Magical Hogwarts

 “Shhh, people are still working, you know,” Isaac scolded Hyacinth right back, but the tone of his voice clearly indicated he was only teasing. He had no intentions of reading what was inside of her journal. Best case it was the name of someone he didn’t like, worse case it was someone he knew was terrible to her, like Duncan. Isaac often wondered why teenage girls seemed to flock to boys who were awful to them. Then again, he wasn’t exactly the poster child for decent behavior.  

Hyacinth whispered, imploring him to give it back. Aase asked too, even said please, so Isaac shrugged. “How much is it worth to you?” he asked, closing the cover without looking and holding it out toward her. His hand shifted, raising slightly but not above his head, as if he could raffle it to the highest bidder. There wasn’t much she could offer that he might want. Isaac was good at potions and wouldn’t want help even if he wasn’t. He quit the Quidditch team when all the second years started playing, so he didn’t care who won. He wondered if she might offer him sickles, but knew he wasn’t that lucky.

“Alright, alright,” he whispered back, his eyes trailing after one of the last students put their bottles at the front of the class. “Here,” he said, sliding the journal back onto her worktable. “You should not have this here if you do not want someone to snatch it.” It wasn’t Isaac’s job to teach her a lesson, but he was bored; idle hands and all.

"TIME!" Rachel called out mischievously, as Miss Nandamuri returned to her seat. She picked up her wand, levitated the potion vials in front of her, and then cast a Disillusionment Charm on each of the labels, and Colovaria on the contents of the vials. Now each of the bottled emotions was a coral red colour, regardless of what potion is actually contained -- or how poorly some of them had been brewed.

"All right, now, before we go on to Phase Two of the lesson, I want to give you all some reassurances," she said, stepping forward slightly as the vials continued to orbit around her head like a halo. "I'm sure some of you are worried about the potions you will get, either because of the quality of your classmates' work, or because of the effects. Let me assure that I have been watching you all, and I have precise antidotes already prepared," here she flicked her wand at her desk, where ten smaller, seemingly identical, pale pink vials floated up and formed a second halo orbiting counter-clockwise around her head.

"Hopefully that allays your fears, because now it's the exciting time where you receive your random potions! Affero," she told all of her planetoids, and with a large swish of her wand, each coral red potion and petal pink antidote went to a different student's desk. "Drink up, everyone!"

Driver's Note: I used a randomizer to assign the potions, so don't blame me, blame Microsoft Excel! Your potion descriptions are hidden on your desk - to maximise fun for everyone, try not to look at anyone else's potions result and let's just allow chaos to reign for the remainder of class. ^_^

Aase's Desk

A perfectly-brewed calming potion. Nothing that happens for the rest of the lesson will disturb you.

Alexander's Desk

A hate potion. It has all the right ingredients, but seems confused about itself. You will hate Perpetua intermittently.

Benny's Desk

A very well-brewed love potion. You are now infatuated with Alexander Zhen for the duration of class.

Brendan's Desk

A laughing potion, adequately prepared. You will begin laughing heartily immediately, but not gut-wrenchingly.

Freddie's Desk

A laughing potion, diluted, scorched, and with the texture of porridge. Start laughing but also get very nauseous.

Hyacinth's Desk

A love potion. It contains the wrong amount of certain ingredients, and something extra. Please check your PMs for additional info.

Isaac's Desk

A very well-brewed love potion. You are now infatuated with Aase Trickett-Cassoway for the duration of class.

Mavis's Desk

A very well-brewed calm potion. You will remain calm and peaceful unless a severe emergency occurs.

Perpetua's Desk

An adequately prepared hate potion. Everything that Isaac Hackney does now irritates and infuriates you.

Rowen's Desk

A passable hate potion with cottage cheese consistency. Brendan de Havilland's presence and voice irritates you.

 Alexander was a little bit relieved by Professor Twylan’s reassurances that there would be an antidote prepared for each potion that they would have to drink, but even so he was not certain that he wanted to drink anything anyone had made. There were some girls in the class the he trusted to make quality potions—Hyacinth and Aase came to mind—but some of those potions on the desk did not look like the others, and he was not sure if one potion was off or if the ones that looked similar were the ones that were off. They might all be terrible. They might all be toxic for all he knew. Well, unless he got his own. He was pretty sure his love potion would have been sufficiently brewed, but if he were to fall madly in love with himself, he worried that he would be a little bit teased. That, or perhaps he woudn’t behave differently at all.

When the potion bottle landed on his desk, he took a deep breath and with all the bravery of the Gryffindor that he wasn’t, downed the potion in a single gulp. It tasted a little off, something he was uncertain about. He wasn’t sure quite how he felt about that, but… mostly, he didn’t feel all that different. He looked around the room, eager to see if anyone would decide not to drink their potion at all. As he looked around, his eye lingered on Perpetua a little longer than was necessary, his brows a bit furrowed. The girl looked a mess, really, but was that actually anything new? Brandon Lennox had recently bet him gold that he wouldn’t ask her out on a date, and he had quickly told him that he preferred to be paid in the silver so that the other would have to really feel the weight of his money leaving his hands. Of course, suddenly that didn’t seem like a very good idea.

Perpetua was terrible. She appeared so meek and weak-willed. Her glasses were stupid and unnecessarily large. He understood the idea of thick glasses for poor vision, but a nicer frame shouldn’t have been completely outside of her realm of possibility. Of course, he couldn’t think of a single frame style that would have made that hag look attractive. She would wreck his reputation if he asked her out and followed through, as he had originally intended. In fact, maybe just laughing at her face after would be decently good enough. Still, he felt queasy at the thought of even pretending to like her.

Disgusted, he looked away. His eyes found Aase, a nice palette cleanser for his eyes. However, when they flicked back over to Perpetua, he didn’t quite find her as repugnant as he had before? What was going on? He had been so certain that he felt ill at the thought of even talking to her andhavign her breathe his air, and now she just looked like a plain, normal girl. She could have put more effort in, but she wasn’t quite a hag.

He coughed, feeling queasy over-all now. The hot and cold thing was really doing a number on his temperature, and he lifted a hand to feel his head for warmth. Maybe he was imagining it.
 

 Figuring out which potion they had to brew and then brewing it had been a nice challenge and Perpetua thought she had done so adequately. However, when the last one, a Gryffindor from her year, had given professor Twylan her potion, the scary part of the lesson started.

Her mother had always told her not to take anything from strangers and not to drink a potion of which she did not know the origin and the effects. It was a wise and actually quite logical advice. Perpetua had so far followed it and could proudly say that, so far, she had not suffered from a poisoning.

Professor Twylan spoke of antidotes but Perpetua was generally not a gullible girl. She had severe trust issues and her mind was vividly jumping to sometimes far fetched conclusions. She was hesitant to try her potion. She watched around what others did and was surprised that some didn’t even seem to hesitate to drink up.

She sniffed on her potion, the scent was similar to the potion she had brewed herself and Perpetua frowned. If she was lucky she was receiving her own potion. That would be good. She could live with some (more) self-hatred for the rest of the lesson.

Taking a tiny first sip, Perpetua hesitated again before downing the potion. It didn’t taste too awfully and for a moment, she thought that it had no effect at all. Maybe if it really was her own potion it just wouldn’t work? Just as she felt some relief, her gaze rested upon Isaac Hackney and she felt overwhelmed with hatred for her cousin. He was a textbook Slytherin, arrogant, confident, thinking that he deserved better than others. He was also a pureblood, from her father’s side of the family. The side of the family that was not a part of Perpetua’s life anymore. She didn’t see her father anymore. Her mother was otherwise happily engaged. She felt like going to Isaac’s desk and tell him that she didn’t want him to be in her life but then she remembered that he wasn’t really in her life at all and now that, too, infuriated the girl. He had the audacity to think that he was better than her. He avoided her because her mother was a muggleborn and because she was… well, Perpetua.

Her cheeks were reddened with anger as she glared across the room at Isaac. Oh, if only looks could kill.
 

 With a smile, Freddie had greeted Mavis’s question whether the seat next to him was taken or not. He was happy to sit with the fellow Gryffindor whom he had successfully studied with a little while ago. There was no time to chat, though, as they had to work on their potions and that required concentration.

“I’m sure you didn’t do too badly,” Freddie said quietly in response to his seating neighbour’s worries. However, he wasn’t really sure. He had no idea what Mavis had done except for that they had been working on the same potion and hers had looked different at certain stages but that didn’t necessarily mean that hers was off. Could as well be that he messed up his own.

“Kudos to professor Twylan,” he whispered, looking at Mavis, “she’s a brave woman if she really lets us try all the potions.” He was grinning. As a true Gryffindor he liked the risk. He’d even take a potion on a dare, he assumed. In a safe classroom environment it was no big deal.

“Cheers,” he said, toasting to Mavis as he received his vial and downed it. For an instant he looked disgusted. The texture was somehow wrong. It didn’t run down his throat easily and it tasted as though it had been cooked too hot. Suddenly there was no curious anticipation anymore. Freddie burst into laughter, finding the whole situation entirely hilarious. They got to test other students' potions? Hilarious. Some had to try hate and love potions? Hilarious.

An instant after he burst into loud laughter, Freddie covered his mouth with his hand, his expression looking more of a grimace between feeling amused and nauseous. His face took on a greenish shade and while he fought it for a moment, he soon bowed over his cauldron and puked into it. “Sorry,” he muttered, already laughing again, “this is just atrocious! Mavis, do you think this is yours?” He chuckled with laughter but soon choked again and vomited into his cauldron once more.
 

 
Benny didn’t want anyone to drink his potion – it was a bloody nightmare and he already knew it – but more than that, he was not ready for the next instruction. “Were to what, now?” Benny asked, though he didn’t need the assignment repeated. He was going to have to drink someone else's potion. In a way, he realized he probably should have seen this coming. And then he realized it might be a fun experiment—(if he didn’t die first).

“Cheers,” he said to Bean as he uncorked his vial and tipped it back. It didn’t taste like much at first, but then Benny experienced the strange sensation when smell feels like a taste on the tip of the tongue. He felt as though he could taste the scent of expensive cologne. The little Gryffindor looked around the room, wondering whose potion he could have gotten, and his eyes landed on one of the only other Asian boys in the class.

The captain of the Slytherin Quidditch team was such an enigma to him, and Benny sighed, his hand cupped in his chin as he began to stare. He’d never (ever) be rich or extravagant like @Alexander Zhen, but maybe one day he could be as gifted in Quidditch. The thought made his tummy feel uneasy and his skin tingle. Benny’s cheeks warmed as more feelings than he recognized flooded his body.

Just wait until he told Tomie about this!  

 

Professor Twylan chuckled at the chaos but clapped her hands to get everyone's attention. "Our hour is drawing to a close, students, so please drink your antidotes now." She waited politely while her students followed her directions, stepping down the rows of tables to assist those who were too under the influence of their potions to take the antidote themselves, and then collecting all of the antidote vials to return to her own inventory.

"Now then, let me see here." She stood in front of several of her older students, who had of course performed the best in this class period. "Miss Reinhardt, your Calming Potion was perfectly brewed, so that is worth 50 points to Ravenclaw." She turned and said, "Mister Zhen, Miss Reed, Miss Trickett-Cassoway, your potions were very well-prepared, so 10 points a piece to your Houses."

Lastly, with a sort of sorrowful gaze, "Rachel" turned from her older students to one of her youngest students. "Mister Rivera, I must take 10 points away from Gryffindor for your carelessness. Were I a lesser witch, I would have had trouble counteracting the blood that was added to your love potion because you did added the contaminated rose thorns rather than disposing of them and getting new ones. However," she added loudly, "this was an honest mistake from a new student, and therefore a learning opportunity. I expect my students to help each other learn and become better, and not to make fun of accidents. So if I hear that anyone present today mistreats Mister Rivera, or any burgeoning potioneer, I will deduct House points from you without hesitation." Having made that point clear, she added to Benny, "You may regain your lost House points if you can give me one sheet of parchment at next lesson on why you never add blood to love potions."

She returned to the front of the room as she announced to the entire class, "Please clean up your stations before leaving, and thank you again for your participation in today's lesson. Don't forget your reading homework on antidotes." She began packing up her own antidote brewing materials while she kept an eye on the students, making sure they actually did what they were told and didn't leave messes for her next group of students to deal with.

[dohtml]

? G -10 ? H +20 ? R +50 ? S +10 ?


Class is dismissed - you may make your closing posts if you would like!

[/dohtml]

 Isaac didn’t bother to say much to either of the girls as he headed back to his desk. Soon enough, the professor presented each of them with the potion they would now have to drink. Even if the Professor hadn’t told them this was going to be part of the assignment, Isaac would have assumed as much. It was like the professors didn’t have anything else going for them, but to torment their students. On the one hand, Isaac supposed that made sense. Who in their right mind would become a teacher anyway? He assumed the pay was shit and the students worse. (Not that he was going to adjust his behavior to be a better person, or anything.)

He sniffed the potion after pulling the stopper from the top. Honestly, Isaac was hoping he’d get someone’s hate potion, but he knew he wasn’t going to be so lucky. He knew by the pleasant smell of what he associated with sunshine and sugar cookies that he was about to drink a love potion. He cursed not-quite-under his breath and tipped the vial back. It took a few minutes, but because he expected it to happen, he wasn’t suddenly surprised by his interest in @Aase Trickett-Cassoway. He watched the way she smiled and laughed across the room; he remembered the way she hadn’t smiled at him when he stole Hyacinth’s notebook, and Isaac frowned.

The Slytherin had been about to channel his new infatuation in a typically Isaac way – (by telling @Freddie Snyder that his girlfriend was fit) – when the Professor said the lesson was over and the effects of the potion began to wear away. Isaac took an antidote just to be safe, and headed out with a scowl back on his face.

Some part of him was simultaneously glad he hadn’t gotten @Magnolia Lane Hawkins's love potion, and also looking forward to seeing her in his next lesson.

/out

 Mavis was beyond nervous by the time she turned in her potion. She thought she had done a decent enough job, but that if given more time, she could have done a lot better. She felt that way often these days. Mavis hated feeling under pressure; like she was running out of time and missing out on things. She loved learning, and she liked knowing the answers the professors asked in class. But studying consumed time and energy she’d much rather spend hanging out with her friends. Anytime she chose homework over socializing, she regretted it. And vice-versa. She couldn’t win.

Mavis was beyond nervous by the time she turned in her potion. The witch thought she had brewed a decent vial, but also knew that if she had been given more time, she could have done a lot better. More and more lately, Mavis felt this way. A lingering sort of pressure to succeed in class and do all the other things the teenage witch wanted to. Like she was being stretched in too many directions.

She loved answering questions in class or confirming that she’d finished an assignment early, but those things took time and energy. And every time she chose academics over socializing with her friends, Mae felt like she was missing something. Like her group would return from Hogsmeade with some hilarious joke or story that she would never be in on.

It was an impossible decision.

Mavis drank the potion on her desk without putting much thought into it. This part of the assignment she could complete without hassle. She couldn’t fail at drinking – unless she choked. Which she didn’t, thank Morgana. Almost as soon as the potion touched her lips, she felt calmer. Better. More at peace and less like she was missing out on whatever Aase and Hyacinth were giggling about without her a few tables away. Before, Mavis might have worried they were giggling about her – (not that she thought the Hufflepuffs were like that, but that it was hard for the teenager to put those types of worries aside these days) – but now, she was as cool as a glacius charm.

Not even Benny’s loss of points for getting blood in his potion – gross! – could ruin her calm. Mavis smiled politely and vibed all the way out of the door as class ended. She didn’t grab an antidote; she hoped this feeling never went away.

/out

 

 Of course her potion was perfect, Rowen preened delicately as the professor awarded points. If she wasn’t already sitting straight up – and glaring at that silly looking younger Slytherin boy – Rowen would have done so. She didn’t expect any of her classmates to congratulate her on the excellent potion she had brewed, nor did she want any of their praise. She was taking advanced potions now, and that was reward enough.

Rowen carefully cleaned up her work table, including the now empty vial she’d easily identified as a hate potion. Part of her had wanted to refuse to drink such a dastardly mix, it looked lumpy and spoiled, but Rowen was here to learn, and if the Professor thought it was useful academically, Rowen did so eagerly. The Potions Mistress hadn’t yet steered them wrong. That De Havilland boy should have been expelled, though. And Rowen thought as much as she stared daggers in his direction on her way out of the door.

At least his stupid Gryffindor friend had lost points.

There was justice in the world, after all.

/out
 

 Benny hadn’t expected to earn any praise for his train wreck of a potion. It probably would have been better if he’d gone to the Forbidden Forest, found a giant, and paid them to brew the potion for him. He was a horror when it came to some classes, and unfortunately, he was the worst at the one that could literally poison him if he messed up. Benny hadn’t expected a top mark…. But he hadn’t expected to be the Only Student to Lose Points.

What a nightmare!!

His cheeks felt like they might catch fire, and the heat spread across his neck and ears like wildfire. He tried not to gawk at the Professor, but his mouth hung open, and the sudden humiliation seemed to clear up the last lingering effects of the potion he’d drank earlier. This was awful. He knew he’d screwed up, but losing house points was like the ultimate punishment. He instantly began to imagine the way his housemates looked at him and whispered at dinner. He wished he could melt into the floor.

Benny cleaned up his space, and barely picked up his feet as he dragged himself out of the classroom. Eyes down all the way to the Great Hall, Benny mentally and emotionally prepared himself for the embarrassment to come.

/end
 

Brendan's Desk

A laughing potion, adequately prepared. You will begin laughing heartily immediately, but not gut-wrenchingly.

Bren gulped nervously as his pair of deceivingly-hued vials floated towards him and settled on his desk.

“Cheers,” he echoed weakly, raising the coral-colored vial to his lips as slowly as possible. Gathering his courage, he downed it, scrunched his eyes shut, waited – and started cackling. It wasn’t so intense that he couldn’t catch his breath, but he felt his eyes beginning to water nonetheless. The sound of someone vomiting into their cauldron a few moments later made his stomach turn – but fortunately Bren was laughing loudly enough to cover it up for the most part.

To further distract himself he peeked curiously around the room to see how everyone else was getting on, made the unfortunate mistake of accidentally meeting Rowen’s eye – and immediately quailed under her withering glare, hastily looking away. Had she gotten his potion? He couldn’t be sure, in any case, since she looked at just about everyone like that – and he supposed he had just been giggling madly, which seemed like something that would irk her…
He didn’t really know Rowen, at least not personally, but he’d heard plenty from his sister Aimée as the girls were dorm-mates.

He breathed a sigh of relief when Professor Twylan announced it was time to drink their antidotes (his stomach was starting to ache from laughing).
Once the laughter and chatter had subsided, she began doling out House points then – and Bren winced internally at the word ‘carelessness’ directed at his friend. Poor Benny looked positively shell-shocked. As she returned to the front of the room, Bren glanced over at him. She bade them clean up their stations, and Bren leaned in towards Benny.
“Hey,” he whispered, “just do the essay and you get the points back, right? Easy peasy.”

But Benny seemed not to have heard him. The Gryffindor kept his eyes down, cleaned up his workspace, and was headed for the door before Bren had much time to react.

“Wait!” he hissed, scrambling to finish his own cleanup before hastily packing his things. He glanced up at the door again as he prepared to leave – and caught another murderous stare from Rowen. He felt this one a little less, though, in his more present concern for Benny, and hurried after his friend.

[[ out! ]]

Aase's Desk

A perfectly-brewed calming potion. Nothing that happens for the rest of the lesson will disturb you.

She knew Isaac well enough by now to recognize that he was teasing – but it still rubbed her the wrong way, how he played at holding something as personal as a journal just out of Hyacinth’s reach. Were they even that close friends? It felt like a power move, and she didn’t like it; her frown deepened as he attempted to tell Hyacinth what to do with her own journal.

Fortunately she was spared from doing or saying anything further, as he gave it up just as the next phase of the lesson began. She caught Hyacinth’s eye and rolled her own dramatically. Boys…

Speaking of, though…
Her gaze found Freddie a table over, sitting next to Mavis. Aase was quite glad that he wasn’t the type to find amusing the kind of dumb stuff Isaac was pulling. At least, she was pretty sure he wasn’t… she felt she was still learning tiny new things about him all the time.

Shortly thereafter, Professor Twylan called the next phase of the lesson to order. Aase eyed the pair of vials levitating towards her warily, though the fact that one was a precise antidote did allay her concerns somewhat. She caught Hyacinth’s eye, smiled nervously, and emptied the vial with the coral-colored potion.

It didn’t take more than three heartbeats for the potion to take effect: a warm blanket of languid calm settling comfortably over her, quieting her mind and physically relaxing muscles she hadn’t even realized she’d been tensing. She sat back slightly in her chair, sliding down a few inches and letting out a long, low sigh of content through her nose. This was sheer bliss…

Her eyelids threatened to droop, so intense was the sudden sense of calm, but she eyed her Housemate and smiled lazily.
“This has to have been yours,” she told her Co-Captain dreamily, rotating the now-empty vial lazily with a forefinger. Hyacinth was an excellent potioneer, and she had said she’d brewed a Calming Draught…
Various degrees of small chaos – including poor Freddie vomiting into his cauldron – erupted around the room, but Aase remained delightfully unfazed by it all. It was remarkably, really, that she’d even felt nervous at all about the outcome of this lesson.

It felt all too soon when the lesson was called to an end. She rolled the antidote slowly in her fingers, contemplating whether or not to take it. What was the harm in not? The effects would wear off within the hour, anyways, and it had been well-brewed…

She offered a polite smile at Professor Twylan’s praise, then exchanged a pleased glance with Hyacinth: they’d won Hufflepuff twenty points! Had she not been under the potion’s influence still, she would have felt a much more intense sympathy for the Gryffindor underclassman who’d made a potentially serious mistake in brewing his potion; she made a mental note to try to check-in with him later, once she’d returned to her usual senses.

Aase cleaned up her workstation and left the classroom, but lingered outside in the corridor to wait for Freddie so they could walk to their next lesson together.

[[ out! ]]