She glanced at the professor, now greatly perturbed. Not that she could remember the word to do so if she tried. However... 'You look stupid'? What kind of sentence was that for a teacher to utter? I mean, at least use the word idiotic. Wait, what was she thinking? She was analyzing the professor's word usage?! "Well..." She thought a moment, curiously. "You're acting like a child." Looking back in the mirror, she did look a little silly. But at least it went well with her eyes.

"That's funny," Tony laughed, watching the beard grow longer. "You can see yourself how bad this looks. Oh wait, I have something else special in mind. Since I'm Muggle Studies professor, let's remember the occasion by taking a good old fashioned muggle photograph of this nice long beard." He snapped a photo. "I think we should take another one after it grows a bit longer, as well. And perhaps I should post these in my office, some place prominent, wouldn't that be special?"

"You realize that if I can change the color of this and control its growth, that I could make good money off of this potion for anyone who wants a quick beard? And imagine the usefulness of this on Halloween! I could have beard potions in every different color!" She looked back to the mirror. "Sorry," she said genuinely. It was selfish to only be thinking of such things at a time like this. "I can't help but think of how to sell it. If I don't, I won't eat when I get home."

Tony stopped for a minute. "Wait, you might be on to something there," he said thoughtfully. "As long as it isn't dangerous, it might be a real kick to market that kind of thing. People could change their appearance at will, it would make a brilliant disguise. Wait, what am I saying?", he said, wondering if this was all a trap to lure him in. "How does the beard feel? Is it itchy, and does it feel weird? Tell me how it feels, because I'm sure not ever using anything that looks like that myself!"

"I could change the colors for you," she said, looking back to him. "Though, don't you grow a beard on your own already?" She looked in the mirror. "It does itch a little. But mostly when it was first growing, like the stubble. But not as much when it got longer. It's weird, because it seems thick, but it's actually lighter than my hair." She touched it lightly. "It feels kinda soft, too. And a little fluffy. Almost like a wool. It's actually kind of neat. You should feel it."

Tony listened to Lina describe what the beard felt like and resisted the urge to try and feel iti. It was hard, he really wanted to put his hand on it and see what it felt like. "It looks kind of like a lamb's wool," he said finally. "I bet lambs must itch all the time." Finally, he reached his hand out and touched the beard. "It is soft," he said. "Neat!"

"Isn't it?" She smiled brightly. This was really an achievement, if she thought about it. Sure she got detention for it, but this could be a great sell! "I bet if you got used to it, then it wouldn't be as itchy." She paused a moment. "Oh, shouldn't I be writing an essay?"

"Yeah, we'll get to that in a little while," Tony said. "Not yet. I think we still want to take some time and appreciate the splendor and wonder of this magical and amazing beard of yours."

"Oh, okay." She giggled a little, thinking of how much the Professor seemed to be enjoying this. She ran a hand through her hair as she thought about how to modify the potion. Maybe it was the extra time that it didn't stop at a foot? When would it stop growing? Maybe she should keep it a while to find out. Of course, the only reason that she hadn't taken it was that she didn't want more hair. Especially having to dye the green hair. She'd have to bleach everything then dye it. She liked her hair. Well, good thing it grew a beard, then, wasn't it?

"It's getting worse," said Tony. "Look how long that thing is getting. Man, you look worse even than Sarah did. It reminds me of this old man I saw in this fairy tale one time." He started to laugh. "Here, let me take another picture of that, otherwise no one would believe it."

Intrigued, Lina asked, "What fairy tale?" Though as Tony got the camera ready, she posed and made a face at the camera. If she was going to have her picture taken, may as well have fun with it.

"Oh, I read it in this muggle fairy tale called The Hut in the Forest by the Brothers Grimm", Tony said. "Actually, from the way the Brothers Grimm write I think they were probably wizards or something writing for muggles. The writing is somewhat like Tales of Beedle the Bard, and some of the tales kind of remind me of that, even though the stories are different. So I really think those brothers were wizards, yes indeed I do. Anyway, in the Hut in the Forest, there is mention of a very old man with a very long beard, and I think your beard is getting as long as his! Look at it!" Tony laughed again.

She looked in the mirror curiously. "Oh yes, it is. It must be over a foot long now! Wanna wait and see if it will grow to touch the floor?" she asked with a giggle.

"Wouldn't that be something?", Tony laughed. "I think it's okay now, though, we can move on. Are you ready to write your essay and the letter to Sarah? Make sure you mean them, because I'm going to screen them and make sure that the letter sounds sincere especially. So I'm counting on you to do a good job."

Lina nodded. "I'm ready." She shifted her beard aside and reached for her bag, then realized she didn't bring it with her. "Um, sorry... I forgot my stuff. Do you have a quill and parchment?"

"Of course I do!", Tony said with glee. "I'm always prepared for that kind of thing." He handed Lina a quill with a very fluffy green feather, the same exact color as her beard, along with some green ink and pale green tinted parchment. "Ah, my favorite! Don't you think these will fit the occasion splendidly? It's so much fun to color coordinate things. Now, you may go ahead and get started, do you have anything specific in mind?"

She tilted her head curiously. "Specific? I don't know. You said to write how it was to have a beard, but I imagine it's nothing like how the Hufflepuff girl felt." She looked down at everything. "And at least it's all Slytherin green."

She looked down at the parchment, going back to the professor's words in her mind. "How it feels to look like this, I think you said..."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Essay

How it feels to have a long green beard
Arline Bi Materia

Actually having the beard is interesting. It itched a little at first, but it felt a little better later. It's soft and woolly, and it matches my eyes.

She looked at the first few lines of the essay and wondered if it was an alright opening.

Tony smiled in approval, now that Lina was getting to work right away. She was an interesting student, that was for sure, much smarter than most of the others and somehow different. It was clear to him why she had been sorted into Slytherin and he smiled to himself, proud to have been part of the same house. It was a known fact that Slytherin was the best house of all, no question about it. "Good, go on," he said.

She smiled to Dumont and looked back down to the parchment.

Quote:

It does look a little silly with my red hair, and because I'm a girl. Walking around like this would wind up being a laugh for everyone else, like it was to Professor Dumont, and the Huff Sarah was a laugh for all of us. I guess it's funnier when it's not you.

This was a slightly failed experiment, because the effects are really different from the standard hair growth potion. I didn't did not test it on myself because I like my red hair and didn't want it green. But because there are hair color spells and the like, I thought that giving someone green hair was harmless. But using an untested potion will sometimes make (T/N: She paused a moment here, trying to think of a different word) yield undesired results. In this case, a beard instead of regular hair on top of your head.

And of course if it's a potion that has never been seen before, then they don't know what's in it, or how toxic it might be. Because I know what was in it, it wasn' was not scary for me, but it must be scary for someone else who doesn does not know what has happened to them.

She frowned at things that were crossed out, but for an eleven-year-old she was strangely particular about her words and grammar.

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And then to get rid of the beard is another untested antidote. I did not know exactly how it would work, only that it was specifically meant to counteract the potion. I was confident because if you know a potion, then making the antidote is the easy part. But no one trusts an eleven-year-old to be a potions master if they don't know her. So it's a scary sort of blind trust because otherwise you're stuck with a green beard that was from a botched potion anyway.

She looked up to the professor for his approval. It was all she could think of, but she knew for an essay that it wasn't a very conclusive paragraph. It just didn't seem like it should end there. Before he could look at it, she started scribbling in her young handwriting again.

Quote:

So unknown, untested potions shouldn't be used in pranks, and it's not nice to prank somebody anyway. You can really scare someone and make them feel silly, idiotic, or inane. And to top it off, you have to trust someone that you don't even know when their first potion went badly in the first place.

She finished and read it over, then realized something.

Quote:

So unknown, untested potions shouldn't^should not^ be used in pranks, and it's not nice to prank somebody anyway.

"There. I think it's done, Professor."

Tony walked over and read the words that Lina had written. "Well, this seems to pretty much take care of what I had in mind for your essay," he said. "Now the only thing you have left to do is write the letter to Sarah. That is, as long as it meets with my approval." He sneered. "But what you've written here is fine, very well worded, in fact."

Lina beamed with pride. She had to admit, she didn't know what some of the words meant, but they fit very well. Not that she knew how she knew that. But that would come later. For now it was time to start on the essay. She looked down at the green quill and parchment, then frowned. "No offense Professor, but do you think she'll mind if it's on green parchment? And in green ink? What if it reminds her of the beard or she thinks I'm making fun of her with it?"

Tony laughed at the thought of Sarah being offended by the sight of the green paper and ink, the fact that it might remind her of having a beard, and then caught himself. "Oh, excuse me," he said, sounding only half sincere, he was certain. "Green is fine, it isn't quite the same shade as the beard and I think it looks really nice, don't you agree? After all, it's only natural that a Slytherin should write on green parchment and with green ink, it definitely is a fitting thing. Though I would hate to see anyone writing on yellow paper with yellow ink, I'm not even sure anyone could read that, to tell you the truth." He guffawed. "But it's fine, go right ahead."

She laughed and nodded. "Okay. It's too bad we don't have dark green paper and silver ink. That would be really pretty." She sat and thought about the letter a little while. It had to be heartfelt and sincere. But she didn't really regret it. What did she regret?

Quote:

Sarah,

I'm really sorry for scaring you with the potion. I didn't mean to.

She frowned. Well, that wasn't much of a letter.

Quote:

It was just supposed to be a silly prank for the Hufflepuff table to have green hair. A beard isn't what I had in mind at all. And I know you must have felt very strange with it. I image it's worse than if you had green hair, because then you could just dye it. Though I'm certain you wouldn't appreciate the hair either.

Well, that was a little better. Hmm... what else?

Quote:

I hope that you're doing well now. I was glad to see the antidote made the beard fall off, instead of just making it stop growing. It must have been a lot easier for you. I promise not to experiment on you ever again.

Sincerely,
Arline Bi Materia

"There." She looked up at Professor Dumont for approval.

Tony read the letter over. "Yes, I think that says it all. I can see that you didn't mean to scare the poor girl. In fact, you really do seem to be trying to perfect your inventions so that you might make a profit in the future from them. I certainly couldn't argue with that." He grinned. "I wish you luck with that, in fact I think you'll go far. Just try to remember to choose people who are willing for your little experiments next time. And do let your volunteers know what they are agreeing to test, what is supposed to be happening as a result of them participating in your experiments, so that they don't freak out when they start growing a green beard, or something like that. We really don't want that sort of thing happening in the Great Hall, now do we? And by the way, I agree with you, dark green paper with silver ink would be beautiful, truly the best combination ever, especially if the paper had little snakes embossed on it."

Tony smiled. "Do be careful, and the best of luck to you. You do have your antidote with you and ready, I hope?"

"Yeah, I guess so." She nodded. "Of course I do! So, I can take it now?"