Tea sounded nice, but Vashti found she didn't have an appetite for it at the moment... Probably something to do with the topic. Not that she was complaining, of course. It wasn't like anyone had forced her to be here.

"Brain tumors need a cure." They really did. And yet, though it made her feel horrible, she half-hoped that there might not be a cure for it - at least not yet. She wasn't sure she could handle the fact that there was a cure, that it had been available for some time, and that she had, in fact, failed to hear/read about and acquire it somehow before last summer. She'd be even guiltier than she already felt she was.

But brain tumors were a form of cancer, which had already been suggested, so she thought she'd offer another ailment, almost raising her hand as she did so. "There's also asthma, a condition that makes it really hard for a person to breathe at times. It's treatable, but it doesn't have a cure yet." Not one that Muggles knew about, anyway.

Kyle Manning walked into the Potions for Muggles club, and took a seat. She listened to some of the ideas, and bit her lip wondering what she could contribute.

"Well, we could always give muggles bruise-healing paste potion for those muggle who seem to bruise easily. That could come in handy for those muggles who are in tough sport such as Roller Derby and also do things such as pageant work." She smiled thinking it was a good idea. Still, "more importantly i'd say that Skelegrow would be one of the best potions for use in the muggle world for when muggles bones break. Otherwise they hobble around on these crutches for months and completely rub their armpits raw because of it. And you can use that along with the bruise healing paste because skelegrow doesn't get rid of the bruises."

"Allergies in general like towards animals, plants, nuts and so. They can be deadly for some, or just painful and annoying." K-Lee answered after hearing the others answers.

Up until the point when Lafay started talking, Sierra had been completely quiet. She'd still been trying to convince herself that attending this meeting was a good idea. She wasn't completely sold on the idea of helping the muggles, but she'd sit through this first meeting and just see how things went. Maybe she'd attend a second meeting, but maybe she wouldn't. It was honestly a little too early to tell.

She did perk up a little when her Head of House demonstrated how to magically have tea poured and how to summon a plate of food. Curiosity got the best of her, and she raised herwand and watched as the teapot poured her a glass of tea. She wasn't sure if she'd drink it--not right now, at least--but it was fun to watch magic in the making. At eleven-years-old, she was really still learning how to do all this wand work by herself.

Glancing up, she repeated, "Alzheimer's, yeah." She lowered her wand and glanced from the professor to some boy who'd suddenly spoke up. "They say it's a fate worse than death, and that the muggles really have no cure for it at all."

He was about to comment on the 'asthma' that Vashti just mentioned, when a girl spoke up mentioning what he already had said.

His eyes followed the voice, only to find what seemed to be a first year Slytherin girl. A smart one, just because she'd mentioned Alzheimer's as well. Ha. "No cure for it and no way to prevent it either, there's really nothing they can do about it," because whatever activities were said to prevent it, or to stop its process, clearly didn't work.

"You've read about it, clearly," he nodded, eying the girl and giving her a small smile. Actually, Treyen could consider said disease as death on its own, because the real person died and became someone else.

"Since wizards do have a way with memory spells and potions, then I suppose this particular one we could try to prevent," he wasn't aiming at the 'curing' part because, eventually, if you prevented it, then you'll have no need to cure it, right?

Selina made herself some tea next to Kurumi. She heard the girl speak about some ailments that her grandfather always spoke about because he was a Muggle on his mother's side. But she was still fuzzy on it's implications.

She went to work in her head looking for the answer to the Professor's question, "Well, ma'am," she said softly, "there are diseases such as Tay-Sachs." Because Selina was Jewish she was very aware of this ailment. It flourished among people of her religion. "And also Swine-floo. It was an epidemic when my grandfather's older brother was just born.

"Very good," she said sipping her tea. "All awful ailments... but let's concentrate on three. How about... Diabetes, Alzheimer's and... Asthma." She said and then asked. "Who can tell me about these ailments... Symptoms... Causes... what muggles are using to fight these." She said.

ooc: Please don't answer for all these. Pick one ailment and tell me about it, so others can have a chance.

Okay, so they were going to talk about Diabetes, Alzheimer's and Asthma.

Now... Should she raise her hand before speaking? It was just a meeting after all. But... just to be sure, Helena kind of half raised her hand. "About Asthma... Some of the symptoms would be coughing, shortness of breath and chest pain." But then... "I'm not exactly sure what are muggles using for this, though." Uhh this was embarrassing. Maybe it would've been better if she hadn't spoken.

Selina sat beside Kurumi and listened as Lafay spoke up. She was becoming less scary by the minute. It seemed that one on one she was rather pleasant. Although Selina would never chance the small percent that she was mistaken by being too casual.

Raising her hand Selina said, "Well, ma'am I know a little about Diabetes. My grandfather, a Muggle, has it. He has high levels of blood sugar in his blood. Um, I know that he wasn't born with it. When he was younger he had a lot of sugar and now he has to watch his blood sugar for the rest of his life."

"Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia" Emily said, then took a bite of her scone. "In the early stages they can become confused and forget things. They then get progressivaly worse as and eventually need help with everything they do."
She wished she hadn't spoke now. She didn't like knowing about this stuff.
She raised her wand and poured herself some tea. Wow she needed this.

Carter nodded as the girl talked. He then decided to add on to it. "Well... there's a lot of things that people believe cause it. Like... dust... pollen... exercise... stress." he explained.

"Most commonly they have 'inhalers' to fight the symptoms. I'm not sure exactly what are in inhalers, but they're designed to keep airways from swelling up."

Ehh... that was a good enough explanation, right?

Nika smiled weakly at Emily and poured some more tea into her cup as well. She nodded her head as her friend spoke and decided to add some more to what she said. "Alzheimer's is very common for when people start to get older. They start forgetting things and start to loose their minds a bit. It's actually rather sad." Nika sniffled thinking about her grandfather who had suffered from this. "It can get to a point where the person doesn't even remember their own gr-a-a-andchild." Nika stopped thinking that she would burst into tears if she said any more. She quickly took a sip of tea, burning the roof of her mouth in the process.

Seeing as Kurumi's older brother has asthma..."Professor, Asthma has symptoms that include wheezing, coughing, chest tightness, and shortness of breath. One could easily mistake it for someone simply over exhausting themselves, but that would be a serious mistake. The illness inflames and narrows the airways, causing extreme discomfort to the person. It can effect people of all ages, but usually starts when one is younger. Asthma attacks are extremely dangerous and the person's skin may turn blue because of a lack of oxygen..." It had happened once to her brother when he was in Jr. high school. It had been the most terrifying 10 minutes of her life. "It cannot be cured, but there is medicine that non-magical people use by means of an inhaler. Many times, Asthma acts up when you are around something you are allergic to, like dust or animal hair, so it is best to avoid such things."

No, she hadn't read about it, but she'd heard her sister talk about it before. She didn't remember exactly why it had been brought it in conversation, but since Cale was a half-blood and had muggles in his family, she guessed it related to one of them in some way. She nodded a few times as he spoke, and she started to say something but stopped when Lafay spoke up.

OOC: Continued below.

Sierra honestly had no clue what either of those three illnesses were. She'd only heard about Alzheimer's in passing, and even then it wasn't really enough information to do her any good. "Well if Alzheimer's erases a person's memory," she said, her eyes traveling from Lafay back to the Hufflepuff boy, "then a memory charm does seem like a good way to help. That is, if the muggles really will allow us to help them."

That was another point she wasn't entirely sold on. Muggles were skeptical when it came to magic--real magic, that is. A Memory Charm was no rabbit being pulled out a top hat.

"A Memory Potion might be even better, though," she continued. "Maybe it would help them...I don't know, tap into their memories a bit better." If they even remembered to take it in a timely manner, that is...

Emily added onto the gruffindor girls answer.
"Yes," she said nodding, "My muggle god parents both have diabetes, my godmother was born with it but my godfather wasn't. There are two types of diabetes, type A and type B, I forget which is which though one is heriditary whilst the other is as a result of lifestyle. Diabetes occurs when the body cannot produce enough insulin to regulate the sugar and carbohydrates and fat in the body."
Emily sipped her tea, thinking about the sugar that was in it. Of course she would be fine, she was pureblood, it counted for something.
"Its a metabolic disease", she added... mostly just to sound smart.... "some symptoms of diabetes includes frequent urination, increased thirst and increased hunger."

"Its becoming more of a problem due to the rising obesity as well", she said as an after thought.

Okay. Then he'll be speaking a bit for Alzheimer's, after all, it was the one he'd mentioned.

And the girl didn't comment on the reading part? Perhaps she only heard it and Treyen only assumed that wizards were bound to know of it just by reading the Quibbler.

But listening to what others were saying, he decided on adding a bit more, "In Alzheimer's case, there is some sort of treatment, but the medicine isn't meant to cure the disease, it's meant to slow its progression...and it doesn't work for everyone." Oh, yes, he knew a thing or two, that was the plus side of staying in Hogwarts over the Holidays. Lots of books read. "So, while the cell-damage is being slower, it can never be reversed," they've covered that, right? "It's true that everyone's brain gets tired at the end of the road...," beautiful way to say 'when we get old', ha, "...but I don't suppose Muggles have a Pensieve that helps them around."

Treyen didn't have one either.

"Either way, there isn't any magical way to cure it either." His eyes were on the little Slytherin girl now, for she'd said something important, about memory potions, of course. "I do believe Potions have a stronger effect than charms or spells," mostly because you could even use a spell while making one, "And longer effects too," which was more than useful, "If we can get the brain cells to...like...be connected again, then, yeah, that could work. Either that, or causing the opposite reaction to Obliviation. The brain reaction, of course, not the result per say." Amazing that it happened to be a Lockhart the one proposing it.

Rowan listened as the other students described the ailments and treatments when she discovered that she could fill in some blanks for a particular student. "Inhalers administer drugs, I believe steroids, called Albuteral and Prednisone. I'm sure there are others but these are the two that I know. One of the girls......where I grew up had asthma," she said.

"Very good." She said and put down her tea cup. "I want you all to go back to your dorms, I want you to think about whatever muggle ailment may interest you..." She looked at Dakest, "or is closes to your heart, and write up a report you will do orally at the next Potions for Muggles Club meeting. Pretend you are making an appeal to the ministry. Explain the ailment, the symptoms... explain what treatments muggles have... and then explain how we as wizards can help them, take care of them... and cure them." She said and stood. "Make sure it isn't too long."

She stood. "Feel free to continue eating and drinking and discussing on your own." She said and walked to the door. "Just make sure you are back in your dorms by curfew..." and she left.

ooc: I'm leaving this thread open for a couple of days. The next meeting will open next Sunday.

Oh great more work. As if we didn't have enough to do already... Nika didn't voice her thoughts. She kept smiling and took another rather long sip of tea. "Thank you Professor for this wonderful meeting. And the tea. Thank you for the tea! It is really really good!" Nika took another sip. Yum. "So er Professor how long would you like our reports to be?" she didn't want to go over board.

Emily sipped her tea quietly whilst Professor Lafay spoke.... So they were going to do an oral report.. that sounded like fun.
Well of course Emily would find it fun.
Deciding she didn't want to hang around too long, and she wanted to get a head start on the presentation Emily took up her things and stood to leave.
"Thank you Professor", she said politely to Lafay before turning to her peers.
"Bye everyone"...
then she left through the dungeon door.

Sierra couldn't even think straight right now. Badger Boy over there seemed to be the living and breathing all-knowing resource about Alzheimer's, and since she really didn't know a thing about the illness, she couldn't exactly keep up with conversation.

...and no way was she going to tell him to slow down.

Although she knew it was a cop-out, she just nodded her head slowly, indicating she at least understood and was following along. She didn't have much to add, though. "Well, I'm sure we'll think of something," she simply said, giving him a smile that possibly only she knew to be competitive in nature.

...they had to write a report?!

Sierra found herself wanting to give Lafay a half-annoyed, half-defeated look; but even she wasn't bold enough for that. She'd figured out long ago that crossing the woman's path in the wrong way--even with something as simple as a look--wasn't exactly the smartest move in the world.

Grabbing her bag, she turned to cast the Hufflepuff boy a look (for no particular reason at all), and then she, too, headed out the meeting. She had...decisions to make, it seemed.

Wait.

Er, what? That was it? And she was sending them to their own dorms to think? Yes, Treyen was slightly confused. But, oh, no, wait. They had to write a report. Haha. Good. Okay. He could do that. Actually, he would do it, because he wanted to. The subject kind of interested him.

The boy nodded as Lafay continued to speak. And then, "See you, Professor," he said, as the woman left the room.



He...decided it was best to keep on moving. Even if the Kitchens were near-by he didn't want to stay in Snakes territory for too long.

Though, the "we'll think of something" part of what the girl said, sort of had him wondering exactly what she'd meant. He smiled, out of politeness, but he was certain the girl had something in mind already.

Before he could ask any questions, the girl was casting him a look, at which point his eyebrow was raised, and then left after Lafay.

He...should do the same, soon.

It didn't take long before he had all his stuff ready, but he noticed a quill being left behind by the Slytherin girl...and he took it, she was probably outside, no? He could still catch her.

And so, he left.

Helena listened carefully as a couple of students had something to add to what she said earlier, and then... it was over. Already? They barely suggested a few ailments.

Oh, and their report... Helena was not exactly looking forward to that one. But she'll do it. And the oral part... uhh... REALLY not looking forward to that. Buuuut Helena will do great.

She took one last sip of her tea, then stood up. "Goodbye," she said, but kind of looking at everyone.

Rowan collected her things. Another report? Ah well. At least this one wasn't about telling someone the worst possible thing she could be made to say. She said her goodbyes and made her way to the library.

Sabel's eyes went down as Lafay's went up to meet them. An aliment close to the heart? Pulling his bottom lip in between his teeth he gave a long, considering glance to the floor as he considered Lafay's words. He had no idea how he was going to present anything; he barely had the control to speak about these things without getting somewhat emotional.

He didn't bother staying for a discussion, picking up his bag and slipping out of the room as quietly as he could. All this talk had his mind running in overtime and his focus deep within.