Lesson 2 - N.E.W.T. Level

Bloody hell, he came here only to be the Headmaster, and to think that he had almost been denied that promise, and now he is limping to the Dungeons to teach Potions... all over again, to hormone raging brats who have absolutely no interest in these bottles filled with colorful liquids. Yes, he had been some sort of puppet Headmaster, but he did actually have far more authority than anyone thought, which made him a powerful nemesis to those who wanted to control him, but more on that later, right? He sat on top of his desk, starting to play with his cane, waiting for the brats to arrive.

Amelia's hair was still damp as she entered the potions dungeons, having showered not too long before heading down to Potions. She had gone for a long run this morning, longer even than her usual excursions, mostly to clear her head and get her thoughts more in order. Blissfully, she seemed to have avoided all human contact thus far this morning, and it was only as she came into the sconce-lit room that she encountered her first company of the day.

The headmaster was sitting at his desk, amusing himself with his cane, and Amelia nodded in his direction to acknowledge his presence. He had seemed entirely too aware of her presence on the first day of class, given that the pair of them had never met before that day, and had focused a great deal of his attention on her. Their discussion after class - which had involved a prize of Felix Felicis, now stored in a velvet-lined box at the back of her wardrobe - seemed to Amelia to be an admittance that he had likely overstepped her boundaries of warranted attention, but Amelia would not put it past the man to focus on her again. She did not know where his fascination had come from, but she had a good idea that it came from a mixture of admiration for her intelligence and an acute awareness of her interest in chess, which had also been a topic of discussion during the meeting after last class.

Putting thoughts of last class behind her in an attempt to convince herself this would not be a repeat performance, Amelia took out her potions supplies and then began flipping through a book that she had brought along as a bit of light reading. It was not particularly academic, but rather a bit of 18th century muggle literature that might have been considered "classic" in the right circles.

Chase walked down the corridor quickly, her eyes on the floor, her books held tightly to her chest. These classes came and went so quickly, she glanced about the corridor, and her eyes drifted down farther then the potions classroom, knowing the Slytherin Common Room was down that way. She bit her lip and pushed the door open, and saw she was very very early. She felt a small blush creep into her cheeks, before crossing the room and sitting in the same spot she had the last lesson.

She pulled out her stuff quietly, without looking at anyone else in the room. She was so tired today, her mind mentally exhausted, and yet here she was in one of the most difficult classes. Where she HAD to pay attention. Unlike the last lesson, she had completely wandered off and barely knew what had happened, just knowing that the class had ended and she had wandered out in a daze. She sighed and sat down on her stool lightly, before finally letting her eyes drift to the headmaster. She nodded once at him and then buried her face into her potions book again. She had made the impression that she liked to read last lesson, why change that?

Maybe Elijah would try and sit next to her again? She wasn't quite sure he would, because the headmaster seemed to have a grudge against him. She smiled at the memory of Elijah being lifted off the ground and placed in the back corner of the room. She hid her face again and continued to read, well, tried to read, but her mind was far from taking in the words. On the contrary, it seemed she was forgetting everything her eyes scanned over like it was a foreign language.

Living in the dungeons had its perks; not having to rush to Potions class being one of them. Some of the N.E.W.T students weren’t even up yet but Elijah...he’d barely slept. The nightmares were back but they were laced with new fears, new worries that kept him awake at night. He’d been so sure of himself before but now he didn’t know. He was worried, yes, and the strain of school wasn’t making things easier. He needed some hours to think, to plan and to make up his mind. But now, his morning had been disrupted by the thought of having to attend potions.

Elijah was already dressed, for once in full clean uniform. He was sitting on one of the couches, his feet resting on the coffee table. His bag was on the floor in front of the couch and he was cupping a mug of tea in his hands. He was tapping the mug with his middle finger and the ring curled around it was clinking against the ceramic, making an unpleasant sound. He was staring unseeingly at the fire crackling in the hearth. He was thinking deeply, hundreds of scenarios once again passing through his mind.

He needed to do something and unless they were making Potions to help the drinker to see into the future then Elijah didn’t want to know. He didn’t take Divination or Arithmancy, the former being idiotic and the latter being too complicated, so Elijah could only rely on alternate methods. He wanted something to be set. He was sick to death of this uncertainty and Chase’s upset. Everything needed to balance out again. They were sailing on choppy waters. The only thing Elijah knew for sure was that either way there would be this little life force that needed them in not even a year’s time.

Sighing, Elijah reached forward and put his mug on the table. Then he got up. The tea was cold now and he never drank his tea cold. Actually until recently he never drank tea at all. Firewhisky did nothing for him but the sugar buzz that came with dumping loads of the white granules into the tea felt great. Really in all truthfulness it was disgusting, all of it, and he didn’t know why the bloody hell he was drinking it. Elijah supposed it was just something to do with his hands. Potions then would be a good distraction; especially if they were brewing.

Grabbing his bag after shrugging on his robes, Elijah left the common room. He walked down the poorly lit hallway until he reached the potions classroom. He opened the door and stepped inside, closing it behind him. He turned and looked around the classroom. The Professor was present as well as Amelia and Chase. He swallowed and he brought his hand up to his neck. The rings scraped against the skin there and he took his hand away again before making his way over to where Chase sat. He slipped into the seat beside her and took his book from his bag before putting it down on the floor.

He playfully flicked her leg and leaned close, looking over her shoulder to see what she was looking at. “What’re you reading, Fen?” He asked with a smile.

''Well, you seem to have made an agreement with the young ones. They also came in triple. Isn't that just the cheeriest piece of news you could hear? Now, since I doubt someone else will show up, I shall start. The Potion you will be making today is extremely complex and probably dangerous. It is called Draught of Living Death. One of the most powerful sleeping Potions it will mimic death once digested. It is extremely difficult to make, but that is why I am giving you a lot of time to do so. Since this is not some theoretical class, I shan't be the one to test your knowledge of its effects nor shall I test your knowledge of its ingredients. My goal is to teach you how to make Potions and my obligations stops there. Now, you have the ingredients listed in your manuals, but there are some tricks you could use... once you are done, we shall test it on a couple of small rodents I have in my office to see it it works. But, again, a note... be careful and hand in your potion only when you are sure it is ready. Or do you perhaps like to kill small rodents?'', he finished and gave them a signal to start.

Jack slipped in as the professor began to speak and she gave him a small grimace as she veered to a seat in the back. She listened to what he said as she settled into her seat, pushing her books onto the ground at her feet and squinting as she listened to the outline for the day. Finally they would actually be doing something. She waited until he had finished and then extracted her book from her bag and began to set up her cauldron.

She quickly gathered the needed ingredients and began to set them out in some sort of logical order. She cracked open her book and looked down at the instructions... Crap. It was one of the more difficult potions they had been assigned yet, but the more Jack squinted at it the more she realized it was particular rather than difficult.

She began preparing her ingredients, first by chopping up her valerian roots as evenly as she could and then moving on to her sopophorous bean. Unfortunately, the little bugger was barely letting juice out. She glanced up to see if anyone was watching and slammed her fist on it. Surprisingly, it expelled some juice and she quickly swiped it into her cauldron. The potion turned lilac and she began to stir it, now facing the difficulty of coaxing the stubborn purple potion to turn pink.

After setting her book carefully back in her bag, Amelia wasted no time in getting her potions kit out of her bag and setting to work. She had the table to herself - as was typical in class. She wasn't exactly a popular table mate - and made use of the space by setting her things widely around her. She was thoughtful enough to set her cauldron over the fire early to get the water boiling before she was ready to put anything in it.

With the water beginning to bubble just slightly, Amelia began chopping her ingredients, taking her time to make every cut in precisely the right location along the stem of the valerian roots. This was not so much for potions purposes, but rather because she was obsessive compulsive in that way, and by setting herself to a relatively mindless task of chopping perfectly proportioned roots, she could keep her mind from wandering away to more stressful thoughts.

Potions she could handle... people, however, were more complicated.

''Well, it seems that some of you truly do know how to read, and that is truly refreshing. You know, my classes are long and the time slot is pretty long, but still, we do not have an indefinite amount of time. As you may have deduce, I shall fail each and every one of you if you, by the end of the class, are not finished with your assignments. You have started and that is brilliant, but in order to pass you have to finish it too. I know that may sound awkward or queer to you, but you do have to work when in class'', he commented upon viewing what the children had done.

Zack walked into the room he knew as soon as the professor saw him he would probably be ridiculed instead of going to the front of the room he walked to the back. He didn't have a explanation for being late or at least one he was comfortable with saying out loud. Truthfully he was with Godric ever since he reappeared life had taken such a positive turn Zack was a little lost in it. He sat down and unpacked his bag and looked over to the closest student to him and saw it was the potion of living death smiling to himself he opened the page took out the proper ingredients, those being wormwood, asphodel, valerian roots, Sloth brain, and 13 Sopophorous beans. He then started to follow the instructions and when they didn't make much sense he would improvise a bit. He silently worked not looking up at the professor during the whole time.

Jack was having trouble with her stubborn potion. She stirred and stirred, and it stayed a strong purple, which was good in that she was on track, but bad that it was supposed to be turning purple. "Any day now," she muttered irritably. She glanced at her book, a growing irritation settling into her stomach. She was turning it the right way...

"Gah!" She did a funny motion and made the potion stir the other way. Suddenly, the potion lightened. She did it again and nothing happened. She began to stir it the right way again, and it returned to purple. Frustrated, she stirred it the other way, and and it lightened, even more than the time before. She continued stirring like this, the right way for as long as her patience could handle before going the opposite way for a turn or two.

Finally, her potion had turned pink, and while it may not have been an pale as she wanted, she was not going to test her luck any further and risk losing the color. She looked up, squinting at the professor and the others to see where everyone else was at. She sighed. There was still time left. Time to go back to begging her potion to lighten up... Heh, heh... Weak puns were a sign of a tired mind. She continued her spaztic method of stirring.