[ttd] share and share alike [gideon]

Somehow Isis had finished all her homework and had an entirely free evening stretching out in front of her. She'd finished dinner, which had been quite an excitable affair, dominated by one of the fourth year boys who had received something called a Skiving Snackbox from his British penfriend. Apparently they were different types of candy that caused a temporary illness to allow a student to skip a class they weren't interested in. Isis wasn't at all sure why anyone would want to make themselves sick, but when the boy had insisted on handing out a candy to everyone around the table, she had taken one, not meaning to use it.

Now, out in the grounds, she examined the sweet. Wrapped in bright pink shiny paper with the words Fainting Fancy in orange script it looked quite innocent, but she still had no intention of trying it in class. It felt rude not to at least unwrap it thought, so she carefully untwisted the cellophane, expecting to find something unattractive and sludge coloured, not the same shade of pink as the wrapper and smelling deliciously of raspberries, with a large F embossed on one end.

She glanced around. There didn't seem to be anyone else around, so she supposed she might as well try it, just nibble a little bit off one end and see if anything happened. Really, the second year didn't expect anything was going to happen so she did more than nibble, instead taking a big bite of the candy and chewing. Delicious!

Precisely five seconds later she crumpled to the ground in a dead faint.

@Gideon Salinger

Gideon liked his job and he really liked kids. Sometimes he felt like one of them. Despite being in his thirties now, the professor felt like a big boy instead of a real man a lot of the time. He wished he could brew a potion that would age him down enough so he could go back to school as a student at least for a year or so. He had had a blast during his school years.

He had partly chosen to become a professor because he thought that being back at Ilvermorny would bring back the feelings he had had as a student. To some degree that had also worked. After all, he was back here with his best mate Ricky Cortez.

After dinner the man liked to take a walk through the grounds. It was part of his job but also something he really enjoyed. Especially when the sun was standing low, creating a lovely atmosphere.

He was inhaling deeply when he spotted a figure on the ground. Almost forgetting to exhale again, Gideon sprinted towards the little girl and knelt down next to her. He found the paper with the words fainting fancy on the ground and immediately knew what was going on. Ever since the skiving snackboxes had found their way into Ilvermorny he had the counterparts to these ‘sick making sweets’ in his pockets. He reached inside his pockets and retrieved a whole lot of items from skiving snackboxes. Scanning through them, he quickly found the right one and put it into Isis’ mouth.

He didn’t have to wait long for the effect. “Why did you take this in the evening?” he asked. Usually students used these ‘sweets’ to get out of class, not to spoil their freetime.

Isis opened her eyes and blinked, wondering for a moment while she was lying down and why Professor Salinger was leaning over her. "It worked..." she murmued in surprise, reaching up to rub her face. A moment later, she sat up, smacking her lips as she realised she was apparently still eating the sweet, though even as she noticed she felt it dissolve the rest of the way on its tongue.

"I wanted to see what it would do...if it really worked, I mean" she said, sitting up and stretching. She felt nicely comfortable, as if she'd just taken a nap. She liked Professor Salinger too, but she didn't really want to say too much because then he might ask where she'd got the candy from. Isis wasn't the kind of girl who would knowingly get her housemates in trouble and besides, she didn't think snackboxes were exactly banned, just frowned upon.

She picked up the dropped wrapper and folded it neatly, putting it into a pocket so it wouldn't litter the school grounds. "Sorry if I scared you, Professor. I didn't really think it would work that fast. I'm fine now" she said. Nor had she even eaten it all, but she wans't about to go looking for the rest. She just hoped some rat or bird didn't find it and decide to eat the bit that was left!

Putting her hands out onto the grass, the second year started to push herself to her feet, but stopped abruptly as she realised she'd put her hand into something unexpected. "Ick" she muttered as she examined the small black balls now coating part of her palm. "Professor, are these..?" she had been going to say 'poop' but stopped herself just in time, realising there was no smell. They almost looked like tiny eggs of some kind.

The girl said that it worked and Gideon raised his eyebrows a little. “Yes,” he then said, looking down at Isis. While the potioneer quite liked it when he found people who willingly tried out some creations, not too worried about what might happen, he would never encourage anyone to try a potion or an item from the skiving snackbox without supervision. It was risky, after all. Isis was lucky that he had been around to help or she might have spent some time here on the ground.

“I see,” Gideon said as Isis explained herself. “Well, if you want to try things out next time, please, don’t do it alone.” He hated being a killjoy. It wasn’t in his nature to play the role of the responsible adult even though he was a professor. However, a student who just tried things to see what they’d do was seriously at the risk of killing themselves.

“I have some fun potions you could try in safe surroundings if you like,” he didn’t say that ‘safe surroundings’ basically meant in his presence, though.

“Yes, I can see that,” Gideon said, smiling at the young student. She was fine. The skiving snackboxes while banned from school in general were not all that dangerous if one had the counterpart to every sickness causing sweet anyway.

Isis put her hands on some small black eggs and Gideon wondered if she was thinking the right thing but wasn’t going to ask her what she thought these were anyway. They weren’t in a classroom now. He could just tell her what they were looking at.

“Those are doxy eggs,” he said. “I’d strongly recommend that you do not eat them to see what happens. They are quite poisonous.”

Feeling rather foolish, Isis stared fixedly at her feet. "Sorry... I won't do it again" she said, meaning it. In her head, things had got kind of confused though, because she had intended to try the thing out safely and to her that had meant finding a quiet place rather than in the middle of their common room with everyone laughing and cheering. She wasn't going to try and explain that to a professor though, because then he might decide to try and find out who had brought the snackbox into school in the first place.

Her eyes lit up at his next offer. "For real?" she asked, her voice higher pitched in delight. She knew the sort of potions Professor Salinger liked to brew and was quite willing to spend some time with a teacher if it meant so could blow multicoloured bubbles or levitate three feet off the ground for a while. Hopefully he was going to suggest some other time though, because she wasn't sure she wanted to go back to his classroom right now. That would feel like a detention, she thought, and if anyone saw her they might assume she'd done something wrong.

"Eww!" Isis wiped her hand on the grass "People eat these?" She swung her legs around so she was now kneeling, examining the small black spheres that had evidently been left in an indentation dug by the adult doxy "Wait, aren't they used in potions? Should we collect some for the school stores?" She was on her feet now, looking from the professor back to the doxy eggs, mental plans changed once again. If she was assisting with collecting potion ingredients, that was a perfectly acceptable reason to be seen with a teacher. Now she would be quite happy to follow him back to the classroom, if that's what he wanted.

[out]

“Of course,” Gideon said with a smile. He had many reasons why he offered students to try his potions - they might have fun with them, he found some new inspiration, it was an advertisement for his work and for his class… What could be better?

“You can come to my office after class or at the weekend,” he offered. “Feel free to bring a friend if you like.” He hoped that Isis would take him up on the offer. He enjoyed letting students try his already approved potions and listen to their thoughts which might inspire him to create something new as well.

“Well,” Gideon said, chuckling softly. “I doubt anyone just puts them in their mouth.” He had only mentioned it because he wasn’t sure if Isis could be trusted to be sensible after she went out on her own to try a fainting fancy. “But, yes, they are used for potions and you need to be really careful with them. In some of these sweets from the skiving snackboxes doxy eggs might have been used as well.” Maybe it would be fun to make a class where they did not brew a potion but examined what was in a skiving snackbox. 

He nodded as the girl suggested collecting some for future use. “Good idea,” he said appreciatively. “I’ll take them inside. You should probably return to your common room soon,” he suggested.

[out]