Potions Lesson 1, Pod 1

Zada was ready to face her first class of the new school year. She was not unaccustomed to teaching, and she certainly was not unaccustomed to potions. She was, however, unaccustomed to the disarray that the potions lab had been in. She had meticulously reorganized it, and knowing that some students didn't know a bezoar from a billywig, she had labeled the cabinets, the jars, the drawers, and pretty much everything else they could screw up.  

She was also not a fan of years of filth that had built up in the darkened corners of the dungeon, nor the heavy musty smell that the lower regions of the castle were prone to.  She had set a cleaning charm in place and had increased the brightness a bit on the usually dim lights in the room. New potions students needed to see what they were chopping--where the herbs stopped and the fingers began.

She had had them simply pay the fees for the mandatory potions kit and then had seen to them herself to be certain that they had all the necessary equipment and that it was not second hand or second quality.  She had one large set of floor to ceiling shelves that had the standard student sized wooden chests that were the potions kits.  Their texts, of course, they were to have purchased at Flourish and Blotts before they boarded the train.

The chiming of the large wall clock alerted her that it was 8 am sharp. The morning class was about to arrive.  She picked up a piece of chalk and wrote her name in her usual elegant script on the board.

Professor D'Eath

Katherine's two favorite places in the Hogwarts grounds were the Greenhouses and the Potions Dungeon. She had always preferred Potions and Herbology, when it came to classes, and sometimes she wondered if she would make a decent professor for either when she graduated. But then everything had gone wrong and her health had ensured that she was stuck a year behind where she should have been. That just meant that she had even longer to wait before she could find a career for herself or a spot in Pureblood society as her mother would have wanted for her. Or both.

Regardless, she was looking forward to attending her first Potions lesson, and ended up being the first person to arrive. Katherine peeked around the corner, catching sight of the professor's name written across the board, before holding her books tighter to her chest and walking in.

After debating for a moment over where she wanted to sit, she made her way up to the front of the room, and sat down in the second seat from the right in the first row. She didn't want to look overly enthusiastic - though she perhaps was - by sitting directly in the middle. But if nobody came through and chose that seat, she wouldn't be too against moving over and taking on that role of over-eager teacher's pet.

Perhaps this year would go better, even if she was vastly unlikely to actually talk to anyone in classes, considering that she wasn't exactly outgoing anymore. It was difficult, she found, to be as open as she used to be, when she had just lost her sense of self. Everything Kit had thought she knew? Well it just didn't seem to be the truth anymore.

It was last year for Clara in this school and she had liked potions lessons before so she decided to take them this year too. Even if it wasn't her best subject to be honest. She liked to make different potions but she wasn't sure how do it with out introduction and she never knew much about these potions what they had learned or will. She usually listened others.

Clara walked into the classroom and saw there already few people. "Hello," she said with a smile now and sat down aomewhere middle of classroom. She now needed to wait until other students arrive too.

"Good morning," Zada greeted the students. She took a sip of her tea and put the mug on her desk. "Welcome to Potions class. Shall we begin, then?"

"I am Professor D'Eath, and I will be your potions instructor this year. It can get a bit chilly here in the mornings, so if you get uncomfortable, you are welcome to move to a work table closer to one of the fireplaces.

"I have looked over the contents of the previous potions kits you were issued last year, and they are not adequate. Therefore, you will be issued new ones this year. You may take them with you from the lab if you choose, but you will only have enough ingredients to complete your assignments. So I caution you to not use them foolishly. I take it you all have your texts. If not, do let me know. However, for now, each of you please go over to the shelves and choose one of the wooden cases that contain the potions kits.

"The first potion we will brew is the Cure for Boils. Can any of you tell me what's in it, and what you need to know to make it?"

Clara did listen the professor when she began to talk there now. When she mentioned they should go and get new potions kits then she stood up and walked to shelves. She then did take one and went to sit back at her seat. To be honest she didn't feel cold in here at all today, she actually barely did. She didn't get cold that easily too or became sick because of it.

She listened what she said next. She thought a little and then raised her hand, she knew that answer probably then. "It's potion what will cure the boils. You will need Horned Slugs, Porcupine Quills and Snake Fangs," she said there now all what she knew about it. She wasn't sure what else to say at the moment.