Alchemy Class 1 (Advanced)

Alan always hated children. They were noisy, senseless, and completely insufficient. Why anyone would consider them a joy was beyond him. Raising James had taught him little in the ways of parenting, and he felt for the better of it. For, when it came to Alchemy, James' curiosity had merely... lead him along. Not so with these students. He knew students in Hogwarts had been coddled and sheltered. Some assumed that they could skip classes, sleep through them, and party as they pleased. Others believed they knew everything. They breezed through their courses, but what were they truly learning?

Alan berated himself internally for even accepting this position. How foolish he had been to accept the assignment without any careful thought. He had merely heard that Majere had "dropped the ball," and there was an intense paucity in the children's alchemic understanding. He certainly had not accepted the post in the vain hope that he would illicit such dreams of Alchemy in student's minds, but he could at least widen their perspective concerning the highly misunderstood practice.

As Alan had never really liked children, he found it easier to stomach the fact that he was teaching by pretending that they WERE capable of rational thought. He would prefer to engage in constant conversation with the students, making them think and consider the concepts that were practiced in his room. His first and foremost rule had been "Think and think with an Open Mind." This was, of course followed by the rule "Do NOT sleep in class," but Alan wanted to believe that it was unnecessary. He had been told that students had CHOSEN the Alchemy course, and as such, they should be interested in the course... right?

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Alan Wake shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He piercing glare stared down the face of the clock. He longed for his study, his old office back at the ministry. It had been so markedly his, that it could not possibly be distinguished from his peers'. Instead, he now had a classroom, a thing which he had never loathed more than now. Alan Wake hated children, yes, but he hated teenagers even more. ESPECIALLY those in their 6th and 7th years. They were generally the ones who believed that they had achieved the most out of the whole ordeal of "school."

Regardless, Alan knew he would have to teach them Alchemy. Today's class had no real plan. He first needed to know what the students knew. Except James. Alan knew what James knew, and that was sufficient enough to survive his class. But the rest of the class would have varying levels of confidence in Alchemy. In other words, today was a discussion class.

WELCOME to ADVANCED ALCHEMY
With Professor Alan Wake

Well this was fun. She'd walked into the classroom and absolutely nothing had happened. Not even a greeting, unless you counted the condescending scrawl on the blackboard as a greeting. Angelique didn't. She assumed her teachers knew how to speak. She assumed they realised that at least half of their NEWT students were legal adults, and she assumed they didn't talk to other adults like three year olds. So why the pathetically jolly welcome message?

"Professor" Alan Wake was obviously out of his element, and Angelique had no inclination to make him feel more comfortable.

James Wake was a conceited git. He'd learned his habits from someone; if Angelique was any judge, and she prided herself on her good judge of character, he'd learned it from the menfolk in his family. Doubtless this guy was even a bigger prick than his son, or grandson, or nephew or whatever relation he was to James.

As she took her seat, an idea began to form, and Angelique smiled prettily at the notion.

Salem slipped cautiously into the Alchemy classroom, blinking shyly and drawing farther into the classroom slowly, glancing around. Her eyes darted from the empty seats that were available to her. She walked to the back and slipped into a chair in the back, putting her bag onto the table and rifling through her things.

She had a feeling this would be a small class and as such, she would have more of a chance of getting called on. Better get the awkwardness out of the way and let the professor know she would not be speaking in his class. It was difficult, dealing with her selective mutism, but she had learned ways to get around it.

She pulled out a note explaining the nervous disorder and walked up to the professor. She offered him a smile and pushed the note over to him and quickly returned to the seat in the back, sinking into it and pulling her things out.

Miseria didn’t knew that they had new professor. It must’ve skipped trough her ears or something. The news, however, weren’t shocking. Yes, of course she would miss Vincent... Who wouldn’t? He was the evil headmaster, but somehow, she wasn’t thinking of him as a bad person. He was friends with Khaat. Good enough to make her believe that he was nice from the inside, although, he acted cold all the time.
But the new teachers were also good. She never knew what surprises they were full of, but by the time the lessons flew, it was easy to get know them. Really easy. She entered the classroom, sandbrown hair framing her pale face. She really missed this lesson. She wasn’t the strongest student around, nor was she smartest, but she gave her best to get some good grades. Then, she looked at the professor, raising her eyebrows. So this was James’ uncle? The all known Head of Alchemy, Alan Wake. James never talked about him like he was a saint or something. He spoke as if he actually hated his uncle.
She took her seat in the last row, mostly the usual place, and took out her book, and her wand. It was alchemy, so they probably will turn some things into gold, right?

Alchemy, the subject had been taught for the first time by Vincent majere last year, and if Scorpius had learned anything from his lessons, it was that Alchemy was potential. You either had it or you didn't, and if you didn't, there was no real point taking it. Yes, he was interested in it, and yes he did consider having made a silver coin into gold in less than a minute quite cool, but the fact that that was the furthest he had went with alchemy was quite disheartening.

But still, he had taken it as a NEWT subject and there wasn't any turning back. Besides, the subject WAS very interesting. So he appeared at the class on time and sat near the front. "Morning professor," he said to Alan Wake, he knew most of the teachers at Hogwarts but this name didn't ring any bells.

"Aaah finally I get to take the alchemy class!" Hidama let out an amused smile as she wondered how this class would be. Alchemy had always sounded exciting to her, but she had heard a rumor that their teacher might be a bit ... difficult. Well, I don't think anyone will be more difficult than the teacher for the Defense Against Dark Arts.. Rolling her eyes at the thought, she came to a halt before the door of the alchemy class. With a swift movement she opened it and peeked inside. There was Angelique and Scorpius, two fellow Slytherins. And she also saw a few others which she was not the least bit interested in.

It was getting quite bothersome how long her sister was going to be absent because of her sick-leave, since Hidama could never make up her mind about where to sit.

While nodding towards the very indifferent professor, and then at her fellow Slytherin's, she sat down near the front. Resting her chin on her palm, Hidama waited with a bored expression for the class to begin. She hated waiting for things to start, but knew it might be better to be a little bit early nonetheless.

James Wake entered the class room of his worst nightmare. Not only was his uncle a terrible person, but he was a damn persistent force in James' life. He never would have expected Alan to accept the position of "Alchemy Professor." The man HATED children. HATED them. James made absolutely sure that Hogwarts would be his vacation from the man. But there he was, sitting at the teacher's table during the Great Feast. Like he had always sat on a seat up front. The class had only started last year, and already he was tainting it. James never wished for extracurricular duties more. Heck, he nearly begged for a chance to skip class. But Alchemy was a necessary course for James Wake. After all, he depended upon it daily.

Regardless of that fact, James made a decision he never thought he'd make- he decided to be absolutely sure that he was the last student to be in class. He even proved this by just taking out his books, and leaning against the classroom doorframe. He watched all the students enter the class, noting the pathetic welcome sign the man had written on the board. Why was he even considering attending? Because Alan would figure it out one way or the other, and Alan certainly knew a thing or two about punishment.

"Good evening Students. My name is Alan Wake and this is Advanced Alchemy. I am not a standard professor, and will not conform to unusual requests unless they are suitably justified. I will not go out of my way to assure your comfort, nor will I hesitate to punish where deemed necessary. The first and foremost rule of Alchemy is LISTEN to the professor. Alchemy is an art of balance, and can very easily destroy its user. James Wake, over there is living proof of this." Alan paused, and looked down at his notes, counting the students. "Very well. Let us begin with some basic questions. Can I have a volunteer come up to the board here?" Alan Wake proceeded to draw a circle on the board. "The fact that you made it all to this class either means you got here for merit, or there was a scheduling error. As I have yet to ascertain your ability in class, I will assign the first in-class assignment- complete this circle such that it can, when properly used, to convert lead to gold."

Simon hurried towards class, a note clenched in his hand. Some lovely older student had thought it would be funny to throw dungbombs at him and distract him. He had slipped and fallen, banging his head pretty bad. The mysterious persona had disappeared with a flash of red and left him to cope with a hideous migraine.

So now he was returning from the hospital wing, his head being fixed up by a simple spell he had yet to learn, but was determined to take note of. He stepped into Alchemy and heard the teacher finish what he was saying. Head bowed in respect, he handed the professor the note. "I apologize, professor. I was the brunt of some rather unpleasant troublemaking. It won't happen again." He went and took a seat in the second row, pulling out his things from his bag that he was sure he would need.

"It doesn't need to be changed," Angelique stated lazily. "The perfect circle is symbolic of the perfect unity of mind required by the serious student of Alchemy. Apparently, if you meditate on the importance of the circle for long enough, the knowledge of the mysteries of alchemy will just appear in your brain."

Angelique had her own theories on why that was, but she wasn't going to share those just yet. Besides, it was quite possible that the volumes she'd read in preparation for this course were more esoteric than what the curriculum called for.

Perhaps there was some technical detail that would literally turn lead into gold, though Angelique thought that would be pointless, since she could achieve the same thing using transfiguration.