alchemical blurb

[mswoods]

The following day, Sadde has Transfiguration in the morning.

She is all over it at lunch.

"Okay, so, Transfig is just about the coolest thing," she says first thing to the Ravenclaws as soon as she sits at the table.

Comments

[peterxy]

Introductory texts are read!

So, Alchemy is similar to Potioneering, but there are some fundamental differences. Most of the steps are more symbolic than anything, with ingredients being used for their memetic properties rather than magical ones. It also includes things like steps that are apparently useless, such as Vanishing an ingredient after crushing it in the mortar in order to prep it, and it deals with more minerals and higher temperatures than standard Potioneering.

[chanuphis]

That is very interesting. And does seem like the sort of thing that mostly would be left to upper years because the firsties would take one look at "crush, then vanish, ingredient" and skip the step altogether; it's bad enough in Potions where they dice when they should mince and squeeze when they should wring. But if this is just plain how alchemy works Miranda can accept that and kinda wants to try it.

[mrwoods]

Sadde wants to try it as well! But he's not so sure that alone would be a good reason not to allow young students to practice it (not that magical society has the most reasonable or sensible rules). Are there perhaps unwanted side effects or particularly dangerous consequences for failure?

[chanuphis]

Well, the high temperatures are kind of a big deal. The wandwork is beyond most first years and many second years; Miranda can't cast a Vanishing Charm yet. And sometimes final products look exactly right but are in fact total disasters and you can't tell until you try them.

[mrwoods]

Hmm, yes, those sound like disastrous enough effects to justify not teaching it to firsties.

Still, it sounds very interesting and promising!

[chanuphis]

It really does!

"I wonder if Professor Slughorn would help us do an alchemy independent study early."

[mrwoods]

"Yeah, we should ask him."

Pause.

"Maybe you, the bright promising Ravenclaw student, should be the one to talk to him, instead of troublemaker-in-the-making Slytherin me."

[chanuphis]

"He's your head of house," Miranda points out. "But if you want me to ask first I will."

[mrwoods]

"Yeah, which means he's the likeliest Professor other than Spukhafte herself to have heard of my incident today and of the fact that I refused to give names."

[chanuphis]

"Okay, I'll ask."

[mrwoods]

He grins. "Thanks!"

He looks around at the books they've collected.

"Maybe we should grab these just in case he says no anyway."

[chanuphis]

"I want this one first," she says as she grabs Alchemical Metaphor.

[mrwoods]

"Alright, I'll take this one," he says, picking up The Alchemist's Handbook.

[chanuphis]

And they check their books out and Miranda goes and talks to Slughorn.

Next morning at breakfast: "He says if I and my unspecified friend do really well in Potions all year he will consider a tutorial next year."

[mrwoods]

"Of course," he sighs. "Well, I guess we won't be able to solve death and then take over the world before twelve, so we probably won't be as famous as Harry Potter."

[chanuphis]

"If we take over the whole world we can probably be more famous than he is outside Britain."

[mrwoods]

"I suppose," he concedes.

[chanuphis]

"It's a good thing Potions doesn't seem that hard."

[mrwoods]

He nods. "Mostly very fiddly, but it sounds like the subject that's most amenable to direct improvements due to lots of studying."

[chanuphis]

"Yeah, we could coast on just following the recipes but the principles are pretty interesting and not that hard to memorize."

[mrwoods]

"Yeah. Guess I have an actual reason to study during the year now. I wonder what Slughorn will think of me if I'm simultaneously one of his best students and also one of the largest causes for grief amongst the Slytherins."

[chanuphis]

"No idea. He didn't actually promise to do the tutorial, you know, he said he'd consider it, if he can't stand the idea of dealing with you for another couple hours a week..."

[mrwoods]

He blinks. "Nnnnnooooooooooooooooooooo!" he wails. "...maybe Professor Robledo would be more help, he likes me, and there's some stuff related to Transfiguration in Alchemy, right? I mean, the Stone turns stuff into gold and stuff..."

[chanuphis]

"Professor Slughorn teaches the actual NEWT-level Alchemy course," Miranda says. "I imagine this is because he's best suited to it."

[mrwoods]

He puts his face on his hands and whimpers softly.

Then he straightens up abruptly and beams at Miranda. "I know! You could teach me!"