more so when Victor’s roommate introduced himself as society. She shouldn’t have been surprised, he was a Crotalus after all.

“Yes! It’s so nice to finally officially meet you, Simon.” Ayla said with a dimpled smile. “I’m Ayla Tremaine, of the Palo Alto Tremaines. What part of Oregon are you from?” She asked, more interested in him than the lesson at hand. She wanted to ask about his family, hobbies, goals...but she figured she should probably also at least feign enthusiasm about solving the case of the cauldrons. Obviously Kit was super smart about this sort of thing, Ayla felt like she needed to at least give it her best effort. She didn’t need a society boy to think she was dumb. Particularly if both of his roommates were as well.

“So, how are you with potions? Though I guess this more about cauldrons.” She added, leaning forward to get a better look at the brewing liquids, while trying to avoid the fumes. “They are all different colors. Do you think it’s a reaction to the metal?”

5 Ayla Tremaine, Teppenpaw I agree, pink is the new black! 367 Ayla Tremaine, Teppenpaw 0 5

Simon

November 02, 2016 2:59 PM

I think I prefer green. by Simon

Palo Alto. Simon had to think for a terrifying moment to remember which state that was in. Geography, no matter how hard he tried, just was not one of his stronger suits.

He did, however, know his own state reasonably well, he thought. “Sort of between central and west,” he said. “My family lives in the countryside, not a city.” His father had inherited the house, which had left his father’s brother to a townhouse, though the two were linked by, at the very least, by the treehouse his sister shared with their cousin Nathaniel. The two of them were always bugging the adults to let them go see each other, so said adults had finally just built an enchanted treehouse either could reach from his or her own house to share. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, too.”

Her next question was a challenge. Simon guessed he was going to get that practice for discussing concepts he thought he understood with Victor and Winston sooner than he had expected when he’d first heard the lesson. He took care not to think too much about it, though, lest his head start spinning from all the changes of opinion he’d had in the past ten minutes. “I think I understand what we’ve been taught before today,” he said, hedging his bets as much as he felt he decently could.

Ayla’s third question, to his relief, was factual again, not an opinion piece. Discussing ideas might not be so bad after all, at least compared to evaluating his own strengths and weaknesses…he had, he thought, to stop thinking about this, or else he would end up getting his roommates’ attention later and then standing there frozen with his mouth open like an idiot. That would be bad. “It could be,” he said. “But – since the potion, the same potion, that is, is brewing in all three cauldrons, I would think that it isn’t really reactive. I read once that different metals get to different temperatures at different speeds, so I th – believe that the key is to figure out which stages these potions are at, and how high the temperature should be when they’re at that stage.” He didn’t think he made sense by the end of his sentence, but refused to backtrack. He didn’t think he was expressing it well, but he did think he was at least in the general area of a good idea. “Though either idea could be right,” he said. “Do you think Professor O’Malley has any books about cauldrons in here? I know I saw a section on cauldrons somewhere in our textbook….”

16 Simon I think I prefer green. 369 Simon 0 5

Ayla

November 03, 2016 2:06 PM

Green is good too! ((Tag Professor O'Malley)) by Ayla

A society family that lived in the country, that was definitely an interesting set up. Ayla knew it wasn’t impossible, but being near a city had so much more potential for, well, socializing. Her mother always seemed to have some gala or benefit to go to, and was often traveling to San Francisco for one thing or another. Did that mean that Simon’s family had to travel long distances for things?

“The country must be nice. We’ve only ever been to southern Oregon, I remember it being pretty though.” Ayla said with a smile, deciding it best not to pry into the details of Simon’s family just yet. “Palo Alto has some pretty parts too, but it’s on a bay, not green and mountainy as I remember Oregon being.” She added with a shrug, trying to make conversation outside of cauldron talk, even though she knew they had a worksheet to get through. She smiled and nodded when Simon answered her question about how he was with potions. The young witch couldn’t help but notice that Kit and Victor had paired up, and it caused a weird reaction in the pit of her stomach. Ayla quickly tried to brush it off, but couldn’t help but notice Victor smiling at her. Or at least she thought he was, she flashed a dimpled grin at him before turning her attention back to Simon.

The Teppenpaw girl nodded as Simon explained about the metals heating up differently. That made sense. Ayla vaguely recalled the professor mentioning that the higher quality cauldron would be nearly done. “I really should have paid more attention to what O’Malley was saying, but I think you’re on to something!” Ayla said brightly, turning momentarily to dig in her book bag for her potions book. “It would probably be helpful to know something about the potion that’s in there too.” She flipped through the pages, searching for the girding potion. “A book on cauldrons is a great idea, she might have one. I’ll go ask!” She said with a smile before making her way through the maze of desks and cauldrons to where Professor O’Malley was.

“Excuse me, Professor O’Malley? Do you by chance have a book on cauldron types my partner and I could look at?” Ayla asked politely, pursing her lips slightly as she considered whether or not to tell the professor about the green splotch on her face. “Also, you have something. Just there.” The girl added, tapping her own cheek to indicate the location of said something.

5 Ayla Green is good too! ((Tag Professor O'Malley)) 367 Ayla 0 5

Kit

November 03, 2016 3:40 PM

It's a group effort by Kit

A rose hue rose to her cheeks when Victor corrected her. “Oh, no!” Kit cried with obvious embarrassment. She felt utterly stupid for having stated the wrong color. How could she have done such a thing? Sometimes, it seemed like her brain and mouth crossed wires. Like one was moving faster than the other. “I’m sorry. I meant green.”

There was no point in dwelling on her mistake though. Of course, it was something she would have to be careful of in the future. She wouldn’t want to miss points on something so silly when she actually knew the answer. She was glad that Victor continued on with the answer to the second question. Focusing on his reply, she looked at the one he was pointing at, which did look bluer than the others. “I agree. So, that makes the third one something in between. Okay, so then this goes on to ask about the type of cauldrons.”

She was pretty sure she knew the answer, because it was a lot like jewelry. Gold tended to be more expensive than silver and depending on the gold could get more pricey like if it were white or rose gold. She figured cauldrons were like that. So, gold was probably the best with silver following behind, which left pewter at the end. Double-checking the book, she found what she was looking for. “It says here that gold cauldrons produce the best quality while silvers are second and pewters are a lower quality.”

She wrote the information they had collected so far on the sheet. Glancing down the paper, Kit frowned at the question that had to do with why one would use an endurance potion. She wasn’t sure about that question. She was skipping over the next couple of questions. “Oh, that one is a little difficult. It’s asking why the potion would be used. I really don’t know. Do you have any thoughts?”

0 Kit It's a group effort 363 Kit 0 5

Kellen Mormont, Aladren

November 04, 2016 2:04 AM

Here we go again... by Kellen Mormont, Aladren

Oh Potions. Practical, messy, potentially disastrous Potions. This was, without a doubt, Kellen’s favorite class. Granted, he had a bit of an advantage considering he grew up in an apothecary, and was raised by (in his totally unbiased opinion) a very gifted witch with a talent for potion making. The Aladren boy wasn’t super confident in many areas of his life, but he knew a lot about potions, ingredients, and muggle pop culture. Or so he felt.

As he settled into a seat near the front of class, he took out a scroll of parchment and a self inking quill in preparation for note taking. He understood why Professor O’Malley looked as she did. There were a lot of potions brewing in the class all at once! Quite the feat, he knew. As she asked the class what the girding potion was, Kellen opened his mouth to reply, but was beaten to the punch--by a first year. Kellen was both annoyed and impressed at the same time. This was his forte, he knew the answer, and she beat him to it. At least she was in his house, otherwise he would have really been kicking himself.

Kellen pulled out his textbook and flipped to the page on the girding potion and skimmed it as the professor explained the rest of the assignment. It seemed simple enough. She'd even mentioned that the potion in the highest quality cauldron would be the farthest along, so then it's just back tracking to figure out the other two. Unless this potion changed colors multiple times. Which, by the look of it, it did.

As he rose to get a better look into the cauldrons, it registered that they'd been instructed to work together. It seemed to him that the professors were out to get him, with all this partner work they suggested. Kellen’s greyish blue eyes scanned the room for a potential partner. Farrah was already working with someone, but the Teppenpaw 2nd year from his wagon seemed to be presently un-partnered. Jozua Sparks had been nice enough to him last term, and since they traveled together to and from school, Kellen figured he might as well get to know him a little bit better. The idea still made the Aladren a little nervous, so he took a moment to compose himself before approaching the other boy.

“Hey Jozua, would you be my partner on this? If you want to, I mean.” He asked, trying to hide the anxiety in his voice.

5 Kellen Mormont, Aladren Here we go again... 341 Kellen Mormont, Aladren 0 5

Jozua Sparks, Teppenpaw

November 04, 2016 10:40 AM

Goin' down the only road we've ever known by Jozua Sparks, Teppenpaw

Jozua settled down into a seat for potions. He often sat with Lily or Finn as they were the two people he knew best and therefore found easiest to talk to, but today that plan fell through as they both had found other friends today and he was left a bit at loose ends. He took a random empty seat for the lecture and when they were told to start work deciphering the cauldron compositions, he was a bit surprised to be approached by Kellen. He had nothing against the Aladren, and in fact they'd had a couple interesting conversations since he'd broken the ice by interviewing him for the yearbook survey, but this was now potions class and, quite frankly, Jozua was a bit surprised an Aladren wanted to work with the reigning champion of 'Most Likely to Cause an Explosion' here.

Of course, today wasn't a brewing day (at least, not for anyone but Professor O'Malley who had clearly done a lot of brewing today), so he supposed that limited his explosiveness potential, so that might explain it. "Sure," he agreed readily, having no such reservations about Kellen and figuring he was an excellent partner choice if Jozua wanted a good grade, which he did.

He remembered reading about girding potions in their last chapter of textbook reading, so he flipping his book open trying to find the relevant page. Finding it, he said, "here," and pointed out the important part. "As it gets closer to done it changes from blue to green."

He looked into the cauldrons they had at their table, frowning down into them. "Well, this middle one looks the most green, so I guess that's the best quality cauldron, but which is better for brewing? Silver or gold?" He knew it wasn't pewter because pewter was the cheap kind his mom had rejected as inferior. His cauldron was silver, but he wasn't entirely sure if she'd gone top of the line or just adequate when buying his supplies. "I mean, I figure gold is the most expensive because, well, gold, but isn't it a really soft metal? Wouldn't that be bad for brewing?"

1 Jozua Sparks, Teppenpaw Goin' down the only road we've ever known 348 Jozua Sparks, Teppenpaw 0 5

Professor O'Malley

November 05, 2016 12:44 AM

Green's always been a favorite of mine, as well. by Professor O'Malley

Being a teacher, like any profession, required a specific set of skills. Communication was key, given the necessity of lecturing. One had to be interesting and a little bit eccentric to keep the students’ attention, but getting too humorous or friendly could negatively impact learning as the students began to see the professor as more of a peer than an adult. It was a balance that Sophie personally struggled to achieve, given her somewhat goofy nature. A good professor was firm but approachable, friendly but authoritative.

For more personal success and the sake of one’s sanity, it was also a good skill to have to be able to block out the chorus of chattering voices when the students were released for personal discussions. Remaining attentive to each and every voice in a classroom could easily cause a headache, or worse. To that end, Sophie, as many professors likely did, had sort of learned to tune out the echoing mess.

But when a student (a young Teppenpaw, if she remembered correctly, called Ayla) approached her desk, it was time to snap back into it. Sophie heard every word the little first year said, although there was a pause before her response as her brain suddenly remembered and frantically reminded, Hey, dummy, you have to answer. “Of course,” said the professor with a smile. “It’d be on the on the shelf just over there, next to the counter with spare ingredients.”

Her hand instinctively went to her cheek as the girl pointed out the mark on it. Pale fingers slowly scraped across it. “You are correct,” Sophie laughed, her tone genuine. “Thank you, Ayla. I’ll have to clean up after class. For now, you run along and get that book.”

0 Professor O'Malley Green's always been a favorite of mine, as well. 0 Professor O'Malley 0 5

Kellen

November 05, 2016 1:50 PM

Like drifters we were born to walk alone? by Kellen

A wave of relief washed over Kellen when Jozua agreed to be his partner. He wasn’t particularly outgoing, so it was often hard to strike up conversations or ask for help, but this year he was all about self improvement and testing his boundaries. It seemed that his partner was ready focused on the task at hand and ready to jump into the assignment, something that Kellen could definitely appreciate. His anxiety made small talk uncomfortable, potions, however, happened to be a topic that was fairly comfortable for the boy.

“You're right.” Kellen said definitively as Jozua pointed out that passage in their text book. “So then the left, I think we both agree, is pewter.” Jozua brought up another good point about the gold cauldron and it being a softer metal. As far as he knew, his mom never used gold for her brewing, though he wasn’t sure of the reasoning either. The cauldron at home was copper, and the one he’d been sent to school with was brass, but his family was in the apothecary business, not cauldron making, so his knowledge on the subject wasn’t super deep. If anything, he was more impressed by the fact that the school could afford so many gold cauldrons. That couldn’t have been cheap.

“I definitely don’t think gold would be the best for it, but I guess it would depend on how much gold it is. You know? Like carats or whatever. If we just take it at face value, the green should be gold, but now I’m curious about it. I’d think that if you scratched your cauldron and got gold in your potion that it’d interfere with what you were trying to brew and you wouldn’t get the desired results.” Kellen knew it was cheating, but he really wanted to see what happened if he scratched the cauldron with the green potion. He refrained of course, as he wanted to get a good grade, but the temptation was there. He’d have to spend some time in the library reading up on his alloys.

“Silver they at least make serving dishes and flatware out of...so I feel like it should be more durable than gold, but I also tend to overthink things.”

5 Kellen Like drifters we were born to walk alone? 341 Kellen 0 5

Ayla

November 06, 2016 4:30 AM

Seeing green by Ayla

“Thank you! And you’re welcome.” Ayla said with a smile before turning her back to Professor O’Malley in order to continue her search for a cauldron book. She felt somewhat better after letting her know about the potion on her face, she would want someone to do the same for her, after all. The Teppenpaw girl’s green eyes scanned the bookshelf as she searched for the text the professor had mentioned. “Ah ha!” She exclaimed victoriously as she grabbed it from the shelf and made her way back to her partner and their potions. “Alright, Simon! We have the book!” She said with a grin as she set the text on the table and flipped it open to the table of contents.

The Teppenpaw turned her attention to her open potions text, and skimmed the directions for color changes. “So, it looks like the girding potion goes from blue to green when it’s close to finishing. If green is the end goal, we can assume that that is the highest quality cauldron, right? And then this bluey green one would be the next best, and then the blue. I think.” Ayla was hesitant to make any assertions. She thought she had a good idea of which cauldron was which now that she had the book open in front of her, but she didn’t want to come off too bossy or be wrong. She liked the idea of them coming to the conclusion together and was interested in what Simon thought as well. “What do you think, partner?” She asked, looking to him with a smile.

5 Ayla Seeing green 367 Ayla 0 5

Amelia Layne, Aladren

November 09, 2016 2:37 PM

I'd rather not paint it at all. Paint flakes too easily. by Amelia Layne, Aladren

If there was a subject at Sonora Amelia had approached without any anxiety, it was Potions. Her favorite uncle (and her only permanent, un-get-rid-of-able uncle, since Uncle Orville and Uncle Jeremy and Uncle Chris were just married to her aunts and godmother) was a potioneer, and while Lionel just tolerated Uncle Geoff’s desire to show him the ropes of the business and have him as an assistant, Amelia loved any chance she got to help out. Uncle Geoff sometimes annoyed her when she showed too much enthusiasm and he seemed to find it amusing and a little baffling that a girl would rather have a new potions kit than a new ribbon or doll, but he would usually let her help at least a little and so she felt comfortable with the tools of the trade and – admittedly, to a lesser extent, but still – the squishy things that went into said tools.

She was not, however, comfortable with having them on her face even for a moment and so winced at the sight of Professor O’Malley. She really, really hoped that potion on her cheek was just a smudge off a glove and hadn’t popped into the professor’s face while it was still hot. Amelia had had a drop of hot potion splash on her hand once and though Uncle Geoff had had burn cream, it had still made her cry.

Just in case, Amelia pushed her seat back a little from the potions over the surface of the desk in front of her in case one popped out. Maybe it wouldn’t, for whatever reason – something in the potion, maybe – be painful if a bubble did hit her, but she didn’t want to risk it. Burns were easy to cure, maybe, but until the cream got to them, they hurt.

Amelia smiled when Kit got the question right, but the smile faded a bit when she heard what the assignment was. Uncle Geoff had played games where he asked Amelia to identify one or another potion by appearance or smell before, but always with finished potions. Never this in-between stuff. She started to smile again when she looked at the girl she would apparently be sharing with, but was put off for a second by the direction not to get close.

It was only for a second, though, before the girl clarified that it was because one of the cauldrons smelled horrible. “There are definitely not enough potions that smell good,” she said. “I keep telling my uncle to work on that, but he says I’m silly. You can call me Amelia instead,” she added, since though she’d seen the other girl around the common room, she wasn’t one of Amelia’s roommates and they hadn’t been introduced yet.

16 Amelia Layne, Aladren I'd rather not paint it at all. Paint flakes too easily. 360 Amelia Layne, Aladren 0 5

Simon

November 09, 2016 3:20 PM

So we have an old copper cauldron, then? by Simon

Simon nodded solemnly to the assertion that Oregon was green and mountainy. “The sea is lovely, too,” he agreed.

He perused the steps to the Girding Potion while Ayla volunteered to ask Professor O’Malley about a book and returned with one in short order. He smiled, too, as she put the book down and began explaining what she concluded from it.

“I…well, I agree,” said Simon, trying to sort through his thoughts as quickly as possible. “A really thick-bottomed cauldron or a poorly joined one wouldn’t work as well. Here, though, since they’re different metals, I think how different metals heat is probably the, um, thing that makes them different?” His voice ended as though he were asking a question. He hated it when his voice did that. Father’s never did. “When I bought my cauldron, I remember seeing a sign that said brass cauldrons heat at a medium speed, and that gold and copper are very fast. I think?” He skimmed the table of contents of the new book, too. “If these are in order of speed,” he said, spotting copper, brass, and pewter on the list, “then silver is the very fastest, but do you think Professor O’Malley would bring this many sliver and gold cauldrons to class?”

As soon as he said it, he had thoughts. For one thing, Professor O’Malley was from a Family, so she might be able to afford such a thing, or borrow the cauldrons from one connection or another. For another thing, who was to say that every station had the same three cauldrons? There could be a number of mixes. Someone might even get a stone cauldron – Simon remembered seeing a glimpse of a something about one of those in one of the books in the library at home one of the times he’d dared to open a page of one of the books there he didn’t think he was really supposed to read. There were a lot of things he hadn’t thought of, but he had to start narrowing it down somehow, he guessed.

16 Simon So we have an old copper cauldron, then? 369 Simon 0 5

Victor

November 09, 2016 3:51 PM

And I can answer this question! by Victor

Victor didn’t really think much about Kit’s mistake. Things like that just happened. Sometimes your mouth decided to ignore what your brain was telling it to do, and it didn’t mean he thought Kit was stupid. After all, she was an Aladren, and you had to be clever to be in Aladren. There was a reason that he hadn’t been chosen for that house.

The problem of which type of cauldron was best was something Victor wasn’t too confident about. A very brief skim of the text hadn’t fully revealed the answer, and he was just starting to go through it more thoroughly (whilst trying to look as if he was just refreshing his memory, rather than reading it for the first time) when Kit found the answer. He jotted down what she’d just said, not entirely sure how that connected with the potions’ colours but not wanting to look stupid or give away that he hadn’t done the reading. After all, this was his first proper conversation with her, and he didn’t want her leaving the class unimpressed by Victor Callahan. Even worse, she might say something negative to Ayla, and Victor found himself wanting to impress her.

He brightened when Kit confessed to being unsure about the next question. He wasn’t enjoying her struggles, more glad that there was a question he could help her with. “Ah, well actually I do have a few ideas,” he replied confidently. This was, for him, an easy question. “Endurance potions are banned in lots of sports - like broom racing, for definite - because players cheat using them. So I guess athletes sometimes use them.” He understood why endurance potions would help an athlete, but personally he didn’t think it would be very satisfying to know you’d won a race just because you cheated. Surely that would just take away your reasons to be proud of yourself? You wouldn’t really be able to say you were the best if you’d needed the help of a potion to win!

“So, which cauldron do you think is which?” he asked, quickly giving the question to Kit before she could ask him. Hopefully she’d assume that he was just giving her the chance to answer.

9 Victor And I can answer this question! 368 Victor 0 5

Jozua

November 10, 2016 1:37 PM

Have we made up out minds? by Jozua

"On the other hand," Jozua continued the argument, ignoring the point about overthinking things because he firmly believed that was impossible. Even if the right answer was the simple obvious one, if you thought it out properly, you'd eventually come back to that one if you didn't give up as soon as you came up with a second theory that was more clever than the first. "If gold wasn't good for brewing potions in, there would be no reason for the expense of making a gold cauldron nobody would use except for rich idiots."

He thought about it for a moment. "You may be onto something with the carats thing. If it is mixed into a stronger alloy, it could very well be a better material than silver, and not as expensive as solid gold. Then, on a related note, silver tarnishes and that could introduce impurities. Also, there is a theory in some circles that gold actually gains some magical power due to how highly valued it is, which might aid in speeding along a brewing potion." It was a point of contention between his parents. Mom insisted there was no evidence of this and it was utter nonsense, but Dad insisted symbolism had inherent power and gold was an almost universally accepted symbol of wealth, so it benefited from that in most magical constructs that used it as a material. "But that's a controversial theory," he added, in case it was wrong.

He looked at the two further advanced potions in the black painted cauldrons, "So in conclusion, I have no idea which of those is made of gold."

1 Jozua Have we made up out minds? 348 Jozua 0 5

Kit

November 10, 2016 7:43 PM

We rock! by Kit

Kit nodded thoughtfully at what Victor was saying. “Yeah, that makes sense. Basically, misuse of potions in athletics. So, this one in particular gives the racers an unfair advantage by allowing them to continue longer than others, which would equal an unearned win. Actually…”

She looked back over the questions that she had skipped. Everything was connecting in her mind. “So, the quality of the cauldron affects the quality of the potions…” Kit flipped through the book again. “That means that the middle one is gold one and is the highest quality potion. The left one is the pewter and the lowest quality and the right one is silver, which is a mid-grade quality.”

Kit followed the line of questioning. She didn’t mean to take over, but academics excited her slightly. “And it makes sense for why the Girding Potion would be banned in sports, because if the potion were brewed at different levels then how powerful the potion is would affect the performance of the player. Well, really, it would affect the performance of anyone.” Kit jotted all of this on the sheet. She thought they were answering the questions pretty well.

“This looks pretty good,” Kit said, as she looked over their answers. “Great job with the Endurance Use.” She looked over with a grin. “I definitely wouldn’t have thought of misuse in athletics.” Being brought up by a socialite and being female, the only thing that she was supposed to know about athletics was to support whatever team the men in your family supported.

0 Kit We rock! 363 Kit 0 5

Ayla

November 12, 2016 1:54 AM

That's not on the list! by Ayla

Simon’s comment about the sea brought a smile to Ayla’s face. She definitely agreed. There was a certain kind of calm that could only be brought about by the rhythm of waves upon the shore and the scent of the ocean on the air. She missed it a little, now that she stopped to think about it. Thankfully, her attention was returned to their assignment as her partner started explaining different metals and how they heated up differently.

Ayla didn’t know a thing about the different metals when it came to cauldrons. Jewelry, however, she could talk about at length. It seemed to the young witch that Simon knew what he was talking about, so she felt confident in his theories. “So, in order of worst to best, pewter, gold and silver?” She asked, looking to him for confirmation. If that were the case, then they’d just have to figure out which color sequence the potion went through. Or at least that’s what made sense in her head.

When he asked whether or not she thought Professor O’Malley would actually have as many gold and silver cauldrons as were needed for the class Ayla could only shrug.

“She said as much. It’d be expensive, but not impossible.” She added with a smile. She knew that schools often times received donations, either financially or sometimes just with products. She couldn’t really imagine a scenario in which someone would donate a dozen golden cauldrons, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t happen. She knew from experience that sometimes big pure blooded families threw a load of money at different charities just for the prestige of being able to claim they did it later.

“It’d be a cruel joke if she just said that in her lecture and then mixed it up on us. With them all painted, I’m not sure how she could differentiate between them.”

5 Ayla That's not on the list! 367 Ayla 0 5

Farrah

November 12, 2016 4:35 PM

What would you prefer instead? by Farrah

Farrah gave a chuckle at the other girl’s comment. She didn’t really know a lot of potions aside from the ones that they made in class, but she would tend to agree with that sentiment. The ones that they did always seemed super gross and smelly. She had no idea that Magical people actually drank the stuff. It seemed… wrong. Why would anyone ever think about taking an eyeball, mixing it with some saliva and flowers and stuff, rotating it a few times, and bam, they have headache medicine? And who tested that stuff? Farrah thought that they shouldn’t ever learn how to make potions while in school because now that she knew what was in them, she never wanted to take one. It was why she never looked at ingredients in things or asked her parents how a cow becomes a hamburger. She just… didn’t want to know those things.

“Hi Amelia, I’m Farrah.” Farrah said, introducing herself. The girl had this random sort of humor to her that Farrah wasn’t sure was actually meant to be funny or if the girl was just talking and wasn’t aware of how things were coming out. “It’s nice to meet you.” Farrah added because that’s what people did. There were quite a few first year girls in Aladren and she was pretty sure Amelia was one of them. The badge on her robes helped confirm that for Farrah. This meant that maybe as a partner, Amelia wouldn’t be too bad. “So, I guess we’re supposed to figure out based on the stage of the potion what cauldron is what…” Farrah stated, reminding herself of what the day’s assignment was.

“It’s a bit strange, isn’t it?” Farrah asked the other girl. “Your Uncle works with potions, right?” Farrah assumed as much anyway since the girl made the comment on it earlier. “Do they use silver and gold cauldrons? The only ones I have seen when I go with my dad are the ones that I have, which is brass and then like the cheaper kind which pewter or whatever. I think copper is another one that they have, but I have never seen a gold cauldron. It feels like a waste because gold is so special. Why would anyone want to ruin it by throwing animal parts into it and cooking it?” Farrah was rambling now and there was a good chance that Magical people didn’t care about stuff like that.

“And on top of that, it can’t be that durable unless it’s like a copper cauldron that is gold plated or something. Do you think that the gold is actually the worst one because it’s not a sturdy metal the way silver or pewter would and this is a trick lesson because most people will think the more expensive metal is obviously the best choice?” She just said a lot right there and it probably made zero sense, but Farrah had a lot of opinions and they just needed to be shared.

6 Farrah What would you prefer instead? 344 Farrah 0 5

Victor

November 17, 2016 2:39 PM

Go team! by Victor

Victory! Kit thought he made sense! Of course he had made sense - if the subject was related to broom racing, Victor knew his stuff - but she didn’t think he was useless, and she didn’t seem to realised that he had perhaps forgotten to do the homework. That definitely equalled success in his eyes.

Then Kit seemed to have some kind of epiphany, and next thing Victor knew she was explaining the answers to the task to him, which he was definitely okay with. He noted down everything that she was saying on his answer sheet, aware that he’d forget it if he didn’t, and he did actually want to complete the task and get decent marks. He didn’t quite understand her further point about the Endurance Potion being used in sports - surely the fact that it wasn’t you doing the winning, but instead the potion, was enough? - but he decided that Professor O’Malley would probably like an extra-nerdy answer.

Victor shrugged as Kit complimented him, hiding his pleasure at being acknowledged as a genius (ha! As if - it was always Jehan who was the genius in the family) under an air of nonchalance. “Oh, well, I guess it’s easy to think of things like that when you’re into sports,” he replied. “And you’re the one who had the, um, the colour-quality brainwave.” Credit where credit was due, Victor would have struggled to link the two together.

All in all, things did seem to be going pretty well for them. “We make a good team,” he said, grinning back at Kit.

9 Victor Go team! 368 Victor 0 5

Kellen

November 28, 2016 6:42 PM

Wasting no more time by Kellen

“Fair.” Kellen stated, though he didn’t discount the fact that somewhere there were rich idiots with golden things just for the sake of them being gold. Sometimes things were just meant to be looked at, and weren’t meant to be used. Like his step-mother Marcie’s stupid china, but that was beside the point. Jozua was right, there was no point in them all having gold cauldrons if they were garbage when it came to brewing.

“I didn’t think about the tarnishing.” Kellen admitted, trying not to appear too crestfallen. “So silver and gold both have their downsides.” He listened with a furrowed brow as his partner explained the theory about gold. Intent had a big role in magic, though that pertained mostly to wand work, it didn’t seem completely out of the realm of possibilities. “That’s an interesting theory...maybe controversial, but there might be something to that.” He said as he looked back into the different cauldrons. It was bugging him that the didn’t have a clear answer, but it helped a little that Jozua didn’t know definitively either.

“I think…” He started hesitantly, “that I’m going to go with gold as being the best. It’s probably just because it’s the most valuable, but it just feels right in my gut. Not exactly a scientific reasoning, obviously, but since you mentioned the theory, it feels right to me.”

5 Kellen Wasting no more time 341 Kellen 0 5