"You may feel free to talk amongst yourselves for inspiration or to debate and share ideas about which potions ingredients might complement one another-- remember we are looking for yin and yang, ingredients that would neutralize or negate the effects of one another in a potion. For many ingredients, there is more than one potential opposite." Kazimeriz lectured as he watched the students get to work.

ooc: Feel free to work together and talk about what you are doing, and then post your finished 'worksheets' in a quote box in your post when you complete the task. Make sure you include the number in the corner of your worksheets - 1, 2, 3, or 4, it is up to you, and it will be necessary for the next part of the lesson! :)

Listening to the professor speak about black and white, moons, and well, Evelyn had no clue what else he was talking about. She just stared and nodded a few times to look like she was paying attention. Now what were they supposed to do? Glancing at the paper that was placed in front of her, she noticed a number 2 at the top corner of her page. 'Huh. Okay so five ingredients...and potential opposites. Well can't be that hard can it?' she thought, opening her book.

Photos!: Evelyn's paper

2
Evelyn Flores

Unicorn Tail Hair and Doxy Eggs:
Unicorn tail hair is pure and has healing purposes while Doxy eggs are poisonous and may cause vomiting.

Aconite and Bezoar:
The Aconite is an extremely poisonous plant while the Bezoar helps protect against anything poisonous.

Lovage and Runespoor Eggs:
The Lovage herb causes confusion and recklessness while the Runespoor Eggs enhances mental ability.

Alihotsy Leaves and Sophorous:
Alihotsy leaves are known to cause hysteria while the Sophorous makes a person sleepy and calm.

Peppermint and Glumbumble:
Peppermint is known to cause happiness while Glumbumble is known to cause a person to be melancholy.

Okay, so maybe that was a little harder than she thought it was going to be. Sighing and laying down her phoenix feather quill, glancing at Destiny for a moment to see if she noticed the familiar Christmas gift, she looked around to see who else was done. Or who else was having a hard time with this...Oh wait, didn't the professor say to turn the paper in once they were done? Unsure though, Evelyn remained seated, just to be safe.

Destiny looked over at Evelyn to see if she had finished. Yep, she did. Then Destiny gave Evelyn a huge smile when she noticed her using a different quill. Not the normal black and gold one, but the phoenix quill she got her for Christmas!

Tibi was... not in the mood for class. Still not feeling entirely recovered, neither physically nor emotionally, he'd made his way to potions anyway, arriving just before Kazimeriz.

But, because it was what he did well, Tibi played the part of the good student, taking notes and (mostly) paying attention, though not participating like usual.

Thankful for the opportunity to spend time with his book, he opted to work alone to compile his list, and then checked it over once, before silently making his way to the front and turning it in.

Zoe knawed on her lower lip anxiously. This sounded more difficult than she expected it to. Looking around the room she didn't notice that anyone in particular looked like they wanted to discuss the assignment so grudgingly she looked at her book on her own.

Ooooo many people had answers for the question. Josh, as he leaned his back watching other students who were standing up to answer, he saw Evan smirk at him and managed to put a smirk back on his face though he was still uncomfortable about sitting in a dungeon class. That Slytherin boy was...weird. Josh never could tell if he was friendly or hostile.

He nearly jumped when he heard a voice close to him pronounce his name. 'Relax boy. Just a girl's voice'. The Gryffindor boy wondered what was wrong with himself. He definitely was not the kind of to be scared of dungeons so he knew it was not fear or something like that caused him to be uncomfortable. It was like he was feeling something nasty to be happened or had happened before in here. Trying to forget about it to relax himself he focused on the girl who he was sure he had a glance of in the common room as he put his warmest smile on his face ''Right sweet Josh and umm the classifications? No, of course. Do i look like a Ravenclaw?'' he laughed at his own joke, ah yes, it was working.

The Professor was making this class sound like difficult but weirdly Josh would never change his mind that he was about to enjoy it a lot. He was sure his senses supported by his confidence would lead him to the successful end though he currently knew nothing about the subject. Yes, exactly ; nothing. That was strange for a stundent, he thought, since knowing nothing about a topic should have made a student feel uneasy in a class but he felt nothing like that again what he was feeling irritaed about was not that but was the idea of being here. 'Forget it!'. Hopefully Rose's relieving smile ran to his help. 'Phew, thanks!'. He smiled back at her and nodded as a greeting. That was not enough. He wondered if the professor would get annoyed.

Now he heard the Professor, there was five potions ingredients to be found and their counter effects. 'Hmmm should not be so hard'. So opening up his textbook he started to work on it.

Carter turned to Mina to begin working. She was already filling in her parchment. "You've finished already, haven't you?" he said as he got out his textbook. Leave it to a Ravenclaw to be done before he even had his book out.

Riight, reversed ingredients. Evan flipped through the textbook. Man, it was hard! Finally, he found somethings that may be considered as 'reversed'. Though he wasn't sure. Nothing was sure in potions. He wrote down the best he could come up with.

Hmm.. Potions was much harder then he expected but he was going to try his best to be successful in this class. He took his quill and began writing down on a piece of parchment.



Wow that wasn't so hard good thing he studied potions on the train. He relaxed on his chair waiting for the professor to continue.

Kay Opened her book and started looking up the information the Professor asked for. She didn't know if it was right but she had some answers.



Kay finished her work and waited for the Professor.

Matheu took a parchment worksheet from the basket and started to work carefully. He wasn't a real partner worker, and he was able to complete the worksheet in an average time

Lucille opened her book to a page on ingredients and looked down, sucking the end of her quill. She started scribbling.



She chuckled to herself, crumpled up her paper and chucked it somewhere into the room.

Deciding to try again, she found another worksheet, or rather...slyly slipped one off the neighbouring desk.

Sly Sly Sly.

Sneaky Sneak.



Nope. That wouldn't do.

Ok, so maybe the arguments were still on her mind. A little.

A teeeny bit.

Ok, a LOT.

Sighing, Lucille screwed up her second peice of parchment and chucked it into the midst of the classroom.

This was going to take a while.

Becca took the book that was on her desk and began to read. As soon as she had found what she needed, she began to write



Becca grimaced at her last answer; boils, now that's gross!! She put her quill down and sat back in her seat.

Shrinking into her robes and shuddering from the cold, Wesley took a sheet from the magical basket, saying quietly through her chattery teeth, "Th-thank you."

This isn't so very bad, she thought, trying to convince herself as she flipped through her book, You can't possibly blow anything up by writing. Shakily taking quil in hand, the small child dipped it in her ink, applying it to her work sheet...



Deep into her work, the Hufflepuff was caught off guard by a flying missile which caused her quil slip, creating a thick black line that partially covered much of her work.

Too curious to become upset by her messed-up work, Wesley picked up the crumpled worksheet that was lying on top of her text book and unfolded it.

Eyes wide, clearly not prepared for what had been written, she let out a gasp.

Tammy!? Tammy was a prefect- a HUFFLEPUFF prefect! She was helpful and kind and hardworking. She couldn't have possibly ever been evil. This- this was not a very nice piece of paper.

Crumpling the sheet up again, Wesley slipped it into her bag so she could throw it away after class. Tammy could never see it. She would cry. Wesley was possitive because, afterall, if someone called her evil she would burst into tears.

Dipping her quil again, the girl went back to her work, shuddering no longer from the cold, but horror. Wesley dearly hoped she'd never meet this scary Lucille.



Biting her lip worriedly, Wesley hunched over further, so preoccupied with the hate note that she wasn't worried about getting in trouble for her ink-stained work.

Mina smiled innocently as she heard Carter and nodded. "Done, I'm sure it's right but I think it is," she replied quietly as to not disturb the lesson. Looking back to her text, she reread again to see if she had misunderstood anything.

Celandine had been listening in a half-hearted way. It was so hard trying to find something inside herself to give to this subject. She just sorta ahd no spark for it, which really felt like she was letting Professor Kazimeriz down. He was still her favourite professor even if she wasn't all that big a fan of his current subject.

She opened her textbook, which had been slipped into a fancy leather cover that had her brother's name etched into it and started on her worksheet, using the extra notes within the book which Nicholai had added when it was still in his possession. Cela spent a while going through and making sure she only chose 'basic' ingredients.

Professor Kazimeriz wandered the class at a turtle's pace, spot-checking his pupils' work. It seemed that most of them were understanding the concept and using the opportunity to really internalize what the ingredients did, which of course was the goal of this part of the lesson. He nodded with approval, finally making his way back to the front of the class.

"Very good. It seems that you all are mastering the basic concept- understanding how ingredients counteract one another in potion making.
Granted, it becomes a lot more difficult when you are not analyzing potion ingredients on a one-to-one ratio but having to account for multiple ingredient interactions within a potion... Those of you who are my NEWT level students will have more opportunity to analyze those complex potions later. But I see that most of you are understanding that each ingredient has one or more possible complementary counterpoints that can be used as a neutralizing agent."

"Not only is the concept of complementary ingredients crucial in learning how to create balanced potions, but it is critically important to understand this concept as we begin to study antidotes. When working with antidotes, the term we use for an ingredient that is included solely to counteract a poison is a 'negator'. The negator will neutralize the effects of the ingredient, especially in the case of a poison or magical toxin. Using a negator, or a blend of neutralizing ingredients, you can develop an antidote to even the most complex poison. So, put simply: for every ingredient, there is at least one equal and opposite ingredient that can be used as an antidote to the first ingredient. We call this opposing ingredient a 'negator'. This is Golpalott's First Law of Antidotes."

Kazimeriz's lips pulled back into a sinister grin as he spoke. He looked around the class in a manner most shifty. "Very quickly, before we begin the practical portion of this class, are there any questions about this concept?"

"Umm, relax, Tori by the way." she said smiling at him." So you wanna work on the worksheet with me. I started already."


3
Tori Hardene

Ingredient:Moonstone which calms someone's nerves; counter act:Alihotsy which causes hysteria.

Ingredient: Belladona which is poisonous; counteract: Bezoar which protects against poison.

Ingredient: Scarab beetles which is wit-sharpewning; counteract: scurvy grass which inflames the brain causing confusion.

Ingredient:

"I can't decide on the last two. How are you doing?" Tori sighed looking down at her paper, disappointed.

Celandine squinted a bit at Professor Kazimeriz and then thumbed through her textbook, reading a bit until she found some reference to what he was on about.

She raised her hand after doing some skimming. "So like, with creating and developing antidotes and stuff, your aim is to negate the effects of each individual component of the poison and then find the ingredients, or combination of ingredients, that negate the combined effect of the components of the poison? And like, if you only negated the individual components, you might slow the effect of the poison or halt it entirely, but your antidote wouldn't undo the damage the poison might already have caused? Or... something?"

"Indeed. Golpalott was a potioneer of some reknown, creator of many Laws of Potion Making. With his first law, we learn that you need to be able to identify each individual negator-- each component that will counteract the ingredients in your potion... which is why it is essential to understand what the so-called 'opposites' of each ingredient are. Now, Golpalott's third law states that the antidote for a blended poison will be equal to more than the sum of the antidotes for each of the separate components. This means that you must not only be able to identify each negator, but then must find that extra element that will make the entire blended antidote resolve your potion. This can be exceptionally tricky, and is something that we will analyze in more depth in NEWT level classes. For the purpose of this class, it is merely important to understand that each ingredient has an equal and opposite ingredient which can counteract its effects. "

Kazimeriz looked around the classroom. He checked, making sure the students all had their parchments in front of them; it seemed they did. Satisfied, he smiled at his class.

"Now comes the fun part. You each have a parchment worksheet, each numbered from 1-4. All of these parchments have been liberally coated with a potion that can be absorbed through skin contact. As of right now, you have all been poisoned."

He smirked, looking around the room. "It will be your job to create the antidote and save yourself... before the class session ends and it is too late."

Kazimeriz leaned against the podium, letting them absorb this news -- just like they are absorbing the poison, mwhahaha -- before he continued. It was moments like this that made him truly love his job.

Though Cela's potion skills weren't exactly anything to write home about, Cela was supremely unconcerned by this news. It wasn't because she didn't yet feel anything, and Cela checked the number on her worksheet quickly, but because she was that confident that Professor Kazimeriz wouldn't do anything to hurt her in any real way. Maybe in a learning-life-lessons sort of way, but definitely not a you-will-die-if-you-don't-figure-it-out sorta way.

And she had the book. Cela looked around to try to see if anyone had a number 2 parchment like her. That would be the first thing, she figured, finding other people who presumably had the same poison thingy.