Lesson 2 - Basic 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.

Andrew had been busy. He had found the student who had given him the badly spelled charm to transfigure tea into coffee and had held the boy at wandpoint until the boy had repaired the spell. Andrew had no idea why he had resorted to that, but he was truly irked by the foul results. It had been neither coffee nor tea, but some sort of swill in between. Now, this morning, he had satisfactorily transfigured the tea into coffee and had enjoyed it while his tablemates presumed he was drinking the traditional Earl Grey. He felt a bit more satisfied, at least about that. In fact, he'd had a second cup.

Then he'd grabbed a couple of peppermints from his backpack, popped one into his mouth and had gone down to the dungeons to Potions class. Again? he frowned. He was the first one here again? Where the heck was everybody? Were they avoiding Doyle? Why? Andrew didn't get it. He wasn't afraid of some gimpy, snarky, crusty old dude who appeared to be choosing to be relatively harmless, in all truth.

He went into the classroom, determined on not letting anything Doyle said or did get to him. He knew the type. But the ones he did were usually sponges for ale. They usually were well soaked with ale and Andrew just avoided them. Meeting one that was, apparently, sober was in fact a bit of a different kettle of fish. Just a bit.

"Good morning, Professor," Andrew spoke, in a casual tone, taking his seat. He drew forth his potions text, his notebook, and his quill, tucking a couple of extra peppermints into his pants pocket.

Ade walked down to the Dungeons for her Potions class. Thank You Ade said to herself in relief At least I wasn't late to all of my classes. Adebola entered the class only to see the Headmaster and a Gryffindor student. She looked at her schedule to make sure she was in the right place. Potions Professor -Headmaster Edgar D- Dang it, I should have read this before signing up Ade thought.

" Good morning, Professor. " she said to the Headmaster and took a seat next to the other Gryffindor student, giving him a quick wave.

Ethel was totally taking potions right? Her writer couldn't remember, but it's a first year class, so we're just going to pretend she's supposed to be here. ANYHOW, she'd learned last class that potions at Hogwarts was totally not as awesome as potions at home.

At home, Ethel was allowed a Junior Wizard potions kit, and could make potions of her very own. She had subsequently fed them to her pet alpaca (yes, Ethel has a pet alpaca WHAT OF IT?) and it had spewed all over the carpet, so she had assumed she would have a brilliant potioneering career ahead of her.

Apparently, Professor Prissyface disagreed. In his class, they were only allowed to do boring stuff, like... Ethel actually couldn't remember on account of sleeping through the last class. She hadn't got caught because she'd perfected the art of sleeping with her eyes open at a young age. You never knew when a ninja might be creeping up on you.

''Now, all of you little beings, and that includes all three of you, which is actually quite a number if you compare it to... zero, for example. Now, seeing that those other idiots either decided to quit or are just late, I shall start with today's extremely boring lesson. I mean, every lesson is boring, right? And the professors are like, totally, crazy'', he said, ironically mimicking the thoughts of his pupils.

''Now, as for today's lesson. It is a very intriguing Potion I like to serve my enemies instead of tea. It is called the Babbling Beverage. As you all, well those of you with a normal IQ, should be able to deduce, this potion makes the drinker speak nonsense, or it makes him babble, as our folk would say. Your task today is to brew such a Potion and test it on your classmates. Since I see only gold and red, you shall test it on your housemates also. When you are done, and you can find all the ingredients in your book, give it to the person nearest to you to test. But, do be careful and make a precise Potion, because if you make a mistake, you could kill your housemate. And that would just be sad, wouldn't it?'', he said. He then gave a hand gesture for them to start.

Aurora stumbled into the classroom dropping all of her books on the ground. "Im sorry professor... I just recently broke my arm and with my book bag gone missing its harder than ever to carry my books and balance and so on." Aurora said as she started to pick up her books. This wasnt something that happened that often to her. This teacher wont care. She thought to herself. She knew that most teachers wouldnt care that she broke her right hand which was fine since she was left handed. She knew this teacher might end up asking her why she didnt get it healed but not much people understand that.

Cassie hadn't been kidding when she walked out last lesson. She was not going back to that stupid dungeon. Well, except for the parts where she had to sleep there because it was where her common room was. She just wasn't going back to that particular part of the dungeons.

I suppose it's pretty fortunate that she'd decided to drop the subject, since it meant she wasn't going to drink a potentially life-threatening concoction as a result. Instead, she was killing time out on the lawns. That was the thing about dropping classes; you weren't officially allowed to do it, so you had to make yourself scarce for a couple of hours while your classmates endured hell.

It didn't mean she couldn't learn about potions, though. Cassie found a nice warm tree to lean against in the sun, and pulled a library book out of her satchel. This was so much more pleasant than, well, anything at Hogwarts so far.

Andrew frowned, looking at his classmates that were still seemingly in some sort of shock over the directions the Headmaster had given. Oh, now, this did seem to be ridiculous. He opened his textbook to the right page, and got up from his desk. He gathered the ingredients together and went to the worktable and followed the directions with as much meticulousness as he knew how. It was his first potion at Hogwarts. That wasn't to say he hadn't from time to time fiddled with his father's firewhiskey, but that never usually turned out too well. He had found out that dumping random ingredients into firewhiskey sometimes had odd results, and he hadn't done it much after that one really weird transfiguration he'd inadvertently made happen. He'd blamed it on some old woman who looked like a hag who had stumbled in, tried to bribe the barkeeper for a drink, had been turned down and subsequently thrown out. Andrew had found her a convenient foil for his missteps. It had kept him out of trouble. But it had taken his father weeks to find a wizard who could undo Andrew's damage.

He certainly didn't need that to happen today. He was much more careful and precise. It didn't take a very long time to assemble the potion. But some of his classmates looked mortified that they would have to drink some potion that would make them tell all their earthly secrets. He had no clue as to who might be brave enough to try it.

''And again, that idiot of a girl! I do not care whether you have or haven't broken your arm! If you're incompetent of attending, stay upstairs. I know that is not the most obvious thing you notice about me, but I limp, I experience physical pain each moment and I still work and go through life without complaining, and yet, you're either depresses or broken, either live or go kill yourself and do everyone a bloody favor!'', he said, agitated by all the complaints.

''You, Scared-Of-The-Professor-Boy, you're done as I can see. Give it to the broken girl to try and check if she'll start babbling something more irrational than what she had said before'', he said.

Leanne was double late so she stormed into classroom. I can't believe i am late again. she thought as she approached to her desk in the front before she was able to catch a breath and speak up. "Morning Professor sorry i'm late i got sidetracked," she said taking a seat and taking her books out as fast as she was able to not realizing the speech she was just saved from when Aurora mentioned her broken hand.