Potions - Lesson One

[Scryllark]

Professor Scryllark stood waiting in front of her desk as students began to file in, fixing them each in turn with dark, searching eyes that matched the formal black of her robes that billowed in the dungeons' constant drafts. The blackboard to her left was blank, but a piece of chalk floated at the ready. She pursed her lips, waiting for the class to settle before beginning instructions. Which students would achieve perfection in her class, or near it by the end of the year, and which ones would fail abysmally? Those who did reasonably well but did not apply themselves nearly as much as they should were the main annoyance in her teaching career - wasting their time lollygagging about as if it didn't matter. Well, she was going to make sure that by the time they left the dank and chilly classroom that day, they would see the importance.

"Quiet, please," There was no joking in the Professor's eyes; barely a hint of a smile could be seen on her strong-featured face. Was it a smile of true happiness, or something a bit more sadistic? "This begins your first Potions lesson of the year, and I expect every one of you to devote as much as you can. Those of you who have your wands out may put them away immediately; this is a class for thinkers, those who truly understand what they are doing...not silly wand-wavers who delight in pretty showers of sparks or fanciful spells." Scryllark raised her own wand, flicking it severely towards the open door. It closed itself with a protesting screech, but was quickly outacted by the chalk; it had begun to write directions in a spiky, cramped writing that looked as dangerous as Professor Scryllark herself.

"These are the instructions for brewing our most basic sleeping potion," She explained in a clipped tone, watching the students for any signs of intelligence. "You are to fill a standard size 3 flask with a sample from your cauldron, which I trust you all have brought?" There was no answer from the class, which gave her a hint of hope - there shouldn't have been. Potions was not a place for chitter-chatter. "After you have brewed your potion, please read Chapter One in your books and do the corresponding assignment." She nodded to the chalk as it finished scripting the potion instructions, gesturing to the pile of ominously thick books on her desk. "You may come up here and take a book; those of you who vandalize, tear, or otherwise ruin their copy will be paying me full price for a new one and writing a four-scroll essay on proper treatment of school-given materials. Everything you need for the potion is in the students' storeroom - this is not a group assignment, mind you; if I hear any more talking than whispers you will not be the better for it."

Professor Scryllark seated herself behind her old and ornately carved desk, drawing a crow's quill and a well of ink from a spacious drawer along with a scroll of parchment. She was obviously working on something important, looking up every so often to check on the progress of the class. So far she was not impressed by this new batch, but they still had time to prove themselves to her.

www.freewebs.com/scryllark

((Don't forget to make your potions, guys! I see our first arrival has already done so...just a reminder. You'll lose points if you do not have a potion sample to give to Professor Scryllark!))

[Mordecai]

Mordecai walked up to the class a little confused. He looked from side to side and noticed he was the first person to finish the assignment. Mordecai didnt think potions would be this easy! Mordecai looked down at his paper, which seemed to contain eraser marks all over question number 3[


Assignment 1A


1. In your opinion, what is the greatest use of sleeping potions? To help people fall asleep if used correctly. I think a sleeping potion would be very useful on occasions where the drinker is feeling depressed or overly tired and can't get to sleep.


2. Briefly describe the advancements made to the basic sleeping potion over time.
During the Salem Witch trials many witches and wizards created sleeping potions which launched them into eternal sleep. Sleeping postions are also used by witches and wizards in hospitals today.


3. Think! If the drinkers of an Eternal Sleep potion had not given their friends any knowledge to aid them in their awakening, how are we able to both reproduce the potion and offer an antidote for it today? Well today, with the knowledge we have obtained, a sleeping potion would be much more feasilbe to create. After creating the sleeping potion, an antidote will surely follow.


4. Because I am curious, and I am sure that you will have no problem with answering this, tell me about yourself in a maximum of five sentences.
I like to consider myself smart for my age. I am very athletic and hope to become a member of the quidditch team. I try to fit as many classes as possible into my schedule. I wish to become a dragon tamer as a profession when i grow up. I have a lot of school spirit and am going to help Ravenclaw win the house cup!


4/20. Your main error was ignoring my instructions to brew a potion; I am taking off an additional twenty points from Ravenclaw for that. Please turn in a three-scroll essay on why you should always follow instructions given to you by Professors by Monday. Failure to do so will result in another twenty points off of Ravenclaw and an hour's detention.

[KeeganInfidel]

Keegan came into the dark room very intimidated by his surroundings but soon felt at ease once he found the work to be plain and simple. After Keegan had finished brewing the potion, he set it aside and began the written assignment.


Keegan Infidel
Ravenclaw
Assignment 1A

1. In your opinion, what is the greatest use of sleeping potions?
The greatest use of a sleeping potion is for people who are unable to fall asleep themselves. This may be due to pain or illness, even depression. Sleeping potions can help those fall asleep and regain strength.

2. Briefly describe the advancements made to the basic sleeping potion over time.
During the Salem witch trials many potions were invented to try to sleep, many died in attempt but some succeeded and made the sleeping potion possible today in hospitals and in medical services.



3. Think! If the drinkers of an Eternal Sleep potion had not given their friends any knowledge to aid them in their awakening, how are we able to both reproduce the potion and offer an antidote for it today?
The sleeping potion is still around today because scientists have recollected data and have been able to recreate the potion. The antidote would easy follow the creation of the potion.

4. Because I am curious, and I am sure that you will have no problem with answering this, tell me about yourself in a maximum of five sentences.

I am a very studious and friendly first year Ravenclaw. I like to play quiddich and play sports with my friends however; I am not able to be on the team quite yet. I enjoy learning about things I do not know and understand as well as learning new spells and curses. I also like to have innocent duels with my friends and play board games.


After Keegan finished his assignment, he walked over to the teacher with is potion in one hand and the assignment in the other and placed it gently in front of her.

15/20 - Acceptable; try to put more work into your potionmaking.[/color]

[protege]

Protege walked into the room, cautiously because this was his first class. He could tell that the teacher was a no-nonsense teacher, and he did not want to get on her bad side. Opening his book, he started making the sleeping potion, checking his book at every step to make sure that he was doing the correct things, like stirring counter-clockwise or inserting the right number of ingredients. When he started to let his potion cool, he started the written assignment.

Protege
Slytherin Student
Assignment 1A

1) In your opinion, what is the greatest use of sleeping potions?
I believe that the greatest use of sleeping potions is to put a sick or injured person to sleep, so that they do not feel pain from an operation or spell, or do not move around a lot while you are attempting something complicated.

2) Briefly describe the advancements made to the basic sleeping potion over time.
Over time, advancements were made, from common herbs to more complicated things like distillations of Yeti blood, a mixture of wormwood and minced Kneazle fang, and skill with antidotes and controlling the sleep.

3) Think! If the drinkers of an Eternal Sleep potion had not given their friends any knowledge to aid them in their awakening, how are we able to both reproduce the potion and offer an antidote for it today?
Since the original creators of the Eternal Sleep potion had not had a friend aid them, we are probably able to recreate the potion and an antidote by expirementing, probably attempting expiremental Eternal Sleep potions on volunteers who are close to death anyway, although this sounds very risky and unlogical to me.

4) Because I am curious, and I am sure that you will have no problem with answering this, tell me about yourself in a maximum of five sentences.
I am a student who enjoys expirementing, although I prefer to make sure that my expirements will have the desired effect, and I try to test what I create on willing things. I am not quick to trust, but if I do, I shall forever trust that person. My favorite things are explosives (mainly fireworks), any body of water, any kind of weapon, and mountans. I have no real plan for the future, but I work hard in schools to make sure I have a wide window of job options.

When he was finished with his written assignment, Protege put some of his potion in his vial, rolled up his assignment, and put both of them on the teacher's desk.

17/20 - Very nice.[/color]

[Eleanor]

Eleanor was sure that she looked just as nervous as she felt when entering the dungeons; she had never taken a Potions class in her life and feared that she would be abysmal at it. The intense demeanor of Professor Scryllark wasn't helping either - if anything, it only served to frighten the girl more. But she tried to be brave as she collected a book from the Professor's desk, squinting at the assuredly simple directions. Okay...she could do this. Re'em blood. Asphodel. Right. Scribbling down everything she needed on a piece of scratch parchment before heading off to the supply cupboard, Eleanor collected her ingredients quickly. It took her a bit longer than everyone else to properly prepare the needed amounts and types of ingredient, but finally she felt she was all ready. While waiting for her water to start frothing she began on her assignment, checking back to her cauldron every so often. The last thing she wanted was a spill of any kind.

Eleanor Sel'shea
Hufflepuff House
Assignment 1A

1. In your opinion, what is the greatest use of sleeping potions?: I believe that the best use of sleeping potions is, obviously, to help people sleep. More specifically, however, they should be used when other pain-relieving potions don't seem to be working so the injured person doesn't suffer as much.

2. Briefly describe the advancements made to the basic sleeping potion over time. - Advancements were mostly due to the surge of witches and wizards willing to frivolously experiment during the period of the Salem Witch Trials, and the fact that new ingredients became available to include in relatively weak potions.

3. Think! If the drinkers of an Eternal Sleep potion had not given their friends any knowledge to aid them in their awakening, how are we able to both reproduce the potion and offer an antidote for it today? - The drinker probably wouldn't have had the time to clean up his work area before falling asleep - judging from what ingredients were gotten out, or any bit of potion left in the cauldron, ingredients should have been painfully obvious. Either that, or they may have been studious enough to have written down each recipe they tried before drinking it. There are general antidotes for sleeping potions, so that wouldn't have been much trouble unless they were using something unknown or particularly potent.

4. Because I am curious, and I am sure that you will have no problem with answering this, tell me about yourself in a maximum of five sentences. - I believe I strive hard to do well in all my classes, and hope this one won't be an exception. I enjoy Quidditch, but there are much better people out there. Sometimes I get distracted with things, but manage to get back on task eventually. My two favorite classes are Divination and Herbology, although Potions isn't so bad. This is my first time in a Potions class.[/color]

Eleanor frowned at her sentence fragments in number two, but there hadn't exactly been room for elaboration. Wait, what was - her cauldron! Eleanor lunged over her worktable, quickly prodding the flames with her wand to lower them. The water had begun to trickle over the sides, but hadn't caused any major messes. Hoping no one else would notice, the girl quickly amassed her ingredients and began to add them one by one, being particularly careful with the mixture of blood and spine. (she wrinkled her nose - now that she knew what went in those things, she didn't think she'd ever be able to drink another...) Before she knew it, all she had to do was let it cool. Deciding it would be better to hand in both at the same time, the Hufflepuff waited until her nerves were as frazzled as her hair - but with the potion cooled, she poured a good amount into a flask labeled with her name, presenting both her written assignment and the potion sample proudly to Professor Scryllark. Not a bad first attempt...

19/20 - I expect you to improve in the future; not bad.[/color]

[Clover]

Clover started writing really quickly.

Clover Herring
Ravenclaw
Assignment 1A

1. .In your opinion, what is the greatest use of sleeping potions?

Well for people who find it hard to sleep & also if you suffer from stress or injured. If used for the right reasons to drink the potion.

2. Briefly describe the advancements made to the basic sleeping potion over time.

Over time many potions were made by potion makers, now some potions used in hospitals. We use mostly herbs in potions & even food.We use Ingredients like powdered asphodel root, Re'em blood, crushed slizard spine and filtered water.

3. Think! If the drinkers of an Eternal Sleep potion had not given their friends any knowledge to aid them in their awakening, how are we able to both reproduce the potion and offer an antidote for it today?

We mostly likey be able to recreate the potion, as well as an antidote. I mean we have clever scientists & If people of world war 2 could break the Enigma. Then they cand come up with an antidote. Also vounteers, who most likely get paided to do it.

4. Because I am curious, and I am sure that you will have no problem with answering this, tell me about yourself in a maximum of five sentences.

I am Clover, 16 years old in Ravenclaw. First year in Ravenclaw, I'm funny, loyal to my word & friends. Also my family, I love learning new things & writing, reading.
Also I think I'm smart for the problems that I have.




Clover rolled up her work & put it down on the teachers desk carely without a sound.

6/20 - No potion? An additional twenty points will be removed from Ravenclaw. I expect you to follow my instructions in the future. To make up for this, write a three-scroll essay on how our lives would be different if sleeping potions were never invented, and why I am attempting to teach students these things (to be handed in to me no later than Monday). Failure to complete the essay will result in another twenty-point deduction from Ravenclaw and an hour's detention.[/color]

[Faerlain]

Faye bit her lip apprehensively as she took out the needed supplies for the potion. While she did make an honest attempt in all of her classes, she knew that potions was going to be one of her hardest. It required concentration- something she rarely was able to capture and never able to keep. Whipping out her quill, she copied down the instructions carefully into her notebook and then began to follow them.

It took her slightly longer than the rest of the students to complete the potion. This left her not much time to complete the assignment and still turn it in by the end of the period. In a hasty scrawl, she wrote her name at the top of the paper and then began.

Faerlain Devon
Hufflepuff House
Assignment 1A

1.
I think that the greatest use of sleeping potions is for use in hospitals. It is a much safer way of putting someone to sleep than the muggle anesthesia. This helps to reduce complications and to help a patient rest easier while they are recovering.

2.
The advancements made in sleeping potions are quite drastic. Even just a good ten years ago they were not quite as advanced as they are today. Before, they would only keep a person asleep for a short amount of time. The potion was difficult to make and the ingredients were hard to find. Now, due to advances in buisness and trade, the ingredients have become easier for the average witch or wizard to aquire.

3.
The potion would be easily reproduced by a simple Retainment charm, which would be able to give you the ingredients of the potion. From there, making an antidote would be fairly simple.

4.
I am a prefect for Hufflepuff house who enjoys many things in life- mostly including spending time with friends. I'm orignally from a small town in Virgina, though I enjoy my life here as well as writing to my mother as often as possible.

Sighing and replacing her quill inside her sack, she stood up and handed her paper in.

18/20 - Good answers; your potion shows promise but may need some work.[/color]

[Ashlle G. Rainier]

My! thought Ashlle as she got a book from the desk. This teacher almost sounds like my friend’s 'Professor Snape' down at Hogwarts. Leaving the book at her desk, she then went to retrieve the ingredients from the closet

Ashlle took her 3 oz. bottle of powdered asphodel root, .5 oz. container of crushed slizard spine, test tube of 2 drops Re'em blood and 1 qt. filtered water back to her seat. Following the directions in the book carefully, she set her cauldron over a medium flame and poured in the water. When it was simmering nicely, she looked at the next direction.

‘Sprinkle your powdered asphodel root while stirring counter-clockwise, lowering the intensity of your flames so as to prevent the potion from boiling over’ it said. But Ashlle was confused. She knew it mattered what stirring rod you used to stir each potion (she knew because of a long lecture the Potionist had made to her in Diagon Alley about them.) She had bought a whole set just to be sure he had the right one. But the directions made no reference to them at all.

In the end she decided to use the gold one. After all she was trying to make a sleeping potion and Gold was the softest metal. She began to Sprinkle the powdered asphodel root with her left hand while stirring counter-clockwise with her right. As soon at the power was all gone she lowered the intensity of the flames. The directions were right. Her potion had been getting a bit too high.

Ashlle let that simmer while she began mixing the Re'em blood and slizard spine together in her glass evaporation dish. It was getting rather pretty by the time she had finished dripping the mix into the cauldron. Sort of like that stupid Mint-fresh gum that the kids at the Orphanage had always chewed & stuck under their desks. She then narrowed her flame and turned it up. White foam began to slowly cover the top of her potion signaling that it was all right. Seeing as she had to wait for it to let it brew for twenty minutes she decided to clean up and work on her writing assignments.

She returned all the bottles to the used bin and wiped off her instruments then put them away. Then she wiped down the table. When the table was dry she took out a piece of parchment & began the assignment on the board.

Ashlle Rainer
Gryffindor
Assignment 1A

1. In your opinion, what is the greatest use of sleeping potions?

The greatest use of sleeping potions to me is to bring the peace of sleep to someone who cannot (for what ever reason) find it for themselves.

2. Briefly describe the advancements made to the basic sleeping potion over time.

Sleeping potions, (once called ‘darknights’ but not for very long) once had more common (and less effective) herbs and tinctures, seeing as how not all of today's ingredients were available in those days.
In fact most of the advancements in this particular range of potions came around the time of the Salem Witch Trials. Witches and wizards then had way too much on their mind to get a goodnight sleep so they were willing to try almost anything in pursuit of it. Some kicked the bucket from their botched and inferior attempts (which made the witch hunters glad, I’d expect) but some came upon truly amazing discoveries. So amazing that a few never woke from them.

3. Think! If the drinkers of an Eternal Sleep potion had not given their friends any knowledge to aid them in their awakening, how are we able to both reproduce the potion and offer an antidote for it today?

Well, I expect their friends tried things till they did wake up, or had them talk in their sleep or something. Also there is such a thing as Re-invention. Muggles are doing it all the time. I suppose it wouldn’t be out of the realms of possibility for someone to have re-invented one or another of these potions under controlled conditions. Either that or there was some of the potion left in the sleepers cauldron.

Ashlle, sensing the time had elapsed, now turned off the flames under her potion. Seeing as she had to wait for it to cool she went back to finishing her paper.

4. I am the last descendant of the Great family of Rainer, as my mother was killed soon after my birth and the rest of my family before her. An unknown assailant who wishes to hurt me bodily is pursuing me. However I have made a friend of the Reanimated Head boy known as Kezza and he has promised to help me and keep me safe. I am also an Untrained Hunter for the BFC, (Black Forest Church) an organization dedicated to the eradication of dangerous magical beasts and beings.

Ashlle’s potion had now cooled enough. She gently ladled some of it into her standard size 3 flask and took it, and her paper up to the Professors desk for grading.


17/20 - I seem to be getting some very nice assignment answers from this class, but average potions. We'll make sure it's all improved by Christmas![/color]

[CorsicaBlack]

Corsica smiled as she walked into the room her long black pony tail pined up into a neat bun. She knew the problems that would occur if ones hair ended up being in a potion. As she walked to the back of the class she unpacked her cauldron and walked up to the head of the class as instructed and picked up a thick tome of potion making. Of all her courses she looked forward to this one, the subtle art, no wand waving or crazy fluffy effects. Just strong, sound equations to follow to the desired effects. They were a comfort for her as she settled down in the back where she wouldn’t be disturbed and opened her book reading over the assignment the quiet of the dungeon lulling her into her work.
Corsica nodded as she slid some gloves onto her hands and poured the distilled water into the cauldron and set it to simmer as she read over the recipe carefully making sure that her potion components were what she needed and that her blood was fresh and the spine not to stiff from rigor mortis. As she looked into the cauldron she saw it simmer and picked up her glass stirrer and started slowly turning the simmering water counter clock wise sprinkling in the powdered Asphodel and turning down the heat. Corsica nodded to herself as she put the re’em blood and Slizard spine in the evaporation dish and smiled as she selected the pipette from her kit to drip the mixture in a little bit at a time.

Corsica adored this painstaking work as she turned up the flame and set it in the center of the caldron and watched carefully for the froth turn white and the potion turn to a soothing mint color. She smiled to herself as it did as it was supposed to, relived because she didn’t want to have to start from scratch. As she turned down the flames and let the potion cool she pulled out her quill and a fresh piece of parchment.


(in a neat no nonsense script)

Corsica Black
House Slytherin

1) In your opinion, what is the greatest use of sleeping potions?

Well there are a lot of good uses for this type of potion, because of it’s versatility I would say that in medicine it could have a myriad of good uses. From anesthetic to a cure for all levels of insomnia do to the fact that sleeping potions lack all the nasty addictive side effects of muggle medication. The most interesting one that I can think of is for patients with closed head injuries, because often in muggle hospitals they put them in drug induced comas, which are unpredictable at best, dangerous at their worst. When using a sleeping potion because you have such finite control over the stringent and depth of sleep. YOur could easily put them in a coma and just lighten to dose to check the progress. I most interesting idea for therapy since your asking my opinion.

2) Briefly describe the Advancements made to the basic sleeping potion over time.

The simplest answer I can think of is simply the advancement of materials. Simply put with better components a better end product is made. With growing availability of such things and the improvements in shipping and travel over time both in the muggle and wizards worlds such objects once rare have now become common and easy to obtain, this phenomenon has also led to a better quality product.


3) Think! If the drinkers of the Eternal sleep potion had not given any knowledge to their friends to aid them in their awakening, how are we able to both reproduce the potion and an antidote for it today?

Well, I would have to say the answer would be in a mixture of science and magic. The first thing we would have to do is study the blood of one of the afflicted. Such heavy potions should in theory create changes in the humors of the body in my model the blood. Though the study of this blood we should be able to see the effects of such things and in theory know how such components affect the body. Using this as our model we could in effect recreate the competence and therefore create an effective antidote.


4) Because I am Curious, and I’m sure that you will have no problem with answering this, tell me about yourself in a maximum of five sentences.

Well my Name is Corsica Black, and I’m a first year at this school after transfusing from cliftops Magic Academy for girls deep in the rocky mountains of Colorado in the United States. WhWhile I was there I took introduction to Potions and fell in love with the subtlety of this art form and have looked forward to taking this class here in a more traditional environment. My parents both work for the ministry and in the United States they studied the magic of the Native Americans to see if it there was any relation to our European style of casting. I personally love quiddich and have played the piano since I was three.

Corsica smiled down at the parchment and looked over at her now cooled potion and ladled it into the flask as instructed a neat label placed on the flask with her name and the sleeping potion. As for the parchment she rolled it up neatly placing a black and green ribbon around it to keep is secure as she walked up to the head of the class placing the parchment and flask side by side on the professors desk she walked to the back quietly and started to clean up rinsing out her tools carefully and putting them away neatly.

19/20 - A near perfect score, Miss Black. Just a few minute errors on your part, but I am very impressed with your skill level. Keep up the good work!

[Rose]

Rose eyed the professor in respectful silence as she took her book from her desk. Professor Scryllark seemed tougher then previous educators, but rather then be particularly intimidated, she smiled. The stricter teachers always made you feel best at the end of a term.

Sitting back at her spot to the side of the classroom, Rose put her elbow on her desk and rested her chin upon it as she carefully flipped the pages to the instructions for a Sleeping Draught, pulled out her shabby second hand cauldron and pouring the quart of filtered water into it over a medium sized flame, trying hard not to spill as might have when she was younger and more spastic with assignments. Taking out her packet of asphodel root and measuring out three ounces, she sprinkled it in with one hand, stirring counter-clockwise with the other.

Making an inaudible grunt of annoyance, she lowered the flame. How am I supposed to do three different things at once? She thought with an unexplainable mood swing teenage girls were known for. Next to be prepared was perhaps her least favorite ingredient: Re'em blood. Now, she wasn't entirely sure what a Re'em was, but it sounded perfectly nasty anyway. She made a note of looking one up during an open block later. Mixing the two drops of blood with the crushed slizard spine in her own small evaporation dish and dripping it into the mixture in her cauldron, she wiped the corner of her mouth with her sleeve. Potion work always made her nervous, but it was nearly finished. There was only one step left.

The last instruction was perhaps the most unusual she had encountered in a Potions classroom. But nevertheless she furrowed her brow and picked out the center of the mixture as she turned up the flames. After a moment or two of concentration, the brew bubbled for an instant, then frothed out in the preferable white, leaving the faint scent of mint.

She sighed in relief. She took out a parchment and an ink well to answer the questions as the brew cooled.

Rose Murphy
Hufflepuff
Seventh Year
Potions Assignment 1A

1) The greatest use of sleeping potions are to help the consumer an immediate way of falling asleep, for whatever reason, whether it be illness, injury or just plain insomnia before a test the next morning. I do not, however, applaud any use of sleeping potions to be forced on a person to put them into eternal sleep. This being a type of death penalty, I am four square against it.

2) The basic form of the sleeping potion, once known as darknights, has slowly improved. The most major advancements concerning the sleeping potion was invented durring the Salem Witch Trials, a time when witches and wizards were under suck stress, there was hardly enough time, or peace of mind, to get a good nights sleep. Though this is a time plagued with foul death from both suspicious muggles of the time and their own unsuccessful brews, it also brought about a strong enough potion to bring the consumer into an eternal sleep.

3) Because the witches or wizards who created the draught strong enough for eternal sleep had not left behind any instructions, how are we to know the ingredients in these potions? Well trained professionals in science and magic should be able to tell at first or second whiff or experiment what exactly they placed in their mouth from the scent and parts left behind inside their mouth.

4) I am Rose Murphy, a seventh year Hufflepuff who's followed the change of location for this school for quite some time. I have recently returned from some solo time, travelling abroad, but have decided it's time to get serious about a book-learned education. I have an older brother James who used to attend, who is actually very talented with Potions, though I don't seem to have his skill. I used to be on the Hufflepuff Quidditch Team and was for a period of time one of the Hufflepuff Prefects. My interests include literature, swordplay, flying and travel.

Grimacing at her unelegant conclusion to the last question, she carefully poured her brew into a flask, corked it, and set it aside once more as she hurriedly cleaned up the area. After finished, she put away her ink well and quill, rolled her parchment and strode over to Professor Scryllark's desk, setting the flask and parchment with the others on her desk.

18/20 - Your potion showed potential, happily, but perhaps you have traded your writing skills for it? Good work overall.

[Ribbon Valedrawn]

Ribbon listened with rapt attention to the no-nonsense voice of the potions professor and noted to herself how odd her preferences were, this year it appeared that her two favorite classes would be potions and divinations, the wholly concrete and entirely nebulous. She mentally applauded the teacher’s strict approach, doing well in a stricter teacher’s hard class always felt more rewarding to Ribbon and she had discovered that the professors that weren’t just mean but really wanted the class to achieve their best usually had a hard to catch, dry humor that made listening carefully worthwhile. On this thought she quickly tuned back in, although she hadn’t missed much, and after Prof. Skryllark told them to get started she quickly walked up to get her book. Taking comfort in its weight rather than disliking it, she opened it to the correct page and read the entire recipe thoroughly before getting her materials together, including a parchment and quill.

Allowing the cauldron to simmer she began the first question:

Ribbon Valedrawn
Slytherin

Assignment 1A

1. In your opinion, what is the greatest use of sleeping potions?
They allow people who are distraught or emotionally unstable to get well-needed rest or too allow people under large amounts of stress to relax for a few crucial hours and get themselves back together.

Noting that her water was simmering she added the powdered asphodel and stirred counterclockwise gently. After lowering the heat, she carefully mixed Re’em blood and slizard spine then added them. Turning the heat back up she let it alone while answering the next two questions.

2. Briefly describe the advancements made to the basic sleeping potion over time.
Sleeping potions were originally weak and difficult to keep consistent due to ingredient availability but due to the better ingredient circulation and a bit of foolhardy experimentation, there are now many intensities and forms of sleeping potions with more regulation on intensity and quality.

3. Think! If the drinkers of an Eternal Sleep potion had not given their friends any knowledge to aid them in their awakening, how are we able to both reproduce the potion and offer an antidote for it today?
The foolhardy inventors probably kept notebooks and also left their ingredients out, ready for discovery by their friends. Also by recreating probable recipes with these materials they could test them and their antidotes on ever-present test subjects.

The thick froth at the top of the cauldron showed her that the potions was ready to cool so she turned the flame all the way off and answered the final question while the sleep draught cooled.

4. Because I am curious, and I am sure that you will have no problem with answering this, tell me about yourself in a maximum of five sentences.

My name is Ribbon Valedrawn and I was raised in Del Mar, California, on my family’s ranch. We raise and train rare horse breeds so I have been exposed to animals from an extremely young age. My favorite classes so far are this one and oddly enough divination. I hope to do well in this class this year.

After giving her paper one last cursory glance she rolled it up, poured a sample of her potion into the specified #3 flask and took both up to the teacher. Ribbon then returned to her seat and cleaned up the small mess expediently.

17/20 - Good answers, but I think I could clean up your potionmaking a bit more. We'll work on it.

[Camber]

Camber sighed. Potions was not her best subject. But she tried her best to finish the assignment, hoping that she was somewhat right. She thought hard, focusing on what the questions asked. She then turned and started brewing her potion, pondering about what she was going to write for her answers. She was better at writing than at actually making the potion usually. As she got to the point of the potion of mixing the Re'em blood and lizard spine together, she started getting a bit nervous. Others were starting to finish their potions, and she was only half way done. She tried to hurry, but made sure to be careful at the same time. Finally, she turned flames off, let the potion cool off, and handed in her work after carefully cleaning up her working area. She went back to her desk and frowned. Now that the hard part was over, the rest of it should be easy, she hoped. She carefully read the chapter that had been assigned and started to write out the assignment.


Camber Wisp
Hufflepuff
Assignment 1A

1. In your opinion, what is the greatest use of sleeping potions?
I think that the greatest use of sleeping potions would be to put insomniacs to sleep. Another use would be to help the sick sleep easier.

2. Briefly describe the advancements made to the basic sleeping potion over time.
During the Salem Witch ages the wizards and witches of the time sadly had nothing to loose in the makings of the potions. They weren’t afraid to die by experimenting with the concoctions that they would come with, weather dangerous or not would not be afraid to try anything. Thanks the successful potions that they came up with we were able to grow off of them, making the potion into the success that it is now today.

3. Think! If the drinkers of an Eternal Sleep potion had not given their friends any knowledge to aid them in their awakening, how are we able to both reproduce the potion and offer an antidote for it today?
Through experimenting with the sleeping potions that came out somewhat successful, one way would be that the wizards and witches of our time improved more and more upon what the original potion had been.

4. Because I am curious, and I am sure that you will have no problem with answering this, tell me about yourself in a maximum of five sentences.
My name is Camber Wisp, well, full name Cambera Morgan Wisp, but I much prefer the shorter version. Although I seem short for my age (only 5’2), I am in my fifth year in the Hufflepuff house, although it is my first year at the school, only being at the school since 2 weeks ago. More than a majority of the time my 24-year-old brother takes care of my twin brother and me while my mother works as an aurora. I have not really seen her at all for the past 2 years, when I am home from school I live in California with my cousins.



Not bad, Camber hoped anyway. Well, she had tried her best. She looked around earnestly. Most people had well finished by now, she felt a little bit embarrassed that it had taken her so long. Maybe I didn’t do the potion correctly. She worried. She didn’t want to let her house down. But there was nothing she could do about it now. She handed the rest of the assignment into the teacher, only knowing that she had done her best and hoping that it would be enough.

16/20 - Both written assignment and potion could withstand improvement, but I'm glad to see it wasn't a total wash. Keep studying!

[Orca]

As far as he knew, very few Lycans actually attended class. But it wasn't like he had anything better to do, and so the young wolf-boy headed to the first -and only- class he had signed up for. Potions.

He pushed open the door, peering into the murky depths inside, sneezing as the strong scent of potion-making caught his sensitive canine nose. Muttering to himself, the Lycan padded inside, dropping into a seat at the back. Right after him flew Ryu, his dragon familiar, who landed on the boy's shoulder and made himself comfortable.

Orca dug around in his pockets until he found a suitable piece of paper. 'Tis a good thing I came prepared... he thought smugly to himself, and pulled a pen out of his shaggy mess of a hair.

Orca Sakuranbo
Slytherin
Assignment 1A

1. In your opinion, what is the greatest use of sleeping potions?

-I think that the greatest use of sleeping potions would have to be when you can't sleep. You know, like instead of sleeping pills? 'Cause after you take sleeping pills, you're all groggy-like in the morning and stuff. I hate that.

2. Briefly describe the advancements made to the basic sleeping potion over time.

-Well, considering that Muggle-kind has made technological advancements, it would seem only natural that wizards would also be able to make advancements. Er, that's not what you were asking. Our kind, well, -your- kind anyway has advanced by making potions that are safer, and work better. Some of the first potions made caused the taker to drop into a state of eternal slumber, or even caused them harm.

3. Think! If the drinkers of an Eternal Sleep potion had not given their friends any knowledge to aid them in their awakening, how are we able to both reproduce the potion and offer an antidote for it today?

-That would most likely be because somehwere along the way, someone -did- write it down. Yeah. I think, anyway.

4. Because I am curious, and I am sure that you will have no problem with answering this, tell me about yourself in a maximum of five sentences.

-I am a 16 year old Lycanthrope boy, with the power to change into a large white wolf at will. I have practically no magical abilites, nor do I really wish to. I have my Lycan powers, and that's really all I need. I also have a Vietnamese Kyte dragon familiar named Ryu. He's so kyooot... yeah.

The boy gave his assignment a proud glance, then picked it up and took it to the front of the class. Looking around, he noticed that others were also turning in potions along with it. An odd whimpering noise escaped from his throat, and he turned wolf and slunk to the back of the class, where Ryu gave him a pitying glance.

"Damn... I didn't know there'd be actual potion-making in here..."

9/20 - You lack a potion for me, but your written answers were very nice. I will be forced to take away additional points from Slytherin - 20, to be exact - if you do not turn in an essay to me about why potionmaking is an important part of wizarding life. It should be no less than three scrolls long, due Monday.

[Silver]

For no reason she could comprehend, Potions seemed to relax Silver more than any other lesson she had had so far. Perhaps it was because of the fact that the Professor would not allow anyone to talk too loudly. She added her ingredients carefully to her cauldron, breathing a sigh of relief as it began to turn the right colour and thickness, and she left it to simmer for ten minutes as she got out a piece of parchment and pen.

Assignment 1A - Silver Stillwater, Hufflepuff Student

1. In your opinion, what is the greatest use of sleeping potions?
In my opinion, the greatest use of sleeping potions would be for an insomniac. Insomniacs find it impossible to sleep well, and it affects every other area of their life, causing them to become stressed, irritable and constantly tired and tearful. A sleeping potion can remedy this if prescripted to an insomniac. Various different strengths can be adapted to the severity of the problem.

2. Briefly describe the advancements made to the basic sleeping potion over time.
There were most asvancements made during the Salem Witch Trials, when a lot of witches and wizards would do almost anything to concoct a Sleeping Potion of any kind. This willingness to try anything allowed for many different strength potions to be created.

3. Think! If the drinkers of an Eternal Sleep potion had not given their friends any knowledge to aid them in their awakening, how are we able to both reproduce the potion and offer an antidote for it today?
An Eternal Sleep potion takes effect immediately, and thus there would still be some Potion left in either the item they were drinking from, or the cauldron in which they made it. Many clever witches and wizards can deduct what is in a potion, and so I would think that this is how they came to discover what it was.

4. Because I am curious, and I am sure that you will have no problem with answering this, tell me about yourself in a maximum of five sentences.
I am an enthusiastic Hufflepuff who believes in pride of House and School. I love to play Quidditch and I gave a helping hand to the team in winning the Cup in their last game. I am very friendly, although a little shy which restricts me from making as many friends as I would really like. I can't think of anything else much interesting about me - I'm just a regular witch.
[/color]
Silver handed her parchment with a vial of potion that, to her at least, seemed to have been made quite well. Feeling quite happy, she walked back to her desk and waited for the class to be dismissed.

17/20 - Potions seem to be improving, but I would be happy if your written answers showed a bit more understanding of the topic.

[Daniela]

Daniela read the instructions in her book a few times before actually beginning her work.
After making sure she understood it all, Danni settled all of her ingredients on the desk, next to her cauldron and begun making the potion.
She purred the filtered water to the cauldron slowly, trying not to spill anything, then lit up the fire to the exact temperature and waited for the water to warm up.
While the water was starting to simmer, Daniela powdered 3 oz. of her asphodel root and added it carefully to her potion, stirring slowly to the right direction and lowering the fire immediately.
She checked the instructions once more, Danni took the Re'em blood flacon and moved it slowly to check if the blood was fresh.
After that, she crushed 5 oz. of slizard spine, them took her shallow evaporation dish from her bag and mixed them together carefully dripping the mix into her simmering cauldron.
She turned up the flames, making sure to concentrate them at one central point and checked the potion. Favorable white froth were forming over the top, Danni wiped the sweat away from her face then checked the color of her potion, soothing mint liquid was bubbling inside.
She sighed with relief, then turned off the fire and cleaned her desk while the potion was cooling up. After five minutes she filed a flask of it and put it aside, while pulling out a piece of parchment and writing down with her favourite purple ink.


Daniela Turner
Gryffindor

Assignment 1A


1. In your opinion, what is the greatest use of sleeping potions?

I think the greatest use of sleeping potion is medicine.
The smallest injuries we get can be a real pure pain to us. Even a simple flu virus can be so pain full that we won't be able to sleep at night.
Sleeping potion work immediately and effectively, after drinking a glass of that potion you fall into a long, dreamless sleep, without feeling any pain.

2. Briefly describe the Advancements made to the basic sleeping potion over time.

I suppose the advancements changed with the time. The technology and the life condition affected our life and turned it different.
The materials we need to brew that potion are much easier to find now, and the condition for making a good potion are a lot better. In addition, the potion affectivity improved, the materials are in better conditions and kept very well, for that the potion is more useful then before.

3) Think! If the drinkers of the Eternal sleep potion had not given any knowledge to their friends to aid them in their awakening, how are we able to both reproduce the potion and an antidote for it today?

We have to study the affects of the potion first.
The antidote is made based on the potion original making, actually, it's more a reverse of the potion making itself.
Also, we have to consider the person that is drinking that potion. The affects on him can teach us about the potion influence on us, then, we can take the results and make a potion that is working backwards from the first one.

4) Because I am Curious, and I’m sure that you will have no problem with answering this, tell me about yourself in a maximum of five sentences.

My name is Daniela Turner, I'm 15 and a second year in that school.
I came to the school last year for the first time, but I didn't take any subjects because I am a lycan. I enjoy flying, walk by the lake and study.
I like Transfiguration and Potions the best, and those are the only subjects I study steady.
My dad works as a healer in a local hospital near my home, and my little sister will come to the school next year. I hope that year will pass fast and I'd love to study more potions in that class.

Daniela re-read her assay, then, rolled down the parchment, glued the potion flask to it with a simple charm and put it on the professor's desk.
After all that, Danni walked back to her place and sat quietly until the end of the lesson.

18/20 - I liked the ideas you presented in your assignment, although they could have been more well-written. Your potionmaking is very precise; why not try studying up a bit to perfect your skills?[/color]