Substitute Professor Yu
November 12, 2016 10:08 PM
[Advanced Class] It's never too late for a comeback. by Substitute Professor Yu
It had been years since she had set foot in the halls of Sonora. She could still remember the nervous reasons that had set her off, the fear that had filled her as she tried her best to do her job and avoid him. After leaving she had found a new job in an apothecary and she was quite happy taking logs and stocking shelves. She liked helping customers find what they needed and she liked being allowed to experiment in the backroom on her breaks. All in all, she was quite happy and she didn’t have any want to return to Sonora and teach again until, for whatever reason despite the employ of a full-time substitute teacher, she was needed to return and give a potions lesson.It was early Friday morning when Diana Yu walked into the Potions classroom and began her preparations for the advanced class. She had arrived early enough that no one else should have been in the classroom hallways but late enough that she’d been able to eat breakfast before the class and avoid the staff breakfast table. She was not prepared to face a class of students that she had not seen since they were twelve and thirteen years old, and when the first of the advanced students walked through the classroom door she had to remind herself to breathe.
“Good morning,” she said once the full roster appeared to have shown up. “I’m glad you could all make it today. Professor O'Malley has left me some notes about what you all are studying and so I’ve arranged some ingredients and potions lists on the various tables.
“By now you should have a rather thorough knowledge of potion ingredients and the effect that tweaking the instructions just the slightest can have. Certainly it is possible to substitute animal ingredients with ‘vegetarian’ or ‘vegan’ options, this tends to yield a slightly weaker potion. However, it is possible to also alter other aspects of a potion. Sometimes the required ingredients are not on hand, other times they are compromised.
“Today, you’ll be selecting a potion from the list and doing something different from the instructions. Likely nothing will blow up in your faces, but that’s why I’m here. To put a stop to any sort of deadly experimenting. Otherwise, please help yourself.”
OOC: No one should die but if you’d like to burn off your eyebrows or get spots on your face or melt your cauldron go ahead and do it :) Regular posting rules do apply.
Subthreads: Back to one of my favorite things. by John Umland, Aladren
As I already started writing this... by Savannah Brockert, Teppenpaw
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Substitute Professor Yu
[Advanced Class] It's never too late for a comeback.
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Substitute Professor Yu
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John Umland, Aladren
November 30, 2016 6:35 PM
Back to one of my favorite things. by John Umland, Aladren
As John walked into Potions class, his mind was not really on his work. Instead, it was on a girl.To Umland – you notice I don’t say ‘dear’.
That was how the letter in his bag began. If John had ever foreseen a circumstance under which Lenore Crowley wrote him a letter, he guessed he would not have been surprised to find it was one that began that way. He was not terribly surprised by her handwriting, either; it was firm, energetic, and a bit of the last century. How she had continued, though, that had proven a surprise. You abandoned a set of notes in a book in my library, she had continued, and John had experienced a moment of pure terror before remembering he had had the sense not to write anything he wouldn’t want anyone else to read in that house. It took me quite a while to obtain the books I needed to decipher them, but now that I have, I must object to what appear to be your thoughts on the relationship between metals and living substances in Transfiguration.
This had been followed by five pages of argument, which suggested she had actually somehow gotten her hands on a physical science book and obtained a surprisingly decent understanding of its contents. John’s first reaction had been annoyance (he knew perfectly well that his thoughts on the subject had at least some merit, as he had put some of them into practice last year when making Joanie’s amulet), but his second had been shock. A pureblood had actually read a science book just to argue with him. That…was not something he knew how to respond to, really. It wouldn’t have troubled him if she’d been on the Quidditch team, but she wasn’t. And when he took that into account along with other strange intelligence he had received….
Uncertainty and self-doubt were emotions John was experiencing more and more often. He was not growing any more accustomed to them. This was why he was not really thinking about Potions or Professor O’Malley when he entered the Potions room and so took a good second or two to realize that the woman he waved vaguely to on his way past her did not, even in his peripheral vision, look much like Professor O’Malley. Blinking, he walked backwards a few steps and looked at her properly.
“A – ah, hello,” he said stupidly, before he realized that he knew who she was. “Oh – I know you,” he added, and, deciding this had not been a helpful comment, decided to just go to his seat instead of saying anything else. Better to be silent and thought a fool than to open his mouth and prove himself…even more of one than he already had, anyway. This did not look like it was going to be his day, or at least did not until Professor Yu started talking.
John stared at her for another moment from his seat, wondering for a moment if he had heard what he thought he heard, and then smiled broadly. Oh, this was excellent. This was going to be fun!
John was still smiling as he opened his book and started looking for something interesting. His eye fell on Everlasting Elixirs – already themselves modifications to other bases to extend their longevity by no small measure. Also fiendishly complicated to make and magically set. The modifications for the Elixir to Induce Euphoria, he noticed, contained a trace of a powdered, heat-treated amethyst – a specific note which made him frown for one second. He had a tiny amount of normal powdered amethyst, but none of the heat-treated stuff, which was more expensive and had fewer applications.
Made sense, though, of course. Amethyst and topaz were both useful in potions and certain charms meant to soothe – amethyst most famously in rather expensive hangover cures. Presumably, the treatment, which changed the color, also did something to the stone’s function, making it more fitting for a potion designed to provoke euphoria. If he was right, adding a bit too much might well result in permanent, or at least very long-lasting, insanity; this was one of those relatively nasty potions they learned in Advanced, now that he thought about it….
John looked back at his potions kit. Change something up. He could see if he was right, he supposed, by making the potion with regular amethyst and seeing what happened. That would work, he decided. He put the book up on a stand and opened his kit.
“This is going to be fun,” he observed happily to his neighbor. “Which one are you doing and what are you doing to it?”
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John Umland, Aladren
Back to one of my favorite things.
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John Umland, Aladren
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Savannah Brockert, Teppenpaw
December 03, 2016 3:51 PM
As I already started writing this... by Savannah Brockert, Teppenpaw
When Savannah entered Potions, she was surprised to see that Sophie was not there. Instead, Professor Yu, who'd been the previous professor was heading the class and while that was not unwelcome, she had to wonder what had happened to her cousin's wife. Was she or Ryan or one of the boys ill? Savannah really hoped not but that was obviously the most logical conclusion, though surely Scarlett would have come up with something way more out there.Of course, her sister was not in this class. Potions was actually the only class that Savannah was taking that neither her sister nor her boyfriend was in-though of course Chaslyn was. Her cousin was in every single class except Muggle Studies due to Aunt Jillian's rather unsurprising dislike of Muggles. The Teppenpaw seriously had no idea how her cousin did everything. Of course, it wasn't as if Chaslyn didn't suffer for it but still, just how were there ever enough hours in the day? Not to mention all the non-school related subjects and whatnot. It was at a point where Savannah was starting to seriously worry about her cousin's physical and mental health. No wonder Amity had told Aunt Jillian where to stuff it more or less.
As she heard today's instructions, all thoughts of her family and their health flew out of her head. This sounded kind of fun! Savannah was definitely curious as to see how this could alter the outcomes of whatever potion she'd choose. Would it work the same? Would be just a weaker version of the existing potion? Or would it just be totally different?
She was determined to find out.
As it turned out, Savannah had recieved the Swelling Solution. Interesting. She quickly scanned the instructions.
Part 1
Add 2 scoops of dried nettles to the mortar
Add 3 puffer-fish eyes to the mortar
Crush into a medium-fine powder
Add 2 measures of the crushed mix to your cauldron
Heat on a medium temperature for twenty seconds
Wave your wand
Leave to brew and return in 60 minutes (depends on the type of cauldron used)
Part 2
Add 1 bat spleen to the cauldron
Stir 4 times, anti-clockwise
Heat to low for 30 seconds
Wave your wand to complete the potion[2]
She figured the best way would be to replace the bat spleen with the rat spleen. After all, it was...still a spleen. Scarlett would likely say it was perfect because it was only one letter off and it couldn't get closer than that without being the same thing. That was how her sister thought. Of course, the same could be said for a cat spleen but she didn't necessarily want to butcher someone's pet. And this was something that if you were in a desperate enough situation, a rat would be easier to catch and butcher than a bat. After all, rats were more common and didn't fly. Flying things were harder to catch like when you tried to swat a fly.
Savannah set up the first part of the experiment as her changes would come about in the second half. While she waited, for the potion to brew, she took out her potions text so she could study.
Finally time was up, and she eagerly added in the rat spleen, only to be struck by a putrid smell that turned the inside of her cauldron a sickly green. She decided the best course of action was to finish out the instructions.
Which helped only slightly. It still stunk but not quite as bad and she thought that her cauldron might actually be, well, swelling up.
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Savannah Brockert, Teppenpaw
As I already started writing this...
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Savannah Brockert, Teppenpaw
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