Chapter 2
Professor Snape was not looking happy to be leading this seminar, she noticed, as the students filled the Great Hall at their normal long tables. The only difference was the seating. Instead of long benches, it was simple wooden stools in their place.
As she sat down, suddenly the long tables changed into black marble, much like the ones in the potion labs.
“It had come to my attention that a demo of potion safely and preparation is needed.” Professor Snape glares at them all as if it was their fault he doesn't teach it in his class. “Therefore, these volunteer potion apprentices will be showing you both as part of their finals for their Masteries.”
Twenty men and women enter the Great Hall, a train of small cauldrons the size of coffee mugs following them in. In perfect movements, the cauldrons separate to the 4 tables until every student has one. The same was followed by some basic potion ingredients they worked with the most.
The next hour and a half was spent well instructed and once the apprentices were all satisfied with their work, they got to use the ingredients to make a potion. A simple boils potion just like their very first potions class. She could see Neville looking a bit nervous across from her but luckily so did one of the apprentices and she calms him down in time to begin. They were just the right amount of attentive while still letting them make the potion on their own. Your class year didn’t matter to them. Not your blood status, your skill levels or your gender or your grades at Hogwarts. It was a relaxing atmosphere.
It made it better that when they all finished, the score of their potion would replace their lowest potions grade. Ironically for her, it would replace the very same potion from her first attempt. It had not been wrong but Professor Snape had snapped at her (made her cry a bit too) and vanished her work after Neville had been taken to the infirmary for his cauldron explosion. It was her only bad grade and now that has been fixed.
The tables were cleaned up, leaving spotless tables and cauldrons. Ready for the main reason of the seminar.
“Now that you can make a proper edible potion,” Professor Snape glares at them once more, as a warning that they better do better in his class after this. Neville pales at the look. “We will be going over the inheritance potion.”
He waves his wand and the wall above the table the Professors sit at for meals becomes a giant chalkboard and like in his class, the recipe appears on it. “Begin.”
The apprentices give him a crazy look and take over the instructions.
Outside of their voices, the Great Hall was relatively quiet of anyone really talking, everyone focusing on getting this right.
The great thing about the talking of the apprentices, is they also give their opinions and helpful tips in the art of potion making. Only 2 of them were British, the rest were from other parts of Europe. So it was interesting hearing the different perspectives.
One thing was clear though, from all of them. If you want to be a Master at Potion making (Or get into the NEWTs class for that matter), you cannot just follow a recipe. The books were just a guide to learning the subject. Eventually you will need to be able to do it without. What if you are absolutely out of an ingredient and it was needed for your potion? You would need to be able to know what other ingredients would work, at what potency, how much to use, etc.
Need to better an older potion? Same thing. Experimenting with ingredients will be done and you will need to know your ingredients to decide what will be used. Why, How much, the effects of it on a potion.
It gave her a lot of food for thought. She knew she could be a bit touched in the head about her determination to believe what a book says whether it was wrong or right. She wasn’t sure she could break that habit but…it wouldn’t hurt her to be more open minded and question what the books were saying. Cross referencing and double checking things. She did love her research. Yes…research. Like her essays.
That calmed her nerves a bit as she put the last touches of the potion into the cauldron and stirred it until it was the correct shade of purple.
“Now that the potion is complete, turn off the fire. You will need to use a clean blade to prick your finger and let 10 drops of blood fall into the potion. No stirring it. It will need to be cooled for 10 minutes before you can test it. Use that time to clean up your area.”
Chatter now filled the air as they followed directions. The Purple turned into a pretty magenta.
She couldn’t help looking around to see the other cauldrons. For the most part, everyone had the correct color in them if not a shade off here and there. She didn’t see a wrong color anywhere. Neville looked relieved his matched hers, as did the other first year boys.
While they waited, the apprentices used that time to answer questions. She couldn’t help overhearing Harry Potter ask about how to protect his potion station in class from someone throwing something in it. It made her feel a bit bad for judging him so harshly. She did find the answer intriguing though. Apparently they had runes carved into the corners of their tables to activate when they were working with delicate potions. Didn’t want anything to accidentally fall in. Not even dust. However, for them, they could buy a work mat with the same runes.
“Don’t buy the cauldrons with the runes engraved on it. Seemed like a great idea but the magic pushed in them can change your potion, and not usually for the better.” the man tells them all, as everyone in hearing distance was listening.
The timer from her wand buzzes. It was time to pour the potion onto her parchment and get the results. She couldn’t wait to learn if anyone else in her family line possibly had magic as well or if she really was the very first.
Where the recipe had been on the board was not a color sheet to explain why names were certain colors. Pretty simple. Magicals were gold, Squibs were red as they still had some kind of magical core apparently, and muggles were blue. Some of the students tried inquiring about showing blood status but the apprentices were clear this wasn’t about that as the potion was older than the concept of blood status.