Term 6, Lesson 1, Year 1

Lucia walked into the classroom, ready to start off a new year. Her second year as a teacher of Potions. She really loved this job, as much had been proven last year with her students. Now she would be getting some new, and seeing the old ones again. She knew it would be a lot of fun. She smiled and looked around. First she would be getting the new students. And what would she teach them? She smiled and waved her wand, the white chalk dancing across the blackboard, writing up:

Blackboard:

She smiled and walked behind her desk, sitting down on the chair. A soft sound of wings made her aware that Sana was flying towards her. She reached out her arm and the beautiful, red phoenix landed on it. She smiled and softly let her hand trail over its feathers. She then heard footsteps and she gave Sana a push and the phoenix drifted out through the window. The bird was shy of people. She gave her first student a big smile upon entering the classroom. She then waited patiently for everyone to enter.

Hunter had found his way down to the potions classroom easily enough. Since the dungeons were right off of the entrance hall, he for once hadn't gotten lost. He found the right classroom and pushed the door open, stepping inside. He was the first one there. The professor, a dark haired woman, offered him a smile when he entered. He returned it. "Good morning!" he said cheerily to her, taking a seat in the second row and pulling out his potions text.

His eyes traveled to the blackboard, which explained the potion they would be making. Eagerly, Hunter flipped through his textbook to find the appropriate page. He was excited for potions class. Using his wand felt strange - he couldn't get used to it. This, however, was something he could handle! He cooked all the time at home, and he was sure that this class would be one of his strengths. He was pretty sure Aoife was taking potions, too. Maybe she'd sit by him. He scanned the ingredients of the potion while waiting for others to arrive.

Zinnia was starting to get cranky, not only did she have a late start, she had her cousin Leila breathing down her neck for not letting her sleep, but thank fully she got to Potions on time, she decided to sit in the back row, knowing that Leila liked sitting in the front.

Leila tiredly walked into potions class, she saw her cousin sitting in the back and decided to sit in the table next to the gryffindor boy she saw in the sorting, she rested her head on her hand, opened her books to the Cure Of Boils page and waited for the teacher to start.

Hunter heard the door to the classroom open and turned to see two girls walk in. He recognize them from the sorting and remembered that the two of them were sitting together in charms class. Surprisingly, this time, the dark-haired one sat in the back of the classroom and the blonde continued walking. She took the seat next to his. Glancing at the professor and noticing that she didn't seem to be starting class just yet, he offered the blonde girl a smile. "Hey," he said in a friendly voice. Hunter enjoyed meeting new people, and introduced himself easily to the girl. Why not? She was sitting right next to him. "My name's Hunter!"

Leila smiled at the boy sitting next to her,"Hi, I'm Leila, Nice to meet you Hunter."

"Nice to meet you, too!" he responded easily, leaning back in his chair as he waited for class to begin. "You're in Slytherin, right?" Hunter asked her. He couldn't tell from her robes but he was pretty sure that was where she'd been sorted. He'd heard conflicting rumors about Slytherin in the Gryffindor Common Room, but the girl beside him seemed friendly enough.

Leila slouched over her seat and said "Yep, much to my family's dismay. They wanted me in Ravenclaw."

Hunter listened to her response, tilting his head curiously. "Are both your parents wizards?" he asked her. At least one of them must be, if they knew what house they wanted her in. "Mine are muggles, so they don't know anything about the different houses. But I'm in Gryffindor," he informed her, shrugging. "Do you like being in Slytherin?"

Leila giggled at Hunter's curiosity,"Yes, they are both wizards, and to be honest i don't like it quiet yet, maybe i just need to get used to it, do you like gryffindor?, my cousin Abby is in gryffindor."

Leila's laughter made Hunter grin - from what he'd heard, he'd nearly expected the students in Slytherin to be angry and rude all the time. He was glad that so far that didn't seem to be true. "I'm sure that you'll get used to it," he agreed, nodding. "It's probably hard when you thought you'd be in a different house until you were sorted. And yeah, Gryffindor's great so far. Is your cousin a first year, too? I don't think I know her."

Leila grinned at Hunter "Abby is in second year, she has a twin sister in Ravenclaw, complete and total opposites those two are."

"I think I've seen her around, actually," he said, nodding. He remembered seeing a blonde set of twins around the castle who looked to be about his age, and one of them in the common room here and there. That must be who Leila was talking about. Hunter glanced back up at the professor and casually leaned his chair back on two legs. He was excited for the lesson to begin.

DUH DUH DUH SUPERMAN.

Wait, she didn't want to think like that. Getting two detentions would be bad. So she was running again, so she wasn't late for Potions class. Anddddd...she GOT THERE ON TIME!!! WOOHOO!

Aoife grinned at the Professor before taking a seat behind Hunter, since there was already someone next to him who he was talking to. Not that she minded at all. She gave him a small wave before looking at the blackboard. The teacher was Professor Henley and they were making a cure for boils. That sounded okay.

Willow made it into the classroom right on time. She took a seat a few rows from the front in this class. She wanted to be able to concentrate without being too close to the front and being the center of attention. She pulled out her quill and ink and began her notes, cure of boils, that sounded like a useful potion.

She did notice a few of the other students talking, but they were Gryffindors and Slytherins... would they even like her? She decided it was best not to find out and keep to herself so she continued taking notes.

Nadia luckily made it into the classroom in time. She sat in the back, turned to the correct page, and prepared to make the potion.

Lucia looked up as a Gryffindor walked into the classroom, greeting her happily. Lucia smiled right back at him. "Good morning, indeed," she said to him. Not a few minutes later had the room filled up, and Lucia smiled at them all as it was time to start the lesson.

"Hello everyone. I am professor Lucia Henley, your potionsmistress. Today, as your first lesson, we shall be learning the potion 'Cure for Boils'. Does anyone know the effects of this potion and what the main ingredients are?" she asked, looking at them all with a quizzical look.

Hunter listened as the professor introduced herself as Professor Henley. She seemed to be friendly, and asked if anyone knew about the potion they were going to learn. Hunter raised his hand in the air hesitantly, looking around the classroom. "It's just like the name says," he said slowly. "The potion cures boils, even ones created by jinxes or spells, doesn't it?" His words came out like a question, though he was sure he was correct.

He continued more steadily. He hoped that he was right, because he hadn't looked down at his book to check his answers. He was pretty sure that he remembered the recipe from when he'd skimmed through his book on the train. "The ingredients are Nettles, Snake Fangs, Slugs and Porcupine Quills."

Willow looked at Hunter, impressed he knew the answer so well. She didn't have a clue and had still been flipping through her textbook to find it when he gave the answer. Unlike her Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts and Transfiguration classes where she was always waiting excitedly to answer questions, potions just didn't interest her as much. It seemed rather complex and a whole lot to remember in a single recipe. "Well done, Hunter!" she whispered to him.

David had been late for classes all year, which had peeved him. he wasn't to enthusiastic for potions, but had deemed it necessary to take. he opened the door quietly and slipped inside, mouthing "sorry i'm late professor" to the professor before taking a seat near Hunter.

Lucia gave a big smile. "Correct, Mr. VanDerberg, ten points to Gryffindor for that! Now, I'm guessing you're all anxious to get to start making the potion, so round up your cauldrons and prepare it," she said with a smile, "And for those of you who don't know how to do that, just add one measure of standard ingredient to your cauldron, and you're basically ready," she added.

She then turned to the blackboard and waved her wand at it.

Cure for Boils:

"Now, get to it, class!" Lucia said.

No, Aoife didn't know anything about a cure for boils. But Hunter did, so that was good. More points to Gryffindor! They were SO going to win the House Cup this year. She turned her attention back to the professor as she spoke about how to prepare the potion. Then Professor Henley said they could start! It was so exciting!

Six snake fangs into the mortar. She counted out the six carefully and put them into the mortar. Potions was cool so far. Aoife liked it a lot. Then she crushed the fangs with the heavy thing which was apparently called a pestle. It was nice. A chance to let out all her anger. And it wasn't like she was picturing Ryland's pretty face in the mortar, either. Definitely not. Hehehe.

The potion-making stuff was going quite well until she got to the horned slugs. It was horrible. It was awful. It was animal cruelty and she didn't want to participate in it. But she sort of had to because she didn't want to lose points or get another detention. Oh, there was a bit of blood from one's body.

And then she had no choice anymore. "Professor, I feel...icky..." More than that. Aoife felt like she was going to vomit any second. It wasn't all the slug cruelty. She hadn't been feeling too well that morning when she got up, but now she felt horrible. She was doing her best not to throw up, but it was hard.

Hunter grinned brightly as Professor Henley awarded him ten points. Then, she suggested that they get started. He eagerly gathered the necessary ingredients and added the standard to the cauldron. He only took a few seconds to look at the snake fangs in interest before crushing them - come on, they were pretty cool. He added the appropriate amount of the crushed fangs to the cauldron and heated it for precisely ten seconds. He figured that it was important to be very careful of the time.

This was easy, so far! Just like cooking. Hunter was pretty sure that this was going to be his best subject. He stirred the mixture and allowed it to simmer for fifteen minutes like the board said. Glancing around, he saw that he was among the first to reach this part of the recipe. When the time was up, he quickly tossed in the horned slugs and extinguished the fire. He dropped two porcupine quills and was just finishing the final stir of his cauldron when he heard Aoife speak up from behind him.

Turning around, Hunter could see that she wasn't feeling well. It was obvious, even if she hadn't announced it to the class. Her face was whiter than usual. What could have caused her to - oh. A glance down at her desk revealed the reason for her sickness. She was just adding the Horned Slugs. It made sense, really. Aoife loved animals. To Hunter, the slugs were just an ingredient, but to Aoife that was obviously not the case.

Lucia looked up as ms. O'Donnell spoke to her. She rose from her chair and walked down to the girl's desk. She looked a bit worriedly down at her. Lucia wasn't surprised as she looked at the slugs. There were several people who reacted badly to the squishing of the ingredients, no doubt due to them having been alive at one point. Lucia crouched down and gave her a small smile.

"Are you feeling unwell? Is it due to the slugs, or is it more than that?" she asked, wanting to know if it was simply the soughs, or if it was something else, or maybe even both. She then noticed mr. VanDerberg watching. "Mr. VanDerberg, if your potion is finished, turn of the temperature, or it will be ruined," she said softly.

She then turned back to ms. O'Donnell. "I know a spell that clears the mind and stomach a bit, would you like me to perform it on you?" she asked.

"I'm not...usually this squeamish," Aoife said quietly, clutching her stomach. "I think...I didn't feel too well this morning...I thought I was just tired." Then again, it wasn't how disgusting the slugs looked that was making her feel bad. It was more that they used to be alive. It could be either, but most likely a mix of the two things together.

A spell? That would be great. Hopefully the professor would be quick because it would be embarrassing to throw up all over her. Yuck. "Yes please," she nodded. Her stomach was churning and it was sort of disgusting.