POTIONS LAB: Open Studio Laboratory
 

http://i375.photobucket.com/albums/o.../potions-1.jpg

A disused room next to the ancient runes potions classroom has been converted into a potions laboratory for this term. There are several large workstations available, complete with stands and burners for standard size 2 cauldrons and plenty of room to work.

Along the walls at the sides of the room are additional stations holding alembics, distillation trains, calcination equipment, Florence flasks, a large jar of clean glass stirring rods, funnels, empty jars and more -- in short, all the equipment a potioneer would need to do his or her work.

Along the back wall of the class are jars and bottles containing a host of standard potions ingredients. Each container is marked clearly with a parchment label bearing the details of its contents (including the date of expiration), written in Professor Kazimeriz's shaky but legible hand. Several of the larger jars house foul-looking ingredients: there is one jar that appears to be filled with pickled toads, another houses what appear to be large eyeballs from some creature in pale blue syrup, and still others seem to contain the visceral organs of animals - rat spleens, newt tails (which are still wriggling in the jar), and whole flobberworms. One jar of some sort of greenish sap is bubbling lazily, and another opaque bottle keeps trembling, clinking against the others.

There is also a large cabinet that has been triple-locked and charmed. Through the unbreakable glass front of the cabinet, you can see vials, jars, bottles of various size, shape and contents. These are the Professor's private stores. You must receive assistance from the professor to access these ingredients, as all the poisons, rare items like unicorn parts and truly dangerous ingredients in the lab -- including dangerous potions such as veritaserum and amortentia-- are housed in this cabinet.

There is a large chalkboard at the front of the classroom near the Professor's sturdy mahogany desk. On it reads this note:

ooc notes: Come on in and get creative! :) This is an independent lab, not potions class... this is the place to let your character practice potions, do class labwork, and experiment. For the purposes of the RP please presume that Kazimeriz is in the room at all times unless I specify otherwise. Obviously, I am not really here at all times, but I will be monitoring this thread closely throughout the term and will do my best to respond to posts directed toward Professor Kazimeriz quickly and efficiently.

Please RP responsibly! I'm cool OOC with potions-gone-wrong-RPs (accidentally blowing up cauldrons and such-- stuff happens in a lab!) but just make sure that you are ready to face the consequences IC for any actions you take. For instance, if you have a vat of lethal poison explode all over you, it is quite possible your character WILL die, and if you are irresponsible IC, expect Kazimeriz to react accordingly. Please exercise good sense and remember to follow the site rules at all times.

Also, if your character is addressing the professor or needs attention, please put PROFESSOR KAZIMERIZ in your subject line for your post, just so I don't accidentally miss it. :)

If you have any questions, please PM me at XanaSnape. Oh... and most important: HAVE FUN! ~Xana~ :D

Aaron walked into the new potions room looked around. Tehre were a lot of bottles and weird looking things around the room. He went over to one of the many empty seats in the front-middle of the classroom and sat down. He then took out his cauldron and his scales and all of his other potions materials. He then said to the professor, "Good day, professor. It's too bad we have to have potions in here. I was looking forward to have potions in the dungeons." He then saw what was written on the board, so he wrote down the class rules. Okay!

Cordova looked over at the other boy who wasn't his partner but watched him as he took a seat closer to the Professor and pulled out his personal class utensils. "Umm," he said from the back of room, trying to gain his attention. "This is not a class," he said kindly to the first year. It was natural that first years would end up in random places and constantly be confused about what exactly was going on. "You see," he continued gesturing towards the label on the door and towards the board. "This rooms purpose is for students to create and perfecting their potion skills. If this were a lesson, it would be in the room across the hall, and might I add filled with students. "

He rummaged through his bag and pulled out a book from his side pack he had been carrying his potions materials in. He flipped through it quickly, found the potion him and his partner would be making. "Where the heck is he," were the words that floated swiftly out of his mouth as he checked his watch for the time.

Iris walked into the class room shortly after Aaron, and looked around, examining the room, before saying "Hello Professor!" and sitting near Aaron. She looked at the black board and read the rules. Her face was full of nervousness by the time she'd gotten to the bottom. Iris hadn't realised that this wasn't going to be a proper lesson, so she moved up to Aaron and said, "Can we work together on this? We might come up with something better than if we worked alone." As she waited for his response she opened her text book and began flicking through, looking at bad combinations of ingredients and such.

"Good day to you." Kazimeriz said. "What will you be working on today?"

"Precisely. As he said, this is the potions lab, where you can work on your potions projects -- class projects or personal projects for practice. Class will be held across the corridor, in the former Ancient Runes classroom." Kazimeriz nodded at them both, continuing his writing.

"Good day, Miss Beaumont." Kazimeriz said, nodding politely to the girl and smiling. It was good to see so many ambitious students planning on working in the potions lab independently. It would also help him to start to see who the true talents were in the discipline... He kept a watchful eye on the students, while tending to his paperwork.

Lucy entered the new Potions room, slightly nervous. Potions wasn't one of her great subjects, in fact it was her worst. Whenever she tried to make a potion, she would mess up, either by putting to much of something or not enough. Or she would stir the wrong way! How pathetic. But hopefully she would do better this term.

Lucy walked over to one of the workstations and set her bag down and sat down on her stool. "Good day professor." She said smiling over at Kazi. "Do you like your new classroom?" Lucy asked chuckling a little.

holey moley its getting late... 20 past 1 :/ ... I'll carry on tomorrow I think.
 

As Iris was looking through the text book, she remembered the fireworks potion that Girl had mentioned on the train. Mystic her name was. The idea of fireworks made Iris smile, but then she realised that the instructions for it were in her trunk, in the dungeons, underwater. A little dishearted Iris kept on flipping through the pages, looking for something, anything, to do that was simple enough to do, but who still teach her something. Iris settled on a simple potion, a Boil-Cure Potion. She read the ingredients several times, then read through the method. Seems easy enough. she shrugged as she began to get the ingredients and equiptment she needed, and gave Aaron a supportive smile as she got up.

"Good day, Cullack. I am quite well, and thank you for asking. What do you plan to work on today?" he asked from his desk.

"Miss Porter, good day. It remains to be seen, though I believe the accomodations -- both in the classroom and this lab -- will be satisfactory to our needs." And never mind all those stairs. It wouldn't do to complain to the students, after all. A gentleman always found a way to make a difficult situation workable.

Aaron looked out of the room. There was another room across the hall. He laughed at his own humility. Ugh... SO embarassing. "Oops, sorry!" He pickd up his stuf and walked across the hall.

Rhea wandered into the potions classroom. She decided that this year she would approach the subject with an open mind and give it her best and most importantly, try not to fall asleep or blow anything up.

She walked to the front of the class and smiled at the professor.
"Good day Professor Kazimeriz," she said politely before walking to a stole not too far from the front. She was already tired from climbing all those stairs up to the new potions location.

She flipped through her potions book and drew the cauldron close to her getting ready to blow stuff up....uhh..make a potion.

Of course Anna was going to show up in this Potions lab at one point and time during the school year. True, today's trip to the lab was her first, but she imagined she'd be visiting quite a few more times before graduation. She'd received notice that there was to be an analysis of the food waters to take place here in the lab, and she wanted to make sure to be a part of that. She thought it'd give her lots of good experience before heading right into the Potions industry upon graduation. As she waited for the others to show, Anna read the rules posted on the chalkboard in the front of the class.

Though rarerly found in the common room, Lawliet had indeed heard rumours floating around about a small group of people getting together in order to do further research of the flood water. The boy made his way to the Potions Lab and he noticed a girl was already there, reading the rules of the lab.

Lawliet approached and gave her a small smile before directing his attention to the rules which were posted on the chalkboard in the lab. Once he was done reading everything, he made his way to one of the workstation and lifted himself up on the table.

"Are you here because of the notice in the common room?" he asked, while flipping randomly through one of the Potions books he grabbed off one of the shelves.

Selena walked into the Potions lab, giving curt nods of acknowledgment to other students in the room as she passed by them. Heading straight to an empty work station, she pulled out her copy of a potions book Rena bought for her in Diagon Alley - after reading through the class rules - and began flipping quickly through the pages. It must be recorded here somewhere, the way this flood is behaving. We better stop this before there are any casualties.

Kazimeriz eyed the group of students that had entered the lab, overhearing one mention 'the notice'. He wondered where Miss Entelequia was, and if this group was a study group or people who had shown up due to her notice. "Good afternoon, students... Are you working on a particular project today?" he asked from his place at his desk.

Diane did not mean to be late for the project she herself started. So to speak. So when she got to the Potions Laboratory, her cheeks were hot and possibly of a red color to see the professor behind his desk and other students were already there. Possibly waiting.

"Good afternoon," she greeted rather shamelessly, though, holding two labeled bottles of water (one clearly labeled 'lake'), which she ended up placing in the first surface that she could find... which was a workstation table. A couple of vials sitting in the stool knocked each other with a pleasant bell-like sound.

After getting rid of that weight, she lowered her backpack which was bigger than her, or certainly looked so. It seemed it would be unneeded with the equipment provided here. Looking around, she saw at least three students standing as if waiting. One of them she recognized, and there was this other she remembered from History class. But I digress.

"Thank you again for the opportunity, professor," Diane said again, smiling, now properly free from all weights and rocks strapped to her back. Her eyes moved to the other students, "Oh I thought we would be a larger-merrier group." This was a clear reference to her talk with the professor.

"My name is Diane," and so with a smile the first year introduced herself.

Okay so Cam wasn't REALLY sure why he came here in the first place but the two main reasons was one, he knew Anna was coming (he just haaad a feeling) and two, 'cause he hadn't talked ever to that Diane girl... since the flood. So maybe the third reason was that he was EXTREMELY curious about the flood and how the heck it made the Great Hall into an ice rink or how that Quidditch Pitch flooded. He didn't know how all of it happened but... well something CRAZY happened every year.

It was a very well-known Hogwarts fact now to Cam, last year the ghosts and this year the flood?? Next year, aliens'd probably abduct students and eat their braaainsss! Huh who knows, anything could have happened by now.

And he'd even read his Potions textbook waaaay up last night so he could impress Anna with his KNOWLEDGEEE! Yuppity yup and he'd even ate some of the chocolate his fellow Gryffie friends to be even mooaarrr smarter-ish and all-ish... yesh.

Ah yes, Cam was gonna TRY not to sound dumbbbb. He was actually good at Potions a bit well... for his age...? Hmph. Walking into the laboratory, he noticed that Diane was already there, with a few other students too. And ANNAAA. Was he late? He shrugged it off and just waaaved hello at Anna first and then Diane second and then finally at Kazi.

"A project. That we are," Anna answered the professor, strolling over a little closer to his desk. "You wouldn't have happend to have seen..." Anna trailed off as she took notice of Diane walking in. Oh, good! Just the person she'd been looking for! "Nevermind, sir." She smiled at him, then turned to talk to Diane.

"Thanks for getting this little group together," she told the girl. "I'm Anna Greingoth, by the way. I don't think we've ever actually met. Diane, right?" She glanced down at the two phials the girl had brought in, taking notice that one of them was clearly labeled 'lake'. "So what do you have there?" she asked, pointing at both of them. She turned and motioned for Lawliet and Selena to join them if they'd alike. "Lawliet? Selena? You two joining in?" she asked. She waved at Cam, then motioned for him to come over, as well. "Oh, hey, Cam! Come join us. It'll be cool..."

Diane was just in the middle of waving back at Cam, maybe exchange a few words of greetings, when this older student came in. Yes, Diane recalled her from one of the classes. "Why, thank you, that's very kind - Anna, you said? I knew I remembered you from somewhere. You were involved in the guess game in History of Magic recently, weren't you? It's nice to see you again."

She turned where Anna was gesturing and returned to her, "Oh that. Initially I meant to compare the water from the lake to the water from the flood." She turned the other bottle around to reveal the label that read 'dark / flood'. What she meant by that, it was not clear. "One of the hypothesis is that the water odd behavior is caused by the water's inherent magical nature as mysterious as its origin; the other theory is that it's controlled magically by exterior forces but it remains normal lake water."

Her eyes moved momentarily to the professor in a gesture of indication and she proceeded to tell them, "With Professor Kazimeriz' help, we might find the source of this abnormality - Have you heard," her expression changed suddenly, becoming quite more curious and decisively more serious, "that the water flooded all the ground floor but stopped at the broomshed abruptly? Oh, which reminds me," she added, brighter, "We may be able to exchange some theories. Have you any? I look forwards to that."

Diane walked a little to the side, and stood on tiptoes to have the professor at view range and to address him, "Professor, would you say SpeRevelio for starters? I'll prepare a sample for each of you from both waters."

Professor Kazimeriz
 

Daniel walked up to the ancient runes classroom. Well, he knew that this is not ancient runes anymore, but it is potions. He opened the door of the Open Laboratory. He then walked to the Professor's table and said, "Good day, Professor. Can I work here?" he said and gestured looking around.

"I wanted to try a special bug repellant." he said. "My mom's special dragon tulips are bugged by does." he said looking gloomy.

Flood talk/conversation for Diane and Professor Kazimeriz
 

"Yup, it's Anna...the girl from the guessing game in History of Magic," she said to Diane, a tiny hint of laughter escaping her. Diane seemed friendly and fun to be around. She also seemed really intelligent, something Anna gathered from her participation in class and from this Potions project. "It's nice to see you again, too." She listened as Diane discussed her theories...very intelligent and well-thought out theories...about what could be causing the flood. Anna definitely agreed with the whole 'normal lake water that had been charmed by magic' idea.

She spoke up when Diane asked if anyone would like to share any theories. She loved theory talk, especially when it came to mysteries such as this one. "Well, for starters, I completely believe that it's regular lake water that's been charmed through magical means. Actually...," she said, trailing off a little on that last word. Should she bring up Myrtle? Myrtle was just a thought she'd had...no real proof. "Well, okay, so you know Myrtle? The ghost normally hanging out in the girl's bathroom? Anyway, I was having a conversation with her the other day, and I happened to ask her if she'd seen anything abnormal around the castle. Myrtle knows everything, you see. Or, at least, from my experience she does." Anna paused and took a deep breath. She was talking a million miles a minute, just as she tended to do when she got over-excited about something.

"Anyway, Myrtle said to me...'I haven't seen anything. Seen...it was just the way she stressed that one word that made me think...maybe...she's heard something instead. I really wish I knew where to find her. I'd love to ask her to clarify that. Although, come to think of it, she probably wouldn't actually tell me anyway," she said, growing quiet and turning to the professor when Diane asked about SpeRevelio.

Aislynn slipped in the potions lab not looking at the Professor. She was having a very rough day. She decided to read up a bit on potions and pulled out her copy of Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger. She was surprised by all of the students who were in there. She decided just to take a seat kind of away from the group and if she came across an interesting potion maybe she would take a crack at it.

Kazimeriz nodded in acknowledgment. "Well... Do you think Scarpin's Revelaspell would be the most direct way of analyzing at the contents of the sample?" he asked with a tiny smile of encouragement. He would oversee, and he would assist, but he wanted the students to do the leg work -- the thinking out the process part -- themselves.

Kazimeriz listened to Greingoth, eyeing her like one might eye a counterfeit galleon. "How interesting it is to me, Miss Greingoth, that you always seem to insert yourself into the thick of things, be it this experiment, gossip with a ghost... or the floodings... Yes. Intriguing, your knack for always being at the wrong place at the right time." He said very softly, pursing his lips.

"So, Miss Entelequia... as you initiated this study group, what do you think should be done first and why?" Kazimeriz asked.

ooc: Just so you all know, please feel free to post any experimental attempts/charms/spells freely but please do not RP the reaction of the water samples to your spells and experiments. In order to maintain continuity within the global school plot, the narrator will RP the reactions of the water samples to indicate anything that you do or do not see in the water samples to keep it consistent with our storyline. Thanks! :)

Diane put a thoughtful face as if in consideration of the question. "A spell that does not affect the composition of the water would be best so further experimentation can be carried out with the same sample," Diane reasoned. She tilted her head. "But we also may want to figure out if there won't be any adverse reactions. So, for safety measures, we should expose this water to various substances and enviromental effects: heat, conductivity of electric current, volatility... so to be certain it won't explode on our faces or other such factors of risk."

Diane nodded, as if she had been lectured by her own words. "I will set a sample especifically for treatment of this sort."

Diane's eyes lit at the mention of Myrtle. "The ghost," she nodded. Once again, she was brought up. "Some students mentioned her at the beginning of the term. I've heard -- no, rather, I know she was in the dungeons when the detention area flooded up. I'ven't had the opportunity to make her acquaintance, though," she said this while pouring some of the water from the lake in a vial for Anna and handing it over, "Please, label this one as lake so there aren't any confusions." She proceeded to pour the flood water in another vial for her.

"We begin with safety precautions, I believe," Diane offered. However, this might also mean the most dangerous part of the experimentation. "Best to proceed as a group for this part of the proceedings, so not to waste water and to attend to odd reactions one at the time. Do we perhaps count with an hermetic compartment that we can use?"

With a sample of flood water in a vial, she set the two bottles aside, put on gloves and took out a little notebook for notations.