Potions Lesson 1 - ribbit ribbit

[hermygirl]

It’s a cold December morning, but the usual chill of the dungeons is kept at bay in the potions classroom by the burner Noble has lit at the front desk. The room is also noticeably brighter than the hallway, the floating orbs suspended from the ceiling shining at their fullest luminescence for today’s class. Noble was particularly keen that everyone would be able to see clearly - and be clearly seen - for today’s topic.

The man himself is stood at his desk at the front of the classroom, a large polystyrene lidded box beside him. Never one for nonsense, there was something about his gaze that was especially focused and stern today. Had last week’s homework been collectively that bad? Or was something else on the man’s mind?

Regardless, his instructions to the entering students were clear. “Pick up a lab coat and safety glasses on your way in, and quickly and quietly take your seat.”



Lesson progress:
First question
Answers and second question
Answers and activity to practice the preservation charm
Starting the dissection
Removing the preservation charm and the first cut

[Anna Banana]

Isla still got a little squeamish when she looked down at the frog, but the feeling was starting to ease away and be replaced with determination. She just kept silently reminding herself that she had dealt with potions ingredients plenty of times before, and that was all this was. Or, it was all it was now. It had once been an ickle frog.

She followed the professor's lead and gave a good tap with her wand. "Conserve Condio!" she said. She watched as the sheen appeared, giving her the sign that she'd been successful. So far, so good! If the muscles did relax, she didn't exactly know how to tell, but the frog didn't look quite so rigid, so she guessed everything was okay there.

Isla flipped her frog over as carefully as she could, even if it did end up making a little sound that told her she probably could have done a better job at it. Well, she has to start somewhere, right? She pinned down the frog, only getting slightly squeamish as she did so. She found the bottom end of the frog then began cutting away. Ewwww. This was disgusting! She ended at the lip, opened the flaps, and pinned them down, too.

Okay. Could she go vomit now?

She looked up just in time to hear Nina lose a good five. Isla didn't even know what had happened, but suddenly the lesson was coming to a close. She quickly recast the preservation spell and then wrote her name on the tray. Once that was done, she deposited everything on the bench then went to get cleaned up. This had been an...interesting lesson.

[hjhm]

Jillian was still in the middle of cleaning around the area where her frog laid. She noticed a bit of liquid gunk after she did her incision. She has to admit that there is a smell... A smell that she knows everyone in this room noticed hence why all their faces looked like they're about to puke. It didn't matter to her, she wants to learn the process in harvesting and so far dissecting this animal was quite tedious. Tedious, only because the organs are quite smaller than let's say a dragon.

She turned her head to Nina, concerned with her fellow Slytherin when Professor Noble subtracted points from her. Is she okay? Hopefully she is.

AAAAANNNND with that, the professor is ending their class. Finishing up she took her wand out once again and uttered the spell "Conserve Condio!" tapping her wand over the specimen like she earlier. She wrote her name on the tray as instructed and then quietly put it on the side bench. She cleaned up the rest of her things back on her table and turned to Eiji. Smiling at him before putting her book and papers inside her bag.

[MadMadamMalfoy]

Heath half-expected he would lose points for taking too long to make the first cut. Although it probably didn’t look like it, he really was trying his hardest to get the job done and not be dramatic about it… which for an aspiring actor like him, was practically impossible! Any other time, he would’ve been relieved that that didn’t happen, but now he was too distracted by other, stronger emotions. He had just pinned back the frog’s skin flaps when Professor Noble called time. It was only then that he looked down at his frog, and the magnitude of what he’d done set in.

Seeing that poor frog lying there with its insides exposed, a fresh wave of guilt washed over Heath. He bit his lower lip, blinking against the tears that threatened to fall. He kept his head down as he began the process of cleaning up, but if anyone saw, he was going to say it was the stench making his eyes water. Drawing his wand, he tapped the frog and repeated the preservation charm. “Conserve condio,” he muttered, his voice barely above a whisper. Somehow, miraculously, the spell worked on the first try that time, sparing him the trouble of having to speak again. He was afraid his voice would break if he did!

He quickly and quietly wrote his name on the dissection tray and placed it with the others on the bench. FInally rid of the frog, Heath returned to his station to clean all the equipment he’d used and return it to its proper place. He hurriedly packed his supplies, slinging his bag over his shoulder. Were they done? Could he please go now? He needed to be alone for a while!

[FearlessLeader19]

Claudine was shooting Nina judegemntal looks. Was it usually the older students that were so stupid? She couldn’t help but wonder and was sure of one thing: she wouldn’t be following in Nina’s nor Kodee’s footsteps. As the lesson was wrapping up, the second year took to completing the final instructions. “Conserve condio.’’ It was a sure thing that it worked, or at least she strongly hoped that it did. She quickly wrote her name in big letters, stuck the parchment to the tray then rested the tray on the side bench. Finally, she made note of the homework, grabbed the rest of her belongings and proceeded to exit the room, nodding to Noble on the way out.

[Bazinga]

She sat there for a long time. Chlo was not someone that just didn't do what the professor asked, nor did she like slacking in class, but as she sat there staring at everyone else doing the work she took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

Could she do this? She knew the spell, she knew what to do, that wasn't the hard part, but the vision of the frog being cut open turned her stomach and the thought that this frog was killed just for her to cut it open instead of living a free life made her even sicker. She wasn't a vegetarian so she knew animals were killed for her to survive, but even though she ate them, it didn't mean she didn't feel bad for it.

Frowning and disappointed at herself she slipped off her chair and grabbed her things. Not even making eye contact with the professor she just said quietly, 'I'm sorry professor, but I am going to do the written report, thank you very much for making it an option, I know you didn't have to and I appreciate that you have. I will go to the library to work on it."

[Nordic Witch]

Harvest the EYES later?

As if Cole wasn't feeling queasy or uncomfortable already Professor Noble's announcement didn't make matters better, rather worse. They we're going to harvest the eyes in another lesson something he really did not want to visualize right now. Taking a shaking breath, as he felt the bile rose in his mouth Cole quickly looked down at his frog to carefully close its eye lids. He'd be dreaming nightmares about this frog before the year was over, he was dead certain of it. He was hugely relieved when class was wrapped up some minutes later.

Lifting up his wand again he aimed it at the frog and casted "Conserve Condio!" over it. After he had packed up his things and made sure his desk was clean, Cole scribbled down the homework essay topic on a piece of parchment. On his way out the door he left his dissection tray with his name written neatly on it, on the side bench next to the others. He was very glad when he left the dungeon classroom. No offence to professor Noble, but dissecting frogs or any creature for that matter was not something Cole liked or would get comfortable with.

[sweetpinkpixie]

There was considerably MORE than a simply glint in this Slytherin's eye, professor. While Eiji was already familiar with the harvesting process, he had mostly had to do it on his own and on his own time since it was expected that they use ingredients from their potions kits. But...there was a reason why his brews tended to be more potent than the majority of his peers - and it wasn't just because of the subtle modifications he made to some of the recipes. Eiji Rasting's ingredients were fresh and, partly in thanks to the techniques taught by Professor Sissay, of entirely organic origin. Some exceptions had to be made in the rarer ingredients, but whenever he could...he collected himself.

There was a lot he could say in response to the next question posed. Things went beyond catching or finding a creature worthy of harvest, but sometimes the quality left much to be desired. He recalled once harvesting from a newt that had died of natural causes, only to find that the creature had been diseased and his time wasted in the careful extraction of its organs. The skin, once dried, had been useful though. Though everything internal a complete waste of his time.

The whole 'cute' argument was entirely subjective and dumb too, so perhaps it was a good thing that the sixth year was sufficient distracted and only came to when Professor Noble was instructing on a preservation charm. Well...THIS would have been something useful to know back when he was a first year. Why hadn't dad taught him this one? Surely he used it in his own stores back home in his alchemy lab...

No matter. Keener than he had been in any other lesson this term, Eiji armed himself with his wand to practice the simple movement a few times before setting it down and working on the incantation. "Conserve condio...Conserve condio..." It seemed simply enough and he felt he had done all that he could without an actual sample to work with. But what he really wanted was to know what they would be working wi---

Oh. Frogs. Of course.

He was already laying out the necessary supplies from his own kit - purchased with his own allowance money - and was out of his desk the first sign that they were permitted to do so. His lab coat buttoned up and goggles on, Eiji carefully selected his frog and levitated it on to his tray before hurrying back to his station.

Then...everything else faded into the background.

Some became engrossed in the piano. Others while flying. This was Eiji's. It steamed not from some morbid fascination with death and dismembering, but it was seeing how things were put together, like doing a puzzle in reverse, and then using those components into something else that was fascinating.

The lack of an enlarged thumb pad told him that his specimen was a girl, which meant that he had even more precious elements to extract. He considered himself lucky in this regard. He had something he was working on that could benefit from the female reproductive organs of a frog. Eiji nearly snorted when Professor Noble suggested they attempt to identify the MOUTH of the creature. Was there anyone here inept enough not to know where that was? He certainly hoped not.

But his impatience was showing. He wanted to just get to work. NOW.

Feet tapping against the floor, Professor Noble had hardly finished his first series of instructions before he was lifting the preservation spell with and swift swish and flick of the wrist and he was pleased to see the body of his frog fall in line precisely as described. He had been around thawed meat well enough thanks to his mum and her dragon biscuits she made at home for all those winged beasts at the reserve. Even, unwillingly, helped make them a few dozen times. Mum called it family bonding. Eiji called it pleasing mum.

His frog was quickly rolled over on to her back and legs pinned out of the way before, with obviously practiced hands, he made his first cut and pinned those flaps aside as well. And there they were. Whistling a little under his breath, Eiji began the delicate process of removing the egg filled ovaries and oviducts since there was very little else he COULD see at the moment and he imagined that professor Noble would want them identifying more of the internal organs....

...wait, what?!

No sooner had he successfully removed the right side (his right, not the frog's) and carefully set that on his tray was Professor Noble dismissing them. But...but...they had only JUST got to the GOOD stuff! He didn't even bother masking his disappointment as he reached for his wand once again to reapply the preservation charm to the frog and, now, the portion of the frog that he had just extracted. Ugh, this sucked.

Scribbling his name as instructed, Eiji brought his dissection tray back to Professor Noble and the side bench while muttering a halfhearted apology for already skillfully removing something from his specimen without instruction. Surely the Potions Master of all people could understand how easily he got caught up in the process.

Returning to his station, and rolling his eyes towards Nina for all of THAT, Eiji quickly packed up his things and left the classroom.

Next lesson could not come soon enough, honestly.

[Daydreamer11]

When Naya heard the words, “That’s all for today”, she breathed a sigh of relief. That was about all she could take for one day, so that worked out well. Finally daring to turn back around, she looked at her sad little frog carcass and prepared to wrap things up.

Naya directed her wand toward the frog and said, “Conserve condio”. Freeze little froggie, freeze. She quickly wrote her name on the tray and took the tray over to the bench. “See you next time”, she said to her frog........reluctantly and prepared to clean things up. This was going to be the lesson that kept on giving. Naya was going to be seeing her dissected frog in her dreams. She was sure of that. After packing her things, she headed out of the classroom. “Goodbye Professor”, she said on the way out. “Thanks for the nightmares”, she thought to herself. Should have gone for the library and the report.