Talented Potioneers - Spring term (Open to 5)

And just like that, another school year was coming to a close. Azalea had found she was not only getting used to this pattern but rather enjoyed it now. The ups and downs of teaching, student confidence, the highs and lows of results and revisions and the sometimes useful and other times completely cosmetic advise she and other staffers gave to pupils too scared to venture out into the real world without it. It was all part of a very fulfilling career that she couldn't even have hoped for when applying for this job. Azalea didn't have many of her memories from her youth so she didn't remember if she had liked teaching, but now she knew for certain that adult her definitely liked it.

Annika Blackwood on the other hand had clearly decided teaching was not her thing when the witch had simply not returned after the New Year break. Having taken her vacation early, the Head of Slytherin was fully expected to be the first one back come 2027. But neither Annika nor a note had found its way back to the castle until almost the end of February when Azalea, worried once more for the younger witch, had sent a letter to the Potion Mistress's home, only to get a brief reply from "Leslie" saying "Oh yeah, Nik isn't coming back, she can't deal, need to focus on her work."

This was news to the brunette seeing as Annika's work was at the castle, but the silver haired American clearly disagreed. She had neither written to HR nor submitted an official resignation letter, leaving Azalea to inform the relevant parties of the younger woman's decision. She had assured the Headmaster she could deal with the rest of the classes for the year and that Professor Kessler need not look for a replacement in a hurry. He had taken her to her word and here she was.

There were still two weeks to go before exams but the students who worried more had already started doing so. And since studying right before exams was a terrible idea in her book, the witch had a fun activity planned for the day. What better way to strengthen the children's understanding of potions than to see them in full effect? As it was, the lab setting was changed once again, no brewing materials or equipment in sight. In fact, the whole place was decked out like an open mic night at the local pub complete with small to medium sized tables and a proper stage up front with a microphone.

Azalea herself, in keeping with the theme, was dressed as the hostess, complete with a menu card held in hand and her narrow, pointed heels clicking on the temporarily wooden floor of the room. The young woman waited at the door in true hostess style, ready to greet students as they come in and show them to their tables.

Mariah played back the phone call in her head, nibbling at her bottom lip as she descended yet another flight of stairs on her way to the dungeon.

"Lyra's leaving. And like, a dozen other people. Are you sure-"

"You have nothing to worry about, I promise. We're not going anywhere."

"But won't something happen to us if we don't? People are saying America might declare war on France, and that the government's going to cut us off if we stay."

"If it comes to that, we'll decide what to do from there. But there is absolutely no way the American government can legally force us to return. Honey, I need you to trust me."

"I...I do."

"Don't worry, Ri, okay? Everything's going to be fine."

Right. Funny how every time someone told her not to worry, she just worried even more. How could she not? There were so many things to worry about. Global politics, whispers of war, things she didn't even fully understand - plus her friends were leaving her one by one and she had her OWLs in two weeks. How could she possibly focus on studying while she watched Lyra pack her bags one bed over? Her thoughts spiraled as she entered the potions classroom, already giving up on concentration. She knew it was a losing a battle.

She stopped in the doorway, uncertain of how to proceed as she took in the layout of the classroom. She followed Professor Harrington to a table and sat down, momentarily distracted from her thoughts by the unfamiliar surroundings. She didn't have the mental energy to expend on trying to figure out what was happening, so she settled back to watch the scene play out, hoping maybe this meant the class would be less taxing on her sub-par potions skills.

It seemed that maybe his new friend had been a bit right or maybe she had planted the idea in his head; whichever it was, the boy was worried he was going to be entering his class late. He was literally running to the class, a grin plastered on his face despite the thought of having to explain to his professor that he had no real excuse. Jurian had gotten lost in thought and a sort of argument with a painting before it helpfully pointed out that if he didn't go, he'd be late for class. Maturely, he'd huffed and the painting he wasn't done with it and he'd be back to finish their conversation. While he was excited to see what the class would hold he wasn't oblivious to the aura of the castle over the past few days. He'd not understood and had written to his parents who had written back. They had wanted to read up about what he was talking about, so Jurian had already sent for back issues of the wizarding paper to send to his folks.

Hogwarts was supposed to be safe and he'd read the histories about the different wizarding conflicts and he wondered if the school qualified as a quasi embassy thingy? Maybe? It wasn't right to force people to leave. Pushing the thoughts aside for later and maybe to speak about with his roommates and friends, the boys paused and blinked when he got to the Potions classroom. He looked around to make sure he'd not passed the classroom and was where he was supposed to be. Jurian did have a very poor sense of direction. Nope, he was in the right spot. Tilting his head in curiosity, eyes lighting up seeing that this was going to be different he nearly bounced into the room as he gave the woman a bright smile. "This looks brilliant!"

Dominique was rushing to Potions. As she was scared that she was going to be late for class. Something that was never a good thing. But she knew that it happened and there was nothing she could do now. Expect just plan better and hope that it wouldn’t happen again. She was running down the dungeons. And if she was late she would have to sneak in and hope the professor wouldn’t see. Or she would have to take whatever was thrown at her. As she knew they hated when students were later. Dominique wasn’t ready to think what she would be made to do. Maybe having to sit in detention writing I won’t be late again over and over.

When she walked in the classroom she starting looking around. That is when she noticed that she wasn’t late. Which Dominique was glad because that meant that she would stop worrying. But it was something that was common with her. Never time she was going to plan better so this wouldn’t happen again. Because next time she wouldn’t be so lucky.

The Slytherins, as always were among the first group to enter, Mimosa with the Headmaster's son and trailed by a number of other students though the group remained uncharacteristically somber. Well, they could change that. The Ravenclaws entered in their own bubble of anxiety, the only one set apart from them young jurian who buncoed everywhere. Dominique too arrived thinking she was late only to be pleasantly surprised followed by some Hufflepuffs and a trailing Karan who must have been left behind from the main group.

"Alright guys, good afternoon. As I'm sure you've noticed, we're doing things differently today." The brunette began by addressing the class as she waled towards the stage. Ascending the small elevated platform gracefully, Azalea found her place behind the microphone which only lifted her voices a few notches, just enough to make sure even those at the back could hear her properly.

"So often we find ourselves studying potions without paying attention to the potioneers behind the science. Everyone here is aware of Amortentia but few people can name who invented it. The same goes for Polyjuice Potion. So today we are going to rectify this by delving into the lives of the masters behind the craft." In her hand, the witch held up a menu card similar to the one provided on every table.

"You'll see that instead of food and drinks, the menu has a multitude of jumbled letters. All these jumbled letters form names of famous brewers. As soon as you unscramble one, you need to raise your hand and say the answer. You will then climb up to the stage and tell us all the facts you know about your great find. In this way, your public speaking qualities will also be put to the test."

At once, several hands went up in the air, asking questions. Azalea took the time to answer all of them before indicating to the slim rose gold watch on her wrist. "Alright ladies and gentlemen, best of luck."

And so it began.

Menu Card wrote:

MENU CARD

echtogwrgrerangaorthd
rmrgegomarythsey
arjigsusgereni
erusnpsaesev
heyespertarsk

Jurian watched his professor wondering what the stage was for and listened eagerly. Unable to stop himself when the woman correctly stated that they didn't pay attention to the potioneers, and the bit about the love potion he'd blurted, "A girl." That's who always uses the potions in the books, shows, and movies. It never entered his brain that a man could have made the potion. It was always the girls that went on and on about the subject.

After that came out of his mouth, he ducked his head feeling a bit of relief that the professor hadn't heard him. The Polyjuice Potion though sounded like it could be used for lots of fun, if one could actually brew it properly. Interest piqued, the Ravenclaw glanced from the card in the professor's hand down to the one in front of him he'd resisted picking up until now. Snatching it up, he looked at it and his brows immediately furrowed. It looked like gibberish! Or if someone just decided to randomly hit keys on a computer or typewriters keys. Blinking he tilted his head this way and that to try and make sense of the jumbled letters.

Pulling out a piece of parchment, a jar of ink, and his quill, he wrote out the 'names' and began to try and make sense of them. The problem was, wizards had weird names! So they could be anything! Running a hand through his hair in frustration he stared determined at the nonsense. He would get this!

Leaving off the biggest one, he went for one of the smaller ones. Softly to himself he muttered, "Gus, Sue, no...OH!" Writing out JIGGERS, he crossed those letters out of the line and looked at what he had left. What was a arsueni? Pretty confident he had the Jiggers part right, he went to work trying to come up with a name out of the remaining seven letters. 'Arseniu?' Shaking his head, the boy crossed that out and tried again. Eyes widening, he crossed out the S in Jiggers and moved it down to add to the other word to become the name ARSENIUS. "Sounds like his parents liked fires."

Shooting his hand into the air and confidently stated, "Arsenius Jigger!"

So saying, with his usual energy he nearly ran to the stage and hopped up onto it. Once behind the microphone though he gave a sheepish look to the professor. "Ummm, he opened a store in Diagon with a partner named Slugg? And he was obviously into potions..."

Wracking his brain he tried to think of what else he knew about the man. He nearly smacked himself in the forehead. "He wrote our Potions textbook!" He really shouldn't have had to think that hard on it having seen the man's name on his textbook for the past year and half. Oh, well.

"Ummm, that's all I know? I think." Bounding off the stage he retook his seat.