Antidote to Common Poisons (1st year)

Rainecourt wrapped her shawl tighter around herself. The dungeon was cold and a bit damp She didn’t appreciate the cold. I must ask Headmistress Ellington to possibly change location, she thought, cleaning off her chalk board. She was a very organized professor, so all the student’s ingredients was on their desk. She looked behind her. The first years were tickling in. She waited for them to take their seats. The last Slytherin came in and she started the lesson.

”Good morning class. My name is Professor Rainecourt and I’m the new potions master. This is my first year teaching, but do not underestimate me. I am very organized and I try to be understanding. I would love to get to know all of you and would love to hopefully teach you a few potions. So, without any more hesitation, let’s begin our first lesson: Antidote to Common Poisons. Turn to page 37,” she told the class, walking around. She snapped a ruler on a Slytherin’s desk as he was asleep. He jerked up and she kept walking around.

”Now, before we begin, let’s see if any of you know about poisons in the first place. On the board is a simple survey that will count towards your grade. Put this on a piece of parchment and turn it in at the end of class. Also, participation will count at least 15 percent of your grade, so please answer questions when I ask them,” she explained, the magic chalk writing on the board.


”Now, onto step one, add 1 Bezoar to the mortar,” she instructed, watching the students with extra special care.

[[OOC: Rowan..I'm sensing a Tom Riddle in the making]]

Reyna sat quietly at a table towards the back of the room. Potions was already her least favorite subject. The dungeons were cold and still, the room smelled of rotting things due to the ingredients, and the professor was intimidating.

"Do you have an extra piece of parchment?" the Slytherin boy next to her whispered.

She nodded and handed him a slip of paper. He smiled, dark eyes gleaming, and she felt herself blush a little. If she remembered correctly from the sorting, his name was Rowan. Reyna concentrated and dipped her quill in a pot of black ink.


Rey may have gotten that last one wrong, but she was fairly sure that Billywigs only caused giddiness, and Doxies were known to bite but they weren't harmful. She glanced over at Rowan's answers but couldn't read them.

Blast, what's a bezoar? she thought, looking over the ingredients on her table. Finally, she picked up what looked like a stone and placed it in the mortar.

Emmanuelle settled into her seat in the front of the room, next to Adam. Marian was at the table next to her, and Rowan had gotten stuck with some snooty Ravenclaw. She decided she really wanted to like this class, seeing as the professor was her Head of House. She wanted to make the best impression possible. Unfortunately, she was already having to guess at most of the answers.



No, she thought, shaking her head. Weren't drinking and ingesting the same?

"Bezoar, bezoar," she muttered to herself as she studied the ingredients on the table. It was a stone from a goat, right? Em picked up the bezoar and smiled proudly as she dropped it into her mortar.

Dimia was already slightly terrified of potions. The professor was the one that made her uneasy. Plus, the ingredients. They were disgusting. She was trying very hard not to gag.

She looked at the questions. Wow. Okay, well, I'm going to already fail this class. I'll have to definitely take tutoring. There's no way I'll be good at this. Where is Reyna? Does she understand this? eek! Get yourself together Dimia, she thought. Luckily, she was sitting with Elma and Elma put the Bezoar in the mortar, ready to be crushed.

Dimia looked at the questions and slowly answered them.


She bit at her fingernails, a bit concerned.

Petyr like Professor Rainecourt. She was very straight forward and seemed just very orderly. He quickly answered his questions. He was working alone, which he was fine with. He wasn't confident in anyone else helping him.  


He put the Bozoar in his mortar, examining the tool her would crush it with. A lot of people seemed to put it in the cauldron. Hopefully, they wouldn't get scolded for that.

Thea sighed, ready to take on this very tough professor. A list of questions on the first day, she thought. She quickly wrote down the answers, not wanting to worry about it.

"What's the Bezoar?" Kerry asked. Thea shrugged and looked at all the ingredients. They all seemed pretty straight forward.

"Is it the stone?" Kerry asked. Thea sighed and raised her hand.

"Professor, can you tell us what a Bezoar is? Some of us are confused," Thea asked for the class. Everyone seemed to nod in agreement.

Professor Rainecourt cursed herself. You have to remember, they're first years, she thought to herself.

"Of course. Thank you for saying something. Five points to Gryffindor. A Bezoar is the stonelike ingredient. It's taken from the stomach of a goat and acts as the active ingredient in most antidotes. Now, if you have your Bezoar in the mortar, go ahead and crush it into a very fine powder," she instructed, walking around.

"Be sure not to leave any lumps and to crush in a circular motion for the best powder possible," she told them. She smiled ,seeing the first years talk among themselves and helping each other. She didn't mind discussion, as long as they were quiet when they were teaching.

"Now, add four measure of your crushed Bezoar into the cauldron. Then, add two measure of Standard Ingredient to the cauldron as well. The Standard Ingredient is the mixture of herbs. It's used in almost every potion so get used to seeing it," she told them. They were almost done with part one.

"Very, very carefully, bring your cauldron to a medium heat. There is some fire starter with your supplies, since I assume some of you don't know the fire starting spell," she told them, watching them very carefully light the fire.

Reyna would be lying if she said she wasn't glad to have a partner in Potions. Symon told her they started working alone in their second year, and she dreaded it. Luckily, she wasn't prone to stress about things, or she'd be a wreck.

"I'll go ahead and crush this," Rowan offered politely.

She watched as the bezoar turned into a fine powder. I wonder what on earth the first person to discover a bezoar was doing, she thought with a grimace. Rowan handed her the mortar and she carefully added four spoonfuls of it to the cauldron. After that, she put in the Standard Ingredient.

"Do you want to light the fire?" she asked the Slytherin timidly.

"Lighting fires is my favorite thing to do," he said with a grin. She laughed nervously, but she wasn't sure if he was kidding.

Em hummed quietly as she crushed the stone in the mortar. There was something very soothing about this. She thought perhaps that was a bad sign, her enjoying crushing things into a fine powder, but she shrugged it off.

"Zis eez good?" she asked Adam, holding the mortar up to his face.

"Yeah, it's fine," he said, gently pushing it away. "Add four spoons of it to the cauldron."

She happily did as instructed, measuring carefully. Emmy knew potions were an exact science. The tiniest mistake could cause something drastic to happen.

"Now, Standard Ingredient," Adam muttered, taking care of that part. "And then we light the flame."

"Oh, I 'ave done zis before," she told him, volunteering. "Let me see ze fire starter."

Adam handed her the supplies and she very cautiously lit the flame.

Dimia and Elma were one mind. They worked together really well. Dimia carefully measured the powder and put it into the cauldron. Elma added two measures of the herbs. They were quietly talking to themselves.

"So, you really do know how to shoot a bow?" Elma asked. Dimia smiled. She missed her bow. She had to leave it at home with her father.

"Aye. It's family tradition and I don't have a brother, so I had to learn. I love it," Dimia told her. Elma smiled and they lit the fire under the cauldron.

"So, what now?" Elma asked. Dimia shurgged and looked at the concotion. It was coming along quite nicely.

Thea and Kerry were confused. Well, it was mainly Kerry. He wasn't the brightest star in the sky. But, Thea was trying to be very patient.

"How much of this do we add again?" Kerry suddenly asked. Thea had spaced out and Kerry was adding ingredients.

"Four measures. Why?" Thea asked, looking in the cauldron. The water in the cauldron looked milky white.

"Well.....ummm....I may have added six measures," Kerry told her. Thea sighed and raised her hand and received the bad news: they had to start over.

"I'm sorry Thea," Kerry apologized as he dumped the water.

"Hey. It's alright," Thea assured him, crushing another Bezoar and getting a new cauldron.

"I'll let you try this time," Kerry told her, adding new water to the new cauldron. Thea added the four measures of powder and the standard ingredient. Kerry was really beating himself up about starting over starting over, so Thea let him light the fire.

Petyr was happy working alone. He could rely on himself. He carefully crushed the bezoar and slowly added the four measures to his little cauldron. He watched the powder mix with the water.

"Hey! Working alone huh?" Rowan, Emmy's crony, said to him, putting his arms around his shoulder.

"Please just leave me alone," Petyr told him as he measures out the Standard Ingredients.

"Oh. I get it. You don't have any friends," Rowan jeered.

"You know, that's really irrelevant. There's an odd number of students. Not everyone can have a partner," Petyr informed him. Rowan looked around the room.

"Of course, you would know that if you knew how to count," Petyr whispered snidely.

"Excuse me?" Rowan asked.

"Nothing. Nothing," Petyr told him, adding the Standard Ingredients. Rowan rolled his eyes and walked away. Kerry gave Petyr a thumbs up and Petyr smiled, lighting the fire under his cauldron.

Rainecourt watched the students. They all seemed to stop at the same time and they all waited patiently as their potion bubbled for thirty minutes. After that time was up, Rainecourt gave them their next instructions.

"Alright class. You are now going to add one pinch of Unicorn Horn to your cauldron. Stir two times clockwise and then add two Mistletoe Berries. After that, stir two times counter clockwise and wave your wand over the cauldron to complete the potion," she told them. The students started working, a few more quickly than other. The second part of this potion was fairly easy.

Suddenly, this cauldron was tipped over two girls and they screamed about the stains on their uniforms. Rainecourt sighed as the class went into an uproar, as the girls began to panic.

"Both of you, go wait outside. I will take the stains out of your uniforms shortly," Rainecourt informed them. The two girls walked out and Rainecourt kept giving instructions.

"I ask that you attempt to bottle at least three vials and leave it at your desk for me to collect. After all of this, you are dismissed for the day. If any of your would like extra credit though, I would appreciate it if you helped me clean up," Rainecourt announced to the class.

Many of the students finished and left after bottling the potion, while Rainecourt went and fixed the girls uniforms. She told them to come back this weekeend and attempt the potion in her office.  Rainecourt sighed. It was the first lesson. She didn't expect anyone to stay and help out. She started cleaning up work stations, including the spilt potion, while watching those who were a bit slower.

Elma and Dimia felt bad for the two girls who spilt their potion. They then shrugged and continued with the second part of the potion.

"This was a fairly easy lesson," Elma commented. Dimia nodded and added the pinch of Unicorn Horn. Elma stirred it and Dimia added the Mistletoe Berries. Elma stirred again. Dimia took out her wand and waved it over the cauldron. The potion became this teal colour.

"Is that right?" Elma asked. Dimia shrugged and raised her hand. When Rainecourt came over, she confirmed that the potion should look like that. Dimia smiled and Elma worked on bottling the potion. They finished and cleaned up their station for Professor Rainecourt.

"So, how did your flying go?"  Elma asked her. Dimia smiled really big.

"I love flying," Dimia told her, as they left the class.

Reyna watched the hourglass longingly, waiting for this torture to be over. The smells, the Slytherin, the professor, the ingredients - it was all quite off-putting. She would give anything to be lounging in her library back in York with tea and a fresh batch of lemon cakes.

"Pass the unicorn horn." Rowan's voice snapped her back to reality, and she handed him the mortar. The boy added a pinch and stirred.

"Um..." Reyna muttered, looking around their work space. "Where are the mistletoe berries?"

"What?" he asked, looking over at her nervously. "Find them, we have to add them immediately after!"

The slightest misstep in potion-making could be disastrous. Reyna moaned and crouched down, searching on the floor for the missing berries. They were so close, and at the last minute something was going wrong.

"Find em yet??" Rowan questioned impatiently.

"Got them!" she said triumphantly, passing him the berries. He plopped them in with a sigh, and Reyna bumped her head on the table as she stood up."Ugh..Okay, how does it look?"

Rowan was frowning, and Reyna peered into the cauldron. Letting it sit for just those few minutes while she searched had done some damage; the potion was slightly blackish.

"There's no time to redo it, let's just bottle it and go," Rowan shook his head.

He left as soon as they'd filled three vials, but she stayed behind to wipe off their table before heading out.

Kerry was depressed after doing the potion wrong the first time. Thea didn't blame him. But, he didn't want to do anything too important, so he was just stirring the potion.

"And, poof!" Thea said, waving her wand over the cauldron. Kerry sighed and Thea patted him on the back. She peered into the cauldron. It was a blue. But, not a teal blue. It was a little lighter than a teal color. The potion would probably be a little weaker than normal.

"At least help me bottle them," Thea told Kerry. He sat up and carefully helped her bottle them. Thea looked at the mess on the desk and sighed. She hated any kind of a mess. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, calming down a little bit.

They finished bottling the potions and left them on the desk. Then, Thea stayed behind and cleaned their desks. Very. Thoroughly. She couldn't stand the mess. It was easy to clean up the desk and Thea felt better. She left potiosn feeling very good about herself.

Emmy listened to the altercation between Petyr and Rowan with a small frown. She wanted to go and stick up for him, but it just wasn’t possible. She had her reputation to build and hold, and it would go straight down the shoot if she had a soft spot for a meek little Puff.

“Now, I will put een ze horn powder,” she said to Adam, giving the unicorn horn a quick stir before adding a pinch.

“This is lookin’ good,” Adam smiled, stirring clockwise.

With a nod, she picked up two perfectly round mistletoe berries and dropped them in with a tiny splash. Adam stirred again, counterclockwise this time. Em gracefully waved her wand over the cauldron and they checked out the finished product. Teal, just as it should be.

“Nice!” he grinned, grabbing three little vials.

The two proudly (and carefully) filled the vials and set them on Rainecourt’s desk. With their first flying class on her mind, Emmy didn’t even think about cleaning up before heading to the pitch.

Petyr potion was the wrong color. He sighed. It was a dark blue instead of teal. It means that it was more powerful, which would be a good thing technically. But, it meant that he did the potion wrong. He sighed and stared at the potion bubbling.

"Well, you were close," Elma told him. Petyr nodded and sighed again. He didn't like messing up, especially when ingredients were expensive and someone else bought them.

"Hopefully, I'll get a good grade," he told Elma, bottling his potions and cleaning up his station. Elma shrugged and left. Petyr sighed. He would probably need tutoring for potions. Which, he didn't know how that would work.

"Goodbye professor," he called out, as he left.

Rainecourt watched as the students left the potions classroom and Rainecourt cleaned up. Children never seemed to clean up after themselves.

"Professor, is there any tutoring later?" one student asked her. Rainecourt thought about it. A tutoring club wouldn't actually be a bad thing.

"Ummm....maybe not this week, but next week," Rainecourt told him. The student nodded and left the room. Rainecourt finished cleaning and went to write down the grades for the students.

This class is now closed!