First Years Potions Lesson 2

[Desideria Tapia]

Lessons were going fairly well. Only a few mishaps here and there. Thankfully most mistakes made were easy to fix, easy to clean up without too much trouble. It was a gift to make such wonderful potions and the woman was delighted her students were progressing nicely.

With the season changing, the dungeons were Damper and colder, calling for some adjustments to a number of potions. However, they were all adjustments Desideria had recorded in memory and notes for such occasions and knew were safe ones. The slightest of adjustments for the brewing time.

The normal three sets of four seating tables were available, all three were placed right to the front of the room. At this particular time her students were studying medical potions, and she figured they'd be good ones for the first years to learn, especially if it sparked their interest.

Pruning a winter plant at her desk, Desideria waited with words on the board behind her:

First Years
Boil-Cure Potion
D. Tapia

[Clayton Septim]

Potions. He had studied a lot about it so far for the past two weeks and the lesson they were doing today was probably going to be easy to answer and make. He said goodbye to his Hufflepuff buddies from second years to third years and walked to the dungeons. Making his way down there, he noticed a ghost running around acting all crazy and then a water balloon exploded onto Clayton's head. "Heh! heh!" the snickering little poltergist had did and ran off. However, his robes were like dry-quick robes, so in about 10 minutes, they would dry.

Making his way in. His hair was wet, and a few drops were made. "Um, Professor Tapia, do you have a towel or know a spell that drys clothes?" he asked. He didn't feel like sitting down wet.

[Christian Nagle]

Chris was glad to have avoided getting creamed by the water balloon, but he couldn't help laughing when his friend had been the unfortunate recipient of Peeves' attack. That poltergeist was getting a bit annoying.

Chris entered the dank, damp classroom (decidedly his least favourite), and took his seat. Looking up at the board, he saw that they were to learn about boil-cure potions. How lucky! Chris liked the Curing potions he'd read about. They seemed to achieve that level of assistance that Chris thought exemplary over any type of magic he could study. Maybe he didn't plan on being a doctor or anything like that (because clearly he wanted to play Quidditch for the rest of his life and his dream job would be to play on the British National Team!!!), but if he had the choice, ruling out Quidditch of course, doctor would be high on the list. He certainly had plans for doing well in Potions. It was an essential craft to hone. Chris smiled at these thoughts.

[Isabella Huntington]

Having rolled out of bed with only minutes to spare before Potions started, Izzy was half asleep when she left Gryffindor Tower and started her descent to the Dungeons. As she made her way down one staircase after another, her exhaustion was complicating things for her: her eyelids drooped several times, causing her to run into students each time. She was also too tired to walk properly, so she shuffled her feet instead, causing her to trip and stumble forward several times. None of these accidents changed her physical state, though... The last thing on her mind was running into people or objects. All she really wanted to do was go back to sleep. How much trouble would she get in for skipping a class?

But then, as she descended the stairs in the Entrance Hall and then crossed toward the Dungeons, something caught her eye: the house points hourglasses. She came to a complete stop in the middle of the Hall as she stared at the four hourglasses, forcing her tired eyes to look at them. Something was wrong.

Izzy made her way over to the hourglasses and found that she was no longer tired. No longer exhausted. Instead, she was surprised, angry, and frustrated. None of the hourglasses were all that full, seeing as how the school year had just started not too long ago, but three of them were full enough. The first year's green eyes made their way from Slytherin's hourglass, to Ravenclaw's, and then to Hufflepuff's, all of which had a decent amount of gems in them. Then her attention turned to Gryffindor's hourglass.

One ruby. One.

Her eyes widened as the competitive side of her kicked in. What the bloody hell was going on? Why did Gryffindor have only one house point?

With a rather loud grunt, Izzy stomped off toward the Dungeons - she didn't want to be late for class. She also wanted to talk to Chris, the only other Gryffindor in her year. Maybe he'd know what was up with the house points, which was what she immediately asked him as she raced into the Potions Classroom. "Why does Gryffindor only have one house point?" she asked him, anger evident in her voice.

[Christian Nagle]

Chris was startled when Izzy came rushing into the classroom, but even more upset by her question. ONE HOUSE POINT! WHAT?

"We got one house point?" Chris, clearly had not quite let the knowledge of the single house point accrued by the Gryffindor elite sink in until Izzy spoke about it. Now it seemed like such a shame on not only the students themselves but the house in its entirety. Come on, this is Gryffindor... Mighty Gryffindor! But Chris had heard rumours. Looking at Izzy, he informed her that something had happened with the prefect, "the pretty one... erm... Felicity I think," and some behavioural mishap. It sounded even stranger when he spoke the words than he had thought and he was certain Izzy must be confused. Chris knew he was.

"I guess we just have to make up for it on the Quidditch Pitch and in the classroom." He shrugged. "It definitely sucks, though."

[Clayton Septim]

Overhearing the conversation, he looked over to Chris and the other girl. "I saw that you guys had one point," he said. It was November, and they only had a point. But, he heard the same rumors as Chris did. "Oh, Felicity!? You showed me her one time in the hallway. She is a pretty lady. I wish I was her age!" he said laughing. Chris had pointed her out one time in the hallway, and Clayton had thought she was the prettiest girl in Hogwarts, even though she was one of the few girls he has seen in Hogwarts.

"I wish people would gets in here, Potions needs to start!" he said.

[Isabella Huntington]

Izzy watched her fellow Gryffindor intently as he gave her a small amount of information about what had happened regarding the house's prefect. He went on to say that they would have to make up for their pathetic number by participating in the classroom and winning some Quidditch matches. While she had no control over the broomstick sport, Izzy knew that she would do everything in her power to earn some points in each of her classes. There was no way that she would go down without one hell of a fight. It wasn't in her to give up, and she was sure that it wouldn't have been in Godric Gryffindor, either.

She had opened her mouth, ready to speak again, but a small Hufflepuff boy had beaten her to it. While she didn't know him too well, she was almost certain that his name was... err... Clayton. She was clueless about his last name, but she was sure that his first was Clayton. It was an odd name, a rare one. Pretty hard to forget. Then again, Izzy wasn't known for having the best memory, so as rare as the name was, it could very well not be the boy's actual name.

When Clayton, like Chris had done moments ago, mentioned that the Gryffindor prefect was pretty, Izzy couldn't help but roll her eyes. "Honestly," she started, frustration still evident in her voice, "Is that all boys think about? Girls?" She was sure that it was true, that girls were always on boys' minds, but she had never actually asked a boy. But despite her asking the question, it was the last thing on her mind at the moment. She wanted more information on the prefect - on Felicity. What exactly had gone on?

"But what happened?" she asked, giving Chris her complete attention once again. "What did she do to lose us all but one point?"

[Christian Nagle]

Chris could only shrug. He wasn't too sure himself.

"I dunno. It could have been anything, right? I mean it doesn't seem like Felicity to do something bad enough to lose us so many points." She seemed angelic to Chris; maybe it was magic, or the influence of it, that had made Felicity do something horrible. "Maybe she was put up to it by a Slytherin or had some kind of spell cast on her, or a jinx..." Chris thought he sounded crazy.

His mind turned over Izzy's question about girls being the object of boys' thoughts. He smiled. "Grils aren't all I think about, Izz. Quidditch is pretty important, these super cool shades," as he said this he flipped out his sunglasses (completely unnecessary for the dungeons but a necessary prop for the situation) and put them on, trying his coolest expression. "are also ... erm... integral to my first year survival. Girls probably rank fifth in me head - right after sleep." He poured as much silliness as he could into his tone of voice and body language. It was all meant to be a joke, something to get Izzy to laugh and maybe smile. Leaving his shades on - because they were, after all, really cool looking - he flashed Izzy a quick smile.

"Obviously there are more important things than girls on your average Gryffindor First Year Fella's mind, Ms. Huntington." And for kicks, he added, "We boys do need to stay sane, you know."

[Isabella Huntington]

Isabella had to agree with Chris when he said that it wasn't like their prefect to lose Gryffindor so many points. Felicity was, after all, a prefect, and weren't prefects supposed to set good examples for the students? In a few months from now, Izzy would come to realize that she shouldn't have been as angry at the girl as she was - she had no knowledge of what had happened that caused Gryffindor to lose so many points. Therefore, she had no right to be so furious at the older Gryffindor. However, Izzy wasn't thinking clearly at the moment. She was a stubborn, somewhat immature first year, and all she could think about was that her house was in last place. One point. How embarrassing.

Chris' attempt to make Izzy smile had been successful. She was powerless to hold back a laugh and roll her eyes at her classmate, who looked absolutely ridiculous wearing sunglasses in a room that was filled with very little light. It was also nice to know that boys did think about other things. Quidditch wasn't too much of a surprise for Izzy - it was classified as a sport after all, and she had been around plenty of boys to know that it was rare for those with testosterone to not like sports. The sunglasses were silly, as well as sleep... but she had to admit that sleep crossed her mind enough.

As the trio sat in the classroom, Izzy couldn't help but agree with Clayton. While potions wasn't exactly her favorite subject, she knew that class would need to start before it could end. Besides... the potion they would be making today, she saw as soon as she looked at the board, could come in handy in the future. Izzy never had boils before, but who was to say that she wouldn't? Just in case, though... the red head brought her fist down to the table and knocked on it three times.

[cronon]

Alexander lazily walked into the classroom, not really knowing whether or not he actually wanted to be there that day, or if it was just his nerves and anxieties talking. Potions wasn't his best class to begin with, and helping the first years with their potions only made him that much more nerve racked. What if he made a mistake, right in front of all of them? He was in his seventh year, and knew that his wand work was acceptable, but herbology and potions just wasn't right. Lucky for him, Seanna was helping him out. Though, she'd probably never realize, Alexander appreciated her greatly for helping him out... not to mention sticking with him as a friend through all his wishy washy-ness. It only made him more disappointed in himself for not being as open with her as she wished he would be... Alexander sighed and walked into the classroom.

Professor Tapia was sitting at her desk, doing something with her plant when Alexander walked up to her, a small polite smile gracing his features. The woman was someone that Alexander looked up to, and that was probably the only reason he continued assisting her in any way he could. Layla would never understand, and therefore, there were only so many times Alexander found himself in her presence after the greenhouse incident. She was a nice girl, but he felt minuscule around her.

"Professor Tapia," Alexander greeted with a smile on his face. "Sorry, I'm a bit behind schedule. I was cleaning up a mess in huffle..." he said, scratching the back of his neck nervously. Did he really have to tell the Head of House that he spilled all of his skin cleansing products.... he hoped not, but damn did they cause a mess in the boy's dorm before class. "I'm assuming you haven't started yet?" he said looking around the class.

[Desideria Tapia]

Glancing up from her plant every time a student entered, Desideria smiled warmly at all of them. This was her crop, her first real crop as a Professor, sure she taught the Second years for a while, but not right from the very beginning, only from halfway through the term. This was her first real class that she could claim as her own. And what a year they were turning to be. A great bunch of students, rarely many arguments that she could see and they seemed to all get along as a group. It was nice to see such unity amongst an entire year.

"Mr. Cronon, you're right on time, deary," she answered her assistant. He was turning out to be quite a lad as well. Learning, that's what he was really there to do under her guidance. And he'd learned quite a bit she thought. Working with the first years was likely better for him than working with his own year. There'd been a few looks from some of the students even she had noticed thrown at the boy, and for what reason? Did they think they were any better than the Cronon boy? Well shame on them if they thought so. "I was just going to start in a moment. Would you mind setting this in the back for me and I'll being the lesson?"

The plant was one of the most harmless of them all. Perhaps a little ugly, but it was a muggle plant, what could one really ask for in that department?

"'Ello dearies," the woman called out approvingly over her class. "Today, as you can see, we're learning the boil-cure potion, a near wrap up of our medical potions we've been going over. This potion in particular is quite 'andy at times, as I'm sure a good number of you can think of why. Now, who 'ere can tell me about this potion? Anyone?"

Class has officially begun, you may post as already being in attendance or as coming in tardy, however consequences always await

[Isabella Huntington]

It was as if Izzy's thoughts had been heard, because it seemed that just seconds after she found herself agreeing with Clayton, the Professor was bringing the class to order. The red head supposed that the hold up had been the older Hufflepuff boy, who Izzy had recognized from the last class. He was supposed to be some kind of assistant to the Professor... she wasn't sure of the full story though, as she hadn't really paid attention when the Potions Mistress had explained the prefect's role. She had been too busy waking up from the nap she took, which she would've probably taken again today, had she not been so surprised and outraged by Gryffindor's one point. Just thinking about it frustrated Izzy... it was definitely something she'd need to change. She refused to be in a house that was in last place, never mind one that had just one freaking point.

And once again, it seemed like her thoughts were answered when the Professor asked the class a question regarding the potion they'd be making today. There it was, the perfect way to win Gryffindor some points. So without hesitation, Izzy flung her hand into the air, not even thinking about the fact that she didn't have an answer. She only realized this after she called attention to herself, at which point her expression became one that a person could find on a deer, trapped in the headlights of a Muggle car.

'Boil cure potion, Izzy... You had to have read something about them when you skimmed the book,' she thought to herself. "Umm..." she stalled as she slowly lowered her arm and searched her mind for something--anything--to say.

Lucky for her, she had thought fast enough and within seconds, she quickly remembered the day when she had done some exploring and had come across a room she had thought was empty. Much to her surprise, she had found two girls already occupying the room. They sat on either side of a cauldron, reading off of a piece of parchment that happened to have the directions for making a boil cure potion. Izzy hadn't actually gotten close enough to the two to see what was written on the parchment, but she could tell it was a boil cure potion because one of the girls had skin littered with red boils. The other girl was the one doing the majority of creating the potion. At one point she had gone to add a certain ingredient, only to be stopped by the other, who had mentioned something about more boils...

"While this potion's purpose is to cure boils, one must be careful and alert when making it, unless they want boils instead of curing them. This would happen if..." she hesitated, trying to remember what the two girls had said. "...If porcupine quills are added to the mixture before the cauldron is taken off of the fire."

That was all Izzy had to say, as that was all that she had seen and heard before sneaking out of the room. Proud of herself for answering a question, a smile appeared on her face. So she hadn't worded her answer as well as Sydney, the Ravenclaw girl, had with her answer during the last class, but it was at least an answer. Hopefully she'd get points for it.

[Christian Nagle]

Tragically the shades worked well. In the dim light of the dungeon, Chris found himself rendered blind. Whatever was going on outside of the shades, Chris clearly could not see. It wouldn't benefit Gryffindor and their collective mission to regain points if he goofed off and kept the sunglasses on, so he sulkily removed them.

"I'm too cool for these shades," he muttered, hoping no one would hear him. Then class began. Izzy answered the question and Chris felt himself feeling the first pangs of house pride ... at least in the classroom; all other pangs of house pride had been spent, as had his voice, completely and inexorably on the Quidditch field against Huffleypuff. So these pangs of academic house pride were well overdue. Izzy was doing them proud, he thought.

Suddenly, without much warning, Chris sneezed in the direction of Clayton. He didn't remember feeling ill previously, but he didn't feel too amazing at the moment. He sneezed again. It seemed appropriate that he should be feeling ill when they began to talk about curing potions. He might need them sometime soon, the thought flashing like a tickertape (a muggle word he'd heard and found very funny) across his brain.

He sneezed a third time, feeling a little weaker after that last explosion of bogeys from his nose. Ewww...