Sixth and Seventh Years- Lesson Four- Term Four

[Desideria Tapia]

{ATTENTION ALL STUDENTS!- Please take note as to where this class is located. When you went down to the dungeons to attend Potions class today, you inexplicably ended up in the Divinations classroom! If you're looking for your Divination class, you won't find it here!}


These particular classes had been combined for the first time all year long. The reason was because her sixth year class was so small there was no reason not to include them into the larger setting of her seventh year class, especially when they were essentially doing the same thing this time around. Today, this late evening, her students would be concocting their own choice of potion for Desideria. The point of this was for her students to impress her with their talent. Each one had their own level of talent and she wanted to see if she was correct in her guessings of who would be excellent at her career.

A few had already asked for letters of recommendation, which she had happily supplied to those who'd asked. The desks were set up as per usual, squared off tables that sat four to each, to provide some with the comfort of being able to use another's knowledge if need be, and just far enough away to keep to one's self in the room.

Everything was set in place, cauldrons were lined up in their assigned areas, extra supplies lined the counters (low in stock as prices had continued to rise since the previous summer and she could only supply a little at a time that she was unable to gain from Professor Davenport or the Green Houses). Well, everything was in place except her classroom. The complaints of students still hadn't registered all day and she was in no mood for such ramblings, her class wasn't where it should've been.

On the board behind the woman knitting was written:

Sixth and Seventh Years
Choose Wisely
D. Tapia

[Sophia Crawford]

Sophia popped out of the portrait hole and strolled to the Dungeons a little earlier than normal. As much as she struggled in Potions, she still loved to learn and still found components of the topic to be enthralling. She entered the quiet dungeons and was slightly shocked. She looked around the room, but nothing about the room looked anything like the dungeons. It was...it was in a tower. She had somehow been transported into a tower. She looked out the windows and recognized it to be the Divination classroom, of all the places. Sophia put a confused hand on her head and looked at the professor. It was a good thing she had left a little early; she needed time to recuperate from yet another one of those Hogwarts miracles. She took her spot near her cauldron and placed her bags under the counter. She looked over at the board for the lesson plan, but it seems that it was all up to her today.

"Choose wisely." She murmured to herself. What potion would best satisfy the class today? She began to leaf through her book, Advanced Potion-Making by Libatius Borage, to see if she could find a potion that would prove she could make one decently.

[Connor Manning]

Connor took one last quick look around the owlry as he worked his way to the door, knowing his letter would be delivered safely. He walked down the hallway, his back pack hanging off of his left shoulder, an open book in his hands. ' 100 Ways to Tickle a Sleeping Dragon - a student's history of Hogwarts ' So far it was actually a rather good read. He was only several halfway through it, but the story had already launched Connor back several hundreds of years with stories of students who had attended Hogwarts when it first opened. The perspectives constantly jumped back and forth between various students, although now it seemed to be going between the points of views of a wayward Hufflepuff and a loud and obnoxious sounding Gryffindor.

One thing that really puzzled Connor were the references to Divination in the book. It seemed as if the subject had been rather popular back in those days, and he had some questions about it. Like the Grim for instance. Connor knew it was an omen of death, everyone knew that, but were there other omens of death as well? He glanced down to the book in his hands, scanning for the passage that specifically mentioned the Grim to see if he could show Professor Fletcher what he meant. He didn't actually have the woman's class, but he felt she would be alright with him coming to her with his questions.

After a moment or two of looking, he came across the paragraphs written about divination, and primarily, specific omens. It was from the Hufflepuff's perspective as she talked about the class and spoke of how her grandmother had been a Seer. Connor looked around the corridor, placing his bookmark on the page he wanted to show the Professors and closed it, his eyes searching for the Divinations classroom. As he had never been there before, it took him some time, but with the help of a younger student, he was able to locate it.

" Professor Fletcher, I had some.... " Connor announced as he walked into the room only to find that it wasn't the Divinations classroom at all. In fact, it looked suspiciously like the potions one he was due in for class in about ten minutes. He slid his book into his pack back as he looked around, spotting Sophia and Professor Tapia, who was knitting. Did she know her room wasn't where it was supposed to be? He guessed so, for how could she not. He looked back out into the hall way, saw it was still the one that led to the Divinations classroom and then closed the door behind him as he took another step into the Potions room, feeling jumbled and confused.

A wonder of Hogwarts, he supposed. He seated himself down next to Sophia and decided that he would have to try and locate Professor Fletcher when he had a free period to ask his questions.

[Anna Becket]

Yawning slightly, the Gryffindor slowly crawled from the portrait hole and made her way to the grand staircase to make to long journey to potions class. Anna knew how long it would take to get from the seventh floor to the dungeons so she braced herself this time to leave a little earlier than normal so the walk there wouldn't turn into a sprint against the clock to get there in time. It really was a shame brooms couldn't be used inside the castle, might be more useful to wake her up in the morning with a little excitement.

Strolling the last flight of stairs, Anna went even deeper to the all so familiar darkness of the dungeons and opened the door. "What the bloody-" Anna started but cut herself off. There where windows and actual light streaming through them. This wasn't the dungeons obviously but how in the world did the gryff end up here? Perhaps she was a little more tired than she thought. Taking a quick peek outside, Anna concluded that they had to be in a tower of some kind. The divination classroom did not come to mind since she didn't take the subject but at least it cleared up things as so did the note the professor left while knitting something.

Choose wisely? What is that suppose to mean like a potions free for all?" Anna thought taking a seat and taking the supplies out. Todays class was just plan strange and might get worse when the lesson actually started.

[Drew Thornton]

Drew started out for Potions a little bit earlier than he usually did, making the trek all the way down to the Dungeons and opening the classroom door to see Professor Fletcher's room on the other side. With a small smirk, he excused himself to the room's occupants and made the climb up to the Divination classroom, taking the steps two at a time.

He opened the door that usually led to the Divinations room and there was Potions, looking as normal as usual. No one else seemed to be bothered by the sidetrack, so he wasn't going to mention it. He took a seat in his usual spot and got his things ready for class.

[Henry Lordings Jr.]

Henry strode down through the castle with not a care in the world save the book which lay open in his hands as he walked. He read over the manifest of ingredients needed for the Essence of Euphoria once or twice before flipping to the back of the book, to the very last set of instructions which were headlined: Felix Felicis: The Draught of Luck. Felix Felicis was something Henry had always wanted to make, not for it's use, no, for Henry, Felix Felicis presented a challenge, and if there was one thing that Henry appreciated above all others, it was a good challenge. Felix Felicis was easily one of the most complicated potions in the world, incorporating over eighty ingredients and a six month brewing time, during which, there was over five thousand stirring cycles; Small wonder the later fifth of the book he was holding was devoted to directions for the potion alone.

As he read down the sizable list of expensive, rare, dangerous, or otherwise difficult ingredients, Henry's feet carried him down to the dungeons where he walked through the halls without watching where he was going, though, as his feet seemed to know the way, he hardly needed to watch. He turned corner after corner, finally turning into the potions classroom. So engulfed Henry was by the directions to the creation of liquid luck that he didn't notice the sudden change in the quality of the light or the roundness of the room he had stepped into whereas the dungeon classroom was on the rectangular end. No, Henry didn't notice a thing out of the ordinary until he took his seat in the mid section of the classroom and placed his book down on the table across whose surface shone a patch of fine sunlight.

Henry's eyes swept the patch briefly as he leaned down to place his bag on the floor and withdraw his supplies from it, but before he could do so entirely, his mind registered what it had seen, and he straitened up. Once again, he let his eyes fall upon the bright patch of sunlight, which he stared at for a moment before looking around. He was sitting in the tower room that he knew only too well. The tower-placed Divination classroom was in it's element with it's fireplace and bright windows; A woman sat knitting before a blackboard upon which shown the words:

Sixth and Seventh Years
Choose Wisely
D. Tapia

Either Henry had figured out how to apparate inside the school grounds, or this was some trickery thrust upon them by the school's professors; Henry thought the later the more likely circumstance. For one moment he took in his gloriously unexpected surroundings before his attention returned in full to the board: Choose Wisely. It was rather like Christmas coming early to Henry's score, potions was one of his favorite subjects, and now he was allowed a free reign in the choosing of his assignment; His hand flicked back through the pages to: Essence of Euphoria: The Elixir of Excessive Singing; Well, thought Henry, at least the author of this one has a sense of humor.

Henry had made the potion only once before, however, it had been at the heel of his mother, and she had some rather useful tricks where potion-making was concerned. Technically the potion would take two hours, but that was with the stirring instructions from the book, Henry could churn it out in forty-five minutes if he could remember all of his mother's modifications to the instructions; He also seemed to remember her adding a sprig of peppermint, but he couldn't quite work out where he had gotten that idea from.

[Felicity Hjort]

It was...weird. Felicity was making her way down to Potions but it seemed everyone in her class was making their way...opposite of where she was going. They did have class, didn't they? Stopping in the corridor, Felicity somehow managed to dig her old schedule out of her bag and double check it, they had potions that day, double potions even. Giving odd looks to those she passed when she knew they were supposed to be in her class, she continued down to the dungeons and entered the room her class was supposed to be in...only to find out it wasn't the potions room. Instead, it was a classroom she hadn't ever seen the inside of before, where was she? But the professor in the room scared her slightly as she didn't know who she was.

Backing out, Felicity ran the other way, trying to catch up with the last person that had just passed her, on their way around the castle,. It took forever, but following this person, losing them a million times, she saw Henry round a corner and pop into a room and she quickly ran to catch up, afraid of being left behind.

Upon entering the class, she looked around amazed to see the potions room looked like it had removed itself from the dungeons and relocated...wherever it was they all were. It took a moment for Felicity to decide that Tapia must have made a note to them that they were meeting outside their classroom as per normal and she just missed it. However, her mind didn't linger too long when she saw Drew in the class. She had forgotten (though soon remembered) the classes were combined this time around.

Nearly running to the boy, paying no nevermind to anyone she might have run into or over, she slid her arms around Drew's neck excitedly, pushing herself into the seat next to him. He had told her before that Hiro and he often worked together, but there was still room at the table for him as well.

"Evening, love," she greeted him softly, eyes brightening at the prospect of having another class with him.

[Drew Thornton]

"Hello, Darlin'..." Drew answered with a wide grin, not minding in the least that she sat next to him. He usually worked with Hiro, but the table was big enough for more and Drew had been looking forward to sitting in another class with the pretty blonde Gryffindor.

Tapia continued with her knitting and Drew figured she'd do so until the class started. That would give them a few moment's to goof off a little as well as figure out what they would do in this particular class.

[Henry Lordings Jr.]

Henry looked around as the door opened; His eyes followed the girl who entered from the time she set foot into the room to the moment she sat down with the Head Boy at the room's other end. He quickly busied himself setting up the materials he would need; His cauldron, ingredients, the small burner that he could set beneath the cauldron, and a range of tools that would be needed for the preparation of the ingredients. His mind hadn't been able to wander far from the events that had taken place in the great hall several days ago. The look on Felicity's face...her fear...stood out horribly vividly in his mind; It tortured him almost constantly; Tortured him far worse than anything he could have imagined, anything he had ever seen before...

Henry's hand shook as he reached into the old enchanted cigar box he used to store his unusually large, and diverse stocks of potions ingredients, and, as a result, his hand fumbled on the small glass jar that contained sprigs of peppermint. His wand hand had taken to shaking violently, and uncontrollably when he saw Felicity in corridors and classes, though, where the later was concerned, the effect wasn't quite so bad, the reasons why this was, Henry could not discern. As a result, he had taken to avoiding her in the halls wherever possible, and, if he could manage it, stay as far away from her inside the classrooms. When he had no choice but to be near her, he would make himself very small indeed, and avoided drawing attention of any sort, though, it wasn't his own feelings that wrought this change in him. Surely she hates me, Henry thought. Surely that fear had been her belief that he had intended her harm, and, if that was so, then he could not, and would not inflict his presence upon her more than was necessary; He was not so cruel. He had foolishly brandished a wand at a person he barely knew, with good intentions perhaps, but the ends could not justify the deed. Surely she hates me, Henry thought once more, and, he couldn't help but add, And right she is, to do so.

His hand gave a particularly pronounced jerk, he clenched it into a fist to steady himself, then, more to give his eyes a task than anything else, he began checking his readied supplies against the list of required ingredients marked in Advanced Potion Making.

[Sophia Crawford]

After flipping through page after page after page after page, Sophia's eyes flew to the perfect potion. "Aha!" she yelled rather loudly. She stopped and looked around to make sure she didn't look too crazy. It was a potion that was worth making, not one of those dumb ones that created boils. It was the Draught of Peace. It was perfect.

The Draught of Peace will calm anxiety and soothe agitation. Stir clockwise until water is boiling, add powdered moonstone, stir three times counter-clockwise, allow to simmer for seven minutes then add two drops of syrup of hellebore. Simmer for six more minutes, bring the heat up until the bubbles on the surface are Galleon-sized, stir seven times clockwise and add the powdered newt eggs. For the next fifteen minutes, allow potion to boil while adding one drop of essence of ragwort per minute. Stir clockwise for the first five minutes and counter-clockwise for the last five minutes, no more than 30 times per minute. Lower the heat and simmer until a light silver vapour rises from the surface. Slowly stir eight times clockwise, then nine counter-clockwise, then six times clockwise again. A thimbleful of powdered valerian stalks must be added as soon as you extinguish the fire; it offsets the poisonous properties of hellebore and completes the potion.

Peace...that was something that the world needed now more than ever, both the Muggle and the Wizarding. Sophia always wanted to make the world a little bit better, and by learning how to create this potion, surely something good would come of it.

"Now...what will I need today?" She skimmed through the directions quickly, knowing that she needed at least thirty minutes to complete the potion. "Powdered moonstone, syrup of hellebore, powdered newt eggs, essence of ragwort, powdered valerian stalks...that's it?" Those were all pretty common ingredients and the young girl looked unconvincingly at the directions. Didn't she need something ridiculous for peace, like the tears of an orphan or something?

Well, she wasn't about to ask questions. "It's business time." Sophia said as she happily got the ingredients out and warmed up the water in her cauldron. She was excited that the Professor thought they were capable of choosing their own potions, and that she gave them such freedom. It was probably the best potions class Sophia could remember, but that wasn't really saying much. The girl could barely remember what happened yesterday, let alone last Term. Maybe a memory potion would've been wiser...

[Felicity Hjort]

Grinning at how Drew greeted her, she let her arms fall from around his shoulders to find his closest hand. Having a class with the seventh years was always more fun in Felicity's opinion, because she got to see more of her friends and of course Drew. Also, sometimes the things they learned were more interesting.

Though, she knew this lesson they were doing something altogether different, they were going to make a potion of their own choosing to brew and show their improvement over the course of the school term to the professor. This was a neat idea to Felicity, she liked thinking on her own feet about making a potion that suited her.

Glancing around the room, Felicity noticed many familiar faces, but her eyes trailed over Henry's the longest. She still hadn't spoken to him about what he'd done, she was too afraid to. Drew told her he hadn't meant it, and she knew he hadn't, but that didn't change the fact he had done it and frightened her. Digging through her bag with her one free hand, Felicity pulled out her potions book so she could flip through it and figure out a potion to brew. While this was one of her best classes, she hadn't thought much about it and knew that with class going to start soon she had to decide on something.

[Drew Thornton]

It was kind of hard to thumb through his potions book with Felicity's hand in his under the table, but he managed by using the other and crossing over awkwardly to flip the pages. He was looking for a particular potion, confident enough in his brewing abilities that he could do it on a first read-through. Of course, he wasn't sure what Felicity wanted to do or even if she wanted to work in tandem.

"You have any ideas?" he asked her, turning his head slightly to look at her. "Were you going to do your own, or did you want to work together?"

[Felicity Hjort]

Drew started to flip through his book as she had, but none of the potions looked like something she really wanted to brew. There were the simpler potions, ones they had all ready done in class such as the love potion, there were things like the numerous draughts that were tricky and dangerous, but none appealed to the young blonde as she searched over and thoroughly for one.

"None," she answered quickly. "No idea, I haven't thought about it very long," she giggled against him. "But don't you work with Hiro anyway?" She didn't want to move in on them and make things bad for the two of them.

[Drew Thornton]

"Well, I think we need to pick something we can do in a class period," he answered as he continued thumbing through his text, thinking it was tempting to go with a really difficult potion that took months to brew, but that would do them no good when it had to be graded that day. The key was to find a challenging potion that could be finished in an hour or two.

"Hiro? Well, yeah," Drew answered, but it was a well known fact that Hiro was way better in potions than Drew ever was. "But all he needs me for is to check when the color changes. I can work with both of you, can't I?"