peterverse | alchemical blurb

mswoods posting in

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

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.

From:

mrwoods

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

Still, it sounds very interesting and promising!

From:

chanuphis

It really does!

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

From:

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."

From:

chanuphis

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

From:

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."

From:

chanuphis

"Okay, I'll ask."

From:

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."

From:

chanuphis

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

From:

mrwoods

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

From:

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."

From:

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."

From:

chanuphis

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

From:

mrwoods

"I suppose," he concedes.

From:

chanuphis

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

From:

mrwoods

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

From:

chanuphis

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

From:

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."

From:

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..."

From:

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..."

From:

chanuphis

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

From:

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!"

From:

chanuphis

"What makes you think I'd be any good at teaching you things I was only just learning myself? Or that you'd be allowed the materials and equipment you'd need to do anything if you weren't supervised by a teacher?"