Potions (7th)

James wasn't going to lie; he was excited for the seventh years. Here was where he could really get into the potions that interested him, the challenging and intricate brews that he loved. He hoped at least a few of the students shared his enthusiasm. He also hoped that a having teacher so close to their own age wouldn't be a problem, but he'd cross that bridge when he came to it.

On the board, James scrawled his name in cursive letters. He'd even almost become used to seeing 'Professor' written before it. Below that, he added 'Golpaltt's Third Law,' wondering how many of them would know what he was teaching. He had a brief doubt that this might be too advanced, but shrugged it off. If it was, he'd curve the grade for partially finished potions and leave it at that. He opened the door and waited for his class to arrive.

Spoiler:

When it was time for Potions, Mary put down her Transfiguration book and sighed with relief. She thought Transfiguration was hard before, but she had no idea what this year's book was saying. It was all so complicated and there were so many weird and hard processes and charts and all in all, it made Mary want to cry. And that was something that has never happened yet.

Potions were different, you did well just by following instructions. There was also some sort of beauty in mixing two potions, like they did with Victoria last year or if you tried something new and it worked out and life was good. Not like Transfiguration, where you could end up with a whale instead of a duck, or something like that.

Mary walked down to the dungeons, hoping to be the first to arrive. She wanted to ask Professor Holmes whether she'd still be his apprentice this year. She liked helping out in that way, even though she had a million different things on her mind.

There was no Professor Holmes, however. The Head Girl stopped in her tracks and looked around her. It was the right classroom and based on the writing on the board, it was the right class. Mary gave a small shrug and with a smile to the man standing there, she sat down. "Hello."

"Hello," James glanced down at his short list, scanning for a picture and the name that matched. "Miss McNeely," he came up with quickly. Though they waited for some time, none of the other students seemed inclined to show up.

James walked around to lean against a table in front of his only student. It was ridiculous to be talking from on high when there was only one person to hear. "Well, I suppose we have to start, whether with one student or one hundred. What do you know about Golpaltt's Third Law, Miss McNeely?"

Nobody else showed up and even though Mary was a bit disappointed in her classmates, she was quite glad she was alone. Smaller classes proved to be more efficient and there wasn't anybody disrupting the lesson. She grinned at Mr. Reonalds as he came to stand near her.

"The antidote for a blended poison will be equal to more than the sum of the antidotes for each of the separate components." Mary cited her potions book and drew a deep breath. "It's used when we're trying to make an antidote for a poison that is made up of multiple poisons. The antidote needs to have equal properties to the poison it's trying to reverse and needs one other ingredient to make it overpower the poison."

At least that's how the witch interpreted the confusing law and she hoped she had at least got something right.

James smiled. "Correct. Fifteen points to Wormwood. The extra ingredient or ingredients must also act as a blending agent of the antidote potions since some are not compatible with others in terms of mixing. Now, the first step, obviously, is learning how to identify the component parts of a blended poison."

Stepping behind the desk, James re-emerged with a small cauldron containing a mixture of poisons that he'd mixed earlier. He set it on the table in front of his student. "Wand out, if you please. This is a combination of three different poisons. The spell to reveal them is Partes Tuas with two sharp, upward flicks above the cauldron." If the spell was performed correctly, the names of the poisons he'd used ought to appear above the cauldron.

Spoiler:

Mary listened to Mr. Reonalds and scribbled down in her notebook what he had told her. Afterwards, she took her wand out of pocket, as he told her to. This would be quite exciting. As complicated lessons went, this was certainly in top ten and this only encouraged the Wormwood.

She stood up, tied her hair back in a pony tail and looked down in the cauldron. "Partes Tuas," she said with determination and flicked her wand sharply twice, as instructed. Writing appeared above the cauldron and Mary smiled happily.

Moonseed Poison

Drink of Despair

Baneberry Potion

Mary was impressed by the potions. She knew Drink of Despair was incredibly difficult to brew and she looked at the substitute Professor with newfound respect and admiration.

James smiled, proud of his student's accomplishment and unaware of her admiration of him. "Very good, take another 10 points. That's a difficult spell to perform correctly on your first try. Now that you have your component potions, what should be your next step?"

It would do no good for him to hand her all of the answers. The only way to learn well was to figure things out for yourself. That being said, he would help her when they got to the more complicated bit of blending antidotes, but for now, all she had to do was start concocting antidotes.

Thankfully, the next step wasn't very hard, at least not it comparison to other things in Golpalott's Third Law. "Make the antidotes." she answered and got to work.

The Wormwood worked hard and tried to be as precise as possible. Mr. Reonalds may not have been as strict as Professor Holmes, but she still wanted to do well. It wasn't particularly easy, making three antidotes she's never brewed before, but it was a challenge and it was exciting.

About an hour later, the witch was standing above three steaming cauldrons. Her hair was a mess, even though she had it in a pony tail, her face was flush, she was bleeding a little from one of her fingers and there was a smudge of something on her cheek, but the antidotes were finished.

"Are they okay?" Mary asked Mr. Reonalds, hoping she didn't mess anything up. Potions was her best subject, along with DADA and she really didn't want to start slacking off.