Closed The Theory of Potions PV Rachel Blank

Rachel walked into the library; having spent a lot of time here due to her personal books; but unfortunately for her, this specific trip wasnt going to be fun; if anything it was gonna be a lot of pulling teeth and gross soup talk.

She tried her best to keep a happy face; all the while attempting to think of a way to get out of the assignment without negitively impacting her partner. Unfortunely nothing came to mind; and as looked around seeing most of the tables already filled in groups of two, appart from one. She walked over;

"Hey, im here!" She said trying to be cheerful, a light jingking from tbe metal on her scrunchy. "So. *History of potions* My who least favorite things.. **history** and well.. Soup with magic"

She said trying to break the ice; while also trying to explain her distain for both. "But. We should try our best anyway-"

She looked at the page seeing the doodles. "Those are pretty good. Im more into mythical creatures myself-" She said pulling out her sketchbook with extremely detailed drawings.

"Ha. You know there are potions for everything, maybe theres a potion to make you the best flyer in the world" Rachel smiled a bit before pulling out her potion notes.

"Im gonna be honest.. I dont **reaaallly** pay attention in potions class. Like. It just..kinda bores me. especially since its just baking, and im not a huge fan. Id rather just buy the sweets-" She explained as she began to skim the assigment details.

"Each pair is to write a 600 word Essay on what they believe was the start of potionmaking and why it still exists to this day. Geez. 600 words is a bit much for such a basic topic. If its anything like muggle medicine its likely extremely saturated magic to create effects easier then using multiple spells" She said rolling her eyes. "Boring-"

Haley jumped slightly as she was thrown back to reality as Rachel approached her. She seemed chipper, which gave Haley hope that they would be able to tackle this assignment with a positive attitude. She gave a puzzled expression and asked, "Soup with magic?" Did she mean magical soup? Or soup created using magic? Haley liked soup. All types of soup, really.

Blushing, Haley glanced down at her broom drawings. They were really quite abysmal; she seemed to lack any artistic ability whatsoever. "Oh, thanks." She said quickly, casually covering them with her hand and redirecting her attention to Rachel's sketchbook. "Did you do these freehand?" Haley asked her surprised. She wasn't too familiar with magical creatures, other than common ones and what they'd learned in classes thus far. "I guess it's too bad we don't get to take Care of Magical Creatures until our third year." If this was Rachel's favorite subject, it must suck to not be able to learn more about it right away. Haley would have hated having to wait to start learning potions, even if this first year would mostly be learning the basics. Although, she would admit that writing a theoretical essay wasn't exactly what she had in mind for the "basics".

Haley pinched her lips as Rachel expressed her disinterest in potions. She felt rather offended, like Rachel was minimizing the art of potions by calling it "baking", especially since her father was an expert potioneer and her mother was very science minded as well. She brushed off this feeling and did her best to sound agreeable. "Well, I don't think potions itself is boring, a bit... methodical maybe... but I agree this isn't a very exciting essay topic... but I'm sure we could get there between the two of us." She could feel her ears turning red and pushed her hair forward to hide them. She didn't want to admit that potions was one of her favorite, if not her favorite, subjects. "So, I was thinking we could start with the basics, maybe, and if we needed more ideas I'm sure there's some books in here that could help us. Write the intro, that should be easy enough, and then the main purposes, I figure, would be combat purposes, including healing, or making antidotes, potentially life saving. Next I thought we could explain how different ingredients work together, maybe for a specific potion, and then highlight a famous Potioneer who invented a potion? I think that would probably cover most of it. What'd you think?" Haley's tone inflected upwards, likely betraying her somewhat enthusiasm now that she started to think about diving into potion related topics for the essay.

Interacting with @Rachel Blank

When asked about the drawings Rachel nodded enthusiasticly. "I of course refrenced images. But drew that myself. but yeah i agree. Im gonna have to wait 2 years before even thinking about my favorite subject. But maybe if i do really good i can get a year ahead next year-" She said, her tone filled with hope and determination.


Rachel sighed a bit. "I sure hope so.. The sooner this is over the better. As much as i dislike potions, writing an essay about potions is worse." She said starting to write down some brainstorming.

"Well. Back then, im sure they had trouble doing things with just magic alone, given the fact that magic, while powerful, cant do everything. It cant give you luck, or effect you as the caster very much at least from what i know, so if we start off with something like that. Then we can find a way to slam as many keywords into this essay as we can to get our point across, and get a O on the paper.

Thats what i did in muggle school, and i was one of the top 3 students in my class so. " Rachel said scanning the book for keywords to add. "See. Here it says, "When potions were first created wizardfolk embued their own magic into a brew of different magical flora and fauna parts to be a conduit of magic," She said starting to take notes on a seperate paper.

"Basically, we rewrite it as, 'Wizardfolk needed a stronger conduit of power, seeing different magical beasts, they began using their parts to strengthen and prolong their magic in a form that could be saved and used later."

She said beginning to write tapping her quill once she was done writing that small paragraph. "But now we need a good hook to push to the different uses of the magic." She said huffing a bit before pulling out a bag of gummy worms. "Want any? I brought plenty." She said lifting the bag to offer some to Haley.

Her mind was trying to be anywhere else right now. "You know, as cool as potions are, not every witch or wizard needs to know them, you know? I wish we could choose which specific magic types we learned.. Nothing against potions. They do alot of cool things its just.. Not my thing."

Haley listened as Rachel explained she referenced images for her drawings. "They're still bloody incredible." She replied, a hint of envy in her tone. Her brow furrowed at the thought of taking Care of Magical Creatures next year. "Is that possible? Taking electives second year?" She inquired. She thought it was mandatory that students take core classes their first two years before adding any electives after that. She wondered what the criteria would be to add an extra course in her second year, but quickly dismissed this thought. She wanted to prioritize getting top marks in required courses before adding anything more. While she felt confident in her current marks, the thought of adding more classes now felt daunting.

Haley nodded in agreement at Rachel's suggestions for the essay. Her attention piqued as her peer mentioned "muggle school". "You went to muggle primary school as well? Are you muggle born?" Haley somewhat blurted out her question, initially missing the bragging about being a top student. She hadn't met many students who had experienced aspects of muggle life. Although she was half-blood herself, her mother had insisted that she attend primary school for a "proper" education. Deep down, Haley figured that her mother had hoped she wouldn't get magical abilities.

Initial apprehension regarding her partner faded as Rachel eloquently wrote out the first few lines of their essay. Haley nodded enthusiastically at the gummy worm offer and took a few out of the bag. "Thanks!" She took a bite of a green and yellow one, chewing it continuously until it dissolved into a smoother consistency. Haley shoved another worm in her mouth and said, "I mean, I get that some people won't like potions. It can be pretty meticulous. Although I still think it's important to know, should something horrible ever happen, knowing how to brew some simple potions could definitely come in handy." She paused, returning to the essay. "Okay, so, types of potions, would include poisons and antidotes or medicines, of course. And then potions that have an affect on the drinker. We could describe the three potions that were thought to be the first invented? Gregory's Unctuous Unction, invented by Gregory the Smarmy. You know I never thought about it, what does Smarmy mean? Is that his last name or a title or something? I guess we can look in the book for that. Ok so the next one Cure for Dragon Pox, that's an important one, can't just wave your wand and cure that. Invented by Gunhilda de Gorsemoor back in the 1500s or 1600s. I don't see an exact date here in the text, just that she died in 1639. That's probably adequate? And then third would be Zygmunt Budge, saved for last because he was probably one of the most accomplished potioneers ever. He wasn't just good at Potions though, also charms, herbology, and mazioology. That's interesting, isn't it? It says here in the text that he knew the weakness of monsters or creatures and that this helped him use potions against them. So maybe potions will be applicable for magical creatures! In a helpful way, though, at least for Hogwarts use, I would assume. Oh, but I think the potion we should use that he invented here is Doxycide. I know, Felix Felicis is way more interesting, so we can mention that, but this would give us an example of each type, affect, antidote, and poison, right?" Haley ate another gummy worm and awaiting Rachel's thoughts as she wrote out her thoughts into sentences.

Interacting with @Rachel Blank

"Yeah. Both my parents and grandparents were muggles. Though supposedly i had a great grandparent on my mothers side that had some kind of magic background, because my aunts a witch. She came to hogwarts when she was little, but she never was able to tell me." Rachel explained taking a couple gummy worms from the bag and began eating them. She wrote down a the ideas she had. "And I dont **know** if electives are possible second year, i doubt it, but if they are im going to study as hard as i can and get high marks to be able too. The sooner i can learn about my favorite subject the better" She remarked as she continued reading.

"Im gonna go look for some more books on the topic, see what else we can think off." Rachel said going to look. She wandered a bit scraping her brain for any other ideas, she grabbed a few books that looked like they would have some information on the topic at hand. She read the few pages sighing at how boring they seemed to be. After a while she returned placing a couple books down. "Smarmy means insincerely flattering i think. Like you know when something is too good to be true? At least thats what im getting from his description here."


After listing more and seeing how potions could be used for mythical creatures, she perked up. "Yeah. I sure hope so. If we could talk about that, i bet i could go on for at least 300 words" she partually joked, though it was most likely true. "It also says here about Golpalotts third law, basically saying a blended potion is more of an antidote then the sum of its parts. So this must apply to all potions. So if we add that that may be able to add some spice." She said refrasing it into a new sentence and writing it down.

"This is actually pretty easy with good help. Im glad we got paired up cuz if i wouldve been stuck with a slacker i think i wouldve failed." She laughed a bit taking another gummy worm.