Potions class.
Attired in standard faculty robes, Stephen Maturin stands behind a long table at the head of the potions classroom. Ryuuji Otogi is standing on the opposite side of the table to Stephen, dressed in his standard black leather trousers and a close-fitted black t-shirt with calligraphic white letters spelling out "Potions TA" on the front. His gloves are spidersilk, not dragonhide, and his Prefect badge is nowhere to be seen. The class gets a quick nod from him as they file in.
Stephen waits for the class to come to order. He is in no great hurry, but when one or two conversations trickle over into the silence that otherwise falls over the room, he gives the assembled students a look that raises a "shhh" from the students near those who are still talking.
The professor begins.
"As we have several new students, I may as well give the standard explanatory speech. Those of you who were present for my previous class may use the next five minutes for woolgathering or for sketching pictures of the giant squid in your notebooks or somesuch. The rest of you would be wise to listen.
"You are in Potions class. If you are in the wrong class, please leave now, though how that could be possible I cannot imagine, as to my knowledge this is the only class held in the school dungeons." He waits for a token moment to see whether anyone will leave.
"This class is now led by myself and a student assistant. You may call me Professor Maturin or Dr Maturin while we are in this class, I care not which. My assistant is Ryuuji Otogi, whom many of you may have met. He prefers to be addressed as Mr Ryuuji in his capacity as potions assistant. You will accord to him the same respect as you accord to me.
"All students are welcome here, regardless of ability or house affiliation, provided they are willing to learn. Those who evince a lack of genuine interest will be asked to leave the course. If you feel you are within the latter category, you may as well leave now." Again, he waits for a token moment to see whether anyone will leave.
"I will have order in this classroom," he resumes, and he's dead serious. "Student questions are welcome, if they are relevant to the subject matter at hand. Those who have genuine difficulty completing their potion will be required to schedule a make-up session with me or with Mr Ryuuji at a later date, and may be assured that their grade will not suffer if they make up the work. I believe this is a sufficiently clear policy that I need not take questions on it at this time. Students are welcome to owl me or Mr Ryuuji with class-related questions, and I will of course be available for office hours. Students who wish to waste the class's time with questions that are not relevant to the class material will be referred to the educated Messrs. Nny and Teatime." As he invokes the dreaded names of the caretakers, the professor favors the class with a kindly smile.
"Now, to the business of the current session. Tonight you will be making something I advise you not to use casually on yourselves or one another: a Befuddlement Draught. You will work in assigned pairs. Please reseat yourselves according to the following list:"
(( Here Stephen recites the pairs that the players have OOCly agreed upon. Those who didn't arrange for a partner ahead of time should feel free to pair up now, and assume that said pair was assigned: that is to say, don't RP asking one another "hey, wanna be my partner?" OOCly ask someone first if they want to pair with you; they may have arranged a pair already with someone else in chat or e-mail. ))
Stephen waits for the class to reorganize itself in the pairs specified. He allows ample time for the students to become acquainted with one another, knowing that for most this may well be their first meeting, especially with the student body's composition so frequently fluctuating.
When everyone has taken their new seats and settled down, he calls their attention to the ingredients already laid out at each workstation. The equipment is, by and large, standard, with a notable exception: pairs of spidersilk gloves.
"First, let me say that safety precautions are most needful in the making of potions. If you are not already fully covered by robes, you may borrow some. Certain items are provided by the school. Those of you who already own dragonhide gloves may put them away. We will use spidersilk gloves in this class, by and large. You may rest assured that their protective powers are no less than that of the dragonhide. They are reinforced with leather for thickness, but the spidersilk itself is roughly 260 times stronger than steel, and impervious to the vast majority of substances. No questions on this subject will be entertained." Stephen waits for those already wearing dragonhide gloves to remove them and put them away.
"Now, to the object of the present lesson. In our last class, we made a magically effective bruise balm. I intend you to appreciate that potions can be used to harm as readily as to heal. To that end, we will be making a Befuddlement Draught. While its effects are hardly as dramatic to behold as, say, those of the Draught of Living Death, its usefulness is not to be underestimated.
"The ingredients you will need for this potion are sneezewort, scurvy-grass, and lovage. Wizarding lore has it that these particular ingredients work to 'inflame the brain' and thus produce 'hot-headedness and recklessness'. Whether actual inflammation is meant or the quaint authors of potions texts enjoy a free hand with metaphor, the potion can produce quite striking results in a victim's behaviour. I may add that lovage and scurvy-grass give the potion something of a diuretic property.
"You will need to mince the lovage root and leaves evenly and finely. Set that aside and use mortar and pestle to grind your sneezewort stems to a dusty powder, but be careful to avoid inhaling the powder! As the herb's name suggests, sneezing attacks can be induced by the inhalation thereof. You will begin the actual brewing of the potion by preparing in your cauldrons an infusion of scurvy-grass and water. The scurvy-grass should smell strongly unpleasant, the worse the fresher and therefore the more efficacious. This infusion ought be allowed to sit for ten minutes, then strained and returned to the cauldron. If you burn yourselves in doing so, I will supply burn-healing paste, but I will deduct house points for carelessness. Add your sneezewort very carefully, then your minced lovage. You will recognise a successful potion by the total absence of any explosions, colored smoke, or other bizarre phenomena.
"The result may look unimpressive, but should not be underestimated. You will not be allowed to keep the results of your classwork today, lest you be tempted to test them on one another.
"When you finish, you should have produced a thin and unpleasant-smelling brackish brew. Mr Ryuuji and myself will circulate throughout the room to take questions and supervise your work.
"You may begin."
Stephen waits for the class to come to order. He is in no great hurry, but when one or two conversations trickle over into the silence that otherwise falls over the room, he gives the assembled students a look that raises a "shhh" from the students near those who are still talking.
The professor begins.
"As we have several new students, I may as well give the standard explanatory speech. Those of you who were present for my previous class may use the next five minutes for woolgathering or for sketching pictures of the giant squid in your notebooks or somesuch. The rest of you would be wise to listen.
"You are in Potions class. If you are in the wrong class, please leave now, though how that could be possible I cannot imagine, as to my knowledge this is the only class held in the school dungeons." He waits for a token moment to see whether anyone will leave.
"This class is now led by myself and a student assistant. You may call me Professor Maturin or Dr Maturin while we are in this class, I care not which. My assistant is Ryuuji Otogi, whom many of you may have met. He prefers to be addressed as Mr Ryuuji in his capacity as potions assistant. You will accord to him the same respect as you accord to me.
"All students are welcome here, regardless of ability or house affiliation, provided they are willing to learn. Those who evince a lack of genuine interest will be asked to leave the course. If you feel you are within the latter category, you may as well leave now." Again, he waits for a token moment to see whether anyone will leave.
"I will have order in this classroom," he resumes, and he's dead serious. "Student questions are welcome, if they are relevant to the subject matter at hand. Those who have genuine difficulty completing their potion will be required to schedule a make-up session with me or with Mr Ryuuji at a later date, and may be assured that their grade will not suffer if they make up the work. I believe this is a sufficiently clear policy that I need not take questions on it at this time. Students are welcome to owl me or Mr Ryuuji with class-related questions, and I will of course be available for office hours. Students who wish to waste the class's time with questions that are not relevant to the class material will be referred to the educated Messrs. Nny and Teatime." As he invokes the dreaded names of the caretakers, the professor favors the class with a kindly smile.
"Now, to the business of the current session. Tonight you will be making something I advise you not to use casually on yourselves or one another: a Befuddlement Draught. You will work in assigned pairs. Please reseat yourselves according to the following list:"
(( Here Stephen recites the pairs that the players have OOCly agreed upon. Those who didn't arrange for a partner ahead of time should feel free to pair up now, and assume that said pair was assigned: that is to say, don't RP asking one another "hey, wanna be my partner?" OOCly ask someone first if they want to pair with you; they may have arranged a pair already with someone else in chat or e-mail. ))
Stephen waits for the class to reorganize itself in the pairs specified. He allows ample time for the students to become acquainted with one another, knowing that for most this may well be their first meeting, especially with the student body's composition so frequently fluctuating.
When everyone has taken their new seats and settled down, he calls their attention to the ingredients already laid out at each workstation. The equipment is, by and large, standard, with a notable exception: pairs of spidersilk gloves.
"First, let me say that safety precautions are most needful in the making of potions. If you are not already fully covered by robes, you may borrow some. Certain items are provided by the school. Those of you who already own dragonhide gloves may put them away. We will use spidersilk gloves in this class, by and large. You may rest assured that their protective powers are no less than that of the dragonhide. They are reinforced with leather for thickness, but the spidersilk itself is roughly 260 times stronger than steel, and impervious to the vast majority of substances. No questions on this subject will be entertained." Stephen waits for those already wearing dragonhide gloves to remove them and put them away.
"Now, to the object of the present lesson. In our last class, we made a magically effective bruise balm. I intend you to appreciate that potions can be used to harm as readily as to heal. To that end, we will be making a Befuddlement Draught. While its effects are hardly as dramatic to behold as, say, those of the Draught of Living Death, its usefulness is not to be underestimated.
"The ingredients you will need for this potion are sneezewort, scurvy-grass, and lovage. Wizarding lore has it that these particular ingredients work to 'inflame the brain' and thus produce 'hot-headedness and recklessness'. Whether actual inflammation is meant or the quaint authors of potions texts enjoy a free hand with metaphor, the potion can produce quite striking results in a victim's behaviour. I may add that lovage and scurvy-grass give the potion something of a diuretic property.
"You will need to mince the lovage root and leaves evenly and finely. Set that aside and use mortar and pestle to grind your sneezewort stems to a dusty powder, but be careful to avoid inhaling the powder! As the herb's name suggests, sneezing attacks can be induced by the inhalation thereof. You will begin the actual brewing of the potion by preparing in your cauldrons an infusion of scurvy-grass and water. The scurvy-grass should smell strongly unpleasant, the worse the fresher and therefore the more efficacious. This infusion ought be allowed to sit for ten minutes, then strained and returned to the cauldron. If you burn yourselves in doing so, I will supply burn-healing paste, but I will deduct house points for carelessness. Add your sneezewort very carefully, then your minced lovage. You will recognise a successful potion by the total absence of any explosions, colored smoke, or other bizarre phenomena.
"The result may look unimpressive, but should not be underestimated. You will not be allowed to keep the results of your classwork today, lest you be tempted to test them on one another.
"When you finish, you should have produced a thin and unpleasant-smelling brackish brew. Mr Ryuuji and myself will circulate throughout the room to take questions and supervise your work.
"You may begin."